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

The Pacifica Power of Love Palette Is a Curious Thing That Could Make One Woman Weep and Another Woman Sing

May 8th, 2015 by Karen 14 Comments

pacifica power love palette — The Pacifica Power of Love Eyeshadow Palette ($19.99)

Unless, as a child, your ears were fed a steady diet of cheesy ’80s pop music, you probably won’t think of Huey Lewis and the News when you open the new Pacifica Power of Love Eyeshadow Palette ($19.99).

But since I was THAT KID, that song creeps into my mind when I think about this palette.

“Try to think of other things, Karen,” I tell myself, “like how these mineral eyeshadows are cruelty-free, or how they’re infused with coconut water.”

But nooooo, all I can do is think about Back the Future…

So, Pacifica. Remember when they were just about bath products? Over the past few years they’ve moved further into the makeup space with color products for eyes, faces, lips and cheeks. Their focus is natural makeup — products made with vegan ingredients that are also cruelty free.

New for summer, the Power of Love Eyeshadow Palette is available exclusively at Target stores for $19.99. Inside the cardboard packaging, which is recyclable and printed with soy ink, in case you were wondering, are 10 powder eyeshadows, eight of them shimmers of varying levels of shine, and a couple of mattes. The shades are mostly neutrals, but there are a handful of accent colors as well. Most of the shadows are moderately pigmented, but a few are quite sheer.

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Tarte Summer 2015 Poppy Picnic Collection LipSurgence Lip Crèmes: Chubby Pencils With Powerful Pen Names

May 8th, 2015 by Karen 9 Comments

With the new Tarte LipSurgence Lip Crèmes on my lips today, I’m feeling Empowered…

And Serene…
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Chanel Summer 2015: Le Vernis Nail Colour in Lavanda

May 8th, 2015 by Karen 16 Comments

Why hasn’t my love for Chanel’s summery vivid violet Lavanda nail lacquer translated into love in my closet?

One of life’s great mysteries, I suppose…

I rutted around in there this morning to find something to wear with Lavanda (I’m wearing two coats in these pics, by the way), and the only thing I could find was this romper.

Actually, I know why I don’t own many purple pieces of clothing (and other bright colors). It’s the cat hair. My wardrobe has progressively grown more gray over the past few years to match the tabby fur that I’m almost constantly covered in from head to toe.

I’ve been trying to re-colorize lately, but there’s still a ways to go. Today is a good step, though.

Top — romper by Leifsdottir (here’s something similar)
Necklace — Loft (something kinda similar)
Nails — Chanel Le Vernis Nail Colour in Lavanda

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. What are you wearing on your nails today?

P.P.S. Guess who’s going to see the New Kids on the Block, Nelly and TLC tonight!? YES! My friend Marisol got us tickets. I may even wear a Band-Aid on my cheek like Nelly did back in the day!

Just kidding. I’m very excited though. 🙂

Stuff I’ve Cooked: Raw Rainbow Pad Thai

May 7th, 2015 by Karen 16 Comments

A lot of people don’t know this, but it’s a proven fact (not really). Rainbows taste like pad thai.

Yeah! Who knew? 🙂

I got a bag of crazy yellow and purple carrots (the carrots are buried down there in the bowl somewhere) at Trader Joe’s and thought they’d be perfect for this Rad Rainbow Pad Thai recipe I found on — yup, you guessed it — ohsheglows.com.

I’ve made this a few times now. Sometimes I’ll have it as is, and sometimes I’ll add a protein on top, like I did a lightly fried tofu a while back, and that was really good. Another time I cooked some frozen shrimp in TJ’s Sweet Chili Sauce — also delicious, and cooking the shrimp only took about five minutes. El Hub’s favorite was the time I added Trader Joe’s Ginger and Soy Cod Fillets, which I baked in the oven. The ginger-soy flavors go really well with the pad thai veggies.

You gotta give this one a try. It’s SO nom.

It looks like pasta in there, but it’s all veggies.

The Make Up For Ever Artist Palette Vol. 2 Colors You Crave: Nine Pigmented Pans Make This a Good Special Event Palette

May 7th, 2015 by Karen 17 Comments

Current cravings:

A Pink Power Smoothie, even though I already had one today for breakfast.
Is there an unwritten rule I don’t know about against drinking two of the same kind of smoothies in one day?! #deepthoughts.
A hug from Tabs, because I haven’t seen him since I fed him gravy this morning.
He usually “supervises” me in my office during the mornings because he likes the sun in here, but I think he’s afraid of the new pink shelves, so he’s hiding.
The poppin’ pigments in Make Up For Ever’s new $42 Artist Palette Vol. 2 Colors You Crave

May brings us two new Artist Palettes from MUFE — Vol. 1, Nudes You Need, which I played with yesterday, and this brighter one here, Vol. 2, called Colors You Crave.

