the stocking cap

Not only is it cold enough for sweaters, it’s cold enough for hats and gloves and wool socks and the works.

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Conventional wisdom says not to pair heavy eye makeup with a bold lip but hey, yolo. Do what you want. Conventional wisdom is often suspect.

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This is NARS velvet matte lip pencil in Train Bleu, a really dark mulberry shade, with a little red Japonesque laquer in the center. Sort of the reverse of the black ombre lip I did the other day but friendlier as putting a pink/red shade in the center provides a natural transition to that inner portion of your lip that won’t take color.

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I’ve been wanting to wear more eye makeup since Halloween, which was just so much makeup that anything else seems moderate in comparison. I was washing it off for days. Liner under the eyes I find so tricky, though. Not tricky to do, but tricky to like. It’s dramatic, sure, but also tends to emphasize circles under my eyes,* make me look especially pale, make me look older often? Tired? I wonder the extent to which it just reads as ‘she has a lot of makeup on’ rather than as ‘cool eyes’ or some more appealing effect. Not that I really have any control over that. [Ever notice how thinking hardly ever gets you anywhere?]

*I don’t like concealer under the eyes—it is too conspicuous up close, too tell-tale— and am basically never wearing it, so they just look however they look. They are eyes, in sockets, etc.

I guess you just have to go for it, like anything else, and take the bad with the good.

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Kenneth Cole coat (thrifted), J Crew Italian brushed scarf (this is gigantic, really satisfyingly massive), Free People slouchy vegan leather tote, H&M beanie, Express jeans, TOMS desert suede wedges. Hm. Seems they don’t have this color anymore, shame. Their new booties are pretty cute, though. I need some booties! I don’t know why I’m having such a hard time finding a suitable pair of ankle booties (something that goes a bit higher up the ankle than these do, which gives quite a different look. Quite, quite different, you know).

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Zoning out.

Later let’s talk about how great it can be to wear too much blush.

x

 

we like: Bite Beauty Cashmere Lip Cream

The Bite Beauty Cashmere Lip Cream formula is so interesting. It’s a cream-to-powder matte lip product that reminds me of a more posh, more pigmented version of the NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream (which I also like a lot). Evidently it features unprecedented levels of pigment for this kind of texture, which I readily believe. This gives massive color impact in one swipe.

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Here is their blurb about how it works, which sounds so cool,

“The cream-to-powder delivery system is achieved with an advanced formulation of butters, waxes, and oils that all have different melting and absorption rates. The balanced combination of waxes and butters with the powder texture of silica develop a creamy and buttery application that quickly absorbs into lips while the powdered pigments remain on the surface to leave a matte finish.” (via Sephora)

Bite Beauty is a compelling (and relatively young) brand, all about nourishing ingredients, most notably high levels of the antioxidant reservatrol, also found in wine, presumably the reason behind naming so many of their colors after wines. They are one of a growing number of smart beauty brands out of Canada right now (Toronto). Their Luminous Créme lipstick, which I’ll talk about soon, is absolutely gorgeous, and their various lip pencils are excellent as well. Solid all around.

I picked up the color Sancerre, a bright raspberry pink. This is quite a dry cream upon application yet doesn’t dry immediately on the lips (is blottable for many (say, 15 or so) minutes, with increasingly faded results). The curious thing is that even if you keep blotting, though product comes off on the tissue, the effect on the lips doesn’t seem to change at all. That is, blotting truly removes only the excess, not part of the foundation of color you want to keep. It comes off on drinking glasses and whatnot as well, minimally, yet still without diminishing the effect of color on the lips, at least not for a good while. Pretty impressive for a formula that doesn’t promise to be long-wearing. It has an interesting flexi-fuzzy-tip applicator, a little longer and narrower than the standard doe-foot. More like a short mascara wand, and I think it works brilliantly.

We like.