Lips

What’s One Thing I’d Like to See More of in Sonia Kashuk’s Moisture Luxe Tinted Lip Balms?

April 3rd, 2013 by Karen 24 Comments

Sonia Kashuk Moisture Luxe Tinted Lip Balm in Hint of Berry — That’s Sonia K.’s $8.99 Hint of Berry Moisture Luxe Tinted Lip Balm on my lips

The list of things Sonia Kashuk’s new Moisture Luxe Tinted Lip Balms have going for ’em reads like a laundry list of travel makeup awesomeness.

Sleek presentation
They’re pretty affordable at $8.99 each
They come in four sheer, universally flattering shades — Hint of Coral, Hint of Pink, Hint of Red and Hint of Berry
The lightweight formula
They’re unburdened by scents or flavors
SPF 15
Infused with aÃ§aÃ oil, essential fatty acids, cherry extract for antioxidant protection and safflower seed oil to nourish lips

I always worry about losing my (luggage, mind) makeup bag when I travel, and Sonia regularly releases such great stuff at good prices that I figured I’d bring one of these along with me on my next trip.

Except there’s one problem with that…

Moisture!

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For a Plump Pout, Try These Creamy New Buxom Full-Bodied Lipsticks

April 2nd, 2013 by Karen 22 Comments

I’ve been glued to glosses for at least the past decade (give or take a year or two). Yup, I’m a gloss girl — the gal in the group who’ll whip out her makeup bag to touch up after lunch at the table, and then spend five minutes sifting through handfuls of tubes to find the perfect shiny shade while everyone else sips coffee.

What can I say? I like gloss. I think it makes my lips look fuller, and I even feel a little younger when I wear it, too.

Ah, but Buxom’s new line of unscented, unflavored Full-Bodied Lipsticks is currently threatening to turn me into a full-time lipstick lady. When I wear one of these 10 creamy, satin-finish shades, each one of them loaded with hydrating hyaluronic spheres, my pout does appear a little plumper (no sting or tingling sensation, though) — like I’ve been locking lips with someone at work in the supply closet — and it stays that way from 4-5 hours (or until my next meal).

Buxom Full-Bodied Lipstick swatches from the left: Exhibitionist, Hooligan, Menace, Nudist, Rouge, Scoundrel and Two-Timer

Buxom Full-Bodied Lipstick in Exhibitionist

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Gorgeous Cosmetics Liquid Lips Lip Lacquer in Hush Speaks Volumes About Pretty Pink Gloss

March 20th, 2013 by Karen 10 Comments

Gorgeous Cosmetics Liquid Lips Hush — Hush!

I realize that this is supposed to be a post about something else, but thank goodness for MAC Lipglasses.

They’ve been keeping me company for so many years, and through so many memories…

When I think about all the horrible first dates MAC Spite and I sat through with people we met on Craigslist (this was in the late ’90s before the words, “Craigslist” and “Killer,” appeared in the title of a Lifetime TV movie), I can’t even begin to roll my eyes far back enough in my head.

And it wasn’t just MAC Spite. There was also Nymphette (which helped me move into my first real “grownup” apartment), Lychee Luxe (accompanied me to Europe in 2005) and EvRev (which showed me around Toronto in 2011), among others.

The MAC Lipglasses and I roll deep.

Which is why you have to promise not to tell them I’ve been testing Hush, one of the Liquid Lips Lip Lacquers from Gorgeous Cosmetics.

It would just hurt them too much to hear that I’ve strayed.

In my defense, they look, feel and last almost exactly like a Lipglass. Same shiny finish, sticky texture and fantastic wear time (they’ll manage half a day between meals).

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Dive Into a Double Digit Dose of Moisturizing Minerals With the Plush Pigments in MAC’s New Luxurious, Lightweight Line of Mineralize Rich Lipsticks

March 19th, 2013 by Karen 35 Comments

MAC MIneralize Rich Lipstick in Style Surge — MAC Mineralize Rich Lipstick in Style Surge, one of 12 new $22 shades in a new line of lipsticks available now at MAC counters, in stores and online)

Yup, it’s official. Anything’s possible now.

That’s how I feel today, babe, like the sky’s the limit! In a world with a line of full-coverage lipsticks that feel exactly like lip balms, anything’s possible. Pretty soon fashion-forward cats will start walking on their hind legs, venus fly traps will start crooning, and Keanu Reeves will win an Academy Award.

Um…have you heard about Splash? The new celebrity diving show?

Channing Tatum says what now?

Yes, celebrity diving show. Picture it: Greg Louganis coaching Kendra Wilkinson through her springboard tucks and twists (which reminds me, I dated a diver once for like two seconds; it did not go swimmingly, ba-dum-bum).

sp-ch — Umm… (from *Splash*, via Facebook)

Wait — where was I? Oh, yeah. The lipsticks.

MAC’s new $22 Mineralize Rich Lipsticks dove (haha) into the permanent line earlier this month, and from one dry-lipped girl to another (assuming you have dry lips, of course), one word: revelation.

According to MAC, the 77 minerals they added to the formula make these magnificent moisturizers, which leads me to wonder late at night (right after my 20-pound tabby wakes me up by walking across my left boob), why 77 minerals? Why not 76 or 78?

But I digress…

Ever since I started wearing six of the 12 shades, I haven’t seen a lip flake in sight.

The moisturizing formula takes the cake, but it’s not all these have going for ’em. They’re also comfy like a good pair of yoga pants. They could easily pass for a lightweight balm.

And they’re so easy to apply! — so put down that lip brush and liner. Even with the darker shades, like warm, deep red All Out Gorgeous, I can apply them directly from the oversized bullet (at 0.12 ounces per tube, these are slightly larger than regular 0.10-ounce MAC Lipsticks), and get 2-4 hours of full coverage from a single layer.

MAC Mineralize Rich Lipsticks from the left: All Out Gorgeous, Dreaminess, Elegant Accent, Lady at Play, Posh Tone and Style Surge

MAC MIneralize Rich Lipstick Swatches — MAC Mineralize Rich Lipstick Swatches from the left: All Out Gorgeous, Dreaminess, Elegant Accent, Lady at Play, Posh Tone and Style Surge

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The Plucky Pink Tarte Energy LipSurgence Skintuitive Lip Tint Puts Pep in This Cat Lady’s Step

March 18th, 2013 by Karen 13 Comments

I guess it was a good thing I slicked Tarte’s $24 Energy LipSurgence Skintuitive Lip Tint on my lips before Tabs and I left the house for his morning walk; otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have been able to keep up with him!

Yeah, I have no idea what got into your nephew this morning… Instead of casually strolling along like he usually does, stopping and starting to nibble on shoots of grass and inspect behind tires, he straight-up trotted like a show dog! — with his twitchy tail up, his head held high and proud, and his low-hanging tum swaying back and forth as he galloped around the circle.

I was smiling from ear to ear like a proud stage mom as he pulled me along. 🙂

And it was quite a workout, too. The big cup of coffee I had first thing this morning probably helped me keep up with him, but I also think the soft shine of Tarte’s $24 Energy LipSurgence Skintuitive Lip Tint put an extra spring in my step.

Ingredients: Ricinus communis (castor) seed oil, caprylic/caprictriglyceride, vegetable oil/Olus/Huile vÃ©gÃ©tale, candelilla cera/Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax/Cire de candelilla, cera alba/Beeswax/Cire d’abeille, hydrogenated vegetable oil, castor oil bis-hydroxypropyl dimethicone esters, ozokerite, simmondsia chinensis (jojoba) seed oil, limnanthes alba (meadowfoam) seed oil, mentha piperita (peppermint) oil, dimethyl isosorbide, stevioside, salicornia herbacea extract, limonene, palmitoyl hexapeptide-14, linalool, ascorbyl palmitate, tocopherol, glycine soja (soybean) oil. (+/-): titanium dioxide (CI 77891), red 28 lake (CI 45410), yellow 5 lake (CI 19140), red 27 (CI 45410).

New for spring, this latest member of Tarte’s lightweight, non-sticky family of twist-up LipSurgence pencils is one of those products that changes colors like a mood ring on your lips.

According to Tarte, the Skintuitive formula responds to your personal pH balance and your “energy,” resulting in a personalized shade of pink all your own.

It’s a gimmick, sure, but it’s one of those gimmicks I like, because it takes some of the work out picking a matching lip color, in that you can’t really control what color you’re gonna get. With energy, it is what it is, ya know? Your color is your color, and that’s that.

When Energy touches my lips, BAM! It goes from being a sheer baby pink to a medium rose petal pink in just a few blinks of an eye.

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EstÃ©e Lauder’s Mad Men Collection Rich, Rich Lipstick in Pinkadelic Gives You More

March 12th, 2013 by Karen 21 Comments

Estee lauder Mad Men Collection Rich Rich Lipstick in Pinkadelic — EstÃ©e Lauder Mad Men Collection Rich, Rich Lipstick in Pinkadelic ($30), available now at counters and online

More.

More!

That’s exactly what EstÃ©e Lauder’s new Mad Men Collection Rich, Rich Lipstick in Pinkadelic gives you.

More! — as in the actual quantity of product, because each tube contains 0.13 ounces — almost twice as much as the tiny 0.07-ounce tube of Cherry released with last year’s Mad Men Collection.

Cherry was meant to hearken back to the smaller vintage lipstick tubes of yesteryear, but Mad Men fans must have wanted more. Fortunately, EL obliged. Limited edition Pinkadelic contains the same amount of product as the twist-up lipsticks in EstÃ©e Lauder’s permanent line.

Estee Lauder Pinkadelic with Cherry — Pinkadelic beside Cherry Lipstick for scale

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Charming Their Way Into Makeup Bags and Hearts, the New Physicians Formula Sexy Booster Sexy Glow Glossy Stains Deliver an Yves Saint Laurent Look at a Drugstore Price

March 8th, 2013 by Karen 8 Comments

Why do I find little dangling charms so irresistible? Charms on just about anything, like phones, bracelets, the ends of pens and pencils, tubes of Physicians Formula Sexy Booster Sexy Glow Glossy Stain…

Physicians Formula Sexy Booster Sexy Glow Glossy Stains Red and Hot Pink — The Physicians Formula Sexy Booster Sexy Glow Glossy Stains in Red and Hot Pink

Charmed, I’m sure. 🙂

Maybe it’s the way they sparkle when I wiggle them around. It triggers some kind of primitive cave girl thing… Whatever it is, those silvery high-heel charms are charming the heck out of me.

And speaking of charming, that’s actually their schtick — except with regard to pants, as in “charming the pants off you.” These two new pigmented, $9.95 gloss/stain hybrids in Red and Hot Pink, like the Physicians Formula Sexy Booster Sexy Glow Blush in Rose we looked at before, are designed to do just that.

With ingredients like horny goat weed and a musky vanilla scent, they’re supposed to evoke a sultry state of mind while tinting lips with a long-lasting lip stain and a satiny finish.

Truth be told, I haven’t yet felt the urge to bump Barry White and crawl all over a rotating heart-shaped bed while wearing either of these shades…but I do feel like raising my hands in the air and waving them around like I just don’t care, which is something I normally do for drugstore versions of high-end makeup products.

These remind me of those $32 Yves Saint Laurent Glossy Stains…

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The New NARS Satin Lip Pencils: Steeped in Prodigious Pigment, These Creamy, Indulgent Crayons Call for You to Pencil in Some Playtime at Your Nearest NARS Counter

March 7th, 2013 by Karen 39 Comments

NARS Satin Lip Pencil Floralies swatch — Wearing the new NARS Satin Lip Pencil in Floralies ($25), a light apricot, one of 13 shades from the new Satin Lip Pencil line coming March 15 to NARS counters and available now online

You know what I realized this afternoon while coloring in my lips with the new NARS Satin Lip Pencils?

I have no idea what happened to my coloring books…

I used to have a ton of them as a kid. Stacks of coloring books, but somewhere along the way, they disappeared, probably into the same vortex that sucked up my red Hello Kitty lunchbox (she growled, shaking her fist!).

I was always coloring something… Books, folders, pictures of people.

I did that last one a lot, too. I loved coloring in the lips of people in pictures (a harbinger of my lipstick addiction, perhaps?).

Today, as I lined and filled in my pout with the Satin Lip Pencils — creamy, potently pigmented lipsticks with a soft sheen finish — I felt like I was lying on the living room floor with Karrie, my childhood buddy, coloring and watching cartoons. 🙂

Lightweight, non-sticky, smooth and moisturizing, they’re like lip pencils and lipsticks rolled into one. Just line and fill in your lips, and you’re good for 5-6 hours (keep ’em handy, though, if you plan to eat or drink, as they do fade a bit after either).

NARS included some interesting ingredients in the formula — things like pomegranate and yeast extracts, hyaluronic acid, collagen prepeptides and vitamin E to moisturize, soothe and create fuller-looking lips.

Oh…but which color to start with among the 13 shades, which range from nuanced nudes to arresting pinks and reds?

I say go with Floralies if you’re into nudes, Lodhi if you’re a fiend for corals, and Yu or Jardin Des Plantes if you’re all about brights.

NARS Satin Lip Pencils from the left: Floralies, Isola Bella, Biscayne Park, Lodhi, Het Loo, Rikugien, Golshan, Palais Royal, Majella, Hyde Park, Luxembourg, Jardin Des Plantes and Yu

NARS Satin Lip Pencil Isola Bella swatch — NARS Satin Lip Pencil in Isola Bella, a peach beige

NARS Satin Lip Pencil Biscayne Park swatch — NARS Satin Lip Pencil in Biscayne Park, a pink guava

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