nyx

While it won’t be breaking any speed records for brow filling, the NYX Eyebrow Kit With Stencil ($13.50) gets mad props from me for looking like it belongs in an art store.

The kit comes in three color families — For Blondes, For Brunettes and For Everyone — and each one packs four brow powders, an angled brush, a brow comb and three plastic stencils cut to fit different brow shapes. Just hold one of the stencils up to your brow, and fill it in using the powders and brushes that come with the kit.

Tada! 🙂

Well, that’s the idea.

I usually fill in my brows “freehand” using something like Benefit Instant Brow because, especially in Instant Brow’s case, it’s quick as a bunny. And when I’m not pressed for time, I might reach for a pan of MAC Concrete and a MAC 266 Small Angle Brush instead.

But what could be quicker than using a stencil, right? If they’re good enough for art class, they’re good enough for me.

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I used to get really grumpy back in school when kids would copy my style. It’s not that I thought of myself as a fashion visionary or anything, but I took pride in my penchant for offbeat things and fancied myself as different. So when Angela showed up to band one day wearing a baby poo green plaid vest eerily similar to the one I’d been rockin’ for most of that fall, carrying her sheet music in a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles folder a lot like mine, I couldn’t help but feel a little annoyed.

I vented about it to my friend Cindy, expecting a sympathetic ear. “Just chill out and be flattered,” she said. It was only worth tripping about if things got creepy and Single White Female (which, thank goodness, they didn’t).

Cindy was right, of course. After all, I’d copied/borrowed a few ideas from other kids, too, and looking at it that way, I thought perhaps that old saying about imitation and flattery was true.

Which brings us to this: if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Urban Decay must feel REALLY flattered by the new NYX Slide-On Liners ($8 each).

Even the unwieldy name sounds familiar — Slide On, Glide On & Definitely a Turn On Water Proof Extreme Shine Eye Liner. Sounds a little like Urban Decay’s 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencils ($17), right?

Like the Glide-Ons, they’re smoother than Blackstreet in their heyday (remember Before I Let Go? That’s some baby-making music, ma!), with vibrant colors more intense than a triple rainbow deluxe.

I’ve got mad love for UD liners, especially Bourbon, but I’m always open to budget options. I couldn’t wait to give these a try.

They come in a wide range of colors, 18 of them, in a mix of matte and shimmery finishes, and I see several possible dupes here for classic UD shades…

16 of the 18 shades
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NYX HD Studio Photogenic Grinding Blush in English Rose

Ah, to be a bored teen without wheels in the Easy Bay suburbs circa 1992 again… When you live in a town where the most exciting thing to do is get an ice cream cone at Thrifty’s, you figure out ways to amuse yourself.

On Friday nights my friends and I loved to watch The Grind on MTV. Remember that dance show? We’d crank up the volume and electric slide around the living room as the show’s host, Eric Nies, who was almost always shirtless for some reason, introduced the hits.

It wasn’t the most exciting way to start the weekend, but it was either that or ice cream at Thrifty’s…

We sure could have used something like these new NYX HD Studio Photogenic Grinding Blushes ($16.50 each; available in eight shades) back then. Dang if these things wouldn’t have kept us busy.

New for spring, they have a cheese grater-like contraption similar to the one Smashbox uses with their Halo powders. By turning the rim of the jar, the grater shaves off a small amount of blush into the pan.

Sangria in Madrid
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