Palettes

Product Spotlight: Wander Beauty Wanderess Chill Eyeshadow Palette

January 2nd, 2019 by Karen 9 Comments

Ya know, with a new eyeshadow palette coming out every five seconds, you’d think that finding an awesome cool-toned palette would be easy, but noooooooo. It’s not, and not just because warm-toned orange-y browns have basically ruled the school for the last few years. I’m a warm-toned gal who just so happens to love wearing cool shades, but the cool-toned palettes I come across usually look too gray and weird on me, like I just smeared mud all over my eyes with no rhyme or reason.

Enter the endlessly wearable six-pan Wander Beauty Wanderess Chill Palette ($25 at Sephora), which is just cool enough to work on warm or cool undertones (yay!), and it’s loaded with lovely pink, taupe, purple and brown shades.

So mo weird gray tones in sight.

wander beauty wanderess chill swatches — When cool-toned palette dreams come true…

From Sephora.com:

What it is: An eye palette with six intensely pigmented cool-toned shadows in complementary shades and finishes.

Highlighted Ingredients:
– Mango Seed Butter: Rich in vitamins C and A to revitalize skin and reduce the appearance of fine lines.
– Rose Extract: Helps minimize redness.
– Vitamin E: Supports skin healing, protects skin against free radicals, and supports skin’s natural moisture barrier.

Ingredient Callouts: Free of sulfates SLS and SLES, parabens, phthalates, mineral oil, and contains less than one percent synthetic fragrances. This product is also cruelty-free.

What Else You Need to Know: Get gorgeous on the go while keeping it chill. Wander Beauty’s intensely-saturated shadows are enriched with nourishing ingredients to give a buttery swipe of color that lasts all day. This cool mix of luxe metallic, silky satin, and velvety matte eyeshadows puts infinite looks in the palm of your hand. Each luxurious shade is enriched with mango seed butter and rose extract to hydrate and protect the delicate eye area. These shades are crease-proof, fade-proof, and deliver intense payoff.

This Palette Contains:
– 6 x 0.07 oz/ 2.2 g Eyeshadows in Snowbird (satin light pink), Flushed (foil pinky purple), Free Style (matte cool nude), Gondola (satin cool taupe), Après Ski (metallic deep plum), Cocoa (satin cool brown)

I wore it pretty much every time I wore makeup through the month of December because it’s one of those “just a few swipes of color” situations. I usually do the matte in the crease, then one of the mid-toned shimmers on my lids, and then a sheer smidgen of the lightest shade on my brow bone and in the inner corners.

The formula feels a lot like Urban Decay’s, so it’s soft and easy to blend, but the colors are generally a little less pigmented and/or shimmery.

Put another way, if UD is a punk rock princess who goes hawd, Wander Beauty just wants to chill.

FYI, like with Urban Decay shadows, wayward bits of powder will travel into adjacent pans, since the powder is on the fluffier side, but I don’t really mind because there’s almost zero fallout on my face. #priorities

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Going for the Glitter? Get Thee a Fluffy Brush, ASAP!

December 12th, 2018 by Karen 17 Comments

nars ignited palette k — Glitter during the daytime hours? WHY NOT!

Friends, please raise your coffee mugs and join me in congratulating my dayum self!

Now, you might be asking, “Um…Karen, what the heck are we toasting to?” And if so, fair enough. 😊 See, I’ve come to the life-changing conclusion that using a fluffy brush to apply glitter changes lives.

Why a fluffy brush?

Correction: It has to be a specific type of fluffy brush. What you want is a fluffy flat or angled eyeshadow brush — something like the MAC 275S or my fave, the Sephora Pro Angled Shadow Brush #13, which, sadly, is discontinued.

Basically, though, a fluffy flat (or angled) brush deposits the perfect amount of glitter onto lids while simultaneously minimizing fallout.

I’ve only just started doing this because I normally just use a finger to press the glitter on my lids to pack that ish in place, but the thing is, when I wanna wear glitter during the daytime, BECAUSE WHY NOT, this approach can be a little too disco.

nars ignited palette k2 — Pretty subtle as far as glitter goes. I’m wearing the NARS Ignited Palette, by the way. It has lots of pink and purple and warm reddish browns, and methinks it looks ***good*** with rose-colored tops and dresses.

Sheer, but precise

Fluffy brush, though? Yes, life-changing! The key is the low density of the brush head. The fluffiness sheers out the glitter just enough to leave you with a dusting of elegant sparkle on your eyes, as opposed to full-on rave glitter (err, do people still call those parties raves? #datingmyself). The shape of the brush head is also a may-jah player. Since flat or angled eye brushes are precise, and much more precise than, say, domed or tapered eye blending brushes like the MAC 217 or 224, so you can put your glitter exactly where you want it.

I mean, of course you’ll have to tap off your brush first, and then pat, rather than sweep, the glitter on your lids to reduce as much fallout as you can (obvi), but using a fluffy brush results in a sheerer, more elegant and subtle application that *totally* works for daytime makeup.

Fix that fallout

And if you do end up with fallout, no worries. Just use a little Scotch tape or the sticky part on the back of a Post-it, and gently press it onto any wayward glitter flecks to lift them away!

What I’m wearing in these pics

I used the Sephora #13 brush to apply some glitter from the new NARS Ignited palette ($59, limited edition, available at Sephora) that I wore last week, and it was a look I also happened to be wearing when I picked up Connor Claire at preschool.

nars ignited palette packaging — I like the packaging, too.

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Product Shout-Out: Estée Lauder Defiant Nude Is the Neutral Palette You Didn’t Know You Needed

December 6th, 2018 by Karen 19 Comments

estee lauder defiant nude — ***ALERT*** Makeup workhorse! ***ALERT***

All through November, every single time I had to get ready for something — be it Thanksgiving dinner, a Novato Mothers Club meeting or lunch with a friend — I was always strapped for time (partly because I have bad time management skills, but I’m working on it. #keepingitreal).

With this palette, however, I was able to do a put-together makeup look from start to finish in 10 minutes time.

Yup, just when you thought when you’d seen and hoarded every neutral eyeshadow palette that you absolutely “needed” (“air quotes”) to get, along comes one from Estée Lauder to blow your mind.

Estée Lauder Defiant Nude ($54) has five powder eyeshadows — two mid-toned golden browns, a dark matte neutral brown, a neutral matte beige and a slightly darker matte peachy beige.

Do these colors sound pretty basic?

Yes, yes they do…

But let me tell ya, every single time I had to dress up and go out to see people looking respectable in the month of November, I grabbed this palette. Then I grabbed it again. And again. AND AGAIN!

It’s just so wearable, lovely and easy to use, and all of the shadows are long-lasting, with or without an eyeshadow base.

(Yes, sometimes I leave the house without an eyeshadow base… I know! Believe it or not, though, the world does not fall apart.)

estee lauder defiant nude swatches — wear Honey Bronze in Estée Lauder Double Wear Foundation (NC42 in MAC)

You know me; I love my golden browns, cooler-toned browns and neutral browns, and this user-friendly palette masterfully sculpts the crease while adding an opalescent, understated glow to your lids. Plus, you can be imprecise with your application AND your blending, and your eye makeup will still look good.

That’s magical.

Estée Lauder gave it just enough pigment to define your eyes and add some color, but not so much that you’ll miss the movie because you’re stuck buffing and correcting and blending at home because you accidentally overdid it during the application.

And they also have such gorgeous finishes! The two golden browns get the most play on my lids because they’re both… Well, you know how when you want your lids to glow, but you don’t want them to be so shiny that they scream “LOOK AT MY FINE LINES”? These two golden browns are it!

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Makeup of the Day // Shades of Blue Liner

November 20th, 2018 by Karen 17 Comments

chanel splendeur et audace palette k 2 — Feeling blue

I got the idea for this metallic blue eyeliner look from a look Kristin Stewart wore to Cannes earlier this year, and I’ve been wanting to wear it ever since. Obviously, I’m no Beau Nelson (I WISH), but I tried.

#kristenstewart in Cannes hair by @bridgetbragerhair styling @taraswennen makeup and Photo by me @beau_nelson #beaunelsonstudio

A post shared by Beau Nelson (@beau_nelson) on May 10, 2018 at 12:31pm PDT

There are so many things I love about this makeup look, but the main things are 1) how vibrant and metallic the liner is, and 2) how the liner morphs from bright metallic teal in the inner corner, to green in the middle (it isn’t obvious, but it’s there, methinks) and a dark blue in the corner, and that’s just along the upper lash line! The lower lash line has these small, subtle blocks of dark blue interspersed with teal… It’s colorful but not cray-cray.

I would totally wear this out to run errands. In fact, I did, out to get groceries, and I almost said “WASSSSUP” to the older woman who straight-up stared at me in the bread aisle as if I were a visitor from another planet.

Some thoughts on the key products

The most complicated thing in this look is the liner, but you can make it as easy or as complicated as you want. If you want to go a simpler route, you can use a couple of bright metallic blue pencils and a black liner on your water line, but I did a combination of eyeliner, cream shadow and powder shadow… Basically, I was in the mood to play. 🙂

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Electric: A metallic teal with silver glitter, available in the permanent line. It’s super bright and intense, but don’t get it anywhere close to your water line because your eyes will tear up if they’re sensitive.

Chanel Stylo Ombre Et Contour in Contour Graphique ($34): I used this dark matte navy as a base for the darker blue parts of the liner. It’s creamy, smudgy and intensely pigmented. It also takes about 5 minutes to fully dry down, so you’ll have lots of time to play with it.

Chanel Splendeur et Audace Quad ($61): I layered the black and blue shades on top of the dark matte navy liner. It’s shiny but less intensely metallic than similar shadows from Urban Decay and MAC… Eh, it’s alright.

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Sephora VIB Sale Recommendations: The Tarte Tartelette In Bloom Palette

October 30th, 2018 by Karen 17 Comments

tarte tartlette in bloom palette final — Wish list-worthy

Guess what…? There’s a Sephora VIB sale in November, so this week I’m highlighting some of my favorite makeup workhorses that I think are worthy of your wish list.

Ignore the inside voice inside your head that’s always saying, “Do you really neeeed another neutral eyeshadow palette?” because this one with its matte neutral brown and beige eyeshadows, and its shimmery taupe, gold and copper accent shades, parts the clouds for me, and I say this as an unabashed hoarder of neutral palettes. I love them because you can wear them all the time and for any occasion. But the Tartelette in Bloom Palette rises above the rest IMO.

I use this palette to “cheat” the look of a deeper set eye, which is something I deal with every day since I have hooded lids. This 16-pan palette bucks the current trend of warm red and orange-y browns, and instead boasts a bevy of cool-toned shades and neutral browns, which are great for carving out a crease.

tarte tartelette in bloom palette swatches — YUMMY!

The makeup maestros at Tarte found a way to seamlessly weave these long-lasting, pigmented shadows into each other so that even if you’re rushing (or, even if you don’t know what you’re doing), you can still buff and blend your way into something that looks like you spent hours on it.

tarte tartlette in bloom palette — Another day, another pic of me in pajamas.

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