A beauty blog blooming with fresh makeup reviews, swatches and beauty tips from your friendly neighborhood beauty addict
I think from now on I’m going to refer to my lips as “textured…” It’ll be code for “So dang flaky that it looks like I made out with a cheese grater.” Then I won’t have to say “I’ve got dry lips” about every 15 minutes of every single day.
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What up, queen bee? Haaay! What’s the buzz on The Body Shop’s new Honey Bronze Highlighting Domes? Are they sweet?
Honey, I’ll tell ya.
LOL! OK, that’s enough with the bee puns. 🙂 I’ll stop.
Uh…what they heck are these things?
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Last week at the doctor’s office (I just went for a checkup), my doctor said something that stuck with me. He said that the best thing I can do for my overall health for the next 60 years (hello, wishful thinking!) is to keep exercising.
I like working out…most of the time, and I like it even more when I’m wearing cute nail polish that matches my outfit. 🙂
I swear, I can run faster when I’m wearing cute nail polish.
This tank I’m also wearing is one of my new favorite workout pieces. I got it on sale for $10 (regularly $15) at Old Navy! It’s so soft and feels great, and I love the message.
I can’t seem to find it online right now…but sometimes when that happens they still have things in the stores. I think it’s called the Women’s Go-Dry Tank, and I found it over in the section with all the workout clothes.
I’m wearing it with eye-catching Essie Blossom Dandy from the Flowerista collection, a pastel blue-green with a creamy finish.
I needed three coats to reach full opacity.
Yup, three. I still saw some streaks after two…
If you’re interested, it’s $8.50 and available now online and wherever Essie polishes are sold.
The (final) countdown is on!
The new $47.64 Tarte Beauty in The Basics set is available for just nine more hours today (as of 2:30 p.m. PT) on the QVC website.
Yup, if this thing piques your interest, run — not meander or scoot — run to your nearest computer…which would probably the one you’re using right now, and check it out. For $47.64, today only, you get six of Tarte’s most popular products, including…
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.
I don’t think it’ll be like The Jetsons, though. Everybody always thinks that by the year 2000-whatever, we’ll have flying cars and teleportation and computers in our brains, but it never happens! I don’t know… I think it’ll be pretty close to the same as it is now for makeup…but what do I know? I talk to my cat. 🙂
All. The. Time. LOL.
LOVED the color and the style, but oh! — it was hard to maintain. I kept having to go back to the salon because, you know how it is when you have darker hair and you go lighter, it’s kind of a process. I’d spend half the day at the salon every time I’d go in for a touchup.
But it was fun for a while… I might try it again someday.
Sooo, a maybe? I don’t know… I love the idea of ’20s-style flapper fringe on a dress, or a cute ankle boot with a little fringe, but I’m not so much into Western-style fringe, like on a jacket or a purse.
Your turn. 🙂 Just copy and paste the following questions into a comment with your answers. I look forward to reading ’em!
1. BEE-BOO-BEEP! Fast-forward to the year 2115. What does the average woman carry in her purse?
2. On a scale of 1-10, with one being sluggish and 10 being jazzed up, what’s your current energy level?
3. What was your best hairstyle of all time?
4. All you need is love and…
5. Fashion fringe (shoes, boots, clothes, bags): a do or a don’t?
Good morning, my friend. I’m still waking up. If you’re fully awake, could I please borrow some of your energy to perk me up? I’m actually on my second cup of tea already, but this will probably be a three-cupper day.
Maybe even a four-cupper.
How was your Mother’s Day? I hope it was really nice. Mine was fun. My brother and I took my mom out to dim sum, and my dad tagged along.
We ordered WAY too much food, too, but you know…that’s how it goes.
Have a wonderful week. I’m really hoping to get more of my housecleaning/office fixing project done because I made a lot of headway last week with the pink shelving, but things sort of tapered off toward the weekend. I just have to get back into it and keep the momentum going.
So that’s one of my main goals. Talk to you soon.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Dear Tabby is written by Tabs the cat, widely considered “the world’s first plus-size kitty supermodel.” Founded in mid 2012, it has quickly become the most popular cat advice column on earth — known for its fresh, feline perspective on lifestyle, fashion and style issues affecting cats and humans.
DEAR TABBY: I can’t believe I’m actually writing THE Tabs the cat! — or rather, Tabby. You’re a big celebrity where I work. When I told my cat coworkers that I was writing you, they said I was crazy. They all said that you would never respond, but I’m keeping my paws crossed.
Tabby, my name is Sasha, and I’m the director of cat career placement at a local cat charm school and management training facility here in Gainesville (officially, the organization is called the Gainesville ASPCA). It’s my job to help our graduates, who range in age from three-month-old kittens to 18-year-old senior cats looking for a career change, find rewarding careers, and to place them with talented pet assistants in the area.
I love my job, but I see a lot of feline faces come and go, and sometimes that gets me a little sad… I know I’m performing a valuable service in the community, but sometimes I do wish I had an easier job.
Oops! — got a little sidetracked there for a moment.
I wanted to ask you about working with professional pet assistants. I work with about a dozen of them here. We maintain a very large staff, but I’ve grown particularly attached to one of them. Her name is Kelly, and I think she’s just fantastic. She understands my quirks and how I like to take my breakfast at a certain time, keeps the office tidy, and even massages my shoulders when I’m tense.
But as I’ve said, she’s not my only employee. She’s just my favorite.
I would really like to do something special for her — just something small to recognize her exemplary job performance — but I don’t know what’s appropriate. I don’t want to be seen as showing favoritism at the office.
Sincerely,
Sasha
DEAR SASHA: What a wonderful job you do! I greatly admire career counselors and teachers like you because you’re shaping the future of the entire cat community. Who knows? One of your graduates could go on to become the next Morris, so bravo to you.
Now, about your question… First of all, I actually think it’s perfectly acceptable to show favoritism at the office. In fact, I do it all the time. I employ two full-time executive assistants and an army of part-time personal chefs, nutritionists and massage therapists — not to mention a driver — and I favor whichever one is doing the best job at any given time.
I do this because 1) we’re cats, and we’re allowed to be fickle, and 2) I feel that favoritism of this sort creates a competitive work environment, and competition breeds excellence. I think you’ll find that by rewarding one of your assistants, many of the others will try harder.
Give it a shot. As for appropriate forms of recognition, kitty hugs are nice.
DEAR TABBY: I think mine is kind of an interesting situation… See, I work literally next door to my mommy cat.
Yeah! It’s kind of weird. I’m the concierge at an apartment building, and my mommy cat works in the building next door to me as a kitty model. Long story short, I was raised there and home-schooled, and then after graduating, I took a job here because it was right next door. Basically, I was looking for my first job and bumped into the head assistant on the sidewalk one day. We had lunch — he prepared tuna — and then he offered me the job.
So now I see my mommy cat every once in a while. We’re both very busy with our careers, though, so it’s not an everyday thing, but we keep in touch.
I had to work today on Mother’s Day, so we couldn’t get together, but we made a date for next week.
I’d like to get her a little something when I see her. Tabby, what’s a good gift for a kitty model?
Respectfully yours,
Brady
DEAR BRADY: Hmm… Well, what kind of modeling does she do? If it’s mainly print, I suggest canned tuna. The fish oil is great for your fur. But if she does runway or TV, then some catnip, or perhaps a crinkly ball, would be nice.
Also, you can never go wrong with a mouse.
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** THE GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED **
This giveaway is closed, and the winner has been contacted (CONGRATULATIONS, KIRSTEN!!!), but check back next Saturday for another giveaway.
Good morning, beautiful! 🙂 I hope you slept well. Now, rub the sleep from your eyes, and give your arms a big stretch, because it’s a sparkling new day.
I’m a little sleepy because I got home late from the concert last night, and just in case you were wondering, my mission to get Jordan Knight to sign my left boob was totally unsuccessful…
Um, you know I’m kidding right!? Although, if this were Jordan Night from the ’90s we were talking about, it would be a totally different story.
A visual reminder in case you forgot:
Yes, that is THE Jordan Knight circa 1992 wearing track pants like they’re capris!!
Remind me to tell you the story behind that picture one of these days…
Anyway, for something different this week, instead of the usual Sephora prize, I’ll be giving away a $50 MAC eGIFT CARD instead. Just to mix things up a bit.
Have a happy Mother’s Day weekend (one word: BRUNCH), and best of luck in the giveaway. I’ll talk to you soon.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
The official name of this dish is Shrimp Zoodles Parmesan for Two, but the unofficial name is HOLY FREAKING SH*T, MA!!
I made this dish last night and it was SO bomb. It’s baked shrimp parmesan with zucchini “noodles” and a tomato sauce.
Shock. Ing.
That’s how good it was. Not ’cause I had any doubts about the recipe or anything — I got it from skinnytaste.com, which never steers me wrong — but because I didn’t mess it up, haha!
Most of the time when I cook something for the first time, it ends up a little off. I mean, it’s usually edible but…I’m not naturally gifted in the kitchen, so it takes me a few tries.
But this one was really, REALLY good right off the bat.
Granted, I did end up tweaking it a bit. I was really hungry and didn’t have the time/patience to make the tomato sauce from the recipe, so I just opened up a bottle of tomato basil spaghetti sauce I had in the cupboard and used that. I also doubled the amount of shrimp the recipe calls for because El Hub is a growing boy who needs meat. LOL! Feeding dudes… It’s a challenge sometimes.
