Anyway, you know what makes a really good Christmas present? Beaute Cosmetics. Particularly when they’re on sale, which they ARE because the handsome fellas at Beaute think TNBTTGSY readers are the best. (It’s true, you are.)

From now until November 30, the karlasugar code will be reactivated at beaute-cosmetics.com, for 20% off your entire purchase.

So click here to check out swatches of:
Luminous Volume Gloss (bonus swatches)
Liqui-Gel Stains
Weightless Lip Cremes
and a guide on how to enter that code

They’re called Weightless Lip Cremes, and “weightless” is absolutely right. These offer full coverage in an incredibly lightweight lipgloss form. I think they’re meant to be applied to bare lips, and because of their lightness, they never completely set.

When you first put these on, you’ll probably get that “line” (the collection of gloss at the inside of your lip) — take a q-tip and roll it over the inside of your lips to clean up the excess product there. I’d also recommend tapping your finger over your lips to blur any hard edges and help the product blend into your skin. After 2-3 minutes, they do become a little less slippery.

Weightless Lip Cremes are $26 Canadian (approximately $23 U.S. at the moment), but the handsome folks at Beaute have agreed to reactivate the karlasugar code, for 10% off your order! (Good through September 15.)

Click here for instructions on where to enter that code, or for swatches of their other products (if you don’t own at least one of their lip and cheeks stains, you are seriously missing out). Beaute Weightless Lip Cremes: Masochist, Girlina, Severine, Wanted, Trace, Modern Love

Because TNBTTGSY readers are some of the nicest, smartest, best-looking folks around, Beaute Cosmetics has reactivated the karlasugar code. From now until June 30, use it to get 10% off your entire order.

Click here to browse TNBTTGSY’s Beaute swatches.

Click here to shop Beaute Cosmetics online. Prices are in Canadian dollars (so the glosses are $20-21 for Americans). Click “Order” on any item, then go to “Shopping Bag” in the top navigation to enter your code before you “Checkout.” (You can also estimate shipping in “Shopping Bag.”)

These stains come in four shades: red (Fever), berry (Harlot), bright cool pink (Fluoron), and orange (Neon). They are $29 CAD — which is about $23 USD at the moment. The stains smell like roses when you first apply them (rose essence is one of the ingredients), but the scent quickly fades. Most importantly, these pass my Chapstick test (once they’re completely dry, I can freely smear Chapstick on top of them, without transferring any pigment to the Chapstick. I’m sure this goes for lipgloss too). CoverGirl lipstain markers failed this test.

My favorite lip shade is Harlot. Fever (applied heavily) gave me a very Snow White appearance — the stain also lasted 26 hours. My brilliant friend (and lip twin) LuckiestLiz said she applied just a bit of Fever to her lips and sheered it out for a less dramatic red stain… I wish I’d thought of that. I could probably have achieved that attractive, 20-hours-later color without the wait.
Though I was personally looking for a lipstain, I felt obligated (for science!) to try these on my cheeks too. This was my first attempt at a cheekstain, and it was honestly a heart-pounding experience. My cheeks tend to redden when I touch or rub them anyway, so applying a stain and blending with fingers sounded something like “oh no! oh no! It’s too much! Get it off!”

These are pigmented products, but that’s not to say you can’t apply them sheerly (even very sheerly). Because they are a gel formula, you have some time to work. Excess gel can be soaked up by fingers, palm, or you can press a square of toilet paper to your damp cheek. (And two or three washings will get the pigment off your fingers.) What I realized afterwards was that I could have started with just a bit, blended, and added more if necessary, rather than applying the full dollop of stain to my cheek all in one go. If you really do apply too much, you can put foundation on top of it to tone that color down.

All that said, Fever made an amazing blush. Makeup buff Sara13 also observed that (unlike some cheeks stains), there’s no stickiness to these.

Click here to jump straight to the Liqui-Gel Stains at Beaute’s website.
Or look back through previous Beaute posts for swatches of the glosses.
Best of all, use discount code karlasugar to get 20% off your online purchase until March 31. Happy shopping!

I definitely recommend clicking to view the image at full size — but if you can’t read the names of the glosses, they are: Allure, Girlie Show, Skin Trade, Urge, Paramour, Heroine, Elitist, Cobra, Chimera, Lady Stardust, Medusa, and If.

This picture confirms what I already knew: that I love Heroine, Girlie Show, and Paramour… but now I want to try Urge and If. And Elitist. Okay, all of them.
Beaute lipglosses are unscented, nonsticky, and totally luxurious. Click to see my original post about these.

Click here to shop online. Remember, prices on the Beaute site are in Canadian dollars (so the glosses are $20-21 for Americans) and if you order before March 31, use code karlasugar to get 20% off your purchase. Click “Order” on any item, then go to “Shopping Cart” in the top navigation to enter your code before you “Checkout.”

Beaute is a small-but-growing makeup line created by extraordinarily talented, NYC-based makeup artist Beau Nelson. (He’s also gorgeous — luckily for him I’m married.) I have to imagine after years of working with the tools you have as a makeup artist, you start thinking how you could make them better (e.g., Trish McEvoy, Laura Mercier, Bobbi Brown, Scott Barnes, right?). If you want to bring Beau into your own living room, he’s also published a series of video tutorials on the Beaute website.

Luminous Volume Glosses have tapered brush wands. The gloss is unscented and completely flavorless (like iocane powder!). It’s also moisturizing, not sticky in the slightest, and feels absolutely wonderful on the lips.

I was lucky enough to swatch six of these, half the shades currently available. Heroine (my favorite!) is a fantastic cream rose (not too purple, not too mauvey). It literally goes with everything, and looks like magic on my lips. Lady Stardust is clear with small pink sparkles. Girlie Show is a cream pink-lemonade, peachy pink shade; Skin Trade is a cream nude peach. Paramour is a gorgeous rose-pink with gold iridescent sparkles (definitely click to see this one at full size). Medusa is a warm petal pink.
The unswatched shades are If (005, creamy cantaloupe), Urge (006, a cream red with about as much coverage as Heroine), Chimera (007, iridescent salmon pink), Elitist (010, a cream tawny color), Cobra (011, sun-kissed metallic bronze), and Allure (012, metallic pink beige).

Luminous Volume Glosses are $26 Canadian (which works out to around $20-21 U.S. at the time of this posting), comparable to Chanel’s Glossimers, and you can buy Beaute products directly off their website. The line is also carried by the Studio at Fred Segal (if you’re in California), and lucky Canadians have been able to buy them for some time at Holt Renfrew, Jerome Hair Salon in Calgary, and The New Eclectic in Vancouver.