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
The Softly Seductive Eye Shadow Quad from Smashbox’s eight-piece Sultry/Sweet Glambox Set ($68). Available now at select Sephora stores and online.
For more on the new Smashbox Softbox Collection for Summer 2011, check out Smashbox Softbox Collection for Summer 2011: Diffuse Me, Please.
Heads up, fellow Smashbox fans! The line’s just made their new Softbox Collection for Summer 2011 available online, and from the look of things, it’s right up my alley (and maybe yours).
Photographers use softboxes and specialized bulb umbrellas to diffuse bright light sources and eliminate harsh shadows, making the light that falls on their model appear softer and more natural.
It’s the same premise Smashbox applied to the products in their Softbox Studio collection. The three makeup sets for eyes, lips and cheeks mimic the qualities of natural light and embody the idea of effortless beauty.
Speaking as a practical person, I love these shades because I know I’ll be able to wear them. 🙂 Expect to see lots of neutral browns, beiges, pinks and taupes — colors equipped to take you straight from the office to dinner and drinks.
[Continue reading…]
What’s the secret to the Smashbox Waterproof Limitless Liquid Liner Pen’s ($22) water repelling powers? Could it be the seasoning perhaps?
Unless I missed the makeup challenge on Top Chef this season, the inclusion of sea salt in the formula must have been a Smashbox idea. Does it help the product work? I’m not sure, but I do see that the company’s Limitless Eye Liner and their bestselling Jet Set Waterproof Eye Liner are 100% sea salt-free.
Even if the spice is purely cosmetic (weird!), this bad boy repels water and sweat like a champ. The other day I drew the Black shade along my upper lash line before hopping on the treadmill, and roughly one bucket of perspiration later, it still looked good with nary a smudge.
Doesn’t it seem like more and more makeup brands are getting onto the airbrushed bandwagon? — the one filled with colorless loose powders designed to deliver an “airbrushed” look?
There’s MAC Prep+Prime, Make Up Forever HD Powder and Tarte Amazonian Clay Smooth Operator, to name but a few, and despite their different names and packaging, they promise a lot of the same things.
“[PRODUCT NAME] absorbs oil to create a matte finish, sets foundation and concealer, blurs fine lines and reduces the appearance of pores for a soft focus (read: airbrushed) look.”
The latest airbrushing beauty bit to cross my path calls itself Smashbox Photo Set Finishing Powder with SPF 15 ($28), and it airbrushes with the power of — wait for it — zinc oxide!
Zinc oxide?
Rather than being absorbed into the skin, zinc oxide, an inorganic white powder, acts as a physical sunblock, sitting atop the skin where it reflects rays of UVA and UVB light. Generally considered noncomedogenic (meaning it doesn’t block pores), zinc oxide is also a mild antimicrobial believed to accelerate wound healing. Unfortunately, products containing enough of it can look chalky on darker skin tones.
After wearing Photo Set a few times over the past week, there are some things about the product I think Smashbox really did well. First, the packaging — LOVE the wide jar, which accommodates my big powder brush without making a mess.
Second, it handles oil pretty well. With it on, even after a full day, my forehead, chin and nose (the oiliest parts of my face) are only just beginning to shine.
As for the whole soft focus effect thing, well, I don’t know. It’s hard to say. I haven’t noticed anything when I’ve been out and about, but I think I do detect slightly smoother skin in pictures. The effect isn’t as dramatic as it is with MAC Prep+Prime (which, by the way, is frickin’ fantastic), but I think it’s still there.
Can I just vent about my bangs for a moment? Because today they interfered with Smashbox’s spring In Bloom Limitless Long Wear Lip Glosses, and that’s just wrong.
Observe the redonkulous headband in the picture above, which I’ve resorted to wearing on account of my unruly bangs. Ever since I got them trimmed last week, they’ve been extremely uncooperative, jutting out at weird angles and generally behaving badly. The headband keeps them under wraps, but it also kinda steals this sheer gloss’s thunder.
The two cuties below ($21 for each 0.1-oz tube) are part of the recently released Smashbox In Bloom collection for spring (a limited edition affair), and while the collection’s springy floral theme hasn’t exactly revolutionized my concept of spring makeup, I’ve liked the products I’ve seen so far.
Smashbox In Bloom Limitless Long Wear Lip Gloss in Timeless (on the top) and Endless Kiss (on the bottom)
Shimmery coral Endless Kiss and shimmery pink Timeless come in the same long-wearing Limitless Lip Gloss formula Smashbox launched back in 2009.
[Continue reading…]
The three portable palettes in the Smashbox Style Files ($59) are totally easy to crack. What I mean to say is, there’s no 128-bit encryption or complex p@ssW07ds here. Just a batch of beauty bits (in shimmery neutrals to deep jewel tones) for eyes, lips and cheeks.
For my makeup today, I felt like something fun and fresh, but I didn’t want to think too hard.
Enter the Smashbox Style Files, a new limited edition Sephora exclusive set.
The Smashbox Style Files box
Style Files Shadow palette
These colors aren’t as pigmented as I’d hoped and suffer from some pretty mean fallout, but I do like how easy they are to blend. In all, you get eight shadows in…
Style Files Shadow palette
Style Files Eye Liner palette
Each of the cream liners double as bases for the shadows, so that’s pretty cool. And the pencil liners cling to my lash and water lines like true champs. With this set, you get four Cream Liners and two Limitless Eye Liners in…
Style Files Eye Liner palette
[Continue reading…]
The two Limitless Long Wear Lip Glosses from the new Smashbox In Bloom Collection ($21 each). The lighter shimmery peachy pink shade is Timeless and the darker coral is Endless Kiss.
Which one’s your fave?
For more details (and swatches!) of the Smashbox In Bloom Collection, check out…
The limited edition Smashbox In Bloom Eye Shadow Palette, $48.
What say you?
For more on Smashbox In Bloom, peep At Smashbox, Neutrals Are In Bloom for Spring 2011.
