Eyeko Fat Balm in Cherry, $10.
Eyeko Fat Balm in Cherry
Chanel Joues Contraste Powder Blush in In Love
Chanel Joues Contraste Powder Blush in In Love, $42.
The NYX Soho Glam Collection Is Perfect for Fickle Girls
I was sitting in bed reading Stephen King’s Under the Dome the other night when it hit me. No, not the book, silly. 🙂 It occurred to me that I should get a tattoo of Tabs.
Don’t ask me why, because the book doesn’t have anything to do with cats, tattoos or cat tattoos, but since Tabs is my kitty BFF, and he comforts me whenever I get scared (like when I’m reading a Stephen King book), it makes a kind of weird sense.
I don’t have any tattoos right now, but most of my friends have ’em. My brother’s covered in tats, but I haven’t gotten any mostly because 1) I’m not into pain, and 2) I’ve never really liked anything enough to permanently inscribe it on my body.
Except for Tabs (and maybe El Hub, but that’s just too cliche, LOL!).
I’m still mulling over the idea, and it’s not official yet. Knowing me I’ll probably chicken out. El Hub’s totally against it. He’s afraid a cat tattoo would only serve as a gateway tat, but not necessarily into more tattoos; he’s afraid my level of crazy cat lady-ness would escalate, and I can’t argue with that logic.
Since I’m about as fickle with makeup as I am with body art, I’m especially thankful for blockbuster sets like the new NYX Soho Glam Collection ($30).
(Yes, I know it took me an unusually long time to get around to the actual subject of this post. Sorry.)
Girls and guys who love experimenting with color just might love the massive variety of shades, textures, levels of pigment, and finishes (oh hai, shimmers, glitters and mattes!) in this limited edition palette of 54 eyeshadows — a few of them even double as face powders — four powder blushes, eight lipsticks, two glosses and one lip liner.
Released new for the holidays, Soho Glam covers a lot of makeup territory. Here are some quick observations on the palette…
- Eyeshadows — Although I had an easy time blending these shadows together, the color payoff varies wildly, with the mattes being more sheer than the shimmers and glitters. I wish NYX had gone with less gray on the neutral side, because for me it gets a little repetitive. But if you appreciate the nuances among the shades you might not mind. As for fallout, I experienced a bit with the shadows in the center of the palette, but in general these remained on my lids without any trouble.
- Blushes —All four of the blushes apply very sheer, and they’re particularly great for a naturally-flushed cheek look.
- Lip Products —Both the pan lipsticks and lip liner are unscented and unflavored (yea!), and I like the wide range of colors. I was a little nervous about the gloss in the tubes and expected them to have that gnarly NYX taste and scent, but thankfully they don’t.
Lush Sugar Plum Fairy Scrub: A Fairy Fun $5 Treat
Look, over there — do you see it? The limited edition Sugar Plum Fairy Scrub ($4.95)? Isn’t it cute?
This heavenly creature is mostly made of sugar and spice and everything nice…like sodium bicarbonate (that’s baking soda, babe). It’s an exfoliating scrub scented with ylang-ylang (like a deep custard) and jasmine, and it leaves a light floral fragrance on my skin.
I took it into the shower with me last night, hoping it would smooth my bod — specifically the rough patches on my knees, heels and elbows.
The bar melts on contact with water, foaming into a lather with moderately rough scrubbing grains. I was hoping to get away with using half, or maybe a quarter of the bar, but it wasn’t in the mood for that once it got wet. Perhaps I could/should have broken it in half before the shower, just to be able to use it a second time.
The Chanel Quadra Eye Shadow Quad in Regard Perle Will Shine a Light on Your Eyes
Every girl remembers her first…Chanel eyeshadow quad. 🙂
Mine was Garden Party. Ah, Garden Party… Just saying the name brings back memories (and a warm, fuzzy feeling) of the first time I laid eyes on that mix of green, peach and pink.
I still love that quad so much that it’s the first thing I thought of when I saw promo pics of the new Chanel Quadra Eye Shadow quad in Regard Perle ($56). I was kindasorta hoping Perle would look more like it in person.
It’s not a Garden Party dupe, but I think it’s very pretty in its own right, particularly if you have a thing for glowy skin.
Each of its four soft powder shadows shine with a mirror-like finish that lights up eyelids when when they’re applied. Chanel channeled pearls this season — or rather the way skin glows when you’re wearing pearls — and here they got it spot on. The chai latte I had last night right before dinner screwed with my sleep, and it was evident all over my face this morning. But a few swipes of Regard Perle today, and my eyes looked visibly brighter and more awake.
Chanel Quadra Eye Shadow in in Regard Perle
Ladies who kneel at the altar of the glitter gods may want to take a look at the shimmery grayish green and peach shades on the quad’s left. Both of them burst with the cutest flecks of silver micro glitter. Be prepared, though, to deal with serious fallout from both of them. They’re kinda powdery and don’t adhere to my skin as well as the other two colors in the quad, so that might be something to keep in mind.
The light beige and salmon pink on the right are the more pigmented of the four. Speaking of that, the beige in the lower right really surprised me. When the light hits it just right, I see subtle flashes of gold and green. The shimmery salmon pink in the upper right may not have the same wow factor as the beige, but I think it’s still a nice complement to the other three shadows.
More Chanel Les Perles de Chanel
Rouge Coco in Peregrina ($30), a limited edition lipstick from the Chanel Les Perles de Chanel spring 2011 collection.
Artfully Hidden
A lizard hiding in a tree at the California Academy of Sciences.
Chanel Mat Lumiere Soft Matte Makeup with SPF 15 Helps Combo Skin Face the Day for $54
Who among us hasn’t crossed paths with her share of craptacular liquid foundations? — the runny ones that leave streaks, the heavy pore-suffocating ones, and, oh, how about the ones with the open-mouth bottle…like the one you accidentally spilled on your buddy’s white shag carpet back in school (so sorry, Shell!).
I know it’s asking for a lot, but I would love a great, preferably inexpensive medium-coverage liquid foundation that I can wear every day (something I can throw on before I run out for a chai latte). That said, it’s with great joy, and a little pain, that I type these words: Chanel’s $54 Mat Lumiere Long-Lasting Soft Matte Makeup SPF 15 just might be the best liquid foundation I’ve used in years.
But…it’s $54.
At the Chanel counter a couple weeks ago, while I was taking a look at the Rouge Allure Extrait de Glosses, a friendly makeup artist made me a sample jar of Mat Lumiere in Soft Honey and predicted that I’d “be ba-aaack!”
Guess what (she was right).
One of five liquid foundation formulas in Chanel’s permanent line, medium-coverage Mat Lumiere is available in 12 shades. It’s oil-free, designed for combination skin, and has been around for a while.
I treated my combination oily/dry skin to it for two weeks until the sample ran out. I couldn’t believe how natural the finish looked and how it felt as light as a feather on my skin.
Even though my heart stopped yesterday when I handed my credit card over to the sales associate, I still went through with it.
The texture? It’s so smooth that it’s almost like a gel. Blending away imperfections with it is a breeze, and it never leaves any weird patches or streaks behind.
As for the finish, it’s matte, but not so matte that it makes my skin look flat, artificial or severe (not mannequin-ish at all).
On top of everything else I like about it, it’s practically weightless, like I’m barely wearing any makeup at all.
