Makeup Tips/How To

A Monochromatic Multitasking Makeup Look

December 17th, 2019 by Karen 15 Comments

chanel amoureaux k — Lots of products doing double duty today

I’m playing with monochromatic multitasking makeup on this chilly Tuesday, partially because I like the alliteration in that phrase… 🙂 And partially because it totally fits with my current makeup motif, which currently involves me seeing what I can get away with given 10 minutes of prep time.

This one was unabashedly inspired by a recent monochromatic makeup post I saw on Instagram by my current makeup muse, Katie Jane Hughes, in which she uses a Chanel lippie on her lids as an eyeshadow, on her cheeks as a blush, and on her lips as a — GASP! — lipstick.

Mind you, I fully acknowledge that wearing lipstick on your lids is one of those things that isn’t everyone’s cup of hot cocoa, but my eyes have been fine whenever I’ve done it, so I’m OK with it.

Like KJH, I’m wearing Chanel in these pics — a Rouge Allure Ink in matte pinkish brown Amoureaux. It has a hint of coral in it.

The Chanel Rouge Allure Inks are more liquid than cream, so they’re runnier than a cream and have a thinner consistency. Consequently, when I used this one as a shadow here, I pressed it on my lids with a flat eyeshadow brush, in order to have more control over the placement. Then, I waited for it to dry before adding another layer.

When using it as a blush, I like to start with a little on the back of my hand first, which I then tap on the apples of my cheeks with a finger. I do this immediately after applying base, by the way, because it blends better when the base product is still wet and hasn’t set.

The base I’m wearing is also a multitasking monster — Maybelline’s awesome Instant Age Rewind Eraser Concealer. It also works great as a full-coverage foundation!

To sheer it out, just buff it down with a synthetic skunk brush spritzed with a makeup setting spray. I used Tatcha Luminous Dewy Skin Mist to mellow out Instant Rewind’s matte finish (you know me and dewy skin, LOL).

chanel amoureaux — That may or may not be Connor’s bedroom wall behind me, ha ha ha.

charlotte tilbury filmstar bronze glow flatlay — Streamlined, baby

Makeup worn in this look

Eyes: Chanel Rouge Allure Ink in Amoreaux (lids) Charlotte Tilbury Filmstar Bronze & Glow (bronzer worn in the crease, highlighter in the inner corner and on brow bone), MAC Brun (liner and brows), IT Cosmetics Superhero Mascara (lashes)

Cheeks: Chanel Rouge Allure Ink in Amoreaux (as a blush blush), Charlotte Tilbury Filmstar Bronze & Glow

Lips: Chanel Rouge Allure Ink in Amoreaux

Base: Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser in Golden (worn as concealer and foundation)

And there we have it. 🙂

What are you up to today?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Glittery Green Gradient Wings: A Quick and Easy Holiday Makeup Look

December 11th, 2019 by Karen 16 Comments

Current dilemmas du jour?

What to do with the five pounds of lemons Rosie’s former foster mom gave me (she has a tree in her yard that produces a RIDICULOUS amount of lemons).
What’s some festive and colorful holiday makeup that won’t take me till Valentine’s Day to finish? (I’m only half-kidding.)

As of yet, I still have no clue what to do with the lemons (ugh, lemon bars and lemonade? Maybe some kind of lemon marinade?), I figured out a trick to flying through different colorful looks.

And here it is…

Play with your winged liner. THERE ARE SO MANY WAYS!

Like with this look here with glittery green gradient wings. It was surprisingly quick and easy to do.

The step-by-step

Start by drawing your winged liner with a dark green matte liner as the base (I used Urban Decay Mainline). Be as subtle or dramatic as you like.
Then, for a bright shimmer POP, layer a bright green glitter in the center (I’m wearing Urban Decay Stage Dive) on your lash line.
Lastly, to create a color gradient, dip an angled brush into a black eyeshadow (MAC Carbon for life!), and pat that on top of the outer portion of your wing.

Green goes well with warm browns and peaches, which is what I’m wearing on my lids, lips on these cheeks in this look. If you want to be more adventurous, however, pink would be a playful complementary color… I’m just sayin’. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Monochromatic Makeup: Playful Pinks, and a Play on Cat Eyeliner

December 6th, 2019 by Karen 18 Comments

mac steady going lipstick k smile — Inspired by this pink sweater!

I was inspired to do this monochromatic pink look by this quilted sweatshirt I found at the Eddie Bauer outlet store for 50% off (!).

I can’t remember the last time I walked into an Eddie Bauer store, but there’s one of their outlet stores at Vintage Oaks in Novato, and El Hub wanted to check it out one day to look for a jacket, which he found…and I found this. It’s incredibly soft, and I love the color.

I almost didn’t use any brushes for this look. I used my fingers to press the pink glitter eyeshadow on my lids and to pat the pink cream blush on my cheeks. Really, the only brush I used was an angled eyeshadow brush, which I dipped in a dark brown shadow to diffuse the edge of the liquid black cat eye liner (Tom Ford, baby!).

Speaking of the liner, next time you want to flip the script on your cat eyeliner game, try this: after you finish your cat eye flicks, line the inner corner of your eyes with the thinnest, skinniest line you can get away with.

urban decay glitterrock

Then line the outer portion of your lower lash line with your liquid liner, and connect the inner and outer sections by smudging the most infinitesimal amount of a coordinating eyeshadow color.

If you like to geek out over makeup, this is a fun way to do something a little different with your liner.

mac glitter rock
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Back in the Bay, and I’m Thinkin’ About Brows…

December 5th, 2019 by Karen 3 Comments

Ah… It’s good to be back home. 🙂 Of course, it would be awesome-er if it weren’t 40-something degrees here meow, but I’m happy to be back home with Rosie girl and my comfy bed.

Oh! — this next thing may seem incredibly obvious, but it isn’t always obvious to me: if you’re filling in your brows one day and they’re being particularly unruly/wonky, and you’re filling them in and filling them in and they still just don’t look right, quickly trim a little off the top or clean up under the arch. I know this sounds obvious, but if you’re anything like me and you live with your brows day after day after day, sometimes you just start filling them in without remembering to clean them up from time to time. Once you’ve cleaned them up, I bet they’ll start cooperating again.

I know, it seems obvious, but quickly cleaning up the stray hairs with tweezers and trimming any extra long hairs with a pair of round-tipped scissors (don’t poke your eye out!) will do wonders.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

5-Minute Makeup: Glowing Peach Cheeks and Lips, Cool Brown Lids and Latest Drugstore Loves!

December 4th, 2019 by Karen 7 Comments

neutrogena kerry washington essential eye palette cheek palette — All. The. Carbs.

Good morning! We’re not back in Novato yet, but we’ll be home tonight. I prepped this post before we left on vacation, and now I’m seeing the pics and mentally preparing myself for jacket weather.

If, while strolling through downtown Novato recently, you saw a woman taking selfies with a bag of bagels in her car, FYI, that woman was very, very likely me — especially if she had a massively cheesy smile. 🙂

The smile was there for a couple of reasons. First — hello! — ALL THE YUMMY CARBS (this was shortly before the Spartan race, so I brought them with me to share with my coworkers at the bakery). Second, I did my makeup in five minutes (and it wasn’t a hot mess).

Fresh and glowing

This 5-minute makeup look has glowing peach cheeks, glossy peach lips and cool neutral brown lids with the lightest touch of pink sparkle. I wore it to work a couple Fridays ago.

I have absolutely no idea why, but I got some nice compliments from people I ran into while I was running errands that day, and also from El Hub when I saw him later that evening, and that surprised me, because why does super easy makeup like this get so much love? I don’t get it. I’m literally just throwing sh*t on and hoping it doesn’t go awry.

My best guess is that maybe it’s because I didn’t have the time to overthink it, so I didn’t do too much counterproductive tweaking? I just went with my gut and got it done? Who knows?

New drugstore makeup loves

Oh! — for all my drugstore makeup-lovin’ ladies, I used a couple of palettes in this makeup look from Neutrogena: the $12.99 Kerry Washington Essential Eye Palette and the $9.99 Kerry Washington Essential Cheek Palette. Both are easy to blend, pretty (I think so), and the powders last all day long. Highly recommended.

Makeup worn in this look

Eyes: Neutrogena Kerry Washington Essential Eye Palette (lids and upper lash line liner), Urban Decay Glitterrock (pink glitter pressed lightly onto lids), Chanel Dimensions de Chanel Mascara (lashes), NARS Komo Brow Pencil and MAC Clear Brown Set (brows)
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More Firsts! (And a Travel Beauty Tip)

December 3rd, 2019 by Karen 4 Comments

Yesterday was a day of more firsts on this trip. Like, Connor and I saw our first rainbow (of the trip), and we seriously lost our damn minds.

Rainbows, man. No matter what age you are, they never get old.

Yesterday was also the first time I’ve ever been to the Honolulu Zoo. El Hub grew up here, though, and he went all the time when he was a little keiki, but it was also his first time going in decades.

I highly recommend doing the zoo if you visit Oahu with young children or toddlers! It’s right at the Eastern edge of Waikiki, and it’s a relatively small zoo compared to some of the big ones on the mainland. The grounds are incredible, and the exhibits aren’t so far apart from each other that you spend half your time walking between them, so it’s easy for the little ones (and the lazy adults).

There’s also a large playground area in the center of the zoo surrounded by benches underneath a shaded canopy of gigantic banyon trees, and it’s a wonderful spot to listen to the sounds of the zoo, watch the peacocks milling about, and take a short break.

Connor and I also went to a gentle kid-friendly beach right here by our Airbnb in Waikiki yesterday, and our little mermaid had a blast splashing in the water.

When we saw a school of fish, her mind was visibly blown when she realized that FISH ACTUALLY LIVE IN THE SEA.

I know! LOL.

Another first for me on this trip: well, I waited until we landed here to buy a few bulky basic toiletries so I wouldn’t have to bring them in my carry-on (after I lost my luggage on a trip to Milan some years ago, I vowed to never check in my bags again) and wow! — talk about whole new world!

Not having to worry about fitting everything (there’s never enough room) or dealing with as many small bottles, or as many small bottles leaking, was a relief. Worth it IMO.

I do feel kind of bad that I won’t be using everything down to the last drop…but I’ll leave the extraS with relatives. Or anyone I bump into when we’re on our way out of town.

Totally worth it IMO.

Today’s our last full day here, and we’re off to the beach now! See you soon. Hope you’re having a good week.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Cat Eye Flicks and Bright Lips (The Purple Edition): A Wednesday Makeup Formula

November 20th, 2019 by Karen 17 Comments

mac tailored to tease lipstick k — Purple power!

Question for you… How do you feel about formula dressing?

LOL! Pardon me for a moment, but I had to laugh there, because “formula dressing”? Sounds like something you put on a salad.

But I digress…

If you’ve flipped through the pages of a fashion magazine in the past decade, you may have read talk of having an “outfit formula,” something you can always turn to when you want to look sharp. Maybe it’s a white t-shirt, high-waisted jeans and a black blazer, or maybe it’s something else.

Once you figure out a formula that works for you, then you can tweak it ever-so-slightly (perhaps by replacing the black blazer with a black motorcycle jacket), but essentially, you go back to the same formula over and over because it works.

I’m a HUGE fan of translating this idea for the realm of makeup, and I do “makeup formulas” all the time.

I’m wearing one of mine in these pics — cat eye flicks and bright lips.

It’s quick and easy and gives you a lot of bang for your makeup buck, IMO. Also, crucially, it doesn’t make me think too hard, and I’m not reinventing any wheels, because I know that both of the main elements in the look work for me. Still, there’s plenty of room within the look to jooj it up in different ways.

Basically, I was in the mood to wear purple, so I started with a smudgy purple cat flick (which I did with a matte dark purple eyeshadow and an angled brush).

I like the whole smudgy/diffused effect because the imperfect edge leaves lots of room for error. I can fudge it a little (or a lot), and even though it might not look perfect, it’s usually passable, which is good enough when I’m in a hurry.

Next, I matched it with a bright matte purple lipstick, and side note: I just thought of another version of this I could do… How about layering a shiny purple gloss on top of this lippie? I think that would be super cool too!

This is just one of the makeup formulas I use often. Apply, lather, rinse and repeat! 🙂

mac tailored to tease lipstick — You think I’d be smiling more since I’m having a surprisingly OK hair day!

mac art library nude model — It doesn’t have to be complicated.

Makeup worn in this look

Eyes: MAC Art Library Nude Model Palette (Sugar Plum and Dance in the Dark as liner, Nude Model and L.E.S. Artiste on lids, and Outre in crease), ESUM Dual Eye Pencil in Rose and Aubergine (tightline), MAC Extended Play Perm Me Up Mascara (lashes) ESUM Brow Defining Pencil and MAC Brow Set (brows)

Cheeks: Charlotte Tilbury Ecstasy Blush

Base: Make Up For Ever HD Concealers in Y41 and Y31 mixed with MAC Strobe Cream (foundation), MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Golden Tan, Estee Lauder 24H Concealer in Medium Deep (under eyes), Tatcha Luminous Dewy Skin Mist

Lips: MAC Retro Matte Liquid Lipcolour in Tailored to Tease

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Bay Area Beauty Love: ESUM

November 19th, 2019 by Karen 4 Comments

Shout-out to San Francisco, my former home, and the current home of ESUM Cosmetics, an as-yet under-the-radar Bay Area beauty brand.

ESUM has been around for about 10 years, but I just recently discovered them. They have a line of brushes and makeup pencils made for industry pros and makeup enthusiasts.

I really like their specialty eye brushes, which range in price from $18-58.

They have these precision eye brushes with small, unusually shaped (but useful!) brush heads, so, for instance, if you only have a little lid space, or you don’t have a deep crease (like, if you’ve got slightly hooded eyes like I do), they’re fab for blending and applying eyeshadow, and for fine detail work.

I’ve been all about the W36 and T37, both of which have a smaller-than-usual angled brush head, so they’re awfully handy when I have to blend in a small space, like in the outer or inner v, or when I want to keep my eyeshadow low and tight on the crease.

esum brushes — It’s all about the details.

I’ve also tried a couple of their workhorse tapered blending brushes, namely the medium size G34 (which is slightly smaller than a MAC 224) and the small S33, which excel at placing and blending shadow exactly where you want it to go.

Along with their brushes, ESUM also sells a small selection of makeup pencil — a few dual-ended lip liners and eyeliners (silky and long-wearing, they feel a lot like the Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-Ons), and a handful of skinny twist-up brow pencils (they’re similar to the awesome NARS ones).
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