Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup

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

Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll, March 14

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  • You might be wondering, “So what the heck is this Monday Poll thing anyway?”
    Well, it isn’t much of a poll. It’s more just a constantly evolving (devolving?), somewhat random list of questions I’ve been putting out to readers every Monday morning for the past three years, which I guess makes this somewhere around Vol. 161. I’ve always enjoyed reading your answers in the comments, and I hope you enjoy reading mine.
  1. Mood:

    2. Pretty darn great for a Monday.

  2. My friends always make fun of me for ____.

    3. Being late, my footwear choices (I wear a lot of high heels), and for being a CCL.

  3. My ultimate dream is to ____.

    4. Win the lottery and travel the world, or figure out the meaning of life.

  4. I’m terrified of ____.

    5. Worms, hospitals, and small spaces (in no particular order).

  5. What makeup/beauty product are you dying to try?

    6. I’m majorly lusting over everything in the Becca Halcyon Days Collection. Oh, and I just picked up a few goodies from a new line called Bite Beauty that I can’t wait to test drive.

  6. Words to live by?

    7. You’re capable of much more than you think you are. 🙂

  7. Outfit?

    8. I look pretty ‘tow up right now… I’m in my workout attire — dark gray sweat pants, a pink t-shirt and pink hoodie. And I’m also wearing socks with the purple shoes pictured up top, LOL! Not to exercise in, of course. I found the shoes on sale at Marshalls, and I’m just breaking them in around the house.

  8. Favorite fruit?

    9. Ruby red grapefruit! I love everything about ’em — the color, and the combination of sweet and tart flavors.

  9. Something you’ve been meaning to do but keep putting off?

    10. Finally get a dining room table. I’ve been eating meals sitting on the couch in front of the telly or standing at the kitchen counter since we moved in more than a year ago, and I’m rather sick of it.

  10. Weekly goals:

    11. Read at least an hour every day, run a total of 13 miles this week, stretch after every workout, and hit the haaay by 10 every night.

Hey, friend. Howzit going this morning? Tabs and I haven’t adjusted to the DST time change yet. He’s slept even more than usual yesterday and today, like it’s been his sole mission in life. Apparently, life as a spoiled, slightly chunky tabby cat is hard work.

When you get a chance, let me know how you’re doing in the Monday Poll. It’s super easy: just copy/paste the poll with your answers in the comments.

  • To complete the Monday Poll, just copy the following list, and paste it with your answers in the comments.



1. Mood:
2. My friends always make fun of me for ____.
3. My ultimate dream is to ____.
4. I’m terrified of ____.
5. What makeup/beauty product are you dying to try?
6. Words to live by?
7. Outfit?
8. Favorite fruit?
9. Something you’ve been meaning to do but keep putting off?
10. Weekly goals:

I’m off to drink some green tea and write my to-do list. At the top of it — to make this week a GREAT one! 🙂

Sending you good vibes from the North Bay Area to your end of the keyboard…

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Sundays with Tabs the Cat, Makeup and Beauty Blog Mascot, Vol. 130

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Tabs for the Benefit Feline Brow Kit

It’s weird, but in the kitty modeling world, right after the Academy Awards, there’s always a lull that lasts about a week. Apparently, after all of the red carpet coverage and after parties, many of the top photographers in the biz take a few days off to recoup. It makes sense, I guess. But things are starting to pick up again, and Tabs had a few new jobs this week.

As a matter of fact, here’s a look at his portfolio of recent work. Oh — and if you think of any cool campaigns you think he should do, let him know in the comments. There’s a lot of competition out there, but he can pretty much get any job that he wants. 🙂

Who is Tabs the Cat? About three years ago I befriended a stray, flea-bitten tabby cat with a bad case of worms. I could see he’d fallen on hard times, but his profound knowledge of high fashion and department store cosmetics led me to believe that he was more than meets the eye. We became fast friends, and now he’s actually my boss (and a successful kitty model).

Tabs for Covercat Eyewear

Tabs for Givenchy Tabby Tangerine Lipstick
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Does the Turbie Twist Super-Absorbent Hair Towel Cut Your Drying Time?

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As far as life-changing beauty products go, the Aquis hair towel is high on my list. It’s one of my heavyweight holy grail products, like the Shu Uemura Lash Curler, T3 hairdryer and MAC Blot Powder, and it gets its own special place on my shelf (and in my heart).

The thing is like Bounty. It practically guzzles water, absorbing almost every drop of water from wet hair to significantly cut drying time, but I’ve still been trying to track down a cheaper alternative. Sure, $18 might not sound outrageous for something this great, but a cheaper version would mean being able to buy a spare, or two.

Enter the Turbie Twist Super-Absorbent Hair Towel. This lightweight, 100% cotton towel is basically supposed to do what the Aquis does, which is cut way down on your drying time, and it’s supposed to do it for about half the price. Wait — better than half. You get two towels for $10, versus the Aquis at $18 for one.

Being a towel, it’s pretty simple to operate. 🙂 Just place the oval-shaped Turbie Twist on your head, twist the towel with your hair inside, and then loop the towel through the attached elastic band in the back to keep it in place. Team Turbie says it works for both long and short hair (one size fits all).


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The Weekly Roundup: Posts You Might Have Missed

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Makeup and Beauty Blog Weekly Roundup

Good mornin’, ladies. 🙂 I’m rising and shining a little later than usual today but rising and shining nonetheless. How did you sleep? Did all of your clocks spring forward like good little timepieces?

I stayed up way past my bedtime last night watching TV and movies, and now I’m quite sleepy. I streamed a wonderful movie on Netflix called Listen To Your Heart. It’s about a young musician who falls in love with a hearing-impaired girl from New York’s upper crust. The girl’s controlling mother, played by Cybill Shepherd (anyone here remember Moonlighting?), tries to keep them apart, so it’s one of those love-that-cannot-be stories but much better than usual. Even El Hub was quietly sobbing on the couch.

Do you have anything special planned today? I have a few chores to do, but after that I think I’ll take the tabby for a walk…

The Weekly Roundup: Posts You Might Have Missed

Givenchy Rouge Interdit Lipstick in Candide TangerineGIVENCHY ROUGE INTERDIT
LIPSTICK IN CANDIDE TANGERINE: A MODERN TWIST ON RETRO ORANGE

Um, did I really just spend 20 minutes dancing around my living room to Biggie’s Juicy?

Yes, I did (I suspect you aren’t surprised). And why did I do it? Givenchy! Candide Tangerine, their newest lipstick color, makes me REALLY wish I could rap. If I could, I’d spit a few bars about how downright juicy it is.

Imagine pieces of peeled tangerine dipped in concentrated Hawaiian Punch. THAT’s how intensely pigmented Candide Tangerine is.

I’m wearing two layers for opaque coverage in these pics; a single layer produces more of a stained look. Read more…

Straight Talk: This Curly Girl Also Loves Straight Hair STRAIGHT TALK: THIS CURLY GIRL
ALSO LOVES STRAIGHT HAIR

Looking back, I realize now that holding a scalding hot laundry iron inches away from my face probably wasn’t the smartest thing I’d ever done, but I was a curious teenager, and I’d heard from my friend Jessica that the quickest way to get straight hair was to iron it.

(pause)

Okay, this was the early ’90s, and flat irons hadn’t quite made their way into every straight hair-challenged girl’s bathroom yet, so, one day, after pressing the wrinkles out of my favorite pair of Z. Cavariccis and my black-and-white polka-dot shirt (complete with sheer black sleeves!), I placed my long, wavy hair on the ironing board and…

(Seriously, do NOT try this at home.)

It didn’t take long to turn my unruly lion’s mane into a sleek curtain of straight hair. “Victory!” I roared. Adrenaline burned through my veins! — or I guess it could have been heat from the iron. Read more…

Benefit Creaseless Cream Shadow Swatches BENEFIT CREASELESS CREAM SHADOW
SWATCHES AND REMARKABLE SELF-RESTRAINT

G’morning and happy Tuesday, friend. I was feeling kinda blah yesterday afternoon (been cold and rainy here), so I stopped by Sephora for a little pick-me-up.

In a somewhat shocking display of self-restraint, I managed to make it out of the store with just one thing — Benefit Creaseless Cream Shadow in Strut ($19), a shimmery charcoal gray.

I’ve been meaning to bring it home for a while but just never got around to it. I bet she’ll look cute (and we’ll know soon enough) worn with a couple of my favorite Creaseless Cream go-to girls, Skinny Jeans (a shimmery pewter) and Birthday Suit (a shimmery chrome). Read more…

Kerastase Paris Chroma Sensitive Cleansing Hair Balm DOES THE NEW KERASTASE PARIS CHROMA
SENSITIVE CLEANSING BALM PREVENT HAIR COLOR FROM FADING?

Good morning and happy hump day, babe. 🙂 Just a quick heads up for the cuties with color-treated hair and the silicone-free product enthusiasts out there.

Luxury line Kerastase Paris has come out with a pricey yet promising new shampoo. It’s called Chroma Sensitive Cleansing Balm ($42 for a 6.8-oz. bottle), a low-foam cleanser designed to gently clean without washing away hair color.

Kerastase claims, among other things, that their low-foam, low-friction “Color Protect System,” a mix of a mild cleansing agent (1/4 of the recipe) and a deep conditioning agent (the other 3/4), smoothes the surface of each hair, preventing color pigments from escaping.

They suggest using it for the first three shampoos following a color service, and then alternating every other wash with your regular shampoo. Read more…

NARS 413 Bleecker Street Lipstick NEXT STOP: NARS 413
BLEECKER STREET LIPSTICK

Well get my plaid shirt, hoop earrings and clunky Timberland boots, because the second I slipped on the new NARS 413 Bleecker Street Pure Matte Lipstick ($25), I felt like I’d just stepped out of a hot tub time machine set for 1995.

It was the Clueless decade, when Alicia Silverstone, Sugar Ray and little black backpacks were En Vogue (just like the group!). Colors like this matte rosy brown were all the rage. I remember wearing a similar shade to countless (boring) college lectures on organic chemistry and physics.

This new NARS shade (I’m trying to find out if it’s permanent or limited edition) was created exclusively for the recent opening of the company’s first flagship store in the West Village at 413 Bleecker Street in New York City, and, at least for now, the store is the only place you can get it. Read more…

The Givenchy Le Prisme Eye Quad in Candide Garden THE GIVENCHY LE PRISME EYE QUAD
IN CANDIDE GARDEN: THANKSGIVING IN MARCH

Today an eye quad made me nervous. And hungry. For turkey?

The Givenchy Le Prisme Eye Quad in Candide Garden($56), the lone quad in the new Givenchy Naivement Couture Collection for Spring/Summer, made me a little nervous because of how sheer the colors looked swatched on the back of my hand. I tried not to write too much into it before getting them on my lids, but before I could talk myself down, a word popped into my head that worried me even more: Thanksgiving! That’s what the orange, yellow and brown shades reminded me of, and I contemplated putting the quad down right there…

Don’t get me wrong — I love the holiday. In fact I’ve always been a fan. I’m down with the colors of the harvest and falling leaves and those cute cartoon turkeys, too, but was I ready to wear those shades on my lids? In March?

Apparently, I was. 🙂 And I’m so glad. This wee little quad with its four powder shadows is actually pretty darn good (if not great, except for the price). Read more…

Smashbox Softbox Collection SMASHBOX SOFTBOX COLLECTION
FOR SUMMER 2011: DIFFUSE ME, PLEASE

Heads up, fellow Smashbox fans! The line’s just made their new Softbox Collection for Summer 2011 available online, and from the look of things, it’s right up my alley (and maybe yours).

Photographers use softboxes and specialized bulb umbrellas to diffuse bright light sources and eliminate harsh shadows, making the light that falls on their model appear softer and more natural.

It’s the same premise Smashbox applied to the products in their Softbox Studio collection. The three makeup sets for eyes, lips and cheeks mimic the qualities of natural light and embody the idea of effortless beauty.

Speaking as a practical person, I love these shades because I know I’ll be able to wear them. 🙂 Expect to see lots of neutral browns, beiges, pinks and taupes — colors equipped to take you straight from the office to dinner and drinks. Read more…

Estee Lauder DayWear Moisturizing Sheer Tint ESTEE LAUDER SAYS DAYWEAR DOES IT ALL,
YET THIS MOISTURIZING SHEER TINT WITH SPF15 COMES IN JUST A SINGLE SHADE

Okay, here’s a product name I may not be able to remember: Estee Lauder DayWear Sheer Tint Release Advanced Multi-Protection Anti-Oxidant Moisturizer.

Wow, 12 words? It could be a sentence if we squeezed in a verb.

Let’s try it!

Estee Lauder Likes DayWear Sheer Tint Release Advanced Multi-Protection Anti-Oxidant Moisturizer…

Tada! Let’s call it DayWear for short.

DayWear is a product I’d like to remember, because I think it has a few good things to offer fans of the barely-there makeup look. In a nutshell (I’ve always loved that phrase; I picture things in little nutshells), it’s a lightweight, super sheer tinted moisturizer that comes in just a single shade, and it’s designed to work on most skin tones, giving them a healthy, even-toned glow. Read more…

NYX HD Studio Photogenic Grinding BlushNYX HD STUDIO PHOTOGENIC GRINDING BLUSH
MAKES ME WANT TO TWIST AND SHOUT

Ah, to be a bored teen without wheels in the Easy Bay suburbs circa 1992 again… When you live in a town where the most exciting thing to do is get an ice cream cone at Thrifty’s, you figure out ways to amuse yourself.

On Friday nights my friends and I loved to watch The Grind on MTV. Remember that dance show? We’d crank up the volume and electric slide around the living room as the show’s host, Eric Nies, who was almost always shirtless for some reason, introduced the hits.

It wasn’t the most exciting way to start the weekend, but it was either that or ice cream at Thrifty’s…

We sure could have used something like these new NYX HD Studio Photogenic Grinding Blushes ($16.50 each; available in eight shades) back then. Dang if these things wouldn’t have kept us busy. Read more…

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

These Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess Soleil Swatches Remind Me That Winter Won’t Last Forever

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estee lauder bronze goddess soleil

Yesterday I managed to squeeze in a visit to the Nordstrom beauty department, and the first thing I did was hit up the Estee Lauder counter to swatch the new Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess Soleil summer collection. I’d only seen bits and pieces of the release before yesterday and had been itching to see the whole shebang in person.

Estee Lauder has been having fun with this theme for the past few years (here’s a look at what they did for it back in 2008, 2009 and 2010), and after seeing this year’s colors up close and personal, I can say I’m not tired of it yet.

Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess Soleil Collection for Summer 2011: Swatches

For reference, I’m an NC35 in MAC foundations.

estee lauder bronze goddess 2011 swatches
Bronze Goddess Island Oasis EyeShadow Palette ($42); for swatches of the palette on lighter skin, check out Gaia’s post over at The Non-Blonde

estee lauder bronze goddess 2011 swatches
Shadow Stick Duo in Gold Bronze on left and Pink Teal on Right ($20 each)

estee lauder bronze goddess 2011 swatches
From left: Bronze Goddess Soft Duo Bronzer in Amber Bronze Medium ($30), Bronze Goddess Soft Shimmer Bronzer ($30) and Bronze Goddess Sea Star Bronzing Blush ($34)
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Have You Checked Out Origins Before?

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Leah

Friend me on FacebookWritten by Leah

Leah and Maximus dish about one of their favorite beauty brands in today’s guest post.

Have you checked out Origins before?
Maximus is partial to Origins eyeshadow

I’ve been using Origins products for many years, but I actually rarely shop at an Origins store. That’s because their website features free samples, and I often shop using coupon codes to get their DELUXE samples, while taking advantage of the free shipping deal (good on any order).

I think there’s a lot to like about Origins, but if you’re new to their products, here are some things I like about the brand.

Product Container Recycling and Samples

They offer a great product recycling program in their stores. Just bring in an empty container. They’ll recycle it for you, and give you a free sample of your choice in return. It’ll be one of their regular products in a sample jar (similar to Sephora’s little plastic sample jars).

To get even BIGGER samples, place your orders through their website. Some of the samples are amazing! It depends on their promotions and specials, but many are larger than the samples they give in the stores.

Natural Mission

The company’s mission is to “create high-performance natural skincare that is powered by nature and proven by science.” They use potent plants and organic ingredients and animal-friendly practices. All of their products are also formulated without parabens, phthalates, PABA, mineral oil, DEA (diethanolamine, a known carcinogen) and animal ingredients, and thanks to their Plant A Tree campaign, they’ve planted 93,000 trees so far.

Daily Moisturizer

I spend a lot of time outdoors (hiking, snowshoeing, skiing) and also use my sunroof a lot, despite the fact that I’m a New Englander, so a daily moisturizer with at least SPF 15 is a must.

I’m addicted to Have a Nice Day ($37.50 for a 1.7-oz. jar). It smells a little bit citrusy, and I think it’s just incredible. I haven’t been able to find anything similar at the drugstore, and mind you I’ve looked. It’s on the pricey side, but a jar does last me a very long time.
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