Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup
A beauty blog blooming with fresh makeup reviews, swatches and beauty tips from your friendly neighborhood beauty addict
This morning I woke up to gloomy, overcast weather and felt like I needed to fight back! I dove straight into three of the new items from Aglow Holiday 2008, the new color collection from Prescriptives: Winter Reflections Cool Eye Color Quad, Winter Reflections All-Over Color and Colorscope Lip Gloss in Twinkling.
With Halloween behind us (shoot!), it’s a straight shot from here to the holidays. For me that spells two things: 1) stretchy pants and 2) cute makeup mini-gift sets at Sephora. 🙂
I’d always wanted to try Stila Lip Glaze lipglosses before but never got around to it. Then, I saw the six colors featured in Stila’s new Shine On Gift of Glaze (special to Sephora, $28).
A regular, full-sized Stila Lip Glaze regularly sells for about $22, but the smaller mini-tubes that come with this six-piece set average out to $4.67 apiece — not a bad deal. Four of the shades are some of Stila’s currently best selling Lip Glaze colors; the other two are newbies, Raisin and Gumdrop.
Stila Lip Glaze in Grapefruit
When I’m feeling great, I think of myself as a strong and tough girl, but my inner warrior’s been MIA for weeks. I’ve felt kinda beaten down. This morning I wanted — correction — I needed a pick-me-up, and I turned to Clinique Party Red. Every time I looked at myself in the mirror today, this red lip reminded me of the fighter I know I can be.
To get the look, a classic red lip and neutral eye, I used a few items from the Clinique Party Red holiday makeup collection (available soon).
A warm and creamy brick red, Parisian Red belongs to Clinique’s line of Butter Shine Lipsticks. Its soft, buttery texture feels moisturizing, and it’s easy to apply (even straight from the tube).
With a glossy finish, this shade of red has visible pizazz but isn’t “too sexy” for work (although it might be too sexy for church, LOL!). Makeup and Beauty Blot Rating: A
From top to bottom: Sparkling Nude, Lucky Penny
Sparkling Nude
Lucky Penny
For my look today I wore Lucky Penny (a shimmery light tan) on the lid and Sparkling Nude (a shimmery beige) on the brow bone.
Both shades applied without a hitch, blended easily and lasting all day long without noticeable creasing or fading. If you haven’t tried any of the Quick Eyes Cream Shadows, try to find one of these neutral shades, stat, because not only are they cute and long lasting, but they even work well as a base for powder eyeshadows. Makeup and Beauty Blot Rating: A+
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Um, WOW! The Shu Uemura Mika Holiday Collection is in the mutha truckin’ hizzouse. I was so stoked when I first saw the three new palettes and limited edition Mika lipsticks on the Shu Uemura website, but now that I’ve seen them in person … I LOVE THEM EVEN MORE!
Each of the eyeshadow palettes comes with pressed shadows and a cream liner shade with the same wonderfully high color pigmentation and fine textures we’ve come to expect from Shu Uemura’s eye products.
I think Shu’s among the top brands when it comes to quality and their attention to detail, and one thing I lurve about these particular palettes is how varied the color combinations are — they’re visually interesting yet highly wearable at the same time.
Shu Uemura joined forces with Japanese photographer Mika Ninagawa to conceptualize Mika Holiday. I love the clean, floral aesthetic of the eye, lip and face products and makeup storage cases. Check out the entire collection on the Shu Uemura website and let me know what you think.🙂
A palette with strong, rich colors for bold, glamorous looks. I think the blues in this are *amazing* and the coloring vivid and highly pigmented, like deep blue tropical seas.
From left to right:
The vivid shades in this cool-toned palette made me go “OoOOooOOO!” — in particular Adorned Marguerite, which may turn out to be the palette that erases my fear of bold daytime eyeshadow colors forever.
The included sparkly white cream liner isn’t as spreadable as the black liner that comes with the Winter Sakura palette, but I’m excited about layering it beneath a few of the other brighter shades in the palette.
Oh, and what do you think of the psychedelic packaging? It makes me kinda want to stop the world and melt with you.
From left to right:
OMG! This one has my favorite packaging of the three. According to the Shu Uemura website, the palette contains a collection of dusty rose shades to express “elegance and mystery” (LOL!).
Beyond their mystery and elegance, these shades are pretty and practical, but they’re also a lot like several shades I already have. Still, I like this palette and plan to combine the brighter shades with the two neutral shades on the far left.
From left to right:
Loading ...With their limited edition pink-petal inspired packaging, the three Rouge Unlimited lipsticks in the Mika Collection are certainly pretty on the outside. As for the lipsticks themselves, all three shades revolve around beige: Petal Pink Beige, Petal Orange Beige and Petal Brown Beige.
I really wanted these shades to work for me, but, unfortch, beige is not my best lip color, and these shades didn’t really pop on my lips like I wanted them to. My favorite one was Petal Brown Beige, mostly because Petal Pink and Petal Orange looked so much alike to me. I’d suggest that unless you really lurve beige, save your pennies and splurge instead on the eye palettes. 🙂
Loading ...Hope you’re having a wonderful day.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Everyone loves blackberries. Take Clinique, for example. Next month they’re introducing Blackberry Bloom, a collection of violet and plum eye, lip and cheek makeup for the holidays. The first time I saw the gorgeous model in this promotional picture — her smokey purple eyes, berry lips and cheeks — I about fell over in my chair!
So, I marshaled my courage and attempted the look with some items from the upcoming collection.
It wasn’t the easiest look I’ve ever tried, but it wasn’t the toughest one either. You can definitely do it with the same shades I used or with other ones already in your collection. Here I used the following items from Clinique Blackberry Bloom:
Colour Surge Eye Shadow Super Shimmer ($14)
Kohl Shaper for Eyes ($15.50)
High Impact Mascara ($14)
From left to right: Black Coffee, Black Amethyst and Black Smoke eyeshadows
Black Coffee Colour Surge Eye Shadow
Black Amethyst Colour Surge Eye Shadow
Black Smoke Colour Surge Eye Shadow
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All hands on deck! An interesting gift with purchase deal just popped up on makeup radar, ladies. If your sights are set on $25 or more in Clinique products, consider standing down till November 5, when you can take advantage of Nordstrom’s Trina Turk for Clinique (a $60 value) gift with purchase!
The deal runs from November 5-22 at Nordstrom stores nationwide and online. To qualify for the gift with purchase, all you have to do is purchase $25 or more in Clinique products.
This is Clinique’s first foray into a designer collaboration GWP. Trina Turk, known for her sophisticated a designer clothing prints, hand picked all the items in the eight-piece set, and her clothes inspires the included silver and white tiger print cosmetics bag.
When it comes to GWP sets, there are usually at least a couple items I end up giving away (girrrrrl, like those ubiquitous GWP tubes of Clinique Raspberry Glace lipstick!), but not here, not this time. You’ll want to keep the goodies that come with this set. 🙂
I’m a raging accessories freak, and this bag looks like a big step up from the thin, nondescript bags normally packaged with GWPs. But bag or no bag, I think it’s the makeup that makes this set something to look forward to.
From left to right: Bamboo Pink, Beach Coral, shimmery shade from the Beach Plum eye duo, shimmery violet shade from the Beach Plum eye duo, New Clover blush, Lash Doubling mascara in black
The gold, plum and coral shades included with the set have a summer and beach-inspired feel to them. Yep, they’re a little out of step with most dark fall and winter shades, but I think that’s part of their charm. They’re pretty and wearable and spark all kinds of new ideas.
LOL! I realize that the hair blown effect in these pics crosses the line into cheese-tacular blogger photography territory, but I’m sorry… I couldn’t help myself!
I’m convinced that the windblown fan effect compensates for at least a few hours of sleep and has anti-aging properties because I laughed so hard taking these pics that I feel 10 years younger. If I could, I’d tote a fan around with me 24-7. I totally would! You hear that, Mariah Carey? You ain’t the only one with a fan now, girl!
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Like the Ol’ Faithful of lip looks, a red lip is one of the most reliable, fool-proof ways to steal the spotlight.
But red and other bright lip shades can be challenging colors to wear. My secret to wearing reds like Lancome’s Absolute Rouge ($29, pictured above) is to apply them using a MAC 316 Covered Lip Brush ($19).
