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Face of the Day (FOTD)

A Ghost Bride Vibe: Sooty Smokey Lids With Matte Black Lips

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mac caviar retro matte liquid lipstick samantha

Is this look wearable? I guess it depends on who you’re talking to. If you’re chatting with El Hub, he’d probably say, “Um, not really,” and he would encourage you to *not* wear this sooty smokey purplish blue smokey eye to pick up a small child at her preschool.

(Side note: I seriously considered it, but then I chickened out at the last minute, and now I deeply regret not cementing my legacy as the crazy-@ss mom who showed up at pickup in black lipstick.)

If you ask Samantha, though — she’s the Halloween ghost who haunts my doorway — she would first say, “B*tch stole me look!” LOL. Then she’d she’d say, “One hundred percent, YES, channel your inner goth Billy Idol White Wedding bride.”

mac caviar retro matte liquid lipstick

mac caviar retro matte liquid lipstick

This is my “take two” at Samantha-inspired makeup! I wanted to push it a little further this time and tried to go more “edgy,” as opposed to wearable, but ultimately I think it ended up looking kinda casual cool, and yes, totally wearable. If we were back in the ’90s when I went through my (very brief) baby goth phase, I would’ve legit worn these lips and eyes everywhere.

Layering is the key

I really, really enjoyed putting this face on, and part of the reason was because it happened so quickly. I didn’t really think about it. I just started layering and mixing and blending and 20 minutes later there it was. With this type of smokey editorial/edgy eye makeup, I think the following things really help:

  1. Embrace the imperfection. This is the type of smokey eye makeup that, I think, almost looks better the messier it gets. Let your brushes and your imagination push past what you’d normally do, and take your products higher up the lid and further down the lash line than you’d usually go. It might look weird to you at first (it always does for me because I’m not used to seeing that type of placement), but do it anyway.
  2. Layers, layers, layers. Really, this is key. If you want the effect of a puff of smoke around the lids, where that super-blended gradient leads one color easily into the next, bust out ALL THE THINGS. At the minimum, you’ll need your favorite smudgy eye pencil, a cream shadow or two, and some powder eyeshadows that you also like that work with your color palette.
  3. Blend that sh*t. When your fingers are about to fall off, you’re probably close to done.

mac caviar retro matte liquid lipstick

mac caviar retro matte liquid lipstick

Oh, and about that black lip…I applied a matte liquid lipstick first (MAC Caviar), then defined the edges with a super sharp matte black pencil liner. Yes, girl. Black eyeliner as lip liner! My friends and I used to use it both as liner and lipstick back in the ’90s when we wanted to wear matte black lips.

Makeup worn in this look

A couple weird things

I was craving an egg over easy yesterday for lunch and look what happened when I cracked my egg open…

I dunno, maybe I’m fully in superstitious Halloween mode, but I was kinda freaked out! I couldn’t help but wonder if it’s part of a scary Filipino old wives tale, and even though it (irrationally) scared me a little, I still ate most of it…although toward the last few bites I ended up psyching myself out.

On a (somewhat) related weird note, look what I found this morning in the middle of my bed!

I’m guessing Rosie Posie got hold of it during the wee hours of the morning, LOL!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Moody Makeup Time! Smokey Blue Lids and Matte Berry Lips (and a Trip to Gabriel Farm)

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mac burning love maybelline ace front
When your hair and makeup evoke Disney Villain vibes

You know you’re a makeup lover when your penchant for puffs of sooty blue drives your Halloween decor decisions.

samantha the ghost closeup
OF COURSE I would want the ghost wearing makeup.

Behold the floaty ghost bride currently welcoming visitors to our humble abode. Despite being undead, she’s very proud of her dark lip and blue smokey eyes.

Oh, and her dark burgundy nails.

This is Samantha, and she hangs out in my doorway. I haven’t asked her yet, but I’m kinda wondering what her wedding theme was and whether Billy Idol was the groom.

Inquiring minds want to know…


This video scared the living crap out of me when I was a kid!

Samantha was the one who inspired this look I’m wearing, and if we were to hold a “Who wore it better?” battle, she would definitely have won this round because I could’ve/should’ve pushed it further.

mac burning love maybelline ace with samantha
Just the girls

I was going for a wearable version of her look, but I’m feeling like, with these blue lids — which, by the way, I did with an awesome new product from Maybelline called Color Strike (they call it “a cream-to-powder shadow pen”) — I should’ve just taken the shadow all the way up into the brows and maybe even further down the lower lash line. Oh, and what if I’d layered the blue shadow with a black or dark purple pencil and switched out the berry lip for a straight-up black? That could have been even cooler.

