Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup

The Delectables Palettes by Laura Geller in Delicious Shades of Cool and Nude

November 13th, 2015 by Karen 12 Comments

laura geller the delectables top final — The Delectables, by Laura Geller ($45)

Combine one part cool shades with one part warm, add a dash of shimmer and a pinch of matte, and then bake until done.

No, this isn’t another banana bread recipe! 🙂 Although I admit those are quite high on my priority list these days…

I’m describing these two The Delectable Palettes by Laura Geller.

Delectable… That is a very tasty word, haha.

laura geller delectables delicious shades of nude — Delicious Shades of Nude ($45)

laura geller delectables delicious shades of cool — Delicious Shades of Cool ($45)

All of the baked shadows within these two palettes, both of which launched this past summer, begin their journey as liquified pigments, which are then poured by hand into molds and baked, rather than pressed…

Mmm… Why does that remind me of artisan bread?

(Yes, I’m always hungry these days.)

Making them this way is supposedly make them perform better when used wet, for more intensity, or dry, for a sheerer, less opaque finish.

laura geller delectables delicious shades of nude dry swatches — Delicious Shades of Nude swatched dry

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MAC Berry Black Friday Patentpolish Lip Pencil

November 12th, 2015 by Karen 15 Comments

For me Black Friday means sitting in my pajamas and eating leftover Thanksgiving pecan pie for breakfast.

And maybe also for lunch…

And perhaps dinner…

Aaand it also means playing Fill the Online Shopping Cart, which is a game I like to play where I see how much I can put into various online shopping e-carts with no intention of actually completing the checkout, and going “WOW!” as the tally grows into the thousands of dollars. 🙂

LOL!

For MAC, Black Friday means another limited edition makeup launch on one of the biggest shopping days of the year.

This year, they’re putting the focus on lips with a new shade of Patentpolish Lip Pencil called Berry Black Friday. It’s a blackened plum with a shiny finish, and it’ll be $20, available exclusively on the MAC website (I believe it’s a one-day limited edition product available only on Black Friday).

If you like sheer-to-medium coverage dark lip shades, it’s a beauty.

mac berry black friday — MAC Berry Black Friday Patentpolish Lip Pencil

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Try This Tip for Bangin’ Brows: Use Your Brow Gel BEFORE Your Brow Pencil (or Brow Powder)

November 12th, 2015 by Karen 20 Comments

Are you ready to have your brow-loving mind blown?

Because it’s about to happen. I am about to blow your mind right now.

OK, are you ready?

Here we go… I want you to give this a try: when you get a chance, try applying a brow gel to your brows BEFORE you use your brow pencil or brow powder, instead of doing it after.

I know it sounds cray, but hear me out. Yes, it’s unconventional, but I’ve been doing it this way this month, and I swear it works better for me than doing it the other way around, where you start with your brow pencil and follow that up with your brow gel.

And here’s why: when I apply the brow gel before using a brow pencil, the gel thickens my little brow hairs and makes them slightly stickier, so that when I then use my brow pencil (or whichever other filler I choose), the product has something more substantial than bare skin and hair to adhere to. The pencil product clings to the hairs and skin better and even lasts longer.

Plus, when I do go the conventional route and start by filling in my brows with a pencil before setting them with a gel, I inevitably end up with bare patches that I end up having to re-fill with pencil again, as the gel inevitably disturbs what I previously did with the pencil, gah!

I don’t know if this is just because of me and the way I do it, but the re-filling doesn’t happen when I start with the gel, so it also ends up saving time and product.

The key is to wait for your brow gel to be almost completely dry (about 80%) before you use the pencil, because if you go in with your pencil while your gel is sopping wet, it’ll just look messy.

I’ll usually apply the gel, then brush my brow hairs into place and wait until the gel is about 80% dry before using the pencil to fill in the sparse spots. Then when I’m done with that, I’ll do a light brush through once more to mellow out any overly dark areas.

By the way, my go-to holy grail brow combo has been Anastasia Beverly Hills Clear Gel and Urban Decay Brow Beater (I wear the shade called Neutral Brown) for the past six months, and I think it’s a great combo to use with this method.

Give it a try sometime! I hope you like how it works. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

High Tea at the Rotunda at Neiman Marcus SF

November 12th, 2015 by Karen 27 Comments

WARNING: Scroll no further, and do not look at any more of these pics, if you are currently so hungry that you could eat a stack of Post-Its.

Not kidding. I’m serious.

OK…if you read any further, don’t say I didn’t warn ya. 🙂

These are pics from the Signature Tea service at The Rotunda at Neiman Marcus SF right down where the action is in Union Square, and it’ll put the rumbly in that tumbly.

Oh, boy… I can’t even look at these pics without wishing I was there right now stuffing my face with tiny sandwiches, cakes and cookies the size of my thumb.

Little better than than Strawberry Pop-Tarts I’m having for breakfast right now! (Although sometimes a Pop-Tart really hits the spot, I can’t lie.)

I met some friends there last week, Arianne from The Glitter Geek blog, her baby daughter Sarah and my buddy Marisol.

The Signature Tea service is a wonderful way to take a break from shopping for a few hours if you’re ever visiting the city with friends. It costs $45 for ample ambience, a pot of tea for each person (chosen from among a wide variety of flavors) and savory sandwiches, sweets, scones and fruit for noms.

Everyone has a different nom-eating strategy, but I started with the savory sandwiches (the sliced cucumber ones with cream cheese were my favorite, followed closely by the egg salad), then moved on to the scones (which I doused in lemon curd), before finishing with the sweets, which included a gingerbread cookie that made me feel like I was melting into my chair…

SO GOOD.

Of course, the tea was delectable, too. I ordered the vanilla decaf black, and it perfectly paired with the snacks.

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Behold! A Wall of Water-Full Color

November 11th, 2015 by Karen 17 Comments

When you see an entire wall of bright, colorful bkr water bottles, you have to stop and take a picture.

It’s just the right thing to do. 🙂

I walked past these in the beauty department of the Neiman Marcus in San Francisco last week.

Have you heard of these? They’re basically fancy glass water bottles with colorful, grippy silicone sleeve covers (I have one and use it all day, errrday), and they feel hefty and durable.

They’re glass, but they don’t feel fragile because the glass is thick and heavy, as are the bouncy sleeves, which protect them well. They are expensive for a water bottle…but everything about them feels well made, like it’ll last forever (hopefully).

And there are so many colors! The wide selection appeals to my inner color lover. So many blues, pinks, greens, reds and grays… Makes me think of eyeshadow.

One of these days, I’m gonna break down and get one of the smaller ones with the hearts, like this 500 mL cutie called Rose Heart. It’s $35 and available now at Neiman Marcus stores and online.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Bobbi Brown Holiday 2015 Sterling Nights Collection and Holiday Gift Giving Highlights

November 11th, 2015 by Karen 18 Comments

Wearing The Rich Caramel Eye Palette, the Blushes from the Deluxe Cheek & Eye Palette, Pink Shimmerbrick and Art Stick in Electric Pink from Bobbi Brown holiday 2015 — Wearing The Rich Caramel Eye Palette, the Blushes from the Deluxe Cheek & Eye Palette, Pink Shimmer Brick and Art Stick in Electric Pink from Bobbi Brown Holiday 2015

I prepared a video for this review of the new Bobbi Brown Holiday 2015 collection, including some of my favorite highlights from the launch, but then a gremlin attacked my ankles and forced me to unwittingly erase the memory card. In other words, technical difficulties struck, so now we’re ad libbing video-free, whee!

Yup, just as a friendly reminder from me to you — don’t forget to back up your work early and often.

I’m just sayin’.

With that out of the way, check it out…

The new Bobbi Brown Holiday 2015 collection is divided into two parts — one comprised of gift sets, palettes and brush kits, and and the other a limited edition color collection called Sterling Nights.

We’ll be taking a look at some of the pieces that struck my fancy from both parts of the launch.

First up, Sterling Nights, the color collection. It’s been on counters now for about a month, and Bobbi says that she was inspired to create the collection after a recent trip she took to South Africa.

The look is all about shimmery, jewel-toned smoky eyes, luminous skin and your choice of bright or nude lips.

bobbi brown sterling nights sequin eye shadow — Three of four Bobbi Brown Sterling Nights Holiday 2015 Sequin Eye Shadows, clockwise from the brown pan: Constellation, Moon Rock and Comet ($36 each)

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Try 1-DAY ACUVUE® DEFINE® Brand Contact Lenses for Fun, Subtle Eye Enhancement #SPONSORED

November 11th, 2015 by Karen 27 Comments

Wearing 1-Day Acuvue Define Contacts in Natrual Shine≈ — Wearing 1-DAY ACUVUE® DEFINE® in NATURAL SHINE®

I’ve received product samples and compensation for my time and effort in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. #sponsored @ACUVUE

I’ve always been pretty adventurous when it comes to experimenting with hair, clothes and makeup (and food!). I’ll jump in feet first! A bright green gloss, you say?? Temporary magenta streaks in my hair? SURE, why not!?

But when it came to cosmetic content lenses? Different story.

They just never really appealed to me. I couldn’t picture my brown eyes (dark chocolate brown with a navy blue ring to be exact! — they’re my dad’s eyes) as a completely different color. I dunno… Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

It wasn’t just that they look unnatural sometimes, especially when you know someone very well and you totally know what their eyes naturally look like. I can get behind most dramatic cosmetic changes like hair (seriously, what’s natural about pink streaks?!), but when it comes to my eyes? I just can’t picture looking at myself in the mirror and seeing bright green eyes. It freaks me out!

But that was also one of the reasons I wanted to try the new 1-DAY ACUVUE® DEFINE® prescription contact lenses. They’re subtle — not at all like full-on colorful contacts — and they don’t change the color of your eyes.

They’re not just subtle. They’re SUPER subtle, but the beauty benefit was very clear once I tried them on.

What they actually do is a little hard to explain, but it’s easier to see in pics…

1-Day Acuvue Define contact lens in Natural Shine — 1-DAY ACUVUE® DEFINE® in NATURAL SHINE®, one of the three available effects

See how my eye on the right looks a little bigger?

Once you notice it, I think the difference stands out more. My iris looks larger, and there are amber flecks around the edges.

It’s more obvious when I open my eyes REALLY wide and effectively look like a crazy person, LOL! So please excuse the crazy eyes below. They’re strictly for demonstration purposes, although I am thinking about walking around town like this just to see what kind of friends I’d make. 🙂

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MAC Dita Von Teese | Von Teese Matte Lipstick

November 10th, 2015 by Karen 36 Comments

There should be a video right here, but if not, you can also watch it on YouTube.

mac dita von teese — MAC Dita Von Teese Matte Lipstick in Von Teese ($28)

You know you’re a little obsessed with typography and fonts when you notice things like how the swoosh on the lower case “t” slides under the dot above the “i” on MAC’s new Dita Von Teese Lipstick, and your first thought is “Dang! I wish I’d thought of that.”

It’s those little touches, man!

Limited edition MAC Matte Lipstick in Von Teese ($18) is an online exclusive arriving on the MAC website ~~December 7~~ December 9, and as you’ve probably already guessed, it’s a collaboration with burlesque beauty/dancer/author Dita Von Teese.

Yup, she’s also an author. Her new book, Your Beauty Mark: The Ultimate Guide to Eccentric Glamour, arrives in bookstores December 1.

The lipstick, on the other hand, isn’t very eccentric. It’s a pretty classic take on matte tomato red, and it’s very, very Dita. Her love for matte red lips is well known.

On me, it’s an opaque warm red with a hint of yellow, and the hint doesn’t take it into MAC Lady Danger Land, so there aren’t any orange undertones.
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