Collections

The New NARS Exposed Collection: Swatches, Quick Look

February 12th, 2019 by Karen 18 Comments

Exposed! — a new collection from NARS — is NOT (I hope) named after flashers, because I was flashed several times when I lived in San Francisco, and let me tell ya…it ain’t pretty, folks.

This collection, on the other hand, is gorge. 😍 There’s a new $59 six-pan blush palette (a.k.a. the Explicit Cheek Palette) with an allegedly new NARS formula and three mini lip kits (called the Explicit Lip Duos), with a matte pencil and a shiny gloss and $22 each, all coming to the Ulta website, and very likely other places on/after, February 17.

nars exposed collection swatches — Swatches of the Cheek Palette and the Lip Duos

nars exposed cheek palette — Exposed Cheek Palette

nars exposed collection 2 — Clockwise from the lower left: Explicit Color Lip Duo in Intimate, Explicit Color Lip Duo in Sex Machine, Exposed Cheek Palette and Explicit Color Lip Duo in Dragon Girl

In other news…

Chapter 27 in the never-ending saga that is my teeth…

Yay! I have to go to the dentist again! 😬

My bite has been funky since my last filling, and it hurts when I chomp down on my right side, which is not at all amusing when you’re mildly addicted to 🥕 eating carrots (especially baby carrots).

Speaking of carrots, what’s up, doc? 🐰 How are you doing today?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

NEWNESS: The MAC In Monochrome Color Collections (Velvet Teddy, Ruby Woo and See Sheer)

January 24th, 2019 by Karen 18 Comments

Do yourself a solid, you sensational señorita, and tap a little MAC Velvet Teddy lipstick on the apples of your cheeks as an impromptu cream blush.

Don’t mind me; I’ll wait [waiting]…

It’s one those tried-and-true multitasking tricks many MAC addicts (myself included) like doing.

Also up there? Using lippies like Heroine and Ruby Woo as eyeshadows or even eyeliner!

Which brings me to this: The new MAC in Monochrome collection, which is available now. It takes what MAC fiends have already been doing for ages — re-purposing products — and makes it…official.

Going beyond lipstick

Six cult-classic MAC Lipsticks (Velvet Teddy, See Sheer, Ruby Woo, Heroine, Diva and Candy Yum Yum) get the props they so richly deserve in the form of their own sets of matching lipgloss, eyeshadow, blush and glitter inspired by their respective color. (Side note: Why’d MAC stop there? They should have gone all out with perfume and liner. After all, Velvet Teddy, Ruby Woo and Candy Yum Yum have already been released as fragrances. HMMM!)

mac in monochrome velvet teddy — Velvet Teddy

Playing with finish and texture

Like cat eyes and red lips, monochromatic makeup is a classic theme that transcends trends. I remember having a convo with a makeup artist once who said that monochromatic looks (where you wear matching eyeshadow, blush and lipstick) are one of the easiest ways to do elegant makeup, and I agree 100%. I don’t do it nearly enough, though.

That will be easy to rectify with the help of these sub-collections.

Subtle variations in the colors, along with different textures and finishes, keeps each of these sets from hitting a monotone note. Like, if I’m going to wear a matte beige lipstick like Velvet Teddy, I need to have at least a little shimmer on my eyes to contrast with my lips, and that’s the case with this collection. Each of the items riffs on its namesake lipstick color without being identical.

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Fresh Friday: Blending Feels Good With the Super Soft Bristles in This New Cruelty-Free Vegan Makeup Brush Line

January 18th, 2019 by Karen 7 Comments

MBB’s “Fresh Friday” series takes a look at new beauty brands (and venerable O.G. brands that are new to me). Let’s discover new makeup!

One of the issue I’ve had with some synthetic makeup brushes is how stiff their bristles are, but that is not a prob for the brushes I’ve tried from aDesign, a new makeup brush line exclusive to Amazon. The angled buffing brush, for one, is so soft that it feels like you’re getting kitten kisses. Sometimes I’ll sit at my desk just rubbing it all over my face. If soft is what you want, soft is what you’ll get with these cruelty-free vegan brushes.

The line is the beauty brainchild of Anisa Telwar Kaicker of Anisa International (Forbes recently gave them a shout-out as one of the best small companies of 2018). Incidentally, Anisa makes brushes for some of the biggest beauty brands out there (Estée Lauder, NARS, Sephora, MAC, Hourglas, La mer and Laura Mercier, to name a few), so I guess it’s safe to say they know brushes.

The new aDesign line has 30 brushes, which are sold in sets of two brushes each. The sets range from $14 on the lower end (for a pair of eye brushes, which breaks down to $7 a brush = not bad!) to $34 on the higher end (for two face brushes). The brushes are lightweight with medium-length handles, and they feel a lot like It Cosmetics brushes in my hand.

How do you choose which set to get? Well, they’re categorized by function. For example, the Eye Power Duo ($14) is all about smoky eyes and comes with two eye brushes for applying and blending cream or powder shadows for smoky looks.

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The #BECCABFFS Collection

January 10th, 2019 by Karen 10 Comments

beccabffs product shot — 💖 a bronze glow? Here’s your new #BECCABFFs.

Whenever I see a Kardashian-related makeup product (which is, like, every five seconds, amiright?), I remember that krazy dream I had a few months ago where Kim and I got into a kat fight about jewelry. HA HA HA! Yes, it was nuts. I think of that dream every time I wear the #BECCABFFs collection.

The #BECCABFFs collection is new, LE and available now with two powder palettes, a loose highlighter and four lipsticks. It’s a collab between Khloe Kardashian and her bestie Malika Haqq, and even though I have feeeeeeeelings about the Kardashians…I guess if there were any of them I could remotely relate to, it would probably be Khloe, because she does have that biting sense of humor. And I know this because I marathoned the first two seasons of KUWTK while Connor was a newborn and I was up at all hours feeding her.

beccabffs k — Wearing the Made With Love by Khloe Palette on my cheeks and eyes, and Cupid’s Bow Lipstick on my lips.

BECCA’s vibe is generally beach-babe-meets-Victoria’s-Secret-runway-model, and they’re consistent about it. They shamelessly embrace warm, bronzed, highlighted skin and glowing lids and lips, and I like that type of makeup, so it doesn’t get tedious for me, but I can see how they could seem like a one-trick pony if it’s not your thing.

At first blush, #BECCABFF’s colors might seem very similar to the colors from previous collections like BECCA X Chrissy (THE BEST), but they really are different. The four warm shades in the Made With Love By Malika Palette ($44), for instance, are deeper and darker versions of BECCA’s usual classic bronze look, and the Made With Love By Khloe Palette (also $44), while still warm, has a surprisingly neutral matte bronzer in it that’s unusual for a BECCA launch.

So, yeah, the differences are subtle, but they’re there.

The packaging’s a little clunky…but the powders themselves perform like Olympic gymnasts. They’re typical BECCA multitaskers, too, so you can wear them on your cheeks, eyes or, heck, all over your face if you want to!

See the marbling? Kinda looks like the Hourglass Ambient blushes and bronzers, right? You get that same lighter-than-air quality with these powders, where you can’t even see the grains on your skin, but they differ in terms of shimmer. The Ambients are known for their subtlety, and subtle these are not. The #BECCABFFS turn up the pearl, so you gotta lean into the glow if you want to go there.

I’m cool with it because the pearl particles are fine, so my pores are like “Coo’, coo’… We can work with this.”

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MAC Makeup Ready Skin

January 9th, 2019 by Karen 8 Comments

Nope, I’m not mad about it! MAC’s latest launch of makeup primers is…unsurprisingly, all about primer, and yeah, it’s one of those releases comprised of re-promoted stuff (same products, new boxes).

Of course, there will be the usual hemming and hawing about this, but since almost all of the items in Makeup Ready Skin are things I’ve used and loved for years, I repeat: I’m not mad about it. There are things in this release that deserve the extra attention.

Also, I’m aware that there are peeps out there in Makeup Land who don’t see the point of primers. I can appreciate that… There are lots of makeup “must-haves” that I find totally unnecessary, but I don’t feel that way about primers. I love ’em. I think they make a huge difference in terms of wear time and how smooth my skin looks (especially in pics) when I use them.

And I’m a really big fan of face primers, because OH, HAI, PORES.

MAC Prep + Prime Fix+ ($27)

Q: How many bottles of this setting spray have I used over the years? A: So many. I even take a travel-sized one with me when I travel.

Fix+ is the first AND last thing I use whenever I apply makeup. As soon as I sit down, I spritz a few sprays all over my face — psst, psst! The light mist moisturizes my skin and dampens it, getting it ready for everything else I put on (lotion, primer, whatevs). It helps the next products I use absorb better than they do when my skin is dry.

Then, after all is said and done, I spray Fix+ again at the end of my rigmarole when I finish my last blend, usually right after the powder products. I do it to lock everything down and take the edge off any powdery-ness.

I 💖 Fix+! It’s ride-or-die for me.

Strobe Cream in Pinklite ($34)

Also a huge fan of Strobe Cream. I wear it on bare skin for no-makeup makeup days, or I mix it into MAC Studio Fix Foundation, which is nothing short of magical. If you want to set it with powder, I recommend Mineralize Skinfinish Natural Powder, which is THE BEST face powder in the MAC line IMO.

There are a few different Strobe Cream shades, but the only one I really use is Pinklite — the original Strobe Cream color. It’s a pearly pink that looks good on everyone.

Prep + Prime Natural Radiance ($42)

Another underrated primer I love. MAC has two versions of it — yellow and pink — and even though I’ve used both…I really can’t tell the difference between them on my skin from an arm’s length away.

I mean, if I really get up in there with a magnifying mirror, sure, I can see tiny pink bits of glitter in the pink one, but they’re both fab. One pump moisturizes my combo skin and smooths out my pores enough to be noticeable.

mac makeup ready skin 2 — Fancy packaging

FYI, Natural Radiance doesn’t minimize pores as aggressively as UD Optical Illusion or Make Up For Ever’s primer (the one in the gray tube). I think of it as more of an everyday look, so if you like natural-looking skin as much as I do, it could be a good fit for you.

Mineralize Timecheck Lotion ($32)

This lightweight primer smooths pores to a greater degree than Natural Radiance, and it also mattes down the skin to hide shine. I like to use it on areas that I don’t want to be super dewy, like the center of my forehead.

Fast Response Eye Cream ($32)

An oldie but goodie for smoothing your under-eye area before concealer. I also like to mix it into liquid concealers to sheer them out for a more natural look.

Prep + Prime Lip ($18.50)

This is the only item in the collection that I’m just “meh” about… It’s like a fancy clear lip balm.

On-The-Go Prep Set ($35)

By the way, there’s also a cute little limited edition trial kit in the collection for $35 with a bunch of MAC priming products, so if you’re new to the world of MAC primers, that would be a good way to go.

One last thing…

Ask me anything! If there’s anything else you’d like to know about any of these products, LET ME KNOW. After years of using them, I know them pretty well.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Happy hump day. 🐫