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

The L’Oreal Paris Studio Secrets Professional Eye Shadow Palettes: One Sweep to Rule Them All?

February 10th, 2011 by Karen 56 Comments

Now here’s something I can honestly say I’ve never seen before: kidney bean-based beauty. Each of the eight new L’Oreal Paris Studio Secrets Professional The One Sweep Eye Shadow Palettes (say that five times fast!) comes with a kidney bean-shaped brush designed to grab its three coordinating shadows in one fell swoop.

Team L’Oreal says that a single swipe of the contoured brush picks up the perfect amount of each color for your lid, crease and brow bone. Just slide the loaded brush horizontally across the area from the inner to the outer lid to distribute all three shades evenly, one atop the other, from lash line to brow bone.

Natural for All Eyes Palette on the left; Playful For Blue Eyes Palette on the right
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Urban Decay Feminine, Dangerous and Fun Eyeshadow Palettes: Swatches and Pictures

February 9th, 2011 by Karen 94 Comments

urban decay ud feminine dangerous and fun palettes

What up, buttercup? Here are swatches and photos of the three new Urban Decay Feminine, Dangerous and Fun Eyeshadow Palettes ($34 each). I’ll have face and eye shots in a few, but for now, check out the colors and holla at me in the comments if you see anything you like. 🙂

urban decay ud fun dangerous feminine closed

urban decay ud fun palette box

urban decay ud fun dangerous feminine open
Clockwise from the lower left: The Dangerous, The Feminine and The Fun Palettes

urban decay ud feminine palette
The Feminine Palette
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Smashbox Photo Set Finishing Powder with SPF 15 Promises to Blur the Lines

February 9th, 2011 by Karen 32 Comments

smashbox photo set finishing powder spf 15

Doesn’t it seem like more and more makeup brands are getting onto the airbrushed bandwagon? — the one filled with colorless loose powders designed to deliver an “airbrushed” look?

There’s MAC Prep+Prime, Make Up Forever HD Powder and Tarte Amazonian Clay Smooth Operator, to name but a few, and despite their different names and packaging, they promise a lot of the same things.

“[PRODUCT NAME] absorbs oil to create a matte finish, sets foundation and concealer, blurs fine lines and reduces the appearance of pores for a soft focus (read: airbrushed) look.”

The latest airbrushing beauty bit to cross my path calls itself Smashbox Photo Set Finishing Powder with SPF 15 ($28), and it airbrushes with the power of — wait for it — zinc oxide!

Zinc oxide?

Rather than being absorbed into the skin, zinc oxide, an inorganic white powder, acts as a physical sunblock, sitting atop the skin where it reflects rays of UVA and UVB light. Generally considered noncomedogenic (meaning it doesn’t block pores), zinc oxide is also a mild antimicrobial believed to accelerate wound healing. Unfortunately, products containing enough of it can look chalky on darker skin tones.

After wearing Photo Set a few times over the past week, there are some things about the product I think Smashbox really did well. First, the packaging — LOVE the wide jar, which accommodates my big powder brush without making a mess.

Second, it handles oil pretty well. With it on, even after a full day, my forehead, chin and nose (the oiliest parts of my face) are only just beginning to shine.

As for the whole soft focus effect thing, well, I don’t know. It’s hard to say. I haven’t noticed anything when I’ve been out and about, but I think I do detect slightly smoother skin in pictures. The effect isn’t as dramatic as it is with MAC Prep+Prime (which, by the way, is frickin’ fantastic), but I think it’s still there.

Smashbox Photo Set FInishing Powder SPF 15 box
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Urban Decay The Fun Palette

February 9th, 2011 by Karen 8 Comments

Urban Decay UD The Fun Palette, $34.

Urban Decay The Dangerous Palette

February 9th, 2011 by Karen 5 Comments

Urban Decay UD The Dangerous Palette, $34.

Which of the 4 New Buxom Stay-There Eye Shadow Shades Will Be Leader of the Pack?

February 9th, 2011 by Karen 78 Comments

buxom stay there eye shadow swatches spring 2011

It appears that man’s best friend at Buxom has been seeing a makeup-loving woman on the side! Good morning and happy hump day, cutie. 🙂 Let’s get Wednesday off to a good start with a peek at the four new Buxom Stay-There Eye Shadow colors for spring 2011 ($17 each), which, like Buxom’s 10 previous Stay-There shades, are named after different breeds of dog (woof!).

What’s a Buxom Stay-There Eye Shadow?

With a plush, lightweight texture, these faithful beauty companions come in 14 waterproof shades. Non-greasy and long-wearing, the Buxom Stay-There shadows are always there when you need ’em, looking out for your pretty peepers with a mineral-infused, paraben-free formula enriched with Aloe and Vitamin E.

Tabs said he likes the idea, but he hopes Buxom considers adding a few feline colors to the line (and would like to offer his kitty modeling services if they do). While they mull that over, I’d like to submit a color suggestion if I may — Mystery Mutt, a shimmery golden brown, named after Shauna, my family’s beloved pooch.

Shauna the Wonderdog!
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I’ll Crush You with My Personality and My Girth, Human!

February 8th, 2011 by Karen 14 Comments

Tabs looking slightly menacing in the early morning sunshine.

The Tarte Achiote Cheek Tint and Lip Luster Duo and the Legend of the Lipstick Tree

February 8th, 2011 by Karen 91 Comments

tarte achiote cheek tint and lip luster duo

Like the Yeti of my makeup dreams, I thought the lipstick tree was a figment of my imagination. Many, many times I’ve dreamt of having one strategically placed outside my bedroom window (right next to the money tree, of course), so I could easily pluck a tube off its branches whenever I wanted a new color.

Funny thing about dreams — sometimes they come true, albeit indirectly in this case. It turns out there really is a lipstick tree! It doesn’t sprout lipsticks (DAMN!), but bright red fruit instead.

Apparently I wasn’t paying close attention in upper division botany, because today I found out achiote is a small tree grown in tropical regions of the Americas and Southeast Asia. It bears spiny fruit which contain bright red seeds used to color food, body paint and lipstick, hence its nickname, “the lipstick tree.”

That’s achiote, yo!

I owe this new beauty wisdom to Tarte’s Achiote Cheek Tint & Lip Luster Duo ($35). A two-piece QVC spring exclusive, Tarte packed it with a cream blush and a sheer lipstick, both in the shade Achiote, a shimmery reddish peach.

tarte achiote cheek tint and lip luster duo product pictures