Tremendous thanks (again) to AlexandraRC for today's guest swatches. Pretty soon she will have captured Butter London's entire catalog, and I so appreciate her perfect photos.

This is Butter London's HRH (which stands for Her Royal Highness). Both Butter London and AlexandraRC refer to this shade as a "classic," and they're absolutely right. HRH is a shade

Tremendous thanks to AlexandraRC for today's beautiful guest swatch of Butter London Chimney Sweep. AlexandraRC says Chimney Sweep is "maybe her favorite charcoal foil, ever. Non-streaky and a perfect two-coater." She says it also makes a great base for layering. Check it out under pink-glitter-with-silver-stars pa A46 (plus a fab bonus photo of Chimney

Revlon has a new lipstick out, and it's taking the makeup-loving world by storm. Even confirmed Chanel-acolytes and Dior-loyalists are stopping by their CVSes to check these out. I've been scouring the internet for swatches, trying to choose the one-or-two I would pick up in a buy-one-get-one... and by a stroke of magnificent good fortune, Revlon gave me the opportunity to

I am a chapsticoholic. I guess I just have dry lips, but being trapped in a meeting without lip balm is torture. Yet for all my dependence on the stuff, I am extremely particular about formula.

I used to describe lip balms on a spectrum from waxy (or hard) to greasy (or squishy). Original Chapstick and Mint Chapstick are pretty

Tremendous thanks to AlexandraRC for allowing me to post her gorgeous guest swatches of Butter London's Lady Muck. Lady Muck is a soft, "dove" blued grey with a very subtle shimmer. The color is right on the line between periwinkle blue and wet-concrete grey, depending on the light and the angle.

Lady Muck strikes me as an

I’ve been smearing makeup on my arm (and cleaning it off) for about 3.5 years now. As a result, I have quite a lot of opinions on makeup remover — I’ve tried just about everything you can find at the counter (plus a few more).

Makeup remover is, to some extent, a matter of preference. What are you used to,

Special thanks to Brittany of Brittany's Beauty Online for her guest swatches of Color Club Hot Like Lava. Hot Like Lava comes from the Foiled Collection, six fabulous looks-gritty-feels-smooth foil-finish shades. Brittany says she picked up the set at Ross for less than $10.

Hot Like Lava is a fuchsia party-pink with silver shimmer — fun for fingers

Tremendous thanks to Nicole of Beauty-Free (a blog that tracks Duty-Free beauty finds) for guest-swatching another Makeup Academy palette: Glitter Ball. Nicole says, "Despite the name, most eyeshadows are shimmery rather than glittery and very wearable. Their texture is great and the taupe shade (third from left on the bottom row) is so lovely I want to marry it."

Ahhh, the holidays.  Time for family gatherings, parties — and photos.  I feel like I’m pretty good at “everyday” makeup, but I don’t have that much experience when it comes to flashbulbs.  Maybe you’re not THAT worried about a casual picture with the cousins, but in case my holiday gala/red-carpet fantasies ever come true, I asked makeup-artist-extraordinaire Daniel

Curious to see how it would look on my hands, I decided to do another manicure from the Refinery 29 + Color Club Winter Warrior set: Punch Drunk Red.

Punch Drunk Red is a bright, Christmassy, candy-apple, holly-berry shimmery red. Extremely seasonal.

Of course, you can only buy Punch Drunk Red as part of the

Fashion designer, fragrance designer, tastemaker, provocateur, and golden child Tom Ford just launched a makeup line bearing his name (under the aegis of Estee Lauder). I must swatch it all — that's a given — but I thought his blushes would be a good place to start.

Tom Ford blushes are $55 each, and pigment is never a

The BeautyBloggers.org charity auction ends today at 5 pm CST (woo!), and one of the "lots" up for sale is a set of Stephanie Johnson makeup bags. It occurred to me that you all might not be AS obsessed with Stephanie Johnson as I am, so I thought I'd do a little photoessay

Refinery 29 is an online magazine, and one of my daily reads for what's going on in the world of fashion and beauty. One part of their site is Reserve, which features their shopping picks (often at a discount). This season, for the first time, Reserve is offering several product collaborations —

Sponsored Post

Flowerbomb arrived on the fragrance scene in 2005, all ruffles and bows and pink-girlie floral-sweetness. Fans cited its mild patchouli and sweet vanilla notes, buoying a mélange of flowers — and Flowerbomb has stayed on top and in public consciousness since its introduction. It’s one of those scents that people compare all other fragrances to.

Since Shu Uemura left the U.S., it's hard to keep up with changes to their permanent line. Earlier this year, they relaunched their modular paletting system under the banner of "Color Atelier" (the word means workshop) — and I believe they reformulated their blush offering. We've got three digit numbers now (though M still means Matte and