Eyes

The Lune + Aster Midnight Sun Eyeshadow Palette: Bobbi and Trish Fans, You’re Gonna Love This

July 25th, 2017 by Karen 4 Comments

lune aster midnight sun eyeshadow palette final — Bobbi and/or Trish fans, you’re gonna love this!

Time: the great equalizer. More precious than tiny tabbies, Tom Ford, platinum and diamonds. I went to high tea a few weeks ago with my college crew, and we got to talking about time and how it seems like there’s less and less of it every year. Life, love, school, work, hobbies, kids and cats (of course!) happen, and then all of a sudden you realize how little time you have left for yourself at the end of the day.

Time is precious and valuable, and saving more of it is the name of the game for this cool little brand called Lune + Aster. It’s a vegan, paraben-free makeup line exclusively available at Bluemercury stores, and it was started by CEO Marla Beck in 2016. Everything in the line is focused on getting you made up and out the door in five minutes or less.

It’s not a huge line, but they do have a range of products, including a CC cream, an eyeshadow palette, a few cheek palettes, bronzers, brushes and lip glosses in prices from $18 (for a gloss) to $56 for the eyeshadow palette I’m wearing here called Midnight Sun.

lune aster midnight sun swatches — Midnight Sun swatch-a-rooni

[Continue reading…]

COVERGIRL Total Tease Mascara or Carnivorous Subtropical Plant?

July 20th, 2017 by Karen 13 Comments

covergirl total tease mascara review — Dude, that brush is CRAY-CRAY.

Girl, have you seen this mascara brush?? It is BANANAS.

Bananas. ?

It’s attached to COVERGIRL Total Tease Mascara and, as you can see, there’s a Venus flytrap-looking thing happening on one side of the brush…but the other side looks more traditional.

covergirl total tease mascara teaser-brush — Venus flytrap?

The reason for the Venus flytrap contraption stems (Get it? Plant stem?? Sorry…) from the idea of backcombing, which is when you use a teasing comb to add volume. So, you use the traditional side of the brush to separate and lengthen your lashes from root to tip, then use the little teasing comb in those hard-to-reach areas, like the inner and outer corners (or, in my case, that missing patch of lashes on my right eye), to “tease” those lashes out and make them look longer and separated.

covergirl total tease mascara wand — All about that separation and lift…

[Continue reading…]

The $9.99 NYX Lid Lingerie Makes It Perfectly Acceptable to Wear Lingerie in Public

July 19th, 2017 by Karen 10 Comments

Is this the best drugstore palette out there right meow?

If the $9.99 NYX Lid Lingerie Shadow Palette were a bra, it would be one that you wouldn’t normally pick out for yourself, but, because it was, like, on super deep discount, you buy it anyway, and even though it doesn’t fit as well as your go-to favorite bra, you come to realize, after wearing it a few times, that you love it more, the more you wear it.

Yup, that about summarizes this six-pan palette of neutral powder shadows, in a nutshell.

nyx lid lingerie swatches — Look at my lingerie!

A more affordable alternative to the Viseart Neutral Palette

Lid Lingerie, which is available now at Ulta and other drugstores, has been out a while, but it only recently caught my eye, and I think it did because of how much I’ve been thinking about my beloved Viseart Neutral Matte Palette.

I love that thing, but damn! — it’s so freaking expensive. So I’ve been looking for a drugstore option, and I think Lid Lingerie is it.

nyx lid lingerie swatches k2 — FYI (TMI?), I’m wearing my most comfortable bra in this pic. Oh, and Lid Lingerie is on my lids.

[Continue reading…]

How Much of a Punch Does the Soap & Glory Kick Into Neutral Palette Pack?

July 17th, 2017 by Karen 7 Comments

soap glory kick into neutrals packaging — I wanna kick it with these Soap & Glory shadows.

There are nine shimmers and a matte in the $20 Kick into Neutral Eyeshadow Palette by Soap & Glory, of which the “kicks” are closer to light instep taps than drag queen chorus line high kicks.

This palette has plenty of things going for it, including a bevvy of everyday cool tones. In fact, the cool tones are why I wanted to try it.

First, though, before we get to that…Soap & Glory makes makeup now? Who knew??

I think it’s a relatively recent development, but yeah, they moved beyond the realm of body products and now have a pretty extensive makeup line, with lots of lip products (so many lipsticks!), a sprinkling of foundation and face powder, highlighters (of course), blushes and even a couple of eyeshadow palettes. Kick into Neutral is one of them.

soap glory kick into neutral swatches — Swatch it to me!

Most of the shadows in the 10-pan palette lean cool, so if you like your neutrals with a kiss of cool gray or taupe, this could be the palette for you. After busting it out a few times, though, overall…I think this palette might actually be TOO cool-toned for me.

I dunno… I’m not sure how I feel about the cool gray tones. Something about ’em isn’t sitting right with me. Normally, I like the contrast of cool shadows on warm skin, but in this case I feel like it’s a little jarring.

Oh, well. I guess you can’t win ’em all, Karen (although the #makeuphoarder in me really wants to!).

soap glory kick into neutral k — I’m wearing Cuddly Bare in my crease, Pink-a-little on my inner lids, Mice-tro in the outer corer and Spookstar on my lash line.

[Continue reading…]

The Models Own Barely There Eyeshadow Palette Is a Perfect Way to Dip Your Toe Into the World of Neutral Shadows

July 14th, 2017 by Karen 5 Comments

This week in the comments on the Monday Poll, we were talking about advice we’d give to makeup newbies, and Kerrie cleverly mentioned a tip about how when you start your makeup journey, it makes a lot of sense to stock your makeup bag with things that aren’t too expensive. That way, you can afford to take the time to figure what kinds of things you like, and what kinds of products work well for you, without spending a ton of money up front.

So smart, right?

Along those lines, I feel like the $17.99 Barely There Eyeshadow Palette by Models Own is a perfect way to dip your toe into the wide, wild world of neutral shadows.

Models Own is a British brand now (as of recently) available at Ulta. They have a bunch of products for eyes, cheeks, lips and faces all in the Sonia Kashuk price range, so they aren’t as inexpensive as Wet ‘N’ Wild or ELF, but they aren’t as pricey as MAC or Estée Lauder either. Barely There is their take on the nude palette craze.

And guess what? It’s pretty darned good for $17.99! It has 10 powder shadows in it — five mattes and five shimmers — and the mattes, in particular, are the special sauces/keys.

Any time I start with an eyeshadow look that I intend to do with a few colors, I like to begin by deepening my crease with a matte golden brown or taupe-brown, because the cooler/neutral tones sort of simulate the effect of shadows being cast on the face, which I think makes your eyes look like they’re set deeper.

Barely There is perfect for that effect because it comes loaded with workhorse golden shades and taupe-browns, which makes it a rarity these days among the sea of nude palettes that skew warm with their orange browns and reddish browns.

models own barely there eyeshadow palette swatches — Gimme all the browns!

[Continue reading…]

Milk Makeup Eye Pigment Cream Eyeshadow Dries With a Quickness!

July 13th, 2017 by Karen 3 Comments

One might conclude that I’m smiling in this pic because…hello, pigment! Hello, glitter! Hello, shine!

So many fun things, right?

But I’m actually smiling here because when I snapped this pic, I was about to remove this eye makeup. Because, gosh…this Eye Pigment from Milk Makeup, which is available in 11 $24 shades in the permanent line, was so hard to work with!

What a bummer, because I thought it looked super cool when I swatched it.

The Eye Pigments are shimmery, concentrated cream eyeshadows that come in a tube, and when you squeeze a little on the back of your hand, then start working them around with a finger or a brush, they dry like BAM! Like, instantly. I’m serious. They’re dry in less than 10 seconds, so you have to move REALLY fast.

Now, I can put on my makeup fairly quickly most of the time, but these are ridiculous! I can’t work that fast. It’s almost impossible for me to blend the edges before they set.

You can see in the top pic that my shadow goes up higher on one lid than it does on the other, because I was trying to do both eyes at the same time…which was a bad idea in hindsight. The shadow dried too fast!

[Continue reading…]

Dear Models Own Colour Chrome Eyeshadow Palette, Where Did Ya Go?

July 12th, 2017 by Karen 8 Comments

models own colour chrome swatches — The British are coming! That’s Models Own Colour Chrome Eyeshadow Palette ($19.99 and available exclusively at Ulta)

Clearly, “someone,” a.k.a. yours truly :), needs to do some deep breathing in child’s pose, because “someone” spent the last five minutes obsessing over the name of this British makeup brand: Models Own.

Models Own. Hmm…

What does it mean?? What does it stand for?? Do models own the company?? Is it a metaphorical reference to models figuratively owning the runway? Does it mean that you have to be a professional model to rock the brand’s products?? GOOD GRIEF, KAREN, CHILL.

Models Own hails from the UK but recently touched down on U.S. shores. They’re available exclusively at Ulta stores and online, with eye, face and lip products.

They’ve got some eye-catching colorful things, like the Colour Chrome Eyeshadow Palette (which we’ll get to in a sec), and some neutral items, that range from $7.99-$19.99 each, placing them in the higher-end drugstore price echelon, up there with Sonia Kashuk and Pixi.

The Models and I… Well, we’re off to a rocky start.

My makeup-loving heart wanted to adore the $19.99 Colour Chrome Eyeshadow Palette, because the cream shadows — oh, gosh — they feel fabulously dense and creamy like the MAC Paint Pots, which I love, but are thinner, which I normally take as a good thing, because it usually implies easy to blend and layer.

I always want to bring my Paint Pots with me wherever I go, but the clunky glass packaging discourages me. I had visions of gleefully scootin’ around town with this palette of 10 cream shadows and basically ruling the land. Since the creams feel similar to MAC’s, I’d hoped they would dry down completely, also like the Paint Pots, but alas… ‘Twas not meant to be. They don’t dry down at all.

models own colour chrome k1 — It’s OK if your eyes are open…

[Continue reading…]

These Too Faced Chocolate Brow-nie Cocoa Powder Brow Pencils Smell Just as Good as They Look

July 12th, 2017 by Karen 5 Comments

too faced chocolate brownie deep brown — YOUR BROWS SMELL LIKE WHAT NOW?!

I hope you’ll be able to forgive Ryan Gosling after he announces in Us Weekly that he’s leaving his baby mama (a.k.a. Eva Mendes) for me, because after he gets a whiff of my eyebrows, he’s going to realize that he can’t live without K-Dawg. 🙂

Yes, girl, my eyebrows smell hella good right now! They smell like brownies fresh out the oven! And how could you not fall in love with someone whose brows smelled like brownies?

The Too Faced Chocolate Brow-nie Brow Pencil has been available for a while, but I’ve just tried it, and I tried it because, well…brownies.

It comes in four cocoa powder-infused shades — Taupe, Auburn, Soft Brown and Deep Brown (I wear Deep Brown) — and why Too Faced decided to go next level and give them a chocolatey brownie scent, I do not know… But it’s certainly a nice touch, since brows are usually the most boring part of makeup for me, and the scent gives them a little more pizzazz.

FYI, the fragrance isn’t overwhelming. It’s not like you’re sitting in a closet alone with 10,000 brownies (although I wouldn’t object to that). It’s very faint, and you can only really smell it when you get the pencil tip all up in your nostrils.

too faced chocolate brownie swatches — From the top: Taupe, Auburn, Soft Brown and Deep Brown

[Continue reading…]