Category: Beauty

butter LONDON pedi

Cold Cream 'n' Roses

Every summer, I promise myself that I’ll get a pedicure, but the summer goes by and no pedicure. Until this summer. I was in Seattle, boarding the Monorail at Westlake Center, where I noticed a butter LONDON salon. Sensing a beauty story, I decided to go in and get that pedicure while I was in Seattle.

The butter London pedi doesn’t involve soaking the feet. Instead, the technician wiped my feet clean with a spray and disposable cloth. More hygienic, she said. She then applied Rock Off callous remover on my heels, and then wrapped my heels in Saran wrap. No shaving of calloused skin. She also applied Melt Away Cuticle Eliminator to my toes. After those treatments were complete, she removed the Saran wrap and wiped my feet clean.


butter LONDON 3 Free Lacquer in The Full Monty

I was now ready to have my toenails painted. First, the technician applied the beige-y Nail Foundation Base Coat. I eschewed the faddish blue nail polishes and instead went for a shimmery opaque antique-y gold shade (it goes beautifully with my bronze leather NAOT sandals). Finally, the technician applied Hardwear P.D. Quick Topcoat.

I was so smitten, I bought Rock Off, Melt Away, Stiletto Stick, and Lemongrass Sage Hand & Nail Cream. butter London has nail salons in the U.S., including at SeaTac airport in Seattle and Dulles Airport near Washington, DC. You may also shop butter London at Beauty.com.

LORAC Double Feature

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Concealers are the most frustrating cosmetics product for me. I’ve been on a quest to find a concealer that both covers dark circles around my eyes and blends easily so that I have that bright-eyed bushy-tailed look. Am I asking too much? Are these requirements mutually exclusive?

I’ve already reported on wet n wild Color CorRx Eye Brightening Concealer and using beautyblender to blend L’Oreal True Match Concealer. Here’s the latest product that I’ve tried:


LORAC Double Feature Concealer/Highlighter

The concept of LORAC Double Feature is ingenious. It contains a stick concealer with a unique rollerball for blending. It also contains a liquid highlighter using a lip gloss type of wand. All this in one tube.

So how does it perform? The stick concealer is good, but the stick can’t get into the nooks and crannies: for example, the bluish skin between my nose and the inner corner of my eye. I end up dabbing some on the concealer with my ring finger around that location. The rollerball is a novel way of blending concealers that works.

I’m not smitten with the highlighter. I’ve sooner have the control of a powder (either pressed or loose) with a tiny brush or the control of a pencil (for example, the Lightwand Eyebrightener from Mally Beauty) for the inner corner of the eye. A powder and large angle brush are great to highlight the cheekbones, as is NARS The Multiple in Orgasm stick, blended with the fingertips. As a rule, I avoid highlighter on my browbrone, as my eyes are somewhat deep-set.

New line from infomercial queen

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She pioneered the informercial format (in fact, she’s married to Bill Guthy of Guthy-Renker), thus leading the way for the likes of Leslie Blodgett (Bare Escentuals). Then she started a retail line Lola Cosmetics. Now she’s back with a third line, this time sold through direct sales (a la Mary Kay).

Victoria Jackson

She’s Victoria Jackson. So help me, the kits from her latest line remind me of those Pupa sets one sometimes finds at duty-free.

Victoria Jackson Survival Kit
Victoria Jackson Vanity Set

I’ll pass on these.

Jouer relaunched … for real!

Cold Cream 'n' Roses


Jouer relaunched

As followers of The Style Page blog know, I’m a fan of Jouer and its unique interlocking compacts. For months, I’ve been eagerly anticipating its relaunch. Now, finally, the wait is over. You can almost hear me breathe a sigh of relief.

Jouer has changed its packaging from white to a more glam black. Moreover, it has greatly expanded its product range to include lipstick, face products, and brushes.

Jouer’s website still has the interactive makeovers featuring women of various ethnicities, for which it was nominated for a Webby Award. Visit http://www.jouercosmetics.com/ to play with the makeovers and view Jouer’s new product range.

Black Cherry

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While many beauty bloggers are MAC fanatics (Temptalia is the foremost example), I am not. Frankly, the outré presentations for its frequent collections are a turnoff.

That said, I think that MAC’s lipsticks are some of the best on the market. I’m craving a few lip colors in MAC’s latest collection Cult of Cherry: lipstick in Crème Cerise (sheer yellow taupe) and Mattene lipstick in Kirsch (blackened cranberry), Bing (blackened eggplant), and Chock-ful (blackened brown). The descriptions sound scary, but the shades, as represented on the web site, look beautiful.


Cherries Noir collection from Laura Mercier

UPDATE Laura Mercier has come out with her own collection Cherries Noir.

Messy, but worth it

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I’m not big on black eyeliner, as it’s too harsh. I’m hooked on black brown eyeliner and now on eyeliner that are described as bronze black.

For pencils, two of my favorites are Physicians Formula Eye Definer Flat Automatic Eyeliner Pencil in Black Bronze and Velvet Touch Eyeliner in Metallic Brass from Denmark’s GOSH Cosmetics.

Lately, I’ve discovered L’Oreal Bare Naturale Gentle Mineral Eyeliner in Bronze. It’s messy because it’s a loose powder, but the look is smudgier than what you get with a pencil and the results are worth the extra care in handling this product.


L’Oreal Bare Naturale Gentle Mineral Eyeliner in Bronze

Here are some tips to minimize the mess:

* Cover your (preferably non-porous) countertop with facial tissue or wax paper to catch powder. Fold the tissue or wax paper to save the spilt powder for later use. Put some sort of weight on top – I use the container itself.

* Tap the dispenser right side up vertically – not at an angle. This minimizes spills. Unfortunately, the container does not come with a sifter.

* Get a damp cloth to wipe the the countertop clean in case of spills.

I apply L’Oreal Bare Naturale Gentle Mineral Eyeliner with the self-contained slant-edged brush to my upper lash line and to the outer corner of the lower lash line. Then I dot the lower lash line with a pressed powder eyeshadow in a softer color, using the pointed end of the Line & Define Brush from Beauty Strokes. This helps fill in sparse lower eyelashes.

At last …

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Beauty companies have us salivating about products long before those products actually hit the stores.


Kaleidoscope Eye Kit from Le Metier de Beaute
The Style Page is obsessed with eye shadow palettes!

I’ve written about Le Metier de Beaute several times, after its lip glosses were featured in InStyle. The full line became available from Needless Markup in May of this year.

I’ve raved about Jouer even more times: in fact, I’m wearing its Peridot cream eyeshadow today. After Jouer’s fire sale (60% off) on HauteLook.com, I began to question if it was still in business. For months now, Jouer’s website has had a placeholder for an upcoming “Custom Luxury Collection.” Now, at last, the Custom Luxury Collection will debut at NYC’s Henri Bendel store on Fifth Avenue on August 7. I hope that online shopping will be available in the very near future – the tease has gone on too long!

New "masstige" beauty at Target

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I received the September 2008 issue of Lucky, with the beautiful blue-eyed Milla Jovovich on the cover. It is the thickest issue of Lucky ever (I know, I’m a charter subscriber), chock full of ads. One ad that surprised me was the introduction of a line of cosmetics by UK makeup artist Jemma Kidd at Target.


JK Jemma Kidd for Target via Nylon

The URL on Target’s web site for JK Jemma Kidd given in the ad isn’t operational. A quick search on “JK Jemma Kidd” revealed that JK Jemma Kidd is only one of three cosmetics lines that will debut at Target at the end of the month. The other two are from Australian makeup Napoleon Perdis (his cosmetics line is being discontinued at Sephora) and Petra Strand of Pixi. The three Strand sisters – Petra, Sara, and Sofia – are also the brains behind Pop Beauty.

The Fashion Spot article quotes retail and beauty industry consultant Allan Mottus, who is skeptical about Target’s new beauty venture. On recent visits to Target, he saw that the only brands that were well-stocked were those that are exclusive to Target such as Sonia Kashuk and its European bath and body collections.

I don’t know what Mottus is talking about. My experience has been that these lines aren’t well-stocked. Since the debut of Sonia Kashuk’s line, there have been complaints about the erratic stock of her products. It is hard to come by her blending sponge, and there have been placeholders for kits for face and eyes, but no kits.

The amount of shelf space devoted to its European bath and body products has diminished considerably. This suggests that these products have sold poorly. There is intense competition for placement and the amount of shelf space among mass-market brands. Real-time reporting of sales gauge how well a product sells, which is why stores cut back on stocking Revlon’s Vital Radiance brand for mature women, leading to the brand’s collapse within a year.

I’m anticipating the launch of JK Jemma Kidd, Napoleon Perdis, and Pixi at Target, and I’ll be sure to report on it. The prices of JK Jemma Kidd are comparable to those for brands carried at department stores and Sephora – I wonder if Target’s customers will buy products at these prices.

Mally Beauty

Cold Cream 'n' Roses

I haven’t been this excited about a cosmetics line for a long time. Mally Beauty, from celebrity makeup artist Mally Roncal, features great concepts, standout packaging (aluminum cases with green snake skin patterned interiors) and beautiful colors. This post covers Mally’s signature products: Lightwand Eyebrightener, City Chick Smoky Eye Kit, and Shimmer, Shape & Glow Face Defining System.

Lightwand Eyebrightener (not shown) is a dual-ended pencil that features a pencil on one end and a dabber at the other end to dispense illuminating powder. Both are used at the inner corners to brighten the eyes. BTW highlighter at the inner corners is also a key part of Carmindy’s so-called 5-Minute Face.

Canal Street Khaki (actually more olive than khaki) is a new addition to Mally’s City Chick Smoky Eye Kit collection of palettes, which I discussed in Demystifying Eye Makeup. Each kit comes complete with eye shadow base, highlighter, lip and crease colors, and a black retractable eyeliner – everything you need to create the classic smoky eye look (minus the brushes).


Shimmer, Shape & Glow Face Defining System

Shimmer, Shape & Glow Face Defining System is my favorite of the three products. It features three shades: a highlighter for the cheekbones, a blush, and a contour. Four color palettes are available: In The Pink Lighter, In The Pink Deeper, Life is Lighter, and Love is Deeper. All the palettes are pretty, and even better, you can buy refills so that you can mix and match colors.

Mally Beauty products feature inserts with Mally’s tips on using the products. You may shop Mally Beauty at QVC.com or Amazon.com.

Follow-ups on recent articles

Cold Cream 'n' Roses

Now Lancome has come out with its own vibrating mascara. I received notices through Glam.com, Sephora, and Lancome itself hyping the new mascara. I’ll wait and see if L’Oreal will come out with a similar product for less: Lancome is part of the L’Oreal Group and L’Oreal products are often knockoffs of Lancome products.

This article General Counsel: Fashion Fuels a Friendship from WSJ.com (the companion webiste to the Wall Street Journal) is about dressing appropriately for the workplace, but it confirms what Poppy King said about Hillary Clinton. The article states,

“Yet if looking womanly can seem unprofessional, it’s also possible to not look feminine enough. Massive amounts of time and print space have been devoted to analyzing Hillary Clinton’s power lapels and pantsuits. Now, some voters wonder if a softer message might have been better received.”

Of course, there were other things (Hillary’s lack of connection with prospective voters, Bill’s temper tantrums) that derailed her campaign.