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This is one of those beauty no-nos I actually never do! Granted…there are other “beauty rules” I break all the time. 🙂 Like curling my lashes after applying mascara (GASP!) or skipping sunscreen (I know, I’m trying really hard to get better), but I’ve always been pretty good about washing my face and taking off my makeup before bed.

A big part of it is just convenience, because I shower at night before bed (even when we’re out and I get home late, I will ALWAYS, at a minimum, rinse off in the shower before I hop into bed), because if I feel yucky or dirty at all on any part of my body before I go to sleep, I’m very uncomfortable.

I have some friends who break this one all the time, though (it’s OK; no judgment!). Are you one of those gals/guys?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

So…what is the Monday Poll?

Good question! It isn’t, contrary to its name, an actual poll. 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 gazillion years (more than 10!). I love reading your answers, and it helps me get my week off to a great start. ?

1. Something you miss?

Honestly, being able to sleep in on the weekends until 11, which I know I can’t/really shouldn’t do anymore, but still… I miss it.

Bottom line, I loooove getting my REM cycles in, but I love getting stuff done early in the day even more, because I don’t like feeling like my weekend days revolve around the errands that I know I have to do (who does?). I can’t even explain the joy I derive from knocking out a workout *and* a Target run before 11.

2. What’s on your nightstand at the moment?

Two library books, a bottle of water, lip balm, TJ’s Rose Hand Cream, a small Rae Dunn plate which I set my glasses and my night guard on (bruxism, y’all… Bruxism!), a claw clip and a hideous lamp that I got from Ikea ages ago, which has a lampshade that rattles whenever I reach over to turn it on or off. Grrr…

3. Your ’90s crush?

My friends, feel free to call me Mrs. Keanu Reeves (or just Mrs. Reeves) from this point henceforth. Because we’re married, with three kids, and five cats, and live in a sprawling home on Kauai with a wraparound porch and curvy driveway.

You’re welcome to stay with us next time you visit the island! 🙂

4. What’s the best thing that happened to you yesterday?

I actually relaxed!

I know! Shocking.

Tabs spent hours lounging on the deck; Connor and I went to the playground; we got frozen yogurt (the humans, among us); we started watching the new season of American Ninja Warrior; we rented two movies (Annihilation and Game Night, both great!)… It was blissful.

5. Makeup love of the moment?

Lately I’ve been really into simple looks that require just a single shadow on my lids, so shadows that deepen my eyes and add a little shine are my jam right now, but they’ve gotta be easy to blend, too.

Faves at the moment are MAC Bronze, MAC Havana and good ol’ Tom Ford Spice.

Happy Monday

Is this kid me? Am I this kid? Because I swear I made the same face while I was eating my Cheerios this morning and realized that the weekend was over, LOL!

Have a great Monday, my friend. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Here are the questions for you to copy and paste with your answers in a comment:

1. Something you miss?
2. What’s on your nightstand at the moment?
3. Your ’90s crush?
4. What’s the best thing that happened to you yesterday?
5. Makeup love of the moment?

I’ve got thyme on my hands, and I plan to spend some of it with my thyme plant today, which, by the way, is having the thyme of its life right now on my deck!

LOL. Thyme. Get it…? Buh-dum-bump! I’ll be here all day, folks! ?

I’m growing three herbs in the lady sanctuary at the moment — dill, cilantro and thyme! The dill and thyme are starting to get big, so I should trim them down a little (the cilantro’s being a bit of a diva, so no haircut for her today), and although I have some idea how to work the dill, I’m not so sure about the thyme.

Last time (thyme? haha) I used it was Easter in a roast potato and chicken dish, but other than that I don’t really know what goes with it, so I bookmarked a few recipes that look yummy (they’re listed below in case you’re curious). If you have any ideas, I’d love to hear about them. Tell me all your thyme secrets, please.

It’s nice and sunny today, so I’m going to take Connor to a new playground we found in town. It has a huge play structure, a sandbox, a separate play area for the toddlers, and I’ve heard that there’s also a creek somewhere nearby… I just really wish there was a way to bring Tabs ? because I can see him relaxing in the sun next to Connor while she plays in the sandbox.

He’s wonderful and cooperative on a leash, but I think all the kids would make him too jumpy. I’m afraid he’d get scared and make a run for it.

Now, if I had a cat stroller… (HEY, EL HUB, MY BIRTHDAY’S COMING SOON!) That would be a totally different story. I’m just sayin’… If a cat stroller comes my way, I won’t be mad about it! ?

In other news, here are the stories that caught my eye this week… Hope you’re having a great weekend so far.

• All the thyme recipes I want to try: Lemon Thyme Shortbread Cookies, One Pan Lemon Thyme Chicken Asparagus, Lemon Thyme Tea Bread and Broiled Catfish With Fresh Thyme, Garlic, And Lemon.

• So many fun facts about lipstick in this BBC video! Did you know that the world’s first commercially available lipstick was invented by Pierre-François Guerlain, and that the first peeps to embrace it in the US were the suffragettes, because lipstick symbolized their defiance?

• Ah…take me back to the ’90s, where butterfly clips, claw clips, comb headbands and scrunchies ruled!

  Actually, I still wear claw clips. And scrunchies. (Whatever, don’t judge.)

  This post is all about ’90s hair accessories, but what I really got a kick out of was the makeup and hair on the celeb pics, especially the Drew Barrymore pic from 1995. I had that EXACT hair style and brows, and for the record, I looked terrible!

• According to this Racked piece, it costs $2.50 to make a tube of lipstick.

  So, how do companies get away with charging so much more for it? Follow the $$$.

  “In general, when a retailer wants to sell a company’s products, the retailer buys those products from brands at 50 to 65 percent less than the retail price, then marks them back up to sell, taking that profit. That means the brand needs to sell a lot more to make a profit, which explains why makeup prices can sometimes be 10 times higher in a store than what they cost to make. Both the store and the brand needs to see a profit. Selling products to retailers means giving up a lot of potential income and control; the upside is that you can make that up in volume as well as get incredible exposure. Of course, if a brand chooses to stay direct to consumer, that comes with its own costs, like paying more staff and maintaining a website. Shipping and handling can also be a big financial hit. It all contributes to the final price you the shopper pay.”

• Yes, this is real life, not the latest summer spy ?️ novel. A makeup artist used makeup and pigs blood (oh, my) to help this Russian journalist stage his own murder as part of an elaborate plot to catch an alleged assassin…
• As a bonafide foundation junkie, I’m stoked about the new launch of Dior Backstage Face and Body Foundation. The rest of the products in Backstage look pretty cool, too.

• Is this the future of shampoo? A new line called OWA Haircare (an acronym for “out of this world amazing”) will be launching powdered shampoo this fall…but it’s *not* a dry shampoo.

  You take it with you in the shower, sprinkle it on your hair, add water, and lather up.

  So it’s almost like a solid bar shampoo, except powdered…

  I don’t think I’ve ever seen something like this before, so I’m curious. Putting it on my radar to try.

• I liked this piece on actress Viola Davis, who says that she lives by these four simple rules:

  1. I’m doing the best I can
  2. I will allow myself to be seen
  3. I apply the advice an acting coach gave me to all aspects of my life: Go further. Don’t be afraid. Put it all out there. Don’t leave anything on the floor.
  4. I will not be a mystery to my daughter. She will know me and I will share my stories with her — the stories of failure, shame, and accomplishment. She will know she’s not alone in that wilderness.

This video made me crack up so hard. He looks like he just rolled out of bed, threw on a sweatshirt, then walked down the street to film this song’s video at a random spot at the mall…in the ’90s!

Aaand this next song is currently stuck in my head. Also, the closeups of her makeup are pretty.

Oh, I finally finished Faithful Place by Tana French, the book I’ve been chipping away at for the last two weeks. Now I’m gonna try to find Crazy Rich Asians at one last local bookstore, but if I can’t find it there, le sigh… Amazon Prime it is.

Kim, a fried of mine from the comments, brought up an interesting point the other day. She said that I should watch the movie first, and then read the book, because that way I won’t be disappointed by the movie, which makes sense to me.

What do you think? Should I still read the book first? Or should I just wait for the movie?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen