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NARS Pop Goes the Easel Sheer Pop Multiples in Navagio Beach, Motu Tane and Cote Basque

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New NARS Sheer Pop Multiples from the Pop Goes the Easel collection (a Nordstrom exclusive)

OK, NARS, I see you. I see what you’re doing. 😉 I see how you named your new Sheer Pop Multiples after ah-may-zing beaches, all three of which are on my bucket list now.

Navagio Beach in Greece… Girl, mark my words, someday I’ll swim those aquamarine waters.

Someday…

Surf’s up! (But only for a limited time.)

Like a bubble at the beach, these three will eventually pop away. They’ll only be around for a limited time, and they have a very beachy vibe to go with their beachy names. They’re on counters now with the rest of the new NARS Pop Goes the Easel collection, a limited edition Nordstrom exclusive with blushes, lipsticks and these multiples.

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Pop Goes the Easel

Navagio Beach is a luminous, pearly golden beige; Motu Tane is a satiny, rosy pink; and Cote Basque is a satiny, bright watermelon pink with tiny golden glitter pieces.

Purposefully sheer

Like the regular NARS Multiples, these creamy sticks are made for eyes, lips and cheeks, and they have that same smooth texture. They feel like a cream blush that you left open overnight, and the next day it still feels like a cream, only drier.

Unlike the regular full-coverage NARS Multiples, however, the Sheer Pops are semi-opaque, so you really have to be in a sheer mindset.

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NARS Sheer Pop Multiples from the left in Cote Basque, Motu Tane and Navagio Beach

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The MAC Metallic Lips Collection: The Nudes Are Rocking My World

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The MAC Metallic Lipstick Collection

I walked into Urban Outfitters last weekend and saw a dress that looks exactly like the one I used to wear on first dates (with black combat boots, of course).

The ’90s are back! — and they’re haunting me, but, like, in a friendly ghost kind of way.

Also, this new MAC Metallic Lipstick in Silver Spoon from the new MAC Metallic Lips collection looks exactly like a shade I wore at that time. It was a grayish taupe metallic marvel that I wore with unblended dark purple lip liner, and yes, girl, I thought I looked like hot sh*t, LOL!

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MAC Metallic Lipstick in Silver Spoon

Lots of the lippies in this collection, which is available starting today through May 4th, look retro IMO. There are 18 of them, and they’re $17 each.

A new formula

It’s called Metallic, and MAC says it’s a combination of a matte formula and a traditional metallic finish. They feel like a matte, because they’ve got that weight and thickness, but they’re shiny, shiny, shiny!

While the MAC Frost lipsticks have a fine pearl, the Metallics have small and medium-sized pieces of glitter, and they catch A LOT of light. Very eye-catching and beautiful, particularly when you peep them up close.

They last about three hours for me and — surprisingly — aren’t drying. I’m serious, most of the time, matte and metallic lipsticks suck every molecule of moisture out of my lips, but these don’t, which is not to say that they’re moisturizing…because I wouldn’t go that far. I would just say that they aren’t very drying.

I sort of think of the collection as having three parts — the nudes, the basic bolds (your wines, burgundies and pinks) and your cray-cray colors (your greens, blues and “edgy” lip colors).

The nudes are rocking my world

Nude metallics can be tricky, because they can age you and make your lips look very dry when they settle into your lip lines. Thankfully, these are consistently smooth, so they don’t do that, and they aren’t patchy either.

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MAC Metallic Lipstick in In Lust
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MAC Metallic Lipstick in Modern Manners

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What I Wore Wednesday, Vol. 5: MAC Swiss Chocolate and Heroine Lipstick

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I feel like this eye look with MAC Swiss Chocolate Eye Shadow is more fall than spring, but eh, whatcha gonna do? Sometimes, the body wants chocolate, and when the body wants chocolate, YOU GIVE THE BODY ?? CHOCOLATE, lest horrible consequences ensue.

mac swiss chocolate heroine

I don’t know why it occurred to me today (CHOCOLATE, CHOCOLATE, CHOCOLATE), but I got this idea to wear Swiss Chocolate shadow with Heroine Lipstick from Sam at Pixiwoo (don’t you just love her?). She wore them together in a video a few years back. On her lighter skin tone, Swiss Chocolate looks reddish brown, but it leans a little more purplish on me. I think it’s a lovely color.

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I didn’t follow Sam’s tutorial to a T because, ya know, I’m all ’bout that improv life, but I tried to maintain the “essence” of the look… I just put my personal Karen spin on it. 🙂

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The Lust List, Vol. 1: Stuff That I Kinda Want

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Ah, my makeup wish list/lust list is long and seemingly never-ending. Here’s what’s on my list and mind this week…

  1. Smith & Cult’s nail polishes in creamy grayish jade Bitter Buddhist and buttery pale yellow The Bee Side, which are $18 each.

    Exit the Void was the color that officially converted me into a Smith & Cult fan. One coat of that is like three coats of any other nail polish. We’re talking REAL DEAL pigment, and now I want to try Bitter Buddhist and The Bee Side.

  2. Right now there are TWO of these extra large refillable metal palettes in my cart at makeupforever.com. They’re only $14 each, and I’ve got dreams of filling them with Kjaer Weis products. I’d like one for creams and one for powders.

    I’d start the cream palette with Kjaer Weis Cream Blush in Blossoming (because my pan of Sun Touched needs a friend) and the powder palette with Eye Shadow in Magnetic (because I gotta have ALL. THE. BROWNS.).

  3. Souffle D’ Eclat Finishing Veil, a loose powder from YSL, needs to stop tempting me… I heard about it from Candace Sheppard, a makeup artist on Instagram who I love for the glamorous (but not over the top) beauty looks she does. It’s for setting highlighted areas on your face, and I feel like I need it my life like yesterday.
  4. And I’m dying to try Stellar makeup at Sephora. It’s a new makeup line with foundations and highlighters and face products made specifically for medium skin tones.

    Get this: they have all of the in-between shades for medium girls. STOKED.

  5. And lastly, this Drunk Elephant C‑Firma Day Serum, which I keep hearing good things about. It’s a vitamin C serum, and I have some pigmentation on my cheeks that I’d like to address.

I haven’t purchased any of these yet, but I’d like to. I’m seriously considering one or two of them.

What’s on your lust list now?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Make Up For Ever Star Lit Powder: I’ll Happily Navigate by This Star

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Make Up For Ever Star Lit Powder

Do these jars of Make Up For Ever Star Lit Powder look like something from Ursa Major?

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LOL! Seriously, these things are shiny, man! If it was just you on a boat and these Star Lit Powders, you could navigate your way back to land.

SO SHINY.

100% Instagram-friendly highlighter

If there were an official OTT Instagram-friendly highlighter, this would be it. Each of the eight $21 shades has 0.09 ounces of loose, shimmery powder that you can wear wet or dry on your eyes, lips or cheeks.

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Make Up Forever Star Lit Powder swatches from the left in 19, 15, 13 and 02

INTENSE pearl

The shimmer is less like a glitter and more like an intense pearl. As highlighters, these are a little too bada-bing-bada-bang for me, but I like them as lid colors, because when you get them right up next to a satin or a matte in the crease, the high-shine POPS! — and if you have hooded, or slightly hooded, lids like I do, it makes your crease look deeper, like it’s comin’ right atcha.

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Unsung Makeup Heroes: Kjær Weis Sun Touched Cream Blush

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Kjaer Wis Cream Blush in Sun Touched

The long-running Unsung Heroes series here on Makeup and Beauty Blog features some of our all-time favorite permanent collection products.

If you think about, if you were to be literally touched by the sun — as in, within the corona of a hot ball of glowing gas — that would probably not be very good.

However, being touched by Kjær Weis Sun Touched Cream Blush, on the other hand, is another story.

For a healthy glow

This has been my favorite blush since I discovered it last December. I didn’t get a lot of sun this winter, but this blush helped me pretend like I did.

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Best cream blush ever!

This particular coral color works really well with light and medium skin that has golden or olive undertones, and the finish looks completely natural. It isn’t too shiny or matte, so your skin still looks like skin.

100% luxe

I’m really starting to love Kjær Weis. I highlighted the brand a few months ago, and since then I became a full-on Kjær Weis stalker. Let’s just say that I would not be hating life if I had an entire steamer trunk filled with their makeup!

They’re a pricey green beauty brand by makeup artist Kirsten Kjær Weis, with high-performance department store-caliber products. Sun Touched costs — wait for it — $56 for a 0.123-oz. pan, but the compact is refillable, and the refills cost $32, so they’re a little less.

In fact, you could just get one of the refill pans and keep it in your own palette.

The compact looks like jewelry but feels like a ninja weapon. It’s hefty, so it could come in handy in a fight-or-flight situation.

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The stuff that cream blush dreams are made of…

This pan werks

It gives everything its got! I only need to use a little because of how pigmented it is, and I can be blushed and ready to rock and roll in less than 30 seconds. I don’t have to build up layer upon layer… A few quick sweeps is all it takes to erase the edges.

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Yup, even after all these years, I’m still a MAC NC42 for reference

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Saturday Surfing: March 18, 2017

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Good morning, glory! 🙂 I saw two signs of spring yesterday. First, my neighbor’s freesia started blooming.

Every year I tell myself, “Self, remember to plant freesia in time to have them for spring,” and every year I forget.

Gosh, they smell so good. I wish there was a way to send scratch and sniff to you through the computer, because there’s nothing in the world like fresh freesia.

The second sign was the state of my favorite tree in the neighborhood (everyone should have a favorite tree). It’s a cherry blossom tree, and it’s just on the cusp of full-on blooming. It’ll be covered in white flowers within a week.

Unfortunately, my allergies will probably also be a hot mess starting very soon, but I don’t care. Spring is here!

Right now I’m off to the salon to get my root situation worked out, but before I go, here are some things that caught my eye this week…

And a few videos


The science behind face oils


Brows 101 with Rae (I’ve met her in real life, and she’s a doll!)


A flawless-at-40 makeup tutorial by Jordan Liberty, one of my favorite artists on YouTube

Enjoy the rest of your day, my sweet. Have a wonderful weekend! 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Tom Ford 2017 Summer Soleil Collection Bronzing Gel

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Tom Ford Bronzing Gel, $48, from the 2017 Soleil Summer Collection

I’m brown, so I kinda thought that bronzing gel would be not all that incredibly useful for me, but you know…Tom Ford. He sucks you in. I pretty much love everything he’s ever done. That damned subtle elegance of his gets me, and everything I’ve tried from the 2017 Soleil Summer Collection has been rocking my booty shorts off, including this $48 Bronzing Gel.

Yes, it’s nauseatingly expensive, but by Tom Ford standards, $48 is borderline reasonable.

Sort of?

It’s a lightweight golden bronze gel you can use on your face and body (I just use it on my face though). I apply it with my fingertips and blend it in wherever I would normally apply bronzer, like on my cheeks, across my nose and around the edge of my face. I use it in place of bronzer sometimes.

It gives my NC42 skin a subtle, buttery warmth and a bronzed golden pearly glow.

Me likey!

I know I keep referring to the pieces in this collection as things that give you “vacation skin,” partly because I’ve got vacations on the brain, but I really do think that that’s what this does — gives you vacation skin.

When I wear it, I look like I just woke up from a long nap on the world’s most comfortable hammock on the world’s most amazing beach.

Ah… It makes my skin a dewy, toasty golden brown. It’s a subtle effect, but I like it. I need it, too, after what has felt like THE LONGEST WINTER EVER.

If it happened to you…

Filed under, “Weird Things That You Think Only Happen to You and When You Find Out That They Also Happen to Other People You’re Relieved.”

Yes, it’s a very wide filing cabinet. 🙂

I was talking to a girl last night at the gym about laundry, of all things, and she started telling me this story about how she put on a pair of clean skinny jeans that she washed the night before but didn’t realize until lunchtime at work the next day that there was a weird lump in her calf area.

When she went to the bathroom to check it out, she found a pair of underwear that had gotten stuck in her jeans all through the wash.

I said, “WHAT?! That happened to me too! The same exact thing!”

It was a gray pair of Citizens skinny jeans, and I didn’t realize until I was halfway through lunch at The Cheesecake Factory that I had a big lump of underwear in the back of my thigh…

Oddly, I feel a lot better knowing that I’m not the only person this has happened to.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

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