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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, Aug. 17

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  1. Mood:

    2. A little sleepy (waiting for the caffeine to kick in) but feeling optimistic about the day.

  2. How many times have you been in love?

    3. Three.

  3. Do you prefer cream or powder blush?

    4. I love both! I go through phases where I’ll wear one more than the other, and right now I’m all about powder blush.

  4. Are/were you a good student?

    5. Yup, total nerd.

  5. Eyes/lips/cheeks:

    6. I was going through storage drawers last weekend and found some long lost Stila Front Cover Look Palettes I haven’t worn in forever, so they’re going into makeup rotation this week. Today I went with Palette No. 4‘s neutral shades. Eyes: Icon eyeshadow (a shimmery pinkish peach) over the entire lid and Twig eyeshadow (a shimmery rich chocolate) as a liner. Lips: Inviting lip gloss (a shimmery peach). Cheeks: Heat powder blush (a peachy tan matte).

  6. How do you feel about camping?

    7. I can deal if there’s a cabin with electricity, internet access and indoor plumbing, LOL! If I have to sleep in a tent, put quarters in a shower to get hot water or hunt wild pigs, I’ll pass. 🙂

  7. Are you happy?

    8. At this very second, yes. Overall, mostly. I’ve been working a lot lately, and it’s starting to wear me down. Plus, the condo/house hunt has been emotionally exhausting and isn’t settled yet. I’m doing my best to stay positive.

  8. Do long distance relationships work?

    9. I’ve never had one so I don’t really know, but I’m leaning toward no.

  9. Outfit:

    10. Light blue wide-leg Gap jeans, white button-down shirt with red, black and blue stripes.

  10. Weekly goals:

    11. Try to look at old problems in new ways, bust out some old MAC (Smoke Signals, baby!) and Stila palettes to try some new looks, set up a lunch date with friends.

Hola, my SWV’s (LOL, remember that band?). I’m guzzling my second cup of tea and praying it kicks in *very* soon. I hope you’re feeling more awake than I am.

I bet your to-do list is waiting patiently for you to tackle it, but before you dig in, can we catch up? Just copy the empty list, and paste it with your answers in the comments. 🙂

Le list

1. Mood:
2. How many times have you been in love?
3. Do you prefer cream or powder blush?
4. Are/were you a good student?
5. Eyes/lips/cheeks:
6. How do you feel about camping?
7. Are you happy?
8. Do long distance relationships work?
9. Outfit:
10. Weekly goals:

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. What’s SWV?

Behold!

Don’t Miss These Summertime Drugstore Gems

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I’ve been on a drugstore beauty kick lately, and here are some of my favorite gems of the summer so far.

I’m a little bummed the weekend’s almost over, girls. They never seem long enough, ya know?

Did you do anything fun? I had a pretty good day. I went to dance class early this morning, spent a couple hours working and then went to see The Time Traveler’s Wife.

I loved the book and wanted to see the film even though it got kinda panned by critics (Rottentomatoes 36%). I’m glad I did, too, because I think it absolutely does justice to the book — both sad and happy at the same time.

Enjoy the last few hours of the weekend. Have a great night (are you watching True Blood?). 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Sundays with Tabs the Cat: How It All Began

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About three years ago I started to notice a chubby tabby cat skulking around my apartment building. I’d see him every few months or so, sneaking around the cars in the parking lot, but whenever I’d try to get his attention, he’d just flash me a dirty look and walk away.

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Then, one day I opened the apartment door and there he was, sitting in the hallway in front of me. He meowed and walked over, so I bent down and scratched his chin. When I stood up again, he walked passed me into the apartment like he owned the place.

So began our dysfunctional friendship. 🙂

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Over the next few months I’d see him just once or twice a week. He’d scratch at my door or meow, so I’d feed him a spoonful of tuna and give him a kitty massage. I felt used, but loved.

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Around this time last year he started to visit more often — eventually every day — and began to feel more like a member of our family.

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I was starting to get attached, but he was so outgoing and sweet that I figured he must have lived with people at some point. I never saw him wear a collar, though, and he was always starved and covered in fleas. Maybe he’d just gone astray.

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The time came to get him checked by a vet. I braced myself for potentially bad news — that he might be sick or microchipped and belong to someone else. Nope. It turned out he was perfectly healthy (except for worms) and didn’t have a microchip. My heart leapt! Tabs had officially become my cat.

I’ve known other cats, but none like Tabs. He still plays like a kitten, shows tons of affection and isn’t afraid of people at all. Sometimes, I feel like a proud stage mom when he’s complimented on his looks, LOL!

Yes, I fully embrace sounding like a crazy cat lady. Ain’t no shame in that game. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

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

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MY BEST:

Stumbling across a trick to get crisp lines in cat eye looks. Who knew how well a makeup wedge sponge wet with eye makeup remover and run along the edges of liner could work? I had some of my sharpest, best defined lines evah. WHOLE new eyelining world. 🙂

MY WORST:

Discovering a new batch of white hairs in my bangs. How do those suckers develop so quickly? I swear they appear overnight, like beauty crop circles or poison mushrooms. Le sigh…

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

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Jennifer Aniston: Her Best Hair?

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Jennifer Aniston: Her best hair?

If it weren’t for that fateful audition in 1994, Hollywood may have only known Jennifer Joanna Aniston (born February 11, 1969) as the girl who starred in Leprechaun and the short-lived Ferris Bueller TV show.

But Friends changed everything for Jen, who played Rachel from 1994 until the show ended in 2004. It garnered her an Emmy, a Golden Globe and numerous People’s Choice Awards. It also established her as one of America’s favorite actresses.

Now Jen favors a lot of longer looks (compared to the shorter hairstyles she wore a lot in Friends), but she’ll still switch things up by moving her part or adding curls.

Which of Jennifer's hairstyles do you like best?

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Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Stick ‘Em Up! Crazylibellule and the Poppies Solid Perfumes

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crazylibellule and the poppies review

Happy Saturday, gals. How’s it going? What do ya think of these solid perfume sticks by Crazylibellule and the Poppies ($18)?

I should have stuck my hand or something in the picture to give them some perspective, but they kinda look like chubby little lipstick tubes. 🙂

Diverse fragrances

Developed by Sephora co-founder Isabelle Masson-Mandonnaud, each of the 29 unusual fragrances contains a mix of notes like dark chocolate, Tiare flower and ginger. Because they’re generally light, like eau de toilettes, they’re designed to work alone or layered with each other (or other scents).

I’ve tried four of them — Chere Louise, Jeanne Voyage, Josephine Jonquille and 26 Juin Ile d’Yeu — and love ’em all!

Fragrance profiles…

  • Chere Louise: rose, pepper seed, iris, hyacinth, storax (a plant used for making incense), patchouli, guaiacum wood (a tropical shrub)
  • Jeanne Voyage: Silician bergamot, amberwood, Spanish mandarin, heliotrope, violet leaves, rose sap, musk, nutmeg, iris
  • Josephine Jonquille: Tiare flowers, patchouli, black chocolate, jasmine, lemon, ginger, cardamon (an herb from the ginger family)
  • 26 Juin Ile d’Yeu: orange, vanilla, jasmine, plum, black pepper, lily of the valley, peach, musk, wood, rose orange blossom, cardamom, orange

Light and subtle

These are the kinds of perfumes that work great when I just want a lil’ something-something, like for those times when El Hub leans in to snuggle.

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The tube makes them kinda fun to apply. I’ve been swiping the sticks (which deposit a thin, slightly waxy film) on my wrists, neck and between “the girls,” taking a minute afterward to thoroughly massage the film into my skin.

The scents seem to last about half the day, but the sticks travel well and they’re a blast to apply. So far I’ve spotted them online at Sephora, Beauty Habit and Crazylibellule.com (LOVE the music that plays on the site), but I haven’t seen them in any stores yet. Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: A

Friday night alien antics, etc.

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District 9 took a lot out of me last night…
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