Palettes

GLO Get Me a Doctor! The New $20 LORAC GLOgetter Eyeshadow Palette Is Giving Me a LORAC Attack This Summer

May 20th, 2013 by Karen 30 Comments

The LORAC GLOgetter Palette — Wearing the $20 LORAC GLOgetter Palette on my eyes

With its classic summer colors, LORAC’s GLOgetter eye shadow palette was probably meant for fun-filled beach boardwalks, fair food and cruising down the coast with the windows rolled down…but I feel like a beauty bandit when I think of the price — only $20! — like I should be wearing black from head to toe and a mask like a cat burglar.

I can’t believe this 10-pan limited edition palette is only $20 at Ulta. At that price, it’s almost like stealing!

These easy-to-blend powder shadows are consumate summer colors — the kind that look great with a tan — and when I wear them with primer, they last from 8-10 hours on my dry lids before I notice much creasing. No fallout, either.

I bet you could totally BeyoncÃ© it out with these and bang out some intense looks with loads of blending and layering, but I really like GLOgetter for simple looks with one or two shades.

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The New Dolce & Gabbana Smoky Smooth Eye Colour Quad Puts My Inner Corvette in Neutral and Drives Me Wild

May 15th, 2013 by Karen 32 Comments

I love the new neutral Dolce & Gabbana Smoky Smooth Eye Colour Quad ($59) like…like Mariah loves wind machines. Like Iron Man loves tinkering. Like Portlandia loves bird motifs (“Put a bird on it!”). Like Ben Affleck loves beards. Like drag queens love contouring…

For me, good neutral quads are like tropical vacations. They just make everything better. 🙂

When I’m stumped for what to wear with crazy colors like that hot pink glitter over there (ooh!) or that matte red blush over there (ah!), I’ll go with one, two — or when I’m feeling more adventurous — three or four neutrals on my eyes.

Why?

Because they go with everything!

But…

…not all neutral quads get it right.

Sometimes, there are problems with the powders, and the shadows end up on my cheeks. Other times, they’re way too pigmented, or not pigmented enough, or they pull a David Copperfield and disappear right before my eyes, or they’re just annoyingly chalky.

But the matte black, pearly neutral gold, shimmery chocolate brown and shimmery golden beige in Dolce & Gabbana’s Smoky Quad do WERK!

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The New Giorgio Armani Summer 2013 Face & Eye Palette Makes Me Wanna Be a Billionaire…So Freakin’ Bad

May 10th, 2013 by Karen 19 Comments

Wearing the new Giorgio Armani Summer 2013 Eye & Face Palette on my cheeks and eyes

Rest assured that when you wear Giorgio Armani’s Summer 2013 Face & Eye Palette, you will not look like…

You just won the 2013 Jell-O Wrestling World Championships
You just crushed a can of PBR against your forehead
You opened your eyes this morning and let out a 30-second-long barbecue potato chip-tinged burp that someone heard on the other side of town

Rather, when you brush the shimmery golden bronze highlighter on your cheeks and any combination of its three accompanying powder shadows on your lids, you’ll look more like you spent the day channeling Jackie O. on the Greek coast with a pair of Stephen Bonanno Palm Beach sandals, oversized glasses (of course) and a Lily Pulitzer shift dress.

Even if you have absolutely no idea what you’re doing with this two-tiered eye and face compact, you almost can’t go wrong because the long-lasting powders hug skin like skinny jeans hug hips.

They’re just plain easy to wear.

The golden peachy bronze highlighter in the top pan and the beige, brown and peach eye shadows in the bottom pan are like good pieces of jewelry that go with everything. You could dress ’em up with RiRi Woo red lips and a body-con bandage dress, or dress ’em down with your favorite Clarins gloss and a sundress.

The sky’s the limit. 🙂

And even if you totally botch that brown smokey eye you were going for (been there, done that about 1,622 times), don’t fret. You can buff it out with a few swipes of your MAC 217 (or something similar), as the soft powders are totally unlike magnets or the Borg (read: they offer very little resistance).

Seriously, even if you can’t blend for sh*t (don’t worry!), you could do a look with these that would make even the most seasoned makeup nerds recognize.

Giorgio Armani Summer 2013 Face & Eye Palette swatches — Swatches from the left: the beige, peach and brown eye shadows; and the peachy bronze highlighter

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15 Is the Magic Number: Too Faced and Sephora Celebrate the Big One-Five With the New Too Faced Loves Sephora 15 Years of Beauty Palette

May 9th, 2013 by Karen 36 Comments

The new Too Faced Loves Sephora 15 Years of Beauty Palette, $52

So…because I spent so much time ogling shoes and purses at DSW yesterday, I only had five minutes left for Sephora — time I tried to use wisely by swatching the new Too Faced Loves Sephora 15 Years of Beauty Palette ($52). 🙂

The limited edition palette commemorates the 15 years Too Faced and Sephora have worked together.

In it, 10 exclusive eye shadows (each named after a different iconic moment, person or memory in their long-term relationship, cute!), two bronzers, a blush, a tiny tube of Shadow Insurance, a brush and a Glamour Guide with tutorials for 15 looks.

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Four Mallards Walk Into a Bar… Wait, I Mean, Behold the MAC Bare My Soul Eye Shadow X 4 Quad!

May 1st, 2013 by Karen 24 Comments

Because I generally try to avoid bubbling vats brimming with bacteria, I’m not the type to spend my summer nights hot tubbing (unless it’s with RyGos or J-Ren). But if I were, my dream scene would look something like this:

So totally feeling this makeup!

I was so excited about the MAC Temperature Rising collection’s highlighted skin, metallic, glossy lips and strong focus on smoldering eyes that toe a slightly menacing line between seductive and spooky that I tried to paint a picture of it over the phone to my mom (who never wants to talk about makeup), and the best I could come up with was, “The girl in the promo pic looks like Nelly Furtado sitting in a hot tub at night under a heat lamp wearing Mrs. Roper’s jewelry. Oh, and she’s sandwiched between two dudes from Magic Mike.”

With three neutral powder eye shadows and a single smokey green pan, Bare My Soul ($44) must be a hit among cool, stylish mallards… It has a brown, a taupe, a gold and a coppery green.

Quack! See, Mallard duck colors. The slightly shiny finish even says, “I’m a mallard duck, yo.”

What do hot mallards have to do with MAC Temperature Rising, the release to which Bare My Soul belongs?

Absolutely nothing, far as I can tell. 🙂 Well, the mallard part doesn’t, but the colors sure seem conducive to summery smokey eyes with copper, gold, bronze and brown.

I’ll use the taupe and gold for dusting all over my lids (and/or highlighting) and the chocolatey bronze and coppery green for deepening and smoking out my look.

MAC Bare My Soul swatches from the left: Romantico (a light taupe bronze with a Veluxe Pearl finish), Bare My Soul (a frosted gold with a Lustre finish), Friendly (a deep bronzy chocolate with a Veluxe Pearl finish) and When in Rio (a deep green with a copper pearl and a Frost finish) — Swatches from the left: Romantico (a light taupe bronze with a Veluxe Pearl finish), Bare My Soul (a frosted gold with a Lustre finish), Friendly (a deep bronzy chocolate with a Veluxe Pearl finish) and When in Rio (a deep green with a copper pearl and a Frost finish)

The coppery green, also known as When in Rio — jinx! You owe me a Coke if you thought, “That’s a Club dupe.” It reminds me a lot of MAC Club on my NC 42 skin, except a little more brown and less red.

I swear these powders feel softer than the powders in the past few limited edition quads, but I’m not totally sure why… Sure do like it though.

PRICE: $44
AVAILABILITY: Coming May 16 to maccosmetics.com and May 23 to MAC counters and stores
MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: B+/A-

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

NARS Hearts New York City, and So Do I

April 29th, 2013 by Karen 31 Comments

I have this workout playlist called “Power Boost” that I keep in my back pocket to get me through the last (usually painful) mile of my runs, when all I feel like doing is stopping, plopping down on the ground, and passing out in a puddle of sweat.

One of the songs on it is Jay-Z’s Empire State of Mind, and sometimes when I’m running on the treadmill at home I’ll sing the chorus — “New Yooooooork!” — at the top of my burning lungs, between panting and gasping for air.

Sometimes I also sing this…

I sing it with so much verve that someone who didn’t know me might even think I’m from New York.

Which wouldn’t be a problem for me. I’ve only been there once, but I mean, it’s New York. Once was enough to fall in love. We spent a few days sightseeing over Thanksgiving back in 2004, and it was so much fun. We got bagels and coffee and watched the Macy’s parade from the sidewalk by the park.

The Bay Area, though, has always had my heart…

My family lives here, and it’s where I grew up, so I’ll just have to be content admiring NYC from afar and getting my fixes in other ways, like with the new NARS Hearts New York City set ($75).

Complete with an Eye & Cheek Palette and a full-sized lip gloss and nail polish, the limited edition set pulses with top-selling NARS shades from New York.

NARS Hearts New York City all open — Clockwise from the nail polish: Chinatown Nail Polish, Dolce Vita Lip Gloss and the Eye & Cheek Palette

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Dior Bird of Paradise Collection Peacock 5-Couleurs Eye Palette: A Friday Date Night Face of the Day

April 19th, 2013 by Karen 34 Comments

Dior Peacock 5-Couleurs Eyeshadow Palette — J’adore Dior…and showboating birds, like the new Peacock 5-Couleurs Eyeshadow Palette from the Bird of Paradise collection for summer 2013]

Hey, babe. I just finished my makeup for date night with El Hub. 🙂

We’re gonna go see Oblivion, the new sci-fi flick with Tom Cruise. Looks pretty neat from the previews. We’ll see (sci-fi-wise, this is what I’m really looking forward to).

I wonder if El Hub will notice the blending I did on my lids with the new Dior Peacock 5-Couleurs Eyeshadow Palette. Hmm… Survey says, probably not. LOL!

I’ll save some kettle corn for ya. Before I dart, some quick pics and swatches of Dior’s new bird…

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Dior Returns to the Blue Lagoon and Finds the Blue Lagoon 5 Couleurs Eyeshadow, Blogger Karen Posts Pictures, Swatches and a Review

April 17th, 2013 by Karen 63 Comments

Dior Blue Lagoon Eyeshadow Palette — Dior’s new Blue Lagoon Eyeshadow Palette #374

Believe it or not, this is a tabby’s happy face…

Dior Blue Lagoon Eyeshadow Palette with Tabs — Happy tabby! No, really.

Tabs was thrilled for a number of reasons today.

First, he got to hear one of his very favorite songs, Chamillionaire’s Ridin’ Dirty, which I pumped on iTunes while doing this blue and green eye look with the new Dior $60 Blue Lagoon 5-Couleurs Eyeshadow Palette.

He always stays in the room for Chamillionaire, unlike Maroon 5, of which he’s not a fan (don’t know why, but he always leaves the room when Adam Levine starts singing). I think he thinks of Ridin’ Dirty as his personal anthem.

Picture it, Tabs strutting his stuff while it plays in the background. 🙂 Totally works, right?

Second, Tabs is a snob, or as he likes to put it, has “a taste for the finer things,” like high end makeup, Dior being one of his favorite brands.

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