Makeup

EstÃ©e Lauder’s Mad Men Collection Rich, Rich Lipstick in Pinkadelic Gives You More

March 12th, 2013 by Karen 21 Comments

Estee lauder Mad Men Collection Rich Rich Lipstick in Pinkadelic — EstÃ©e Lauder Mad Men Collection Rich, Rich Lipstick in Pinkadelic ($30), available now at counters and online

More.

More!

That’s exactly what EstÃ©e Lauder’s new Mad Men Collection Rich, Rich Lipstick in Pinkadelic gives you.

More! — as in the actual quantity of product, because each tube contains 0.13 ounces — almost twice as much as the tiny 0.07-ounce tube of Cherry released with last year’s Mad Men Collection.

Cherry was meant to hearken back to the smaller vintage lipstick tubes of yesteryear, but Mad Men fans must have wanted more. Fortunately, EL obliged. Limited edition Pinkadelic contains the same amount of product as the twist-up lipsticks in EstÃ©e Lauder’s permanent line.

Estee Lauder Pinkadelic with Cherry — Pinkadelic beside Cherry Lipstick for scale

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Yearning for a Retro Look in a Rush? The Tremendously Tinted EstÃ©e Lauder Mad Men Collection See Thru Blush in Light Show Sweeps Cheeks with One-Coat Color

March 11th, 2013 by Karen 22 Comments

Estee Lauder Mad Men Collection See Thru Blush in Light Show — That’s the new EstÃ©e Lauder Mad Men Collection See Thru Blush in Light Show ($50) on my cheeks, one of three pieces in the Mad Men Collection, available now at counters and online

One look at the words, “See Thru,” on the box, and I assumed I’d need a heavy hand and lots o’layering to get the new budget-breaking $50 EstÃ©e Lauder Mad Men Collection See Thru Blush in Light Show to show up on my NC42 skin, but like Don Draper, this blush is full of surprises.

And it’s just in time! — along with the other two pieces in the limited edition Mad Men Collection — for the show’s sixth season, which premiers on AMC April 7.

Hmm… Do you recall last year’s two-piece Mad Men Collection? I wonder if these releases will be an annual thing like Bronze Goddess. If so, that has to please the partners at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce… 🙂

This year/season, EstÃ©e Lauder summoned a late ’60s makeup look with a pigmented, pink powder blush with laid-back shimmer that lays down loads of color with a single swipe.

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Whether You’re Standing in Front of a Mirror or in Front of a Camera Lens, the Six Neutral Shades in the Smashbox Softbox II Photo Op Eye Shadow Palette Just Click

March 11th, 2013 by Karen 26 Comments

Wearing the new Smashbox Softbox II Photo Op Eye Shadow Palette ($39) on my eyes

There I stood, surrounded by piles of jeans, my feet planted shoulder-width apart, as I looked at myself in the three-way mirror of my tiny dressing room doing squats, while the stylist helping me watched from the doorway.

Two, three, four…

I paused, noting 1) the status of my muffin top in the pair of stretchy skinnies I’d just shimmied into, and 2) how the neutrals from new Smashbox Softbox II Photo Op Eye Shadow Palette were holding up (I’d already been wearing them for six hours, and still no signs of creasing or fading, yay!).

“I dunno…” I said, thinking about the jeans. “I feel a lot of muffin going on.”

“Keep going,” the stylist replied, referring to the squats. “Trust me. These start really tight, but they’ll stretch. They’ll be perfect in 10 minutes.”

Five, six, seven…

“The squats speed things along.”

Halfway through my eighth rep, I silently thanked the makeup gods for creating the Photo Op Palette.

Looking for a new pair of jeans is not one of my favorite tasks in the world. I’ll go so far as to say that it’s almost as stressful as shopping for a new swimsuit (first world problems, I know), but it’s always easier when I’m wearing eye makeup that helps me feel pretty.

Smashbox Photo Op Eye Shadow Palette Softbox II small — Smashbox Photo Op Eye Shadow Palette Softbox II

Smashbox Photo Op Eye Shadow Palette Softbox II

Which this palette does. 🙂

Smashbox Softbox II Photo Op Eye Shadow Palette swatches from the left: Russet, Truffle, Bare, Juniper, Sandstone and Sumatra

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Too Faced Sweetheart Beads Radiant Glow Face Powder Is Helping Faces Be Light Hearted

March 8th, 2013 by Karen 19 Comments

Like ~~lightning~~ lighting in a bottle.

Sunsets inspire the new highlighting powder from Too Faced, the $32 Sweetheart Beads Radiant Glow Face Powder.

To both set your makeup and give a golden pink/late afternoon glow to your skin, just swirl your brush in the jar of multicolored powder hearts, and apply all over your face.

GURL, you don’t have to tell me about the power of lighting. When I think of how many times my friend Jen and I went clubbing and ended up talking to a dude who looked like a Baldwin in the dim club lighting, but then when the lights came up, we were like, “WHOA?!”

It’s that kind of shared trauma that bonds girlfriends for life. 🙂

Too Faced Sweetheart Beads Radiant Glow Face Powder 2 — Too Faced Sweetheart Beads Radiant Glow Face Powder

Too Faced Sweetheart Beads Radiant Glow Face Powder 3 — Too Faced Sweetheart Beads Radiant Glow Face Powder

Too Faced Sweetheart Beads Radiant Glow Face Powder 4 — Too Faced Sweetheart Beads Radiant Glow Face Powder

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Charming Their Way Into Makeup Bags and Hearts, the New Physicians Formula Sexy Booster Sexy Glow Glossy Stains Deliver an Yves Saint Laurent Look at a Drugstore Price

March 8th, 2013 by Karen 8 Comments

Why do I find little dangling charms so irresistible? Charms on just about anything, like phones, bracelets, the ends of pens and pencils, tubes of Physicians Formula Sexy Booster Sexy Glow Glossy Stain…

Physicians Formula Sexy Booster Sexy Glow Glossy Stains Red and Hot Pink — The Physicians Formula Sexy Booster Sexy Glow Glossy Stains in Red and Hot Pink

Charmed, I’m sure. 🙂

Maybe it’s the way they sparkle when I wiggle them around. It triggers some kind of primitive cave girl thing… Whatever it is, those silvery high-heel charms are charming the heck out of me.

And speaking of charming, that’s actually their schtick — except with regard to pants, as in “charming the pants off you.” These two new pigmented, $9.95 gloss/stain hybrids in Red and Hot Pink, like the Physicians Formula Sexy Booster Sexy Glow Blush in Rose we looked at before, are designed to do just that.

With ingredients like horny goat weed and a musky vanilla scent, they’re supposed to evoke a sultry state of mind while tinting lips with a long-lasting lip stain and a satiny finish.

Truth be told, I haven’t yet felt the urge to bump Barry White and crawl all over a rotating heart-shaped bed while wearing either of these shades…but I do feel like raising my hands in the air and waving them around like I just don’t care, which is something I normally do for drugstore versions of high-end makeup products.

These remind me of those $32 Yves Saint Laurent Glossy Stains…

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The New NARS Satin Lip Pencils: Steeped in Prodigious Pigment, These Creamy, Indulgent Crayons Call for You to Pencil in Some Playtime at Your Nearest NARS Counter

March 7th, 2013 by Karen 39 Comments

NARS Satin Lip Pencil Floralies swatch — Wearing the new NARS Satin Lip Pencil in Floralies ($25), a light apricot, one of 13 shades from the new Satin Lip Pencil line coming March 15 to NARS counters and available now online

You know what I realized this afternoon while coloring in my lips with the new NARS Satin Lip Pencils?

I have no idea what happened to my coloring books…

I used to have a ton of them as a kid. Stacks of coloring books, but somewhere along the way, they disappeared, probably into the same vortex that sucked up my red Hello Kitty lunchbox (she growled, shaking her fist!).

I was always coloring something… Books, folders, pictures of people.

I did that last one a lot, too. I loved coloring in the lips of people in pictures (a harbinger of my lipstick addiction, perhaps?).

Today, as I lined and filled in my pout with the Satin Lip Pencils — creamy, potently pigmented lipsticks with a soft sheen finish — I felt like I was lying on the living room floor with Karrie, my childhood buddy, coloring and watching cartoons. 🙂

Lightweight, non-sticky, smooth and moisturizing, they’re like lip pencils and lipsticks rolled into one. Just line and fill in your lips, and you’re good for 5-6 hours (keep ’em handy, though, if you plan to eat or drink, as they do fade a bit after either).

NARS included some interesting ingredients in the formula — things like pomegranate and yeast extracts, hyaluronic acid, collagen prepeptides and vitamin E to moisturize, soothe and create fuller-looking lips.

Oh…but which color to start with among the 13 shades, which range from nuanced nudes to arresting pinks and reds?

I say go with Floralies if you’re into nudes, Lodhi if you’re a fiend for corals, and Yu or Jardin Des Plantes if you’re all about brights.

NARS Satin Lip Pencils from the left: Floralies, Isola Bella, Biscayne Park, Lodhi, Het Loo, Rikugien, Golshan, Palais Royal, Majella, Hyde Park, Luxembourg, Jardin Des Plantes and Yu

NARS Satin Lip Pencil Isola Bella swatch — NARS Satin Lip Pencil in Isola Bella, a peach beige

NARS Satin Lip Pencil Biscayne Park swatch — NARS Satin Lip Pencil in Biscayne Park, a pink guava

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A Bright, Glowing Face of the Day With the New Too Faced Summer Eyes Summer Sexy Shadow Collection

March 7th, 2013 by Karen 35 Comments

Too Faced Summer Eyes Summer Sexy Shadow Collection 1 — Too Faced Summer Eyes Summer Sexy Shadow Collection

Dear Insomnia,

I think we need a break… Our relationship isn’t working. I’m just not that into you.

Love,
MBB

My mom always says to look on the bright side, so looking at things that way, the fact that I couldn’t fall asleep last night was a good thing, because it allowed me to finally watch the new episode of Southland (one of the best shows on TV!!).

While watching it I realized that 1) if I ever meet Ben Mckenzie in real life, there better be a fainting couch nearby because I’d probably swoon, and 2) he’s on twitter, which gives me another place to follow him.

Another silver lining to last night’s insomnia? It gave me extra motivation to do a bright, glowing makeup look today with golds, tans and corals — some of my favorite colors these days. 🙂

Two new products play starring roles in this look — the brown, coral and gold eye shadows from the “Classic” row in the new Summer Eyes Palette from Too Faced and the coral NARS Satin Lip Pencil in Lodhi. And on my cheeks, that’s good ol’ Chanel Frivole.

By the way, if you were thinking that the Summer Eye Palette looked familiar, then good eye! The same palette was released last year but on a very small scale. Too Faced decided to re-release it this year with a new shade (Seashell, instead of last year’s Sugar Sand) to let fans who missed it get their paws on it now.

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A 16-Hour Bronzer? What a Tan-talizing Thought! The New Two Faced Cosmetics Endless Summer 16 Hour Long-Wear Bronzer

March 6th, 2013 by Karen 28 Comments

That’s me wearing the new $30 Too Faced Cosmetics Endless Summer 16 Hour Long-Wear Bronzer (from the new Hello Sunshine summer 2013 collection) below my cheek bones, in the creases of my eyes and around the edges of my face…

Bronzer fiend says what?

What?

I’m addicted to bronzer. 🙂 Have been for a while, but it’s progressed to the point where I feel naked when I’m not wearing any bronzer at all, like I’m running through the aisles at Trader Joe’s wearing nothing but my skivvies and a pair of flip-flips and trying to avoid making eye contact with anyone while I clutch six bags of coconut chips in my arms.

Awkward…

It’s a problem, but at least it’s easy to fix. I just make a point of carrying from one to three bronzers with me at all times (’cause you never know when the urge for NARS Laguna, MAC Give Me Sun or Benefit Hoola will strike).

Okay, not all times. But most.

Except for lately, because I’ve been in the mood to travel light. I rediscovered this small, striped Kate Spade wristlet that I like, and it’s just too small for three bronzers and the kitchen sink.

I guess the stars were aligning when I met the new $30 Too Faced Endless Summer 16 Hour Long-Wear Bronzer. A light golden brown with subtle shimmer, it keeps me bronzed from brunch to bed, so I don’t have to bring it with me for touch-ups when I leave the house.

Too Faced says that the formula, which combines film formers and polymers with long-lasting pigments, lasts as long as it does because of its “double bond formula…” And yes, I’m picturing two Daniel Craigs. 🙂

They also claim that it’s out of this world! — as in universally flattering, and I can see that. Mostly. I do think it may go ashy on the deepest skin tones…

Too Faced Endless Summer 16 Hour Long-Wear Bronzer 12 — Too Faced Endless Summer 16 Hour Long-Wear Bronzer

Too Faced Endless Summer 16 Hour Long-Wear Bronzer 13 — Too Faced Endless Summer 16 Hour Long-Wear Bronzer

Too Faced Endless Summer 16 Hour Long-Wear Bronzer 14 — Too Faced Endless Summer 16 Hour Long-Wear Bronzer

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