Wearing the Dolce & Gabbana Contrasts Eyeshadow Quad

contrast n. |kon-trast|
noun
1 The state of being strikingly different from something else, typically something in juxtaposition or close association : tabs has been unusually nice to me today, in startling contrast to his behavior yesterday.

contrast v. |kon-trast|
verb
2 Differ strikingly : contrast my hair today with my hair of the 1990s, and be like whoa!

Do you ever think about how you got your name, or do you know the actual story?

Dolce & Gabbana’s Constrasts Eyeshadow quad has me thinking about names…

I was named after the actress Karen Black, but my mom almost named me Stephanie, which I can’t even begin to imagine… Not that I don’t like the name. I do. It’s just that when I look in the mirror, I don’t see a Stephanie, Steph or Steffie. Nope. Does not compute.

Funny, though, that last weekend I met a gal at the Bliss Spa who said that she didn’t think I looked like a Karen. She thought maybe a Leah, Leilani or a Lorelei. Something with an L, and I can kinda see that. Definitely more than Stephanie.

Anywho, I think whoever named Dolce & Gabbana’s Constrasts quad knocked it out of the park, since it really is strikingly different from the other everyday quads in my stash of staples.

If I could, I’d give that gal/guy a banana split with extra scoops of ice cream, whipped cream and cherries, because they nailed it!

And then, if he/she wanted, I’d go running with them, so we could burn off the calories and talk more about Constrasts.

The long-running Unsung Heroes series features some of my favorite permanent collection products from a variety of bodacious beauty brands.

This quad is a total workhorse, one I could easily see myself wearing daily, and yet it’s unlike the usual brown/beige/taupe/gray neutral suspects we see a lot.

Starting with the colors, ohmigosh! Inside the golden compact hides four potently pigmented powder shadows that you can easily take from day to night — a golden pinkish peach (a favorite for dusting all over my lids when I’m in a hurry because it brightens everything up), a pinkish beige, a warm purple and a plummy dark chocolate.

Versatile and flattering on many different skin tones, and just hella pretty.

From the left: shimmery golden pink, shimmery pinkish beige, shimmery plum and shimmery plummy brown (looks like a MAC Teddy in eye shadow form)

Soft Serenade Lipglass

“It was a steamy night — hot like Manila in July — and I was feeling naughty.”

That could either be the beginning of a bad piece of pulp fiction or a commercial for MAC’s new 28-piece summer collection, Temperature Rising. Either way, it sounds hot, right?

From the left: Liquid Passion, Soft Serenade, Underdressed and Rhythm

If last year’s dimpled, cheerful Hey Sailor was a celebration of pin-up girl fun in the sun, this year’s Temperature Rising is like meeting a boy at a dubstep club and dancing your @ss off past curfew.

Steamy neutrals, feverish flecks of gold and copper and sizzling taupe, peach, magenta and charcoal set this new 28-piece collection ablaze.

It’s hot stuff! — and I want to watch it burn all day and night…

From the left: Liquid Passion, Soft Serenade, Underdressed and Rhythm

Stay hydrated, because the four Lipglasses ($16.50 each) in this launch can cause overheating, especially if you like wearing neutral lips with bold summer eyes.

Together, creamy nude Liquid Passion (like a peachier version of Spite); pearly, neutral pink Soft Serenade; pearly, plummy bronze Underdressed and pearly magenta-violet Rhythm complete an entire wardrobe of neutral summer lips, covering you for everything from bronze smokey eyes to eye looks with shimmery blues and greens.

Swatches from the left: Liquid Passion, Soft Serenade, Underdressed and Rhythm

Liquid Passion Lipglass

Taking a break from hiking at the Indian Valley Open Space Preserve in Novato, California

You might be wondering, “So what the heck is this Monday Poll thing anyway?”

Well, it isn’t much of a poll. It’s more just a constantly evolving (devolving?), somewhat random list of questions I’ve been putting out to readers every Monday morning for the past four years. I’ve always enjoyed reading your answers in the comments, and I hope you enjoy reading mine.

1. What’s a makeup brand you’ve been into lately?
   Hourglass!
2. Dresses, skirts or pants?
   Dresses when it’s warm, pants when it’s cold.
3. Do you like pastel nails?
   I do. Shiny, opaque pastel nails, please.
4. Describe one of your typical makeup looks for work?
   Typical? That’s not exactly the word I’d use to describe what I usually wear to work. As I work from home, my neighbors have seen quite a few interesting things through my office window over the years — Wonder Woman, Marge Simpson, Katy Perry, Katniss Everdeen and a whole ton of stuff involving a chubby tabby cat.

   I always seem to get caught/noticed when I’m testing multiple products at the same time, which I do a lot, I’ll be sitting at my desk with, say, cat eyes and a bright cheek on one side of my face and smokey eyes and bronzer on the other.

   If I had a nickel for every time the postman saw me looking completely insane (I’d have a LOT of nickels)…

5. Rainbow suspenders?
   Um, no. Not unless I’m starring in Office Space, and they’re holding my 25 pieces of flair.
6. What was the highlight of your weekend?
   Sunday, from start to finish. Sunday was an A+ day. I slept in, made breakfast (pancakes, and eggs over easy), and then El Hub and I went for a long hike around the Indian Valley Open Space Preserve here in Novato.

   It was so sunny and warm and just felt great to be outside.

7. If you had to make a major life change, would you prefer to ease your way into it and take baby steps, or dive in all at once?
   All at once. I’d rather just get it over with.
8. Where were you in 1999?
   I was in my early 20s, living in San Francisco and working as a legal assistant at a law firm.

   Not one of my favorite years… I felt like I was in constant upheaval, starting with the move to the city, living with roommates I didn’t know before moving in with them, working at a job I didn’t particularly like. Bluh.

9. What’s something you’re grateful for today?
   Sunshine! It makes everything better.
10. Write yourself an nice note.
    Karen, “Remember, one thing at a time. Don’t give up. You can do it.”

To complete the Monday Poll, just copy the following list, and paste it with your answers in the comments.

Le List

1. What’s a makeup brand you’ve been into lately?
2. Dresses, skirts or pants?
3. Do you like pastel nails?
4. Describe one of your typical makeup looks for work?
5. Rainbow suspenders?
6. Highlight of your weekend?
7. Do you prefer taking baby steps or diving in all at once?
8. Where were you in 1999?
9. Something you’re grateful for today?
10. Write yourself a nice note.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

The new Make Up For Ever Technicolor Palette ($45), available now exclusively at Sephora

Seriously, dude, I go to Petco so often that when I see the Friskies delivery guy there restocking the gravy display, he gives me the “What’s up?” nod in the cat food aisle.

Like we’re buds. Because we see each other so often.

In my town, one of the upsides of frequenting the local Petco on behalf of my famously demanding feline employer is that there’s a Sephora right next door.

I know! It’s makeup/cat lady heaven…

So whenever Tabs sends me on a gravy run, I try to swing by Sephora (but please don’t tell Tabs, because I don’t want to hear his speech about personal errands on company time, blah, blah, blah…).

Yesterday Miss Thang (Tabs) was running low on Science Diet, Gravy and Greenies, so after restocking at Petco, I wandered next door to the Sephora to quickly look around, and check if the new Hourglass Ambients had arrived yet (nope!).

It was weird… Most of the time when I visit Sephora, I usually see a few guys either trailing their girlfriends/wives or waiting up near the front of the store with their noses buried in their phones, but yesterday, they were everywhere! — wandering the aisles like lost cattle, most of them with blank looks on their faces.

That’s when I realized: Valentine’s Day. I think there was some present shopping going on there…

Most of the dudes, bless their hearts, looked completely clueless, too. I thought, “Let me help you!” LOL! But I was under a tight schedule and had to get back to the office to give Tabs his daily full-body shiatsu massage.

If I had been able to offer assistance, I would have steered the dudes toward the new $45 Technicolor palette from Make Up For Ever first, with its eight powder shadows, four of them brights and four of them neutrals.

My inner film buff likes the inspiration behind it — the era in cinema when movies were transitioning from black and white to color, circa the 1930s — while my practical side loves that MUFE included classic black, brown, beige and white shades to go with the electric yellow, green, blue and purple.

So flexible! Plus, it comes with a step-by-step tutorial and two eye brushes.

(more…)

Wearing the new $19.99 Sonia Kashuk Formal Affair Palette on my eyes and cheeks

Wait — are you kidding me?! You two haven’t met yet? Well, we need to fix that immediately.

Babe, this is Sonia Kashuk’s new Formal Affair Palette; Formal Affair, this is one of my beauty besties.

I think you two will hit it off. Formal Affair here is quite a bargain at $19.99. She may spend her days in drugstores, but at heart, she’s 100% department store-caliber makeup.

It’s as if Sonia said, “I’m going to make the perfect powder palette, and it’s going to contain two blushes, one bronzer and four eyeshadows for girls who want to look like they’re wearing NARS, Bobbi Brown and Urban Decay but don’t want to spend that much.”

Is that the NARS Orgasm/Laguna duo??

Don’t the golden brown powder bronzer and shimmery, golden peachy pink blush on Formal Affair’s far right look inspired by the NARS Orgasm/Laguna duo? Except that Sonia’s bronzer is sheerer than NARS Laguna, with slightlier grittier grains of golden glitter, and the golden pearl within the blush looks less pronounced to me than NARS Orgasm (maybe they’re just kissing cousins).

Look who’s getting Naked2

Okay, although I feel kinda lame getting excited about a brown eyeshadow (with so many great flashy colors out there and all!), Formal Affair’s brown is just so chocolaty…so shimmery…and so Mmmm! — buttery smooth.

It reminds me of Snakebite from the Urban Decay Naked2 palette.

It’s just so blendable, and I love how easy it is to wear sheer or build up in layers.

Sparkle like Bobbi Brown’ Sparkle Eyeshadows

The tan and black glittery shadows in Formal Affair would fit right in with Bobbi Brown’s Sparkle Eyeshadows. Like those shadows from Bobbi, they’re loaded with gobs of medium-sized glitter, but Sonia takes things a step further by using an intensely pigmented base. Patting either shade on the brown shade from Formal Affair is a quick way to dress up a look. I do have to be mindful, though, of the fallout, which is slight, but still. At least it’s easy enough to clean up, especially if I do my eyes first.

Sonia Kashuk Formal Affair Swatches from the left: pink blush, bronzer, peachy pink blush, shimmery white eyeshadow, glittery tan eyeshadow, shimmery brown eyeshadow and glittery black eyeshadow