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sonia kashuk

Haute Hair for a Hot Price! The $9.99 Sonia Kashuk Studly Haute Hair Sets

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sonia kashuk studly haute hair set 1
Sonia Kashuk studded headband

Like I needed another reason to absolutely adore Sonia Kashuk.

As if her cute travel bags, smarty pants makeup cases, luscious nail polishes and oh-so-affordable brushes (her Bent Eyeliner Brush changed my life!) weren’t reason enough, now she’s hitting Target shelves with a new line of stylin’ limited edition hair accessories.

Released for fall, her Studly Haute Hair Sets ($9.99 each) are totally tough girl approved.

The first set pairs a studded headband with a set of two silver studded bobby pins, and it’s available now at Target stores and online at target.com.

The second set, also available in Target stores but unfortunately not online, puts a studded barrette together with four studded elastics.

sonia kashuk studly haute hair set 2
Silver studded bobby pins

sonia kashuk studly haute hair set 3
Studded elastics
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The Mission Is a Glow With The New Sonia Kashuk Perfecting Translucent Illuminator

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Sonia Kashuk Perfecting Translucent Illuminator

You know what would be really nice? I mean, besides a shirtless Alcide Herveaux baking me semi-sweet chocolate chip cookies from scratch in my kitchen.

No shirts for AlcideI know I was going somewhere with that…

Oh, yeah! 🙂 It would be really nice to have an extra hour every morning just to put on makeup. Then I could blend, pat, and smudge till my heart’s content without having to hurry (or hear El Hub yell from downstairs, “Babe! What are you doing?! We were supposed to leave the house 15 minutes ago!”).

Dare to dream, right?

The reality is usually closer to 10 minutes than an hour, and I have to make every one of those seconds count.

Sonia Kashuk understands. Her new $14.99 Perfecting Translucent Illuminator makes the most of makeup time, so you never have to leave the house without at least a little highlighter.

sonia kashuk perfecting translucent illuminator product shot

It’s a warm, peachy golden cream/gel highlighter with a light-reflecting shimmer that creates the look of flawless, fresh skin.

sonia kashuk perfecting translucent illuminator swatch
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Putting Jewels in Reach: The $4.79 Sonia Kashuk Fall 2012 Nail Colours Might Look Expensive, But They’re Priced Just Right

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Sonia Kashuk Fall 2012 Nail Colours in Hocus Pocus, Emerald City, Two Cents, Dime a Dozen and All Vamped Up
Sonia Kashuk Fall 2012 Nail Colours from the left: Hocus Pocus, Emerald City, Two Cents, Dime a Dozen and All Vamped Up

Beep-beep-beep!

Did you hear that…? That beeping sound? Is a truck backing up outside my window? Did I suddenly get a page from 1997 (007734-411-007-911)?

Bargain Beauty Thrill-o-MeterOh, I see what it is. It’s just the sweet, sweet sound of my Bargain Beauty Thrill-o-Meter sounding off. 🙂

Even before I swatched ’em, I had a feeling Sonia Kahuk’s five new $4.79 fall Nail Colours would rock my budget-loving boat.

With finishes from creamy to metallic and colors perfect for fall, these highly pigmented jewel-toned polishes look like the kinds of nail accoutrements I’m more accustomed to seeing on Dior and Chanel counters, and with price tags closer to $30 than $5.

Looking at metallic copper Two Cents and creamy eggplant All Vamped Up, fall seems just days away, and I can almost hear the leaves crunching beneath my feet as I stroll around my neighborhood looking at Halloween decorations…

Creamy purple Hocus Pocus and rich green Emerald City should look right at home on my paws as I hoist a cup of hot cocoa up to my lips (can’t forget the marshmallows!), while gunmental Dime a Dozen looks like a lovely shade to bring to Thanksgiving dinner with the fam.

In the swatches below, I’m wearing two coats of Emerald City, Two Cents and Dime a Dozen. I think I also could’ve gotten away with two coats of Hocus Pocus and All Vamped Up, but I decided to apply a third because I noticed the faintest bit of streaking from those two in direct sunlight.

Sonia Kashuk Fall 2012 Nail Colours from the left: Two Cents, Dime a Dozen, Hocus Pocus, Emerald City and All Vamped Up
From the left: Two Cents, Dime a Dozen, Hocus Pocus, Emerald City and All Vamped Up

Sonia Kashuk Emerald City swatch
Emerald City

Sonia Kashuk Two Cents swatch
Two Cents
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Sonia Kashuk Serves Sheer Lips and Opaque Tips for Fall With the New Lips and Tips Mini Nail and Lip Set

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sonia kashuk lips and tips

Whoever said that celebrity pet assisting is easy was smoking some hella strong catnip.

The grueling hours and working on weekends, late-night airport trips, difficult dietary restrictions (Gravy with every meal?! Come on!) — but it can also be very rewarding, like this afternoon. Tabs didn’t give me the stink eye once today, and he even said an appreciative “Mrrow” when he climbed onto my lap for a handful of Greenies.

In fact, he was so agreeable today that he let me quit work early — right after I finished organizing his accessories closet (mostly ties, ascots, top hats and a small, but growing, collection of monocles) and buffing his claws.

First thing I did after quitting for the day was watch this old interview of Jeremy Renner…


Skip to 3:17 for a gem of J-Ren beauty wisdom!

Just when I thought my day couldn’t get any better, I opened the $12.99 limited edition Sonia Kashuk Lips and Tips Mini Nail and Lip Set.

And my Friday went from good to great. 🙂

sonia kashuk lips and tips
From the left: Nail Polish in Lacquered Lilac, Lipgloss in Shrinking Violet, Nail Polish in Undercover Lover and Lipgloss in Sealed with a Kiss

The four-piece set of color-coordinated miniature sheer glosses and opaque nail polishes comes with two pairs of matching red and purple shades for lips and nails.

The two unscented, unflavored glosses are smoooove! — and non-sticky — while the high-shine nail polishes have pigment to spare.

sonia kashuk lips and tips
Wearing Nail Polish in Undercover Lover and Lipgloss in Sealed with a Kiss

I love how Sonia chose coordinating colors with varying levels of coverage, and I think it’s cool how the products in the set work with each other when they’re worn together.
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Dirty Makeup Brushes Are Bristling Over Sonia Kashuk’s Brush & Sponge Cleanser

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sonia kashuk brush sponge cleanser

Another Target run, another spur-of-the moment beauty purchase from Sonia Kashuk. Allegedly, I swung by the store for detergent (I’m a Gain girl. How about you?). It’s not my fault I always end up in the beauty section.

Heck, though, since I was already there, I figured I’d look for a full-size bottle of Sonia’s Making Waves Nail Colour, and bring one or two or five home, LOL!

(Remember it, the bright sea green, from her new A Powerful Punch Set? Yep, I like it that much.)

But while I was searching for it, something else got my attention: this bottle of Sonia’s Brush & Sponge Cleanser ($7). It was hidden behind some makeup bags, as if someone had squirreled it away back there for safekeeping (I’m totally guilty of doing this many times).

Now, I’m still happily engaged to Burt’s Bees Mango & Orange Energizing Body Bar as my de facto brush cleanser, but I’m also curious like a cat.

A single word in the directions on the back of the bottle sealed the deal for me.

To use the cleanser, you’re supposed to wet your brushes or sponges by spraying them with some of the product, which you then work into a lather (weird!). Then, rinse until the water runs clean.

Most of the liquid brush cleansers I’ve used before, like the one from MAC, don’t usually work up a lather, which makes this one kind of unusual.

Color me intrigued…

sonia kashuk brush sponge cleanser
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My St. Patrick’s Day Multi-Colored Manicure in Different Shades of Green

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My Lucky St. Patrick's Day Nails

Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day, and that means two things: 1) that today is St. Patrick’s Day Eve, and 2) that I get to be Irish tomorrow, thanks to El Hub and the Irish Proximity Effect. He says that because he’s one quarter Irish, I get to be part Irish by proximity for 24 hours.

And I plan to put that time to good use. 🙂

For some folks, St. Patty’s Day means beer, and lots of it. Me? I use my Irish By Association card as a free pass to eat as much fried food as I can.

Like fish and chips.

Oh, I love fish and chips… The precious little basket they come in, dousing them with vinegar and salt, and that first crunchy bite of melt-in-your-mouth batter and flaky fish…

I’m sorry, where was I?

Oh, yeah! St. Patrick’s Day. Almost as much as the food, I also like to see folks getting green in the spirit of the day (please leave me a link to your look!), and I usually try to add a little something green to my beauty routine. This year, it’s with a multi-colored manicure in different shades of green.

A St. Patrick's Day Nail Tutorial

I actually didn’t start out planning to do something with more than one shade, but when I sat down with a few polishes, thinking I’d pick one right then, I couldn’t decide.

So I used all three — Dolce & Gabbana’s Mint ($20), Sonia Kashuk’s Making Waves ($9.99) and China Glaze Ray-Diant ($8).

A St. Patrick's Day Nail Tutorial
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