A beauty blog blooming with fresh makeup reviews, swatches and beauty tips from your friendly neighborhood beauty addict
Available now from Etsy seller thejumpingjunebug, $25.
By the way, Tabs has a brief lull in his kitty modeling schedule, and he’s wondering if you have any suggestions for products he should model — men’s watches, high-end bags, wristlets, athletic apparel (LOL!), sunglasses? Anything you think that only a world-class kitty supermodel can present in its best light?
Taking suggestions now… 🙂
Chanel Particuliere 505 Le Vernis Nail Colour ($27 for 13 ml/.04 fl oz) is a classic taupe putty grey cream. Former Creative Director of Makeup Peter Philips designed the color for the spring 2010 collection (read about how he chose the name in his interview with the LA Times here), and years later it’s still a classic, universally flattering staple.
I love it for its no-fuss polished look. Particuliere is an office appropriate neutral with a little bit of edge to prevent it from looking boring. It applies smoothly with just one coat; two coats give fully opaque coverage.
It’s one of those go-with-everything shades, and whenever I can’t decide what to wear on my nails, I end up going with either taupe Chanel Particuliere, or another classic, deep red Dragon.
I’m still getting my learnin’s on here at Photoshop World. 🙂 Yesterday’s classes were great. There are different course tracks for photography, lighting and Photoshop techniques, and you can go to whichever classes you want. Then, between the classes, there’s a huge expo hall with dozens of booths set up by companies that sell photography equipment like lenses, huge studio lights and gigantic umbrellas.
Pretty cool if you’re into this kind of stuff…
Here are five tips I picked up yesterday to help you take your photography to the next level.
Some of these are crazy, right!? Didn’t your eyes look at that point where the pyramid barely touches the top of the picture frame? And those two apples — they’re both the same size, but doesn’t the lighter green apple look a little bigger than the red one?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
P.S. For more tips from Photoshop World and other conferences I’ve attended, click here.
Name: Sabrina
Location: Southern California
Day job/current gig: For my day job I currently work as a business analyst for a Fortune 500 company (it’s in the top 100 within the US). My work covers a diverse range of areas for financial and market analyses. My background has always been in finance. Prior to my current job I completed my MBA in Finance and Marketing.
Hangouts online: thebeautylookbook.com, Instagram, Twitter, and Bloglovin’. I’ve also recently started a lifestyle blog called Styled Notes.
Current favorite product: Diptyque Candles — any scent! I love re-using them once they’re burned to hold brushes, flowers, pens, etc. They make a beautiful decorative accent for home.
Beauty inspirations: My favorite local makeup artists from Chanel, the Dolce & Gabbana team from Saks Houston, numerous beauty and fashion bloggers. Fresh cut flowers are always an inspiration for color.
One word that best describes your outlook on beauty: That’s hard! I think I see beauty in lots of different things. What I like most about it is playing with the different textures and finishes.
I can’t live without sheer glossy lipsticks like Chanel Glossimers, YSL Rouge Volupte Shines, Chanel nail polishes and my Edward Bess Daydream Bronzer. I also swear by my Dolce & Gabbana Powder Foundation. Current cult-classic favorites include Chanel Boy, NARS Fez, Armani Eyes to Kill Stretch Lengthening Mascara, Diptyque Baies Candle and Chanel Particuliere Nail Polish.
I started getting into makeup in high school with Bonne Belle and Jane (mainly clear glosses). I remember my first gloss with color was Wet and Wild Bronzeberry lipgloss (back in the ’90s). My first beauty splurges were MAC lipsticks in Wuss, Pink Glaze and “O”. I didn’t really get into wearing makeup items other than lips until college.
I’m rarely successful when it comes to time-saving for beauty. Although when I’m short on time, I use a warmer bronzer as a contour/bronzer/blush. My favorite is Chanel Soleil de Tan (the cream bronzer in the big tub). It goes with anything and gives the face a healthy glow, so you don’t necessarily need blush to brighten your look.
My top three beauty tools include my Solano Hair Dryer, Shu Uemura Tweezers and Mason Pearson Detangling Comb.
I never knew how to contour until a Trish McEvoy artist showed how to blend in bronzer on the sides of the face in the shape of a “3.” After that — it made contouring easy!
Right now I alternate between Dior Purifying Foam Cleanser and SK-II Facial Treatment Cleanser (morning and night). To remove long-wear foundations I use Koh Gen Do first before cleansing.
I’m in between toners right now. To moisturize I alternate between Le Metier de Beaute Revitalizing Anti-Aging Day Creme and Chanel Resynchronizing. I don’t always use weekly masks or scrubs, but my holy grail face mask is by Koh Gen Do Macro Vintage Essence Mask. It works wonders for your skin, making it baby soft and leaving you truly refreshed and glowing.
I also use Cle de Peau Eye Cream, but I often neglect eye care (it’s a step I always forget).
Paraffin waxes for hands and feet. The results are amazing but short-lived (and pricey). And they feel pretty weird to me.
I’m a minimalist when it comes to styling. My look is always evolving as I brave bolder colors, but it’s still typically very natural. I’m also rarely without some kind of bronzer.
Oh, yes… I’ve cut my own hair before (disaster) and had a perm when I was in grade school. Also, multiple times I’ve asked my hair dresser to cut off “one more inch”, only to regret it afterwards.
Nordstrom by far. They have the best customer service and friendliest sales associates, and you can’t beat their free online shipping. I also like shopping at Neiman Marcus and Barneys (perfume heaven). Other favorites include J.Crew, Banana Republic and Sephora.
Karen at Makeup and Beauty Blog was my inspiration to start blogging back in 2009. She had openings for guest writers, and I submitted an article on Le Metier de Beaute glosses. It was a lot of fun.
I love trying out new makeup bags in the hope of finding THE ONE BAG that will rule them all, Highlander-style, and the bag I brought with me to Vegas this week, the $19.99 Roll Up Valet by Sonia Kashuk, just may be that one!
Truth be told, I never thought I’d ever want a spare/backup makeup bag. Backup lipsticks and eyeshadows, sure — but a backup makeup bag?
Well, yes. Sonia’s Roll Up Valet is without a doubt one of the best makeup bags I’ve ever owned. It’s like your own personal makeup admin assistant, keeping everything organized, and it’s compact and lightweight, too.
From the outside, it’s a cute bag with a handle and a snap closure, but unroll it, and it turns into a magic carpet!
Okay, not really… 🙂
It opens to reveal four separate, see-through zippered compartments, which make it easy to find the products within.
I keep brushes in one of the compartments, my face makeup (foundation, blush, bronzer, etc.) in another, eye makeup in the third and lip products in the fourth. With this beautiful bag, I don’t have to rut around in the dark, or dump everything out on a counter, to find what I’m looking for.
I also like how it lies flat when it’s open. Perfect for tabletops.
Better still, it couldn’t be a whole lot easier to clean, and it only costs $20!
When Karen asked me to review just one item, a ‘Holy Grail’ item, from my own personal makeup collection, it wasn’t a task I took lightly. When I think HG products, I don’t think favorites, but I think of a product that is a tried-and-true staple, and one that has been around for some time. A product that I can’t do without, nor one that could be be swapped out for another. I considered a very select few and ultimately decided upon the Aqua Liner from Make Up For Ever.
My favorite makeup look is undoubtedly the ‘cat-eye’. It is a look that has become my signature, and the product in which I can rely on time and again is my HG liquid liner, the Aqua Liner from Make Up For Ever. As someone who suffers from seasonal allergies, or just plain everyday itchy, watery eyes, I need my liner to last. The Aqua Liner delivers a budge-proof, smudge-proof and waterproof line in an easy flick. Clean-ups are easy with any water-based makeup remover before the liner dries. Although, once this baby sets, it won’t even fade until you remove it with an oil-based cleanser. I personally recommend coconut oil and a warm muslin cloth.
One of the classes I went to yesterday here at Photoshop World was a class on typography for professional photographers — as in text titles for wedding photo album covers, online galleries, photo books and things like that.
The lessons translate really well to movie poster text and pictures for blogging, too, like when you add a caption or title to an image at the top of your blog posts, which a lot of us do.
The course was taught by Scott Kelby, an awesome photographer and the author of more than 50 books on photography and Photoshop, many of which I love and own.
For your next blog post, or if you ever have to create a document for school or work, give one of these fonts a try. Most of them should already be installed on your computer, as a few of them are decades old. Some even predate computers.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
P.S. While not makeup related, I think fonts are beautiful, which falls under the purview of “makeup and beauty” to me. 🙂 I’m filing this post under my “blogging” category, and there are quite a few other posts in there as well, if you’re interested.
