Makeup

The Day in Beauty, Vol. 5: The Too Faced Peanut Butter and Jelly Eye Shadow Palette, Party Noms, and the Ultimate in Practical Baby Shower Presents

February 1st, 2016 by Karen 69 Comments

too faced peanut butter jelly palette — Wearing the new Too Faced Peanut Butter and Jelly Eye Shadow Collection palette ($36, coming soon exclusively to Ulta)

OK, it’s just not cool to mention a party unless you also talk about the food.

Because it’s the most important part! — or at least one of the most important parts, right? I mean, who wants to leave a party ravenously hungry? Shoot, not this girl. Huh uh. Not me.

Luckily, there were some pretty epic moments involving food at the baby shower on Saturday, like this lovely spread of Italian- and Filipino-inspired nommage…

Almost everything was homemade (some of my friends and their spouses are great cooks!).

I’ve been craving Italian food lately (actually, I’m always craving Italian food), and there were those cute little tea sandwiches with the crusts cut off, along with some caprese salad-style appetizers and a cheesy tortellini pasta salad dish that was DELISH.

And then my mom brought lumpia (sort of like a Filipino eggroll) and a Filipino noodle dish called palabok.

Oh, and then there was this cake…

OMG! It was a light, airy chantilly lace cake with almonds and berries (I believe it came from heaven/Whole Foods). I almost floated away right there…

CAAAAAAAAAKE!

It was one of those clutch-your-pearls, melt-in-your-mouth cakes. SO GOOD.

Yes, I did splurge a little (OK, a lot) on the sugar front, but I’ve been pretty good about watching what I eat because of the gestational diabetes. I just allowed myself a bit of a cheat day, though, because it was a special occasion.

Baby shower shenanigans! — Baby shower shenanigans

We also played a game, too. Before the party, my friends emailed El Hub a list of questions about me and the pregnancy, and then asked me the same questions at the party — things like, “How often did she [me] get morning sickness?” (Answer: I never barfed, but I was almost constantly nauseous.) and “What smells could she not stand?” (Answer: pretty much everything strong.)

Overall, El Hub did pretty well. Most of our answers lined up. One of them was about food cravings, and my answer was frozen waffles with peanut butter and raisins, and he got that one spot on, word for word, LOL!

That one was probably easy for him because he was the person who made all of the waffles, haha.

Speaking of peanut butter…

Too Faced has a new eyeshadow palette coming out called the Peanut Butter and Jelly Eye Shadow Collection ($36, coming soon exclusively to Ulta), and the name sounds quite yummy right meow.

The palette was inspired by Peanut Butter, which is also one of the shades in the Too Faced Semi-Sweet Chocolate Bar.

too faced peanut butter jelly palette 1 — Too Faced Peanut Butter and Jelly palette

too faced peanut butter jelly palette 2 — Too Faced Peanut Butter and Jelly palette

too faced peanut butter jelly palette 4 — More Too Faced Peanut Butter and Jelly…

They took that shadow, Peanut Butter, and built a mini-palette with nine powder shadows around it. The pans are arranged into three color-coordinating rows, but of course you could also mix and match them however you want. Really, all of the colors look like they go together well.

I’m wearing the palette today…

too faced peanut butter jelly palette 3 — Too Faced Peanut Butter and Jelly palette

[Continue reading…]

The Day in Beauty, Vol. 2: Smiles, Guerlain Spring Glow Blush, a Banila Co Moisturizing Lace Mask, and Pea Soup

January 27th, 2016 by Karen 41 Comments

And here’s Karen with your public service announcement of the day: “Smile, and your Guerlain Spring Glow Blush smiles with you.” 🙂

This tantalizing two-tone head-turner is part of Guerlain’s Spring Glow 2016 collection, and how could you not smile while looking at it?

SO FREAKIN’ CUTE.

There’s a reddish pink on one side and a lighter baby pink on the other. Plus, a funky 8-bit font, which is kinda unexpectedly cool, I think.

And, hello! — because it’s Guerlain, it’s expensive (well, duh, Karen!). I believe it’s $62.

Yeah…62 big ones for a Guerlain blush, but I do have to say that when it comes to the overall user experience, for fancy-schmancy makeup, Guerlain’s got that sh*t on lock. Everything from the packaging (amaze!) to the formulas are almost always top notch, and I love the luxe touches like the smile imprint on the pan and, although this depends on your personal point of view, the scented powders.

“Ah…” she sighed, as she practically stuck her nose in the pan.

Their stuff smells so darned good to me! This one, like a lot of Guerlain powders, smells like freesia, and if you can, please try to be that weirdo who rolls up to a Guerlain counter, sticks her nose into all of the compacts and takes a deep breath.

And I’m not just saying that because I haven’t had my nap yet. 🙂 I really do think you owe it to yourself to smell Guerlain’s makeup. I really mean that!

Speaking of naps and tired people, gosh, I sure am getting tired (there I go again!) of saying that: “I’m tired!” Seriously, how many times am I going to say “tired” in this sentence?

Nevertheless, I woke up at the witching hour last night — right at 3 a.m. — which always freaks me out. If, instead, I get up at 4 or 2, I’m fine, because I guess I know I’ll be able to fall back to sleep eventually without worrying about being an unwilling star in a scary movie. (“Slowly, as if gently pushed from behind, the door opened a crack…”)

But yeah, there’s something about waking up at exactly 3 a.m. that scares the living crap outta me…

Anyways, I had a really hard time going back to sleep. I did eventually, but it took a while… I just lay there listening to Red Queen on my phone until I nodded off.

So if I say anything a little cuckoo-crazy in this post, that’s why (the witching hour).

Oh! — one of the things I want to do this afternoon is try this $5 It Radiant Lace Hydrogel Mask.

[Continue reading…]

The Day in Beauty, Vol. 1: The Little Book of Skin Care, Giorgio Armani Maestro Glow Foundation, Hourglass Lip Oil, and Naps

January 26th, 2016 by Karen 43 Comments

I’m trying something a little different today — a different kind of blog post — something other than a makeup review, because, guuurl…my @ss is tired. Third trimester is no joke.

A few weeks ago my friend Jen and I were texting back and forth, and she was like, “I hate to break this to ya, but the third trimester is really, REALLY hard.”

And she was not kidding. And it’s not just hard because, ya know, the achy hips and lower back, the shortness of breath, or how it feels like the last leg of a long, drawn-out race (like running three marathons back to back), but it’s just… I didn’t anticipate being this tired. I’m really tired — like, ridiculously tired.

I’m so tired, as a matter of fact, that I think I’m going to take a nap. A very long, lovely nap. 🙂

But first, can we chat?

So…last night I started reading a new book.

Well, it’s new for me, but I think it’s been on shelves for a while. It’s called The Little Book of Skin Care: Korean Beauty Secrets for Healthy, Glowing Skin, and it’s by a woman named Charlotte Cho (she has a website, Soko Glam, where she sells Korean beauty products, and she’s also an esthetician).

The book is about Charlotte’s life, her experiences and the Korean skin care process. Charlotte was raised in Southern California, but she later moved to Seoul, Korea, for work (she’s Korean, by the way).

I don’t know if you’re very familiar with Korean skin care products, but they’ve grown quite popular here lately in the U.S. (one of my favorite Korean skin care brands is AmorePacific).

The book goes into the process, the philosophy and also lists some of Charlotte’s favorite Korean skin care products, all of which she tests on her website. And then there’s also some interesting tidbits and insights into what it’s like to live in Seoul.

It’s been pretty interesting so far, and there’s great stuff like this cute illustrated 10-step (YES, 10 STEP) Korean skin care infographic…

The process kinda speaks to me, because I know how I am with makeup — I tend to make things a little more complicated than they need to be (Ooh! Only 10 steps!? Let’s do this!) — but these days, with as tired as I’ve been, I’d rather just wash my face, put on some sunscreen, and call it a day, LOL!

Anywho, I flipped through the book last night before bed, and I think it may have even helped me sleep! 🙂 I slept almost all the way through the night, and thank goodness for that because I haven’t been sleeping well lately. I felt great today, but I haven’t really been feeling that mentally great lately…so I went to the doctor earlier this afternoon.

[Continue reading…]

Yeah, It’s Time to Highlight These Hourglass Ambient Strobe Lighting Powders

January 22nd, 2016 by Karen 19 Comments

Whenever I think of Hourglass makeup, I think of elegance…refinement…and makeup that’s friggin’ beautiful, and their four new $38 Ambient Strobe Lighting Powders evoke the living daylights out of all three of those things (I also talk about them briefly in this 5 Things I’m Loving Lately video).

To me, this is highlighting done so incredibly right.

hourglass ambient strobe lighting powder 2 — The four new Hourglass Ambient Strobe Lighting Powders

hourglass ambient strobe lighting powder brilliant — Hourglass Ambient Strobe Lighting Powder in Brilliant Strobe Light

I admit it: I get persnickety sometimes about my powder highlighters because, ya know, when you’re a woman of a certain age, the metallic ones? — even though they’re lovely, dramatic and ever-so eye-catching, they can also be a bear to work with when the frosty flecks go snorkeling in your pores and fine lines, and they end up highlighting all the stuff that you actually didn’t want to highlight at all…

hourglass ambient strobe lighting powder euphoric — Hourglass Ambient Strobe Lighting Powder in Euphoric Strobe Light

[Continue reading…]

MAC Unsung Heroes: Satin Taupe Eye Shadow

January 19th, 2016 by Karen 21 Comments

What’s an unsung makeup hero? For me, it’s an oftentimes underrated makeup morsel, a permanent collection product that scoots under the radar screen of many makeup lovers but regularly rocks my world. The long-running Unsung Heroes series features some of my favorites.

I swear, you just can’t go wrong with the classics. I wore MAC Satin Taupe Eye Shadow the other day for the first time in months. It’s a shimmery grayish purple in the MAC permanent line, and it’s been around since the days of the dinosaurs!

OK, not that long, but it has been around a while. It was one of the very first MAC shadows I ever picked up, and, and it wowed me from the start…

It’s just so dang pretty!

I didn’t do anything fancy with it this week — just the same standard-issue Satin Taupe look I’ve been doing for, oh, the past zillion years.

I needed to put on some makeup to record a video, so I lined my eyes with black liner, then took that same liner and smudged it on my lids and lower lash lines. Then I buffed out the black liner with a MAC 217 before patting Satin Taupe directly on top and blending everything together. A quick sweep of cool matte brown MAC Omega in my crease, and that was it. All done.

Easy, elegant and damned fast — which led me to think, “Dude, Karen! Why do you make things more difficult than they need to be? You should be doing this all the time!”

It was one of those “Doh!” forehead-to-palm moments when I question my life choices, LOL!

Anyway, with Satin Taupe, we’re talking must-have (yes, it’s that serious). You’ve probably seen it around in limited edition palettes here and there… Here it is in a couple of recent ones (MAC Brooke Shields Gravitas and the MAC Nordstrom Naturals palettes), but you can also find it as a single in the permanent line.

[Continue reading…]

Dew You Want Glowing Skin? If You Dew, Try New BECCA Aqua Luminous Perfecting Foundation

January 18th, 2016 by Karen 18 Comments

Do we like new BECCA Aqua Luminous Perfecting Foundation? Yes, yes we dew-y. Because — oh, my goodness! — the finish is so dewy and so glowing that I’m crediting it for almost singlehandedly lifting me out of my mid-winter funk and propelling me toward summer.

Aqua Luminous is the latest foundation in BECCA’s permanent line and, as you can probably tell from its name, it’s one of those thin, serum-like foundations with a watery consistency that have been muy popular at the moment.

Typical of foundations with this kind of formula, it comes in a glass bottle with a dropper, but BECCA tweaked that idea a little by giving this one a special cap. When you twist it, a button pops up in the middle, and pressing it dispenses the product from the dropper.

Ooh! Fancy!

[Continue reading…]

Too Cool For School Dinoplatz Escalator Mascara Takes Your Lashes to Jurassic Levels

January 15th, 2016 by Karen 12 Comments

Because…DINOSAURS.

I have this theory that if you want something to be more awesome, stick a dinosaur on it. Or in it. Whether it’s a movie, a lunchbox or, in this case, a mascara…although the dinosaurs don’t have much to do with the lash lengthening, curling and separating properties of $25 Too Cool for School Dinoplatz Escalator Mascara.

They do, however, enhance the experience… Because they’re cute. 🙂

[Continue reading…]

Make Up For Ever Ultra HD Invisible Cover Concealer Demo and Application

January 14th, 2016 by Karen 9 Comments

There should be a video right up here in this post, but if it isn’t appearing for any reason, you can click here to watch it on YouTube.

How good is new Make Up For Ever Ultra HD Invisible Cover Concealer?

To put it in heavily hyphenated terms, it’s get-out-of-your-pajamas,-put-on-your bra-again-(right-after-you’ve-taken-it-off-for-the-evening),-and-drive-straight-to-Sephora-immediately good.

Yup, that good!

If you haven’t seen the swatches yet or read the review, here you go.

And here it is in all its magical action (in the video), along with a few more observations and a mini-review. 🙂

Make Up For Ever Ultra HD Invisible Cover Concealer: the basic scoop

Available now online and at Make Up For Ever counters, stores and Sephora in 10 shades; $27 for a 0.23-oz. tube.
The 10 shades are divided into two complementary groups — the color-correcting shades, which include R20 Porcelain, R22 Pink Beige, R30 Beige, R32 Peach Beige and R40 Apricot Beige; and the concealing shades, which include Y21 Pearl, Y23 Ivory, Y31 Sand, Y33 Vanilla and Y41 Honey.
The setting powder I mention in the video is MAC Mineralize Natural in Medium ($32)

As always, thank you for watching!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen