Karen

The Weekly Roundup: Posts You Might Have Missed

January 30th, 2011 by Karen 12 Comments

The Makeup and Beauty Blog Weekly Roundup

This week was hands down one of the funnest weeks I’ve had blogging since 2007. My tiara goes off to MAC for coming up with such a cool creative concept (Wonder Woman) and for going all out with the idea. I can’t wait to see more.

They could have said, “I know! We’ll get a Wonder Woman license, throw the logo on some compacts and jack up the price.” That would have been the Happy Meal approach, but it’s not the approach they took. They decided to focus on an era from Wonder Woman’s comic book past (the more contemporary WW is stylistically completely different), carefully selected the colors for the collection, and put everything together with great products and original promo artwork to form a cohesive creative concept.

I’m not a fan of everything MAC does, and sometimes I think they rush things out the door, but when they do go all out with a clear vision like this, they’re awesome. This is makeup, after all, and it’s rarely revolutionary. It’s about ideas, concepts and stories just as much as it’s about colors, brushes and light. At least for me, it’s the concepts that fill my head with ideas, the stories that fill my heart with desire, and great products that make me want to seal the deal. Yes, that was a little corny… 🙂

The Weekly Roundup: Posts You Might Have Missed

THE DOLCE & GABBANA SECRET GARDEN
ULTRA SHINE LIPSTICKS AND GLOSSES

As promised, here are those swatches of the two lipsticks and two lipglosses from the new Dolce & Gabbana Secret Garden Collection.

What do you think? Ultra shiny, right? I’m gonna go out on a limb and say they’re aptly named. Read more…

$59 SMASHBOX STYLE FILES
FOR EYES LIPS AND CHEEKS

The three portable palettes in the Smashbox Style Files ($59) are totally easy to crack. What I mean to say is, there’s no 128-bit encryption or complex p@ssW07ds here. Just a batch of beauty bits (in shimmery neutrals to deep jewel tones) for eyes, lips and cheeks.

For my makeup today, I felt like something fun and fresh, but I didn’t want to think too hard.

Enter the Smashbox Style Files, a new limited edition Sephora exclusive set.

These colors aren’t as pigmented as I’d hoped and suffer from some pretty mean fallout, but I do like how easy they are to blend. In all, you get eight shadows.

Each of the cream liners double as bases for the shadows, so that’s pretty cool. And the pencil liners cling to my lash and water lines like true champs. With this set, you get four Cream Liners and two Limitless Eye Liners.

The lip and cheek palette comes with two Lip Glosses and two Cheek colors (my favorite things about the entire kit!). I LOVE how effortlessly these blushes melt into my skin. The non-sticky lippies, however, I could probably live without. Both unscented, unflavored colors look almost identical on my pigmented pucker. Read more…

ARE YOU A MAC
WONDER WOMAN?

Unless you’ve been holed up in your secluded superhero lair (every hero needs one, yo!), chances are you’ve probably heard rumblings about the new MAC Wonder Woman Collection, which twirls onto shelves February 10 in North America and internationally this March.

MAC teamed up with DC Comics this time to create a limited edition makeup collection inspired by one of the toughest ladies in comic book history. She fights crime in foxy hot pants (and sometimes a skirt) and has a penchant for practical accessories, like bullet-deflecting bracelets, magic lassos and boomerang headpieces, too!

There’s no denying it â€” this girl is tough AND cute.

Not bad for 2,000 years old (I wonder which face cream she uses).

Just like Diana Prince right before a beam of magic light transformed her into Wonder Woman, I’ve been practically spinning in circles in my knee-high boots ever since I saw the first promo pics for this super-sized 33-piece collection for eyes, lips, face and nails. Read more…

A FEW MAC WONDER WOMAN
LIP COMBINATIONS

What up, fellow Wonder Women? I thought you gals might like to see some potential lip combinations with the Lipsticks and Lipglasses from the soon-to-be-released MAC Wonder Woman Collection.

These are just to spark some ideas, of course. Let’s get those creative juices flowing!

About that, what’s your current favorite lip combo (liner/lipstick/gloss)? Or do you like to wear just one thing at a time? Inquiring minds want to know. Read more…

MY CLARINS NEO PASTELS
MONDAY FACE OF THE DAY

Sooo, guess who’s procrastinating? 🙂 Yeah, I have about a billion things on my to-do list, but none of them are as much fun as makeup.

I put the new Clarins Neo Pastels Collection to work today for this here face of the day.

I loosely based the eye portion of the look on the Neo Pastel makeup tutorial here, and the edgy look of the black liner along the waterline is one of my favorite parts.

The Eye Quartet Mineral Palette’s shiny finish makes these dramatic and fun, but I observed some patchiness from both of the purple shadows (but not as much as the pastel quad in the Dolce & Gabbana Secret Garden Collection). Read more…

THE MAC PACKED TO GO
TRAVEL EXCLUSIVES FOR SPRING 2011

Planning any trips soon? If you are, and they happen to involve a short airport layover, you might be able to MAC 🙂 good use of your wait time with the new MAC Packed to Go travel Exclusives for spring 2011.

Travel exclusives are limited edition sets, and sometimes individual products, special to travel hubs like airports and duty free stores (you won’t find them at regular stores or counters).

A lot of the bigger beauty brands like MAC, Dior, Estee Lauder, Chanel and Guerlain (to name just a few), have them, and they’re a boon to beauty obsessed travelers like us.

MAC Packed to Go is being released in two “phases” for spring.

The first, available now, features three MAC Look In A Box kits, each one designed with a different themed look in mind using products for eyes, cheeks and lips.

The second phase, which launches in March, will encompass 11 MAC Packed to Go sets organized by category, like lipstick, Lipglass, mascara and brush.

I always try to keep an eye out for travel exclusives because some of them contain hard-to-find limited edition pieces from long lost (but not forgotten!) collections, making them great opportunities to snag something you might not have had the chance to get the first time around. Read more…

MEET CLINIQUE’S CONSERVATIVELY
SHARP MILLY PALETTE

Greetings and salutations, mon amie. I wanted to quickly show you the new Clinique Milly Pretty in Prints Palette ($36) in action.

What do ya think? I followed the tutorial that comes with the eye and cheek palette this afternoon, and the whole thing took only about 10 minutes to do.

The palette comes with four shadows and a blush; the shadows contain just the right amount of pigment, and all of them are super easy to blend. Heck, I’d call the palette downright perfect if it wasn’t for the matte brown shade, which left mad fallout on my cheeks when I used it as a liner today (which is what the tutorial suggests). Read more…

WHAT ARE YOUR TOP 5
MAC MUST HAVES?

I was digging through my MAC favorites this morning when I remembered a question asked by reader Sheila Z in the comments yesterday.

“Karen, I’ll be getting my makeup done this saturday at MAC for my brother-in-law’s engagement party. Part of the process requires that I buy at least 5 items. What are the top 5 you recommend?”

Hey, Sheila. Pardon me for this, but right now I feel Ready For The World! “Oh, oh, oh, oh, Sheila!”

(Please tell me you’re familiar with that song.)

With that out of the way, let’s get back to beauty. 🙂 You’re going to have such a blast at the MAC counter on Saturday. For what it’s worth, here are my five (current) MAC must-haves. Read more…

HAVE YOU SEEN THE NEW
ZOYA INTIMATE COLLECTION?

If you’ve yet to get your fill of purple, this spring’s prince of the color-sphere, feast your eyes on the sweet new shades in Zoya’s Intimate Collection ($7 each; available in six colors).

These make me want to play dress-up…like I should be wearing a floral print dress with sky-high pumps as I sport them on my nails.

And for some reason I can seem them going well with the Laura Mercier’s Silk Road Collection…

I only just put these on, so I can’t speak to wear time yet, but the other Zoya polishes I’ve tried resist chips and fading exceptionally well, especially when worn with the Color-Lock System (THE BEST!). Read more…

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Who Makes the Best Nail Clippers?

January 29th, 2011 by Karen 52 Comments

Who makes the best nail clippers?

Are you happy with your nail clippers? I’m serious. The pair I’ve been using, which is just one of those regular foldable stainless steel ones, tears up my nails. I go through all the work to paint ’em and then use clippers that might as well be garden shears. It doesn’t make a lot of sense.

I still haven’t found a pair I’d swear by, and my nails could use a hand.

Any recommendations? Who makes the best nail clippers?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

About That Black-and-White Polka-Dot iPhone Case…

January 29th, 2011 by Karen 31 Comments

Isn’t it too cute!? It’s the iPhone 4 Hard Cover case by Kate Spade ($40), and it was a gift from El Hub for Christmas.

It consists of two separate pieces of stiff, rather slippery plastic that snap together to protect the phone. I think my previous soft silicone cover was a little easier to hold, but I’m getting used to this one now and remembering to grip it tighter.

If you’re sensitive to sound, the hard case amplifies the clickity-clack sound the phone makes when it’s set to vibrate and ringing on a hard surface, and it gives me a start every time a call comes in!
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Two Ways to Win a $50 eGift Card from Sephora!

January 29th, 2011 by Karen 744 Comments

WINNER: The giveaway is closed now, and the winner is Zach! Congratulations, Zach! If you entered but didn’t win this time around, keep trying, and click here to enter any ongoing giveaways before you jet. 🙂

Win a $50 Sephora eGift card from Makeup and Beauty Blog

“Who…”

“Who…” said the owl outside my bedroom window. 🙂 Rise and shine, morning glory. It’s another foggy Hundred-Acre Wood day out here in chilly Northern California, and there’s an owl outside who sounds like he loves it.

I swear, that owl only calls out early on foggy mornings, which tells me he’s got a real flair for the dramatic.

How did you sleep? I’m only just getting up now, so I’m not altogether awake yet.

Did you do anything fun last night? We did end up going to Chipotle for dinner and then to See’s Candy for desert, where I learned a charming little factoid about my favorite chocolatier. Apparently, to gain access to the company’s secret kitchen at its South San Francisco headquarters, one must be employed by the company for 25 years, which makes me wonder…what the heck is going on in that kitchen??

In other completely random news, have you seen this pic of the new Spider-Man? Andrew Garfield (of The Social Network and the Red Riding Trilogy: Part 1) is reprising Tobey’s role in a reboot of the franchise.

I like Andrew, but Tobey did such a great job. Those are some big tights to fill…

And now back to beauty! If you haven’t already guessed, it’s giveaway time.

A Makeup and Beauty Blog Giveaway!

One (1) Sephora eGift card containing $50 sent to the winner by email (or $50 sent by PayPal instead).

There are two ways to enter, and you can do both of them for two chances to win. First, you can enter by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post, a comment about anything at all, like, where were you born? Did you play any sports in school? What’s your beauty Achilles’ heel? Do you color your hair? — you get the idea.
Second, you can enter by following me on Twitter @karenmbb and retweeting (RT) the following message:
- Follow @karenmbb and RT to Win a $50 eGift Card from Sephora! http://bit.ly/fvNftO

The deadline to enter is Sunday, January 30, 2011 at 11:59PM (PT).
Entrants must enter using a valid email address and/or Twitter account to win.
A maximum of two (2) entries per person — one within the comments at the bottom of this post, and a second entry via Twitter addressed to me @karenmbb.
Contest is open to individuals of any country who have reached the age of majority according to their local laws (18 in the United States with these exceptions: Alabama and Nebraska, 19; Mississippi, 21).
Sephora eGift Certificates can only be redeemed online and are not valid in stores or available for purchase or redemption in Canada. The winner may opt to substitute the Sephora eGift card prize for $50 sent directly to their email address by PayPal.
Tabs and I (heretofore referred to as “T-Money and K-Dawg”) will select one (1) winner at random from the entries either left in the comments at the bottom of this blog post or addressed to @karenmbb on Twitter.
The winner will be announced here within 48 hours of the deadline.
Void where prohibited by law.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

WINNER: The giveaway is closed now, and the winner is Zach! Congratulations, Zach! If you entered but didn’t win this time around, keep trying, and click here to enter any ongoing giveaways before you jet. 🙂

Josie Maran Dips Into the Argan Oil for Spring’s Matchmaker Serum Foundation and Illuminizer

January 28th, 2011 by Karen 18 Comments

Josie Maran Argan Matchmaker Serum Foundation on my face, Argan Illuminizer on my cheeks, beneath my eyes and on the brow bone

Model/makeup maestro Josie Maran likes argan oil almost as much as Tabs likes gravy, and she’s launching a new foundation and illuminator made with the stuff this spring.

Argan oil, of course (not gravy). 🙂

Sheer, lightweight Argan Matchmaker Serum Foundation ($42) adjusts to the wearer’s skin tone, beginning white, but changing color as it’s worked into the skin, while shimmery liquid Argan Illuminizer ($28) is designed to give skin a bronzy glow.

Both products will arrive in stores next month (but the foundation’s already available online at sephora.com) and contain Josie’s signature ingredient. Some refer to argan oil as something of a miracle ingredient — a skin-soothing, complexion-clearing, fine-line-erasing, skin-tone-improving, elasticity-restoring, inflammation-reducing miracle ingredient — and if it were any more amazing, it would probably rescue stray kittens on the side. 🙂

I’ve used a few of Josie’s other argan products but never detected a dramatic difference in my skin. That said, I do still like a lot about her line, like how she handles color, the textures she uses and, of course, that her products are eco and pet friendly (Tabs approved).

I dug around for clinical studies to support the use of argan oil and its effects on skin, but I didn’t turn anything up (other than this study on its consumption and heart disease).

Argan Matchmaker Serum Foundation, $42 for a 1-oz. bottle

Available in two shades, Light/Medium and Medium/Dark, this foundation’s supposed to correct fine lines and wrinkles, and cover other imperfections on the skin, while evening out skin tone.

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One Thing Is Clear: The Smashbox Limitless Long Wear Lip Glosses In Bloom

January 28th, 2011 by Karen 20 Comments

Can I just vent about my bangs for a moment? Because today they interfered with Smashbox’s spring In Bloom Limitless Long Wear Lip Glosses, and that’s just wrong.

Observe the redonkulous headband in the picture above, which I’ve resorted to wearing on account of my unruly bangs. Ever since I got them trimmed last week, they’ve been extremely uncooperative, jutting out at weird angles and generally behaving badly. The headband keeps them under wraps, but it also kinda steals this sheer gloss’s thunder.

The two cuties below ($21 for each 0.1-oz tube) are part of the recently released Smashbox In Bloom collection for spring (a limited edition affair), and while the collection’s springy floral theme hasn’t exactly revolutionized my concept of spring makeup, I’ve liked the products I’ve seen so far.

Smashbox In Bloom Limitless Long Wear Lip Gloss in Timeless (on the top) and Endless Kiss (on the bottom)

Shimmery coral Endless Kiss and shimmery pink Timeless come in the same long-wearing Limitless Lip Gloss formula Smashbox launched back in 2009.
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What Makeup Do You Have in Your Purse Right Now?

January 28th, 2011 by Karen 109 Comments

It being Friday, and with El Hub promising he’d take me out to dinner tonight, I’m trying to figure out what I want to wear tonight (still haven’t decided).

I also grabbed my current favorite purse, which — wouldn’t ya know it? — contains makeup. Big surprise, right? 🙂

Here’s what I have in mine right now (just the makeup)…

MAC Blot Pressed Powder ($22)
To cut down the shinies!
MAC Cream Colour Base in Hush ($16.50)
For a dewy glow, I apply this creamy peachy pink highlighter along the tops of my cheekbones, brow bones and down the bridge of my nose.
Urban Decay Afterglow Glide-On Cheek Tint in Crush ($24)
This creamy hot pink blush blends fast, and it doubles as a lip tint, too.
Chanel Rouge Allure Extrait de Gloss in Imaginaire ($32)
Non-sticky and long-lasting, this shimmery pink is one of several go-to glosses I keep in my purse.
Laura Mercier Kohl Eye Pencil in Stormy Grey ($18)
LOVE THIS! At certain angles, this shimmery deep grey liner (which works as a fantastic alternative to black), flashes subtle hints of green.
Laura Mercier Stickgloss in Pink Jewel ($20) and Lip Plumper in Ruby Glaze ($30)
Both from Laura’s new Silk Road Spring Collection, this duo of rosy pink perfection is one of my new favorite go-to lip combinations.
Diorskin Scupt Lifting Smoothing Concealer ($31)
My MAC Pro Longwear Concealer does a fantastic job of hiding my dark circles all day, but I’ve been keeping this light-as-a-feather concealer on hand for emergency touch ups (you never know).
Cargo Lip Gloss in Tokyo ($32)
One of five glosses from Cargo’s spring Voyages Gloss Collection, this sheer pink feels non-sticky and looks super shiny on my lips.

Whatcha got in yours?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Oh, I almost forgot. 🙂 It’s Friday.

Three Sheers for the $59 Smashbox Style Files: Eyes, Lips and Cheeks!

January 27th, 2011 by Karen 45 Comments

Smashbox Style Files

For my makeup today, I felt like something fun and fresh, but I didn’t want to think too hard.

Enter the Smashbox Style Files, a new limited edition Sephora exclusive set.

The Smashbox Style Files box

Style Files Shadow

Smashbox Style Files eye shadow palette
Style Files Shadow palette

These colors aren’t as pigmented as I’d hoped and suffer from some pretty mean fallout, but I do like how easy they are to blend. In all, you get eight shadows in…