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
Tabs follows the sun like a sundial. He always chooses to nap in a patch of sunlight on the floor.
Right after I snapped these pics, I hoisted him up and gave him a HUGE bear hug… Of course he hated every second of it. 🙂
Sometimes when I get dressed I like to pretend that Michael Kors is sitting there in a Project Runway judge’s chair talking mad smack about my wardrobe.
“There are more holes in those pants than one of my blind nana’s knitting projects,” he says, and “you look like an ice cream truck at a Magic: The Gathering convention.”
It stops me from reverting to my natural state, where I dress like a hip-less 13-year-old skater boy, and keeps me on the lookout for cute, affordable fashion finds, like this black-and-white lace peplum top I scored on sale on Anthropologie’s website.
Originally $68, the Deletta Sculpted Lace Top was marked down to $49.95, which is still a lot more than $10 Old Navy shorts (which I’m also wearing), but after reading so many rave reviews about it on the Anthro website, I gave in, figuring that if it didn’t move me, I’d just return it.
Babe, this top does werk! With it on, I feel taller, thinner and — by the gods — stylish.
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Raul. You @sshole. You just don’t get it, do you? This isn’t working out.
I mean, what else is there to say? I’ve been putting up with your nonsense for six years. The taunting in the mirror every morning — “Ooh, look at me!” — the following me to work.
I kept telling myself, “Come on, Karen, he’s just a bald spot in the arch of your left eyebrow. Give him another chance.”
But that’s just it. You’re always IN MY FACE!
And I’m sick of it.
You need to move on. Go find someone else’s eyebrows to torment.
I don’t want to see you anymore when I look in the mirror. I don’t want to see that bald spot there in my left brow.
Just leave. I’ve taken care of everything. You won’t even have to lift a brow.
I’ve actually been seeing someone new…Urban Decay’s recently revamped $29 Brow Box (available in two shades, Brown Sugar and Honey Pot), and he takes care of my brows.
He’s a two-tiered box containing everything I need to fill in sparse spots like you and fatten skinny brows — two powder shadows (which can be mixed to customize a color); a soft, colorless wax to herd stray hairs and set them in place; as well as two brushes and a tiny tweezers.
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G’morning, friend. I hope you had a nice night. Things are just OK on my end…but I’m hangin’ in.
Yesterday Tabs let me bail early because I was bummed and little use to him in the afternoon, so I sat on the couch, cried, ate ice cream and watched chick flicks on TV — What to Expect When You’re Expecting (not great, but better than I expected) and Playing for Keeps (sooo unbearable that I couldn’t even finish it).
It was a very Liz Lemon-y afternoon. Muy therapeutic.
Despite his reputation as the Naomi Campbell of the plus-size kitty modeling world, Tabs can actually be pretty understanding sometimes. Your nephew took good care of his heartbroken human. He even slept next to me the entire night, which he never does.
Thanks again for the hugs yesterday. I really needed ’em.
SO! Today is a new day, and if I suddenly burst into tears and go off on tangents in my posts, I apologize. I’ll do my best to stay positive and focus on happy thoughts, like all of the good memories I have of my pretty puppy girl, but no guarantees. I think that’s how these things work.
Now, makeup, because like good medicine, it usually helps me feel better. 🙂
I’ll be doing some traveling over the next few months, and these six new multipurpose creams from Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics couldn’t have come at a better time.
These new shades in OCC’s 100% vegan and cruelty-free Creme Colour Concentrate line, a collection of long-wearing, satiny creams for eyes, lips, cheeks and basically wherever you want long-lasting, intense color (I just put a little on my ankle for fun, woo-hoo!), have a thin, lightweight formula and a smooth texture that reminds me a lot of Make Up For Ever’s Aqua Creams.
OCC loaded them with moisturizing vitamin E, aloe leaf and cocoa extracts, something my dry lips enthusiastically support.
Choose from opalescent pink Pleasure Model, pale peachy Newt, golden Icarius, silver Mercury, teal Beholder and dark greenish gray Dark Matter.
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Apparently, retro is the new black.
At least it is according to MAC.
For the second year in a row, MAC is bringing power to the people with a collection of old-school MAC favorites hand-picked by their fans.
From now through July 21, vote for your favorite shadow and lipstick among a batch of pre-selected shades from the ’90s and 2000s on MAC’s Facebook page.
The three shadows and lipsticks with the most votes will go on sale again for an encore performance in a six-piece collection next spring called MAC By Request.
This time around, the nominees include six lipsticks and five eye shadows, all but one of which are pictured here…
I’m missing Tomango Lipstick, a matte bright orange from the 1990 Circa Pre collection, but hopefully the pics and swatches below help you decide.
Sorry, no face shots tonight… I thought they might cheer me up, but I’m just not feelin’ up to it.
Oh, you can also tweet your top picks on twitter using hashtag #MACBYREQUEST.
This was supposed to be a post about the two new NARS Larger Than Life Long-Wear Eyeliners in Las Ramblas and Via De’ Martelli, and it still is…kind of.
What began as a regular review took a sharp detour before noon.
I planned to mention that reddish brown Via De Martelli pulls red on my warm skin tone and makes me look like I’ve been crying… I thought it deserved a respectable B.
And then I planned to talk about how yellow gold Las Ramblas, a solid B+ in my book, reflects light like the surface of a glassy pond, making it perfect for brightening up the eyes.
Both it and Martelli last about eight hours on my lash lines and four on my water lines, and neither one seems very adept at smudging. Both cost $24 and arrive on counters, in stores and online with the rest of the NARS Fall 2013 collection July 15.
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They do, but rarely with my childhood friends. I have two buddies from high school, Jen and Cindy, whom I still see a few times a year, but neither of them are really hardcore makeup fiends/fanatics like you and I are.
Jen’s more interested in it than Cindy is, though, and she’ll occasionally go through phases where she’s more into it than usual. Like last year I went makeup shopping with her and helped her pick out a few eyeshadows, lipsticks and brushes to freshen up her makeup bag. She’d been using the same few products for the past 10 years.
Sometimes Jen will call or text me from a counter with a question about a product.
Cindy’s even lower maintenance than Jen, and I think over the 20+ years I’ve known her, I can only recall half a dozen conversations about hair, skincare or makeup. Once, after a really bad spiral perm when we were freshmen in high school, she let me try to do/fix her hair. Last year, I think she asked me a skincare question, and then asked for a conditioner recommendation.
Funny thing is…because she’s like my sister, she never actually listens to anything I say, haha! She ends up doing her own thing anyway.
My more recent friends on and off the blog are definitely more open about asking beauty questions. I’ve even been like a personal makeup shopper for a couple of gal pals who live nearby, which was actually a LOT of fun! I wonder sometimes about doing it as a job in this area, like a stylist, but for makeup instead of clothes.
Let’s talk makeup shop. Do your friends/buddies/coworkers ever ask you for beauty advice?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
P.S.
What’s up, Wednesday? Okay, this totally made my morning, and so of course I had to share it con tu. MBB reader Georgina (haaay girl, HAAAY!), sent me this link yesterday to a site called The Kitten Covers with famous album covers Photoshopped with kittens…
HILARIOUS! I love the one of Hole’s Live Through This because 1) it’s one of my favorite albums from my college years, and 2) who knew that kittens could rock smeared liner so well?
Big surprise, but Tabs is now totally jelly of these baby cats. Le sigh…
For my makeup minimalists out there and lovers of natural looks, Jouer, one of my favorite indie makeup lines, recently launched some yummy new summer treats, a collection featuring sheer, shiny lips and matte, bronzed skin.
How very city girl meets beach resort. 🙂
Do you like?
