I just discovered that Amazon.com carries Kiss My Face products and they are offering the Kiss My Face Tinted Moisturizer for $14.88 for two! Nice deal! Plus, if you spend $25 or more, it qualifies for free shipping. If you like this product, and know your shade, this is an excellent bargain!

Princess is the newest fragrance from Vera Wang. It is classified as a soft oriental scent, with words like “whimisical” and “playful” used to describe it. The notes are water lily, lady apple, mandarin meringue, apricot skin, ripe pink guava, tahitian flower, wild tuberose, dark chocolate, pink frosting accord, precious amber, musk, and chiffon vanilla. Currently, it is available as an eau de toilette.

I decided to purchase Princess for several reasons. The first reason was the bottle. Is it not adorable?? It’s beautifully purple, with the crown being the perfect touch. Bottle design is starting to become a major criteria for me – one of these days I’ll have a way to display all my fragrances, so I’m drawn to more decorative bottles.

The second reason (although the more important one) is the scent itself. I am really drawn to sweet fragrances with vanilla notes. I really want to love Aquolina’s Pink Sugar, but it’s a scent so sweet it practically makes my teeth hurt just smelling it. Princess is like a more grown-up version of Pink Sugar – it has all the vanilla-y goodness without the cloying attributes.

Princess’ main drawback is its lasting power. It doesn’t last nearly long enough on me, but rather fades away. I suspect this is because it is an eau de toilette and I usually wear eau de parfum. I have some 10 ml sprayers that I can use as a purse atomizer. They have screw-on tops which makes it really easy to decant scent into them. I will probably wish I’d purchased the larger size of the fragrance, however…

Overall, I’m thrilled with Princess. It’s become my scent du jour and I love it.

Oh my. Fresh.com is having a three-day sale.

Fresh is one of those “cult” brands, with beautiful packaging and presentation but also extremely high prices. I mean, seriously, $62 for toner? $48 cleanser? Whew. We have a lovely Fresh skincare/bodycare section at my store, and while I love to admire the packaging and sniff the scents, their products are just too expensive.

We don’t carry the makeup line, which makes me sad but is also probably a good thing. I picked up an eyeshadow palette  in the downtown Seattle location of the store I work at (with discount, whee) and I really love it. In fact, I basically adore ALL of their eyeshadows. But at $22 a pop individually, $32 per trio, and $48 for the two palettes I want (here and here) I haven’t been collecting them in any hurry. The two palettes linked here WILL BE MINE someday, but probably not until the next time I visit Seattle… although Stage Door may be mine sooner, it’s a discontinued product so it’s lifespan on Sephora.com is limited. Lust.

I managed to snag Carnivale at half price when the Bath & Body Works in the mall where I work had one in their half-yearly super-sale. Score! Love it!

Which brings me to why I’m a bad, bad girl. The sale. $22 eyeshadows for $6 each… Palettes of 6 shadows for $20. Gulp. Oh, temptation got the better of me and I… well, I bought. See, I’ve been longing for the Mission Fig and Corazon del Mar trios and figured I’d snag the colors from those palettes that I’ve really been wanting (that would be Corazon del Mar, Amman Black Tea, Mission Fig, and Osmanthus in case you are counting). Then, the Glamour and 8 am to Midnight called to me, and somehow jumped into my shopping cart as well.

I love eyeshadow. I wear it almost everyday and love to try all kinds of color combinations. Fresh’s eyeshadows are some of the most beautiful colors I’ve seen, and in my opinion, the quality is also excellent. I’ll address my little eyeshadow addiction problem in another post…

I’ve tried three tinted moisturizers so far. Hard Candy’s Hint Tint, Stila’s Illuminating Tinted Moisturizer, and Kiss My Face’s Tinted Moisturizer.

