Product Reviews

SO GOOD! The Tom Ford 2017 Summer Soleil Cream and Powder Eye Colors in Young Adonis and Sun Worship

March 13th, 2017 by Karen 23 Comments

tom ford sun worship young adonis — Tom Ford Cream and Powder Eye Color in Sun Worship (left) and Young Adonis (right), $62 each

Will life go on if you pass on these outrageously expensive stackable Tom Ford potted shadow duos (OMG! They’re $62!)?

Of course it will. You’ll survive… To paraphrase Celine Dion, life will go on. Your heart will continue to beat, your lungs will continue to function, but on a makeup level? Honestly, I don’t know. I can’t say for sure.

You’ll live, but chances are good that your eye makeup won’t be as sassy or sparkly as it would be if had one of Tom’s new Cream and Powder Eye Colors in your life.

Girl, I’m freaking out over these! ?

Tom did something similar back in 2015. They combine a cream shadow and a glitter into a stackable duo, to which I have to say, YES.

There are four of them in the 2017 Summer Soleil Collection, and here are pics of two of the four in Young Adonis and Sun Worship. I’ve seen the other two, which are called Naked Bronze and Golden Peach, in previous TF summer collections. I have an older version of them, and I love ’em, but I haven’t seen the new ones in person yet.

tom ford young adonis — Wearing Young Adonis on my lids

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Two New Ways to Hoola! Benefit Hoola Lite Bronzing Powder and Hoola Quickie Contour Stick

March 10th, 2017 by Karen 5 Comments

benefit hoola lite quickie contour stick 1 — The new Benefit Hoola Quickie Contour Stick and Hoola Lite Bronzing Powder

A true-life conversation between me and contouring…

ME: Will you please go away?

CONTOURING: No.

ME: *sigh*

I mean…I’m pretty sure that contouring has to fall out of favor and fade into the shadows someday, but it’s still going strong for now, especially at Benefit, and I’ve got the evidence for ya: the new Hoola Quickie Contour Stick ($28) and Hoola Lite Bronzing Powder ($29).

I think I mention this every 15 minutes, but I’m not a big contouring person (highlights for life, yo!). I gave it the old college try once again, though, with these new products because, well, you just never know, right?

benefit hoola lite quickie contour stick swatch — Swatches of the Benefit Hoola Quickie Contour Stick (top) and Hoola Lite Bronzing Powder (bottow)

I started with the Quickie Contour Stick…

Benefit Quickie Contour Stick

It’s a matte warm bronzed brown cream-to-powder contouring stick, and Benefit recommends that you can apply it down the sides of your nose, under your cheekbones and around the edge of your face, then blend it in with your fingers or a brush.

After a few go-rounds with it, well, let’s just say that I won’t be flipping over to #TeamContour anytime soon…

It’s kinda difficult to use, because the stick is wide and feels awkward when I run it under my cheekbones and down sides of my nose.

I always end up with waaay too much of it on my face, and then after I blend it in, I can’t really see any contouring effect at all.

I think there are few things going on…

benefit hoola lite quickie contour stick before — Before applying Hoola Quickie Contour Stick and and Hoola Lite

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Twinkle, Twinkle, You’re a Star! It’s Benefit Dandelion Twinkle Powder Highlighter

March 10th, 2017 by Karen 8 Comments

Has Benefit been hanging out with Hourglass lately?? Because their new pink highlighter totally looks like it belongs in the Hourglass Ambient Powder collection. It has a domed pan, a buttery/velvety texture, and I think it looks EXACTLY like an Ambient Powder on my skin.

benefit dandelion twinkle swatch — Twinkle, twinkle, little star…

It’s called Dandelion Twinkle, and it’s $29 and available now.

This pearl is fine!

Dandelion Twinkle has Ambient-esque fine pearl that softly glows. It’s subtle, which is kind of surprising to see from Benefit, because they like the bells and whistles, ya know? (But sometimes their products can go OTT IMO with the frost and glitter.)

I think Dandelion Twinkle is a nice surprise.

benefit dandelion twinkle k — I’m wearing Benefit Dandelion Twinkle on my upper cheekbones, on my temples and down the bridge of my nose

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You Gotta Be Cool With Warm to Love the Too Faced Peanut Butter & Honey Palette

March 9th, 2017 by Karen 9 Comments

Is it just me, or is Too Faced completely obsessed with food?

I mean, I’m not hating at all. For the record, I am totally cool with this, but I’m just saying… It seems like all of their palettes have something to do with things that are delicious.

The Semi-Sweet Chocolate Palette has another cousin

Their new Peanut Butter & Honey palette is an offshoot of Semi-Sweet, from their Chocolate Bar collection, which has a shade in it called Peanut Butter.

So there’s the original Peanut Butter Palette, the Peanut Butter & Jelly Palette, and now this — the Peanut Butter & Honey Palette.

It’s $36 and available now at The Cheesecake Factory!

Haha! Kidding. 🙂 No, it’s available now online and at Ulta.

P.S. Are you hungry yet? I’m starved.

too faced peanut butter honey palette 2 — It’s peanut butter honey time, peanut butter honey time!

