Hiya, ladies. I had fun with this week’s Benefit 4-Step Eye Look, so I decided to try another one — this time using products from the UK’s rising makeup star, Illamasqua.

More on the Illamasqua brand…

• Illamasqua Lip Look: Thinking Outside the Box
• Illamasqua: Makeup for Your Alter Ego
• Let Illamasqua Sirens Seduce You with Color
• Illamasqua, I Think I’ve Met My Matte

It’s a shimmery and smokey black, gray and bronze eye, and it makes heavy use of Liquid Metal in Enrapture (a shimmery bronze cream) and Powder Eye Shadow in Lestat (a matte black).

Blend till you can’t blend no more!

Like the Benefit look from a few days ago, this look involves just four steps, but it can still take a while to complete, thanks to the amount of blending required. Seamlessly transitioning the black matte into the bronze cream shadow isn’t something I’d try if I only had a couple minutes to get ready, so if you’re gonna give this one a try, consider budgeting a few extra minutes to blend.

I had to restart this look twice, wiping everything off each time, and had to remind myself not to get frustrated. If you end up with black eyeshadow all over your face, no worries! Wipe it off and start over again. That’s the beauty of makeup, right? You can always start with a clean slate.

Illamasqua 4-Step Eye Makeup Look

1. I start the look with Liquid Metal in Enrapture applied over my entire eyelid and along the lower lash line with a MAC 239 Eye Shader Brush. I take care to concentrate most of the color on the lid, gradually decreasing the saturation of color as it moves toward the brow bone.
2. Next, I use a MAC 217 Blending Brush to apply a light layer of Lestat into the crease, diffusing the edges and blending into the the bronze shadow.
3. For a smokey effect, I pat several layers of Lestat onto the outer half of the eye, concentrating most of the color in the outer corner (the side closest to my ear), and blend away any harsh lines with my trusty MAC 217 brush.
4. To finish the eye portion of the look, I load a MAC 219 Pencil Brush with Lestat, smudge it along the outer half of my lower lash line, and use my MAC 217 to gently diffuse the edge.

Illamasqua Sirens for Lips and Cheeks

For the rest of my makeup, I went with a hot pink and gold lip with shimmery golden peach cheeks. Illamasqua’s new Sirens collection helped.

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I love crazy, complicated eye looks as much as the next makeup junkie, but some mornings I just can’t get it together — I’m either running late or just plain lazy as all hell.

I’ve been wanting to do something with my eye makeup for a few days but haven’t wanted to do anything *too* complicated, so I limited myself to four steps.

Why four steps? I guess it’s my happy medium. Five steps feel like too many; three not enough.

Oh — I’m not counting curling my lashes or applying mascara as individual steps… I probably should, but I don’t like the sound of six steps as much as four.

Benefit four-step eye look

The look is a shimmery neutral eye with a bit of gray, and I think it’s a great look for beginners.

Here’s how I get the look…

1. To start, I apply Benefit Creaseless Cream Shadow in Samba-dy Loves Me (a shimmery peachy gold) on the lids and just up into the crease with my fingers, smoothing away any harsh lines.
2. Next, using a Sonia Kashuk Large Eyeshadow Brush, I sweep Benefit Velvet Eyeshadow in Leggy (a shimmery peachy pink) over the entire eye.
3. With the same brush, I pat Benefit Velvet Eyeshadow in Where There’s Smoke (a shimmery blackish gray) onto the lid and into the crease.
4. To finish, I line my upper and lower lash lines with Benefit Bad Gal Waterproof Liner (a true black) and smudge out both with a MAC 219 Pencil Brush and Where There’s Smoke Eyeshadow.

Cheeks and lips

You could pretty easily dress up this look with bold pink or red lips, but since I’m not really going anywhere special today, I shot for light and breezy with Benefit Posie Tint (a semi-matte peachy pink) on my cheeks and Benefit Full Finish Lipstick in Thrillin’ Brazilian (a shimmery golden peach) on my lips.

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Happy Thursday, ladies! How’s your day coming along? This morning I wanted to play with the Chanel Les Naturels de Chanel Eyeshadows and Smashbox Limitless Long Wear Lip Gloss in Nonstop (hot pink in the hizz!), so I grabbed both and put them to use in this face of the day.

That’s Lotus, Lily, Mahogany and Slate on my eyes, layered beneath Benefit Creaseless Cream Shadow in Birthday Suit.

To balance out the blinged-out lips, I went with a neutral cheek and applied Chanel Joues Contraste Blush in Orchid Rose ($42, also from the Les Naturels de Chanel collection), a pinkish brown blush with a touch of shimmer, onto the apples of both cheeks.

And for added glow, I swept Clarins Instant Sun Light Summer Glow Palette on the upper cheek bones.

It’s easy to turn a look like this into something more wearable for work by switching the hot pink lip for a beige, brown or light pink one.

Swapping Nonstop for Chanel Rouge Allure Lipstick in Curious (a creamy toasted almond) and Chanel Glossimer in Unity (a shimmery pinkish brown) takes the look from “I’m ready for a mojito” to “I’m ready to fill out those TPS reports.”

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

What goes well with barbeques, beaches and hot summer nights?

One word: Stila.

Here’s a look I tried with some of the products from the new Stila Indian Summer Collection.

I was just fooling around at the time, half watching an old ’80s movie called Vision Quest on TV (who knew high school wrestling could be so interesting?).

It’s a bronze, purple and teal eye with tan cheeks and a golden orange lip that I can see myself wearing with a flirty summer dress.

This thing has pool party written all over it.

Eyes

I know the eye map above makes it seem complicated, but I swear it’s not.

1. For the look, I started by applying Stila 24K Golden Noir Smudge Pot onto my lids with a MAC 239 Eye Brush and then used a finger to blend out the edges and draw the color into the lid.
2. Next, I grabbed a MAC 217 Blending Brush and swept the shimmery rose shade from the Stila Charmed Palette into the crease.
3. With the same brush, I patted the shimmery bronze shade from the Stila Charmed Palette onto the inner half of my eye.
4. Then for depth, I used the MAC 239 to apply the shimmery purple shade to the outer half of the lid.
5. Since I had a lot of shimmer action on my lids and in the crease, I used a finger to highlight my brow bone with the golden side of Stila’s Marigold Convertible Color. It’s a step that I think adds a subtle glow and nicely contrasts with the shimmery shadows.
6. Because I wanted to color and define the lower lash line, I patted the teal shade from the Stila Charmed Palette along my lower lashes with a Sonia Kashuk Angled Eye Shadow Brush…
7. …and then layered a thin line of Stila Golden Noir directly on top of it using a MAC 209 Eye Liner Brush.

To wrap up the eye portion of the look, I covered up my dark circles, filled in my brows, curled my lashes and added two coats of Stila Lash Visor Mascara.

Cheeks and Lips

Since the eyes were so shimmery, I toned down the skin beneath them, applying and blending the brown side of the Stila Marigold Convertible Color onto the apples of each cheek.

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After seeing swatches of MAC’s upcoming A Rose Romance collection, a few of you gals asked to see a face of the day using Just A Pinch Gel Blush.

Of the A Rose Romance products I’ve tested so far, this one’s my favorite. Just A Pinch applies with full pigmentation, blends easily and doesn’t streak at all.

The sheer, reddish rose shade looks similar to Benefit’s Benetint liquid blush, and the thin, moist gel formula feels similar in consistency to Tarte’s Cheek Stains, making it the hybrid love child of two of my favorite blush products.

MAC, if you’re listening, I love this stuff! Please release it in more shades.

Today, I complemented the blush look with a few other A Rose Romance items. On my eyelids I added Circa Plum Pigment, and I applied Of Summer Eyeshadow on the brow bone. Then, to warm up the purple colors, I added two eyeshadow shades from MAC’s permanent collection into the crease — Soft Brown and Sable.

I think the eyes look soft, so I tried a slightly bolder lip, layering Tender Tryst See Thru Lip Color beneath a mix of Steal My Heart and Virgin Kiss Lipglasses (all from A Rose Romance).

What do you think?

I ain’t afraid of no ghost!

With my coffee this morning I looked through the pics I took last night on the SF Ghost Hunt tour… The tour started at the historic Queen Anne Hotel, the site of a former girl’s school around the turn of the last century. Legend has it that the friendly ghost of a woman named Mary Lake, the head mistress of the old school, still haunts the joint.

While ghost busting on the second and fourth floors, I snapped a ton of pictures with my trusty Canon Powershot. In some of the pics, odd glowing spots can be seen…

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