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

How Often Do You Wear Lip Liner?

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There are some makeup products I wear almost every day — like concealer and mascara. Lip liner, however, has never fallen into my can’t-live-without-it camp.

I will go through liner phases in which I’m infatuated with it for a time and layering it beneath all of my glosses and lipsticks. And sometimes — like a mad makeup scientist! — I’ll even mix and match tinted liners to create a completely unique and original shade.

My current favorite liners are the MAC Cremesticks ($15) in Pink Treat (a creamy pink), Summerfruit (a creamy coral) and Honey B. (a creamy, brownish pink).

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From left to right: Pink Treat, Summerfruit, Honey B.

They feel like they’re gliding on my lips, never skipping or tugging at the skin, and deliver top-notch hydration, too.

I’m in the middle of one of my pro-lip liner phases at the moment, which I probably owe to the Cremesticks, and I’ve been wearing liner way more often than usual (most days).

How often do you wear lip liner?

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Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Smashbox Reign Fall 2009: 4-Step Eye Makeup

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This year’s fall makeup collections have begun to trickle in, and the one I’m spending quality time with today is Smashbox’s new Reign ($19-48/item).

Inspired by England’s Tudor period (circa 1485-1603), a time that encompassed Queen Elizabeth I’s reign, the eight pieces feature shades of berry, peach, plum, black and champagne.

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Smashbox Reign Eyeshadow Palette in Majesty ($42), Lip Gloss in Crowned ($22)

For today’s 4-step eye makeup look, I grabbed the Smashbox Reign Majesty Eye Shadow Palette ($42), one of three eye palettes in the collection. It comes with three baked eyeshadows (a champagne, a reddish plum and a black), each with a dollop of matte shadow surrounded by a shimmery version of the same shade.

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Top row: shimmery shadows. Bottom row: matte shadows.

I was in the mood to wear something soft today but wasn’t sure if I could make the red shade work for a daytime look — that is, until I discovered that with enough blending the shade looks somewhat reddish brown (!).

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Smashbox Reign 4-Step Eye Makeup

  1. First things first. I grab my MAC 239 Eye Shader Brush and wet the head with a spritz of MAC Fix+ Rose. Applying shadows with a wet brush like this intensifies their color. I load the brush with the shimmery champagne shadow from the Smashbox Reign Magesty Palette and apply it over the entire eyelid and along my lower lash line.
  2. Next, with a Sonia Kashuk Crease Brush, I apply the red eyeshadow (mixing the matte with the shimmer) from the same palette into my crease, concentrating more of the color toward the outside (closer to the ear), and use a MAC 217 Blending Brush to soften the edges.
  3. Then, to make the whole look really pop, I apply a mix of the shimmery black and shimmery red shadows with a Sonia Kashuk Angled Eyeshadow Brush, drawing a thick line along the upper lash line and smoothing out the edges with a MAC 217.
  4. Finally, with the same brush and a mix of the shimmery and matte black shadows, I line the lower line.

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Nubar’s Going, Going Green in a Big Way

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Today the lovely (and friendly) Kelly of Vampy Varnish shares a review of Nubar’s new collection of green nail polishes for summer.

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Nubar — if you haven’t heard of it yet, you’re about to! 🙂

Nubar has a huge array of nail polishes in various colors and finishes, everything from pale pink to orange to black, and finishes from creme to shimmer to glitter.

Beyond that, they’re also a responsible nail polish company, meaning that their polishes don’t contain the “Big 3” worst offending chemicals found in many brands of nail polish: DBP, Toluene and Formaldehyde.

They’ve partnered with PETA and are now certified Vegan and Cruelty-Free, and their bottles will soon be branded with a logo to show their exciting new status.

To honor the accomplishment, Nubar has released the Going Green Collection of six, very different green polishes. For a lot of polish junkies, green is the *Holy Grail* of colors, and for a company to release six at once just blows the mind!!

The formula for this whole collection is really fabulous, as most Nubar’s tend to be. I didn’t have any streaking, bubbling, cuticle drag or any issues with these, and they were all done with two coats.

Reclaim

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Holographic greens aren’t very common, and Reclaim is a gorgeous one. The color is a sort of muted grass green, and as you can see the rainbow effect is downright amazing.

Wildlife

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Wildlife is a very interesting and strange color and, of course, turned out to be my favorite one!

It’s very hard to describe — like a khaki green duochrome that flashes gold and pink, depending on the lighting. It’s a shade you’ll either love or hate, and it’s definitely not for the color shy.
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Bloggerati Spotlight

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The Beauty Bloggerati

How was your Monday? Anything cool or exciting happen?

The best part of my Monday was going to dance class last night. I dropped it like it’s hot… but now I can’t remember where I left it. 🙂

Onward to Tuesday!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

How to Clean a Dirty Pan of Cream Blush

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My pan of MAC Cream Colour Base in Pearl is straight up NASTY!

What I mean is it’s filled with random bits of dust, glitter, powder and lint.

Ewww…

I’m usually pretty good about taking care of my makeup, but cream products attract dirt like Mariah attracts crazy (still lovin’ ya, Mimi!).

Reader Julia recently e-mailed to ask if there was anything she could do to restore her dirrrrty cream blushes to their original luster.

I have a couple of cream blushes (and by “a couple” I mean five) and own a MAC brush for application, which I try to clean regularly, but the surfaces of my blushes sometimes seem a little grimy. How do I clean the surfaces of my cream blushes? Kleenex? Makeup brush wipes?

Thanks for your help.
Julia

What’s up, Julia!

Dirty can be good, but not when it comes to cream blushes. 🙂

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They’re like little gunk magnets, picking up bits and pieces of other products from brushes and other pans.

Fortunately, cleaning them doesn’t take a lot of effort, time or money. Here’s a trick I learned from a MAC artist to get grimy cream products back to almost new.

Clean that cream!

  1. Start with a clean makeup wedge sponge (sold in bags at many drugstores, Sephora or Ulta for about $2/bag).
  2. With light, soft strokes, gently run one edge of the sponge across the pan to pick up any bits of dirt, glitter or gunk. Try to keep your strokes going in the same direction, either left to right, right to left, etc. That seems to reduce the amount of junk that just gets redistributed back into the pan. Also, try to use a light touch. Pressing too hard will dig into the pan, picking up a lot of the cream product itself.
  3. If any product migrates over the edges of the pan, use a different edge (a clean one) of the same sponge to wipe up the mess. That’s it. Presto, change-o! One cream blush, almost as good as new. 🙂

I use this technique on different kinds of cream products, like MAC Cream Colour Bases, MAC Paint Pots and NARS the Multiple Duos — even pots of cream concealer and cream-to-powder foundation, too.

Homegirls, do you ever clean your cream products? Do you have any other tips or tricks?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

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