Makeup

Supersized, Hold the Orange: Bobbi Brown’s Nude Beach Face & Body Bronzing Duo Is a Big Pan of Tan

May 7th, 2013 by Karen 28 Comments

Surf’s up, brah! Channeling an endless summer with the new Bobbi Brown Nude Beach Face & Body Bronzing Duo, $42

Bobbi Brown’s Nude Beach Face & Body Bronzing Duo ($42), a new super-sized bronzing powder duo, does NOT mess around.

I’m pretty tan to begin with, courtesy of the Pacific Islander gene pool, but when I wear this bronzer — daaaayum! — I look hella bronzed, brah, like “Hook me up with the kama’aina discount because I’m local!” 🙂

It’s gotta be the lack of orange undertones…

Nude Beach just doesn’t have ’em. There’s a reddish, pinkish brown with a matte finish on one side and a brick reddish-like brown with a subtle sheen on the other. Both colors contain a lot of red and could pass for a natural tan. With these, whether worn separately or together, you’ll look like you’ve been surfing every day for six months!

For a faux endless summer tan that lasts all day long, on the parts of my face where the sun naturally falls — my forehead, around the edges of my face, across the tops of my cheekbones — I lightly dust a 50/50 blend of Nude Beach’s two bronzers using Sonia Kashuk’s Brush Couture Powder Brush (a great drugstore dupe for Bobbi’s $50 Bronzing Brush).

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Tom Ford Beauty’s $40 Escapade Cream Color For Eyes Casts a Radiant, Summery Sunset Glow on Lids

May 7th, 2013 by Karen 31 Comments

The new Tom Ford Beauty Escapade Cream Color for Eyes, $40

Holy crap, Tom Ford! Wherever you’ve been spending your summers, to borrow a line from Liz Lemon, “I want to go to there.”

I can see you lounging by an infinity pool in the late afternoon, watching leggy ladies in Burberry bikinis test the water as beams of peachy, pinkish gold glisten on bronzed skin…

You take a sip from your daiquiri (complete with pink umbrella, of course) and make a mental note of every detail, which you promptly add to your summer collection. “Luxe, luminous, sunlit and sensuous,” you muse. “The ladies will love it.”

High five, Tom! Bulls eye. 🙂

Like two weeks on Kauai spent alternately napping and swimming, the new nine-piece Tom Ford Beauty summer 2013 collection is the stuff of my dreams, and maybe also yours, if you like traditional summer makeup looks.

Picture peach, pink, gold and bronze dancing across your skin; opalescent, soft shimmers; and radiant, dewy finishes that contrast wonderfully with sun-dappled bronzed mattes.

Good grief! — I just had to fan myself for a second, Blanche Devereaux-style…

The new $40 Tom Ford Beauty Escapade Cream Color for Eyes is expensive, but oh, so flattering. And it isn’t fussy at all. The peachy, pinkish golden tones feel very of-the-moment to me, like rose gold jewelry (which I’m currently obsessed with), but for your face. I think the entire launch is gorgeous, especially on a tan.

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7 Places I’d Like to Wear MAC’s New RiRi Woo Lipstick

May 6th, 2013 by Karen 39 Comments

MAC RiRI Woo — The limited edition MAC RiRi Woo Lipstick ($15), an online exclusive, is comin’ your way this June

7 places I’d like to wear MAC’s new RiRi Woo Lipstick, a $15 limited edition, online exclusive collaboration with Rihanna

To a fancy fashion party with Gwen Stefani in attendance. I’d walk up to her, point at her signature matte red lips, and then mine, and say, “Twinsies, Gwen! Twinsies!”
To Trader Joe’s, but only if I’m also wearing it with Blacktrack, a pair of 33 Lashes, Blushbaby Blush and a sassy, pin-up girl outfit, because A) all those things would look killer with RiRi Woo’s cool, matte red color and B) I strive to live in a world where one dresses up solely to buy frozen broccoli.
On a plane heading to the Cannes Film Festival (oh, someday!), because power reds go so well with crossing big dreams off of life lists. Of course, I’d also want to have a tube of hydrating lip balm with me, since RiRi Woo’s matte finish, combined with a climate-controlled airplane cabin, would dry my lips like WHOA!
To a Tina Turner concert because, I dunno, I just think Tina’s a total @ss-kicker. I listened to Better Be Good to Me on the treadmill last Saturday and had one of the best runs of my life, seriously. If I were ever in the front row at one of her concerts, maybe she’d catch a glimpse of RiRi Woo on my lips as I screamed, “I LOVE YOU, TINA!!” at the top of my lungs.
To a Mad Men-themed cocktail party dressed up like Betty Draper when she totally lost her her sh*t and started shooting birds in the yard, complete with nightie, prop cigarette and prop shotgun. If possible, I’d also incorporate toy pigeons into the outfit as well.
To a vampire techo club, a la Blade (the first one), because who has time to touch up their lips when they’re dancing to New Order one minute and running for their life the next? It’s those unexpected fight-or-flight moments when long-wearing mattes like RiRi Woo (hello, 6-hour wear time!) really come in handy.
To basically anywhere I’d also wear the regular Ruby Woo shade, since the two appear to be, more or less, the same color, with the big difference being, as far as I can tell, the hearts and RiRi’s signature etched into the side of the bullet.

RiRi Woo, y’all! Apparently, gals went ca-ray-zaaay when it went on sale on MAC’s website May 2. It sold out quicker than you can sing, “Umbrella-ella-ella-eh-eh-eh!”

Okay, not exactly… It took about three hours, from what I hear.

MAC RiRi Woo Swatch — RiRi Woo on the left and Ruby Woo on the right

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Smokey Eyes and a Smokin’ Hot Quad: MAC’s Temperature Rising Eye Shadow X 4 Quad

May 6th, 2013 by Karen 30 Comments

I’m burnin’ up! My temperature’s rising, yo. Must be the $44 MAC Temperature Rising Eye Shadow X 4 quad colors I’m wearing on my eyes…

I cannot not wear smokey eyes in summer.

Wait — what did I just type? Cannot not?

Good grief. I meant to say that I really like wearing smokey eyes in summer (and spring, winter and fall, but I digress).

Even if it’s a billion degrees outside — or if it’s 2 o’clock in the morning and I’m getting ready for a 5 a.m. flight to the Maldives with Ry-Gos (I wish!) — won’t stop me. I will still get my smokey on, believe you me.

Why? Because life’s too short for second guesses when it comes to smokey eyes, even in the summer, and I’m going for it all this year — while still staying seasonally appropriate (you’ll see what I mean in a minute) — with the new $44 Temperature Rising Eye Shadow X 4 quad from MAC.

MAC Temperature Rising Eye Shadow X 4 shadows clockwise from the violet pan in the lower left: Performance Art (a frosted gold mauve with a Veluxe Pearl finish), Temperature Rising (a light warm tanned peach with a Lustre finish), Beauty Marked (a charcoal black with red pearl and a Velvet finish) and Swelter (a mid-tone gray violet with a Frost finish) — Eye Shadows clockwise from the violet pan in the lower left: Performance Art (a frosted gold mauve with a Veluxe Pearl finish), Temperature Rising (a light warm tanned peach with a Lustre finish), Beauty Marked (a charcoal black with red pearl and a Velvet finish) and Swelter (a mid-tone gray violet with a Frost finish)

Smokey eyes play starring roles in the Temperature Rising collection, to which this quad belongs, and this baby’s built for gals/guys who’d wear purple smokey lids to a July 4 picnic without batting an eye. 🙂

It’s a rebel with a cause! — and with its mauve, gray, charcoal and violet shades, appears to stand out among more typical, traditional summertime palettes. Spend some time with it, though, and it’s summery references become more apparent. MAC sneaked hints of frosted gold into mauve Performance Art and the light, tanned peach Temperature Rising.

Very, very clever!

The quad is also smartly flexible. With these shades, it’s easy to dial up or down the smokey effect.

It comes with three medium shades and one dark, which you can combine in a purple smokey look, like I’m wearing here, or you could just as easily go for a mellower daytime eye look by sweeping one of the lighter shades on your lids, and lining your lash lines with the darker color.

MAC Temperature Rising Eye Shadow X 4 swatches from the left: Performance Art, Temperature Rising, Swelter and Beauty Marked — Swatches from the left on NC42 skin: Performance Art, Temperature Rising, Swelter and Beauty Marked

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Super Charged Pigments and a Naughty, Frosty Finish Set MAC’s Hot Nights Powder Blush Ablaze

May 3rd, 2013 by Karen 16 Comments

The new MAC Hot Nights Blush from the Temperature Rising summer collection, $23

MAC Hot Nights Powder Blush is for those times when you want your cheeks to look like they’re “glistening” (let’s not call it sweating; it’s not nearly as cute), like after some hot hubba-hubba action or a seriously vigorous elliptical session at the gym.

Got time? I hope so, because I wouldn’t even bother with this berry pink unless I had a few extra minutes for blending. That’s how pigmented it is. But I think it’s worth every second, especially if the theme of your evening is, “huntress on the prowl…”

Where Ripe For Love, the other blush from the Temperature Rising collection, can pull off naughty or nice, Hot Nights can’t.

Because it’s straight up naughty (which is nice). 🙂

MAC Hot Nights Blush swatch — Howdy, pigment!

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15 People or Things You’ll Resemble When You Wear MAC Strobe Liquid Lotion in Golden Elixir

May 3rd, 2013 by Karen 51 Comments

Here I’m wearing the new MAC Strobe Liquid Lotion Golden Elixir ($31) from the limited edition MAC Temperature Rising summer collection

When you wear MAC’s Strobe Liquid Lotion in Golden Elixir ($31) you’ll look radiant and golden like…

A Grecian goddess soaking up the last rays on a summer day
J. Lo after running a 5K in Christian Louboutin pumps and a gold lame catsuit
A sequined Oscar gown on the Best Dressed list
A Beyonce-themed Christmas tree
Jeremy Renner’s glistening arms after saving a family of stray kittens from drowning
A mega millions lottery winner the moment right after she tells her bosses to suck it and walks out of the room in a dramatic exit
An extra in a Britney video circa the golden years, aka BF (Before Federline)
A proud kitty stage mom who just found out her baby cat won the award for best actor in a gravy commercial and is dabbing tears from her eyes with a lace hanky
A reflection in a mirror after easily slipping into those goal-weight skinny jeans that you’ve been holding onto for months
A room full of Skarsgards
A room filled with 1000 birthday cakes, each cake miraculously calorie-free (so you can eat as much as you want!) and topped with 1000 candles
MC Hammer after he tried on his first pair of gold Hammer pants
Someone who just discovered Nutella
A girl on vacation laying on a beach towel in Kauai reading The Great Gatsby
A lightning bolt tattoo streaking across Channing Tatum’s tanned stomach

Babe, you know I love me some MAC Strobe Cream, so I feel like I’ve been waiting all my life for Golden Elixir. It’s a lightweight, golden liquid highlighting lotion that you can wear on bare skin and/or layered underneath or on top of makeup (foundation, blush, face powder, bronzer), and it’s bomb for getting that dewy, golden Cat on a Hot Tin Roof type of glow without looking too metallic.
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Coral? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Coral! The MAC Temperature Rising Lipsticks Take Lips on an Alternate Route to Summer

May 2nd, 2013 by Karen 18 Comments

Oh, my gosh, it’s happening! The annual coral migration has begun.

Every year around this time huge flocks of corals migrate from their winter hideaways to makeup counters everywhere, gathering in large numbers wherever there are lip displays.

It’s one of my favorite things. 🙂

When the corals come back in spring and summer, it’s like, it reminds me that the world will keep turning… Frozen yogurt will keep tasting great, the Real Housewives of My Butt will keep screaming nonsense at each other on Bravo, and RyGos will keep looking hot under pretty much all circumstances.

But some makeup lovers don’t get that fired up about coral. I have a friend who refuses to wear it on her lips because she says it makes her feel like a “South Beach grandma” (her words).

Gotta be honest, I don’t get it (SERIOUSLY, HOW COULD YOU NOT LOVE CORAL?!), but I can appreciate wanting to be different and going against the flow, which brings me to the four new lipsticks in the MAC Temperature Rising collection.

MAC Temperature Rising Lipsticks from the left: Altered Beige, Caliente, Feel My Pulse and Sheer Seduction — From the left: Altered Beige, Caliente, Feel My Pulse and Sheer Seduction

See that? No coral whatsoever. Instead, MAC went a riskier route with beige, violet and bronze, and you know what?

I think it works.

MAC Caliente Lipstick — Caliente, a super dazzle violet with a Dazzle finish

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5 Things MAC’s Ripe For Love Powder Blush Would Say if It Could Talk

May 2nd, 2013 by Karen 22 Comments

MAC Ripe for Love Blush — Wearing the new, limited edition $23 MAC Ripe for Love Powder Blush on my cheeks from the Temperature Rising summer 2013 collection

5 things MAC’s Ripe For Love Powder Blush would say if it could talk

1. Ditch your boyfriend.

Boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever. Your tanned skin and I, we belong together, just the two of us, you and I.

I don’t care where we go. I don’t care what we do. I don’t care, pretty baby, just take me with you. Let’s hit that beach we talked about, sip umbrella drinks, and nap all day long because I’m from MAC’s Temperature Rising collection. And I’m hot like that.

At night, you can put on that look I like with the chocolate smokey eyes and glossy copper lips, and then dust me on top of some bronzer on your cheeks before we head out.

Oh, the trouble we’ll find…

2. I’m officially called a mid-tone peach but…

…I think of myself as a papaya.

A juicy, ripe papaya begging to be devoured. Don’t even bother with a spoon. No shame! Just bite into that thing, and let the juices dribble down the side of your chin in slow mo.

3. I hate your shoes.

Blergh! Especially the flat Life Stride pair that you ~~borrowed from the cafeteria lady~~ wear when your feet ache.

Screw that. My name is Ripe for Love, hello! — so I’m all about, pardon my French, the fracking pumps. One layer of me on your cheeks (that’s all you’ll need because I’m pigmented like whoa!) and you’ll be glowing like Halley’s Comet.

Why? Because I’m THAT good, if I do say so myself.

4. I have a softer side…

It’s true. My scene, like my friends in Temperature Rising, is more about sultry summer nightlife, where molten metallics throb and glittery glosses throw air kisses with shimmering bronzed skin.

But look, I’m not all about seduction. I also have a softer side.

I can go from Do Me Baby to Let’s Wait A While in the flick of a wrist. All it takes is the gentlest caress of my feather-light powder on your cheeks, so we can do all kinds of things together, like go to the ice cream shoppe, your next book club meeting, work — heck, even that froo-froo yarn store where you fondle all the skeins but never actually buy anything.

I promise, I’ll behave.
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