Just For Fun

Rise and shine, morning glory! How did you sleep? I’m actually sleeping right now, yep, at this very moment. I’m transmitting this post electrochemically from a dream, a trick I’ve developed after years and years of blogging.

What are you up to today? I’m thinking about going out for breakfast, like a real breakfast with bacon, eggs, pancakes, the whole nine yards. That, of course, means braving the cold rain outside, which I’m not looking forward to AT ALL.

While I get my sh*zz together and get ready to go, what did you think about the Giants winning the World Series this week? To be honest, I’m not a big baseball fan (more of a football/basketball kinda girl), but it’s easy to get excited when the home team is doing well and crazed fans are running around screaming “GO GIANTS!” at every turn.

And I saw some interesting Giants-themed makeup this week, a lot of it being worn by those very same crazed fans. I wonder how many people went to work like that. Heck, I wonder how many people actually went to work at all!

The Weekly Roundup: Posts You Might Have Missed

KORRES 10-COLOR
PENCIL KIT

Holy wow! That’s a lot of liners. And they’re full size too!

The pencils in the Korres Limited Edition Vitamin E 10-Color Pencil Kit work out to just $3.25 each ($32.50 for the kit). Of course, all of them are green. 🙁

No, not literally. I mean they’re eco-friendly and 100% natural, according to Korres, made with moisturizing Vitamin E and jojoba oil. And considering that eyeliners this size (standard 0.04 oz. pencils) usually go for $16 apiece, the kit’s one of the best holiday bargains I’ve seen this year so far.

Korres included a wide range of pigmented colors in popular shades from their permanent line… Read more…

NARS TROUBLE MAKER
LIMITED EDITION KIT

I got in trouble today, ladies. Yes, the principal called me into his office and said, “Karen, you are no longer my favorite trouble maker.”

Wha!?

“The new NARS Trouble Maker set is, and you’re just going to have to learn to live with it… You may go back to class now.”

The $60 limited edition kit was designed to help your eyes raise hell. To that end, it comes with a Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base, Larger Than Life Volumizing Mascara, an Eyeliner Stylo and a bottle of Eye Makeup Remover.

I’m happy to hang out with this Trouble Maker. It comes with some really nice pieces, like the eye primer. That one’s the frickin’ bomb dizzle!

The mascara and makeup remover are above average, too, while I think the liquid liner’s just good (not great). In a nutshell, it’s a pretty sweet kit for the money and a good value from NARS. Purchasing the products separately would cost $89 (the Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base alone costs $24), so $60 isn’t too bad.

One could always get the set with stockings in mind, keeping the primer (seriously, it’s amazing!) and the mascara or makeup remover, and giving the remaining items away. Read more…

NARS CRAZY HEART
LIPGLOSS SET

I learned something oddly thrilling today. The new NARS Crazy Heart Set ($50) glosses are sheer enough to apply while walking down the street without a mirror (try it sometime), yet pigmented enough to make an impact on passers by.

This is brilliant news! Now I can devote more precious time and energy to important things, like unraveling the mystery behind Zac Efron’s allure.

The set comes with five sheer shades from the NARS permanent lipgloss line — Easy Lover (a hot pink), Babe (a reddish orange), Orgasm (a shimmery golden pink), Turkish Delight (a creamy light pink) and Misbehave (a cherry red with golden shimmer) — all of them highly wearable, with the exception of Turkish Delight, which looks kinda milky before it mellows into an attractive pale pink.

MAC Nymphette-s might like Orgasm, Nymphette’s sheerer cousin, and ladies who’ve always wanted to wear red lips but were too afraid to try should take a look at Babe. Read more…

BOBBI BROWN
GLITTER LINER

Above is what happens when your home team wins the World Series while you’re swatching Bobbi Brown Glitter Eyeliner in Silver ($20).

Last night was crazy! After the game we could hear loud booms off in the distance that I presumed were revelers detonating cherry bombs, or perhaps the start of that zombie invasion I’m always talking about.

I was ready to go into Apocalypse Mode and head for the hills! Survival kit? Check. El Hub, Tabs, emergency purse and this new Bobbi limited edition liquid liner? Check.

Why the liner? Ya know, because it’s nice to look good in the face of certain doom. Read more…

HOURGLASS EXTREME
SHEEN HOLIDAY SET

I love the blue top I’m wearing in this picture, but I’m not entirely proud of the stretchy black pants I’m wearing with it (too many 100 Grand bars before, during and after Halloween), even though they’re incredibly comfy.

How comfy are they? Well, they’re almost as comfy as the glosses in the new Hourglass Extreme Sheen Kit ($45).

Yes, you read that correctly. The three glosses in the limited edition holiday set are almost as comfortable as stretchy pants. 🙂 And they’re some of the most delightful lip products I’ve ever worn.

The colors in the kit lean toward the warm end the color spectrum, like Ignite, a golden peachy pink; Siren, a shimmery reddish copper; and Child, a pale warm pink. Read more…

BOBBI BROWN
SMOKEY EYE PALETTE

Okay, methinks it’s time to stop scaring the neighbors. With last week’s beehive and that other blast to beauty’s past, I got more than a few sideways glances every time I went outside.

