Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup

A beauty blog blooming with fresh makeup reviews, swatches and beauty tips from your friendly neighborhood beauty addict

Beauty Snacks: Sites of the Day, Dec. 17

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Designer Karl Lagerfeld strikes a pose with models from the Chanel 2009 Ready to Wear Show in Paris

When I Grow Up

As much as I wish it weren’t true, the day will come again when I’ll need to look responsible for something like a job interview. When that day comes, I hope I’m dressed from head to toe in something stylish yet practical like the gorgeous fixin’s from the Chanel Spring 2009 collection. HAWT!

Gimme, Gimme… Internetz

Welcome to the future, where 46 percent of American women and 30 percent of their male counterparts say they’d prefer to have to go without sex for two weeks than be deprived of Internet access for the same length of time. Brutal.

Dear Santa,

Please bring Tabs a lil’ kitty brother or sister for Christmas. PLEASE!

Smooth Skin Is Just a (Homemade) Sugar Scrub Away

YUM! These recipes for homemade sugar scrubs sound good enough to eat.

Unruly Brows, Meet Your Match

My brows are like mandrake roots, LOL! They tend to jut off at weird angles. I need to hit the drugstore for a tube of Maybelline Define-a-Brow, stat!

Sweet Sleep Smells

Do you have trouble getting a good night’s sleep? Me too! Maybe we need to fill our rooms with roses and lavender.

Hope you’re having a great hump day morning so far. If you’re reading this between the hours of 9AM-2PM PST, I’m in a jumbo jet somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, dreaming of makeup, cheesy teen fiction and my beloved fussy tabby. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Did you catch the season finale of Blush on Lifetime last night? What did you think of Nolan? Or the shocking news about Todd?

Berry Me in Tarte Berry Couture for the Holidays

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Tarte wants to wish you a very berry Christmas with the Berry Couture gift set ($35).

It comes with two products (actually, three, because one’s a duo) — one full-sized Cheek Stain and a mini-Rise and Shine lip duo with a gloss and a stain — items perfect for rushed makeup morning or for those moments when you just want a little color.

The shade is a limited edition, sheer strawberry red called Berrylicious. YUM!


From left to right: Berrylicious Cheek Stain, Lipgloss, Lipstain

An Easy Natural Flush

For the look above, I used Berrylicious Cheek Stain on my cheeks and the stain and gloss from the Rise and Shine lip duo on my lips. It’s easy to apply and wear — no extra brushes required!

First, I swipe the Cheek Stain stick once onto the apples of each cheek once (it feels really moist and slick), and then blend in the edges with my fingers. After a minute or so, the blush dries to a sheer, matte, pinched-cheeks flush.

The Rise and Shine duo comes with doe foot applicators on both ends — easy to use.

The lip stain has a gel consistency. I get the best results with it when I allow it to dry for about 30 seconds, and then add a layer of the gloss on top. It’s supposed to be a plumping gloss, but my lips don’t really look significantly bigger. They do, however, take on that “I’ve just had a hot hour-long make out session” look.

Daily Photo

I’m heading home to Hawaii for the holidays with El Hub tomorrow morning. Our mom is doing better and recovering from the two mastectomies last month. We can’t wait to see her!

This morning I dropped off Tabs at the kitty hotel again… Poor guy was not happy about it, but we don’t really know our neighbors well enough to ask them to take care of him. I miss him already… 🙁

On my way back from Hotel Cattyfornia I ran into Starbucks for a latte. The guy in front of me in line had a parrot on his shoulder, pirate style.


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A Smokey Eye Tutorial with MAC Cosmetics Metal Urge Gilded Ash Cream Shadow and Cocomotion Pigment

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Smokey Eye ‘Til I Die!

I don’t know if I’ll ever tire of doing smokey eyes. There are just so many different ways to work the look, like this spin on a daytime eye for work. It’s a method I learned from my favorite MAC artist, Jen, using products from the MAC Metal Urge and Red She Said collections.

Featured Products

I use quite a few different products for this look, but the most important MAC ones (because of their overall influence on the look) are…


How to Get the Look

For me, the easiest way to do a smokey eye is to layer textured products. Here, I layer powder eyeshadow, pigment and cream shadow.

I start by dotting Laura Mercier Eye Basics in Wheat over my entire lid. It’s a primer used here to prevent creasing and helps the eye makeup last longer.

With my finger, I blend Eye Basics evenly over the the entire lid.

Next, I load a MAC 217 Blending Brush by swiping it across the pan of Gilded Ash, and then brush the shadow onto the lid and just barely into the crease.

I repeat the previous step several times, building upon the color, and fading it from the lid into the crease.

Then, with a MAC 252 Large Shader Brush, I apply Cocomotion Pigment into the crease and use a MAC 224 Tapered Blending Brush to mellow out any harsh edges.

Next, I take the 252 and sweep MAC Ricepaper Eyeshadow underneath the entire brow, concentrating most of the color at the highest point of the brow’s arch.

Grabbing my trusty 224, I run the brush head along the edges of the color to soften any obvious lines.

Then, to enhance the smokey effect a little bit more, I pat the dark brown shade from the Inter-View eyeshadow trio onto the outer third of my lid with a MAC 228 Mini Shader Brush.
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Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll, Dec. 15

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  1. Mood:

    2. Hopeful

  2. Hair:

    3. Down and stick straight (thanks, Sedu Revolution!)

  3. Shoes:

    4. Pink fluffy slippers

  4. Nails:

    5. Essie Sexy Divide

  5. Last movie I watched:

    6. John Tucker Must Die

  6. AWWW, HELL YAH!:

    7. Coffee, The Librarian movies staring Noah Wylie, hella old school R&B by Babyface (Whip Appeal, anyone?) and puzzle video games like Frozen Bubble

  7. AWWW, HELL NAAW!:

    8. Getting a terrible stomachache after eating leftover shrimp scampi with roasted garlic for breakfast (BAD IDEA!), rooms filled with scary vacant stares at The Wax Museum, forgetting to shave a leg in the shower and only realizing it *after* I’ve dried off and applied lotion

  8. Lipstick/Lipgloss:

    9. Chanel Rouge Allure in Naive/MAC Lipglass in Clear

  9. Blush:

    10. NARS the Multiple Duo in Portofino/Malibu

  10. Weekly Goals:

    11. To keep my desk clean, to avoid procrastinating and to drink lots of water

Let’s get this party started, yes? Just copy the empty list, and paste it with your answers in the comments. 🙂

Le list

Mood:
Hair:
Shoes:
Nails:
Last movie I watched:
AWWW, HELL YAH!:
AWWW, HELL NAAW!:
Lipstick/Lipgloss:
Blush:
Weekly goals:

Monday… WOOT!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

The Body Shop Presents: Peppermint Pursuit

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Are you ready to win $150 in products from The Body Shop? I hope so — because it’s time to play Peppermint Pursuit!

Follow the clue to get your hands on the Peppermint Pursuit Gift Pack (an assortment of peppermint foot care products) and some of The Body Shop’s customer favorites, yea!

The Prize

Best of The Body Shop
Camomile Gentle Eye Make-Up Remover
Vitamin E Intense Moisturizer
Divide & Multiply Mascara
Shea Body Butter
Coconut Oil Hair Shine

Peppermint Footcare Package
Peppermint Cooling Foot Lotion
Peppermint Cooling Foot Rescue Treatment
Peppermint Cooling Foot Spray
Peppermint Cooling Pumice Foot Scrub
No More Rough Stuff Pumice
Moisture Booties

Tabs loves peppermint almost as much as he loves catnip. 🙂

The Rules

Peppermint Pursuit is an online scavenger hunt kindly sponsored by The Body Shop. The rules are easy.

Read the following clue, and then click the featured products link to go to the The Body Shop site. Using the clue as your guide, guess which of the featured products the clue describes, and then leave your guess here in the comments on this post. I’ll pick the winner at random from among the people who leave the correct answer (odds of winning: about 100,000 times better than the lottery, LOL!) by 11PM PST tonight.

The Clue

Color flush on cheeks like a delicate flower
This blush will enhance your inner power
Look for a design with a little pizzazz
And your face will be happy to give all it has.


Featured products link: click here!

Last night I told Tabs it was gonna be a hard candy Christmas and a lean year for gifts. In retaliation, he bit my toe, flipped over his litter box and grumbled as he walked out of the room.

Don’t be like Tabs.

More Chances to Win!

Each day this week, a different blogger pal will post a new clue leading to a different set of products, and there will be a new winning product each day with a new chance to win. Good luck, and congratulations to readers babyu21 and nessa for winning last week’s Olay giveaway!

Tuesday — http://www.makeupbag.net
Wednesday — http://www.christinaloves.com
Thursday — http://www.mythbusterbeauty.com
Friday — http://www.specktra.net

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Check out the surprisingly good The Body Shop Blog for little-known discounts, beauty tips and industry watchdog news.

Golden Lips and Golden Girls: MAC Pink Treat, Chanel Astral and Benefit Gilded

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Golden Lips and Golden Girls, Part II: The Rose

Ya’ll know I loves me some Blanche, but I couldn’t leave the other Golden Girls hanging without lip looks of their own!

Today’s look salutes the ditsy yet oh-so-lovable Rose Nylund and features Benefit Gilded Pencil, MAC Pink Treat Cremestick Liner and Chanel Astral Glossimer (a glittery hot pink).

I was inspired by Rose’s golden hair and the pink flush of her cheeks whenever she tells crazy St. Olaf stories.

While it has crossed my mind that very few people may appreciate Rose and The Golden Girls as much as I do (LOL!), I think the pink and gold in this lip look perfectly capture Rose’s cheerful personality.



From left to right: MAC Pink Treat, Benefit Gilded, Chanel Astral

The Look

I started by lining and filling my lips with a layer of MAC Pink Treat and a layer of Benefit Gilded pencil directly on top for added shimmer. Then, for even more sparkle and shine, I popped on a layer of Chanel Astral Glossimer.

For a more subdued version of this lip look, I’d skip the gloss. MAC Pink Treat and Benefit Gilded make for a pretty matte lip all on their own!

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Sundays with Tabs the Cat, Makeup and Beauty Blog Mascot, Dec. 14

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Tabs sure was fired up last night! — so fired up, in fact, that I had to kick him out before going to bed. He was mrowling around with his ears pulled back, jumping at spots on the walls and swatting at shadows, LOL!

He did make it home for breakfast, though, sufficiently spent and back to his usual charming self. 🙂

Here are all of the past Sundays with Tabs posts going back to their inauspicious start last summer.

I hope you’re having a good Sunday so far. Tabs says hi!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Makeup and Beauty Blog Saturday Night

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Heya, ladies!

I’d planned to write a couple more posts this afternoon, but I started playing with Photoshop and lost all track of time.

After Photoshopping I got the unrelenting urge to clean off my desk. The piles of paper have been holding me hostage! And that took a few hours, but I’m *finally* done. I’ve re-aligned my desk feng shui, yea! We’ll see how long that lasts…

I found a few goodies under the mess, like the sea biscuit I picked up in Key West and this bunny finger puppet (up top). He’s been gone a while… It was like finding buried treasure, I tell ya.

Tonight, I’m just chilling out at home. On the agenda: practice applying false lashes! I have a few pairs from Lash Addiction ($6 each) that I’ve been dying to try.

As for background music, I’m in trouble. I’m secretly trying to drive El Hub and Tabs crazy by playing Britney Spears’ Trouble over and over and over again until someone snaps, LOL!

What are you up to tonight? 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. MAC addicts — a quick update on the Chill collection. The release date has been moved up to December 18th! Woot, woot!

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