Just For Fun

Hiya and good morning. 🙂 Welcome to the weekend! I’ve got chores up the wazoo early on in the day today, starting with SO much laundry and cleaning, so a short and sweet check-in on this beautiful Saturday!

What are you up to?

• Beauty brands are now creating makeup that’s easier to open and apply for people living with A.L.S., Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis and arthritis.
• 9 of the best drugstore mascaras, according to makeup artists.
• You’ve probably seen Nick Dudman’s work if you’ve watched Harry Potter or Carnival Row/ He’s a makeup effects designer (yes, that’s a real job!), and this is what a typical workday in his life is like.
• Speaking of Harry Potter, Ulta just launch a Harry Potter makeup collection.
• All of the foolproof tips and tricks to know if you’re going for a dewy base.
• How Zoë Kravitz’s makeup artist organizes her makeup when she’s working with clients.
• The pro’s guide to makeup and skin care when you’re wearing a mask.
• Like an ice cream truck, but for fragrance — this shop on wheels sells perfume (at an appropriate social distance, of course) all over NYC.
• Apparently, derms loooooove niacinamide.
• A family’s cat receives a voter registration application in the mail (p.s. the kitty left for the rainbow bridge 12 years ago).
• This is why catnip makes your cat crazy!
• Felines have been seducing cat ladies for nearly 1,000 years, says science. ?

I really want to make biscotti.

So colorful…

Not all shoes are made the same.

In case you’re equally obsessed with type…

Sending good vibes your way. Whatever you’re doing today, stay safe, and WASH THOSE HANDS!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

So…what is the Monday Poll?

Excellent question! It isn’t, contrary to its name, an actual poll, like with little clicky buttons. It’s just a list of five more or less random questions I’ve been posting on this blog every Monday morning for the past quadrillion years (since 2007). I love reading your answers, and it helps me get my week off to a good start. ?

The Nail Polish Edition!

1. Matte or glitter finish?

Glitter finish…but I DO NOT look forward to taking it off, since glitter is such a pain to remove, ugh! I have no patience for it.

2. Cream or shimmer?

Cream, please.

3. Would you rather…skip your base coat or skip your top coat?

Skip the base coat. Top coat, at least for me, makes more of a difference in wear time.

4. Nail polish color(s) you wear the most?

Jade and pastel greens, baby blues, teals, purples (all shades!), and nude shades of peach, rosy taupe, pink and beige.

5. Nail polish color(s) you wear the least?

Black, red and orange.

6. When was the last time you had a manicure or a pedicure?

Honestly, I can’t remember. I think it might’ve been the Gel Manicure Incident from 2018?

Geez, that was a while ago!

7. Which fingernails do you usually paint first — the ones on your left, or right hand?

I always use my left hand to paint my right hand nails first, because when I was a teenager I read an article in a magazine (remember those?!) that said you should always start by painting the nails on your non-dominant hand first.

I don’t remember the logic behind it, but I think it had something to do about lessening your chances for smudging.

8. Accent nails — yea or nay?

I used to be a “yea,” but now I’m a “nay.”

9. Have you ever worn press-on/stick-on fake nails?

Actually, I have! They come in handy if you have an event or something to go to and you run out of time to paint your nails.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Here are the questions to copy/paste with your answers in a comment. Talk to ya soon.

1. Matte or glitter finish?
2. Cream or shimmer?
3. Would you rather…skip your base coat or skip your top coat?
4. Nail polish color(s) you wear the most?
5. Nail polish color(s) you wear the least?
6. When was the last time you had a manicure or a pedicure?
7. Which fingernails do you usually paint first — the ones on your left or right hand?
8. Accent nails — yea or nay?
9. Have you ever worn press-on/stick-on fake nails?

P.P.S. Hope you’re having a nice day so far. ? How was your Fourth? Camping at Clear Lake was fun. I watched a family of deer foraging wild blackberries by our campsite yesterday morning, and it very nearly brought me to tears.

Hello, friend! Good morning and happy Independence Day to you! Sending major good vibes for a safe, wonderful weekend. The fam and I are about to head off grid for a brief camping trip, and by “off the grid,” I mean that we’re going car camping to Clear Lake about two hours north, and just south of Mendocino Forest. It’ll be just the few of us, masks coming along too, of course. Fun fact: at 2.5 million years old, Clear Lake is the oldest lake in North America.

Whatever you’re doing this weekend, please stay safe, especially if you’re going to be on the road. A nurse friend once told me that her patients awaiting organ transplants, and their loved ones and caregivers, couldn’t help but think about the possibilities around the Fourth of July weekend due to the number of fatal car accidents… That’s life. So please be careful.

• Men’s makeup goes mainstream at CVS drugstores with the introduction of Stryx, a makeup line (a.k.a. “men’s grooming”) made especially for dudes.
• A very fancy makeup mirror for all the tech nerds out there.
• Sandy Linter is a 72-year-old celebrity makeup artist, and these are her favorite foundations and concealers.
• Get schooled by Bobbi Brown.
• Not that many people are traveling by airplane at the moment, but when that time comes, here are all the travel-friendly makeup bags you’ll want to have with you.
• Meghan Markle’s wedding day makeup artist joins the Tatcha team.
• What five dermatologists do to keep their skin in tip top shape during quarantine.
• Who wants a perfume that smells like ? space? (My answer: ME!)
• This long lost perfume bottle was recently unearthed during a shipwreck excavation.

I feel seen.

I can’t go for that.

You’re beautiful.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Honestly, so many things…and that makes me wonder what I’m doing now that will make me cringe in the future, ha ha ha!

A couple have been relatively recent, like not washing my hair every day. This was during the phase when my hair was long and caramel brown with blonde streaks, and so to help retain the color and keep it from getting too dry, I would try to see how long I could make it through the week without washing my hair. Some weeks I’d go four or five days without washing it.

On the one hand, this saved me SO MUCH TIME in the morning because I could just do my hair on day one, and then not really have to do it until after I washed it again, so my hair styling time was like one minute in the mornings, which was FANTASTIC.

Also, not having to spend the time in the shower washing and conditioning was great too, but ya know…eventually I just got tired of dealing with an itchy scalp and greasy-feeling roots, and I slowly got back into the habit of washing it every day. This really kicked in when I started working out consistently. Now the thought of having even one-day roots grosses me out.

I also went through a spell where I was wearing full-coverage base every day — primer, foundation, color corrector, concealer, powder, the whole nine yards. It looked great in pics! — but dang, girl…it was WORK. I think at that point I was blocking out at least 45 minutes just to put on makeup.

Now I rarely wear full-coverage base because I can’t tolerating feeling like I’m wearing a ton of stuff on my skin, and the thought of wearing full-coverage all day, every day makes me go YEEOUCH!

And, of course, there were the many questionable beauty decisions I made in the ’90s. The one that haunts me the most is plucking all my eyebrows away!

How about you? What’s something beauty related you used to do that makes you cringe now?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

1. The purples in the new Urban Decay Ultraviolet Palette!

I shall embark upon wearing each and every one of the purples in this $49 palette, which is out now with 12 powder eyeshadows, as smoky liners along my upper lash line, coupled with one of the matte neutrals on my lids. ?

2. Maxi dresses

Stay cool and fashionable! Plus, there’s something freeing about your legs and booty enjoying the occasional light breeze. *shrugs* ?‍♀️

I have become so committed to maxi dresses lately that I got two of these Loveappella V-Neck maxis (the coral and navy) with the Nordstrom gift card I had squirreled away forever. Added bonuses: they’re currently on sale and available in petite sizes.

3. Hall and Oates

I have a (conspiracy) theory that Hall and Oates were secretly dating… Anywho! I’ve been listening to their older stuff a lot lately while I cook dinner.

Here are some classic jams to get you started, in case you haven’t heard of them before, and if that’s the case…BLASPHEMY!

You Make My Dreams

Out of Touch

She’s Gone

Rich Girl

4. Honest Beauty Liquid Lipstick in BFF

What can I say? Old habits die hard, so while I wear a mask, I still 1) smile ? at strangers, and 2) wear ? lipstick. One I love is BFF by Honest Beauty. It’s a nude matte that doesn’t move, so when I have my mask on, it doesn’t transfer. Plus, the nude color is super pretty.

5. The Titan Games

This show pits fitness enthusiasts/everyday people against professional athletes in a crazy hard obstacle course race, and it’s hosted by Maui from Moana, a.k.a. the Rock, a.k.a. Dwayne Johnson.

It may sound cheesy, but it’s shockingly engrossing! Highly recommended! Every time our family watches it, we cheer (scream, really!) for the regular guys and gals.

***Warning: don’t be surprised if you formulate a plan to improve your wimpy grip strength after the first episode.***

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. What have you been loving lately? ?

Why, yes, it really is *that easy* to pick (and eat!) four pounds of big ol’ blueberries, just in case you were wondering!

We went blueberry picking last weekend at Duckworth Family Farm in Sebastapol. It’s about an hour and a half north of San Francisco, and you can pick your own organic blueberries right off the plants. Every time I’d look over at Connor, I’d see her daintily lifting up her mask and sneaking a blueberry into her mouth. I think she ate more blueberries than she actually picked, ha ha ha!

I can’t blame her, since eating fresh-off-the-vine blueberries is absolutely divine. So sweet, so juicy, and it’s especially satisfying when you find a really BIG one the size of your thumb, and you pop it into your mouth right then and there.

We spent Saturday morning there last weekend, picking blueberries, eating homemade blueberry ice cream and watching the sheep circumnavigate the grounds. They periodically stampede around the farm! It’s the coolest thing. You don’t see them at first, but you hear their hooves thundering, and then, suddenly! — they come out of nowhere, running and jumping in a huge (and very cute) herd.

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