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Kristen sees White Nights in her future
What a wonderful time of year it is with the cool weather! To me, when the temperature drops, it’s time to get serious with makeup colors. Heavier colors and shadows look fabulous and mysterious in the winter, and let’s face it - you can’t exactly pile it all on during the sweltering summer heat (well, you can if you don’t care about looking too severe and it sliding right off). There's so much out there to try; so many looks to create—my mind goes crazy with all the offerings. It’s nice to know that my indecisive mind can be at ease because Smashbox put it all together for me with their new White Nights Collection. There are multiple sets in the line, so I will break them down individually by sets.
Spider Club Color Palette and Brush Collection
This little palette is the coolest thing! It’s small, but it has so much stuff in it thanks to the design. You open the lid like a normal palette to reveal a mirror and 8 neutral eye shadows in bone, shimmery copper brown, charcoal brown with faint silver shimmer (my fave!), coffee brown with gold sparkle, matte pale pink, shimmery olive, shimmery green/gold, and shimmery pale green. Then, the bottom flips out with 2 lip colors in rosy red, and pink with golden shimmer and 2 cream eyeliners in black and gold. Whatever your fancy, there’s bound to be a color or look in here that you like, or at least you can learn to create. I love using all of the brown shades. With my hazel green eyes, these colors are very complimentary. I love smudging the 2 darker ones on my lower lash line. The green shade works well on my lid, with the olive shade blended in my crease. Again, these colors work well with my eye color. All of the shades have shimmer in them, so they soften up any look you are trying to achieve. The colors are definitely soft, easy to apply and blend and last for hours without creasing. Now for the bottom portion of the palette. The lip colors are some of the prettiest I’ve seen lately and they are soft with great longevity. They are perfect for the upcoming festive holidays. I really love them so much I am wearing them daily. They pretty much go with whatever look I am trying to achieve, whether it be a soft neutral look or as a muted compliment to smoky eyes. The caramel colored cream blush is another winner. It slides right on and stays put the whole day and doesn’t streak. The soft color gives a warm glow to my cheeks and I need all the help I can get now that summer is over. Now for the eyeliner; I must admit that I have not been a huge fan of the cream eyeliner since I have used it in the past, but for some reason I like it much better this time around. It’s been a few years since I’ve used it and remember that it was tacky and hard to apply, and now I am wondering if they reformulated it because it is a lot more smooth and easy to apply. Whatever it is—whether I am just plain crazy or it is different, it works better and I like it. I like to use the enclosed flat liner brush and pat it along my lash line and extend it out to make a cat-eye look for the evening. The black is very much so, and the gold is definitely a true gold. This little palette is little bitty, so it fits perfectly in an evening purse, or any purse for that matter. The set come in the neatest white faux leather clutch with a pocket to hold the palette on one side and the other side holds the three included brushes (flat eye liner for the cream liner, lip brush and concealer brush). There is no reason you have to suffer through an evening with naked lips or fading makeup with this palette. You have all you need right in the palm of your hand. While it is $48 and the palette is small, you do get a lot of products, 3 great mini-brushes and a cute clutch. Since I am on the subject of the cream liners, the next little set is The Derby, which is a trio of gold, green and black with a flat liner brush included. I love wearing black eyeliner, but I find that I really enjoy using the green shade because of my eye color.
The Troubador Fairly Lip Gloss Collection
The Troubador is a lovely little trio of lip glosses and a lip liner. The shimmery shades of rose, copper and clear are perfect for dressing up your lips and is a great addition to the Spider Club palette. The lip glosses have a brush-type applicator and they last for hours, even after several cups of morning coffee. They have a soft texure, but can be slightly gritty due to the small glitter pieces in them, but it’s not that bad. A small price to pay for some nice colors that wear great. The cinnamon, vanilla and spearmint scent of each are a bonus! It also comes in a small faux leather clutch with a mirror on one side and slots for each mini-gloss and a neutral brownish rose lip liner on the other. Just like the Spider Club palette, it is small enough to toss in your purse and go.
The Roxy Limited-Edition Brush Roll Set
What good can all these products be if I don’t have the proper tools to apply them? I must say that I am quite impressed with this collection of brushes. Like all the other sets, this also comes in a white faux leather clutch and it houses 6 full-sized brushes. It comes with the following brushes: powder, foundation, blending, eye liner, double-ended smudger and a retractable lip brush. I absolutely love these brushes! They are made from goat hair, so they are not rough like some synthetic brushes can be, so they feel like pure silk on your face and they are wonderful in applying your makeup. First, I started out with the foundation brush. I have always used a sponge to apply my foundation. I’ve used one foundation brush before—about a year ago and hated it. I remember reading so much about the way your foundation looked like it was airbrushed on, so I bought one. I a hated it! My foundation didn’t spread right and it felt heavy in some spots, so needless to say I wasn’t looking forward to trying this one. Well, I am glad I didn’t let my prior experiences get in the way and took a chance on this one. My face looked great and had no problems with the application. I did have to take a sponge and get into the creases of my skin around my nose and the corners of my eyes, though. Next, I lightly dusted translucent powder with the big, fluffy powder brush. Believe it or not, I don’t actually use on of these on a daily basis, either. I have the big puff from Laura Mercier and it works great for patting on the powder, so I never felt the need for duplicity. I have been missing out because this brush applied my powder so lightly that my face just looked better and softer. It works wonders for touch ups so your face doesn’t look cakey or too powdery. To apply the fabulous eye shadow shades from the aforementioned Spider Club Palette, I used the eye blending brush. Let me tell you—if you don’t have this brush yet, go buy it. I cannot believe how well it applied my eye shadow and blended it without looking uneven. I used the brownish charcoal shade from the Spider Club Palette and applied it all over my lid and crease with this brush and the result was phenomenal. The powder was very controlled with this brush, so you didn’t have the tell-tale shadow droppings all around your eyes. I really couldn’t get over how well this brush worked and how unbelievable soft it is. Another winner!!! To smudge shadow or blend the cream liner along my lower lash line, I used the double-ended smudger. I find it useful to blend the shadow along my lower lashes out past the corner of my eye to blend with the shadow above to create that gorgeous smoky cat-eye look. One side of the brush a foam tip which is more firm so you can make a bolder look and the other side has the bristles for a more soft application. The eye liner brush was my least favorite, but still a nice brush. I currently use a wet brush to apply cake liner and I tried to do it with my eye liner and this brush, but I found the brush to be too thin for what I like. Then I used it with Smashbox’s cream liners and it worked much better. If you want to draw a thin, precise line, this brush is for you. After I have made a flawless face and gorgeous eyes, I apply my lip color with the retractable lip brush. For the most part, I never use a lip brush unless I have a lip palette that requires one and I don’t usually buy those because I prefer just using the lip stick or the wand in an individual lip gloss. But since those palettes never come with anything worth mentioning, I will happily replace it with this brush. I like the fact that it is retractable so the lip product you just applied doesn’t spread onto everything or worse, stuff sticks to it. If you don’t know which brushes to start out with, this collection narrows it down to the essentials. For $80, you get some really fabulous brushes. My other favorite line of brushes are much more costly than these and while I think they are worth every penny, you can’t beat these in terms of price and efficacy.
After applying all these fabulous products, I swept on mascara to complete the look. Since I really wanted to go all out, I actually tried the Lash Curler. I have never used on of these. I guess I’ve never had to because I have decent lashes that respond well to good mascaras…and I will continue to use good mascaras because I didn’t find that my lashes looked any different. That’s great because those things scare me! I have friends that wouldn’t go anywhere without their lash curler, so I will bequeath this to one of them.
You can check out Smashbox’s new White Nights Collection at smashbox.com, Sephora.com, or nordstrom.com. If you check out Smashbox’s website, there are looks you can view to see color and to see what works with what. I really really love it when cosmetic companies will put these looks on their sites because for the most part, consumers are very visual and will buy what they can actually see on people. That is how I am oftentimes and if I see a look I like, I want all the products! I want my makeup to look like the model on there! There is a look on the Smashbox website that shows some colors from the Spider Club Palette, which I think is the hottest look around and you can get everything she is wearing in that little palette. With the efficacy of the products and the brushes, I was able to create this look with no problem. I was a happy person! You should be, too, so go check it out! Happy Shopping!
Posted December 15, 2005
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