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By Sheila Arkee
I try my hardest not to use discontinued products, but when I found this old, old school MAC color, I couldn’t resist incorporating it in today’s look. This is MAC’s Phase, which is most similar to Sushi Flower.
Base: Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Inner Lid: Gold from Wet n Wild Vanity palette
Lid: MAC Phase
Outer Corner: MAC Fig. 1
Browbone: Cream from Wet n Wild Vanity palette
Liner: Tokidoki Diamante
Brows: NYX Eyebrow Cake in Taupe/Ash
Mascara: CoverGirl LashBlast Fusion
*Tokidoki provided for consideration.
By Sheila Arkee
Okay, ladies & gents, it’s time to dish. Pour the coffee, pull out the cheesecake tiramisu, we’ll be here for awhile.
When it comes down to lip products, I’d like to imagine myself as an equal opportunity consumer who does not limit herself to one particular texture. However, when you get down to the nitty gritty I find myself gravitating towards all things glossy and on the heavy side. I like heft with my lips.
What about you? What lip textures do you prefer?
By Sheila Arkee
It is unofficially melon shadow week around these here parts. I promise to do something a little different for tomorrow’s look!
Base: Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Lid: Maybelline Color Tattoo Shadow in Fierce & Tangy
Lid: Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Hum Pigment
Crease: MAC Shag
Outer Corner: MAC Shimmermoss
Browbone: NYX Vanilla Sky
Liner: Urban Decay Zero
Brows: NYX Eyebrow Cake in Taupe/Ash
Mascara: CoverGirl LashBlast Fusion
*NYX and OCC provided for consideration.
By Sheila Arkee
Since finishing my Lavera eye products recently and not being entirely thrilled with 100% Pure Caffeine Eye Cream, I’ve been on a hunt for the next great eye product in my skin care arsenal.
Murad’s Hydro-Dynamic Ultra Moisture For Eyes recently came my way and I’m pleased to announce that it is a winner that makes my under eye area feel incredibly hydrated, healthy, and taut.
After using Murad product for almost two years, I’ve found that they are incredibly high quality products with a great amount of detail going in to the research and development of said products. I’ve never met a Murad product I didn’t like and this eye cream is no different.
The Hydro-Dynamic Ultra Moisture eye cream has a light gel texture that glides onto your skin and absorbs with ease, making it perfect for both night and day. I love that it comes with a little plastic scoop that you can disinfect, thus avoiding germ contamination.
The cream includes Osmoylte technology to maintain water balance, peptides to boost your skin’s elastin, Hyaluronic Acid, and a Collagen Support Complex to rejuvenate your skin.
I spoke to Dr. Murad personally last year and he is all about water. From him I learned that good health all comes down to maintaining the proper water balance on a cellular lever. Dr. Murad has some of the greatest skin I’ve ever seen, so I take his word on this.
The only not-so-favorable comment I have about the cream is the cost, which is around $60. However, this eye cream is definitely effective and will help your under eye area feel and look great.
*Product provided for consideration. Opinions are my own.
By Sheila Arkee
Gold, green, shimmery orange. You know I love it.
Base: Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Lid: Maybelline Color Tattoo Shadow in Fierce & Tangy
Inner Lid: Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Flawed Pigment
Outer Lid: Sweet Libertine Thai Silk
Outer Corner: MAC Greensmoke
Browbone: MAC White Frost
Lower Lid: MAC Orange
Liner: Clinique Egyptian
Brows: NYX Eyebrow Cake in Taupe/Ash
Mascara: CoverGirl LashBlast Fusion
*Obsessive Complusive Cosmetics provided for consideration.
By Sheila Arkee
As much as I despised CoverGirl’s new LashBlast 24 Hour Mascara, I absolutely adore their Blastflipstick Blendable Lip Duo.
I mean ADORE.
Let’s talk long wearing lip color done RIGHT.
This here is the Blastflipstick (the product name could use some improvement) in 805 Pucker.
One side is a frosty pink.
And the other is an opaque fuschia.
They’re gorgeous apart, and blended together the combo is great, too.
The wearability on this lippie is slightly scary. Scary because not only is it actually creamy and non-drying, but it will last for-freaking-ever. Seriously, you’ll need to take some makeup remover to get this off and you still might have some left over. And yet, it’s not drying at all like a traditional long-wearing lip color.
I’m officially impressed and intrigued.
You can find CoverGirl’s Blastflistick lippies at your local mass market drugstore.
By Sheila Arkee
Here’s another take on a melon eye, contrasted with a pop of dark blue. I am sincerely loving the Maybelline Color Tattoo cream shadow in Fierce & Tangy. Finally, a great drugstore cream shadow!
Base: Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Lid: Maybelline Color Tattoo Shadow in Fierce & Tangy
Lid: Sweet Libertine Forever Jung (sample pack)
Outer Corner: MAC Contrast
Browbone: MAC Goldbit
Liner: Urban Decay Zero
Brows: NYX Eyebrow Cake in Taupe/Ash
Mascara: CoverGirl LashBlast Fusion
By Sheila Arkee
Believe it or not, but I’ve never had a subscription to Birchbox or any other beauty sample club, and I cannot tell you why. It’s the same thing as me not owning either of the Urban Decay Naked palettes. A subtle form of going against the grain, perhaps?
When The Look Store’s “The Look Bag” sample box popped up on my doorstep, I was pleasantly and genuinely surprised to open up such an adorable little collection of products. The Look Store is a new celebrity and beauty e-commerce site founded by Alan Mruvka, who started the E! Entertainment channel.
The Look Bag is a monthly subscription club that costs $10 and allows you to try 5 luxury samples of the offerings found on The Look Store. In addition to the deluxe samples, you receive a 20% discount on the items in the store with your membership.