I don’t really know my neighbors very well, but I’m sure they know me — as the crazy lady who walks her cat on a leash while wearing lots of eye makeup and bathrobes. Ha! Gotta love it.

I kept getting that look, you know the one, where they’re afraid to make eye contact, but their glassy, straight-ahead stares betray what they’re really doing, which is watching you from the side with their peripheral vision… I do it a lot at restaurants to see what everyone else is eating, haha.

This morning I decided to give ‘em a break and go back to wearing something a little less shocking in public. Out came the new Bobbi Brown Smokey Eye Palette ($45).

Have you seen it yet? One of three new kits in the just-released Choose Your Glam collection, it comes with four powder eyeshadows perfect for black/gray smokey eyes.

I’ve been chomping at the bit for this one, specifically for the sparkly black Long-Wear Eye Paint in Onyx. Read more…

$5 WET N WILD
COLOR ICON KITS

I wonder how much it costs to mail a letter to the North Pole. I ask because I’d really like to thank Santa for releasing these Wet N Wild Color Icon Kits ($5) for the holidays.

Being just $5 each and coming with six coordinating shadows and a mini-eyeliner, the four kits give new meaning to the words, “travel friendly.”

Well, the liner’s nothing to write home about. I mean, it’s nicely pigmented, but it feels a little rigid against my skin. The shadows, on the other hand — oh, the shadows! Rich, bold and just as buildable as the the company’s fab Color Icon Singles.

Again, these are just $5, WOW!

Of the four kits — Sugar Plum Fairy, Golden Goddess, Snow Sprite and Night Elf — I’ve tested two of them so far. Read more…

L’OREAL HiP EYE
SHADOW DUOS, MIDNIGHT MUSE

As much as I love a good bargain, budget beauty doesn’t always deliver. With some drugstore beauty products, you just don’t know what caliber of quality you’re gonna get.

The HiP Eye Shadow duos we looked at last week from the new L’Oreal Midnight Muse collection showed a lot of promise, and you showed a lot of interest, so I took two of them (Enchantress and Darkwave) out for indoor test drives today.

Now I know why these HiP shadows have so many fans. 🙂

The matte and high-shine shimmer shadows in both duos are easy to blend and exhibit very little fallout. These are top-shelf drugstore beauty products. We’re talking glass case material here, like the kinds of products that deserve their own display at the very front of the beauty aisle. Read more…

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Mouse over the picture for a surprise!

Happy All Hallow’s Eve, ghouls! I hope you’re having a frightfully fantastic day filled with mini-Snickers, candy corn or whatever sweet treat floats your boat.

Ladies, I had such a blast at the Monster Bash on the USS Hornet last night. I wish you could have been there. I’ve never danced on a big ship like that before. I wanted to go as a ’50s sock-hop girl but ended up going as a wannabe member of Run-D.M.C because 1) I couldn’t find my poodle skirt and 2) it was an easier costume to do.

About 1,000 people showed up, most of them adults but also some teens and younger kids. A band called The Cocktail Monkeys played cover songs from the ’60s through today. Lots of fun costumes and a great haunted house, too. I danced beside a storm trooper, a guy with massively large lobster claws and even the infamous Michael Myers!

The ship itself was so cool! It was huge, and the area where they held the party was filled with old helicopters and planes. When El Hub and I weren’t dancing, we checked out different planes and I even got to sit in the cockpit of an old jet. I learned it wasn’t easy to climb in and out of those things in four-inch heels!

Anywho, right now I’m watching Legion again and counting down the hours till The Walking Dead premiere (yay, zombies!).

I had so much fun this week with all the different Halloween themed hair and makeup looks. I hope you had a great week too. 🙂

USS Hornet Monster Bash 2010, Alameda, CA

The Weekly Roundup: Posts You Might Have Missed

BOBBI BROWN
CRYSTAL EYE PALETTE

You know you’re from California when you’re already complaining about the weather after the first rains of the season. You see, I’m a certified weather wimp, and I was over the moon this morning when I looked out the windows and saw blue skies.

Tabs was even happier than I was because it meant he’d be able to go outside again after being cooped up all weekend long, and the first thing we did was go for a nice, long walk.

While he mouth mowed his favorite patch of grass, I gazed up at the sky and thought, “blue…” I know! — I’ll do a blue eye look with maybe a dash of purple to celebrate the day. Right away I knew I wanted to use the Bobbi Brown Crystal Eye Palette from the Holiday 2010 Collection. Read more…

MAKE UP FOR EVER
ROCK FOR EVER PALETTE

Oh, gawd! So I have another bad TV addiction, and they call it Dancing with the Stars. Why they call it that I’ll never know, since said “stars” include third string reality TV-ers like The Situation from MTV’s Jersey Shore and Audrina from The Hills, but I digress…

I was just channel surfing one night a few weeks ago when I randomly stopped to watch. I swear it was like when Britney had her breakdown and shaved her head. I desperately wanted to look away but couldn’t. The show had me by the eyeballs and would not let go!

Maybe it was the sparkly costumes or the pyrotechnic displays (seriously, on stage fire is like the oldest trick in the “you gotta watch this!” book), but now I’m hooked. And who knew that Jennifer Grey would still be such a kick @ss dancer after all these years, or that 6’8″ Rick Fox would have to work on pointing his toes?

Last night’s episode had a rock n’ roll theme, which means flames, a weird appearance by Bret Michels and his blonder than blond weave, and an awkward pasodoble danced by former NFL champ Kurt Warner (El Hub is totally rooting for him!).

None of it really rocked and rolled to me, but the Make Up For Ever Rock For Ever Eye Palette ($45), on the other hand — that’s another story. Now THAT to me is ROCK. N. FRICKIN’. ROLL! Read more…

KORRES LIP
BUTTER GLAZE

Blue skies may have been smiling at me yesterday, but my face of the day left me with lips like the Sahara. My kisser needed TLC today, and Korres Lip Butter Glaze ($14; available in five shades) came to my rescue.

The mad moisturizing, non-sticky formula is surprisingly thin and lightweight, but Korres still found room inside it for a subtle vanilla fragrance, which I like (it is unflavored, though). I put Pomegranate (a pinkish coral) on this morning, and by mid-day my lips already felt and looked a lot better.

Both of the colors I’ve tried, Pomegranate and bright red Wild Rose, could almost pass for Jello from afar (peach and fruit punch, respectively!). They create a semi-transparent, shiny layer of goodness on my lips. Read more…

L’OREAL MIDNIGHT
MUSE HiP STUDIO DUOS

It’s not like I needed another reason to swing by the drugstore, aka my home away from home, but these limited edition $8 L’Oreal HiP Studio Secrets Professional Shadow Duos gave me one anyway.

Here are four of the six HiP (High Intensity Pigments) Studio Secrets from the Midnight Muse collection that arrived on counters in September.

I love their names…Moon Goddess, Luna Noir, Enchantress and Dark Wave. Don’t they sound like a coven of witches (BOO!)? Most of these are highly pigmented (hello, Enchantress!). Moon Goddess, however, looks quite sheer.

Not bad for less than $10 for two shadows, yah? Read more…

DARK CIRCLES HATE
THIS POWERFUL COMBO

OOH, GURL, that’s the new MAC Pro Longwear Concealer ($16.50)/Smashbox Photo Op Under Eye Brightener ($18) combo (Longwear applied on top of Photo Op).

I don’t remember what prompted me to try the two of them together, but let me tell you — they’re frickin’ rad, especially when my dark circles look extra dark and purplish.

First, I blend in a few dots of Photo Op (a golden peach liquid with a hint of shimmer) under each eye to prime them for concealer. I’ll give them about a minute to dry and follow up with MAC Pro Longwear Concealer patted and blended right on top.

I’m normally an NC 35 in MAC foundation, but I’ve been using Longwear Concealer in NW 30 because I think its peachier tones do a better job on my dark circles. Read more…

BIG SEXY HAIR
SPRITZ & STAY

Need big hair in a hurry (heck, you never know)? Big Sexy Hair to the rescue!

Get long-lasting shine and touchable hold in a heartbeat (or so the company claims) with new Spritz & Stay ($15) non-aerosol hairspray. It’s formulated with “fast-dry technology” to (you guessed it) dry f a s t .

I needed help locking down the volume of my Snooki poof yesterday, and Big Sexy did the deed.

I can’t tell if it dries any quicker than other styling products, but I like the hold. It certainly kept my poof nice and high! 🙂

With hold like this, my hair isn’t exactly blowing in the wind — which reminds me, I love the fruit punch scent — but it doesn’t feel crunchy or cemented in place, either. Read more…

RUSK W8LESS HAIR DRYER
FLAT IRON COMBO KIT

Do you remember The Far Side comics by Gary Larson? Some of them must have been based on my life, like this one to the right for the Midvale School for the Gifted.

It’s true. I’m like a female version of that kid. “Stupid door! Must. Push. Harder! Gah!”

As a matter of fact, I had a Midvale moment last night with the packaging for the Rusk W8LESS The Power of Light kit ($166).

The kit comes with two limited edition pink products, the Rusk W8LESS Hairdryer and Flat Iron, released for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and, no joke, the box took me at least 10 minutes to open (a Rubik’s Cube would have been easier to solve!). Read more…

LUSH GORILLA
PERFUMES

I’ve been trying to get behind the new Lush Gorilla fragrances mostly because I love, LOVE the packaging.

But there’s one thing I don’t get…

What’s up with the gorilla?

Well, not this particular one here. I mean the use of Gorilla in the name. I just don’t get the reference. None of them smell like gorilla, or how I imagine a gorilla would smell, and the sleek black packaging just doesn’t scream great ape to me.

I’ve sniffed five of the six scents, each of them available in spray and solid stick form — Imogen Rose, Lust, Orange Blossom, The Smell of Freedom and Tuca Tuca — and with the exception of Orange Blossom, which smells like the jasmine plant in my front yard (DIVINE!), I’m not in love. Read more…

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen