urban decay

The Urban Decay Aphrodisiac Collection (Swatches and First Look)

August 3rd, 2018 by Karen 10 Comments

urban decay aphrodisiac collection k — Wearing the Urban Decay Aphrodisiac collection

Like any good love 💜 potion, the new Urban Decay Aphrodisiac collection is mysterious and hard to find…

No, literally. It is. The collection doesn’t appear to have officially launched yet, and details are scarce, but what I do know is this: it’s new for fall 2018, and the palette and three glosses are new (the two liners, Rockstar and Zero, are re-promotes).

Urban Decay Aphrodisiac

Release date: TBD

Aphrodisiac Eyeshadow Palette (estimated price, $29, since it’s the same size/shape as Naked Petite Heat)

Hi Fi-Shine Ultra Cushion Lipglosses in Aphrodisiac, Ghosted and Tongue Tied ($20 each)

24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencils in Zero and Rockstar ($21 each)

urban decay aphrodisiac collection 2 — New for fall 2018: Urban Decay Aphrodisiac

urban decay aphrodisiac eyeshadow palette — Aphrodisiac Eyeshadow Palette

urban decay aphrodisiac collection lipgloss — Hi Fi-Shine Ultra Cushion Lipglosses in Aphrodisiac, Ghosted and Tongue Tied

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Urban Decay Lo-Fi Lip Mousse Is Hella High-Five Worthy

July 19th, 2018 by Karen 11 Comments

Ya know, I’ve been reviewing makeup and waxing philosophic about makeup and photographing makeup (and cats!) for more than a decade now (started in 2007, yo!), and when you write about any topic for that long, you really, REALLY gotta love it (and I do!); otherwise, you risk falling into a fugue state akin to Breaking Bad.

But here’s the deal: although I still relish discovering new coral lipsticks and love the thrill of finding a fab new cream blush, sometimes it feels like every “new” highlighter/palette/liquid lipstick/etc. that crosses my desk is something we’ve all seen before…except with a different cheeky name and outfit.

These days, it takes something seriously funky or outrageous to grab my attention and make me wanna shoop, shoop-eh-doop, if you know what I mean, so when Urban Decay’s new Lo-Fi Lip Mousse showed up, I was like, “I cannot bear to hot tub time machine back to 2012 right now. Let’s just eat some brownies, fire up season four of Sex and the City and take a cat nap, but HOLD ON, WAIT A MINUTE, LET ME PUT SOME BOOTY IN IT — you’re telling me this isn’t a blush?? It’s a matte lipstick instead!? Alright, Urban Decay, tell me more.”

Urban Decay Lo-Fi Lip Mousse ($22 each)

These are mousse matte lipsticks in a compact, and they’re wacky in the best possible way (as opposed to being strange for the sake of being weird). They actually work really well.

urban decay lo fi boxes — The color-coordinated boxes are a nice touch!

Urban Decay must’ve poached some NASA rocket scientists to formulate these because not only do they look smooth, avoid my lip lines and feel feather light, they couldn’t be a lot easier to apply.

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The Urban Decay Born to Run Eyeshadow Palette

June 14th, 2018 by Karen 16 Comments

Hello, Born to Run! Have we run into each other before…?

No, I think I’m just confusing you with another UD palette (Naked on the Run)…or maybe it’s because I’ve seen your same (or very similar) colors in other Urban Decay palettes before.

Urban Decay Born to Run Eyeshadow Palette ($49, 21 shades, full-size mirror)

According to UD, 17 of the 21 eyeshadows in the Born to Run palette are new, but I swear, the orange-y and reddish browns look like they teleported straight outta Naked Heat and the Petite version.

And the metallic magenta, green and purple could’ve been pulled out of the Distortion or Trouble Maker palettes. The peach and golden look familar, too…like a few shades from Daydream.

It’s as if UD went fishing for shadows from their other recent palettes and baked them into a wearable “everything” palette — good for anyone, any time, any place.

Makeup in my current corner of the world is usually pretty casual and conducive to writing at home, chasing Tabs around the house, running errands and taking Connor to toddler things, so I’m all about the shadows in top row, which are the most job/errand/everyday-friendly ones.

For the most part here at the headquarters of Tabs the Cat Industries LLC, the employees (haha, it’s just me) don’t like to wear makeup that looks too overdone (it’s a rare day when I don falsies or do dramatic liquid liner), so I like wearing matte beige Weekender with matte golden brown Riff in the crease, and shimmery pale rose gold Stranded on my lids with a teeny bit of satiny dark emerald Radio on my upper lash lines as a liner.

urban decay born to run natural light 2 — Don’t mind me… Just smiling to myself on this bridge, la-la-laaaaa! 😊

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Subtle Spring Sparkle: Golden Bronze Halo Eyes for HomeGoods With the Urban Decay Beached Summer Collection

May 3rd, 2018 by Karen 21 Comments

urban decay beached eyeshadow k — Subtle spring sparkle for a trip to HomeGoods

Most of the times when I go to HomeGoods, I’m dressed caj with minimal (or negligible) makeup, but sometimes I like to go gladiator style and do my hair and makeup and get a little more dressed up so I can enter the store like I’m entering an arena.

YES, HOMEGOODS IS A MOTHER-TRUCKIN’ ARENA.

Granted, there are no predatory animals, javelins, swords or armored warhorses galloping at you while you admire a delicately painted lemon bowl (handmade in Italy!), but if I see you pushing your cart toward the last farmhouse-inspired botanical print, trust that I will body check your @ss into the stratosphere. 🙂

I don’t play around at HomeGoods!

The Coywolf and I were there today to look for herb pots for the Lady Sanctuary, and I wore this golden bronze halo eye.

urban decay beached paletted hg1 — I would LOVE a $5,000 shopping spree to this store.

This was a toned-down halo eye, and the highlight in the center of my lids wasn’t as strong as it is in a classic halo.

This was the middle of the day, so I took it down a notch by keeping the golden highlight relatively close in tone to the surrounding bronze shadow, but I didn’t want it to be too subtle, so I layered it on top of a shimmery gold pencil liner and did a swish of teal on the lower lash line.

urban decay beached paletted hg2 — Still looks shimmery from a few feet away! Side note: iPhone case is the Attention Lipsticks iPhone Case from my store, connorclaire.com.

Urban Decay Beached Summer Collection

To keep the focus on my lids, I kept my skin, lips and brows super chill, but I did wear some things from the new Urban Decay Beached Summer Collection, namely the palette, a bronzer and a gold eyeliner.

urban decay beached palette — New for summer

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My Favorite Nude Lipstick at the Moment Is Naked

April 17th, 2018 by Karen 14 Comments

urban decay naked lipstick attention lipstick iphone case final — Attention Lipsticks 💄 iPhone Case, available now from my store, ConnorClaire.com.

I’ve been wearing creamy nude pink Naked from the Urban Decay Vice Lipstick line almost on the daily lately because it magically matches almost every eye product, palette and blush color in my collection. It’s $18 but feels like a $60 Guerlain lippie!

What’s your current favorite nude lipstick? Inquiring minds want to know.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen