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A beauty blog blooming with fresh makeup reviews, swatches and beauty tips from your friendly neighborhood beauty addict

Karen

Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll, Oct. 18

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  1. Mood:

    2. Not too shabby, cocoa tabby. I’m a natural born night owl for whom mornings are a struggle, but today I woke up refreshed and ready for action! I think it helped that I relaxed all day Saturday.

  2. Did you look as stylish as these Gap kids when you were a kid?

    3. Oh, hell no. I hate to sound all grumpy old lady, but back in my day (ouch!), kids actually looked like children and not like miniature adults. They skipped after ice cream trucks wearing pastels and t-shirts with unicorns on them, but I had a punk rock streak… A pair of black biker boots would have taken my rep to the next level!

  3. Do you feel your workplace is well organized right now?

    4. For once, yes, because I spent a few hours yesterday tidying up. I tend to let things pile up and will wait until the nanosecond before I totally lose my sh*z to overhaul everything and get back on track. It may not be the best way to handle things, but it works for me.

  4. What’s one of your simplest pleasures?

    5. When Tabs greets me first thing in the morning. I suspect he does it more to promote his tabby agenda (to solicit gravy/sliced turkey/or talk me into taking him for a walk) than to brighten my day, but I’ll take whatever I can get.

  5. Would you spend $125 on the NARS Bento Box?

    6. Granted, I think it’s a cool, artistic idea, but it doesn’t seem very practical for the moolah.

  6. Cold season’s coming. Do you have any tips/tricks to stay healthy?

    7. Well, I wash my hands all the time, pop a lot of Ester-C and drink packets of Emergen-C like they’re going out of style. Oh, and the minute I start feeling sick, I start sucking on Cold Eeze lozenges. I swear those things really do make my colds clear up sooner.

  7. Are you loving any accessories at the moment?

    8. This costume gold cuff I found in Milan. It makes me feel like Wonder Woman! 🙂

  8. Do you make snap decisions, or do you always think things through?

    9. I’m a snapper! Most of the time I make big decisions on the spot, but not because it’s the best way to handle things. It’s just what I do. I know I should take more time to weigh my options…

  9. Today’s outfit?

    10. Skinny stretch J Brand jeans (I practically live in these things!) and my red lumberjack shirt.

  10. Weekly goals:

    11. I picked up a new journal at Borders, and I want to start filling it up. I also want to exercise for at least 30 minutes every day this week.

Hey, Boo-Boo! What the heck did you do with my weekend, and can I please have it back?

How are you feeling this morning? Good, I hope. If not, here’s a little extra energy to help (*sends virtual energy*).

Let me know how you’re doing this morning while you sip your morning beverage.

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



1. Mood:
2. Did you look as stylish as these Gap kids when you were a kid?
3. Do you feel your workplace is well organized right now?
4. What’s one of your simplest pleasures?
5. Would you spend $125 on the NARS Bento Box?
6. Cold season’s coming. Do you have any tips/tricks to stay healthy?
7. Are you loving any accessories at the moment?
8. Do you make snap decisions, or do you always think things through?
9. Today’s outfit?
10. Weekly goals:

T-minus 3 seconds to awesome week, on my mark.

3 – 2 – 1…

MARK! 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Sundays with Tabs the Cat, Makeup and Beauty Blog Mascot, Vol. 109

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Tabs for the Canon Rebel T2i

My makeup philosophy is pretty simple. I don’t want to think too hard, and I just want to have fun. That’s also one of the reasons why I love Tabs so much. He’s fun, and his dazzling kitty modeling exploits keep me inspired.

This week he was on location in Tanzania, in the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro, shooting a print campaign for Canon. When he told me he’d gotten a job for Canon I was so proud; I’m a HUGE fiend for Canon. I’ve used nothing but Canon cameras since starting the blog back in 2007, and back then my kit was a PowerShot Elph SD300 with a staggering 4MP! Sucker worked like a charm. I still have it, too. I keep it in my car for emergencies (because you never know).

Shoot, it’s still overcast and gloomy outside. While Tabs naps at the top of his cat tower, I think I’ll crank out a quick two miles on the treadmill.

What’s for dinner?

Tabs for NYX Special Effects Lashes in American Shorthair

Tabs for Wet N Wild Color Icon Eye Kit in Russian Blue
[Continue reading…]

Come in from the Rain in the Open Thread

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Yowza! The seasons changed right before my eyes. Yesterday it was sunny and warm, but here’s what it looks like outside my window today…

I can’t believe it. Yesterday was t-shirt and jeans weather, le sigh.

It’s days like this when I wish we were neighbors. You could come over, I’d make some tea and we could tease Tabs while we watched Lifetime and talked about makeup all afternoon.

On a different note, what do you think about beauty companies that donate a portion of sales to charity? I ask because this being October it’s all over the place right now, which is great, right? But sometimes when I do the math, I’m a little disappointed.

I’ve worn, purchased and written about several pink BCA products lately from Sonia Kashuk, Estee Lauder and Clinique, and yesterday I actually wore one on my mall/movie day with El Hub — Revlon’s Super Lustrous Lipgloss in Pink Pursuit SPF 15 ($7). It’s a fragrance- and flavor-free, shimmery pink gloss with sheer pigmentation and a non-sticky texture. Revlon released it special for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and they’ll donate 10% of the price of it to breast cancer research (up to $100,000/year).

That sounds generous to me — 10%. After you subtract the cost to make, distribute and market it, 10% sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but sometimes I wonder if some of these companies could go even further. I’m betting most of them make serious bank, and my cynical side (yes, I do have a cynical side) can’t help but wonder how much of the decision to donate is market-driven and how much is really altruistic.

If I ran a big beauty company, I’d love to start something like MAC’s Viva Glam and the MAC AIDS Fund. Not only do they donate every cent (that’s 100%) from every tube of Viva Glam lipstick sold, but it generates money and raises awareness year round. Regardless of their motives, they’re not just talking the talk one month/year. They’re doing something tangible on a daily basis.

I’d like to hear your thoughts in the open thread, but if you’d rather talk about something else, that’s cool too.

Makeup and Beauty Blog Open ThreadIf you’re new to the open thread, here it is in a nutshell:

It’s a chat fest where we elucidate (ha!) on makeup, movies, books (I just started reading Meg Cabot’s Vanished last night), life, spaghetti tacos, Jersey Shore — you name it.

Stop by anytime. I’ll pour you a cup of tea and save you a spot on the couch.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

The Weekly Roundup: Posts You Might Have Missed

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Makeup and Beauty Blog Weekly Roundup

Don’t you just love the mall? I mean really love it? Yesterday I spent half the day at one, and it was glorious! — not the mall, but the experience. The mall was just okay (Northgate in San Rafael). They do have a Macy’s and an H&M…but that’s about it. Oh, and a See’s Candy (YES! I’ll take a free sample, nom nom nom).

It was nice to be away from the computer for a while, ya know? I forget sometimes how many hours I spend online…

I finally caught The Social Network, too, and I thought it was much better than I expected, not that I thought it would be bad at all. I know the reviews have been great, and a lot of you gals have been urging me to see it, but I thought really? — El Hub, I practically live online as it is; can’t we see a movie about vampires instead?

And then last weekend we did see the movie about vampires (Let Me In, loved it!), so this time it was either The Social Network or Jackass 3D. ‘Nuff said.

I thought it was just a solid, well directed film, and the acting blew me away, especially when you consider the amount of dizzying dialogue. Some of the lines are delivered so fast they’d give David Mamet whiplash! Seriously, the actors must have been mainlining caffeine on the set.

Anywho, I hope you’re having a good weekend so far. What have you been up to? Can you stay awhile (I’ll make the coffee)? We can chitchat and take a look back at some of the things we talked about this week.

Neutrogena Rainbath Refreshing Shower and Bath GelNEUTROGENA RAINBATH
REFRESHING SHOWER AND BATH GEL

Hmm… I honestly don’t know what Tabs would have said about me if he’d known me back in my Neutrogena Rainbath Refreshing Shower and Bath Gel phase ($8 for an 8.5 oz bottle), aka the late ’90s, aka my club kid days.

“Meow,” perhaps?

In his short kitty lifetime, he’s only known me as his cranky, uncool mum — the boring one who hits the haaay every night at 10.

He probably would have liked the late nights and parties because, back then, that’s how I rolled.

My, how things change. Read more…

Smashbox Wish For The Perfect Pout SMASHBOX WISH FOR THE
PERFECT POUT

Er, can you guess who’s been listening to Eric B. & Rakim?

I’m still auditioning songs for The Ultimate ’90s Hip Hop Playlist (keep those recs coming!), and today, while listening to Don’t Sweat the Technique and swatching the new Smashbox Wish For The Perfect Pout ($29), it hit me — this hip hop classic kinda reminds me of this limited edition holiday kit.

Have you ever tried putting on an opaque, bright gloss without a mirror? It’s hard, right? It requires sweating over one’s lipgloss technique, so to speak. You gotta get the color even and if it goes beyond your natural lip line you look all kinds of crazy… Yes, I’ve totally done this before, and it’s not cute.

But with the glosses in Wish For The Perfect Pout, it’s all gravy, as Tabs would say. The six shimmery shades go on with different degrees of sheerness, so if I accidentally apply too much, the contrast doesn’t look as stark as it would with a full-coverage gloss. Shoot, I could probably put these glosses on while doing the butterfly (remember that dance?) and still come out looking semi-sane. Don’t sweat the technique, indeed. Read more…

Dior Holiday 2010: A Five Golds Face of the DayDIOR HOLIDAY 2010
FIVE GOLDS FACE OF THE DAY

The $58 quint also goes by the more marketable stage name, the Dior 5-Colour Eyeshadow Palette in Five Golds #001, and it’s one of two new Dior eyeshadow quints for holiday 2010.

The five metallic shadows aren’t as pigmented as usual for Dior, but they certainly do shimmer!

Based on the colors, I’m not entirely sure why Dior chose to call the palette Five Golds. Two of the shades (the silvery one, and the one on the far left in the swatch pic below) don’t have any (or very little) gold in them at all. Read more…

NARS Holiday 2010 CollectionNARS HOLIDAY
2010

Holy wow, pumpkin! All I have to say is werk!

I’m not talking work like cubicles, time sheets or lame vacation requests, but the neck swerving, hair flipping, three snaps in z-formation kinda work — the kind of work NARS obviously put into their holiday 2010 collection.

For the holidays, it’s nice to see something almost traditional — with lots of golds, silvers, berries and plums — from such an untraditional brand.

But I did say “almost.” 🙂 After all, this is still NARS we’re talking about. The colors are a casual affair, many of them shimmery and saturated but not heavy or foreboding. Read more…

Kiko Make Up MilanoKIKO MAKE UP
MILANO

Not gonna lie, but shopping at Kiko Make Up Milano was hella stressful.

I checked out one of the big Italian brand’s freestanding stores in Milan last month, and it was PACKED! Wall-to-wall teenagers, makeup and Japanese tourists, except for one short, brown beauty blogger and a really clueless American dude who zigzagged into the store, held up a shopping list on his phone and bellowed to no one in particular, “I need to bring all this home to my girlfriend or she’s gonna kill me.” HA HA! Seriously, I couldn’t make this sh*z up.

There wasn’t a lot of room in the store to move around because every square inch was covered with makeup (stimulus overload!). Enhancing the effect, they blasted loud techno music, so it was kinda like being in da club, or a makeup hybrid of Forever 21/Claire’s/Abercrombie and Fitch. Read more…

Dior Holiday 2010 and the 5-Colour Eyeshadow QuintsDIOR HOLIDAY 2010
EYESHADOW QUINTS

Whoa, what’s this? A holiday collection that actually looks like a holiday collection?!?

Get out!

Dior decided not to break with tradition while they broke away from the pack with a classic holiday color palette in shades of gold, black, gray and pink.

They must have figured they’d leave the springy holiday stuff to their luxury counterparts (Chanel and Dolce & Gabbana) this time around.

Good call. 🙂

Four of the nine items in the collection (available now in stores) are palettes. Palettes have been playing a big role this season, and it looks like they also were over at Dior HQ.

Here’s a quick look at both of the eyeshadow quints and a pricing/availability breakdown of everything in the release. Read more…

Smashbox Wish Collection, Holiday 2010SMASHBOX WISH COLLECTION
HOLIDAY 2010 FIRST LOOK

“What should I wish for?”

“I don’t know. Maybe one these new limited edition kits from Smashbox.”

“OOH! Those are pretty.”

“I know! They just came out with their holiday collection, Wish 2010.”

“Wish? Oh, very punny. Wish. I get it now.”

The four new kits range from $16-46 each and come with various combinations of products for eyes, lips, cheeks and face.

In the holiday spirit, Smashbox plans to donate $1 from the sale of each Wish collection purchase (up to $25,000) to the Children’s Miracle Network.

Even though that kind of thing can seem like a marketing maneuver, it isn’t always, and the fact remains — it’s something that quite a few cosmetics companies simply never do (donate a portion of sales to charity), so I say “Good job, Smashbox!” 🙂

Take a peek at these product pics and swatches of two of the four new kits, Wish For The Perfect Pout ($29) and Wish List ($49). Read more…

Veronica Malibu Seaweed & Pineapple Body ScrubVERONICA MALIBU
SEAWEED AND PINEAPPLE BODY SCRUB

I love a good meat tenderizer as much as the next gal, but I didn’t expect to find one — make that two in my new body scrub!

No, indie skin care line Veronica Malibu does not have quality control issues at their manufacturing plant. The meat tenderizers I found in this jar of Seaweed & Pineapple Body Scrub ($28 for a 2-oz. jar) were added deliberately, and they make the product stand out in the crowded field of skin scrubs.

Lately, I haven’t been in the mood for abrasive or painful scrubs; I want something kinder and gentler, so when I found out that water, aloe vera gel and seaweed were the top three ingredients in Veronica Malibu’s new scrub, it piqued my interest. Read more…

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

The Breast Cancer Awareness Month Sign Project and Giveaway: Send in Your Sign Today!

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karen from makeup and beauty blog holding her october is breast cancer awareness sign

You guys have blown me away with your entries for the The Breast Cancer Awareness Month Sign Project and Giveaway. Thank you for showing your support and for sharing your stories. It’s hard to fully comprehend the meaning of words like courage, love, sorrow and strength until we’ve been forced to deal with something beyond our control. To those of you who’ve faced this disease yourself or within your family, and to those of you facing it now, I send you all of my love and the greatest respect.

Keep those entries coming! We’re halfway through the month, which means you still have time to enter. Just be sure to leave a comment on the original post if you do submit your sign entry by email, twitter, blog posting, etc.

These lovely ladies are standing up with me to raise awareness this month. Won’t you please join us? love

The Breast Cancer Awareness Month Sign Project and Giveaway

Email or link to a picture of yourself holding your support sign (like the examples above), and leave a comment on the original post. Not only will you be showing your support for the cause, but you’ll also be entered to win a $400 prize package of makeup from MAC and Chanel.

To Enter…

  1. Take a picture of yourself with a sign that reads, “October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.” Whether or not you show your face is up to you, but I think it would be great to see your lovely mug. 🙂
  2. Send it to me. You can either email it to karen@makeupandbeautyblog.com, OR post it on your blog/facebook page and leave a link to the pic in the comments on the original post, OR upload it to Twitter and send a tweet to me @karenmbb.
  3. The giveaway is open to US and international readers, but you must be the age of majority according to your country’s local laws (18 in the United States with these exceptions: Alabama and Nebraska, 19; Mississippi, 21).
  4. One entry per person.
  5. Deadline to enter is October 31, 2010 at 11:59PM PST.

Please comment on the original post to enter (and not on this post here).

Please take a moment this weekend to show your support.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Does your phone have a camera? You might be able to snap your pic and email your entry from there. 😉

Don’t Gloss O-ver the Smashbox Wish List Kit

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Wearing Smashbox O-Gloss Gold on lips, Fusion Soft Lights in Baked Stardust on cheeks, Photo Finish Foundation Primer on face, Photo Op Under-Eye Brightener and Jet Set Waterproof Eye Liner along my lashlines

Smashbox hopes to make wishes come true this year with the new five-piece $49 Wish List kit ($108 value). A buck from every purchase goes to the Children’s Miracle Network (I would have liked to have seen them give a little more than $1, but at least it’s something).

It comes with five smashing products — Photo Op Under-Eye Brightener, O-Gloss Gold, Photo Finish Foundation Primer – Travel Size, Fusion Soft Lights in Baked Stardust, Jet Set Waterproof Eye Liner.

Smashbox wish holiday 2010 collection wish list wish-wish-list-box

O-Gloss Gold: As soon I put it on, I thought, “Wow, sure is gold!” But it quickly mellows out to a pretty peach. It’s a long-lasting golden peachy pink, smooth but not sticky, with a light peppermint flavor and scent.

Photo Op Under-Eye Brightener: A warm, shimmery peachy pink liquid highlighter designed to be worn under concealer. I’ve been applying it in the hollows at the inside corners of my eyes. It delivers a subtle brightening effect, not an “Oh, my, gawd! I look 10 years younger” kinda thing.

Fusion Soft Lights Powder: One of the prettiest little pinwheel pans I’ve seen in a while (the shades are all supposed to be swirled together). It gives a soft, peachy pink glow. I like that the shimmer isn’t overly frosty and doesn’t settle into my pores like some shimmery blushes do.

Photo Finish Foundation Primer: I’ve said it before, but I’m not the biggest fan of this. Perhaps because it contains silicone, it feels heavy on my skin, and I feel like my skin can’t breathe with it on. It doesn’t ruin the kit, though, because I know how many women love this primer, so I’d probably just give it to someone who’d love it more than I do.

Jet Set Waterproof Liner: Just a basic black waterproof liner in a tiny jar barely the diameter of a nickel (but I’ve never even finished a jar of eyeliner before, so it probably doesn’t matter). I do wish they’d managed to squeeze a liner brush in the box… That would have come in handy.


O-Gloss Gold

Smashbox wish holiday 2010 collection wish list swatches
Swatches from left: Fusion Soft Lights in Baked Stardust, Jet Set Waterproof Eye Liner in Midnight Black, Photo Op Under-Eye Brightener, O-Gloss Gold, Photo Finish Foundation Primer

PRICE: $49
AVAILABILITY: Sephora and online
MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: B

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

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