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

The Make Up For Ever Artist Palette Vol. 1 Nudes You Need: Especially if You’re a Beauty Beginner, These ARE Nudes You Need

May 6th, 2015 by Karen 13 Comments

Eyeshadow… It’s what’s for dinner.

LOL! Not really, but my stomach just rumbled, and that’s what popped into my head because I’m looking at this new eyeshadow palette. 🙂

It’s the $42 Artist Palette Vol. 1 Nudes You Need by Make Up For Ever.

But enough about rumbly tummies! — if you frequently forget the difference between a tapered blending brush and a domed eyeshadow brush, read on…

Heck, even if you do know the difference, keep reading, because this palette could end up saving you precious moments, as in time, when you put on le war paint.

So, what are we looking at here? An eye palette with nine neutral MUFE Artist Shadows in what are billed as universally flattering shades, the Artist Palette Vol. 1 is one of two $42 collectible Artist Palettes released this month by Make Up For Ever (the other one has bold shades). They’re available now online and at Make Up For Ever counters and Sephora.

OK, but what can this palette do for you/me? Well, if you consider yourself utterly and completely hopeless when it comes to blending, this eyeshadow palette will help you look like you know what you’re doing. You’ll have to practice, of course, but it’s easy to get the hang of blending with the help of these eyeshadows.

MUFE’s Artist Shadows have a super soft, almost gel-like powder formula packed with ultra-fine pigment particles. Creating gradients and doing layering with them takes very little effort because the powders feather out with just a few flicks of a brush.

In these pics here, I’m wearing a taupe-ish brown daytime eye look incorporating diffused cat liner, and it didn’t take much time to do, thanks to these Urban Decay-caliber blend-able shadows. I didn’t have to spend forever and a day swiping back and forth with my blending brush, and I noticed very little fallout, too.

My kind of look, yo! 🙂

Does anything set this palette apart from the pack of neutral eye palettes on the market? “Another day, another neutral palette…”

What is this, the one hundredth one!? There are a ton of them out there, but this one’s ridonkulously easy to use because of the colors (they’re true neutrals in terms of color temps) and the formula. Basically, it has no learning curve at all, so I think it’s one of the better ones for beginners.

If this is going to be your first neutral palette, I suggest also grabbing a pair of matte single eyeshadows in brown, one lighter than your skin tone, and one slightly darker, since most of the shades in this MUFE palette have some level of shimmer or sheen. You’ll be able to use the other mattes as transition shades, to blend out the edges of your shimmers, and to deepen your crease. It’s those finishing touches that take your eye looks to the next level.

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Chanel Summer 2015 Lumière d’été Bronzing Powder Promises to Be Your New BBFF (Best Bronzing Friend Forever)

May 6th, 2015 by Karen 8 Comments

Well, it looks like all that chanting I did to the makeup gods finally paid off! Chanel released a powder bronzer similar to their famous cream bronzer, Soleil Tan de Chanel.

I bought Soleil Tan de Chanel many moons ago (at least two years) and loved the natural toasty golden bronze glow it gave my cheeks. We were BBFFs (Best Bronzing Friends Forever) for about a week… Then I broke out like crazy along my chin!

I stopped using it immediately. Shortly thereafter, it got swallowed up by my office, never to be seen again… (I think it’s in a drawer.)

Chanel’s new limited edition Summer 2015 Lumière d’été Bronzing Powder ($65), looks almost exactly like Soleil Tan de Chanel on my NC 42 skin.

A few sweeps of my bronzer blush, et voila! — I see that same sunlit, toasty golden bronze glow I loved so much from Soleil Tan de Chanel, except this time without the pimples. 🙂

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MAC Lightful C Tinted Cream SPF 30 With Radiance Booster: Before and After

May 6th, 2015 by Karen 22 Comments

You’ve got to “C” MAC’s new de-Lightful tinted moisturizer.

Get it…? C? As in “see”?

