Product Reviews

Maybelline Color Sensational Inti-Matte Nudes Lipstick

December 30th, 2016 by Karen 15 Comments

maybelline color sensational inti matte nudes 555 naked coral — Wearing $8 Maybelline Color Sensational Inti-Matte Lipstick in 555 Naked Coral

You know you grew up in earthquake country when you see some new nude lipsticks from Maybelline and, instead of thinking something normal like, “Ooh! I can’t wait to wear them with smoky eyes!” you think of your worst earthquake nightmare scenario, which involves being buck naked in the shower and completely covered in soap when the big one hits.

(Another one of my nightmare earthquake scenarios involves being in the middle of getting Lasik surgery when an earthquake hits. Sit on that one for a bit.)

Ah… Another day, another glorious excuse to wear nude lipstick. You know how I roll. 🙂 And these Color Sensational Inti-Matte Nudes Lipsticks by Maybelline are so much naked lip loveliness.

maybelline color sensational inti matte nudes swatches — From top to bottom, swatches of six of the 10 Maybelline Color Sensational Inti-Matte Lipsticks: 575 Brown Blush, 565 Almond Rose, 55 Naked Coral, 545 Beige Babe, 535 Purely Nude and 530 Hot Sand

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Maybelline Dream Cushion Fresh Face Liquid Foundation Is a Sweet Drugstore Dream

December 22nd, 2016 by Karen 13 Comments

maybelline dream cushion review — New for spring 2017: Maybelline Dream Cushion

I can’t remember the last time I had a makeup-related dream.

Or a dream where I even realized I was wearing makeup.

Can you? Have you ever had a dream where you’re putting on your makeup? I wish I did. Dream makeup… I think I’d like that.

New Maybelline Dream Cushion Fresh Face Liquid Foundation, which is coming in January in eight shades that are $16 each, has the word “dream” right in the name.

maybelline dream cushion swatches — Maybelline Dream Cushion swatches (seven of eight shades): 10 Porcelain, 15 Ivory, 20 Classic Ivory, 30 Warm Nude, 45 Medium Beige, 55 Caramel, 60 Cocoa

maybelline dream cushion 45 Medium Beige — I wear shade 45 Medium Beige

Cushion compacts like this one have been over the place lately! When you open the compact, instead of there being a pan of cream or powder, there’s a sponge pre-soaked with liquid foundation. You take a puff applicator, a Beauty Blender or a brush, dab it on the sponge, and then apply that to your face.

I haven’t tried many of them yet, but MAC Matchmaster Shade Intelligence Compact is my cushion compact holy grail at the moment. It’s $38 though. It’s lightweight, medium coverage, and it beautifully blurs my pores. And it doesn’t budge on my skin.

But I like Maybelline Dream Cushion as well.

maybelline dream cushion before after — Before (left) and after (right), wearing shade 45 Medium Beige

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Hello, Pigment! It’s the Make Up For Ever Acrylip Lip Paints

December 21st, 2016 by Karen 7 Comments

make up for ever acrylip review — The Make Up For Ever Acrylip Lip Paints ($24, available now)

The Make Up For Ever Acrylips. Acry-lips. That’s kind of a cute name… It sounds like acrylic, doesn’t it? Like acrylic paints?

Hopefully you don’t have to be a painter or have painting skills to use them because…

Exhibit A:

Clearly, we are not going to be seeing this up for auction at Sotheby’s anytime soon, HAHA!

The Acrylips are brand-spankin’ new liquid lipsticks with a creamy finish and a non-sticky, lightweight formula. They’re also kind of on the down-low right now because I think they’re only available online at sephora.com and makeupforever.com. But they’re coming to Sephora stores and Make Up For Ever boutiques next month.

There are 10 shades (here are pics of eight of them), $24 each, and I’m not completely sure if they’re permanent or limited edition (according to Sephora, they’re L.E.).

The idea for them is based on those concentrated, intense acrylic paints used by ar-teeests.

Yes, I just said “artists” all fancy-schmancy.

make up for ever acrylip swatches — The Make Up For Ever Acrylip Lip Paints from the left in 200, 202, 301, 400, 500, 501, 401, 600

All I have to say about these is, “Hi, pigment!” Yeah, these don’t mess around, but girl, you know Make Up For Ever. They do insanely pigmented makeup. It isn’t always easy to work with.

Just watch out for dinosaur claws! — which is what I call being tempted to squeeze the heck out of these tiny tubes, which are 0.23 ounces each, but that’s not bad because they’re extremely concentrated. Ya hardly need any.

According to Make Up For Ever, they give you flawless color thanks to synthetic mica and ultra-fine, triple ground pigments. The formula also contains castor seed oil to boost the intensity even more while nourishing lips to keep them comfortable to wear, lightweight mineral clay to keep them from feeling greasy or sticky, and silica gel to helps smooth your lips by filling in fine lines.

See the sponge tip?

make up for ever acrylip — Just give ’em a little squeeze…

When you squeeze them, a few dots of the product come out of the sponge tip. If you want a really light application, and by “light,” I mean medium coverage, because they’re VERY concentrated, dab them on your lips and scoot them around with the sponge.

You could use a separate brush instead, but the flat part of the sponge covers a nice, large area, and it’s easy to get into the corners with the slanted tip. It’s really, really easy to use.

If you want to more coverage — opaque coverage — do the same thing, but do a few more dabs of product.

Oh, and once you get these on your lips, they stay creamy. They don’t dry down or set like a matte liquid lipstick.

make up for ever acrylip 200 — Make Up For Ever Acrylip Lip Paint in 200

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Too Faced Sweet Peach Collection Review | Spring 2017 (Video)

December 20th, 2016 by Karen 13 Comments

I haven’t had a peach Gummi in years, but now I kinda want one… The Too Faced Sweet Peach Spring 2017 Collection is practically an ode to peach Gummies (the round ones that look like doughnuts).

I’m wearing the collection in this video. I’m wearing the eye palette on my eyes, the standalone blush on my cheeks, the face palette with the bronzer, highlighter and blush on top of the other blush on my cheeks (there’s a lot happening on my cheeks), and Peach Tease gloss on my lips.

too faced sweet peach palette — Too Faced Sweet Peach Eye Shadow Collection ($49)

too faced sweet peach glow — Too Faced Sweet Peach Glow ($42)

too faced papa dont peach blush — Too Faced Papa Don’t Peach Blush ($30)

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3 Proper New-ish Neutral Palettes for Cozy Winter Cuddles

December 16th, 2016 by Karen 16 Comments

thebalm appetit body shop down to earth mineral fusion enchanted — Let the cuddling commence in 3, 2, 1…

Sure, you could snuggle up on your couch with your cat/s, your S.O. or your favorite cuddle baby/buddy and do it without wearing a stitch of makeup on your lids. I mean, you’d be fine. Your hot cocoa will still taste hot cocoa-y, your Christmas tree lights will still sparkle, and your holiday candles will still smell holiday candle-y.

That said, if you do perform said snuggling while also wearing eyeshadow on your lids, you’ll be selfie ready, and you never know when you might want to take a selfie. 🙂

Here are three new-ish neutral eyeshadow palettes that are perfect for a Christmas cuddle session on the couch. Sure, you could rock a glittery smoky eye with a pair of double-stacked false lashes on the couch, but when I think of cuddling under warm blankets and sipping hot cocoa while watching holiday movies with strings of twinkling lights in the background, I think of cozy neutrals like the ones in these palettes.

thebalm appetit eyeshadow palette — theBalm Appetit Eyeshadow Palette, $39.50

The first one is theBalm Appetit, and it’s $39.50. It comes with nine neutrals, some of them cool-toned and some of them warm.

There’s a lot of shimmery foiled goodness happening in this palette, so if you like your neutrals on the shiny side, this one will be fun.

theBalm’s super soft eyeshadow powders are on finer side (comparable to Bobbi Brown’s), so it’s easy to get the colors to merge into each other without getting muddy. They’re great for detailed looks with well-defined sections of color in the crease, in the outer v and on the lid.

the body shop down to earth eyeshadow palette — The Body Shop Down to Earth Palette, $36

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ChapStick Total Hydration Moisture + Tint Is Giving Me ChapStick Nostalgia

October 26th, 2016 by Karen 20 Comments

When I was in elementary school, I wasn’t one of the cool girls. I didn’t have Bonnie Bell Lip Smackers or anything fancy like that. I had a tube of ChapStick, but believe me, for a while, that ChapStick was my most coveted possession in the whole wide world. I loved it to bits because it was as close as I was allowed to get to wearing makeup, and these new $4.99 ChapStick Total Hydration Moisture + Tints kinda make me feel the same way.

I mean, they’re totally different, but eight-year-old me probably would have passed out if I’d been given one of these, feeling like, “Oh, forbidden lipstick!”

There are three shades — Merlot, Coral Blush and Rose Petal — and they’re billed as 100% natural. I see lots of oils and butters in the ingredient list, like sunflower oil and jojoba, and I like that they’re all the way up at the top.

I wear these to work out, which is nothing compared to the glamorous ladies who go to my exercise class. They wear full-on jewelry with a full face of makeup and their hair done. I just put on a little bit of ChapStick, but it’s enough to make me not feel like death warmed over when I see myself in the mirror. 🙂

They’re very similar to Burt’s Bees, so if you like Burt’s, you might like these too.

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The MAC Nutcracker Sweet Holiday 2016 Collection

October 12th, 2016 by Karen 24 Comments

mac saucy little darling — From the MAC Nutcracker Sweet holiday 2016 collection, the Eye Kohls in Powersurge (as a base all over my lids), Feline (upper lash and water lines) and Prunella (lower lash and water lines), Magic Dust Eye Shadows in Dark Lullaby (lids), Mustache (upper lash line), Rabblerouser and Pretty Dainty (crease), Forward March (just underneath my inner brow bones) and Dance Flowers Dance (tear duct)! The lipstick is Saucy Little Darling.

M∙A∙C Nutcracker Sweet
Available online October 20, 2016
Available in stores on October 27, 2016 through December 8, 2016
#MACNutcrackerSweet

This is gonna sound pretty band-geeky of me (well, I was a band geek), but some of the best flute parts EVER are in the MAC…

Wait — the MAC?

I almost said “in the MAC Nutcracker Sweet,” what!

I meant to say, “in the [actual] Nutcracker Suite,” as in the piece of music from the ballet, and I know this because I played it in high school.

Nutcracker Sweet! In MAC’s case, it’s spelled S-W-E-E-T, and if that doesn’t get your attention, I don’t know what planet you’re from. 🙂 Because I love sweet things, and this collection is definitely sweet.

MAC always goes big for the holidays. This post is just about the color collection. There are also a bunch of kits and sets which I’ll be wearing and testing over the next week.

So what do you think of the limited edition packaging?

mac nutcracker sweet — MAC Nutcracker Sweet for Holiday 2016

I think it’s SO pretty — the bright pink, plum and those touches of gold. Right away, my eyes went BIG, and not just because I spotted three of my favorite liners of all time — Prunella, Powersurge (don’t even get me started about Powersurge) and Feline. Yes, they’re re-promotes, I know, but there are also some new things in this collection, like the Magic Dust Eye Shadows, which are indeed magically dusty, but not in a bad way. More like magic makeup fairy dust.

Seriously, why aren’t all MAC eyeshadows like these? They’re smooth, sensationally soft, and when I was swatching them, I kid you not, I just kept going ooh, ah, give it to me…

OK, that sounded kind of nasty…

Let’s just start with the lip products, shall we?

Lips…

Cremesheen Lipstick in Kingdom of Sweet ($18)

mac kingdom of sweets — Cremesheen Lipstick in Kingdom of Sweets

WHAT IS IT? I usually shy away from creamy, pale pastel pinks like Kingdom of Sweets because they’re infinitely difficult to wear, especially if you have dry lips. They settle into my fine lip lines, but Kingdom of Sweets doesn’t.

SHOULD YOU GET IT? Yes. Hell, yes. I hardly ever wear colors like this, but I want to wear this one right now. It’s smooth, comfortable and easy to use, which are all the things I want from a pale pastel pink lipstick.

Matte Lipstick in Flamboyish ($18)

mac flamboyish — Matte Lipstick in Flamboyish

WHAT IS IT? I wanna be Flamboyish! This hot pink is BRIGHT, and it reminds me a lot of Candy Yum Yum, which, I believe, is slightly lighter.

SHOULD YOU GET IT? I’m on the hot pink train, toot-toot! Destination Hot Pink Matte Lipstick-ville. So yes, I would hop on the Flamboyish train. It’s smooth for a matte, which, as you know, can be difficult to wear. It’s also opaque.

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Sarah Moon for NARS Holiday 2016 Collection: The $69 NARS Give In Take Dual-Intensity Eye and Cheek Palette

October 8th, 2016 by Karen 11 Comments

nars sarah moon give in take palette — Wearing the NARS Sarah Moon for NARS Holiday 2016 Collection Give In Take Dual-Intensity Eye and Cheek Palette ($69)

Rise and shine, pal o’ mine! Happy Caturday. 🙂 I hope you slept well. I’m still working my way through the NARS Holiday 2016 Collection LE palettes, and the one I’m looking at this morning is the $69 Give In Take Dual-Intensity Eye and Cheek Palette (coming to Sephora Nov. 1st).

Whether you’re warm-toned, cool-toned, Hypercolor-toned or scaly-toned like an alien lizard, you can wear the new $69 NARS Give In Take Dual-Intensity Eye and Cheek Palette, another one of the several palettes in the Sarah Moon for NARS Holiday 2016 Collection.

If I were a humanoid reptile, I’d wear it…but I’m getting sidetracked. Bottom line: You can wear cool-toned shades like these even if you aren’t cool-toned. That’s my personal belief. These shades are very cool-toned — cooler than I expected them to be — but that can be a good thing, even if you’re a warm-toned person like me.

These powders, which are all in the NARS Dual-Intensity formula, don’t have a problem with fallout, and they’re delightfully easy to blend.

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