Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup

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

I’m Feeling Neutral About the Anastasia All Eye Want Palette

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When Urban Decay coaxed thousands of us (maybe millions!) into getting Naked last year, it prompted many of the big makeup lines to follow suit with neutral palettes of their own. And just like that! — neutral was the new black. 🙂

I’m not complaining, of course. I’m always down to play with easy-to-wear colors. Colors like the cocoas, caramels and latte shades in the new limited edition Anastasia All Eye Want Palette ($32, exclusive to Sephora).

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The palette, which Anastasia created with weekend getaways (and very likely coffee-based drinks, LOL!) in mind, contains nine neutral shadows, some shimmery and some matte, and small versions of her Clear Brow Gel and Lash Lifting Mascara.


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Beauty in Everyday Things

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One thing I’ve learned through photography is how beautiful everyday things can be.

This is a fruit called calamansi (kah-lah-mon-see) picked from my dad’s garden at home. It’s a sour citrus native to the Philippines and commonly used to flavor food and drinks.

I think it tastes like a cross between a lime and an orange. When they’re ripe, like they are here, don’t they look like tiny tangerines? So cute!

Skincare for the Changing Seasons: 5 Ways to Winterize Your Skin

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This post is part of a series sponsored by Dove.

I ticked off the tabby the other day when I had to cut short our regular morning walk. There was a chill in the air that I just couldn’t shake — certainly not in the sweatshirt, jeans and flip-flops I’d gotten used to wearing on our little jaunts — and even though the first official day of winter doesn’t arrive for more than a month, Jack Frost was already nipping at my toes.

From here on out, at least for the next few months, it’s cold weather season, and that means dry air, dry skin and cold, cold, cold.

For me it also seems to mean scaly shins and crusty cuticles that get worse and worse every year. Thankfully, I’ve figured out a few ways to keep my skin from staging a revolt as the temperature drops. Here are five ways to winterize your skin care routine.

1. Some like it lukewarm

When it’s cold out, I like it hot! My showers, that is. Unfortunately, hot water can strip away skin’s natural oils, leaving it far worse off.

The solution? — to turn the temperature down, and take shorter lukewarm showers and baths.

Now, I have a really tough time with this one because I think hot showers just feel so dang good when there’s a chill in the air. Coupled with my tendency to daydream in the shower (it’s where I do my best brainstorming), and I can easily spend 30 minutes dillydallying while the hot water dries out my skin.

That’s where a waterproof watch with an alarm and timer can help. I’ll set mine right before I step in the shower, and then I have no excuse…

2. Mighty mittens!

Regularly exfoliating removes the layers of dead skin (eww!) and other gunk that soap doesn’t or can’t. It also restores skin’s natural ability to absorb moisture, and sure, I love the way it makes my skin glow.

Anything that encourages me to exfoliate and makes it easier and fun gets a big thumbs up from me, which is why I like exfoliating gloves. They have a rough texture and can even be worn in the shower. Most drugstores sell ’em for about $3.

Whenever I feel the need to exfoliate — and sometimes it is a need — but don’t want the aggressive abrasiveness of a scrub, I squirt a small amount of a moisturizing body wash onto the gloves and massage my arms, legs, shoulders, back and tummy using gentle circular motions. Then, I’ll got to town on my rougher parts, like my hands, elbows and feet.
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According to This Hourglass, It’s Time for Another Holiday Extreme Sheen Set

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Wearing Hourglass Extreme Sheen Gloss in Imagine

This year for the holidays, Hourglass is having a small but tasteful fete at Bergdorf Goodman stores. Your presence has been requested, my dear, although you needn’t RSVP. Yes, the luxury line just launched a single lip kit for the holidays, their one-and-only shindig fof the season, and called it the Extreme Sheen Set.

Forty-five dollars (available exclusively at Bergdorf Goodman stores) gets you three mini lip glosses with maximum moisture and shine. Child (a sheer nude), Imagine (a shimmery, peachy champagne) and Ignite (a shimmery rosy beige) can’t wait to see you at the party, and they hope you’ll be wearing a pair of sultry, smokey eyes.

If you feel like you’ve seen this show before, congrats! — you have a great memory. The set’s very similar to last year’s Extreme Sheen Set, which included two of the same shades, Ignite and Child, with the third being a bright red called Siren.

This year, by replacing Siren with Imagine, methinks Hourglass has given the kit a more casual feel.

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From the left: Child, Imagine and Ignite

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Swatches from the left: Child, Imagine and Ignite
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I’ve Got Anastasia Bright Eyes, Big City in My Suburban Sights

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My inner urban girl, the one who after 10 years living in the surburbs still tells herself that “it’s only temporary,” loves that Anastasia gives a shout-out to city girls with the name of her $39 Bright Eyes, Big City Brow & Eye Collection kit.

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The kit, one of four available now from Anastasia for the holidays, comes with a nice array of eye and brow products put together to create natural, wide-eyed looks.

The kit includes…

  • One pan with a trio of matte eye and brow powders
  • Another pan with a trio of baked shimmery eyeshadows
  • A travel-size mascara
  • A full-size Cooling Eye Brightener
  • A full-size Clear Brow Gel
  • A tiny tweezers
  • A mini dual-tipped brow brush
  • And a mini dual-tipped eyehadow brush

Anastasia’s known for bodacious brow products, and they’re my favorite pieces in this kit. With the brow/eye powders, gel, tweezers and mini brow brush, perfect brows are just a minute or two away.

As for the rest of the eye makeup here, well, I feel like it’s just okay. I do dig the glowy effect I get with the shimmery eyeshadows, but it’s accompanied by some fallout. That, and I feel like the mascara, despite the great lash separation it creates, doesn’t deliver the drag queen length and volume I crave.

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The Juicy Couture Troy Surratt Lip Gloss Set Is Quite a Sweet Treat

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Wearing the Troy Surratt for Juicy Couture Lip Tin in Strawberry

To dip or not to dip — that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler on the lips to suffer the slings and arrows of bacterial infection, or to take arms against a tin that contains the tastiest glosses I’ve worn in a really long time…

Even though I’d prefer tubes to a tin, my taste buds are like, “We don’t care!” The new glosses in the Juicy Couture Troy Surratt Lip Gloss Set, a collaboration between Juicy Couture and celebrity makeup artist Troy Surratt (whose resume reads like my iTunes workout playlist, and includes the likes of Jennifer Lopez, Mary J. Blige, Fergie and Janet Jackson), smell and taste just like my movie theater Achilles’ heel…

Gummy bears!

Yup, gummy bears. The white, red and purple ones, as a matter o’ fact.

The lightly tinted, non-sticky glosses go by the names, Vanilla Shake, Strawberry and Raspberry, and all three feel more like hydrating lip balms than straight glosses to me, which I like.

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