Search Results for: cult of cherry

MAC Emanuel Ungaro Product Pictures, Swatches and First Impressions

October 2nd, 2008 by Karen 39 Comments

MAC’s highly anticipated collaboration with designer Emanuel Ungaro arrived on counters nationwide today, and it reminds me of stargazer lilies — like a dreamy watercolor painting, with pops of bright but sheer magenta accenting its palette of soft pastels.

As a collection, Emanuel Ungaro is delicate, feminine and youthful, like dewy morning flowers and gossamer gowns. I’d say it’s more youthful than both Cremesheen and Cult of Cherry.

The entire MAC Emanuel Ungaro collection includes…
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Makeup Tip: Layer Benefit Gilded Beneath Red Lip Glosses for Warmth and Shimmer

September 20th, 2008 by Karen 26 Comments

I just got a makeup tip and had to share! A friend who works for Benefit Cosmetics suggested I try their shimmery gold Gilded ($20) pencil with some of my red glosses. I tried it and BAM! — it breathes new life into glosses with instantly warmer, more shimmery color.

I applied a layer of Benefit’s Gilded creamy gold pencil for lips, eyes and cheeks beneath MAC Russian Red Lipglass, MAC Cult of Cherry Lipglass and Sally Hansen’s Natural Lip Gloss in Juicy Cherry.

Here’s a layer of Gilded on her own. I think she’s even pretty by herself…

Beneath a layer MAC Cult of Cherry Lipglass ($14)…

Beneath a layer of MAC Russian Red Lipglass ($14)…

Beneath a layer of Sally Hansen’s Natural Lip Gloss in Juicy Cherry ($8)…

I’m thinking Gilded will work well with dark berry and bright pink lip glosses, too.

Can you think of any other lip products I should try with Benefit Gilded?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

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Lip Look: Stila SPF Shine Lip Color in Tina

September 7th, 2008 by Karen 24 Comments

Hey, girlies. How are you doing? Me — I’ve been in a mental funk for a couple days. Does that ever happen to you? I think I just need a creative booster shot. Any ideas?

I wasn’t in the mood for adventure this weekend and didn’t stray far from the TV. I watched *hella* episodes of The Golden Girls and Stargate Atlantis (attention fellow sci-fi nerds: this is a GREAT SHOW!), played with El Tabs and started a new book (The Other Boleyn Girl, by Philippa Gregory).

Of course, I couldn’t resist the urge to play with makeup. It’s like the call of the wild or something. 🙂 All weekend long I’ve been wearing Stila SPF Shine Lip Color in Tina ($22), a coppery brown.

I first read about Shine Lip Color on Bella Sugar’s blog back in May. Stila packed SPF 20 into these eight shades, each with a glossy yet sheer finish. Formulated with vitamins A, C and E, Shine Lip Color feels moisturizing and light on my lips. It’s lightly scented with vanilla, but the scent dissipates quickly.

A swatch of Stila Lip Shine in Tina without the flash

With the flash

The finish is surprisingly sheer, which makes the product easy to apply directly from the tube, even without a mirror. Unfortunately, the sheerness also means you can expect to have to reapply every couple hours. No big deal, though. If you’re like me, you don’t mind having to reapply.

Stila Lip Shine reminds me a lot of Shu Uemura’s Crystal Shine lipsticks, so if you’re a fan of those you might like these, too. And Shine Lip Color has distinct anti-funkiness properties — like coffee, good food and Christian Bale — guaranteed to pick you up when you’re feeling kind of blah. 🙂

Daily Photo

I love the design and the font on this cover. I started reading the book last night and stayed up late putting a solid dent in the story. I’m only through the first 100 pages, but what I’ve taken away from it so far is that being a member of England’s royal court in the 1600s must have been downright exhausting.

Hope you’re feeling good today. 🙂 I’ll keep on keepin’ on if you do the same.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen
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Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll, August 25

August 25th, 2008 by Karen 77 Comments

Mood:

A little fussy but eager to make the day a good one

Eye shadow:

MAC Shadowy Lady Quad

Working out today?

I sure hope so. I’d like to go for a run around the neighborhood after work.

Lips:

Nothing yet, but I’m thinking Cult of Cherry Lipglass.

Outfit:

Grey dress, yellow shoes and a simple pink sweater

What I’m looking forward to today:

Watching The Hills in my pajamas tonight and talking sh*t about Heidi and Spencer the entire time

Where I hope to be in six months:

Working a full time writing job, living in a bigger place and having a better relationship with my parents

Foundation:

Chanel Teint Innocence Compact Foundation in 50 Naturel

Gotta get it done today:

Book airline tickets to Florida for a friend’s wedding, find Tabs (aka “Cat Houdini”) a cat carrier from which he can’t escape

Goals for the week:

To stay positive, get organized, make more time for reading and to get disciplined about my diet. I need to lay off the Baked Lays potato chips, yo!

Now it’s your turn! Just copy this list, and paste it with your answers in the comments. 🙂

Le list

Mood:
Eye shadow:
Working out today?
Lips:
Outfit:
What I’m looking forward to today:
Where I hope to be in six months:
Foundation:
Gotta get done today:
Goals for the week:

Let’s all have a great Monday, ladies!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

MAC Overrich: Product Shots, Swatches

August 21st, 2008 by Karen 42 Comments

MAC Overrich was the second collection to hit MAC counters today. Its eight MAC pigments promise to steal some of Cult of Cherry’s thunder. All eight of these loose shadows ($19.50 each) made shorty wanna get loose! I think these shades of green, gold, bronze and copper are perfect for fall.

All eight pigments are limited edition at regular MAC freestanding stores and counters, but according to one of my sources, MAC Pro stores should still carry most of the Overrich shades even after the collection has sold out elsewhere. The following six colors are slated to remain part of the permanent Pro Store pigment line-up:

Likely Permanent Pro Store Pigments

Blonde’s Gold

Heritage Rouge

Copperbeam

Vintage Gold

Antique Green

Museum Bronze

Note that the remaining two Overrich shades, Mega-Rich and Mauvement, will even be limited edition at MAC Pro Stores, so if you’re lusting after either one, grab ’em quick, girlfriend.

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Shu Uemura Fall 2008 Limited Edition Instinct Collection

August 21st, 2008 by Karen 47 Comments

True confession: when I was nine years old, all I wanted out of life was to star in a Duran Duran video. My fourth grade brain believed it was my destiny to be that glamorous Patrick Nagel girl on the cover of the Rio album, and I thought that looking like her would lead to me being cast as John Taylor’s love interest in a video involving pirates and perhaps a very fast boat.

Illustration by Patrick Nagel

Sadly, I never fulfilled my Duran Duran music video dreams, but a part of me still yearns to be that glam album cover girl.

Enter Shu Uemura’s Fall 2008 collection. The minimalist shapes and lines used for the packaging feel oh-so-80s, as if Nagel’s Duran Duran cover exploded in my makeup bag.

The design echoes throughout the entire color collection of three blushes, three eye shadow duos, two lipsticks and a face powder, but the packaging isn’t the only thing that distinguishes this release from others this season.

Yes, the reds, browns and purples so popular this fall are also present here, but this collection is more about shine, gloss and textured layers. It’s a clean break from the matte eyes and lips we’ve seen so far.

Instinct marks the first collection for Kakuyasu Uchiide, Shu Uemura’s new international artistic director.

The Eye Shadow Duos

Mystifier Eye Shadow Duo

With a cream shadow on one side and a powder on the other, each Duo Eye Shadow ($36) provides plenty of flexibility. I can see myself wearing the cream shadows alone or layered beneath the powders. For an easy eye look (’cause, girl, you know I like easy!), I applied the cream shade on the lid and the powder in the crease.

The cream shadows feel thinner and drier than MAC Paint Pots do. One layer delivers a sheer wash of shimmery color (much like Laura Mercier’s Cream Eye Duos from the Dreamy collection); two layers create a bolder pop. If you have super oily lids, you might want to prime them first before applying these cream shadows to prevent color from settling into the creases of your eye.

The powdered shadows in these duos are classic Shu Uemura — finely milled, highly blendable and highly pigmented (aka eyelid heaven).

Mystifier, pictured above, houses a black and green duochrome cream shadow (SOO PRETTY) and a brownish bronze powder shadow.

Mesmerizer, below, holds a light purple cream shadow and gold powder shadow. I wore this to work a few days ago with a look similar to this gold and purple eye I did with MAC shadows.

I haven’t used Tantilizer, the third of the three fall collection eye shadow duos (a green cream shadow and a goldish bronze powder), but I love both of the other two. They’re easy to use and deliver just the right amount of color without going over the top.

Mesmerizer Eye Shadow Duo
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Would You Redesign Makeup and Beauty Blog?

August 21st, 2008 by Karen 35 Comments

Makeup and Beauty Blog 1.0, April 2007

Happy Thursday, girls! I’m prepping posts on Shu Uemura’s Fall 2008 collection and MAC’s Cult of Cherry (on counters today!), but first I wanted to get your opinion on something I’ve been thinking about for a while: a redesign of Makeup and Beauty Blog.

I’m not a good web designer at all, but I feel like the blog could use a redesign. I don’t know… Maybe I just get a little tired of looking at the same thing.

The current design has been up since April of 2007, when I changed my web hosting from the free wordpress.com setup (similar to blogger) to a paid godaddy.com account (about $5/month) and migrated to wordpress.org using a free theme. That’s also when I got the www.makeupandbeautyblog.com domain name. Then, I got a copy of Photoshop Elements for Mac ($59) and a book on how to use it, found a cursive font I liked (Mariette) and put together the banner. If you’re curious about any of the early steps I took with the blog, leave me a comment and I’ll go into more detail.

Before that April the blog looked like the picture above (no banner, fewer categories, but overall the same idea). Sixteen months is a lifetime in blog years, and so I think it might be time for a change, like painting a room, buying new drapes, cleaning the carpets, etc.

Time for Makeup and Beauty Blog 3.0?

Is there anything you would like to see changed in Makeup and Beauty Blog 3.0? Or should the blog remain exactly the same? Any changes to the layout or colors? Is the pink too pink? Would you like to see a new banner up at the top? Do you like the current three columns, or would you prefer two? Is the font too small?

A Menu at the Top?

What about a drop-down menu up at the top of the page for the categories, which could replace the list of categories over in the right sidebar? Would that be easier to see?

An Image Gallery?

An image gallery to more easily browse through all the pictures on the blog? There are a lot of them, and a gallery might be a neat way to quickly zip around.

Games, Contests, Twitter?

Would you like to see me build more games and hold more contests? Does anyone use Twitter? I don’t know the first thing about it, but people tell me it’s fun.

Advertisements?

How about the ads? Are they well placed? Do they get in the way? Do you think they’re better than the Google text link ads I was using before? I know most people don’t like ads at all … but they do help pay the blog rent and help keep me motivated to write. That doesn’t mean they have to be obnoxious, though.

Share Your Thoughts

I know how busy you are, but I could sure use your help in the comments.

If you could change anything about the design of Makeup and Beauty Blog, what would you change? Please take a minute to throw some links or ideas at me in the comments.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Outlet Mall Makeup: Big Discounts on MAC at The Cosmetics Company Store

August 17th, 2008 by Karen 45 Comments

MAC rarely goes on sale, but if you live near an outlet mall you may be in luck. Legend has it The Cosmetics Company Store chain of outlet shops is one of the few places that regularly stocks discounted MAC makeup, brushes and skin care products, as well as discounted products from other department store cosmetics brands. To see for myself, I jumped on the computer this morning and pulled up Outletbound.com to find the nearest outlet mall with a Cosmetics Company Store.

Paydirt!

I found one an hour north of me in Napa, so I took a drove up there today to check it out.

A somewhat mysterious chain store with at least 70 locations across the US, The Cosmetics Company Store sells discounted makeup, skin care, brushes and fragrances from several of the Estee Lauder lines including MAC, Origins, Bobbi Brown and Clinique. I say “mysterious” because I couldn’t find a website for the company.

MAC at The Cosmetics Company Store

The sales staff at the Napa Valley location informed me that each Cosmetics Company Store maintains a different inventory of products. MAC treasures will vary. The store I visited had two MAC displays — one with makeup and another with skin care and brushes.

I got the impression that colors and product choices are kinda hit or miss, but I was surprised to find a lot of products from past launches like MAC Fafi lipsticks for $10 (originally $14), Beauty Powder Blushes for $12.25 (originally $17.50), and the Lipglasses from the Stylistics collection for $14 (originally $20).

If you missed a limited edition release (like I missed the Stylistics collection when it first appeared for the holidays in 2007), and it’s no longer available on MAC’s website, you might get a second chance at The Cosmetics Company Store.
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