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OCC Unknown Pleasures Lip Tar Review ~ Pagan and Vain

OCC Unknown Pleasures Lip Tars Pagan and Vain

I was going to behave.

Really, I was.

When Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics (OCC) announced their Fall 2014 collection–called “Unknown Pleasures”–I was going to resist.

The were gorgeous of course, as all Lip Tars are, but I really didn’t need any more Lip Tars at that time. Especially not crazy colors like dark purple, navy blue, metallic purple, bright red/orange with gold shimmer… I wanted them; make no mistake about it but–no. I’ve been trying to scale back my rampant shopping (which I too often excuse for “reviewing purposes). I told myself that I didn’t need such colors in my collection. I’m a bridal makeup artist and a receptionist, after all. Metallic purple lips are just not something people in my life often request, nor something I could pull out and wear to the office on any given day. (Although, I think my boss would just look at my funny and walk on by if I did…)

I was good. For a long while, I was good. I looked, but I didn’t touch.

Then, one day, it occurred to me that New York Comic Con was right around the bend. Friends, the husband, and I will be attending again this year and are super stoked about our geek Mecca being so close. That got me thinking. I mean, really, where else would I ever get the chance to rock deep blue lips without anyone batting an eyelash if not at Comic Con… right?

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Tarte Limited-Edition Rainforest After Dark Eye and Cheek Palette Review

Tarte Rainforest After Dark Palette Box

“Inspired by the rain forest’s deep orchid hues at dusk, Tarte’s limited-edition eye and cheek palette has everything you need to create sultry and sophisticated day to night looks. Infused with colored clay, which naturally color-corrects as it supports oil control, this makeup provides longer wear and truer color payoff. This modern ingredient from the mountainous regions of Brazil brightens, evens, and soothes skin, while the velvety formula glides on and delivers rich color—without settling into fine lines and wrinkles.”

I am a sucker for palettes.

Seriously; I own dozens and yet I am drawn to them again and again. I know, logically, I must have similar colors available to me in my 200+ eyeshadow collection, but somehow I can’t help myself. Maybe its the ease of the all-in-one style packaging. (I’m as much–if not more–a sucker for packaging than I am for palettes.) I love the ease of having a coordinated set on hand on workday mornings, when I’m half asleep and doing my makeup while chugging my morning coffee. Knowing everything (or, more often) almost everything I need to pull together a quick, cohesive look is housed together in one place makes that process so much easier.

Until now, however, my palette collection has pretty much been limited to a one type of item palette (with the exception of the Lorac Pro To Go I keep in a drawer at the office for those mornings where even coffee can’t get me moving in time to slap on my face). They’re all eye or blush palettes, but nothing that combines the two. When I heard Tarte was coming out with a limited edition eye and cheek palette for the fall, I was intrigued. As soon as I laid eyes on what it contained, I knew the Tarte Rainforest After Dark Colored Clay Eye & Cheek Palette had to be mine.

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Cooking the Book: Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

marcella hazanSo, today I’m breaking away from the usual beauty-related post and touching on another important area of my life: cooking and awesome friends.

There are three things I am passionate about: writing, makeup, and food. I love to cook, but I simply don’t do it enough. I work an average of 45hrs per week at my day job, and spend a lot of my free time working on my fiction writing and maintaining/creating content for this here blog. Too often my husband and I default to eating out or picking up take-out, which is both expensive and disheartening. (And fattening. Let’s throw fattening in there for good measure.)

At the end of June, I made a comment on my Facebook, that even once in awhile I would get the urge to cook my way through a single cookbook, Julie & Julia style. The outpouring of encouragement I received from friends astounded me. Then, that night, a dear friend texted me and said she was totally down with the idea. We picked a book, hatched a plan, shared the details with our close-knit group of lady friends, and the very next week the Cooking Adventurers were born: a group of eight culinarily crafty ladies determined to cook our way through at least 90% of Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking over the next year (or more, really; since I don’t have any intention of stopping until I hit that 90% no matter how long it takes me). We’ve been sharing our experiences with the food and delicious pictures with one another as we go, and it has been a great time.

So. Would you like to see the delicious dishes that have come out of my kitchen over the past two months?

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Pixi Brightening Peach Correction Concentrate Review

Pixi Correction Concentrate Brightening Peach

“Highly pigmented, this correction concealer instantly erases dark circles, softens and blurs lines while treating delicate skin. Skin immediately looks fresh, rested, bright and youthful. This ultimate ‘good night’s sleep in a jar’ camouflage cream is correction perfection in a pot.”

I am a Target shopaholic. Seriously; I walk in that store to grab one thing, and an hour later I emerge with a cart full of stuff I had no intention of buying. (Usually forgetting that one thing I went in for in the first place; but that’s neither here nor there.) Clothes, makeup, home goods–even food. I just can’t help myself. Don’t even get me started on their $1.50 socks. I probably have more fun socks than any one person ever needs in life, yet I always swing by and pick up another pair or two when I’m there. I don’t know what it is. Maybe there’s something hypnotic about that big red target…

I also have terrible under eye circles. (Stay with me a moment–there is a connection between these two topics, I promise.) With my super pale skin, the area under my eyes is terribly translucent. Every minute of sleep I miss, every drop of water I fail to drink, shows up under my eyes the next day. Even worse, there is a vein that is particularly prominence under my left eye. I am forever trying to find an under eye concealer that works on me, being both heavy enough to conceal without so thick that it looks chalky or creases. Its been an uphill battle that I had begun to despair of ever winning.

Then, I came across this Pixi Correction Concentrate in “Brightening Peach” at Target one day. Its promises to be lightweight, color correcting and good for my delicate under-eye skin sounded too good to be true. I just had to give it a try.

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Bite Beauty Agave Lip Mask Review

Bite Beauty Agave Lip Mask

Every once in a while, you come across a beauty product that you just aren’t sure how you lived without up until that point. The kind of thing you find yourself using each and every day since the moment you took it home, until you really do wonder what the hell you did before it entered your life.

For me, one of those products is Bite Beauty’s Agave Lip Mask.

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It’s A 10 Miracle Leave-In Product Review

Its a 10 Miracle Leave-In Product

“It’s a 10 Miracle Leave-in product repairs dry damaged hair, adds shine, smooths & controls frizz, seals & protects hair color, detangles, prevents split ends, stops hair breakage, creates silkiness, enhances natural body, flat iron & thermal protector. An excellent nourishing treatment that can be used alone and/or as a restorative styling product that leaves hair soft and bouncy. Works on all hair types to bring out natural luster and manageability while also making hair stronger and healthier with every use. Can be used on wet hair for extra shine or dry hair in place of a styling cream.”

I am not a big “hair product” person. To be honest, I rarely put any styling products in my hair and my blow dryer has been used less than a dozen times. I’m just incredibly lazy when it comes to my hair. I have really good intentions every single time I get it cut–I buy new products, I promise myself I will make an effort to style it and make it look half as good as my stylist does at the salon aaaaaaand… The next day its back to being pulled back in a ponytail.

I guess I’m something of a beauty conundrum. I’ll spend hours upon hours playing with makeup, and spend buckets of cash on fancy skin care products and facials, but I loathe fussing with my hair. I go way too long between cuts and dyes because it makes me wince to spend that kind of $ on something I care so little about.

Sadly, I have yet to find something so simple that suits me, so instead I keep it on the longish side and bemoan its temperamental existence. No matter how enthused I get about trying to make it look nice, it never does what I want it to (being fine, thin, and prone to frizziness), so I quickly loose that gumption and fall back in my boring old habits. I’d rather hide it all under a bandana and call it a day.

I think, really, deep-down, just want a wash-and-wear style; something I can comb through, maybe spritz a single product in, and let air dry. With fine, limp, thinning hair that is pretty much impossible at the longer (or even mid) lengths I’ve had it at over the years. So maybe what I really need to do is stop waffling and take the plunge into a short cut. But with my chubby cheeks? I don’t know; maybe I’m just too chicken to rock a pixie…

Ahem.

Well, now that I’ve gone off the deep end there and unloaded all my hair woes upon you, dear reader, let me brush my neuroses back under the rug and get on to the item I’ll be reviewing today. As you have already guessed, it is going to be a hair product. And, given how cranky I become at the mention of hair, you can probably imagine my surprise when I finally fell in love with a hair product and have been using it every day without fail since I purchased it. That product is the aptly named, It’s A 10 Miracle Leave-In Product.

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Sugarpill Cosmetics “Heart Breaker” Palette Review

Sugarpill Heart Breaker Eyeshadows

Yup, I’m cheating again. As with the Burning Heart palette I reviewed a little while back, I do not actually have the pre-assembled Sugarpill Cosmetics Heart Breaker Palette. Instead, I own all four shades that make up that palette, each individually packaged. Again, I had purchased a few of the colors separately and then just decided to buy the ones I was missing from that “set” rather than purchase the actual palette and have duplicates.

