One of those rare moments of absolute peace…
Archives for June 2009
Pretty, Yah?
A few items from the new Clinique Bamboo Pink makeup collection ($14-30). I love the softness of the pinks! What do you think?
What’s Your Favorite Mascara?
G’morning, ladies. Last night on my evening run I got to thinking about things I just can’t get enough of, like…
…friends who *really* listen, good sports bras, well-written books, and, well, mascara. 🙂
Mascara may have been on my mind because earlier yesterday I received this email from Lindsay:
Maybe you’ve done this at some point, but I was wondering if you could do a post about your favorite mascaras. I have really oily eyelids so I have a hard time finding mascaras that stay put.
I don’t want to just go in blind and end up losing $20 on a tube I’ll never use. That happens too often than I care to mention! …Though my friends seem to love it because they get all the barely-used hand-me-downs for free. Maybe I should find some new friends? Help! (With the mascara dilemma, not the friends.)
Lindsay
Hi Lindsay,
Here are some of my favorite mascaras. I’m partial to ones able to handle hot days, workouts and oily eyelids without melting away, and many of them are classified as either waterproof or water-resistant.
I go through mascara phases, sometimes preferring waterproof varieties (my current phase), sometimes tinted, and sometimes I just want uber-dramatic, long and full!
- Make Up For Ever Smoky Lash Mascara ($22) — “Most thickening mascaras will clump into little mascara globules, but not Smoky Lash. It applies smoothly, even after multiple layers, almost like it’s seducing my lashes. It’s the James Bond of mascaras — smooth but deadly hot.”
- Tarte Lash Hugger ($18) — “Lash Hugger may not pump up the volume, but I think it’s still a good performer — and really excellent when you consider its eco-friendly nature. It delivers longer lashes, won’t clump and keeps a curl for hours. If you’re looking for an environmentally responsible mascara, look for its purty purple tube on your next trip to Sephora.”
- Elizabeth Arden Ceramide ($20) — “A single coat of Ceramide mascara thickens my lashes without leaving them looking fake or unnatural, and two coats produces long, fat, defined, party-like-a-rockstar lashes.”
- Stila Lash Visor ($12.50) — “I wore one coat of Lash Visor to the gym last night, and after my sweaty struggle with the stair stepper, my lashes still held the curl and showed good thickness and length, with very little smudging, too.”
- Shu Uemura Precise Volume Mascara ($23) — “If you crave long, can’t-miss-me lashes like I do, get thee a tube of Shu Uemura’s Precise Volume Mascara ($23)! Using it lately I’ve achieved some of the longest, most defined lashes I’ve seen on myself in a while.”
- Tarte Bottoms Up Mascara ($14) — “It’s a water-resistant (not quite waterproof) black, and even though I’ve only been using it for a week, I’m already hooked. *I LOVE* how this mascara makes my eyes look bigger and more alert, like I’m actually awake, even when I’m dog tired.”
- Urban Decay Skyscarper Mascara ($22) — “I’ve been looking for a deep black mascara with a matte finish, and Skyscraper Multi-Benefit fits the bill. Three coats equal deep black, visibly enhanced lashes that still feel soft to the touch.”
Ladies, what’s your favorite mascara? Are you partial to basic black and waterproof, or do you yearn for something more? 🙂
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Nair Precision Face and Upper Lip Kit Smoothes the Savage Beast
The beauty gods blessed each of my big toes with seven long and wiry toe hairs.
Why? To test hair removal products, of course. 🙂
Nair may have had lips, chins and faces in mind when they developed their Precision Face and Upper Lip Kit ($6), but how about furry toes?
I followed the directions to a tee (except for the toe part), and a few minutes after applying the cream directly from the tube, which dispenses like a tube of Carmex/lip gloss, my toe hairs simply wiped away with a damp wash cloth. No elbow grease required.
The process was fast, totally painless, and the hairs came off at the base, which I’m hoping means my toes will stay hair free for a while.
If you’re thinking about using the kit for other kinds of hair removal…
Most importantly, the product works as advertised but has a surprisingly strong scent, kinda like hair perm, and I’m not sure I could tolerate it on my upper lip.
That, and the tube is quite small. The dispenser at the tip does allow for precise application, though, making it ideal for small hairy patches on the lips or, say, the tops of the toes (where it’s not intended to be used), but it also means that this definitely isn’t the right product for large scale hair removal projects.
Nair Precision Face and Upper Lip Kit
Price: $6
Use: A hair remover cream for lips, cheeks, chins and hella hairy sasquatch toes!
Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: B
You might like Nair Precision if…
- you’re clumsy with razors,
- you’re looking for a quick and painless hair removal cream, or
- you don’t mind strong chemical scents.
The Quest for Vanity!
Do any of you remember Vanity 6? They were a girl group Prince put together back in the early-1980s.
They had a song back then called Nasty Girls with a sick beat that always gets stuck in my head for hours whenever I hear it.
I tried to find it on iTunes today but could only find it on the soundtrack to Spike Lee’s Girl 6.
I’ve been singing it to Tabs for about an hour straight, and I don’t think he’s amused, ha!
Do you have any plans tonight? I’m thinking about pasta for dinner…
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Illamasqua, I Think I’ve Met My Matte
Illamasqua Powder Eyeshadow in Lestat
After several years dominating makeup counters, shimmery eyeshadows are letting mattes (viva MAC Matte2!) have the limelight for a while.
UK freshman Illamasqua has even gone so far as to make most of their Powder Eyeshadow singles ($23 USD before shipping) mattes.
I bet that pleases a lot of professional makeup artists who do work for photography; that’s somewhere I see mattes getting lots of use.
Illamasqua Powder Eyeshadow in Goddess
I think Illamasqua’s decision to make mattes their priority is a bold decision on the consumer end. Seriously, ladies love their shimmer shadows, so I can’t help but wonder: will Illamasqua’s gamble pay off?
Last weekend I sank my teeth into two of their matte shadows, Lestat (a chocolaty black) and Goddess (a turquoise blue).
Both were full of surprises. 🙂
Lestat
Lestat pays homage to his namesake, Anne Rice’s character from Interview with a Vampire. It’s a dark black with a pinch of warm, chocolate brown, and with all the talk about Twilight and Edward Cullen, it comforts my vampire-lurvin’ heart to know that the folks at Illamasqua have an appreciation for old school fang fiction. 🙂
Surprise: Lestat applies semi-sheer, which I didn’t expect at all. The other Illamasqua products I’ve tried applied with soooo much pigment, so I expected Lestat would, too.
My bad.
At first it put me off, but after playing with the shadow for a few minutes, I changed my tune.
For me, heavily pigmented deep black mattes can be tough to use. All it takes is one wrong swipe with an overloaded brush and that subtle smokey eye turns into an epic fail, so I love Lestat’s sheer color.
It allows me to build color slowly, maintaining control the entire time. Plus, because it is so sheer, I don’t feel like I’m wasting a lot of eyeshadow diluting it before application.
In terms of texture, Lestat feels soft and fine to me, like MAC Matte2 eyeshadows.
All that, and it’s super easy to blend, layers quickly and doesn’t irritate my eyes. Love this! Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: A
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What Makeup Do You Use to Cover Up a Red Nose?
Hola, muchachas bonitas. I barely speak a lick of Spanish, but I’ve decided it would be REALLY FRICKIN’ COOL to teach Señor Tabs (aka El Gato) some Español.
So far he only seems to understand two phrases — “Friskies, muy bien!” and “Dónde está Fancy Feast?” — but he’s been a fast learner for a cat.
After our Spanish lessons this morning, Tabs and I went through some e-mail. Here’s a note from Christine, who asked about a makeup ish I’m guessing many of us have had to deal with at one time or another.
