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
More new spring stuff from Smashbox! — a line of halo-inducing blushes (for angelic cheeks, perhaps?) and lipsticks.
These are the kinds of blushes where you twist and shave off what ya need. Little gimmicky, but I think it’s kinda fun.
When I swatched them, they seemed super sheer, so if you like the look of a lightly flushed cheek, or you just want something clutz-proof and easy, you might want to give ’em a try.
Absolutely not! The new Urban Decay Naked Flushed face palette ($30) has nothing to do with the loo…or with sitting naked on the toilet and flushing, although dirtier minds than mine would probably put those things together. 🙂
Now that I think about it, in Naked Flushed, Urban Decay might have been trying to evoke that whole afterglow effect…ya know, where you’re… Nevermind.
Gees, I hope my mom isn’t reading this.
Just released, the new Naked Flushed face palette combines three products — a sheer, matte golden brown bronzer; a dark reddish pink blush with a matte finish (so super, SUPER dark that it takes some buffing to appear natural); and a shimmery, peachy beige highlighter (this one’s a tad grainy).
I’m sure that part of the reason why I’m sitting here with my laptop and a bottle of the new Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balm ($34 for a 1.18-ounce tube) and thinking about Hawaii right now is because of what I’m wearing.
I’m wearing a thermal, a hoodie, knee-high socks and long pants (I also have a blanket wrapped around my shoulders) because, DUDE! — IT’S REALLY COLD OUT HERE!
Okay, I know that Bay Area winters are mild compared to many other parts of the world/country, but whatevs. Temperature’s a relative thing! And I’m a weather wuss. 🙂
Um…may I have another cup of hot tea, please?
PLEASE!?
Then there’s the freaking Hills… I’m still watching the show, despite my better judgment. Right now I’m on season 5, and the cast is currently vacationing at the Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore of Oahu, which, side tangent, is where I got married (El Hub, if by chance you’re reading this, love you extra today, babes!).
So yeah, I’m sitting here daydreaming about Hawaii and wishing I was at the beach listening to waves crashing on the shore, instead of the heater’s low drone…
Ya know, if I were one of those cast members on The Hills, and the producers flew me out to Hawaii to talk about nonsense in a hot tub and say profound things like, “I think Audrina’s gonna hook up with Brody!” I’d probably wear Naked Skin Beauty Balm…assuming, of course, that I were also 23, which was probably when my skin was in the best shape of my life, and all I ever needed/wanted was minimal coverage and a matte finish.
A new face product from Urban Decay (launced online today, and coming to counters and stores this spring), Naked Skin Beauty Balm is basically a super sheer tinted moisturizer/primer with broad-spectrum SPF 20 and added skin benefits. Beyond its cosmetic powers, it also promises to firm and lift, and diminish the appearance of fine lines, with the help of magic-sounding “optical blurring pigments.”
It comes in just a single shade — a sheer peach — which should suit most skin tones. It also has a minty scent (kinda like toothpaste) and a texture that feels like a thin lotion.
A few things I firmly believe that all women should have:
I know there are far, far less expensive comforting treats out there than a $68 highlighter, but let me tell ya, when I’m feeling extra agitated/orange alert/ready to shank strangers at the drop of a hat, there’s just something to be said for Chanel.
With Chanel’s seasonal collections, they typically release one really expensive signature piece, and it’s the piece that many collectors and die-hards look forward to the most.
Sometimes, I think these extra extravagances are way too overpriced, or just kind of “meh,” but in the case of this warm peachy beige powder, Coco and crew did us a solid.
Check out the design on that pan… I mean, really!? It’s like a work of art! See the camilla flowers (Mademoiselle’s favorite!) and the tiny little makeup tubes??
I love those little details…
Once you get over the heartbreak of disrupting the design for the first time, you’ll feel better about using this rare gem, and before you know it, you won’t even want to leave the house without the soft luminosity its satiny finish gives to your skin. 🙂
Oh, the sweet, sweet joy of the animal cookie/cracker…
I know it’s so 37-going-on-13, but I derive great pleasure from biting off their heads. 🙂
It’s just so satisfying!
Sometimes I’ll start by nibbling off their toes, tails or tums, but it never feels quite as right as a swift beheading.
Um…hold on a second while I add that to my list of “Sentences that inadvertently make me sound like a serial killer.”
You know what else is really satisfying? Chanel’s new Joues Contraste Powder Blush in Frivole ($43) from their spring collection.
My goodness, lovie! Wearing it has been almost as satisfying as the feeling I felt when I finished decapitating an entire tin of shortbread scottie dog cookies!
It’s the only blush in the new 22-piece Printemps Précieux de Chanel Spring 2013 Collection, and granted, it is expensive, but if you’re 1) already tanned, 2) tan easily, or 3) love bronzer so much that if you were down to your last pan, b*tches would have to pry it out of your cold, dead hands before you’d ever give it up, you’ll love how this looks on your cheeks.
Stress-free shimmer. That’s what I think of Estee Lauder’s $40 Pure Color Illuminating Powder Gelee Blush in Tease (and why I’ve been loving it to pieces).
There are so many stressful things about our world right now, like practically every story on the nightly news, or that commercial for that new MTV show starring Snookie and J.Woww, but at least when it comes to makeup, that thing many of us turn to for fun and escape, there are still things as simple and beautiful as a great blush.
Every day we’re forced to make big, difficult decisions. At least blush doesn’t have to be one of them.
Estee Lauder Pure Color Illuminating Powder Gelee Blush in Tease, part of the new nine-piece Pretty Naughty collection, arrives with the rest of the release next month. In the collection, pastels feature prominently, but EL gave them a tough girl, street-chic vibe.
Picture the coolest city girl you know dressed in black from head to toe, plucked from her usual stomping grounds and plopped smack dab in the middle of the pastoral English countryside.
Basically, that’s this collection.
It includes products for eyes, lips, cheeks (Tease, what we’re looking at now, is the only cheek product) and a BEYOND gorgeous nail polish (review coming soon!).
Tease, a semi-sheer, opalescent blush/highlighter/contour color shifts from a subtle rose to a pinkish peach, depending on the light.
Really pretty!
And I think it gives my cheeks a healthy, natural-looking glow that still has a cool girl kick to it.
With one layer, you get a soft wash of color (I like!), but you can also build it up for something brighter, KAPOW!
But before that, give this a try: run your finger across the pan…
Now that’s soft, right?
The formula — something Estee Lauder has been using for the past few seasons — combines some of the best things about gels, liquids and powders. They say that unlike conventional powders, something about it allows the pigments and shimmer pearl to float on top of the skin, creating a soft, subtle shimmer with a reflective finish.
“Subtle shimmer” — two words that make my 30-something-year-old ears perk up. 😀
When you’re a woman of a certain age (*cough* 37), shimmer products can be a little tougher to wear (well, at least for me sometimes) because the reflective particles can highlight pores and wrinkles.
Not Tease though. It has this beautiful, subtle glow that doesn’t highlight all of the other stuff going on around it…which I really, really appreciate.
You can apply it with a blush brush, but I’ve actually been liking the sponge applicator it comes with. I press a little on the apples of my cheeks, and blend out the edges with my fingers.
That’s it. And it lasts all day long.
It’s December 18, barely a week before Christmas, and I have so much holiday shopping left to do that all I can do at this point is succumb to procrastination’s warm, snuggly embrace — to wrap myself up in it like a living, breathing procrastination burrito (with extra guac on the side, haha!).
I’m behind. Way behind. Which, of course, means that the only logical thing left to do now is watch Casablanca for the umpteenth time and put on a few pieces from the Lancôme Holiday Petit Tresor collection. 🙂
The 19-piece Parisian-inspired collection’s gold, taupe, bronze and garnet makeup and nail polishes glided onto cosmetics counters and lancome-usa.com last month.
I don’t know where you are with your holiday shopping (I sincerely hope you’re further along than I am), but what do you say we do a little more procrastinating this afternoon, and check out a few pieces from the collection?
I like the way this five-pan palette of taupe, gray, peach, blue and black powder eye products (four eyeshadows and one liner) sparkles on my lids.
One of three quints in the collection, Sapphire Fling is “my rockstar quint,” because the products take on that lived-in, distressed look as the day goes on (like they’ve been out partying on Hollywood Boulevard all night long).
I like it — the whole rocker chic vibe — but if you’re averse to any creasing or fading, you’ll probably want to carry it with you for touchups throughout the day.
MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: B
A shimmery, yet subtle, peachy pink blush and highlighter in a gorgeous pan with rose detailing. This long-wearing cheek product lasts a good 12-14 hours on me and lovingly steers clear of my pores.
MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: A- ($42 seems like a lot)
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Along with raising me to respect big hair and instilling in me an appreciation for nonsensical song lyrics (“The reflex is a lonely child just waiting by the park…”), the ’80s also taught me about a certain something awesome called houndstooth.
Every girl I knew had something in a houndstooth pattern. I had a jacket I’d wear whenever I wanted to be “taken seriously,” like at piano recitals, haha!
Tabs would love a jacket like that…
The first words out of my mouth when I opened the new Diorblush in Pink Happiness ($42) were “CLASS OF ’89!!”
(I was referring to middle school.)
The houndstooth pattern stamped on this powder blush duo will help it stand out when it flits on Dior counters with the rest of the Cherie Dior Bow collection this spring.