I’ll start with the bad. I really adore Hard Candy’s glosses and eyeshadows, but the Hint Tint was a total dud for me. I’m wondering if HC has quality control issues because in 65 online user reviews of the product, most people didn’t encounter the problem I’ll describe, but one person did – which leads me to think it’s a QC issue. Regardless, I’m not very interested in purchasing another bottle to find out. The problem – the product simply would not blend for me. It literally rolled right off my face, in “crumbs” instead of spreading out smoothly. I tried it on bare skin, and on a few different daily moisturizers including one billed as a makeup primer, and in all cases it was the same. The product always balled up and wouldn’t smooth out. The resulting effect looked like my skin was peeling off – gross. The other drawback to the product is the scent – it’s heavily scented in a sweet “cookie” scent. On the plus sides, it does feature sunscreen. I can’t recommend the product, due to the possibility of quality issues. I’m thinking of contacting Hard Candy about it, and if I do, I’ll post. This product is $16.50 for 1 oz.

Now on to the good. Stila’s Illuminating Tinted Moisturizer is a new product. It contains SPF 15, a bit of shimmer, and comes in one “fits all” shade. First, the drawbacks. The single shade will work for caucasian skin tones, and probably for a lot of lighter brown tones as well. But, it’s obviously not going to work for everyone. It also doesn’t control oil at all (at least not compared to a powder foundation). My nose is shiny within about two hours of application, and using a loose powder on top doesn’t really help, nor does my oil-control moisturizer. Blotting papers are my friend. On the plus side, the product does give me a wonderfully even complexion, with a nice “glow.” The single shade forms what seems like a mesh on top of the skin, blending with your own skin tone to provide the even coverage. I’ve tried it on a variety of caucasian clients with great success – from super pale to really tanned. Every one of them has been thrilled with the results. Staying power is decent – it survives a work day, although I haven’t tried it outdoors on a hot day. If you want a nice complexion that you can slap on with your fingers and have look fabulous, this is your friend. Just be prepared with the blotting papers if you’re oily. This product is $28 for 1.7 oz.

Last of all is Kiss My Face’s Tinted Moisturizer. I believe they have offered a tinted moisturizer in the past, but this formula is new. This is the heaviest of the three products I’ve tried, with the most coverage. It almost crosses the line into foundation-land in my book, but not quite due to the lotion-like texture and spreading ability. It does have sunscreen. The product goes on smoothly with no streaking, just like Stila’s. I purchased this at Long’s Drugs, and their display had testers on it! (I’ll talk about how much I ADORE Long’s in another post – my nearest store looks a little shabby, but it’s right by my work and has the most entertaining and eclectic product selection of any drugstore around.) So, with the testers I has able to choose the right shade for me, which happened to be the lightest one. It has sunscreen and is oil-free. It has better oil-control than Stila’s, but still isn’t as good as a powder foundation (which is to be expected). I like the finish, and the staying power is good. My only initial complaint was it got a little blotchy around my upper lip area where I tend to perspire – switching to a moisturizer with a makeup primer quality to it fixed this. I’m thinking active outdoor wear (since I sweat A LOT) probably isn’t a good idea, but then I don’t usually wear makeup for outdoor sports. Overall, I’m pleased with this, especially for the price. It’s $10 for 1.4 oz.

At the Beauty Emporium where I work, complexion products are probably the most contentious products for women to choose. By contentious, I mean most women will try two or more complexion products before they will hit upon The One (or in some cases, The Combination). By complexion products, I mean foundation makeup, powders, primers, etc.

One choice that is very popular is the tinted moisturizer. A tinted moisturizer is not really a moisturizer – rather, it is a light foundation that usually has some moisturizing properties to it. Most of them also will contain a sunscreen. They are designed to provide a sheer coverage, with ease of use being one of the main draws. Since they are sheer, they don’t tend to cake or streak like a regular foundation. They are usually of a more lotion-y consistency, which aids in application. Tinted moisturizers are great for the client who wants something to even out her complexion, but doesn’t want a full coverage foundation. Tinted moisturizers are also a great way to introduce a client to complexion products – foundations can be intimidating, since they have a reputation for being difficult to use and can give a “fake” mask-like appearance.

I think a lot of foundation’s “bad rep” comes from drugstore foundations. I used to be firmly against wearing foundation – it never looked right on my skin, and never looked natural. Trying to look at a product in a bottle on the drugstore wall and guess my skintone… well, unsurprisingly, this generally leads to a poor match and that fake makeup-y look. I do believe that there are some great drugstore foundations available – but the inability to do a stripe test to get a good match means most women will have to buy a few shades before getting the right shade.

Which leads me back to tinted moisturizers. You want a better looking complexion but you don’t want to mess with foundation. Try a tinted moisturizer. I’ll address three specific brands I’ve tried in another post.

I became a fan of so-called natural care products several years ago, while searching for something that would heal some wicked eczema I had on the front of both shins. I’d been stuck with this rash for several years. Well, I think it had more to do with the water at my parents’ house, because after I left home it slowly cleared up and went away on its own. Weird? Yeah. I have weird skin.

But my love of the fun, quirky, independent companies putting out natural products led me into my own soapmaking business, and I still love perusing the web to find the coolest stuff out there. Which brings me to the point of this post – the newest stuff I want to try, and want to share with you.

I’ve been a fan of Burt’s Bees for a while now – even though they’ve gone all corporate, they are still making some cool products. I’m using their Super Shiny Grapefruit & Sugar Beet Shampoo because the lack of sodium lauryl sulfate is supposed to help extend the life of the added color in my hair. I’m also loving it because it smells good and leaves my hair soft. I was excited today to see the addition of a few more shampoos and conditioners to the hair care section – a moisturizing formula and a color-treated hair formula. You can bet I’ll be trying these out when I run out of my current bottle. Green tea and fennel? Sign me up – I love these scents. Also, the new Soap Bark & Chamomile Deep Cleansing Cream has a great sounding ingredient list to be a nice nighttime cleanser/makeup remover. I might have to try it.

Mad Gabs (tagline “Serious Moisture for Playful People”) has some truly cute looking balms. The Moose and Bear balms are so cute!! The Cafe flavors also sound delectable. Mad Gabs is located in Maine.

Also from Maine are those wacky Badgers – W.S. Badger Company, makers of the truly awesome Badger Balms. What is it with Maine? Super cute packaging here too, and some really great products. I’m excited about the two new baby products – baby balm and oil. The balm in a tube is new, and so is the oil. I have a friend expecting a baby next month and these would be perfect to send to her as a gift.

Seriously, it’s companies like these that make me wish I could open a small store catering solely to cool, fun, independent (well, mostly) bath, body, skin, and cosmetic companies. Maybe someday, yes?

The new fall colors are coming into the Beauty Emporium where I work. Usually I love bright colors, but I have to say I’m really loving the more nature-based hues we’re seeing this season.

Stila probably has my favorites in the eyeshadow department – I actually sprung for the Fall In Love trio in Forest Clove (the green one). It looks fantastic with both the new (again? I think these are reissues) Smudge Pot colors Jade and Bronze. Call me a sucker, but I’m totally digging the Smudge Pots. The blush is pretty but doesn’t light my fire, but I did have to spring for the Spiced Pumpkin Lip Glaze. It does indeed smell and taste like spicy pumpkin. You will love it, yes you will.

Nars is seriously tempting me with the new blush color, called Oasis. It’s described as “sparkling pink champagne” but I would describe it as more red than pink. The sparkling part comes from the copious amounts of gold sparkle it contains. Maybe a bit much for the office, but perfect for nighttime and super-perfect for makeup artist jobs, yes? Yes!

Tarte is offering two smokey eye palettes that are really cool – in Amber and Onyx. Onyx is predictably silvers and grays, and Amber is taupes and browns – but both are really pretty. The sets are generous and cute.

Smashbox offers their own take on the nature-based colors in the eyeshadow quads, but pairs these with some truly stunning waterproof gel-based eyeliners. The purple and green shades are knockout fabulous.

Most of the lines are keeping a sunkissed glow look in the complexion, with several lines keeping bronzers around for fall. In keeping with the smokier eyes, lashes are thick and luxurious. Lips are more neutral, with lots of brownish shades. The 60’s mod girl look is turning up in multiple places also.

Fall is going to be awesome this year! I can feel it.

Welcome to Claire’s Beauty! This is my space to talk about all the fun stuff that is cosmetics (and maybe a little fashion thrown in for fun). Content is a little thin at the moment, but I’ll be adding more in the coming days, and will try to update regularly as well. Thanks for reading!