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News

Clinique Welcomes Spring With a Customizable Gift With Purchase Blooming With Cheer and Choice Pieces

March 22nd, 2013 by Karen 17 Comments

Clinique Gift With Purchase Spring 2013
Head to Macy’s between March 25 and April 14 and snag a sweet, springy 9-piece gift with purchase from Clinique

There I stood at my bathroom counter this morning, coaxing the last few precious drops out of my bottle of Clinique Mild Clarifying Lotion (a mild miracle-working exfoliator that keeps my zits in check), and marveling at a phenomenon I call, “the mustache effect.”

The mustache effect describes the mysterious appearance of upper lip hair during a particular phase of life known as, “the wonder years.”

LOL! But seriously, I actually have no idea when my ‘stach grew in. One morning it was just there, like a hungry caterpillar straight chillin’ above my lips.

For the life of me, I can’t figure out how I missed something so obvious, with all of the hours I logged as a teenage girl in front of the mirror trying to defy gravity with my bangs. I mean, literally, it was right under my nose!

Now, when something seemingly appears or disappears without warning, like the contents of my bottle of Clinique Clarifying Lotion (I didn’t even know it was running low), I say, “Ah! The mustache effect.”

I do have a point with this, and here it is: don’t become a victim of the mustache effect. Visit a Clinique counter (or wherever else you need to go) before it’s too late.

Check your bottles! And if any of them are running low, restock.

For what it’s worth, Clinique counters at Macy’s are doing a pretty sweet nine-piece gift with purchase deal from March 25 through April 14, free with any purchase of $25 or more in Clinique products at Macy’s.

Clinique Gift With Purchase Spring 2013 all
The nine-piece gift with purchase includes two bags, two brushes, a palette, a lipstick, a small High Impact Mascara in Black, a travel-sized tube of Dramatically Different Moisturizer Lotion (also works as a makeup remover in a pinch) and Clinique’s 7-Day Scrub Cream

“But Karen!” I think I can hear you saying, “If I get one more tube of Bamboo Pink Lipstick, I’m gonna have to kick someone with my Chuck Taylor high-tops.”

Don’t bust a move just yet, ninja girl, because Clinique lets you customize this set. You can pick your own palette and lipstick.

Prefer pink? Pick the pink pairings palette, which comes with a Pink Slate Eye Shadow Duo, Soft-Pressed Powder Blusher in New Clover and a True Bronze Pressed Powder in Sunkissed.

Or if you’re partial to purple, grab the violet pairings palette instead, which features the Twilight Mauve Eye Shadow Duo, Soft-Pressed Powder Blusher in Pink Blush and the True Bronze Pressed Powder Bronzer in Sunkissed.

Clinique Gift With Purchase Spring 2013 violet palette
The violet pairings palette! Clockwise, from the pan on the left: Pink Blush Soft-Pressed Powder Blusher, Twilight Mauve Colour Surge Eye Shadow Duo, Sunkissed True Bronze Pressed Powder Bronzer and Brandied Plum Colour Surge Eye Shadow

As for the lipsticks, you can choose between violet Shy, and good ol’ reliable Bamboo Pink.

Different Lipstick in Shy
Different Lipstick in Shy

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There are 17 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Clinique, Makeup, News

5 Spring Trends to Try Right Now

March 22nd, 2013 by Karen 4 Comments

5 Spring Trends to Try Right Now

What is this 1990?? Check out those Cindy Crawford brows! 🙂

Bold brows are just one of the spring trends I dish about in 5 Spring Trends to Try Right Now, my latest post for Gloss Daily, the Ladies’ Home Journal beauty blog.

To find out the other four, and get good some ideas for ways to work the trends into your makeup routine, click here!

Show me some love, too, while you’re there. If you like the post, please leave a comment and say hi.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

There are 4 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: News

Opening Day! A Look Inside the New NARS 2050 Fillmore Boutique in San Francisco

March 15th, 2013 by Karen 35 Comments

If you need me…I’ll be on the mothership, also known as the new NARS 2050 Fillmore Boutique in San Francisco

New favorite plaaaace! 🙂

Poor El Hub. Now when we visit San Francisco together, he’ll have to find something to do while I play with makeup at the new NARS 2050 Fillmore Boutique.

My first observation: there are no man couches in the store. Nowhere to park El Hub while I peruse, so I guess I’ll just have to dispatch him down the street to grab a snack at one of the bustling shops or cafes in the neighborhood (it’s in the Fillmore). “Um, babe. Why don’t you go get a cupcake? Mmm… You like cupcakes. Take your time. I’ll text you in an hour.”

The new store is the third for NARS in the US. They also have stores in New York and Los Angeles.

Welcome, welcome, one and all! The store is very welcoming by design — not intimidating at all — which I like. According to Fillmore Boutique Manager Alexia Ogle, “Like François Nars always says, ‘Don’t be so serious. It’s only makeup.'”

That’s the kind of environment the company wanted to create. “We want clients to come in and have fun,” Alexia says, “and that’s why we’re here.”

The 700-square-foot store carries everything in the NARS line (including those hard-to-find pumps for NARS foundations, woo hoo!) and provides touch-ups and makeup application, free of charge. If you’re interested in trying a product first before buying, they also offer samples.

The NARS 2050 Fillmore Boutique is open seven days a week from 10:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., Mondays through Saturdays, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays. If you’d like to get your makeup done by one of the friendly NARS artists, just walk in, or you can also book an appointment ahead of time by calling (415) 757-2485.

Master classes with NARS artists are on the horizon, as are small, intimate seminars for NARS fans who want to learn more about the products and seasonal trends.

Hello! I think I just found a new home away from home. 🙂

That’s Louis Desazars, CEO of NARS Cosmetics, on the left at the store’s official ribbon cutting


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There are 35 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: NARS, News

Tyra Banks Releases New Smize Yourself! App, Makes Making Faces Even More Fun

November 16th, 2012 by Karen 19 Comments

Life lessons learned from watching America’s Next Top Model…

  1. If you think you can watch “just one episode” of that 8-hour Top Model marathon, fugghetabboutit.
  2. Don’t forget to “pop the hip.” (Side note: Miss J’s hip control? Off the chain!)
  3. And always, always remember to smile with your eyes.

Question: When can you tell that smiling with your eyes, or “smizing,” a term coined by model, TV show host and enterprising businesswoman Tyra Banks, has officially become a cultural phenomenon? Answer: when your 65-year-old mom calls to tell you that “you need to smize more often in your blog pictures.”

Well, can do, because smizing just got a whole lot easier. 🙂

Now, we can even smize ourselves on our phones!

Hello, is that fierceness calling?

Ty-Ty plans to smize you up, literally, with her latest venture, a new mobile phone app called Smize Yourself! (exclamation mark included).

On a Skype call with bloggers and reporters yesterday, Tyra described the $1.99 app, which launched last night (it’s available in the iTunes App Store now, but I’m not sure about Android availability).

You can smize an existing pic of yourself on your smartphone, or snap a new one with your phone’s camera. The app does the rest, turning you into an exaggerated smizing version of yourself.

Tyra provides an instructional video in the app on the finer points of smizing and rocks some seriously stunning smokey eyes.

When you’re ready to smize, take a pic of yourself, and listen as Tyra cheers you along with catwalk catchphrases like “Work!” and “Honey, you look fierce!” Wait for the app to automatically place eye and mouth points on your picture, and then adjust the location of the points to suit the shape of your face. When you’re ready, hit the “smize” button, and await your customized smize shot.


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There are 19 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Just For Fun, News

MAC Pro Products to Become Available on Maccosmetics.com

October 17th, 2012 by Karen 24 Comments

Exciting news, MAC-aholics! Starting tomorrow, October 18, MAC Pro products will be available on maccosmetics.com. You don’t need a special MAC Pro card or anything, either — anyone can buy.

A big YAY to no longer having to make the trek into SF to get my MAC Pro fix on! 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

There are 24 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: MAC Makeup, News

Tea and Cupcakes With Jerrod: An Interview With Jerrod Blandino, Co-Founder and Creative Director of Too Faced Cosmetics

October 5th, 2012 by Karen 56 Comments

What a trip! I’m back at home in the Bay now, back to bustling (not) Novato, California. I thought I might get a sneaky-peaky at the Too Faced offices on my overnight excursion down to Southern California last night, but the construction gods had other plans. The Too Faced offices are/were under construction, but that didn’t stop me from having a good time.

Instead of an office tour, the company hosted a tea party for bloggers at the lavish Queen’s Bakery in Costa Mesa to celebrate the new Too Faced Love Sweet Love holiday collection with cucumber sandwiches, cookies and cupcakes.

Before full-on food coma dulled my brain, I sat down with Too Faced Cosmetics Co-Founder and Creative Director Jerrod Blandino for a few minutes to talk about Jerrod’s creative process, the company’s upcoming plans and their delectable holiday release.

Too Faced Cosmetics Co-Founder and Creative Director Jerrod Blandino

Too Faced Cosmetics Co-Founder and Creative Director Jerrod Blandino
You know I love a guy who isn’t shy about accessorizing.

Jerrod’s a trip! He’s a BIG personality who talks fast, laughs often and waves his hands in the air when he speaks. While we talked, I couldn’t keep my eyes off the bling on his finger (a sparkly diamond ring) or the bright red loafers on his feet.
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There are 56 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Just For Fun, News, Too Faced

En Route to the Too Faced Cosmetics Offices in Southern California!

October 4th, 2012 by Karen 20 Comments

Getting to know Too Faced Cosmetics

Wanted to say a quick hi, wish you a great day, and let you know that if you’re a fan of Too Faced Cosmetics (or curious about the brand at all), stay tuned for a behind-the-scenes look at their Southern California offices. I’m on my way to the airport right now, and then it’s just a quick flight from SF down the California coast.

I’m only there till tomorrow, but I’ll try to get some good pics and secret squirrel info. I’m all decked out with my remote blogging gear — Canon T3i camera with multiple lenses, a 13″ Macbook Pro laptop, iPhone (for impromptu photo opportunities and super secret squirrel blogging). Let me know in the comments ASAP if there’s anything you’d like me to try to photograph or find out (when makeup’s at stake, I can be very persuasive). 🙂

I prepped a few posts ahead of time to keep things interesting around here while I’m in transit and sneaking around inside the Too Faced offices…

(No, seriously. I plan to sneak around.)

Have a good one today. I’ll touch base soon.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

There are 20 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Just For Fun, News, Too Faced

Using the New MBB Galleries, Categories and Brands to Find Posts in the Archives

September 25th, 2012 by Karen 25 Comments

Makeup and Beauty BlogIt’s been about two weeks since the blog brought home its new outfit, and things behind the scenes are moving right along (iPhone and Android users, the mobile version should now be working).

Here’s a quick screencast showing some of the new features. I hope you like how things turned out. 🙂 Thanks for all of your great feedback so far.

Slowly but surely, I’m filling out the Brands dropdown menu with posts from the archives. Because it was something we never had before, Tabs and I (haha, okay just me) have been editing each of the 7,200 posts and clicking little checkboxes next to the brands they correspond to. That way, the posts appear when we click the corresponding brand names in the new dropdown menu.

As for the new Galleries (my favorite new feature), it’s thumbnails, thumbnails everywhere! I think the new galleries are fun, look pretty cool, and they’re a good way to discover posts you may have missed back when they were originally published (the MAC gallery goes aaaaaaall the way back to 2007). They’re also a great way to get to know me and Makeup and Beauty Blog if you’re a new visitor.

Thank you as always for visiting. Have fun, click around, make yourself at home, and I’ll see you soon in the comments. 🙂

Finding your way around Makeup and Beauty Blog…

Learning about Makeup and Beauty Blog

The Makeup and Beauty Blog Galleries

The Makeup and Beauty Blog Galleries

The Makeup and Beauty Blog Galleries
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There are 25 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Just For Fun, News

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Welcome to Makeup and Beauty Blog

Welcome to Makeup and Beauty Blog! My name is Karen, and I’m a freelance writer obsessed with makeup.

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