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

Comment to Win a $50 eGift Card From MAC! (Ends Monday)

May 16th, 2015 by Karen 392 Comments

** THE GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED **
This giveaway is closed, and the winner has been contacted (CONGRATULATIONS, LIZZIE!!!), but check back next Saturday for another giveaway.

Rise and shine, pal o’ mine! Are you feeling Furiosa?

OK, so Mad Max: Fury Road was a riotously good action movie, and Charlize Theron’s Furiosa kicks so much butt, but now that I sit and think about the movie…a lot of it is blurring together. It’s such a visual spectacle of high-octane nonstop action, and everything’s so dusty and dirty and hot, but it’s almost more like listening to heavy metal music while looking at a beautiful painting of the desert than watching a regular movie….if that makes any sense.

In other news, I’m still making progress on Project Get My Sh*t Together, but I haven’t fully gotten it together yet. I did pick up three of these gray ombre milk crates from Target to use in the pink storage shelves in my office, but I haven’t filled them yet. So maybe I’ll work on that this weekend.

Other than that, I don’t know what’s on my agenda yet. Maybe a bicycle ride this afternoon in the Novato hills with El Hub if it warms up a little. It’s not exactly cold, but it has been very windy here. It gets Tabs fired up, I guess because he sees everything moving.

You know how cats are.

How was your week? What was the most surprising or interesting thing that happened?

One (1) MAC eGift card containing $50 sent to the winner by email (international readers, you may opt to receive $50 sent by PayPal instead).

Enter by leaving a comment below.
Open to U.S. and international readers.
You must be 18 or older to enter (or otherwise an adult based on your local laws).
Your comment can be about anything at all, but here are some ideas if you’re stuck:
- On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being grandmaster champion, how good are you at puzzle games?
- What’s one of your favorite non-musical sounds?
- Who has the most beautiful eyes of anyone you know?
- Best name for a city or town?
- How do you feel about wearing purple products (eye makeup, lips, nails, clothing, accessories)?
One entry per person.
You must use a valid email address to win.
The giveaway ends on Monday, May 18, 2015 at 11:59 PM (Pacific Time). 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Curves Make The Body Shop Matte Kajals in White and Black Comfy in Your Claws

May 15th, 2015 by Karen 12 Comments

Never underestimate the power of muscle memory.

I’m so used to lining my eyes with regular pencil liners that I was afraid I’d poke my eye out with the Black Matte and White Matte Kajals from The Body Shop ($15 each).

See that long, pointy tip in the pic? Coo’, right?

BUT SO SCARY.

Something about it screams, “Yer gonna poke yer eye out, kid!”

I haven’t yet (poked my eye out, that is), which is good, but the night is young, haha!

Here’s something else that’s good: these liners feel great in my paws. The part you hold is sort of ergonomically curved, and it makes them comfy to hold and pretty easy to control, even with that gigantic, super long tip.

Formula-wise, these matte liners are smooth and creamy and made for smudging. You just line your lash lines with them, and then run a brush or a Q-tip along the edges to feather it out. You have about 10 minutes of playtime before the product sets.
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Ulta Haul! Products From L’Oreal, Bliss and Rita Hazan

May 15th, 2015 by Karen 28 Comments

“Girlfriend, good luck getting out of there with just one thing.”

I say this to myself all the time when I visit Ulta…because I’m usually going to get just one thing.

On my last trip it was Rita Hazan’s Root Concealer in Dark Brown/Black, because I desperately need to get my roots done, and I wanted to try something new/less expensive than this stuff.

Thirty minutes later I’m walking out with this…

L’Oreal La Palette Nude 1, $19.99
Rita Hazan Root Concealer in Dark Brown/Black, $25
L’Oreal Infallible Makeup Extender Setting Spray, $16.99
Bliss Fuzz Off Facial Hair Removal Cream, $24
Ulta Premium Square Cotton Pads, $3.49

Lots more products to test. I hope there’s at least one gem among ’em. It would be great if the L’Oreal palette works out to be a near-dupe for the UD Naked Palette. It looks like it has that potential.

Have you picked up anything good lately from Ulta or elsewhere?

loreal la palette nude 1 — L’Oreal La Palette Nude 1

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Tarte The Sculptor Contouring Face Slenderizer: For Contouring You Can’t Miss

May 15th, 2015 by Karen 14 Comments

tarte sculptor contouring — Two of the three Tarte The Sculptor Contouring Face Slenderizers ($24 each)

This too shall pass…

That’s what I mumble under my breath now whenever I see a new contouring product.

Because there are just so many of them!

It’s not that I’m anti-contouring, though. I’m not. I actually love the look when it’s done well on other people, but there are so many new contouring products coming out, and I don’t really like the look of sharp contouring on me.

That said, if you do, get it, gurl. Express yo’self. Tarte has some creamy new contouring pencils you might find interesting.

Tarte’s The Sculptor Contouring Face Slenderizer is available in three $24 limited edition shades — Park Ave Princess, Park Ave Princess 2 and Park Ave Princess 3 — with each being a different take on a creamy deep brown with a matte finish. They’re made for contouring cheeks, noses, foreheads, and neck and jaw lines, and they were released with the Summer 2015 Poppy Picnic Collection.

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Clarins Blush Prodige Illuminating Cheek Colour in Sweet Rose

May 15th, 2015 by Karen 17 Comments

clarins blush prodige illuminating cheek colour

Who’s that weirdo girl at the makeup counter with her nose in the blushes?

That would be me. 🙂

In case you were wondering (because I totally was), this Clarins Blush Prodige Illuminating Cheek Colour in Sweet Rose does not smell like a sweet rose.

It smells like Axl Rose when I watch him in old Guns N’ Roses videos on YouTube…which means that it doesn’t really smell like anything because you can’t smell a YouTube video (yet).

Sweet in name and looks only, it’s a powder blush from the Clarins spring collection that has been out for a while. There are four different rosy pink blushes in the pan, all flush up against each other, two mattes and two shimmers.

You know the drill — mix ’em together or wear them apart, although the thin strips of blush on the left side are fairly narrow, which makes applying them on your cheeks using the included mini brush somewhat challenging. I recommend using a tapered eye brush instead and having some patience.

I end up just swirling all of the shades together with a blush brush 1) because it’s easier that way, and 2) I actually prefer the combined rosy pink color. Looks very natural.

Obvs, there are a ton of pink blushes out there, but this one, when you wear the colors mixed together, has a sweet whisper of warm peach. The color is just a little different than usual. It makes you look like you just got back from a bike ride or a brisk walk, and it’s available now ($31 for a 0.2-oz. pan) online and at Clarins counters.

P.S.

Ulta Adventures: The Benefit Brow Bar

May 14th, 2015 by Karen 18 Comments

There’s a Benefit Brow Bar at my local Ulta (shout-out to the San Rafael store, woop-woop!), and they do full-service brow detailing — waxing, shaping, tweezing, tinting and all that jazz — as well as face waxing and false lash application. I’ve never had anything done there because I’m a control freak when it comes to my brows, but I see girls there getting their brow game on all the time, and they look great.

When I was there yesterday I saw this sign and totally cracked up! That crazy-@ss brow on the model, LOL! I feel that way sometimes…

OK, all the time. 🙂

Here’s some more info on the Benefit Brow Bars at Ulta, by the way.

Have you ever gotten your brows done at Benefit? How’d it turn out? Inquiring minds want to know…

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Ulta Adventures: The Pop of Passion Lip Oil-Balms by bareMinerals

May 14th, 2015 by Karen 10 Comments

bareminerals pop of passion — bareMinerals Pop of Passion

Popped into Ulta and spied these new Pop of Passion Lip Oil-Balms by bareMinerals.

Don’t they look juicy?

They’re $16 each, 8 shades… Looks like they have passion fruit oil and vitamin E, so they should be pretty moisturizing. They look kind of like those moisturizing balm/lip stain hybrids. I’m intrigued…although wasn’t quite intrigued enough to bring one of them home (this time).

Now, if they came with an actual “pop” of some kind, like a Popsicle, a Ring Pop, a big jug of popcorn or a Pop Tart?! — that would be some next-level ish right there.

Just throwing that out there for the bareMinerals marketing team. 🙂 I’m just sayin’. You guys, get on that.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Make Up For Ever Pro Bronze Fusion Bronzer: Color Without the Cake Face

May 14th, 2015 by Karen 21 Comments

No, these are not nuclear powered… It’s not that kind of fusion. These are Make Up For Ever’s brand-spankin’-new bronzers.

The Make Up For Ever Pro Bronze Fusion Bronzers

So…if they aren’t nuclear powered, what the heck are they? They’re a new line of six $36 bronzers — three matte and three iridescent — available now in MUFE’s permanent collection, and released in tandem with a new #136 Pro Bronze Kabuki Brush ($30) you can use to apply them. The wave pattern on the pans is there to help the brush pick up the product.

MUFE calls their fancy formula a “waterproof gel-powder,” which is basically an incredibly fine, sheer, luminous powder (the fusion of a gel and a powder, so to speak) designed to bronze and look natural. Even though they aren’t, in fact, gels, they feel almost like it because of how soft they are. Wear time seems also comparable to other bronzers. About six or seven hours.

Are they any good? They remind me of the MAC Studio Sculpt Bronzers from Wash & Dry (but I actually think these MUFE bronzers are better). You can’t even see any of the powder grains being lifted from the pans when you run your finger or a brush across them. The grains are so incredibly fine that they’re almost imperceptible, so you get depth from the bronze color without the familiar look and feel of a traditional powder.

For me, the best way to apply them has been with a dense face brush, like the kabuki brush that launched with the line.

I tried applying them with a fluffy powder brush once, and it just wouldn’t pick up enough product. I was like, “What the what?!”

But then I tried a kabuki brush and it was magical. Lots of toasty bronze color, but without the look of a powder texture that most makeup lovers are used to. It’s a very distinct look that might be almost too natural, depending on your personal taste.

So they’re just…different.
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