Karen

Rise and shine, morning glory. 🙂 I hope you’re having a beautiful morning. What are you up to today? Anything exciting? Let’s see… Right now I’m answering some email, drinking a cup of coffee and trying to psyche myself up to exercise. None of that qualifies as exciting, but c’est la vie.

As for the realms of makeup and beauty, hasn’t it been an amazing week? I feel like I’ve been so busy with my in-laws visiting that I haven’t been able to just veg out and play with makeup as much as I usually do, but there’s a time and place for everything, ya know?

Here’s a look back at some of the things we talked about this week on the blog, and let me know how you’re doing today. I feel like we haven’t talked much in a while.

MAC VENOMOUS VILLAINS
101 THINGS

In what turned out to be the BIGGEST post I’ve ever written for the blog (so big, in fact, that I suspect the server may crash), here are 101 things you probably didn’t know about Disney and the upcoming MAC Venomous Villains collection (but certainly will now).

The collection launches in the U.S. on September 30 and internationally in October.

When designing the four Venomous Villains sub-collections — The Evil Queen (as far as we know, that’s her stage name) from 1937′s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Maleficent from 1959′s Sleeping Beauty, Cruella de Vil from 1961′s 101 Dalmations and Dr. Facilier from 2009′s The Princess and the Frog — MAC based the color stories on the original Disney character sketches and Pantone color guides.

They took it all into consideration — the attitudes of the characters, their skin tone, clothes and style — and not just the colors Disney used to ink them.

As a lifelong Disney fan and art fanatic, I’ve been looking forward to this collection for months! Read more…

CHANEL OMBRES
CONTRASTE EYESHADOW DUOS

Chanel should have issued a warning with their new $42 Ombres Contraste Duos: “Caution: The contents of this compact may be hard to resist!”

Seriously, you might want to steel yourself against potential temptation and simply stop reading now.

The part of me that loves elegantly effortless makeup just can’t get enough of these eyeshadow duos. The six of them make me feel like screaming, “Gimme, gimme more!”

This fall luxurious textures and intense pigments have been all the rage among the high-end makeup lines (hello, Givenchy Le Prisme Quartets!), and while these duos may not look the part at first, they’re no exception.

Each one comes with a light cream shadow designed to be used as a base and a darker powder matte shadow for contouring and creating the illusion of depth. Read more…

MAC VIVA GLAM
CYNDI AND GAGA LIPGLASSES

Back in college I volunteered as a peer health counselor, and one of my responsibilities was to visit the different dorms on campus and give presentations on HIV/AIDS awareness. Even though it took a lot of time, it was one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done (I felt like I was really helping people).

In a small way, MAC’s Viva Glam program allows me to still feel like I’m helping people, and maybe that’s one of the reasons why I like the limited edition MAC Viva Glam Cyndi and Viva Glam Gaga Lipglasses ($14.50 each) so much.

Well, it doesn’t hurt that they’re gorgeous, too.

If I had to pick between the two, I think I’d probably go with Cyndi’s shiny coral. Don’t get me wrong — I love Gaga’s creamy light bluish pink, but I tend to find warmer colors a little easier to wear. Read more…

PACIFICA
ROLL-ON PERFUMES

Heya, ladies. How was your hump day afternoon? We got home from Reno a few hours ago, and since then I’ve done a load of laundry, watered the plants, given Tabs his overdue lurvies and took some pictures (with a little help from Tabs) of Pacifica’s cute line of Roll-On Perfumes ($12 for a 10-ml bottle).

Available in eight classic Pacifica scents — Hawaiian Ruby Guava, Brazilian Mango Grapefruit, Malibu Lemon Blossom, Tahitian Gardenia, Mediterranean Fig, French Lilac, Lotus Garden and Tuscan Blood Orange — and one new fragrance called California Star Jasmine, they should easily slip into most makeup bags or purses; size-wise, they’re TSA-approved, so you can pop ‘em into a carry-on bag for air travel. Read more…

ESSIE FALL 2010
NAIL POLISHES

I’m all for nail polishes that push the boundaries of beauty (I’m looking at you, Butter London!), but I also like traditional products in colors that feel familiar, like the six shades that make up Essie fall 2010.

Colors like these, all of them medium to dark and $8 apiece, remind me of autumns in the city. The red, pink, purple, green, amethyst and blackish brown feel urban and sophisticated, and I see these colors being worn by a stylish girl (for the purposes of this paragraph, let’s call her Karen). I can see her walking the sidewalks of downtown San Francisco in a chic tweed jacket, wearing dark skinny jeans and kickin’ knee-high boots, LOL! And I can almost hear the autumn leaves crunching beneath my feet as my painted nails catch the late afternoon light.

Every color in the collection walks in step with the season, unlike last year’s fall release (remember the neon hot pink and highway worker vest orange?), which l still liked, but those colors seemed a little disjointed and random to me. Read more…

LOVE AND TOAST
PERFUMES, LIP BALMS & HAND CREAMS

Like a peacock’s feathers, some beauty product packaging isn’t meant to be practical. Sometimes it’s meant to grab eyeballs — KAPOW! — which is exactly what the colorfully quirky Love & Toast line did to mine when I stumbled upon it at Pure Beauty.

I love the way products in the small indie line of perfumes, lip balms and hand creams ($9-32 each) are decorated, with their bright tubes and fun, interesting scents — sugared grapefruit, anyone?

Super cute, yah?

I walked away with a tube of the lightly scented Handcreme in Pomme Poivre (French for “apple pepper”), which I’ve been wearing on my paws since we arrived in Reno yesterday. The climate-controlled casino air usually wreaks havoc on my skin, but Love & Toast’s fast-absorbing shea butter formula has kept my hands soft and smooth. Read more…

THE BEAUTY OF
DISNEYLAND

Anaheim’s Disneyland theme park is beautiful in more ways than one. Sure, it’s a colorful feast for the eyes, but it’s also quite literally beauty-full, bursting with Disney-themed jewelry, clothing, makeup and art.

The upcoming MAC Venomous Villains collection is the latest in a long line of historic Disney beauty collaborations, many of which are available for purchase in the park.

Girlfriend, they don’t call it The Magic Kingdom for nothin’.

If you find yourself strolling down Main Street, take a minute to check out the Fortuosity Shop (next to Carnation Cafe). It’s like a playground for beauty addicts, with a slew of Disney-related products and accessories ranging from nail polishes to jewelry to designer bags.

Paul & Joe and OPI have your face, lips and nails covered with these cutie pie Alice in Wonderland goodies. Paul & Joe’s packaging always makes me weak in the knees… This tin comes with blotting papers and a clear lip conditioner. Read more…

CLINIQUE MOISTURE
SURGE SPRAY

Calling Reno dry is like calling Chanel expensive: kinda obvious. Heck, it’s not just dry; the air literally repels moisture! — as if it hates the stuff.

One of the things I did to stay cool and keep my skin from cracking was turn to Clinique’s Moisture Surge Face Spray ($20), which I must have spritzed on myself at least a hundred times (every time I took a break from Kitty Glitter).

It’s an oil-free moisturizing face spray with a faint, almost undetectable licorice scent, and it’s part of Clinique’s famed Moisture Surge line. Designed to soothe and satisfy parched skin, it can be used in conjunction with other facial moisturizers, too, either beneath or atop makeup (spray from about a foot away to keep from disturbing your handiwork), as often as needed. Read more…

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen