Good morning, glory. 🙂 Are you up and at ’em yet? I’m still warming up my engine…
Wasn’t this week a good one for lip products? Rimmel surprised me yet again! This time it was their $6 Moisture Renew Lipsticks. I swear, if that company keeps overachieving like this, I can think of some big department store brands with reason to worry.
I’m just going through my notes from the WordCamp conference in the city yesterday and coming to the unfortunate conclusion that it wasn’t a great event (for info from a GREAT blogging conference, check out these notes from Blog World 2009), but I did pick up a few juicy tidbits of blogging information. If you’re interested, I’ll paste them down at the bottom of this post.
Back to beauty — what was your favorite product this week? Have you given those Rimmel Lipsticks a try?
Rimmel Moisture Renew Lipstick: A $6 Drugstore Dream
“Despite the somewhat flimsy packaging and the fact that you might have to layer these lipsticks, they’re winners in my book. Based on price, wear time and their hydrating formula, keep these in mind (a BOGO sale might be a perfect opportunity to stock up!).”
15-Minute Morning Makeup: Easy Peasy Neutrals with Urban Decay and MAC
“Lately my morning makeup’s been like Switzerland (neutral). 🙂 I know it’s just a phase, but I haven’t been wanting to spend the time, ya know? Here’s a simple eye that only takes about 15 minutes to do. It features black liner and shimmery brown shadow with just a bit of blending and smudging.”
Benefit Boo Boo Zap: You Can Be My Hero, Baby!
“As far as kicking pimples to the curb, Boo Boo Zap works fast — faster than the long list of benzoyl peroxide products I’ve tried in the past (and that includes Proactiv). The scent might turn some ladies off (it smells like strong medicine!), and it’s not the least expensive spot treatment on the market, but I think it’s well worth a try.”
Wimpy Lashes, Meet MAC Opulash Mascara
“With Opulash, MAC is venturing into totally tubular Clinique Lash Power/DiorShow territory. I’m sure you remember DiorShow… With its tubes of mascara that surround each lash? Opulash also coats with tubes of mascara, and despite how long lasting it is, it still washes right off with nothing but warm water; no extra eye makeup remover required.”
Too Faced Perfect Lips Liner Loves Lips in the Nude
“Lining and filling with this soft, creamy pencil evens out the natural color of my pucker and increases the wear time of other lip products like Too Faced Glamour Gloss. Not only does it play well with others, but it wears well by itself for that coveted no-makeup look.”
Hourglass Is Warming Up To Summer
“Creme-to-Powder-Bronzer Duo in Sunset houses a creamy, warm pink blush and a warm golden brown bronzer in a snazzy swivel-top compact. Both the blush and bronzer have all-day staying power, resist streaking and dry to a natural-looking matte finish. I LOVE how pigmented the both of them are…”
MAC to the Glitter Chunks in New Superglass Lipgloss: Supersize Me!
“The bodacious bits of chunky glitter in the nine MAC Superglass shades ($18 each) are so big, eye-catching and IN YO FACE that they’re making me break into song (like so many things do!).”
WordCamp San Francisco: Blogging Tips
Blogging is a passion of mine, and so I’m always hunting and pecking for useful information about it online, and sometimes even attending conferences and seminars on the subject, like the one I went to yesterday in San Francisco called WordCamp.
Not a whole ton of practical advice this time, but I did hear a few things you may find useful if you’re a blogger or thinking about starting a blog. Here they are (in no particular order):
Do your blog posts appear in Google News?
You know how Google News sort of syndicates news articles from magazines and media companies like CNN, Vogue and the New York Times, right? Well, sometimes they also throw newsy blogs into the mix, and if you write timely articles/posts for your blog, you might be able to get yours included. That way, Google News searches in your niche might lead to new readers finding your blog. To manually submit your blog for inclusion in Google News (no guarantee they’ll accept), click here.
Use Google Insight and Trends searches to see what people are talking about
Google has a feature called Insight that can help you find popular topics to blog about. It shows current search volume for different terms. A search for ‘cats’ shows that ‘lol cats’ and ‘warrior cats’ are currently search terms that are on the move, meaning that there’s been a recent increase in searches for those related terms. Uh… warrior cats?
Google Trends works a lot like Insights does… Matter of fact, I haven’t figured out exactly how they differ, and if you do, let me know. 🙂
If you have a website or blog, sign up for Google Webmaster Tools
Google offers some great free tools for bloggers, most useful of which is probably Analytics (for tracking information). Google Webmaster Tools is another free feature. It’ll show you how Google sees your blog and if it’s having any problems adding your posts to the search engine. Like Analytics, Webmaster Tools takes a free Gmail account to access and requires that you copy/paste one line of code into your blog/website template, which only takes a few minutes to do (I think it’s well worth the time it may take to figure out).
Since Google is the No. 1 source of new readers for most new blogs, it’s a good place to concentrate some time and energy.
For more tips and tidbits on blogging…
- The Beauty of Blog World 2009
- The Beauty of Blog World 2009: How to Earn More Money from Your Blog
- The Beauty of Blog World 2009: How to Make Better Videos
- The Beauty of Blog World 2009: A Beginner’s Guide to Web Traffic
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
P.S. If you think you might like to attend a WordCamp conference in your area, click here. Advance tickets are quite affordable for a tech conference (around $30, and that includes lunch).
i love your blog and i always check out the stuff you review in sephora or the nordstrom makeup counters.
yesterday i had a double header..2 hockey games, my mascara did not budge it was great and after the first game my eyeshadow was still there. i used urban decay eye primer and some bare minerals shadows. but after the second game it was almost all gone, but you could still see it.
I even make my boyfriend read your blog with me and doesnt mind.
Thanks Karen
Happy Sunday! Sorry that the event didn’t live up to your expectations but at least you got to come into the city on a great day. What’s the plan for today?
I plan on just chilling at home, going to Trader Joe’s and catching up on some shows. Did you watch Happy Town? I think it premiered this week.
.-= marisol’s last blog post… Products I am Loving =-.
You look especially beautiful in the first pic. So pretty and glowy, ethereal-like! Thanks for the blogging tips 🙂
.-= Princesa Livia’s last blog post… Accessorize Haul, Trip to Borough Market, Look, and Outfit of the Day!! =-.
I like your makeup in that pic Karen 🙂
ummm this week I’d have to say my fave makeup product has been perfume and
my Milani eyepencil…it’s one of the liquifi mettalic ones.
You are glowing! 🙂
Been lazy today other than a trip to Target. Not ready for the weekn to start at all but its a short work week for me, so ill make it.
You look absolutely STUNNING in that first picture.. I’m totally envious of your looks!
Thanks for the info about WordCamp! I am always trying to learn more about blogging stuff. I am so lazy and didn’t even go to Blog World last year, even though it was in Las Vegas, where I live. I should definitely go this year (I went the first year they had it).
.-= Jeni’s last blog post… RevitaBrow Review =-.
Hey Karen! Thanks for the info from the wp seminars! I’m the “techie” person for the blog I write with my friends (aka the only one with the patience to figure out wp issues) and I wanted to know if you’d tried the wptouch plugin. I’ve never actually looked at mbb on my iphone, but i just discovered that i can bookmark sites to my phone’s home screen, so I have a newly developed interest in how people are porting blogs to mobile devices.
Anyhoo. Sorry that was kind of a long comment! I guess my bottom line question really was – What do you think about people visiting your site from cell phones? Is that a section of traffic you actively work on increasing? Or do you think fashion/makeup/otherwise visual blogs are really meant for big screens?
Ahh! Now it’s even longer. Boo.
Hi RJ,
Is Redhead Reviews the site you’re referring to? What a fun project to work on with friends! I see a lot of classics among the books y’all read. I was a dual Biology/English Lit major, but you’d never know it now by all the teen lit books on my shelf, ha!
Funny you should mention wptouch because I’ve been evaluating it for the blog. Safari on the iPhone does a fantastic job rendering most blogs, but I would prefer wptouch or a dedicated mobile theme that strips out some of the template images so it loads quicker for people using a mobile device. Even though it means changing the way people see the blog, the tradeoff of style vs. performance seems worth it to me.
Another way to do it might be to make a style sheet for mobile devices, but that would take a lot more time than installing wptouch.
Anywho, thanks for saying hi. Looks like we BOTH wrote long comments. 🙂
Yes it is! I actually just installed wptouch yesterday and so far I’m really liking it. It seems way easier than hand-coding a stylesheet for mobile viewers, although I wish wptouch allowed for a bit more customization.