With the 316’s firm, pointed tip I can really get in where I need to get, precisely controlling my lines and delivering the right amount of pigment for my look — kinda like drawing with a sharpened pencil versus trying to draw with a stubby crayon. When applying directly from a tube of lipstick, I’ll often end up with uneven color or color breaking outside the lines of the natural shape of my lips. Not cute, ladies!
For my makeup this week I’ve alternated between Estee Lauder’s Ruby and Lancome’s Absolute Rouge.
A classic tomato red with subtle golden pearl, Absolute Rouge arrived last August as part of Lancome’s L’Rouge Absolue lipstick line. Richly pigmented, it was designed for full coverage and moisture, thanks, according to Lancome, to Pro-Xylane, a deeply-moisturizing molecule found across their Absolute skincare range. Whatever, right? It’s pretty — the most important thing.
Got any tips or tricks for wearing red lips? Come on, share your secrets. 🙂
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
*They* say that diamonds are a girl’s best friend.
I don’t know about that… *They* obviously haven’t seen the Estee Lauder Vintage Jewels collection yet because it’s breaking a lot of those diamond friendships.
The collection’s adventurous eye, lip, face and nail shades remind me of jewel-filled pirate treasure chests bulging with amethysts, emeralds and sapphires. Aye, matey! I’ll walk ye plank for these colors!
Try three bejeweled looks in amethyst, sapphire and emerald.
Blue cast a charm spell on me this fall. I trace it back to my run in with the Cargo Color Palette in Vienna.
I couldn’t wait to try the Sapphire eye products in Vintage Jewels and tested some of them this week, along with a smattering of colorful face and lip items from the collection.
Shimmering Jewel Powder comes housed in a sleek gold compact with a faceted pattern pressed into the pan — so pretty! It’s a cool-toned highlighter with lots of shimmer, not at all like last holiday’s Platinum Illuminator Loose Shimmer Powder, which was a very warm, peachy gold.
A dusting of Shimmering Jewel Powder delivers plenty of small-to-medium flecks of glittering gold shimmer. It functions best as a highlighter because it’s basically pure shimmer, so I prefer to pair it with other blushes rather than using it by itself. Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: B+
I’m so blue… No, not like that (at least not today, LOL!). I mean to say that I’m so into blue eyeshadow right now.
The two shades in this duo don’t exactly fit the swashbuckling, adventurous analogy because of how well they suit novices and the faint of heart. They apply with sheer-to-medium color payoff and are easy to blend, too. That spells easy, which is something I like. 😉
Some girls might find them a little too sheer, but I like how easy they are to control. With these, the sheerness means being able to carefully manage how much color gets applied, from one or two layers for just a hint of color to three to five layers for a more intense look. And if I want something lusciously rich and dramatic, I’ll reach for a wet brush.
They do need a lil’ help as the day wears on, though, fading a touch faster than my MAC or Lancome shadows. If I’m going to dinner after work, the duo comes along for quick touchups. Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: B+
Um, wow! Pardon my French, but this blue liner is the sh*t! It’s rich and deep like Lake Tahoe and glides along my skin without any tugging or skipping at all.
Estee Laduer should’ve called this a long-wearing eye pencil, too, because DANG, this stuff stays on forever. Once it’s on it hangs around longer than your stalker ex-boyfriend, on *both* the lash and water lines. I think I might love this even more than Lancome Le Stylo waterproof (gasp!), which I’ve been wearing practically non-stop for months, and I’m even tempted to get the two other shades. Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: A+
I think Sumptuous Bold Volume Lifting Mascara (say that five times fast) plumps lashes fairly well. As for thickening, my results with it haven’t been as pronounced as they are when I use Chanel Exceptionnel, but still… I’d say it makes lashes about 25% thicker.
The formula is a little clumpy, but I’ve found that if I take extra care during application and use the skinny tip of the brush, I can keep the clumps to a minimum.
It doesn’t smudge or flake, but where Sumptuous Bold mascara really excels is in curl hold and staying power. While wearing two coats, my lashes kept the curl all day long.
Wistfully, I wish it lengthened better, but if you’re looking for a basic daytime mascara with pretty good thickening power that holds the curl, you could do a lot worse. Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: B+
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