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’90s-Style Lip Liner, Cool-Toned Smokey Lids, and Halloween at the Pronzini Pumpkin Patch in Petaluma

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mac honeylove lipstick 90s lip k3

When I said I was on a ’90s lip liner kick last week, I WAS NOT KITTEN!

Way back in 1994, Baby Karen would have probably laughed at me for doing this matte lip because of how involved it is. It’s a rosy beige matte lip, but I used two different lip liners with the lipstick (MAC Whirl and Cork liners, because I was going for a slight gradient effect with MAC Honey Love Lipstick ), and I carefully and subtly overdrew the half of my lip that’s slightly thinner by bracing my elbow on a table.

I also cleaned up the edges with a lip brush loaded with concealer. Back in the day, I used to be able to draw lips just like this while riding on a bumpy bus and balancing a bag filled with chemistry texts on my lap. Pretty sure I was half asleep while doing it, too, HAHAHA! Ah, youth… You so crazy!

mac honeylove lipstick 90s lip k3

Anywho, I automatically associate ’90s lips with classic MAC lipsticks and liner, so (naturally) I rolled with old-school MAC matte shades for the smokey eyes — Wedge, Omega, Carbon and Brun eyeshadows — and, of course, Smolder eyeliner, an old standby.

mac honeylove lipstick 90s lip k3

Ten years ago I used to feel like this type of makeup was so dated because of the unblended liner and the lack of shimmer, but now I kinda love it! I think there’s something timeless and elegant about it.

Did you have a go-to MAC lip liner and lipstick combo back in the day?

A different kind of Halloween, and Coycoy’s first horse adventure

It was definitely a Halloween for the books. Oh, 2020, you continue to surprise me!

We spent the bulk of our Halloween day at the Pronzini Farms Pumpkin Patch in Petaluma, which, by the way, highly recommended. We’re going back next year for sure.

There were so many things to do, not just for kids of all ages, but for all types of kids. There were the traditional items for play you’d expect at a pumpkin patch, like hay pyramids, mazes and pedal cars, but there were also things like bingo, a train ride and a scavenger hunt for kids who preferred less physical activities.

Connor spent most of her time at the petting zoo connecting with a gentle brown horse named “Boogie,” and she surprised both me and El Hub by asking if she could go on a pony ride with him.

Over the past few months we’ve noticed that it takes her a while to warm up to doing something different and new, so I was thrilled to see her happily jump into the saddle to take a few turns with him. When she finished her ride I asked her how it went, and she said, “Mama, my heart was so happy when I was riding my horse.” I almost turned into a blubbering mess right then and there.

coycoy pronzini farms

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll, Vol. 650

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lets start the journey monday poll
Happy Monday to you!

So…what is the Monday Poll?

Excellent question! It isn’t, contrary to its name, an actual poll, like with little clicky buttons. It’s just a list of five more or less random questions I’ve been posting on this blog every Monday morning for the past quadrillion years (since 2007). I love reading your answers, and it helps me get my week off to a good start. ?

    1. Black, gray or brown eyeliner?

    All the shades of brown, forever and ever.

    2. Lash curlers — love ’em or leave ’em?

    Love ’em. ❤️ My Surratt curler and I roll deep.

    3. Have you been doing anything that you really like lately?

    There’ve been a few things…

    • Listening to podcasts and shows about improving my communication skills.
    • Pilates, which is my new favorite type of workout. It’s low impact and quite mentally engaging! Plus, the day after a workout I’m so, so sore, but in that good workout way.
    • Watching the leaves fall, because they’re a reminder of the changing seasons, and another reminder that “this too shall pass.”

    4. Describe your home in three words?

    Warm, cozy, fun.

    5. What’s your favorite app?

    Don’t laugh, but it’s the Target app! I go there a lot, for reals.

    6. UGGS or Doc Martens?

    My feet currently would prefer to not be challenged by the rigors of combat boot life, so I’m going to go with a pair of soft, snuggly UGGS. The more basic the better. HAHAHA!

    7. How do you squash nervous energy?

    I take some deep big belly breaths for 5-10 minutes.

    8. Three makeup/beauty items that’ve been bringing you joy lately?

    I’ve been feeling my makeup mojo coming back a little (hooray for inspiration), so there have been a few things. Off the top of my head…

    1. Lancôme fragrances (La Vie Est Belle and Idôle are LIFE).
    2. Maybelline Color Strike Shadow Pens (surprisingly great).
    3. ALL THE SKINNY BROW PENCILS.

    9. The name of your favorite fall or holiday candle?

    Cinnamon Stick, by Yankee Candle. It’s more spicy than sweet, which I like, and when I light it the scent fills the house.

    Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

    Karen

    P.S. Here are the questions to copy/paste with your answers in a comment. Talk to ya soon.

    1. Black, gray or brown eyeliner?
    2. Lash curlers: love ’em or leave ’em?
    3. Have you been doing anything that you really like lately?
    4. Describe your home in three words?
    5. What’s your favorite app?
    6. UGGS or Doc Martens?
    7. How do you squash nervous energy?
    8. Three makeup/beauty items that’ve been bringing you joy lately?
    9. The name of your favorite fall or holiday candle?

    P.P.S. Hi there, sweet girl! New month, new week, new day. It’s a big week here in America. Tomorrow is Election Day, and I don’t feel like discussing politics right now. Tensions and emotions are sky high, and our political discourse has turned toxic.

    Whatever happens tomorrow, I hope it works out for all Americans. I want the best for us all.

Sundays With Tabs the Cat, Makeup and Beauty Blog Mascot, Vol. 631

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Of all the things Tabs was, he was definitely not a minimalist. He’d go big on every occasion, but especially Halloween, and the day after his epic Halloween blowouts I would spend the day drinking green juices and detoxing while he would indulge in even more excess. I’m talking smoked fish flown in from Nova Scotia and caviar, and even though I would insist on eating a salad, I would find boxes upon boxes of Snickers all over the house.

If there were such a thing as an anti-“less is more,” it would have been him.

Yesterday I briefly wondered if he was doing it up at the Rainbow Bridge. I wonder what his costume was this year… I don’t know, I can see him being a golden mermaid.

I offered to throw Rosie a Halloween party multiple times, but she straight-up refused. She just wanted to stay home and quietly study chess. She just finished watching Queen’s Gambit, and now she wants to be a Grandmaster of cat chess.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Saturday Surfing, Oct. 31, 2020! Happy Halloween!

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Happy Halloween!

Good morning and Happy Halloween from this panda.

(Yes, my affinity for smokey eyes was the driving factor for this costume.)

We’re just about to head to the pumpkin patch I mentioned up in Petaluma, but before we go, I have to tell you about a great show I stumbled on this week called Women of Impact. You gotta watch this episode with Evy Poumpouras. She’s an author and former Secret Service Agent (she’s protected three presidents!), and she received the U.S. Secret Service Valor Award for her heroism on 9/11.

IT’S SO GOOD!

One of the things Evy talks about in the episode is the communication skills she used on the job and how to develop them in practical ways for everyday life.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the techniques in the video… I’ve tried them in a few of my interactions with people this week, and by gosh! — it definitely got me thinking about the different ways we connect with people.

Last night I used a few of the tips Evy mentions while I was getting Connor ready for bed. Instead of rushing and going through the motions, I was conscious of the tone of my voice (I softened it to make it more suitable for my “audience”) and my goal for our interaction (to have Connor feel safe and loved and free to talk to me about anything). I really think it made such a difference in the way we connected.

Big thumbs up for this video. I hope you watch it!

I just ordered Evy’s book, by the way. Will let ya know what I think about it.

Speaking of reading…here’s your list of stories for the week.


Late ’90s makeup vibes


FANTASTIC


Lifted eyes? Yes, please.


I’m sure this will come in handy someday.


There’s a chill in the air…

We’re off to the pumpkin patch! See ya soon. ?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

An Autumnal FOTD With Orange, Warm Brown, Red and Copper (Mostly MAC Makeup)

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mac marrakesh lipstick

If you require makeup inspiration, might I suggest looking at your doorway?

Wait — hear me out. That’s where I’ve been finding “inspo” for looks all week long. First, Samantha the ghost bride was my muse. Now it’s the fall leaf garland that hangs on my doorway.

Back when Coywolf was a tiny toddler with teeny pig tails!

I wore this subtle smokey eye with a warm orangey reddish brown lip to preschool pickup yesterday (I took the lipstick off before I put on my mask though) because I was feelin’ fall. The leaves are starting to fall in my neighborhood, and although it’s been climbing into the 70s for a few days, there’s a chill in the air first thing in the morning.

mac marrakesh lipstick

Been thinking a lot about ’90s makeup and so I went with a subtle version of a ’90s-style unblended lip liner in this by pairing a dark burgundy liner with matte orangey reddish brown lipstick. I wanted the liner to be present but not overly obvious… You can kinda see it from some angles more than others, but it’s there!

mac marrakesh swatches

mac marrakesh lipstick eye closeup

By the way, this lipstick, MAC Marrakesh, is one of those orangey reddish brown that deserves more love! It’s a matte lippie in the permanent collection, and it’s loaded with vibrant, lush pigment. If you like MAC Chili (which is similar, but redder) or MAC Paramount (also similar, but browner and redder), then I think you’ll like Marrakesh too.

You can wear it with any and all of your warm brown eyeshadows, like MAC Saddle or Soft Brown; it also pairs well with peachy browns like Amber Lights and bronzy browns like Antiqued. For matching eyeliners, try MAC Teddy or Costa Riche (which is what I’m wearing here)!

Makeup Worn in this look

  • EYES: MAC Costa Riche liner (buffed all over lids and applied to lash and water lines); MAC Eyeshadows in Brown Down (outer v and upper lash line as eyeliner), Havana (outer lid) and Sweet Heat (inner lid), Urban Decay Brow Beater Pencil in Neutral Brown, Laura Mercier Caviar Mascara
  • CHEEKS: MAC Gingerly Blush, MAC Give Me Sun Mineralize Skinfinish Natural
  • LIPS: MAC Burgundy Lip Liner, MAC Marrakesh Lipstick
  • BASE: Lancome Skin Feels Good Hydrating Skin Tint in Tan

School pics!

Coywolf started preschool just in time to take school pics this year.

If you look closely, you might be able to see her painted nails!

In other news, do you have any plans this weekend? Happy early Halloween to you. We’re taking Connor to a pumpkin patch tomorrow (she’s dressing up as Rapunzel), and then on Sunday I’m going to bake all the pies for Pie Quest 2020. Thank you for your baking tips for the crust, by the way (you can find them in the comments here, if you’re interested). If all goes well with the pumpkin pie, then the next pie I’m going to tackle is pecan pie, and then apple pie, because LOOK!

Did you know that such a gadget existed?! I had no idea.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. TGIF!

Urban Decay Empire Eyeliner Is an Enchanting Jewel-Toned Gem

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urban decay empire
A little obsessed with Urban Decay Empire

If you like the KAPOW! of black eyeliner but usually gravitate toward subtler shades like charcoal gray and brown, first of all, HELLO, ARE WE MAKEUP TWINS? Second, check out Urban Decay’s 24/7 Glide-On Pencil in Empire ($22), a jeweled eggplant purple. Allegedly, it is not magical…but I’m not so sure about that.

urban decay empire closeup
Fallin’ for purple wings

Whenever I want some serious smoke, Empire softens into a hazy, gorgeous gradient…that’s also smudge-proof when it sets and stays put on lash and water lines. You can also use the super-smooth formula to draw razor-sharp wings or trace your lash lines with skinny-mini streaks.

urban decay empire k smile
Understated purple drama

Depending on the lighting, sometimes it looks matte, and sometimes there’s a hint of shimmer.

Magic, I tell ya!

Empire is a permanent fixture in UD’s lineup. Could it be your new favorite eyeliner for fall? ?

Ballerina daughters

Because Rosie is my youngest child. ? Anyway, Connor takes a live Zoom ballet class on Wednesdays, and apparently Rosie has decided she’s a ballerina too.

She parks her torbie booty in the middle of the floor and watches Connor jump over her and twirl around. It’s the funniest thing because Rosie’s just so chill about it. I’ve never seen a cat so unbothered…

Now Connor’s ballet teacher and the other little girls are used to Rosie’s cameos in class. I’m tempted to get her a little kitty ballet tutu of her own!

I’m running to Target in a few to grab some last-minute Halloween items because it’s going to be a very IMPROV Halloween ’round these parts this year.

Remember the crazy things we did, like go to Halloween parties?
And parks?!

Since nobody’s really trick-or-treating in our town this year, we’re taking Coywolf to a pumpkin patch on Halloween morning, and then we’re going to carve jack-o-lanterns in the afternoon. I’m also going to try doing a Halloween candy hunt for her (kinda like an Easter Egg hunt) in our little circle, if I pull it off.

What are you up to? I hope all is well.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

A Ghost Bride Vibe: Sooty Smokey Lids With Matte Black Lips

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mac caviar retro matte liquid lipstick samantha

Is this look wearable? I guess it depends on who you’re talking to. If you’re chatting with El Hub, he’d probably say, “Um, not really,” and he would encourage you to *not* wear this sooty smokey purplish blue smokey eye to pick up a small child at her preschool.

(Side note: I seriously considered it, but then I chickened out at the last minute, and now I deeply regret not cementing my legacy as the crazy-@ss mom who showed up at pickup in black lipstick.)

If you ask Samantha, though — she’s the Halloween ghost who haunts my doorway — she would first say, “B*tch stole me look!” LOL. Then she’d she’d say, “One hundred percent, YES, channel your inner goth Billy Idol White Wedding bride.”

mac caviar retro matte liquid lipstick

mac caviar retro matte liquid lipstick

This is my “take two” at Samantha-inspired makeup! I wanted to push it a little further this time and tried to go more “edgy,” as opposed to wearable, but ultimately I think it ended up looking kinda casual cool, and yes, totally wearable. If we were back in the ’90s when I went through my (very brief) baby goth phase, I would’ve legit worn these lips and eyes everywhere.

Layering is the key

I really, really enjoyed putting this face on, and part of the reason was because it happened so quickly. I didn’t really think about it. I just started layering and mixing and blending and 20 minutes later there it was. With this type of smokey editorial/edgy eye makeup, I think the following things really help:

  1. Embrace the imperfection. This is the type of smokey eye makeup that, I think, almost looks better the messier it gets. Let your brushes and your imagination push past what you’d normally do, and take your products higher up the lid and further down the lash line than you’d usually go. It might look weird to you at first (it always does for me because I’m not used to seeing that type of placement), but do it anyway.
  2. Layers, layers, layers. Really, this is key. If you want the effect of a puff of smoke around the lids, where that super-blended gradient leads one color easily into the next, bust out ALL THE THINGS. At the minimum, you’ll need your favorite smudgy eye pencil, a cream shadow or two, and some powder eyeshadows that you also like that work with your color palette.
  3. Blend that sh*t. When your fingers are about to fall off, you’re probably close to done.

mac caviar retro matte liquid lipstick

mac caviar retro matte liquid lipstick

Oh, and about that black lip…I applied a matte liquid lipstick first (MAC Caviar), then defined the edges with a super sharp matte black pencil liner. Yes, girl. Black eyeliner as lip liner! My friends and I used to use it both as liner and lipstick back in the ’90s when we wanted to wear matte black lips.

Makeup worn in this look

A couple weird things

I was craving an egg over easy yesterday for lunch and look what happened when I cracked my egg open…

I dunno, maybe I’m fully in superstitious Halloween mode, but I was kinda freaked out! I couldn’t help but wonder if it’s part of a scary Filipino old wives tale, and even though it (irrationally) scared me a little, I still ate most of it…although toward the last few bites I ended up psyching myself out.

On a (somewhat) related weird note, look what I found this morning in the middle of my bed!

I’m guessing Rosie Posie got hold of it during the wee hours of the morning, LOL!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Moody Makeup Time! Smokey Blue Lids and Matte Berry Lips (and a Trip to Gabriel Farm)

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mac burning love maybelline ace front
When your hair and makeup evoke Disney Villain vibes

You know you’re a makeup lover when your penchant for puffs of sooty blue drives your Halloween decor decisions.

samantha the ghost closeup
OF COURSE I would want the ghost wearing makeup.

Behold the floaty ghost bride currently welcoming visitors to our humble abode. Despite being undead, she’s very proud of her dark lip and blue smokey eyes.

Oh, and her dark burgundy nails.

This is Samantha, and she hangs out in my doorway. I haven’t asked her yet, but I’m kinda wondering what her wedding theme was and whether Billy Idol was the groom.

Inquiring minds want to know…


This video scared the living crap out of me when I was a kid!

Samantha was the one who inspired this look I’m wearing, and if we were to hold a “Who wore it better?” battle, she would definitely have won this round because I could’ve/should’ve pushed it further.

mac burning love maybelline ace with samantha
Just the girls

I was going for a wearable version of her look, but I’m feeling like, with these blue lids — which, by the way, I did with an awesome new product from Maybelline called Color Strike (they call it “a cream-to-powder shadow pen”) — I should’ve just taken the shadow all the way up into the brows and maybe even further down the lower lash line. Oh, and what if I’d layered the blue shadow with a black or dark purple pencil and switched out the berry lip for a straight-up black? That could have been even cooler.

Hmm… I think I just figured out tomorrow’s FOTD!

mac burning love maybelline ace closeup

mac burning love maybelline ace smile

samantha the ghost
Samantha?!

By the way, if you’re admiring Samantha’s mani, I highly recommend Smith & Cult’s Dark Like Me. 🙂

samantha smith cult dark like me

Makeup Worn in this look

Fall adventures at the farm

Connor had last Friday off from preschool, so she and I met up with her bestie (and her BFF’s mom) for a fun day at Gabriel Farm in Sebastapol.

It’s an organic family-run farm that offers a yearly seasonal membership valid from June through November. A family membership is $40, and when you join you get a HUGE box of delicious, sweet and crunchy Asian pears. You also have access to the farm during those months and can visit as often as you like to pick and pay for whichever fruit and flowers are in season that month (fruit is charged by the pound). They grow berries, tomatoes, apples, Asian pears, persimmon, pineapple guava and flowers.

There’s also a cute picnic area tucked away in a gorgeous grove of persimmon trees, so when you’re done picking your goodies you can relax in the shade with your bounty.

The girls had fun picking berries and exploring the farm, and then played for hours under the trees. If you have a little person to entertain, or if you’ve got a hankering to spend some time outside, I highly recommend it.

persimmon grove gabriel farm

There were multiple hand-washing stations around the property, and masks and social distancing were required. Connor and I went as guests of our friends this time, but next year I’m definitely signing up for a membership!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

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