Just For Fun

I got my hair done last Sunday by my friend Alis, and we chatted about all kinds of interesting things, like “gifts from the universe,” while she did my roots and touched up my highlights.

You know how the universe sometimes floats these beautiful and unexpected gifts your way? — whether they be deeply discounted couches from Pottery Barn or random advice from strangers? Well, I recently got a gem of parenting advice from the guy who delivered our new washer last week.

I wish I knew his name… I don’t think he introduced himself.

Anyway, let’s call him Elvis, because he kind of looked like an Elvis.

Elvis was super nice, and I knew he’d be cool when Connor called out a sing-songy “Hiiiii!” when he first walked through the door, because Elvis said, “Hiiiiiii!” right back. And then he continued to answer “hi” every time Connor said it, which must’ve happened about 20 more times during the half hour Elvis was here.

While Elvis was setting up the washer, we made small talk. He asked how many kids I have, and I answered, “Two, if you count my cat.” 🙂 HAHA! You know Tabs totally counts. He’ll be Connor’s kuya, which is the word for “older brother” in Tagalog, always and forever.

I asked Elvis how many kids he has, and he said eight. EIGHT! (My response: “DUDE! You’ve been busy!”). His youngest kids are nine-year-old twins, and his oldest is 25.

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Oh! I wish I never fell in love with Tom Ford Radiant Moisture Souffle! It’s $98 for a 1.7-oz. jar, which is relatively tame on the grand scale of Tom Ford prices (his Intensive Infusion Ultra Rich Moisturizer is $253 for a 1-oz. jar), but still, it’s CRAY.

I think it came out with the Summer 2016 collection, but Connor was an infant at the time, and I was overwhelmed and outta my mind…so even though I knew it was something special and loved the hell out of it, I stuck it on a shelf for months.

The more I use it, the more I realize that I need to be conservative about it and parse it out, because it’s hard to find. The only place I’m seeing it in stock now is Saks.

Basically, it’s THE BEST pre-makeup face cream for dry skin that I’ve ever found. It moisturizes, gives a soft pearly glow and smooths pores, so it does a bit of everything I like in a pre-makeup face cream, and it doesn’t feel like a heavy silicone face blanket. Everything I ever try to layer on top of it — foundation, tinted moisturizer, powder, blush, whatever — looks SO MUCH SMOOTHER.

Also, in my dream world, someone will have already made a $30 knockoff, because, I mean, if MAC can basically dupe Tom Ford’s heavenly brow pencil, there has to be somebody out there who could do that for this cream. I’m just sayin’… Keeping my fingers crossed! 🙂

What’s a pricey product you wish you never fell in love with?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. FIRE UPDATE: The situation is still fluid. Between 10-15 miles north of us is still in the cat’s maw. It’s very bad up there, and thousands of people are being evacuated every hour. San Rafael, which is the neighboring town to Novato, had the worst air quality in the nation yesterday because of the smoke from the nearby fires. It’s like fog all day long here, except that the fog is smoke. There are more than a dozen wildfires burning across Sonoma and Napa Counties, all over the small hills and towns around Wine Country, with very few of them contained, and a lot depends now on the weather. The forecast is saying that the winds are going to pick up again tonight, which makes the fires harder to contain in these dry hills and open space… We’re just hoping for the best.

Hey, so I bought a couch. It only took five or six 15 years.

I feel like I’ve been talking about wanting a new couch for an inordinate amount of time (I guess I have furniture commitment issues), but I finally went there, and it arrived last Saturday.

I know it’s just a thing, but that thing is gloriously comfortable. The second the delivery dudes peace’d out, I plunked down on it for five minutes, but those five minutes spiraled into six hours and a full season of Girls.

Sh*t, man, that couch is comfortable.

It’s the PB Comfort Slipcovered 3-piece L-shaped sectional with English arms from Pottery Barn, and apparently those English arms are a THING. I didn’t know they were a thing until I ordered the couch two months ago, and speaking of the ordering, there’s a whole story to that, but first, what are English arms?

Well, in case you’re as equally home decor-challenged as I am, English arms are slightly curved, and I guess they have a more traditional vibe than square arms… Who knew?!

It took took me a long time to realize that what I wanted was a slipcovered couch, but that’s not the main reason I bought it. I bought it because the price was crazy reduced.

It was during a sale about two months ago, and I don’t know if this particular fabric, Sunbrella Performance Herringbone in Tweed Gray, was being discontinued, or if there was some kind of inventory error, but for some reason this particular style was only $795, while it’s listed on the Pottery Barn website right now for $5,945 (!).

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So…what is the Monday Poll?

Well, it isn’t exactly a poll. It’s more of a constantly evolving (devolving?), somewhat random list of questions I’ve been putting out to readers every Monday morning for the past 10 (!) years. (It’s like a kickstart for your brain.) I’ve always enjoyed reading your answers in the comments, and I hope you enjoy reading mine.

1. What did you eat for breakfast this morning?

Two frozen waffles with creamy peanut butter (NOT crunchy) and raisins on top.

I haven’t had it in months, but I ate it ALL THE TIME when I was pregnant with Connor. I got an extreme craving for it the other day, so I think I’m back on the frozen waffles train again.

2. Your favorite children’s television show back in the day?

Honestly, are you gonna make me pick just one?? Because that’s cruel. 🙂 Television was the unpaid babysitter of my childhood years. We watched A LOT of TV. Limited screen time was not a thing in my family.

That said, I really loved The Electric Company. And Mr. Wizard’s World. And Jem. And The Smurfs and Voltron.

3. What’s the first word that comes to mind right now.

Guacamole!

4. Who was the first person you ever had a crush on?

A kid named Brian in my first grade class. I even wrote down “I love Brian” on my bed sheet because I was soooo into him. LOL! My mom found it and couldn’t read my writing, so she kept hounding me. “Who is this boy? What’s his name?” And I just got freaked out and didn’t tell her. So she and my dad did detective work! They put on their detective caps and went through the list of kids in my first grade class, looking for all of the little boys whose names started with a “B.” Eventually, they came upon a boy named Brandon, and then they were like, “Do you like Brandon? Do you have a crush on Brandon?” kinda teasing me — you know how parents do sometimes — and I, being super sensitive and all, didn’t know how to say, “Please stop teasing me. I don’t like it.” I just wanted to hide in my room and cry, because I was embarrassed and confused about my feelings for Brian, so I said, “Yes.”

And to this day they still think I liked some dude named Brandon.

5. What’s worse — losing your makeup bag on a trip, or losing your luggage?

Both would be fairly terrible, but losing my luggage would be waaaaay worse…because I can pretty much restock a makeup bag from scratch with my eyes closed.

Happy Monday

Good morning, friend! I’m glad you could stop by this morning. I hope all is going well. It’s nice to see you. 🙂

Oh, guess who finally got a new couch!!!!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

I’ve got a very exciting block of time etched out today to clean the bucket of dirty brushes that have been sitting on my shelf haunting me.

I know! Bad makeup lover. BAD! I’ve been putting it off for soooooo long though. I just need to park my butt in my bathroom with some Dr. Bronner’s soap, crank up the music, and get it done (thanks, Tennyoceres, for the reminder about using baby wipes to do quick cleans, which I’ve been doing for about two weeks now?). I know that once those brushes are all clean and organized, the stars will align, and everything in my life will fall back into place again…

Or not. But whatever. It’s a place to start, right? And sometimes it’s the simple, frivolous things that help keep us going.

Speaking of washing things, our washer broke earlier this week. Yeah, it started making this really terrible noise, like a giant was having a disco party rave in there. You may or may not know this about kids, but they are filthy beasts, and Connor has been going through this phase where she’s really curious about what’s in her diaper.

I don’t need to get into it, but all I have to say is that I’ve touched poo many times lately.

We ended up getting a new machine yesterday because it was going to cost almost as much to get the old one fixed, but now I’m back in the laundry business! So minor huzzah! Yay! 🙂

Other than catching up on laundry, I also want to spend some time today with a new foundation by Sahi Cosmetics.

Just look at that packaging…

They look like perfume bottles, don’t they? If I saw this sitting on someone’s bathroom counter I would totally think it was a Victoria’s Secret perfume. And I’d try to smell it, haha. Because, yes, I’m that nosy person who smells your fragrances when I use your lavatory. GUILTY AS CHARGED. 🙂

Sahi caters to people with medium skin tones, kinda like Stellar, a brand that launched earlier this year.

I’ve also got a date with MAC Bronze shadow, which I used to wear all the time but sort of forgot about for a while. It’s a beautiful shimmery golden bronze in the permanent collection, and I rediscovered it recently.

If you don’t have it already, Bronze is quite warm. I used to pair it with Powersurge on my lash lines all the time. I don’t think I ever tried it with Costa Riche, though, so I might do that today after a little reading (because reading is fundamental).

On that note, here are some beauty articles that caught my eye this week…

• I never knew Sally Hansen — as in Sally Hansen from THE nail product line — was, ya know, a real person. She ran a booming beauty business in Hollywood, served as the first female chair of the California Cosmetics Association, and married eight times (!).
• 7 terrifying beauty practices from history
• How Nura Afia went from watching YouTube makeup videos while caring for her daughter to becoming CoverGirl’s first Muslim-America brand ambassador
• Japanese brand Muji, known for their organizational products, also has a skin care line. Who knew? Apparently, it’s pretty good, too, and has a vibrant cult following.
• The 411 on Jordan Samuel Skin Care.
• Drybar founder Alli Webb on growing a big beauty business
• What’s the story behind the phrase, “eyebrow on fleek”?
• Guerlain visits the Land o’ Liquid Matte Lipsticks.
• Now it seems like everyone in the foundation biz is trying to catch up with Fenty Beauty.
• Claudia Schiffer has a makeup line!
• Sooo, apparently, whole-body cryotherapy is a thing.

Question for you: what’s the longest you’ve gone without cleaning your makeup brushes? C’mon, give it to me. I can take it! It’s been about 10 weeks for me, not kidding, and that’s the longest I’ve gone in years.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

So…what is the Monday Poll?

Well, it isn’t exactly a poll. It’s more of a constantly evolving (devolving?), somewhat random list of questions I’ve been putting out to readers every Monday morning for the past 10 (!) years. (It’s like a kickstart for your brain.) I’ve always enjoyed reading your answers in the comments, and I hope you enjoy reading mine.

Just waking up this morning… I was still in bed when El Hub whispered to me on his way to work about the shooting in Las Vegas. We stayed in that same hotel a few years ago for Photoshop World… I remember tubing down the hotel’s lazy river.

I have no words for the sadness and what it must have been like for the people who were there last night. 🙁 No words. I’m so sorry.

I wrote today’s Monday Poll last night… I don’t think I would have felt up for it had I tried to write it this morning, and if you don’t feel like answering the questions and would rather talk about something else, I understand.

1. Which ’90s super model are you? — Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer, Kate Moss, Linda Evangelista, Stephanie Seymore, Christy Turlington or Tyra Banks?

I deeply, deeply want to be Naomi Campbell because she’s a phone-throwing diva and nobody messes with her…but I’m probably closer to Christy Turlington? I dunno… She always seemed like she was pretty normal, or as normal as you can be while being preternaturally gorgeous and famous.

2. Doughnuts or doughnut holes?

GIRL. Forget the doughnut holes. I don’t want any of that nonsense. Gimme a doughnut, please. The doughnut holes are just more effort. You gotta keep picking them up, putting them in your mouth… With the regular doughnut, on the other hand, you get all that fried goodness in a single handful. To me, that is VERY appealing.

3. Where do you usually get your nails done?

Casa de Karen!

Once or twice a year I’ll go to a nail shop called NJ Nails in the shopping center by my house, but the only services I’ve gotten there are basic manicures and pedicures, so I don’t know what it’s like to get gels or acrylics there.

I’ve had good experiences the few times I’ve gone. The place is clean, they’re always busy, and they’re pretty affordable.

4. A beauty product you recently tried but wouldn’t recommend to a friend?

Oh, speaking nails! I bought a bottle of this topcoat by OPI called Rapidry at Nordstrom Rack, and ugh — it was so not good. It was thick, goopy and took forever to dry, and THEN my nail polish chipped within a day!

I usually love OPI, but this particular top coat wasn’t my fave.

5. What was the last social event you attended?

For someone who doesn’t get out much these days, I’ve been to two social events over the last week. TWO. That’s a lot for me lately.

I went to a SoulCycle group spin class hosted by Sweat Cosmetics on Saturday and a mixer with a mom’s group here in town a few days before that.

Here are the questions to copy and paste

1. Which ’90s super model are you? — Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer, Kate Moss, Linda Evangelista, Stephanie Seymore, Christy Turlington or Tyra Banks?
2. Doughnuts or doughnut holes?
3. Where do you usually get your nails done?
4. A beauty product you recently tried but wouldn’t recommend to a friend?
5. What was the last social event you attended?

Hello, Monday

Hi, friend. I hope you had a nice weekend. About that SoulCycle event on Saturday with Sweat Cosmetics (I’ve talked about them before. You can find them at Sephora now.), they do mineral makeup for gals who like to wear a little something-something when they work out. The brand was founded by a group of professional athletes, including a few Olympic soccer players…so I got to spin at SoulCycle with Olympians (!). It was kind of surreal, and not a bad way to spend a Saturday morning.

The event was at SoulCycle in Los Gatos, which is about 90 minutes south of Novato. After I got my sweat on, they handed out these sweet swag bags with their Illuminator, a pair of running socks from Lululemon (which I totally needed, yay!), and some yummy healthful snacks I promptly ate on my drive home.

The best thing was this juice from Juice Co LG, a shop right across the street from the studio.

I usually prefer to make smoothies and juices at home (more cost effective, and I can be picky about what goes into my drink), and it’s rare when I go out and buy a juice, but this was such a nice treat. It had watermelon, strawberries, lime, chia seeds… MMM! Very good and refreshing.

Anyway, I had fun, and I learned some new things about some Sweat Cosmetics products. Apparently, they have this transparent loose powder with broad-spectrum SPF 30 that comes with the same travel twist brush applicator that their loose powder foundations, bronzer and illuminator have, and you can easily use it on kids — like during sporting events, or any time you’re out in the sun — and lazy hubbies (or wives) who are usually too lazy to put on liquid sunscreens. But it’s easy with the brush.

I use their loose powder in 300 with my weekend makeup. When I’m running errands, I dust a little on my face, curl my lashes, and apply a coat of MAC In Extra Dimension Waterproof Mascara, fill in my brows with MAC Brow Sculpt Pencil, and slick on some lip balm.

Anyway, check ’em out if you haven’t already. The brand is relatively new, and they’re here in the Bay Area, which I think is awesome.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen