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A Summery Face of the Day with Too Faced Natural Eye Palette

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Can I have a fan blowing my hair back like this 24/7? Please?

Even though summer’s quickly slipping away, I’m not ready to let it go. It’s hella hot again today in Nor Cal, so I couldn’t resist busting out this summery look with shimmery golden brown eyes.

Remember the Too Faced Natural Eye Palette from a few days back? I followed the Fashion eye look instructions, adding Cargo’s awesome Plant Love Eyeliner in Black to the waterline for a little extra oomph.

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The other stars in this summery show are NARS Blush in Torrid and our girl MAC Nymphette.

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Excuse the fan action, LOL! It’s sooo cheesy but I *love* it. 🙂

How’s it going out in your neck of the woods? Got any exciting Friday night plans? I’m not sure what I’m doing yet, but whateva it is I hope it involves air conditioning!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Lovely Luxuries: Chanel Mousse Exfoliante Purete Cleanser

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chanel mousse exfoliante purete review

TGIF, lovelies! Celebrating payday today? Take a quick trip with me down indulgence lane to check out Chanel’s newest cleanser, Mousse Exfoliante Purete ($45), a gentle exfoliator for oily-to-combination skin.

Project TURN INTO A MORNING KAREN is still in full gear, and this little luxury jump starts my early day with a nice treat.

Tiny exfoliating beads in this creamy cleanser mildly slough off excess skin without rubbing me raw. After rinsing, my face and neck feel soft, clean and refreshed, not itchy or tight.

As the day wears on, Mousse Exfoliante continues working its mojo, reducing the greasy look and feel of Oil Slick City, aka my forehead and nose. Perhaps it’s the extract of meadowsweet (a fragrant herb containing chemicals used to make aspirin), a botanical ingredient Chanel added to control excess oil.

Mousse Exfoliante Purete isn’t cheap, but that’s bidness as usual for Chanel. One great upside, though, is that it’s very concentrated.

A teeny amount of product produces plenty of rich foam. To cleanse my face and neck thoroughly, I use a blueberry-sized pinch. I’m guessing this bottle could last at least eight months.

For drugstore divas desiring something similar, consider Clean & Clear’s Soft Purifying Cleanser Scrub, a mild exfoliating cleanser at the pocketbook-friendly price of $7.

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Food for my soul

I needed some new running music last night, so I downloaded a couple of random songs from rapper Talib Kweli. Have you heard his music before? My hip-hop teacher played a few songs during earlier this week, and I was moved by his amazing lyrics. A few of my favorites so far are his songs Get By and I Try.
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MAC Unsung Hero: Nymphette Lipglass

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MAC Nymphette Lipglass and I met at a MAC counter some 10 years ago when a friendly MAC makeup artist introduced us.

You know how it went — SPARKS! We had great chemistry from the start, and the shimmery golden pink lipgloss went on to become one of my all-time MAC favorites. To this day it’s a staple in many of my looks with smokey eyes.

mac cosmetics nymphette review swatch

mac cosmetics nymphette swatch review

Because Nymphette packs a lot of pigment, I can use it without layers of lipstick and/or lipliner beneath.

For me, the result’s an easy, breezy, neutral lip look that stands the test of time. 🙂

Have you met Nymphette?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Bloggerati Spotlight

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The Beauty Bloggerati

Heya, ladies. I hope you had a nice afternoon. Friday’s right around the corner, and unless something totally unexpected happens in the next four hours, it looks like we’re gonna make it! 🙂

Do you have any plans tonight? After I click the ‘publish’ button on this post (some fantastic stuff from my girls in Daily Makeover’s Beauty Bloggerati this week), I’m gonna make my din-din and plop myself down on the couch for a few hours of quality TV me time, yea!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

MAC Nail Trend F/W ’09 By Jin Soon Brings Big Improvements to Lacquer Line

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There’s something moody about the polishes in the new MAC Nail Trend F/W ’09 by Jin Soon collection — not PMS moody, but Joy Division/black lipstick/angry love poetry kinda moody.

The bulk of the colors in this eight-piece collection feel dark, serious and hard-edged. The closest to puppies-and-flowers is Cool Reserve ($12), a creamy grayish purple.

Coincidentally, it’s my favorite!

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Cool Reserve

I’m drawn to Cool Reserve’s softness and femininity. Some of the other colors, like Dry Martini (a creamy dark khaki), feel almost masculine to me. They’re cool, but not my style at the moment.

There are different strokes for different folks, though, so take a look at the rest of the swatches and let me know what ya think…

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For Fun

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Dry Martini

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Beyond Jealous
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Too Faced Shadow Insurance: A Bald Eyebrow’s BFF

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Believe it or not, there are a few positives to accidentally hacking off your left eyebrow.

Besides discovering the psychological healing power of long bangs, Raul’s provided the opportunity to solve interesting new problems, like figuring out how to hide a partially bald brow while sweating like a pig (no offense, Miss P!).

Yesterday at hip-hop class, aka sweaty Karen central, I discovered a great trick to keeping filled-in brows put with the help of Too Faced Shadow Insurance ($17).

Normally, I use this invisible primer to lock eyeshadow down. Before heading to class last night, on a whim I patted some primer directly onto the sparse patch before filling it in with the Clarins Eyebrow Kit Pro Palette.

I figured the worst that could happen would be beads of black sweat streaming down my cheeks (ewww). Fingers crossed and hoping for the best, I went about getting my booty shake on.

You know what? It totally worked. As I Cabbaged Patched and Robo Copped my way through yet another old school routine, the filled-in spot miraculously refused to budge. And even though I was drenched at the end of the 90-minute class, Raul totally stayed on the ‘low. Yes!

While I lurves me some Too Faced Shadow Insurance, I’m guessing any invisible eyeshadow primer could work. A few to consider: Urban Decay Potion Primer ($17), Tarte Lifted Natural Eye Primer ($20) and Benefit F. Y. Eye ($22).

MAC attack!

In two shakes I’m heading over to MAC to check out the new Nail Trend F/W ’09 By Jin Soon collection.

I’ve been testing the polish for durability over the past week, and so far it’s held up really well. Here’s an updated photo of Dance All Night (a creamy brick red):
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