Karen

What’s shakin’, bacon? Happy Sunday! I’m taking it a little easy today because I was out late last night with some friends down in San Jose. Of course I got lost, because that’s what people do in San Jose. We went to a cozy wine bar called Chin Chin and did some catching up. Now I’m watching Tabs tear the sh*zz out of his cat tower while I eat pumpkin buttered toast for breakfast, yum.

Oh, have you seen Catfish? It’s a documentary about a photographer who falls in love with a girl on Facebook. He decides to meet her in real life but begins to suspect she doesn’t really exist when he tries to track her down and can’t. It’s a mystery of sorts and pretty interesting. Well worth checking out.

Have you had a good weekend? What’s the weather like out there? It’s storming like crazy here! I feel like we went from summer to winter without much of a fall. I hope we get a break from the rain soon, because if we don’t, Tabs may tear the roof off this mother.

Here’s a look back at some of the makeup and beauty stuff we talked about this week. MAC A Tartan Tale got a lot of attention in Beauty Land, as does almost everything from MAC. How do you feel about the collection? Are you stoked about it or not impressed?

GUERLAIN ROUGE
BRILLIANT BEE LIPSTICK

This Bee is a creamy, full-coverage (yes!) deep violet with tiny flecks of golden glitter, and it feels like a feather on the lips, ahh…

I’d heard the Rouge G Le Brilliant lippies were long wearing, and this one lives up to the hype. It wears off slowly over about five hours, which usually includes a snack or a meal.

Oh, and the bomb @ss tube! I’ve never seen anything like it before, but it’s also really functional. Guerlain squeezed a mirror in the cap (I LOVE the logo!), and the tube has some heft to it too. Should I ever find myself an unwilling member of a Jersey Shore club brawl, it could double as a weapon.

Kids, violence is NEVER the answer…but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared. Read more…

LUSH GOTH JUICE
HAIR STYLING GEL

Goth Juice?

Before you answer that, I’m referring to Lush’s Goth Juice ($16), a medium-hold non-sticky styling gel, and not a new energy drink for fans of The Cure.

Seems like noses either love or loathe Lush products, and even though they don’t always agree with my nose (I’m more of a fruity florals kinda girl than a hippy/pot brownie babe), some of their stuff just works.

Like Goth Juice. Sure, it’s got that eau de lemon and Pine-Sol thing going, but for fast, effortless, undone styles, Goth Juice gets it done.

Lush credits a mix of botanical oils (hemp and flaxseed), fresh lemon infusion, olibanum (a resin from the boswellia tree; also goes by the name frankincense) and oakmoss for making the magic happen.

I busted out a full on elle-oh-elle when I read the product’s description on the company’s website:

“Olibanum and oakmoss leave your hair smelling like the deep, dark pine forest where Robert Smith goes to be alone.” Read more…

DOLCE & GABBANA
EVOCATIVE COLLECTION

While I was cruising down (Saks) Fifth Avenue today, otherwise known as surfing their site (they’re having a Friends & Family Sale; I didn’t come across the new Ethereal Holiday Collection, but I did window shop almost everything from the Evocative Collection for fall.

I’m not sure how Evocative’s vampiric berries, wines and pinks go with her springy blues and that one totally random coral, but being confused has never stopped me before, ha!

I’ll just try to wrap my head around something tangible…like the ultra pigmented, creamy coral Classic Cream Lipstick in Cosmopolitan and Shine Lipstick in Orchid. They should help me focus, but if I’m still out of sorts after that, the buttery soft and sheer beige, pink, taupe and purple shadows in the quad should help. Read more…

MAC A TARTAN TALE
SWATCH PREVIEW

Heya, ladies. Here’s a smattering of products from the massive MAC A Tartan Tale holiday collection launching on October 28 (that’s next week!). I thought you might like to see a few swatches. Tabs is demanding lip and face shots soon. Read more…

NYX SPECIAL
EFFECTS LASHES

Wow, how fun are these NYX Special Effects Lashes ($10; available in 40 styles)? I’m building up the courage to wear the brown spotted Leopard ones out in public, and I’m almost there. I’m thinking mall date, perhaps?

Electric blue Midnight Walts is another story… I’m reserving that one for private, in-home displays of cray-cray. I feel très Looney Tunes with ‘em on, not gonna lie.

I love how many there are to choose from (40 in all), and at $10, they’re $5 cheaper than the freakiest $15 Urban Decay Urban Lashes and half the cost of falsies from Shu Uemura (which are great, I might add).

I’m not sure about the other styles, but Leopard and Midnight Walts didn’t come with lash glue. Luckily I had a spare tube on hand.

As you might expect, some pairs are easier to apply than others. Leopard was a cinch (took about five minutes); Midnight Walts, on the other hand, wasn’t (took about 15 minutes). NOTE: I’m incompetent when it comes to applying false lashes, so your results may vary. That I was able to apply either of these without losing an eye was a minor makeup miracle. Read more…

DIOR ENDLESS
SHINE QUINT, HOLIDAY 2010

What up, buttercup? How was your week? Mine was pretty peachy, thank you very much, and I owe it all to Dior Endless Shine.

We spent Wednesday afternoon together, you know, just frolicking like cherubs with cameras. Turns out the holiday quint, one of two in Dior’s Holiday 2010 Collection, is quite the budding photographer.

With the quint’s peach shade demanding so much of my attention, it only seemed right to build a look around it, so I picked out some complementary bits o’ holiday makeup from Chanel, NARS, MAC and Dolce & Gabbana and put together this here face of the day.

That’s Dolce & Gabbana Crayon Intense in 10 and 12 and Dior 5-Colour Iridescent in Endless Shine #529 on my eyes, NARS Blush in Sex Appeal on my cheeks, and Chanel Glossimer in Pleasing atop Chanel Rouge Coco in Patchouli on my lips.

What do ya think? Are the eyes too frosty? They’re smokey but not loud. Now I just wish I had somewhere to go.

Hmm, I wonder what time Tuttimelon opens. Read more…

MAC A TARTAN TALE
EYE SWATCHES

Once upon a Tartan’s Tale, I peeped eye colors I would regale, but not so many, I’m sad to say, as I had hoped earlier today.

The Pearlglides are, without a doubt, my favorites from the tale no doubt, but I await, so patiently, the final act, let’s call it three.

From what I’ve seen of the collection’s eye products so far, and I’ve only seen about a quarter of it, nothing’s completely stolen my heart (but the Pearlglides have it on layaway).

A lot of what I’ve seen has been surprisingly sheer, which I guess would be cool if we were talking about Clinique, but this is MAC. In other words, where’s the beef pigment? Read more…

H2O PLUS
HAND AND NAIL CREAM TRIO

Quick, name one hip hop song in which Timbaland does NOT appear as a guest artist.

Takes a minute, doesn’t it? The guy is everywhere! He’s like a hip hop virus. I had my iTunes on random yesterday, and I swear the man was uttering nonsense in every other song. “Uh huh, uh uh,” “freaky-freaky-freaky!”

But no matter how many times he’s been featured in songs — and I’m fairly sure it’s in the hundreds — I bet I have him beat hands down in one area: hand washing. Because I like to wash my hands. A lot.

This also means my hands get dry. A lot (often?).

It’s worse in the colder months, which means hand creams? — totally my BFFs. Lately I’ve been getting my moisture on with these travel-friendly 2-oz. tubes of Hand and Nail Cream from H2O Plus. Read more…

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen