The flowers are coming back. 🙂 Spring’s just around the corner, hooray!
Early Blooms
Archives for 2013
The New NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer
I’m testing this today!
The shades, from lightest to darkest, according to the official PR:
- Chantilly: True ivory for fairest complexions
- Vanilla: Tiny cast of pink for the fair complexion
- Honey: Warm peach tone for light to medium complexions
- Ginger: Golden Undertone for medium complexions
- Biscuit: Medium dark natural balance of pink and yellow undertones
- Caramel: Medium dark yellow and golden undertones
- Amande: Medium Dark with golden Undertones
- Cafe: Dark shade with warm red undertones
- Cacao: Dark shade with deep gold-brown undertones
A Desert Rose Is Blooming on Bare Cheeks This Spring: Palladio Herbal Mosaic Powder in Desert Rose
Imagine strolling into a Santa Fe art gallery one sunny afternoon and finding a makeup mosaic for $8.
Yup, Palladio’s Herbal Mosaic Powder in Desert Rose is a little like that.
The pan has a mosaic pattern with five complementing powders you can wear individually, or swirled together, as a bronzer, blush, eyeshadow or highlighter.
Since the individual strips of color aren’t all that wide (the entire pan fits in my palm), I usually mix all of the shades together, and apply them to my cheeks with a fluffy blush brush.
On my NC 42 skin, a single layer delivers a rosy, peachy flush with golden pearl. Pretty! — especially for weekends or for casual makeup looks… Which reminds me, worn as a blush on bare skin or atop tinted moisturizer, I think Desert Rose looks a heck of a lot more expensive than $8. Shoot, it looks downright high end.
Unsung Heroes: Hourglass Visionaire Duo in Exhibition
I’m beginning to realize that despite falling in love with a new purple eye shadow single/duo/quad/palette approximately every 6.14 seconds (a side effect of undiagnosed makeup deficit disorder), I could probably function for days, weeks or maybe even months wearing the Hourglass Visionaire Duo in Exhibition.
It’s easily one of my favorite purple duos of all time, and I always feel at least a little better when I get it on my lids.
One side is a shimmery mauve, like a lighter, shinier MAC Shale; the other, a shimmery eggplant with subtle magenta undertones (I notice them more when I apply with a wet brush), which I think give the shade more depth.
Both sides are packed with pigment — enough to please even the most discriminating mulberry mavens, and perhaps hard-core MAC-aholics, too.
The silky, almost creamy rose petal formula makes it easy to build beautiful gradients, and best of the all, the powders completely refuse fallout, creasing and fading.
Wondering how close Exhibition comes to the NARS 413 BLKR duo?
Hmm… I’d say close, but they’re not exactly dupes. The Exhibition shades appear a little brighter and shinier to me, with a corresponding chipper effect on my mood.
I still heart 413 to bits, but I think of it as having a harder edge and more tough-girl zeal.
[Continue reading…]
Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll, Vol. 259
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 four years. I’ve always enjoyed reading your answers in the comments, and I hope you enjoy reading mine.
- What’s one eyeshadow you’ve been loving lately?
NARS Cyprus. I rediscovered it last weekend, and now I’m thinking, “Where’ve you been all my life?”. - Can you walk and text at the same time?
Nope. Come to think of it, I can barely text under any circumstances, LOL! - Smokey or cat eyes?
Yes, please. 🙂 Cat eyes all day, and smokey eyes all night. - What’s your signature dance move?
The Snake! — although I also do a mean Sprinkler. - Two words: plaid pants?
Sure, if they’re pink. - A place where you spent a lot of time as a kid?
The front yard. I was always playing outside. - Have you ever made a toast at a wedding?
Not yet (but I want to)! - When was the last time you visited a desert?
Hmm… I think it was Las Vegas in 2009 for Blog World.It’s been a hot minute! (Get it? Hot minute?)
- If you had to have one or the other, would you rather have a bad haircut or a bad eyebrow wax?