Hmm… I think I just figured out tomorrow’s FOTD!

mac burning love maybelline ace closeup

mac burning love maybelline ace smile

samantha the ghost
Samantha?!

By the way, if you’re admiring Samantha’s mani, I highly recommend Smith & Cult’s Dark Like Me. 🙂

samantha smith cult dark like me

Makeup Worn in this look

Fall adventures at the farm

Connor had last Friday off from preschool, so she and I met up with her bestie (and her BFF’s mom) for a fun day at Gabriel Farm in Sebastapol.

It’s an organic family-run farm that offers a yearly seasonal membership valid from June through November. A family membership is $40, and when you join you get a HUGE box of delicious, sweet and crunchy Asian pears. You also have access to the farm during those months and can visit as often as you like to pick and pay for whichever fruit and flowers are in season that month (fruit is charged by the pound). They grow berries, tomatoes, apples, Asian pears, persimmon, pineapple guava and flowers.

There’s also a cute picnic area tucked away in a gorgeous grove of persimmon trees, so when you’re done picking your goodies you can relax in the shade with your bounty.

The girls had fun picking berries and exploring the farm, and then played for hours under the trees. If you have a little person to entertain, or if you’ve got a hankering to spend some time outside, I highly recommend it.

persimmon grove gabriel farm

There were multiple hand-washing stations around the property, and masks and social distancing were required. Connor and I went as guests of our friends this time, but next year I’m definitely signing up for a membership!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Checking In: A Chanel Blush Brush Haunting, and a Jewel-Toned FOTD With Purple Lids!

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urban decay born to run purple look k lids closed

I will totally get to these purple lids in a second (BECAUSE PURPLE), but first, can we pleeeeease talk about the latest mystery to unfold on this end of the keyboard — a mystery also known as “The Haunting of Casa MBB”?

Don’t worry, there’s nothing terribly sinister afoot (I’m not splashing buckets of holy water on things left and right, in case you’re wondering!).

I’ve been gently “haunted” for the past few weeks by my favorite Chanel blush brush, which has been disappearing and reappearing all over the house in the most random places. I’ve found it on my bed, in the hallway, on the middle of the stairs, on the kitchen floor.

Last week I found it smack dab in the middle of living room, just sitting there on the carpet right in front of the couch.

Hmm… ?

I just assumed that Connor had grabbed it and played with it and forgot to put it back, but when I asked her about it later she said, “No, mama, I have my own brushes.” (Hahaha! She totally does!)

Now, this brush just so happens to be one of my favorite blush brushes because it’s super soft, and the brush head fits perfectly on top of the apples of my cheeks and underneath the hollow of my cheekbones, so I can use it for blush and bronzer. The bristles are also perfectly floofy, so it blends like a dream.

I thought, if an otherworldly entity/spirit has been obsessing over it, I completely understand.

But it ended up not being due to a makeup brush-loving ghost. The disappearances were in fact due to a cat.

rosie posie chanel blush brush

YUP! Look who I just found outside my office doing her “hunter’s mewl.” It’s this cute little growl/grumble Rosie Posie does whenever she stalks and hunts one of her soft toy balls and she wants to show off the riches of her spoils.

I went into the hallway to investigate and give her the usual attention she likes after she catches her prey (“Oh, good job, Rosie-Pose! You’re such a good mouser. Look how well you stalked your toy!”), and that’s when I caught her red-handed (red-pawed?) with my Chanel brush in her mouth.

Mystery solved!

I guess from this point forward, this brush will have a special hiding place…inside a drawer!

(QUICK UPDATE: Later in the day, I also caught her dragging my NARS blush brush around, so she appears to be expanding her hunting horizons.)

Jewel-toned purple lids

OK, so let’s talk purple lids. Now, this might look a little familiar to ya because I’ve been doing variations of this look using the same neutral colors in the crease, inner corner and lash lines, but with different jewel tones on the lids. First, green, and then blue, and now purple!

urban decay born to run purple look eye closeup

urban decay born to run purple look k lids

Find your core

This totally wearable look relies on finding a core group of matte brown and beige eyeshadows for your crease colors. Once you find ones you like, then you can just keep them on standby, and then quickly swap out the jewel tone on your lids with other colors to create different looks!

I’ve been using the same set of warm browns and beiges in this series…

For the purples, I’m wearing a shimmery purple called Guilt Trip, a dark purple called Drift (both are from the Urban Decay Born to Run Palette) and a dark purple UD pencil called Empire.

urban decay born to run purple look k

The foundation, powder blush/bronzer and lipstick are the same products I recently used in a 10-minute makeup look in this It Cosmetics Foundation review (which I’m also wearing in this pic, by the way).

As you can see, I’m pretty stoked about this look, and I’m excited to wear makeup again! 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Easy, Elegant Fall Eye Makeup With Sapphire Lids and Liner

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urban decay born to run palette blue eyes sabbath liner closed
Just a little flash of sapphire

Just a friendly reminder (UM, MOSTLY TO MYSELF, LOL!) that one doesn’t need to constantly reinvent the wheel when it comes to eye makeup. For this look with sapphire blue lids and a warm brown matte crease, I used the same base, crease and lower lash line eye products from yesterday’s fall green look. All I did was swap out the greens on the lids for blue!

urban decay born to run palette blue eyes sabbath liner shadow-layout
Here’s a makeup map of the eye shadow and liner.

Keep talkin’ to me

If you tend to make things harder than they need to be (hello, welcome to my world), then this sort of “makeup template” will make your life 100% easier because you can keep your key neutral elements. All you do is switch out the colorful shades. Et voila! — you have something fresh and new.

Two BIG thangs I love about this look

1. It’s a little flashy, but not overly so.
One thing I love about wearing browns in the crease and colorful jewel tones on the lid and lash lines is that it doesn’t look overdone in real life. Like, when you see this look from the side or straight on, you mostly see the browns, so it looks like a standard-issue neutral look. Not too flashy. You do get a hint of the color when you blink your eyes though! I also tried photographing it in natural light with both my fancy camera and my phone, and I like the way it looks.

urban decay born to run palette blue eyes sabbath liner side view
Cheeks! I’m wearing MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Give Me Sun with Charlotte Tilbury Cheek to Chic Blush in Ecstasy. On my brows and lashes, that’s Urban Decay Brow Beater in Neutral Brown and Laura Mercier Caviar Mascara.

2. It doesn’t take long to do.
I knocked this out in 15 minutes from start to finish before picking up Connor from school and running to Target. (I feel like I spend half of my life now going to Target.)

So, what’s next?

Hmm… I’m thinking of switching out the blue for purple next time…or maybe gray? Really, though, you could do it with so many other colors… Bronze, gold, silver, or even things like orange, red and yellow!

urban decay born to run palette blue eyes sabbath liner open
The base is It Cosmetics Your Skin But Better Foundation + Skincare in Tan Warm 42.5 applied with fingers and lightly buffed down with a skunk brush. (I skipped the powder.)
urban decay born to run palette blue eyes sabbath liner
I’m wearing NARS Satin Lip Pencil in Isola Bella on my lips.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. TGIF! ?

Easy, Elegant Fall Eye Makeup With Green Lids and Liner

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urban decay loaded liner mildew eyeshadow 1
Gotta wear green!

Is green eye makeup more of a fall or a spring look for you? ASKING FOR A FRIEND.

I think if you’ve got a dark green up in the mix, like a jewel-toned green or an emerald green, then yeah, whatever’s happening on your lids is totally a fall look, especially if you add a matte nude or matte brown lippie to the mix.

That’s what I did the other day. I wore this green lid-and-liner combo using a shimmery light medium green shadow on my lids and a dark green opalescent pencil liner (with a touch of a darker grayish green on the outer corner) to get groceries and pick up Coywolf from preschool, and I got the nicest compliments from her teachers.

This little one isn’t so little anymore!

I think the matte browns in the crease and the beige base help to keep the greens wearable for daytime because the neutrals ground the brighter lid and lash line.

Of course, this same placement would also work with other jewel-toned shades, and hmm… Now that I think about it, I may have to try sapphire liner and lids next!

urban decay loaded liner mildew eyeshadow eyeshadow-layout 2
What went where

For the eye makeup I used…

  • Beige matte shadow base: NARS Tinted Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base in Light
  • Beige shadow: MAC Mylar
  • Light warm matte brown shadow: MAC Soft Brown
  • Mid-toned warm matte brown shadow: MAC Saddle
  • Dark mate brown shadow: MAC Brun
  • Dark green pencil: Urban Decay Loaded
  • Light green eyeshadow: Urban Decay Mildew
  • Dark grayish green shadow: MAC Club
  • Bronze pencil: MAC Teddy
    • urban decay loaded liner mildew eyeshadow 3
    I’m wearing MAC Date Maker Powder Kiss Liquid Lipcolour with MAC Spice Lip Liner.
    urban decay loaded liner mildew eyeshadow 4
    Brows are Urban Decay Brow Beater in Neutral Brown, and lashes are Laura Mercier Caviar Mascara. Cheeks: MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Give Me Sun and NARS Blush in Lovejoy.
    urban decay loaded liner mildew eyeshadow 6
    For base, I’m wearing a 50/50 mix of It Cosmetics Your Skin But Better Foundation in Tan Warm 41 and Tan Warm 42.5; under my eyes, I’m wearing a touch of Neutrogena Radiant Cream Concealer.
    urban decay loaded liner mildew eyeshadow 5
    Here’s another closeup!

    A few more quick winged tips, in case you decide to try this look!

    1. Do your winged liner first.

    This allows you to reference the end point of your wing and more easily determine how far out and up you can take your eyeshadow.

    2. Sharpen that pencil tip.

    The pointier and sharper the tip of your pencil, the easier it will be to control the weight of your lines.

    3. If you have hooded lids like I do, opt for a thinner line.

    The thicker the liner on your upper lash line, the more hooded your lids may appear. I suggest using the thinnest line you can.
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FOTD: Fall Vibes With Plum Lids and Berry Lips

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mac prunella got a callback
Fall is a berry good time to wear dark berry lips!

Hiya! On this stop on our tour of MAC Eyeliner Greatest Hits is Prunella! AHHH!

In my opinion, it is one of the very best things in the entire MAC world.

Boom. There, I said.

In a nutshell, it’s a purple eyeliner…but not just any purple liner. It’s a deep blackened plum with a hint of shine to softly define your lash and water lines in ways a basic black liner just can’t do.

I’m wearing Prunella here as a one-and-done lid and lash line color. It’s a little smoked out and a little smudgy, which is my favorite way to wear it.

Prunella is a perfect perennial product, but I think it kicks major rear in fall when it’s paired with berry lipsticks, and it turns out that there are two great new berry shades in the MAC Powderkiss Liquid Lipcolour fam. Here I’m wearing Got a Callback, a mid-toned berry mauve; and Burning Love, a straight-up berry. Both have a soft matte finish that complements Prunella’s soft shine well.

mac prunella got a callback
MAC Got a Callback
mac prunella burning love
MAC Burning Love
mac got a callback burning love swatches
Fall vibes: MAC Powderkiss Liquid Lipsticks in Burning Love (a berry) and Got a Callback (a mid-toned mauve berry)

And because I can’t resist wearing pink lips with everything (!), I threw on a pink lip to see how it would look with these eyes… Definitely skews the makeup to a springier vibe.

If you’re into the pink, FYI, it’s Charlotte Tilbury’s iconic Pillow Talk lip liner and lipstick topped with Hourglass Fever lipgloss.

Speaking of Charlotte Tilbury, if you’re in a “bougie blush mood” (because they happen, LOL!), I highly suggest checking out her Ecstasy blush. It’s the one with a peachy outer ring and a pink inner ring. When you blend the two together, you get this perfect balance of a neutral pink with a slightly warm peach. It’s not too warm or cool, and it goes surprisingly well with most looks — especially plummy and purple lids and lips like this.

mac prunella eyes down
Just Prunella on my lids, babe!
mac prunella eyes
Pink lips! Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk (lip liner and lipstick) topped with Hourglass Fever Gloss

mac prunella swatch

Makeup worn in this look

BASE

  • Laura Mercier Foundation Primer Hydrating
  • Hourglass Veil Retouching Fluid in Sand
  • Estee Lauder Double Wear Light in 4.0

CHEEKS

  • Charlotte Tilbury Cheek to Chick in Ecstasy

EYES

  • Chanel Eyeshadow Base
  • MAC Prunella Liner
  • Urban Decay Brow Beater in Neutral Brown
  • Laura Mercier Caviar Mascara
  • MAC Clear Brow Set

LIPS

  • Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Lip Cheat Lip Liner
  • Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Lipstick
  • Hourglass Unreal Gloss in Fever
  • MAC Burning Love
  • MAC Got a Callback

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

FOTD: Another Single-Product Eye Look With a MAC Classic

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mac powersurge swatch

If you want to be truly terrified, don’t fire up a horror movie on Netflix. Instead, put on your makeup in full sunlight. HAHAHA! Dude. It’s kinda scary seeing a lot of product on your skin in such unforgiving light. Or maybe that’s just me because I haven’t been doing a lot of full-on makeup over the past few months (#pandemiclife).

So, I did this look yesterday morning because I made a promise to myself to put on some makeup. (I realize that my mask covers almost everything, but still, sometimes putting on makeup still makes me feel better.)

Connor had an outdoor playdate with a friend, and we were going to be outside for most of the afternoon, so in the morning I decided to use the natural sunlight streaming in through my window to help guide me through this one-product eye look with MAC Powersurge pencil.

I used it as an eyeshadow and a liner all on my lids!

mac powersurge swatch

Connor’s playdate was for outdoor “cake painting,” an idea I got from Busy Toddler on Instagram.

I taped a bunch of big boxes together to look like an oversized cake, and Connor and her buddy painted the layers with washable tempura paint.

I guess the most frightening thing about doing your makeup in the unforgiving light of the full sun is seeing just exactly how products behave according to the texture of your skin. GOODNESS GRACIOUS. It really forced me to blend my base and buff down all of the excess areas where there was a little too much lying there. I’m making this sound frightening, I know, but I think you gotta do it once just for fun because it really is eye opening!

I might do it again today because I guess I’m a masochist like that, LOL!

Like my makeup the other day, there’s also a bunch of O.G. MAC faves up in this makeup mix, like Powersurge on my lids, Blushbaby on my cheeks, and Whirl lipstick mixed with a little bit of Honeylove on my lips. (I wanted it to look like fall makeup, but I didn’t want it to go too brown.)

mac powersurge swatch

Initially, I went with a rosy brown matte lip because I was going for a fall look, but I also tried it with a brighter pinkish rose matte lippie…

I had an inkling that the eye/cheek combo would go really well a brighter pinkish rose lipstick…

This is Model Off Duty, one of the new MAC Powder Kiss Liquid Lipcolours. I think it looks really beautiful with this eye/cheek combo, and the next time I wear it I think I might do this lip color instead.

mac powersurge fotd

One more thing about Powersurge before I go — when you do these one-and-done looks with liner, the beauty of them is that they don’t have to be super perfect on your lids, because if you’re just wearing one color, if there are areas on your lids that are more elegantly blended than others, then don’t worry about it because as long as you have a relatively smooth transition of color that fades up toward your brows, you’re going to be fine.

As with any lid action, for instance darkness on the outer third, or when you deepen the outer v, you can do that for more dimension here too, but if you try and it doesn’t get where you want it to go, buff it a little more, don’t mess with it, and move on with your day.

mac powersurge swatch

I think these are great because they really don’t emphasize mistakes too much, and that’s a wonderful thing!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

FOTD: An Eye Look With a Single Product! (Hint: It’s a MAC Classic)

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mac teddy eyeliner look
Before you scroll down, try to guess which MAC classic eye makeup item I used on my lids!

The only thing that would be easier than this eye look I did here with just one MAC product would be putting on a pair of pajama pants and falling asleep on my couch right now, hahaha! This look is so simple, and I don’t even know why I don’t wear it more often (note to self: WEAR IT MORE OFTEN). And if you haven’t guessed what I used already, I’ll give you one more try…

mac teddy eyeliner look
Have ya figured it out yet?

OK, ya got it?

It’s MAC Teddy eyeliner. Yup. Just eyeliner. On my waterlines, on my lash lines and on my lids. That’s it! I mean, of course, I have stuff in my brows — I didn’t use Teddy in my brows (although I have heard of somebody using Powersurge in their brows before). I’m wearing Brow Blade by Urban Decay in my brows and Laura Mercier mascara on my lashes, of course, but everything else on my eyes is just Teddy.

I put some on my water and lash lines, then sloppily sketched out a shape on my lids with the pencil, a half moon shape on my mobile lid (the part of the lid that moves when you blink), and then on the outer corners I sort of drew a soft winged shape because I like a bit of lift there because the outer corners of my eyes slope downward.

Then I used a brush, a MAC 725S, which is an angled fluffy brush, and I used that to diffuse the edges, blur out any sort of harsh lines, and I layered more Teddy wherever I wanted more depth, like the outer corners, then blended a little bit more.

I briefly thought about using MAC Coffee eyeliner to draw a thin line along my upper lash line, but I only have a smudge of it left, and it’s so precious right now because I seriously can’t seem to find Coffee anywhere! So I decided to just nix that idea and keep it simple.

Yeah. Just Teddy liner. All over! And it was lovely and fast.

Teddy isn’t the only thing from the “MAC greatest hits” list I’m wearing in this look. I’m also wearing Face and Body in C5 (which is O.G. MBB right there!) and MAC Velvet Teddy on my lips.

The blush, by the way, is Hourglass Brilliant Nude, and if you haven’t tried it yet, give it a go if you can. First time I saw it in the pan I thought, “Eh, what’s that going to do for me?” but then I got it on my cheeks, and I loved how glowing and natural it looked. So. Good.
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