Makeup

Deep Discounts on Stila Cosmetics with Beautycrunch.com

September 13th, 2008 by Karen 22 Comments

Do you remember the Stila fall chocolate eye shadow palette ($40) I was drooling over a few weeks ago? Well, I was surfing the web last night and stumbled upon a slightly stripped down version of it on sale at Beautycrunch.com for $12.80.

Where the heck has Beautycrunch been all my life? Is it new, or have I just been sleeping under a rock?

As far as I can tell (saw numerous references to it on Makeup Alley and YouTube), the company’s selling legitimate products, but I admit the low prices made me wonder.

Their version of the chocolate palette doesn’t include the Lip Glaze ($22 if purchased separately) or Major Lash Mascara ($8.50 if purchased separately), which accompany the original $40 Stila palette, but if what you really want are the palette’s blush and the three eye shadows ($18 per pan if purchased separately), you can skip the stuff you wouldn’t use anyway and walk away with 4 products for $20.75 (after $7.95 shipping and handling).

And Beautycrunch has lots of other fab Stila stuff, among other brands, at 50-70% off. Needless to say, I stayed up late e-window shopping and filling my cart. 🙂
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Laura Mercier Lip Velvets Feel Like Gloss but Look Like Lipstick

September 12th, 2008 by Karen 28 Comments

‘Sup, girlies? How was your day? I managed to finish most of my errands and between loads of laundry popped by my local Laura Mercier counter to try the new Lip Velvets ($22) line o’ lipsticks from the Cherries Noir fall makeup collection.

You know how it feels when you hear a lot about a product before its release and figure there’s no way it can live up to your expectations? Well, that’s kinda how I felt on my way to the counter today. I’d been hearing from a friend that Lip Velvets were the makeup missing link, perfectly balancing the feel of a gloss with the look of a lipstick.

Bold words, right?
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Benefit Cosmetics Holiday 2008 Sneak Peek

September 10th, 2008 by Karen 49 Comments

Sleigh bells ring, are ya listening? In the lane, snow is glistening…

While the leaves on the trees outside my window haven’t yet changed colors for fall, I’m already excited about the holidays. Halloween and Thanksgiving are just around the corner, and makeup lines have started releasing their limited edition holiday goodies (yay)!

Here’s an early look at one such release by a favorite brand of mine: Benefit Cosmetics.

Available online now and on counters this November, the Peace Love & Glossiness lipgloss set ($26) and the Primpcess eye kits ($34) are sure to warm a crisp fall night.

I love the packaging. It’s not too stuffy or serious, and the purple and gold add a regal feel to the fun designs.

Peace, Love & Glossiness

Does m’lday like to keep her options open? If so, the set provides a lot of options. Two of the six shades in Peace Love & Glossiness are a purple and a gold, and each of the three double ended gloss sticks come with two coordinating glosses, to be worn by themselves or mixed together.

Gloss Stick One
My People, Your People: sheer, shimmery pink
Kiss You: sheer fuschia

Gloss Stick Two
Magic: creamy taupe-plum
Who Does Your Work: creamy wine

Gloss Stick Three
24K: shimmery gold
Talk to My agent: shimmery mauve

Swatches from left to right: My People, Your People; Kiss You; Magic; Who Does Your Work; 24K; Talk to My Agent

The glosses are taste-free, but they do emit a fruit punch scent, which fades after about 5 minutes.

I think the thin, non-sticky texture feels kinda like MAC Lipgelee Lipgass. Not only is it moisturizing, but the sheer color payoff makes them easy to apply.

A good holiday kit or set should be a bargain, right? Well, the full set saves a bundle over the cost to purchase all of these shades separately. Separately, they’d cost about $100. Bought with the set, the cost of each mini-gloss breaks down to $4.30!

The price makes the set a pretty fab way to get several different Benefit shades in one fell swoop!

And because the colors are sheer, easy to apply, and not garish or overly-sexy, I’d feel comfortable giving the kit as a gift to a younger cousin or someone just starting to wear makeup.

My People, Your People

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JK Jemma Kidd for Target Hits the Mark

September 9th, 2008 by Karen 48 Comments

Target used to be where I’d go for deeply discounted bargains on budget beauty products, kinda like an upscale Wal-Mart, but the company has been on a roll lately when it comes to beauty, expanding the number of premium brand beauty products carried in Target stores.

Yes, girl, the House of Tar-ghay now sells $18 eye shadows.

But in true Target fashion, expect to get a lot of bang for your buck. Target knows you want to save some money, but they also want you to spend some, too. 🙂

Joining recent Target beauty bargains on Sonia Kashuk brushes (holla!) are three new beauty lines — JK Jemma Kidd, Pixi by Petra and NP Set. Each line features items in the $12-$40 range.