Help…I have redness on my cheeks and nose. I’m able to cover my cheeks pretty well, I use Laura Mercier’s Secret Camoflauge mixed with a little bit of moisturizer (my skin is dry) and then pat on Bare Escentuals Bare Minerals on top…I do this to my nose as well but by the time I arrive at work in the morning, I look like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer! What can I do to keep my nose red-free? Is my application of the makeup wrong?
Hi Christine,
Girl, when my nose is pulling a Rudolph I try to remember two things: 1) that Rudolph is awesome (he leads the sleigh!) and 2) that there are quite a few products out there designed to help red-nosed ladies like us.
I’ll often start by incorporating a makeup primer with a green tint (to offset the redness on my nose) into my routine; if you’ve never used a makeup primer before, then you’re in for a treat. Makeup primers provide a surface upon which foundation or concealer adhere, extending the wear time of many products and creating a smoother appearance. When used to conceal redness, I’ll apply it only where the redness occurs.
A new one I’ve heard good things about is Make Up For Ever HD Microperfecting Primer ($32) in Green. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m a fan of the Make Up For Ever line, and I think the product looks really promising for fellow members of Club Rudolph.
Other green primers to consider:
- Smashbox Photo Finish Color Correction Foundation Primer in Color Adjust ($38)
- Pur Minerals Colour Correction Foundation Primer in Green ($30)
- Clinique Redness Solutions Daily Protective Base SPF 15 ($17.50)
If you’re not sure which one to try, a Sephora sales associate may be able to provide you with a few samples to help you decide (sometimes this doesn’t work, but if you live near a Sephora it could be worth a try).
My fellow rosy-nosed girls, do you have any tips/tricks/product suggestions to help hide a red nose? Let’s give Christine a helping hand.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Comment to Win $150 in Rimmel
This giveaway is closed. Thanks for entering!
One thing I’ve noticed about getting older is that time seems to move a lot faster than it used to. It must be a side effect, ha!
Like, I can’t believe 1999 was 10 years ago…
In the summer of 1999 I was hooked on Krispy Kreme and Cibo Matto. I’d moved back home after college and remember how tough it was adjusting to life back under my parents’ roof.
As much as I love my family, that summer was rough. Turns out I wasn’t the same person I’d been when I first left for school five years earlier.
There were lots of arguments, and sometimes I’d have to just get away. Most of the time I’d hit the local drugstore to hang out in the makeup aisle, like some weirdo lipgloss stalker.
It was on one of my late-night drugstore runs that I discovered the Rimmel makeup line.
I dug the simple packaging, price and mix of bright and neutral colors right from the start, and since then several Rimmel products have become staples in my makeup bag.
Some of my Rimmel favorites…
This summer Rimmel celebrates their American 10-year anniversary, so I figure let’s do this right and mark the milestone with a super summer giveaway. 🙂
The prize!
One lucky lady will win a Rimmel prize package worth $150. Among the products in the giveaway: previews of Rimmel’s upcoming Sexy Curves Waterproof Mascara and Glam’Eyes Lash Flirt Mascara (arriving in stores next month).
The complete prize package includes…
- NEW Sexy Curves Waterproof Mascara
- NEW Glam’Eyes Lash Flirt Mascara
- Lash Maxxx Waterproof Mascara
- Exaggerate Waterproof Eye Definer in Jet Black
- Exaggerate Waterproof Eye Definer in Deep Ocean
- Colour Rush Eyeshadow Quad in Chocolatine
- Colour Rush Eyeshadow Quad in Bronzed
- Fix & Perfect Foundation Primer
- Stay Matte Clarifying Matte Foundation
- Natural Bronzer in Sundance
- Mono Blush in Peach
- 1000 Kisses Lip Liner in Natural and Indian Kiss
- 1000 Kisses Lip Liner in Indian Kiss
- Lasting Finish Kiss & Stay Gloss in English Rose
- Lasting Finish Kiss & Stay Gloss in Lustrous Nude
- Lasting Finish Intense Wear Lipstick in Pink Champagne
- Lasting Finish Intense Wear Lipstick in Alarm
- Lasting Finish Intense Wear Lipstick in Crush
- 60 Seconds Nail Polish in Camouflage
- 60 Seconds Nail Polish in Shocker
- 60 Seconds Nail Polish in Pulsating
- A red and purple cosmetics train case
How to enter
To enter, just leave a comment at the bottom of this post. In it, tell me what you were doing in the summer of 1999. Were you living at home and going to middle school, graduating from college, starting your first big job, training for the next Olympics or cultivating your own Krispy Kreme addiction like moi? 🙂
I’ll pick the winner at random from among the people who enter by 11:59PM PST Wednesday night.
Good luck!
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
This giveaway is closed. Thanks for entering!
MAC Graphic Garden and Look in a Box Swatches and First Impressions
I’m getting fired up, fellow MAC fans! Next month two exclusive, Nordstrom-only MAC collections arrive, the first for ladies who love bright colors and the second for gals who gotta go neutral.
Both Graphic Garden and Look in a Box are Nordstrom Beauty Exclusives, special limited edition items made by big cosmetics lines like MAC and sold only at Nordstrom stores.
If you’re on the market for bright summer colors, consider the Graphic Gardens collection’s black and white flower print makeup bags and eyeshadow palettes, lip kits and brush kits ($35-50) in greens, blues, pinks and grays.
Or, if you’d prefer basic neutrals for your eyes, cheeks and lips, check out Look in a Box, which offers three color-coordinated makeup kits ($60 apiece, but valued at $100), each one with six pieces — eye, lip and face makeup as well as a kabuki brush — designed to create a complete look.
Last weekend I spent a few minutes with both of the upcoming collections — now available for pre-order at Nordstrom stores and online (for pick up or delivery next month).
Graphic Garden
Graphic Garden Palette, $35
I’m a palette kinda girl, so I was most interested in Graphic Garden’s two eyeshadow palettes, Graphic Garden and Fresh Cut ($35 each).
The Graphic Garden palette comes with six shimmery shadows in cool-toned shades of green, blue, gray, beige, purple and black. Each of the colors has excellent color payoff (soo rich!), and one could easily mix and match the shades for a variety of different looks.
Fresh Cut Palette, $35
Now, Fresh Cut kinda fooled me at first. Its pink, bronze and brown shades looked warm in the pans, but the shadows apply super sheer, requiring several layers on both my tan NC 35 skin as well as lighter NW 20.
Baby Blooms Lip Bag, $35 (includes Lipglass in Baby Blooms; Lipsticks in Soft Illusion, Amplified Spice Flower; and a black makeup bag with a white floral print)
Summer Crop Lip Bag, $35 (includes a Lipglass in Summer Crop; Lipsticks in Semi-Annual and Garden Bed; and a white makeup bag with a black rose print)
Define and Blend Brush Set, $50 (includes short-handled versions of the MAC 168 Large Angled Contour Brush, 190 Foundation Brush, 252 Large Shader Brush, 219 Pencil Brush and the 209 Eye Liner Brush, as well as a white makeup bag with a black rose print)
Shape and Perfect Brush Set, $50 (includes short-handled versions of the MAC 187 Duo Fibre Brush, 129 Powder/Blush Brush, 275 Medium Angled Shading Brush, 212 Flat Definer Brush and 194 Concealer Brush, as well as a black makeup bag with a white floral print)
Correction: it looks like two of the brushes in the sets were mixed up in the store. The Define and Blend Brush Set should have the 128 Powder/Blush Brush, and the Shape and Perfect Set should have the 168 Large Contour Brush.
Graphic Garden on NC 35 skin
Graphic Garden on NW 20 skin
Fresh Cut on NW 20 skin
Graphic Garden on the left and Fresh cut on the right; both on NC 35 skin
Graphic Garden on the left and Fresh cut on right; both on NC 20 skin
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