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

Intensify Your Highlights With This Super Simple Tip

July 10th, 2015 by Karen 11 Comments

Glisten up!

OK, are you glistening?

Good. Because if I could, I would open all of the highlighters in the world above my head and just pour ’em all over me, LOL! All I wanna do is glisten, and I wanna do it all day long.

To say that I’m a little highlighter cray-cray at the moment would be a bit of an understatement, and I’ve been playing with some different techniques, like this one that I recently learned from a makeup artist buddy of mine named Candace. (HI, CANDACE! If you have time, check out her YouTube channel.)

This trick is simple but totally intensifies the glistening effect in a way that doesn’t leave my skin looking frosty.
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Uneven Eyeliner? Here’s a Tip That Might Fix Your Woes

July 10th, 2015 by Karen 17 Comments

Eyeliner woes, part 3,451 — Eyeliner Woes: Vol. #3,451

If it seems like I talk about uneven eyeliner every five seconds, it’s because I do. I talk about uneven eyeliner EVERY FIVE SECONDS.

Hello. 🙂

What I wouldn’t GIVE to be one of those gals who can just paint a perfect line in a single swoosh!

Now, looking at the glass as if it’s half full, I have stumbled on a few tips and workarounds to help me deal with my chronically uneven eyeliner, and one of them is that it helps TREMENDOUSLY to start by lining my upper water lines (also known as “tightlining”), and then drawing my eyeliner on my lash lines after that.

L'Oreal Infallible Silkissime Eyeliner shades from the purple to the silver: Pure Purple, Cobalt Blue, True Teal, Gold and Silver — L’Oreal Infallible Silkissime Eyeliners from the purple to the silver: Pure Purple, Cobalt Blue, True Teal, Gold and Silver ($8.99 each)

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5 Things You Should Know About MAC Upward Lash Mascara

July 10th, 2015 by Karen 21 Comments

5 Things You Should Know About MAC Upward Lash Mascara ($22)

You might feel compelled to say, “ONWARD AND UPWARD!” to your lashes every time you open the tube — and yes, it is perfectly normal to talk to your lashes (well…).
The compact brush might remind you of other compact things, like kittens! You may even start to think, “Hey! I should get another kitten or two, or 12.”
The glossy black finish makes my lashes look exactly like the fur of this black cat in my neighborhood that I’ve been trying to befriend for, like, ages. Bribing the neighborhood cats with treats usually works, but this cat is wise to my tricks.
Oh, well. Sooner or later, I’ll wear her down.
Your (and by “your” I mean “my”) current MAC mascara love, Extended Play Gigablack Lash, will start to wonder if your three-year love affair is over because you haven’t reached for it in days.
Reassure it by stroking it gently. Try not to look like a pervert.
Friends may mistake your tube of Upward Lash for an XXL tube of MAC Lipstick, because doesn’t it look like one?!
OMG! Can you imagine?

Anyway, feel free to toy with their emotions by saying, “Yes, it’s a giant tube of MAC Lady Danger.” 🙂

The nitty-gritty details about MAC Upward Lash

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The New MAC Veluxe a Trois Collection Veluxe Pearlfusion Shadows Blend So Easily That You’ll Clutch Your Pearls

July 10th, 2015 by Karen 39 Comments

mac veluxe a trois collection top — Wearing all three shadows from MAC Veluxe a Trois Veluxe Pearlfusion Shadow in Fabulous Three

Well clutch mah pearls! Did I read that right? Was I just invited to a Veluxe a Trois? *fans self* Oh, my heavens! I’m not exactly sure what a party like that entails…but if the MAC Veluxe Pearlfusion Shadows will be there, I’m in! — as long as I don’t have to take off my cat tee shirt and stretchy pants, of course.

MAC Veluxe a Trois. Um…why does this collection’s name sound like the title of a dirty movie?

Or is that just me?

It’s probably just me…

Never mind! 🙂

In the opinion of this one cat-obsessed makeup fiend, the MAC Veluxe Pearlfusion eyeshadow formula is one of the MOST underrated MAC formulas of them all, and soon (August 13), when the new MAC Veluxe a Trois collection arrives, there will be six new trios with the Veluxe Pearlfusion formula.

Boom. There, I said. One of the most underrated MAC formulas of them all.

