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Archives for November 2011

Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll, Nov. 21

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  • You might be wondering, “So what the heck is this Monday Poll thing anyway?”
    Well, it isn’t much of a poll. It’s more just a constantly evolving (devolving?), somewhat random list of questions I’ve been putting out to readers every Monday morning for the past three years, which I guess makes this somewhere around Vol. 195. I’ve always enjoyed reading your answers in the comments, and I hope you enjoy reading mine.
  1. Mood:

    2. I’m okay… Just okay. I had a nightmare last night (abandonment was the theme), and it’s been lingering with me all morning. I just got off a nice phone call with my mom, though, and feel a lot better. No one can comfort me like my mom…

  2. Your favorite Thanksgiving entrée or side?

    3. Pecan pie! OOH! And stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans… I could go on. I usually like the sides more than the actual turkey.

  3. What’s one thing — beauty related — you feel thankful for?

    4. MAC Studio Sculpt Foundation. After not using it regularly for a while, I was recently reminded why I love it so much. It’s lightweight, buildable, doesn’t give me breakouts, and I can get away with using very little and still achieve great coverage.

    I really appreciate being able to build it up to cover my trouble spots, or go sheerer by spritzing my MAC 188 skunk brush with MAC Fix+ before applying it on the areas where I don’t need as much coverage.

    On top of all that, it stays put all day long. Bravo.

  4. What’s one thing — non-beauty related — you feel thankful for?

    5. The boys (El Hub and Tabs). Without ’em I’d be a certified crazy pants (in case you’re wondering, that’s the clinical term).

  5. What’s been the biggest surprise for you so far this year?

    6. Working with MAC to create EvRev was a pretty awesome surprise.

  6. When was the last time you were the recipient of a random act of kindness?

    7. Yesterday while I was waiting in line at Target. I got to talking with an older gentleman waiting in front of me. He was there buying Christmas presents for his seven grandkids, and after he’d paid for his things, he got one of those long strings of coupons from the register, glanced at them, and then looked at my cart, smiled and said, “Here, I think you can use this one.”

    It was a small gesture, but very sweet. 🙂

  7. Gloves or mittens?

    8. Gloves. You just never know when you’ll need to be able to use your fingers to pinch the crap out of someone, and mittens interfere with proper pinching technique… Yes, I speak from experience.

  8. What’s one thing you do to keep yourself motivated?

    9. Star stickers! I print out a simple calendar, post it on the fridge, and then place a star sticker next to the days when I make progress toward my goal.

    What’s great is that it works even better as the stars accumulate over time.

  9. Have you ever been to one of your high school reunions?

    10. Not yet. My 20-year is coming up soon (!), but I’ve kept in touch with my best friends from school.

  10. Weekly goals:

    11. To get in at least three runs before T-Day, to take a ton of drool-worthy food pics, and to eat an entire pie!

Yesterday El Hub and I grabbed some Vietnamese food for lunch, and while we were at the restaurant, I had a dollop of that Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce. You know the one I’m talking about, right? The rooster sauce?

I’ve steered clear of it for years, but I guess I felt a little adventurous yesterday, and I’m glad I did.

I’m not really a spicy food person, but I forgot how delicious that stuff is (in moderation). The burn builds up over time, instead of just hitting your taste buds right off the bat, so I can take it as long as I’m careful about how much I use.

We used to keep a bottle in the house for El Hub, who loves hot food, but we got rid of it once after he OD’d.

In music news, did you to watch the AMA Awards last? I’m kinda bummed because I totally forgot they were on. I was so busy watching the zombie melodrama on The Walking Dead that the AMA’s slipped my mind.

Not AMA related, but I’ve been listening to Uncharted by Sara Bareilles a lot lately. It just makes me feel so…good. And the video’s such a crackup.

Now without further ado, the Monday Poll. 🙂

  • To complete the Monday Poll, just copy the following list, and paste it with your answers in the comments.



1. Mood:
2. Your favorite Thanksgiving entrée or side?
3. What’s one thing — beauty related — you feel thankful for?
4. What’s one thing — non-beauty related — you feel thankful for?
5. What’s been the biggest surprise for you so far this year?
6. When was the last time you were the recipient of a random act of kindness?
7. Gloves or mittens?
8. What’s one thing you do to keep yourself motivated?
9. Have you ever been to one of your high school reunions?
10. Weekly goals:

Please smile today. 🙂 And I hope you have a great week!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Sundays with Tabs the Cat, Makeup and Beauty Blog Mascot, Vol. 166

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Tabs for Chanel Velvet Rouge

One of the crosses Tabs bears as an international kitty supermodel is the loss of the anonymity he once enjoyed. There was a time in his life back before MAC and Chanel when he could skulk around unnoticed, but now he’s always in the crosshairs of a paparazzo’s telephoto lens.

It’s tough. On the one paw, he loves being Internet famous — the gravy, the girls, the glamour — but on the other, he misses just being able to chase butterflies and lizards with the other cats outside.

You know what they say. The grass is always greener… 🙂

As for modeling, this was probably the last busy week for Tabs this month. Things usually slow down a little over Thanksgiving, and then pick up again heading into Christmas.

Tabs had some good gigs last week, though, for Chanel, EcoTools, Clarins, Pacifica and Bobbi Brown. Here are the pics, if you’d like to take a look.

Tabs for the EcoTools Exfoliating Paw Gloves

Tabs for Clarins Passion
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What Are Your Weekend Beauty Rituals?

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During the week, I’m usually too busy catering to my fussy tabby’s redonkulous demands (where, pray tell, does one find an XXL Gucci cat snuggie??) to catch up on my beauty maintenance tasks, like hair plucking and nail polishing (like, where I paint all 10 fingers in the same shade, as opposed to the single-finger technique I use a lot for swatching), etc., etc.

So it’s only on the weekends that I’m able to take care of many of my beauty rituals. Things like…

1. Hair masks

I’ve been wearing my wavy hair straight a lot lately, and if I’m not careful, the heat from all of the flat ironing and blow drying will do a number on my locks.

Doing a hair mask over the weekend seems to quench my coif’s thirst, and lately I’ve been turning to Lush’s $19.95 H’Suan Wen Hua Hair Treatment, which I like to use right after I finish my Saturday or Sunday run.

As soon as I’ve caught my breath, I’ll comb the treatment through my hair from roots to ends, put my hair up in a ponytail, and let the mask do its moisturizing thing while I do my stretching, eat a post-workout snack, and putter around the house.

When I finally jump into the shower, I keep the ponytail on while I lather and shave. Then, I’m finished with my body stuff, I take out my ponytail and rinse the mask away (it smells like pumpkin pie!), before shampooing and conditioning. After everything, my hair looks and feels about a million times better — soft and shiny.

2. Face Masks

Because of the moisture-sapping cold outside and the heater running almost non-stop inside, my face has been totally parched, so I’ve started to use a weekly June Jacobs Intensive Age Defying Hydrating Masque ($80), which hydrates the heck out of even the driest patches on my forehead and around the corners of my nose.

Like I do with hair masks, I like to apply face masks right after a run, when I know I can let it work for 30 minutes to an hour before I hop in the shower. Then once in the shower, I try to leave the mask on as long as I can to let the warmth and humidity in the air open up my pores, making it easier for the product to absorb into my skin.

3. Exfoliating scrubs

Ah… There’s nothing quite like a good scrubbing to get my skin baby soft, and I’ve been de-crusting lately with Borba’s $28 Firming Micro-Diamond Body Polish. Borba calls the tiny grains in it “prismatic micro-diamonds!” — which just sounds very cool to me. I’m sure there’s nothing diamond about them, but they scrub like the dickens without rubbing my skin raw.

The product contains glycolic acid, green tea, colloidal oatmeal, aloe and cucumber to scrub, soothe and firm. Teamed up with these $3 exfoliating gloves from EcoTools, it’s a skin-scrubbing dynamo!
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The Weekly Roundup: Posts You Might Have Missed

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The Makeup and Beauty Blog Weekly Roundup

Just some crazy imagery to play with your mind this morning…

You know, there’s a reason why so many cosmetics counters are guarded by armored knights with vorpal swords these days. It’s because of the makeup monsters! Insiders tell me that they’ve really become a big problem for the brands.

You’ve heard about lipstick monsters, right? Well, they’re bad, but blush bashers are even worse! They’re distantly related to jabberwockies, very rare, and hell bent on bashing blush pans into rubble. Their sole purpose in life is to smash and crush blush. They’re just as obsessed with destroying blush as I am about wearing it.

If you happen to cross one in your beauty travels, keep your blush pans under wraps. Blush bashers are pretty harmless and kinda cute as long as they’re kept far, far away from blush.

The Blush Basher

THE BLUSH BASHER

FREQUENCY: Very Rare (thank goodness!)
SPEED: Slow
ARMOR CLASS: 8
SPECIAL ATTACKS: 5% critical hit against pans of blush
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Nil
INTELLIGENCE: Low
ALIGNMENT: Neutral (he just can’t help himself when it comes to blush)
SIZE: L (14′ tall)

So, it’s probably obvious by now, but I like to draw and blog about strange stuff on the weekends.

Hey, a girl’s gotta keep things interesting for herself, right? 🙂

A few beauty posts that caught my eye…

  • Going Medieval on Yer Nail Art, Yo! — The Nailasaurus
  • DIY Floral Party Hats — Oh Happy Day
  • How To: A Katy Perry Inspired Sparkly Party Makeup Look — Beaut.ie
  • 5 Crazy Intriguing Beauty Products (Think Tattooed Lips and Skin That Glows in the Dark) — Beauty Editor
  • Nail Polish 101: Dealing With Stained Nails — College Fashion
  • 5 Foolproof Ways To Wear Red Lipstick — Afrobella
  • Recipes Illustrated by Artists from Around the World (I love this!) — They Draw & Cook
  • Easy Holiday Makeup: How to Go From Day To Night — Bella Sugar
  • A Gorgeous Look Starring YSL Rouge Pur Couture Golden Lustre in 110 Fuchsia Symbole — Glitter Geek
  • A Red with the Power of Sunshine! Dior Vernis Merveille 651 (Holiday 2011 Les Rouges Or Collection) — à la peach

The Weekly Roundup: MBB Posts You Might Have Missed

Pacifica Magic Carpet Ride Body Butter Set $28 WORKS OUT TO HALF OFF PACIFICA’S
MAGIC CARPET RIDE

There’s no doubt about it: I’m slowly turning into my mother, and there are moments when it hits me, like after I’ve clipped a great coupon (score!) or cleaned the oven and felt an overwhelming sense of joy.

I had one of those moments the other day when I spotted the new Pacifica Magic Carpet Ride body butter set ($28).

Limited edition for the holidays, it comes with three of my favorite Pacifica scents. The first one, Island Vanilla, has a hint of tea and a grown-up twist. The second one, Indian Coconut Nectar, makes me hungry for warm vanilla cake with coconut frosting and dulce de leche drizzled on top (OH, GAWD!). Read more…

Clarins Holiday 2011 Passion THIS YEAR FOR THE HOLIDAYS,
CLARINS GOT PASSIONATE (AND IT’S A SLOW BURN)

Packaging ho that I am, I always salivate thinking about look forward to seeing what Clarins cooks up for their holiday collections.

Remember the floral flourishes swirling across 2010′s Barocco release and the plaster and pebbled textures from 2009′s Palazzo d’Oro?

Mmm… luxuries limited edition designs. And seriously good stuff.

Since the brand usually displays dramatic flair with the packaging of their holiday collections, I was a little surprised by this year’s release. Passion, available now on Clarins counters and also online, has at least one opulent episode via the curvy red pattern decorating the Passion Face Palette ($55), but the other items in the four-piece collection look uncharacteristically streamlined and restrained. Read more…

Chanel Rouge Allure Velvet Matte Lip Colours CHANEL’S ROUGE ALLURE VELVET LUMINOUS MATTE LIP COLOURS
FEEL SO LIGHT THAT THEY DEFY GRAVITY!

I’ve only been snowboarding once, and it was a very long time ago. I don’t remember much about that day anymore, but I do recall the cold. I remember that much — the part about freezing my @ass off — and I also remember flying down the mountain and feeling lighter than air, with the wind whipping through my ponytail and my heart pounding in my chest.

I’d do it again if it wasn’t so cold, but what can I say? I was made in the tropics.

Snow wasn’t part of my original programming, but I think I was configured to appreciate featherweight lip products like the new Chanel Rouge Allure Velvet Luminous Matte Lip Colours ($32 each, available in eight shades). Read more…

Bobbi Brown Chocolate and Gold Eye Palette IT TAKES ONE OR TWO TO TANGO WITH
BOBBI BROWN’S NEW CHOCOLATE & GOLD EYE PALETTE

Chocolate & Gold happens to be a great dance partner! The shadows, while fabulous on their own, get along great with others and flat-out love to be layered.

Which reminds me — do you remember the moment you realized that you could wear more than one eyeshadow on your lids at a time? Better yet, when you figured out that you could even layer those shades together?

GASP! That’s a moment that changed my makeup world forever.

Flash forward to today. I was just fooling around this morning when I applied the bronzy gold from the Chocolate & Gold Palette (at the top in the pic below) on top of the darker black and gold shadow on the right. Read more…

NARS Lovejoy NARS UNSUNG HEROES
LOVEJOY BLUSH

Combined, some words are even greater than the sum of their parts. Take Nutella and doughnuts, for instance. Both tasty treats by themselves, for sure, but stick them together and BOOM!

Magic (super high-calorie magic).

I think the same principle also applies to NARS Lovejoy, a $27 powder blush from the NARS permanent line.

NARS Lovejoy does more than combine two — wait, three great words. It also combines two of my favorite products, blush and bronzer.

And seriously, with a name like Lovejoy, how could it have been anything but good? Read more…

5 Home Remedies for Puffy Eyes SKINCARE FOR THE CHANGING SEASONS
5 HOME REMEDIES FOR PUFFY EYES

’round these parts, the holidays are all about the four F’s — food, fun, friends and family — but there’s a fifth F, a special holiday F, and it’s rarely talked about in polite company.

F-R-E-A-K-I-N-G OUT!

The holidays — gotta love ‘em. Don’t get me wrong: I cherish this time of year, but it does place demands on us that can leave us feeling stressed.

I always look forward to the family get-togethers. For the most part, everyone gets along, but every family has its moments. Having so many people with so much history all under the same roof can start to feel like a pressure cooker, and if someone ends up crying, it’s usually me.

There’s always a silver lining, though, even to tears. Now, I have a pretty decent arsenal of tips and tricks to deal with puffy eyes, and most of them can be done for little to no money using products you may already have around the house. Read more…

China Glaze Eye Candy Collection FEAST YOUR EYES ON THE CHINA GLAZE
EYE CANDY COLLECTION

Oops! I just misspelled my Google search term. I meant to type “YouTube kittens,” but I accidentally typed “Ryan Gosling abs.”

Don’t you hate it when that happens?

The Internet can be so distracting. It’s easy to get so busy Googling important things like Ryan’s abs that you miss the really important stuff, like all of the glittery nail polishes appearing this season.

The stuff’s been showing up everywhere! — but after a certain point, it all starts to blend together, like house music at a three-day rave (duh-chuh-duh-chuh-duh-chuh!).

No worries. Eye Candy, the latest collection from China Glaze, can simplify the process of finding a glitter polish that’s both flashy and classy. The six-piece collection was inspired by Marilyn Monroe and utilizes a special variety of glitter called GLITTER (in all caps). Read more…

A Face of the Day with Makeup Up For Ever, NARS, Clarins and MAC I RECHARGED TODAY WITH A MAKE UP FOR EVER, MAC, NARS AND
CLARINS FACE OF THE DAY

Jeez, I swear, sometimes face paint is like chicken soup for my soul.

I was chugging along just fine this afternoon until about 3 p.m., and then…afternoon slump.

I’m not sure why or what happened — it might have something to do with the chilly weather — but I just couldn’t keep my eyes open. All I wanted to do was take a nap, an activity which, by the way, Tabs wholeheartedly approved.

But instead of napping, I made myself another cup of tea and set about trying to do something new for my makeup.

After this face of the day, which I did using holiday fare from the Make Up For Ever Wild & Chic, MAC Glitter and Ice and Clarins Passion collections (with a dash from the NARS permanent line), I actually felt a whole lot better. Read more…

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

I Draw the Line at Soft Edges with Golden Chanel Ligne Extreme in Or

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Chanel Or Ligne Extreme (2)

I felt a sudden gold rush the first time Chanel’s Ligne Extreme in Or touched my lids!

Team Coco developed this $32 liquid liner, part of Chanel’s holiday 2011 affair, to draw crisp, intensely golden lines with a single stroke, and they bestowed upon it a water-resistant formula to help it last through wintery downpours.

We’ve played together a couple of times over the past two weeks, but the last time things got a tad tense… Or, which means “gold” en français, has a tendency to over-apply.

It has a consistency on the thicker side for liquid liners, but patting or swiping away any excess from the brush before bringing it my eye definitely helps. As long as I remember to do that every time, I’m able to draw fairly smooth, even lines with it — albeit lines with softer edges than I’m used to from most liquid liners. It seems that the combination of a thick formula and a delicate brush make drawing super crisp lines with it a challenge, at least for me.

Chanel Or Ligne Extreme (4)

Chanel Or Ligne Extreme (3)
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