It’s a tiny collection this year with just one kit — the new Extreme Sheen Set ($45; available exclusively at Bergdorf Goodman).
Swatches and review coming soon. 🙂

Pretty colors, yah?
by Karen 5 Comments


It’s a tiny collection this year with just one kit — the new Extreme Sheen Set ($45; available exclusively at Bergdorf Goodman).
Swatches and review coming soon. 🙂

Pretty colors, yah?
by Karen 53 Comments

Indecisiveness doesn’t go well with Tarte’s new holiday kit. Nope, the $48 Puttin’ on the Glitz kit comes with three interchangeable palettes, but you can only fit one of them in the cute silver clutch at a time.
Hmm…
Being a fiend for accessories, my pulse jumped when I heard about this clever limited edition cutie and its 18 powder eyeshadows, highlighter, bronzer and lipgloss. To make it easier to tote the products around (but not all at the same time), Tarte included the clutch, which incorporates a mirror for touch-ups and slots for bills and credit cards. There’s also a tutorial booklet with pretty helpful directions for three different looks.


by Karen 25 Comments

Not even strobe lights could compete with the glare from the glitterific shades in Deborah Lippmann’s latest collection of nail lacquers. I hope you’re ready to pump up the jam, love, because this disco ball’s droppin’, haaay! It’s time to hit the dance floor with Deborah’s holiday collection. 🙂
This ode to sparkle and shine, available now, contains six separate nail polishes, four limited edition and two permanent shades ($16-18 each), and the $42 three-piece Get This Party Started set (with full-size bottles).
Today my nails took four of the individual polishes and the entire Get This Party Started set out for a joy ride. With their fun flecks of glitter and rich metallic finishes, these colors are just begging to be worn on a dance floor.
Deborah Lippmann Nail Polishes for Holiday 2011 ($16-18 each)
Shimmery red Do Ya Think I’m Sexy, glittery gold Shake Your Groove Thing, glittery graphite I Love the Nightlife and iridescently glittery Stairway to Heaven catch and reflect so much light that I think I was almost hypnotized!
Having a clear formula should make these limited edition shades (Stairway to Heaven’s base appears slightly milky) great for layering with other polishes, perhaps atop a base of shiny red, silver, gold or gunmetal gray, but I think they sparkle just as well when worn alone.
Set aside at least 30 minutes for these, though, if you want to cover your nails entirely with glitter as it may take five or six coats to get a good distribution (on account of the clear formula/base).
MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: A-Get This Party Started Set ($42)
My favorite part of the collection. 🙂 It comes with three full-size bottles — Deborah’s famous Happy Birthday shade (a mutli-colored glitter in a clear base), and two new riffs on the shade.
The first, Candy Shop, is Happy Birthday in a sheer pink base. The second one, Forget You, combines Happy Birthday with a sheer black base. I love both the contrast between the small and large pieces glitter in all three of these, and how it gives the group of them extra dimension. I also just like how fun these colors feel. We’re talking light rays and disco balls here.
MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: A+
Here are swatches of four of the individual shades and all three polishes in Get This Party Started. In each of these, I’m wearing two layers (without a base or top coat).

Get This Party Started

Happy Birthday (from Get This Party Started)

Candy Shop (from Get This Party Started)
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by Karen 18 Comments

It was a dark and stormy night…
Wait — no it wasn’t. Not even close. It was actually a Lost Weekend earlier this fall, and matte Becca Mineral Blush in Wild Honey ($32) was there.
The sweet cheeks this pigmented peachy nude powder blush creates are always in style, but they feel like they hail from a kinder, gentler time, a time when afternoons meant studying at the library after school, and your cheeks would flush at a smile from your crush or a single word like, “Hi.”

by Karen 20 Comments

I went to a Vietnamese restaurant for pho (noodle soup) last weekend and saw this “vegetarian” item on the menu. They also had a vegetarian beef soup, too. 🙂
It reminds me of my mom; when I come home to visit she’ll make me what she calls veggie versions of my favorite Filipino dishes, which almost always have chicken!
by Karen 34 Comments

Rich holiday reds are so much fun, but sometimes I wanna get low…maintenance with my lip color. 🙂
On days like that, I like sets like these. The eight glosses in Tarte’s new $29 limited edition Glossed Over PureOptic Lipgloss Collection make sheer, shiny lip looks as easy as 1-2-3.
Available exclusively at QVC.com, the set includes eight 0.04-oz. travel-size PureOptic Glosses (the full-size 0.14-oz. ones cost $21 each) in Nectar, Nude, Pink Blush, Coral, Warm Pink, Nude Pink, Mauve and Berry.
Ironically, Tarte describes these as pigmented and rich on their website, but on my lips, all eight shades? Not so vivid. Even the brightest one here, Coral, looks rather sheer to me, and increasingly so as I smack my lips a few times.
The glosses are what I affectionately refer to as “clickers,” because twisting the bottom of the tube makes a rewarding “click-click-click” sound and dispenses the product through the applicator brush.


by Karen 10 Comments






Swatches and pics of the Juicy Couture Deborah Lippmann Metallic Nail Set ($48), one of two new Juicy Couture Deborah Lippmann sets for holiday 2011.





by Karen 30 Comments

Officially, MAC’s moniker for today’s Unsung Hero is “Phloof!” ($15, exclamation mark included), but because of this eyeshadow’s uncanny ability to brighten tired eyes, I think it looks more like a “POOF!” instead.
As for how we met, credit for that goes to my pal, Amara (thanks, girl!).
It was an early morning last spring after Amara and I had gone out to a late dinner the night before. While I looked like a zombie extra on the set of The Walking Dead, she, on the other hand, looked wide awake, glowing and totally refreshed. I couldn’t believe my eyes!
But as tired as I was that day, at least I had the good sense to ask Amara what she was wearing.
Her answer: “PHLOOF! And it’s magic.”


Swatch of Phloof! with MAC Shroom (center) and MAC Vex eyeshadows (far right) for comparison
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