Browsing Tag

Bobbi Brown

Uncategorized

On My Radar / New In Beauty

July 5, 2014

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July! A few items currently on my radar, from top left clockwise:

What’s on your radar this week? Have you seen any other new fall items in stores yet? I’m eagerly waiting to see Tom Ford and all the Chanel quads.

18 Comments
Uncategorized

On My Radar / New in Beauty

June 19, 2014

I hope everyone is having a great week so far. Some new things in beauty on my radar.

There will be nine limited edition shades of nail polish in a 3.1 Phillip Lim for NARS Nail Collection. One of the shades, Insidious, will be a NARS Boutique exclusive. In addition a canvas nail pochette will be released. These will be available July 15, 2014 at NARS boutiques and narscosmetics.com; August 1, 2014 at Sephora and Dept./Specialty stores.

Bobbi Brown has a second summer release called Surf and Sand, some items have started to trickle in online. There are two eyeshadow palettes in Surf (aqua and pastels) and Sand (earthy neutrals), two Long-Wear Eye Pencils, two Brightening Blushes, three Sheer Lip Colors.

Frédéric Malle and Carlos Benaïm have created a new fragrance Eau de Magnolia that launches this month. I haven’t checked it out yet but I’m hoping to soon. It sounds absolutely divine. Some details on Kafkaesque Blog.

Chanel Fall Beauty has arrived online Chanel.com and Bloomingdales. I have yet to check out the collection in person but reports on Twitter and Instagram indicate it has arrived at some counters. I ordered the three nail polishes in Secret, Orage and Atmosphere online and expect them this week. I’m eyeing the glossimer and liquid eye liners but undecided on most of the collection. Several have e-mailed me that this is a see-before-you-buy kind of collection. If you’ve checked it out, please share in the comments.

Burberry has two new eyeshadows out in Storm Grey No. 27 and Graphite No. 28. Thanks to Café Makeup for letting me know about these. I called the counter in San Francisco and found they aren’t with any full collection but were two new colors released. I’ll have a review soon. In the meantime check out the swatches on Gummy Vision.

NudeStix is a new line of natural and nude pencils, exclusive to Space NK (or Space NK via Bloomingdales). All the products are in pencil/stick form. The Eye Pencils look like they have quite a few lovely neutral shimmers. The Lip and Cheek Pencils have a wider range of colors from light to dramatic. I think a trip to Space NK is in order soon.
What’s on your radar this week?
14 Comments
Uncategorized

Color Focus | Bronze and Metallic Nail Lacquers

June 16, 2014

This time of year my favorite colors for beauty are the bronzey metallics for well, everything: lips, nails and cheeks. For nails there have been quite a few lovely releases from early spring that I wanted to highlight.

  • Dior Vibrato 618 Gel Shine Nail Lacquer ($25) is a new color that was released with the reformulation of Dior nail polishes. This one is a bit harder to find in the US. You can order it from the Dior Boutiques (I ordered mine from Las Vegas Palazzo) or online at Dior.com or Selfridges. It’s a stunning metallic loaded with tons of different colors of sparkles. It has the complexity of Chanel Graphite but with a gold bronze base and with much better coverage. I found this to be a one-coat wonder but prefer two.
  • Tom Ford Incandescent ($32) was part of the Spring 2014 Collection and was highlighted back in February (here). It’s miraculously still available for purchase. If you haven’t looked at it yet, I highly recommend it. It’s a stunning rose gold bronze nail polish.
  • Bobbi Brown Raw Sugar Nail Lacquer ($15) was released with the Raw Sugar Collection (Shimmer Brick Eye Palette featured here), it’s a beautiful cool bronze metallic. I had to go to several counters before I found one that still had this in stock but it’s definitely still out there for purchase. You can still find it at Bloomingdales, Barneys and Bobbi Brown.
  • Bobbi Brown Bronze Nail Lacquer ($15) was released earlier this spring (swatches here). It’s still available for purchase at Saks and Bobbi Brown. I like that this is a good shimmer that doesn’t show brush strokes.
  • Burberry Metallic Khaki #202 ($21) is a dark bronze khaki gold shimmer. I like this one because it’s dark but not so dark that the shimmer doesn’t show through. In sunlight it’s really pretty. The texture is really smooth with the first coat being slightly transparent/jelly like. The second coat is what makes this one perfect.
  • YSL Bronze Aztec #28 ($25) is a dark metallic deep blackened bronze with gold shimmer. It has really good coverage with two thin coats and dries quickly.

Close ups and swatches, Dior Vibrato and Tom Ford Incandescent:

Bobbi Brown Raw Sugar vs Bronze:

Bronze:

Raw Sugar:

Burberry Metallic Khaki and YSL Bronze Aztec:

Comparison swatches below to some other bronzey metallic nail polishes: Chanel Delight (still at Chanel.com), Chanel Golden Sand (discontinued, similar Gold Shimmer in this Le Vernis Trio), Tom Ford Burnt Topaz (still available at Saks)

My current favorites are tied between Bobbi Brown Raw Sugar and Dior Vibrato. What’s your favorite bronzey metallic nail polish?
16 Comments
Uncategorized

Bobbi Brown Raw Sugar Shimmer Brick Eye Palette

May 15, 2014
Bobbi Brown has a new bronzy Raw Sugar Collection out for spring-to-summer. The Raw Sugar Shimmer Brick Eye Palette ($48, limited-edition) has been on my radar for over a month. I finally tracked one down in person – it’s quite a bit different in real life compared to the promotional photos online. From the ads I expected a neutral-cool mix of bronze, champagne and taupe. In real life Raw Sugar is quite a bit warmer with no taupe. I still found the mix to be quite lovely.

The Raw Sugar Shimmer Brick Eye Palette is similar to the Shimmer Bricks for the face. The one for eyes is quite a bit smaller in size measuring about 4 x 1.5 inches. The colors are all neutral earthy tones ranging from pale gold to a medium bronze. The pigment is quite good and easy to control. It is on the shimmery side but I don’t find it overly frosty. The texture is soft and easy to apply and they adhere well to the lids (as long as your lids aren’t dry, I recommend using a base or a cream shadow first).

Tom Ford Incandescent on the nails

Click to see the details of the shimmer:

Swatched:

I’ve been using this one by swiping a fluffy shadow brush like MAC 217 (see my brush essentials here) across the left side mixing multiple colors and applying all over the lids, then taking a smaller contour brush like MAC 226 on the right side over the darkest three browns and applying on top near the lash lines. You can control intensity of color and shimmer depending on how much you apply to the eyes and what brushes you use. A denser brush will pick up more color. You can also use a slightly damp brush to intensify the frost/shimmer.

For those who have previous Shimmer Brick Eye Palettes, Raw Sugar is definitely very different from the others. I only have Sequin which is significantly cooler in tone. I couldn’t fit both palettes on one arm to show you how they look side by side but see my review and swatches here. (Sequin was also limited-edition but you can still find it at Barneys right now.)

I’m really happy with the palette even though it looks completely different than the promo photos. It’s warm but not too warm. Also although it is on the shimmery side I find the warmth makes it wearable and not too frosty. For my olive skin I find cooler toned shimmers can look frosty on my skin because of the contrast.

Bobbi Brown Raw Sugar Shimmer Brick Eye Palette is limited-edition. Several stores near me sold out of this one because they had events so it took me a bit of hunting to find it. You can find it online now at Nordstrom, Macy’s, Bloomingdales and Bobbi Brown.

Did you check out anything from the Raw Sugar collection? There are some new bronzers, nail colors and tinted lip balms that I passed on but looked lovely.

13 Comments
Uncategorized

On My Radar / New in Beauty

February 22, 2014

On my radar for what’s new in beauty. I splurged on almost all the Hourglass blushes and have been testing this week (they are now on Sephora.com). They are all amazing. In my mind the best blushes released this year.
Armani has two new products that appear to be exclusive to Saks right now. There are four new shades of a Sun Fabric compact ($54 each) along with seven new shades of Cheek Fabric ($46 each). Have you seen these yet? I haven’t seen them anywhere in stores yet. If you have please share in the comments. I’m dying to hear your thoughts.
My heart skipped a beat with the Chanel Jardin de Camélias collection (Chanel.com limited-edition exclusive). My order arrived last night so I will be busy photographing and swatching this weekend. For curious minds, I ordered the blush, highlighter and all the lip products. (Temptalia has been uploading reviews and swatches of the collection on her blog.)
Le Métier de Beauté finally released the three new Kaleidoscope Kits in Total Face Look, Cheeky Chic and Strada ($95 each) online at Bloomingdales (review on Total Face soon).
I’m dying over all the new NARS Matte Multiples and don’t know whether to order now or wait to test in person (now at Narscosmetics.com and Sephora). I know I need the two pink ones.
Finally, Bobbi Brown has a fresh peach collection Nectar and Nude. I haven’t bought a Pot Rouge since she repackaged them into compacts but the new Hibiscus Pot Rouge might be worth checking out.
What’s on your beauty radar right now?
12 Comments
Uncategorized

New From Bobbi Brown: Baby Pink Lip Gloss and Pink Apricot Shimmer Lip Color

January 28, 2014
Bobbi Brown has a released several new collections this spring including her Nude Glow, Uber Pinks and Shimmer Lip Color reformulations. I reviewed Bronze Nail Polish earlier (which I love). Today I bring some swatches of her Baby Pink Lip Gloss ($25 for .24 fl oz/7 ml) from the Uber Pinks collection and Pink Apricot Shimmer Lip Color ($25 for .12 oz/3.5 g) from her new formula of shimmer lipsticks.

Baby Pink is a soft peachy pink with shimmer. The shimmer shows up more on the lips than what you see in the tube, but it’s a natural kind of shimmer. It’s fairly pale on me due to the silvery flecks inside but still has enough color in the base to show up and not completely wash me out. I suspect fairer skin girls will love this. Medium-tan girls who love pale colors for more of a contrast will like this too as it will show up on the lips. I couldn’t detect any scent although I’m sick with a cold right now and traveling so you may want to try first. As far as I can recall, most of her regular lip glosses are without a noticeable scent. Lasting power is medium for a gloss. It’s better than Chanel Glossimers and Armani Flash Lacquers but I wouldn’t call it long lasting.

Pink Apricot Shimmer is just as the name implies. It’s a lovely pink apricot loaded with shimmer. The texture is fairly smooth for something with this much shimmer. It’s not frosty even though I find it very shimmery. There are a number of gorgeous shades it was hard to pick just one. I’m happy to report that these are a quite a bit sturdier than her last shimmer lipsticks (she’s reformulated them several times since her original ones). I had four shades of the older formula and found them so soft that all of them broke at the base. The new colors all appeared to be holding up well at the tester counter and they looked like they had been out a week or so to withstand some heavy testing. 

Swatches side by side:

I highly recommend both. The shimmer lipsticks are definitely worth looking into – there’s a wide range of shades to choose from. I might have to go back and revisit to try one more.
Bobbi Brown Baby Pink Lipgloss and Pink Apricot Shimmer Lipstick are at all counters now. Online at Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdales.
14 Comments
Uncategorized

Bobbi Brown Bronze Nail Polish | Spring 2014 Nude Glow Collection

January 13, 2014

There’s a new nail polish from Bobbi Brown called Bronze ($15 for 0.37 oz, limited-edition). It’s one of three new nail polish shades from her Nude Glow Collection. The polish is a beautiful shimmering bronze. It applies smoothly with two coats and without any visible brush strokes. It’s quite lovely.

I used two coats to apply it for full coverage. I’m on day three of testing this and so far there have been no chips, tip-wear or fading. I used it with my regular go-to Deborah Lippmann Rehydrating Base Coat and Chanel Laque Brilliance Extreme.

I pulled a few bronzey-brown nail colors to compare. Thumb to pinkie: Chanel Delight (discontinued), Tom Ford Burnt Topaz (reviewed here, also still at Saks.com), Bobbi Brown Bronze, Rescue Beauty Lounge Ghost, Rescue Beauty Lounge Decorous (discontinued).

Bobbi Brown Bronze is a lovely metallic bronze. I give it a thumbs up. I haven’t tested it for a full week yet but the formula seems to be holding up quite well.

Bobbi Brown Bronze (limited-edition) should be at all Bobbi Brown counters now. Online at Nordstrom, Saks, Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus and Bobbi Brown Cosmetics.

11 Comments