HEADS UP! The Veluxe a Trois collection launched early at Hudson’s Bay and is currently, as of right now, available online.

mac veluxe a trois — The six Veluxe Pearlfusion Shadow trios from the new MAC Veluxe a Trois collection

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The MAC Patentpolish Lip Pencils Are Going Permanent

July 9th, 2015 by Karen 45 Comments

mac patentpolish lip pencil 1 — 14 of the 15 new MAC Patentpolish Lip Pencils ($20 each), available now online and at MAC stores and counters

Your tongue twister for the day…

“The Patentpolish Lip Pencils are now permanent.”

Now, see if you can say it five times fast!

The Patentpolish Lip Pencils are now permanent.
The Patentpolish Lip Pencils are now permanent.
The Patentpolish Lip Pencils are now permanent.
The Patentpolish Lip Pencils are now permanent.
The Patentpolish Lip Pencils are now permanent.

Can you do it? If you can, I vote that you reward yourself with one or more of these MAC Patentpolish Lip Pencils, but you don’t have to do it today. Feel free to take your sweet time, because…THE PATENTPOLISH LIP PENCILS ARE NOW PERMANENT! 🙂

These $20 twist-up pencils have the texture of a balm, the patent-leather finish of a high-shine gloss and the precision of a husky writing implement. If they look familiar, that’s probably because they are. Some of them made appearances in limited edition collections last year.

mac patentpolish lip pencil 2 — MAC Patentpolish Lip Pencils from the left: Clever, Fearless, French Kiss and Go For Girlie

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If You Like Liners With Stiff Tips, Let Ardency Inn MODSTER Easy Ride Supercharged Liquid Liner Take You for a Ride

July 9th, 2015 by Karen 9 Comments

ardency in modster liquid liner — $20 MODSTER Easy Ride Supercharged Liquid Liner by Ardency Inn

Important question for you: what’s your stance on LLTs (Liquid Liner Tips)? If you like stiff tips that don’t have a lot of give to ’em, new MODSTER Easy Ride Supercharged Liquid Liner by Ardency Inn ($20) just might take you for an easy ride.

It’s a jet-black matte liquid liner with pedal-to-the-metal pigment and a long-wearing formula. It just takes one pass to produce a completely opaque line, and this ride likes to go fast! Because Modster dries in less than a minute, you won’t have to worry about it transferring up into your crease.

The only thing is… I don’t know if I’m a good enough driver for this ride. With Modster’s stiff tip (I gravitate toward more flexible tips most of the time), my lines go off road. I usually end up with jagged edges and liner in places it doesn’t belong, which is too bad because I like the formula, the finish and the all-day wear time. I give Modster mad props for pigment, too.

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The White Tee Trick (Also Known as Two Pops of Color) Using MAC Giambattista Valli Lipstick in Tats and the Kristin Perry Showered in Neon Necklace

July 8th, 2015 by Karen 16 Comments

mac giambattista valli tats k — Two pops o’ color!

One of the quickest, most colorful ways I know to dress up a standard-issue white tee ensemble is by incorporating twin pops o’ color like a bright lip and a colorful necklace.

When the two pops complement each other, like the hot pinks in the new MAC Giambattista Valli Lipstick in Tats and the Kristin Perry Showered in Neon Necklace, this trick is both quick and easy.

But the complementary color thing isn’t an unbreakable rule, or any kind of rule for that matter. The thing is just to have two focal points. As long as you have that down, you should be good.

I call this “The White Tee Trick” because, apparently, everything in my life needs an ONICL (Official Name Involving Capital Letters). 🙂

mac giambattista valli tats — MAC Giambattista Valli Lipstick in Tats

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Try This Trick for Impeccable Eyeliner

July 8th, 2015 by Karen 30 Comments

laura mercier angeled eye liner brush — My two secret weapons!

In the alternate Marvel makeup comic book universe (because this totally exists), my superhero power is the ability to apply flawless eye liner while I’m walking backwards, hanging upside down or jumping up and down on a trampoline.

(Can you imagine?! I’d be totally doing some weird-@ss YouTube makeup videos, haha!)

But in this universe here, my superhero power is on the opposite end of the eyeliner spectrum. Here I have the ability to mess up my liner almost EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

Seriously, why does the liner on my left eye always end up thicker than my right? And how do I manage to completely mess up perfectly decent liner at the last second? It’s an uncanny gift.

Because imperfectly executed eyeliner is something I experience often — like every day! — I’ve come to rely on a workaround when one line ends up thicker than the other. First, I dampen a thin pointed eyeliner brush with eye makeup remover. Then I run it along the edge of the liner to erase any errant bits, and if the errant liner still won’t lift off, I gently rub a cotton bud along the edge to remove whatever else needs to go.

This works for pencil, liquid and gel liner.
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