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

15-Minute Makeup: Fast and Smoky With NARS Sarah Moon

October 11th, 2016 by Karen 16 Comments

nars sarah moon look closer eyeshadow palette — Fast and smoky 15-minute makeup with NARS Sarah Moon

Does it take 30 minutes, five eyeshadows and three different brushes to do a smoky eye look?

Nuh-uh. Not at all. This look took 15 minutes, and I only used one cream shadow stick and one eyeshadow for my eyes.

Seriously, if you strip away the extra stuff, that’s all you need to do a quick smoky eye look.

And I’m talking about the entire look from start to finish — the whole thing took 15 minutes. That includes brows, skin, mascara — the works — and I think the key is to simplify what you do on your lids, because, as you know, it is easily possible to spend A LONG time on smoky eyes. But you don’t have to.

I applied a purple shadow stick from one of the new NARS Sarah Moon holiday sets directly on my lids from the stick, then blended out the edges with a fluffy blending brush.

Then I just dipped that same brush into a matte brown shadow from one of the other NARS Sarah Moon holiday palettes, buffed that on top and did my best to fade the edges of the shadow up into my brows.

At that point, I grabbed a clean blending brush and buffed out the edges even more to smooth everything out. Then I just lined my upper lash line and smudged it out with a bit of black eyeshadow from the same palette.

The rest of the look was super easy. A bit of foundation, some concealer blended on top with a beautyblender, set that with powder, and then add blush, gloss, and that’s it.

Well, mascara, of course, and then brows… But that’s it.

So you CAN do a complete smoky look in 15 minutes. It’s definitely possible.

nars shadow side eye set — NARS Sarah Moon Shadow Side Eye Set swatches

nars sarah moon look closer eyeshadow palette swatches — NARS Sarah Moon Look Closer Eyeshadow Palette swatches

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ConnorClaire.com Product Spotlight: Drawn to Lipstick Makeup Bag

October 11th, 2016 by Karen 2 Comments

What do you think I keep in my Drawn to Lipstick Makeup Bag?

Cat treats? UD Naked3 or the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette? A travel pack of Nutella? Little shards of my broken hearts from old relationships with boyfriends? All of the crazy Post-It notes I write to myself at 3 o’clock in the morning?

All of these guesses would be valid, but none of them would be correct in the case of this particular bag.

Because this bag gets filled with tubes upon tubes of pink lipstick.

But you could put any of those other things and more in it, too.

I highly recommend it for storing Post-It notes, because it’s nice to keep them all in one place. Same goes for cat treats.

One of my favorite things about this bag is the eye-catching color. I can always spot that bright pink in my purse.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll, Vol. 444

October 10th, 2016 by Karen 28 Comments

What to wear, what to wear... — What to wear, what to wear…

You might be wondering, “So what in tarnation is this Monday Poll thing anyway!?”

Well, it isn’t exactly a poll. It’s more of a constantly evolving (devolving?), somewhat random list of questions I’ve been putting out to readers every Monday morning for the past NINE (!) years. (It’s like a kickstart for your brain.) I’ve always enjoyed reading your answers in the comments, and I hope you enjoy reading mine. 🙂

1. Pick one: boyfriend jeans or jeggings?

Jeggings for sure.

Stretchy jeggings, ideally.

Dark stretchy jeggings.

OK, those are all of my requirements. 🙂

2. Have you ever done a photoshoot?

I do them all the time for the blog, sort of, and I did one a long time ago at a Neutrogena event. There was a professional photographer, and there were even props. There was a guitar and a cowboy hat, and I remember trying to get up in the mix but feeling so awkward…

It’s one thing to take pictures of yourself when you’re both the photographer and the subject, but it’s something else entirely when somebody else is behind the camera taking pictures of you.

I just felt really awkward and had no idea what to do or where to put my hands or how to turn…

I wanted to be the person behind the camera, instead of in front of the camera.

3. Camouflage: a do or a don’t?

Weirdly enough, I think this is a do.

I am guilty of wearing camo. I kind of love it in small doses, like a pair of camo pants, for example, and then a black shirt and black pants. Or jeans, a white shirt and a camo jacket.

But head-to-toe camo? No, I don’t do that.

4. With whom would you rather hang out — King Kong or Frankenstein?

This is a very tough question, because with Frankenstein you could scare a bunch of people, and that would bring me some weird sense of delight, but I would probably choose to hang out with King Kong, because then we could get to different vantage points that I’ve never seen before, like I could hang out on his shoulder, and we could climb to the top of the Transamerica building.

That would be really effing cool.

5. Metallics or mattes?

Again, very tough question…

I’m going to go with my gut and say mattes.

Deep breath in, deep breath out. Repeat.

Hello, Monday!

I hope that your day is a productive one, and I hope you’re feeling good. I also hope that your nails are painted. Mine aren’t at the moment, but they will be by the end of the day. 🙂

Have a good one, my friend.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Here are the questions to copy and paste…

1. Pick one: boyfriend jeans or jeggings?
2. Have you ever done a photoshoot?
3. Camouflage: a do or a don’t?
4. With whom would you rather hang out — King Kong or Frankenstein?
5. Metallics or mattes?

Sundays With Tabs the Cat, Makeup and Beauty Blog Mascot, Vol. 418

October 9th, 2016 by Karen 11 Comments

Tabs has been testing some new in-home exercise equipment from the Natural Pet Company.

It’s called The Natural Pet Company Cat Toys Collection, and it’s only $13.95 at Amazon, which is A LOT cheaper than Tabs’ monthly 24-Hour Feline Fitness membership.

It’s really great and easy to use! The equipment comes preassembled, and everything is made from natural materials like wood, sisal and feathers.

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Sarah Moon for NARS Holiday 2016 Collection: The $69 NARS Give In Take Dual-Intensity Eye and Cheek Palette

October 8th, 2016 by Karen 11 Comments

nars sarah moon give in take palette — Wearing the NARS Sarah Moon for NARS Holiday 2016 Collection Give In Take Dual-Intensity Eye and Cheek Palette ($69)

Rise and shine, pal o’ mine! Happy Caturday. 🙂 I hope you slept well. I’m still working my way through the NARS Holiday 2016 Collection LE palettes, and the one I’m looking at this morning is the $69 Give In Take Dual-Intensity Eye and Cheek Palette (coming to Sephora Nov. 1st).

Whether you’re warm-toned, cool-toned, Hypercolor-toned or scaly-toned like an alien lizard, you can wear the new $69 NARS Give In Take Dual-Intensity Eye and Cheek Palette, another one of the several palettes in the Sarah Moon for NARS Holiday 2016 Collection.

If I were a humanoid reptile, I’d wear it…but I’m getting sidetracked. Bottom line: You can wear cool-toned shades like these even if you aren’t cool-toned. That’s my personal belief. These shades are very cool-toned — cooler than I expected them to be — but that can be a good thing, even if you’re a warm-toned person like me.

These powders, which are all in the NARS Dual-Intensity formula, don’t have a problem with fallout, and they’re delightfully easy to blend.

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Sarah Moon for NARS Holiday 2016: The Mind Game Velvet Lip Glide Coffret

October 7th, 2016 by Karen 13 Comments

nars sarah moon mind game velvet lip glide toy — Wearing the shade Plato’s from the NARS Mind Game Mini Velvet Lip Glide Coffret ($45)

Welcome to the Dark Side! — and by “Dark Side,” I don’t mean Darth Vader’s neck of the woods. I’m talking about the $45 NARS Mind Game Velvet Lip Glide set (a Sephora exclusive, coming November 1st), one of several NARS sets in the Sarah Moon Holiday 2016 Collection.

It comes with six mini Lip Glides, and I’ve talked about the Lip Glides before.

Basically…I think they’re awesome.

They’re liquid lipsticks that feel like glosses, but unlike your typical liquid lipsticks, they’re comfortable. They also shouldn’t make your lips dry or make them look like a cat butt after a few hours. They stay nice and creamy, but they aren’t so malleable that they end up all over your face. I think they’re lovely and really great.

These have the same light vanilla flavor and scent as the ones in the permanent line and the same flat doe-foot applicator, which comes in really handy with the dark colors.

These aren’t high maintenance to wear or apply, and you can get nice, crisp, clean lines with the doe foot. A lip pencil or lip brush isn’t necessary.

nars sarah moon mind game velvet lip glide packaging — The Sarah Moon for NARS Mind Game Mini Velvet Lip Glide Coffret ($45)

nars sarah moon mind game velvet lip glides — The six Mini Lip Glides in the set

nars-snars sarah moon mind game velvet lip glide — Next to a full-sized NARS Velvet Lip Glide for scale

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ConnorClaire.com Product Spotlight: Lipstick Swatch-a-thon Mug

October 7th, 2016 by Karen 6 Comments

I drew these lipsticks with my Tombow brush pens in my favorite sketchbook.

I mean, it’s a mug, obviously, so you can use it to drink your coffee or tea or whatever you want out of it (girl, I won’t tell anyone if you’ve got wine in there, shh!), but I’m using mine to store my makeup brushes now. Props if you can guess whether they’re clean or dirty!

The mug comes in two sizes, a smaller 11-oz. one, and the bigger one here is 15 ounces.

I like the bigger one because when my mug isn't holding makeup brushes, I use it to drink coffee or tea, and ya know...MOAR COFFEE!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. TGIF!

All About That Crock-Pot Life: Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo

October 6th, 2016 by Karen 15 Comments

Yaay!

That pretty much summarizes how I feel about Crock-Pots.

Girl, I’ve been livin’ for my Crock-Pot lately. If it weren’t for my Crock-Pot, I would probably be eating PB&J sandwiches from now till eternity.

It makes cooking SO easy. You just throw a bunch of stuff into the pot and walk away for six hours. THAT’s my idea of THE BEST cooking scenario.

The other day for dinner I made chicken adobo from a recipe I found on this fantastic site called Skinnytaste.

Gina’s recipes are pretty healthy, and they’re always tasty.

Anyway, I basically followed the recipe but adapted it for my Crock-Pot, instead of cooking it on the stove.

I think of adobo as the ultimate in Filipino home-cooking. When I was growing up, we had it at least once a week at home. It’s really simple, savory and flavorful — soy sauce, vinegar, hella garlic, bay leaves and some peppercorns. And chicken in this case, of course, although you can pretty much adobo anything.

I actually marinated the chicken overnight in the fridge, then stuck it into the Crock-Pot in the morning for six hours.

To be honest, this has been uncharted territory for me, because I just started getting into Crock-Pot cooking. I made a yummy chicken tortilla soup a couple weeks ago using a recipe from Pioneer Woman, and El Hub made some beef stew that was all right…but that’s been about it for my Crock-Pot adventures.

Chicken Adobo (here’s the full recipe with directions)

Servings: 4
Ingredients:
8 skinless chicken drumsticks, on the bone
1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1 small head of garlic, crushed
6 ground peppercorns
4 bay leaves
1 jalapeño, chopped (optional)

If you have any good slow cooker recipes, let me know! Thank you in advance. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen