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I’m Nuts Over Pacifica Indian Coconut Nectar Body Butter

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I can’t decide whether to praise or curse (a pox upon thee!) those little bins by the register at Sephora, with all their last-minute impulse purchase temptations… Last Saturday, after I’d already found what I’d gone into the store to get, I was in the checkout line when one of those blasted bins acquired the power of speech!

“Karen,” it whispered. “Over here, by the register.”

Of course, I had to look. I saw these little 2.5-oz bottles of Pacifica Indian Coconut Nectar Body Butter for $5. I grabbed one and took a quick sniff.

I love the scent, which Pacifica describes as a warm coconut vanilla, but I get more of a warm vanilla cake with coconut frosting and a light drizzling of dulce de leche on top. In other words, YUM! I’ve come damn close to gnawing off my arm Donner party-style, and each time I’ve worn it I swear I’ve craved cupcakes…


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I’m Having a Maritime with These $5 Rimmel Glam’Eyes Trio Eye Shadows

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Karen of Makeup and Beauty Blog wearing Rimmel Glam Eyes Trio Eye Shadow in Maritime

It’s Maritime, young lady. 🙂 Get ready to set sail on a Trio hour tour aboard the USS Glam’Eyes. The ship is bound for the The Land of Cheap Makeup Thrills, and Captain Rimmel’s at the helm.

I absolutely love Rimmel’s Glam’Eyes Mono shadow singles, so I’ve really been looking forward to trying their new Glam’Eyes line of trios ($5 each). Maritime, one of four trios in the line, is a sea of blues designed to bring out the best in brown eyes.

Rimmel Glam Eyes Trio Eye Shadow in Maritime

Rimmel Glam Eyes Trio Eye Shadow in Maritime
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New Lipsticks from L’Oreal Paris: Infallible Le Rouge

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Say hi to a few members of L’Oreal’s newest long-wearing lipstick line, Infallible Le Rouge. From the left to the right: 812 Opulent Organza, 421 Charismatic Coral and 130 Enduring Berry ($10 each).

L’Oreal says these new lippies offer 10 hours of color and feel comfortable on the lips. Find them in 30 shades now at drugstores, grocery stores and lorealparis.com.

5 Fantastic Drugstore Makeup Brushes

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5 fantastic drugstore makeup brushes

I was cleaning my makeup brushes yesterday when I remembered a recent email exchange across the Northern border. Canadian reader Siobhan asked…

Hi Karen,

Family members are in the States right now and have offered to bring me back a little present. 🙂

I’m thinking about asking for some makeup brushes, and you have stores there that we don’t have here in Canada (Target and CVS come to mind). What kinds of drugstore brushes do you recommend? Thanks!
–Siobhan

Heya Siobhan,

Smart thinking! Makeup brushes are lightweight, easy to pack, and make fantastic little travel gifts. Both of the chains you mentioned, Target and CVS, carry several affordable, high quality brushes like the…

1. EcoTools Bamboo Bronzer Brush

This cruelty-free brush has a dense head (there’s a pun in there somewhere) and super soft bristles. It’s designed to be used with bronzer, but I prefer to use it to buff loose powder on top of my foundation for an airbrushed look. $12

eco tools bamboo bronzer brush review 3

2. Sonia Kashuk Bent Eyeliner Brush

An affordable, all-purpose eyeliner brush with an angled barrel, a long handle and a pointed brush head made with soft, yet firm, synthetic fibers. I think it’s a star with gel liners like MAC Fluidline and makes winged cat eye flicks super easy to do. $6

Sonia Kashuk Bent Eyeliner Brush Review closeup

3. Sonia Kashuk Synthetic Flat Top Blusher Brush

My local Target has a tough time keeping this brush in stock; it’s usually sold out! Forged in the fires of Mt. Kashuk by the mighty SK to apply cream blush, this multitasking tool also tackles liquid foundation, cream/liquid highlighters and powder products, too. It’s totally worth the hunt. $15

Sonia Kashuk Flat Top Blusher Brush
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The L’Oreal Paris Studio Secrets Professional Eye Shadow Palettes: One Sweep to Rule Them All?

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Now here’s something I can honestly say I’ve never seen before: kidney bean-based beauty. Each of the eight new L’Oreal Paris Studio Secrets Professional The One Sweep Eye Shadow Palettes (say that five times fast!) comes with a kidney bean-shaped brush designed to grab its three coordinating shadows in one fell swoop.

Team L’Oreal says that a single swipe of the contoured brush picks up the perfect amount of each color for your lid, crease and brow bone. Just slide the loaded brush horizontally across the area from the inner to the outer lid to distribute all three shades evenly, one atop the other, from lash line to brow bone.


Natural for All Eyes Palette on the left; Playful For Blue Eyes Palette on the right
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Is It Time to Get Fit? Maybelline Fit Me Foundation with SPF18

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When I think of a perfect fit, I picture J Brand skinny jeans or my yellow platform sandals; I don’t usually think of foundation.

But Maybelline hopes to change how we think of “perfect” this spring. Their new line of Fit Me foundations, concealers, powders, blushes and bronzes are designed to make finding your perfect shade that much easier to do.

Today I gave Fit Me Foundation ($8) a try — a liquid foundation designed to even skin tone without feeling heavy or looking like it’s caked on the skin.

After my date with the Fit Me Blushes yesterday afternoon, I thought the foundation would have that same casual makeup vibe.

For starters, it’s available in a whopping 18 shades with SPF 18, and the one I wore around the house today was 320 Honey Beige. The color’s not a great match for my skin tone, but it’s the closest of the ones I have right now.

Easy to blend, 320 covers most of the uneven patches and imperfections on my mug. I’d say the coverage is somewhere between sheer and medium, and it definitely doesn’t smooth as well as my current go-to foundation, Chanel Mat Lumiere.

I love how lightweight it feels, like I’m not wearing makeup at all. Maybelline also managed to keep the matte finish from looking flat.


Fit Me Foundations from the left with the flash: 110 Porcelain, 120 Classic Ivory, 320 Honey Beige and 355 Coconut


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What Are the Best Drugstores for Beauty Products?

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What are the best drugstores for beauty products?

What a coincidence! Reader Aimee must have known I was planning a jaunt to Tar-ghay today. 🙂

Hi Karen!

I’m traveling to Miami in the US next month, and I’d like to hear about your favorite drugstores in the US…

Which of these are best for make up (price and variety): CVS, Target or Walgreens? Thanks!
–Aimee

Hi Aimee,

You’re a girl after my own heart. Whenever I travel, I always try to do a bit of beauty research beforehand, and I’m stoked about your enthusiasm for drugstore makeup. I’ve been a Rite Aid regular (aka a Walgreens wallflower) since as far back as I can remember. Drugstores are veritable cosmetics cornucopias!

I’ve shopped all three of the stores you mention — CVS, Target and Walgreens — and have generally had good experiences with each.

Target

I end up going to Target a lot because of 1) how close and 2) how big it is. In addition to carrying the big drugstore beauty lines (your Revlon, Cover Girl, L’Oreal, etc.), they also carry “higher end” drugstore brands, some of them exclusive to Target (at least in the US), like Sonia Kashuk, JK Jemma Kidd, NP Set and Boots.

Target also has testers, which makes swatching easy, but I’m not crazy about their makeup return policy. Most of the time products have to be new, unused and in their original packaging.

CVS

With more than 7,000 stores in 45 states, chances are there’s a CVS somewhere nearby. They have a great selection of drugstore brands and a fantastic product return policy. Truth be told, I’d shop at CVS more often if there wasn’t a Target so close. They accept returns on any opened or unopened beauty products and will refund the full purchase price, no questions asked. Just be sure to bring your receipt or invoice. Oh, and some CVS stores carry the awesome NYX line, which is one of my favorite drugstore brands for colorful eyeshadows and blushes.

Walgreens

No joke, but I used to haunt the Walgreens beauty department back when I worked in downtown San Francisco. Walgreens carries many of the same beauty lines that CVS and Rite Aid do at very nearly the same prices, but I don’t visit as often as I used to (there isn’t one close).
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