Makeup

Your Thoughts on Waterproof Mascara?

February 15th, 2019 by Karen 20 Comments

To tie the entire eye look together, I thickened my upper and lower lashes with three layers of Covergirl Fall Lash Bloom by Lashblast Mascara in Black. — What say you about waterproof?

It’s so handy, right? — especially when you know you’re going to sweat, or it’s pouring down rain outside and you don’t want your mascara running down your face?

But I’m starting to have mixed feelings about it…

Oh! I used to LOVE waterproof mascara, especially for the curl hold. When you have stick-straight lashes and you need something to really lock that curl down, waterproof is the best. It really is, but for years I’ve been hearing people say that it’s not a good idea to use waterproof all the time because it’ll make your lashes fall out… I always thought that was an old wives’ tale, but I think it might be true to a degree. When I was exclusively using waterproof mascara, like all the time, I saw a lot of lashes breaking and falling out, and every lash is so precious to me now that I don’t use waterproof mascara as much anymore.

Now I look at it like this: If my mascara is gonna smudge, it’s gonna smudge. So be it.

Man, I wish there was an “almost” waterproof mascara that didn’t require any special removers — just warm or cold water or an oil-based makeup remover. I just wanna be able to wash my face without having to “get all the gear” and make a big deal about it. Is that too much to ask?

Anywho…what are your thoughts on waterproof mascara? Do you use it? Do you not use it? If not, why? Have you also heard that it’ll make your lashes fall out if you use it too much? Tell me your deepest thoughts about waterproof mascara. 😊

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. TGIF!!!!!!!!!!

Ravenous for Red Lipstick: BECCA Hot Tamale

February 14th, 2019 by Karen 10 Comments

becca hot tamale swatch — Hey, hot stuff!

Valentine’s Day 💖 is here, so this is a purr-fect time to celebrate that most sanguine of seductresses — scarlet! The Ravenous for Red Lipstick series features the crimsons I’m currently cuckoo for.

Happy Valentine’s Day, babe! I hope that you and Ryan Gosling are having a lovely celebration of your eternal commitment to each other.

Ya know, I’ve been told I have a spicy 🌶️ personality, but when it comes to hot and spicy food, my heat 🔥 tolerance level is negative 10. The spice must flow…but not into my food, thanks.

I do love a a hot red lipstick, though, like BECCA Hot Tamale! It’s the same color as a ghost pepper (or, in my case, a sweet red bell pepper).

Just so you know, this lipstick does not taste like a hot tamale.

Who would like it? Anyone who can work reds with orange undertones and own that ish like they invented it, OK?
What’s it similar to? MAC Lady Danger, but with a semi-matte finish instead of a matte one — so, more like a MAC Amplified lipstick finish (I’d call them sorority sisters).
What else should you know? It’s $24 and available at the usual BECCA haunts, including Ulta and Sephora. It has a 4-hour wear time, too, and moves me to song (specifically D’Angelo) because it tastes and smells like brown sugar, babe.

I gets high off your love, I don’t know how to behave.

Are you doing anything for Valentine’s Day, by the way? I’ve got a cold (SURPRISE), so we’re gonna do a family Valentine’s Day with take-out tonight.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Ravenous for Red Lipstick: Behold BECCA Brave!

February 13th, 2019 by Karen 10 Comments

becca brave swatch — BECCA Ultimate Lipstick Love in Brave ($24)

Valentine’s Day 💖 is right around the corner, so this is a purr-fect time to celebrate that most sanguine of seductresses — scarlet! The Ravenous for Red Lipstick series features the crimsons I’m currently cuckoo for.

OK, so…I think the eight-hour wear time claim is a stretch for the lipsticks in BECCA’s gnarly new Lipstick Love line, but dang! — for the four hours Brave lasts on my 💋 lips, I have absolutely NO complaints.

If you’re into pigment packed red lippies, this one’s for you, assuming you’re cool with brown sugar, because that’s how these taste and smell (but it’s not all up in your grill).

Expect some tugging when you run these across your lips because they have a moderately thick formula, and even though I don’t always like when lipsticks feel thick and heavy, I don’t mind this formula. It’s juuust shy of too thick, so it’s firmly in the lip product Goldilocks zone.

According to Sephora…

What it is: An eight-hour long-wearing, silky-satin lip color infused with the next generation of hyaluronic acid.

Ingredient Callouts: Free of parabens. This product is also cruelty-free.

What Else You Need to Know: This silky-satin lip color wears for up to eight hours, and is infused with next-generation hyaluronic acid to hydrate and smooth the look of lips. Ultra-creamy, pure pigments and light-reflecting oils deliver high-impact color in a single swipe. Infused with avocado oil, the ultra-comfortable formula nourishes lips.

Again, I haven’t been getting a full eight hours from these, but I still like ’em.

I think the formula’s heftiness (?) is also a good thing, particularly in cool red Brave’s case, because the formula isn’t super slick, so applying it is almost like drawing with a lip crayon. I can scribble those corner lip lines into place without having to do any major cleanup with a pencil liner, concealer or anything else.

I actually freehand applied the red lips in this pic.

Yup, no brush! — which is doubly impressive considering that I drank too much coffee and had the shakes when I applied it.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

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

The New Urban Decay Naked Reloaded Palette

February 11th, 2019 by Karen 14 Comments

Dude, can you believe UD’s O.G. Naked Palette is almost 10 years old?

Wait — should that be in the past tense? Because UD phased out the O.G. Naked (RIP). They replaced it with Naked Reloaded, which’ll be out in less than week!

Overview

What is it? Naked Reloaded replaces the now-defunct Naked Palette. It has 12 powder eyeshadows, and four of the pans — satiny beige Bribe, shimmery golden Barely Baked, matte orange-brown Boundaries and matte peachy beige Blur — contain more product than the others. Those are the shades UD thinks you’ll use the most.
How much is it? ~~I haven’t confirmed this yet, but I’m guessing it’ll be $54, which is how much UD charges for the other Naked Palettes in the permanent collection.~~ It’s $44.
Who’s it for? According to UD, errrrrbody, because the colors and textures are supposed to work for every age, gender and skin tone.
When can you get it? February 18th on the UD website and at Urban Decay stores, March 4th on the Sephora and Ulta websites, and March 7th at Sephora and Ulta stores.
How is it different than the original Naked? Reloaded has more mid-toned warm browns and fewer cooler, darker shades like grays and taupes. It also doesn’t have a dual-ended liner or a brush, and then there are the four larger pans.
Is it like any of the other Naked palettes? Yup, I think so. Naked Reloaded is like a warmer, powered-up Naked on the Run (without the cheek and lip products), with lots of mid-toned colors to make it versatile. The color temps are warm like Naked Heat, but nowhere near as red.
What about the eyeshadow formula? It’s what I’ve come to expect from UD eyeshadows. They’re soft and silky with fluffy powder particles that like to fly when I touch one of the pans with a brush. Based on a prelim arm swatch, most of them feel smooth, except for Angel Fire, which has huskier glitter than the other shimmers, so it’s on the chunky side.
What about that orange? MAN, I’m so over UD’s obsession with orange in their eye palettes… I like orange eyeshadow well enough, but it keeps popping up everywhere, and I’d just assume see something else in place of it.

urban decay naked reloaded swatches tan skin — I’m an NC42 in MAC.

urban decay naked reloaded swatches — Please note the Taylor Swift-ian references…

urban decay naked reloaded — In paw for scale…

Oh, and pardon me for going all X-Files for a moment, but IT’S CONSPIRACY THEORY TIME! Here’s why I think Reputation and End Game, two of the colors, sound like Taylor Swift song references to me: Because I think someone at UD is secretly weighing in on the Taylor Swift vs. Kim/Kanye feud that hit a couple years ago… Or maybe I’m writing too much into it, LOL!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen