Makeup

Unsung Makeup Heroes: Urban Decay All Nighter Makeup Setting Spray

March 25th, 2013 by Karen 26 Comments

Urban Decay All Nighter Long-Lasting Makeup Setting Spray — That’s my jam!

Yes, using Urban Decay’s $29 All Nighter Makeup Setting Spray involves adding another step to my makeup routine, and no, it’s probably not as essential as under-eye concealer.

Buuut, that doesn’t make me like it any less. 🙂

If I were going on a big trip (say, lattes and macarons in Paris with RyGos, seeing as he’s on hiatus from acting) and accidentally forgot it at home, would I be crushed?

No, I think not.

Probably not. Okay maybe a little…

With the weather warming up and the days getting longer, I have been whipping out this makeup-saving spray mist more and more often. A few spritzes postpone fading and keep my makeup on my mug longer.

And it’s just so refreshing! — like standing in the mist beside a tropical waterfall…except without the mosquito swarms, frizzy hair and bikini muffin top, of course.

Stuff locks my look down all day long. Like, say it was the morning of the zombie apocalypse…

I’m just staying, for instance. 🙂

If it were that day, and I remembered to spray this on first thing in the morning, I’m confident that my foundation, powder, blush, eyeshadow and bronzer would still be going strong when the biters finally took me down that night. (Side note: last night’s Walking Dead? Merle?? Daryl? We need to talk.)

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Clinique Welcomes Spring With a Customizable Gift With Purchase Blooming With Cheer and Choice Pieces

March 22nd, 2013 by Karen 17 Comments

Clinique Gift With Purchase Spring 2013 — Head to Macy’s between March 25 and April 14 and snag a sweet, springy 9-piece gift with purchase from Clinique

There I stood at my bathroom counter this morning, coaxing the last few precious drops out of my bottle of Clinique Mild Clarifying Lotion (a mild miracle-working exfoliator that keeps my zits in check), and marveling at a phenomenon I call, “the mustache effect.”

The mustache effect describes the mysterious appearance of upper lip hair during a particular phase of life known as, “the wonder years.”

LOL! But seriously, I actually have no idea when my ‘stach grew in. One morning it was just there, like a hungry caterpillar straight chillin’ above my lips.

For the life of me, I can’t figure out how I missed something so obvious, with all of the hours I logged as a teenage girl in front of the mirror trying to defy gravity with my bangs. I mean, literally, it was right under my nose!

Now, when something seemingly appears or disappears without warning, like the contents of my bottle of Clinique Clarifying Lotion (I didn’t even know it was running low), I say, “Ah! The mustache effect.”

I do have a point with this, and here it is: don’t become a victim of the mustache effect. Visit a Clinique counter (or wherever else you need to go) before it’s too late.

Check your bottles! And if any of them are running low, restock.

For what it’s worth, Clinique counters at Macy’s are doing a pretty sweet nine-piece gift with purchase deal from March 25 through April 14, free with any purchase of $25 or more in Clinique products at Macy’s.

Clinique Gift With Purchase Spring 2013 all — The nine-piece gift with purchase includes two bags, two brushes, a palette, a lipstick, a small High Impact Mascara in Black, a travel-sized tube of Dramatically Different Moisturizer Lotion (also works as a makeup remover in a pinch) and Clinique’s 7-Day Scrub Cream

“But Karen!” I think I can hear you saying, “If I get one more tube of Bamboo Pink Lipstick, I’m gonna have to kick someone with my Chuck Taylor high-tops.”

Don’t bust a move just yet, ninja girl, because Clinique lets you customize this set. You can pick your own palette and lipstick.

Prefer pink? Pick the pink pairings palette, which comes with a Pink Slate Eye Shadow Duo, Soft-Pressed Powder Blusher in New Clover and a True Bronze Pressed Powder in Sunkissed.

Or if you’re partial to purple, grab the violet pairings palette instead, which features the Twilight Mauve Eye Shadow Duo, Soft-Pressed Powder Blusher in Pink Blush and the True Bronze Pressed Powder Bronzer in Sunkissed.

Clinique Gift With Purchase Spring 2013 violet palette — The violet pairings palette! Clockwise, from the pan on the left: Pink Blush Soft-Pressed Powder Blusher, Twilight Mauve Colour Surge Eye Shadow Duo, Sunkissed True Bronze Pressed Powder Bronzer and Brandied Plum Colour Surge Eye Shadow

As for the lipsticks, you can choose between violet Shy, and good ol’ reliable Bamboo Pink.

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Milani Liquid Eye Liquid-Like Liner in New Perfect Purple and Graphite for Eye Looks Both Bold and Gentle

March 22nd, 2013 by Karen 22 Comments

Milani Liquid Eye Perfect Purple Graphite — Milani has two new $6.99 Liquid Eye shades for spring: Graphite and Perfect Purple

With the days getting longer, hillsides turning green again and flowers beginning to bloom, I’m not as inclined to spend as much time indoors. I feel like getting out there in it, ya know? Playing outside. Going to the mall, extra trips to Target, the grocery store — whatever. Anything that’ll get me outside.

This applies to makeup. I don’t feel like spending as much time on mine when it’s 70 degrees and sunny outside.

Milani’s Liquid Eyes Liquid-Like liners in Perfect Purple and Graphite ($6.99 each) can help with that.

The company just added both new shades to their super smooth, long-wearing Liquid Eye Liquid-Like line for spring, and in short, they’re essentially drugstore dupes for the MAC Pearlglides.

Milani Liquid Eye Perfect Purple Graphite 1 — That’s Graphite on the left and Perfect Purple on the right…

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MAC Unsung Heroes: Sun Rush Lustre Drops

March 21st, 2013 by Karen 12 Comments

Why wait for summer to wear MAC’s $21 Sun Rush Lustre Drops? The petite 0.60-ounce bottle, which fits in the palm of my hand and snugly into my teeniest makeup bag, is ready to go places NOW (spring break girls’ trip, anyone?).

And with the sun beaming down on the Bay Area today on this, the first official day of spring (See ya, winter! It’s been real!), I was in the mood for warm-weather makeup — tinted moisturizer, lots o’ lashes, lip gloss and Sun Rush’s peachy golden bronze shimmer.

Sometimes referred to as a water-based liquid bronzer, other times as a pearly highlighter, I call Sun Rush a reason to fall to my knees and humbly pay tribute to the Makeup Goddess of Faux Tans…whom you may refer to in whispers as Bronzeta.

Whenever I dot a couple drops of Sun Rush on my upper cheekbones and swirl them in with a MAC 224 or 217 brush, usually on top of whatever tinted moisturizer or light foundation I may be wearing (and possibly blush tint if I’m feeling extra ambitious), I’m transformed into one of those impossibly chic beach gals who wears Pucci print caftans, calls strangers dahhling and resort hops between the poshest places in the South of France.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, Duuuuude, I look relaxed.
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Gorgeous Cosmetics Liquid Lips Lip Lacquer in Hush Speaks Volumes About Pretty Pink Gloss

March 20th, 2013 by Karen 10 Comments

Gorgeous Cosmetics Liquid Lips Hush — Hush!

I realize that this is supposed to be a post about something else, but thank goodness for MAC Lipglasses.

They’ve been keeping me company for so many years, and through so many memories…

When I think about all the horrible first dates MAC Spite and I sat through with people we met on Craigslist (this was in the late ’90s before the words, “Craigslist” and “Killer,” appeared in the title of a Lifetime TV movie), I can’t even begin to roll my eyes far back enough in my head.

And it wasn’t just MAC Spite. There was also Nymphette (which helped me move into my first real “grownup” apartment), Lychee Luxe (accompanied me to Europe in 2005) and EvRev (which showed me around Toronto in 2011), among others.

The MAC Lipglasses and I roll deep.

Which is why you have to promise not to tell them I’ve been testing Hush, one of the Liquid Lips Lip Lacquers from Gorgeous Cosmetics.

It would just hurt them too much to hear that I’ve strayed.

In my defense, they look, feel and last almost exactly like a Lipglass. Same shiny finish, sticky texture and fantastic wear time (they’ll manage half a day between meals).

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Gorgeous Cosmetics Colour Pro Powder Blush in Peach Glow: Bluffing My Way To Beach Babe Status, One Swipe at a Time

March 19th, 2013 by Karen 24 Comments

Gorgeous Cosmetics Colour Pro Powder Blush Peach Glow — Gorgeous Cosmetics Colour Pro Powder Blush in Peach Glow ($30)

I need a partner in crime…

Let’s blow this gloomy popsicle stand, and fly somewhere tropical for the rest of the week.

What do ya say? Call in sick with me tomorrow? Last-minute tickets to Kauai?

I don’t know what the weather’s like where you are, but it was cloudy and rainy here today. And tomorrow’s supposed to be more of the same.

Ptooey! Here, put this orange hibiscus behind your ear…

There. Now let’s pretend we’re sitting on the beach with iced coffees and watching the waves…

Are you pretending? I hope you’re pretending with me, because if would be weird if I were just doing it alone. 🙂

You know what else is more fun in pairs? Surfing.

I’m no surf pro or anything, unless we’re talking about quickly standing up and falling down, but I have figured out that it helps to watch the water for a few minutes before paddling out. That way you get a feel for the current and where the waves are breaking first.

Hmm… I feel like we need something more to take this whole escape of ours to the next level, maybe something like Colour Pro Blush in Peach Glow from Gorgeous Cosmetics.

The ample Aussie makeup brand recently arrived on US shores at Nordstrom stores and online. Peach Glow is the only product I’ve tried, but it was enough to color me intrigued.

I know, it’s $30. Yuck. And the compact does seem rather small (0.16 ounces), but I swear it’s like a wormhole! Gorgeous Cosmetics defied physics by squeezing a five-day tropical vacation into this one little pan.

The shimmery peach powder glides onto skin like a gentle off-shore breeze… All it takes is a single swipe of my blush brush for color that lasts all day long.

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Dive Into a Double Digit Dose of Moisturizing Minerals With the Plush Pigments in MAC’s New Luxurious, Lightweight Line of Mineralize Rich Lipsticks

March 19th, 2013 by Karen 35 Comments

MAC MIneralize Rich Lipstick in Style Surge — MAC Mineralize Rich Lipstick in Style Surge, one of 12 new $22 shades in a new line of lipsticks available now at MAC counters, in stores and online)

Yup, it’s official. Anything’s possible now.

That’s how I feel today, babe, like the sky’s the limit! In a world with a line of full-coverage lipsticks that feel exactly like lip balms, anything’s possible. Pretty soon fashion-forward cats will start walking on their hind legs, venus fly traps will start crooning, and Keanu Reeves will win an Academy Award.

Um…have you heard about Splash? The new celebrity diving show?

Channing Tatum says what now?

Yes, celebrity diving show. Picture it: Greg Louganis coaching Kendra Wilkinson through her springboard tucks and twists (which reminds me, I dated a diver once for like two seconds; it did not go swimmingly, ba-dum-bum).

sp-ch — Umm… (from *Splash*, via Facebook)

Wait — where was I? Oh, yeah. The lipsticks.

MAC’s new $22 Mineralize Rich Lipsticks dove (haha) into the permanent line earlier this month, and from one dry-lipped girl to another (assuming you have dry lips, of course), one word: revelation.

According to MAC, the 77 minerals they added to the formula make these magnificent moisturizers, which leads me to wonder late at night (right after my 20-pound tabby wakes me up by walking across my left boob), why 77 minerals? Why not 76 or 78?

But I digress…

Ever since I started wearing six of the 12 shades, I haven’t seen a lip flake in sight.

The moisturizing formula takes the cake, but it’s not all these have going for ’em. They’re also comfy like a good pair of yoga pants. They could easily pass for a lightweight balm.

And they’re so easy to apply! — so put down that lip brush and liner. Even with the darker shades, like warm, deep red All Out Gorgeous, I can apply them directly from the oversized bullet (at 0.12 ounces per tube, these are slightly larger than regular 0.10-ounce MAC Lipsticks), and get 2-4 hours of full coverage from a single layer.

MAC Mineralize Rich Lipsticks from the left: All Out Gorgeous, Dreaminess, Elegant Accent, Lady at Play, Posh Tone and Style Surge

MAC MIneralize Rich Lipstick Swatches — MAC Mineralize Rich Lipstick Swatches from the left: All Out Gorgeous, Dreaminess, Elegant Accent, Lady at Play, Posh Tone and Style Surge

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Does the Addition of a Primer Help These $8.49 Neutrogena Crease Proof Eye Shadows Last Longer on Lids?

March 19th, 2013 by Karen 49 Comments

El Hub and I have been talking about taking a trip somewhere soon. It’s been about a year since the last time we got well out of Dodge, and even though we have no definite plans whatsoever, the very mention of the word, “trip,” is enough to get me thinking about travel makeup.

I’m wondering if these Neutrogena Crease Proof Eye Shadows should tag along…

The formula for this new line of six smartly priced $8.49 shimmery cream shadow sticks contains a primer, supposedly reducing/eliminating creasing and fading, while the colors brighten and revive your eyes.

Not a bad idea for the price, right?

Sounds good to me. I like the convenience of stick products like these and love the notion of skipping primer. And then there’s the price, which works out well for travel, seeing as accidents (crushed or missing makeup bags, GASP!) occasionally do happen when I’m out and about.

Five of the six Neutrogena Crease Proof Eye Shadows from the left: Perfect Pink, Constant Copper, Stay Golden, Forever Platinum and Stay-Put Plum

Neutrogena Crease Proof Eye Shadow Swatches — Swatches of the Neutrogena Crease Proof Eye Shadows from the left: Perfect Pink, Constant Copper, Stay Golden, Forever Platinum and Stay-Put Plum

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