Just For Fun

Hi, babe. Happy first of July.

Yup, you read that correctly. It’s July! Summer is chugging right along. Here in the US, this is our Independence Day holiday weekend. If you have a four-day weekend, lucky you! I hope you get to sleep in.

So, after I got home from dinner last night, which was fun, I watched an episode of American Nina Warrior, and for a brief moment, between bites of a chocolate chip cookie and sips of pink lemonade (which sounds like a weird combo but totally works), I thought, “I could do that.”

Then, I came back to reality, LOL!

Have you ever watched that show? It’s addictive but kind of stressful to watch, especially late at night, because you start to really pull for the competitors.

Right now I’m about to catch on some reading. El Hub got an issue of Popular Science, which I started reading last week and want to finally finish (this one’s all about climate change), and I’m also going to finish a few chapters of The Wolf Road, the young adult novel I’ve been chipping away at for the past month.

If you happen to be looking for something to read, I got ‘chu, girl! 🙂

• Can someone please give the FDA more money? Because they’re getting complaints about beauty side effects.
• The writer behind Netflix’s awesome GLOW (the show about women’s wrestling) tells you exactly how she got her job.
• When you start reading about urine therapy as a treatment for pimples and you just can’t look away…
• I’ve been following luxury perfumer Frederic Malle for a while now, and ever since I read this quote from him, I’ve loved him that much more: “I was at Chateau Marmont yesterday in the elevator and there was this girl preparing for a party, and I was really sad for her because she smelled like a Duty Free.”

  Perfumers. They throw shade, too.

• Big hair. Let’s go there! Maybe this list of the best and worst luxury and drugstore volume shampoos will help us get there?
• For all my red lip lovers: I think you’ll love this Urban Decay Red Lipstick Guide.
• Aaaaand MOAR reds! Because summery MAC reds are always a good thing.
• Now that it’s summer, gimme all the schemxy summer body oils, please.
• Taylor’s such a babe! I love her makeup aesthetic. Here are some of her picks for natural, luminous beauty.
• Rae has the 411 on Make Up For Ever’s new Ultra HD Lip Booster.
• In case you’ve been totally baffled by it, here is the Unicorn craze, explained.

I hope your Saturday Cinderella chores go by in a flash so that you can promptly get on to the important business of enjoying your weekend. 🙂 Have a great one, my friend!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

I saw this pic of a girl wearing golden glittery eyebrows in June’s Allure magazine and thought, hmm… Even though I probably wouldn’t spontaneously wear glittery brows in public if left to my own devices, unless it were for Halloween, or unless I was, like, going to a RuPaul-themed party, if I absolutely *had* to wear them, I’d go with something colorful.

I could go with a color close to my natural brows, but that would just be lame, IMO. Might as well go all the way! I’m thinking a teal or purple? Or one teal brow and one purple?

Hmm… What color would you choose?

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.?

1. Are you a cool girl?

Most certainly not!

2. What’s the most you’ve ever spent on a hair styling tool?

I threw down 200 bucks on a T3 back in the day. It was around the time they first came out, and I was blow-drying my hair almost daily at the time. That thing dramatically cut down on the time I spent in the bathroom.

It’s been about a decade since I bought it, and it’s still going strong. It was a good value.

3. How well do you think you could pull off red hair?

Pretty well, I think! I did bright Kool-Aid red streaks a few times years ago, and it was fun. It was hard to keep up with, though, because the color basically wanted to drain outta my hair every time I washed it.

4. You have a pimple on your face. Do you pop it or leave it alone?

I leave it alone as long as I can. Then, when it’s ripe, I secretly pop it in the bathroom in the middle of the night…

5. If you had to choose someone to cut your hair in complete darkness, who would you choose?

My friend Alis, of course. It would be terrifying, but if anyone could pull it off, it would be her.

6. Would you rather be on The Bachelor or in The Hunger Games?

Sh*t. I think I’d have a better chance of surviving The Hunger Games, to be honest.

7. It’s 1997. What’s in your little black backpack?

My UC Davis student ID (which also doubled as my bus pass), the keys to the apartment I shared with roommates who I never talked to again after graduation, a bottle of Estée Lauder Pleasures perfume, a tube of MAC Paramount Lipstick, my CD player (complete with Missy Elliott CD), my wallet (which probably had paycheck stubs from the three jobs I held simultaneously at the time — foreign language teaching assistant, on-campus receptionist, human guinea pig for psychology experiments) and a mint green Sakura Gelly Roll Pen.

You know what my mantra has been lately? For every problem, there’s always a solution. Remember that you can handle whatever comes your way!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Here are the questions to copy/paste.

1. Are you a cool girl?
2. What’s the most you’ve spent on a hair styling tool?
3. How well do you think you could pull off red hair?
4. You have a pimple on your face. Do you pop it or leave it alone?
5. If you had to choose someone to cut your hair in complete darkness, who would you choose?
6. Would you rather be on The Bachelor or in The Hunger Games?
7. It’s 1997. What’s in your little black backpack?

Hey, friend! Rise and shine, morning glory. I’m excited because I don’t have any big house-related chores to do today.

I mean, there are things I could do around the house, and things I probably should do around the house…but I’m not going to do them today, haha! 🙂

All I have to do is help a friend with something this afternoon, but outside of that, I plan to veg and play.

One thing I want to do this weekend is peruse the MAC lipstick permanent line. There are still so many MAC permanent lip products I’ve never tried before, so if you have any MAC permanent lipstick loves you think I should try, let me know.

Speaking of permanent products…I was chatting with my friend Steph the other day about the whole “limited edition chase.” It’s fun sometimes, isn’t it? Trying to track down LE items before they disappear? But at a certain point, I get tired of the effort it takes. Sometimes I just want to walk up to a counter and get a replacement for something I like when I run out. No muss, no fuss.

That’s one of my favorite things about lipstick — how easy it is to change your mind. I love how noncommittal it is. It’s not like getting locked into a relationship with a new foundation or mascara, which for me are kind of like buying a couch! Your foundation covers so much of your face, and when it comes to mascara, you know, you only have one set of lashes. There’s some risk involved there.

I feel like foundation and mascara are the big ticket items, but lipstick is more like a seasonal throw pillow…

OK! I think that’s enough crazy talk for today. Seriously, though, if you have any MAC perm lipsticks recommendations, please send them my way.

Now for some light reading…

• I had a feeling (and a fear) this would eventually happen: Hourglass is getting sold. Shocker! And the buyer isn’t Estée Lauder.
• How much time do the people in your neck of the woods spend grooming?
• Anna Sui’s summer makeup collection takes you under the sea.
• What it’s like to be a small beauty brand in Sephora.
• Jouer has some beautiful new high-pigment glosses.
• Are you a fan of any of these cult-fave beauty products?
• I mean, if Connor asked for a Ken doll with a man bun, I guess I’d say yes?!
• 25 successful women talk about how to be productive.
• Kenya is promising free sanitary napkins to help keep girls in school.
• Holy crap, this is kinda scary! If you have a whipped cream dispenser in your home, be careful.
• What’s driving the billion-dollar (!) natural beauty movement?
• Get your glow on with Charlotte Tilbury’s #GLOWMO collection.
• Would you do this? Now there’s a Drybar-like store for makeup application, where you pop in and pay between $35-60 to get your face beat.

Talk to you later, and psssst! — try to take a nap today. For reals, it does a body good. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen