Karen, Author at Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup - Page 1596 of 1879

Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup

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

Karen

What Were Your Best and Worst Beauty Experiences of the Week?

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MY BEST:

Discovering the miracle that is Sexy Hair Smooth and Protect Spray (review coming soon). It enforces good hair behavior, enhances shine and generally makes my hair look less birds-nesty.

MY WORST:

Toe shock 2009! I couldn’t believe what I saw when I looked down at my feet earlier this week. I’ve got some seriously gnarled cuticles that need cuticle oil, ASAP!

What were your best and worst beauty experiences of the week? Please share yours in the comments.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Sundays with Tabs the Cat, Makeup and Beauty Blog Mascot, Vol. 63

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Beauty nurse to the rescue

Um, where did my weekend go? I can’t believe it’s already Sunday night. Tabs is grumbling about having to go back to work tomorrow. This week he’s guest starring on a daytime soap. He plays a hot male nurse. 🙂

That reminds me. Have you ever been injured by a beauty tool? Once, back in my hair bear days (circa 1989), I burned my forehead with a curling iron. That was a hoot… not.

Have you ever been injured by a beauty tool?

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Doing anything fun tonight? I’m just about ready for a late pasta dinner and maybe some Mad Men Season 2.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Lip Lessons: What Can Brown Do for You?

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Rae rules!We’ve been put on notice today — theNotice, that is. The faboo Rae of theNotice blog shares one of her favorite lip tricks with brown liner.

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Brown lip liners… What can I say about them other than “Hello, ’90s”? Here’s the thing: I think they’re ugly, and not normal ugly, but, like, horrendous.

We’re not talking about sheer browns or reddish-browns either. We’re talking about true brown lip colours — opaque browns — like Paula Dorf’s Voodoo pencil ($20).

It would make a stunning eyeliner. In fact, I’d call it perfect, with its gorgeous chocolate brown base and the most wonderful gold flecks.

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But it’s not an eyeliner. Oh, no. It’s not.

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I wanted to see what kind of lip Voodoo I could do with Voodoo, so I started by layering it underneath a coral gloss.

The experiment failed…

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Luckily, a true beauty addict never gives up! When a product calls to you, you make that baby work.

Next, I figured I’d try layering it with a red lipstick — something from my stash that people rave about, something like MAC’s infamous Dubonnet lipstick.

As much as I like Dubonnet, I can’t wear it without layering the heck out of it — sometimes over a burgundy liner, other times topped with black gloss.

On it went overtop Voodoo…
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NEW: Direct Replies in the Blog Comments

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Minor blog remodel

Hi, ladies. There are a couple of small changes on the blog today — just some little things to hopefully make your visits more enjoyable. 🙂

Direct Replies

This one’s long overdue, but now we can respond directly to other readers by clicking the small speech bubble to the right of a comment.
To leave a reply

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Shortcuts to Bargains, How To and Popular Posts

The sidebar box has new shortcuts to some of my favorite budget beauty products and how-to posts, which I’ll update often. Just click the tabs marked POPULAR, BARGAINS and HOW TO to peruse.

Hope you’re having a good weekend so far. I’m kinda taking it easy today…

Anyone else see New Moon yet? I’m dying to dish but don’t want to post any spoilers. The comments are fair game, though! 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Robert Pattinson: His Best Hair?

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Throngs of Twilighters are filling theaters this weekend to sigh and gush over actor Robert Pattinson in New Moon, the second movie installment of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series.

The role of vampire Edward Cullen in the first film shot R. Patz into the limelight this time last year. Lovestruck teenage girls (and 30-something women who shall remain nameless, ha!) fell hook, line and sinker for his sensitive, smoldering eyes and gravity-defying ‘do.

Born the youngest of three in London on May 13, 1986, R. Patz showed an early interest in the arts. Three when he started playing piano and five when he took up guitar, today he’s an accomplished musician.

His big break came with the role of Cedric Diggory in 2005’s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Fun fact: Robert had to learn how to scuba dive to play the part. I wonder how his hair felt about getting wet, LOL!

Which of R. Patz's hairstyles do you like best?

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Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Have You Sampled Beauty Sample Sites?

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Members Only Beauty Sites

Rue La La! Have you heard The Skinny? Exclusive Beauty VIP members-only sample sites are Haute!

And new ones are cropping up all the time — sites that sell collections and sets filled with sample beauty products at prices that often amount to HUGE savings of 50-75% off (versus purchasing the products separately at retail). Some, like Beauty VIP, go a step further, delivering members-only coupon codes and discounts on cosmetic surgery, beauty services and spas.

Membership’s usually free but required to browse the deals or to place orders online. Ironically, there’s rarely anything exclusive about joining these sites. A name and email address are all that’s typically required, but there’s just something alluring about the promise of exclusive goodies. 🙂

10 Top Beauty Sample Sites

Gilt Groupe
Site: Gilt Groupe
Shtick: Mainstream beauty (Jemma Kidd, Mario Badescu and more) and fashion stuff, too

Rue La La
Site: Rue La La
Shtick: Luxury fashion, house stuff and beauty

SWIRL by Daily Candy
Site: Swirl
Shtick: A product of Daily Candy; clothing and accessories up to 80% off retail
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Saturday Surfing

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Happy Saturday, twilighters. 🙂 How was your night? Mine was painted in blue and gold. Yup, I went to a Warrior’s basketball game (no, Tabs did not come with) and screamed my head off! I’m not big into basketball, but I like going to the games.

Off to a slow start this morning… just enjoying my coffee and surfing le web. Care to browse with me? 🙂

This guy is my new hero…

Remember the last time you watched a sunrise?

So soothing…

After I vacuum (boo) and start some laundry, I’m gonna try to catch a matinee of New Moon. I’m a sucker (haha!) for vampires. :F

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

What’s Your Favorite Makeup Palette of All Time?

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I’m a palette junkie (love having multiple choices in one place), so this was a toughie!

urban decay get baked paletteLet’s see… If I had to pick just one, it would probably be Urban Decay’s Get Baked. It always comes with me on vacations because I love the mix of easy-to-wear gold, brown and teal shimmers — particularly that bright pop of teal! 🙂

So tell me — what’s your all-time favorite palette?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

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