MAC Makeup

A Lil’ Fall Favorite Makeup Edit with NARS and MAC

November 15th, 2023 by Karen 3 Comments

I’m on a mission to wear fall looks that are simple, elegant and easy. I gotta say, I feel pretty put together together in this one, which features a few of my favorites — NARS Kalahari II eyeshadow, NARS Amour blush and MAC Half Red Lip Pencil.

A lifted liner tip

For this makeup, I tried a new-to-me eyeliner technique from a makeup artist that Jane from Daly Beauty introduced me to recently, Erica Taylor! She’s been doing makeup for over 20 years and posts a lot of tips for beauties who are 40 and up.

She suggests applying liner strategically on the outer corner to make your lids appear more lifted.

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A post shared by Erica Taylor (@ericataylor2347)

I’m really happy with how it turned out; I definitely think my hooded bits look a little less hooded! Plus, it’s really easy to do.

Also, lip liner is so your friend

Oh, and shout-out to the Wet Seal sales associate back in 1996 who taught me about the power of lip liner, LOL! She was the one who convinced me to try lining and filling my lips in with a lip pencil, and then topping it off with lip balm.

I did that in here with MAC Half Red Lip Liner and Biossance Lip Balm. 🙂 Try it sometime with your favorite lip liner.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Trying on Lipsticks Just for Fun

October 5th, 2023 by Karen 7 Comments

A few months after Connor was born, I went to a lunch mixer with a local mother’s club, and as we were all going around introducing ourselves, one of the ladies said she recently had a baby, and that day was the first day in weeks she actually got dressed and combed her hair. She then said, “I even put on earrings,” and then she started crying, and oh my gosh, I totally understood what she felt at that moment in every cell of my body.

Sometimes it’s a heavy lift just to put on earrings. Or mascara. Or pants that are acceptable to wear in public, if I’m totally being honest.

But you do it, and you keep on keepin’ on.

Anywho, I thought about that woman today as I got ready for a video meeting. I ironed a shirt, did my hair and put on makeup for the first time in, oh, I don’t know how long.

I even put on earrings…

Is it a *lewk*? Nope. Is it edgy or particularly noteworthy? Um, probably not. But I did it. And it make me feel great during my video call.

After it was over, just for fun, I tried on a few lipsticks because it’s been ages.

When you put dark lipstick on for the first time in ages

Sending good thoughts your way. Happy Thursday to you!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Summery Raspberry Lips and a Lil’ Liquid Liner Flick

August 9th, 2023 by Karen 6 Comments

To flick, or not to flick: that is the question.

Is it just me who automatically assumes that wearing black liquid liner involves a flick at the outer corner? I’ve been wearing Rare Beauty black liquid liner lately and for some reason, that little flick just feels right!

By the way, I did manage to exchange the leaky pen for a new one at Sephora last week, but get this! The nice salesperson who helped me said her clients have had issues with it not because of the leaking problem but because it dries out quickly. Sigh. We’ll see. I’ve used it a few times, and so far it’s been alright.

I wore it with a flick yesterday and paired it with raspberry lips – MAC Beet Lip Pencil topped with Biossance Lip Balm. I’ve been thinking non-stop about this cute look and wanted to give it a try.

Anywho, I’ve been going through a “pass on the powders” phase lately, so it’s been ages since I’ve worn powder blush.

Yesterday I took out MAC Blushbaby (an oldie but goodie) thinking that it would pair nicely with the raspberry lips, and even though I blended a couple thin layers on my cheeks, I still felt like I was wearing too much. I ended up buffing it down right before taking these pics.

I think eventually I’ll do powder blush again because it’s one of my favorite things. It’ll probably be in the fall (!), though, when the weather gets crisp again and wearing a layer or two of face paint feels right.

You know what, though? I’m going to focus on the fact that I wore makeup all day long, and for two whole days in a row, LOL! My neighbor stopped by yesterday after dinner and she commented on how she liked my eye makeup. I actually forgot that I had liner on until that moment. It was a nice compliment and it made me excited to wear makeup again.

Speaking of exciting things, I caught a glimpse of the new Chantecaille fall collection yestesrday, and my heart went thump-thump-thump when I saw the dark brown eyeshadow.

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A post shared by Chantecaille (@chantecaille)

So pretty, right?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

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

June 30th, 2023 by Karen 1 Comment

A quick Friday hello

Hiya! Today’s post is a repost of and oldie but goodie. I still love this look, and LOL, these pants (which I bought from Target like five years ago) are still hanging on! They’re still my “it’s time to play with Connor outside” pants. Side note: When I see pics of me wearing nice makeup outside to just hang out, I kindasorta want to get back on that train. Anywho, have a very happy Friday, and if you’re somewhere hot like in Northern California, stay cool!

Color, Bronze and Plum Makeup

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

Dinner Makeup With the Honest Beauty Eyeshadow Palette

May 5th, 2023 by Karen 2 Comments

Happy Friday, friend!

I went out to dinner with the fam-bam last night and wore a brown smokey eye with a pink cheek and glossy pink lip. I’m a little out of practice with blending, but you know what? I didn’t worry too much about it and decided to let the whole look land wherever it wanted to land! (Side note: I’m trying to be more gentle with myself and not so persnickety about, well, everything.)

Anywho, We went to FOB Kitchen in Oakland, a cute, casual spot that serves Filipino food! I was too busy eating and having fun to take pictures of the food, but here’s a shot we got of Connor’s dessert, a Filipino shave ice concoction called halo-halo.

Quick list of the makeup I’m wearing…

Rose Inc Skin Enhance Tinted Serum in 080
Charlotte Tilbury Beautiful Skin Foundation in 8 Warm
Hourglass Retouching Fluid in Sand
Dior Backstage Concealer in 4W
MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Medium Golden and Give Me Sun
Anastasia Brow Wiz in Dark Brown
Tower 28 Mascara in Jet
Honest Beauty Get It Together Eyeshadow Palette
MAC Costa Riche liner
Hourglass Voyeur Gel Liner in Cave
NARS Blush in Amour
MAC Lip Liner in Talking Points
Hourglass Lipgloss in Canvas

Hope your day is peaceful and joyful!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

MAC Unsung Heroes: Texture Eyeshadow

April 7th, 2023 by Karen 2 Comments

mac texture — Get into thy crease, stat.

MAC Texture is still one of my favorite neutrals to pop in the crease! Happy Friday!

Today, on the MAC Greatest Brown Crease Color Hits Tour (Geez, that would be a very specific tour, wouldn’t it?! Hahaha! Never mind me as I crack myself up in the corner.), we visit MAC Texture Eye Shadow.

Ooh, Texture! We’ve talked about/drooled over several of my all-time favorite MAC brown crease colors over the last couple weeks, like Swiss Chocolate and Saddle.

Yum!

And I couldn’t forget about Texture. 🙂

It’s also a peachy brown, but it’s lighter and less orange than Saddle and darker than Soft Brown, and if you really, really wanted to get technical, you could do Soft Brown as your first crease color, then Texture as your second color, and then Saddle as your third.

But that’s only if you’re in the mood to complicate things and carefully do all of the steps in your gradients.

mac texture swatch — An essential MAC brown

What’s an unsung makeup hero? For me, it’s an oftentimes underrated makeup morsel, a permanent collection product that scoots under the radar screen of many makeup lovers but regularly rocks my world. The long-running Unsung Heroes series features some of my favorites.

Texture isn’t only for peeps who want to spend two hours on their eye makeup, though. In fact, if you can’t blend for sh*t and just want something easy, you need Texture in your life as a crease color/transition shade, because although it usually looks matte, it’s technically a shimmer and has these tiny flecks of micro-glitter in the pan. Most of the time, those flecks are imperceptible, but they help to make Texture very easy to blend.

mac texture crease — Texture doing it’s thing in my crease

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MAC Unsung Heroes: Saddle Eyeshadow

March 23rd, 2023 by Karen 6 Comments

I’ve loved MAC Saddle eyeshadow for years. It’s one of my favorite MAC neutral shadows of all time!

I know that a few of you gals and dudes who visit MBB also ride horses, so I need to know — does MAC Saddle Eye Shadow in any way remind you of actual saddles? Is this what color saddles are? Because I’ve only ridden a horse once, so I really have no clue.

All I know is I love this color, man, and I’ve been wearing it for years! It’s a — now please don’t run away when I say this — matte orange brown.

Yep, I said orange…but it’s more brown than orange. It’s not obnoxiously orange. The little bit of orange just gives it some warmth.

What’s an unsung makeup hero? For me, it’s an oftentimes underrated makeup morsel, a permanent collection product that scoots under the radar screen of many makeup lovers but regularly rocks my world. The long-running Unsung Heroes series features some of my favorites.

mac saddle swatch — Howdy, pardner. I reckon I’m about a MAC NC42 for refrence, if’n yer inclined to know…

Sometimes I use Saddle to deepen my crease and make my eyes look like they’re set back further in my sockets…

OK, that sounded weirder than it did in my head…but anyway, mattes are useful when you want to make something look more recessed.

You could start with a light brown matte like MAC Soft Brown, Soba or Wedge in the crease first, then add Saddle on top on the part of your crease that you want to look deepest and furthest back.

Feathering it up into the lighter brown you started with also creates a gradient and gives the look a little somethin’-something, a.k.a. complexity.

I’m wearing Saddle and Wedge on my lids and in the crease, Brun and Mulch in the outer corners, Ricepaper to highlight the inner corners and my brows, and Feline Kohl on my water lines.

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Happy Valentine’s Day

February 14th, 2023 by Karen 5 Comments

Happy Valentine’s Day, my beautiful friend.

I decided to say “I love you” to myself today by sitting down in front of the mirror to joyfully put on makeup! 🙂

A few notes on the key items

The Do It For The Graham eyeshadow palette is from a new-to-me brand called Beauty Bakerie, and it includes 12 powder shadows in foil, matte and duo-chrome finishes.

I’m wearing the tan, beige and dark reddish brown matte shades on my lids. Even though I’m out of practice with blending, the soft, smooth powders made it easy to weave one color into the next. Very nice!

You might recognize the red lip, because it’s one of my MAC Retro Matte Liquid Lipcolour favorites, Quite the Standout, which is a bright orangey red. If you like warm-toned reds, this shade is gonna be your jam! It’s temporarily out of stock on the MAC website (boo), but check your local counter to see if they have it around.

Last but certainly not least, MAC Glow Play Blush in That’s Peachy. It’s a light peach blush that goes on sheer, which I like because then I can really control the color intensity on my cheeks. It pairs especially well with warm red and peachy-pink lip colors.

Valentine’s Day flowers for you, friend!

Sending you so much love. Treat yourself with extra kindness today, OK?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Oh, and let me know if you also did a red lip, too!