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Daily Photo

For Rosy Golden Goodness, There’s the Kristin Perry Bar and Chain Earrings and Dainty Rock Necklace

June 26th, 2015 by Karen 10 Comments





kristin perry bar chain earrings

kristin perry bar chain earrings

Dear 2013,

Thanks for resurrecting rose gold from the depths of obscurity and thrusting it back into the mainstream metallic metal spotlight.

Love you. Mean it,

K-Money

It’s been two full years since rose gold officially returned and became a thing again (gosh, time flies!), and the trend is still alive and kicking.

I figured it was one of those trends that I would eventually get tired of, and maybe I will, but as of now, I’m still into it. I like how it looks on my skin, and it’s neutral enough to wear with almost anything.

kristin perry bar chain earrings
[Continue reading…]

There are 10 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Daily Photo

First Tomatoes of the Season!

June 25th, 2015 by Karen 18 Comments










first tomatoes 1-final

My tomato plants have finally…tomato-ized!

Meet the first small batch of the season. I’ve named these three Tyler, Artemis and Carnegie, and I’m still deciding whether they’re going to become bruschetta or Tuscan bread salad.

The struggle is real, homie. It truly is.

Garden fresh tomatoes, babe — if you haven’t gone there before, you need to get on that ASAP. They’re so much tastier than store-bought. I think it’s because they get to fully ripen on the vine, so there’s no transportation time. Don’t be surprised if your eyes roll back in your head when you take a bite.

Now I need to go get some good bread…

SO HUNGRY!

first tomatoes 2

first tomatoes

first tomatoes e

first tomatoes d

first tomatoes a

first tomatoes c

first tomatoes b

There are 18 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Daily Photo

The Kate Spade Packable Straw Fedora: Some Hats Were Made for Packing, and That’s Just What They’ll Do

June 17th, 2015 by Karen 8 Comments





kate spade packable straw fedora

kate spade packable straw fedora

Can we talk fedoras for a minute?

Every summer I try to avoid them, because I’m not Justin Timberlake, and sometimes I feel like he’s the only person who can legitimately pull them off.

But some fedoras are really cute.

Really, really cute.

kate spade packable straw fedora

I spotted this one at a Kate Spade store last May and struggled, unsuccessfully, for weeks to erase it from my Lust List, only to eventually give in after employing every excuse in the book.

  • “I need a hat to protect my hair color!”
  • “I’m going on vacation!”
  • “It’s my birthday month!”
  • “There’s a bow on it!”

Honestly, though, this hat is awesome. It’s the pinnacle of summery straw hat fedoras in that it’s not only super cute, but it’s also packable, which means that you can store it flat in your bag or luggage, and then when you unpack it at your destination, it pops back into shape.
[Continue reading…]

There are 8 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Daily Photo

A Little Obsessed With MAC Tropic Tonic Matte Lipstick

June 17th, 2015 by Karen 48 Comments





mac tropic tonic
mac tropic tonic
MAC Tropic Tonic Matte Lipstick ($16)

If there were a book titled, “Chicken Soup for the Makeup-Lover’s Soul,” I bet the cover would have a picture of something coral, because a lot of the time when I feel stuck in a rut or just generally blah, I turn to coral.

Like MAC Tropic Tonic Matte Lipstick, my latest coral crush. It’s one of the new $16 Matte lipsticks MAC recently added to their permanent line.

Like a slightly redder Vegas Volt with a flat matte finish instead of MAC’s Amplified finish, it looks particularly fetching (I think) with black winged liner.

Très retro-fabulous.

You can find it now online and at MAC stores and counters.

mac tropic tonic
MAC Matte Lipstick in Tropic Tonic ($16)
mac tropic tonic vegas volt
MAC Matte Lipstick in Tropic Tonic (left) next to MAC Amplified Lipstick in Vegas Volt (right)

On the subject of MAC’s Matte Lipsticks, which are your favorite ones? Inquiring minds want to know.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Happy hump day, by the way. 🙂

There are 48 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Daily Photo, MAC Makeup

A Little Bit of Bling Always Banishes the Blahs: The Kristin Perry Sunflower Stud Earrings

June 16th, 2015 by Karen 8 Comments




kristin perry sunflower stud earrings
kristin perry sunflower stud earrings
The Kristin Perry Sunflower Stud Earrings ($42)

I still have love for oversized hoops and dangly chandeliers (they’ll always be among my ride-or-die accessories), but I’ve been diggin’ stud earrings lately.

Particularly big-honkin’ ones like these $42 Kristin Perry Sunflower Stud Earrings.

They’re 14K gold-plated with a stainless steel stud back and glass crystals in the middle, and I like that they’re kind of vintage and kitschy. They remind me of something Kate Spade might carry…but for, like, twice the price.

