Wearing Dolce & Gabbana Eyeliner in Acqua
Happy vernal equinox, fellow weather watcher! It’s official. Spring is in the air. 🙂 Bring on the flowers, the pollen, the unbidden allergies. Zyrtec, my trusty steed, come hither! Winter hath ended, and it’s time to…
…update my makeup and wardrobe for spring. It being that time and all, I’ve been contemplating ways to incorporate different springy themes into the mix, and this outfit in Nordstrom’s February catalog got me thinking about florals:
HEART! The pants, especially. The muted tones say to me, “Yes, Karen, I’m dressing for spring, but I’m also a grownup.” They’re flowery, but not in a bunny rabbits and Cadbury Creme Eggs kind of way, ya know? And I think the denim jacket and white top give the outfit a vintage feel.
I bet it’ll look lovely with makeup from the new Dolce & Gabbana Bouquet collection, which, by the way, makes me feel like this:
Sophia Loren = the hotness!
Have you seen this spring/summer launch yet? It’s still pretty new (just recently arrived at Saks), and has some eyeliners, a quad, some lipglosses and six rainbow polishes.
Since I started playing with it last week, I’ve grown quite attached; it could be one of my favorite Dolce & Gabbana launches to date.
The collection combines floral, Italian and 1950s themes for a retro vibe that’s flirty and fun. The color palette picks from lilacs, roses, some vivid shades of fruit, and the concept of summers in Southern Italy.
Yeah, that’s some pretty great sources of inspiration right there. 🙂
I can really see the different themes play out among the six Eyeliners ($29 each) in the collection as I’ve worn them over the past few days.
Man, talk about soft! When Dolce & Gabanna first launched their liners, the pencils felt stiff to me, but these? — these feel great! I don’t know if they changed the formula, but these sure seem to glide better than the earlier versions.
Crayon Intense Eyeliners in Shimmer (repromote), Lilac (repromote), Agave (repromote), Lemon (new), Acqua (new) and Mint (new), $29 each
Swatches from the left: Shimmer, Lilac, Agave, Mint, Acqua and Lemon
Wearing Lemon
Agave
Khaki Agave is a rich, pigmented green with golden shimmer. A couple swipes along my lash lines, and I’m good. Love it. The bright yellow Lemon, on the other hand? Great in theory, but in practice it hasn’t wowed me. I think I was hoping for a bright citrusy burst, but when I see it on my lids, I think, “that’s canned corn.”
Maybe if it had a soft shimmery finish instead of flat matte.
The blue shade, Acqua, surprised the heck out of me. Sure, it looks a little “Go team” in the swatch, but it comes alive on lids. If you have brown eyes, please give it a try. 🙂
The other liners — shimmery purple Lilac, peachy Shimmer and matte Mint — remind me of watercolors, and I bet they’d look super pretty paired with curled lashes and lots of mascara. They just need a little more TLC. On me, I have to apply several layers of these to get them to really show.
With all of these pencils, be prepared for touch-ups about halfway through the day. I get about six hours from Agave and Acqua, but only 3-4 from the other shades.
PRICE: $29 each
AVAILABILITY: Available now at Saks Fifth Avenue stores, and coming soon to saksfifthavenue.com
MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: B+
Just added to my list of “Things I’m not ready for”…
…a planetary collision!
In Melancholia, two sisters face the coming end of the world. A distant planet is on a collision course with the earth, and the end is nigh.
One of the sisters, played by Kirsten Dunst, appears to suffer from an unnamed mental illness (I think it’s severe depression). She faces the end in steady fashion, accepting it as inevitable, while her sister, who’d been the steadier, more reliable one for much of their life, emotionally falls apart.
It wasn’t the most uplifting thing I’ve ever watched on a Monday night…
Honestly, when I read the movie description online, I just saw the words, “…planet hitting the earth,” and rented it because it sounded sci-fi.
But that doesn’t always work out. The movie has these unusually long transitions between scenes and felt a lot longer to me than 2 hours. I don’t know… I didn’t hate it at all. I just didn’t really love it.
I did think the music was cool, though, and it got me thinking about what I’d do with my last few weeks on earth if the news headlines read, “Rogue planet approaching earth!”
One thing’s for sure: I’d eat massive amounts of Nutella. Screw counting calories! Haven’t you heard!? There’s a friggin’ planet on its way! 🙂
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Oh em gee, Karen! I work at Nordstrom and I walk by those Current/Elliott floral skinnies everyday and *swoooon*. They look amazing in person! Super cute for spring 🙂 I’d wear them with a chambray shirt and nude heels, woo hoo!
Hi Janet,
Tempt me a little more, why don’t ya! Next time I swing by Nordie’s I might have to try them on.
Have you seen any other cute things that I need to know about? Clothing or otherwise?
I bet the yellow liner would look good on the bottom lash line, with a different color on the lid. Perhaps with a yellow gold on the inner lid & some thing else in the outer corner, like blue or green.
Hi Auroragyps,
Ya know, I tried that too, and it still looked kinda weird. I think for me it’s the finish. It would be a different story if it was shimmery.
I was thinking just the other day about yellow and pink liners, and how we need more of them. 🙂
Wish these lastest longer. I could justify the price if they did.
My local Trader Joes makes a Nutella substitute. Have you seen it?
I have! I haven’t tried it yet. Have you?
I hope you find this funny and not… crazy.
So, the man in my life walks in the room and sees that I am on makeupandbeautyblog (again… hey, it’s my way of relaxing after work. I like your swatches…), and he starts going on about “you loooove Kaaaaren” and “you want to be her friend so you can play with her makeup” and so forth. (He used to say “that girl” before I told him your name. Also, he often refers to your blog as “Karen,” not “makeupandbeautyblog.”)
Trying to provoke him, I (kidding) said “Yeah, there should be a Karen doll that you can put makeup on… and call it ‘Color your Karen’.” He thought this could be big, so he went one step further. “And, there should be a coloring book of Karen — with different expressions and poses … and the coloring book should come with crayons, except instead of regular color crayons, they would be makeup color crayons! Wouldn’t that be great?”
My response: “No, the ‘crayons’ should have different textures, otherwise it isn’t any fun.”
So there are some business ideas for you.
Ooo I really like Lilac and Agave, though I think UD Ransom might be quite similar to Lilac and therefore doesn’t warrant owning both.
I’m so not ready for Melancholia either. I was interested, but my bestie told me about the severe depression going on and I thought I’d better not watch it. My heart would just go out to all those who suffer from depression to be honest.
But yeah, Nutella, I can eat it allllll day :p
i read about that movie and saw the trailer but haven’t seen it 😀 guess i will soon, it’s cool knowing i;ll watch what you watched :))
wow soooo beautiful! Do you know if these are safe to use on the waterline? thank you!
When I think of Melancholia, I think of Alexander Skarsgard. I haven’t seen it but I’m sure I will, if only because he’s in it! 🙂
And, again, unrelated to beauty as usual, I was wondering if you ever watched Buffy. I’ve been netflixing it and sort of feel like it’s great being late to a show. Then you can watch everything in a row instead of waiting a week between episodes!
I won’t watch anything with Alexander Skarsgard if he’s not wearing a tank top.
I’m suprised how much I’m liking all these patterned jeans – I thought I would hate them, but they really do look so effortless and cool! Not as cool as the super 80’s washed pair with flamingos I had as a child, but pretty sharp nonetheless.
gorgeous eyeliners … and ohmygosh — 18 more days to go til i can nosh on Nutella again.
i gave up chocolate and its brothers for Lent. 🙂
I’m definitely checking out Agave and probably Aqua as well.
And for your random trivia of the day, Melencholia came in 2nd for most scientifically inaccurate movie released last year
Canned corn HAHAHAHA
I LOVE these eyeliner colors! Especially the Acqua!