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Greetings from cold and wet Northern California, ladies. 🙂 What are you up to? I was a little beat from my afternoon in San Francisco yesterday, so I kinda slept in. It’s amazing what a few extra hours of sleep will do, though… I *almost* feel like a real girl, LOL!

Lunch with the girls yesterday in the city was fun. We met at La Mar, a Peruvian restaurant near the Ferry Building with LOTS of great seafood and fancy presentation.

I’d never had Peruvian food before and didn’t know what to expect. I went in thinking it would be hotter but was glad it wasn’t (I’m a wuss when it comes to hot food). They had this Peruvian corn which I’ll never forget. It tasted like regular corn but with GIGANTIC kernels the size of grapes!

The restaurant’s a little shoo-shoo/foo-foo ($$$$), and El Hub definitely would have complained about the smallish portions, but if you’re ever in the area it might be worth it to try something new.

Speaking of new things, here’s a look around the worlds of makeup and beauty:

• Stila’s Can Couture Instant Glam Can will help you get dolled up in a hot minute with a Major Lash mascara in black, a mini-Pomegranate Crush lip stain, mini-Convertible eyecolor in Peony and a pan of Kitten (meow!) eyeshadow.
• Give your pucker Valentine’s Day lurvies with Estee Lauder Love Your Lips.
• I drooled a little when I saw the Yves Saint Laurent Spring Look Palette.
• What do ya think of Givenchy New Impressions? Have you seen the Must-Have Blue quad?
• Luxe lips from the Guerlain Cherry Blossom collection
• Brightening Blushes from Too Faced — yes or no?
• A new limited-edition version of Clinique’s Happy: Happy in Bloom
• Tarte’s Flower Child Natural Eyeshadow Palette is refillable, yay!
• Will The Balm’s For Keeps Watercolor Lip Stains rock or not?
• Boscia’s MakeUp-BreakUp Cool Cleansing Oil looks neat; I just hope it isn’t drying!
• Neutral-lovin’ babes, check out the Hourglass Cashmere and Zodiac Face Palettes.
• New at the House of Tar-ghay — Bella B body products
• Refresh thirsty winter skin with Kate Somerville’s Quench Hydrating Mask.
• What’s your take on Sephora’s Sparkle Strands? Trendy or tacky?
• I betcha Lewis Carroll would have worn the Alice in Wonderland OPI polishes.🙂
• If you have an extra $998 sitting around…
• Jo Malone’s Red Roses Fragrance Chronicle Set might be better than a dozen roses!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Heads up, bargain hunters. There’s a huge sale on Cargo cosmetics over at Sephora.com, with products discounted up to 50 percent. A friend of mine who works there told me they’re phasing the line out of stores, so stock up! Pick up the Tahiti Color Eyeshadow Palette, on sale for $14, before it’s going, going, gone (see it in action here and here).

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Ladies, can I get a big…
TGIF!
We’re rounding the bend, on the home stretch, with the finish line in sight. Do you think you have enough left in you for a sprint to the end? Come on, girl, you can do it. 🙂

Today I feel like starting our adventure with a list of recent and upcoming makeup and beauty bits like…

• Forget a dozen roses… I’d rather have Dolce & Gabbana’s The Roses Lipstick collection of five floral lippies (Scarlett, Shine On, Magnifica, Baby Darling and Fascination; $30 each) instead. Find ’em at Dolce and Gabbana makeup counters in February, just in time for Valentine’s (hint, hint, El Hub!).
• Speaking of flowers, Essie’s Art of Spring collection reminds me of a fresh bouquet.
• Will MAC Too Fabulous really be TOO fabulous?
• If you happen to spend $150 at Beauty.com, don’t forget your gift with purchase from designer Marchesa, with generous samples from Perricone MD, Origins, Kinerase and Urban Decay.
• BAY AREA BEAUTY READERS: Nordstrom’s hosting Dior events today and tomorrow featuring their new spring collection! RSVP via Facebook, or call (415) 243-8500 x1410.
• Sephora has the new Tarina Tarantino makeup line for preview, WOOT!
• IF you wanna smell like Kim Kardashian (and I’m not saying you do)
• I’ve got stratospherically high hopes for Urban Decay’s Preen Shadow Box, Eyeshadow Primer Potion in Eden and Alice in Wonderland Book of Shadows.
• Beauty 360, CVS’s new beauty shopping destination, has some pretty cool niche and prestige beauty brands.
• Have you haird of Kelly VanGough hair products? The new Wonderlust Hair Color Illuminating Tonic looks neat.
• Because of the packaging, I want to eat DKNY’s Candy Apple parfum sprays…
• TRISH McEVOY ALERT! She has a new Translucent Finishing Powder.
• Estee Lauder’s Perfectionist Targeted Deep Wrinkle Filler is supposed to erase my deepest wrinkles in a flash = OUTTA MY WAY, LADIES! 🙂
• Fresh off the branch — Clinique Fresh Picked Eye Shadow.
• Holy WOW! For $195, Amore Pacific Future Response Age Defense Cream sure better work.
• Look at all of the makeup E.L.F. squeezed into their Mini Makeup Collection.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

The fashion industry has a big head start on beauty brands when it comes to branded smartphone apps

Peer into a woman’s handbag, and there’s a good chance you’ll find a smartphone looking back at you. It’ll be zipping and whirring along with her lipstick, powder and perfume. Whichever your e-weapon of choice — BlackBerry, iPhone or Google’s latest Nexus One — smartphones are a new “it” accessory.

Mine’s like crack to me! I got hooked on smartphones with a Blackberry Pearl a few years back; now I’m using an iPhone, and I never leave home without it. It keeps me on schedule (most of the time), in the loop (with email) and helps me locate important landmarks and lifesaving locales like the nearest MAC counter.

With Apple’s App Store for the iPhone crossing the three billion download mark, apps are everywhere, mostly. More and more companies are coming out with apps to showcase their products, among them leading fashion lines, but the beauty industry? Not so much.

Fashion world embraces smartphone apps with open arms!

Fashionistas rejoice! Almost daily new apps from fashion shops, designers and magazines are coming online in the App Store. Fashion enthusiasts can now shop directly from their phones, anywhere, anytime. Some apps also feature style advice, interactive games, videos, previews and reviews.

A few cool fashion apps…

• Chanel: It’s hard to go wrong with anything that looks like Chanel. I LOVE the design of this app. You get news on Chanel fashion, accessories and a a handy-dandy store locator. No way to shop with it yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Karl and company added the feature soon. Free for iPhone (click here to open in iTunes).
• Style.com: Amazing coverage of the catwalk during fashion week — you can watch the shows just hours after they hit the runway. FROM YOUR PHONE! So awesome. Free for iPhone (click here to open in iTunes).
• Net-a-Porter: Get fashion and accessories updates and see products with 360-degree views; there’s also editor’s picks and a wish-list function. Free for iPhone (click here to open in iTunes).

Beauty industry slow to jump on the app bandwagon

I searched Google and my iPhone today for apps from some of the bigger beauty brands like MAC, Estee Lauder, Dior, Shu Uemura and Urban Decay.

Didn’t find a whole lot, only two from big beauty brands — the first from Lancome (click here to open in iTunes) and the other from NARS (click here to open in iTunes). The Lancome looks pretty, but it’s kinda weak on functionality. There’s some news and makeup tips, but no updates since fall ’09’s Declaring Indigo.
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