Lips

Bushy Brows and Soft Matte Lips: Drugstore Beauty Strikes Again!

May 27th, 2020 by Karen 18 Comments

Covergirl So Saturated Palette in Reverence k closeup — Bushy brows, babe!

If you’ve ever experimented with the bushy brow look you probably already know this: there’s a fine line between “full and lush” and “full-on cray.” Sometimes ya unintentionally cross that line (whoops!), and sometimes you don’t… The latter happened to me today when I stumbled onto this bangin’ bushy brow combo.

Budget beauty brows

Both products are from the drugstore, and to that I say, “Huzzah!” (Sorry, I’ve been binge-watching The Great on Hulu for the past few days.)

HUZZAH!

The two things: Covergirl Easy Breezy Brow in the shade Medium ($9.49) and Maybelline Tattoo Studio Brown Pen in Soft Brown ($7.59).

Easy Breezy Brow Gel is an intensely tinted gel loaded with color, and it dries to a super stiff hold. If you’re a fan of the awesome Hourglass Arch Brow Gel, this Covergirl product is practically a drugstore dupe.

Covergirl So Saturated Palette in Reverence k tee — I’m a makeup nerd and I’m proud of it! Makeup Nerd Tee from connorclaire.com (Yup, that’s my store. Named it after my boss, hahaha.)

It deposits tons of color and pushes brow hairs upwards and outwards (especially those on the inside/closer to the nose), so if you’re going for fluffy, full brows with defined hairs, it’s perfect. Just be sure to remove any and all excess gel from the brush before you use it, because this stuff is intense!

After running the brow gel through my brows, I fill the sparse spots with the Tattoo Studio Pen, which like because it has juuust enough pigment, so it doesn’t make your brows look “blocky” or overly filled.

Oh, and if you’re feeling adventurous, it also doubles as a pen for drawing fake freckles. ?

Covergirl So Saturated Palette in Reverence k front closeup — Wherever you are, and whatever you’re doing today, I hope you’re having a good one!

A lip oil hack for soft matte lips

Speaking of products you can use in different ways…if you have a good lip oil sitting around, try mixing a little into your favorite matte liquid lipstick for a custom lip color with a soft matte finish.

Just dab a bit of both the liquid lipstick and lip oil on the back of your hand, mix them together with a finger or a brush, and pat that blended beauty combo on your lips.

I did it for this look with Pixi liquid lipsticks and a Covergirl lip oil for a finish just shy of matte. I also dabbed a tiny bit of highlighter on my Cupid’s bow to add contrast to the soft matte finish.
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Product Spotlight: Physicians Formula The Healthy Lip Velvet Liquid Lipstick

May 20th, 2020 by Karen 17 Comments

I’m wearing Physicians Formula The Healthy Lip Liquid Lipstick in Vitamin Beet. Winged Liner tee is from my store, connorclaire.com.

I loved these matte liquid lipsticks by Physicians Formula when they first came out a couple years ago, but I gotta give ’em a quick shout-out again because I wore the magenta shade the other day and dang! — the wear time is INSANE.

physicians formula healthy lip — Bare With Me, Dose of Rose, Berry Health, Mangentle Formula, Tu-lip Treatment, Vitamin Beet

I had Magentle Formula on for six hours, and no joke, it barely budged, and that was after lunch, snacks, multiple cups of caffeinated beverages (EARL GREY IN THE HOUSE, YO), and three big cups of water.

physicians formula magentle before — The shade Magentle Formula, right after I first applied it

physicians formula magentle after — And here it is after six hours and countless snacks and drinks

Right now they’re on sale on the Physicians Formula website for $5.52 (originally $8.49)! A few shades are sold out, but most are still there. [Continue reading…]

A Wearable, Colorful Drugstore Makeup Look: Navy Liner and Lashes With Orange Cheeks and Lips

May 14th, 2020 by Karen 6 Comments

honest blood orange — All the makeup I’m wearing today is from the drugstore.

Totes on a budget beauty kick right now, and everything in this navy and orange look is drugstore.

honest beauty blood orange — Budget beauty at its best

I’ve been slowly but surely mining my makeup collection lately and rediscovering old loves. Also finding new faves…

Budget brow wow

Case in point: Maybelline’s brow pencil. It’s the one in peach packaging with the angled applicator, and it’s just as good as the $$$ Anastasia brow pencils at Sephora IMO. It has the perfect amount of pigment — enough, but not so much that it makes you look like you’re plotting someone’s demise. Plus, it doesn’t budge! It stays put through long runs, planks and burpie push-ups (so fun…NOT). You’ll find it in four shades for $5.99 each — Blonde, Soft Brown, Deep Brown and Medium Brown. I wear the Deep Brown one. It’s a beautiful ashy brown with a hint of gray.

The ace of budget base

Speaking of affordable, can we talk about this base combo for a second? — Neutrogena Hydro Tint plus Maybelline’s Age Rewind Concealer equals magic?

I’ve been a fan of both products for a while, but I never realized they could be such a great budget-friendly combo for no-makeup makeup.

Hydro Tint ever-so-slightly evens everything out while keeping your skin looking natural, and then I dab and blend a little Maybelline Age Rewind where I want a little more coverage (like on the hyperpigmentation on my cheeks and dark areas underneath my eyes).

The end result looks natural and even (and doesn’t look thick). The two products layer perfectly.

Long-lasting liner for under ten bucks

I’ve also recently discovered some new-to-me things that totally deserve the spotlight, including these Coverigrl twist-up eyeliners, which are available in six $7.99 shades (and currently on BOGO for 50% at Ulta!).

I’m also wearing a shimmery deep blue here on my upper lash lines, and I love that glimmer. I had to do a few layers (like three), but once it’s on, it doesn’t transfer into the crease or creep into the lower lash line.
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Product Spotlight: Honest Beauty Tinted Lip Balms

May 12th, 2020 by Karen 15 Comments

honest beauty tinted balm — Moisturizing and vibrant lip balms by Honest Beauty, each an affordable $8.99, hooray!

I just found your latest lip addiction, a.k.a. my latest lip addiction! — but you’re not going to get addicted in a bad way, I promise.

You know how some tinted lip balms hook you into a vicious cycle of lip balm-ing yourself every 10 minutes? Not gonna happen with the Honest Beauty Tinted Lip Balms, because unlike other tinted lip balms, they don’t suck every molecule of moisture from your lips and lead you to reapply them over and over…which is my main point o’ pain with most lip balms.

Small victories, ya know?

honest beauty dragon fruit — Dragon Fruit, a semi-sheer fuchsia. Also, I’m wearing the Dear Tabby Tee in Daffodil from my online store, connorclaire.com.

Lots of moisture

So tell your dry lips to chill already, man! You will not be looped into a dysfunctional relationship with your lip balm, and since these are practically dripping with moisture, thirsty, flaky lips will thank you for the hydrating TLC.

What they are

I love ’em. They’re like a cross between a lip balm and a creamy lipstick, so you get all the color (but not too much) and lots and lots of moisture. They’re permanent to the Honest Beauty makeup line and come in seven shades, including clear, and are an affordable $8.99 each.

The formula is cruelty-free and vegan, so no animal testing, and no animal-derived ingredients, either.

They feel like a typical balm to me — lightweight and smooth, with a non-sticky texture — and have a barely-there, fleeting honey flavor and scent. As for wear time, they last about two hours for me.

Vibrant color

These are so intense! It’s bomb. (Or, should I say, it’s balm? Sorry, I had to go there!) I have pigmented lips, so it isn’t always easy for me to find pigmented lip balms that show up on my lips, but each of these shades is so vibrant and distinct that I can immediately see the difference (no layering required!). They don’t all look the same, which I lurve and appreciate.

This is casual, low-maintenance lip color at its best. I can easily use my phone as a mirror to apply a layer… Heck, I’m doing that right now with Lychee Fruit (the beige-pink!).
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A Warm Neutral Drugstore Makeup Look for Zoom Calls

May 7th, 2020 by Karen 16 Comments

drugstore neutrals — All the makeup I’m wearing in this look is from the drugstore.

I seriously thought about wearing this makeup look for a Zoom call I had with my bakery coworkers a few days ago (we still keep in touch) but decided to wear it with warm neutrals instead.

All drugstore today because I’m on a budget beauty kick! I’m wearing a mix of old faves (a nude Revlon cream eyeshadow palette and Fig eye kajal, Almay eyeshadow and Covergirl Trublend foundation) and some new things I recently found.

Latest drugstore loves

Honest Beauty Tinted Balm in Dragon Fruit: THIS IS SO GOOD! It’s a bright, moisturizing sheer fuchsia balm that doesn’t settle into lip lines (so smooth!). Two-hour wear time, and it’s unflavored and unscented. It’s similar to the very sheer Clinique lipsticks, but at a fraction the price. $8.99 each and comes in bunch of colors.

Covergirl Trulbend Base Business Illuminating: This is a pearly golden pink skin primer you can wear on its own underneath foundation/concealer, or mixed into other base products to sheer them out and give them an opalescent finish, which is what I do. It’s like a more sparkly version of BECCA Backlight. You *will* see the tiniest flecks of golden glitter reflecting off your skin when you wear it, so be prepared for disco fabulousness while you frolic in full sunlight. If you’re indoors, however, it isn’t visible at all from more than a few feet away. $11.49 for a 1-oz. tube.

Covergirl Easy Breezy Brow: I used Clear on the inner part of my brow (which has a good amount of hair) and Medium on the outer part (not so much hair). Both are on the stiffer side of brow gels so your brow hairs won’t move. Medium, a gray brown, is *very* pigmented and not the easiest to control, so use it sparingly. I loooove the Clear, though. It’s comparable to Benefit’s clear brow gel. $9.49 for a 0.16-oz. tube.

Makeup worn in this look

Base: Covergirl Trublend Base Business Skin Primer Illuminated mixed wtih Covergirl Trulend Matte Made in M50 and Covergirl Trublend Undercover Concealer in Golden Honey

Eyes: Covergirl Easy Breezy Brow in Clear (inner part of brow) and Medium (outer part of Brow), Revlon Illuminance Cream Shadow in Not Just Nudes, Almay Eyeshadow in Pure Gold Baby, Revlon 2 in 1 Angled Kajal in Fig, Maybelline the Falsies Mascara

Cheeks: Covergirl Clean Fresh Cream Blush in Butterflies, Maybelline City Bronzer in 300

Lips: Honest Beauty Tinted Balm in Dragon Fruit

What are your drugstore go-to’s at the moment? I’m playing “put all the makeup in my cart” on the Ulta site right now. 🙂

Nail “painting” is easy and fun.

One of Connor’s preschool teachers sent this fun art idea for painting nails! Grab some nail polish (I used quick-drying ones by Sally Hansen), a black marker and a piece of cardboard. Draw hands with nails on cardboard, and then have your “coworker” help you paint them. Or do it yourself. This kept me and CoyCoy entertained a long time.

Some of my hand drawings ended up looking like weird lizard fingers…but she didn’t seem to mind.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Warm Browns With a Matte Bright Blue and Shimmery Teal

April 15th, 2020 by Karen 8 Comments

Banged out these bright eyes during the golden hour, otherwise known as “afternoon rest time,” otherwise known as “the two hour break when Connor takes a nap and I get to put on a li’l makeup.”

Lower lash line surprise

I’m wearing warm brown eyeshadows with a bright matte blue on the upper lash line and a shimmery, glittery teal on the lower lash line…but look closely! You’ll also see a thin line of the same matte bright blue I’m wearing on my upper lash line hugging the roots of my lower lash line for an unexpected makeup surprise.

Sharpen those weapons

You could totally do this look with other accent combos. For the bright accent here (in this case blue), I think the key is to combine a darker matte finish with a lighter shimmer. I think that’s what makes it work.

Whichever colors you choose, have your favorite eye pencil sharpener handy, because the sharper your liner, the more control you have over the width of your lines. I used to overlook this and would line my lash lines with dull tips until I found an eyeliner tutorial by The Goddess Her Makeup Majesty Charlotte Tilbury (GOODNESS GRACIOUS, I LOVE HER). She emphasized, over and over, the importance of a sharp tip whenever you’re working with pencil. Lo and behold, when I started religiously sharpening, lining got much easier and less messy.

Big ups to Char for forever changing my life. ?

Spirit makeup animal shout-out

I also gotta give it up to another one of my favorite makeup artists, Brittany Sullivan, for inspiring this look and for temporarily lifting me out of my bronze/brown/neutrals ~~rut~~ routine. Follow her if you aren’t already because her hair and makeup style (how she perfects the base without it looking overdone = AMAZING) is the stuff of effortlessly casual dreams. Serious #foundationgoals.

Makeup worn in this look

Base: Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream (to prep skin), MAC Studio Fix Soft Matte Foundation Stick in NC42 (cheeks, nose, around mouth) and Estée Lauder 24HR Concealer in Medium Warm Deep (just a single dot underneath each eye)

Eyes: MAC Soft Brown and Saddle (lids and crease), Urban Decay Chaos liner (upper lash line, and very thinly along lower lash line), Urban Decay Electric (lower lash line), MAC Hush (inner corner and brow bone), Hourglass Arch Brow Gel in Dark Brunette, Laura Mercier Caviar Mascara

Cheeks: Nudestix Lip & Cheek Pencils in Blush and Purity (cheeks) and MAC Hush (upper cheekbones)

Lips: Nudestix Lip & Cheek Pencils in Purity (lip liner) and Blush (lipstick)

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Coral, Bronze and Plum Makeup With a Natural-Looking Base for Outdoor Adventures

April 14th, 2020 by Karen 23 Comments

This is what “fancy dress” is for me these days: a semi-wrinkled striped sweater, pants with paint spots on them (I wore them to paint Connor’s room a few months ago, and dagnabbit if they aren’t my most comfortable jeans I own!), and my “good” pair of Nike Winflos.

Oh, and a little makeup of course! ?

Targeted coverage

To chase PGR around the house and the Coywolf around the block yesterday, I wore bronze and plum on my eyes and cheeks with a sheer coral lip. And I paired it with what I like to call “a semi-sheer base,” which is all-over barely-there coverage with a tinted moisturizer, as well as a few targeted areas with slightly more opaque coverage. I did this by blending a sheer layer of stick foundation on my cheeks and around my mouth, and then buffing a tiny amount of liquid concealer underneath my eyes.

I didn’t set it with a powder because I wanted my skin to look as skin-like as possible, but you totally could… Just be sure to not go too heavy with it if you want to maintain the skin-like effect.

I really like this type of targeted coverage, especially how it looks in outdoor light, which can be notoriously unforgiving. Highly recommended. Try it on your next picnic.

Unearthed MAC gems

In other news…I’m weeding my way through my makeup collection right now, and I keep unearthing old gems. I wore two of my recent finds yesterday — Cheeky Bronze Mineralize Skinfinish and MAC Liquidlast Liner in Coco Bar.

Cheeky Bronze is a soft, shimmery golden coral face powder. Technically, it’s a highlighter, but you can also use it all over your cheeks as an all-in-one bronzer/blush/highlighter, which is what I have on my cheeks in these pics.

If you’re feeling creative, you can also use it as an eyeshadow. I wet a MAC 217 brush, flicked it across the pan a few times to load it up, then buffed it onto the inner part of my lids to go with the bronzed plum shadow I was wearing on the outer half (MAC Sable, in case you’re curious).

Coco Bar is a dark neutral brown MAC Liquidlast liner, and it will not move for nothing! It’s like a liquid version of MAC Coffee pencil liner, which is why I love it. I drew a line directly along my upper and lower lash lines, then smudged the edge with a flat eyeshadow brush. If you’re looking for a soft, diffused chocolate liner that stays put, you gotta give it a go, ASAP.

Makeup worn in this look

Base: MAC Peachlite Strobe Cream (to prep skin), First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Tinted Moisturizer in Tan (all over face), MAC Studio Fix Soft Matte Foundation in NC42 (cheeks, around base of nostrils and mouth), Estée Lauder 24H Concealer in Medium Warm

Eyes: MAC Teddy eyeliner (buffed all over lids as an eyeshadow base, then applied as liner on waterlines), MAC Sable eyeshadow (outer half of lids), MAC Cheeky Bronze (inner half, applied wet), MAC Hush (inner corner), MAC Liquidlast in Coco Bar (smudged along upper and lower lash lines), Laura Mercier Caviar Volume Mascara

Cheeks: MAC Cheeky Bronze

Lips: MAC Ravishing Lipglass (a sheer coral that appears to be, sadly, discontinued. BOO!)

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Spring Makeup Ideas: Shimmering Shades of Green

March 31st, 2020 by Karen 6 Comments

I call this “the look that almost never was.” Like “the land that time forgot.” LOL. It happened on accident last week while CoyCoy was napping in her fort.

You know how wet leaves seem to look greener and lusher and shinier than usual under a gray spring sky? (Or is that just to me?) I swear, it’s like the color transitions are more obvious. Even in a blade of grass, it’s easy to see where the moss green fades into a dark forest green.

I wanted a similar vibe of wet, green gradients on my lids, so I took out some NARS neutrals, along with a healthy handful of Urban Decay green shadows (they do the most technicolor greens; so does Make Up For Ever), with the intention of doing just my left eye with green, and then a completely different look on the other eye just for fun. Side note: Do you ever do this, too?

Look breakdown

Anyway, I liked it enough to keep going, and then this happy makeup accident happened.

I’m wearing golden brown and beige mattes in my crease with a sweep of olive green in the lower portion of my crease. On my lids, I’m wearing metallic moss green in the center for a slight “halo” effect, with a darker forest green on the outer corner… That’s also reflected on the lower lash line (see the lighter section in the middle there?). The inner corner has a bright kelly green spotlight/highlight for a purposeful clash of color!

Weirdly enough, sometimes adding more product makes it easier

I’m wearing a lot of different eyeshadows in this look, which is far from the streamlined makeup I’ve mostly been wearing the past few months.

spring green products — There’s a lot, I know.

urban decay mildew — Follow the trail of greens!

You know what I realized, though? If I’m going for a look that’s gradient intensive, it’s actually easier for me to throw everything and the kitchen sink in (a.k.a. more eyeshadows), rather than trying to make it work with, like, just two shades.

I know it sounds counter-intuitive (and maybe it is), but when I’m going for lots of shifts from light areas to dark points, it’s easier for me to make everything look seamless when there are more shades involved.

Think about what you can nix

That does not mean that, just because you do a complicated eye, everything else has to be complicated as well.

Of course you can go wild with everything if you want to, but I think that when you have bright, elaborate eye, it helps to pull back somewhere else on your makeup.

Like here, I’m not wearing anything as a base — no concealer, no foundation, no powder. I’m wearing Elta MD Sunscreen, and that’s it! And it’s exactly how I would wear the skin with eye makeup like this in real life.

I also tried skipping brow pencil and just using a clear brow gel, but it felt like there was something missing…like I needed something to frame the big lashes and the dramatic lower lash line. So, I filled in my brows a little, and it fell into place.
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