Makeup

Benefit’s Featherweight Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow Liquid Foundation Wows on Several Fronts

January 17th, 2012 by Karen 91 Comments

Bid bon voyage to thick, heavy masks and farewell to suffocating skin. Benefit’s new featherweight oil-free foundation would like to say hi.

Or hello, that is. 🙂

Coming in March to Benefit counters, new Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow ($34), Benefit’s new line of light-to-medium coverage liquid foundation, barely feels like anything at all (cotton candy kisses come to mind).

It’s so lightweight that when I apply it, I can almost feel my pores taking deep yoga breaths in and out, ohm and ahhh…

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Of the nine available shades, which isn’t a lot for an entire foundation range, All the Rage Beige comes closest to my skin tone (I’m an NC42 in MAC). Very close, but not perfect, and I find myself yearning for the same shade with a little more yellow. I think it’s only obvious, though, when I really pack it on.

The pump dispenser, on the other hand, is perfect. I’m serious. This thing kicks so much @ss!

I know it sounds silly to obsess over a pump, but a good one like this means wasting a lot less of a $34 product. It offers so much control that I can easily squeeze out half a drop.

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The foundation itself feels very thin and watery, and the first time I used it I was sure it wouldn’t provide enough coverage. But it did. I used half a pump and applied that over my entire face with my fingers, and then used a few more drops for some trouble spots on my chin. It’s mid-level coverage, so it’s not fully opaque, but I think it looks very natural, like tinted moisturizer turned up a notch (with the added benefit of SPF 25 PA+++).

Swatches from the left: I’m Pure 4 Sure Ivory, I’m Plush & Precious Petal, Cheers to Me Champagne, and I’m So Money Honey

From the left: I’m All the Rage Beige, Warm Me Up Toasted Beige, and I’m So Glamber Amber
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Benefit Says, “Why Wait for Summer?” Try Sun Beam Liquid Highlighter Instead

January 17th, 2012 by Karen 39 Comments

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Just because it’s winter (for most of us) and our calendars are flipped to January doesn’t mean we can’t talk about spring, sunshine and sunbeams — or Sun Beams, if we’re talking highlighters — because when it comes to makeup seasons, cosmetics companies dance to the beat of a different drummer.

Benefit Sun Beam Benefit says their new Sun Beam liquid highlighter ($26) is like sunshine in a bottle, and while I’ve heard that about other products a time or two before, when I wear this warm bronzed gold along my upper cheekbones and beneath my brow bones, I think I do look like I’ve just returned from a tropical vacation.

A great highlighter can do for faces what a great bra can do for an outfit (a lot), so I’m always on the market for great ones. Great, though, is a relative term, and one gal’s great is another gal’s mediocre.

As luck would have it, that’s where Sun Beam stands out. I think its flexibility is what sets it apart. When I want a soft, radiant glow, like that look after a good facial, I’ll dab a couple dots and blend, but I can also add a few extra drops for more dramatic shimmer.

And speaking of shimmer, Sun Beam’s is gold, and so it might be a better fit for gals who like warmer shades and golds. Ladies who love cooler colors, however, might still fall for Sun Beam, but if not, there’s always Benefit’s other highlighters, like High Beam or Watt’s Up.

Benefit Sun Beam (3)

Benefit Sun Beam (1)

Sun Beam unblended
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New Year, New You: Jump Start Your Style with These Five Lip Looks

January 17th, 2012 by Karen 58 Comments

This post is part of a series sponsored by Walgreens.

Don’t you just love fresh starts and clean slates? I do! — and that’s what Januarys (and sometimes Februarys) are all about. New year, new excuse/opportunity to try something new, like perhaps pink streaks in your hair. 🙂

But say you’re not quite ready for a full-on commitment to a funky hair color. No problem. You can still freshen up your look, starting with your lips (and you don’t have to spend a small fortune).

Thanks to drugstore beauty aisles and brands like Revlon, Rimmel, Covergirl, Jordana and Maybelline, your new lip look could be less than $10 away.

Here are five affordable lip looks to give you some ideas…

1. A bright reddish pink

Nothing says “new start” like a bright reddish pink, unless you apply Revlon Colorburst Lipgloss in Strawberry ($7.79) atop Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick by Kate Moss in 12 ($5.99), in which case it says it in all caps, with an exclamation mark, like this: “NEW START!”

Revlon Colorburst Lipgloss in Strawberry on the left and Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick by Kate Moss in 12 on the right

2. A shimmery golden pink

How about a tender touch? Something soft and romantic, like a shimmery rosy peach? Here, I mixed both of the colors from Covergirl’s new Blast Flipstick in Snap ($9.79) and topped them with Jordana’s Lip Out Loud Super Shiny Gloss in TTYL ($1.99).

Jordana Lip Out Loud Super Shiny Gloss in TTYL on the top and Covergirl Blast Flipstick in Snap on the bottom

The two colors from the Covergirl Blast Flipstick in Snap (far left and center) and Jordana Lip Out Loud Super Shiny Gloss in TTYL (far right)
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A Make Up For Ever Aqua Cream for $7? Almost, Thanks to Maybelline Color Tattoo 24HR Eyeshadow

January 16th, 2012 by Karen 43 Comments

Hop on a unicycle, hitch a ride with a team of sled dogs, or lace up those rollerblades — use any means necessary to get thee to a drugstore to see these new Maybelline Color Tattoo 24HR Eyeshadows ($7 each) up close.

The potent pigments span an eclectic range of 10 colors from neutrals to brights, and either worn by themselves or as bases for powder shadows, these budget beauties can swagger all night long.

Maybe not the 24 hours advertised, but 10-12, nevertheless.

Of course, there is a catch (isn’t there always?)…

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To coax out that kind of wear time, I have to wear them with something else — something like a primer applied beneath them or a powder shadow on top — and really pack them on my lids with a finger or a firm synthetic brush (like the MAC 249).

Even when I don’t, though, these shadows still hang tough for 5-6 hours before succumbing to creases and fading.

Not bad for seven bucks.

Their fluffy, smooth texture reminds me of the pricier Make Up For Ever Aqua Creams, but I think the Aqua Creams do have them beat in terms of drying time, which could be good or bad, depending on your point of view (or in my case, how far I’m running behind, haha), and longevity. MUFE’s versions last me 14-16 hours, versus 10-12 for these.

If you like neutrals, don’t miss Bad to the Bronze (my fave!). I’ve been wearing it with bronzy colors like NARS Star Sailor Duo, and with neutrals like the ones in Urban Decay Naked and Naked2.

If you prefer brights, check out Tenacious Teal and Edgy Emerald. Both should look great by themselves or as bases for teal/green eye looks.

Wearing Bad to the Bronze
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$8 Maybelline Master Shape Brow Pencils Are Soft on Brows But Still Get Results

January 14th, 2012 by Karen 19 Comments

I’m like the moon when it comes to brow products. I go through phases. First, I was all about the MAC 266 Small Angle Brush and Concrete Eyeshadow combo, but then I found Benefit Instant Brow.

We were very happy together for a while, Instant Brow, my brows and I, but then around my third or fourth $20 pencil, I developed drugstore wandering eyes and started looking for a more affordable long-term option. Maybe something like these new Maybelline Master Shape Brow Pencils, which just arrived in drugstores earlier this month.

They’re $8 each and come in four shades — Blonde, Soft Brown, Deep Brown and Auburn. At the rate I was going through $20 Instant Brows, $8 sounded pretty good.

Maybelline Master Shape Brow Pencil

Like Instant Brow, they’re makeup multi-tools and have a pencil on one end and a grooming brush on the other.

I tried two of the shades, Soft Brown and Deep Brown; for me, Deep Brown was the better fit.

First impressions? One and a half thumbs up for convenience (uh…). I like having the brush and pencil together in one place, and the only thing that would make the packaging more convenient for me is a twist-up pencil tip that I didn’t have to sharpen.
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When Shimmery Blue NARS Dark Rite Soft Touch Shadow Pencil Creases, It’s So Wrong

January 14th, 2012 by Karen 27 Comments

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Hello, serious! 🙂

It’s funny to me that NARS chose to call their new Soft Touch Shadow Pencil from the spring 2012 collection a name like Dark Rite ($24), unless they meant it as a question.

Dark, right? Even though it’s not. But at least that would leave the door open for a different answer, LOL! — one more fitting of such a shimmery, enchanting blue.

First time I saw the name, I thought, rainy Sundays and elevator muzak, and pictured a slow, sad ride down an elevator at 2 a.m. on my way home from working as a pawn for the man.

Yup, been there, done that.

But then I saw the color, and this Dark Rite is not at all like that. It’s more like high school graduation — when everyone throws their blue caps way up into the air, or like those desktop wallpapers of scenic sapphire oceans that come with a new computer.

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An Inside Look at the New Benefit Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow Liquid Foundation With Benefit Global Beauty Authority Annie Ford-Danielson

January 13th, 2012 by Karen 59 Comments

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Benefit babes, brace yourself for a bodacious treat. 🙂

Yesterday Benefit Global Beauty Authority Annie Ford-Danielson took a few minutes to chat with me over the phone about their newest product, Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow Liquid Foundation ($34), which arrives on counters this March.

You may remember Annie and her sister Maggie from last year’s B.Right Skin Care launch. Together, they travel the world, working as global ambassadors for the brand.

This marks Benefit’s latest leap into liquid foundations, and Annie, who also works in product development, gave me an inside look at the development process and what we can expect from Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow when it arrives.

The following is an interview with Benefit Global Beauty Authority Annie Ford-Danielson about the brand’s new Benefit Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow Liquid Foundation.

So why did Benefit decide to do a liquid foundation?

Well, I think that at Benefit, as you know, we have kind of a small number of products. We’re not like the MACs or Make Up For Evers, where we have 1500 SKUs, so we have to choose our launches super carefully.

We kind of realized that we’ve done concealers, we’ve done highlighters, Fake-Its, brows, skin care, so the next step to really becoming a one-stop shop for beauty was to create a new liquid foundation.

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Our girls, our customers, were coming to us for all of these beauty dilemmas and needs, and the fact that we didn’t have a full assortment of foundations was sending them off to other brands, and of course we want our girls to stay with us.

Annie Ford-Danielson, Benefit Global Beauty Authority

I think that really sparked our interest in making a new line. In true Benefit fashion, I’m sure as you know, we’re all about just quick, easy, instant beauty solutions, and I think that foundation can be hard for a lot of women. It can be super intimidating; it can be laborious, so we wanted to create a formula that was really easy, hydrating and brightening.

When you say brightening, does that mean shimmer?

There’s no shimmer in the foundation itself. It’s called Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow, and the really kind of “Fake It” quality that we’ve given this foundation is that it has an oxygen hydrating complex.

What does this mean? It means it’s going to help boost your cellular respiration, giving your skin a really nice plumping effect, so it’s going to make those fine lines, those little crevices, kind of plump up, giving you that healthy-looking skin. And it also helps protect against environmental stresses. It has vitamin C and E derivatives, which are known to prevent the signs of aging.

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My favorite part about this is that it’s oil free but has an SPF 25 PA+++. So what does that all mean? It’s very technical. First of all, the Oxygen Wow complex is completely exclusive to our brand. We created it for our liquid foundation, and basically, what it means is that this is not your traditional liquid foundation. It goes on and has the consistency of a really nice, kind of lightweight tinted moisturizer, but it has the coverage of a foundation.

Can you describe the coverage a little bit?

It’s interesting that you asked. It really depends on the method in which you apply. For example, I apply — I wear it, and I’ve been wearing this foundation because I have connections here and I get it early (laughs). I’ve been traveling so much this year, and everyone’s like, “What’s your favorite product?” and I’m like, “Well, I can’t tell you…because it’s our liquid foundation and we don’t have it [yet].”

So, honestly, it really depends on what you want the foundation to do. On the weekends, I apply it with my fingers, and I just apply half a pump. It kind of gives me a really nice, evening-out effect, but it’s incredibly build-able.

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That was one of the main aspects of the foundation that we as a brand felt was important for our customers, because our customers are always telling us, “We want to be able to customize our look. On Sunday, we don’t want to look as decked out as we do on Friday night.” So we figured that to have a formula that was incredibly build-able was the key, so you can go all the way from light, to medium, to medium-full coverage foundation.
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I Feel Anything But Neutral About NARS Bilbao Lipstick

January 13th, 2012 by Karen 10 Comments

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From a distance, Bilbao Lipstick might appear like a slow bolero beside ValparaÃso’s quick-tempo salsa, but up close and personal, it’s more like the paso doble or flamenco. In other words, not as tame as it looks.

The third lip product from NARS for spring 2012 (the other two are Mexican Rose and ValparaÃso), rosy brown Bilbao Lipstick has quickly become one of my new favorite neutrals.

With a pinch of plum, a sprinkle of golden shimmer and a dash of silver glitter, it’s anything but typical, and it reminds me of one of my favorite places in the world…

Basque Country!

On a whirlwind trip through Western Europe in 2005, El Hub and I explored along the Northern Spanish coast, and we stopped for a bit in the seaside city of San Sebastian, about 30 kilometers east of the city of Bilbao.

After fueling up on tapas and taking in the sights at the beach, we posted up on a stone wall to watch the sun dip below the horizon…

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