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

Hello, friend! Happy December Caturday ❄️?? to ya.

You know, just when I think I’ve seen it all among the pantheon of makeup tips and now it’s just the same bevy of basic tips recycled and repackaged for the quadrillionth time and I stop expecting to ever see anybody ever add anything new to the beauty news cycle, ever, I stumble upon something I’ve never tried before, and sometimes it rocks my world.

Two words: reverse foundation.

It’s a new (I think) base technique, and I gave it a try for the first time the other day. It’s where you start by applying cream products to your skin first while it’s bare (contour, if you wear it, blush and then highlighter), let them set, and then do a sheer foundation on top.

Girl, it is game-changing.

The idea is that by layering the foundation on top of the contour/blush/highlighter products, everything blends together so seamlessly and naturally that it looks like you’re wearing the perfect amount of makeup. I tried it and took pics the other day, and I think the subtlety of the effect gets a little lost in photographs, but it looks really, really good in real life, especially outdoors in full sun.

Try it sometime!

I’ve been even more into “real life” makeup than usual lately because of a late-night vortex I got sucked into on Facebook called Celebrity Close-Up. It’s a page that posts zoomed-in pics of celebs wearing makeup, and OH, MY GOSH, it’s a revelation. I mean, I take a lot of closeup pics of myself for the blog, and I’m know that many things can influence the way a particular look will look in real life, like the direction of the light source, the color temperature of the lighting, the finishes you’re wearing, the makeup brands themselves, how much water you’ve been drinking, and the techniques and tools you’re using, and the same looks can look cake-y one minute and natural the next, but to see celebs without any filtering or airbrushing is pretty eye-opening.

I have to say that whoever is handling Kiera Knightly’s, Lupita Nyong’o’s and Kristen Stewart’s makeup is a freaking genius (hmm, I wonder if it’s Lisa Eldgridge’s work?), because up close all of them are wearing breathtaking full-coverage makeup, but it doesn’t look heavy at all.

On that note, this weekend’s reading…

• This post talks about some of the different approaches to natural-looking, or “no-makeup,” makeup, including this year’s new-ish “boy beat” trend.

  First, what’s the trend and who defines it? And if you can’t see a “no-makeup” makeup product on your skin, does that mean the product is doing what it’s supposed to do?? I’m so confused…

• One of the biggest beauty trends right now is vegan makeup, and it’s poised to blow up into a $20.8 billion business by 2025.

• Toddlers: the newest market for makeup. Stila’s former chief product development officer just launched a new makeup line called Petite ‘N Pretty for girls as young as four years old.

  About this, part of me thinks, “It’s all in good fun, Karen. TAKE A CHILL PILL,” because my mom let me have Lip Smackers when I was a kid, but another part of me is also super uncomfortable with the idea of kids being shown that they need to do things to their faces.

• Cats in literature? It’s a long tail… (Badum-tss!)
• This writer decided to find out what would happen if all of the makeup she had to work with was food, and yes, in case you were wondering, there *was* a dry spaghetti noodle involved.
• A breakdown of how moisturizers work
• Fave read of the week: The Joy of having a bare face
• I’m sorry I had to subject you to this, but I can’t be the only person haunted by this MAC brush manicure.
• This 39-year-old cat lover became a millionaire by inventing a contraption that potty trains cats.

OK, now I’m off to go wash my brushes because I haven’t done a deep clean in weeks. I’ve just been wiping the same ones off on a paper towel and hoping for the best. #keepingitreal!

Man, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to make it through the day, you know? LOL! ?

You have a good weekend, OK?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

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. Topknot or blowout?

Blowout…but only if someone else does it for me!

2. Have you ever tried doing soap brows?

No, but I really, really want to! I keep meaning to get a bar of glycerine soap whenever I go to Target, but I keep forgetting. I love the brushed-up brow look.

3. Coldest place you’ve ever visited?

Um…Lake Tahoe? In general, I try to stay away from the cold because I’m a weather wimp.

4. Have you ever grown out your armpit hair?

Nope! I don’t think I’ve ever seen my ‘pits in their natural state. I started shaving them right when I started growing body hair.

5. Do you have anything (charms, necklaces, etc.) hanging from your rear-view mirror?

I vaguely recall hanging my college graduation tassel from the rear-view mirror of my old red Honda Civic (nicknamed “Claude”) way back when, but I can’t remember where it went!

My parents adopted that car after I got a new one about a decade ago. In the intervening years, it was broken into a couple times, got stolen, then was lost for a year, then was found by the police (I KNOW!) and returned to my parents.

Now they keep it around as a backup car.

Somewhere along the way, that graduation tassel disappeared somewhere.

So I ended up not getting any Spanx leggings on Black Friday…

But they’re still on my Christmas list. After being brutally honest with myself about my closet — and the huge stack of black leggings I currently own — I decided it would be wiser to use my clothing budget on some affordable dresses at LOFT (50% off sale!), which I’ll be able to dress up or down. Plus, THEY’RE NOT PANTS. Ha ha ha!

Did you end up getting anything on Black Friday? Or do you plan to get something on Cyber Monday today?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

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

1. Topknot or blowout?
2. Have you ever tried doing soap brows?
3. Coldest place you’ve ever visited?
4. Have you ever grown out your armpit hair?
5. Do you have anything (charms, necklaces, etc.) hanging from your rear-view mirror?

When you’re well into your second decade of life, sometimes you can’t help but look back at the cats, toddlers and humans you’ve known, the places you’ve been, the flowers you’ve sniffed, the collars you’ve rocked, and the makeup looks you’ve inspired.

Call it a fall career retrospective, if you will. Tabs (and I) got a little emo today looking back at old pics from falls of yore.

Fall has always been one of Tabs’ favorite times of year, and not just because the turkeys are plump and the grass is extra green and tasty, but also because of fall fashion.

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