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

What Are Your Impressions of the Make Up For Ever Rouge Artist Intense Lipsticks?

by 60 Comments

Make Up For Ever Rouge Artist Intense Lipsticks
Make Up For Ever Rouge Artist Intense Lipsticks, front row from left: 32, 36, 39, 42 and 21; back row: Moulin Rouge, Mat 1, 17, 28 and 29

Stand tall, my little lipstick soldiers! Paint the clouds with your awesomeness, and shower your pretty pigments down upon the planet like makeup Skittles!

I’ve been meaning to swatch the 10 Make Up For Ever Rouge Artist Intense Lipsticks ($19) I received for placing in the Rouge Artist Contest, but I just keep chickening out, unable to bear the thought of disturbing them in their perfect little tubes.

And then it started raining here yesterday. And raining. And raining. And I thought, “Hmm… I remember those Rouge Artist Intense Lipsticks being awfully pretty and colorful.”

I’m kinda glad I waited to swatch these, because with all the rain today today I really needed a pick-me-up.

Available in a monstrously huge selection of 50 unscented, unflavored colors in matte, pearl and satin finishes, the pigmented, full-coverage Rouge Artist Intense Lipsticks are designed to drench puckers in pure, unadulterated color — opaque after just one swipe. They joined the Make Up For Ever permanent line last fall.

Seriously, 50 colors? With so many to choose from, Make Up For Ever created an an online tool to help you find colors that’ll work with your skin tone and hair color.

To promote the tool, MUFE’s giving away 10 lipsticks each and every day through December 22. See their Facebook page for full details.

Sometimes, like when you’re a lipstick, it’s good to be dense, and these are really, really dense, although the ones with satin and pearly finishes feel a little thinner on my lips than the mattes.

Make Up For Ever Rouge Artist Intense Swatch 36
36

Make Up For Ever Rouge Artist Intense Swatch 42
42
[Continue reading…]

According to Sonia Kashuk, When It Comes to Eyes, What Glitters Glows

by 38 Comments

sonia kashuk what glitters glows eye palette on karen of makeup and beauty blog

OMG! Have you heard about the party at Target?! Well, not at Target. It’s more inside Target, down by the cosmetics aisle, right in front of the Sonia Kashuk display.

Just look for the disco ball…packaging for Sonia’s limited edition What Glitters Glows Eye Palette ($15).

If it looks familiar… If it looks familiar (déjà vu!), you may be recalling last year’s Starry Eyes Palette, which also had big pans of shadow like these and came in similar packaging. Oh, and it had the same price ($15).

Sonia Kashuk What Glitters Glows Eye Palette

For this palette, Sonia swapped out the three cool-toned, smooth and pigmented mattes from Starry Eyes with three dynamic, neutral-toned shadows with a fascinating combination of matte/glitter finish.

I can’t believe the gray, black and brown shadows in the bottom row are available at Target, because they seem like higher end department store material to me. They come in a matte base that’s pigmented, yet still soft and easy to blend, and they’re infused with subtle flecks of sophisticated black-tie glitter (as opposed to 1996 rave glitter), which reminds me: did you ever dance with a glow stick at a rave? Yup, good times…

So I think it you like your glitter on the subtle side, like glitter good for understated holiday party looks, the shadows in the bottom row might appeal to you.

Sonia Kashuk What Glitters Glows Eye Palette
[Continue reading…]

I Say Yes to Cucumbers in My Hair: Yes to Cucumbers Color Conditioner

by 30 Comments

Tabs has really been riding me lately to find a good cruelty-free drugstore conditioner. He even threatened to swipe my ankles if I didn’t produce something this week worthy of sharing on the blog. I focussed the search on volumizing products designed to cut down on frizz, since those are both hair issues of mine, and I think I may have found something to save my ankles from Tabs. They call it Yes to Cucumbers Color Care Conditioner ($9).

With a mild cucumber scent, this lightweight, moisturizing conditioner is marketed to gals with color-treated hair, which I have, but I’m so impressed by it that I’d wager it would also do wonders for other types of hair (particularly fine, limp hair because it is quite volumizing).

Not only is it cruelty free, but it’s also made from 99.6% natural ingredients, including minerals harvested from the Dead Sea, organic cucumbers, centaurea extract (an extract from a flower that’s supposed to help prevent brassiness) and green tea. Most of the ingredients are also plant extracts, way up on list, and there’s no mention of silicones among the ingredients at all.

I love the volume I get from using this because it works without leaving behind a thick layer of goop — just lots of lift and body.


[Continue reading…]

Level Up, Wizard, with Mascara Magic 101

by 24 Comments

Sam

Written by Sam

Freelance makeup artist and blogger Sam shows that anyone can wield a mascara wand like a true makeup magician if they find the right technique.

Mascara Magic 101

It’s 6:30 in the morning. You just barely saved your white blouse from a nice warm coffee demise, and all you’ve left to do is throw on some mascara. Do you…

A. Close your eyes, wiggle the wand randomly in the vicinity of your lashes, and hope for the best?

B. Look straight into the mirror, and take a few seconds slowly sweeping the bristled brush from base to tip, possibly allowing time for a second coat?

C. Stop, take a deep breath, and with your disposable sponge, gently lift your eyelid while you wiggle your brush at the roots, sweeping them quickly outward and upward, turning the brush vertically to add a bit of length at the corner, and wiggling it over the lower lashes?

Hopefully, you picked (C), as you may have guessed that in this case, the most complicated answer is the right one.

Mascara is one of those magic products that can completely transform your look, even if you’re not wearing another stitch of makeup. But, like trying a new hair color, not all transformations work out well. Some methods of application could leave you with spindly lashes, clumpy lashes, flakes of black on your cheeks, little freckles dotted over your meticulous eyeshadow or bare lids… You get the idea.
[Continue reading…]

Copyright © 2025 Makeup and Beauty Blog. Get in touch.