Keri Hilson is the girl who sang in Timbaland’s “The Way I Are,” and was the love interest in Usher’s “Love In This Club” Video. She has now made a name for herself as a songwriter, writing for Justin Timberlake, The Pussycat Dolls, Britney Spears and Usher.

Hilson will be appearing on MTV’s TRL Wednesday, July 16, 2008 to promote the video for her first single, “Energy.” M.A.C. Cosmetic’s Sr. Artist Romero Jennings did her makeup for the show (pictured above) and explained how to achieve the look:

Pump up lashes top and bottom with 2 coats of prep and prime mascara, then add one heavy winter coat of Plushlash mascara in Plushblack.

I then add the #7 lashes which I cut into fine pieces and place on the top lashes!

The skin was primed with Prep + Prime Skin and polished with a sheer coat of Moistureblend Foundation that is highlighted with Moisturelush Eye Cream and contoured Matte Bronzer!

Shadows were pumped up with Creme de Violet used as a liner/shadow under eye while Saddle and Black Tied shadows frames the eye!

Here is a complete list of the products used:

Prep ₊ Prime Skin, Moisture Blend Foundation NC42, NC43, and NW45 Matte Bronzing Powder

Blush in Sunbasque and Frankly Scarlet

Eye shadow: Saddle, Blacktied, Cream de Violet, Blacktrack Fluidline Gel Liner

Spice and Plum Lip Liner

Prep + Prime Lash Primer, Plushlash Mascara in Plushblack and Fascinating pencil

Mineralized Skinfinish Natural in Medium and Dark for contouring

From the Electroflash Collection: Mineralized Eye Shadow Duo in Love Connection and Two to Glow, Lipstick in Mellow Mood, and Lipglass in Major Minor

I love the use of Moisturelush (read review) to highlight!

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Sally Hansen Natural Beauty has released a wonderful full line of cosmetics “inspired by” Carmindy from TLC’s show What Not to Wear. I am a big Carmindy fan and I liked her book, The Five Minute Face (Read Review). I also have been pretty impressed with Sally Hansen as of late. The new Sally Hansen Natural Beauty line focuses on natural ingredients and is paraben free.

When I saw the line at CVS, I bought a number of items to try. I was left highly impressed and am willing to bet that several items from this line will make my year end best of 2008 list (Read the 2007 list)!

The Sally Hansen Natural Beauty line includes foundation and powder, but I have so many unfinished items of those, I didn’t buy any. Instead, I got the primer, eye shadow base, an eye shadow trio, cream blush, lipstick, and a mascara. The look I created with the products and each item is covered below. All items are worn in the photo below. I am also wearing Laura Mercier Oil Free Foundation (Read Review), Laura Mercier translucent powder, and M.A.C. dual edged eye pencil in a blue/gray shade from the Heatherette collection.

The Natural Beauty Luminizing Face Primer is a really nice silicon based primer. It has a lighter feel than the cult classic Smashbox Photofinsh (Read Review), yet worked just as well. I found that it primed my skin quite well in preparation for foundation by leaving it smooth and silky. The luminizing properties are also a welcome addition. At around $10, this primer is an incredible value, and I am not aware of any other comparably priced primers of this quality. Revlon has a decent primer, but it does not provide the perfectly nice skin surface that the Sally Hansen product does.

Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Fast Fix Eyeshadow Base is another great value product. There are not a lot of drugstore shadow bases out there and this one is quite lovely. It has a light, easy to spread cream texture, that feels like it must have a touch of silicon in it. I found that it made my shadow look smooth and crease free all evening. This will become a staple product for me.

The cream blush is another great item in Salley Hansen’s new line. It is silky smooth, and Bloom, the shade that I purchased, has a nice rosy color. It is pretty well pigmented and builds pretty well, so those with darker skin can likely wear it just fine. At the same time, it also blends well, so I could wear it well with my pale skin as long as I applied with with a light and well blended touch.

The Natural Beauty Instant Definition Eye Shadow Palette comes in basic and fairly neutral color sets. I decided to go for the Ocean Eye Palette, a gray/navy combo, because I seem to have acquired way too much brown shadow. The shadow is decently pigmented, blended fine, and lasted well. I did not have any creasing issues. It seemed like a standard decent quality shadow to me with nothing really outstanding, but nothing wrong with it either.

The Natural Beauty Lift & Define Mascara was nothing special for me. The brush is small (I tend to like that), but has rather wide spaces between the bristles, which I think can make things clump easier. It went on OK, and looked OK. I don’t think it would be my first choice in mascara, but it wasn’t bad either.

Finally, I loved the Color Comfort Lip Color! Perfect Pink, Rose Parfait, turned out to be perhaps one of the best pink shades I have found in some time. For a full review of it, head on over to my post at Girl Gloss!

The bottom line: The Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Cosmetics line is a welcome addition to the available drugstore makeup choices. I particularly recommend the primer and shadow base. These items are comparable to, or perhaps even better than, other much more expensive products. The rest of the line is quite nice as well. Well done Sally Hansen!

Look for the new Sally Hansen Natural Beauty at drugstore and at ULTA Beauty.

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I love Stila eyeshadow. I also particularly love the shades Kitten and Wheat (See previous review). So being in need of new ones of each shade, I jumped all over the gorgeous new Stila Kitten summer palette that includes both shades.

The new Stila palette isn’t in stores yet (watch for it to show up in May), but you can get it at the Stila Website. It has also been available on and off through the Sephora site.

I ordered one and was excited to see it when it came. The colors are gorgeous, and in true Stila fashion, they are finely milled with lots of pigment. The compact itself is a pretty summer bronze, with a mirror inside. There is no brush included.Below are skin swatches of the shades taken outdoor under cloudy conditions and with no flash. The gold and blue shades are particularly brilliant. All of the shades have a high amount of shimmer.

I also got a Stila Cherry Crush lip and cheek stain, and will have swatches of it up in another day or so.

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I wish I were in my teens or twenties again. Then I would dare to go all out with this wonderful new collection from French artist Fafi and M.A.C. Cosmetics. But being 40, I just don’t think I can get away with a look like the one below, no matter how much I adore it!

As it is, I am still getting a lot of enjoyment from this collection. It is chock full of fun shades and I have already discovered a favorite new lipstick shade in it. (see Girl Gloss review). Among the other pleasures is a great selection of new paint pots, which I absolutely love. As far as I am concerned, MAC can’t put out new shades of these fast enough. If you haven’t tried a paint pot yet, get yourself to a MAC counter or store and do so! They are bit hard to blend, but they wear oh so well! The collection also includes some wonderful iridescent pressed powders, including a repackaging of the shade belightful in an adorable compact. This shade is absolutely incredible as a highlighter/illuminizer on a variety of skin tones, although darker skin tones might want to step up a shade to Verv-Acious.Another wonderful surprise were the two new nail lacquers. I have been enjoying M.A.C.’s limited edition nail shades, and the ones in the Fafi collection have become instant spring favorites. Boom! is a great purple/plum shade with a good measure of pearl shimmer to it that I have been sporting for over a week now. Girls Will Be Girls is a opalescent candy pink.

The collection also features Fafi cases, T-shirts, and collectible dolls. For more see Macfafi.com

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I am madly in love with M.A.C.’s N collection, which was quite popular at the spring collection fashion week shows. One example of a look from the J. Mendel fashion week show that I really like is below. Consisting of all neutral and nude shades, the collection is perfect for neutral lovers like myself, and can also provide a great backdrop for adding a splash of color.

For example, if you want to do a striking red lip, you could pair it up with a neutral eye. Or do a natural looking lid and lips, but add a bright splash of color along the lash line (I suggest Parrot from the originals collection). In the look above, an overall neutral look is used.

Below are some swatches, taken mostly in sunlight. The shadows are all gorgeous, with the brown Dark Edge being my favorite. Nanogold is very, very light, especially in sunlight. It is also more shimmery than the picture shows. It is great as a highlighter under the brow.

The collection also features three paint pots. Groundwork, which was already out, has been one of my all time favorite eye colors. I also love the previously released shade Painterly, which is another great neutral shade. With the addition of two more neutral shades, my paint pot love continues to grow. For more on the paint pots in general see my previous review. As you can see, soft ochre is almost the same shade as my skin, which is quite pale. I particularly love the Quite Natural shade.
The collection also has a couple of nice creamy eyeliners and some great lip shades. For that, and for another face chart look, head on over to my post at Girl Gloss. Keep an eye out for an upcoming look at the nail polish as well.

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Yesterday, I looked at the nail effects from the Antiquitease collection. Today I cover the rest! The collection is available beginning today, October 18, 2007!

I normally don’t like to think about the holidays before Halloween, but this entire collection is amazing and it definitely put this makeup lover in a holiday mood! I was lucky enough to get a sneak preview when I went backstage with M.A.C. before the first Chicago Fashion week show, so I decided to put a bit of extra effort into getting some photos out there of the shades that I have! Plus I really wanted to play with the colors! For the eyes, the collection features the following mineralize eyeshadow duos:

Silversmith: A silver blue with dirty mid-tone blue and white veining (frost)
Earthly Riches: A deep plum and dirty deep grey with pink veining (frost)
Engaging: A pinky beige and yellow gold with rose veining (frost)
Family Silver: A dirty light silver and mid-tone
Mi’ Lady: An intense blood red and rich purple with white veining (frost)

Because the mineralize colors work so well blended and have some blending already going on in the case, I didn’t try to swatch each side of the duos separately. Instead, I went ahead and blended them for the below photo. The colors can be used without mixing though and are pretty true to how they look in the case when that is done.

From left to right below: Mi Lady, Earthly Riches, Family Silver, and Engaging

The collection also has a nice set of three pigments, which are quite light and sheer when used dry, and become darker and more brilliant when wet. They are also quite true to how they appear in the pot. From left to right below are:

Sweet Sienna : A dirty brown with grey pearl
Gold Stroke: A mid-tone chocolate brown with red pearl
Your Ladyship Creamy white with gold pearl

In addition to the shadows and pigments, the collection includes a gorgeous gold eyeliner and features M.A.C. Fibre Rich Lash Mascara. For the lips, there are a number of very pretty shimmery lipsticks and a set of lipglass shades, described as follows:

Lipstick
Gilty Kiss: Yellow gold with gold pearl (frost)
Her Fancy: Sheer light pink with gold pearl (frost)
Antiquitease: Copper with red pearl (frost)
Queen’s Sin: Intense red with red pearl (frost)
Budding Lust: Deep neutral plum (frost)

Lipglass
Red Romp: Mid-tone red with red pearl (frost)
Corsette: Dirty grey brown with gold pearl (frost)
Trifle: White pink with pink pearl (frost)
Majestic: Yellow gold with gold pearl (frost)

Below are the lipsticks. From left right: Her Fancy, Gilty Kiss, Antiquitease, Queens Sin, Budding Lust.

I also have swatches of three of the four Lipglass shades. To view those, head on over to Girl Gloss! for my report on the lipstick and lipglass shades.

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