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Archives for September 2009

10 Days of Giveaways: Comment to Win Usher’s UR Perfume for Women

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The giveaway is now closed, and I’m contacting the winner by e-mail. Good luck!

usher

Since dropping his self-titled debut back in 1994, Usher has sold more than 40 million albums and taken home five Grammies to go with his six-pack abs.

There was a while there where you couldn’t go 15 minutes listening to pop radio without hearing one of his songs. I like a few of ’em (sooo guilty of bumping Love in this Club on full blast!)… I’m looking forward to his upcoming CD, Monster, which comes out this December.

Like so many other mega-star singers, Usher branched out into acting (remember the cinematic masterpiece known as She’s All That?), product marketing, and even purchased a stake in a professional sports team (the Cleveland Cavaliers). Not content to stop there, though, he’s also released several scents for ladies and gents.

Which leads us to today’s celebrity fragrance giveaway. Today’s features one of the crooner’s fragrances for women.

The prize

One lucky lady will take home a bottle of Usher Raymond’s (that’s his real name) UR Eau de Parfum (a $68 value), a fruity floral with notes of peach nectar, white freesia, jasmine, violet leaf, pink peony, honeysuckle, musk, coconut milk and praline.

It’ll have you quoting Usher in no time: “Yeah, yeah, yeah… yeah, yeah. Yeah.” 🙂

How to enter…

2ways2enterEntering is easy. There are two different ways, and you can do both of them for two chances to win.

First, you can enter by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post. In it, mention the name of one of your favorite songs from the ’90s.

There are so many to choose from! — but Missy Elliot’s Supa Dupa Fly was the first one that came to mind.

Follow me
Second, enter by following me on Twitter and retweeting (RT) the following message:

RT @karenmbb: RT to Win Usher’s UR Perfume for Women http://bit.ly/n9Hnw

Recap…

  1. Enter by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post, and don’t forget to use a valid email address so I can reach you if you win.
  2. Follow me on Twitter and retweet the following message:

    RT @karenmbb: RT to Win Usher’s UR Perfume for Women http://bit.ly/n9Hnw

I’ll pick the winner at random from among the people who enter by 11:59 p.m. PST on Monday, September 28.

Paç fat!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

The giveaway is now closed, and I’m contacting the winner by e-mail. Good luck!

Sundays with Tabs the Cat, Makeup and Beauty Blog Mascot, Vol. 56

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Can you find the fragrance imposter?

Our intrepid Inspector Tabs is trying to figure out which of the following is NOT the name of a famous fragrance.

Can you lend him a helping paw?

Which of the following is NOT the name of a famous fragrance?

View Results

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Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

The MAC Style Black Mineralize Eyeshadows: A Few Days Later

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mac-gilt-by-association

Morning, ladies. 🙂 How was your night?

I spent mine chillaxing around the apartment, which I think I needed. I did a little reading (Sookie Stackhouse; I’m on Book 4) and fooling around with makeup (BIG surprise!).

This morning I’d like to answer two of the questions a few of you asked about MAC Style Black. The first question comes from Faye.

MAC Style Black Mineralize Eyeshadows: How’s the fallout?

QUESTION: How was application quality for the shadows? I hesitated to get these because I’ve had issues with the Mineralize shadows in the past — they always seem gritty and hard to blend, with fallout. How are these? – Faye

Heya Faye,

I actually find them pretty easy to blend, but fallout is a common concern when it comes to MAC’s Mineralize Eyeshadows.

The two Style Black ones I’ve tried so far, Young Punk (the shimmery purplish black) and Gilt By Association (the shimmery blackish bronze), apply smooth, and I haven’t experienced much fallout with either one.

By applying all of my eye makeup first — before concealer, foundation and everything else — I think it minimizes the impact of minor fallout with these.

Here are a few more things you might try to improve your results with these and other Mineralize shadows:

  • Use a flat, firm shadow brush with a small brush head. I like the MAC 239 Eye Shader Brush ($25). I think it works better for me than fluffy brushes like the MAC 217 Blending Brush ($27). Fluffy brushes will distribute shadow over a wider area, while firmer brushes will deposit denser color in a smaller area and will generally provide better control.
  • Press to apply. With my firm eyeshadow brush, I’ll use a gentle pressing motion (as opposed to a windshield wiper motion or small circles) to really pack the shadow onto my eyelid.
  • Start with a creamy base. A wet, creamy product like MAC Cream Colour Base will give Mineralize shadows something to adhere to, and I get better results from them here than with non-creamy primers.

