Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup
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I watched Jersey Shore last night.
THERE. I said it.
I couldn’t help myself, but as my mind decayed down that familiar path into mind-numbing mush, I still managed to marshal enough neurons together to snap pics of the NYX Haute Jersey Leopard Couture palette ($25, available now online).
My tummy’s rumbling like crazy right now, and I should probably eat…but I can’t stop yet. No breaks until I finish swatching all 20 lipsticks in the new Bobbi Brown 1991 Lip Palette ($60).
You know how it is. Makeup comes first. 🙂
Candied Red
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I hate that it’s socially unacceptable for adults in polite company to spontaneously sing and dance. I mean, it was acceptable in high school, right? — when we’d all go buck wild at the drive-thru to Madonna’s Holiday in Jen’s old Datsun (WHITE LIGHTNIN’ FOR EVA!!) — so why can’t people who are old enough to vote also sing their favorite Top 40 hits in line at the DMV? 🙂
I miss being able to get away with things like that (not that one exactly, though). At some point on the road from adolescence to adulthood, spontaneous singing and dancing goes from being an acceptable way to blow off steam, to being something only tolerated from adults who are inebriated, filming a video, or busting moves in a flash mob at the mall.
Well ptooey! on that. We can dance if we want to (we can leave our cares behind), and what better time to dance than while looking at pics and swatches of the new Bobbi Brown Holiday Collection, available now at BB counters and also online.
I can still do the choreo to this dance; my 8-year-old self would be proud
Can you spare a few minutes to add a little sparkle to your eyes and cheeks?
Even if you aren’t obsessed with makeup, I think you might really like this launch (it’s mostly eye palettes, with a lip gloss trio thrown in for variety) because the colors aren’t scary. The neutrals, plums and single blip of blue lend a polished look to professionals who aren’t interested in overly bright, blingy holiday looks.
Take a peek at four of the seven pieces here, and let me know if you see anything you like.
Cool Party Eye Palette, $45
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It’s been a Project Runway kind of day…
No, nothing big like running into Heidi at Sephora or kicking it with Tim Gunn at the DSW (I wish!).
Just a couple of small but cool brushes with my favorite reality TV show. The first one I noticed this morning, when the Tivo, a normally evil form of artificial intelligence hell bent on recording all of the shows I NEVER watch, actually did something useful for a change. It recorded the entire season four of Project Runway, from start to finish, without me having to program it. 🙂
SIDE NOTE: Didn’t you just love Sweetpea? I wish she would have made it to the end just for being hella cool.
And the second one happened this afternoon as I futzed with Charming Cockatoo’s Gaze ($9), one of the four new quads in the L’Oreal Colors Take Flight collection, a collaboration with Project Runway (I know!).
As a semi-professional power napper able to sleep standing up, I appreciate the idea behind the new Pixi Fake Awake Kit in No. 1 PowerNap ($28), with its products designed to fake a wide awake look “without getting caught.” The cutie-pie kit comes with eight products — two of Pixi’s Correcting Concealers, two Brightening Concealers, one Cheek & Eye Awakening Powder, an Eye Area Setting Powder, one Lip & Cheek Tint and a Lip Gloss — and features lots of pink and peach.
Because sheer pastels are the prevailing pigments here, the overall effect seems better suited to lighter lovelies than darker damsels, but most of the pieces, with the exception of the concealers, which are probably better for pale pretties, should complement skin tones from light to medium.
Each of the five powder eyeshadows in the new $22 JK Jemma Kidd Smoke It Up I-Kit are so easy to blend that they could have been made by KitchenAid! — and with loads of pigment, they look and perform just like Jemma’s fab fall full-size shadows (which usually run $16 apiece).
The result is an affordable palette able to produce some of the quickest, easiest smokey eyes I’ve seen this fall. With lesser shadows, blending out the edges and layering darker shades can take (me) forever, but with the I-Kit I can bang out a smokey look in less than 10 minutes.
That’s mah vampire face!
Dear Diary,
My list of the day? Makeup I’d Wear If I Were a Vampire.
But not just any vampire. Not one of those goody-two-shoes Cullens. I’d be more like Pam from True Blood, and I’d wear dark lipstick, skintight jumpsuits and leather. I’d hang out at all the coolest underground vampire techno clubs, too, because, as you know, vampires must 
techno.
Yeah, I’ve watched Blade one too many times…
Moody dark burgundy Dolce & Gabbana Passion Duo Gloss Fusion Lipstick in Intense ($34) would go right up at the top of my list. One of 20 gloss/lipstick hybrids in the recently launched Gloss Fusion Lipstick line, it’s perfect fare for creatures of the night! 
But if your heart’s still beating, don’t worry. The line also contains colors that the living should like. I sank my teeth into four of the shades this week — Intense (a dark burgundy), Dazzle (a bronzy gold), Sensation (a shimmery golden pink) and Infatuation (a creamy brick red).
Notice the filling in the center of each bullet? It’s a shiny gloss, surrounded by the creamy lipstick on the outside — a similar idea to the $28 Sensuous Rouge lippies from Estee Lauder.
From the left: Dazzle, Infatuation, Intense and Sensation
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A few weeks ago I walked into an air-conditioned Williams-Sonoma store that had Christmas decorations up and a fancy holiday window display (complete with garland-covered pine tree flocked with fake snow).
In early September.
I’m just sayin’.
Funny thing is, when it comes to fashion and makeup, I actually like super early seasonal releases; they appeal to my inner princess — you know, the one who makes grabby hands at pretty products and says, “Gimme, gimme, gimme!” with big anime eyes. 🙂
One of the earliest holiday collections to stake a claim this fall has been Guerlain’s six-piece Belle de Nuit (beautiful night), with colors inspired by the evening sky. It’s available online now through AHAlife.com, a membership site that showcases a wide range of products from food to fashion and beauty (you have to register for an account to place a purchase), and if you’d rather wait, the collection dances onto counters this November.
From left to right: Parure de Nuit Pressed Powder & Blush ($67), Rouge Automatique Lipstick in Nuit d’Amour ($35) and Les Ombres de Nuit 4-Colour Palette ($59)
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