A beauty blog blooming with fresh makeup reviews, swatches and beauty tips from your friendly neighborhood beauty addict
TGIF from Union Square in San Francisco! I’m here on a top secret beauty mission involving newness and MAC (details to follow)… Conveniently, the weather has been cooperating, which is NOT always the case for SF.
It’s sunny!! — so I’ve been walking around, snapping pics and people-watching (one of the world’s truly greatest pastimes).
I really liked the view from the center of the square and this outdoor art show…
Hope things are going well with you. Whatcha up to?
Still clawing and scratching for a way to work more MRRRROW into your huntress cat eyeliner looks? Today might meow your day. 🙂
This is the first installment in a new video series I’m starting called Ask MBB. If you have a question you’d like to see answered in an upcoming installment (of course, Tabs will help), drop it down below in the comments here or on YouTube.
Today’s installment tackles a question about cat liner technique and when to use a gel or liquid to build out your look.
I hope you find it useful. Thank you for watching!
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Gosh, that’s easy. For the time being, it’s Urban Decay’s Naked Lipgloss in Liar. Or Lovechild. One or the other… I can’t decide.
LOL! I guess it wasn’t that easy after all. 🙂
Don’t make me choose!
Actually, now that I think about it more, they’re both pretty similar in a lot of ways.
Both are sheer, shiny and pink. Both look very natural on the lips, but not so natural that you’re, like, “Um, is there anything on my lips at all?” Basically, with either one, you just get a perfectly pinkish nude shiny lip. Good for grabbing a beer with your hubby or some Pretzel Slims at TJ’s on your way home.
Or for walking your cat (whatever you do on the weekends).
I guess if I had to pick just one…I’d go with Lovechild. It’s a slightly deeper, richer pink, and my lips are very pigmented, so those extra couple micrograms of pigment makes a little difference.
So, yeah. Lovechild. I’m sure now. 🙂
How about you? What’s your favorite weekend lipstick or gloss?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
P.S.
Hey, hey! It’s another episode of The Fab 5. In this thrilling installment (yeah, right), our heroine shares her top five favorites from the Tom Ford Beauty line…
I know Tom Ford is one of the more expensive lines out there, but if luxury makeup is your idea of beauty nirvana, then sit back, put your bunny slippers up, and hit play.
But even if the pricer stuff isn’t your cup of tea, you still might find a couple things to add to your wish list. You never know.
I hope you like. Thank you as always for watching. 🙂
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
So let’s talk glitter — specifically MAC Reflects Antique Gold Glitter.
Oooh, girl!
Wait — before you put that palm up and say, “No, Karen [INSERT SASSY JENNY-FROM-THE-BLOCK HEAD TWITCH HERE]. I don’t do glitter,” let me just say that this glitter is one of the best afternoon pick-me-ups.
Better than green tea or coffee even. Scout’s honor. 🙂
Like, this afternoon, I was feeling really run down and kind of blah. I took this shimmery loose glitter out around 2 and patted a little on top of my lids. Yup, directly on top of the smokey brown eye makeup I was already wearing.
BOOM! I go from “meh” to “Vegas, b*tches!” in 2.5 seconds, thanks to this turbo-charged jar of sparkling happiness.
Oh, yeah! I wear bright colors to work all the time (but I know that doesn’t exactly count)! I do feel, though, that I have to be in the right mindset to wear certain colors, if that makes any sense.
Colors are so expressive, aren’t they? Depending on how I feel, sometimes I think I unconsciously seek out colors that fit my mood, especially when it comes to clothes and makeup.
With makeup, like when I’m feeling really happy and jazzed about sitting down at my chair to work, I notice myself reaching for bright, cheerful pink or orange lipsticks — things like that — whereas when I’m feeling “blue” (ha!) or run down or just not really in the mood to work (also known as “dealing with Tabs’ crazy”), I usually won’t want to wear something bright or intense. Definitely no intense blue eye looks or neon pink lips.
I guess I wear my heart on my sleeve because you can usually tell how I’m feeling based on what I’m wearing that day.
As for clothing, yes, I do like wearing bright clothes, especially dresses, to work, but I don’t do it as often as I wear bright makeup.
What can I say? I wear a ton of black! Sometimes I feel like a New Yorker trapped in a California girl’s body. Black clothes are just so easy, chic, and you don’t really have to think about things too hard… Plus, black is slimming and hides the cat fur. 🙂 Lots of positives.
I do love my bright accessories, though. Gimme a pair of hot pink shoes, a teal bib necklace or some yellow dangly earrings, and I’m a happy girl. But again, I feel the same way about bright accessories as I feel about bright makeup and clothes. It depends on my mindset or mood.
So, yes! To make a short answer really, really long…I love wearing bright makeup and clothes to work.
How about you? Do you wear bright colors (makeup and/or clothes) to school or work?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Thunderous!
No, the colors will not shock your @ss when you touch them, and your hair will not stand on end, but the colors in Urban Decay’s new Electric Pressed Pigment Palette are very bright — like neon sign bright.
Buuut, not everybody likes brights, right? This one is for the risk takers — the guys and dolls who aren’t afraid to wear a bright teal eye to the bank on a Wednesday, which is not to say that those are the only makeup lovers who might like it. Just that they’d probably be more attracted to it immediately. Even if you don’t think of yourself as a bright teal, electric blue or chartreuse fan, however, does not mean you would not be able to rock this.
I just got back from a quick 10-minute walk around the neighborhood, and it was so beautiful outside. It rained here last night, and all of the flowers and grasses and trees are covered in raindrops from the storm. The colors are intensified because of the rain — the pinks, the greens, the blues, the yellow daffodils — but they’re also surrounded by neutrals — the brown dirt, the gray tree bark and the boring-@ss beige buildings in my neighborhood. The neutrals make the bright colors a little less shocking, but a little more at home in their environment at the same time.
Similarly, I think the brights in this palette also look that much more beautiful when they’re used in tandem with neutrals.
Sorry…I rambled on there!
My point is this: you can use your existing wardrobe of neutrals, take this palette, and incorporate one or two of its colors as accents in your looks, making the palette into something perfectly wearable.
You know, I had a feeling that Urban Decay was about to release something bright soon… I mean, shoot — after all of the Nakedness dominating the line over the past few years, it was only a matter of time.
Speaking of time…
The first time I saw Electric, I said, “Ooh! I think I have a Pop Beauty palette just like this sitting in a drawer.” It was a palette from last fall, and it’s only sitting in the drawer because I get easily distracted. Not because I don’t like it. I do (incidentally, it’s still available and much less expensive than Electric).
Then when I opened Electric for the first time, I thought, “I have to get Fringe on my lids.”
Fringe, the metallic teal all the way to the right in the first row, is all that and a bag of deep-fried chips. Deep and rich and shimmery and pigmented, and it buffs out perfectly.
When I got back home from my hella traumatic dental appointment this afternoon, I needed to recharge my batteries, so I plugged into the new Urban Decay Electric Pressed Pigment Palette…
Get it? Plugged in? Electric?
Sorry. 🙂
Review coming soon, but here are the first couple pics…
