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

Laura Mercier Double Impact Eye Colour Collection | Cool Gray Smoky Eyes and Smoky Pants!

October 28th, 2016 by Karen 12 Comments

laura mercier double impact eye colour collection swatches — Smoky eyes and smoky pants!

Who wouldn’t want to wear eye makeup that matches their smoky pants??

The first thing I saw when I opened this $58 Laura Mercier Double Impact Eye Colour Collection palette was that bottom row of cool-toned greys. Some of ’em looked a little blue, and I thought, “These totally look like the crazy pants my mom got me from Costco.”

Girl, these pants are everywhere! I am not kidding. Shortly after my mom got them for me, El Hub and I were driving through China Town in the city, and I saw this cute older Chinese lady walking through the crowd with a big bag of vegetables. “Look!” I said to El Hub. “She’s wearing my smoky pants!”

And then last month at our hotel in Tahoe while we were waiting in the lobby to check in, I saw a lady walking away from me with her roller bag and her cute little butt clad in these smoky pants.

I whispered, “She’s wearing my smoky pants…”

They’re freaking everywhere.

They’re grey with a sort of a blue tinge, but I don’t know. I can’t always tell with my eyes. Note to self: Make an appointment with the optometrist.

So I think I see a little blue in the pants, and I was hoping that the bottom row of colors in this palette would have a bluish tint, too, because I love bluish greys.

But when I got the shadows on my lids, they looked straight-up cool-toned grey, which is also fine…’cause I also love cool-toned greys, especially in smoky looks.

So…I think I might be spoiled for life by the super pigmented Victoria Beckham X Estée Lauder palette because a layer or two with it and I’m done, but these shadows are sheerer than that.

I have to pat some on, buff it out, then pat some more, then buff that out, then pat even more, and then buff that out again.

I admit that I’m out of practice with slightly complicated, moderately intense looks, but it still seem like I’m piling a lot of this makeup on. Just an FYI.

And the fallout is fairly intense. I had a lot under my eyes when I did this look, especially when I used that dark navy blue shade. If you do your eyes first, then clean up, you’ll be fine.

Laura Mercier Double Impact Eye Colour Collection
$58, limited edition from the holiday 2016 collection, available now
12 shades

“The mirrored palette features 9 matte and 3 sateen-shimmer eye shadow shades in a range from light to dark. The versatile palette can take eyes from neutral day to sultry night. Universally flattering, light reflecting sateen-shimmer shades add dimension and enhance brightness. A value of $96.”

— lauramercier.com

Shades:

9 Matte (1g / 0.03 oz each) — Dune, Wind, Earth, Bone, Love Potion, Venemous, Poison, Hypnotic, Voodoo

True Matte shades (Classic Matte) that are best applied with Eye Colour Brush: Dune, Wind, Earth, Bone

NEW Sateen Matte shades (Matte with hidden pearl) that are best applied with Eye Colour Brush: Love Potion, Venomous, Poison, Hypnotic,Voodoo

1 Crushed Pearl (all pearl, creamy to the touch that is best applied with both fingers and Eye Colour Brush) (1g / 0.03 oz): Spirit

2 Discrete Pearl (refined shimmer, creamy to the touch that is best applied with both fingers and Eye Colour Brush) (0.8g / 0.028 oz each): Rock (to use for boost of smoke), Dust (to blend finishing lines or highlight)

ADDITIONAL MAKEUP WORN IN THIS LOOK
CHEEKS: Cheeks MAC Studio Quicktriks Stick in Ginger Spiked/Counterpoint ($32)

LIPS: theBalm Pickup Liners in Acute One ($17.50), MAC Big Baby Plushglass ($21), Victoria Beckham X Estee Lauder Moroccan Heat Lip Gloss ($36)

FACE: Hourglass Vanish Seamless Finish Foundation Stick in Beige ($46), MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Medium Golden ($33)

The Laura Mecier Double Impact Colour Collection Palette packaging — Inside the palette

[Continue reading…]

ConnorClaire.com Product Spotlight: #bbloggers Tee

October 28th, 2016 by Karen 6 Comments

You know you’re rollin’ deep with the beauty blogging crew when you seriously start thinking about shaving your swatching arm.

You know you’re rollin’ deep with the beauty blogging crew when you have about 300 effed up macro pictures of your left eye because that’s how many it took to get one decent shot of the eyeshadow look you did for today’s post (gah!).

You know you’re rollin’ deep with the beauty blogging crew when you put off washing your makeup brushes (and you’ve got hella makeup brushes, fo’ reals) FOR WEEKS, letting them pile up until it takes you — I’m not kidding — 45 minutes to get through them all! The struggle is so real!

You know you’re rollin’ deep with the beauty blogging crew when you can recall, with shocking accuracy, the first makeup collections you fell in love with (mine were Barbie Loves MAC and MAC Smoke Signals).

You know you’re rollin’ deep with the beauty blogging crew when you get your camera so close to a pristine pan of product that you accidentally put a dent in said pan with the edge of the lens when you’re taking macro shots. DOH!

You know you’re rollin’ deep with the beauty blogging crew when you can write 600 words on a single black eyeliner and feel hella good about it when you’re done.

And you know you're rollin' deep with the beauty blogging crew if you love reading about makeup, writing about makeup, talking about makeup and generally obsessing about makeup all day long.

That's what the #bbloggers Tee stands for. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Is Messy Hair a Do or a Don’t?

October 27th, 2016 by Karen 10 Comments

Hmm… The last time I had a super sleek, super structured non-messy hairstyle was…I don’t know, maybe six or seven years ago? So I’m leaning toward the “Messy Hair Is a Do” camp.

Actually, to be honest, I’m sitting here right now, and I haven’t even brushed my hair today. It’s close to 8 o’clock at night.

It is so messy! But I think the whole messy hair trend that’s been happening over the past few years is wonderful.

A big part of that is laziness because my hair is kind of wild naturally, so being able to have it be wild in society is a big plus for me. 🙂 I don’t have to spend so much time taming it.

Oh, my gosh! — like in the late ’90s and early 2000s, it took such an effort to make everything so straight and sleek and perfect. Flat irons weren’t even commonplace back then. You had to do it old-school with a hairdryer and a round brush, and that’s how you “flat-ironed,” quote, unquote.

Either that, or you used a real freakin’ iron, which I did! My mom caught me, and she was like, “You’re gonna burn your face off!” So that was the end of that.

So, messy hair, a total do. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

The Urban Decay Full Spectrum Palette | Color Blocked Rainbow Eyes

October 27th, 2016 by Karen 12 Comments

I’m staring out a window right now, a.k.a. writing, and it’s really dark outside! It’s the late afternoon, it’s cloudy, and it looks like it’s gonna rain. I don’t see any rainbows…yet.

I’m thinking that when I go out to go run some errands, I should probably wear layers, because when you live in California, that’s what you do. You wear layers. You kind of expect it. But with some things, like Urban Decay eyeshadows, I don’t expect to have to wear layers. Their shadows are usually super pigmented. Yeah, there’s a lot of fallout, too, and I expect that. But I also expect potent pigments and a formula that’s easy to blend.

That’s why I like them, and that’s also why I didn’t expect to have to do a lot of layering with the new $55 Urban Decay Full Spectrum Eyeshadow Palette.

Alas, that was not the case.

I ended up doing lots of layers with this color blocked rainbow eye look — many more than I expected to. Sometimes it took me four or five layers to get really punchy color. With the bright orange spotlight on that one lid, I even ended up having to wet my brush to intensify it.

I got the idea for this look from the bejeweled, sparkly UD logo on the front of the palette, with the colors moving into each other like a gradient. I thought, “Oh, that’s some neat color blocking. Why don’t I try that on my eyes?”

Plus, it’s a rainbow eyeshadow palette. I mean, come on. My first inclination was to use a shimmery olive and put some browns in the crease, but that would have been a missed opportunity, right? I had to taste the rainbow.

Urban Decay Full Spectrum Eyeshadow Palette
$55, limited edition and available now
21 shades (18 new shades, three exclusives from past palettes)
Includes a dual-ended eyeshadow brush
It’s a followup to 2015’s Urban Spectrum Eyeshadow Palette.

“We organized the shadows by color family, creating a rainbow of ombré trios: pinks, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, purples, and even a wildcard row that goes from white to black. The end result? A palette that not only looks stunning, but also delivers tons of options. Create dimensional ombré looks by working within the color-coordinated trios or experiment with multiple shade groups at once. With 18 NEW shades, three exclusives from past palettes, and a wide range of finishes, you’ll never run out of options.”

— urbandecay.com

Shades:

Alchemy (deep fuchsia satin)
Gossip (bright metallic pink w/subtle floating pearl)
Paranoia (soft metallic blue-pink)
Warning (deep metallic copper)
Seize (bright metallic coral w/subtle floating pearl)
Jones (metallic orange w/subtle floating pearl)
Midnight Blaze (black matte w/yellow-gold pearl)
Calavera (bright yellow matte w/subtle floating pearl)
Goldmine (metallic yellow-gold)
Hundred (deep metallic forest green)
Hatter (vibrant green w/tonal micro-sparkle)
Mean (bright metallic lime green)
Minx (deep navy matte w/floating tonal pearl)
Blindsided (bright teal blue matte w/floating pearl)
Metamorphosis (vibrant periwinkle blue w/micro-sparkle)
Delirious (deep plum matte w/subtle floating pearl)
Sketch (metallic medium purple)
Faded (lavender w/gold shimmer)
Platonic (black matte w/iridescent glitter)
Iced (oyster silver w/shimmer)
Bump (white matte)

Fill Weight: 21 x 1.2 g POIDS NET/NET WT. 21 x 0.04 oz

[Continue reading…]

Operating at 70%

October 27th, 2016 by Karen 52 Comments

I was talking to somebody about this the other day, about perfectionism and how there are so many things that I want to do in my life, with my house, writing, everything, but I want to do my best, you know? Everybody does. For me, I feel like unless I give something 100%, it’s not even worth trying, and even when I do give 100%, I still see the things that I could have done better.

It’s a theme that’s been running through my life for the last few years, and to be honest, when I got pregnant, it got much worse.

Something happened with my hormones, and I don’t talk about it a lot on the blog, but I developed anxiety. It’s not something that, you know, I want to lead with ever, but I have it, and I’m working on it. I work on it every day.

The person I was talking to was my therapist, and she said that sometimes 70% is good enough, you know. Sometimes 60%. Sometimes 50%.

I think most of us know these things, but it’s so easy to forget them… 🙁

I was telling her that the thought of doing things, like a task, becomes so debilitating for me sometimes that, because I want to do it well, but I don’t feel like I have the tools or the time or the energy, I won’t even do it at all. In my mind, I see this perfect picture of how the task should go, but because I feel so married to that thought, because I can’t do it this way or that way, I get paralyzed, and it’s… I’m kind of over it. I’m really over it.

This has held me back in so many aspects of my life, to be honest, with my family, my writing, my house, it’s just made everything so difficult, and I’m at a point where it’s just, you know what? I want to not feel like I’m being held down by so many things. I want to feel light and free. I want to do things.

So I’m just going to commit to doing stuff at 70%, you know? 70% may not be 100%, but 70% is still something, and I’m gonna do that for a while and hopefully move forward in some ways.

My gawd, if you could see my house… It’s such a mess, but I have this perfect picture in my mind. But I’m letting that go now. If I can just get it to 70%.

Actually, 50% in regards to the house. That’s what I’m committing to. If I could just do 50%, then at least I’m moving forward a little.

I’ve basically been like this pretty much all my life. I mean…I did not expect to get teary right now but…

Please don’t ever feel like you’re alone, you know? You aren’t. Things happen to us all. I’ve never met a perfect person in my life. Not a single one of us is perfect, and you don’t have to be perfect. Ever. Please remember that.

With any task that bothers me, like with my office or any room in the house, if I give myself an hour and tell myself that I only have to work on one pile, if I get through the pile in the hour, that’s great. If I get to anything else after, that’s good, too.

I’m gonna try to remember that small steps, no matter how small they are, are still steps. It’s about taking bite-sized steps. You’ll get there. You can do it.

Have a good day, my friend. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

ChapStick Total Hydration Moisture + Tint Is Giving Me ChapStick Nostalgia

October 26th, 2016 by Karen 20 Comments

When I was in elementary school, I wasn’t one of the cool girls. I didn’t have Bonnie Bell Lip Smackers or anything fancy like that. I had a tube of ChapStick, but believe me, for a while, that ChapStick was my most coveted possession in the whole wide world. I loved it to bits because it was as close as I was allowed to get to wearing makeup, and these new $4.99 ChapStick Total Hydration Moisture + Tints kinda make me feel the same way.

I mean, they’re totally different, but eight-year-old me probably would have passed out if I’d been given one of these, feeling like, “Oh, forbidden lipstick!”

There are three shades — Merlot, Coral Blush and Rose Petal — and they’re billed as 100% natural. I see lots of oils and butters in the ingredient list, like sunflower oil and jojoba, and I like that they’re all the way up at the top.

I wear these to work out, which is nothing compared to the glamorous ladies who go to my exercise class. They wear full-on jewelry with a full face of makeup and their hair done. I just put on a little bit of ChapStick, but it’s enough to make me not feel like death warmed over when I see myself in the mirror. 🙂

They’re very similar to Burt’s Bees, so if you like Burt’s, you might like these too.

