Makeup

With the Smashbox Holiday 2011 Collection, Smashbox Is Making the Holidays Snappy, One Palette at a Time

October 29th, 2011 by Karen 10 Comments

Now pose for the camera.

[CLICK!]

My inner-shutterbug has developed quite a crush on Smashbox lately, and they’re back behind the camera again with another photography-fueled collection (remember fall’s Girls on Film?), this one for the holidays.

They’ve kept their lens zoomed in on kits and palettes this time around. The new Snappy Holidays collection features kits for the face, lips and eyes. Here’s a close look at two of the sets, Be Discovered and Click You’re It, of which the former isn’t listed on the Smashbox website yet.

Be Discovered Palette: Details

Price and availability — Unknown at this point, but I’ll update you as soon as I know. Smashbox’s larger palettes typically sell for around $59.
What you get — 45 powder eyeshadows (WOW!), three powder blushes, two powder highlighters, one powder bronzer, nine cream eye liners, six lip glosses, four mini brushes and a booklet with three tutorials.
First impressions — This kit is MASSIVE and could be a little intimidating. I think Smashbox could have done folks a favor by making the tutorials easier to follow because they don’t reference specific shades. It’s just like, “Grab your favorite nude,” but what if you don’t know which of the many shades are nude? Props anyway to Smashbox for keeping the cream and powder products separate, though. That’s always appreciated.
So far, I can say that I definitely dig the blushes.

Click You’re It Palette: Details

Price and availability — $49. Available now online and coming soon to Sephora and Ulta stores.
What You Get — 15 powder eye shadows, five cream eye liners, an eye primer and three doubled-sided how-to cards with instructions for six different eye looks.
First impressions — The way Smashbox numbered these pans was GENIUS! It makes following the how-to’s easy.
I do wish they would have placed the cream liner on a separate tier, but still, I can’t wait to play with this palette!

Click You’re It Palette: Pics

smashbox click you're it box

smashbox click you're it box
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For a Limited Time, Eyes Will Smile from a Mile Away with the New 15-Piece EstÃ©e Lauder Pure Color Cyber Eyes Collection

October 28th, 2011 by Karen 26 Comments

Estee Lauder Pure Color Cyber Eyes

My, oh, my, what’s this I spy? It looks like the new Pure Color Cyber Eyes collection from EstÃ©e Lauder is here.

Rich pigments and metallic finishes define this 15-piece limited edition release for eyes. With the collection, which is coming soon to EstÃ©e Lauder counters but available now online, EL introduces a completely new line of all-in-one liquid/powder/gel eyeshadows. The Pure Color Gelee Powder EyeShadows ($24 each) have an amphibious formula designed to be worn either wet or dry.

The release also features six new shades of the company’s Pure Color Intense Kajal EyeLiners ($20 each) and three jewel-toned Sumptuous Extreme Lash Multiplying Mascaras ($23.50 each).

estee lauder pure color cyber eyes (2)

estee lauder pure color cyber eyes (4)
Pure Color Gelee Powder EyeShadow in Cyber Lilac

For a second there with Cyber Lilac I thought I was looking at foil wrapping paper (so pretty).
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You’ll Sparkle for the Holidays with Les Scintillances De Chanel

October 26th, 2011 by Karen 34 Comments

Chanel Collection Les Scintillances De Chanel
Lumiere Sculptee de Chanel Highlighting Powder, $72

With my in-laws visiting, I’ve been splitting my time this week among three adults and a demanding tabby. The adults I’ve been able to handle, but the tabby — oh, the tabby. While my father-in-law went to pick up the pizza we ordered for dinner, Tabs insisted that I take pictures of these pieces from Chanel’s holiday collection, Les Scintillances De Chanel.

He’s such a ho for Coco. 🙂

The collection has been sparkling on counters and computer monitors for a little while (it’s also available online). I have some reviews planned and a couple of looks lined up over the next few days.

What do ya think of the Lumiere Sculptee de Chanel Highlighting Powder? Isn’t the pattern on the pan intriguing? It looks almost Baroque to me…or maybe Aztec. Cool, yah?

Chanel Collection Les Scintillances De Chanel pouches

Chanel Collection Les Scintillances De Chanel closed
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A Pocketbook of Purples with the New Laura Mercier Luxe Colour Portfolio

October 26th, 2011 by Karen 19 Comments

laura mercier luxe colour portfolio (7)

Three days later, and I still have no idea what the new $98 Laura Mercier Luxe Colour Portfolio has to do with snakes.

With its lid shut and its faux snakeskin midriff showing, doesn’t the new limited edition holiday kit have an almost Western motif? I keep seeing it in the hands of a woman wearing bloomers and white gloves on the wooden steps of an old saloon…

laura mercier luxe colour portfolio (4)

But then when it opens, exposing a palette of six powder eyeshadows, three cake liners, two powder blushes and three travel-size eye brushes, I see the palette in a different light — one that’s purple, kinda glamorous, and not all that Western at all.
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How Far Would Gulliver Travel for the Little Glosses in the Laura Mercier Limited Edition Mini Lip GlacÃ© Set?

October 25th, 2011 by Karen 28 Comments

Wearing Laura Mercier Lip GlacÃ© in Rose

Minis rule! — and I’m not just saying that as someone who’s usually the shortest person in the room (even in heels). 🙂 The diminutive glosses in the new Laura Mercier Limited Edition Mini Lip GlacÃ© Set may share my challenges with vertical stature, but that’s only one of the reasons I think they’re such a dang good deal.

From the left: After Hours, Blush, Quartz, Rose and Sparkling

At first glance, the $48 kit may seem expensive, but it makes pretty good sense if you do the math. The price on the set translates into big savings on what are arguably some of the most underrated glosses available on counters now.

I’ve been wearing and loving the Lip GlacÃ©s for years, and while the full-size versions cost $22 for a 0.159-oz. tube, these smaller 0.1-oz. tubes work out to just $9.60 apiece. Even ounce for ounce, they’re a much better deal ($138.38 per ounce for the full-size ones vs. $96 per ounce for the minis).

Not too shabby, tabby, especially if you love super shiny glosses and hyphenated words, like non-drying, long-wearing and non-sticky.

With the Mini Lip GlacÃ© Set you get five meow-worthy glosses, each one packed with pigment, in a range of shades from dramatic to nude, and all of them come with a convenient doe-foot applicator.

The shades…

After Hours: a creamy, peachy pink with golden micro-glitter
Sparkling: a shimmery nude beige
Rose: a shimmery reddish pink with golden glitter
Blush: a creamy brownish pink
Quartz: a shimmery reddish sienna

Swatches from the left: After Hours, Blush, Quartz, Rose and Sparkling
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With the NARS Mandchourie Duo Eyeshadow, NARS Blue It in the Best Possible Way

October 21st, 2011 by Karen 18 Comments

nars Mandchourie Duo Eyeshadow

Don’t you hate it when someone else shows up to the party wearing the same outfit? That’s probably how the neighbor’s Russian Blue felt today when she saw that I was wearing the new NARS Mandchourie Duo Eyeshadow.

I’m all up in your catnip!

You know how cats are… Divas. They think they’re the sh*t, especially when it comes to the color of their coat, and until today, my Russian comrade held the undisputed title of Smokiest Blue on the Block.

But things have changed. Now, with the shadows in this powder duo on my lids, old blue has some serious competition.

MEOW! 🙂

The duo, my new go-to girl for sultry, smokey eyes, hails from the new NARS Holiday 2011 collection, a bizarrely cohesive mix of browns, blues, plums, peaches and golds, with a smattering of red, silver and black.

“Its French name conjures the geographical region in northeast Asia, as this golden-infused denim paired with a rich navy delivers a yin and yang effect to the lid. Each hue can be worn on its own, but when applied together â€” the darker shade in the crease or as a liner; the lighter color on the lid or as a highlight â€” the result is one of perfect balance.”

— NARS Cosmetics

For me, blue isn’t the first color that comes to mind when I think of quick smokey eyes, because with it there’s usually some extra patting and blending involved (and sometimes extra time for cleanup). But Mandchourie makes blue surprisingly easy.

To my eye the lighter shade resembles a shimmery greenish denim blue with flashes of shimmery gold. I like to apply it with a firm eyeshadow brush, and then buff that out with a fluffy domed brush, which transforms the color into a soft, smokey gray.

Pretty!

The darker shadow, a matte navy, is the more reserved of the two, and I think it compliments its lighter sibling well.

nars manchourie eyeshadow
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Tom Ford Beauty Violet Fatale Lipstick Calls for a Celebration

October 21st, 2011 by Karen 37 Comments

tom ford beauty violet fatale lipstick

I’m a firm believer in the motivational might of makeup as a reward for a job well done, and drugstore mini-hauls after a hard day’s work are a favorite of mine, but sometimes, like after a really monumental achievement — graduation, a new job, reaching a long-term goal — you might want to go even bigger than that.

Big like Tom Ford Beauty’s pricey princess, Violet Fatale Lip Color ($48).

A vivid purplish pink, it makes me feel like a superhero version of myself — bolder, brighter, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!

Okay, well, maybe not that last one…but I do feel a lot better with it on. 🙂

tom ford beauty lipstick

tom ford beauty lipstick
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The Tom Ford Beauty Sahara Haze Eye Color Quad Would Catch Any Sultan’s Eye

October 20th, 2011 by Karen 24 Comments

tom ford beauty sahara haze eye color quad

Today, like wavering rays of light on a distant desert dune, the Tom Ford Eye Color Quad in Sahara Haze made me doubt what I was seeing.

“Is it a mirage?” I wondered, sweeping the taupe shade into my crease. “Could it really be this good?”

At one point this afternoon I think my heart, which was booming like a timpani at both the beautiful quad and its exorbitant $78 price, actually did skip a beat. Few things in this world ever make me feel that way. Great makeup is one of them; glazed doughnuts are another.

Flawless, I tell you. Like a Krispy Kreme Original Glazed. So glowy. So pigmented. So melty and delicious…

Never mind that for $78 one could get 132 Krispy Kreme doughnuts at $0.59 each (or 78 sticks of $0.99 Wet ‘n’ Wild #666 Brandywine).

Sahara Haze is about a million miles from budget — it’s even costlier than the most expensive Chanel palette I can think of, last spring’s $65 Ombres Perlees de Chanel — but I still find it and the other color products, nail polishes, skin care and makeup brushes in the new Tom Ford Beauty line very, very hard to resist.

I want to gobble it up!

Everything about this stunning mother trucker — from the clean, contemporary packaging ( the dark chocolate and gold), to the featherweight, pigmented powders that fill the pans — spells l-u-x-u-r-y.

The quad’s cool lemony beige feels so soft that I almost thought it was a cream (but it’s not), the cool grayish taupe has a delicious finish perfectly perched between matte and shimmer, and the forest green and charcoal shades sparkle with flecks of golden glitter that glimmer like fireflies in the light.

tom ford beauty eye color

tom ford beauty eye color
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