Product Reviews

Face Stardom (or a Holiday Office Party) With This Sonia Kashuk Palette

December 15th, 2010 by Karen 44 Comments

Sonia Kashuk Facing Stardom Face Palette on Karen of Makeup and Beauty Blog

The limited edition Sonia Kashuk Facing Stardom Face Palette ($19.99) is like a spontaneous red carpet moment. One second I’m sitting at my desk in black stretchy pants (you know, the ones with the hole in the butt?), but the second that first swipe of smokey eye and rosy cheek/lip makeup dances onto my face, BAM! I’m strutting my stuff at a Hollywood premiere, waiting for Ryan Reynolds to introduce me as “his close friend, confidante and shoulder to cry on” to the paparazzi.

Looking like a star with this 12-piece holiday palette, which includes two powder eyeliners, six eyeshadows, two lipglosses and two cream blushes, doesn’t require an actual acting career. All you need are brushes and your imagination. 🙂

Sonia Kashuk Facing Stardom Face Palette small
Eyeliners (upper left), lipglosses (lower left), eyeshadows (center) and cream blushes (right)

Eyeliners: The matte powder eyeliners can be worn wet or dry along the lash and/or waterlines. They have a little fallout when applied dry, so I keep makeup wipes on standby just in case I need to clean up.

Eyeshadows: Cool-toned and smokey is the name of the game. The glitter shadows (a glittery gray, taupe and purplish taupe) are more pigmented than the ones in the What Glitters Glows Palette, which is a big plus. The three mattes (a gray, purplish taupe and taupe) apply sheer and blend with ease.

Cream Blushes: A creamy rose and a pink designed to be worn on bare skin or on top of foundation. The texture’s very thin, slick and slippery, so I dust a blush or translucent face powder on top to help set the color.

Lipglosses: I’m not sure why S.K. calls the rosy shade on the left a gloss because it sure as heck feels and looks like a lipstick, but semantics, schemantics. I think both the unflavored and unscented lip products add the perfect amount of natural-looking color to my pucker.
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This Is the Story of NYX Tango With Bronzing Powder in When Leopard Gets a Tan

December 15th, 2010 by Karen 36 Comments

When Tabs was on safari in Tanzania earlier this year, he met a serval who told him the tale of a leopard named Nix (pronounced NYX), who spent every day sunning himself way up high in the branches of a big acacia tree.

Later, when he got back home to Novato, Tabs took the story and turned it into his first book, titled “When Leopard Gets a Tan.”

And that’s where NYX got the idea for Tango With Bronzing Powder in When Leopard Gets a Tan. 🙂

Okay, okay, that’s not true at all. But it sure would have made a great story, right?

When Leopard Gets a tan, one of the new NYX bronzers for fall, reminded me of Too Faced Pink Leopard from the pan, but once applied the color’s more bronzy, less peach and less shimmery — a soft sheen as opposed to Pink Leopard’s frost.

Doesn’t NYX Tango With Bronzing Powder in When Leopard Gets a Tan ($16) look like Too Faced Pink Leopard Bronzer ($12.50) from here?

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What Are Your Impressions of the Make Up For Ever Rouge Artist Intense Lipsticks?

December 14th, 2010 by Karen 60 Comments

Make Up For Ever Rouge Artist Intense Lipsticks, front row from left: 32, 36, 39, 42 and 21; back row: Moulin Rouge, Mat 1, 17, 28 and 29

Stand tall, my little lipstick soldiers! Paint the clouds with your awesomeness, and shower your pretty pigments down upon the planet like makeup Skittles!

I’ve been meaning to swatch the 10 Make Up For Ever Rouge Artist Intense Lipsticks ($19) I received for placing in the Rouge Artist Contest, but I just keep chickening out, unable to bear the thought of disturbing them in their perfect little tubes.

And then it started raining here yesterday. And raining. And raining. And I thought, “Hmm… I remember those Rouge Artist Intense Lipsticks being awfully pretty and colorful.”

I’m kinda glad I waited to swatch these, because with all the rain today today I really needed a pick-me-up.

Available in a monstrously huge selection of 50 unscented, unflavored colors in matte, pearl and satin finishes, the pigmented, full-coverage Rouge Artist Intense Lipsticks are designed to drench puckers in pure, unadulterated color — opaque after just one swipe. They joined the Make Up For Ever permanent line last fall.

Seriously, 50 colors? With so many to choose from, Make Up For Ever created an an online tool to help you find colors that’ll work with your skin tone and hair color.

To promote the tool, MUFE’s giving away 10 lipsticks each and every day through December 22. See their Facebook page for full details.

Sometimes, like when you’re a lipstick, it’s good to be dense, and these are really, really dense, although the ones with satin and pearly finishes feel a little thinner on my lips than the mattes.

Make Up For Ever Rouge Artist Intense Swatch 36
36

Make Up For Ever Rouge Artist Intense Swatch 42
42
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According to Sonia Kashuk, When It Comes to Eyes, What Glitters Glows

December 14th, 2010 by Karen 38 Comments

sonia kashuk what glitters glows eye palette on karen of makeup and beauty blog

OMG! Have you heard about the party at Target?! Well, not at Target. It’s more inside Target, down by the cosmetics aisle, right in front of the Sonia Kashuk display.

Just look for the disco ball…packaging for Sonia’s limited edition What Glitters Glows Eye Palette ($15).

If it looks familiar… If it looks familiar (dÃ©jÃ vu!), you may be recalling last year’s Starry Eyes Palette, which also had big pans of shadow like these and came in similar packaging. Oh, and it had the same price ($15).

Sonia Kashuk What Glitters Glows Eye Palette

For this palette, Sonia swapped out the three cool-toned, smooth and pigmented mattes from Starry Eyes with three dynamic, neutral-toned shadows with a fascinating combination of matte/glitter finish.

I can’t believe the gray, black and brown shadows in the bottom row are available at Target, because they seem like higher end department store material to me. They come in a matte base that’s pigmented, yet still soft and easy to blend, and they’re infused with subtle flecks of sophisticated black-tie glitter (as opposed to 1996 rave glitter), which reminds me: did you ever dance with a glow stick at a rave? Yup, good times…

So I think it you like your glitter on the subtle side, like glitter good for understated holiday party looks, the shadows in the bottom row might appeal to you.

Sonia Kashuk What Glitters Glows Eye Palette
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I Say Yes to Cucumbers in My Hair: Yes to Cucumbers Color Conditioner

December 14th, 2010 by Karen 30 Comments

Tabs has really been riding me lately to find a good cruelty-free drugstore conditioner. He even threatened to swipe my ankles if I didn’t produce something this week worthy of sharing on the blog. I focussed the search on volumizing products designed to cut down on frizz, since those are both hair issues of mine, and I think I may have found something to save my ankles from Tabs. They call it Yes to Cucumbers Color Care Conditioner ($9).

With a mild cucumber scent, this lightweight, moisturizing conditioner is marketed to gals with color-treated hair, which I have, but I’m so impressed by it that I’d wager it would also do wonders for other types of hair (particularly fine, limp hair because it is quite volumizing).

Not only is it cruelty free, but it’s also made from 99.6% natural ingredients, including minerals harvested from the Dead Sea, organic cucumbers, centaurea extract (an extract from a flower that’s supposed to help prevent brassiness) and green tea. Most of the ingredients are also plant extracts, way up on list, and there’s no mention of silicones among the ingredients at all.

I love the volume I get from using this because it works without leaving behind a thick layer of goop — just lots of lift and body.

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With the Sonia Kashuk Reach for the Stars Nail Trio, Sonia Hopes You’ll Reach for Your Wallet

December 13th, 2010 by Karen 41 Comments

Sonia Kashuk Reach For the Stars Nail Trio Holiday Set swatches

When the goin’ gets tough, the tough paint their nails! Okay, so maybe that’s not exactly how the saying goes, but you know what I mean. 🙂 And when a nail polish goes on with near perfect application, like the pretty polishes in the Sonia Kashuk Reach for the Stars Nail Trio ($10), well, ain’t nothin’ gonna break my stride.

The limited edition holiday set comes packed to the gills with glitter in three full-size bottles — a warm peachy gold (looks like a sunset!), a gunmetal gray and a magenta. Sonia filled all three with pounds of pigment and sparkle to spare.

Where’s the party at?! I ask because these festive shades hit all the right notes, but the formula’s what elevates these polishes from good to great. The smooth, thin texture goes on without any streaks (reminds me of OPI’s texture), and because they’re so pigmented, the color is easy to build up with layers. Last week I painted my toes with the gunmetal gray, and it was one of the fastest and easiest at-home pedicures I’ve given myself in ages. Just two coats produced a solid, opaque layer of color. Heck, I probably could have gotten away with one layer if I’d been in hurry.

Sonia Kashuk Reach For the Stars Nail Trio Holiday Set swatches gray

Sonia Kashuk Reach For the Stars Nail Trio Holiday Set swatches gray and gold
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You Might Need a Row of Diplomas to Open the Benefit Crescent Row Coffret Set

December 13th, 2010 by Karen 37 Comments

Benefit Crescent Row Coffret Set with box

Don’t let these sharp dressers fool you. The adorable tiny bottles in the Benefit Crescent Row Coffret Holiday Kit ($36) look like they’re begging to be spritzed, but you might need a degree in rocket science to get ’em open.

The limited edition set comes with four almost impregnable bottles of 0.34-oz. eau de toilette — the light and fresh Laugh With Me LeeLee and Garden of Good and Eva, and warm and cozy Lookin’ To Rock Rita and So Hooked on Carmella.

The official fragrance notes…

Garden Of Good And Eva: pear, watermelon, ozone accords, muguet, rosebud, jasmine petals, green violet leaves, freesia, sandalwood, musk and cedarwood

Lookin’ To Rock Rita: lemon, coconut, freesia, fig, hyacinth, violet, sandalwood, Brazilian rosewood and vanilla

So Hooked On Carmella: lemon, grapefruit, rhubarb, cyclamen, peony, tiare flower, vanilla, sandalwood, amber

Laugh With Me LeeLee: cassis, melon, citrus, black violet, lily, jasmine, blonde wood, amber and santal

I’ve been fiddling with them for days and still can’t tell if the tops are designed to snap or screw shut. I like all four of the long-lasting fragrances, but truth be told, the packaging’s been a bit of a distraction. Maybe they need a special chant or a sacred dance to close, haha!
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It Kiehl’s Me How Much I Like Creme de Corps Soy Milk & Honey Whipped Body Butter

December 12th, 2010 by Karen 25 Comments

I wonder if The Pioneer Woman consulted with Kiehl’s to create Creme de Corps Soy Milk & Honey Whipped Body Butter ($32 for an 8-oz. jar), because it smells like something that would be wafting out of Ree’s kitchen. Like warm milk and honey with a dash of coconut, YUM!

This newest member of the moisturizing Creme de Corps line goes well with hot cocoa after coming in from the cold (perhaps after an afternoon spent ice skating).

The lightweight, whipped consistency absorbs in a jiffy, which means it gets a lot of everyday use.

Nothing against body butters that take longer to massage into the skin, but practically speaking, I use the ones that take the least amount of my time and effort to apply (like this one) more often on a daily basis. Like, when the bathroom floor is freezing cold, the last thing I want to do is spend 15 more minutes in there moisturizing after a shower.

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