Lucky and Sephora are two go-to places for shopping enthusiasts. Now Lucky and Sephora have come together to sponsor a contest to win a $1,000.00 (one thousand dollars) Sephora gift card: in addition, by visiting Month of Beauty with Kat von D everyday, you can enter giveaways or get makeup tips from tattoo artist Kat von D.
Even if you don’t win a prize, take advantage of free shipping from Sephora for purchases over fifty dollars through Month of Beauty with Kat von D.
Cargo Daily Gloss
CARGO Essential Eyeshadow Palette, however, is a gimmick I support. The palettes come in Cool/Neutral, Warm/Neutral, and Deep/Neutral and each of the four shades in a palette is embossed with its function/use.
As Linda Wells’s book Allure: Confessions of a Beauty Editor
These CARGO palettes reminded me of Look Cosmetics, a brand that was exclusive to Barneys, but lasted only a couple of years at best, back in the 90s. Look featured graduated tones in both warm and cool shades; however, the eye shadows were sold as singles. Now that was a great concept.
You may find CARGO Essential Eyeshadow Palette at Sephora.com.
Benefit is known for its creative treatment products and the cutesy names it gives to its products. Pictured above are two powder concealers from Benefit: Get Even Pressed Powder (L) and Powderflage concealer (R).
Get Even is not merely a blotting powder; it’s also a powder concealer. If you like the light coverage of powder concealers, such as those from Bare Escentuals’ Get Started kits, but hate the mess of loose powders, then Get Even is for you. Powderflage is a pale pink loose powder described as a concealer, but it’s more of an eye brightener. I’d recommend it for fair to light complexions.
As long as you understand the real benefits (ahem 🙂 of Get Even and Powderflage – and find them useful – these products are a good addition to your makeup routine.
It’s been a long time since I looked at Bobbi Brown. I’m not sure why: I favor brands like Laura Mercier that project an image of making women look beautiful. Certainly Bobbi Brown qualifies.
I visited the Bobbi Brown counter at the nearby Nordstrom and was impressed by the variety of eyeshadow and blusher shades available for its Custom Palettes. I created my own palette, which consisted of eyeshadow in Hot Stone (medium ashy brown), Wheat (medium ash beige), and Black Plum and blusher in Brown Berry. Hot Stone is a recent addition to the Bobbi Brown collection of eyeshadow. After a brow stylist recommended ashen shades for my eyebrows, I’ve been using Hot Stone on my eyebrow, along with the darker Grey Brown eyeshadow from il-Makiage.
I’m very happy with the palette. I use Wheat as an all-over eye shade, Hot Stone on the lid, and Black Plum in the crease and outer corner, which I complement with a deep plum eyeliner. BTW a plummy smoky eye more sensuous than a smoky eye in traditional neutrals such as gray or brown.
I have two complaints. First, the individual shades come in their own fancy packaging: I’d much rather pay for individual pans. Secondly, the glossy black finish of the palette really shows up fingerprints.
Now the Bobbi Brown site (www.bobbibrown.com) has an application in which you can build your Custom Palette online.
MAC Emanuel Ungaro
This sweetly feminine image comes from, believe it or not, MAC. It’s for MAC’s new Emanuel Ungaro collection. The colors are pretty as well.
BTW I sampled the Mattene lipsticks from MAC’s Cult of Cherry collection. My taste in makeup is decidedly conservative, and these lipsticks were too goth or vampish for me.
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TotalBeauty.com content: |
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Find out if they make a visible difference
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 Pro makeup artist Molly Stern says primers are meant to serve as a layer between skin and foundation to create a more even surface. But not everyone needs them. “The best candidate for them would be someone who is very oily or has a lot of scarring from acne,” she says. But do primers actually make a difference? We had two women of different ages each test a top foundation primer geared toward their skin type. Find out if their makeup looked better … and if anyone noticed. |
In view of Illamasqua‘s goal of creating brand loyalty for itself, The Style Page wants to know if you are loyal to a particular cosmetics or product.
Please scroll down the page to locate the poll in the left-hand navigation bar and vote. This poll is open only through September 30, 2008 – seven days left. Please leave comments to elaborate.
The U.S. is not the only country anticipating debuts of new cosmetics lines: the UK is anticipating the launch of Illamasqua at the tony Selfridges department store.
Illamasqua brand image
from Beauty Counter interview with Artistic Director Alex Box
Illamasqua was developed in association with Kryolan, the leading company for theatrical makeup. Illamasqua founder Julian Kynaston from Propaganda said, “We were shocked that the make-up market appeared to have no real emotional brands … there was a lot of loyalty, but that loyalty was not at a brand level it was at a hero product level. You would see girls who were loyal to a particular lipstick from say Chanel, certainly Yves Saint Laurent’s Touche Eclat had incredible product loyalty.”
Illamasqua
The article from The Drum further notes,
During their research Propaganda emptied over 1,200 make-up bags and they found little evidence of dominance of any one brand. Typically there were 14 different brands in the average make-up bag. From here on, Kynaston’s goal became to ensure that the make-up bag of the future consisted of 50% of their brand, in their target market, with the other brands sharing the remaining half.
It will be interesting to see how creating brand loyalty will work out. Only MAC seems to command that sort of brand loyalty nowadays.
Lip Wax from Giorgio Armani Beauty
Giorgio Armani Beauty describes Lip Wax as a “compact lipstick.” Actually, it’s more like lip stain. Lip Wax differs from lip stains, however, in that it’s smoother and less drying. That’s one aspect I like about Lip Wax; the other aspect I like is that the color is buildable from a simple tint to full-out lip color.
Lip Wax is available in six shades: #01 (nude beige), #02 (antique rose), #03 (sienna), #04 (raspberry), #05 (cardinal red), and #6 (deep chianti)
You may purchase Lip Wax ($26.00) through Giorgio Armani Beauty, or wait until next month (October 2008) to buy it at a Giorgion Armani Beauty counter.
Beauty411 said that Pixi was her least favorite of the three premium brands that debuted at Target: Pixi, NP Set, and JK Jemma Kidd. Pixi is by far my favorite of the three brands.
I’m a sucker for beautifully coordinated eye shadow palettes, and Pixi has several beautiful palettes: Minimum, Mango, Miracle Velveteen, Miracle, and Mirage (is there an alliteration thing going on here, or what? 🙂
Pixi Eye Beauty Kit in Miracle
In addition, Pixi has some great concepts, such as Lid & Line (not shown), which features a retractable eyeliner pencil, a matching eye shadow, and smudger, all in one pen. I like lining lining my upper eyelid with the shadow, smudging the line, and using the pencil tips to fill in my lower lashes. The package is right about Lid & Line: it creates the smudgy, smoky eye in a flash.
Another great concept product is Illuminating Tint & Conceal, described as a “tinted moisturizer,” with a cream-to-powder concealer built into the cap. For something described as a tinted moisturizer, Illuminating Tint & Conceal has a lot of opacity. That’s because it uses titanium oxide and zinc oxide as sunscreen agents (it is rated SPF 20). Because the illumination is actually shimmer, I don’t apply the tinted moisturizer on my nose. The concealer dries to a soft powdery finish. This product delivers, but, geez, $35.00?? You’d at least expect more glam packaging.
Pixi Illuminating Tint & Conceal
I’d like readers to provide comments on Pixi – price, performance, packaging, etc. Has anyone tried the Lip Blush?
Cold Cream 'n' Roses 
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