Face

The New BECCA Sunlit Bronzers: Are they powders? Are they creams?

May 19th, 2017 by Karen 14 Comments

Basically, BECCA’s been winning at life lately. I like everything they’d done lately, especially their complexion products over the past couple of months — the Chrissy Teigen Palette, the Sunchaser Palette and now the new $38 Sunlit Bronzers.

They’ve totally set the bar higher for glamorous yet natural-looking face makeup.

Yeah, not that I need another bronzer in my life, but these Sunlit Bronzers freakin’ slay. They’re available now online at Sephora, the BECCA website, and they recently showed up at Sephora stores, too.

There are five shades, and all of them, except for Maui Nights, the bronzer for deep skin tones, have neutral golden undertones, rather than warm orange or rosy gold undertones (Maui Nights is more reddish), and I think that’s the main reason why they look so much like a real tan.

Bali Sands — Inspired by warm, glistening Balinese beaches (ah…), this subtle golden beige/bronze will give all-over warmth to fair skin tones.
Capri Coast — This warm golden brown achieves perfect sun-kissed radiance on light and medium skin tones.
Bronzed Bondi — This medium amber for medium skin tones will make you look like you just spent a dreamy day at the beach.
Ipanema Sun — This medium auburn brown is inspired by the sun-drenched shores of Ipanema and gives medium and darker skin tones a healthy, golden glow.
Maui Nights — Perfect for deep skin tones, this ultra-rich, sienna-kissed bronze evokes the rich, warm glow of mesmerizing Maui.
— beccacosmetics.com (paraphrased)

When you roll up to the display (ideally without a basket, girl!!!), take a finger and glide it across the pan so you can feel and experience the magic in person.

Are they powders?? Are they creams?? Technically, these are powder bronzers, but they feel almost wet, right? That’s the special sauce with BECCA powders and these bronzers. They’re crazy creamy.

becca sunlit bronzer swatch — Swatches from the top: Bali Ssands, Capri Coast, Bronzed Bondi, Ipanema Sun and Maui Nights

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Marc Jacobs Is Going Nuts for Coconuts

May 17th, 2017 by Karen 26 Comments

marc jacobs coconut products — Crazy for coconuts!

I wonder if Marc Jacobs has ever opened a coconut… He likes coconuts, obviously, because there’s a bunch of new products in his makeup line that are coconut inspired and have coconut water in them, but has homeboy actually ever opened a coconut? I hope he has! And I hope you have at least once, because it’s weirdly empowering. Girl, we’ll get to Marc’s new coconut bronzer and highlighter in a second, but let me just tell you that I opened a coconut this morning for the very first time — used a hammer to lay the beat down on that husk! — and when that bad boy finally cracked open, I was like, “YES! I opened a coconut, motherf*ckers! I CAN DO ANYTHING.”

It felt really good. LOL! Anyway, just your daily fruit diversion. 🙂

Marc’s got some new coco-nutty products, and they’re all about tans, glowing and summer skin.

O!Mega Bronzer Coconut Perfect Tan

The new bronzer is kind of ridic because of the price — $49!! I know. Think of it this way, though: at least it’s cheaper than Tom Ford’s.

It’s called the O!Mega Bronzer Coconut Perfect Tan because it smells like coconuts (it’s not overwhelming or faux-sweet), but looking at the ingredient list, it doesn’t appear to have coconut in it.

Hmm…

I’ve never tried the original O!MegaBronzer in Marc’s permanent line, but I’ve read that this new one is supposed to have the same formula. It’s LE and has different packaging (crisp summer white!). It also has a different undertone, which is less warm and more neutral than the bronzer in Marc’s permanent collection.

marc jacobs coconut bronzer brush — O!Mega Bronzer Coconut Perfect Tan

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Stay (Rose) Golden, BECCA: The New BECCA X Chrissy Teigen Glow Face Palette

May 16th, 2017 by Karen 17 Comments

becca chrissy teigen closeup — The new BECCA Chrissy Teigen X Glow Face Palette ($46)

So, remember when rose gold hit the scene this last time, and everybody went crazy for it? When was that…? 2014? 2015? I keep thinking that one day it’s going to fall out of fashion, but it doesn’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon, am I right? Like, the new BECCA X Chrissy Teigen Glow Face Palette ($46) is ROSE. GOLD. EVERYTHING. And I’m lovin’ it.

Isn’t it pretty??

This face palette… It caused quite a stir when it launched a couple weeks ago. I had a friend text me, and she was like, “Should I get it? SHOULD I GET IT?” and I was like, “I dunno! You should get it if you want to,” and she texted back, “Well, OK, I guess I’ll hold off on it…” Then she wrote back 30 minutes later and said, “I bought it!”

I totally get why it would ignite a frenzy. I mean, even the outside packaging is beyond beautiful. It’s got pinkish peach marbling and the BECCA X Chrissy logo.

But when you open it, it gets even better.

becca chrissy teigen — Wearing the palette on my lids and cheeks

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Kevyn Aucoin Neo-Setting Powder Is Pretty Darned Innovative!

May 12th, 2017 by Karen 5 Comments

kevyn-aucoin neo setting powder top — Kevyn Aucoin Neo-Setting Powder ($58)

Ooh! Sparkly. ? And dare I say it, borderline unicorn?

This new powder by Kevyn Aucoin looks like a highlighter, right?

Nope! It’s supposed to be a face setting powder, but it has a gradient of different finishes.

I know! Kind of crazy.

On the left side of the pan where the letter “K” is, the finish is more matte, but it gets progressively pearly as you move right. The idea is that you can pick your powder finish poison. Matte or dewy, or anywhere in between, it’s up to you.

It’s pretty darned innovative! — which is something I hardly ever find myself saying anymore about beauty products. I mean, let’s get real — a lot of things get recycled from season to season, but this idea seems pretty fresh for a face powder.

It also feels fab. I’ve never worn a Kevyn Aucoin face powder before, but this one feels like heaven in a pan, or what I imagine it must feel like to take a cat nap on fluffy clouds in heaven. It’s almost creamy soft, and I really wanted to fall in love with it just for that.

Unfortunately…it’s not workin’ well on my skin.

Drat.

First of all, the matte side isn’t very matte, at least not to my eye, and the shimmery side is a super shiny overspray with a slightly less shiny powder underneath.

Little bit strange.

On the matte side, I still see lots of golden pink pearl, and it intensifies as you move toward the shinier right side of the pan. I dunno… It just doesn’t look natural at all on my face.

I was thinking that I might be able to wear it as a golden pink highlighter, but even then it doesn’t work well for me because the powder has white undertones that don’t get along with my tan.

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NARS Liquid Blush: I Have Buckets and Barrels of Love for This Line!

May 11th, 2017 by Karen 16 Comments

nars liquid blushes 1 — The new NARS Liquid Blushes

Here, let me get in there and give you a quick shoulder rub for a second, because I really wouldn’t want you to pull a muscle doing the snake as you celebrate when I tell you that the new NARS Liquid Blushes are permanent. YAY!

They’re also going to be on counters sooner than I thought. They’ll be available starting May 12th at Sephora stores, NARS boutiques and online. Again, YAY! 🙂

OK, remember the NARS Orgasm Liquid Blush I talked about from the Orgasm Collection earlier today? It’s actually one of the four Liquid Blushes coming out May 12th.

That’s, like, one sleep away!

They’re $30 each, completely new to the NARS fam (as in they’ve never been seen before), and you get a 0.5 oz. glass bottle with a pump.

What’s it like to use one?

Slippery like a silicone primer, these super concentrated liquid blushes have a consistency comparable to a runny lotion. You can wear them under or on top of powder blushes.

You’ll only need one or two drops for your cheeks, and I just use my fingers to blend them in. The liquid spreads and stretches out evenly over the skin.

They’re sooo easy to use and kinda fun, too.

Four shades based on NARS powder blushes in the permanent line

Coincidentally, all of them are shades I happen to love and have been obsessed with for years. Weird! It’s like NARS had a direct conduit into my brain or something…

Anyway, other than golden peachy pink Orgasm, there’s golden apricot Luster, golden coral Torrid and dusty rose Dolce Vita.

Dolce Vita is the closest one to its counterpart color

It’s also the darkest of the four. I think it’s the closest one to its powder counterpart. It looks like someone took the back of a spoon to a pan, crushed the powder, mixed in some liquid, and poured that into a bottle.

nars dolce vita liquid blush swatch — Dolce Vita

Less shimmer, more satin with Orgasm, Luster and Torrid

As for the Liquid Blush versions of Orgasm, Luster and Torrid, they’re much less shimmery than their powder blush versions, making them more like satins that occasionally glimmer with micro-glitter here and there. Like a base color with very little pearl.

nars lustre liquid blush swatch — Luster

I think all three look lovely when worn by themselves. They create a natural, dewy cheek effect with colors that last a full day on my dry cheeks.

nars torrid liquid blush swatch — Torrid

But the REAL fun starts when you layer these three shades with their counterpart powder blushes. It amplifies the base colors a bit more, so you see more of the coral, peach, apricot or rose.

nars dolce vita liquid blush k — Dolce Vita

The verdict

Buckets and barrels of love ? for this line! My hope is that NARS releases more shades in the future. The lovely colors layer well and don’t fade. Oh, and don’t worry — the bottle seems bigger than it looks because a little goes a long, looong way. I’m pretty sure you’ll like these, and you may even love them. Highly recommended!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

The NARS Orgasm Collection: A New Three-Piece Release Arriving May 15th

May 11th, 2017 by Karen 23 Comments

nars orgasm collection may 2017 — The new three-piece NARS Orgasm Collection, arriving May 15th at NARS boutiques and the NARS website

Question: Is it possible to have multiple orgasms when you’re putting on your makeup in the morning?

Answer: Um…yeah?! It’s too easy to go there and do prepubescent boy jokes with NARS Orgasm. I’m sorry! Color me adolescent.

nars orgasm collection blush lipstick — NARS Collection products from the left: Orgasm Liquid Blush ($30), Orgasm Lipstick ($28) and Limited Edition Orgasm Blush ($30)

NARS has a new Orgasm collection. Shocker. But this one’s actually pretty exciting because there are two new versions of Orgasm — a liquid blush and a lipstick — neither of which I think I’ve ever seen from NARS before.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a respectable re-issue of Orgasm if the original Orgasm powder blush wasn’t up in the mix, and this one has new LE packaging.

When/where

The collection comes out on May 15th, and it’ll be at NARS boutiques and the NARS website. I know for sure that the powder blush is LE, but I’m not sure about the liquid blush and the lipstick. Will have to get back to you on that.

NARS Orgasm Liquid Blush ($30)

Obviously, one of the exciting things here is Orgasm Liquid Blush, and girl…FRAK, it’s good!

For comparison, it’s thicker than Benefit Benetint. Actually, have you ever worn the Veil Primer by Hourglass? I think it feels a lot like that. Almost like a runny lotion, and it’s slippery and kinda silicone-y.

nars orgasm collection swatches — From the top: Orgasm Blush, Orgasm Liquid Blush and Orgasm Lipstick

You know the gold shimmer in the original Orgasm? I dunno…but it borders on obnoxious for me sometimes because I’ve got this whole pore situation happening. There’s still gold shimmer in Liquid Orgasm, too, but it’s waaay toned down. It looks like a satiny peach pink with micro flecks of gold in it that peek out here and there.

You can use it on top of or underneath powder products, and it does well in both situations.

Yeah, it’s $30, and the glass bottle is pretty tiny, but the pump is easy to control, and if you pump one drop and spread it around with a brush or your finger, that drop will just keep spreading and spreading and spreading… It’s so concentrated!

nars orgasm liquid blush — I’m wearing NARS Orgasm Liquid Blush on my cheeks and Orgasm Lipstick on my lips

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BECCA Sunchaser Palette: Those Warm Colors Look Lovely on Toasty Skin

May 9th, 2017 by Karen 10 Comments

Girl, you know how BECCA is kind of informally known as, like, the HBIC of beachy-lookin’ makeup? Anyway, I tried wearing beachy wave hair today to go with the BECCA Sunchaser Palette ($34) on my cheeks, and I can’t decide whether my mane looks more artfully tousled or just plain messy.

Eh, I’m gonna go with messy.

Sunchaser is an LE cheek palette that came out earlier this spring, and it’s still available. It’s a wonderful warm-toned blush, bronzer and highlighter, and if you bring it home, you’ll pretty much be covered through the end of summer.

becca sunchaser swatches — From the top: Ipanema Sunset Bronzer, Apricot Blossom Blush and Opal Highlighter

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Drugstore Needs and Nopes, Vol. 1

May 4th, 2017 by Karen 15 Comments

I don’t go to regular drugstores as much as I used to, mostly because of Ulta and Target, which is basically a drugstore, only a million times bigger, but ever since I was a kid cruising the makeup aisles at Thrifty (of course, I had to get a Thrifty ice cream cone while I did this), I’ve been a drugstore beauty addict.

And over the past few years, drugstore makeup has gotten MUCH better — like next level sh*t. You can be a woman of color now and find a foundation that actually matches your skin tone, and within those foundation families, you’ve got dewy finishes, matte finishes and satins. Nowadays you can also find good drugstore cream shadows, where once you could only get those at department stores.

As for drugstores colors, you aren’t just limited to a narrow neutral range anymore. Now you can find all sorts of drugstore color craziness. It’s an exciting time for affordable makeup! That’s for sure.

Here are five drugstore products I tried this week, and whether I think they’re “needs” or “nopes.”

1. Maybelline Great Lash Mascara in Royal Blue

maybelline great lash royal blue — Maybelline Great Lash in Royal Blue

If you were a fan of Maybelline Great Lash Mascara in Royal Blue back in the day, it’s back for a limited time exclusively at Walmart for $6.40. It had been discontinued some time ago.

Honestly, I’ve never quite understood the Great Lash Mascara love out there. For me…it’s just OK. Decent lift and separation, but with regard to Royal Blue, I can barely see the blue color on my lashes. I have to pile it on and look in a magnifying mirror.

If you have lighter lashes than I do, I’m sure the blue will pop more.

THE VERDICT: Nope! For me, this is a nope, but I know there are lots of Great Lash fans out there.

maybelline great lash royal blue ingredients — Maybelline Great Lash Royal Blue ingredients

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