Archives for March 2018

If there’s anything I’ve learned about my skin over the past few years it’s that…it’s keeping me on my toes. It never stays the same way for long, but I’ve definitely seem some general changes, for sure, with the biggest being the prominence of my “experience lines.” They’re much more prominent under my eyes, especially when I smile, which is why I’ve taken to wearing less concealer and color corrector there. Oh, and less powder too.

It’s just that if I pile that stuff on like I used to, everything looks heavy and…not super cute.

I’ve also noticed that my skin is getting drier and drier. I do still have my oily spots, like in the center of my forehead and around my nose, but my cheeks and my neck (especially) are getting drier as the years pass, and when I ignore it, it gets borderline painful.

Another thing — oh, my gosh! — pigmentation. Where do I even start with this? If I don’t stay on top of it with an acid toner or a serum to keep the pigmentation in check, I’ll get these uneven patches on my cheeks, and those patches, they’re aggressive, man.

Oh, and I don’t know if this counts, but I’ve definitely noticed, particularly over the past year, that the skin on my eyelids… I guess it isn’t as firm as it used to be? My eyes are getting more hooded seemingly every day.

So, what are the biggest changes you’ve seen in your skin over the past few years? Let’s talk about it in the comments.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

So…what is the Monday Poll?

Well, it isn’t exactly a poll. It’s more of a constantly evolving (devolving?), somewhat random list of questions I’ve been putting out to readers every Monday morning for the past 11 (!) years. (It’s like a kickstart for your brain.) I’ve always enjoyed reading your answers in the comments, and I hope you enjoy reading mine.

1. What does your hair currently smell like?

Well, I took a shower last night, and I haven’t cooked any meals that involve sauteing onions or meat, so at the moment my hair smells pretty darned good! 🙂 It smells like Herbal Essences Blue Ginger Shampoo and Conditioner, which i’m still using and loving, by the way.

2. If your cat could talk and had fabulous feline fashion sense, what would he/she be wearing today?

Tabs would be wearing a late ’80s/early ’90s ice skating leotard. More specifically, he’d be rocking some Kristy Yamaguchi gear.

Of course there would be sequins.

3. If you could work at any makeup counter for a week, which would it be?

Obviously, MAC. Duh. 🙂 I’m still a huge fan. The amount and style of training they get, and the breadth of knowledge of the people working there… I would ask ALL OF THE QUESTIONS and soak up as much as I could. I’d ask, like, what are some ways to do full-coverage on mature skin? Can you show me how to do the most complicated smoky eye you know? How can I contour and have it look real and natural? What are some different ways to do full, fluffy brows? What are the insider MAC secrets that the public doesn’t know?

And hopefully I wouldn’t f*ck up too much, i.e., poke somebody’s eye out while lining it with Powersurge.

4. Someone you like traveling with?

My friend Cindy. We’ve taken several trips together since high school, and she’s so easygoing when it comes to meals and planning stuff, and she’s always up for doing stuff on the fly. She’s also the type of person who won’t leave every decision up to you. She’ll pick some things to do, and then you’ll get to pick some things to do, so it’s an equal partnership on your trip.

5. How well would you handle living on the International Space Station ?️ for a year?

I would probably crack in the first two weeks, haha! I wouldn’t even last a month. I’d be like, “Please let me ?‍? go home.”

For one, I’m claustrophobic, and I need to be able to open a window, which one cannot do on an international space station.

I mean, the only way I’d survive a year is if I were heavily medicated…

My Instagram would be off the chain, though. 🙂 Can you imagine? Every day? Just doing snapshots of the Earth from any of the windows? “At work today, just chillin’!”

Happy Monday!

Just had to share my breakfast because what is the internet without breakfast pics?!

My friend Marisol introduced me to these yummy protein bars called One Bars, and this one is Maple Glazed Doughnut. And even though it doesn’t exactly taste like a doughnut, it’s sweet enough and close enough to a doughnut to satisfy a craving. It has 20g of protein and 1g of sugar, and it keeps me full for hours. Not too sticky and doesn’t get stuck in my teeth, either. And oh so delicious! I found ’em at Trader Joe’s for $1.99 a bar.

Dough-nut ? worry about a thing, my friend! It’s gonna be a good week.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Here are the questions to copy and paste with your answers in a comment:

1. What does your hair currently smell like?
2. If your cat could talk and had fabulous feline fashion sense, what would he/she be wearing today?
3. If you could work at any makeup counter for a week, which would it be?
4. Someone you like traveling with?
5. How well would you handle living on the International Space Station for a year?

Happy St. Paddy’s Day, my green beer-loving beauty baking buddy! ☘️ Good morning to you. My first question for you on this lovely (albeit overcast) morning is this: are you wearing green? I am…sort of. I’m wearing a greenish blue Chanel, which I think should totally count.

My second question for you pertains to brownies (yes, brownies), and I need your opinion on this. It’s VERY important.

OK…are you ready?

OK, so, as you know, I’ve been tweaking my brownie recipe for months, slowly but surely modifying it to create what I hope will be the best darned brownies in the city of Novato, and just when I thought I had my ultimate go-to recipe figure out, something occurred to me last night…

WALNUTS.

Toasted walnuts.

What if I toast the walnuts BEFORE adding them to the batter?

What do you think? Next level perhaps…? Would it be worth the effort?

If you have any experience in this area, lemme know. I’m thinking that the oven will be on anyway, so it wouldn’t take that much more time to toast a handful of walnuts in a pan.

I just might whip some up tonight.

These were from Connor’s birthday party. So far, I’ve learned that I prefer Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips to Tollhouse and Guittard chocolate chips, and I like the taste better when I replace a third of the regular sugar in the recipe with brown sugar. I feel like the brown sugar gives them a caramel-y depth, so they aren’t just sweet for the sake of being sweet.

Alright…now that I’ve probably teased your sweet tooth (sorry!), how about some light reading? Here are some things that made me go “Hmm…” this week.

• If you ever find yourself wondering what fragrance you should wear on any given day during your menstrual cycle…here’s the guide you’ve been waiting for!

  Apparently, bergamot notes, like the kind in Chanel Coco Mademoiselle Intense, can help you chill-the-eff out when you’re PMS-ing.

• MIND BLOWN!

  Technically, leopards don’t have spots.

  SAY WHAT?!

  Yeah, according to this abridged history of the leopard print. “If you’re being a nerd,” says Craig Saffoe, curator of Great Cats at the National Zoo in Washington, “leopards don’t really have spots. They have what we call a rosette. Leopards have a rosette, cheetahs have spots all over, and jaguars have a rosette with a spot inside.”

• The latest trend in perfumes: scents that are so subtle that they’re almost odorless, which begs the question…why the heck would I wear perfume if I couldn’t smell it?

  It’s a thing, though, and it’s called “no-perfume perfume.”

  Actually, I get the appeal of wanting a scent that doesn’t get all up in everyone’s face, but I also want to be able to smell my perfumes a little.

• It takes time to transform Mandy Moore’s character in This Is Us from a 25-year-old woman to a woman of 68, and part of the styling process includes her taking Advil early on filming days, because tightly pinning up her hair into a wig cap gives Mandy a headache. (I totally get this. I’ve had some tight updos with, like, a million bobby pins.)

  Between the hair and the makeup, getting her into character takes three hours.

• Serena Williams might be getting ready to launch a makeup line.

• I still have home decor on my mind, and the Pottery Barn Lily Pulizter collection is making me want to drop everything and immediately plan a tropical vacay. I’m loving it all, especially the wallpaper, and I’m not even a wallpaper kind of person!

I hope you do something fun today. As you know, this is the day when all of us are ? Irish.

I think we’re gonna don our green apparel and head up to Petaluma for brunch.

See you soon!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

1. Ladybug and Bumblebee trays by Rae Dunn

I found the cutest trays at HomeGoods! They’re these Rae Dunn rectangle trays, and each one has a hand-drawn pic of an insect with its own little bio, like in a nineteenth century biologist’s field guide.

I’ve got Ladybug and Bumblebee. ???

I like that they’re equal parts cutesy and science-y at the same time.

Is that nerdy of me?

Plus, rectangle trays are so useful around the house. I keep one in my kitchen for ingredients I use often, like olive oil, salt, pepper, that kind of thing. I also keep one on a table in my living room that I put jewelry and my glasses on, because I’m the type of person who will naturally set things down, like, anywhere… And then forget about it.

When I designate places for things, though, and I know that, “OK, this is where I put my glasses, and this is where I put my rings,” it just makes my life easier, and these trays are great for that.

They’re also good in bathrooms, too. I have a tray by the sink for my watch or my ring before I wash my hands.

2. The Five-Minute Journal

I’ve been lovin’ on a lotta things lately, and I think it’s partly because I’ve been doing The Five-Minute Journal every day.

I got this as a gift, and it’s so wonderful!

All you do is casually fill out the prompts, listing things you’re grateful for, things you think would make your day great, things you’d like to work on, and things like that… I hope I’m not making it sound hard, because it totally isn’t. I really look forward to it now. I do five minutes in the morning after I wake up and five more minutes before bed (from in bed).

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Remember when you could stroll right up to any MAC counter and buy as many sticks of MAC Coffee liner as your heart desired? That’s something I’d bring back — MAC Coffee!

Who brings back a basic brown eyeliner? THIS GIRL DOES.

Um, whatever! It’s only the best, most perfect true neutral brown pencil liner around, and I regret to say that I didn’t find this out until later in life. It isn’t a reddish brown or an orange-y brown. It’s just a straight-up chocolate neutral BROWN, and it doesn’t budge on lash or water lines.

I’m feeling extra nostalgic about it today because I DON’T KNOW WHERE MY STICK IS! I think it’s somewhere in this office, but I don’t know exactly where… Dangit! And it’s my last one!

On a related note, MAC has an ironically LE collection out now called Throwbacks that contains colors they “disappeared” from their permanent line, some of which… I have no idea why… Like, why in the heck did they ever pull Uninterrupted Eye Shadow?

Why?

Or Kid??

Makes no sense to me…

Anyway, I’m feeling nostalgic this morning. One of the Throwback lipsticks is called Skew, and — oh, my gawd — I wore it so much back when El Hub and I first moved in together. *sniffs*

What would you bring back if you could?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen