Becca

BECCA Après Ski Glow Face Palette for Holiday 2017

October 20th, 2017 by Karen 2 Comments

becca apres ski glow face palette k — BECCA Eye Lights Palette on my eyes and NARS Vibeke Lipstick

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — I am not a snow person.

I mean, I like hanging out in the lodge by the fire with a glass of wine on a bearskin rug after snowboarding… You get back to the cabin after a day on the slopes, have some hot cocoa and snacks. That’s cool, right? And then, like, your skin looks all glowy, like you’re wearing the BECCA Après Ski Glow Collection Face Palette ($45), because you’ve been exerting yourself on the slopes.

becca apres ski glow face palette open — Ready to glow?

becca apres ski glow-face palette swatches final — From the top: Rose Quartz, Icicle, Winter Berry, Blushed Copper, Opal, Bronzed Bondi

BECCA sure knows how to handle seamless integrations, ya know? When I wear their products, I can’t tell where my bronzer stops and my blush begins, and that also goes for their highlighters. Their products melt into each other without leaving any harsh lines. Their Shimmering Skin Perfectors basically blend like you’re frosting a cake.

Enter the BECCA Après Ski Glow Face Palette for Holiday 2017.

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BECCA Après Ski Glow Collection Eye Lights Palette for Holiday 2017

October 19th, 2017 by Karen 1 Comment

becca eye lights palette k — BECCA Après Ski Glow Face Palette on my cheeks and NARS Vibeke Lipstick

If the thought of wearing a face product on your eyes freaks you out (apparently, it does not freak me out, ha!), don’t worry. The new $45 BECCA Après Ski Glow Collection Eye Lights Palette is officially an eye product…even though the “shadows” in it have almost the same formula as the actual BECCA Shimmering Skin Perfector Powders. 🙂

(Side note: am I the only one who already uses the BECCA Shimmering Skin Perfecting Powders and Bronzers as eyeshadows? Just curious…)

becca eye lights palette open — Let’s talk about brown shadow, baby!

This is a gorgeous palette. It has seven neutral shades — two of them new (bodaciously buttery brown Toasted Marshmallow and Hot Cocoa) and five of them based on existing highlighters in the BECCA permanent line.

All of them feel just as soft and buttery, and blend just as easily, as BECCA’s full-fledged, official highlighters.

I like using the browns (big surprise) as quickie crease colors, because they aren’t very pigmented, so you can almost instantly define your eyes by swishing a few swipes on your lids.

Golden brown Toasted Marshmallow is basically rocking my world right now. It looks a little like MAC Soba to me, but with, like, amplified golden pearl. And reddish brown Hot Cocoa looks like a satiny version of MAC Swiss Chocolate. It’s red, but it isn’t too red, if you know what I mean.

The only big catch with this palette, and it is kind of a big catch, is that most of the shades — the lighter ones, especially — all (with the exception of Topaz) look pretty much the same on my NC 42 skin, so if you’re my shade or darker…it’s kinda repetitive.

I’m just sayin’.

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Product Shout-Out: BECCA Lilac Geode Shimmering Skin Perfector Powder

October 10th, 2017 by Karen 8 Comments

Normally, I would have no business wearing a purple highlighter. I’ll leave that to the club kids who wanna channel their inner unicorn, because lilac highlights are kind of unicorn makeup, right?

Not as hardcore unicorn as rainbow stripe highlights on your cheeks, but still…majorly unicorn-y.

But BECCA Lilac Geode Shimmering Skin Perfector surprised me.

OK, first of all, and I’ll be the first person to admit this, but this swatch is totally lame.

becca lilac geode swatch — The camera doesn’t pick up the purple flash, but it’s there, though!

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On Wednesdays We Wear Pink (and Purple)

October 4th, 2017 by Karen 9 Comments

igk-girls-club-mac pinklight strobe cream becca pink haze — It’s a pink hump day party with IGK Girls Club Color Spray, MAC Pinklite Strobe Cream and BECCA Pink Haze Soft Blurring Powder.

In the wise words of the Mean Girls movie, “On Wednesdays we wear pink,” and whoops! — sometimes purple, thanks to this temporary hair color spray by IGK, Girls Club ($19), which looks more like purple in my hair.

igk girls club — I call this pose “Purple-haired girl gazes out window.”

I like it, though. It smells like too-sweet bubblegum, and I have to use about half a can before the color really comes through, but I still think it’s fun, especially on mornings when the thought of covering my salt-and-pepper roots with regular ol’ root spray (I use the one by Rita Hazan) is just waaaaaay too depressing.

Even though I have to use a lot, so it’s not something I’ll do every day (because it’s $19), I think it’s better than most of the temporary hair color sprays I’ve used. It doesn’t make my hair feel crunchy (YAY!), and it’s easy to wash out.

OH, EM GEE, change my world, why don’t you?! BECCA Pink Haze Soft Blurring Powder ($38) is a loose makeup setting powder with a sheer pearly pink tint, and it subtly brightens your face, but you can’t, like, really tell when you first put it on. It takes 10-15 minutes before it seems to settle on the skin. Then you can see the subtle soft pink pearl reflecting in the light.

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BECCA Lush Lip Colour Balm for Build-Able Rich Browns and Burgundies

August 14th, 2017 by Karen 12 Comments

Reading the names of the colors for the new BECCA Lip Colour Balms is like reading the menu at a hip neighborhood coffee shop.

There’s a Chai Crème, a Cherry Ganache, Café au Lait, Almond Fraise and a few others…YUM! “Yeah, can I please get a medium Toasted Hazelnut with 2% and no foam?”

Never been a fan of the foam…

Which reminds me, I found THE BEST coffee drink on planet Earth about a month ago. Problem is, it was two hours away, GAHHHH! But more on that in a few.

Look and feel like the Chanel Rouge Cocos

The BECCA Lush Lip Colour Balms are Ulta exclusives available now for $22 in the permanent line. They’re incredibly lightweight, hella hydrating, highly pigmented nude lip balms that won’t last long on your lips. I get about two hours at the most.

There are eight sheer shades, and you can build them up to medium coverage. For me they fall smack dab in the “shiny but not too shiny” category, a la the Chanel Rouge Cocos.

Nudes for all skin tones

I like that there are some rich browns and burgundies among them (good nude options for deeper skin tones), so they aren’t all just standard pale pinks and beige. BECCA has always been great about including shades for a wide range of skin tones, and they’re keeping it up here.

But do they taste like coffee?

I expected they might based on the shade names (which would be SO next level!), but alas, they don’t.

They taste a little like vanilla. Maybe. If I close my eyes and think about it, LOL!

Chai Creme, the one closest to my natural lip color, has been chillin’ in my purse for the past two weeks, except when it isn’t because I’ve swapped it out for Ginger Vanille or Cafe Milk Chocolate. I dig that I can slick any of them on my lips without needing a mirror.

I’m diggin’ these darker nudes

They’re low-maintenance, and you can still dial up the intensity by adding an extra layer or two. Recommended if you like moisturizing lip colors but refuse to deal with drama!

becca lush lip colour balm cherry grande — Cherry Grande

becca lush lip colour balm black violet — Black Violet

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BECCA Liquid Crystal Glow Gloss Officially Has Nothing to Do With “The Dark Crystal,” But I Feel Like It Should

June 23rd, 2017 by Karen 22 Comments

becca rose quartz seashell liquid crystal 3 — When you hold your lip gloss like a magic wand… I’m wearing BECCA Liquid Crystal Glow Gloss in Rose Quartz x Seashell ($22 and one of six shades), by the way!

So, I realize that the new BECCA Liquid Crystal Glow Glosses officially have nothing to do with the 1982 Jim Henson classic, The Dark Crystal, but I feel like they should, because the movie featured a cracked gem, and these glosses are inspired by gems that have been melted down to liquid form…

Um…leave it the the girl who named her kid after the heroine in the Terminator movies to find the sci-fi angle, LOL.

becca champagne dream liquid crystal 1 — This one is my favorite: Champagne Dream x Bellini

Anyway…I like these a lot. Some more than others. They’re a new line of sheer glosses with different levels of glitter, pearl and shimmer, and you can wear them as standalone lip glosses or layer them on top of lipstick.

“Buuuuut, Karen,” I can already hear you saying, “Can’t you layer any old gloss on top of lipstick?”

Why, yes, sweet thing! You certainly can.

becca amethyst geode liquid crystal 6 — Amethyst X Geode

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A “Gilt and Gloss” Makeup Look With Nudestix and Urban Decay

June 9th, 2017 by Karen 15 Comments

Ya know, this whole “makeup in 30 minutes or less thing” I’ve been doing all week long has been VERY liberating. To think, there was a time when I didn’t want to try anything beyond basic makeup because I thought that any looks worth doing would take at least 45 minutes to an hour (or sometimes two).

This look took 20 minutes and — get this! — only one brush. I used an angled eye brush to take out the edges of the cat eye.

Oh, and a BeautyBlender, if we’re being really picky.

To blend the makeup on my eyes, cheeks and lips, I just used my fingers! I’ve been inspired by a makeup artist a friend of mine named Fieran (hey, Fieran!) introduced me to, violetta_fr on YouTube. She’s this impossibly chic French woman who lives in New York, and she does most of her application with her fingers and a handful of products (only what she can fit in her cross-body Chanel purse).

It’s refreshing to see makeup out there beyond the hyper-glam beat that dominates social media, ya know?

Anywho, I call this look “Gilt and Gloss” because I used a mix of sparkly glitter, golden shimmer, and matte taupe and beige eye gloss on my lids.

I wanted to play with finishes and textures, and I wanted to do it in a messy, grungy way that still looks somewhat “lady like.”

For my eyes, I drew thick cat eye liner with a taupe matte shadow stick (Nudestix Magnetic Matte Eye Color in Slate). Then I used my fingers to smudge the edges on my lids.

Next, I took a shimmery neutral gold shadow stick called Gilt (also by Nudestix) and layered that on top of the taupe (quick! — say “top of the taupe” five times fast) on my lids, blending it with my fingers. I wanted to keep the flicks and my lower lash line dark, so I didn’t layer the gold on those parts.

Then I grabbed a pan of Urban Decay Diamond Dog Eyeshadow, a delicious glittery golden brown, and dabbed it on my lids with a finger, and then loaded my lashes with HELLA mascara (MAC In Extra Dimension Waterproof).

Lastly, I applied highlighter in my inner corners using a shiny beige eye gloss called Milk Makeup Eye Vinyl in Bridge.

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The New BECCA Sunlit Bronzers: Are they powders? Are they creams?

May 19th, 2017 by Karen 14 Comments

Basically, BECCA’s been winning at life lately. I like everything they’d done lately, especially their complexion products over the past couple of months — the Chrissy Teigen Palette, the Sunchaser Palette and now the new $38 Sunlit Bronzers.

They’ve totally set the bar higher for glamorous yet natural-looking face makeup.

Yeah, not that I need another bronzer in my life, but these Sunlit Bronzers freakin’ slay. They’re available now online at Sephora, the BECCA website, and they recently showed up at Sephora stores, too.

There are five shades, and all of them, except for Maui Nights, the bronzer for deep skin tones, have neutral golden undertones, rather than warm orange or rosy gold undertones (Maui Nights is more reddish), and I think that’s the main reason why they look so much like a real tan.

Bali Sands — Inspired by warm, glistening Balinese beaches (ah…), this subtle golden beige/bronze will give all-over warmth to fair skin tones.
Capri Coast — This warm golden brown achieves perfect sun-kissed radiance on light and medium skin tones.
Bronzed Bondi — This medium amber for medium skin tones will make you look like you just spent a dreamy day at the beach.
Ipanema Sun — This medium auburn brown is inspired by the sun-drenched shores of Ipanema and gives medium and darker skin tones a healthy, golden glow.
Maui Nights — Perfect for deep skin tones, this ultra-rich, sienna-kissed bronze evokes the rich, warm glow of mesmerizing Maui.
— beccacosmetics.com (paraphrased)

When you roll up to the display (ideally without a basket, girl!!!), take a finger and glide it across the pan so you can feel and experience the magic in person.

Are they powders?? Are they creams?? Technically, these are powder bronzers, but they feel almost wet, right? That’s the special sauce with BECCA powders and these bronzers. They’re crazy creamy.

becca sunlit bronzer swatch — Swatches from the top: Bali Ssands, Capri Coast, Bronzed Bondi, Ipanema Sun and Maui Nights

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