Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup
A beauty blog blooming with fresh makeup reviews, swatches and beauty tips from your friendly neighborhood beauty addict
It may be cold and rainy here in the Bay Area tonight (boo!), but at least I don’t have to see dudes with long toenails wearing flip-flops. #glasshalffull
The rain also gives me an excuse to stay home and gaze at the sparkly clutch that comes with Sonia Kashuk’s new $24.99 Gilded Cages Holiday Brush Set…
(And rub the six ultra plush brush heads all over my face.)
For morning hair mayhem — those cracks of dawn when your hair is staging a rebellion, and you don’t even have the hair-withal to attempt the faux bob — there’s always Sonia Kashuk’s new $9.99 Crown Jewels Hair Set.
Yes, once again, Sonia ventures into The Land of Hair Accessories to bring us something great.
Truth be told, though, I’m a little confused by this item’s name. I’m not sure why it’s called a set, since it’s just a single black- and gold-beaded elastic headband…and it lacks any visible jewels.
But I digress…
More importantly, I like it! Like Sonia’s Haute Hair Sets last fall, this headband looks tough girl approved. It has an edginess that I like, despite the elegant beading, which keeps it from looking too cutesy.
As for the elastic? Holla! Comfy as can be (and it doesn’t squeeze my brain).
Sonia Kashuk studded headband
Like I needed another reason to absolutely adore Sonia Kashuk.
As if her cute travel bags, smarty pants makeup cases, luscious nail polishes and oh-so-affordable brushes (her Bent Eyeliner Brush changed my life!) weren’t reason enough, now she’s hitting Target shelves with a new line of stylin’ limited edition hair accessories.
Released for fall, her Studly Haute Hair Sets ($9.99 each) are totally tough girl approved.
The first set pairs a studded headband with a set of two silver studded bobby pins, and it’s available now at Target stores and online at target.com.
The second set, also available in Target stores but unfortunately not online, puts a studded barrette together with four studded elastics.
Silver studded bobby pins
Studded elastics
[Continue reading…]
You know what would be really nice? I mean, besides a shirtless Alcide Herveaux baking me semi-sweet chocolate chip cookies from scratch in my kitchen.
I know I was going somewhere with that…
Oh, yeah! 🙂 It would be really nice to have an extra hour every morning just to put on makeup. Then I could blend, pat, and smudge till my heart’s content without having to hurry (or hear El Hub yell from downstairs, “Babe! What are you doing?! We were supposed to leave the house 15 minutes ago!”).
Dare to dream, right?
The reality is usually closer to 10 minutes than an hour, and I have to make every one of those seconds count.
Sonia Kashuk understands. Her new $14.99 Perfecting Translucent Illuminator makes the most of makeup time, so you never have to leave the house without at least a little highlighter.
It’s a warm, peachy golden cream/gel highlighter with a light-reflecting shimmer that creates the look of flawless, fresh skin.
Sonia Kashuk Fall 2012 Nail Colours from the left: Hocus Pocus, Emerald City, Two Cents, Dime a Dozen and All Vamped Up
Beep-beep-beep!
Did you hear that…? That beeping sound? Is a truck backing up outside my window? Did I suddenly get a page from 1997 (007734-411-007-911)?
Oh, I see what it is. It’s just the sweet, sweet sound of my Bargain Beauty Thrill-o-Meter sounding off. 🙂
Even before I swatched ’em, I had a feeling Sonia Kahuk’s five new $4.79 fall Nail Colours would rock my budget-loving boat.
With finishes from creamy to metallic and colors perfect for fall, these highly pigmented jewel-toned polishes look like the kinds of nail accoutrements I’m more accustomed to seeing on Dior and Chanel counters, and with price tags closer to $30 than $5.
Looking at metallic copper Two Cents and creamy eggplant All Vamped Up, fall seems just days away, and I can almost hear the leaves crunching beneath my feet as I stroll around my neighborhood looking at Halloween decorations…
Creamy purple Hocus Pocus and rich green Emerald City should look right at home on my paws as I hoist a cup of hot cocoa up to my lips (can’t forget the marshmallows!), while gunmental Dime a Dozen looks like a lovely shade to bring to Thanksgiving dinner with the fam.
In the swatches below, I’m wearing two coats of Emerald City, Two Cents and Dime a Dozen. I think I also could’ve gotten away with two coats of Hocus Pocus and All Vamped Up, but I decided to apply a third because I noticed the faintest bit of streaking from those two in direct sunlight.
From the left: Two Cents, Dime a Dozen, Hocus Pocus, Emerald City and All Vamped Up
Emerald City
Two Cents
[Continue reading…]
Whoever said that celebrity pet assisting is easy was smoking some hella strong catnip.
The grueling hours and working on weekends, late-night airport trips, difficult dietary restrictions (Gravy with every meal?! Come on!) — but it can also be very rewarding, like this afternoon. Tabs didn’t give me the stink eye once today, and he even said an appreciative “Mrrow” when he climbed onto my lap for a handful of Greenies.
In fact, he was so agreeable today that he let me quit work early — right after I finished organizing his accessories closet (mostly ties, ascots, top hats and a small, but growing, collection of monocles) and buffing his claws.
First thing I did after quitting for the day was watch this old interview of Jeremy Renner…
Skip to 3:17 for a gem of J-Ren beauty wisdom!
Just when I thought my day couldn’t get any better, I opened the $12.99 limited edition Sonia Kashuk Lips and Tips Mini Nail and Lip Set.
And my Friday went from good to great. 🙂
From the left: Nail Polish in Lacquered Lilac, Lipgloss in Shrinking Violet, Nail Polish in Undercover Lover and Lipgloss in Sealed with a Kiss
The four-piece set of color-coordinated miniature sheer glosses and opaque nail polishes comes with two pairs of matching red and purple shades for lips and nails.
The two unscented, unflavored glosses are smoooove! — and non-sticky — while the high-shine nail polishes have pigment to spare.
Wearing Nail Polish in Undercover Lover and Lipgloss in Sealed with a Kiss
I love how Sonia chose coordinating colors with varying levels of coverage, and I think it’s cool how the products in the set work with each other when they’re worn together.
[Continue reading…]
Another Target run, another spur-of-the moment beauty purchase from Sonia Kashuk. Allegedly, I swung by the store for detergent (I’m a Gain girl. How about you?). It’s not my fault I always end up in the beauty section.
Heck, though, since I was already there, I figured I’d look for a full-size bottle of Sonia’s Making Waves Nail Colour, and bring one or two or five home, LOL!
(Remember it, the bright sea green, from her new A Powerful Punch Set? Yep, I like it that much.)
But while I was searching for it, something else got my attention: this bottle of Sonia’s Brush & Sponge Cleanser ($7). It was hidden behind some makeup bags, as if someone had squirreled it away back there for safekeeping (I’m totally guilty of doing this many times).
Now, I’m still happily engaged to Burt’s Bees Mango & Orange Energizing Body Bar as my de facto brush cleanser, but I’m also curious like a cat.
A single word in the directions on the back of the bottle sealed the deal for me.
To use the cleanser, you’re supposed to wet your brushes or sponges by spraying them with some of the product, which you then work into a lather (weird!). Then, rinse until the water runs clean.
Most of the liquid brush cleansers I’ve used before, like the one from MAC, don’t usually work up a lather, which makes this one kind of unusual.
Color me intrigued…
Last night I had a bright idea (if I do say so myself). I was on my way to the checkout stand at Target with some emergency bananas and dental floss in my little basket when I said to myself, “Self, let’s take a quick look at the beauty aisle.”
As soon as I turned the corner, one of the first things I spotted was Sonia Kashuk’s new A Powerful Punch Mini Nail Colour Set ($9.99), and whoops! — it accidentally fell into my basket. 🙂
The limited edition set, new for spring 2012, comes with four petite polishes — three brights and one neutral — all of them with creamy finishes.
Here are some swatches from this afternoon. For each of these, I used two coats…
Making Waves
Tutti Fruitti
Ooh La La
[Continue reading…]
