Monday, February 24, 2014

Recent Indulgences

Oh, girls, do I have some good stuff for you today!!!!  (Well, if you love peachy colors, you will think it's good stuff, but if you are a Pink Girl, you can probably stop reading right here.....)  My youngest daughter, Kelly, stopped by yesterday, and in the course of events, she suggested a little trip to our local Sephora.  Who am I to deny my child?  We went!  We saw!  We purchased!  Here are the juicy details:

As any Beauty Junkies are probably aware, Sephora has begun featuring special products (usually the new ones, naturally) in a large display right as customers enter the store.  Kelly and I were immediately drawn to the lovely blooms of Spring Color.  (I, of course, was drawn to the large poster of a gorgeous young girl, supposedly wearing some of the products displayed, momentarily forgetting that those same products would not have nearly the same effect on MY face, but we'll save our journey down the Poor-Me-I'm-Not-Young-Anymore path for another day.)  

One of the new products spotlighted at the front door was the new Nars Matte Multiple.  Ooohlala!  I guess I just recently wrote about the original Multiple, but, girls, you MUST check out the new Matte!  It is absolutely wonderful!  What is NOT wonderful, though, is the fact that the new Matte Multiple will set you back the same amount ($39) as the original Multiple, and it gives you only HALF the product!  I had a glimmer of a thought in the store that the tube looked smaller to me, but I was so enraptured by the color/feel of the product that this thought was like a buzzing, but easily escaped, fly that I almost immediately forgot. Hence, the product came home with me.  Had I realized the true import of the price, I might have been tempted to leave the product on the shelf, but, luckily, I had no such concrete knowledge, and am now enjoying a beautiful new cheek/lip color, that can be used WET OR DRY!!!!  My favorite kind of product!  I don't understand exactly what it is about the whole wet/dry thing that positively sends me, but whatever it is, it has one POWERFUL hold over me.  The color is already a gorgeous sheer wash, but I guess that using it wet further dilutes the color and makes it, according to the Nars website, 'melt into the skin'.  I confess I only just now learned of this feature, and have not attempted it myself.  What I HAVE done, though, is wear this gorgeous product (in the very strangely-named Exumas - well, I thought it was strange until I looked it up on Google Maps and found that Great Exuma Island is a gorgeous spot in the Bahamas) today and totally fall in love with it.  The color glides onto the skin (and, let's face it, we're not talking baby-fresh skin here, girls....it's seen a few suns in its day and might give a product a bit of resistance when applying it) and gives a gorgeous glow.  Exumas is swatched below so that you can see exactly what I mean, but, of course, there are other shades available - five others, to be exact - and one of them is sure to catch your fancy.  

On to the second gorgeous find of the day, hydra-smooth Lip Color ($19) from benefit in Tutti-Cutie, billed as a 'sheer coral'.  OMG, I have not been this excited about a lip product in quite some time, as so many of them seem filled with promise but never live up to expectations.  I had not read anything about this product or seen it advertised before yesterday, but I am sure hoping that it will become a part of the regular benefit line, as it is really one of the best lipsticks I've tried in a VERY long time!  Upon checking the benefit website (http://www.benefitcosmetics.com/product/view/new-hydra-smooth-lip-color), I discovered that I happened to purchase one of the sheer colors, which I adore, but there are other shades in the hydra-smooth Lip Color collection that are medium, and medium-full coverage.  There are ten colors in this collection, several of which would fit the 'I Look Good in Pink' category quite nicely, should that be your most flattering tone.  I love the way this product feels on my lips, and even though I purchased one of the sheer formulations, it stayed on my lips for longer than I'd hoped for.  I highly recommend trying one of these lip colors - soft, flattering, and sheer color, with NO FEATHERING (of course, I always use a lipliner as a first step in 'applying my lips', but I think you would receive the same performance even without one).  And I'm not one to go gaga over packaging, as I believe that what is really important is the performance of the product, but the packaging on this product has an interesting retro-feeling to me, although I've never seen anything similar in the past.  Hop on over to your closest Sephora or Ulta and check these lip colors out for yourself.  

I would also like to mention several other products, although I confess I did not purchase them just yesterday.  They are two offerings from the Urban Decay line.  The first is the Naked Basics ($28) eyeshadow palette.  My fellow Makeup Junkie daughter, Kelly, gave me this as a gift at some point in the past, either for a birthday, Mother's Day, or Christmas present.  I truly cannot recall which occasion it was, but it is a very well-chosen and well-loved gift.  It is a very, well, BASIC collection of neutral UD eyeshadows, namely Venus (shimmery cream), Foxy (matte cream), Walk of Shame (pale pinky-nude), Naked 2 (pale taupe), Faint (dark taupe), and Crave (brown-black).  These are great shades,and today I am wearing Naked 2, which I had thought might be too pale to give me any real definition, but is a perfect barely-there wash of eye-defining color.  I paired it with a dab of Venus under the browbone, and some they're real! mascara from benefit for a very natural-but-better look today.  If you are just building your collection of eyeshadows, be sure to include this palette.  

The final product today is the Urban Decay Naked Ultra Nourishing Lipgloss ($20)...boy, is THAT a mouthful! (pun?)  Mine is in yet another coral shade called 'Streak', but, again, there are eight other shades from which to choose, if coral is not your thing.  I guess that these glosses are supposed to help give more volume, add hydration, and improve the appearance of lines and wrinkles on the lips! (I don't know about you, but I don't care if the lines and wrinkles on my lips look better, I would like them to just disappear entirely!)  In any event, I like this gloss quite a bit.  It is not your typical sticky lipgloss.  It gives a pretty decent boost of color, and lasts a fairly long time on the lips as well.

Finally, here are the pictures of the afore-mentioned products, as well as a few swatches of color.






Last picture, top to bottom: 
hydra-smooth Lip Color from benefit in Tutti Cutie;
Nars Matte Multiple in Exumas;
Urban Decay Naked Ultra Nourishing Lipgloss in Streak

Hope you make your way to a local Sephora or Ulta very soon to check out these little lovelies in person!