Wearing the new Giorgio Armani Summer 2013 Eye & Face Palette on my cheeks and eyes

Rest assured that when you wear Giorgio Armani’s Summer 2013 Face & Eye Palette, you will not look like…

• You just won the 2013 Jell-O Wrestling World Championships
• You just crushed a can of PBR against your forehead
• You opened your eyes this morning and let out a 30-second-long barbecue potato chip-tinged burp that someone heard on the other side of town

Rather, when you brush the shimmery golden bronze highlighter on your cheeks and any combination of its three accompanying powder shadows on your lids, you’ll look more like you spent the day channeling Jackie O. on the Greek coast with a pair of Stephen Bonanno Palm Beach sandals, oversized glasses (of course) and a Lily Pulitzer shift dress.

Even if you have absolutely no idea what you’re doing with this two-tiered eye and face compact, you almost can’t go wrong because the long-lasting powders hug skin like skinny jeans hug hips.

They’re just plain easy to wear.

The golden peachy bronze highlighter in the top pan and the beige, brown and peach eye shadows in the bottom pan are like good pieces of jewelry that go with everything. You could dress ‘em up with RiRi Woo red lips and a body-con bandage dress, or dress ‘em down with your favorite Clarins gloss and a sundress.

The sky’s the limit.

And even if you totally botch that brown smokey eye you were going for (been there, done that about 1,622 times), don’t fret. You can buff it out with a few swipes of your MAC 217 (or something similar), as the soft powders are totally unlike magnets or the Borg (read: they offer very little resistance).

Seriously, even if you can’t blend for sh*t (don’t worry!), you could do a look with these that would make even the most seasoned makeup nerds recognize.

Swatches from the left: the beige, peach and brown eye shadows; and the peachy bronze highlighter

Wearing Giorgio Armani Flash Lacquer in Rouge 400 ($29), one of 36 shades in the new Flash Lacquer line available now

If I’d realized back then as an undergrad slogging through chemistry classes that science could also be used for things like building a better lip gloss…I probably would’ve paid closer attention in class and said things like, “Cyclohexane chair and boat shapes? I’M ON THAT SH*T!”

Thank you, science, for taking us to the moon, creating super-sized movie popcorn kernels and for providing us with better living through advanced lip gloss chemistry, like the chemistry behind Giorgio Armani Beauty’s new line of Beauty Flash Lacquers ($29 each and available in 36 shades).

Flash Lacquer in Pink 526 on the left and Rouge 400 on the right

The brand new line of lip glosses flaunts scientific-sounding bells and whistles and a stratospherically shiny, smooth formula with characteristics like…

• An elastic shine formula that fills in lip lines for an extremely smooth surface
• A polymer weave that continuously reshapes itself while on your lips
• A low viscosity to keep the gloss surface perfectly smooth

All of this in the pursuit of one lofty goal: to fashion the highest reflection ever achieved in a lip gloss!

Groovy…

Well, it’s shiny — that’s for sure. And dramatic like a microphone drop.

Earlier today I was standing in front of a window, and I could see the color on my lips in the reflection as clearly as if I was standing in front of a mirror.

Boom.

And the formula remains super shiner as long as I don’t go rubbing or pressing my lips together. When I do, the shine quickly dulls down to a slight sheen.

I’ve been testing two of the shades this week, shimmery Pink 526 and creamy red Rouge 400.

Swatches in Rouge 400 (left) and Pink 526 (right)

Tom Ford Pink Lust Beauty Lip Lacquer, $30

Who might like Tom Ford Beauty’s Lip Lacquer in Pink Lust? Hmm…

• Someone willing to drop the scrilla on three pairs of Choos, and would do it without batting an eye.
• Someone who drives the Bentley to Rite Aid to get a Mother’s Day Card because the chauffeur has the day off.
• Someone with an in-house beauty team at her beck and call (NOTE: Mariah Carey has one, which does not surprise me, and it furthers my theory that MiMi is a kooky, yet misunderstood, genius).

In other words, unless your upper makeup spending limit hits three or four digits on the reg, most guys/gals will probably find Tom’s $30 pearly pink gloss, as gorgeous as I think it is (especially with a tan), really, really expensive for what you get.

Why?

Because it’s $30 (!), pretty sheer and only lasts about 30 minutes. Tops.

Like a MAC Cremesheen Glass’s ritzy cousin, it has a similarly thin, smoove formula and texture, similar vanilla flavor and scent and a super shiny finish.

(more…)

Surf’s up, brah! Channeling an endless summer with the new Bobbi Brown Nude Beach Face & Body Bronzing Duo, $42

Bobbi Brown’s Nude Beach Face & Body Bronzing Duo ($42), a new super-sized bronzing powder duo, does NOT mess around.

I’m pretty tan to begin with, courtesy of the Pacific Islander gene pool, but when I wear this bronzer — daaaayum! — I look hella bronzed, brah, like “Hook me up with the kama’aina discount because I’m local!”

It’s gotta be the lack of orange undertones…

Nude Beach just doesn’t have ‘em. There’s a reddish, pinkish brown with a matte finish on one side and a brick reddish-like brown with a subtle sheen on the other. Both colors contain a lot of red and could pass for a natural tan. With these, whether worn separately or together, you’ll look like you’ve been surfing every day for six months!

For a faux endless summer tan that lasts all day long, on the parts of my face where the sun naturally falls — my forehead, around the edges of my face, across the tops of my cheekbones — I lightly dust a 50/50 blend of Nude Beach’s two bronzers using Sonia Kashuk’s Brush Couture Powder Brush (a great drugstore dupe for Bobbi’s $50 Bronzing Brush).

Pretty big, yeah?

The new Tom Ford Beauty Escapade Cream Color for Eyes, $40

Holy crap, Tom Ford! Wherever you’ve been spending your summers, to borrow a line from Liz Lemon, “I want to go to there.”

I can see you lounging by an infinity pool in the late afternoon, watching leggy ladies in Burberry bikinis test the water as beams of peachy, pinkish gold glisten on bronzed skin…

You take a sip from your daiquiri (complete with pink umbrella, of course) and make a mental note of every detail, which you promptly add to your summer collection. “Luxe, luminous, sunlit and sensuous,” you muse. “The ladies will love it.”

High five, Tom! Bulls eye.

Like two weeks on Kauai spent alternately napping and swimming, the new nine-piece Tom Ford Beauty summer 2013 collection is the stuff of my dreams, and maybe also yours, if you like traditional summer makeup looks.

Picture peach, pink, gold and bronze dancing across your skin; opalescent, soft shimmers; and radiant, dewy finishes that contrast wonderfully with sun-dappled bronzed mattes.

Hello, lovah!

Good grief! — I just had to fan myself for a second, Blanche Devereaux-style…

The new $40 Tom Ford Beauty Escapade Cream Color for Eyes is expensive, but oh, so flattering. And it isn’t fussy at all. The peachy, pinkish golden tones feel very of-the-moment to me, like rose gold jewelry (which I’m currently obsessed with), but for your face. I think the entire launch is gorgeous, especially on a tan.

(more…)