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

The New Urban Decay Loose Powder Has a Brush With Convenience, What to Eat With Your Veggies, and Distracted Waxing

September 17th, 2019 by Karen 12 Comments

urban decay ultimate brush off — A new way to get loose with Urban Decay

Do you ever skip loose powder because you don’t want to lug around an extra brush for touch-ups?

If so, I feel you… Also, Urban Decay’s new $34 Ultimate Brush Off Setting Powder might be of interest.

Bring your brush with ya

It comes with a synthetic flat-top kabuki brush attached to the lid, which makes it easy to dust a little on whenever and wherever you want.

It’s a demi-matte loose powder to set your makeup, blur pores and absorb oil and shine, and it’s available now at UD counters and online in five cruelty-free shades — Universal Translucent, Fair, Medium, Deep and Dark.

Speaking of new things… Well, new to me and my tummy!

Bolthouse Salsa Ranch Dressing is MAGIC. I picked it up at Target, and now I’m addicted.

bolthouse farm salsa ranch — A yummy, healthy snack

It’s funny to me that this is named “Salsa Ranch” because it isn’t spicy. It tastes like a blend of the best thousand island and ranch — a little tangy, a little sweet, and VERY tasty!

I like the Bolthouse dressings because they’re made from yogurt, and are consequently less calorically dense than most creamy dressings, so consequently I eat TONS of it, which I do with whatever vegetable I’m crushing on at any given moment. (It’s delish with snap peas!)

If you could use some extra motivation to eat your veggies, then you need what Connor calls “the pink ranch dressing” in your life.

OK, so I had a major upper-lip wax fail…

Please note that waxing your ‘stach while plumbers work on an underground water leak in your front yard is inadvisable. There’s a significant chance you’ll have low-grade anxiety because you don’t know if the plumbers will have to break open the concrete to access the leaky pipe, thereby causing the budget to skyrocket, and you could also end up with a sinkhole underneath your garage…
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Transitional Booties at DSW

September 16th, 2019 by Karen 13 Comments

I got a coupon in the mail for some good deals on early season boots at DSW, so I went! — despite the fact that it was 92 degrees with nary a cloud in the sky.

Thankfully for me and my feet, DSW has the answer to navigating this very confusing time of year between summer and fall, and the answer is something I call “transitional booties.”

Did you laugh like a teenage boy when I said, “transitional booties”? Because I crack up every time I say it, ha ha ha!

So, what is a transitional bootie? Well, they’re ankle boots, usually made from suede or leather, that you can wear with summery dresses or your favorite fall pant/cozy sweater combo, and they go with everything during that weird in-between phase between summer and fall.

My favorite type of transitional booties are perforated ankle booties.

They have the little hole cutouts in the shoe material, a la instant air conditioning for your feet. On warm days, you can wear them without socks, and perhaps with a dress.

baretraps booties — The perforated Rizzo bootie by Baretraps

And on cool days…socks!

I really like the Rizzo by Baretraps because of the low heel and the rounded toe.

Super comfy.

I also like the Dr. Scholl’s Best Day Bootie. This one is SUPER cute in person, especially in the Olive option, which is a dark, rich green khaki that functions as a neutral.

dsw booties 21 — Dr. Scholl’s Best Day Bootie in Olive

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Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll, Vol. 592

September 16th, 2019 by Karen 20 Comments

you are worthy — A gentle reminder on this beautiful Monday.

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. Are you better at remembering names or remembering faces?

Oh, it’s a tossup because I’m equally bad at both! ?

I guess I’m a little better at faces if, and only if, I’m wearing my glasses or contacts (I’m nearsighted)… That said, I’m getting pretty lazy when it comes to wearing either. What I really need to do is invest in some good reading glasses, but I’m still in complete denial about that.

2. What’s your favorite TV show?

The Great British Bake Off! But this one-new-episode-per-week thing on Netflix kind of pains me. I got used to marathoning the earlier seasons.

“Give me all the gluten!” is all I have to say.

3. Something on your bucket list?

I desperately want to learn how to play the accordion… I really need to make that happen, because when there’s an accordion playing, everyone is happy. ?

4. If you had more time for hobbies, what are some hobbies you would have?

Baking would be one, for sure. Brownies and bread are my love language. ❤️ I’d also like to take hip-hop dance classes again, although I don’t think I’d be much good at it anymore, since it’s been years.

Oh, and if there were an American Ninja Warrior-type gym nearby, I’d start doing obstacle training in a heartbeat.

Oh, and one other thing: does sleep count as a hobby?!

5. Apple or Android?

Apple! — mostly because I’m already stuck on the Mac hamster wheel, and once you’re on there, it’s hard to get off.

Because I’m a “list lady”

Speaking of remembering names…I really don’t like that awkward feeling when you keep running into someone whose name you can’t remember, but after a certain amount of time has passed you can’t ask what their name is again. At that point, it’s clear that neither of you remembers the other person’s name, but you both keep pretending that you do, and it’s so uncomfortable (at least it is for me, LOL!).

So here’s what I do now: I keep a list oh-so-creatively called “People I’ve Met” on my phone, and right after I meet someone, I jot down a few details about them, like, “Long red hair, Molly’s mom, met her at the dance studio in the fall, super friendly.”

It’s actually REALLY handy, especially 1) if you’re bad at remembering names, and 2) you usually have your phone on ya. When I see that person again, BAM! — I just pop open my list, and there are the details.

Super nerdy, and yet super effective. ?

Have a wonderful week, OK? Talk to you soon.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Question time! Here they are to copy/paste with your answers in a comment. Talk to ya soon!

1. Are you better at remembering names or remembering faces?
2. What’s your favorite TV show?
3. Something on your bucket list?
4. If you had more time for hobbies, what are some hobbies you’d have?
5. Apple or Android?

P.P.S. Please be extra kind and loving to yourself this week. If you do that, I’ll do the same. ?

Sundays With Tabs the Cat, Makeup and Beauty Blog Mascot, Vol. 571

September 15th, 2019 by Karen 7 Comments

Of all the things Tabs was, low-carb wasn’t one of them. That cat loved his bread. Sourdough, French, honey whole wheat — if it was bread and I was eating it, I was sharing it with Tabs.

It was one of his many enduring quirks.

Not a lot of people know this, but Tabs was supposed to be one of the original hosts on The Great British Baking Show. He was cast as the Paul Hollywood character.

Yeah, we flew over to the UK and spent a few weeks filming the pilot episode. Like, we were literally in the tent.

I think it was week three or four when we found out Tabs had been cast as the main character in the Spider-Cat movie, and it was his chance to fulfill one of his lifelong career dreams to work with Jon Favreau, so we bid adieu to The Great British Baking Show and returned home…

Paul Hollywood stepped into the tent, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Every once in a while, I make one of Tabs’ favorite recipes. This weekend, I busted out his world-famous catnip-infused ? cupcakes, and of course I also made a rustic rosemary catnip loaf in honor of my little bread lover. ?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Saturday Surfing, Sep. 14th, 2019

September 14th, 2019 by Karen 7 Comments

golden gate bridge fog — Chrissy Field Beach Park in San Francisco, California

Good morning from the Bay Area! It’s that time of year around here when the microclimates go cray. You can leave the house in shorts and a sleeveless shirt and be desperate for a warm sweatshirt a few hours later. People are NOT playing when they say to bring layers for Bay Area adventures. The pic up top was from the beach a couple weeks ago in the heat of summer. It was warm enough to play at the edge of the water (granted, just our feet because it was cold!), but that pretty much sums it up.

What are you up to today? I hope it involves a little rest and reading.

Speaking of that…your beauty links for the week:

You can now buy a makeup mirror with Alexa built into it, and all I have to say to that is SNOOZE. Call me when she can actually do winged liner for me.
The New York Times asks, “Are you being kind to your butt?” (P.S. Apparently, butt skin care masks are a thing now.)
Favorite quote of the week: “Eventually…I was caught. My mom got home early from work one day and found me in her room wearing her favorite red lipstick. I learned one thing that day that forever stuck with me after the fact: you can’t trick your mom for as long as you think you can.”
These two clever penguins keep sneaking into a sushi shop.
According to NYFW, basic beauty is dead.
I’ve been spending a lot of time on the Marin Humane Society website lately, and I just found out they have a lot of in-depth and useful resources on cat and dog behavior in their Training Handouts section. (And they come in both English and Español!)
Sasha Plavsic, the founder of clean beauty brand Ilia Beauty, is obsessed with typography.
Got a pimple? Cover AND heal it with these cute yellow star stickers.
NYFW also told us that hair scarves are going to be everywhere come spring/summer 2020 (yikes, did I just really type “2020?”).

Easy hair styles with a scarf

I want to try these styles, too.

Chrissy Field, San Francisco, California

When Riri stands up and starts clapping, you’re doing something right.

I needed this today.

Now, this is usually the point when I go get another cup of coffee, but I’m going to make a green juice instead because my body is craving spinach… Does that ever happen to you? And sometimes I don’t want to expend the effort to actually sit down and eat a big bowl of it, so I just blitz it in my Ninja Blender with some fruit. That’s where I am in life right now, LOL! ?

Anyway, have a great rest of your weekend.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Sip, Stay and Play at the New Beauty Heroes Flagship Store in Novato, California

September 13th, 2019 by Karen 13 Comments

beauty heroes orange wall — You beautiful hero. ?

New York, Paris, London…NOVATO!

OK, the little hamlet of Novato in northern Marin County isn’t renowned for being a bustling beauty hub, but with the opening of the new Beauty Heroes flagship store, beauty-loving visitors to Wine Country have a new reason to take a quick detour.

beauty heroes novato flagship store — Very charming

A passion for ingredients

Beauty Heroes, a new brick-and-mortar luxury beauty store located downtown in the small but vivacious town of Novato — which happens to be where I’ve lived for the last 10 years! — is about 45 minutes north of the Golden Gate Bridge. They carry a bevvy of clean hair, skin and makeup products.

When Beauty Heroes began five years ago, they started as a subscription service and an online store, selling a pared-down selection of clean makeup, skin and hair products, all of which founder Jeannie Jarnot meticulously combed through ingredient and source lists to find.

And now, with their new flagship store, you can experience Beauty Heroes in person.

They remind me of San Francisco’s Credo Beauty, but with a very focused and specific approach, which they call their Beauty Product Ingredient Standard, to vetting the ingredients in the products they sell.

From beauty-heroes.com:

We are committed to our Beauty Product Ingredient Standard and review each product ingredient list in detail to determine that each product is:

Free from ingredients banned in United States (a mere 11 individual chemicals)

Free from ingredients banned in the European Union (an admirable 1,328 chemicals)

Free from ingredients banned in Canada* (over 500 chemicals)

Free from ingredients banned in Japan

Free from ingredients that have gone through a process of ethoxylation (and has not been vacuum stripped and tested) which would put them at risk for contamination with 1,4 Dioxane, a known carcinogen. This includes phenoxyethanol and polyethylene glycols (listed as PEG’s for short on ingredient lists

Free from Parabens. Since they aren’t banned for use in cosmetics the U.S., EU, Canada or Japan, parabens are still commonly used as an inexpensive preservative system. While preservatives are important for some products, there are much safer, better researched effective preservative systems.

Free from Synthetic Fragrances. In order to avoid the fragrance loophole, we screen each product ingredient list for fragrance listed as an ingredient without disclosing the individual components.

Free from any of the 20 most common and most harmful ingredients in cosmetics listed on our Villain Ingredient List.

Free from ingredients that were tested on animals. In general, natural beauty brands don’t use ingredients you would ever consider testing on animals. But to be sure, each brand we work with ensures us that their not only have their products never tested, but the ingredients they source have never been subject to animal testing, either.

Free from ingredients that have been genetically modified. We ask each brand to ensures us that the ingredients that they source are free from GMO’s

But Beauty Heroes isn’t just about what you put on your face and body. They also take their commitment to sustainable living a step further by offering other non-beauty products, like glass straws and clothing manufactured using sustainable processes, to help you live a cleaner, zero-waste lifestyle.

Stay, sip, play

Jeannie, the founder of Beauty Heroes, says that “Our store is really designed to be a play space,” and it includes a beauty lounge area where you can experience their “beauty flights,” a group of featured products you can try (like a wine flight). As you explore, you can also sip on botanical teas and infusions!

Ahhh…

beauty heroes beauty flights — Enjoying some tea and a beauty flight.

beauty heroes flight of heroes — One of the beauty flights

Soon, the store will also be offering a treatment suite for facials, featuring the products they sell.

beauty heroes spa services — The treatment menu

beauty heroes upstairs treatment room — The upstairs treatment room. Hello, facials!

If you’re a blogger or a content creator, there’s a free “creator space” in the store, too, where you can film and shoot content!

Very cool.

Oh, and soon, a Blue Barn restaurant — otherwise known as “The Valhalla of Salad!” — will be opening next door, so, after you get your beauty fix, you can get your salad fix, too (no guarantees you’ll see Lars from Metallica, though).

I’m excited to see brands I’m familiar with, like Osmia, Axiology and Antonym, along with lines I’ve been wanting to try, like Josh Rosebrook and Ere Perez. I’m always down for an online shopping sesh, but there’s just something about being able to see, touch and smell things in person, especially with makeup, you know?

beauty heroes honua — For the local (Hawaiian) girls…

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Unsung Makeup Heroes: Essie Gel Couture Top Coat

September 12th, 2019 by Karen 13 Comments

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.

Nobody puts baby in the corner, and nobody puts bullsh*t top coats on my nails.

I’ve had the time of my life!

Like the ladies who unabashedly carry hot sauce in their purse, I’ve reached that point in life where I bring Essie Gel Couture Top Coat with me everywhere (no, seriously, I keep it in my touch-up makeup bag), including the nail salon.

On the rare occasion that I get my nails ? done, it’s the ONLY top coat that I know can withstand all of the obstacles the universe throws in my path — the never-ending deluge of dishes, the ferocious onslaught of words inside my head waiting to be unleashed upon this keyboard underneath my fingertips, and, ya know, toddlers. They always have those Lego blocks that need to be pried apart and My Little Ponies that need their manes braided LIKE YESTERDAY.

Gel Couture is a clear, glossy topcoat originally designed to be used with the Essie Couture Gel polishes, but I’ve recently figured out that it’s an excellent topper for ALL polishes, not just the Essie Gels.

For starters, it’s so shiny that it always looks wet (even when dry), which I love.

The texture’s also thick for a top coat, and I think that’s why it functions like the ultimate armor against nicks and chips.

But don’t get it twisted. It’s far from goopy or difficult to paint with.

I’m not a fan of top coats that you’re constantly tempted to peel off whenever you get out of the shower. Gel Couture, thankfully, relieves me of that temptation!

One coat atop whatever I’m wearing (right now it’s the Smith & Cult base coat and two layers of Essie Angora Cardi, a.k.a. THE BEST FALL COLOR), and five minutes later I have a mani that looks just as fresh after five days as it did on day one.

Super great, and it’s relatively affordable at $11.50 a bottle! You can find it at Ulta and beauty supply stores… I’ve also seen it at Target.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Notebook Nirvana…

September 12th, 2019 by Karen 13 Comments

I jokingly mentioned to El Hub that I could fill countless volumes of this blank notebook titled “Ledger of Perceived Slights,” and he replied, “Yeah, you could,” a little too enthusiastically.

HMMM.

I honestly didn’t know whether to punch him or kiss him… The man knows me too well, HA HA HA! ?

I saw it while shopping for a birthday gift at Copperfield’s Books in Novato, but it’s also available online.

Even though I really wanted it and the other notebooks with slightly snarky titles on the shelf for myself, I have a not-so-small collection of blank notebooks threatening to bury me under an avalanche of paper at the moment, so I resisted the urge.

Marie Kondo would not be proud

A lot of the writing I do is on a keyboard, but there’s just something wonderful about old-school pen and paper! For some reason, the information processes differently, and it sinks in better when I write things down, which is why there are multiple notebooks around me at any given moment.

There are three on my desk right now, each dedicated to a specific subject — an orange one for time management, a purple one for outlines and drafts, and a green one for career notes.

Oh, and I don’t just get notebooks for myself. I also get them for other people. Just the other day, I found a cute pink Minnie Mouse spiral-bound hardcover notebook in the dollar section at Target that I got for Coco-baby, who, by the way, is currently obsessed with finding “fresh pages” in her notebooks.

Hmm… I wonder where she gets that from.

Shout-out to ribbon placeholders

My number-one requirement for any and all notebooks is that the pages have to be lined, since sloped script on unlined pages is way too much chaos for me.

And while an attached thin sliver of ribbon for a bookmark is also a plus, it’s not a necessity.

I also need a notebook that easily lays flat, and so the first thing I do with any potential notebook is open it up to see how the pages fall.

Oh, and a hard cover is a major plus. When you have a hard cover, the world is your desk!

That’s something I figured out in my early 20s, a time during which I spent countless hours writing things down while waiting for…something (usually public transportation).

Last week I found an old hardcover notebook from when I was 24, and I swear, half of the pages had been filled while I waited for BART, MUNI or for my laundry at the laundromat.

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