Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup
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Carrie & Big? You gotta be kitten me! I think Carrie & Aiden would’ve been a far better name for this new $34 Too Faced Soul Mates Blushing Bronzer (it’s one of two), but that’s because I’ll never, ever, EVER get over how Big stood up Carrie at the wedding. I’m all for forgiveness, but if some dude left my BFF hanging in her big white dress, I would kick that man’s booty from here to next Tuesday.
Team Aiden 4 life! 🙂
Now where was I…?
Oh! — these new cuties. So adorbs. I almost can’t take it.
The intimidation factor with Make Up For Ever’s Studio Case ($59.50) is high…
If I were unable to tell the difference between a domed brush and a shader brush, or the words “lid” and “crease” made me immediately think of mason jars and those ubiquitous pressed khaki pants worn by tech dudes, I may have just cruised right by the sleek black Studio Case and thought, “That is some scary sh*t.”
But not “scary” as in The Taking of Deborah Logan, which scared the living bejeezus out of me, but scary as in daunting as all hell — as in, you can only be allowed in its presence if you wear a brush belt around your hips at work.
The question is, does one require an advanced certificate from the Tabs the Cat School of Makeup Artistry (est. 2007) to beat major face with this kit?
No, I don’t think so… Not after seeing it up close.
In fact, the products in the case are surprisingly user-friendly, thanks, in part, to the way MUFE organized the 12 shadows (you can also pop the palette out of the case if you want).
Layers. They’re not just for onions, cakes and Godfather movies anymore. (No kidding! It took me years to figure out what was really going on with the Tattaglias and Barzinis.)
Layers are also for makeup — which are sometimes on your face, and sometimes in the construction of your palettes, like what Le Metier de Beaute does with their signature stacked Kaleidoscope pans.
So fun! I love how they float in and out of their compacts like silent kitty cat paws/covert makeup ninjas…
The brand’s two latest layered limited edition Kaleidoscope holiday palettes are a trip. For warm, smoldering gold, copper, pink and/or blue eyes and shiny pink and red lips, there’s the Obsidian Odyssey Lip and Cheek Kaleidoscope Palette ($125) and Obsidian Odyssey Eye Shadow Kaleidoscope Palette ($95).
Try to ignore for a second the bright lips in this pic (it’s Kat Von D Bachelorette), and focus instead on the hair.
The hurr!
Note how well-behaved it is…like a previously unruly child who gets suddenly very still and quiet when you mention taking her to Baskin-Robbins if she stops misbehaving.
It’s been raining more or less non-stop here for more than a week, and that means high humidity, which in turn usually means horrendous frizz.
But a few products from Kerastase’s new Discipline Bain Fluidealiste anti-frizz line are helping to keep my hair from throwing any wild fits.
What’s gray, curvy and totally luxurious?
Yeah, the new MAC Ultimate Lipsticks ($23) and Tabs definitely have a few things in common; both are gorgeous, and curvaceous, and look like they were sculpted by Michelangelo.
Even though the pink and glitter in The Nutcracker Suite, Clinique’s new ballet-inspired holiday collection, are totally en pointe, they will not help you pirouette your way to ballet greatness.
But I can see why you might think they should…
After all, it does make a certain kind of sense to think that since your makeup looks like a ballerina’s from The Nutcracker, you should probably be able to dance like one, too, and then you bust out some pliés on your creaky knees and scowl at your ballet teacher when she says something snarky about your butt sticking out too far!
Er, well…maybe that’s just me and my childhood dance trauma.
“Sugar, above all else!”
If I were to leave my mark and carve my mantra above a doorway with a blunt object and my bare hands, that would be it, because as far as I’m concerned, sugar dominates — sugar kills it, bro! — over the salty, the sour and everything else.
Since I’m a girl who can devour a pecan pie all by herself in less that 48 hours (hey, at least when I ate those two slices for breakfast, I had the “restraint” to skip the whipped cream), I’m all about the sweet stuff, and that includes these sugar-themed holiday sets by Fresh, a brand I’ve been kind of obsessed with lately (I totally blame it all on their Black Tea Toner and Fresh Life fragrance, which will forever be my Fresh gateway items).
This year the brand has several sugar-themed holiday sets for the pecan pie-eating, doughnut-print-loving sweet tooth in yo’ life.
The tints in this seven-piece set are sheer enough to quality as “easy to wear” but colorful enough to stand on their own, which should make them a good gift option for just about anyone with a pronounced sweet tooth…because they’re also sugary scented and flavored. One taste and you’ll be smackin’ your lips for more…MORE!
Clé de Peau Beauté Perfect Lash Mascara may be the most expensive mascara I’ve ever touched.
It’s $50! — a price that makes Guerlain Cils D’Enfer, Chanel Le Volume and YSL Faux Cils look like castoffs in a discount bin.
Logically, I know that it’s completely insane to even consider a mascara that costs as much as two bags of groceries at Trader Joe’s (that’s a lot of Pretzel Slims), but oh, my gosh, it’s the mutha-truckin’ ish.
I don’t have a lot to work with in the lash department naturally, but when I wear Perfect Lash, I look like I got lash extensions in Beverly Hills. My short, wispy lashes look impeccably long, lifted and defined, and I feel like a 1940s screen siren when she bats her eyes.
One layer works well, but I prefer two.