Warm oranges and reddish browns

The nine powder shadows are all warm-toned, and there’s a lot of orange-brown and reddish brown action happening, which have been very popular makeup color themes over the past year or two.

too faced peanut butter honey palette swatches — Too Faced Peanut Butter & Honey swatches

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The Make Up For Ever Pro Sculpting Brow Palettes in Harmony 1 and Harmony 2

March 8th, 2017 by Karen 4 Comments

make up for ever pro brow sculptor before after — Make Up For Ever Pro Brow Sculptor in Harmony 2, before and after

Why are eyebrows so fickle? One day they’re well-behaved, upstanding young citizens. The next day, they’re rambunctious teenagers (yes, I said rambunctious) who refuse to listen to me no matter what. AAARRRGH!

Whenever I’m dealing with the latter, in brow parlance, I take a break from my regular routine, and look for something new. And lately that’s been the new Make Up For Ever Pro Sculpting Brow Palettes.

There are two of them — Harmony 1 for blonde to dark hair, and Harmony 2, which is the one I use, for brown to black hair — and they’re $42 each.

They come with three matte brow powders (a lighter shade, a medium shade and a darker one), a clear brow wax, a matte beige cream highlighter and a dual-ended applicator with a spoolie and a stiff angled brush.

make up for ever pro brow sculptor — The Make Up For Ever Pro Brow Sculptors in Harmony 2 and Harmony 1 ($42 each)

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The New Too Faced Love Light Prismatic Highlighters in Ray of Light, Blinded By the Light and You Light Up My Life

March 8th, 2017 by Karen 13 Comments

too faced love light prismatic highlighter 1 — Too Faced Love Light Prismatic Highlighters from the top: Ray of Light, Blinded By the Light and You Light Up My Life ($30 each)

Too Faced Creative Director Jerrod Blandino says that when he dreamed up the new Love Light Highlighters, he wanted something that would capture that glow women get when they’re madly in love.

I wonder, though… Is he just talking exclusively about romantic love, or do other kinds of love count? Because I can’t lie. I glow when I think about my cat (It’s true, though. I LOVE HIM.), or when I get a hankering for chocolate doughnuts, just as another example.

Personally, I’m going to allow myself to pretend that it refers to all kinds of love, including the kinds of love reserved for cats and doughnuts.

Anywho! 🙂 These highlighters are new for spring and coming March 9th. There are three 0.32-oz. $30 shades.

Rose gold Ray of Light is recommended for all skin tones. Metallic white gold Blinded by the Light is recommended for light-to-medium babes. And You Light Up My Life is an intensely glittery yellow gold made for medium and deeper skin tones.

(Props if you got the song references, BTW, and extra props if you sang them out loud.)

too faced love light prismatic highlighter swatches — Too Faced Love Light Prismatic swatches from the top: Ray of Light, Blinded by the Light and You Light Up My Life

Suspended, spherical pearls

Too Faced claims that the Love Lights have a formula that combines a liquid, a cream and a powder, and instead of having reflective crushed pearl-escent particles like most other highlighters, their particles are little spheres, which reflect light from more angles…

Hey, it sounds good to me. 🙂

too faced love light prismatic highlighter k1 — Wearing Too Faced Love Light Prismatic Highlighter in Ray of Light on my upper cheekbones, You Light Up My Life down the bridge of my nose and Blinded By the Light in the inner corners

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BECCA First Light Filter Face Primer Review

March 7th, 2017 by Karen 12 Comments

becca first light priming filter — BECCA First Light Priming Filter, $38

BECCA Backlight Face Primer totally slays, and I love it so much that I always keep a bottle on standby!

But you know…I just don’t understand this new purple version of it, the new BECCA First Light Face Primer ($38).

Like Backlight, it’s a pearly face primer that you apply before foundation to hydrate your skin and help it look more luminous and less lackluster, but where Backlight is a peachy beige pearl, First Light is a sheer, cool-toned violet pearl.

First Light also has a citrus scent, while Backlight is unscented.

I’ve been testing First Light for about a week now, and ya know…it doesn’t do anything for me. My skin looks more or less the same after I apply it. I suspect that the violet pearl is just too subtle for me.

becca first light priming filter swatch — BECCA First Light Priming Filter, blended and un-blended

I’ve tried it by itself on bare skin, beneath foundation, and I’ve even added it to tinted moisturizer. Whichever way, I really can’t see a difference.

Maybe that’s purposeful, and I’m just not the target market. Bottom line, this one’s way too quiet for me. I think I’ll be sticking to my tried-and-true Backlight.

First Light does get great reviews, though. It currently has 4 1/2 stars out of 5 on the Sephora website, so there are lots of people out there who love it.

If you’re interested, it’s available now at BECCA counters, Sephora, Ulta and online. It’s $38 for a 1-oz. bottle.

Do you ever use Backlight? How do you feel about it?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. I may or may not have just googled “What to do when baby throws a tantrum.”

The New Too Faced Natural Love Palette

March 7th, 2017 by Karen 35 Comments

I bet the cat ladies out there will feel me on this! There’s a shade in the $59 Too Faced Natural Love Palette called Kittens.

There are 30 shades in this palette, which is designed for natural eye looks, but yes, of course, Kittens was the first one I got on my lids. 🙂

Natural Love is a “new” $59 limited edition palette coming out March 9th, and I say “new” in air quotes because 13 of the colors are cherry-picked re-promotes from previously released Too Faced Natural Eyes Palettes, while the other 17 are new.

too faced natural love palette 1 — Pretty packaging!

It’s mostly neutrals, with some not-too-crazy purple, pink and coral sprinkled in for good measure.

too faced natural love palette k1 — I’m wearing Kittens on my lids (applied with a wet brush); Spotlight, Nudie, Honey Butter and Makeup & Chill in my crease; and Undercover along my lower lash line

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