Kits and Sets

9 Disco-Driven Things You Might Want To Do When You Wear the Products in Benefit’s New The Rich Is Back Set

May 24th, 2013 by Karen 17 Comments

Benefit The Rich Is Back — Turn the beat around with Benefit’s The Rich Is Back ($34)

9 Disco-Driven Things You Might Want To Do When You Wear the Products in Benefit’s New The Rich Is Back Set

Strike a pose on a flashing disco dance floor, Staying Alive-style, while wearing the new disco-inspired limited edition Rich Is Back set, available now exclusively at Sephora stores and sephora.com.
Track down a mirrored, multi-faceted disco ball for your condo, and contemplate how you’re going to talk your boyfriend/boo into hanging it from the ceiling in the dining room for you…
Read up on English fashion designer Matthew Williamson’s career, and then visit matthewwilliamson.com, and add a redonkulous amount of stuff to your cart (without necessarily checking out).
Do the hustle! — as you daydream about the tiny tube of They’re Real Mascara in the set (so cute!)
Listen to Donna Summer’s Last Dance while you bang out a gold, beige, brown and teal eye with the set’s four powder shadows, which range from moderately to highly pigmented, and nod to yourself in approval at the absence of fallout.
Awww freak out! — when you can’t find your box of Hoola, which you feel like you need to wear with the frosty pinkish peach blush that comes with the set (if you feel like it makes your pores look like lunar craters, go easy on this one).
Belt out “Burn, baby, burn…DISCO INFERNO!” at your cat right after you slick sheer red Inferno Gloss on your lips, and then laugh maniacally as he darts away in disgust. 🙂
The first time you finish your makeup with this set, turn a fan on high, stand right in front of it, start playing Super Freak, and dance like you’re on Soul Train!
Wonder if you could have held your own with the party people at Studio 54 way back when, and then realize, “Yeah, probably not. I’m too much of a square,” but then think, “Who cares? With Benefit’s The Rich Is Back, I’ll just pretend…”

The set includes…

One 0.14-ounce tube of They’re Real Mascara
One 0.22-ounce tube of Lip Gloss in Inferno
One 0.07-ounce Gimme Fever Cheek Powder
Four 0.03-ounce Eyeshadows in Solid Gold, Get Down Brown, Disco Dust and Feel So Teal
One miniature cheek brush
One step-by-step tutorial booklet

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LORAC Tantalizes With a Six-Piece Golden Bronze Summer Set That’s Good to Glow: The LORAC TANtalizer Glow to Go Collection

May 22nd, 2013 by Karen 11 Comments

My propensity to wait until the last minute has again left me without any fabulous Memorial Day plans…

Unless Jay-Z and Bey call or I win that Mega Millions jackpot, in which case you’ll find me in the Maldives in one of those luxury huts on the water, I’m pretty much stuck at home, puttering away.

Putt, putt, putt…

Of course, Tabs loves the fact that I’m not going anywhere because it means he’ll have his assistant to kick around and assault with his 20 pounds of brute force whenever he wants.

I suppose I should be happy that he doesn’t weigh 25…

Even though I’m staying local, I’m not letting that stop me from at least looking like I went away.

I want a relaxed glow, dagnabbit!

LORAC’s new TANtalizer Glow to Go Collection couldn’t have come at a better time.

This $36 six-piece limited edition summer set covers the bases for a classic golden bronze summer glow for your eyes, cheeks and lips.

LORAC TANtalizer Glow to Go Collection Tahitian Sand Eye Shadow — Tahitian Sand Eye Shadow, a shimmery light gold

Warm-toned gals from light to dark of differing makeup ability can all WERK Glow to Go.

LORAC TANtalizer Glow to Go Collection Barbados Bronze Eye Shadow — Barbados Bronze Eye Shadow, a shimmery bronze

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The LORAC Mint Edition Palette Plays It Cool

May 21st, 2013 by Karen 20 Comments

Not that I need another clutch…but if someone were to build one based on LORAC’s Mint Edition Eye/Cheek Palette, I would not be averse to the idea.

I’m just sayin’.

How cute is this!?

With the silver and black accents?

I used to rock a pair of mint green Bongo Jeans in the exact same color about a zillion years back (it had zippers and bows around the ankles), and now I suddenly have the urge to put my hair up in a side ponytail with a scrunchie and peg my pants…

Mint — it’s EVERYWHERE!

What year is this again? Did we just go back in time?

Wait — I don’t think so, but LORAC looks like they did for the retro design. This eye, cheek and lip set launched earlier this spring, but it looks like it could have been released a few decades before that.

Regardless of the palette’s release date, mint is having a moment — I’m seeing it on purses, shoes, nails, makeup — and Mint Edition is riding the wave…

A complete look

LORAC included all of the basics for a minty fresh look in this $42 set (a $160 value) — eight eye shadows (four mattes and four shimmers), a powder highlighter, a powder blush and a full-sized liquid lipstick.

LORAC Mint Edition Palette Swatches — Liquid Lipstick in Retro

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Deborah Lippmann’s Limited Edition Trio of Radiant, Glittery Holiday Polishes Promises to Rock This Town

December 14th, 2012 by Karen 8 Comments

deborah lippmann rock this town top — The new limited edition Deborah Lippmann Rock This Town Trio ($42)

NOTE TO SELF: do not from multitask while thinking about Deborah Lippmann’s $42 Rock This Town Trio, because if you try to do anything more complicated than walking while contemplating the glittery polishes in this limited edition set, you end up doing bone-headed things like stepping out of the shower and rubbing face wash, instead of moisturizer, on your legs and only realizing it a full minute later.

Whoops.

Light seems to love the glitter in mauve Moon Dance, copper Phoenix Rising and blackened khaki Chain Reaction more than usual.

As do I. 🙂

I don’t know why, but these polishes are downright dazzling…like getting caught in a tractor beam powered by Ryan Gosling’s smile.

deborah lippmann rock this town all — From the left: Chain Reaction, Moon Dance and Phoenix Rising

deborah lippmann chain reaction swatch — Two layers of Chain Reaction

deborah lippmann phoenix rising swatch — Phoenix Rising

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I’ve Got Designs on the Soft Brushes in the New $38 Five-Piece Sephora Collection IZAK Brush Set

December 7th, 2012 by Karen 14 Comments

Since the world’s first beauty fanatic triumphantly shouted, “Eureka!” while thrusting her makeup brush into the air, faces and makeup bags everywhere have been plagued by boring brushes and stiff bristles.

For (what seemed like) millennia, brushes with boring black handles and scratchy bristles bothered beauty lovers, who dreamed of living life more colorfully, and comfortably, with brushes like the ones in the new $38 five-piece Sephora IZAK Brush Set.

Not only are the foundation, powder, eyeshadow, brow and liner brushes in this new limited edition holiday set super soft, they’re also quite sassy.

And the source of that sass? New York-based French illustrator Izak Zenou, who’s worked with some of the biggest names in beauty and fashion, including Chanel, Henri Bendel and Laura Mercier.

I love his illustrations and the work he’s done here. The black, white and hot pink brushes in the set, and the illustrated gal gracing the accompanying zippered pouch, are so glam yet oddly approachable…

The illustrated girl on the front looks like she’d be fun to hang out with — chic and totally down to earth. I bet she wouldn’t judge me if I showed up to our lunch date with two-tone matte lips and cat fur stuck to my suede ankle boots.

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The Four Universally Flattering Shades in the $15 Sephora Mini Ultra Shine Gloss Set Pack a Seriously Shiny Punch

December 6th, 2012 by Karen 11 Comments

The new Sephora Mini Ultra Shine Gloss Set — Sephora’s new $15 Mini Ultra Shine Gloss Set

Sephora calls the four petite pink and nude shades in their $15 Mini Ultra Shine Gloss Set universally flattering.

I call ’em perfect for purses and sunglasses, on account of their diminutive stature (0.1 ounces each), their easy, breezy sheer-to-medium coverage and a finish that’s brighter than the sun!

sephora mini ultra shine gloss set — From the left: Precious Pink, Pin-Up Pink, Rose Petal and Perfect Nude

sephora mini gloss set swatches — From the left: Precious Pink, Pin-Up Pink, Rose Petal and Perfect Nude

sephora mini shine gloss set — Pin-Up Pink

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What’s Cooking at the Sephora Gloss Lab? Sheer, Non-Sticky MAC Cremesheen Dupes

December 4th, 2012 by Karen 21 Comments

sephora gloss lab review Hot Pink No. 5 — Wearing Hot Pink No. 5 from the new $25 Sephora Gloss Lab kit

If chem lab had been anywhere near as much fun as Sephora’s new Gloss Lab, I never would have finished any of my titrating!

I would have been too busy mixing and matching the 10 marvelously moisturizing glosses (which could easily pass for MAC Cremesheens) in the $25 kit, and then watching the clouds above my head part to a concerto of harps and herald angels singing.

Unlike chem lab, Gloss Lab is exclusive to Sephora. The limited edition holiday kit, which is available now, comes with seven shades in an assortment of nude and bright colors and three colorless top coats (one clear gloss, another with small bits of white shimmer in it, and a third with larger bits of multi-colored shimmer), and all 10 of them come with an easy-to-use doe-foot applicator.

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The Six Sample-Sized Products in Benefit’s New Primping With the Stars Face Kit Should Make Working With or Without Celebrities Easier

December 3rd, 2012 by Karen 13 Comments

benefit primping with the stars — The new $32 Primping With the Stars kit from Benefit

Where am I…?

What is this strange place?

It’s as if, when I walked through that door, I came out in a different universe, a parallel dimension, a nexus, if you will, of time and space, where the impossible is possible.

Back in the universe where I came from, primping with the stars — at least the one particular plus-size feline celebrity I’m familiar with — often took hours, days and sometimes even weeks.

Based on my star-primping experience, which involved prepping a superstar kitty supermodel for all the major awards shows, it was always a chore, but Benefit designed this kit to change that.

They filled the $32 Primping With the Stars kit with six sample-sized products from their permanent line, hand selected to fake a flawless face in mere minutes. In the kit, you get Benefit’s Stay Don’t Stray Eye Primer, The POREfessional face primer, Girl Meets Pearl Highlighter, their Some Kind-A Gorgeous cream foundation in Medium, one Benetint lip and cheek stain, and a tube of They’re Real mascara.

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