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Saturday Surfing, Nov. 2nd, 2019

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Besties

Happy Caturday from The Cat Lady Crew (TCLC)!

Pretty Girl Rosie has been a member of Team MBB for a little over a month now, and my two girls are getting along famously. Rosie kindly allows Connor Claire to attend to her demanding kitty needs, and the two of them spend a lot of time chatting, playing hide and seek, and doing art projects. Rosie transforms into quite the micromanager when someone is sitting at their desk, and she’ll immediately park her dainty self on your lap (or, on top of your desk) if there’s any free space available.

Slowly, but surely, she’s opening up more and more.

How’s your morning been so far? After I finish my coffee and get ready, I’m off to Sur La Table and Michaels to pick up some baking supplies so I can do some practice bakes at home this weekend. And then we’re hopefully going to be painting Connor Claire’s bedroom at some point as well (Behr Moxie, a pale lavender).

But before that, here’s your weekly dose of Saturday Surfing reading! ?

Rosie stays in Connor’s room every night until she falls asleep.
mama rosie
Then she heads to our room for the rest of the night.


Ooh baby, baby, it’s a wild world!


One of my favorites. Peep those wings!


Note to self, try this.

I hope something fabulous happens to you this weekend! Talk to you soon. ?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

13 Unexpected Side Effects of Makeup Addiction

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  1. You can never leave the house without at least three lipsticks and two lipglosses.
  2. You have a dedicated stash of neutral eyeshadow palettes, and while most “non-natives” would just see a whole bunch of pans of brown and beige eyeshadow, you can thoroughly break down the differences between each and every palette by undertone, finish, appropriate place to wear, etc.
  3. You have a collection of several brown, black and/or gray eyeliners, and, as you can do for your neutral eye palettes, you know all the distinguishing factors among them, so you say things like, “Well, that black liquid liner has a matte finish, and this one has a shiny finish, and this other one has a vinyl finish, which is COMPLETELY different than a shiny finish…”
  4. When your partner says, “Do you really need another coral lipstick/mascara/[insert any product you tend to hoard here]?”, you don’t even hear them anymore… They literally sound like the teacher from Charlie Brown (“Wah-wah-wah-waaaah!”).
  5. You maintain several tubes of your favorite lipstick stashed in various places (your purse, your car, your jacket pocket).
  6. All the makeup artists and sales associates at Sephora knowingly nod at you when you walk in, like “What’s up?”
  7. You’ve experienced makeup shopping blackouts more than once, where you walk into a store and someone sticks a basket in your hand. Next thing you know, the basket is filled to the brim! — where you can barely carry it — and you have no idea/recollection how the items in the basket got there.
  8. Having a dedicated shelf, drawer or (*ahem*) tote full of foundations makes complete sense to you.
  9. You have an eye makeup look that continues to elude you, but you keep practicing it on the off chance that you’ll be able to perfect it someday (for me, it’s cut crease).
  10. You use makeup lingo like it’s your mother tongue, and say things like, “Do you bake? I used to, but I never do it anymore,” and the person you’re speaking to knows you’re not talking about cupcakes.
  11. You’ve had a HALLELUJAH moment with bronzer at one time or another.
  12. Your friends and relatives have asked you to help them with their prom, wedding or Halloween makeup.
  13. Your plan of attack for the Sephora VIB sale is so elaborate, and so thorough, that it requires weeks of intense preparation. ?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. TGIF! ?

3 Powerful Tips for Doing Quick, Colorful Makeup (And a 20-Minute Bronze/Green/Gold Eye Look With Pink Cheeks and Nude Matte Lips!)

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urban decay on the run g train
Today’s 20-minute makeup look

Working at the bakery has been such a blessing in so many ways, makeup and otherwise. I’ve been learning so many new things, and the loneliness I’ve felt for a long time is finally starting to leave.

In terms of makeup, though, my goodness! — the 15-minute window I typically have now to don my face paint in the mornings has been the catalyst for all manner of shortcuts.

Like these three powerful tricks you can use when you want to do quick, colorful makeup (but don’t have a lot of time). I used them for to do bronze, green and gold eye look (paired with pink cheeks and a matte nude-pink lip), which I wore to the bakery yesterday…

urban decay on the run g train
The color palette!
urban decay on the run g train
YER SO CLOSE.

Tip No. 1: Intensify and extend the wear time of your eyeshadow by using a long-wearing pencil liner as a base

This is one of the speediest ways I know to 1) get your eyeshadow to last longer, and 2) to amplify the intensity of your shadows to make them look brighter and richer.

For this, you want to use a liner that sets relatively quickly…like in less than 30 seconds. I love the Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-Ons because they come in tons of colors and finishes. And, because they dry very quickly, I’m forced to work fast!

Note: When you’re using a quick-drying pencil liner as a base, your best friend is a stiff (but still soft) synthetic brush, ideally something with a slightly domed tip, like the Real Techniques Domed Shadow Brush.

Synthetic bristles tend to be more rigid than natural bristles, so you can push and blend that liner and tell it where to go, LIKE RIGHT MEOW!

In the look I wore yesterday, I wore Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Smog as a base. I roughly drew a few fatty-bo-batty messy lines all over my lids, and then I took the Real Techniques brush and buffed the liner into a thin, even layer.

Then, I applied warm browns and bronzes from the new Urban Decay On the Run Palette in G Train.

Tip No. 2: Use an angled brush to line your eyes with the darkest shade from your favorite eyeshadow palette

Not only is lining with an eyeshadow and angled brush super speedy, but it’s also forgiving, so you can make mistakes and nobody will even realize it!

Note: If you want the most room for error, keep the brush head dry for a soft and diffused line.

You can also wet your brush head with a setting spray to dial up the richness of the color, but FYI, it’s not as forgiving as a dry application.
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Your Best and Worst Halloween Costume?

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I think all the plastic costumes I wore as a child in the ’80s fall into a collective “worst” category. ? If you had to suffer through a plastic mask back in the day, you know what I’m talking about. The eye and nose holes were always juuuuuust a little bit askew, which left me unable to see or really breathe for that matter, LOL! Every Halloween in a mask was hot, sweaty and uncomfortable.

The candy made up for it, though! ?

As for best, hmmm. Well, I quite enjoyed dressing up as the crazy-looking beauty queen inspired by the cover of Hole’s Live Through This album a few years back.

Live Through This Halloween

How about you?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. We’re home! The power is officially back on!

Anyway, I can’t tell you how relieved I am to do simple things like run a load of laundry, brew a cup of coffee and surf the web. ❤️

The past few days have felt like I’ve been waiting at an airport for an uncertain connecting flight, and now that the power is back on, life will hopefully continue on as usual, knock on wood. My nerves are sighing the most epic sigh of relief.

Red Lip Redux: MAC Matte Lip Mousse in Cordon Bleu

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mac cordon bleu
MAC Condon Bleu, I heart you

Officially, this MAC matte lipstick is a warm pink, but on my lips it looks red, yet the name is Cordon Bleu, like the color blue.

We should just rename it something like, “When Colors Confusingly Collide.” ?

I wore this lippy last week in one of the Charlotte Tilbury posts not realizing just how much it would steal the show. It’s one of the Matte Lip Mousse lipsticks from the MAC Pony Park collection, so it’s limited edition (I know), and while a lot of the items from that launch are sold out, Cordon Bleu is still available.

The Matte Lip Mousse lippies play on the blurry edged lip trend that’s happening right now, so they’re designed to draw a diffused edge that feathers out ever so slightly.

You don’t really have to do anything fancy to get the effect either — just apply it with the doefoot directly onto your lips. Don’t worry, it won’t travel outside your natural lip line, so you won’t end up looking like the accidental Joker.

Cordon Bleu’s lightweight mousse formula stays put, feels comfy, and best of all, doesn’t dry out lips. It also tastes and smells like MAC’s signature vanilla, which I love. If you’re a fan of MAC Relentlessly Red Lipstick, I think you’ll like this color, too, because it has similar warm coral undertones.

mac cordon bleu
When you do an improv photo shoot in your parents’ backyard

mac cordon blue
Living my best NC42 life

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Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll, Vol. 598

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Today and every 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. When you were a kid, did you go trick-or-treating?

    Oh, yes. I remember going ’round the neighborhood with my friends by ourselves (it was a different time, man), and for some weird reason, I don’t ever remember my little brother coming with us. I don’t recall trying to ditch him on purpose, but knowing me, I probably went through some high-level machinations to leave him behind so I could go by myself. 🙂

    Little brothers… such a pain.

    2. Would you rather go to a Halloween haunted house, or a pumpkin patch?

    I’d go to the haunted house, because here in Nor Cal, pumpkin patches are usually, dry, dusty and hot, and the bathroom situation is usually pretty sketchy…

    I also think it’s neat to see pumpkins growing on the vine, but the overall pumpkin patch experience isn’t my favorite thing. Even though I do find haunted houses scary (and a little scarier after watching Us), I don’t mind them as long as I’m with someone, and they don’t mind me Wilhelm scream-ing through the entire thing.

    3. Your favorite scary movie?

    The Shining. ‘Nuff said.

    4. Speaking of scary movies, how would you fare if Michael Myers were in hot pursuit?

    I’m pretty nimble and quick on my feet, so I’d like to think I’d give him a run for his money… He might end up chopping off a fat lock of hair, but I’d make it out of that house alive!

    5. Orange or black eyeshadow?

    Orange!

Fire update

Good morning, my friend. I hope you’re having a good Monday so far. If you’ve been following the news, you might know that there’s a pretty intense fire burning about 30 miles north of where I live (Novato) right now, and so all the power in my town, and throughout the entire county, is off and has been since Saturday.

There hasn’t been an official evacuation for us (knock on wood), but we decided to go to my parents’ house in the East Bay because Connor has antibiotics that we need to keep refrigerated, and we had no means of communicating at the house because our cell phones and ISP weren’t working.

Yeah…it’s been a surreal couple of days, and it looks like the power may not be back on until Thursday, depending on the fire and the weather. So we’re playing it by ear.

But we are safe and hanging in there!

If you’re north of us and/or have been evacuated from the towns in Sonoma, sending good thoughts for you and your family.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

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

1. When you were a kid, did you go trick-or-treating?
2. Would you rather go to a Halloween haunted house, or a pumpkin patch?
3. Your favorite scary movie?
4. Speaking of scary movies, how would you fare if Michael Myers were in hot pursuit?
5. Orange or black eyeshadow?

P.P.S. In case someone hasn’t told you lately, you’re brave and you’re tough. ❤️

Sundays With Tabs the Cat, Makeup and Beauty Blog Mascot, Vol. 577

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Got a message from Tabs today via The Rainbow Bridge:

These amateurs. They don’t understand the level of dedication and commitment one needs for a true work of Halloween costume art. Take, for instance, the year I dressed up as the Queen of Hearts/Queen of Everything.

I watched so many royal biographies that fall, and I actually lived in character as a royal for, not one, not two, but three weeks.

Honestly, I don’t think my assistant thought I was behaving any differently than usual, but I thought I was committing to the character.

Halloween, as you can see, was my favorite holiday, and, of course, I’m dominating the Halloween scene up here too.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

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