Palettes

The New Urban Decay Naked Honey Is a Sweet New Golden Eyeshadow Palette

September 6th, 2019 by Karen 23 Comments

urban decay naked honey open — Feelin’ the buzz

Oh, sugary golden brown nectar of the eyeshadow gods… I SEE YOU, URBAN DECAY. The hive’s buzzing 🐝 over Naked Honey, the brand’s newest Naked palette, a festoon of gilded golds, tantalizing tans and burnished bronzes, with none of those challenging-to-wear reds or orange reddish brown eyeshadows from the past few years in sight.

*Breathes sigh of relief*

Finally, a neutral palette that actually looks…kinda neutral. 🤷‍♀️

The $49 powdered shadow palette flies into Sephora stores and arrives online September 13th, and then a little later on September 23rd to ulta.com, macys.com, nordstrom.com and belk.com; and to Ulta, Macy’s, Nordstrom and Belk stores a few days later on September 26th.

Queen bees who crave toasty tones will probably like that it hums with warm shades, and I’m buzzing over all those golden browns!

urban decay naked honey swatches — Honey, I’m an NC42 in MAC foundation, BTB.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Props if you can remember when MAC did Naked Honey first. 😉

P.P.S.

Unsung Makeup Heroes: Clinique All About Shadow Quad in Teddy Bear

August 2nd, 2019 by Karen 9 Comments

clinique teddy bear — “Yeah, don’t even TRY to take my palette. I’m warning you!”

What’s an unsung makeup hero? For me, it’s an oftentimes underrated makeup morsel, a permanent collection product that scoots under the radar screen of many makeup lovers but regularly rocks my world. The long-running Unsung Heroes series features some of my favorites.

One of these Teddy Bears is not like the other (and it’s more comfy to hug).

But right now, I’m talking about the makeup one, and it’s a quad of all-matte eyeshadows from Clinique. If I were a betting gal…I’d wager that the Clinique All About Shadow Quad in Teddy Bear is probably better than the other neutral palette in your makeup bag, and it’s the most “neutral” of the neutral palettes I wear. The shadows are neither too warm nor too cool (they’re in the coveted Goldilocks Zone), and there’s very little burnt orange, brick red, gray or pink undertones in sight.

clinique teddy bear swatches — Yup, still an NC42 in MAC

The powder shadows in Teddy Bear are just as soft as the bear at the top of this post, and Clinique stuffed it with all of the basics to contour lids and add depth to eyes, including a matte beige bone, a matte golden brown, a peachy golden tan and a dark chocolate brown. In MAC-speak, I’d call these the matte (so, neither warm nor cool) equivalents of Brule, Soba, Soft Brown and Brown Down.

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Neon Lights: 3 Colorful Looks

July 1st, 2019 by Karen 18 Comments

The three colorful looks in this post have a couple things in common.

I wore them all to preschool drop-off in the last few days (the pink look at the top was from this morning!).
I did all of them using the $29 LORAC Neon Lights palette.

In the Neon Lights palette, that yellow is more of a goldenrod, which I’m kind of disappointed by because I wish the palette had a lemon yellow… The goldenrood just isn’t yellow enough for me.

Wow, that’s something I never thought I’d ever say!

Say “what,” Karen? You’re not wearing a sh*t-ton of browns for once? LOL. Neutrals are normally my wheelhouse, it’s true. I usually default to them because they fit my my lowest energy state, ha ha ha! Plus, you can’t really muck up neutrals.

Still, I’ve been itching to wear more color. I’ve just been trying to think of ways to feel comfortable doing it, because as fun as bright, intense glittery looks are, I feel a little crazy wearing that kind of makeup when all I’m doing is bringing coywolf to school or toddler ballet class.

The colorful looks here are my speed because, even though there’s a bright focal point in every one, there are still subtle-ish elements, like the foundation.

Something Sam said in that ’90s makeup video I mentioned the other day resonated with me. To paraphrase, she said that it’s not the things you pile on that make a look look cool. It’s what you leave out, so I basically went super minimal on the base in all of these colorful looks.

I’ve also been VERY inspired by Katie Jane Hughes lately. She’s a makeup artist I follow on Instagram, and she is JUST SO DAMN GOOD. She’ll paint a delicate swish of sparkly green shadow or sketch a skinny slice of neon yellow liner, so you can tell she loves wearing color, but she also likes to go minimal with the base.

I’m a little obsessed with her at the moment!

LOOK 1: PINK SUMMER SUNSET

Eyes: Bolt, Girls and Atomic eyeshadow from the LORAC Neon Brights Palette, Chanel Dimensions de Chanel Mascara, Maybelline Bold Brown Tattoo Studio Liner, IT Cosmetics Brow Power Micro in Universal Taupe, Urban Decay Yeyo liner (as a base)

Base: MAC Next to Nothing Foundation in Medium Deep (all over, applied with fingers) and Estée Lauder Double Wear Foundation in Honey Bronze (patted with fingers on cheeks, nose, around the lips, and under the eyes)

Lips: MAC Stripdown Lip Pencil and MAC Open Presence Lipstick

LOOK 2: BLUE NOTE

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The New MAC Art Library: Nude Model Eye Palette

March 1st, 2019 by Karen 11 Comments

mac art library nude model open — The new MAC Art Library: Nude Model Palette ($48)

There’s a long list of lovely neutral eyeshadow palettes out there in the makeup multiverse, but when it comes to the best of the best, maaaaaaan, MAC? *snaps* When they get it right, they get it right. They write the freaking book.

Cases in point: Brooke Shields. (I still drool a little every time I think about it.); the Nordstrom Naturals palette; and the Warm Neutral and Cool Neutral Palettes.

BOMB.

And now, the new MAC Art Library: Nude Model palette.

It’s $48 and one of three eye palettes available now in the new MAC Art Library collection. I think it’s the most wearable of the bunch with its 12 neutral shades, but that’s just one of many reasons I’m lovin’ on it.

With it, you get a mix of old faves (hi, Shroom and Espresso!) and new ones, but the real beauty is that there are so, SO. MANY. MATTES.

Seven of them! When does that ever happen?! Um, never?

The rest are shimmers, none of which are too obnoxious, with various levels of shine and glitter.

mac art library nude model swatches — I’m an NC42, by the way.

All the Art Library palettes were pieced together by MAC artists, and you can totally tell the these gals/guys had wearability and flexibility in mind.

Making matters even more profoundly wonderful is how easy all 12 are to blend. Plus, there aren’t any orange-y or reddish brown transition colors, which is quite unusual. Most of the MAC neutral palettes I mentioned at the top have at least one warm, mid-toned orange brown transition shade like Saddle or Soft Brown, and don’t get me wrong — I love those shades, but they can be a tad repetitive, particularly in neutral palettes.

Bucking that trend, Nude Model’s mid-toned matte transitions are yellowish browns and cool-toned beige grays, which you don’t see often, and it changes the palette’s overall vibe. It can’t be characterized as a simple warm-toned palette or a cool one. It’s smack dab in the middle. A neutral’s neutral, so to speak.

mac art library nude model k — Oh, hey! Eyes: MAC Art Library Nude Model Eyeshadows in Sandstone, Shroom, Tete-A-Tint, Espresso and Drop the Robe. Lips: MAC Art Library Lipstick in Down to An Art. Cheeks: MAC Melba Blush

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The New Urban Decay Naked Reloaded Palette

February 11th, 2019 by Karen 15 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