I’ve been playing with a few of the eye products and one of the lipsticks from the JK Jemma Kidd line. The entire line includes more than 100 different eye, lip and face products and makeup tools.

With modern colors and provocative packaging, the JK Jemma Kidd line for Target is designed to be stylish enough for the catwalk yet still wearable and affordable enough for the everyday woman.

Jemma Kidd’s name is new to many peeps here in the US, but she’s been a fixture in Europe’s beauty scene for a while. A makeup artist and former model, she opened a popular makeup academy in London back in 2003 and launched her own cosmetics line a few years later.

I don’t expect to be working the catwalk anytime soon, but I can relate to the everyday woman part. 🙂

JK Jemma Kidd Hi-Design Eye Colour in Modernist, JK Jemma Kidd I-Design Eye Colour in Editor ($18 each)

In terms of eye shadow quality, don’t expect Shu Uemura, but I think you can expect products somewhere between MAC and Lancome. There are two shadow lines: Hi-Design (brighter colors) and I-Design (neutral shades).

Modernist (a light, shimmery lavender) and Editor (a cool, shimmery taupe) have finely milled powders, soft to the touch and easy to blend, and both have lots of pigment.

The payoff surprised me. While the colors apply sheer, you can still see that the shades look jam-packed with color. They’re easy to build up and layer for bolder looks.

I love it when products give me options, and these eye shadows do just that, providing plenty of color flexibility. They even last all day long.

Yesterday morning, I applied both colors on top of a layer of Too Faced Shadow Insurance primer. That night, as I was removing my makeup, I noticed that the shadows hadn’t creased or migrated on my lids. They looked just as good as they had hours earlier in the morning.

Sheer Vanity Gloss and Glaze in A La Mode ($18)

Sheer Vanity Glaze and Gloss does lipgloss without the goop! It’s a sheer, glossy lip gloss in lipstick clothing. The texture isn’t sticky, thick or goopy like traditional lip glosses. It will totally come in handy in the fall and winter when the wind whips my hair into my face.

The faint licorice scent fades quickly. I licked my lips to check for a flavor, but it’s taste-free.

One layer of A La Mode’s pastel, shimmery coral-peach gives my lips a pretty, natural color with lots of shine. I dig the hot pink packaging, too. Props for the dainty floral pattern!

And the formula moisturizes like a champ. My lips were dry yesterday morning (I guess I didn’t drink enough water the night before), but Sheer Vanity worked a little like a lip balm, smoothing and softening my pucker throughout the day.

The light, shiny and sheer finish reminds me of Shu Uemura Crystal Shine lipstick and Stila Shine Lip Color, and like those products it needs to be reapplied often (every two hours or so).

Overall, I’m really impressed. As the weather cools, it’ll be nice to have a moisturizing lip gloss that won’t stick to my hair every time the wind blows.

From left to right: Modernist eye shadow, Editor eye shadow, A La Mode lip gloss
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Lip Look: Stila SPF Shine Lip Color in Tina

September 7th, 2008 by Karen 24 Comments

Hey, girlies. How are you doing? Me — I’ve been in a mental funk for a couple days. Does that ever happen to you? I think I just need a creative booster shot. Any ideas?

I wasn’t in the mood for adventure this weekend and didn’t stray far from the TV. I watched *hella* episodes of The Golden Girls and Stargate Atlantis (attention fellow sci-fi nerds: this is a GREAT SHOW!), played with El Tabs and started a new book (The Other Boleyn Girl, by Philippa Gregory).

Of course, I couldn’t resist the urge to play with makeup. It’s like the call of the wild or something. 🙂 All weekend long I’ve been wearing Stila SPF Shine Lip Color in Tina ($22), a coppery brown.

I first read about Shine Lip Color on Bella Sugar’s blog back in May. Stila packed SPF 20 into these eight shades, each with a glossy yet sheer finish. Formulated with vitamins A, C and E, Shine Lip Color feels moisturizing and light on my lips. It’s lightly scented with vanilla, but the scent dissipates quickly.

A swatch of Stila Lip Shine in Tina without the flash

With the flash

The finish is surprisingly sheer, which makes the product easy to apply directly from the tube, even without a mirror. Unfortunately, the sheerness also means you can expect to have to reapply every couple hours. No big deal, though. If you’re like me, you don’t mind having to reapply.

Stila Lip Shine reminds me a lot of Shu Uemura’s Crystal Shine lipsticks, so if you’re a fan of those you might like these, too. And Shine Lip Color has distinct anti-funkiness properties — like coffee, good food and Christian Bale — guaranteed to pick you up when you’re feeling kind of blah. 🙂

Daily Photo

I love the design and the font on this cover. I started reading the book last night and stayed up late putting a solid dent in the story. I’m only through the first 100 pages, but what I’ve taken away from it so far is that being a member of England’s royal court in the 1600s must have been downright exhausting.

Hope you’re feeling good today. 🙂 I’ll keep on keepin’ on if you do the same.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen
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Benefit BADGal Plum Mascara

September 6th, 2008 by Karen 37 Comments

When I saw Benefit’s new BADGal Plum mascara ($19), curiosity outweighed my deep seeded fear of looking like a hot purple mess. I dove right into it, applying three coats and hoping for the best.

The first time I withdrew the wand from the tube I actually said “OooOOOoooh!” out loud in the middle of the store.

As the newest member of Benefit’s BADGal mascara line, BADGal Plum joins the original BADGal (in black) and BADGal Blue.

The richness of the purple on the wand was a little intimidating at first. I didn’t want to end up looking too Prince circa Purple Rain, but upon application Plum actually looks *really* subtle, and not very purple, as a matter of fact. Three coats gives lashes an almost burgundy-chocolate tint.

The color is so subtle that you have to look closely to see it at all. It isn’t the flashiest colored mascara (for a bolder tinted mascara, try Clarins Wonder Mint Waterproof Mascara in Teal), but it does add a little oomph that I don’t see from regular black. I can’t wait to try it with warm, gold-based shadows like MAC Soba (a gold brown) or MAC Ricepaper (a peachy gold).

It started to clump with the third coat, so I think I’ll stick with two from now on. In terms of lash quality, BADGal delivers noticeably thicker lashes but not significantly longer ones. While it’s not waterproof, it doesn’t smudge or flake, and it has enough staying power to last all day.

Happy Saturday, ladies! Right now I’m playing with the Clarins Jazzy Colors collection. I’m going to take some close-up pictures of the So Sublime palette, so I’m setting up my little photography area. After that I may go for a run, but we’ll see. What’s crackin’ today?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Pop Beauty Wallet Eye Shadow Palettes Are Cute, Convenient and Affordable

September 5th, 2008 by Karen 29 Comments

I popped by Sephora this afternoon to snag a jar of Stila Hydrating Finishing Powder. I’d been wanting to try it for a while (review coming soon!), but, like a true makeup junkie, I couldn’t just grab one thing and leave. I had to look around, and then these cute Wallet Palettes by Pop Beauty took hold of me and wouldn’t let go!

A Real Eye Shadow Bargain

There are seven of them, ranging in price from $32 to $42. Each wallet contains a different color-themed eye shadow palette. They go by the names Brown Eyes, Green Eyes, Blue Eyes, Smokey Eyes, Smokey Rose, Day to Play and Bronze Pop.

The palettes are mixes of coordinated shimmers and matte shadows; a couple of them also come with blushes and lipsticks.

I think my favorites are Smokey Rose and Day to Play ($42 each).

Smokey Rose’s purple, faux-snakeskin case is packed with enough to create several different smokey looks — 12 eye shadows (shades of neutral pink, rose and blue), four blushes and two lipsticks. I can totally see myself packing these for a weekend trip! And the price… I really like the sound of $42 for 18 products. That works out to $2.33 each!

And Day to Play’s cute silver wallet houses 24 (!) eye shadows. At $1.75 each, it’s one of the better eye shadow bargains I’ve seen in a while.
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Giorgio Armani Lip Wax: Like MAC Mattenes Only Glossier

September 4th, 2008 by Karen 39 Comments

What comes to mind when you hear the words, “Giorgio Armani Lip Wax“? If you’re preoccupied with excess hair removal like I am, you probably pictured a hairy ‘stache, hot wax and hair removal strips.

Nope!

Lip Wax is actually Giorgio Armani’s latest compact lipstick. These fab $26 lipsticks have a silky, feather-light formula that glides across lips like silk lingerie on smooth skin.

The semi-matte finish contains a hint of gloss, making it perfect for elegant, ladylike looks. Grab your pocketbook, pull on your white gloves and don your pillbox hat because it’s time to hit the tea party circuit, Ms. Thang.

Giorgio Armani Lip Wax, No. 4

Giorgio Armani Lip Wax, No. 6

Giorgio Armani’s Lip Wax Shades

Number one (nude beige): a shade lighter than the natural lip color

Number two, (antique rose) : a discreet lip highlight

Number three (sienna) : brings warmth to the lips

Number four (raspberry) : pink purple

Number five (cardinal red) :a bright, transparent red

Number six (deep Chianti) : a rich color for strong marked lips

Each of the six shades comes in its own elegant black compact (no brush included). For the lip pics above I applied the colors with a MAC 316 lip brush, but fingers would also work fine for a light lip stain.
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