Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup

Spa Ritual Lacquer Nail Polish: Loved by Dentists

March 11th, 2009 by Karen 23 Comments

spa ritual nail polish

My mom would totally flip out if she read this, but it’s the honest to gawd truth: when bottles of nail polish are too tight for me to open with my hands, I wrench them open with my teeth. I chomp down on the caps pirate style, arrgh! — gnarling and twisting until they come lose.

So nasty, I know! Besides the damage cap biting can do to teeth, it leaves bite marks all over the cap, which I’ll forget about when I lend a polish to friends. Usually a text or email will follow along the lines of, “Did a small animal get a hold of the bottle??” or “Did you use your teeth to open it? GROSS!”

Thanks to Spa Ritual Lacquer ($9), my cap-biting days are over.

The smart folks at eco-friendly Spa Ritual have a simple solution that works wonders — a rubbery, non-slip cap that’s a cinch to open.

Unlike regular slippery smooth nail polish caps, Spa Ritual’s rubberized cap is ridged and easy to grip.

The cap on a bottle of nail polish may seem like a silly detail, but I can’t tell you how many times my lotioned hands have struggled to open a bottle of polish.

spa ritual nail polish delight

As for the polish itself, it delivers fabulous pigmentation and shine. I tried three shades from Spa Rituals’ spring collection: Delight (a creamy, pale greenish blue), Marvel (a shimmery lavender) and Treasure (a shimmery golden orange).
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1-888-Confess

March 10th, 2009 by Karen 10 Comments

I like to wear my wedding shoes when I write.

What Is Love?

March 10th, 2009 by Karen 3 Comments

Aunt Betty sounds like a smart gal.

How to Wear Bright Eyeliner

March 10th, 2009 by Karen 47 Comments

how to apply makeup cosmetics eyeliner makeup blog beauty blog

Hi, ladies!

How was our day? I was just listening to some empowering girl music by En Vogue. Remember them? Have you ever heard No No No (Can’t Come Back)?

Don’t care what other people say
Don’t listen to them anyway
Can’t let the evil get its way
Don’t let bad feelings make you pay

It’s like an instant shot of positivity with a cheer chaser (overkill? naw).

You know what else I love? Reading your comments. It’s so much fun to be able to talk with you guys, and not just about makeup.

Speaking of makeup, Michelle recently left a comment asking how to wear bright eyeliner.

“How would you use that bright eyeliner Karen? I have a few color liners but I hardly use them. I don’t know if I should use the same color eyeshadow, or if that’s too much. I read in a magazine once that you can simply skip eyeshadow all together and line your eyes with bright color, then finish off with two coats of mascara. What do you do?”

Well, I wear bright eyeliners more often as the weather warms, and they can be a little intimidating at first if you normally stick to black and brown.

estee lauder duo tone eye pencil aqua teal bronze goddess 2
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Pair BareMinerals Buxom Big and Healthy Lip Polish with Your Next Bright or Bold Eye

March 10th, 2009 by Karen 32 Comments

bare minerals buxom lips candi dolly

I can’t help myself when it comes to QVC. It sucks me in!

Other people in my life (mainly El Hub and the cat) fail to see why watching a show to sell lipgloss or hair dryers can be so compelling, but I like to think of it as educational television. I’m just trying to expand my mind. 🙂

A few weeks ago I caught a segment featuring the Buxom Big & Healthy Lip Polish lipglosses by BareMinerals ($18), a San Francisco company famous for their mineral foundation kits.

Bare escentuals buxom lips dolly

The girls modeling the product had extra pouty lips that made me stand up and take notice. “Hmm…”

Sure, Buxom Big & Healthy Lip Polish is a plumping lipgloss, but it looked like it was working a little too well. Maybe it was the set lighting. That’s when I had a Mark Anthony moment: I *needed to know* if these glosses worked as well as it looked they did.

I tested two of the 15 colors — Candi (shimmery coral) and Dolly (shimmery pale pink).

The saucy packaging has cartoon pics of sassy girls in their skivvies. The box boldly claims that 86 percent of women who use Buxom Big & Healthy experience an “immediate increase in lip fullness.” WOW!

Okay, so I applied it and waited for the magic to happen.

After a minute, no magic yet, but I’m used to waiting for miracles.
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Tired of Insomnia? Try Some Lavender Before Bed

March 10th, 2009 by Karen 32 Comments

makeup blog beauty blog

Gone are the days when I’d get my freak on till 3:00 a.m. at the club.

These days, 3:00 a.m. is when I’d like to be getting my SLEEP on, but some nights I don’t get what I want, and I lay awake in bed, fretting about family, the future, Tabs and bills.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, I’m not the only girl who goes through bouts of insomnia. Seventy-six percent of Americans experience symptoms of sleep disorders on a regular basis, and something tells me it’s not a strictly American problem.

When the zzz’s elude me, I reach for certain fragrances, like lavender, to help me relax.

Here are a couple new scented items from Origins and Crabtree & Evelyn that caught my nose and my dark-circled eye. 🙂

origins-night-health-bedtime-spray-dr-andrew-weil-1
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New in Beauty

March 9th, 2009 by Karen 5 Comments

Free Stila Illuminating Tinted Moisturizer & Shipping

Use coupon code BIRTHDAY and get a free Illuminating Tinted Moisturizer and free ground shipping with the purchase of any Barbie Loves Stila product. Good for one week only.

Introducing Giorgio Armani Beauty’s New Crema Nera Compact

Hello, luvah. They tell me you help reduce puffiness and keep eyes looking bright through those long red-carpet nights…

Crema Nera is a complete anti-aging treatment for the eyes, with a formula containing what Armani calls Obsidian Mineral Complex, actually four key ingredients (silicium, sodium, iron and potassium) essential to the regeneration of skin cells.

Giorgio Armani Crema Nera Compact Crema Nera Eye Cream brightens and smooths dark circles and wrinkles while also reducing puffiness and bags, and the slick mirror compact sure brings the noise. During its spring launch, it will be available exclusively at Saks Fifth Avenue and online giorgioarmanibeauty.com.

Origins Expands Make a Difference Collection

They’re adding two new revitalizing products — Make A Difference Ultra-rich rejuvenating cream ($36; 1.7 oz) and Make A Difference Skin rejuvenating treatment lotion ($21; 5 oz).

Origins Expands Make a Difference Collection
To be used as the first step in a skin care regimen, Make A Difference Skin rejuvenating treatment lotion primes skin to absorb even more hydration from the Make A Difference Skin rejuvenating cream, so the two are like beauty partners in crime!

Talk About a Sugar Rush!

New for summer 2009 from Shades by Barielle, Sugar Rush boasts six pretty candy colored hues ($8 each; .5 oz) .

Shades by Barielle Sugar Rush

Formulated to provide nails with safe, healthy and long-lasting glossy color coverage, Shades by Barielle is free of formaldehyde, toluene and dibutylphthalate. The company says they’re also safe for use throughout pregnancy. 🙂

Kilian Travel Spray

New By Kilian Travel Sprays Are All About The Serious

These interesting little travel sprays look like ancient relics to me. They’re available in all seven By Kilian scents (Prelude to Love, Love, Beyond Love, A Taste of Heaven, Straight to Heaven, Liaisons Dangereuses and Cruel Intentions) and are refillable at any By Kilian counter… just like jumbo-sized bags of movie theater popcorn!

On counters this month, the .5 oz travel spray with 4 refills runs $135 (that ain’t no bargain matinee!), and the smaller .25 oz bottle with 4 refills goes for $70.

Both are small enough to fit in a purse or bag and small enough for air travel (aka airline approved).

We survived Monday!

But it was a rough one, wasn’t it? I was dog tired all day long. Thankfully, I didn’t have a ton of work to do today, or at least I didn’t attempt to do a lot of work today.

How was the rest of your afternoon? Are you going to watch The City tonight? I wonder what’s going to happen with Jay and Whitney. I hope Jay doesn’t turn out to be a scrub.

Did I just say scrub?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Tame Your Tresses with Pantene’s Pro-V Nature Fusion Collection

March 9th, 2009 by Karen 14 Comments

pantene nature fusion collection 1

What’s up, ladies! Do you ever go through phases where your hair just looks whack?

i blame this mess on bobby brown

For three or four months now my hair’s been looking extra shagadelic — and not in a good way.

I was planning to hack off a few inches this month but changed my mind after reading my March horoscope on Astrology Zone. Susan Miller suggests Geminis delay any makeovers until after April 17, and since Suze’s predictions tend to be dead on for me, I’m sticking with my bird’s nest-y ‘do for a few more weeks. I am not about to mess with the stars!

For now, I may as well make this extra 10 pounds of hair sing for its supper by using it to test some new hair products.

pantene pro v nature fusion

Over the weekend I put some goodies from Pantene’s new Nature Fusion Collection to the test, comparing them to the Aveeno Nourish+ products I reviewed last week. The star ingredient in the new line is the Cassia plant, a shrub related to beans (prooot!) and peas.

Pantene claims Cassia helps to create smoother, shinier and generally better-behaved hair.

How does it work?

After using the Nature Fusion Balance Shampoo ($4), Moisture Balance Conditioner ($4) and Smoothing Creme ($6) three times since Friday, my hair has seemed shinier and more manageable than usual.

Products in the Nature Fusion line cost roughly half as much as the Aveeno Nourish+ products I reviewed last week, but I like both lines for different reasons.
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