Archive for the 'Product Reviews' Category

When I’m feeling great, I think of myself as a strong and tough girl, but my inner warrior’s been MIA for weeks. I’ve felt kinda beaten down. This morning I wanted — correction — I needed a pick-me-up, and I turned to Clinique Party Red. Every time I looked at myself in the mirror today, this red lip reminded me of the fighter I know I can be.

To get the look, a classic red lip and neutral eye, I used a few items from the Clinique Party Red holiday makeup collection (available soon).

Butter Shine Lipstick in Parisian Red, $14 (limited edition)

A warm and creamy brick red, Parisian Red belongs to Clinique’s line of Butter Shine Lipsticks. Its soft, buttery texture feels moisturizing, and it’s easy to apply (even straight from the tube).

With a glossy finish, this shade of red has visible pizazz but isn’t “too sexy” for work (although it might be too sexy for church, LOL!). Makeup and Beauty Blot Rating: A

Quick Eyes Cream Shadow in Sparkling Nude and Lucky Penny, $14.50 each

From top to bottom: Sparkling Nude, Lucky Penny

Sparkling Nude

Lucky Penny

For my look today I wore Lucky Penny (a shimmery light tan) on the lid and Sparkling Nude (a shimmery beige) on the brow bone.

Both shades applied without a hitch, blended easily and lasting all day long without noticeable creasing or fading. If you haven’t tried any of the Quick Eyes Cream Shadows, try to find one of these neutral shades, stat, because not only are they cute and long lasting, but they even work well as a base for powder eyeshadows. Makeup and Beauty Blot Rating: A+
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Stare deeply into the ginormous gem on the top of MAC’s Fascinating Ruby: 3 Plum Lips ($22.50) palette… IF YOU DARE!

Concentrate hard enough, and the gem will imbue you with mystical makeup powers and reveal the deepest secrets of the universe.

Okay, not really… This gem doesn’t do anything cool like that, but it does contain some pretty cool makeup.

From left to right: Mutual Attraction, Insinuate, Marvel

MAC likes to push the envelope with the packaging of their holiday stuff, and they’re at it again.

Part of the MAC Passions of Red holiday 2008 collection, Fascinating Ruby doesn’t work for me the way that the elegant and edgy packaging of last year’s Royal Assets holiday collection did. Matter of fact, I think it’s a little corny, but who cares, right? I’m here for the makeup more than anything else.

And speaking of that, I like each one of Fascinating Ruby’s three plum lip shades. The set comes with two lipsticks, a gloss and a teeny, tiny lip brush.

I ended up ditching the brush because using it to apply product was like trying to paint with a needle, so I opted for my trusty MAC 316 covered lip brush instead.

• Mutual Attraction gloss: A shimmery, reddish plum gloss. The silver glitter turns up the drama factor, but I think I’d like it more if the glitter were gold.
• Insinuate lipstick: I love this cool pink-plum with subtle golden pearl and can’t wait to wear it with purple smokey eyes!
• Marvel lipstick: A shimmery, deep magenta plum. My lip color really brings out the red in this lipstick. I bet it’ll be a nice option for when I want to wear red with a conservative look.

From left to right: Mutual Attraction, Insinuate, Marvel
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The 3 Rose Lips set ($35.50) from the MAC Adoring Carmine holiday collection makes my pink lipstick-obsessed heart flutter.

Yeah, you might think the red patent bag looks a bit cheesy — it’s more dominatrix than happy holidays — but if you can overlook that, then this lip set is totes worth your attention.

What You Get: Pink-a-licious Goodness

• To Swoon For: A creamy mauve pink lipstick in the MAC Glaze finish — thin and light on the lips and delivers light to medium coverage. Expect a natural pink lip flush.
• Romancin’: A creamy magenta lipstick in the MAC Lustre finish. With medium coverage and a slightly thicker feel on the lips than the Glaze finish, Romancin’ reminds me of a perfect pink rose petal.
• Delicate Crush Lipglass: A shimmery cool mauve pink. Delicate Crush was my least favorite of the three products in the set. By itself it looks milky and kinda sickly on my pucker; I think pairing it with a pink liner like MAC Pink Treat Cremestick Liner would make it much more wearable.

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For the holidays last year, MAC must have had Tootsie Rolls and time capsules in mind for the packaging of their Curiositease collection — six sets of mini lipglosses, eye pencils and pigments housed in elegant white cylinders with gold and silver accents.

This year, MAC revisits the giant Tootsie Roll with Little Darlings ($29.50 per set), scheduled to arrive November 16 as part of MAC Holiday 2008.

This capsule is hard to miss. Ya’ll know I love red, but the packaging feels a little cold to me. It’s modern — I’ll give it that.

Today I checked out two of the sets from the new collection: 5 Neutral Lipglass/Lustreglass (strange name for a set) and 5 Warm Pigments/Glitter.

5 Neutral Lipglass/Lustreglass

5 Neutral Lipglass/Lustreglass includes mini-tubes of the following products:

• Beau Lustreglass: a shimmery, warm beige-brown
• C-Thru Lipglass: a shimmery peachy beige
• Languish Lipglass: a deep bronze with golden pearl
• Love Nectar Lustreglass: a light peachy-pink with golden pearl
• Mouthwatering Lipglasss: a shimmery light pink-beige

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The Paul and Joe for Disney collection, released earlier this year overseas, debuts at Bergdorf Goodman in New York next month.

All I have to say about this is WOOTY WOOT WOOT!

I’m a huge Disney fan so this collaboration is a dream come true. I can’t wait to see it in person! Because I’m in San Francisco (WEST SIDE!) and Bergdorf Goodman is located in New York, I plan on calling the store to purchase my items over the phone with a credit card. The folks at Bergdorf’s will then ship the items out to me. If you’re interested in doing the same, the number is (800) 558-1855.

The entire collection includes…

• Face Color B: Bambi and Flower from Bambi ($36 each)

  These sheer pearl highlighting powders give cheeks a touch of color and shimmer. There are two shades designed to complement all skin tones, Classical Pink (Flower) and Fantasy Orange (Bambi). Each also comes with a cutie pie powder puff, too. How precious!

• Milky Lip Treatment: Marie the Cat from Aristocats ($18)

  Get a subtle pink pout with Milky Lip Treatment, which keeps lips moisturized with sunflower and jojoba oil and has a light pink tint.

• Protective Hand Cream: Lady from Lady and the Tramp ($24)

  Keep hands soft all day long with this orange flower-scented hand cream. It’s infused with peach essence, jojoba oil and hyaluronic acid to protect and moisturize your paws.

Which Paul & Joe for Disney product do you like best?

• Face Color B in Classical Pink (Flower)
• Face Color B in Fantasy Orange (Bambi)
• Milky Lip Treatment (Marie the Cat)
• Protective Hand Cream (Lady)

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Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

*They* say that diamonds are a girl’s best friend.

I don’t know about that… *They* obviously haven’t seen the Estee Lauder Vintage Jewels collection yet because it’s breaking a lot of those diamond friendships.

The collection’s adventurous eye, lip, face and nail shades remind me of jewel-filled pirate treasure chests bulging with amethysts, emeralds and sapphires. Aye, matey! I’ll walk ye plank for these colors!

Try three bejeweled looks in amethyst, sapphire and emerald.

Eyes

Signature Eyeshadow Duos, $25

• Amethyst: shimmery violet and shimmery violet-pink (limited edition)
• Sapphire: shimmery navy blue and shimmery cool-toned grayish blue (limited edition)
• Emerald: shimmery green and shimmery beige (limited edition)

Smoked Eye Pencil, $18.50

• Smoked Amethyst: violet with pearl (limited edition)
• Sapphire: navy blue with pearl (limited edition)
• Emerald: forest green with pearl (limited edition)

Sumptuous Mascara, $19.50

• Black: true black

Lips

Signature Hydra Lustre Lipstick with Faceted Design, $19.50

• Black Cherry: deep cool wine with golden pearl (limited edition)
• Ruby: creamy red with a touch of fuchsia (limited edition)
• Rich Red: creamy medium blue-red

Face

Shimmering Jewel Powder, $32

• Gold highlighting powder for face and body (limited edition)

Nails

Pure Color Nail Lacquer, $18

• Black Berry: creamy deep cool wine (limited edition)
• Ruby: creamy red (limited edition)
• Red Tango: creamy warm red (limited edition)

Blue cast a charm spell on me this fall. I trace it back to my run in with the Cargo Color Palette in Vienna.

I couldn’t wait to try the Sapphire eye products in Vintage Jewels and tested some of them this week, along with a smattering of colorful face and lip items from the collection.

Shimmering Jewel Powder

Shimmering Jewel Powder comes housed in a sleek gold compact with a faceted pattern pressed into the pan — so pretty! It’s a cool-toned highlighter with lots of shimmer, not at all like last holiday’s Platinum Illuminator Loose Shimmer Powder, which was a very warm, peachy gold.

A dusting of Shimmering Jewel Powder delivers plenty of small-to-medium flecks of glittering gold shimmer. It functions best as a highlighter because it’s basically pure shimmer, so I prefer to pair it with other blushes rather than using it by itself. Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: B+

Signature Eyeshadow Duo in Sapphire

I’m so blue… No, not like that (at least not today, LOL!). I mean to say that I’m so into blue eyeshadow right now.

The two shades in this duo don’t exactly fit the swashbuckling, adventurous analogy because of how well they suit novices and the faint of heart. They apply with sheer-to-medium color payoff and are easy to blend, too. That spells easy, which is something I like.

Some girls might find them a little too sheer, but I like how easy they are to control. With these, the sheerness means being able to carefully manage how much color gets applied, from one or two layers for just a hint of color to three to five layers for a more intense look. And if I want something lusciously rich and dramatic, I’ll reach for a wet brush.

They do need a lil’ help as the day wears on, though, fading a touch faster than my MAC or Lancome shadows. If I’m going to dinner after work, the duo comes along for quick touchups. Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: B+

Smoked Eye Pencil in Smoked Sapphire

Um, wow! Pardon my French, but this blue liner is the sh*t! It’s rich and deep like Lake Tahoe and glides along my skin without any tugging or skipping at all.

Estee Laduer should’ve called this a long-wearing eye pencil, too, because DANG, this stuff stays on forever. Once it’s on it hangs around longer than your stalker ex-boyfriend, on *both* the lash and water lines. I think I might love this even more than Lancome Le Stylo waterproof (gasp!), which I’ve been wearing practically non-stop for months, and I’m even tempted to get the two other shades. Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: A+

Sumptuous Bold Volume Lifting Mascara in Black

I think Sumptuous Bold Volume Lifting Mascara (say that five times fast) plumps lashes fairly well. As for thickening, my results with it haven’t been as pronounced as they are when I use Chanel Exceptionnel, but still… I’d say it makes lashes about 25% thicker.

The formula is a little clumpy, but I’ve found that if I take extra care during application and use the skinny tip of the brush, I can keep the clumps to a minimum.

It doesn’t smudge or flake, but where Sumptuous Bold mascara really excels is in curl hold and staying power. While wearing two coats, my lashes kept the curl all day long.

Wistfully, I wish it lengthened better, but if you’re looking for a basic daytime mascara with pretty good thickening power that holds the curl, you could do a lot worse. Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: B+
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Have you seen that commercial for L’Oreal’s new Bare Naturale Mascara ($9) in which Penelope Cruz looks into the camera, bats her eyelashes and then BAM! — they morph into super lashes, all thick, lush and magnificent?

I want those lashes, but after years of mascara disappointment, I have a question for the cosmetics companies of the world: is it too much to ask for a single mascara able to thicken, lengthen AND separate?

Bare Naturale’s tortoise shell tube is a nice departure from all the solid color tubes on the market, and the application brush feels soft against my fingertips.

So, does this mascara bring it?

I applied three coats of Brown-Black and peered into the mirror hoping for some P. Cruz eyelash magic…

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