Product Reviews

The Juicy Couture Troy Surratt Lip Gloss Set Is Quite a Sweet Treat

November 9th, 2011 by Karen 26 Comments

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Wearing the Troy Surratt for Juicy Couture Lip Tin in Strawberry

To dip or not to dip — that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler on the lips to suffer the slings and arrows of bacterial infection, or to take arms against a tin that contains the tastiest glosses I’ve worn in a really long time…

Even though I’d prefer tubes to a tin, my taste buds are like, “We don’t care!” The new glosses in the Juicy Couture Troy Surratt Lip Gloss Set, a collaboration between Juicy Couture and celebrity makeup artist Troy Surratt (whose resume reads like my iTunes workout playlist, and includes the likes of Jennifer Lopez, Mary J. Blige, Fergie and Janet Jackson), smell and taste just like my movie theater Achilles’ heel…

Gummy bears!

Yup, gummy bears. The white, red and purple ones, as a matter o’ fact.

The lightly tinted, non-sticky glosses go by the names, Vanilla Shake, Strawberry and Raspberry, and all three feel more like hydrating lip balms than straight glosses to me, which I like.

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Tarte Puttin’ on the Glitz Is Great in a Clutch

November 8th, 2011 by Karen 53 Comments

Indecisiveness doesn’t go well with Tarte’s new holiday kit. Nope, the $48 Puttin’ on the Glitz kit comes with three interchangeable palettes, but you can only fit one of them in the cute silver clutch at a time.

Hmm…

Being a fiend for accessories, my pulse jumped when I heard about this clever limited edition cutie and its 18 powder eyeshadows, highlighter, bronzer and lipgloss. To make it easier to tote the products around (but not all at the same time), Tarte included the clutch, which incorporates a mirror for touch-ups and slots for bills and credit cards. There’s also a tutorial booklet with pretty helpful directions for three different looks.

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Nails Will Sparkle Like a Disco Ball Wearing Deborah Lippmann’s Holiday 2011 Collection

November 8th, 2011 by Karen 25 Comments

lippmann holiday 2011

Not even strobe lights could compete with the glare from the glitterific shades in Deborah Lippmann’s latest collection of nail lacquers. I hope you’re ready to pump up the jam, love, because this disco ball’s droppin’, haaay! It’s time to hit the dance floor with Deborah’s holiday collection. 🙂

This ode to sparkle and shine, available now, contains six separate nail polishes, four limited edition and two permanent shades ($16-18 each), and the $42 three-piece Get This Party Started set (with full-size bottles).

Today my nails took four of the individual polishes and the entire Get This Party Started set out for a joy ride. With their fun flecks of glitter and rich metallic finishes, these colors are just begging to be worn on a dance floor.

Deborah Lippmann Nail Polishes for Holiday 2011 ($16-18 each)

Shimmery red Do Ya Think I’m Sexy, glittery gold Shake Your Groove Thing, glittery graphite I Love the Nightlife and iridescently glittery Stairway to Heaven catch and reflect so much light that I think I was almost hypnotized!

Having a clear formula should make these limited edition shades (Stairway to Heaven’s base appears slightly milky) great for layering with other polishes, perhaps atop a base of shiny red, silver, gold or gunmetal gray, but I think they sparkle just as well when worn alone.

Set aside at least 30 minutes for these, though, if you want to cover your nails entirely with glitter as it may take five or six coats to get a good distribution (on account of the clear formula/base).
MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: A-

Get This Party Started Set ($42)

My favorite part of the collection. 🙂 It comes with three full-size bottles — Deborah’s famous Happy Birthday shade (a mutli-colored glitter in a clear base), and two new riffs on the shade.

The first, Candy Shop, is Happy Birthday in a sheer pink base. The second one, Forget You, combines Happy Birthday with a sheer black base. I love both the contrast between the small and large pieces glitter in all three of these, and how it gives the group of them extra dimension. I also just like how fun these colors feel. We’re talking light rays and disco balls here.
MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: A+

Here are swatches of four of the individual shades and all three polishes in Get This Party Started. In each of these, I’m wearing two layers (without a base or top coat).

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Get This Party Started

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Happy Birthday (from Get This Party Started)

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Candy Shop (from Get This Party Started)
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Becca Mineral Blush in Wild Honey Creates Sweet Cheeks That Never Go Out of Style

November 8th, 2011 by Karen 18 Comments

It was a dark and stormy night…

Wait — no it wasn’t. Not even close. It was actually a Lost Weekend earlier this fall, and matte Becca Mineral Blush in Wild Honey ($32) was there.

The sweet cheeks this pigmented peachy nude powder blush creates are always in style, but they feel like they hail from a kinder, gentler time, a time when afternoons meant studying at the library after school, and your cheeks would flush at a smile from your crush or a single word like, “Hi.”

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The Sheer, Shiny Glosses in the New Glossed Over PureOptic Lipgloss Collection Are a Work of Tarte

November 7th, 2011 by Karen 34 Comments

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Rich holiday reds are so much fun, but sometimes I wanna get low…maintenance with my lip color. 🙂

On days like that, I like sets like these. The eight glosses in Tarte’s new $29 limited edition Glossed Over PureOptic Lipgloss Collection make sheer, shiny lip looks as easy as 1-2-3.

Available exclusively at QVC.com, the set includes eight 0.04-oz. travel-size PureOptic Glosses (the full-size 0.14-oz. ones cost $21 each) in Nectar, Nude, Pink Blush, Coral, Warm Pink, Nude Pink, Mauve and Berry.

Ironically, Tarte describes these as pigmented and rich on their website, but on my lips, all eight shades? Not so vivid. Even the brightest one here, Coral, looks rather sheer to me, and increasingly so as I smack my lips a few times.

The glosses are what I affectionately refer to as “clickers,” because twisting the bottom of the tube makes a rewarding “click-click-click” sound and dispenses the product through the applicator brush.

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LancÃ´me Must Have Red the Book on Classic Color and Shine Before Creating Mini Les Vernis in Shade 102

November 6th, 2011 by Karen 29 Comments

LancÃ´me Mini Les Vernis

Somewhere out there is a bottle of LancÃ´me’s Mini Le Vernis in Shade 102 looking for a new nail to call home. One of five nail lacquers in the new LancÃ´me The Golden Hat Foundation Holiday 2011 Collection, it’s a true red-lovers dream, with a creamy finish that matches L’Absolu Rouge Lipcolor in Caprice to a T.

One coat delivers rich, opaque coverage and Swarovski-like shine, and if that wasn’t enough, the brush is just the right width, with firm bristles that don’t splay, making the brush easy to control.
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LancÃ´me Poudre Lumiere in Golden Hat: This Golden Hat Highlights Lighter Lovelies

November 5th, 2011 by Karen 16 Comments

Poudre Lumiere in Golden Hat, $40

“Sweetie, have you seen my golden hat?”

“Yes, babe, I think so. I think I saw it downstairs on an illuminating powder.”

Um, how pretty is Poudre Lumiere in Golden Hat ($42)? It’s the illuminating highlighting powder in LancÃ´me’s new The Golden Hat Foundation Holiday 2011 collection, and I absolutely love the design on that pan.

Designed to make skin shimmer and sparkle, but in a quiet way, it can be worn on the cheeks or all over the face.

The first time I opened the compact, I thought, “Glitter!” Big flecks of it on the two shades in the pan — a cool, pale gold and a cool, pale pink. The big flecks appear to be part of an overspray, though, because beneath the uber-shimmery top layer sits colors with a soft, subtle sheen, as opposed to a high-intensity glitter shimmer.

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“LancÃ´me is thrilled to announce its support of the Golden Hat Foundation, a non-profit created by beloved Ambassadress Kate Winslet to raise funds to better the lives of children living with autism. To support Kate Winslet’s inspiring philanthropic endeavor, LancÃ´me has worked with her to create a stunning holiday collection that brings to life the spirit and message of the charity.”

— LancÃ´me.com

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For a Limited Time, the 1940s Are Back: Get Pin-Up Girl Lips with LancÃ´me’s Holiday 2011 Collection Lipstick in Caprice

November 5th, 2011 by Karen 15 Comments

Lancome Caprice Lipstick from Holiday 2011

“Nights in red satin…” Wait — is that how that song goes? I forget. 🙂

A true red with a satiny finish, L’Absolu Rouge in Caprice ($29), one of the five lipsticks in The Golden Hat Foundation color collection for LancÃ´me Holiday 2011, has that 1940s pin-up girl vibe, doesn’t it? — like the kind of red a hottie might have worn back then with winged liner, victory rolls and fishnet stockings?

Everything about this limited edition lippie says seduction to me, from the racy packaging — and I love how the magnetic cap clicks into place like the caps on Burberry’s lipsticks — to the way it feels like a stolen kiss on my lips.

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“LancÃ´me is thrilled to announce its support of the Golden Hat Foundation, a non-profit created by beloved Ambassadress Kate Winslet to raise funds to better the lives of children living with autism. To support Kate Winslet’s inspiring philanthropic endeavor, LancÃ´me has worked with her to create a stunning holiday collection that brings to life the spirit and message of the charity.”

— LancÃ´me.com

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