Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup
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For the love of husky tabbies! — yesterday I could not take a normal picture to save my life.
I don’t know how Tabs and Tyra do it. Some days it just seems, by my expression in every single pic, that I look like I accidentally stepped in dog poop:
But wait, it gets better…
LOL!
I do have a point, and it is this: I have a new favorite face makeup combo that I’ve been dying to tell you about — NARS Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturizer topped with a little bit of Hourglass Oxygen Foundation Powder.
Reporting live today from the wild plains of the Dior golden savannah!
We’ve stepped out of our vehicle for a few moments to get a better look at the local wildlife. Around me, fall eye palettes in shades of khaki, bronze, nude and brown roam free.
It’s breathtaking, but potentially very dangerous for purses and wallets, as this area is famous for luscious, creamy shadows attacking unsuspecting, wide-eyed Dior fans like you and me.
Shh! I think I see something beautiful… Hurry, everyone! Back to the vehicle!
Seriously, there’s almost too much pretty in these compacts; I’m tempted to apply everything all at once!
Yup, lots to look forward to this fall at Dior, like a new line of brushes and face makeup, nude nail polishes and eye palettes, and a new makeup collection for eyes, lips and cheeks called Golden Jungle.
It’s a massive number of new products, and here’s a quick nibble. Let me know if anything fires up your inner jungle cat, mrrrow! 🙂
Oh! — about the eye makeup I wore in yesterday’s NARS Foreplay review, that’s the new limited edition Laura Mercier Eye Colour Duet in Suspense ($22), part of Laura’s fall 2012 Cinema Noir Collection.
The cute case houses two powder matte shadows — a neutral beige and a plummy brown. Before I tried them on, based on how they looked in the pan, I wasn’t expecting to be thrilled, but then I got ’em on my eyes.
WOW! The texture of both of these shadows? Kind of amazing. They’re so soft that they almost feel creamy. Super easy to blend, too, and not a lick of fallout, either.
I think both colors go really well with bronzed brown and plummy brown eyeliners, like MAC Teddy and Becca Cabrera.
For my lips and cheeks in that look yesterday, I borrowed the idea from some of the fall campaign looks I’ve been seeing from NARS and YSL, pairing a strong eye with a bold lip, in this case a warm, shimmery brandy.
With the eyes and lips serving as focal points, I wanted to keep my cheeks more subdued, so I went with a matte peachy pink blush (all the deets are down below).
If you like the idea of looks that combine bold eyes and lips but feel like they can go a little overboard, you could opt for a nude lip shade instead (the Too Faced La Crème lip cremes have lots of nude shades to choose from), or skip the darker liner I’m wearing here on my lower water line entirely.
Or, you could use a lighter white or flesh-colored liner along your lower water line to create a wider-eyed look, and for something like that you might try MAC Eye Kohl in Fascinating, NARS Larger Than Life Long-Wear Eyeliner in Rue Bonaparte, Make Up For Ever Aqua Eyes in Champagne or Dolce & Gabbana Khol Pencil in True White.
Okay, this blog’s a family show and all, but c’mon! You can’t expect me not to enjoy the perverted wordplay possibilities afforded by the new NARS Foreplay Cheek Palette ($49).
Fore-play? Four blushes, one of them a big ol’ pan of Orgasm? Oh, François, you so crazy! 🙂
As a fellow diner at le buffet de beaute, you’re probably well aware of NARS Orgasm blush’s wonderful reputation. Makeup lovers have been lavishing praise upon it for years, calling it a universally flattering peachy golden pink that looks great on just about everyone.
I wear it, love it and reach for it often in the NARS Orgasm/Laguna Duo, which I never leave home without.
Seriously. I don’t think I’ve taken a trip without it once over the past three years.
Recognizing the product’s popularity, NARS decided to make Orgasm the main dish in Foreplay, a new limited edition cheek palette available exclusively at Sephora.
The palette serves up a big pan of Orgasm and three tasty sides — a matte rosy peach that reminds me of a sheerer NARS Amour, a matte hot pink that resembles a sleepy Mata Hari, and a shimmery golden yellow highlighter which, hello! — has glitter for days (starts off on my cheeks, ends up on my chin, weird!).
There’s been some rumbling about the blushes in Foreplay being different than their namesakes in the NARS permanent line, and I have to agree. The Foreplay Orgasm (did I really just type that?), for instance, sure looks more glittery than its permanent collection counterpart does to me, and the golden pearl glitter bits look larger, too, as do the grains within the powder itself.
Heck, I can see the blush sitting on my skin, which is something I’ve never noticed with my older pan of the big O. The overall effect seems more intense and less natural than the effect I get with the Orgasm in the Orgasm/Laguna Duo.
Same goes for the glitter bits in the shimmery golden highlighter. They’re big, and they have a tendency to wander.
I’m definitely diggin’ both of the mattes, though, which remind me of Amour and Mata Hari, two of my favorite NARS blushes of all time.
Wearing the matte pink shade
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Wearing Neutrogena MoistureShine Gloss in Copper Power on my lips
Currently on my list of things I can’t get enough of…
For the longest time I was all about black shoes because I thought, hey, they go with everything, right? These days, I’m all about nudes. Nude heels, nude sandals and — oh! I’m think I’m gonna need to find a pair of nude boots by fall.
Basically, if it’s in a nude color, goes on my feet and appears to make my legs look longer (as nude shoes are wont to do), I’m there.
I always use the tabby ones first. 🙂 One of these days I’m going to make some Tabs stickers. That would be rad to the Nth degree, for real! Of course, there would have to be several stickers showing off his husky tum (of course).
My mum
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With all the smokey purples and shimmery platinums blazing on eyes over at NARS fall 2012, I can see why François Nars (can I call you François, Monsieur Nars?) decided to go the sheer pink route with the new Multiple in Undress Me ($39). Smokey eyes and chill cheeks? — a classic pairing, like a more beautiful version of peanut butter and jelly (incidentally, my dinner tonight, because I was too lazy to cook).
But because it’s from NARS, this creamy, multitasking stick, which is designed to lavish both lips and eyes, comes with a twist. Yes, it’s jam packed with oodles of silver glitter. More like buckets, really. I’m talkin’ so much glitter that my shimmer-loving, sequined-covered, feathered-headdress-wearing inner drag queen snaps in full approval.
After I swipe a single layer of Undress Me on my skin and buff it down with my fingers, the glitter reveals itself like a phoenix rising!
Undress Me unblended (left) and blended (right)
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How’s it going, friend? I hope you had a nice Friday (never mind the ominous date). Mine turned out pretty well.
Maybe even great. 🙂
I had most of the afternoon off, as Tabs left early to catch a flight to Capri where he’s shooting a kitty modeling spread this weekend for Dolce & Gabbana’s new fragrance, Light Blue for Tom Cats.
(Look for it on counters spring 2013.)
I don’t know… Maybe it was the extra catnip I slipped into his gravy before the limo picked him up (he gets so nervous when he flies), but he was unusually nice to me this morning.
He even called right before takeoff to tell me that I could go to the salon today. His treat!
Meow mrrow, he said. Seriously, those were his exact words.
Not needing to be told twice, I booked a last-minute appointment with my bud Alis over at A-Line Salon.
Alis freshened my roots, trimmed my scraggly ends and lightened a few more sections to crank up the ombre effect I’ve been wearing for a few months.
No pink streaks this time, but I’m still considering these Colorsmash Hair Shadows…
I think I may have also found a new makeup look I’d like to try while flipping through the August issue of Glamour at the salon.
Actress Mila Kunis with a bangin’ cat eye
That liner — perfection!
I’m meeting Jen and Cindy for dinner in the city tomorrow night, and I think I’m gonna give it a try (wish me luck!).
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“You better head outta town, Outlaw. Marshall Tabs come lookin’ for ya!”
If you 
NARS Amour or Taos Blush as much as I do, I reckon you’d do just about anything to get your hands on this Outlaw.
The first time I set eyes on a pan of new NARS Outlaw Blush ($28, from the NARS fall 2012 collection), I thought, “What in tarnation?! Is that Taos kinfolk?” but it actually applies like a rosier golden version of Amour instead.
Because this rose with its golden shimmer packs so much pigment, I’ve been using a fan brush to apply a single layer; the fan brush deposits less product per layer than a regular blush brush does.
A skunk brush would probably also be a good choice.
NARS blush swatches from the left: Outlaw, Taos and Amour
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