Lip Colors by Tom Ford Beauty, $48 each. Available now at Neiman Marcus stores and online at neimanmarcus.com.
My Precious…
My Little Lion
It’s a Dior Golden Jungle Out There! Dior Jungle Collection for Fall 2012
Reporting live today from the wild plains of the Dior golden savannah!
We’ve stepped out of our vehicle for a few moments to get a better look at the local wildlife. Around me, fall eye palettes in shades of khaki, bronze, nude and brown roam free.
It’s breathtaking, but potentially very dangerous for purses and wallets, as this area is famous for luscious, creamy shadows attacking unsuspecting, wide-eyed Dior fans like you and me.
Shh! I think I see something beautiful… Hurry, everyone! Back to the vehicle!
Seriously, there’s almost too much pretty in these compacts; I’m tempted to apply everything all at once!
Yup, lots to look forward to this fall at Dior, like a new line of brushes and face makeup, nude nail polishes and eye palettes, and a new makeup collection for eyes, lips and cheeks called Golden Jungle.
It’s a massive number of new products, and here’s a quick nibble. Let me know if anything fires up your inner jungle cat, mrrrow! 🙂
Dior Golden Jungle Palette in Golden Browns #002, $70
Dior 5-Couleurs Designer in Golden Savannah #774, $59
Dior 5-Couleurs Designer in Khaki Design #308, $59
Because You Never Know When You’ll Need to Do Your Makeup in the Desert at Twilight: The New Bobbi Brown Desert Twilight Mini Brush Set
On the set of An Owl Hoots in the Dark…
“Places, everyone! Places! Okay, Karen, it’s twilight. The sun is setting. Remember, you’re in the desert, and it suddenly strikes you to do your makeup.”
“Okay…”
“Aaaaand, action!”
“Doopdadoo, let’s see… I think I’ll do my makeup now. Seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to do here in the desert, seeing as it’s too dark to read.”
An owl hoots somewhere close by.
“What’s that?! Jeez, I’m really jumpy tonight. That’s gonna make it hard to do my makeup with these little brushes…” 🙂
When I was getting ready the other day, I challenged myself to do an entire eye look from start to finish with the four mini brushes in the new limited edition Bobbi Brown Desert Twilight Mini Brush Set ($55), and ya know, I actually got pretty far.
I finished my eyeshadow and liner, both of which I think turned out okay, but then I got stumped.
The Desert Twilight Set comes with a roomy metallic and turquoise pouch (cute!), a tiny Blush Brush, an Eye Sweep Brush (basically, a flat eyeshadow brush), one of Bobbi’s Angle Eye Shadow Brushes, and an Ultra Fine Eye Liner Brush. Here’s the thing, though: it doesn’t come with a blending brush, which makes application a little tricky for me.
I like to use a fluffy, domed eye brush to buff out any edges and create color gradients when I do my makeup (my favorite for blending is the MAC 217).
Now that I think about it…I kinda wish Bobbi had swapped the cheek brush in the set for a fluffy domed blending brush. I mean, I think the cheek brush works fine — I’ve been using it to apply powder beneath my eyes — but for me at least a blending brush would have been more useful.
Oh, and what about brows, B? I know there’s room in that cute little pouch for a small-angle brow brush, too (like the MAC 266). Having one would make filling in my brows with MAC Concrete that much easier.
So, would I ditch my regular arsenal of everyday brushes for the brushes in this kit? Um…probably not, although I wouldn’t hesitate to use it if I suddenly woke up in Vegas one morning without my regular brushes and had to quickly slap on some face paint to be the maid of honor in a spur-of-the-moment wedding at an Elvis-themed chapel.
In a pinch, I think they’d do fine. You might just have to work around some of the set’s limitations, like by using a brow pencil instead of a powder or by packing a separate blending brush.
I Won’t Keep You in Suspense: That’s the New Laura Mercier Eye Colour Duet in Suspense on My Eyes
Oh! — about the eye makeup I wore in yesterday’s NARS Foreplay review, that’s the new limited edition Laura Mercier Eye Colour Duet in Suspense ($22), part of Laura’s fall 2012 Cinema Noir Collection.
The cute case houses two powder matte shadows — a neutral beige and a plummy brown. Before I tried them on, based on how they looked in the pan, I wasn’t expecting to be thrilled, but then I got ’em on my eyes.
WOW! The texture of both of these shadows? Kind of amazing. They’re so soft that they almost feel creamy. Super easy to blend, too, and not a lick of fallout, either.
I think both colors go really well with bronzed brown and plummy brown eyeliners, like MAC Teddy and Becca Cabrera.
For my lips and cheeks in that look yesterday, I borrowed the idea from some of the fall campaign looks I’ve been seeing from NARS and YSL, pairing a strong eye with a bold lip, in this case a warm, shimmery brandy.
With the eyes and lips serving as focal points, I wanted to keep my cheeks more subdued, so I went with a matte peachy pink blush (all the deets are down below).
If you like the idea of looks that combine bold eyes and lips but feel like they can go a little overboard, you could opt for a nude lip shade instead (the Too Faced La Crème lip cremes have lots of nude shades to choose from), or skip the darker liner I’m wearing here on my lower water line entirely.
Or, you could use a lighter white or flesh-colored liner along your lower water line to create a wider-eyed look, and for something like that you might try MAC Eye Kohl in Fascinating, NARS Larger Than Life Long-Wear Eyeliner in Rue Bonaparte, Make Up For Ever Aqua Eyes in Champagne or Dolce & Gabbana Khol Pencil in True White.
Artsy
A MAC palette from the Nordstrom Anniversary sale. I love the artwork on the packaging, so bright!
I Think I Need A Pair Of Heels In This Shade O’ Pink
Extra points if you can name this plant.
The NARS Foreplay Cheek Palette Is Such a Tease
Okay, this blog’s a family show and all, but c’mon! You can’t expect me not to enjoy the perverted wordplay possibilities afforded by the new NARS Foreplay Cheek Palette ($49).
Fore-play? Four blushes, one of them a big ol’ pan of Orgasm? Oh, François, you so crazy! 🙂
As a fellow diner at le buffet de beaute, you’re probably well aware of NARS Orgasm blush’s wonderful reputation. Makeup lovers have been lavishing praise upon it for years, calling it a universally flattering peachy golden pink that looks great on just about everyone.
I wear it, love it and reach for it often in the NARS Orgasm/Laguna Duo, which I never leave home without.
Seriously. I don’t think I’ve taken a trip without it once over the past three years.
Recognizing the product’s popularity, NARS decided to make Orgasm the main dish in Foreplay, a new limited edition cheek palette available exclusively at Sephora.
The palette serves up a big pan of Orgasm and three tasty sides — a matte rosy peach that reminds me of a sheerer NARS Amour, a matte hot pink that resembles a sleepy Mata Hari, and a shimmery golden yellow highlighter which, hello! — has glitter for days (starts off on my cheeks, ends up on my chin, weird!).
There’s been some rumbling about the blushes in Foreplay being different than their namesakes in the NARS permanent line, and I have to agree. The Foreplay Orgasm (did I really just type that?), for instance, sure looks more glittery than its permanent collection counterpart does to me, and the golden pearl glitter bits look larger, too, as do the grains within the powder itself.
Heck, I can see the blush sitting on my skin, which is something I’ve never noticed with my older pan of the big O. The overall effect seems more intense and less natural than the effect I get with the Orgasm in the Orgasm/Laguna Duo.
Same goes for the glitter bits in the shimmery golden highlighter. They’re big, and they have a tendency to wander.
I’m definitely diggin’ both of the mattes, though, which remind me of Amour and Mata Hari, two of my favorite NARS blushes of all time.
Wearing the matte pink shade
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