Beauty and Fashion Tech

Anastasia Beverly Hills, Everything You Need For a Perfect Brow

Anastasia has long been a powerhouse in the area of brow tools and cosmetics. So I was excited to give a bunch of items a try and they definitely didn’t disappoint. Anastasia has everything you need to achieve a perfect brow.

First off, the tweezers are great. Next to Tweezerman, these are the best eyebrow tweezers that I have used, and they come at a decent price for the quality. Plus, they are pink!

Anastasia also offers brow stencils, which are a fairly unique item for shaping your brows. Available in either stick on temporary form or a thicker reusable plastic form, the stencil can be applied across the brow and filled with color to show what you should tweeze and what you should keep. The stencils are available in various sizes and arch heights, so you can choose the one that works the best. I found the heavier plastic ones easier to use than the lightweight temporary ones, and the low arch stencil seemed to fit me well. For those who have no idea where to begin shaping, the stencils are a good option.

For color, Anastasia offers a wide range of options, from pencils to powder duos. All that I tried were effective, nice to use, and in attractive packaging. The Anastasia Duo II Brow Powder in Medium Ash was my favorite and worked well with my medium blonde hair and light skin tone. The Brow Pencil was effective as well. The company also offers a series of very nice highlighting pencils, such as the Anastasia Eye Lights Shimmer in Petal, which is a beautiful soft pink highlighter.

For setting, I liked the Anastasia Clear Brow Gel, and I really loved the Anastasia Tinted Brow Gel (pictured), which had just a bit of warm sparkle to it that was perfect for a night out. I tried the tinted version in Carmel, which is a beautiful shade for golden and medium to dark blondes.

For those who want the basics all together, the Anastasia Five Piece Brow Kit (pictured) comes in various shades, with an attractive pink case that includes Tweezers, Brow Powder, Brow Stencils (Set of Four Shapes), One Duo Brush (Angled Cut/Spooley), and Brow Gel. Move up to the Anastasia Seven Piece Brow Kit to add Pre-Tweeze Gel and an Eye Light Matte Pencil. Those looking to fill in thin spots or to condition the brow, might also want to look at Anastasia Brow Enhancing Serum. I might write more on that in the future after I try it for awhile.

Overall, Anastasia is one stop shopping for just about all you need in brow care and cosmetics!

Comparison Shop for Anastasia Brow Cosmetics

By Carleenp Posted in Accessories, Brows, Brushes, Palettes and Collections | No Comments

M.A.C. Cosmetics New View Collection

M.A.C. has a great new collection out that I find very useful. So I declare this a must have product!

M.A.C. New View is a collection of mineralized baked skin finish powders for finish, contour, and highlight. M.A.C. describes New View as follows:

Natural and Shimmer. The split personality of powder now, in NewView combinations with superfine seracite and talc base to sheerly and subtly perfect skin with dimensionality and mineralized starshine. The planes of the face, the contours of the body, made dazzling with a one-two sweep. Mineralize Skinfinish duos are state-of-the-art simplicity, high-resolution finish.

Each compact contains two forms of SkinFinish—one fairly matte and one shimmery. The beauty of this is that you can use the matte to contour or generally finish your makeup, and use the shimmer for highlight. Or you can mix them together for a luminizing effect.

I tried one in light and found that it was perfect on my pale skin. There was just a hint of color from the matte to add contour and the shimmer was light and not overwhelming.

Contouring and highlighting with my complexion has always been difficult. Most products have too much color and end up looking like bronzer of blush. But New View worked perfectly. So pale girls take note! This one works quite well! This will easily become a staple item in my makeup bag.

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By Carleenp Posted in Bronzers, Face Products, Makeup, Palettes and Collections | No Comments

Nars Summer Collection: Duo Cream Eyeshadow

I was sent a NARS Duo Cream Eyeshadow Compact in Unconditional Love from the Nars Summer collection to try. Not only were the shades both unique and quite attractive, the shadow itself is very impressive.

This is a cream shadow, but it is quite silky and quickly turns to more of a powder consistency, but with the opacity often seen from a cream. I found that made it easy to apply and blend, while still getting a cream shadow look.

The shadow wears well. It lasted all day for me and I had no issues with creasing. The case is also attractive. In addition, both shades are gorgeous! This one does run a bit on the expensive side though.

Below is a swatch taken in natural light:

Nars has a number of nice items in their summer collection. They can be purchased from a number of online sources, including NarsCosmetics.com.

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By Carleenp Posted in Eyeshadow, Palettes and Collections | No Comments

M.A.C. Cosmetics Naughty Nauticals

MAC has a summer collection coming out soon that looks rather fun. Naughty Nauticals focuses on nautical blues and ocean inspired shades.

What I’m particularly curious about are the two nail polishes in what appear to be a gorgeous ruby red and brilliant blue.

MAC Naughty Nauticals lNaughty Nail Blue

Watch for them in stores on May 1, 2008.

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By Carleenp Posted in Palettes and Collections | No Comments

Review: New Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Cosmetics Inspired by Carmindy

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.

Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Cosmetics Carmindy

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.

By Carleenp Posted in Blush, Celebrity Looks, Collection Looks, Concealer, Eyeshadow, Face Products, Lip Products, Makeup Primer, Mascara, Palettes and Collections | 21 Comments

Stila Kitten Summer Palette and Swatches

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.