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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

Opulent Opalescence: The Chanel Les Perles de Chanel Collection for Spring 2011

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chanel les perles de chanel spring 2011 collection on karen of makeup and beauty blog jersey rose and aragonite glossimer
Chanel Les Perles de Chanel Collection for spring 2011

Don your best tweed jacket and pearls, ma chérie (and dab No. 5 on your pulse points), because it’s time to say bonsoir to the new Chanel Les Perles de Chanel makeup collection.

There’s plenty of photographic evidence that proves our girl Coco wore a lot of pearls. In point of fact, she practically dripped in them because she believed their delicate glow enhanced a woman’s natural beauty.

Her heirs apparent at Chateau Chanel must agree. Remembering how much Coco loved pearls, they created the Les Perles collection for spring 2011, with its preponderance of pearly finishes destined to impart natural-looking luminosity to cheeks, eyes, lips and nails.

Since he joined the team — nay, the movement! — Chanel Global Creative Director Peter Philips has done a fantastic job (in my opinion) keeping Gabby’s spirit and her iconic style alive, and, with Les Perles de Chanel (just look at those shades of black, gray and white!), he’s done it again.

Les Perles is coming next month to Chanel counters but is available now on chanel.com.

Chanel Les Perles de Chanel Spring 2011

Here’s a brief look at a few items from the collection, with more to follow over the coming days. 🙂

Joues Contraste Powder Blush in Espiegle ($42) — A warm peachy pink blush with a subtle golden sheen. It reminds me a little of NARS Orgasm in the pan but applies lighter, with a less frosty finish, and it gives my cheeks a soft, candlelit glow.

Rouge Coco Lipstick in Jersey Rose ($30) — Is it wrong to refer to this lipstick as The Jersey Shore? Yes…Yes, I think it is. Terribly wrong. Jersey Rose is a long-lasting, moisturizing peachy pink with a sultry satin finish, and it lends a lovely hint of shine to the lips.

Rouge Allure Lipstick in Flamboyante ($32) — As soon as I slipped into Flamboyante I said, “Wow! That’s a straight-up red!” Chanel describes it as an intense pink, but it looks more reddish pink on me.

Levres Scintillantes Glossimer in Aragonite ($27) — What it lacks in pigment, Aragonite makes up for in sparkle. This glittery gloss, with a name Jason (of the Argonauts) would love, looks like crushed pearls in a tube! Look closely, and you may see flecks of purple, pink, blue and gold.

Le Crayon Yeux in Gris Scintillant ($28): A gunmetal gray with silver glitter. I think of it as a naughty alternative to a basic black liner.

chanel spring 2011

chanel spring 2011

chanel espiegle joues contraste blush spring 2011 closeup
Joues Contraste Powder Blush in Espiegle ($42)
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Kissing You Again: The Benefit Ultra Shines Lipgloss Line Brings Back a Cult (and Personal) Fave

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Do you hear that…? That whispery voice? It sounds like it’s saying, “Kiss you, Karen.”

“Kiss you, Karen.”

There! Did you hear it?

Soon-to-be-released Kiss You, a reformulated reincarnation of Benefit’s old Kiss Me gloss, has been calling my name for days, and who am I to deny a tube of glossy pigmented purple goodness?

The new version will be joining the Benefit Ultra Shines Lipgloss line for spring 2011.

benefit kiss you ultra shines gloss
Benefit Ultra Shines in Kiss You

Purple has long been one of my go-to lip colors when it comes to glosses because it’s a great alternative to pink (not to take anything away from pink, which you know I love).

Kiss Me/You and I go way back.

How far back? Well, it’s a long story…

  • Pre-2009 — Before 2009, Kiss You was known as Kiss Me, and it was part of Benefit’s The Gloss line. It was a clear fuchsia, not very pigmented, that I reached for whenever I wanted a just-kissed lip look. It quickly became a cult fave (and a favorite of mine) and underwent a name change, becoming Kiss You. Seriously, I could sing sonnets about that shade…or perhaps an ode.
  • Summer 2009 — Benefit discontinued The Gloss line and released a reformulated version of Kiss You in the new Lip Gloss line. Milkier and less pigmented, it was nothing like the original. Disappointed fans huddled in dark corners and held one another tightly while rocking back and forth and mumbling, “Safe place! Safe place!” Okay…so maybe that was just me.
  • Spring 2010 — The Lip Gloss line was joined by the smooth and shiny Ultra Shines. Among them, a shimmery, purplish pink called Wild Child, which looked/s a little like a slightly pinker version of the Summer 2009 Kiss You.
  • Today/Spring 2011 — Kiss You is reborn! Once again, it will grace Benefit counters, where I’ll be waiting with bells on, as one of three new-ish Ultra Shines for spring. 🙂

Why are they just new-ish? The other two shades joining Kiss You — Life on the A List (a light bubble gum pink) and Who Are You Wearing (a passion fruit pink) — are also repromotes blasting in from the past.

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The $13 Sonia Kashuk Shimmer and Shine Purse Brush Set Is Perfect for Party Mode

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Sonia Kashuk Shimmer and Shine Purse Brush Set

Where my party girls at? If you’re booked with back-to-back holiday fetes this year, freshen up your look between bashes with the Sonia Kashuk Shimmer and Shine Purse Brush Set ($13).

The sparkly silver clutch contains four mini versions of classic Sonia brushes — a powder blush/brush, a blending brush, a small eyeshadow brush and a wee little brush for concealer.

Sonia Kashuk Shimmer and Shine Purse Brush Set brushes and purse open

Sonia Kashuk Shimmer and Shine Purse Brush Set purse
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Too Faced Lip of Luxury Lipstick Won’t Stay Long

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Too Faced Lip of Luxury Lipstick in Free Love

File Too Faced’s Lip of Luxury Lipstick ($20) under “makeup that looks like it belongs on the tip of a pimp cane.” Or, alternately, “Oh, sheaaaa!” 🙂

The jeweled cap isn’t the only thing that glistens in this line of 12 shea butter laced lippies. Creamy, feather light and moisturizing, to boot, their reflective finishes glisten like diamond dust in the light.

I think the shade I’ve been wearing, Free Love (a shimmery light pink), plays especially well with smokey eyes.

Too Faced Lip of Luxury Lipstick Shade Options

Too Faced Lip of Luxury Lipstick in Free Love Swatch

Too Faced Lip of Luxury Lipstick in Free Love Swatch lip swatch
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Face Stardom (or a Holiday Office Party) With This Sonia Kashuk Palette

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Sonia Kashuk Facing Stardom Face Palette on Karen of Makeup and Beauty Blog

The limited edition Sonia Kashuk Facing Stardom Face Palette ($19.99) is like a spontaneous red carpet moment. One second I’m sitting at my desk in black stretchy pants (you know, the ones with the hole in the butt?), but the second that first swipe of smokey eye and rosy cheek/lip makeup dances onto my face, BAM! I’m strutting my stuff at a Hollywood premiere, waiting for Ryan Reynolds to introduce me as “his close friend, confidante and shoulder to cry on” to the paparazzi.

Looking like a star with this 12-piece holiday palette, which includes two powder eyeliners, six eyeshadows, two lipglosses and two cream blushes, doesn’t require an actual acting career. All you need are brushes and your imagination. 🙂

Sonia Kashuk Facing Stardom Face Palette small
Eyeliners (upper left), lipglosses (lower left), eyeshadows (center) and cream blushes (right)

Eyeliners: The matte powder eyeliners can be worn wet or dry along the lash and/or waterlines. They have a little fallout when applied dry, so I keep makeup wipes on standby just in case I need to clean up.

Eyeshadows: Cool-toned and smokey is the name of the game. The glitter shadows (a glittery gray, taupe and purplish taupe) are more pigmented than the ones in the What Glitters Glows Palette, which is a big plus. The three mattes (a gray, purplish taupe and taupe) apply sheer and blend with ease.

Cream Blushes: A creamy rose and a pink designed to be worn on bare skin or on top of foundation. The texture’s very thin, slick and slippery, so I dust a blush or translucent face powder on top to help set the color.

Lipglosses: I’m not sure why S.K. calls the rosy shade on the left a gloss because it sure as heck feels and looks like a lipstick, but semantics, schemantics. I think both the unflavored and unscented lip products add the perfect amount of natural-looking color to my pucker.
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This Is the Story of NYX Tango With Bronzing Powder in When Leopard Gets a Tan

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When Tabs was on safari in Tanzania earlier this year, he met a serval who told him the tale of a leopard named Nix (pronounced NYX), who spent every day sunning himself way up high in the branches of a big acacia tree.

Later, when he got back home to Novato, Tabs took the story and turned it into his first book, titled “When Leopard Gets a Tan.”

And that’s where NYX got the idea for Tango With Bronzing Powder in When Leopard Gets a Tan. 🙂

Okay, okay, that’s not true at all. But it sure would have made a great story, right?

When Leopard Gets a tan, one of the new NYX bronzers for fall, reminded me of Too Faced Pink Leopard from the pan, but once applied the color’s more bronzy, less peach and less shimmery — a soft sheen as opposed to Pink Leopard’s frost.


Doesn’t NYX Tango With Bronzing Powder in When Leopard Gets a Tan ($16) look like Too Faced Pink Leopard Bronzer ($12.50) from here?


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