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Archives for September 2010

Two Ways to Win an Urban Decay Good Karma Finishing Brush

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  • The giveaway is now closed, and the winner is being contacted. Before you go, check the home page for ongoing giveaways.

Karma: it’s not just the club where The Situation and Snooki practice their dance moves on the Jersey Shore.

It’s also a force of nature that states, like the old J. Timberlake song, “What goes around, comes around.” Both the good and the bad.

And speaking of the good stuff, have you seen the new Urban Decay Good Karma brushes? Today’s giveaway could be your chance to take one of them home.

The Prize

One lucky lady will win Urban Decay’s Good Karma Finishing Brush ($39), a Tabs-approved (cruelty-free) face brush. It’s one of 11 new Good Karma makeup brushes for eyes, lips and face.

While designed for hi-definition powders, something tells me it would handle regular face powders pretty well too. A multitasking tool, Urban Decay also recommends it for brushing away excess eyeshadow fallout from beneath the eyes or for toning down excess blush or bronzer colors on the face.

Imagine your nimble little fingers wrapped around the gunmetal handle. 🙂 It’s made from recycled aluminum, and the synthetic brush head’s made from recycled PET bottles.

The fibers feel whisker soft and feather light against skin, and they can be used either wet or dry.

When you’re done beautifying yourself with this bad boy, just put it away in its sassy purple box (made from recycled egg crates, wouldn’t ya know it).

How To Enter…

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

  1. First, you can enter by retweeting (RT) the following message:

    Follow @karenmbb and RT to win an Urban Decay Good Karma Finishing Brush http://bit.ly/aQMvCN

  2. Second, enter by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post, a comment about anything at all — tell me what food you’re craving, describe your weekend plans, or reminisce about your favorite Urban Decay product of all time.

    My favorite Urban Decay product? I’ve been hooked on phonics on Eden Primer Potion for months. It’s a non-drying eye makeup primer (I apply it to bare lids) used to keep liners and eyeshadows from creasing and disappearing throughout the day. Stuff works! And it’s hella easy to remove.

  • Oh, yeah. International folks and readers living overseas, please feel free to enter. The giveaway is also open to y’all. Entrants everywhere, however, must be at least 18 years of age or older.

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. Retweet the following message on twitter:

    Follow @karenmbb and RT to win an Urban Decay Good Karma Finishing Brush http://bit.ly/aQMvCN

I’ll pick the winner at random from among the people who enter by 11:59 p.m. PST on Sunday, September 5.

Sağlıqla qalın!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

  • The giveaway is now closed, and the winner is being contacted. Before you go, check the home page for ongoing giveaways.

How Do You Stop Eyeliner from Migrating?

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Yesterday MBB reader Megan emailed with a question about something that I’m guessing all of us have encountered at one time or another but may have been too shy to discuss: eye boogers.

Yep, eye boogers. 🙂

Megan writes: I have a problem with eyeliner buildup in the outer wrinkles between my lower and upper lids. What I can I do about it? Also, to be blunt, eyeliner builds up with my eye boogers throughout the day, and it makes me want to stop lining my upper or lower lashes. How do I remove them without messing up my makeup?

Hi Megan!

Ahh, migrating eyeliner… Such a pain, isn’t it? But there’s hope! You didn’t say which liner you’re using, but I’m assuming it’s a pencil or cream because both are rather nomadic and tend to migrate throughout the day.

Here are a couple of things you might try:

Layer a primer beneath your liner

LOL! I just made a rhyme. 🙂 Seriously, though, if you haven’t tried using an eye primer, give one a try. They’re like makeup magnets, strengthening the hold of eye products that are layered on top of them. I’ve been using Urban Decay Eden Primer Potion ($18) lately and am pretty happy with it, but Too Faced Shadow Insurance ($18) and LORAC Behind the Scenes Eye Primer ($20) work well for me, too.

Set your liner with a coordinating powder eyeshadow

If you’re lining your eyes with pencil, it could help to set your liner by applying a powder eyeshadow directly on top. For black liners, consider MAC Eyeshadow in Print; for browns, try MAC Eyeshadow in Brun ($14.50 each). I like to use an angled brush like the MAC 266 Small Angled Brush ($19.50) for precise application.

Switch to a long-wearing liquid or gel

Liquid and gel liners can take a little more time to apply than pencils do…but they frickin’ stay on like Donkey Kong! The most smudge-proof, user-friendly ones I’ve worn are LORAC Front of the Line Pro Liquid Liner ($22) and MAC Fluidline Gel Liner ($15).
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I’m a Softie for LORAC’s Private Affair Palette

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lorac private affair palette review

For Christmas last year my little brother got our mom a Snuggie (“as seen on TV!”).

What’s a Snuggie? Well, if you’ve seen the late-night commercials, it’s the world famous blanket with sleeves (kinda looks like a reverse wizard’s cape), and my mum thinks it’s cooler than a young Paul McCartney in butt-hugger pants.