MAC addicts, do you use any tricks or tips when you apply MAC Mineralize Eyeshadows?
[Continue reading…]

10 Days of Giveaways: Hilary Duff’s Wrapped With Love Perfume

by 133 Comments

The giveaway is now closed, and I’m contacting the winner by e-mail. Good luck!

hillary-duff

I’m a sucker for Cinderella stories, pink and prettily packaged products like Hilary Duff’s Wrapped With Love perfume.

Huzzah to Lizzie McGuire for the floral design on the bottle. It gives it such a flirty, feminine flair that reminds me of spring.

Picture it sitting atop your dresser…

Yup, I think it’s time for another giveaway. 🙂

The prize

One lucky lady will take home a bottle of Hillary Duff’s Wrapped With Love perfume (a $38 value).

Wrapped With Love will envelop you in fruity honeydew, violet, raspberry, vanilla and white chocolate mousse, yum!

How to enter…

2ways2enterEntering is easy. There are two different ways, and you can do both of them for two chances to win.

First, you can enter by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post — in it, tell me the name of your favorite fairy tale.

Hmm… That’s a toughie, and I think the answer depends on my mood. Right now I’d have to say Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Follow me
Second, enter by following me on Twitter and retweeting (RT) the following message:

RT @karenmbb: RT to Win Hilary Duff’s Wrapped With Love Perfume http://bit.ly/tPpR9

Recap…

  1. Enter by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post, and don’t forget to use a valid email address so I can reach you if you win.
  2. Follow me on Twitter and retweet the following message:

    RT @karenmbb: RT to Win Hilary Duff’s Wrapped With Love Perfume http://bit.ly/tPpR9

I’ll pick the winner at random from among the people who enter by 11:59 p.m. PST on Sunday, September 27.

Sterkte!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

The giveaway is now closed, and I’m contacting the winner by e-mail. Good luck!

Saturday Surfing

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092609-saturday-surfin

Heya, ladies. What’s shakin’? Doing anything fun today? I’m on my way out the door to run some errands. I have to find some kind of wood or laminate (fake wood) for the new place, but one thing I don’t have a good eye for is flooring…

What did you do last night? We went and saw Surrogates, that new Bruce Willis sci-fi flick. I usually love sci-fi, but I thought it was just kinda “eh.” Good story, but I don’t think it got where it needed to go.

I wish I could get Tabs a kitty surrogate… Then he could explore the outer world while his body stayed safe inside. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Troublesome Beauty Ingredients and How to Test for Skin Allergies

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Are You Allergic to Beauty Products?

“Ahh-CHEW!”
[sniffle, sniffle]

How do you feel about jasmine? I love it. 🙂 It’s one of my very favorite scents, but the International Fragrance Association is limiting the amount of it allowed in perfumes and other aromatic beauty products (some do tend to have a lot) to reduce the number of products causing rashes and other bad reactions.

It’s not that jasmine’s particularly hard to tolerate — no more than most plant-based ingredients — but according to the FDA, almost all cosmetics and beauty products are apt to cause reactions in at least a small percentage of the population. We’re all different, as the story goes, and one girl’s soothing scent may be another girl’s poison ivy!

In one FDA survey, 25% of people reported a skin reaction to one or more beauty products.

It’s perhaps ironic, then, that the FDA has very limited authority over cosmetics. Unfortunately, the beauty biz is still very buyer beware.

Types of skin reactions

Most reactions are mild — what’s commonly referred to as irritant contact dermatitis. Typically it’s a burning, stinging or itching sensation accompanied by redness right where the product’s been applied. Dry or injured skin can react worse, too, having lost some of its natural barrier against irritants.

As bad as irritant dermatitis sounds, some of us have a worse variety termed allergic contact dermatitis — true allergies to specific ingredients. Symptoms can include severe redness, swelling, itching or even blisters on the skin, yikes! The worst culprits? Usually fragrances and preservatives. source

TIP: Some products will say “unscented” on the label when they really aren’t. It’s not uncommon for products to contain fragrance cocktails to mask unappealing or artificial scents. Straight up, if you’re on the market for something that’s really unscented, look for the words, “fragrance-free” or “without perfume.”

While almost any ingredient can cause an allergic reaction in at least some people, many of the worst offenders are preservatives.

They slow the growth of bacteria and crop up in most beauty products that contain water, but parabens, imidazolidinyl urea, Quaternium-15, DMDM hydantoin, phenoxyethanol, methylchloroisothiazolinone and formaldehyde have also been linked to skin allergies.

So what’s a girl to do?

How to avoid a bad beauty skin reaction

[Continue reading…]

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