I couldn’t deal with the brows, so I’ll take the bad haircut, and hide it under hats and up-do’s. - What’s something you’d like to do before you die?
Ride a horse.
To complete the Monday Poll, just copy the following list, and paste it with your answers in the comments.
Le List
1. What’s one eyeshadow you’ve been loving lately?
2. Can you walk and text at the same time?
3. Smokey or cat eyes?
4. What’s your signature dance move?
5. Two words: plaid pants?
6. A place where you spent a lot of time as a kid?
7. Have you ever made a toast at a wedding?
8. When was the last time you visited a desert?
9. A bad haircut or a bad eyebrow wax?
10. What’s something you’d like to do before you die?
To my fellow Americans, happy Presidents Day! 🙂
Got any plans? El Hub has the day off from work, so we might zip down to the mall for a late lunch at Cheesecake Factory this afternoon. Other than that, though, Tabs is keeping me on a short leash (as he often does).
Hope your week gets off to a great start.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Neighborhood Cats: Orangey
Orangey, a friendly orange tabby with a cute pink nose who lives across the street.
Sundays With Tabs the Cat, Makeup and Beauty Blog Mascot, Vol. 231
A RELAXING TIME: PART 7
by Tabs the Cat
The first of the werewolves came into view, a long-legged black one the color of the crows Tabs policed from his favorite window at home in Novato.
Slowly, Tabs crouched down low at the edge of the roof until his chin was resting on the rain gutter.
The werewolf was stalking, sniffing, its head close to the ground like a metal detector. It was in the driveway now exactly where Tabs and the gray cat had gone through. Tabs expected the wolf to pick up their scent.
It was a bright night with the full moon, and it occurred to Tabs that he was probably easy to spot where he was with the moonlight behind him, but he stayed frozen like an Egyptian statue, not daring to move a muscle.
The only thing he did do was slowly close his eyes until they were just barely open and breath steadily. Cats were good at things like this. Hiding in plain sight. But Tabs imagined that werewolves were also good at hunting.
The second one entered the driveway. This one Tabs recognized from the wooden shed back on the frozen lake, and it was huge! Bigger than the black one by half, with mottled brown and gray fur and thick, broad shoulders.
The black werewolf seemed to bow reverently and made a whining noise as the larger one approached.
Tabs couldn’t believe just how big the bigger werewolf was. Keeping perfectly still with his eyes open barely a fraction of an inch, Tabs compared the creature to the nearby pickup truck, and wagered they were almost the same size.
Or maybe that was just the terror talking…
Tabs remained motionless while the two werewolves inspected the area, following their snouts. As they exhaled, their hot breath was visible in the frigid air.
They circled the pickup truck in opposite directions, checking carefully behind the tires.
Whew! Tabs thought. Good thing I didn’t hide there.
The werewolves must have picked up the scent because they remained quiet and moved stealthily, and they were focussing a lot of attention in this area.
Minutes passed. It was so cold up there on the roof that Tabs started shivering. He desperately wanted to hop up and start moving to warm his bones, but there was no way he was about to do that.
He would just have to deal with the cold. It wouldn’t be the first time…
He thought back to all of those long, cold nights he spent fending for himself and battling for scraps on the mean streets of Mill Valley in his kitten hood. Those were some cold nights, too.
Feezing, and feeling somewhat secure that the wolves would not find him, and even if they did, would not be able to reach him on the roof, Tabs allowed his mind to wander.
He thought about his makeup collection, his coveted online kitty modeling portfolio, gravy, his favorite hill at home and his assistant…
She was actually pretty nice, he concluded, even when she got on his last nerve.
Somewhere off in the woods, a branch cracked. It wasn’t a natural sound. Tabs heard it, and the werewolves heard it, too. Both of them appeared in the driveway from wherever they’d been searching and looked in that direction, standing tall on all fours, with their heads erect and their ears perked.
“Mrrrrrrowww!” came a distant voice. Help me! Please help!
Tabs felt his heart drop. It was the gray cat.
— TO BE CONTINUED —
To follow our story from the beginning…
Craving This for Breakfast
