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

Smashbox Wish For The Perfect Pout Swatches: Don’t Sweat the Technique

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Wearing Radiant Lipgloss from Smashbox Wish For The Perfect Pout

Er, can you guess who’s been listening to Eric B. & Rakim?

I’m still auditioning songs for The Ultimate ’90s Hip Hop Playlist (keep those recs coming!), and today, while listening to Don’t Sweat the Technique and swatching the new Smashbox Wish For The Perfect Pout ($29), it hit me — this hip hop classic kinda reminds me of this limited edition holiday kit.

Smashbox wish holiday 2010 collection wish for the perfect pout box
Smashbox Wish For The Perfect Pout Lipglosses from left: Luster, Candid, Baby Pout, Ecstasy, Divine and Radiant

Smashbox wish holiday 2010 collection wish for the perfect pout wands
From left: Luster, Candid, Baby Pout, Ecstasy, Divine and Radiant

Have you ever tried putting on an opaque, bright gloss without a mirror? It’s hard, right? It requires sweating over one’s lipgloss technique, so to speak. You gotta get the color even and if it goes beyond your natural lip line you look all kinds of crazy… Yes, I’ve totally done this before, and it’s not cute.

But with the glosses in Wish For The Perfect Pout, it’s all gravy, as Tabs would say. The six shimmery shades go on with different degrees of sheerness, so if I accidentally apply too much, the contrast doesn’t look as stark as it would with a full-coverage gloss. Shoot, I could probably put these glosses on while doing the butterfly (remember that dance?) and still come out looking semi-sane. Don’t sweat the technique, indeed. 🙂

Luster, Candid and Baby Pout apply with the least amount of pigment; Ecstasy, Divine and Radiant (LOVE!) the most. They all have a light vanilla scent and flavor, a medium-weight thickness and a non-sticky texture.

Check out the colors below let me know if anything moves ya.

smashbox wish for the perfect pout swatches review radiant
Radiant
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Neutrogena Rainbath Refreshing Shower and Bath Gel: The Old Faithful in My Shower

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Neutrogena Rainbath Review

Hmm… I honestly don’t know what Tabs would have said about me if he’d known me back in my Neutrogena Rainbath Refreshing Shower and Bath Gel phase ($8 for an 8.5 oz bottle), aka the late ’90s, aka my club kid days.

“Meow,” perhaps?

In his short kitty lifetime, he’s only known me as his cranky, uncool mum — the boring one who hits the haaay every night at 10.

He probably would have liked the late nights and parties because, back then, that’s how I rolled.

My, how things change…


‘Fridge magnet philosophy

Neutrogena Rainbath Refreshing Shower and Bath Gel sure takes me back… I’ve been using it off and on for years, at least as far back as the mi-’90s. It’s like the Old Faithful in my shower and keeps returning over and over again.
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Smashbox Wish Collection, Holiday 2010: Pictures and a First Look

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Smashbox wish holiday 2010 collection wish for the perfect pout wands

“What should I wish for?”

“I don’t know. Maybe one these new limited edition kits from Smashbox.”

“OOH! Those are pretty.”

“I know! They just came out with their holiday collection, Wish 2010.”

“Wish? Oh, very punny. Wish. I get it now.” 🙂

The four new kits range from $16-46 each and come with various combinations of products for eyes, lips, cheeks and face.

In the holiday spirit, Smashbox plans to donate $1 from the sale of each Wish collection purchase (up to $25,000) to the Children’s Miracle Network.

Even though that kind of thing can seem like a marketing maneuver, it isn’t always, and the fact remains — it’s something that quite a few cosmetics companies simply never do (donate a portion of sales to charity), so I say “Good job, Smashbox!” 🙂

Take a peek at these product pics and swatches of two of the four new kits, Wish For The Perfect Pout ($29) and Wish List ($49).

I’ll have face and lip shots up soon, along with more details a little later this week.

smashbox wish holiday 2010

Wish For The Perfect Pout, $29

Smashbox wish holiday 2010 collection wish for the perfect pout box
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Getting to Know Kiko Make Up Milano: Affordable, COLORful Italian Cosmetics

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kiko make up milano

Not gonna lie, but shopping at Kiko Make Up Milano was hella stressful.

I checked out one of the big Italian brand’s freestanding stores in Milan last month, and it was PACKED! Wall-to-wall teenagers, makeup and Japanese tourists, except for one short, brown beauty blogger and a really clueless American dude who zigzagged into the store, held up a shopping list on his phone and bellowed to no one in particular, “I need to bring all this home to my girlfriend or she’s gonna kill me.” HA HA! Seriously, I couldn’t make this sh*z up.

kiko make up milano k in front of store

There wasn’t a lot of room in the store to move around because every square inch was covered with makeup (stimulus overload!). Enhancing the effect, they blasted loud techno music, so it was kinda like being in da club, or a makeup hybrid of Forever 21/Claire’s/Abercrombie and Fitch.

But the store was hopping for a reason. COLOR! It’s everywhere at Kiko, and the line is HUGE! They must have thousands of different products, everything from makeup to skin care to nail polishes, and even stuff for dudes. Better still, their products are all fairly affordable at 2-20€ apiece (about $2.50-$30).
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Meet Tender Veronica Malibu Seaweed & Pineapple Body Scrub

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I love a good meat tenderizer as much as the next gal, but I didn’t expect to find one — make that two in my new body scrub!

No, indie skin care line Veronica Malibu does not have quality control issues at their manufacturing plant. The meat tenderizers I found in this jar of Seaweed & Pineapple Body Scrub ($28 for a 2-oz. jar) were added deliberately, and they make the product stand out in the crowded field of skin scrubs.

Lately, I haven’t been in the mood for abrasive or painful scrubs; I want something kinder and gentler, so when I found out that water, aloe vera gel and seaweed were the top three ingredients in Veronica Malibu’s new scrub, it piqued my interest.

I love aloe and always have. I had a plant once, but I left it in my dad’s care when I moved away to college. Bad move… Let’s just say, his thumbs weren’t vera green at that time. 🙂

This scrub’s a gel, so it has that slimy feel to it (which you’ll probably either love or hate), but I find it strangely refreshing. Among other things, the gel contains jojoba beads, papain (from papaya) and bromelain enzymes (compounds derived from pineapples); along with papain, bromelain is one of the most popular substances to use for meat tenderizing.
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