Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup
A beauty blog blooming with fresh makeup reviews, swatches and beauty tips from your friendly neighborhood beauty addict
Hola, ladies. 🙂 Have you heard Katy Perry’s California Gurls? It put me in the mood for my makeup today, a summery look using products from MAC To The Beach. It’s a coral and green eye with a bright orangey bronze cheek and glossy orange lips, loosely based on the MAC promo picture from the collection.
Good morning, fellow beauty surfers. 🙂 I hope you’re having a pleasant Saturday so far. I’m just sitting here sipping my morning latte (a weekend treat) and surfin’ the interwebs. Care to come with?
Been listening to this song all morning…
This one too…
Have a great Saturday, okay?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
The Essie Summer 2010 nail polish collection’s making me all hot and bothered. How about that green shade, Pretty Edgy? Hello!
I’m counting down the days ’till June 1. 😉
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Have I ever told you about my obsession with 1940s style? Yup, ever since high school. For a time I was actually dressing the part, too, like I was an extra in Swing Kids, wearing Veronica Lake waves, red lips, fishnet stockings — the whole shebang.
Now I’m more of a tank tops and jeans kinda girl, but I still get my ’40s fix any way I can. China Glaze’s new Vintage Vixen collection helps.
Arriving July 6 for about $5 each, the 12 dark fall greens, burgundies, blues, taupes and silvers (NOTE: Fall? Can you say early much?! ) evoke ’40s film noir with a modern day twist.
Sparkle’s a key player in this drama, as the entire cast of characters features some kind of light-catching finish, ranging from micro-glitters to frosts to shimmers. It’s been a recurring theme for China Glaze’s fall collections, with both of the previous two, Retro Diva and Rodeo Diva, doing something similar.
But where Retro and Rodeo crafted a more playful, whimsical tale, Vintage Vixen’s darker story feels more like pulp fiction in paint. I like it, though (if I put my mind that far ahead in time), and feel like it’s right on point for fall.
Like a beauty Beowulf, today I vanquished a household Grendel with my trusty lip balm sword!
That is to say I used a spare tube of Burt’s Bees Beeswax Lip Balm to grease the threads of an old light socket. Thanks to Apartment Therapy for this one:
“To remedy old and sticking sockets simply use a small bit of lip balm on the inside of the threads and the light bulb won’t have any problem screwing in! You can also apply it to the bulb instead of the sockets — it’s a great preventative measure, especially with new lamps. Just be weary of the very bottom of the bulb or socket being coated. If you’re worried things will get messy, just use a cotton swab to apply.”
We have some bare light sockets around the outside of the condo that I’ve been meaning to fill with bulbs. A few of them are rather beaten up after living life exposed to the elements for 30 years, and the sockets are sticky. A while back I was trying to screw a lightbulb into one of them (I’m sure there’s a joke in there somewhere) when the bulb cracked in my hand!
This time, with a swipe of lip balm applied to the threads on a new bulb, it screwed right in. 🙂
Got any other beauty-based home care tricks to share? Let me know in the comments.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
P.S. Oh, and TGIF! Do you have plans tonight? El Hub wants us to re-watch Avatar on DVD… I thought it was a great movie, but I’m kinda not in the mood, le sigh!
A desert princess might wear Yves Saint Laurent’s Water Resistant Cream Eyeshadow in Golden Sands to a royal banquet, but I’d probably wear it to the club. 🙂
New to YSL’s makeup line, it’s a very light, airy mousse eyeshadow, thinner than a regular cream but thicker than a liquid. One of six colors overall, it’s the only one to come out for summer 2010 (available now).
For $30, you get 0.22 oz of light peachy golden glitter for your eyes, like a sunset in a jar. As a shimmery wash over the entire lid, it’s a marvel, water-resistant and easier to use than a glittery powder that might leave fallout on my cheeks.
This particular shade isn’t very pigmented at all; it’s almost like glitter suspended in a mousse base, but judging by the swatches online, some of the other colors pack a stronger punch.
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Not that it was hot here today, but I felt like something warm on my nails, so I went with Scorcher. It’s the orangey red from the MAC To The Beach collection (the other color in the collection is the avocado-like In the Buff). I wore Scorcher on my tips and Chanel Jade on my toes.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
P.S. I think I’m calling it a night — rather, I think I’ll step away from the computer and go grab a bite to eat with El Hub. Whatever you do, have a great night. Treat yourself to something for desert! 🙂 Tabs says hi. I know he wants to go to dinner with us… Sorry, tabby.
There’s something poetic about Yves Saint Laurent Rouge Pure Shine Sheer Lipstick in Pink Lychee ($30) — how pretty yet fleeting it is, like butterflies, or a summertime tan.
It’s one of two limited edition SPF 15 Pure Shine Lipsticks YSL released with their summer 2010 collection, the other being 
Blood Orange.
The first thing I thought after seeing it in the tube? — wow, that sure looks pale. I didn’t think I’d be able to wear it, but I’ve been surprised so many times before that I figured, who knows, right?
I really didn’t know what to expect and hoped it wouldn’t have that p0rn star opaque coverage we’ve seen from other light pink lippies.
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