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

I’ll Take a Grande Honey Jasmine To Go, Please: The New MAC Honey Jasmine Blush, That Is

June 4th, 2013 by Karen 29 Comments

Got a new tea tonight from Trader Joe’s. Honey Jasmine. I’m really looking forward to having a cup tonight.

Mmm… Honey Jasmine.

Kidding! It’s not a tea, or at least I don’t think so, although it does sound delish, doesn’t it?

It’s a new blush from MAC — a fresh squeezed coral cutie from the MAC All About Orange Collection, and it’s making me think of tea.

And Honey Boo Boo.

Yeah…I really need to stop watching reality TV (she says, while programming her Tivo to record Million Dollar Listing: New York).

Swear to gawd, I just did that. 🙂

MAC Honey Jasmine Powder Blush — Hello, Honey! — Honey Jasmine Powder Blush

Oh, and if you have a tan, babe, Honey Jasmine sure looks sweet on bronzed cheeks.

I picked up a little more color on my quick SoCal jaunt last week, and I’ve been wearing Honey Jasmine every day since.

MAC Honey Jasmine Blush swatch — MAC Honey Jasmine

chanel frivole swatch — And for comparison, Chanel Frivole

I gauged the wear time last weekend during a very important business meeting… Okay, it wasn’t a meeting. It was a Law & Order: SVU marathon. 🙂

When I peeled myself off the couch after four hours, I took a look in the mirror, and my blush seemed a touch darker than it did earlier in the day. In my mind, I heard the SVU “Dun-DUUN!!” and wondered if Benson or Stabler would be able to solve this mystery…

Probably. They’re talented like that.

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The Chanel Couleurs Culte De Chanel Nail Polishes Say, “Join Us… We Welcome You Warmly Into the Cult of Chanel.”

June 4th, 2013 by Karen 20 Comments

I try to make the meetings when I can, but it’s hard. There’s always so much to do and so little time…

What meetings, you ask?

Oh, the meetings of the Chanel Couleurs Culte de Chanel (“Cult of Chanel Colors,” merci to those years of high school French) — not to be confused with the Cult of Chanel Quads, Cult of Chanel Fragrances, or Cult of Chanel Quilted Bags, to which I also belong.

I’ve often wondered aloud to my plus-size, Chanel-loving tabby cat/freeloading boarder, “Why don’t they [Chanel] just consolidate all of the many mini Chanel cults into a single mega one?” But he just stares back at me, purrs and blinks his big, dumb eyes.

God, I love that cat…

The agendas for Chanel Cult meetings are closely guarded, and I can’t reveal the topics we discuss or the secret handshake, but I am at liberty to say that we spend hours asking ourselves, “What would Karl do?”

(We also pet long-haired, fluffy white cats that resemble Choupette.)

Sometimes, we’ll put our hair up in ponytails and pull on pairs of black fingerless gloves. Then we’ll form a circle, hold hands and sway back and forth to Bizarre Love Triangle by New Order.

Of course, ongoing membership requires the wearing of Chanel nail polish. 🙂

These days, many of our members have been wearing one of the five new Chanel Couleurs Culte de Chanel shades ($27 each). The creative types among us will often mix and match shades, which there’s a policy against (but we’ll usually look the other way).

Chanel Couleurs Culte de Chanel is a precise, concise collection of five iconic Chanel nail shades that I feel accurately convey Coco’s aesthetic, but I can’t help but wonder — where the hell is Vamp??

Wait — Rouge Noir? Vamp? Are you guys twins?

Four of the five are permanent collection products, while the remaining one, Rouge Noir, is limited edition.

One coat seems to be enough for each of the darker colors — Pirate, Rouge Noir, Particuliere and Black Satin — as well as Beige, the lightest lacquer in the group, which looks cute to me, albeit very sheer, applied with one coat, or fully opaque with three.

Okay, enough talk. Hold onto your pearls, and let’s take a look…

Chanel Rouge Noir — Rouge Noir, two coats

Rouge Noir: A creamy blackened red the color of sangria or, um, dried blood (I think I watched one too many episodes of Law & Order: SVU last weekend).

Pirate: Don’t forget to wear this eye-catching, super classic cherry red on September 19 (Talk Like a Pirate Day), or the next time you sail the seven seas (whichever comes first).

I love this color, and I bet Captain Jack Sparrow would, too, as the red should contrast with his black liner nicely.

Chanel Particuliere — Particuliere, two coats

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Have You Ever Stopped Someone on the Street to Ask About Their Makeup or Hair?

June 4th, 2013 by Karen 23 Comments

Makeup, hair, clothes, bags, shoes, earrings — all. The. Time.

If someone’s workin’ something and it catches my eye, I have no qualms about walking up to them and asking (politely, of course) for the scoop, be it what color of lipstick they’re wearing or where they got their hair done.

And even guys are fair game. A few months ago at the movies with El Hub, the guy ringing up my popcorn had the most enviable, perfectly manscaped brows, so I complimented him and asked where he got them done (also said he should tip them extra next time because they do great work, LOL!).

What about you? Have you ever stopped someone on the street to ask about their makeup or hair (or any other aspect of their look)?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Note to Self…

June 4th, 2013 by Karen 6 Comments

Wear Chanel Pirate nail polish on Talk Like a Pirate Day this year (September 19). Aye, matey?

From the Couleurs Culte De Chanel collection, available now online.

The Start of Summer in My Garden

June 4th, 2013 by Karen 4 Comments

A Zinnia bud!

Zinnias are Tabs’ favorite flower. No, really. They’re his favorite. He looks forward to dining on them every summer.

I Flat-Out Adore These BCBG Zuma Flats

June 3rd, 2013 by Karen 15 Comments

Somewhere out there beyond the Mars Curiosity rover in a parallel universe where space and time are all mixed up and funkdafied, a 90-something-year-old Karen is sitting on her living room couch with Tabs 4.0 because, obviously, by that time kitty cloning will be, like, a thing, and alternate future Karen will have the foresight to preserve Tabs 1.0’s DNA.

Future Karen is watching an old movie on TV (the original Sex and the City — the good one) for the umpteenth time and smiling nostalgically as Carrie skips down the sidewalk in her Jimmy Choos.

Future Karen scratches Tabs 4.0 on the head, then starts massaging her titanium robot feet and knees. “Boy,” she says, “it’s a good thing I started wearing flats on the regular in my thirties!”

Tabs 4.0 meows in complete agreement…

“Thank goodness for the BCBG Zuma flats.”

Yeah, I don’t know nothin’ about no flats, son.

Okay…I know you’re probably not a son, but it just seemed right to throw that in there at the end.

Like I was saying, I don’t know jack about flats, but I do know that almost every woman I meet over 60 goes “Tsk tsk tsk,” when she sees me in high heels, so I figure I should start wearing flats every so often.

It also gives me another excuse to buy shoes. 🙂

I feel like Frodo Baggins when I wear these, but I like ’em even though they’re short.

So shiny… So sparkly… And the ankle strap keeps my heel from popping out when I walk.

Ugh, I hate it when that happens — when your shoes go flapping in the wind. It’s one of the reasons I’ve avoided flats for so long.

Thankfully, it doesn’t happen with these.

They have some pretty good arch support, too, but I might add an insert to help my dogs through extra long days…like for when Ryan Gosling’s people call to say that, yes, he’d like to hire me to ghost write his personal blog, and I’ll be expected to chase after him for 14-16 hours per day (preferably, he is shirtless in this scenario).

How comfy are they? Well, I sprinted a hella long city block and down two flights of stairs at Macy’s in SF last Friday so that I could eat my cup of melting Pinkberry fro-yo in the sunshine outside.

That’s comfy, right there. 🙂

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The Essie Naughty Nautical Collection Sets Sail for Backyard Barbecues

June 3rd, 2013 by Karen 24 Comments

Essie’s new Naughty Nautical summer collection seems about as naughty to me as sipping a Shirley Temple while wearing flannel pajamas and watching a Murder She Wrote marathon.

In other words, not very naughty.

But that hasn’t stopped me from liking it. 🙂

I guess I just expected something…naughtier. Where I expected 50 Shades of Grey, these colors seem more like party shades to me, and no, I don’t mean naughty party. I’m thinking more along the lines of Pier 1 Imports and backyard barbecues in July.

Essie Naughty Nautical Summer 2013 — The Naughty Nauticals being naughty in my Pier 1 chair…

Not that I’m complaining (at all), because I frickin’ love Pier 1! — and I’m digging this new limited edition six-piece summer collection, too.

It’s like the outdoor patio section at a Pier 1 exploded on a beauty shelf, and I mean that in the best possible way.

Every year around this time, Pier 1 stores go bat sh*t cray with color — corals, purples, greens, blues and teals — the same fiesta family of colors I’m seeing here.

Looking at these colors on my nails, I feel like I should be barefoot at a big barbecue with a margarita in my hand while I wait for my veggie hot dog to cook on the grill.

The six shades contain varying amounts of shimmer (from none to some), with two of them, the quieter pastels, balancing out the brighter colors.

Sunday Funday

Like a redder version of Chanel Lilis with silver shimmer, Sunday Funday almost looks like a cream from a few feet away, but then when I see it up close in full sunlight, BAM! — shimmer.

Naughty Nautical

After Essie weaned itself off of Ballet Slippers, they went off the hook with greens and teals (see: Where’s My Chauffer).

Naughty Nautical is another shade in that vein — like floating around in warm emerald waters — and I think it gets the shimmer just right.

Essie The More The Merrier — Two coats of The More The Merrier, a juicy lime green

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Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll, Vol. 274

June 3rd, 2013 by Karen 56 Comments

You might be wondering, “So what the heck is this Monday Poll thing anyway?”

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

Something you never expected to love?
Um, Tabs?

He was just a neighborhood stray who’d watch me do laundry at my old apartment. I had no idea he’d go on to become the cat love of my life.

Yes, I realize how very CCL that sounds, but what else is new? 🙂

Do you recall the first makeup or beauty product you purchase with your own hard-earned money?
This is me guessing, but I’m pretty sure it was a drugstore lipstick from a Thrifty’s in Union City by my middle school. I can’t remember the exact color, but it was either Revlon Cherries in the Snow, or one of the Cover Girl Wetslicks.

Have you ever had a summer romance?
A few crushes here and there as a teenager, but no, not really.

They were all pretty lame. Nothing young adult novel-caliber or fit for a TV movie.

How are your beach volleyball skills?
In a word: nonexistent.

I just don’t do projectile activities. My first instinct when the ball is coming at me is to run away! — and volleyball was always my worst sport.

Let me put it this way: if we were picking teams and you didn’t pick me, I would completely understand. I’m like volleyball dead weight.

Something that always makes you laugh?
Old pictures of Justin Timberlake from the ’90s, when he had his curly, crunchy-looking hair. He was always smiling, but that hair!? It looked like Top Ramen.

Can you do a headstand or a handstand?
No on both counts. In fact, I have a thing about being upside down. I try to avoid it.

A recent makeup or beauty discovery that’s been rocking your world?
The men’s version of Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue. El Hub has a bottle in his bathroom cabinet, and I’ve been sneaking spritzes here and there. Give it a try next time you’re at the counter.

Mini or maxi dresses?
Minis! I like the idea of maxi dresses, too, but when I wear ’em I feel like I’m drowning in material, or playing dress-up in my mom’s clothes.

Are you wearing any jewelry today?
My wedding and engagement rings, two long layering necklaces from Anthropologie, and a pair of gold studs.

What were the best parts of your weekend?
Sleeping in on Saturday and Sunday and sprucing up my deck.

We got a few more planters and bird feeders (for the family of finches I’m always talking about). In the planters, I planted snap peas and spinach, because El Hub read in an article that they’re supposed to be very efficient plants, in that they’re easy and should grow to maturity in a couple months.

We’ll see…

Slowly but surely, that deck is becoming my favorite room in the condo. 🙂

To complete the Monday Poll, just copy the following list, and paste it with your answers in the comments.

Le List

1. Something you never expected to love?
2. Do you recall the first makeup or beauty product you purchase with your own hard-earned money?
3. Have you ever had a summer romance?
4. How are your beach volleyball skills?
5. Something that always makes you laugh?
6. Can you do a headstand or a handstand?
7. A recent makeup or beauty discovery that’s been rocking your world?
8. Mini or maxi dresses?
9. What jewelry are you wearing today?
10. What was the best part of your weekend?

Oh, boy. I already feel overwhelmed about the week. That’s not a good sign, but we can only do what we can do, right? I’ll try to keep my shizz together if you do. Good luck to us both!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen