The new Josie Marah Argan Lip Treatment Trio, $40.
Josie says the pigments are made from flower petals. Cool.
Three’s Company
You’ll Sparkle for the Holidays with Les Scintillances De Chanel
Lumiere Sculptee de Chanel Highlighting Powder, $72
With my in-laws visiting, I’ve been splitting my time this week among three adults and a demanding tabby. The adults I’ve been able to handle, but the tabby — oh, the tabby. While my father-in-law went to pick up the pizza we ordered for dinner, Tabs insisted that I take pictures of these pieces from Chanel’s holiday collection, Les Scintillances De Chanel.
He’s such a ho for Coco. 🙂
The collection has been sparkling on counters and computer monitors for a little while (it’s also available online). I have some reviews planned and a couple of looks lined up over the next few days.
What do ya think of the Lumiere Sculptee de Chanel Highlighting Powder? Isn’t the pattern on the pan intriguing? It looks almost Baroque to me…or maybe Aztec. Cool, yah?
A Pocketbook of Purples with the New Laura Mercier Luxe Colour Portfolio
Three days later, and I still have no idea what the new $98 Laura Mercier Luxe Colour Portfolio has to do with snakes.
With its lid shut and its faux snakeskin midriff showing, doesn’t the new limited edition holiday kit have an almost Western motif? I keep seeing it in the hands of a woman wearing bloomers and white gloves on the wooden steps of an old saloon…
But then when it opens, exposing a palette of six powder eyeshadows, three cake liners, two powder blushes and three travel-size eye brushes, I see the palette in a different light — one that’s purple, kinda glamorous, and not all that Western at all.
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Hiding Upstairs
Tabs gets shy when his nana and grandpa visit.
If You Could Only Wear One Lip Product for the Next Month, Which One Would It Be?
I had a lot of fun reading your answers to the eyeshadow version of this question (and borrowing some of your ideas!) a few weeks ago and figured I’d also pick your brain about lips.
My lip love as of late has been Tom Ford’s Violet Fatale lipstick, a moisturizing, long-wearing lippie in a fabulous shade for fall. I think it’s just dramatic enough to be noticeable without going overboard.
If you could only wear one lip product for the next month, which one would you choose and why?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Color By Numbers
It’s cool how Smashbox numbered the pans in the new Click You’re It Holiday Eye Palette ($49; available now online), yeah?
I like colors 6, 11, 10 and 15. How about you?
How Far Would Gulliver Travel for the Little Glosses in the Laura Mercier Limited Edition Mini Lip Glacé Set?
Wearing Laura Mercier Lip Glacé in Rose
Minis rule! — and I’m not just saying that as someone who’s usually the shortest person in the room (even in heels). 🙂 The diminutive glosses in the new Laura Mercier Limited Edition Mini Lip Glacé Set may share my challenges with vertical stature, but that’s only one of the reasons I think they’re such a dang good deal.
From the left: After Hours, Blush, Quartz, Rose and Sparkling
At first glance, the $48 kit may seem expensive, but it makes pretty good sense if you do the math. The price on the set translates into big savings on what are arguably some of the most underrated glosses available on counters now.
I’ve been wearing and loving the Lip Glacés for years, and while the full-size versions cost $22 for a 0.159-oz. tube, these smaller 0.1-oz. tubes work out to just $9.60 apiece. Even ounce for ounce, they’re a much better deal ($138.38 per ounce for the full-size ones vs. $96 per ounce for the minis).
Not too shabby, tabby, especially if you love super shiny glosses and hyphenated words, like non-drying, long-wearing and non-sticky.
With the Mini Lip Glacé Set you get five meow-worthy glosses, each one packed with pigment, in a range of shades from dramatic to nude, and all of them come with a convenient doe-foot applicator.
The shades…
- After Hours: a creamy, peachy pink with golden micro-glitter
- Sparkling: a shimmery nude beige
- Rose: a shimmery reddish pink with golden glitter
- Blush: a creamy brownish pink
- Quartz: a shimmery reddish sienna
Swatches from the left: After Hours, Blush, Quartz, Rose and Sparkling
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The Beauty Social, Oct. 2011: How to Turn Beauty Blogging into a Career
From the left: Beautylish Beauty Director and segment host Ning Chao, Temptalia Founder and Editor Christine Mielke, Makeup Bag Founder and Editor Erika Valente, me (looking extra Lloyd Christmassy), and Romy Raves Lifestyle and Beauty Blogger Romy Schorr.
Even though I was a little nervous (blast you, Lloyd!) and blinded by the stage lights, I really enjoyed speaking on the blogging panel at The Beauty Social last weekend, and I wanted to share some of the highlights with you while they’re still fresh in my mind.
In hindsight, I wish I’d recorded the session, or covertly taken a few notes, but I do remember most of my answers (NOTE: these are paraphrased, because I can’t remember the exact quotes) and some tidbits from my fellow co-panelists, Christine Mielke of temptalia.com, Erika Valente of makeupbag.net and Romy Schorr of romyraves.com.
Q: What inspired you to start your blog?
Me: Well I’d always really loved makeup, and I’ll never forget the day when I was 14 and my mom took me on that first trip to the Clinique counter… I started the blog in 2007. I was freelancing at the time for magazines, mostly doing travel (for the in-room magazines on cruise ships) and health and fitness articles. I really wanted to break into beauty writing, though, and I kept pitching different magazines, but no one would hire me.
They (the magazines) were mostly drawing from their in-house writing staff, so I kept getting rejected from these beauty magazines, yet I had this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I just couldn’t let go. I knew that I wanted to create and write about beauty, but I didn’t know how to go about it.
Then in February of 2007, the Barbie Loves MAC collection came along. 🙂
I think in every beauty junkie’s life there’s always that one release that turns their casual hobby into a full-blown obsession, and for me it was Barbie Loves MAC. I went to the mall, got my little haul, and then when I got back home, that little voice in the back of my head was whispering, “Wouldn’t it be kinda cool if you took a few pictures and posted them online?”
So I borrowed a friend’s camera — and at the time I couldn’t take a picture to save my life — took some shots, and posted them online (using a free blog from wordpress.com).
That’s how Makeup and Beauty Blog was born. There wasn’t a business plan, a big reveal or a rollout. It all sort of happened organically, and it’s been one of the happiest accidents of my life.
Erica: Erica said that she, too, had always been a lifelong beauty junkie, and one of her main inspirations was her entrepreneurial husband. She’d always loved trying and buying new products, but her beauty stash had grown exponentially. One day her husband suggested that they find a way to turn her obsession into a business so that they could write off her beauty expenses, which eventually led to Makeup Bag.
Christine: Before Temptalia, Christine had been actively posting looks on Live Journal. She was in school at the time and recalls posting looks after class. She started Temptalia to archive all of her looks in one place, and her blog has just grown from there.
Q: What was the turning point that made you realize that your blog was successful?
Me: It was probably about six or seven months in, after I’d gotten an invite to cover SF Fashion Week. The blog had been bopping along as a hobby at the time, with me doing brief product reviews every few days, but I decided to approach that Fashion Week as I would a freelance assignment…and I also used it as an excuse to get a new camera. 😉
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