Author: Carina

Out now: Le Métier de Beauté’s Galore Palette

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I’ve been noticing a trend going on with Le Métier de Beauté Palettes. I think Galore is the third or fourth 8-pan blush/eyeshadow palette they’ve released lately. I received an email from Nyidera Edwards, an LMdB makeup artist at the Saks Fifth Avenue counter in Bala Cynwyd Pennsylvania, with some swatches. Designed by Mikey Castillo, the Director of Makeup at Le Métier de Beauté, Galore has 4 blush shades: Dusk (a classic pinky-peach), The Factory (a bright pink), Coral Reef (a golden shimmered warm coral), and Punta Cana (a satin blonde bronze). It also has 4 eyeshadow shades: Topaz (warm shimmering copper), Quartz (soft lavender), Tanzanite (deep indigo with flecks of gold), and Diamond Noir (glinting onyx). The palette is priced at $125 and is only available at Saks Fifth Avenue. You lucky ducks in the US can place an order by calling Nyidera at 610-667-1550 ext. 169. If you decide to check it out, let Nyidera know that I sent you! 🙂 This post is not sponsored. Le Métier de Beauté is cruelty-free.

Drugstore Finds: Maybelline Color Whispers

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I was going to put these Maybelline Color Whispers as an “overhyped product,” but I realized that I really liked them. I just felt guilty because these were the first non-CF items I got after I made my cruelty-free pledge. Though I didn’t commit to completely eliminated non-CF products, I still said I would try to minimize my consumption of animal tested products. So these felt like a failure. But they are good products, so I can’t, in good conscience, put them in the “overhyped products” post, out of guilt. Anyway, I got three colors: Mocha Muse, Lust for Blush, Petal Pusher. The one I really wanted but couldn’t get a hold of was Coral Ambition, I think. These were really hard to get photos of, because they were so glossy-shiny. L-R: Mocha Muse, Lust for Blush, Petal Pusher. They are also incredibly sheer and somewhat milky-looking. It’s a similar effect to some of the Korres Lip Butters, Jasmine in particular. I’m not sure if these are marketed as an alternative to those, but they …

Confessions of a Lip-Licker

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I am a lip-licker. I don’t mean to be one, it’s just a habit of mine. I think it mostly has to do with my need to get rid of any and all dry flakes on my lips when I encounter them. Lipstick formula and longevity is marginally important to me, because I tend to lick off lipstick anyway. When I started this beauty blog, I tried to stop this habit to properly test the lipstick longevity, and also because I heard that ingesting lipstick is bad because of lead content and other icky ingredients. The other problem with lipstick-licking is that my lipstick starts out immaculate and then wears off into a real stupid mess. Sometimes, there will be a lip liner ring where a slick of lipstick used to be. Other times, it’s a jungle of dry skin with lipstick koalas clung onto them. When this happens—smushy ex-dry flakes with lipstick clingers in a sticky mess on my lips—I resort to licking my lips anyway. This does little to remedy the problem. It’s …

Quickie: MAC Extra Dimension Blush in Fiery Impact

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I have here today a beautiful blush, the MAC Extra Dimension Blush in Fiery Impact. This was an impulse buy that I’ve hauled previously but never properly reviewed. Like most of my online purchases, this one was bought sight unseen, which means that I had no idea what “extra dimension blushes” are, other than the fact that they are pretty. But, because I’m resourceful, here’s what I dug up: Product Description: “A liquid-powder blush with prismatic reflections in five shimmering shades. Impact ranges from sheer crystallized light to a highly polished metallic effect. Lasts up to 6 hours.” So, that doesn’t tell me much, except for the ff: — Extra Dimension blushes come in “five shimmering shades” — color is buildable from sheer to a fuller coverage/higher pigmentation — lasts 6 hours I picked out Fiery Impact, which is a “burnt, red bronze.” The reason for this is that I wanted to try this range and I had no brick red blushes in my blush stash. I rather liked Flaming Chic as well, which is …

Quickie: NARS Trio in Ramatuelle

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Ramatuelle is a NARS trio that came out as part of their Summer 2013 collection, if I’m not mistaken. I think it was my first NARS eye product purchase, and it was the only eyeshadow I thought to bring on a month-long trip to Europe… for some reason. Anyway! It has three colors: “silver, icy peach, apricot,” and it is something that is way cooler than I would normally have chosen, if I knew then what I know now. Luckily, I bought it blindly, because I am pretty in love with it. It’s a very unassuming trio with such a soft selection of colors. The lighter two, which are a satin and a shimmer, look pretty close to each other and don’t offer a lot of contrast. However, I am so impressed by how the cool and warm tones complement each other in a way that you wouldn’t expect. It’s inspired by Ramatuelle, a city in the South of France. Eugenia from Ommorphia Beauty Bar talks more about that here. I love how François Nars …

Made-Up History: Gustave Courbet’s “The Desperate Man (Self-Portrait),” 1845

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For this week’s installment of Made-Up History, I have one of my favorite works by Gustave Courbet. It is a self-portrait done in 1845. I have no idea how the heck he did this in 1845. I have a hard enough time painting from several static and unmoving reference pictures. And the pose and expression! He was just so good, if a little full of himself. Courbet was AWESOME. He took no shit from anyone and was often referred to as a savage. He valued freedom (liberté!) above all else, and was of the belief that artists should paint from their life, thus catapulting Realism as an art movement. Also, he looked remarkably like Johnny Depp and Elijah Wood’s baby. For my look, I did: For the eyes, I used a combination of the white shadow from the bareMinerals READY 2.0 in The Scenic Route (“Breathtaking”), the NARS Duo in Paramaribo, and Galapagos and Night Clubbing from the NARS And God Created the Woman Palette. I made my brows thicker and more unruly than usual. …

VIDEO: What Did I Pack for Vietnam?

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Here’s a “What did I pack?” video for the trip I’m currently on, aka Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam! My cousin lives there right now and we figured that now’s as good a time as any to visit them and the country. I made a “packing light” post before, outlining a makeup bag (read it here) but it was for a trip to Japan, which is much colder than Vietnam. (At least, in my head.) I actually ended up switching out a bunch of items in there, predictably, but I think I’m pretty set on this. I’ll edit this post if I ended up changing anything. PRODUCTS MENTIONED: — The Body Shop Brow & Liner Kit (02) — Nichido Clear Mascara — MAC Paint Pot (Bare Study) — bareMinerals READY 4.0 (The Happy Place) — Rouge Bunny Rouge Eye Pencil (Lola) — Maybelline Hypercurl Mascara — NARS Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturizer (Alaska) — Physician’s Formula Youthful Wear Cosmeceutical Youth-Boosting Powder (Matte, Translucent) — ADDICTION Cheek Stick (Tea Rose) — Korres Lip Butter (Jasmine) — Maybelline …