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MAC Cosmetics Face of the Day: Hot Pink and Silver

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Happy Monday! Talk about unexpected. I woke up this morning feeling extra spunky — and that was even before my first cup of coffee. It’s standard operating procedure for me to wake up on Mondays feeling grouchy, so to celebrate this minor miracle I decided to go big and bold with a full face inspired by the hot pink lip I wore a few days ago in this cosmopolitan-inspired lip look.

These lips stand out from a mile away, so I went with a soft pink and silver eye to add some semblance of balance to the look.

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The first layer of eye makeup…

  1. MAC Girl Friendly Paint Pot on the browbone and crease
  2. MAC Shimma Paint on the lid and barely into the crease

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A Hot Pink Lip: My Tribute to the Mighty Cosmopolitan

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This hot pink lip pays tribute to the SATC signature drink, the mighty cosmopolitan! Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte turned that cocktail into a cult classic.

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For this lip I used MAC Hollywood Nights lipstick (a hot pink), Chanel Glossimer in Pink Crystal (a light, shimmery pink) and used MAC Pink Treat Cremestick to line my lips. Now, all I need is a group of girlfriends with time on their hands and somewhere fancy to go.
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Sonia Kashuk Sheer Lip Glossing: Oh, That’s Rich

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Hot drugstore gloss alert! Sonia Kashuk’s Lip Glossing with No-Feather Pencil ($7.99) creates color-rich, high-shine lips … but there’s a catch (isn’t there always?).

Take a close look at the above picture. See how only half the tube contains gloss? The other half hides a lip pencil, which works a’ight, but it’s not on par with the gloss. If I could, I’d split the tube in half, take the gloss and ditch the pencil, but these two are a package deal, like the Sex and the City girls.

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The lipgloss packs intense color and shine; it’s almost hard to believe it’s a drugstore product. I like the light vanilla-lemon fragrance. As far as taste, it’s not a flavored lipgloss. The semi-sticky texture lasts about three hours per application. I have four of the 14 shades, and I LOVE THEM!

  • Sassy – shimmery peach
  • Precious – creamy coral
  • Vivacious – shimmery hot pink
  • Scandalous – creamy red

Sassy
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Bobbi Brown Almost Bare Eau de Parfum: Boy Eau Boy

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If I could, I’d change the name of Bobbi Brown’s newest summer fragrance. It left the factory known as Almost Bare ($60), but Almost Boy may have been a more accurate moniker.

When I spritzed it on my wrist, I smelled bar soap, tree bark, crushed leaves and citrus rind; the very first thing the scent made me think of was how the Brawny paper towel man must smell after a shower.

Some of my favorite recent products by Bobbi Brown…

Bobbi Brown calls Almost Bare a fresh floral and lists violet, muguet (Lily of the Valley) and jasmine as some of the individual notes within the fragrance, but I couldn’t detect them at all. The product’s more masculine notes — Italian bergamot (a citrus fruit), cedar and amber (a warm, kitchen-ey smell) — dominate the feminine notes, so, basically, it makes me smell like a dude. Sure, I smell like a clean, freshly washed dude (probably a very hot dude), but I still smell like a dude.

Bobbi Brown has marketed Almost Bare as a fragrance for women, but even the name seems a little masculine to me. The marketing folks probably meant to imply a subtle, undressed sexiness, but, honestly, when I hear Almost Bare I can’t help but picture bears. Yes, it’s weird, I know, but I can’t help it.

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Nor is it a very complex fragrance. It remains much the same throughout the day, unlike fragrances that transition through a range of different notes over time.

Bobbi Brown Almost Bare Eau de Parfum

Use: A slightly masculine summer fragrance
Price: $60 for 1.5 oz. bottle
Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: C+

I may not have been Bobbi Brown’s target customer with Almost Bare. I gravitate toward girly-girl scents with lots of layers. Give me J’adore or Coco Mademoiselle, and I’m in heaven. Even though I typically prefer much more complex and feminine fragrances than Almost Bare, I do have to hand it to Bobbi for creating a perfume that perfectly reflects the company’s makeup aesthetic. For me, the Bobbi Brown makeup line evokes a minimalist, not overly-feminine design. Almost Bare’s simple, clean, unisex fragrance reflects their makeup philosophy to a tee.
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Afternoon Reading, Makeup-Related and Otherwise

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I don’t think there’s anything better than spending a Sunday afternoon reading and drinking tea.

BellaSugar

I am totally hooked on Bella’s blog for its witty, helpful posts and her fun contests. I just took the Sex and the City quiz, which entered me into a contest to attend an exclusive pre-screening of the Sex and the City movie. To enter the contest, log on to the site and take the SATC quiz — you have until 11:59 pm tonight. Don’t worry if you’re rusty on your SATC trivia; no matter how you score on the quiz, you’re still entered to win.

The Host, by Stephanie Meyer

I’m a big fan of Stephanie Meyer, the woman behind the Twilight series of novels. So, they’re young adult books … but I love young adult books. Twilight’s a love story about a teenage girl and her vampire boyfriend. The Host, Meyer’s first book for actual grownups, deals with an alien invasion on earth. Do you suppose alien invaders care about dark circles? I guess I’ll find out!

Allure’s June 2008 issue

I’m looking forward to reading Allure’s Secret Beauty Finds story, which supposedly discusses where the hair and makeup pros shop. I’ll let you know if I find out anything good! I also really liked Jessica’s cover look with purple shadow. I’m going to attempt to recreate it this week. Oh! And did you know Allure.com has a beauty blog called the Daily Beauty Reporter?

I am always curious about what other people like to read, and I can never resist checking out the bookshelves and magazine racks in the homes of people I know, LOL.

What’s on your current reading list? Is it a steamy romance, an O-chem book (*snooze*) or an issue of US Weekly?

Do you ever get the blues on Sunday? I’m not at all ready for Monday, ya’ll. I sure could use five more days of weekend.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen
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Face of the Day: Wonder Mint Teal Lashes

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Hi, cuties. I have tomorrow off, woot! To celebrate the end of my regular work week (not counting blog hours, of course), I went all out with my lashes today, applying four layers of Clarins Wonder Mint mascara.

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The reason my hair looks all windblown here is because I’m sitting in front of a fan. It was downright volcanic in Marin County today — just absolutely unbearably hot. I tried not to venture outside the reach of the fans at home. Out of desperation, I did get up for some ice cream and to grab the TV remote, but I almost melted on my way to the kitchen.

Because the weather out here has been hotter than Christian Bale in a Speedo, I wanted to keep my look light and perspiration-proof. To maintain the emphasis on my lashes, I went with a slice of light violet on the lid.

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  1. Too Faced Shadow Insurance primer over the entire eye
  2. Clinique Quick Eyes Cream Shadow in Rock Violet on the lid and barely into the crease
  3. Shu Uemura eyeshadow in Spring Breeze all over the lid and barely into the crease
  4. Prescriptives Kohl Eye Pencil in Blue Grotto on the upper and lower waterline (Side note: This pencil is fantastic! Look out for the review in the next few days)
  5. Four coats of Clarins Wonder Mint mascara on the upper lashes only

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A Kryolan Makeover, aka Adventures in Theater Makeup

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Every girl deserves a makeover from time to time. My last one was ages ago. I’d been itching to try a new look, so yesterday I made the short trip into San Francisco hoping to find inspiration.

I hit my usual haunts — MAC, Dior and Chanel — but I was in the mood for something, well, kinda different, so I kept looking.

I was almost ready to throw in the towel when a sign on a building caught my eye: Kryolan Professional Makeup. Curious as ever and not wanting to head home defeated, I decided to check it out.

Jake, the Kryolan showroom manager, gave me a tour of the place and described their products and services.

The company offers a full line of professional and consumer beauty products but specializes in theater makeup and makeup education. I was immediately drawn to their Aquacolor wet cake makeup — pans of highly pigmented, glycerin-based face and body makeup available in 250 different shades ($6 each).

Once I spotted their beautiful brushes (high quality, and generally more affordable than department store lines), body paints and, um, fake blood, I knew I was in for a different kind of makeover. Sign my booty up!

Dominic, Kryolan’s director of education, got me ready for my makeover, sitting me down beside a counter covered in Aquacolor pans. I told him to go nuts! I didn’t know what to expect, but I got a little suspicious when he glued a prosthetic cat nose to my face.

That’s when it dawned on me: homie was probably not going to do a simple smokey eye.

After all, Kryolan is known for extreme movie and theater makeup. You’ve probably seen their makeup at work in Hollywood films, and their credits include the makeup for The Chronicles of Narnia, Collateral and Pirates of the Caribbean.

With my new prosthetic cat nose in place, Dominic started layering different colors to develop the look. “The painting process is fun,” he said. “This is the most time consuming part of the whole process.”

The entire Karen-into-cat transformation took about 45 minutes, but here’s the condensed version…


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