Loreal

Best Day Ever Makeup (I Got My Second Shot!), Plus Mini-Reviews of Revlon ColorStay Light Cover Foundation, Clinique Even Better All-Over Concealer + Eraser and More

April 22nd, 2021 by Karen 27 Comments

I got my second vaccine shot yesterday and, FYI, this Band-Aid is officially the best Band-Aid that ever was or ever will be. After it falls off, I may tuck it away in an envelope so that years from now, when everything is back to “normal” (“air quotes”) and we’re doing things like going to the Catalina Wine Mixer again without feeling creeped out about crowds, I’ll find this Band-Aid and think, “Eww, you’re super gross, Karen,” and “Gosh, I sure was happy that day.”

You know this is one of my favorite movies, right?

This is the most hopeful I’ve felt in a long, long time.

Because I didn’t want to forget how happy I feel, I put on some fun temporary tattoos by Tattly and some makeup to commemorate the day. I’m wearing a mish-mosh of classic NARS eyeshadows (the Cordura and Isolde duos, and Blondie, Biarritz and Abysinnia) and a few new-to-me products for everything else.

I’m wearing a mix of classic NARS and a few new-to-me base, cheek and lip products

Some first impressions

Revlon Colorstay Light Cover Foundation: I (incorrectly) assumed that because this has “Light Cover” in the name, it was a shot-out to sheer coverage, but nope! — it’s a reference to how light this full-coverage matte liquid foundation feels on skin. It’s light as a feather! The coverage of one layer is just shy of full, which is enough to hide red areas, freckles and uneven pigmentation. Then, you can add more layers, which is easy to do because it blends so well, if you want to bump up the coverage to full. For reference, my skin is dry on my cheeks and oily on my forehead, and this foundation handles both areas like a champ. Available in 12 shades, $13.99 each.

Clinque Even Better All-Over Concealer + Eraser: Normally, full-coverage concealers look thick, dry and cakey when I wear them in my under-eye area, so I kind of avoid them, but this demi-matte liquid concealer completely steers clear of fine lines. Even after it dries down, it remains smooth and flexible, which is very cool! I plan to use this as a foundation, actually, because I think it’ll be great for that too. Available in a whopping 42 shades, $26 each.

L’Oreal Shiny Lip Stain in Be Outstanding: This is neato. It’s a long lasting, lightweight, non-sticky liquid lipstick with an ultra-shiny finish. Sort of like an amalgam of every lip product under the sun! This particular one, Be Outstanding, is a rosy brown, but there are lots of other colors to choose from in the line, which, FYI, is BOGO right now at Ulta. Available in 12 shades, $11.99 each.

Laura Mercier Blush in Chai: I love LM’s blushes for their pigment and smooth finish, and this matte rose is one of her prettiest and most natural-looking ones, IMHO. Available in 10 shades, $32 each.

second shot closeup — Temporary tattoos by Tattly

The pandemic and the lockdowns have transformed me into something of a hermit, and I’m still freaked out a little (OK, a lot) about the thought of being among large groups of people, and like…doing things. LOL! I keep reminding myself that this too shall pass, and we’ll be able to do more things very soon. Like, I texted an old friend I used to work with at the bakery and asked her if she wanted to go on a hike in a couple weeks. I’m also starting to mentally psych myself up to go to an outdoor small-group HIIT class at the gym sometime in May!

Part of me still worries that we could backslide if the virus takes a different course, so I keep telling myself not to get too excited about returning to normal life right away…but another part of me also wants to be hopeful.

This past year has changed me so much, and I’m betting it’s changed you too.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Checking In: Beauty Deals at Costco, a Truly Game-Changing Tip to Make Life Less Gross, and Missing My Girl

April 13th, 2021 by Karen 20 Comments

pretty purple flower bokeh — From me to you.

Hi there, my friend. This flower up top is for you!

Hopefully it brightens your day a little. 🙂

I went to Costco last week to buy an XXL bag of blueberries because El Hub is convinced that eating copious amounts makes his brain work better. Side note, I’m all for it, because maybe all those blueberries will help him realize that all I want for my birthday in June is expensive Jan Marini skin care, haha! Just for fun last night, I put everything and the kitchen sink from her line in my online cart, and OMG, you don’t even want to know the final price before checkout.

Anyway, Costco. While we were there, I saw some good beauty deals…

First up, this three-piece Essie Gel Couture Polish set for $19.99. It includes two different nail polishes and the awesome Gel Couture top coat. If you bought all three items separately at Ulta, you’d pay $35, so this is a steal.

I’ve got mad love for the Gel Coutures and think they’re among the best things Essie makes. The polishes dry quickly, last a long time, and they’re soooo easy to remove (no special gel-removing accoutrements or any complicated processes with foils). They also have high-shine finish, which I love.

FYI, at the Costco in Novato, the color selection’s pretty limited. There are two sets — one with a darker blue and navy (Brocade Crusade and Embossed Lady) in it, and another with a light taupe-pink and dark brown (High Sewciety and Pearls of Wisdom). Still a good deal though!

I also saw a three-pack of L’Oréal Magic Root Cover Up for $9.99. One bottle is usually $9.99 at Target, so this is another great deal. Lots of colors to choose from too.

Root sprays are basically like concealer, but for your hair, and they’re great for when you’re between coloring appointments. You pick a shade that matches your hair color, spray a little on your roots to hide them, et voila! MAGIC! The color comes out the next time you shampoo your hair, so FYI, they aren’t permanent.

I used to use root spray back in the day, and the L’Oréal one is pretty good (although the best one, hands down, is Rita Hazan’s). If I were still coloring my mane, I’d definitely be stockpiling.

As you know, we’re all fastidiously washing our hands these days, so, with that mind, when you get a moment, place the following items into the trunk of your car: a big bottle of water, hand soap and a towel. That way, you can always wash your hands — WITH SOAP AND WATER! — when you’re out and about and return to your car.

water bottle soap trunk car — From now until the end of time, I’ll have water, soap and a towel in my trunk.

I don’t know why I didn’t think to do this until now, but a friend of mine recently told me that she whenever she has to drive to the store or go out into the world now she always washes her hands when she gets back to her car with her portable water and soap, rather than just using a hand sanitizer.

I just started doing it too, and I don’t think I can ever go back to sanitizer alone now, because it feels so good to have my hands clean, truly clean, when I get back into my car. I pop a squat next to one of my tires, and I wash my hands right there in the parking lot. Sometimes people stare…but honestly I don’t even care. To each her own. I feel a little less gross, and that’s all that matters to me.

Connor’s back to preschool this week, and I miss her terribly. We didn’t have the most exciting spring break. There wasn’t any skiing or beaches involved, but it was so nice to do little things with her every day, like going to the pet store to visit the guinea pigs, and going to the park together. We went down so many slides!

Sometimes, I can’t believe that one day she’ll probably live far away from me. For now, at least while I can, I’ll keep sliding with her…

coycoy slide with mama — Best use of a phone camera: taking selfies while you slide down “the big slide” at the park.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

A Rainy Day Minimalist Makeup Tutorial: Cheerful Pink Cheeks, Rosy Lips and Doe Eyes

January 25th, 2018 by Karen 18 Comments

For the record, it’s hard to look cute in a raincoat. (In case you were wondering.)

It’s rainy and gloomy here in NorCal today, but I’m not complaining, because the rain makes me feel alive! The world around me is thirsty, and it’s taking a much-needed shower and a big gulp of refreshing H2O. And when it’s done, the oak trees and the grass on the hill and the sidewalks and my car (haha) are all going to look fresh and new. 🙂

Or…maybe that’s just California Karen romanticizing the rain, since we haven’t had much of it this winter. I’m sure that if I lived someplace where it’s been pouring 24/7, I’d be like FRICKIN’ RAIN RUINING EVERY MINUTE AND EVERY SECOND OF MAH LIFE!!!

Weather like this calls for a dose of cheerful pink cheeks and bright rosy lips (it couldn’t hurt). Thanks to an illuminating primer, the skin is ever-so-dewy, and the dark blue liner plays off the pink. It’s strategically placed on the middle of the lower lash line for a doe-eyed effect, so you can give strangers a come-hither stare while you sashay by them in your raincoat.

Side note: #teamraincoat ALL THE WAY. Raincoats are the way to go (even if they are hard to look cute in), because they let you keep your hands free, and if there’s a kitten huddling in an rainy alley and you need to save her, you can carry her and comfort her with both hands.

See? Always looking ahead. ?????

When it’s raining, I like to keep my makeup on the minimal side, because you never know if you and your raincoat will get caught in a downpour, and I figure that if my face gets drenched in the rain, better for it to happen while I’m wearing minimal makeup than a full face of war paint… You know, less to clean up when I get wherever I need to go. *shrugs shoulders*

Here’s a breakdown of this look…

TOOLS (products I used are in italic):

Whatever you like to blend your foundation and cream with — a blending brush, BeautyBlender or your fingers
Q-tips
A brow gel (I used Hourglass Arch Brow Gel in Warm Brunette)
A waterproof Mascara (L’Oreal Voluminous Lash Paradise Waterproof)
A long-wearing dark blue pencil liner (Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Sabbath)
An under-eye concealer (I used MAC Studio Waterweight Concealer in a mix of NC20 and NW45)
A liquid foundation (Physicians Formula The Healthy Foundation in DW2)
An illuminating liquid primer (I like Physicians Formula Spotlight Illuminating Primer)
A creamy pink blush (Kosas Cosmetics Creme Blush in 8th Muse)
A matte rosy pink liquid lipstick (Physicians Formula The Healthy Lip Velvet Finish in Dose of Rose) — I chose a liquid matte lipstick because I didn’t want to wear anything that would stick to my hair

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L’Oréal Voluminous Lash Paradise: A Drugstore Wunderkind for Wonderful Length

December 14th, 2017 by Karen 11 Comments

loreal voluminous lash paradise — All this lash drama for less than $10. Thanks, L’Oréal Voluminous Lash Paradise!

“I’d like two tickets to Lash Paradise, please! — one for me, and one for my awesomely affordable pink tube of mascara. Actually…make that three tickets, because I’m gonna need a separate seat for the added length. Yeah, because my lashes, which normally disappear into the background of my face, even after I curl them, look so incredibly long when I wear it that you’d think I was one of those genetically #blessed people.”

loreal voluminous lash paradise before after — Before, and after a single coat

I heard about Voluminous Lash Paradise, a new-ish addition to L’Oréal’s mascara family, from my friend Vanessa, who does makeup for weddings and celebs down in L.A. She was like, This is going to rock your world. I can’t live without it. I use it, and I use it on my clients, and…just GET THEE A TUBE ASAP. (In so many words.)

V, you weren’t playing!

I know it’s trite, but it’s like wearing falsies. The look is similar to Tom Ford’s awesome, but very expensive, $45 FullScreen Mascara (they even have similar wavy brushes), but creates a little less volume.

There are so many different versions, too, including waterproof and non-waterproof, all in different tones of black. I have the Waterproof one in Blackest Black, which looks dramatic even after a single pitch black layer (and it gets even better with two).

The length? It’s crazy. Plus, it creates fine-toothed separation and a tight curl with a major volume boost, although I’m hella greedy when it comes to volume and always want a little more, since I’m all about that fatty YSL Faux Cils/Chanel le Volume lash life.

Lash Paradise’s volume is still good, though.

loreal voluminous lash paradise k — That curl is no joke.

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15-Minute Makeup: Feline Meow With L’Oréal Voluminous Liner Noir, MAC Tabby, NARS Bengali, Bite Beauty Multistick in Papaya, Hourglass Vanish and Lilah B.

October 5th, 2016 by Karen 12 Comments

loreal voluminous liner noir — Is black liquid winged liner ever a good idea when you’ve only got 15 minutes to put on your makeup?

I think I was going for “crazy cat lady in the suburbs” with this ensemble, which I wore yesterday. You know how I mentioned that I’ve been trying to wear more makeup lately? I just wasn’t really into it after having the baby. Well, I’m still out of practice, but I’m trying to push myself a little by wearing makeup every day, and sometimes it turns OK, but sometimes it looks like this.

There are a few things going on with this look. First, there’s, like, a patch here on my chin where I sort of didn’t blend the foundation, but that’s because I spent most of the 15 minutes I spent on the liner — just drawing it and correcting it, and redrawing it.

I thought that I could just use this liner from L’Oréal and some tape for the wings, and that once I did those things, the look would basically be done, but the takeaway lesson here is that if you’re going to attempt a 15-minute makeup look…don’t do black liquid liner…unless you want to be really stressed out, because I was REALLY stressed out the entire time.

Fifteen minutes just wasn’t enough time to do a great job on this.

One side of the liner looked a little thick, while the other side looked a little wonky, so I had to bust out a Q-tip to try and fix it.

It was a mess.

I’m also wearing Hourglass Vanish Seamless Foundation, and despite the big glob on the side on my cheek that I didn’t blend, it turned out OK.

That’s Bite Beauty Multistick in Papaya on my cheeks and lips and some eyeshadows from NARS.

Honestly, the eyeshadow here was basically an afterthought. I did the liner first, and then the shadow on my lids afterward (MAC Tabby cream shadow). And just used neutrals for the rest.

EYES: MAC Pro Longwear Waterproof Colour Stick in Tabby, NARS Bengali and Madrague II eyeshadows, MAC Carbon Eyeshadow, L’Oréal Voluminous Liner Noir Eyeliner, L’Oréal Voluminous Feline Noir Mascara and Chanel Stylo Yeux in Agape

FACE: Make Up For Ever Ultra HD Invisible Cover Concealers in R40 and Y33, Hourglass Vanish Seamless Finish Foundation in Beige, Lilah B. Flawless Finish Foundation in b. classic

LIPS AND CHEEKS: Bite Beauty Multistick in Papaya

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

The Easiest Eye Look That Complements Even the Craziest Lip Colors

April 12th, 2016 by Jen Clark 36 Comments

OCC Lip Tar in "Hoochie" — OCC Lip Tar in “Hoochie”

This is probably really weird, but as I’m laying in bed at night, I’ll close my eyes and think about what makeup I want to wear the next day. I’ll think about the specific colors, products, and techniques I want to use…

Does anyone else do this? Just me? Dang it!

Sometimes, I’ll have a really fun lip color that I’m dying to wear, but I’ll have a hard time thinking of what to wear on my eyes that won’t clash with it. Lucky for me — and maybe you — I’ve come up with the easiest eye look out there that goes with any color you can think of, like bright purple!

The other awesome thing about this trick is that you can find colors for it almost anywhere. I bet you $50 (you can email me for my Venmo name ☺ ) that you already have two colors just like these in your collection.

I used the Morphe 35O palette just because I think the mattes in the palette are the best! A mid-toned matte neutral brown and a darker matte neutral brown are all you need, and what I mean by neutral is that neither one is too warm or cool toned, so it’ll go with any shade you wear on your lips.

To start out, using a Mac 217 blending brush or something similar (almost every brand makes something similar), blend the lighter brown shade all over your lid and through the crease.

I like to pull the color outward beyond the corner of my eye to make my eye look more elongated, but feel free to create any shape that suits you.

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Everyday Makeup Look: All Drugstore Products!

April 6th, 2016 by Adia Goss 32 Comments

When I was re-organizing my makeup collection, I realized that I have a fair amount of drugstore products. Most of my makeup is from Sephora or Nordstrom, but I’ve always mixed in drugstore buys into my everyday makeup routine. So, I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could do a full face of makeup only using my drugstore products. Turns out, I can! I actually really love all of the products that I used, so I’ll need to make a point to reach for them more often.

Foundation

drugstore makeup — Two great drugstore foundations: L’oreal True Match Lumi Cushion and L’oreal Infallible Pro-Matte Foundation

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A Face of the Day With New Products From L’Oréal

March 14th, 2016 by Jen Clark 36 Comments

How’s it going, you guys!? I’ve been having such a blast doing these posts and getting to chat with some of you. I am so glad to put a face to the beautiful people I’m writing to.

Oh, how is my day going, you ask? Well, let me tell ya. I accidentally fell asleep on the couch in the middle of the day while my son Kai was hanging out in the living room with me (I promise, that is a very rare occurrence).

He knows when to take advantage of people, like when his mom is too tired to function, so he found a blue marker somewhere, somehow, and scribbled all over our beige microfiber couch…

Not cool, Kai, not cool.

Get ready, Karen, because Connor will destroy everything you hold dear! 🙂

So, in light of today’s events, I am locking myself in the bedroom while my dear husband takes his turn at scrubbing the couch, and I’m going to chat with you guys about L’Oréal. That should cheer me up!

I have a theory about L’Oréal…

Let me explain. Did you know that they actually own tons of different brands, including a bunch of high end brands like YSL, Lancome, Georgio Armani, and Urban Decay?

Cool huh? But back to my theory.

I think because they’re involved with so many high quality brands, their makeup is actually comparable quality, just at a much cheaper price.

That would make sense, right? Again, just a theory.

Another great thing about the brand is that they do absolutely no testing on animals, and they haven’t since 1989. That is such a cool accomplishment in my eyes.

OK, let’s get to the makeup.

Using (mostly) L’Oréal makeup, I created this look here…

First I tried L’Oréal True Match Lumi Cushion Foundation, and if you haven’t heard of these new cushion foundations, they’re basically sponges soaked in foundation and put into a compact.

Weird, right? I’m a little confused by the whole concept myself, but tons of brands have been doing them, so there must be some perk!

I actually thought it was super convenient. It comes with a little puff that you dip into the product, then pat on your face. I like it because you don’t need a separate brush. Everything you need is right there, although you totally could use another brush or sponge if you like the application better. Just make sure anything you dip in there is super clean. It seems like this product could be a playground for nasty bacteria.

The coverage is pretty light but does build up to be about a medium coverage. I don’t think you’d be able to get up to full coverage with this one. As you can see below, it won’t cover any massive creatures chillin’ on your chin.

As the name suggests, it also gives you the most gaw-geous luminous glow, and I’m all about dat glow. This one is a real winner for me!

Next up is this cute little brow kit, the L’Oréal Brow Stylist Prep & Shape Pro Kit. This one here is in shade “medium to dark”.

How great would this be just to chuck in your bag and have for touch-ups?! It comes with a wax, a powder, a little angled brush with a spoolie on the end, and a pair of little tweezers.

I think the product itself is excellent, but it’s just not for me, just like every other powder brow product I’ve tried. I think that powders don’t work for my brows because, let’s be honest, they’re kind of massive.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my full brows, but I feel like powders just make them look too huge and fuzzy. That probably makes no sense, but pencils just work so much better for me.

If you love using powders and waxes on your brows, get this. I really think you’ll love it.

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