So, pretend those eyeshadows are housed in the pretty packaging Sugarpill provides for all its palettes and come take a look at the four colors from their Addicted To Pretty collection!

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DHC Deep Cleansing Oil Review

DHC Deep Cleansing Oil

“Try this amazing cleanser and you’ll see why it’s our most popular product worldwide. Dirt, excess oil, makeup—even waterproof mascara—and other pore-cloggers dissolve easily, leaving your face a grime-free zone that is soft to the touch. Its unique water-soluble formula rinses completely, so you’ll never see a greasy residue. Olive oil and vitamin E help ensure you won’t see dryness either.”

If there has been one product that has stood the test of time in my skin care arsenal, it is DHC Deep Cleansing Oil. I have been using this cleanser/makeup remover for so long now that I can’t even remember when I first tried it! Let’s see… I discovered it back before my days at Bare Escentuals at least, as I remember just how great it was for removing mineral-based products from the skin and I swore by it even then… That was around 2006, at the latest.

So, I’ve been using this cleanser, on and off but always more on than off, for at least 8 years. Wow. I’ve had a relationship with this cleanser longer than I’ve had relationship with most of the people currently in my life! (Husband, family, and bestie notwithstanding, of course.)

I don’t know why it never occurred to me to review this product before now. I recently purchased a new bottle, as mine was at the dregs and there was a lovely sale going on for the super-sized 6.7 oz bottle, and as I set it down on my sink it suddenly struck me that I had not yet shared this lovely product with you–and I truly believe it is a product more people need to know about!

So let’s take a look at my much beloved cleansing oil…

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OCC The Dune Generation Stained Gloss Review – Concubine, Aurora, and Nomad

OCC Cosmetics Nomad Stained Gloss

“Introducing a heat wave of colour and texture from out latest innovative lip offering: STAINED GLOSS. Six new shades designed to make lips shine and shimmer this summer and beyond. STAINED GLOSS is OCC’s newest texture option for lips, inspired by stained glass. Combining the impact colour of LIP TAR with a translucent glossy finish that’s ready-to-wear, STAINED GLOSS contains organic hemp oil and Vitamin E for a finish that feels as good as it looks. The Dune Generation features a colour wave of six diverse shades ranging from soft neutral to deep burgundy with pops of pink and coral in a mix of textures, including our new STAINED GLOSS / METALLIC.”

Anyone else as excited for these new Stained Glosses from OCC Cosmetics as I am???

My long-standing love affair with OCC’s Lip Tars is well known (search the tags to the left to find my reviews of them), but these are the are the first Stained Glosses I am trying for myself. Up until now, the colors in that line didn’t really appeal to me–many were on the bright n’ funky side (oranges, yellows, neon-y reds) or extremely sheer, milky shades that I had always heard were prone to settling in lip lines. Since none of them tickled my fancy, I held off.

However, when I heard this new Dune Generation Stained Gloss Collection would be a touch on the earthier side, featuring more neutral shades I was intrigued. When I found out that these shades would not only be available in their standard “gloss” finish (which they describe as having a “cellophane glaze” on the lips) but that they were releasing colors with a metallic gloss finish as well, I knew they were destined to be mine!

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IT Cosmetics Bye Bye Redness Correcting Creme Review

IT Cosmetics Bye Bye Redness

“Bye Bye Redness™ is a red neutralizing and correcting cream that completely cancels redness in your skin from view. Rich in Peptides, Hydrolyzed Collagen and Anti-Aging Technology, Bye Bye Redness™ camouflages redness and any red-toned skin discolorations from rosacea, broken capillaries, blemished skin, irritated skin, sun damage, scars, age spots, physician procedures and more.”

Are you at all surprised that I just had to try this?

I am constantly on the hunt for something to hide the awful redness of my cheeks and forehead. I have gone through dozens of concealers over the years and have yet to find one the was perfect–the formula is usually too thick or too sheer, the color is too yellow (or even too green), and some just flat out irritate my skin.

So, when I saw that IT Cosmetics’ Bye Bye Redness had been made specifically to cover rosacea by someone who herself has rosacea, and furthermore that it claimed to be formulated so that you wouldn’t need to wear an additional product over the top of it, I just had to try it.

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