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Make Your Own Commodity Fragrance Cocktail

December 15th, 2015 by Karen 21 Comments

Commodity Fragrance

I haven’t had a cocktail since my birthday trip to New Orleans last June.

Mind you, I think I had enough of them at the time to last me through quite a few months. 🙂

(I only have to make it to early/mid March.)

I’m not a big drinker to start with anyway, so I don’t miss it much, but I do have to say…I kinda miss making friends with strangers at the bar. And, weirdly, I miss the smell of cocktails.

I know; weird. But I’ve always liked to do that — sniff drinks — because some of them smell really interesting, and I bet that my super-duper pregnancy nose, which is like my normally heightened sense of smell turned up, would pick up all kinds of complex cocktail fragrance layers.

commodity fragrance 1

Where am I going with this…?

Excellent question, LOL! Here we go: Commodity Fragrance. They’re a niche fragrance line, and my nose steered me toward their display recently at Sephora.

They have an interesting cocktail fragrance theme — but no, not literal cocktails, as in you’re walking to the mailbox smelling like a mojito. What you do is layer their individual scents together to create your own fragrance cocktails.

commodity fragrance 2
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There are 21 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Fragrance

The MAC Velvetease Lip Pencils: Video Review & Swatches

December 15th, 2015 by Karen 22 Comments

Just a quick video review and swatches of the new MAC Velvetease Lip Pencils. They’re available now online ($20 each, 12 shades) and coming to stores and counters December 17 into the permanent line.

The MAC Velvetease Lip Pencils

  • Anything Goes, a matte rosy fuchsia
  • Temper Tantrum, a matte bright orange coral
  • Lover’s Lane, a matte deep orange
  • Frolic, a matte mid-tone peachy pink
  • Oh Honey, a matte warm chocolate
  • Aim to Please, a matte dirty mauvey brown
  • Just My Type, a matte clean blue fuchsia
  • Just Add Romance, a matte deep red
  • Tease Me, a matte light pink
  • Promise Me, a matte soft beige nude
  • Velvet Teen, a matte deep blackened plum
  • Reddy to Go, a matte deep brick red

Have you gotten your lips on these yet? What do you think?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

There are 22 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Lips, MAC Makeup, Video

Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll, Vol. 352

December 14th, 2015 by Karen 39 Comments

Happy Monday

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 seven 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. Do you like to plan your makeup looks beforehand, or do you just wing it?
    A bit of both. When I have a party or something to go to and an outfit already picked out, I’ll usually have an idea for the makeup I want to wear with it, so I’ll do a little planning…

    Or if I know that I want to try a new look or take a new palette out for a test run, I’ll plan around doing it on a certain day, and I’ll just have a general idea of my game plan.

    But on an average, random weekday when I don’t really have anything going on, I’ll wing it.

  2. Wide-legged trouser pants: a do or a don’t?
    Even though I’ve had skinny jeans practically plastered on my lower half for years now, I think wide-legged pants are super cute, so yeah, I think they’re a do, especially if you have cute shoes that peek out the front.

    But the thing is, you’ve gotta have a hem that falls juuuuuuust right; otherwise, it can look a little weird. And yes, I know this from personal experience…

    Girl, I could write VOLUMES about all of my fashion faux pas!

  3. When you text, do you use punctuation?
    Most of the time yeah I figure why would you skip it it’s even more confusing if you leave it out and if you’re going to take the time to text someone something you might as well add a few commas and a period or two so the person you’re texting doesn’t have to read the same sentence over and over again until they can understand what you’re trying to say although I do have to admit there are moments when speed trumps clarity like when you’re sending one-liners to your brother or correcting a mistake so I’ll skip a period here and there please don’t tell the grammar police 🙂

    LOL!

  4. How old were you when you discovered that Santa isn’t real?
    Aw, mom! Why you gotta be a party pooper?

    My mom told me when I was pretty young. I think I must have been in kindergarten…or maybe it was first grade.

    Whenever it was, I was young, but since I was also stubborn, I absolutely refused to accept Mom’s blasphemy, so when she told me, I told her that she was making the whole thing up and that I was still going to believe in Santa anyway. So I wrote him letters and left out a plate of cookies and a glass of milk every Christmas Eve until I was in the fourth grade.

    At that point, I guess I accepted it/figured it out…

  5. What’s a makeup tool in your arsenal that you currently need to replace?
    There are a couple currently on Ye Olde Wish List, like a lash curler (the Shu Uemura curler I’ve had for ages finally sailed off into the sunset) and a Beautyblender, because, WAH! — I lost the black one I recently bought. 🙁

    I suspect that Tabs had something to do with the disappearance…

Le List

Your turn. 🙂 Just copy and paste the following questions into a comment with your answers. I look forward to reading ’em!

1. Do you like to plan your makeup looks beforehand, or do you just wing it?
2. Wide-legged trouser pants: a do or a don’t?
3. When you text, do you use punctuation?
4. How old were you when you discovered that Santa isn’t real?
5. What’s a makeup tool in your arsenal that you currently need to replace?

Great Caesar’s ghost, I can’t even believe it’s December 14th already! I still have so much Christmas-sy stuff to do, but I’ve been hella distracted lately.

I just have to keep reminding myself to take one step at a time (baby steps!). I’m in one of those phases where the sheer size of my to-do list is completely overwhelming me. When I get like this, I basically have to accept that there’s no way I’m gonna finish everything, but that sort of frees me to focus on one task at a time.

Hopefully. LOL! We’ll see how it goes.

You have a great day today, my friend. I hope to see you in the comments.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

There are 39 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Just For Fun

Sundays With Tabs the Cat, Makeup and Beauty Blog Mascot, Vol. 376

December 13th, 2015 by Karen 7 Comments

A Cat Lady Christmas Gift Guide

Season’s greetings, my darlings!

It’s the most wonderful time of year, and I’m not just saying that because I get to wear my favorite holiday outfits. 🙂

It’s also a time to treat the loved ones in your life — specifically your favorite cat lady — with a little something special.

Now, I realize that many cats and humans lack a 24/7 on-call personal shopper, and for those gift givers, this can be a challenging time. There are just so many possibilities (and yet impossible mall parking).

Not to worry, friends. Hunting — as in hunting down the best holiday gifts for cat ladies — is one of my many talents. I’ve prowled my favorite online stores to compile the following fabulous list of gift ideas for that special cat lady in your life. Order now, and the purr-fect gift can be delivered right to your door in time for Christmas.

And if you decide to gift something here to yourself, I raise my cup of holiday catnip tea to you, because ’tis also the season to treat yourself.

You know I’m all for that. 🙂

A Cat Lady Christmas Gift Guide
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There are 7 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Just For Fun, Tabs

Leave a Comment for a Chance to Win a $50 Sephora E-GIFT CARD! (Ends Monday)

December 12th, 2015 by Karen 374 Comments

** THE GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED **

This giveaway is closed, and the winner has been contacted (CONGRATULATIONS, FRAN!!!), but check back next Saturday for another giveaway.

sephora-giveaway-flying-karen-12-12-15

Rise and shine, pal o’ mine! What an eventful week… I know I’ve been kind of incomunicado, but I wanted to spend some holiday time with my in-laws, and then yesterday was my first day using my new gestational diabetes gizmo/blood testing thingamabob.

In other words, it was a busy week!

Yup, I was diagnosed with that gestational diabetes stuff. 🙁 It’s pretty common and hopefully temporary. Most of the time it goes away after delivery, but for now I have to prick a finger, test a little drop of blood and log the results in my doctor diary four times per day — once in the morning after getting up, and then once again after each meal.

I mean…it’s not my idea of a party, and I still get anxiety when I have to poke myself with the needle, but you gotta do what you gotta do, ya know? High blood sugar can cause complications later, so if I have to test my blood, watch what I eat even more closely (What!? No more TJ’s dark chocolate stars this year! THE HORROR!) and exercise a little more, it’s done.

In other news…well, I don’t really have any other news. 🙂 Tabs is doing well. He’s almost finished with his Christmas shopping, and he’s been loving life lately because El Hub has been taking him for early morning walks outside while it’s still dark, so he gets to use his cool cat eyes…

Other than that, we’re just chugging along. I hope you are too.

Oh! So much new MAC-ness to talk about, especially new lip products. I’ve been a lip product testing machine! Stay tuned for deets next week.

sephora-giveaway-prize-2015

  • One (1) Sephora eGift card containing $50 sent to the winner by email (international readers, you may opt to receive $50 sent by PayPal instead).

sephora-gift-card-small-2015

sephora-giveaway-rules-2015

  • Enter by leaving a comment below.
  • Open to U.S. and international readers.
  • You must be 18 or older to enter (or otherwise an adult based on your local laws).
  • Your comment can be about anything at all, but here are some ideas if you’re stuck:
    sephora-giveaway-heart-2015

    • What’s your favorite era of makeup?
    • Would you say you’re old fashioned?
    • Do you have any new year’s resolutions?
    • Something you wish lasted longer?
    • Make up a word — any word — and tell me what it means.
    • Something you wouldn’t do in a million years?
  • One entry per person.
  • You must use a valid email address to win.
  • The giveaway ends on Monday, December 14, 2015 at 11:59 PM (Pacific Time). 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

There are 374 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Giveaways, Just For Fun

With the Tocca Crema da Mano Hand Cream Collezioni, Variety Is the Spice of Life

December 11th, 2015 by Karen 12 Comments

tocca hand cream set

tocca hand cream set

I’m a bonafide hand cream addict. Raise your parched paw if you’re one too. 🙂

With the $32 Tocca holiday Crema de Mano Collezioni, you can moisturize your mitts with a different scented hand cream every workday of the week, because it comes with five fragrant tubes, each one with a slightly more refined, less sweet scent, in my opinion, than many of the other hand creams I’ve tried.

They say that variety is the spice of life, and I think that totally applies to hand cream. With these five, which are all about the scents, you can go with grapefruit and cucumber on Mondays and bergamot and gardenia on Thursday, for instance.

tocca hand cream set box

Tocca is known for their floral, feminine, long-lasting fragrances (I love the names they give their perfumes!), and for $32, you get five 1-oz. tubes of Tocca’s bestselling scented hand creams, including vanilla and sandalwood Collete, grapefruit and cucumber Cleopatra (I’m wearing that one today), bergamot and gardenia Florence, watermelon and frangipani Simone and peach and muguet Liliana.

The moderately moisturizing formula, which is almost as moisturizing as Soap & Glory Hand Food or L’Occitane Shea Butter Whipped Hand Cream, is enriched with coconut oil, shea butter and aloe for real-deal hand help.

tocca hand cream set

Even though I don’t think these are the most moisturizing hand creams around, they still feel substantial. I can’t stand it when I put on hand creams that are practically water (so useless). These, on the other hand, pack serious moisture, and sometimes I like using them when I know I’m going to be out of the house for a while, because they leave behind a light residue that feels like a protective barrier against the elements.

Plus, helloooo! — I think they smell lovely.

You can find the Tocca Crema da mano Collezioni now at Sephora, SpaceNK and online.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S.
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There are 12 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Daily Beauty

A Night at the Opera

December 10th, 2015 by Karen 23 Comments

1-san-francisco-opera-barber-of-seville

Greetings from a currently very uncomfortable pregnant lady, yay! 🙂 How’s it going, my friend? I hope you’re having a chill (as in easy) December week.

I’ve been a little distracted lately, but in a good way, because my in-laws drove down from Redding the other day for a visit, and last night we all went to San Francisco to go to the opera.

Instead of giving each other stuff for Christmas, this year we decided to just treat each other to an evening in the city, so we went to see “The Barber of Seville.”

It’s probably been 15 years since the last time I went to an opera, and I feel like I’m into music — like I’m a musical person, or at least I was at one time — and the opera is pretty much exactly the way I remember it… A little confusing and kind of long, but still very enjoyable.

I knew a little bit about this one beforehand because it’s also the basis of one of my favorite Looney Tunes cartoons of all time, The Rabbit of Seville, which is a really funny one with Elmer Fudd chasing Bugs Bunny all over a big theater, and the music is the same music the orchestra plays during the prologue in the actual opera.

So when they were playing it, I just kept thinking of Bugs Bunny massaging Elmer J. Fudd’s head!

2-san-francisco-opera-barber-of-seville

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There are 23 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Just For Fun

There’s Something Big Hidden Among These Laura Mercier Sephora Exclusive Holiday Sets

December 9th, 2015 by Karen 23 Comments

laura mercier holiday 2015 sets sephora

Can you spot the belly bump hidden in the picture above of Laura Mercier Holiday sets at Sephora?

The Blush & Glow Radiant Face Trio ($58), Daring By Day Eye & Cheek Colour Palette ($48) and the Daring By Night Eye & Cheek Colour Palette ($48) are Sephora exclusives, by the way.

laura mercier holiday 2015 sets sephora 2

laura mercier holiday 2015 sets sephora

Of these, I’m leaning toward the $48 Daring By Day Eye & Cheek Colour Palette. I like the mix of neutrals, and I REALLY like that pretty purple plum shade…ya know, for variété.

Doesn’t Laura Mercier make beautiful palettes? The colors they choose to put together just always make sense to me, and the formulas are top notch. They use a little more color than Bobbi, but they don’t go over the top.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

There are 23 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Kits and Sets, Laura Mercier

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Welcome to Makeup and Beauty Blog! My name is Karen, and I’m a freelance writer obsessed with makeup.

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