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

Sundays with Tabs the Cat, Makeup and Beauty Blog Mascot, Dec. 7

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Happy Sunday, girls! I hope you’re having a good weekend. Tabs, that mischievous ragamuffin, got himself some voice work on a new animated Christmas special titled The Cat Who Stole Christmas.

He emailed some pictures from the set with a text message, “I’ll be home on Wednesday. Have gravy ready. XOXO, Tabs.”

Tabs also said that there are eight differences between these two pictures (you can click the pics to see larger versions). Can you spot them all? 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Does the Economy Affect the Colors You Buy?

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At a recent meeting of The Fashion Group International, an event sponsored by MAC and Cotton, Inc., attendees like InStyle Beauty Director Amy Synnott discussed 2009 beauty trends and cosmetics use in a down economy.

They talked about the Lipstick Index, a well-known financial barometer that says cosmetics (lipsticks in particular) sales rise as the economy slows down.

Well, the index has jumped. Quarterly figures from makeup giants L’Oreal and Estee Lauder show that despite strain in most areas of US department store spending (with the exception of Wal-Mart, which is doing great), lipstick sales are on the rise. When money’s tight, women spurn expensive new clothes and shoes in favor of more modest retail therapy.

What can we expect to see in 2009?

Signs point to even more sheer neutral shades, fewer bright reds and more pinky browns and rosy taupes.

“People are really buying wearable neutrals in beauty,” Synnott says, “like the version of lipstick that is ‘the little black dress’ of lipstick. They are buying a lot less of the ‘out there’ colors. Classic looks are strong.”

Does the economy affect the colors you buy?

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Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Smashbox Rapture Travel Brush Collection: Great Case, Good Brushes

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I got all lusty lady today when I opened the Smashbox Rapture Travel Brush Collection ($49), with the world in slow motion, the air searing hot, and the beating of my heart pounding in my ears.

Gingerly, I unbowed the ribbon on the pink quilted purse (sooo Chanel-esque, LOVE!), teasing the soft fabric with my fingers…

Smashbox’s Travel Brush Kit is one of several gift sets now available as part of the Smashbox Rapture Holiday Collection and comes with five short-handled travel brushes for face and eyes.

Soft Brush Heads

I don’t always like holiday brush sets because I think a lot of them come with brushes of poorer construction (scratchy and/or flimsy) than usual for a line. Most of the time, their allure has to do with the fact that, bundled with gift sets, they’re a heck of a lot cheaper than $20-30 brushes from the big guns like MAC.

But the Rapture Travel Brush set is better than most. I wouldn’t use these brushes every day for months (they’re not quite as soft as my full-size Sonia Kashuk and MAC brushes), but they’re definitely a step up from the MAC travel brush sets I’ve used in the past. Throw in the gorgeous pink carrying case, and you’re looking at a pretty good deal.

  • Travel Face Brush:

    • This medium-sized brush head is flexible enough to be used as a face or a blush brush, but out of the five brushes in the set, this one feels the coarsest to me.

  • Travel Contour Brush and Liner Brush:

    • With heads on both ends, it’s like you’re getting a sixth brush in the set. One end is for liner, and it’s amazing! It feels incredibly soft on my lash line and creates very smooth, silky lines. The other end — the angled contour brush — has stumped me. I haven’t figured out how to use it yet, LOL! Any suggestions?

  • Travel Angled Blending Brush:

    • This brush easily blends away harsh lines and feels cozy and soft against my skin.

  • Travel Shadow Brush:

    • Fluffier than most shadow brushes I’ve used before, this brush can also apply color to the crease and the outer V. It applies dry shadow flawlessly, but I’m won’t use it with creams and wet products. When I did it applied kinda blotchy.

  • Travel Smudger Brush:

    • This brush’s blunt shape makes smudging eyeliner a breeze, but I wish the bristles were softer (boo).

Smashbox Rapture Travel Brush Collection

Price: $49
Use: A sexy carrying case and five above average brushes make this a nice gift
Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: B

Made for Travel

The lightweight brushes fit well in their pink quilted bag, yet aren’t so snug that they’re apt to get squished or deformed while they’re in storage.

A Few Things to Consider

As good as they are, these brushes don’t include equivalents to the MAC 266 or 217, and those go with me everywhere, so I’d want to bring along a couple extra brushes to supplement the set.
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12 Stumbleupon Channels for Beauty Addicts

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Good morning. 🙂 I’m sitting here at my computer desk, sipping coffee and reflexively clicking that lovely little Stumbleupon icon…

Do you use Stumbleupon? I don’t know what I’d do without my SU fix. A day doesn’t goes by that I don’t spend at least a few minutes stumbling new sites.

Stumbleupon is an Internet community that works through a browser toolbar (but don’t let that scare you) where you find and rate websites, photos and videos. By clicking a small button in the toolbar, users vote thumbs up or down on the different sites they find.

It’s kinda like a website slot machine, where you click the Stumble button to see a random new site. Stumbleupon has millions of sites in its databases, all submitted and recommended by other Stumblers. Sites are organized into different channels, or topics, like Beauty, Fashion, Dancing and Art.

I might send an email to the makers thanking them for inventing one of the coolest tools known to womankind!

It’s one of the ways I look for inspiration in the morning or unwind after a tough day, kinda like watching brainless TV (Double Shot at Love, anyone?) or flipping through the pages of a magazine.

Once you’ve registered with the site and have the toolbar installed, you can choose the topics you’d like to stumble. For me, being able to pick topics is the pièce de résistance. It takes Stumbleupon from being a highly efficient waste of time and turns it into an actual resource. Through topics, you can filter out all the stuff you aren’t really interested in, like the sites about bear traps, inter-office politics and beef jerky.

12 Stumbleupon Channels for Beauty Addicts

Here are the 12 topics I have configured in my profile. The sites within these channels have been great sources of inspiration for me, but there are dozens of other channels (maybe hundreds) to choose from. Play around with ’em until you find the right mix for you. 🙂

  1. Health>Beauty
  2. Health>Health/Fitness
  3. Health>Self Improvement
  4. Arts/History>Arts
  5. Arts/History>Dancing
  6. Arts/History>Fashion
  7. Arts/History>Fine Arts
  8. Arts/History>Photography
  9. Home/Living>Relationships
  10. Home/Living>Weddings
  11. Society>Women’s Issues
  12. Society>Bizarre/Oddities (heck yea!)

How do you find inspiration or unwind after a tough day?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. For more on how to use Stumbleupon, check out their Getting Started with Stumbleupon guide.

Wash the Blues Away with Origins Gloomaway

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Earlier this week I was feeling blue and tried a bunch of different things to pull myself out of my funk.

Like…

I tried exercising more often than usual (endorphins, heed my call!) and even dug out my old aromatherapy candles, LOL!

They definitely helped, but what really cheered me up were these scented Gloomaway body products from the Blue Skies Ahead holiday gift set by Origins ($29.50).

Like the other products in the Gloomaway line, they smell like yummy grapefruit, and the company claims the scent creates a sense of “optimism and contentment.”

Sign me up. 🙂

I think the products smell more like a combination of grapefruit and sweet orange rinds than straight grapefruit alone, but more importantly the scent isn’t artificial or sugary at all. Oh, and it’s subtle — not overly citrus-y like Pledge cleaner, yuck!

The Blue Skies Ahead set comes with a nice selection of products, making it a good way to try out a few different products from the popular line…

  • Body-Buffing Cleanser. Gently scrubbing with this in the shower softens rough skin patches but doesn’t rub my skin raw. It lathers up into a rich foam and, like the other products in the line, smells divine. Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: A
  • Body Wash and Bubble Bath. This gel creates so many big, frothy bubbles… It’s like a bipedal bubble bath!Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: A+
  • Body Souffle. The souffle provides medium-weight daytime moisturization for parched skin. I’ve liked using it on my hands and arms throughout the day because it absorbs quickly and doesn’t leave an oily film. Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: B

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The Sedu Revolution Styling Iron Giveaway!

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UPDATE: The contest is closed. Congrats to Indian Girl, who won the Sedu Revolution Styling Iron!

Girl, my hair has been working my last nerve! It’s getting long, feeling heavy and always up in my mix, gahhh! I’ve been thinking about getting a haircut but haven’t been able to choose a new style.

But you know how it is when you know you want a change but can’t make a decision. Sometimes, after enough time spent waffling, you just snap! I don’t want that to happen, so in an effort to prevent my own personal bald Britney moment (seriously, I’m two seconds away from chopping it all off!) I’ve been flat ironing with the new Sedu Revolution Professional Nano Tourmaline Ionic Styler ($139), a one-inch plate flat iron that even does curls and waves.

Who’s that girl? Is that Marcia Brady, LOL!

The Revolution works fast, heating up to 450 degrees F in about a minute. Yes, that’s seriously *HOT*, but Sedu says the Revolution causes less heat damage than most flat irons thanks to so-called infrared ceramic heating elements in the plates. Set at 390 degrees, the recommended temperature for normal hair, I’ve gotten good results and haven’t seen any signs of damage to my hair, but as with all heating flat irons, please be careful.

At that temp it takes me two slow passes with the iron to straighten one batch of hair — not only straighten, but also shine. I can’t believe how shiny this thing makes my hair, KABAM!

Because the Revolution’s plates are curved, you can also use it to curl and make waves. Since my hair’s naturally wavy, I probably won’t use it to curl very often, but you never know. And the company was good enough to bundle the iron with a Styling Guide DVD, showing how to use it for different looks. 🙂

Something else I like about the Revolution… It’s travel friendly. It weighs less than it looks like it should and even comes with a heat-resistant storage pouch perfect for carry-on bags!

The Sedu Revolution Professional Nano Tourmaline Ionic Styler

Price: $139
Use: A flat iron to straighten hair; doubles for curls and waves
Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: A

The Sedu Revolution Styling Iron Giveaway!

Straighten up this winter with the $139 Sedu Revolution. Enter by signing up to receive my updates by email or by leaving a comment on this post (or both!). If you’re already signed up for the updates, you don’t have to do anything else to be entered to win — you’re already entered — but you can double your odds by also leaving a comment on this post (a comment about anything at all).

The Prize

The winner receives the…

  • Sedu Revolution Nano Tourmaline 1″ Styling Iron
  • Sedu Styling Guide DVD
  • Heat Proof Appliance Storage Pouch
  • Owner’s Manual

How to Enter

There are two ways to enter the giveaway, and you can do both of them to double your chances to win.

  1. If you haven’t already signed up to receive Makeup and Beauty Blog daily email updates, then enter your email in the pink box below (or click this link).
  2. If you have already subscribed to the email updates but want to double your chances of winning, add a brief comment at the bottom of this post (be sure to use a valid email address).

Enter your email address:

I’ll choose the winner at random from among the people who enter by 11 PM PST on Sunday, December 7. GOOD LUCK!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Reese Witherspoon: Her Best Cut?

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Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon sure keeps her stylists on their toes, doesn’t she? Here are some of the cuts she’s worn over the past few years. No. 5 (in the middle) is from Four Christmases, the movie she’s in with Vince Vaughn.

Which of Reese’s cuts do you like best?

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Popular Winter Hairstyles

Bangs: To brighten a winter pallor, try sideswept or full bangs. It’ll frame the face and draw attention to your eyes.
Bobs: Need a quick, low-maintenance cut this winter? Consider a short bob with heavily tapered tips for a edgy look, or a deliberately messy bob for a sexy look.
Long Hair: Long hair looks great over bulky winter outfits and under hats. Consider hair extensions if you’re already sporting shorter hair.
Shags: Another classic short hairstyle, the shag can vary in length, layers and texture. Try adding lowlights for depth and dimension.
Volume: To balance layers of bulky winter wear, add volume to hair with root boost sprays and volumizing shampoos.
Razors: The messy texture of razor hair cuts gives an edgy look to holiday styles.

I’m thinking about changing my cut to either a shag or a bob for winter…

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Benefit Coralista Blush Has Got Me Purring

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MEOW! I’m a packaging ho, and Benefit Coralista ($28) blush’s jungly, cheetah print box (don’t you just love the font?) sucked me in immediately. It makes me feel like a cat woman on the prowl!

Arriving at Benefit counters in February, this shimmery coral powder has cult beauty fave written all over it.

Coralista’s soft, shimmery coral-pink looks neutral on my cheeks, and that’s weird because most coral blushes usually look warmer on my skin tone. I’m thinking it has something to do with the cooler pink tones, like they mellow out the warmer corals. Both warm and cool beauties ought to be able to work this blush with equal flava. 🙂
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