Nakeds 3-In Search of STRANGE

My disclaimer is I have never purchased any of the Nakeds pallets-beautiful as they are-they always looked like more than enough. Instead I go off and I buy palettes that the colors immediately catch my eye and fall in love with at first site like Laura Mercier’s spring palette last year.  Even so, I only use the light blue color in that palette on the center of my lid to open it up-the other colors are too-too.  It looked to me like that was the palette used on J Lo in the American Idol’s season premiere where she wore the controversial blue dress. I thought she looked stunning and her make up was flawless(as always), which started a discussion with the bf who said-no, she’s pretty naturally. Just like Stevie Nicks and Jennifer Anniston-all natural beauties with or without make up.

Yeah right.

I love the bf because he is so pollyanna and I am so the skeptic. Even when I googled-J Lo without makeup-his response was-that must have been a bad day for her.

What-ever.

Anyway.

My girlfriend did buy the Nakeds 3 palette, but wasn’t using it so she lent it to me to check out. The colors applied to your face are always different than when applied to the hand-of course.

I used 2 of the mattes, Strange and Limit and used the darkest color, Blackheart, to make a slightly smoky eye. Looked nice.

Strange was better than the Laura Mercier Guava I use–lately I had noticed that Guava didn’t look so good on my lids as they are getting a little crepey.

So I decided to search for Strange in a single pallette-which of all the millions of colors Urban Decay has to offer, they don’t offer in a singlet.

Next step-find a similar color in another line.

I find it amazing that the salespeople for the various lines, are not so passionate about makeup that they DO NOT check out other lines.

Seriously, I went to 4 counters in Nords-and none of the ladies had more than a conceptual idea about the Nakeds 3 palette.

I subsequently went to Macys.  I took a big thick swipe of Strange from the Nakeds 3 palette and walked around the various counters.

I was thinking that Stila or Benefit might have a matte color, nope.

Went to Chanel and Dior, I knew Clinique would not have anything.  I don’t really like the colors at Estee Lauder or Shiseido. Lancome did have something very similar in a pallette, but I didn’t swipe to compare.

Got to the Bobbi Brown counter-but they must have been out to lunch. Bobbi is known for her natural colors and indeed I found a replacement in Shell.

Shell/Strange is a pale matte beige pink-it doesn’t read pink on the eye, nor does it shimmer like Guava.  It’s the perfect base color for my aging lids as it brightens my eye without calling attention to the skin quality.

Perfection.

k

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Michelle, My Bell-MyChelle Sun Shield Unscented SPF28

In my ongoing search for sunscreen, I was cruising around Whole Foods, and a woman was sampling in the beauty products aisle. I wasn’t overly interested, but I took a sample anyway.

Lo and behold-I put on the product, the first morning, just a little dab around my eye area, and no sting!

Then today, I got more aggressive, and still not stinging or tearing!

This is a zinc oxide and titanium oxide based sunscreen. It appears to dry pretty transparent, though it comes out as a medium thick paste, but it smooths on pretty easily so no skin tugging.

I used Face Shoppe’s Sun Flower Cream for awhile, and am using up the bottle, but after awhile my eyes got sensitive to it. Yesterday I was in the Korean competitor’s Natural Republic and tried their product–reminds me of the Clarin’s SPF40. Very thin liquid, that dries smooth. Kiehl’s and some others have a liquid, but they have a gritty feel to the product.

As an aside, the sales girls in Natural Republic were fairly knowledgable, but not as enthusiastic as the girls in The Face Shoppe. There is less sales press in the latter as well.

k

A Smile Is Just A Frown, Turned Upside Down-Clinique High Lash Mascara

When I use Clinique’s High Lash mascara, I was reminded of the ol song–smiling faces, smiling faces, beware! Hey, they don’t tell the truth…

Anyway, it feels good to be doing some creative writing for a change.

I am not a mascara aficionado like many other bloggers-I am, a woman in search of ONE-COAT fantastic length and volume though without clumping.

I thought I found it in a MAC mascara recently, but the fact that I can’t remember the name only a month or or so later, well

that’s telling.

I think that went in the round receptacle.

I just don’t have the time to be so fussy to 1) put on more than one coat of mascara, and 2) take one of those combs out to separate the lashes.

So, there’s a nice lady at the Clinique Kahala counter who introduces me to new product-mostly when it comes to Clinique I pick up skincare like Dramatically Different which I like to use when I want to seal a serum in. It’s not for the heavy duty days when I need Kiehl’s Rosa Artica original formula.

I was just using my sample mascaras to tide me over after I tossed the Mac-and really, am I the only that gets confused with all those brushes? This does this, and this does that?

So, all I really need is simple. She suggested High Lash because it lengthens by pulling the lashes out with the comb/brush. Sort of helps the lashes curl a bit too.

The want itself is neon green and more like a comb than a brush–it is shaped as a semi-circle thus a frown or smile shape.

So, after a few days of using it, I was expecting it to start clumping, and it kind of did and I resorted to using the separation comb.

Then for whatever reason, I thought how about flipping the brush/comb?

So, what I do is use it like a “smile” to put on the coat of mascara.

Then I flip it, and use it like a “frown” to separate the lashes.

Somehow this works–

I don’t know if the folks at Clinique intended this, but it works for me.

k