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

5-Minute Makeup: Bright Berry Lips and Glowing Taupe Lids

November 22nd, 2019 by Karen 19 Comments

mac craving lipstick — Yes, Bay Area people will wear scarves and thermals when it’s 63 degrees outside. ?

So…you know those mornings when everything goes smoothly, and you even have extra time to do a load of laundry or stop by the drive-through coffee shop to get a latte before you start your day? On top of that, you also get to work 15-minutes early (so you don’t have to drive around the block two times to find good parking)?

Yeah…this was not one of those mornings. LOL!

I don’t know what happened, but Connor and I made it out the door by the skin of our teeth. We made it, though!

And I still managed to 1) get out of my pajama bottoms (although I seriously considered wearing them to the bakery, HA HA HA!), and 2) put on 5-minute makeup.

I grabbed what was within reach and moved with a quickness. Funny thing is, I even got compliments on my makeup today!

You know, sometimes the quickie looks are the best ones…

I think the bright berry lipstick really helped. Berry is great when you’re rushing because it’s just so colorful, and it instantly brightens up your face, but it’s usually also less labor-intensive than red or bright pink.

Also, you can pair it with a bunch of different colors. Purple and gray work, but a lightly shimmering taupe is my go-to to wear with berry. If you’re ever in a serious time crunch, go with a berry lipstick, 100%.

mac art library nude model palette k — When you have a photoshoot in your car…

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I’m Super Obsessed With Athleta Workout Leggings

November 21st, 2019 by Karen 20 Comments

Altheta tights — These stretchy pants take it to the next level.

Why didn’t I heed their advice sooner? I should’ve known the ladies in my HIIT class — the women who lift heavy, run fast and push me every time I step into the gym — would steer me in the right direction. For years I heard them rave about Athleta workout leggings, but I never considered buying a pair for myself because they’re like $100 a pop!

Super. Crazy. Expensive.

However…when something is good, and I mean really, REALLY good, the calculus may prompt me to go there. And I totally went there.

What ultimately pushed me over the edge was a secondhand pair of Athleta tights my friend Nicol gave me. She teaches the HIIT class I take, and she happened to have an extra pair that didn’t fit her, and she passed ’em to me.

First time I tried them on — and immediately after I stuffed everything I could into the pockets, of which there are SO MANY — I started to wonder if I’d ever wear another pair of pants again, because daaaaang… They were so soft.

Then, of course, I bent over in the mirror to see if they passed the squat test…

They totally did. 🙂 No underwear peeking through!

Next, I wore them to class and could not stop staring at my booty in the mirror, because the pants somehow transformed it into J. Lo’s (#GOALS), LOL!

I didn’t have to pull up my pants once, not once, during the entire class. Also, the waistband stayed up and held in my tum-tum the entire time, and the material stayed intact and didn’t stretch out at all, either, so no baggy knees.

When that class was done, I knew it… I’d be drinkin’ the Athleta Kool-Aid with the other girls soon.

Later that week, I ended up going to the Athleta store in Corte Madera to buy my first pair, because someone in class mentioned there was a sale happening. I left with the camo ones up top (yup, they’re still on sale!).

When I told the sales associate that it was my first Athleta purchase, she told me all about their generous return policy (if you work out in your clothes and don’t love them, you can still return them with a receipt), then gave me a discount on top of the sale for being a new customer.

SWEET!

If you’re into working out, or otherwise particular about your stretchy pants (as am I), I think you’re going to love these. I’m officially saving up for my next pair.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Cat Eye Flicks and Bright Lips (The Purple Edition): A Wednesday Makeup Formula

November 20th, 2019 by Karen 17 Comments

mac tailored to tease lipstick k — Purple power!

Question for you… How do you feel about formula dressing?

LOL! Pardon me for a moment, but I had to laugh there, because “formula dressing”? Sounds like something you put on a salad.

But I digress…

If you’ve flipped through the pages of a fashion magazine in the past decade, you may have read talk of having an “outfit formula,” something you can always turn to when you want to look sharp. Maybe it’s a white t-shirt, high-waisted jeans and a black blazer, or maybe it’s something else.

Once you figure out a formula that works for you, then you can tweak it ever-so-slightly (perhaps by replacing the black blazer with a black motorcycle jacket), but essentially, you go back to the same formula over and over because it works.

I’m a HUGE fan of translating this idea for the realm of makeup, and I do “makeup formulas” all the time.

I’m wearing one of mine in these pics — cat eye flicks and bright lips.

It’s quick and easy and gives you a lot of bang for your makeup buck, IMO. Also, crucially, it doesn’t make me think too hard, and I’m not reinventing any wheels, because I know that both of the main elements in the look work for me. Still, there’s plenty of room within the look to jooj it up in different ways.

Basically, I was in the mood to wear purple, so I started with a smudgy purple cat flick (which I did with a matte dark purple eyeshadow and an angled brush).

I like the whole smudgy/diffused effect because the imperfect edge leaves lots of room for error. I can fudge it a little (or a lot), and even though it might not look perfect, it’s usually passable, which is good enough when I’m in a hurry.

Next, I matched it with a bright matte purple lipstick, and side note: I just thought of another version of this I could do… How about layering a shiny purple gloss on top of this lippie? I think that would be super cool too!

This is just one of the makeup formulas I use often. Apply, lather, rinse and repeat! 🙂

mac tailored to tease lipstick — You think I’d be smiling more since I’m having a surprisingly OK hair day!

mac art library nude model — It doesn’t have to be complicated.

Makeup worn in this look

Eyes: MAC Art Library Nude Model Palette (Sugar Plum and Dance in the Dark as liner, Nude Model and L.E.S. Artiste on lids, and Outre in crease), ESUM Dual Eye Pencil in Rose and Aubergine (tightline), MAC Extended Play Perm Me Up Mascara (lashes) ESUM Brow Defining Pencil and MAC Brow Set (brows)

Cheeks: Charlotte Tilbury Ecstasy Blush

Base: Make Up For Ever HD Concealers in Y41 and Y31 mixed with MAC Strobe Cream (foundation), MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Golden Tan, Estee Lauder 24H Concealer in Medium Deep (under eyes), Tatcha Luminous Dewy Skin Mist

Lips: MAC Retro Matte Liquid Lipcolour in Tailored to Tease

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Bay Area Beauty Love: ESUM

November 19th, 2019 by Karen 4 Comments

Shout-out to San Francisco, my former home, and the current home of ESUM Cosmetics, an as-yet under-the-radar Bay Area beauty brand.

ESUM has been around for about 10 years, but I just recently discovered them. They have a line of brushes and makeup pencils made for industry pros and makeup enthusiasts.

I really like their specialty eye brushes, which range in price from $18-58.

They have these precision eye brushes with small, unusually shaped (but useful!) brush heads, so, for instance, if you only have a little lid space, or you don’t have a deep crease (like, if you’ve got slightly hooded eyes like I do), they’re fab for blending and applying eyeshadow, and for fine detail work.

I’ve been all about the W36 and T37, both of which have a smaller-than-usual angled brush head, so they’re awfully handy when I have to blend in a small space, like in the outer or inner v, or when I want to keep my eyeshadow low and tight on the crease.

esum brushes — It’s all about the details.

I’ve also tried a couple of their workhorse tapered blending brushes, namely the medium size G34 (which is slightly smaller than a MAC 224) and the small S33, which excel at placing and blending shadow exactly where you want it to go.

Along with their brushes, ESUM also sells a small selection of makeup pencil — a few dual-ended lip liners and eyeliners (silky and long-wearing, they feel a lot like the Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-Ons), and a handful of skinny twist-up brow pencils (they’re similar to the awesome NARS ones).
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What Thanksgiving Traditions Are You Looking Forward to This Year?

November 19th, 2019 by Karen 8 Comments

There’s a pecan pie around here somewhere. I think it was on the counter…or maybe I just ate it before the actual meal, HA HA HA!

Thanksgiving is almost here, and with it, our traditions. One such tradition that absolutely MUST happen in my family on Thanksgiving is the eating of the pecan pie…

I freakin’ love pecan pie. It’s what we had at Thanksgiving when I was growing up… I mean, sometimes we’d also have a pumpkin pie up in the mix, but really nobody would touch it. My mom would always get pecan, and you would know if my dad had been tasked with buying the pie because he would inevitably mistakingly ONLY buy pumpkin and forget the pecan… But my mom always knew what was up.

It’s funny, though, because as much as I love pecan pie, it seems weird to have it any other time of year. The only time I actually consume copious amounts of it is on Thanksgiving, and I look forward to it every single year.

I also look forward to spending time with my family here in the Bay Area, and whenever possible, with my family in Hawaii. It’s always nice to have a block of time to reconnect with the people who mean a lot to us, and that we don’t get to see too often anymore as grownups, and to unwind over food and fun.

We also always watch some football, and ya know…while it’s not super high up on my list, I still look forward to sitting around and talking while a game plays in the background.

Oh! — I also look forward to having seconds, a.k.a. “round two of the Thanksgiving feast.”

Like, you know, everybody eats, then pauses to take a break (and maybe take a quick cat nap on the couch), and then a few hours later you come back for the second round.

I gotta admit…I do love going back for that second (and perhaps third!) plate on Thanksgiving.

How about you? What Thanksgiving traditions are you looking forward to this year?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

MAC Unsung Heroes: Smoked Almond Lipstick

November 18th, 2019 by Karen 17 Comments

mac smoked almond lipstick swatch — MAC Smoked Almond, a.k.a. THE BEST.

What’s an unsung makeup hero? For me, it’s an oftentimes underrated makeup morsel, a permanent collection product that scoots under the radar screen of many makeup lovers but regularly rocks my world. The long-running Unsung Heroes series features some of my favorites.

Warning: do not attempt to picture an almond hunched in a doorway, puffing away at a cigarette when you think of the words, “smoked almond,” because once you see something like that in your mind’s eye, you’ll wonder 1) what would ever possess an almond to smoke in the first place, and 2) why said almond wouldn’t know that smoking was bad for it.

Every day for the past week before my shift has started at the bakery, I sit in my car in the parking lot and apply a layer of this beautifully bright rosy brown lipstick on my lips, and every time I do this, I say the same thing to myself in the mirror.

“SO PIGMENTED!”

I’m talking intensity to the extreme.

And yet despite its intensity, Smoked Almond isn’t one of those tricky lippies that is SO saturated that it becomes a pain in the bum and you end up needing a PhD in chemistry to apply it. You can still totally do it freehand, straight from the tube, while half-asleep, WITHOUT a lip liner or brushes or a Christmas miracle, for that matter. Smoke Almond’s creamy consistency practically melts onto lips the moment it touches them. No dragging whatsoever. Just a smooooove glide.

My lips tend to dry out and practically shout, “MOAR moisture!” from the rooftops, but Smoked Almond, which has MAC’s Amplified formula, has enough hydration to keep ’em happy all day long.

mac smoked almond — Smoked Almond on my lips

This is a fantastic everyday/daytime color to keep around if you have many rosy or rosy brown blushes like NARS Amour or Charlotte Tilbury Ecstasy in your collection. It’s also long-wearing and doesn’t move or scoot once you lay down a layer, and it feels lighter than a kitty whisker kiss on your cheek.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll, Vol. 601

November 18th, 2019 by Karen 27 Comments

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. Today I’m grateful for _____ (fill in the blank).

So many things, including…

Coffee (always coffee)
Having gotten a good night’s sleep
My sweet and supportive husband
Clear, crisp fall days
The roof over my head and the food in my tummy
Mechanical pencils (random, but they’re kind of fabulous!)

2. An article of clothing you wear all the time?

Well, a friend of my recently gave me a pair of Athleta workout tights that no longer fit her, and let me tell you — my world has been ROCKED. If I could live in those pants 24/7, I totally would.

3. Burrito or taco?

Tacos, baby!

4. What are you wearing on your lips today?

MAC Smoked Almond lipstick, which has been my neutral jam for the past couple weeks.

5. How are your brows these days?

They were my nemesis throughout October, because I sorta forgot about them, to which they responded by growing wild and unchecked, but I trimmed the unruly bits last week, so balance has been restored to the land once again… So they’re doing fine and cooperating with me for once. LOL!

You. Are. Magical.

There’s been a lot of talk of warm white light lately at our house.

So much talk about it that I’ve started walking around the house bathed in it.

Wait — let me take a step back…

First things first, good morning! Happy Monday, my friend. 🙂

OK, so the warm white light thing. Basically, Connor recently moved from her crib to a big girl bed, and she’s at that stage where the newness has just worn off, so at bedtime lately she pulls out all the stops to get us to let her sleep with us in our bed, or just to delay us turning off her bedroom light.

One thing we do whenever she feels scared about something, after we try to talk through it logically (which doesn’t always work), is what we call “mommy magic” and she calls “Coco magic.”

The magic involves surrounding yourself with an imaginary beam of warm white light. This warm white light surrounds you with protection, with love and with anything and everything you need at that moment to feel secure and safe.

So, whenever anyone in our house needs a little TLC, we tell them to take out your magic, and surround yourself with your warm white light. As silly as it sounds, it kinda works! It works for Connor, and I’ve been doing it for myself, too (I know, I know!), and for some reason, it just feels good.

Anyway, if you feel a little scared or anxious at some point today, remember that you are magical. Anytime you need it, you can surround yourself with the special warm white light. You are loved, you are protected, and you are safe. 🙂

On that note, I’m off. I have a coffee date in a few (today’s my day off from the bakery…so of course I’m gonna hang out in another bakery, HA HA HA!), which leads me to today’s bonus question: croissant or scone??

Have a wonderful day. ❤️

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. Today I’m grateful for _____ (fill in the blank).
2. An article of clothing you wear all the time?
3. Burrito or taco?
4. What are you wearing on your lips today?
5. How are your brows these days?

Sundays With Tabs the Cat, Makeup and Beauty Blog Mascot, Vol. 580

November 17th, 2019 by Karen 3 Comments

This time of year always reminds me of one of the most astounding acts of selflessness and courage I’ve ever seen.

The year: 2012. The place: New York City, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

The night before the parade, disaster struck the team in charge of the company float for Tabs the Cat Industries LLC. The float wasn’t going to be ready in time because the white roses the team special ordered from Belgium got held up in customs, so Tabs stayed up all night long decorating the entire float himself with local flowers he picked himself from around Central Park.

And as if that weren’t incredible enough, Tabs purr-formed the role of Master of Ceremonies the next morning and walked beside the company float (he also danced atop the float with Beyoncé).

It was one of the most historic displays of dedication by a corporate cat executive in American business history.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen