Just For Fun

Ya know…I totally don’t. With how pricey products are, and how misleading marketing often is (hello, every mascara commercial in the world), and how brands routinely make objective claims about subjective benefits and ingredients, I don’t. As much as I love makeup and the beauty industry in general, most beauty brands have no qualms about making bold claims about what products will and won’t do, so if something doesn’t do that for me (and I can usually tell right away), and I know that it isn’t going to work, I’ve got no issues returning it.

Granted, I try to do it right away, because I know myself waaaay too well. If I don’t return something I don’t like right away and let it sit around too long, I will miss the return window.

Oh, and I don’t know if it makes a difference, but I do try to keep the amount of the product that I use down to a respectable minimum, because I’m not about to roll up to a counter with an empty bottle of shampoo or conditioner and ask for my money back, LOL!

A company’s return policy is also very important to me, so I try to only buy beauty products from places that allow me to bring things back after they’re used. I like Sephora, Nordstrom and Ulta for this.

I realize that beauty retailers and brands that sell directly through their website probably have a different perspective on returns, because some people WILL take advantage, but until beauty brands are able to 100% guarantee that a product will/won’t do what it claims, and until they stop using misleading qualifiers and phrases like “promises to improve the appearance of fine lines…” I’m gonna make some returns.

How about you? Do you ever feel bad or embarrassed about returning beauty products?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. How was your Fourth? Were there fireworks involved?

It’s Independence Day!

It being a holiday and all, what are the chances of Tabs giving me a raise today? Or a day off?

Lukewarm? Slim to none? Because things have been hoppin’ here lately at the shared headquarters of Makeup and Beauty Blog and Tabs the Cat Industries LLC. It’s been very busy!

First of all, this has been Potty Training Week here…which is like Shark Week only messier. Connor’s been learning the ropes and making big girl moves. So far, so good. We’re chugging along, and all I have to say is that you haven’t lived until you’ve held a celebratory poop dance party in your bathroom. Try it sometime.

Speaking of potty training, the Interwebz has FEELINGS about potty training. There are so many strong opinions on pee and poop training. It’s kinda frightening! Some peeps are definitely not afraid to let you know everything you’re doing wrong, and I don’t want to get up in that sh*t storm (haha!).

I say live and let live. Poop and let poop!

Also — and this is why I haven’t been posting very often — I’m still finishing and working behind the scenes on some new designs for the Connor Claire store.

They’re almost ready. There’s a lot of back and forth in getting design mockups and trying to get things to look and fit exactly right, so it’s time consuming.

But they’re almost, almost ready, and I can’t wait to show you!

So, that’s what’s new on my end. How about you? Are you doing anything for the 4th today? We’ll be firing up the BBQ and maybe, hopefully, hitting up the pool.

Probably no fireworks, though, unless we drive someplace to see a display.

Whatever you’re doing, be safe and have fun. Talk to you soon. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

So…what is the Monday Poll?

Good question! It isn’t, contrary to its name, an actual poll. 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 gazillion years (more than 10!). I love reading your answers, and it helps me get my week off to a great start. ?

1. Emoji you use the most?

I use ? way more than any person with good sense should. I also abuse the sweets-related ones, like ?, ? and ?.

2. Skeleton prints on clothes — cool or creepy?

(Side note: I’m mostly asking this because I saw a girl at the beach on Saturday wearing a one-piece with an x-ray of a skeleton on it.)

Creepy, man! I don’t need be reminded of what’s in your inside on the outside.

3. Walk me through what needs to happen in order for you to have a good hair day?

OK, starting the night before, I either have to shampoo and condition, or do a conditioner wash, because if I don’t, and my roots are greasy in the morning, I’ll feel unkempt the entire day.

While I’m still standing in the shower after the shampoo or conditioner wash, I’ll twist my hair and wring out as much water as I can. Then, I’ll wrap a towel around the ends, and wring out even more, as much as I can.

(Incidentally, I never, ever vigorously rub my hair with a towel because it always makes my hair frizzy.)

Afterwards, I’ll work a leave-in conditioner into my hair from the mid-shaft through the ends with my fingers, comb it through using a wide-toothed comb, and let my hair dry overnight.

Assuming Tabs doesn’t sleep on my head (as he’s wont to do!), that process sets me up with loose waves the next day. In the morning, I’ll take either a large-barrel curling iron or a flat iron to add some loose waves around my face, then spray everything with a beach wave spray.

4. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Hopefully not as tired and sleep-deprived? Just kidding! Kind of… Not really.

Let’s see… Connor will be 12, so I’d like to still be working in the beauty industry in some capacity, hopefully still 1) writing and 2) still able to be home around the time she gets home from school, especially during her middle school years. Hopefully. Because I remember those years being particularly awkward and hard, and even though she’ll probably want nothing to do with Mom, I’d still like her to have that as a safety net if she needs it.

5. One thing inspiring you at the moment?

Dude. This is so my power song right now!

Mid-week holidays

This year July 4th is on Wednesday, and while I’m not one to say no to a national holiday, I think it would’ve been even better if we had the couple days leading up to it off, too, amIright? OK, OK… I might just be looking for another excuse to sleep in. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Here are the questions for you to copy and paste with your answers in a comment:

1. Emoji you use the most?
2. Skeleton prints on clothes — cool or creepy?
3. Walk me through what needs to happen in order for you to have a good hair day?
4. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
5. One thing inspiring you at the moment?

Are you the kind of person who can just stroll right into a hot tub like it ain’t no thang? Because I am not.

My friends Jen and Cindy are. They won’t skip a beat. They’ll just swoop right in, but I swear it takes me like 10 minutes to slowly lower my body into the hot water inch by inch, and even when I’m finally submerged down to sitting level, I remain uncomfortable for at least five minutes.

We actually have a hot tub here in our condo area, and in the almost 10 years I’ve lived here, I’ve only ever used it for my feet! I like to find the strongest jet and use it for an improv foot massage, haha!

Life tip right there, friends. When your tootsies hurt from stomp-walkin’ all day long, track down a hot tub. 😉

There aren’t any hot tubs in my immediate future today, but we are going to the beach, and by “beach” (air quotes), I’m referring to a Northern California beach, which is NOT like California beaches are usually portrayed in the movies. Up here the water isn’t Baywatch blue (more like a murky, suspicious green…), and it’s usually too chilly to comfortably swim in without a wetsuit.

I recently heard about a beach called Heart’s Desire on Tomales Bay, which is about an hour west of here on the Pacific coast, that’s supposed to be really nice, especially for the little ones. It’s a protected bay, and the water’s allegedly warm enough for swimming, and it’s shallow. No tides, waves or sharks.

I like the sound of that!

I wish there were a way for Tabs to come along. As you can imagine, he’s quite a boss beach kitty, but it’s a drive out there, and he doesn’t like cars…unless we’re talking about his custom baby blue Aston Martin.

Now, while I go stuff the beach bag with 12 million bottles of sunscreen, here are some good reads I ran into this week…

• I wear mascara daily. In fact, I probably wear mascara more often than I don’t, so, needlessly to say, I’m a fan.

  Is it just me, or doesn’t it seem like there’s always another new bigger, better mascara hitting the scene? And yet I’ve still not found *the one* mascara to rule them all.

  Hmm…

  I thought this article was pretty cool. It takes you through pretty much the entire process of bringing a new mascara to market, from brainstorming, to development, testing, packaging and marketing.

• OK, has anyone here tried the Frownies Facial Patch? You’ve probably heard about them. They’re these patches that you put on your face that are supposed to smooth wrinkles between your brows and across your forehead.

  (Side note: there’s a famous scene in Sunset Boulevard where the main character, a fading silent film star named Norma Desmond, pulls some Frownies off her forehead.)

  Anyway, they’re an independent family-owned business that’s been around for more than 100 years, and they’ve been run by a long line of women entrepreneurs.

  Cool! Current president Kat Wright says that “Frownies are a non-invasive, non-toxic strategy against wrinkles since they are designed to help rejuvenate facial muscles under the skin.”

• I appreciate anything that promises to make burpees more fun (they truly are the devil’s work), which is why I need (YES, NEED) a pair of these sneakers by Athletic Propulsion Labs, otherwise known as APL. Through the power of science, their shoes will supposedly supercharge your physical abilities by allowing you to jump higher, run faster and stretch further.

  Normally, I’d chalk this up to marketing fancy talk, but it appears to actually work. The shoes have even been banned by the NBA for providing players with an undue competitive advantage.

• People are getting creative with their beauty shoplifting (!), as two ladies in Texas used a stroller to lift more than $1,000 in beauty products at Ulta.
• This beauty shoot featuring the stars of Netflix’s GLOW (Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling!) wearing ’80s-inspired hair and makeup is all sorts of fabulous! (The show’s second season just came out.)

  I’m especially loving Alison Brie’s purple eyes and coral lips. She plays Ruth Wilder, one of the main characters.

  I mean, I’d actually wear that whole getup she’s wearing to go to the library, LOL!

OK, that’s it for now. Time to go fill the cooler for the beach! You have a wonderful weekend, alright?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

OK…so, this blog is called “Makeup and Beauty Blog.” I realize that. It was makeup that brought most of us together, but I’d love to hear about your other hobbies, too. What are your interests? Do you like antiquing? Renaissance fairs? Knitting? Hiking? Stand-up paddle boarding? Something else?

I like to cook and bake. I like gardening, reading, cat wrangling, exercising (well…sometimes it’s a love/hate thing), photography, and I love watching movies. A few years ago I tried knitting for a spell, but it didn’t take…most likely because I’m terrible at it. 🙂 So I quit. I also used to love going to a hip-hop dance class when we lived in Mill Valley, and I would do it again if I could find a studio nearby that I liked (have yet to find one).

Oh! — and if I had more energy and there were more hours in the day, I’d love to learn how to play a new instrument. Either the accordion or cello.

How about you? What are your hobbies (other than makeup)?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen