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Morning Motivation

May 26th, 2020 by Karen 6 Comments

morning motivation

Here are some motivational videos I like. I highly recommend these — particularly watching them first thing in the morning (this is key!). I hope you find something here that speaks to you.

Have you ever taken a look at your morning routines and wondered if there’s anything you can do to make your mornings better? I’ve been thinking about this a lot and looking for ways to help my days start on a good note…

One thing I recently figured out (and wish I’d learned sooner!) is that feeding my mind early in the day is super important. Seems like any media I consume at the start of my day sets the tone for everything that follows.

Scrollin’, scrollin’, scrollin’

I used to mindlessly scroll social media first thing in the morning, and I’d let my brain nibble on whatever “tea” or drama popped up on my timeline, but you know how that can go… There’s a lot of bad news out there, and I have to monitor my consumption of it, frankly. Otherwise, I feel beaten down, disheveled, anxious and unfocused.

Right now, more than ever, I also have to manage my consumption of GOOD news, like by watching or listening to inspiring and motivating audio and video.

It’s been about two months since I’ve started regularly doing this, and truth be told, it felt super cheesy at first (like I was a caricature in a Saturday Night Live skit or something!), but now I’m fully on board with it.


THIS DUDE!

It took me a while to get into it…

Now, every day, I listen to at least 10 minutes of something “motivational” (“air quotes”).

It didn’t take long to notice a difference in myself. After just a couple weeks of managing my intake of “bad” news, I started feeling more focused, mentally stronger, less overwhelmed and anxious, and generally happier.

This all came about after watching several interviews with Spanx CEO Sarah Blakely, a self-made businesswoman who inspires me. She often talks about how when she was in high school her dad gave her a set of tapes by motivational speaker Dr. Wayne Dyer called No Limit Person, and whenever she’d drive around in her car, she’d have the tapes playing in the background. Eventually, she says, those words that were constantly playing taught her vital lessons that helped her succeed (like learning how to view failure as a good thing).

Whenever you have a free moment, press play

I started by listening to different speeches by Wayne Dyer, and that led to other motivational speeches/videos. It’s not like it takes extra time out of my morning either, because I play them in the background while I do other things, like while I’m brushing my teeth, washing my face, making the bed, getting dressed or making breakfast. And I usually listen to one video per sitting, which typically lasts about 10 minutes.

Here are a few on my current playlist…

To wit, it might feel corny at first. This I fully acknowledge. Because it certainly did for me, but if you keep at it, you just might find yourself feeling better in the morning and throughout your day. And maybe you’ll even start seeing more good things in places you never noticed before.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

There are 6 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Just For Fun

Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll, Vol. 628

May 25th, 2020 by Karen 33 Comments

essie red white blue
Remember those who served on Memorial Day

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. Have you served or do you currently serve in the armed forces?

    Nope. But I have friends who have (Army and Air Force), and my dad was in the Navy.

    2. Who taught you how to ride a bike?

    Mostly me, since I was left to my own devices to figure out most childhood things (my parents worked a lot). My cousin Beverly also helped. She would sit behind me on the banana seat and drag her feet on the ground while I pedaled, and then she’d occasionally lift her feet off the ground until I figured out how to balance.

    3. Coral or berry?

    Coral!

    4. What are you allergic to?

    Tree and grass pollen, and the occasional cantaloupe makes my throat itch.

    5. What did you have for breakfast this morning?

    Nutella (the Trader Joe’s version) on whole wheat toast, berries and a bite of scrambled eggs.

    6. Your thoughts on the super-shiny highlighting trend?

    Quite frankly, I’m surprised it’s still going strong! I was into it about five years ago, but I’m not the biggest fan of the look on myself right now.

    7. ’80s or ’90s?

    Ooh! Tough choice. I’ll go with the ’90s today.

    8. Sandals or flip-flops?

    Flip-flops.

    9. Oversized tee or crop top?

    The crop top, worn with high-waisted workout pants.

    10. The last big public gathering or event you went to before the pandemic hit?

    El Hub and I took Connor to Disney on Ice at the Oakland Arena the last weekend of February, and I remember being freaked out about the virus at the time and administering hand sanitizer to the fam after we touched anything, but the all-encompassing magnitude of the crisis here in America still wasn’t really real by then, you know?

    I still can’t believe we were in that space with all those people… Only three months, and it seems like a lifetime ago.

    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. Have you served or do you currently serve in the armed forces?
    2. Who taught you how to ride a bike?
    3. Coral or berry?
    4. What are you allergic to?
    5. What did you have for breakfast this morning?
    6. Your thoughts on the super-shiny highlighting trend?
    7. 80s or 90s?
    8. Sandals or flip flops?
    9. Oversized tee or a crop top?
    10. The last big public gathering or event you went to before the pandemic hit?

    P.P.S. It’s Memorial Day here in the U.S., which is also the unofficial start of summer! Hope you’re enjoying your day so far. ?

There are 33 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Just For Fun

Sundays With Tabs the Cat, Makeup and Beauty Blog Mascot, Vol. 608

May 24th, 2020 by Karen 3 Comments

Happy Memorial Day weekend from Tabs the Cat Industries, LLC! Our new CFO (Chief Feline Officer), Pretty Girl Rosie, has continued the company tradition of holding the big Summer Kickoff Employee Picnic and Barbecue.

This year, we’re doing it over Zoom, but I know it’ll still be fun.

Tabs was a great role model, especially when it came to cutting loose and having fun. Work hard, play hard — that was his motto.

And, as soon as it’s safe to, the whole company will head up to Camp Catnip to catch up and recharge our socializing batteries with a week of team building, fishing, fun, camp cooking and potato sack races.

Tabs started Camp Catnip about 10 years ago, and it’s grown into North America’s premier kitty modeling camp for cats and cat-loving people.

I haven’t been up there since he passed away, but I can’t wait to go back because Tabs really loved it.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

There are 3 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Just For Fun, Tabs

Saturday Surfing, May 23rd, 2020

May 23rd, 2020 by Karen 8 Comments

Here’s your unsolicited floral fun fact of the day:

Bird of paradise are deer resistant and can withstand temps below freezing.

Seriously, who knew? I didn’t.

I’m going to file this under “The Things You Find When You’re Cruising the Neighborhood for Plant Ideas.”

And because “makeup” is always processing somewhere in the background of my brain, I’m wondering how I’d incorporate bird of paradise colors into a makeup look…

Maybe a bright coral lip with colorful, crisp orange liner on the upper lash line? Ooh! — then I’d add a blue cat eye flick at the outer corner with the tiniest sliver of green along the outer edge. ?

What would you do? While you ponder that, here are some things that caught my eye this week…

BRB. Gonna make some breakfast.

  • Crayola is coming out with “Colors of the World,” an awesome box of crayons in colors reflecting skin tones from around the globe. ?️ I’m a mix of “Medium Almond” and “Medium Golden.” How about you?
  • THIS IS INCREDIBLE! —–> Rebecca Sharrock has a rare condition that allows her to remember every moment of her life. Her first memory: “I remember being in a dark place, with a reddish light and I had my head between my legs, so I’m assuming that’s when I was in the womb but I didn’t know my age at the time. That’s the earliest I can go back, as my memories are always in chronological order.”
  • Can COVID-19 “live” on makeup? Here’s what experts say about beauty best practices during the pandemic.
  • Favorite read of the week: Lyndsay Tucker, a Sephora beauty consultant in the Bay Area, has Elon Musk’s old cell phone number, and she receives countless calls and texts meant for him. Unsurprisingly, some are pretty weird. “One woman volunteered to go to space with SpaceX, and another person sent a blueprint for a bionic limb. “Which is, No. 1, really cool,” Tucker says. “But I have no idea how it’s built.
  • In case you ever wondered what Jackie O.’s exact skin care routine looked like! (Here’s a hint: it involves her dermatologist saying that she should hang out in the sun without a hat.)
  • What drugstore brand e.l.f. is doing to stay ahead in the beauty game. By the way, if you haven’t tried it yet, their solid sponge cleanser brush soap is EXCELLENT for brushes.
  • Fun fact: in the three-year pursuit to create mascara for her makeup line, Gucci Westman tested 45 different mascara wands.
  • Meet Rodrigo Flores-Roux, the man behind Clinique Happy, one of the most iconic scents of the ’90s.
  • Nail techs are putting their lives on the line to do nails.
  • I’m a little obsessed with the product descriptions for the scents from Imaginary Authors, this small indie perfume line based in Oregon. My favorite is Falling Into the Sea:

    “At the age of nineteen Nica Galas published her first book, the autobiographical tome Falling into the Sea which chronicled her short and torrid love affair among the hot beaches and lemon trees in the Gulf of Naples. The breathtaking story opens with Nica and her girlfriends picking bunches of jasmine flower for boys while they cliff-jumped into the sea. An innocent first kiss erupts into an ardent summer entanglement which is cut short one moonlit night when her lover leaps into the dark abyss never to surface, leaving Nica naked on the cliffs screaming his name. This scent is sunshine in a bottle. Wear on cloudy days to invoke the ardor of summer.”

  • Belly chains? Check. Low-rise jeans? Yup. Crocheted blankets as shirt? Yes, girl, that too. I’m horrified to report that I wore almost all more than a few of these outdated fashion trends from back in the day.
  • This gal’s sweet hubby sits outside of the window of her hospital room at a table decorated with flowers and candles so they can have date nights.
  • Peter Dinklage and Jason Momoa are teaming up for a vampire-themed buddy comedy, and I’m all for it.


I did this earlier in the week, and it’s super fun.


What happens when worlds collide


I’m happy to report that ’90s singer Jon B is 1) alive and 2) thriving during the pandemic. Fast forward to 7:52 to listen to “Don’t Talk,” a.k.a. my club jam from way back when.


I now know how to change a tire! I love this guy. He grew up without a dad, and now he makes how-to videos with practical “dad” advice.


I need this; you need this; we all need this in our lives right now.

Have a nice rest of your Saturday, and yes, it’s SATURDAY! No worries if you had no idea what day of the week it was until just now, friend. It’s happened to me more than a few times since March.

WAY more than a few times. Happy Memorial Day weekend. ?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

There are 8 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Just For Fun

Have You Ever Purchased a Perfume Without Smelling It First?

May 22nd, 2020 by Karen 36 Comments

clinique my happy
Yes, they smell just as pretty as they look.

Although I’ve gotten close a few times since stay-in-place went into effect because of 1) a Nordstrom gift card that’s been burning a hole in my wallet for months, and 2) an intense craving for something new and citrusy, I still have yet to buy a perfume without smelling it first.

Bright lemon, orange and grapefruit notes always cheer me up. I just feel lighter, less weighed down when I smell like fruit, LOL! So, I’ve been rotating through my usual citrus staples, a set of Clinique Happy fragrances (the original Happy has notes of ruby red grapefruit, boysenberry bush flower, Hawaiian wedding flower) and Annick Goutal’s effervescent Eau d’Hadrien (bergamot, citrus accord, grapefruit, lemon, cédrat, cypress, galbanum, basil, juniper berry, ylang-ylang, woody accord).

I’d still to try something new, though, like Jo Malone Grapefruit Cologne or Fresh Citron de Vigne.

How about you? Have you ever purchased a perfume without smelling it first?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. TGIF!

There are 36 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Fragrance, Just For Fun

Affordable Drugstore Makeup Mini Reviews: Concealer, Blush and Eyeliner From Maybelline and Covergirl

May 21st, 2020 by Karen 9 Comments

covergirl maybelline speed reviews

Good morning! A few speedy reviews of drugstore makeup I’ve been wearing lately…

Covergirl Clean Fresh Cream Blush

I like the squeeze tube in this line of shimmery cruelty-free cream blushes and how the blushes last a good six hours on my cheeks (my skin’s combo oily/dry), but feathering out the edges is a challenge. No matter what base I wear them with, I always end up with uneven patches and hard edges… Covergirl says that you can also wear these blushes on your lids, so I’m going to try that next to see if they work better as eyeshadows. Available in four shades, $10.99 each.

Maybelline Lasting Drama Light Eyeliner Pencil

These waterproof twist-up liners for your lash and waterline come in five shimmering shades to brighten yo’ eyes. I’ve used the black shade to tightline and the gold shade on my inner corners as a highlighter, and I like how they glide across the skin without skipping and don’t transfer — not one bit! The’re truly long wearing. The shimmer is also pretty subtle, so there aren’t any big chunks of glitter. Available in five shades, $5.99 each.

Maybelline Eyestudio Master Precise Liquid Liner in Black

This flexible felt tipped black liquid liner pen has a shiny finish. Among the pros: it’s intensely pigmented, long lasting, and it dries faaaast (so when I blink, I don’t have to worry about the liner ending up in my crease). The cons: the felt tip is touchy and skips, so carving out razor sharp lines with it is a challenge. If I’m not super careful, I end up with jagged edges. Available in three shades, $7.99 each.

Maybelline Washable Snapscara

These easy-to-remove, washable mascaras are made to load lashes with volume sans clumps, but I find them lacking in the volume department… I need to apply at least three layers to see any difference. They get points for being easy to remove, though. Available in five shades, $7.77 each.

Maybelline Volum’ Express the Falsies Washable Mascara in Navy Glam

I don’t see the navy when I wear this, and my lashes look and feel clumpy and stiff… Navy Glam is one of four shades, each for $8.77.

Covergirl TruBlend Undercover Concealer

This full-coverage vegan, cruelty-free liquid concealer has a matte finish and comes in SO MANY SHADES! There are 30, which is kind of amaze. It disguises discoloration without feeling heavy or looking “caked on,” but since the finish is *very matte*, when I wear it underneath my eyes, it emphasizes fine lines… Still a good concealer, though, if you just want to even out your skin tone. 30 shades, $11.99 each.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Happy Friday Eve! ?

There are 9 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: COVERGIRL, Drugstore Beauty Finds, Eyes, Makeup, Maybelline, Product Reviews

Product Spotlight: Physicians Formula The Healthy Lip Velvet Liquid Lipstick

May 20th, 2020 by Karen 17 Comments

I’m wearing Physicians Formula The Healthy Lip Liquid Lipstick in Vitamin Beet. Winged Liner tee is from my store, connorclaire.com.

I loved these matte liquid lipsticks by Physicians Formula when they first came out a couple years ago, but I gotta give ’em a quick shout-out again because I wore the magenta shade the other day and dang! — the wear time is INSANE.

physicians formula healthy lip
Bare With Me, Dose of Rose, Berry Health, Mangentle Formula, Tu-lip Treatment, Vitamin Beet

I had Magentle Formula on for six hours, and no joke, it barely budged, and that was after lunch, snacks, multiple cups of caffeinated beverages (EARL GREY IN THE HOUSE, YO), and three big cups of water.

physicians formula magentle before
The shade Magentle Formula, right after I first applied it
physicians formula magentle after
And here it is after six hours and countless snacks and drinks

Right now they’re on sale on the Physicians Formula website for $5.52 (originally $8.49)! A few shades are sold out, but most are still there. [Continue reading…]

There are 17 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Drugstore Beauty Finds, Lips, Makeup, Product Reviews

What Are Your Sanity Savers?

May 19th, 2020 by Karen 17 Comments

essie at the barre me over
Painting paws keeps me sane. I’m wearing Essie Spool Me Over (left) and At the Barre (right).

List the things that are preventing you from standing in your front yard and screaming up into the sky for hours on end while sheltering-in-place!

My sanity savers, in no particular order:

  • Painting my nails (I’m all about #MismatchedMani life right now)
  • Honestly… Carbs. I was eating “lower carb-ish” before the pandemic hit but now I just don’t have the bandwidth for it. Give me all the carbs, please.
  • Speaking of carbs, baking ALL THE THINGS, especially cookies. Funny thing is I bake more now than I did when I worked at a bakery, ha!
  • Cocooning myself into stretchy pants 24/7! My body repels jeans now.
  • A schedule during the weekdays.
  • Working out first thing in the morning.
  • Hanging out with Pretty Girl Rosie, the Torbiest Torbie of the Torbie Girls.
  • Predictably cheesy rom-coms like Bridget Jones’ Diary, and historical period pieces
  • Lists upon lists upon lists.

How about you?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

There are 17 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Essie, Just For Fun

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Welcome to Makeup and Beauty Blog! My name is Karen, and I’m a freelance writer obsessed with makeup.

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