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The limited edition Sonia Kashuk Spring Awakenings Face Palette ($20), new for spring 2011 and available now at select Target stores.
It includes four eyeshadows (a matte tan, a matte chocolate, a metallic bronze and a shimmery champagne), a deep brown “eye intensifier” (which looks like a powder liner), a coral powder blush and three sheer lip glosses (a shimmery nude, a shimmery cocoa and a shimmery rosewood).
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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…
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
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
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
The seven long-handled makeup brushes tucked within the lovely limited edition Sonia Kashuk Dripping In Diamonds Travel Brush Set ($24.99) may not get a lot of use this holiday season…
…because opening the stylin’ silver clutch is like trying to crack a safe!
I swear, Rubik himself would have struggled to figure it out. The latch, which is set flush against the side, looks the same from the top/bottom. It takes a good deal of force to pry open. Poor El Hub looked like a gorilla with a Gameboy when I asked him to give it a try, and after pawing, growling and clawing at it for about a minute, he finally figured it out (still lovin’ ya, babe!). 🙂
Where my party girls at? If you’re booked with back-to-back holiday fetes this year, freshen up your look between bashes with the Sonia Kashuk Shimmer and Shine Purse Brush Set ($13).
The sparkly silver clutch contains four mini versions of classic Sonia brushes — a powder blush/brush, a blending brush, a small eyeshadow brush and a wee little brush for concealer.
The limited edition Sonia Kashuk Facing Stardom Face Palette ($19.99) is like a spontaneous red carpet moment. One second I’m sitting at my desk in black stretchy pants (you know, the ones with the hole in the butt?), but the second that first swipe of smokey eye and rosy cheek/lip makeup dances onto my face, BAM! I’m strutting my stuff at a Hollywood premiere, waiting for Ryan Reynolds to introduce me as “his close friend, confidante and shoulder to cry on” to the paparazzi.
Looking like a star with this 12-piece holiday palette, which includes two powder eyeliners, six eyeshadows, two lipglosses and two cream blushes, doesn’t require an actual acting career. All you need are brushes and your imagination. 🙂
Eyeliners (upper left), lipglosses (lower left), eyeshadows (center) and cream blushes (right)
Eyeliners: The matte powder eyeliners can be worn wet or dry along the lash and/or waterlines. They have a little fallout when applied dry, so I keep makeup wipes on standby just in case I need to clean up.
Eyeshadows: Cool-toned and smokey is the name of the game. The glitter shadows (a glittery gray, taupe and purplish taupe) are more pigmented than the ones in the What Glitters Glows Palette, which is a big plus. The three mattes (a gray, purplish taupe and taupe) apply sheer and blend with ease.
Cream Blushes: A creamy rose and a pink designed to be worn on bare skin or on top of foundation. The texture’s very thin, slick and slippery, so I dust a blush or translucent face powder on top to help set the color.
Lipglosses: I’m not sure why S.K. calls the rosy shade on the left a gloss because it sure as heck feels and looks like a lipstick, but semantics, schemantics. I think both the unflavored and unscented lip products add the perfect amount of natural-looking color to my pucker.
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The limited edition holiday Sonia Kashuk Facing Stardom Face Palette, $19.99.
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OMG! Have you heard about the party at Target?! Well, not at Target. It’s more inside Target, down by the cosmetics aisle, right in front of the Sonia Kashuk display.
Just look for the disco ball…packaging for Sonia’s limited edition What Glitters Glows Eye Palette ($15).
If it looks familiar… If it looks familiar (déjà vu!), you may be recalling last year’s Starry Eyes Palette, which also had big pans of shadow like these and came in similar packaging. Oh, and it had the same price ($15).
For this palette, Sonia swapped out the three cool-toned, smooth and pigmented mattes from Starry Eyes with three dynamic, neutral-toned shadows with a fascinating combination of matte/glitter finish.
I can’t believe the gray, black and brown shadows in the bottom row are available at Target, because they seem like higher end department store material to me. They come in a matte base that’s pigmented, yet still soft and easy to blend, and they’re infused with subtle flecks of sophisticated black-tie glitter (as opposed to 1996 rave glitter), which reminds me: did you ever dance with a glow stick at a rave? Yup, good times…
So I think it you like your glitter on the subtle side, like glitter good for understated holiday party looks, the shadows in the bottom row might appeal to you.
Sonia Kashuk What Glitters Glows Eye Palette, $15.
Would you rock this?
