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
Jet skiing — so much fun! I rented from Ski Run Boat Company on the South Shore and was happy with the experience. The gals who work the booth are all very nice.
The water is HELLA COLD, though. Bring (or rent) a wetsuit if you can. I forgot my bathing suit and my wetsuit at home (DOH!), so I ended up wearing workout clothes, LOL!
Urban Decay’s Naked Palette shocked the beauty world back in 2010, not with bodacious primary colors and sparkly gobs of gorgeous glitter, but with elemental earth tones and wearable neutral shades.
Since then, many brands have joined the basics bandwagon, coming out with neutral eye palettes of their own.
I love neutrals almost as much as I love bolds — well, maybe even more (although it’s hard to resist a pair of pigmented purple cat eyes).
If you have a neutral eye palette waiting patiently in your makeup bag, give it some love today. Here’s an easy (always important) neutral eye look featuring matte black and brown shades and a shimmery, peachy gold.
I’ll be using eyeshadows from Anastasia’s new She Wears It Well Palette ($34), specifically Sunset (a shimmery, peachy gold), Onyx (a matte black matte) and Toffee (a matte brown).
Before we jump in, let’s go over the recipe…
Bear in mind that these are only suggestions. You don’t have to use the exact same colors or brushes to follow this tutorial.
Right! With that out of the way, are you ready to get neutral-ized? 🙂
I can’t believe I haven’t unsung the heroic MAC 239 Eye Shader Brush yet!
Weird! — considering how much I love it. I’m even thinking about getting a second one to go with the first. That way, I could reserve one for powders and one for creams.
Heck, while I’m at it, might as well get a third (strictly for blending, of course).
No, no, I guess one is enough… It’s just a brush, after all.
Or is it? 🙂
A medium-sized flat eyeshadow brush with gloriously soft goat hair fibers packed into a firm, dense head with a rounded shape, the $25 MAC 239 is capable of a multitude of makeup tasks, from applying and blending eyeshadows (loose and pressed powders, and creams), to highlighting beneath my brows, lining my eyes and adding color into the outer V and inner corners.
I have a handful of brushes from other brands that by all appearances, look like the MAC 239, but that’s where the similarities end.
The size of the 239’s brush head is like my favorite part of the Story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, juuuust right. Not too big, not too small. It covers a fairly wide area on my lid, and yet is small enough to fit into the inner and outer corners of my eyes, and directly below my lashes.
It’s like getting a bunch of different brushes in one!
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The LORAC Pro Palette, $42. Available now at Sephora, Ulta and online at ulta.com.
Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector in Moonstone on the left and MAC Strobe Cream on the right
Hmm… I wonder what Tabs is doing right now.
I’m typing this on my laptop at the little desk in my hotel room in Tahoe (Stateline, on the Nevada side of the lake) while El Hub quietly snores behind me like a husky, little angel. Between you and me…I’m hoping that my clacking on the keyboard wakes him up so that I can innocently ask him to go get me some coffee from the Starbucks in the lobby. 🙂
Tabs is back at the Novato offices of Makeup and Beauty Blog, probably working from his cat tower in the living room.
I bet he’s probably thinking (and laughing maniacally!) about how he woke me up early yesterday…
At exactly 4 a.m., he stealthily approached the bed while El Hub and I were still sawing logs, somehow made it up on to the comforter without making a sound (amazing considering that he weighs almost 20 pounds), and then threw himself on my bladder!
Whether it was for sport or gravy, the world will never know…
Needless to say, it woke me up, and not on the right side of the bed, so out came the shimmery face lotion.
Perfect for partying till the break of dawn (ZOMG! I can’t believe there were mornings I’d walk through the door at 6 a.m.!) or for pet owners/assistants with acrobatic, time-insensitive cats, these little bottles are potions of face-perking power!
Like yesterday, I rubbed a dollop of the shimmery lotion all over my face, after my sunscreen but before my foundation (and/or tinted moisturizer, if I were to wear one), using my fingers, but sometimes I’ll use a foundation brush.
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What’s that, you say? You haven’t yet tried any of the beautiful bits in the Burberry Beauty line?
Understood. It’s not one of those brands you find around every corner, and it’s about as far from drugstore as you can get. It’s exclusive, for sure, but that only accentuates the allure. 🙂
I gotta say, every time I twist up one of their lipsticks, like their lovely spring/summer 2012 shades, and expose that check pattern on the tube? — it takes my breath away!
If you’ve been dying to try the line, warm up those giveaway muscles, because Burberry Beauty is giving MBB readers a chance — 15 chances, to be exact. Enter now for a chance to be one of 15 winners to sample all of the lastest and greatest Burberry Beauty products in one fell swoop.
Giveaway starts in 
Enter now (it only takes a comment and/or 
tweet), and you could be one of 15 lucky ladies or gents to win a selection of Burberry Beauty products valued at $40.
Each of 15 winners will receive all of the following:
Wearing Burberry Lip Mist in Copper No. 202
Twitter @karenmbb and retweeting (RT) the following message:
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Before I left for Tahoe this morning, I triple-checked to make sure that my Hourglass Foundation/Blush Brush No. 2 was snug as a bug in a rug in my makeup bag.
I wasn’t taking any chances…not with a tool as terrific as this.
A medium-sized face brush with a round, domed head and synthetic fibers made of high-grade Takelon, this $58 beast is one of my top tools because of something it doesn’t do, instead of something it does.
So…I know, $58 is a lot of tacos, but this brush never, ever streaks. It delivers a smooth, even, flawless finish every single time. If you’re looking for that airbrushed look, the No. 2 is your gal.
I think I may have mentioned it a few times before…
Okay, more than a few, LOL!
I 
this brush so much that it’s one of the products on my “can’t leave home without it” list, both because of how useful it is, and because it’s the only foundation brush I’ve ever used (and I’ve used quite a few) that never, ever sheds.
Never sheds nor streaks? That’s not bad.
I used the No. 2 throughout the summer to apply my foundation and tinted moisturizer, and not once did I have to pick bristles off my face.
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