Makeup

You Gotta Be Cool With Warm to Love the Too Faced Peanut Butter & Honey Palette

March 9th, 2017 by Karen 9 Comments

Is it just me, or is Too Faced completely obsessed with food?

I mean, I’m not hating at all. For the record, I am totally cool with this, but I’m just saying… It seems like all of their palettes have something to do with things that are delicious.

The Semi-Sweet Chocolate Palette has another cousin

Their new Peanut Butter & Honey palette is an offshoot of Semi-Sweet, from their Chocolate Bar collection, which has a shade in it called Peanut Butter.

So there’s the original Peanut Butter Palette, the Peanut Butter & Jelly Palette, and now this — the Peanut Butter & Honey Palette.

It’s $36 and available now at The Cheesecake Factory!

Haha! Kidding. 🙂 No, it’s available now online and at Ulta.

P.S. Are you hungry yet? I’m starved.

too faced peanut butter honey palette 2 — It’s peanut butter honey time, peanut butter honey time!

Warm oranges and reddish browns

The nine powder shadows are all warm-toned, and there’s a lot of orange-brown and reddish brown action happening, which have been very popular makeup color themes over the past year or two.

too faced peanut butter honey palette swatches — Too Faced Peanut Butter & Honey swatches

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What I Wore Wednesday, Vol. 4: Springtime Taupe, Pink and Peach With the Jane Iredale Spring 2017 Collection

March 8th, 2017 by Karen 10 Comments

jane iredale spring 2017 k1 — A springy makeup look with the Jane Iredale spring 2017 collection

I went outside today and felt the sun on my shoulders and my arms and my legs, and it was glorious! Spring. SPRING! It’s almost here, after what has seemed like the longest, coldest, wettest winter ever.

So, in celebration of spring’s upcoming awesomeness, I did a springy makeup look today using stuff from the new Jane Iredale spring 2017 collection, which is coming out on March 13th.

I don’t know much about the Jane Iredale makeup brand, but they’re a mineral makeup line out of the Berkshires in Massachusetts. They do very wearable, subtle colors (not quite as subtle as Bobbi Brown), and their new spring collection has an abundance of springy pinks and peaches with a teaspoon of taupe and plum.

jane iredale spring 2017 2 — Jane Iredale Spring 2017 clockwise from the striped pan at the top: Peaches & Cream Bronzer Refill ($44), PurePressed Eye Shadow in Soft Kiss ($30), Lipstick in Susan ($25), Lipstick in Lisa ($25), In Touch Cream Blush in Candid ($27), PurePressed Eye Shadow in Pink Quartz ($30)

Today I wanted dewy skin and light coverage foundation and concealer, which is basically what I wear when I’m not testing makeup for MBB. Most days, if left to my own devices, I wear light coverage instead of full-coverage layers, which is why I’ve got some freckle action happening today on my cheeks and around my eyes.

Featured products

Eyes: Clinique Chubby Stick Shadow Tint in Lots o’ Latte (as a base on my lids), Jane Iredale PurePressed EyeShadow in Soft Kiss (lids and lower lash lines), Zoeva Graphic Eyes Pencil in Mute (upper water lines), Zoeva Graphic Eyes Pencil in Taupe (lower lash lines), Urban Decay Urban Lash in HBIC Babies (outer corner of upper lash lines), Urban Decay Brow Beater Brow Pencil, Benefit Ready Set Brow Gel

Cheeks: Jane Iredale In Touch Cream Blush in Candid (apples of my cheeks) and Jane Iredale Peaches & Cream Bronzer (upper cheekbones)

Face: BECCA Backlight Primer (applied all over my face as a primer), Hourglass Vanish Foundation (applied very sparingly on my cheeks, nose and forehead, and patted in with fingers), BECCA Soft Light Blurring Powder in Golden Hour (on my forehead, down the sides of my nose and around my mouth) and Make Up For Ever HD Concealer (under my eyes)

Lips: Jane Iredale Lipstick in Susan

I took Connor out for a couple of quick walks wearing this, and it felt good. I don’t think I looked like I just rolled out of bed, which is always a good thing, but I still felt like me.

How about you? What kind of makeup did you wear today? Did you do anything different? Try anything new? Inquiring minds want to know.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

The Make Up For Ever Pro Sculpting Brow Palettes in Harmony 1 and Harmony 2

March 8th, 2017 by Karen 4 Comments

make up for ever pro brow sculptor before after — Make Up For Ever Pro Brow Sculptor in Harmony 2, before and after

Why are eyebrows so fickle? One day they’re well-behaved, upstanding young citizens. The next day, they’re rambunctious teenagers (yes, I said rambunctious) who refuse to listen to me no matter what. AAARRRGH!

Whenever I’m dealing with the latter, in brow parlance, I take a break from my regular routine, and look for something new. And lately that’s been the new Make Up For Ever Pro Sculpting Brow Palettes.

There are two of them — Harmony 1 for blonde to dark hair, and Harmony 2, which is the one I use, for brown to black hair — and they’re $42 each.

They come with three matte brow powders (a lighter shade, a medium shade and a darker one), a clear brow wax, a matte beige cream highlighter and a dual-ended applicator with a spoolie and a stiff angled brush.

make up for ever pro brow sculptor — The Make Up For Ever Pro Brow Sculptors in Harmony 2 and Harmony 1 ($42 each)

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The New Too Faced Love Light Prismatic Highlighters in Ray of Light, Blinded By the Light and You Light Up My Life

March 8th, 2017 by Karen 13 Comments

too faced love light prismatic highlighter 1 — Too Faced Love Light Prismatic Highlighters from the top: Ray of Light, Blinded By the Light and You Light Up My Life ($30 each)

Too Faced Creative Director Jerrod Blandino says that when he dreamed up the new Love Light Highlighters, he wanted something that would capture that glow women get when they’re madly in love.

I wonder, though… Is he just talking exclusively about romantic love, or do other kinds of love count? Because I can’t lie. I glow when I think about my cat (It’s true, though. I LOVE HIM.), or when I get a hankering for chocolate doughnuts, just as another example.

Personally, I’m going to allow myself to pretend that it refers to all kinds of love, including the kinds of love reserved for cats and doughnuts.

Anywho! 🙂 These highlighters are new for spring and coming March 9th. There are three 0.32-oz. $30 shades.

Rose gold Ray of Light is recommended for all skin tones. Metallic white gold Blinded by the Light is recommended for light-to-medium babes. And You Light Up My Life is an intensely glittery yellow gold made for medium and deeper skin tones.

(Props if you got the song references, BTW, and extra props if you sang them out loud.)

too faced love light prismatic highlighter swatches — Too Faced Love Light Prismatic swatches from the top: Ray of Light, Blinded by the Light and You Light Up My Life

Suspended, spherical pearls

Too Faced claims that the Love Lights have a formula that combines a liquid, a cream and a powder, and instead of having reflective crushed pearl-escent particles like most other highlighters, their particles are little spheres, which reflect light from more angles…

Hey, it sounds good to me. 🙂

too faced love light prismatic highlighter k1 — Wearing Too Faced Love Light Prismatic Highlighter in Ray of Light on my upper cheekbones, You Light Up My Life down the bridge of my nose and Blinded By the Light in the inner corners

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BECCA First Light Filter Face Primer Review

March 7th, 2017 by Karen 12 Comments

becca first light priming filter — BECCA First Light Priming Filter, $38

BECCA Backlight Face Primer totally slays, and I love it so much that I always keep a bottle on standby!

But you know…I just don’t understand this new purple version of it, the new BECCA First Light Face Primer ($38).

Like Backlight, it’s a pearly face primer that you apply before foundation to hydrate your skin and help it look more luminous and less lackluster, but where Backlight is a peachy beige pearl, First Light is a sheer, cool-toned violet pearl.

First Light also has a citrus scent, while Backlight is unscented.

I’ve been testing First Light for about a week now, and ya know…it doesn’t do anything for me. My skin looks more or less the same after I apply it. I suspect that the violet pearl is just too subtle for me.

becca first light priming filter swatch — BECCA First Light Priming Filter, blended and un-blended

I’ve tried it by itself on bare skin, beneath foundation, and I’ve even added it to tinted moisturizer. Whichever way, I really can’t see a difference.

Maybe that’s purposeful, and I’m just not the target market. Bottom line, this one’s way too quiet for me. I think I’ll be sticking to my tried-and-true Backlight.

First Light does get great reviews, though. It currently has 4 1/2 stars out of 5 on the Sephora website, so there are lots of people out there who love it.

If you’re interested, it’s available now at BECCA counters, Sephora, Ulta and online. It’s $38 for a 1-oz. bottle.

Do you ever use Backlight? How do you feel about it?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. I may or may not have just googled “What to do when baby throws a tantrum.”

The New Too Faced Natural Love Palette

March 7th, 2017 by Karen 35 Comments

I bet the cat ladies out there will feel me on this! There’s a shade in the $59 Too Faced Natural Love Palette called Kittens.

There are 30 shades in this palette, which is designed for natural eye looks, but yes, of course, Kittens was the first one I got on my lids. 🙂

Natural Love is a “new” $59 limited edition palette coming out March 9th, and I say “new” in air quotes because 13 of the colors are cherry-picked re-promotes from previously released Too Faced Natural Eyes Palettes, while the other 17 are new.

too faced natural love palette 1 — Pretty packaging!

It’s mostly neutrals, with some not-too-crazy purple, pink and coral sprinkled in for good measure.

too faced natural love palette k1 — I’m wearing Kittens on my lids (applied with a wet brush); Spotlight, Nudie, Honey Butter and Makeup & Chill in my crease; and Undercover along my lower lash line

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Brand Spotlight: Kosas Cosmetics

March 6th, 2017 by Karen 27 Comments

Kosas Cosmetics Lipsticks, $24 each

I might be the poster girl for the antithesis of makeup minimalism (makeup maximumism?).

No, seriously, I carry like 12 lip products in my bag at any given time…or maybe 15, because I love ALL TEH COLORS, so it’s funny to me that I fell for Kosas Cosmetics, a line all about makeup minimalism.

Lipsticks ON POINT

Kosas, an up-and-coming luxury natural makeup line out of LA, is also the Sanscrit word for sheath. Their first products, a line of eight semi-matte lipsticks, launched last year in shades of pink, rose, red and plum ($24 each).

Girl, these lipsticks are totally and completely on point. ON. POINT. Based on these, I can’t wait to see what else this brand comes up with.

Hello, pretties!

It’s all about the basics

Founder Sheena Yaitanes, who happens to be a painter AND a chemist, said that she wanted to create a line of products edited all the way down to the basics — no unnecessary or redundant colors or chemicals.

Kosas Cosmetics Lipstick in Stardust

Flattery will get you everywhere…

Sheena drew upon her background in painting when she was working and experimenting to develop her lipstick colors. In painting, when you’re mixing up colors to paint skin, you use a lot of reds, blues and yellows, and Sheena purposefully picked these undertones for her lipsticks, which encompass some very flattering colors.

Kosas Cosmetics Lipstick in Rosewater

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The NARS Loaded Palette and My Warm Shade Friday Face of the Day

March 3rd, 2017 by Karen 6 Comments

nars loaded palette fotd k2 — I’m wearing the new NARS Loaded Palette on my lids

Sometimes you need to put on makeup to buy garlic bread at Costco…

I’m wearing a bunch of new faves and some oldies today in this warm-toned look, which I’ll be wearing in a few minutes when I go to Costco and brave the loooong afternoon lines.

The newest fave here is NARS Loaded Eyeshadow Palette, which has been giving me neutral inspiration for days.

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