OK, that pun was bad. 🙂 Sorry, but the product’s called Lightful C! Come on, you know I had to go there.

MAC Lightful C Tinted Cream SPF 30 With Radiance Booster: What’s it all about?

Yes, MAC has a new tinted cream/moisturizer. Officially, it’s called Lightful C Tinted Cream SPF 30 With Radiance Booster and, um…could that name be any longer and more awkward? Maybe? Probably not.

Essentially, it’s a sheer coverage tinted moisturizer with skin care benefits. It’s designed to even out your skin tone without completely covering your natural skin color, which I think is really cool, and it does so while also blurring pores, controlling oil, protecting you from sun damage, and cranking up your natural radiance factor with a barely-there, subtle sheen.

It’s also supposed to reduce the appearance of dark spots over time. So, basically, it’s everything and the kitchen sink squeezed into a 1.3-oz. tube. Available in nine shades, including Extra light (a pale alabaster), Light (a pale ivory), Light Plus (a light beige), Medium (a warm beige), Medium Plus (a tan beige), Medium Deep (a caramel beige), Dark (a deep caramel), Dark Plus (a neutral tan beige) and Dark Deep (a rich golden bronze).

Ascorbyl glucoside power!

Lightful C Tinted Cream is the latest addition to MAC’s Lightful C product line, their skin care category dedicated to subtle brightening with the antioxidant power of “C,” as in vitamin C. It contains ascorbyl glucoside, a modified version of vitamin C that combines C with glucose, which supposedly makes it more stable in skin care formulas and cosmetic products, and it’s listed up high among the ingredients.

It’s always a bummer to me when the star compound is listed down at the bottom of the ingredients, so at least in this case, there’s presumably a significant amount of it in Lightful C Tinted Cream.

About vitamin C’s skin care benefits in general…

“It has been shown to increase collagen production (including dermal collagen, which is significant for wrinkle reduction), reduce the appearance of skin discolorations, strengthen skin’s barrier response, enhance skin’s repair process, reduce inflammation, and help skin better withstand exposure to sunlight, whether protected by sunscreen or not.”

-paulaschoice.com

‘Tis the season for sheerer coverage

I’m still madly in love my full-coverage foundations (see: Dior), but as summer approaches, I unconsciously transition to wearing sheerer coverage more, and Lightful C Tinted Cream SPF hits that spot. I like how it evens out my skin tone without covering everything up, so my skin still looks like mine, and not like someone/something else.

Also much appreciated…

The slight pore-blurring effect
How it doesn’t break up or settle into my fine lines as the day wears on
How it’s so lightweight that I forget I’m wearing it sometimes
How it layers well on its own, and with other products. I can build it up to to medium coverage when I wear it by itself, and where I need even more coverage, I’ll just spot blend a full-coverage foundation on top, and then dust powder on top of that.
The faintly floral fragrance that, despite the formula containing SPF, doesn’t smell like sunscreen
How it blends easily and doesn’t streak
That it hasn’t triggered any breakouts (knocks on wood)

Before Lightful C Tinted Cream

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Clinique Pop Lip Colour + Primer: A Fabulously Affordable Option to One of My Favorite High-End Lippies of All Time

May 5th, 2015 by Karen 31 Comments

The only thing that could make these new Clinique Pop Lip Colour + Primers better is if they actually came with Pop Tarts.

That, and if they were free and summoned fluffy kittens and unicorns. 🙂

By the way, if we’re handing out Pop Tarts here, I’ll take a strawberry with frosting, please. The others are a complete and total sham!

But I digress…

These new $18 lippies resemble one of my favorite high-end (much more expensive) lipsticks of all time. Keep reading to find out which one!

The Clinique Pop Lip Colour + Primers: Deets you need to know/overview

These are a brand new line of $18 full-coverage, long-wearing, moderately moisturizing lipsticks with a built-in smoothing primer.
There are 16 unflavored, unscented shades divided into four color families — nudes, tawnies/corals, pinks, violets.
They have an interesting finish that I’d characterize as about two-thirds cream, one-third matte. Still a little shiny, but not completely matte. It reminds me of the NARS Satin Lip Pencils.
Texture-wise, they feel creamy and slightly thick on my lips but aren’t heavy.
I get five or six hours of wear time from the more intense shades, and four or five hours from the less intense ones.
Of the six I’ve tried, the vibrant, colorful shades, particularly hot pink Punch Pop, reddish coral Poppy Pop and warm red Cherry Pop impress me the most. One layer of each gives me full, even coverage that stays out of my horizontal lip lines (yay!).
I’m not crazy about pastel pinkish purple Fab Pop, though. It settles into my lip lines, looks patchy, and I can’t get it to stay where it belongs on my lips.
For me, the stars of this show are the brights! 🙂 They totally remind me of Guerlain’s $51 Rouge G line. They look the same and feel the same to me, but they don’t taste or smell the same, so FYI, if you absolutely must have that rosy Guerlain flavor and scent, you won’t find that here.
I still love the Rouge Gs to bits and probably always will, but these Clinique Pop Lips are a fabulously affordable $18 option (versus $51!).

Pop over to your neighborhood Clinique counter or Sephora store to check ’em out (or find them online).

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Oribe Airbrush Root Touch-Up Spray Is One Hella Awesome Hair Product

May 5th, 2015 by Karen 16 Comments

MIND BLOWN.

That’s all I have to say about Oribe’s new Airbrush Root Touch-Up Spray. That, and “wallet on five-alarm fire, holy sh*t!”

Honestly, and I know that I say versions of this all the time, but the last thing I needed was to get addicted to a $29 root touch-up spray in a tiny 0.7-oz. bottle, but it is what it is!

When your hair reaches that point when you really, really, REALLY should’ve gotten your roots done a week ago (or…a month ago), but your next salon appointment is still two weeks away, and then you spray this on your roots, and essentially see your hair revert back to its pre-rooty-root glory days in less than 30 seconds right before your eyes, it’s magical.

And dangerously addictive.

Because of the price.

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The MAC Wash and Dry Collection Brushes, Makeup Bag, Bronzers and Pro Longwear Waterproof Brow Sets

May 5th, 2015 by Karen 12 Comments

Hmm… Just five quarters left!

That should be enough for this last load of MAC Wash and Dry collection products. We have two brushes, a makeup bag, four bronzers and some bits for brows.

Beginning with the brushes and bag…

MAC Wash and Dry Collection: Brushes and Bag

THE BRUSHES

How many are there in the release? There are two brushes in the collection — the 125 Split Fibre Dense Face Brush ($38.50) and 126 Split Fibre Large Face Brush ($46)
Uh…what’s a Split Fibre Brush? Good question. The brush heads are like two sides of a coin and have natural fibers on one side, and synthetic fibers on the other, so it’s designed to work with both cream (the synthetic fibers) and powder products (the natural fibers).
They’re surprisingly handy. Mostly, I’ve been using these for applying products and blending them out, and I’ll apply whatever I’m working with — bronzer or blush, for instance — with one side of one of the brushes, and then I’ll flip the brush over and blend out the edges with the other side. It’s akin to having two different brushes in one.

Both sides feel soft, with the synthetic bristles being slightly stiffer, which makes them ideal for picking up lots of product (like with the Studio Sculpt Bronzing Powders).
How well do they work overall? I think the 126 Split Fibre Large Face Brush ($46) is probably the better value. I like the size of the brush head. It’s big, so it covers a lot of surface area and is good for quickly erasing and diffusing edges. I’ve used it with bronzer, powder and blush, and it works well for them all. It’s a true multitasking tool — yes, on the expensive side, as it’s almost $50 (!), but it’s well-made and versatile.
As for the 125 Split Fibre Dense Face Brush ($38.50), it’s an adequate contouring brush, and it looks cool…but unless you plan to contour every day, you may not get as much use out of it as the Face Brush.
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Chanel Summer 2015: Stylo Yeux Waterproof in Orchidée

May 5th, 2015 by Karen 24 Comments

Rise and shine, fellow lover of colorful lower water lines (maybe?)! Happy Cinco de Mayo!

I’ve been on a colorful lower water liner kick lately, and Chanel Stylo Yeux Waterproof Long-Lasting Eyeliner in Orchidée ($32), available now as part of the Chanel Summer 2015 Collection, is currently satisfying that urge to kick.

Here’s a brief breakdown of this flower’s important points (Orchidée means orchid en français)…

Chanel Summer 2015: Stylo Yeux Waterproof Long-Lasting Eyeliner in Orchidée ($32)

Vivid violet cream Orchidée is the only liner in the Chanel Summer 2015 Collection.
It’s limited edition, $32 and available now.
Typical of Chanel’s Stylo Yeux liners, the formula is a little on the hard side, but the texture still feels very smooth.
Wear time is about 6-8 hours on my lash lines and 5-6 on my water lines.
To get really high-intensity purple color from it, I use 3-4 layers on my water lines and 1-2 on my lash lines.
If you have trouble getting the formula to stick to your water lines, make sure your water lines are thoroughly dry before applying it. I’ll run a Q-tip carefully along my water line (and by “carefully,” I mean, “DON’T POKE YER EYE OUT, KID!”) beforehand. Then after applying I’ll let the formula set for a minute before going in for another layer. Repeat until you get the level of intensity you want.
I love Orchidée paired with warm browns and rose golds on the lids like I’m wearing in the pic above. 🙂

P.S. I hope your Cinco de Mayo has gotten off to a good start. Mine’s been pretty good so far. The missing screws for that gigantic pink shelving unit I told you about are supposed to arrive today, yay!

And I’m looking forward to perhaps a lunch of yummy fish tacos. 🙂

P.P.S. In other news, what are your favorite apps on your phone? I haven’t updated mine in a while, and I’d like some new apps. Thank you in advance.

More Stuff I’ve Cooked: Pea Soup!

May 4th, 2015 by Karen 11 Comments

More food-ness!

I’m pretty sure that this soup was supposed to be less lumpy and a lot smoother, but whatev. It was delish! — and I like the green color. 🙂

I made this the other day from a recipe I saw in the May 2015 issue of Cooking Light magazine. Here it is, in case you want to get yo’ pea soup on…

SWEET PEA SOUP WITH YOGURT AND PINE NUTS

Ingredients (serves 6)
3 cups shelled fresh green peas (I used one and a half bags of shelled peas from Trader Joe’s; you could also use frozen peas)
1 cup unsalted chicken stock (I swapped this out for vegetable stock)
1 cup coarsely chopped pea shoots or baby spinach leaves (I used spinach)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
2 garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted (I used silvered almonds because it’s what I had in my cupboard)
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill
2 tablespoons plain 2% reduced-fat Greek yogurt

Directions

Bring a large pot of water to bowl. Add peas; cook 15 seconds. Add pea shoots, mint, and garlic; cook 15 seconds. Drain; plunge pea mixture into ice water. Drain well.

Combine pea mixture, stock, and salt in a blender; process until very smooth.

Combine nuts, oil and dill in a small bowl.

Ladle about 2/3 cup soup into each of 6 shallow bowls.

Drizzle each serving with 1 teaspoon yogurt; top with 2 teaspoons nut mixture.

Nom, and enjoy. 🙂

I’m the only one in my house who eats this soup, by the way, because my husband 1) hates peas and 2) dislikes soup, so this dish was pretty much his nightmare in a bowl, haha! I made him a very boy-friendly salami and cheese sandwich to eat instead.

Since we’re on the subject of soups, what’s your favorite? Mine’s probably potato leek…