Balm Chicky Balm Balms are lip balms with attitude. They capture the essence of ’70s disco-meets-porno chic. These are not just kitschy lip balms, since that is a market. They are tubes of clever brilliance. They are packaged in fat tubes so you get three times the product and there’s even a Friend End, so that you can let your pals borrow your balm without sharing germs. They can flip the top and swipe some on a digit and you never have to deal with making up an awkward excuse to avoid loaning out your prized lip treat to anyone else.
Hot Chocolate Love is just that. It’s extra lickable with a Pam Grier doppelganger on the sticker. Juicy Melons is sweet and ripe with a gal with a Farrah Fawcett feather ‘do on the package. Huge Cucumber Mint is unisex with a sexy and mustachioed man on the tube.
Yeah, they moisturize and taste great, but they are SUPER DUPER cute!
Make Up For Ever’s Artisan Brush Collection allows makeup mavens to treat their faces like Botticelli canvases. The collection is 76 pieces and each took five years to craft, thanks to Creator and Artistic Director Dany Sanz’s treating the process like a painstaking labor of love. The synthetic fibers feel natural and silky, with straight bristles providing generous and precise application, while wavy fibers allow for freer and lighter distribution of product. The 100s were designed for complexion; the 200s for eyes; the 300s for lips; the 400s for professionals.
Here’s my breakdown: I used 160 (straight + wavy) to apply a light dusting of powder. The wood handles allowed for firm gripping and those bristles? Baby’s bottom soft. I dabbed on my undereye concealer with 176 (straight) and I felt like I was Michelangelo. 228 (straight) was divine and just what I needed to get me back into doing multi shadow smoky eyes for fall after a summer of cat eyed (and three product maximum) looks.
Cargo’s Picture Perfect Eye Shadow Primer is on pair with Urban Decay’s Primer Potion. Squeeze a dab on the tip of your finger with the needle tip and your shadow or liner will adhere longer than your work day. It’s creamier and less chalky than other primers.
The brand’s Picture Perfect CC Cream is divinity in a tube. I warmed a dab between my fingers and then proceeded to apply to my face. My skin looked flaw free. I topped it with Cargo HD Picture Perfect Translucent Powder and I had post-orgasmic glow. Who needs a man when you’ve got makeup?
All Cargo products are available at cargocosmetics.com.
Paul + Joe are well aware that the violet and grey smoky eye look still owns it a year later. Their Eye Color Set CS in La Belle Epoque (087) let me create a gorgeous smoky eye with plums and charcoal. So if the blacks and browns in smoky eyes are too severe, you can dial it down with this cream and powder palette. Mix textures and tones. The book-like packaging is adorbs. Grab ’em at BeautyHabit.com.
The tiny-tipped liquid eyeliner pen is also a dream. Its ultra thin tip allows you to get uber close to the upper lash line.
Erno Laszlo’s Regular Normalizer Shake It Treatment is like a complexion milkshake. You shake the liquid vigorously to mix the ingredients, then apply with a cotton boil. It absorbs oil and gave me the softest, most airbrushed-like look. I paired it with a heavy black and brown smoky eye and my skin matte and even. Celebs love it, and with good reason.
When Jemma Kidd’s makeup line went under, it left a hole on the shelves of Target, which had hosted her JK Jemma Kidd diffusion line. The Lano Company’s Glam Cosmetics will now join the displays at the Bullseye. Green-minded, budget-friendly and adorably packaged, these products are easy to stock up on and play with. The Walk of Fame Eye Shadow Quad was my BFF when I used it and I recommend it for the stylish co-ed who wants to play with makeup but has a limited amount of expendable income. They’re also foolproof, thanks to the instructions on the palette itself.
