Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup
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More new spring stuff from Smashbox! — a line of halo-inducing blushes (for angelic cheeks, perhaps?) and lipsticks.
These are the kinds of blushes where you twist and shave off what ya need. Little gimmicky, but I think it’s kinda fun.
When I swatched them, they seemed super sheer, so if you like the look of a lightly flushed cheek, or you just want something clutz-proof and easy, you might want to give ’em a try.
Okay, Tina Turner, what’s love got to do with it?
We’re looking at the new Smashbox spring collection, a six-piece release called Love Me, at the Sephora store in Novato.
Oh, and I’d also like to introduce you to my new friend/Sephora Novato mascott, Husky Dog. 🙂
I guess she was hanging out and waiting for her assistant. I tried to strike up a convo, but she paid me no mind…
First off, the two eyeshadow palettes from the collection. If I could only pick two things from the release, these are two I’d get. They’re really soft, almost creamy, and very pigmented. Mmm, hmm…
The line art on the packaging spells “Love Me.” (The heart is the “M.”) And when you open it, you see the curvy lines on the pan.
Nice touch.
And the blush. If you look closely, you’ll see hearts on the pan…
…and hearts on the two lipsticks. (Or are those peace signs?? Or rabbit ears??).
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Ooh! I picked up a great makeup trick last week from Courtney, a makeup artist/MBB reader/self-professed crazy cat lady at the Laura Mercier counter inside Saks in San Francisco’s Union Square. 🙂
Here’s the deal: I asked Court if she could recommend any secret weapons from Laura Mercier’s line — awesome products that maybe a lot of people didn’t know about — and she pulled out Laura’s Flawless Skin Repair Eye Serum.
This stuff is bright and tight. It contains green and white tea, arnica extract, caffeine and geranium to tighten skin and has a brightening pearlescent pink color.
Courtney’s trick? She uses it on herself and her clients as something of a primer for under-eye concealer.
Pat a minuscule amount — just a smidgen — beneath your eyes before concealer, let that sink in for a minute or two, and then apply your regular concealer on top.
BAM! It’s like P90X for concealer. You should see fewer concealer creases, all-day wear time and a lighter look from your concealer overall.
BEAUTY FUN FACT: according to Courtney, Laura Mercier uses Shu Uemura technology in all of their skin care.
Courtney said that a bunch of the makeup artists at Saks use the serum this way as a primer for concealers, and it doesn’t just work with Laura’s line. They also do it with concealers from other brands.
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I’m having a very hard time not referring to Laura Mercier’s new $20 Stone Grey Eye Pencil (from the Arabesque Spring 2013 collection) as, “Stone Cold Grey.”
And it’s all this man’s fault: Stone Cold Steve Austin.
I watched a lot of pro wrestling with my younger brother when he was kid, and back then Stone Cold Steve Austin was, like, a big, big deal.
For the record, it was usually my brother’s idea. I’d walk into the room while he was glued to the TV, his eyes wide with excitement, and ask, “Why are you watching that? You know it’s all fake, right?”
“Shut up, it’s real!” he’d reply, only taking his eyes off the action for a second.
Now, all these years later, I know how he must have felt, because the same thing happens to me when I’m watching The Hills…
Okay, tangent! Back to Laura’s Stone Grey. 🙂
One of two pencils in the Arabesque collection, this rich, pigmented cool-toned grayish blue, a limited edition piece (the other Arabesque pencil, Midnight Bleu, hails from the permanent collection), has a matte finish — almost like Stormy Grey liner’s shy cousin.
I think it looks lovely layered beneath Blue Zen eyeshadow — the one from the Free Spirit Palette — or by itself along lower lash and water lines.
If you’ve been wanting to test the waters with a blue liner but haven’t felt like diving into the deep end with a shockingly bright electric blue, this is the pencil for you. The grey really tones it down, keeping it quiet and soft.
It’s the kind of thing you could wear to work without your co-workers saying, “Ohmigod! Are you wearing blue eyeliner today!?” between TPS reports.
On my lash and water lines, it lasts from 5-6 hours, with minimal fading around the 4-hour mark, but touchups are easy, thanks to a soft, smooth texture.
This — THIS! — is one of the reasons I love Laura Mercier. First time I saw her new $48 Baked Eye Colour Palette in Free Spirit, I thought, “There’s no frickin’ way I’ll be able to pull that off.”
I thought the colors were way too cool for me, and that the pastels would appear chalky and entirely unwearable on my warm skin tone.
But then I started playing…
And, like she does so often, Laura came through. 🙂 Again, she found a way to make seemingly safe shades interesting, unusual and, I think, totally wearable.
At first glance, these colors might not get your heart pounding, but give ’em a chance. Dig a little (NOOO! — not literally into the pans, of course!), and you might just find something surprisingly beautiful hidden within something so seemingly subtle.
It happened to me with this palette.
A couple of its pastels do seem pretty typical, like the lightest blue, Soft Cloud. It’s pretty much your run-of-the-mill shimmery blue.
And then there’s Pink Tutu, the light pink on the far right — a competent but uninspiring shimmery pink. Neither one will set any records for originality, and you can probably find dupes from other lines.
Oh, but the remaining three shades — the dark blue on the far left, and the two darkest shades guarding the center — they hold the keys to this palette’s true power.
My favorite’s the one in the middle, Satin Ribbon, a gorgeous coppery bronze with blackened undertones.
SO BEAUTIFUL! It makes my head spin. And so complex. If you wet your brush first before applying it on your lids, the copper tones come out to party, looking rich and bright. I didn’t expect something like it from a palette with pastels.
Bare Yoga, seated to Satin Ribbon’s right, also blew me away. It’s my second favorite of these colors. Despite how basic it looks in the pan and when swatched dry, this mauve really grooves when you start buffing, revealing a purply brown personality. I love the way it looks blended into the crease with Satin Ribbon on my lids.
And then there’s Blue Zen, the darker blue on the far left, and the Clark Kent of this palette. A mild-mannered mid-toned blue by day, he flexes his stormy gray muscles when faced with buffing.
If you choose to wear one of the three new $19 Urban Decay Lip Junkie Glosses in Flushed, Obsessed or Trashed, you’ll probably still want to brush your teeth in the morning (and your tongue…to get rid of that fuzzy feeling), but if you do happen to forget, at least your breath will smell great! 🙂
Or rather, your lips will taste minty fresh, because all three of these are mint flavored and fragranced to the extreme! — and it’s a good mint, refreshingly like toothpaste.
For the record, Urban Decay thinks they taste and smell like “wedding mints,” and okay, sure, I get that (but they also remind me of my tube of Sensodyne).
New for spring, and newly added to the Lip Junkie Lipgloss line, these triplets are all cool-toned shades of pink with varying degrees of pigment from sheer to medium.
The Lip Junkies are Urban Decay’s cooling, plumping glosses that last a surprisingly long time. With them, I get anywhere from 4-5 hours, which is pretty good for a lipgloss, and yet despite lasting as they do, they don’t suck all of the moisture from my lips.
They’re billed as non-sticky, but I dunno about that. When I whip my hair back and forth (I whip my hair back and forth), stray strands do get stuck in the gloss, which is kinda thick and heavy.
It doesn’t bother me, but I guess it is something to think about. For a truly non-sticky UD gloss, though, you might want to try one of the Lip Loves instead.
If you’re cool with the slightly thick, sticky texture, I think any of these three would go great with the rest of Urban Decay’s new spring releases, like the new Naked Basics Palette, especially if you’re going for a primarily neutral, natural look, because they’re all rather quiet pinks, not at all bright or obnoxious (not that I don’t think there’s a time and place for that).
If you’re interested in low-key, natural makeup looks, these should be great for that.
And more, like the Ammo palette. You could do a bold eye look with the brights, and then balance it out with a sheer pink on your lips.
Definitely Obsessed definitely has me obsessed. It’s my favorite of these three. It’s darker than Flushed, so I can really see it on my lips, and warmer than Trashed, so I think it suits my warmer NC42 skin tone well.
Novato never hustles and bustles like San Francisco does. It’s a sleepy village compared to the city.
In the city, everything moves so fast! Sometimes when I visit I feel like a fish fighting up stream, or like I’m a raft caught in a current, totally out of control.
And then, suddenly, something — sometimes it’s colorful crocheted animal hats — stops me in my tracks!
Other times, it’s a window display with sparkly butterflies that have glittery wings. 🙂
Today at Saks Fifth Avenue in the city, it was Bobbi Brown because — ohmigosh! — they have so many new things out for spring.
Like the Brighten, Sparkle & Glow collection, with its mix of brand new and previously released products.
I’m particularly interested in these new Brightening Face Powders ($50 each), which come in all sorts of crazy colors! Like, one of them has pastels in it, with blue and yellow and green pans, and another one has purples and pinks and mauves.
My first thought? That these were eyeshadow palettes, but they’re actually products for your face.
Per my contract with Tabs the Cat Industries, LLC, I get every other Friday off.
Well, not necessarily “off,” because I’m still on call, but like, I’m forced to leave the office so that Tabs can have his “private time.”
As you can imagine, plotting world domination takes intense focus and concentration, so he kicks me out of the house.
Sigh…
Hi! From Saks Fifth Avenue here in San Francisco’s Union Square! 🙂
There’s a reason I’m standing in front of this building with big hair…but the reason has nothing to do with the hair (I just felt like having big hair today!).
I’m here to check out a new program Saks is running this month called Beauty Treat du Jour. Every day this month, Saks is holding a different beauty special or event, things like facial masks from SK-II, blowouts by a Frederic Fekkai stylist and hand massages from La Prairie.
There are also some fancy — FANCY! — gift-with-purchase deals, like a free cake liner from Laura Mercier.
Nationwide, 24 Saks stores are participating (call your local store for details). If you happen to be in the Bay Area and at any point this month find yourself near Union Square, stop by the beauty department at Saks to see what’s going on.
While I’m here looking for new spring stuff on counters, I plan to indulge in a Beauty Treat du Jour. At the SF store today, you can either learn to combine fragrances with Jo Malone London, or get a nail polish change from Dior.
Hmm… That nail polish change sounds pretty sweet to me. My claws are hella to’ up at the moment.
