Face of the Day (FOTD)

What I Wore Wednesday, Vol. 1: Copper With a Splash of Gold and Natural-Looking Skin

February 1st, 2017 by Karen 11 Comments

tarte happy girls shine brighter palette — My Wednesday makeup ensemble

Here’s the makeup I wore today! It was a pretty chill Wednesday overall… I got up, wrote for a bit, took Connor out for a morning walk (yes, our Coywolf is walking now!), worked and went to an appointment to see my therapist (just a regularly scheduled thing I’ve been doing once a month; it’s been very helpful).

And that’s what I did! I didn’t want to wear anything too elaborate or heavy, but I was in the mood for a little spice, which is why the gold glitter liner was up in the mix. 🙂

All about that base: Tarte’s version of MAC Strobe Cream, and a new IT Cosmetics cream foundation

I started with an old fave, Make Up For Ever Face Smoothing Primer (THE BEST!), then patted Tarte Brighter Days Highlighting Moisturizer ($32), a face moisturizer with pink pearl that looks a lot like a slightly thicker MAC Strobe Cream, all over my skin, because I wanted a little bit of glow to show through my foundation.

Then I buffed new $38 IT Cosmetics Confidence in a Compact Solid Serum Foundation in Tan all over my face (it’s a cream foundation).

The compact says that it’s full coverage, which I think is totally possible because it’s pretty opaque, but I sheered it out because I wanted my skin to look as natural as possible. Plus, I wanted the glow from Brighter Days to show through.

Anyway, it’s very lightweight and so, SO creamy, and my skin, which was feeling extra dry today, likes it a lot.

Happy Girls Shine Brighter

I grabbed this cute new $29 Double Duty Beauty palette from Tarte with the most adorable name ever for my eyes and cheeks. It’s called Happy Girls Shine Brighter.

See? Isn’t that sweet!?

tarte happy girls shine brighter — The Tarte Double Duty Beauty Happy Girls Shine Brighter Palette ($29)

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Friday Face of the Day With Warm, Orangey Bronze Eyes and the MAC Caitlyn Jenner Collection

January 13th, 2017 by Karen 11 Comments

mac caitlyn jenner orange lip k — MAC Understanding Lipstick, MAC Caitlyn Jenner collection

So, I’m writing some lists this week, and one of my lists is titled, “Colors for eye looks” and with the #MBBInstaChallenge, which you guys are kicking so much @ss on, this month is all about busting out of my comfort zone!

Right at the top of my list of eye colors that, for various reasons, I don’t reach for that often are orange and warm red, which were huge eyeshadow trends last fall.

With that in mind, I decided to do an orange/warm reddish bronze eye look today with Malibu Bronze Eye Shadow from the new MAC Caitlyn Jenner collection, because I think it goes SO well with one of my favorite eyeliners of all time, the otherworldly MAC Teddy, a bewilderingly beautiful shimmery brownish bronze, and if you don’t have Teddy in your life, YOU NEED TO GET IT ASAP.

mac caitlyn jenner eyeshadows k — Malibu Bronze and Worthy Eye Shadows on my eyes with Buddy Mineralize Skinfinish (in the crease) and Teddy Liner; and Buddy MSF and Compassion Blush on my cheeks

Today I’m all about Teddy and Malibu Bronze. I used Malibu Bronze on my lids right up to the crease (it’s very pigmented, and it buffs out easily). Then, to transition the color, I actually used a face powder from the collection called Buddy. It’s a warm brown with lots of intense golden pearl (it reminds me a lot of NARS Laguna, but it’s waaaay warmer). I stuck that in my crease to blend out the edges, and I’m also wearing it on my cheeks and across my nose as a bronzer to tie my cheeks in with my eyes.

I experimented with a few different lip looks for this…first with a warm deep red lipstick called Authentic Red, and then added a little golden gloss on top (Kindness Cremesheen).

I thought that was OK…but it seemed like a little too much for what I’ve got going on today (which is nada). Better for date night.

mac caitlyn jenner red lip k — MAC Authentic Red Lipstick with Kindness Cremesheen on top

Next I tried a nude lip using Whirl Lip Pencil, Rockit Lipstick and Beautifully Bare Cremesheen (which looks like MAC Deelight Cremesheen’s twin sis), but I feel like it looked a little unbalanced…

mac caitlyn jenner nude lip — That’s Whirl Lip Pencil, Rockit Lipstick and Beautifully Bare Cremesheen

Finally, I tried warm, creamy red MAC Understanding Lipstick (it’s an online exclusive), and voila! Balance. That’s what I finally went with.

mac caitlyn jenner understanding — MAC Understanding Lipstick

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Magazine Makeup Look: A Minimalist Glittery Purple Cut Crease With Big, Bushy Brows

December 14th, 2016 by Karen 16 Comments

urban decan metalhead — Doopdadoo, business as usual around here…

I’m glad I gave this look a try, even though I don’t think I look nearly as cool as the girl I based it on from Nylon magazine…

purple glitter cut crease — The original inspiration

Seriously, I look like I just grew a second pair of eyebrows, LOL! — purple glittery sparkly eyebrows, though. Which are beautiful in their own way, right? Maybe?

So this is what I came up with for my first look based on the bookmarks and Post-It notes I did in those magazines the other day. I’m giving myself 30 days to recreate different looks that are out of my comfort zone, and this was one from Nylon with a sparkly minimalist purple cut crease.

Before I started, I spent a few solid minutes just looking closely at the model, and here are the things that jumped out at me (other than her purple cut crease)…

Her big, BOLD fluffy brows, which look pushed up and out toward the inside, where the hairs are super separated and defined.
Her skin, which looks a little dewy. There’s some highlight action reflecting off the center of her forehead, her nose and under her eyes, but it’s not an intense highlight.
The wash of nude color on her lids. It looks like there’s also a super skinny brown liner line along her upper lash line.
Her lips. I wonder if that’s her natural lip color. If it is, lucky duck! It’s beautiful. It looks like she might be wearing a just-right balm because it doesn’t look too creamy or shiny or heavy or matte. I’m guessing it’s a lip liner-lip balm combo.

With these things in mind, I rifled through my makeup collection and came up with this sparkly, glittery cut crease.

First, I started by kind of sketching out the shape of the cut crease (a.k.a. my glittery second set of eyebrows) on my lids with Urban Decay Heavy Metal Glitter Eyeliner in Metalhead, which is a liquid purple glitter liner and, once I had a good amount of that on, I dipped my favorite NARS #47 angled brush into a purple glitter shadow from the Urban Decay Moondust Palette, wet it with Make Up For Ever Mist & Fix to amplify the glitter, and then pressed it right on top of the glitter liner.

I did that a few times until I got the cut crease this shiny, glittery and intense.

Weird makeup experiments, part deux! I do like the sparkle from the glitter though. I'm wearing @urbandecaycosmetics Metalhead Glitter Liner topped with their Moondust Eye Shadow in Magnetic. #urbandecay #weirdmakeupexperiments

A video posted by Karen | Makeup and Beauty Blog (@karenmbb) on Dec 13, 2016 at 5:15pm PST

For my big, fluffy brows, I filled them in with the current love o’ my brow life, MAC Brow Sculpt Brow Pencil in Brun, and then used a boat load of Benefit clear brow gel to push and fluff them up, especially at the front.

I mean, I did as much as I could… The model’s brows are incredible! Mine don’t look that full, but I tried.

Next, for my skin, to get that dewiness, I used MAC Matchmaster Shade Intelligence Compact (my shade is 4.0), which is MAC’s cushion cream compact. It’s medium coverage and has a satiny finish.

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Simple Glam: A Smoky Taupe and Pink Daytime Look With the Laura Geller Holiday Train Case Collection

December 2nd, 2016 by Karen 11 Comments

Friday is always a good day for glam, even if it’s just low-key glam, because why not, right? You made it through the rest of the week, and you never know what can happen on a Friday night.

If I were actually going to go somewhere and do something exciting tonight, I’d hope it would be someplace fun with a casual dress code that allows dried baby food stains, LOL!

You guys, I don’t know how this became the new normal for me, but I swear, I find at least one spot of baby food on my clothes every single day, and sometimes I have NO IDEA how it got there. Sometimes it’s food that I don’t even remember Connor eating! — but I’m at the point now where I don’t even care anymore. It’s just what I do now. I wear clothing with dried baby food on it.

*sigh* I’m sure I’ll miss these days when Connor is a teenager and mumbles two words to me under her breath when she comes home from school, then goes up to her room and slams the door…

Anyway, I used the $99 Laura Geller Holiday Train Case Collection from QVC.com for this smoky taupe look. It’s a pretty cool set, especially if you’re all about that glow.

laura geller holiday train case collection 3 — The Laura Geller Holiday Train Case Collection

It comes with a brown and taupe shimmery eyeshadow duo, a golden peach highlighter, a pink blush, a pale face powder (the shade, Porcelain, is way too light for me, so I didn’t use it for this look), a champagne pearl liquid face primer, a creamy pink lipstick, a black thickening mascara and two double-sided brushes for $99 at QVC.

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Smoky, Cool and Shimmery Plum With the Tarte Pretty Paintbox Set, Bite Beauty Cashew and MAC Dancing Flowers

November 14th, 2016 by Karen 8 Comments

tarte pretty paintbox fotd — Feeling plummy today with Tarte’s Pretty Paintbox from the holiday 2016 collection

Look. At. This. Makeup.

Where was a going that I needed to put on makeup like this? I don’t know… I don’t think I was going anywhere. I wish I could say that I was going out to dinner or something, but I think the most exciting thing I did while I was wearing this look was take out the trash…

I did run into my neighbor, though, and we talked about her dog a little, so at least somebody got to see the fruit of my labor IRL.

I’m wearing the Bite Beauty Multistick in Cashew here, and I tell you — it’s the best color! It’s underneath a bunch of things on my lids. I sort of used it as an eyeshadow lid primer.

I think it’s SO beautiful, especially with colors like the ones I’m wearing.

Eyes: Bite Beauty Cashew Multi-Stick, Tarte Pretty Paintbox eyeshadows (Van Gogh With It in the crease, and First Impressionism, Hot MOMA and Get Surreal mixed on the lids), Tarte Tarteist Black Eyeliner (from the Wingworkers holiday set), Tarte Tartiest Mascara (from Pretty Paintbox)

Cheeks: Moment blush, Authentic highlighter and Unique bronzer from Tarte Pretty Paintbox

Lips: Dancing Flowers from the MAC Nutcracker Sweet Retro Matte Plum Kit

I’m wearing kind of a rosy taupe-ish brown in my crease, and there’s some shimmery cool-toned purplish gray action happening on my lids that I made by mixing a bunch of colors in this Tarte palette (I marked them with hearts down below).

I grabbed a bunch of shades with the same brush, buffed them on the back of my hand, and then popped them on my lid.

It’s just a phase I’m going through. I like making my own colors. It makes me feel like I’m a mad scientist in a beauty lab or something…

OK, so, my lid color is very cool toned, but I think it balances with the warmth of the browns in my crease. I like that juxtaposition, but of course you could totally stick to one or the other using just cool-toned shadows or warm-toned shadows, and still do a look like this.

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Red Lips and Reverse Liner With the Too Faced Funfetti Set and Sydney Amaryllis Matte Lip Liquid From The Body Shop

November 10th, 2016 by Karen 9 Comments

Reverse liner.

Sounds kinda funny, right? Like, if there’s a reverse liner…shouldn’t there also be a forward or a sideways liner too?

No? OK, maybe not. 🙂

But there is such a thing as reverse liner. It’s actually legit. It’s when your lids are darker than your liner, which is the opposite of the normal style of wearing a darker color along your lash lines than your lids.

I did it today to do something different and exercise my makeup skills.

Oh, gosh. I’m still so out of practice after having Connor Claire. Honestly, makeup is a perishable skill. If you don’t use it, you freaking lose it.

So this look is a little different for me because of the reverse liner, but I still did smoky lids…because what else am I gonna wear? You know how much I like smoky lids.

I used the new Too Faced Funfetti set, which goes on sale tomorrow (Nov. 11) on HSN.

I also tried something different with my lids. I mixed a few of the Funfetti eyeshadows together, and by “mixed” I mean that I took a dark matte purple, a shimmery bronze and a shimmery olive from the palette, swooshed them all together with a brush on the back of my hand, and used that to make my own custom color. Then I patted that on my lids.

I just felt like creating my own color today. I don’t know… I’ve been into that lately.

too faced funfetti palette fotd shades — The shades marked with the heart are the ones I used

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15-Minute Makeup: Glossy, Grungy Glam With MAC Driftwood Liptensity, MAC Tailor Grey Paint Pot and Rouge Bunny Rouge Eye Gloss

October 15th, 2016 by Karen 19 Comments

Good morning, friend! 🙂 It’s a rainy day here in Novato-ay. Seriously, summer is long gone now. There are piles of wet leaves outside, and the sky is dark grey.

How’s your weekend coming along? What are up to? I’m taking it nice and slow. The only thing I kind of rushed through is my makeup. I’m still on that 15-minute makeup kick, and this is my latest try. I was going for glossy, grungy glam.

I wish I had somewhere special to wear makeup today… Actually, no I don’t. I just want to stay inside where it’s warm and watch TV on the couch.

I did this whole look in 15 minutes, just to try something different than my usual neutral lids and neutral lips.

I used cool-toned MAC Tailor Grey Pro Longwear Paint Pot, a cream shadow, and just kind of smushed that all over my lids with a finger. Then I took a black liner and lined my lash and water lines with it, then smushed that too. And because I was gonna put an eye gloss on top of it anyway, I didn’t make it too neat.

It was actually really messy and looked very scary, but then I put the gloss on top, and it all melted together into glossy, grungy goodness.

Then I added layer upon layer of my favorite waterproof mascara, Urban Decay Cannonball Ultra Waterproof.

I think the most important thing to remember about eye gloss is that it isn’t meant to look perfect and precise, and you just have to embrace that; otherwise, all you see are the imperfections.

I guess that’s a weird life lesson, too…

Like, when I close my eyes and look down, you can see that my liner has transferred into the crease, but it’s purposefully messy. Plus, it only took 15 minutes. When you only have a short time for your makeup, you can’t expect to do everything perfectly.

What’s super cool about gloss is that you have so much room for error. It’s supposed to look messy, and sometimes that’s great.

mac tailor grey — In my mind, this eye makeup would look like this all day…

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15-Minute Makeup: Fast and Smoky With NARS Sarah Moon

October 11th, 2016 by Karen 16 Comments

nars sarah moon look closer eyeshadow palette — Fast and smoky 15-minute makeup with NARS Sarah Moon

Does it take 30 minutes, five eyeshadows and three different brushes to do a smoky eye look?

Nuh-uh. Not at all. This look took 15 minutes, and I only used one cream shadow stick and one eyeshadow for my eyes.

Seriously, if you strip away the extra stuff, that’s all you need to do a quick smoky eye look.

And I’m talking about the entire look from start to finish — the whole thing took 15 minutes. That includes brows, skin, mascara — the works — and I think the key is to simplify what you do on your lids, because, as you know, it is easily possible to spend A LONG time on smoky eyes. But you don’t have to.

I applied a purple shadow stick from one of the new NARS Sarah Moon holiday sets directly on my lids from the stick, then blended out the edges with a fluffy blending brush.

Then I just dipped that same brush into a matte brown shadow from one of the other NARS Sarah Moon holiday palettes, buffed that on top and did my best to fade the edges of the shadow up into my brows.

At that point, I grabbed a clean blending brush and buffed out the edges even more to smooth everything out. Then I just lined my upper lash line and smudged it out with a bit of black eyeshadow from the same palette.

The rest of the look was super easy. A bit of foundation, some concealer blended on top with a beautyblender, set that with powder, and then add blush, gloss, and that’s it.

Well, mascara, of course, and then brows… But that’s it.

So you CAN do a complete smoky look in 15 minutes. It’s definitely possible.

nars shadow side eye set — NARS Sarah Moon Shadow Side Eye Set swatches

nars sarah moon look closer eyeshadow palette swatches — NARS Sarah Moon Look Closer Eyeshadow Palette swatches

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