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The Urban Decay Summer 2014 Collection Puts on the Glitz With Majorly Blinged-Out Loose Glitter

March 20th, 2014 by Karen 34 Comments

If I can’t come back in my next life as Wonder Woman, I’m sure as hell coming back as a Vegas showgirl. ‘Cause it ain’t happening in this lifetime, that’s for damned sure. I’ve got the flexibility of a concrete pretzel and a high kick that barely clears the height of a footstool.

But you know what? Even though I will (probably) never don a big feathered headdress and dance around in a sparkly outfit on a Vegas stage, at least I can say that in this life, in the summer of 2014, I will have glittered and sparkled, and for that, I gotta give big ups to Urban Decay.

The Heavy Metal Loose Glitters in their new summer collection are so bling, so BAM! — that you sparkle all day and night LIKE YOU FRICKIN’ MEAN IT, MAN, when you wear them on your eyes.

They’re coming soon to UD counters but glittering now online with the rest of the summer collection.

Lots of fun things to play with here. Along with the six loose glitters, there’s also a weightless liquid glitter glue (to keep your glitter in place), a crop of several new liners for smokey eye looks and two new polishes (there’s also a small polish kit not shown here).

Are you ready for a quick tour? Here, take my hand… 🙂

Heavy Metal Loose Glitters ($12 each)

The new Urban Decay Heavy Metal Loose Glitters ($12 each)

These are my favorite things in the launch! Even if you don’t fancy yourself as a glitter gal/guy, you still may want to boogie down with these.

They’re just so fun and sparkly! — and guaranteed to put a smile on your face. 🙂

The flecks of glitter are bigger than the flecks in Urban Decay’s Heavy Metal Glitter Eyeliners, so I’m warning you — brace yourself for major glitz.

Here’s the idea: you’re supposed to apply a small amount of Urban Decay’s clear Bondage makeup adhesive ($14) to your lids (or wherever else you’d like to wear loose glitter) first, and then pack your choice of glitters on top.

Once the glue dries, that glitter isn’t going anywhere.

I appreciate the sifter caps, too, which make it easy to regulate how much glitter I’m using. Don’t forget to remove the tape that covers the holes the first time you open it, though, because I didn’t see it at first and kept wondering, “Hmm… Why isn’t the glitter coming out?” I was just about to bite the sifter when I noticed the tape, haha! #schoolforthegifted

Also, if you plan to line your eyes with one of the new liners in the launch, you may want to do your liner before applying your glitter.

Why? Oh, because I think it’s just a really, REALLY big pain to apply liner on top of glitter. I’m just sayin’… Save yourself the drama by lining first.

Urban Decay Catfight Heavy Metal Loose Glitter — Urban Decay’s pink Catfight Heavy Metal Loose Glitter ($12)

Urban Decay Goldmine Heavy Metal Glitter, a yellow gold glitter ($12)

Urban Decay ACDC Heavy Metal Loose Glitter, a bright purple ($12)

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The New Essie Spring 2014 Fashion Playground Collection: This Fashion Playground Looks Good Outside, Like It Was Inspired by Mother Nature

March 18th, 2014 by Karen 50 Comments

A Fashion Playground?

Nay, I say it’s an equinox-icating spring feast for the eyes! Like spring distilled into nail polish bottles, except without the — AHCHOO! — allergies.

Pass the Zyrtec and Kleenex, please, because I do not want to sneeze all over these beautiful bottles.

Like butterflies, the six-piece Essie Spring 2014 Fashion Playground collection flitted onto counters earlier this month, and I treated my paws to ’em this morning (SKITTLES MANI!) before going for a walk…

It’s crazy just how springy these six shades seem, like the bright blue sky and the two blue shades, or the mint green and the budding leaves on the oak trees outside. There’s also a big cherry tree down the street, and the blossoms are spitting images of the peach and pink pastels. And then there’s the fire bougainvillea bush, which could have been painted by the bright red.

These colors totally say, “Hey, y’all, spring is in full effect!” to me. 🙂

Officially, fashion runways were supposed to have inspired this release, like vintage denim and oversized prints — that kind of thing — but my crazy makeup mind sees more Mother Nature’s influence than Michael Kors’. Like Team Essie sat down with Mother Nature and brainstormed over a few cups of really strong Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee in a caffeine-fueled frenzy, then BOOM! — someone in the art department mixed some acrylics at the table to come up with azure Hide & Go Chic, light denim Truth or Flare, pistachio Fashion Playground, peachy nude Spin the Bottle, crimson Style Hunter and pale tea rose Romper Room.

What to watch

Essie is well-known for their delicate nudes and pastels, and chances are good that if you walk into any nail salon that carries the brand, you’ll see pale pinks, peaches and beiges FOR DAYS.

OK, those are fairly great, but I always look forward to their blues and greens (see: Mojito Madness, Pretty Edgy, Naughty Nautical and Under the Twilight).

Over the past few years, Essie’s released quite a few jazzy blue and green shades I can remember, which is kind of funny considering that for years I thought of the line as specializing in dainty bridal nails — primarily pinks and nudes.

This time around, I think the blues and greens are again the colors to watch out for (at least for me).

Hide & Go Chic

If you get a chance, let your paws play with Hide & Go Chic, the dark creamy blue.

I mean, look at it! It’s so rich… So deep… And a single layer works just fine (even though I went with two to be consistent with the other shades).

I also think this is the one that’ll sing on the widest range of skin tones. It’s the people’s blue!

Truth or Flare

True or Flare, the lighter, vintage denim blue, definitely benefits from a second coat. On my NC42 skin, I feel like the color doesn’t reach out and grab you by the eyeballs as readily as Hide & Go Chic. I like it, but I have a feeling it’ll like lighter lasses best.

Fashion Playground

And then there’s the green… Fashion Playground. Described as a pistachio shimmer, it certainly sounds delicious to me. 🙂 But I get more of a straight-up mint cream, as the tiny flecks of silver glitter swimming in the formula are very hard to see.

At first glance, it resembles Essie’s Candy Apple, but upon closer inspection I think it’s sightly deeper and darker.

One may have to play with Fashion Playground a bit (Ha! Sorry, bad pun). Two thick coats deliver fully opaque coverage, but they have to be thick… With thinner coats, it can look a little streaky and require 3-4 layers.

The remaining colors — the bright red and two creamy pale shades — strike me as rather typical of Essie (I feel like I’ve seen shades like them before), which is neither good nor bad, but they don’t really light my fire like the blues and greens.

Style Hunter

Crimson Style Hunter leans, ever so slightly, toward magenta. This one should be a blast on toes, methinks. 🙂 One coat or two works well.

Romper Room

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Like Lip Product Lycanthropes, These New Bobbi Brown Art Sticks Combine a Lipstick and a Liner in One Chunky Crayon

March 7th, 2014 by Karen 18 Comments

Makeup pop quiz question 1: Is it a lipstick, a lip liner or just a good ‘ol-fashioned excuse to pretend we’re back in eighth-grade art class?

Answer: D, all of the above. The new Bobbi Brown Art Sticks ($26 each) are all of those things!

Spotted these chunky lip crayons at Saks Fifth Avenue in the city this afternoon. They’re like lipstick lycanthropes — part lipstick, part liner, 100-percent pure chunky stick pencil fun.

And pretty convenient tools if you like to streamline, am I right?

Not that I’m prepared to ditch any of the 3,646 lip products I regularly tote around with me throughout the day, but still. It’s nice to know that if I could streamline my lip product situation if I ever needed to.

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The Bobbi Brown Nectar & Nude Collection Intoxicates Makeup Lovers With an Ambrosia of Beige, Brown, Peach and Coral

February 17th, 2014 by Karen 23 Comments

The new Bobbi Brown Nectar & Nude Collection

Truth be told, I was not expecting to run into this ray of sunshine when I swung by the Bobbi Brown counter at the mall today.

I was just stopping by to spritz a little Beach on my wrist (seriously, on a cold day, that stuff is better than an electric blanket), but then I spotted this limited edition collection…

Bobbi Brown Nectar & Nude Collection — Clockwise from the round pan in the lower left: the limited edition Pot Rouge for Lips & Cheeks in Hibiscus ($26); limited edition Nectar & Nude Eye Palette ($48); limited edition Glitter Nail Polish in Bare Peach ($15); and the limited edition Lip Glosses in Nectar, Nude Pink and Bare Peach ($25 each). Not pictured from the collection: limited edition Nail Polish in Nectar ($15) and the permanent Nectar Shimmer Brick ($42)

It reminds me of 2012’s Neons & Nudes collection (remember that one?), but with peach and coral instead of purple and hot pink.

I do wish the eyeshadows weren’t so…well, nude. I would’ve loved to see some darker, richer browns, but that’s probably just my tan talking (“Please, Bobbi! Don’t make me have to apply so many layers!”). Lighter lasses should be able to pull off these shades (and do great things with them) more easily.

Bobbi Brown Nectar & Nude Eye Palette — The Nectar & Nude Eye Palette ($48)

Bobbi Brown Nectar & Nude Lip Glosses — Nectar & Nude Lip Glosses ($25 each)

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The OPI Brazil Beach Sandies Mini Kit Says Bye-Bye to Boring With Four Vivid Textured Polishes

February 13th, 2014 by Karen 16 Comments

The new four-piece OPI Brazil Beach Sandies Mini Kit, $12.95

Very clever, OPI. Very clever. 🙂

The part of me that lives to over-think the symbolic significance of everything loves the juxtaposition of gritty sand, neutrals and bright pigments in the OPI Brazil collection.

On one end, there are the sandy-colored neutral polishes in the overarching 12-piece OPI Brazil collection, which all have a smooth, creamy finish.

On the other, there are the four vivacious mini polishes here in the accompanying Brazil Beach Sandies Kit ($12.95), all of which have OPI’s pebbled, textured Liquid Sand finish in bright, eye-catching shades, also known as psychedelic party sand for your paws.

Even if you aren’t a big fan of textured polishes, I think these vivid shades are still worth a try if you like playful, cheerful colors. They’re seriously smile-inducing, and the names — You’re So Flippy Floppy, What’s a Little Rain Forest, Samba-dy Loves Purple and I’m Brazil Nuts Over You — are catchy, too.

In each of the swatches below, I’m wearing two coats…

OPI You're So Flippy Floppy — You’re So Flippy Floppy

OPI What's A Little Rain Forest — What’s A Little Rain Forest

OPI Samba-dy Loves Purple — Samba-dy Loves Purple

OPI I'm Brazil Nuts Over You — I’m Brazil Nuts Over You

OPI Brazil Beach Sandies Mini Kit — The front of the box

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It’s a Carnival of Color as Vivid Brights Samba on Tips and Toes in OPI’s New Brazil Collection

February 13th, 2014 by Karen 21 Comments

Next time I enjoy a plate of feijoada while beautiful women in colorful bejeweled thongs and feathered headdresses dance around my table, you better believe I’ll be wearing one or two (or 12!) of the shades in OPI’s new Brazil collection on my nails!

The OPI Brazil collection, available now

Where am I going with this?

One word: Brazil (by way of San Francisco).

One of my favorite places to eat in the city is a Brazilian restaurant called Canto do Brazil, and dining there is a total experience. First, the food — beyond yummy, and not overpriced (the plantains, beans and rice, OMG!).

But that’s not all. There’s also the show. 🙂 While you eat, gorgeous Brazilian showgirls in Carnival regalia dance around the tables and try to coax diners to dance with them.

Last time I was there, I was too focused on the mountain of carb-tacular goodness in front of me to shake my groove thang, but next time, it’s ON! Because I’ll have an extra reason — the beautiful brights in OPI’s new 12-piece collection ($9 each), which I love, love, LOVE.

OK, sure, I think the neutrals in the collection are pretty, too. I mean, I appreciate elegant neutral nails as much as the next girl, especially when worn with a bright lipstick, and I think the muted pewter, taupe, mocha, nude and chocolate shades here play off bolder colors nicely.

But the brights! Oh, the brights… Inspired by rainforest flowers, the creamy yellow, coral, orange, pink, red and deep jungle green, are just so blasted rich and vivid that you may feel the urge to hop on a flight to Rio right meow. 🙂

OPI I Just Can't Cope-Acabana, a creamy sunshine yellow — Just Can’t Cope-Acabana, a creamy sunshine yellow

OPI AmazON...AmazOFF, a creamy deep jungle green — AmazON…AmazOFF, a creamy deep jungle green

OPI Where Did Suzi's Man-Go?, a creamy mango orange — Where Did Suzi’s Man-Go?, a creamy mango orange

OPI Kiss Me I'm Brazilian, a creamy warm pink — Kiss Me I’m Brazilian, a creamy warm pink

OPI Toucan Do It If You Try, a creamy confidant orange — Toucan Do It If You Try, a creamy confidant orange

OPI Live.Love.Carnaval, a vibrant coral — Live.Love.Carnaval, a vibrant coral

OPI Red Hot Rio, a ruby red — Red Hot Rio, a ruby red

OPI Scores a Goal, a creamy rich chocolate

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MAC A Fantasy of Flowers: Like the Best Parts of Spring (Without the Allergies)

February 5th, 2014 by Karen 25 Comments

Spring. Fifth grade. The mid ’80s. You couldn’t miss me as I navigated the hallowed halls of Alvarado Middle School, not because of my terrible hair (I had the same ‘do as all of my Filipino uncles… Ugh, so tragic!), but because I was a walking floral nightmare. Not a floral fantasy, like MAC’s new 34-piece A Fantasy of Flowers collection.

My floral jacket. It. Was. Hideous. It was the jacket I wore with every single outfit, even though it didn’t go with anything, and it just made me look crazy. It had this obnoxious floral print with all sorts of flowers just mushed on top of each other. It was ugly, but I thought I was the sh*t.

This collection isn’t like that jacket at all. It’s colorful, but in a balanced way that makes sense. It’s like wandering through a carefully thought out cottage garden…

There are lots of floral hues, pinks, corals peaches, purples and roses grounded with earthier browns and lush greens. It’s like a garden early on a dewy morning, and everything is fresh, and there’s a sense of newness, and that’s because there are lots of shimmery finishes here that catch the light, just like drops of dew catch sunlight on flower petals.

Most of the shimmer comes from the Mineralize products — Eye Shadows, Blushes and Skinfinishes.

This isn’t the kind of collection where the cheeks and eyes look real and natural, and for me that’s the fantastical part of this floral fantasy. The shimmers are turned up! — and wearing them makes me feel like a more glamorous version of my everyday self. Then, you add the really bright Fluidlines and Pigments in the release, which are like the statement pieces for me, and you get even more fantastical.

MAC A Fantasy of Flowers Mineralize Skinfinish and Blushes — A Fantasy of Flowers Mineralize Skinfinishes ($30 each) and Mineralize Blushes ($25 each)

There’s a lot going on with cheeks and eyes here, and perhaps because of that MAC kept the lips relatively tame. The colors — pink, coral, peach, berry and rose — remind me of misted flower petals and fancy bouquets… All six of the Lipsticks are in MAC’s creamy Lustre finish, and the six glosses are Cremesheen Glasses, so the lippies are pretty much sheer-to-medium coverage. Nothing too heavy or super opaque, and even the darkest and brightest lip shades are sheer enough to allow some of your natural lip color to peek through.

I had some fun with these pics, but I have a lot more planned for this release — looks and more in-depth reviews. The release arrives on counters tomorrow and is available now on maccosmetics.com.

Take a stroll through MAC’s latest garden, and let me know what you think. 🙂

MAC A Fantasy of Flowers Eyeshadows Fluidlines Pigments — A Fantasy of Flowers Mineralize Eye Shadows ($21 each), Fluidlines ($16 each) and Pigments ($21 each)

MAC A Fantasy of Flowers Cremesheen Glasses and Lipsticks — A Fantasy of Flowers Cremesheen Glasses ($20 each) and Lipsticks ($15 each)

MAC A Perfect Topping Skinfinish, a a pale pearly pink — A Perfect Topping Skinfinish, a a pale pearly pink

MAC Stereo Rose Mineralize Skinfinish, a coppery bronze — Stereo Rose Mineralize Skinfinish, a coppery bronze

MAC Pink Sensibilities Mineralize Eye Shadow, a pinkish brown, a chocolate brown, a yellowish pink and an icy bluish pink — Pink Sensibilities Mineralize Eye Shadow, a pinkish brown, a chocolate brown, a yellowish pink and an icy bluish pink

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Today Felt Like a Guerlain Spring 2014 Kind of Day

January 28th, 2014 by Karen 30 Comments

When I passed him in the kitchen this morning wearing this look with pieces from Guerlain’s new spring collection, the first thing El Hub said was, “You smell good!”

But I wasn’t wearing any perfume, unless you count the cloud of Eau de Tabby Cat that permeates my clothes…

I’m pretty sure he was picking up the scent of my makeup, despite that fact that he has the worst sense of smell (his nose was broken several times in his martial arts days), because Guerlain’s spring stuff smells amaze-balls! — like plumeria and jasmine. Even their brow powder smells really good.

Having slept well and feeling good, I was in the mood to wear something a little colorful today, so I did this green and taupe eye with pink cheeks and fuchsia lips.

Guerlain Ecrin 4 Eyeshadows in Les Tendres, $63 (limited edition)

Guerlain Meteorites Blush in Cherry, $42 (also limited edition)

Guerlain Météorites Pearls in 03 Medium — Guerlain Météorites Pearls in 02 Clair, $60 (permanent)

Guerlain Meterorites Brush — Meterorites Brush, $42 (permanent)

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