Face

Unsung Makeup Heroes: Topshop’s Terrific $12 Cream Blush in Afternoon Tea

October 21st, 2014 by Karen 38 Comments

Topshop Afternoon Tea Blush — Topshop Cream Blush in Afternoon Tea, $12

Do you have to be simultaneously sipping tea out of a dainty teacup while wearing Topshop’s $12 Cream Blush in Afternoon Tea to fully appreciate the nuances of either product?

No, you do not.

It does, however, help. 🙂

And it also helps to appreciate a great deal.

(Incidentally, if you decide to brew a pot of Earl Grey, I’ll take mine with cream and two lumps of sugar, please.)

I almost can’t believe this pretty pink cream-to-powder blush is only $12. It’s a total unsung hero in my book. On my unpredictably combination oily, and sometimes dry, cheeks, I swear it looks exactly like the $38 Le Blush Creme blushes by Chanel, and it lasts just as long. I get from eight to nine hours if I do a minor touchup around hour six.

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For Queen B Cheeks, Try Matte Tan Rose NARS Almeria Blush

October 9th, 2014 by Karen 15 Comments

NARS Almeria Blush Swatch — Wearing the new NARS Almeria Blush on my cheeks and, yes, I’m standing in front of a fan, Beyonce-style

“Just to warn you…I look completely insane.” A good thing to broadcast right before you enter a room if you’re wearing NARS Blush in Almeria ($30) but didn’t spend enough time blending.

If, however, you did invest the time in blending — because you’ll need to with this intensely pigmented matte tan rose from the new NARS Holiday 2014 Laced with Edge collection — then you shan’t need to warn the general public, because your cheeks will look so naturally fabulous and flushed that witnesses will just assume that you’re Beyonce, and that you wake up like this. 🙂

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When You Want Marvelous Medium Coverage and Natural-Looking Skin, There’s Tom Ford Traceless Perfecting Foundation: Pores Don’t Fear It, But Pocketbooks Might

October 8th, 2014 by Karen 19 Comments

Yeah, this foundation is $80. It’s Tom Ford, so it comes with 10,000 volts of taser-like TF sticker shock.

Traceless Perfecting Foundation is a new addition to Tom’s permanent line, liquid foundation formula, available in 15 shades for $80, and that gets you a 1-ounce bottle.

The medium-coverage formula has a super subtle sheen and a velvety finish, so skin looks natural, real and not flat, and you can sheer it out even more to enhance that.

The formula doesn’t do much by way of controlling oil, so if you have oily skin, it may not help you out there, but for normal or dry skin, this would be a good, lightweight, natural-looking foundation for everyday wear.

With a fairly painful price.

To be honest, the coverage doesn’t dazzle me in pics, where I like my coverage closer to full and opaque, and my pores are totally unafraid of this stuff. I wish it blurred them into the background a bit better, but that’s me. If you already have perfect skin, you’ll be fine, but homegirl needs more help. Seriously, it takes a village.

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L’Oreal Visible Lift Blur Blush Is a Tad Too Short-Lived to Be a Minor Makeup Miracle

September 30th, 2014 by Karen 12 Comments

L'Oreal Visible Lift Blur Blush Review — The new L’Oreal Visible Lift Blur Blushes, $12.99 each

One day you may find yourself half-jokingly agreeing to run a half marathon.

Then, later, as the illustrious day approaches, you may find yourself hoping that the people who invited you to run the race with them, forget (oh please, oh please, oh please!).

Chances are, they won’t.

So you start training.

During your first 10-mile training run on the treadmill, maybe you develop a wicked case of chafing, and maybe it’s directly under the middle strap of your sports bra, right there on your solar plexus.

Maybe it hurts (it does, a lot).

And maybe the only painkillers that seem to work at all are happy thoughts.

Happy thoughts about happy things, like blush. 🙂 Like the new L’Oreal Visible Lift Blur Blushes ($12.99 each, and available in three shades).

L'Oreal Visible Lift Blur Blushes from the left: Soft Pink, Soft Berry and Soft Peach — From the left: Soft Pink, Soft Berry and Soft Peach

Hello, genius! That’s what these new blurring blushes are, especially if you’re a dame of a certain age (if you catch my drift).

Imagine the slick, slippery, silicone-like feel of a Smashbox primer, but in more natural-looking colors, like light peach, medium pink and medium berry.

Introducing the L’Oreal Visible Lift Blur Blushes.

L'Oreal Visible Lift Blur Blushes with a MAC Lipglass for scale — With a MAC Lipglass for scale

They feel kind of like a mousse…and I think they definitely make the skin tone and texture of my cheeks look more even and smoother.

L'Oreal Visible Lift Blur in Soft Peach — Soft Peach

These are really great disciplinarians when it comes to those pores that are constantly trying to out-diva each other. I have some on the apples of my cheeks that are like Christina, Mariah, Beyonce and Celine, and these blushes make everyone play nice. 🙂

Whenever I wear one of them, my pores look mellower and smaller (but aren’t completely gone, of course), and I swear my skin looks smoother.

L'Oreal Visible Lift Blur in Soft Pink — Soft Pink

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The New Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush Palette: Chic Cheeks Are Just a Couple Swipes Away

September 19th, 2014 by Karen 36 Comments

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush Palette blushes from the left: Luminous Flush, Incandescent Electra and Mood Exposure — Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush Palette

Hello, gorgeous. Good afternoon. I don’t want to keep you from the fun I hope you’re having (it is Friday, after all), but do you have time for a 2-minute review? I hope so, because this is one I think you’ll like. 🙂

Are you ready? OK, I’m turning over the hourglass now…

The new Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush Palette: 2-minute review

A limited edition palette containing three Hourglass blushes, two of them re-promotes and one brand new blush shade.
Price: $58 US, $67 CDN
Coming October 2014 to Barneys New York, Bergdorf Goodman, Sephora and Space NK stores, as well as online to hourglasscosmetics.com.
The two re-promoted blush shades are Luminous Flush (a champagne rose blush fused with Ambient Powder in Luminous Light) and Mood Exposure (a soft plum blush fused with Ambient Powder in Mood Light).
The single new shade, exclusive to the Ambient Lighting Blush Palette, is called Incandescent Electra, a cool peach blush blended with Ambient Powder in Incandescent Light.
Handle with care! Even the packaging indicates that the palette is fragile, so this beauty may not be fit for whirlwind travel.
Incandescent Electra, the new peach shade, is much more pigmented than I thought it would be at first blush/glance. One layer is enough for a natural-looking flush.
Go really easy on Luminous Flush and Mood Exposure, because you’ll probably only need a bit of either one.
All three of these are, unsurprisingly for Hourglass, a breeze to blend, and the powders don’t appear heavy at all on the skin.
I think they also look great in pics. Skin doesn’t look oily, and pores don’t look extra-large.
Wear time clocks in around 8-9 hours.
Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: A (an A+ if the packaging felt more fit for travel, but I’m nervous about the blushes breaking!)

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush Palette Luminous Flush — Luminous Flush

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush Palette Incandescent Electra — Incandescent Electra

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush Palette Mood Exposure — Mood Exposure

Hourglass Blush Palette Swatches — From the left: Luminous Flush, Incandescent Electra and Mood Exposure

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The Secret to Tinker Bell’s Shimmer, Exposed! She Uses Urban Decay Naked Illuminated Shimmering Powder for Face and Body in Aura

September 17th, 2014 by Karen 7 Comments

When I finally figure out how to open the portal to the Magical Land of The Drag Queen Roller Disco, I would really like to have Urban Decay’s Naked Illuminated Shimmering Powder for Face and Body in Aura ($29) with me in my purse, because it would be a shame to enter a realm where the moon looks like a giant disco ball and the sky rains glitter without at least a little highlighter on my face.

That’s all I’m saying.

Once through the portal, I’m pretty sure this baked golden peachy pink powder would also give me good street cred within the inner circle. They’d be like, “Honey, did you see that chick with the big Lorde hair wearing Urban Decay’s new highlighter? Girlfriend had glitter on her face FOR DAYS. But in a good way.”

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NARS All Day Luminous Powder Foundation Broad Spectrum SPF24: The Stuff of My Most Radiant, Soft Matte Finish Dreams (in Somewhat Tricky Packaging)

September 16th, 2014 by Karen 21 Comments

Wearing the new NARS All Day Luminous Powder Foundation Broad Spectrum SFP24 ($48)

Of all my many makeup and beauty pursuits, like the quests for big hair, lush lashes and behaved brows (frickin’ Raul!), the quest for luxurious-looking skin consumes the most time.

I’m always looking for that expensive, luxurious Louis Vuitton skin look…without having to spend Real Housewives of Beverly Hills money.

Polished.

Elegant.

And hella pricey (looking).

Available in 13 shades, the new $48 NARS All Day Luminous Powder Foundation delivers exactly that, and it’s a revelation, especially when it’s applied with a wet sponge (I use a Beauty Blender).

It’s the stuff of my most radiant, soft matte finish dreams (in somewhat tricky packaging).

NARS All Day Luminous Powder Foundation light — The light shades

My big fear with powder foundations is that they’ll look thick and heavy on my combination skin, because many of them do, but NARS All Day Luminous does not. The fine, silky powder formula looks and feels lightweight, while the finish falls somewhere between dewy and matte.

Coverage ranges from light to medium, depending on how you apply them. When I use a dry sponge or brush, the coverage is at its lightest. The formula does even out my skin tone a little, but some of the natural redness in my cheeks still peeks through, and I can still see my freckles. Worn this way, the look is super casual.

NARS All Day Luminous Powder Foundation Medium — The medium shades

NARS All Day Luminous Powder Foundation Medium Dark — The medium-dark shades

Using a sponge or Beauty Blender to apply them kicks up the coverage a notch. For the highest coverage (medium), I like to apply a 50/50 mix of Stromboli and Tahoe, because together they’re a closer match to my skin tone than any of the 13 individual shades, with a wet Beauty Blender. That keeps my freckles on the down-low and makes sure that no red on my cheeks sneaks through.

I’m definitely partial to applying these with the wet sponge (I use a patting and rolling motion). I think that way the look is more natural.

These don’t take long to apply, either. I can have a full face of foundation applied, blended and done in 3-4 minutes.

NARS All Day Luminous Powder Foundation Swatches — Swatches of all 13 shades

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Smashbox Photo Finish Oil Free Foundation Primer Pore Minimizing Is Putting Pores on Alert

September 10th, 2014 by Karen 16 Comments

Smashbox Photo Finish Oil Free Foundation Primer Pore Minimizing k — Wearing the new Smashbox Photo Finish Oil Free Foundation Primer Pore Minimizing ($39) under Laura Mercier Smooth Finish Flawless Fluide Foundation

“I want pores tighter than Matthew McConaughey’s butt,” she whispered into the darkness, slowly drifting into a deep slumber. Her head sank into her pillow as she snuggled her tube of Smashbox Photo Finish Oil Free Foundation Primer Pore Minimizing ($39). “We don’t want no stinkin’ pores…”

— Me, last night, 10:12 p.m., my bed

In my dreams, wishes come true, even seemingly frivolous makeup-related ones, like wishing for smooth, pore-less skin akin to the skin I had when I was 18 (and sadly too young to truly appreciate it).

In real life, however, wishes need help.

That’s where Smashbox’s new Photo Finish Oil Free Foundation Primer Pore Minimizing comes in.

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