This month’s samples were cultivated by eyebrow guru Damone Roberts.
Damone sure has some great hair, by the way.
As a person who regularly drools over photos of fancy packaging, I found The Look Bag’s packaging delightful. The kraft paper details! The pink organza bag! The high card stock postcard! Oh, so cute!
This month’s sample kit includes:
- Kim Vo Glaze – This is a very generous size of a conditioning treatment, and I’m intrigued. I’ll keep you posted on how this turns out.
- Suki Sensitive Cleansing Bar – I’ve always wanted to try Suki, can’t wait to try this!
- Cherry Jack Couture body cream in Sweet Vanilla Frosting – To die for scent, melts right into your skin. Can’t beat this very generous sample size.
- Cailyn Cosmetics Water Drops – A lightweight moisturizer.
- Kelly Teergarden Organics Vitality Eye Cream
The sizes of these high quality products are very generous. I know there have been some concerns about the declining quality of other sample box offerings over time, but based on this introductory box from The Look Bag, I would sign up for this club. You can find more infomation and sign up at Thelookstore.com.
The Look Store asked me and a few other beauty bloggers to pick some products for a personalized store. The Painted Ladies site is still in the process of being built, but you can take a peek at it right here!
*Product provided for consideration. All opinions are my own.
By Sheila Arkee
Here’s a different take on a smoky eye, involving touches of brown and even green. Satin Taupe is one of my favorite MAC shadows, an old school color that managed to make it through years of discontinueds and limited editions.
Base: Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Lid: MAC Satin Taupe
Outer Corner: MAC Velvet Moss
Browbone: MAC Bliss (an acutal discontinued oldie)
Liner: Lavera Black Kohl
Brows: NYX Eyebrow Cake in Taupe/Ash
Mascara: CoverGirl LashBlast Fusion
By Jessica Mann Gutteridge
Beauty mavens love to talk about their Holy Grail (HG) products — that one color and formulation that is the One you’ve been looking for your whole life. Woe betide you if it gets discontinued or comes from a limited edition collection! Back in the olden days when I was in my beauty formative years (a/k/a the 80s) you used to read a lot about finding a signature scent or signature lipstick, but I’ve never been able to commit to just one look, and fortunately I think that approach is fading. We see ourselves as having vast choices and we like to change our look with our mood or atmosphere.
But if I really had to choose my favorites, the things of which I’d take a lifetime supply if stranded on a desert island (a desert island where I want to wear makeup, naturally), here are some of my current picks.
Lips –
Giorgio Armani Gloss d’Armani in Plum. This is the most money I’ve ever paid for a lip gloss, and I was a little nervous when I bought it, given the number of glosses I have languishing in my lip color drawer. But I’ve thoroughly incorporated this one into my daily life and expect to use it up, an amazing feat for me. It’s truly long-wearing, which is impressive in a lip gloss, without feeling sticky. The color is rich with the right amount of microshimmer to add depth without glittery grit. The shade works perfectly to brighten up lipstick or just on its own.
Eyes —
 Urban Decay Naked Palettes. Naked and Naked 2, I suspect, would be on many, many desert island lists. From vanilla shimmer to deepest black matte, there is an endless number of looks to be derived from these neutral shadows, which include a variety of tones and textures. If I were forced to limit myself to just a single eyeshadow for eternity, I’d go for Giorgio Armani Eyes to Kill Intense Eyeshadow in Copper-Black Grey. One swipe over the eyelids gives a beautiful metallic sheen in a neutral color, and it can be layered on for a more dramatic look. Budget choices I could live with for a long time would be NYX’s Skin Tight, a beautiful frosted peach that enhances my natural skin tone and adds polish, and the wonderful Wet ‘n’ Wild Color Icon singles in Brulee (matte cream) and Nutty (shimmery taupe) which are extremely versatile.
Cheeks —
 Nars Orgasm blush. It pains me to say this, because I really hate the oooh-we’re-so-risque name, and I’m always dubious about products that get the massive hype this one got from the time it was introduced (see, edgy name), but this peachy-pink blush with gold shimmer sets my complexion off just perfectly. One compact of it lasted me for years, and after I’d long hit pan and had only bits left in the corners, I scraped it all out and repotted in a smaller pan for travel. I really need no other blush for the rest of my life.
Nails –
OPI Teenage Dream from the Katy Perry Collection. Since I’m stranded on a desert island, I no longer have to care about looking my age or office appropriate, so I choose a color I could stare at for hours. It’s a cool-leaning shimmery pink that’s loaded with tiny bits of holographic glitter and pink glitter. It makes my nails shine like diamonds, and it’s fun to get the prismatic effect in different lights. Sometimes I use this just on the tips over a shimmery neutral, which works beautifully and tones it down a little. Another polish I could stare at for hours is Chanel’s Peridot, which morphs from gold to emerald to cobalt depending on the light.
Scent –
Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab TKO, Celeste, and Halloween: Las Vegas. Readers of my blog, All Your Base Notes Are Belong To Us know that in the last year I’ve become a devotee of indie perfumer Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab (BPAL). Their scents are inventive, playful, decadent, and creative. Plus affordable! I’ve fallen hard for two limited editions: Celeste, which is a floral vanilla, and Halloween: Las Vegas, the perfumer’s homage to her pirate-themed wedding, with booze, smoke, cake frosting, incense, and her and her husband’s signature scents swirled together. It’s a party in a bottle! I’ve also become quite addicted to a sleep blend, TKO, which smells like frosted lavender cupcakes and knocks me out every night, leaving lavender-vanilla scented sheets in the morning.
What are your desert island picks?
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