[Continue reading…]

MAC Limited Edition Photographs by Helmut Newton Collection

October 26th, 2016 by Karen 14 Comments

mac limited edition photographs helmut newton — A few pieces from the MAC Limited Edition Photographs by Helmut Newton collection

Generally, I like to shoot with my big, scary camera, because there’s something about being a small girl carrying a big, scary camera. Nobody ever questions you. Like, I could go anywhere with that big, scary camera, and nobody messes with me. It’s true. It’s absolutely true.

But there are times when I don’t want to carry a big, scary camera with me, and that’s when I carry my little Sony point-and-shoot.

I bring this bad boy with me everywhere — I love this glorious camera and bring this bad boy with me everywhere…

The Sony DSC-RX100 is one of my favorite cameras of all time. I’ve shot with several, and this one is my ride-or-die. It’s small, sturdy and portable. Mine is the first generation model from four years ago, so it’s been through quite a lot. There are newer models with more bells and whistles on them (here’s the brand new version), but I’m still very happy with this one.

I can take it anywhere, so if I need to go incognito, it’ll fit it in the palm of my hand. And it takes GREAT pictures — almost as great as my big, scary camera — and that’s because it has a 1-inch sensor, which in non-photography talk means that it lets in more light and captures more detail than the small sensor on an iPhone.

MBB Fun Fact: I use it for all of the swatches on the blog because it’s easy to handle, and I like the way it captures color.

Anyway, I’m talking about this right now in a longwinded way because of the new MAC Point ‘N’ Shoot Eye Shadow X 4 palette from the Limited Edition Photographs by Helmut Newton collection.

It has four cool-toned mattes, which I would normally be ecstatic about, but they seem kinda patchy and sheer…

MAC Limited Edition Photographs by Helmut Newton
Available online October 27, 2016
Available in-store November 3 through December 15, 2016
#MACLimitedEdition

Point ‘N’ Shoot Eye Shadow X 4 ($32) — Real Fantasy (Matte), Hard Currency (Matte), Influential (Satin), Point ‘N’ Shoot (Matte)

Retro Matte Liquid Lipcolour ($21 each) — High Heels, Chateau M, Self Portrait

MAC Studio Nail Lacquer ($13 each) — Monte Carlo (Creme), Call Time (Creme), Berlin (Creme)

Liquid Eye Liner in Boot Black ($21)

Upward Lash in Upward Black ($23)

mac limited edition photographs helmut newton retro matte liquid lipcolour — MAC Limited Edition Photographs by Helmut Newton Retro Matte Liquid Lipcolours from the left: Self Portrait, High Heels an dChateau M ($21 each)

mac limited edition photographs helmut newton eye shadow — MAC Limited Edition Photographs by Helmut Newton Point ‘N’ Shoot Eye Shadow X 4 ($32)

[Continue reading…]

What Was Your Most Cringeworthy Beauty Moment?

October 26th, 2016 by Karen 17 Comments

We've all had them at one time or another — We’ve all had them at one time or another…

Hmm, my most cringeworthy beauty moment…

There are so many to choose from, but I think it was the time I took a purple and pink Dolce & Gabbana eyeshadow duo and, without much thought, plopped it on my eyes. And when I say, “without much thought,” I mean without much regard for blending or transition colors.

I put it on my eyes thinking that it looked OK, and then I took pictures of it for the blog (famous last words). I didn’t realize until afterward just how…not cute the look was.

Then I thought, “Well, geez, that looks pretty bad.”

Haha! To this day, I can’t believe I put that up. What the heck was I thinking??

I mean…

I should probably just delete that post now, but whatever. It’s up. It’s there. It’s part of me.

It’s funny, but it seems like if you spend too much time on Instagram, people have these perfect lives, but really, like, I’m making mistakes all the time, and they’re online, too!

But yeah, that was probably the most cringeworthy of the beauty cringeworthy. I’m sure that if I think hard enough, though, I’ll think of more, haha.

How about you? What’s your most cringeworthy beauty moment?

Next stop: Stars Hollow

Twenty-nine sleeps.

Twenty-nine sleeps until the gold… HAHA! I was going to say “The Golden Girls,” but I meant to say “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.”

GAHHH! So excited. I wish we could see each other right now because then we’d be doing mutual fist pumps in the air.

FIST PUMPS! I’m that stoked about the new episodes.

Last night I watched the new trailer, and I may or may not have watched it three times in a row. 🙂

Um, did I say that I’m really excited? Can’t wait to go back to Stars Hollow and see what the gang’s been up to.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen