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Retro Roundup: One Year Ago on Makeup and Beauty Blog

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A year ago on Makeup and Beauty Blog

I’m so relieved it’s Friday, girls… Even though the time flew by, it still felt like a long week.

Do ya have any plans for the weekend? We might go see Public Enemies tonight. Yea! Popcorn, C. Bale and Johnny Depp … oh, yeah, and El Hub, too! 🙂

I was feeling a little nostalgic this morning (and sleepy), so I looked through the archives to see what we were talking about this time last year. TGIF!

Speaking of C. Bale, it just occurred to me that I haven’t seen either of his last two movies, Terminator: Salvation or now Public Enemies. WTF?

  • Tuesday Beauty Tips: Be Good to Yourself
    “Wear a new fragrance on an important day in your life, like your wedding or graduation. Strong emotions will reinforce a connection with that fragrance so that years later, just the slightest whiff will bring those old memories back to life.”

  • How to Attend a Free Chanel Master Makeup Class
    “These courses are more than simply an opportunity to learn (not that there’s anything wrong with learning); you also get to play with soooo much Chanel. The entire Chanel makeup line is at your disposal to test, touch and drool over. HOLLA!”

  • Makeup Tutorial: A Peach, Brown and Green Eye for Summer
    “If you’re trying to fight the good fight against dark circles, then clean up excess eyeshadow with a MAC Wipe before applying MAC Select Moisturecover concealer with a MAC 194 brush.”

  • Loving on MAC Love Connection Mineralize Eye Shadow Duo
    “MAC’s Love Connection Mineralize Eye Shadow Duo ($14) makes me nostalgic for the olden days (um, like 2003), when one pan of eye shadow, a primer, eyeliner (if I was feeling adventurous) and some mascara gave my eye makeup itch all the scratch it needed. Ahh, take me back!”

  • Clean and Clear Advantage Acne Spot Treatment: Declare Your Independence from Acne
    “Pimples just hate this stuff. Usually, right after (*ahem*) ‘Aunt Flo’ pays a visit, tiny pimples erupt on my forehead and remain there for about two weeks. This time around, my forehead still broke out, but it was much clearer within four days of using the spot treatment; by the end of a week, my forehead was smooth and zit-free.”

  • MAC Cosmetics Mineralize Eyeshadow Face of the Day
    “I paired my new hair with this very quick face of the day using an old MAC Cosmetics Mineralize eyeshadow duo called Silversmith. Starting with MAC Paint in Shimma on my lid and into the crease, I then dusted a layer of the light blue from Silversmith on top.”

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

How Do You Choose Complementary Eyeshadow Colors?

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Think back to when you first started wearing eyeshadow. I don’t know about you, but I remember being *hella* confused. I’d approach makeup counters totally overwhelmed, never knowing which colors to wear or which colors to pair.

Janice, a newbie to the eyeshadow world, is looking for beginner eyeshadow color pairing tips.

I love make up, but I have NO IDEA how to apply it… especially shadows!

How do you choose colors that compliment each other? Like the shadows that don’t come packaged together, can you look at them and see which ones will work together? Is there a rule of thumb?

I usually buy whatever the salesladies tell me goes together, but I’d like to do it on my own.

Janice

Hi Janice,

Some makeup books will tell you to follow steadfast color rules, but honestly, I think those rules were meant to be broken. I wear what moves me, and that’s what I hope you’ll do, too. 🙂

There are some considerations that may help when you’re looking for colors to pair together, like how cool or warm colors may work with your skin tone, different textures (like matte versus shimmer) and how products differ in how much pigmentation they pack.

Boiling it down to a few basics, here are some tips to help get you on your way:

1. A good place to start is to pair a neutral, like a shimmery beige, with a single pop of color. Benefit Bikini Line (a shimmery beige), MAC Ricepaper (a shimmery peachy beige) and MAC Shroom (a shimmery beige) are ones I like to use together. Try using them with a blue, green, gold, purple, pink, black, gray or any other color that moves you. Experimentation is key.

2. Afraid of brights? Consider building your look around versatile browns. When I started wearing eyeshadow, I only felt comfortable in neutrals. I found a few great browns and then built up my collection from there (check out this video for a few brown eyeshadow suggestions). If you’re color shy, try pairing browns with beige, gold, bronze, peach or taupe shadows. Any of these shades will be easy to blend and are very beginner friendly. A few to look into: Benefit Velvet Eyeshadow in Dandy Brandy (a shimmery bronzy brown), MAC Arena (a shimmery peach), MAC Woodwinked (a shimmery gold), MAC Amber Lights (a shimmery peachy brown) and MAC Satin Taupe (a shimmery taupe).

3. If you’re ready for more complicated color pairings, look at some pictures of flowers, or go for a walk outside. Once, a cream-colored white rose bush inspired me to do a beige, gold, dark green and chocolate brown eye. Another time I took a cue from a bird of paradise flower and tried an orange, purple and green eye with a hint of yellow. Mother Nature is a fantastic painter and a great source of inspiration for me.

Gals, think back to your early days with makeup. How’d you choose colors to pair together, and how do you do it now?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. I almost forgot! Take a look at Adobe Kuler. It’s a site literally bursting with color palette suggestions. Photographers and graphic designers use it for color inspiration. Great site!

Bloggerati Spotlight

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The Beauty Bloggerati

Is it Thursday already?

How’s it going, girls? Do anything fun last night? After dance class I watched some slightly more proficient (LOL! — slightly) dancers do their thang on So You Think You Can Dance. Did you watch? I think Ade and Melissa have the best chemistry together, but Jeanine might be my favorite dancer overall.

I’d cheer that we’re almost to Friday… but at the rate time’s passing, it’ll be Christmas soon!

Have a great morning.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. I saw on Pursebuzz this morning a report that UK newcomer Illamasqua will soon be carried at Sephora stores in the US! Details are still sparse, but that’s good news if you’re a fan of the line. 🙂

Comment to Win Tarte’s Purse Your Lips Lipgloss Clutch

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The giveaway is now closed, everyone, and I’m contacting the winner by email. Good luck!

tarte-purse-your-lips-giveaway

Ladies, I *loves* me some sassy purses. Oh, yeah, I’m a fiend for clutches, handbags and totes. Designer or budget — I don’t care. All that matters is “Are they cute?”

Sadly, makeup is often a casualty of my accessories addiction… Sometimes I’ll forget to remove something when I change purses and will find random tubes of lip gloss in bags I haven’t worn in months.

The other day I found a long lost tube of Chanel Glossimer in Myriade (awesome!) sitting at the bottom of a yellow canvas bag.

Poor thing… She’d been missing since March, but finding her was quite a thrill, like finding random money inside a jacket pocket.

Speaking of thrills, wouldn’t it be awesome if every purse carried hidden lip gloss treasures?

The folks at Tarte are trying to make that dream a reality with their Purse Your Lips Lipgloss Clutch.

I’m thinking it’s time for a giveaway… 🙂

The prize

tarte-purse-your-lips-giveaway-2

One lucky lady will win, giving the nine lip glosses and their accompanying gold and purple handbag a good home (a $40 value).

  1. a shimmery nude
  2. a shimmery peachy nude
  3. a shimmery golden plum
  4. a shimmery brown
  5. a shimmery deep mauve
  6. a shimmery deep cranberry
  7. a shimmery crimson
  8. a shimmery sheer pink
  9. a shimmery bubblegum pink

The glosses contain five active “superfruits” (goji, acai, maracuja, acerola and pomegranate) that Tarte claims deliver refining, anti-aging and skin-restorative benefits with each application.

For more on Tarte, check out these past posts…

How to enter…

Entering is easier than falling in love with a Kate Spade purse. All you have to do is leave a comment describing your favorite bag. 🙂

Mine’s a toss-up between this Kate Spade Classic Noel Henry Purse and my black nylon messenger bag from Old Navy.

I love the Kate bag because it’s bigger than it looks and fits all of my crap (plus it goes with everything), but I always come back to the Old Navy. It’s black nylon and practically indestructible.

Both bags hold special places in my accessories-lurvin’ heart…

I’ll pick the winner at random from among the people who enter by 11:59PM PST Thursday night.

Good luck! 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

The giveaway is now closed, everyone, and I’m contacting the winner by email. Good luck!

How Often Do You Wear Lip Liner?

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lip-liner-poll

There are some makeup products I wear almost every day — like concealer and mascara. Lip liner, however, has never fallen into my can’t-live-without-it camp.

I will go through liner phases in which I’m infatuated with it for a time and layering it beneath all of my glosses and lipsticks. And sometimes — like a mad makeup scientist! — I’ll even mix and match tinted liners to create a completely unique and original shade.

My current favorite liners are the MAC Cremesticks ($15) in Pink Treat (a creamy pink), Summerfruit (a creamy coral) and Honey B. (a creamy, brownish pink).

mac-cremestick-liner-swatches
From left to right: Pink Treat, Summerfruit, Honey B.

They feel like they’re gliding on my lips, never skipping or tugging at the skin, and deliver top-notch hydration, too.

I’m in the middle of one of my pro-lip liner phases at the moment, which I probably owe to the Cremesticks, and I’ve been wearing liner way more often than usual (most days).

How often do you wear lip liner?

View Results

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Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Bloggerati Spotlight

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The Beauty Bloggerati

How was your Monday? Anything cool or exciting happen?

The best part of my Monday was going to dance class last night. I dropped it like it’s hot… but now I can’t remember where I left it. 🙂

Onward to Tuesday!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

How to Clean a Dirty Pan of Cream Blush

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My pan of MAC Cream Colour Base in Pearl is straight up NASTY!

What I mean is it’s filled with random bits of dust, glitter, powder and lint.

Ewww…

I’m usually pretty good about taking care of my makeup, but cream products attract dirt like Mariah attracts crazy (still lovin’ ya, Mimi!).

Reader Julia recently e-mailed to ask if there was anything she could do to restore her dirrrrty cream blushes to their original luster.

I have a couple of cream blushes (and by “a couple” I mean five) and own a MAC brush for application, which I try to clean regularly, but the surfaces of my blushes sometimes seem a little grimy. How do I clean the surfaces of my cream blushes? Kleenex? Makeup brush wipes?

Thanks for your help.
Julia

What’s up, Julia!

Dirty can be good, but not when it comes to cream blushes. 🙂

detective-stabler-oh-hai-final

They’re like little gunk magnets, picking up bits and pieces of other products from brushes and other pans.

Fortunately, cleaning them doesn’t take a lot of effort, time or money. Here’s a trick I learned from a MAC artist to get grimy cream products back to almost new.

Clean that cream!

  1. Start with a clean makeup wedge sponge (sold in bags at many drugstores, Sephora or Ulta for about $2/bag).
  2. With light, soft strokes, gently run one edge of the sponge across the pan to pick up any bits of dirt, glitter or gunk. Try to keep your strokes going in the same direction, either left to right, right to left, etc. That seems to reduce the amount of junk that just gets redistributed back into the pan. Also, try to use a light touch. Pressing too hard will dig into the pan, picking up a lot of the cream product itself.
  3. If any product migrates over the edges of the pan, use a different edge (a clean one) of the same sponge to wipe up the mess. That’s it. Presto, change-o! One cream blush, almost as good as new. 🙂

I use this technique on different kinds of cream products, like MAC Cream Colour Bases, MAC Paint Pots and NARS the Multiple Duos — even pots of cream concealer and cream-to-powder foundation, too.

Homegirls, do you ever clean your cream products? Do you have any other tips or tricks?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll, July 5

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Assorted macaron cookies from Laduree bakery in Paris

  1. Mood:

    2. Wide awake now (shocker!) and cheerful.

  2. What’s your favorite type of music?

    3. I *love* hip-hop and R&B, but I listen to everything. My music collection is a mish-mash of singers and bands from across the board.

  3. Do you like to match your toe and finger nail polishes?

    4. It depends. Sometimes, but I mostly like to wear complementary colors.

  4. What do you like to do on your days off?

    5. Sleep in, curl up on the couch with a good book and watch movies!

  5. Eyes/lips/cheeks:

    6. I’m going with a cat eye and red lips today using mostly MAC products. Eyes: MAC Painterly Paint Pot, MAC Arena Eyeshadow, MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack and MAC Dazzlelash Mascara in Black Dazzle. Lips: MAC Cockney lipstick from the Euristocrats 2 collection. Cheeks: Illamasqua Bronzing Duo in Glint & Burnish.

  6. Dudes who wear eyeliner: hawt or not?

    7. I can appreciate a well groomed man, but I was never drawn to guys who wear more beauty products than I do, LOL!

  7. Are you a planner or a spontaneous kinda girl?

    8. A mix of both. For certain things, like big meals out or events with lots of people, I like to have a plan, but if it’s just me and another person, I prefer to wing it.

  8. Do you have any phobias?

    9. A couple, like I’m afraid of earthworms (YUCK!) and confined spaces. Oh, and I’m deathly afraid of one day getting stuck in an elevator!

  9. Outfit:

    10. Dark jeans, a black scoop neck top, white cotton blazer, black strappy sandals and a long necklace with faux pearls.

  10. Weekly goals:

    11. Dust off my stability ball and try some new ab exercises, rearrange the living room, and find a few new writing exercises to try.

Whew! I’m running behind this morning because I stayed up late last night reading Dead Until Dark, by Charlaine Harris.

It’s one of the books that inspired the True Blood TV series. Yup, Mom always said there’s nothing like curling up on the couch with a cup of tea and a vampire story…

Okay, maybe Mom never said that, but it would have been *really awesome* if she had. 🙂

Were you ready for Monday this morning? Warm up to your day by taking a minute for the Monday Poll. Just copy the empty list below, and paste it with your answers in the comments.

Let’s do this!

Le list

Mood:
What’s your favorite type of music?
Do you like to match your toe and finger nail polishes?
What do you like to do on your days off?
Eyes/lips/cheeks:
Dudes who wear eyeliner: hawt or not?
Are you a planner or a spontaneous kinda girl?
Do you have any phobias?
Outfit:
Weekly goals:

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

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