On a related note, isn’t it funny how your personal style and the things you like can change over time? There was a time when I would only wear silver jewelry.

Did you ever go through a silver phase? I wouldn’t touch anything gold with a ten-foot pole, but now I’m all about gold anything. 🙂

I don’t know when it happened or why, but I’m back to loving gold.

One time years ago my mother-in-law told me that when you stop wearing silver and start wearing gold, you’re officially old…

LOL! I don’t know if that’s true (I really don’t think so), but I do know that I mostly wear gold earrings and necklaces these days.

kristin perry sunflower stud earrings

If you’re interested in these (aren’t they cute!?), they’re available now at Kristin Perry’s online shop. Check out her stuff sometime! She’s an L.A.-based indie designer, a great gal, and I love, LOVE her stuff. It’s like Kate Spade with an edge.

There are 8 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Daily Photo

What Are You Wearing on Your Nails? May I Suggest Essie Pret-a-Surfer?

June 2nd, 2015 by Karen 22 Comments




essie pret a surfer
essie pret a surfer
Wearing two coats of Essie Pret-A-Surfer Nail Polish

Not quite the next best thing to actually going surfing (but it’s close!), creamy blue Essie Pret-A-Surfer looks right at home amidst the ocean of cats on my blue shirt. 🙂

This summery $8.50 marine blue is from the new Essie Summer 2015 Collection, and you can find it now online and at salons, beauty stores, Nordstrom and Ulta.

Le sigh… What I wouldn’t give for a longboard, gently rolling (3-foot) waves and warm tropical waters right now…

Wait — I just realized that I can’t even remember the last time I went surfing or, for that matter, the last time I was in a large body of water.

Survey says: That needs to stop.

I wish the weather here would finally warm up already. We’re still wearing sweaters here in Novato, which is weird for this part of California in June. My inner tropical surfer girl wants more sun and temps in the mid-80s. 🙂

Anywho, I quite love this shade of blue (it’s a little moodier than bright) and only partly because it goes so well with the cat shirt I’m wearing.

Speaking of the shirt, don’t you love it? My BFF Jen got it for me a ways back. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s still available.

The last time I wore Pret-A-Surfer, I wore it without a base or top coat (1. because I’m lazy, and 2. because I change my polish A LOT). Even without a base or top coat, though, it holds up well. I started seeing small chips on the fourth day, so it’s pretty sturdy stuff.

essie pret a surfer
Wearing two cots of Essie Pret-A-Surfer Nail Polish

What are you wearing on your paws on this most terrific of Tuesdays, my friend? Inquiring tabbies and their loyal assistants would like to know. 🙂

There are 22 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Daily Photo

The Story of the Girl Who Ate Two Breakfasts: Brunch at Serpentine SF

June 1st, 2015 by Karen 17 Comments









serpentine sf brunch

serpentine sf brunch

Food pics!

Never can have too many food pics in this day and age.

OK, well, you can but… Sorry! I can’t help it. 🙂

Here’s what I had for brunch in San Francisco last Saturday with my little brother. I hadn’t seen him in a couple months, so I drove out to his neighborhood in SF to meet him at a place called Serpentine.

yummy-noms-sf

yummy-noms-2-sf

One of the reasons I picked the place was because they take brunch reservations, and a lot of places in SF don’t, and you have to wait.

But rezzies make it so much easier! My tummy and I have little to no patience for waiting in the morning…

Parking is also easy in that area. The restaurant is located in the Dogpatch neighborhood of Portrero Hill, and there’s plenty of street parking around the restaurant. It’s pretty flat, so you don’t have to haul your cookies up any steep hills or do any tricky parking.

Hey, these are the kinds of things you have to think about when you go to brunch in SF, and I don’t need any drama with my coffee and pancakes, thank you very much.

buckwheat-pancakes
[Continue reading…]

There are 17 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Daily Photo

Cats in Hats

May 29th, 2015 by Karen 14 Comments





unicorn-kitty

I have no knitting or purling game (the only thing I’ve ever knitted was a scarf — a really, really, really long and hideous scarf), but if I had the skills, I’d start knitting homemade hats for Tabs! 🙂

top-hat-kitty

Look what I found at Copperfield’s Books in Petaluma last weekend: Cats in Hats: 30 Knit and Crochet Hat Patterns for Your Kitty, by Sara Thomas ($16.95).

Now I can’t get the image of Tabs wearing a yarn unicorn hat out of my head. BAH!

cats-in-hats

There are 14 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Daily Photo

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Welcome to Makeup and Beauty Blog

Welcome to Makeup and Beauty Blog! My name is Karen, and I’m a freelance writer obsessed with makeup.

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