A few pics of my BFF’s new little man.
As you can see, he’s quite the charmer. 🙂
Let’s Hear It for the Boy
The Weekly Roundup: Posts You Might Have Missed
Sawing logs. That’s what my friend Jen’s new baby boy was doing during our visit yesterday while I marveled at his tiny fingers and toes. He’s just about two weeks old now, so his primary pastimes involve sleeping, eating and posing for pictures (he takes after his Auntie Karen!).
Rise and shine, morning glory. 🙂 It’s going to be a beautiful day.
What have you been up to this weekend? If you’re a MAC fan, this was one heck of a week!
The Weekly Roundup: Posts You Might Have Missed
LOOKING FOR A DREAMY, CREAMY LIPSTICK THAT LASTS?
TRY THE NEW MAC PRO LONGWEAR LIPCREMES
Lovahs of long-wearing lipstick, prepare to park your pout in front of the new MAC Pro Longwear Lipcremes for a prolonged play session when the MAC Styledriven collection cruises onto counters in t-minus 10 days.
Available in 12 shades of long-wearing pink, plum, orange, red and purple, these pigmented pretties may cost a bit more than MAC’s regular lipsticks ($17 U.S./$20 CDN versus $14.50 U.S./$17.50 CDN), but if you like creamy, pigmented lipsticks that latch onto lips and won’t let go, they deliver that much and a whole lot more. Read more…
CHANEL LES JEANS DE CHANEL
AT LEAST THESE JEANS ALWAYS FIT
Creamy Blue Rebel, the darkest of the three limited edition blue nail polishes that comprise Les Jeans de Chanel, is my favorite of the three, and like its two siblings — Coco Blue (a sky blue with subtle shimmer) and Boy Blue (a creamy denim) — it dries to a lovely high-shine finish. I’ve been using three coats to achieve full opacity with Coco Blue and Boy Blue but only need two coats for full opacity with Blue Rebel.
All three of these shades speak to my soul, but the angels aren’t singing in the same way they did for Vendetta, Riva and Jade. Read more…
I’D LIKE TO KISS THE INVENTOR OF THESE
MAC PRO LONGWEAR LIP PENCILS
In the summer before my freshman year of high school, my friend Nancy taught me how to kiss.
I hadn’t had a boyfriend yet but figured I should probably prepare myself before school started, just in case. Nancy, having dated a boy earlier that year, was my closest friend with the appropriate experience, so on our breaks during the algebra class we took together that summer, Nancy dispensed various pearls of kissing wisdom like, 1) Eat grape lollipops before kissing to freshen the breath (according to Nancy, they worked better than breath mints), and 2) Observe proper gum etiquette (gum should not change owners during a make-out session). Read more…
GOING THE DISTANCE WITH THE
MAC STYLEDRIVEN PRO LONGWEAR EYE SHADOWS
Pigment. Like. Whoa.
I’m serious. These new MAC Pro Longwear Eye Shadows ($20 U.S./$24 CDN each) from the MAC Styledriven collection, like the Pro Longwear lip products we looked at last week, are built to throw down.
With potent pigments, a downy soft texture and an easy-to-blend formula, these powder eyeshadows look and feel to me like muscled up MAC permanent shadows in the Veluxe Pearl finish (picture Woodwinked but even cooler). Read more…
COMING SOON: THE NEW BARE ESCENTUALS BAREMINERALS
READY EYESHADOW 8.0 PALETTES IN THE COCKTAIL HOUR AND THE PLAYLIST
Calling all Bare Escentuals bareMinerals babes. Set your calendars for November 1, and title the reminder, “2 new BM eyeshadow palettes coming out today.”
The limited edition Ready Eyeshadow 8.0 Palettes in The Cocktail Hour and The Playlist ($40 apiece) promenade into Bare Escentuals Boutiques on November 1, each with eight new Bare Escentuals bareMinerals pressed eyeshadow shades. Read more…
MAC ART OF POWDER
PERFECTS THE ART OF SUBTLETY
How does that song go again — “These boots heels aren’t meant for walking, because that’s not what they do”?
Something like that… You know what kind of heels I’m talking about. Most of us have at least one pair in our closet. Heels that look great on the shelf but hurt like hell when you take more than a few steps in ‘em.
Don’t tell El Hub (shhh!), but I, uh, have a few heels like that in my closet. I call them my “look but don’t touch” shoes. Beautiful to look at, but they’re completely useless attached to a pair of feet. Read more…
THE MAC POSH PARADISE
PAINT POTS HAVE PIGMENT TO SPARE
Hark! Is that the herald angels singing or the sound of MAC Posh Paradise parading onto counters?
Huzzah! Huzzah! It’s the 20-piece Posh Paradise collection, and it officially arrives in stores and counters tomorrow (if you can’t wait, it is available now online).
The release features 10 Mattene Lipsticks, two Nail Lacquers and eight Paint Pots in luscious shades of red, pink, blue, plum, orange, bronze and gold. Read more…
MC K-DAWG ON THE MIC
SONIA KASHUK FALL 2011 NAIL COLOUR
Here’s a shout-out to Sonia K. Her new Nail Colours, I just gotta say, might be some of my fave fall colors, haaay! At $4.99, they don’t cost too much. Two coats will do you if you’re in a rush. The brush? So precise. Formula? Smoove as ice. The colors? Très glam, and ooh! — look at that price.
Sugar Rush, well, hey, yes, she’s a baby pink. Chocoholic is a dark reddish brown (so distinct!). Mauving on Up, I know I’ve seen before. Blank Slate’s bluish gray, I totally adore. Read more…
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
A Little Bit of Magic
The new Pixi All-Over Magic Powder in No. 2 Rose Radiance, $24. Available now at Target stores.
Cute, yah?
You Gotta Put in Work with Styledriven’s MAC Pro Longwear Lipglasses
I have mixed emotions about Styledriven’s MAC Pro Longwear Lipglasses…
As a longtime Lipglass fan (10 years plus!), I expected to fall hard for these super pigmented, ultra shiny, long-wearing glosses, but beyond a few similarities — a sticky consistency and a light vanilla flavor and scent — they’re quite unlike their older cousins. As for pigment, MAC increased the dosage. They also thickened the formula, cranked up the shine and replaced the traditional doe-foot applicator with a paddle in the shape of an hourglass.
Pro Longwear Lipglasses, $18.50 U.S./$22 CDN each, from the left: Lasting Achievement, Infinitely Likable, Full Speed Ahead, Driven By Love and Dark As Night
Pro Longwear Lipglasses swatches from the left: Dark As Night, Driven By Love, Full Speed Ahead, Infinitely Likable and Lasting Achievement
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Don’t Miss These Great Guest Posts
I’m really proud of the guest bloggers who’ve submitted posts to MBB over the past couple of years. First, because I know how much time and effort can go into putting together a review or a tutorial, especially one you really care about, and second, because I can be a perfectionist (see, it’s not just Tabs). In some cases, I ask guest bloggers to retake some of their photographs or revise their written drafts, always trying to make the finished product the best we both think it can be. And I think we’ve done a pretty good job. 🙂
If you’ve missed any of these recent guest posts, I encourage you to check them out, and if you do find them interesting, please visit the author’s site.
Be a Flying Beauty with These Airplane Beauty Tips
Is Milk of Magnesia a Cure for Oily Skin?
Where to Buy Asian Beauty Brands
Have You Haired About Coconut Oil?
How to Apply Liquid Foundation
MASS. to Melbourne: Beauty Down Unda’
Two Ways to Win a $50 eGift Card from Sephora!
- WINNER: The giveaway is closed now, and the winner is Danni! Congratulations, Danni! If you entered but didn’t win this time around, keep trying, and click here to enter any ongoing giveaways before you jet. 🙂
Rise and shine, morning glory. Before we get to the giveaway, I gotta talk about Drive! El Hub and I caught a late showing last night, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.
In Drive, Ryan Gosling tears. It. Up. Boy is so bad@ss as a getaway driver with a heart of gold that he makes me want to drive to Trader Joe’s right now really, really fast, sitting down low in the driver’s seat with my collar turned up, a pair of black leather driving gloves on my hands and mirror-finish shades.
Strong and silent describe Ryan’s unnamed character in the film, and that’s what I think it is, too, a film. This ain’t no cheesy popcorn flick. Ain’t no Fast and the Furious knockoff. It’s a movie muscle car, part ’70s heist caper, part ’80s art-house picture, part hopeless romance meets man-in-peril at a NASCAR race.
I loved it! I’d never heard of the director, Nicolas Winding Refn, before, but it’s as if he channeled the best parts of David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino (whom I usually don’t like) and Martin Scorsese. I can see the group of them meeting for peach cobbler and coffee at some old diner in L.A. one morning scribbling out the storyboard on little white napkins. Refn took all the best parts of The Notebook, Days of Thunder, Purple Rain, The Fugitive and Casino and combined them to make something pretty cool and different.
Okay, I’ll stop. Suffice it to say, watch it! Highly recommended, even though it is violent, and Ryan Gosling doesn’t show his tum. 🙁
In other news, it’s…
Totally cool how we don’t even know Ryan’s character’s name in the movie. I don’t think they ever said it once.
- One (1) Sephora eGift card containing $50 sent to the winner by email (international readers, you may opt to receive $50 sent by PayPal instead).
- There are two ways to enter, and you can do both of them for two chances to win. First, you can enter by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post, a comment about anything at all, like, how old were you when you got your driver’s license? Tell me about your first car. Do you like wearing sunglasses? Do you ever put on makeup while you’re driving (you can be honest; not judgment here) — you get the idea.
- Second, you can enter by following me on
Twitter @karenmbb and retweeting (RT) the following message:
- Follow @karenmbb and RT to Win a $50 eGift Card from Sephora! http://bit.ly/osKuDV
- The deadline to enter is Sunday, September 18, 2011 at 11:59PM (PT).
- Entrants must enter using a valid email address and/or Twitter account to win.
- A maximum of two (2) entries per person — one within the comments at the bottom of this post, and a second entry via Twitter addressed to me @karenmbb.
- Contest is open to individuals of any country who have reached the age of majority according to their local laws (18 in the United States with these exceptions: Alabama and Nebraska, 19; Mississippi, 21).
- Sephora eGift Certificates can only be redeemed online and are not valid in stores or available for purchase or redemption in Canada. International winners may opt to substitute the Sephora eGift card prize for $50 sent directly to their email address by PayPal instead.
- Tabs and I (heretofore referred to as “T-Money and K-Dawg”) will select one (1) winner at random from the entries either left in the comments at the bottom of this blog post or addressed to @karenmbb on Twitter.
- The winner will be announced here within 48 hours of the deadline.
- Void where prohibited by law.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
- WINNER: The giveaway is closed now, and the winner is Danni! Congratulations, Danni! If you entered but didn’t win this time around, keep trying, and click here to enter any ongoing giveaways before you jet. 🙂
Smoke It Up With JK Jemma Kidd
The new JK Jemma Kidd Smoke It Up I-Kit, $22. Available now at Target stores and also online.
What do you think of the silver eyeshadow? I would’ve put in a gold pan, but I guess it adds a cool contrast to the rest of palette.
New From Pixi: Beauty Blush
Three new Beauty Blushes from Pixi. From the left: Healthiest Honey, Perkiest Pink and Purest Peach, $16 each. Available now at Target stores.