Now, if my stomach rumbles through these next few paragraphs in this post, I apologize. You see, I am currently craving lunch, in addition to these colors. 🙂

The palette houses nine pans, which are arranged into color-coordinating columns of three (or rows, if you turn it sideways), of Make Up For Ever eyeshadow in their incredibly soft, crazy creamy gel-[dash]-powder formula (they reformulated their eyeshadows last year).

So, how soft are they? Well, this morning El Hub stopped by my desk to loiter as he sometimes does and asked what I was doing. Before I could answer, he reached out and touched the palette.

Of course, he gouged a big divot into one of the pans just by brushing his Tarzan hand against it, so you have to be a little careful with these… All of that is just to say that they’re very soft. They almost feel like a cream, but they’re not. They aren’t wet at all. They’re still powders, but they’re squishy powders.
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Nails of the Day: Essie Petal Pushers

May 7th, 2015 by Karen 14 Comments

Ah, push it… Puh-push it real good!

Seriously, I’ll take any excuse to quote Salt-N-Pepa, even if it’s only marginally related to what I’m talking about. 🙂

Nails of the day! — yesterday and today, because I applied this yesterday, but it’s still hangin’ tough (LOL, NKOTB). I’m wearing two coats of Essie’s creamy gray Petal Pushers from the Flowerista collection.

I love pairing light gray with mint… I think that when you wear certain lighter shades, like mint and some pastels, it’s good to toughen up your whole ensemble by throwing a more serious color into the mix, just to keep everything from going overly sweet, ya know? That’s what I’m hoping these nails are doing for this mint top and necklace.

Nails — Essie
Lips — Make Up For Ever Artist Plexi-Gloss in 103
Top — Loft
Necklace — Forever 21 (here’s something similar)
Bag — Kate Spade (here’s something similar)

P.S. They’re still pushin’ it! Pushin’ it real good…

I love that commercial! I would have no problem with Salt-N-Pepa showing up in an elevator with me. 🙂

Outfit of the Day: Mint Madness, and Awesome Jeans From LOFT

May 7th, 2015 by Karen 42 Comments

Do all boys love mint chocolate chip ice cream? I swear…I think they do.

I love mint, too, but not so much the ice cream (I’m more of a dulce de leche/pistachio gal). I’m all about the wearable forms of the color. 🙂 There’s just something so fresh and springy about mint clothes and accessories.

I actually wore this outfit yesterday, so officially it was my outfit of the yester-day, and not my outfit of today (I’m still decided on that). I wore it to the doctor’s office (clean bill of health, woop-woop!), and now that I think about it, the mint in the lacy top slightly resembles the color of the scrubs I used to wear when I interned at a hospital about a billion years ago…

I’m also wearing my new favorite jeans in this pic, the terrifically soft, uncommonly comfortable LOFT Modern Skinny Jeans. The fabric has a bit of stretchiness to it, and it maintains those stretchy powers as the days wear on, so by the end of a long day, the jeans are still effectively stuck to my bum and not hanging off it (always a good thing).

I also like the moderate distressing on the thighs.
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The $32 Clinique Sculptionary Cheek Contouring Palettes: Three Shades, Three Jobs, One Coordinated Mission

May 6th, 2015 by Karen 12 Comments

Like Kevin Federline circa 2005, highlighting and contouring are having a moment. You literally cannot escape them. They’re the Alcatraz of the makeup world right now.

The new Sculptionary Cheek Contouring palettes by Clinique have that highlighting/contouring trend in mind. Three shades, three jobs, one coordinated mission — to sculpt and shape yo’ cherub cheeks! They’re $32 each and available now in six oil-free shades at Clinique counters and online.

Use one of the mid-tone shades as blush for your cheeks, the deeper shades for contouring, and the lighter shade for highlighting. Or, mix them however you’d like to create a custom blush color for the apples of your cheeks.

I think these are really fun to mix, especially if you use them as blushes and highlighters…

I love me a customized cheek color! 🙂

Here I’m wearing the Defining Nectars palette. I mixed the mid-toned and darkest shades together by tapping my brush back and forth between the powders. Then I swirled the powder on the open lid to mix them together (you can also do this on the back of your hand or in your palm) and applied the combined color to my cheeks as a blush. Then I cleaned off my brush, loaded it with the lightest shade and swept that on my cheekbones to highlight.

If you’re going to be mixing these, I think it’s important to use a small face brush because the individual pans are pretty petite (the entire palette fits in the palm of my hand). I like the Contour Brush by Real Techniques; it’s small enough to pick up the colors separately.

As for contouring, I probably won’t be using these palettes to do a true contour as all of the darkest shades have shimmer, which really doesn’t do a lot in terms of chiseling my cheeks. Plus, I’m kind of afraid of things looking a little too ’80s with the colorful contour.

Totally go there if it’s your thing, though. You do you! That’s one of the things I love about makeup. 🙂 There’s an endless number of ways to interpret a look.

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