I talked a lot of crap about ’em until the day I tried one on…

DANG, they’re unbelievably comfortable and soft.

Which reminds me of another “so soft!” moment I’ve had recently, this one with LORAC’s Private Affair Palette ($38).

It had been a while since I’d used one of the company’s powder shadows (not the baked ones) from their regular line, and Private Affair’s six shades refreshed my memory. There’s one thing I think LORAC’s always done well, and that’s make smooth eyeshadows.

I mean, if these were any smoother, I’d heat ’em in the microwave and pour ’em on pancakes.

Mmm… pancakes. 🙂

Unfortunately, they’re also a little fragile. The other day I accidentally pushed a brush head too hard into the gray pan and took a big chunk out of it (oops!); they’re THAT soft (and consequently easy to blend).

Joining the six shimmery pigmented shadows in plum, beige, pink, bronze, gray, and blackish plum, Private Affair also comes with a tiny tube of Behind the Scenes Eye Primer and a dual-tipped brush tucked in a drawer, secret squirrel-style.

NOTE: The brush that comes with Private Affair is identical to the one that comes with LORAC’s Close Up Eye Tutorial Kit, and, um, remember how that one broke? I saved myself the time and heartache and ditched this one immediately.

Private Affair’s shadows lean toward the cool end of the color spectrum, and several have reddish purple undertones, which I tend to have trouble wearing (they can make me look like I’ve been crying). I think if you have a cooler skin tone than I do, you might like these a lot.

TIP: How do you tell if you’re cool toned or warm? It’s based on the undertone of your skin. If the veins on the underside of your arm appear bluish, you’re cool toned (and probably wear pink-based foundation); if they appear greenish, you’re warm (and probably wear yellow-based foundation).
source

lorac private affair palette review ingredients
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A MAC Fabulous Felines Face of the Day: Burmese Beauty or Cat Diva?

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mac fabulous felines burmese beauty

Today I spent half the afternoon massaging a cat’s ego. Get this: Tabs thinks he was the inspiration behind the MAC Fabulous Felines Burmese Beauty color story.

mac fabulous felines swatches tabs top

He even had me type a letter to MAC corporate… Apparently, he knows someone in the Makeup Artistry Division.

2200 Feline Court
Novato, CA 94947

September 3, 2010

Snowflake
Assistant Director of Makeup Artistry in Charge of Feline Accounts
M·A·C Cosmetics
575 Broadway, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10012

Dear Snowflake:

I still have not received the royalty check you promised for the use of my likeness in the MAC Fabulous Felines campaign.

I understand if it was just a simple oversight. These things happen, but I would like to avoid litigation, if possible, and would appreciate your prompt attention to this matter.

Sincerely,
Tabs, esquire
Tabs
International Cat Supermodel

Enclosures (3)

I told him that I thought MAC probably just had Burmese cats in mind, but he smells a conspiracy. At one point in our argument today he twitched his tail, drew out his claws and told me to “talk to the paw.”


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Lancome French Coquettes and Pre-Dental Swatching

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lancome french coquettes swatches

Heya, ladies. I swung by the mall before my dental appointment yesterday, you know, to steel myself for potential doom (actually, everything went well), but I only had a few minutes, so I moved with a quickness! — like a rabid tween stalking Robert Pattison.

I made a beeline for the Lancome counter because I haven’t been to one in a while, and they had the new French Coquettes fall collection on display, fun!
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A MAC Fabulous Felines Face of the Day: A Russian Blue on Brown Eyes

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mac fabulous felines palace pedigreed fotd

Vets say he’s an American Shorthair, the cat-chall breed for kitties of questionable lineage (the miscellaneous cat-egory of the kitty world, if you will).

And I’d always figured Tabs was cool with being called an American Shorthair, but ever since the arrival of MAC’s Fabulous Felines, I’ve been finding evidence to the contrary — posters of exotic purebreds on the wall, copies of Cat Fancy around the house, and his diary left open to a page in which he referred to himself as an “Egyptian Mau/Ragdoll/Toyger hybrid.”

Yeah…whatever, dude. 🙂

It’s probably just a minor identity crisis brought on by the Palace Pedigreed color story, which he says he likes because it makes him “feel fancy,” and who could blame him? I like it too, especially the plums and blues.

mac fabulous felines palace pedigreed fotd ps
Palace Pedigreed items clockwise from lower left: Lipglass in Lap of Luxury, Palace Pedigreed quad, Frost Lipstick in Cunning, Superslick Liquid Eye Liner in Signature Blue, Mineralize Blush in Pet Me

Up until a few years ago, I was terrified of getting either color anywhere near my brown eyes.

Now, I’m hooked!

I tried to make blue eyeliner the focal point of my look today, and here’s what I came up with…
mac fabulous felines palace pedigreed fotd k2
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