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
Rise and shine, morning glories. It’s Friday, yea! Are you ready for the weekend? In this short video I talk about one of my standby blush application techniques, codenamed “The Bounce.”
Have a good one today.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
P.S. Did you happen to see last night’s America’s Best Dance Crew? How about Strikers All-Stars, huh? WOW! That seven-man monkey roll was out of this world.
Has this ever happened to you?
It’s winter and raining. You’re doing your best to stay warm and dry, but at the precise moment you walk under an awning outside a stream of ice cold water hits you in the back of the neck and drips under your shirt.
HURRAY! Cold rain, huzzah!
No, girls, I’m not a big fan of winter, and today I was missing the sunshine somethin’ fierce.
I felt cold to my bones and turned, as I often do, to makeup for warmth. 🙂 I turned to the Smashbox Muse Collection for Spring 2009 hoping that its fresh colors and cheerful packaging would light a fire under my…
Swatches from left to right: Hybrid 2 in 1 Luminizing Primer in Bare Canvas, Lip Paint in Luminary, Lip Paint in Artiste, Blush Rush in Masterpiece, Bionic Mascara in Black Violet
I tested five products from the 11-piece collection today (full review coming shortly!). I liked them so much that I couldn’t wait to share this face of the day.
That’s Blush Rush in Masterpiece ($24) and Hybrid 2 in 1 Luminizing Primer in Bare Canvas ($34) on my cheeks, and Lip Paint lipgloss in Artist ($21) on my lips.
To complement the matte peachy coral cheeks and shimmery berry lip, I went with a delicate purple eye following the steps I outlined in the Stila Convertible Eye Color in Violet Tutorial from last September.
To complete the look, I applied three (!) layers of Bionic Mascara in Black Violet ($19) on my lashes.
I really love the makeup the model in this campaign is wearing. I don’t have the right eye palette to duplicate it, but I think I’ll try to get as close as I can. I’ll let you know how it turns out!
Are you watching the new season of America’s Best Dance Crew? I LOVE THAT SHOW! I only wish A.C. Slater, aka Mario Lopez, wouldn’t say the words “Master Mix” as often as he does. I guess I’ll just have to bear it!
I hope an all girls crew makes it to the end this time. I’m rooting for Team Fly Khicks… and not just because they have good taste in footwear (although that’s part of it). 🙂
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Happy Thursday, gals! I’ve been thinking about doing something new with my hair for a while (still can’t decide), but I wanted to ask…
How do you keep your salon style?
What tricks do you use to keep your hair looking like you just stepped out of the salon? Do you ever take notes while your hair is getting styled? I’m totally guilty of that one, LOL!
Here’s a video with some of the things I do to get the most out of my trips to the salon.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Ever since a minor part in 1999’s She’s All That (and before that appearances in some TV shows), Gabrielle Monique Union’s star has steadily climbed. She now has 26 films to her credit, including one of my favorite popcorn flicks, Bring It On, where she played bad ass cheerleader Isis opposite Kirstin Dunst.
Here are some of the hairstyles Gabrielle has worn over the years.
Loading ...“Bring it.”
“Oh, it’s already been brought’in”
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
P.S. I got an e-mail this morning from Stila saying that they’ve got the Barbie Decades of Beauty Cans available for purchase right now! Hurry over and get your Foxy on! 😉
Like Monet’s brush strokes, Estee Lauder’s Spring 2009 Fuschia Now collection sings with soft shades of color.
Estee Lauder organized the products in this release into two camps: the Cool Pinks (purples and pinks) and the Warm Nudes (browns and beige).
For my first day of class, I wanted something light and breezy and picked four of the items from Cool Pinks to help me out.
I don’t wear purple eyeshadow often ’cause when I do I tend to go overboard and end up looking like Barney in high heels, gah!
But the embossed floral pattern on the Silky Eyeshadow Duo won me over. I couldn’t resist!
First thing I noticed when I started playing with the shades were the touches of frosty pearl and glitter in both the shell pink and gray purple.
Typical of Estee Lauder’s textures, the creamy consistency makes both shadows easy to apply and blend. Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: A+
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I still can’t believe it’s 2009… I hadn’t even gotten used to writing “2008” on my checks, and then this New Year’s thing happened, LOL! What’s up with that?
At this time last year I was working for the literary agency, freelancing and blogging on the side. Not much has changed since then, really, except that I recently left the agency to go back to school for journalism. The blog is still my main creative outlet and undoubtedly the one thing that keeps me sane.
Today’s my first day of classes, yea! Very excited, a little nervous, and a little bittersweet. I’ll be back in a classroom for the first time in almost 10 years, yikes! I wonder if I’ll be the elder stateswoman of the journalism department…
In honor of time, here’s a look back at some of the posts that appeared on the blog around this time last year.
“I’m not shy about my obsessions — Christian Bale (marry me!), the MAC 266 brush and the Terminator series (more on this later) — but by far the deepest of my frivolous obsessions is for our Madge-esty almighty, Madonna, an obsession I’ve harbored since the tender age of eight.”
“Sometimes on the Big V you’re in lurve (how precious), but sometimes you’re not; sometimes you’re just plain bitter (it happens to the best of us). So, to celebrate the love and the pain of Valentine’s Day, this post kicks off Paint it Pink, Paint it Black, a series featuring pink and black themed makeup and beauty products to help you make the most of this Valentine’s Day — no matter what.”
“Women (and men) are flocking to Specktra’s makeup and beauty forum, but for makeup newbies, sifting through the sheer volume of information on the site can be overwhelming. Specktra is one of my favorite beauty resources. Its members are generally nice, and on the site you’ll find lots of useful makeup application and product information, much of which appears on Specktra before it appears anywhere else.”
“Last week’s What’s in Your Purse post was a lot of fun, wasn’t it? I get a kick out of making strange lists, and I take it a lot of other people do too. I was thinking last night about an article I read a few months ago where people talked about what they’d tell their younger selves, so I made a list of the things I’d tell my 22-year-old self (yikes! that was 10 years ago?!) if given the chance.”
“This Valentine’s Day, if your date for the evening is with the gym or a punching bag (try it sometime), you might as well look cute. Work it out with these road-tested gym makeup tips:”
“I was nervous to try MAC Moisturelush Cream because I had a bad incident with MAC Green Gel Cleanser last spring that left me with a less-than-stellar opinion of MAC’s skin care products. Lord knows I loves me some MAC, but I wasn’t a believer in their skin care line. Since ‘the incident,’ I’ve been hesitant to try anything new from them. But I sucked it up, took a chance, and I’m sure glad I did.”
“For years, the only brushes in my life were toothbrushes, hairbrushes and random brushes with destiny. I was content using the sad lil’ sponge applicators and teeny standard issue brushes that came with eyeshadows and blush. When I look back at my pictures from high school and college (aka, ‘the brush drought years’) my makeup didn’t look bad … but it definitely didn’t look good, either. My application was splotchy, and there was no blending to be had within a three-mile radius.”
It’s hump day, ladies! Let’s have ourselves a good one. 🙂
Your friendly neighborhood beauty student,
Karen
Department stores started giving away free cosmetics yesterday as part of that class-action lawsuit I mentioned the other day. I haven’t made it down to the mall yet, but come hell or high water I’ll be there today.
Manufacturers were sued for fixing prices, so $175 million worth of beauty products are being made available as part of the settlement.
Folks who purchased products (from these stores) between 1994 and 2003 are eligible for the free swag, which includes products from Chanel, Lancome, L’Oreal, Estee Lauder, Clinique, Christian Dior, Clarins, Calvin Klein, Guerlain and more, and you don’t even need a receipt or proof of purchase to qualify.
The guilty parties hope to buy our silence with free makeup. “We’re sorry we tried to cheat you … but can’t we just put it behind us and be friends?” Works for me, LOL!
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
P.S. Here’s a full list of products available to us in the giveaway.
I dig that Stila’s Pomegranate Crush Lip and Cheek Stain ($24) totally looks like something you’d find in an art store.
Yah, I know it’s really a lip and cheek gel with a plum tint, but I swear if I could use it to write some spontaneous bathroom wall poetry I totally would.
Spontaneous Bathroom Wall Poetry: An Ode to Tabs
I have a cat named Tabs
He parties all night long
He wakes me up at four
Singing loud cat songs
Twisting the clicky bottom of the pen forces the gel out of the tip of the brush. I use it by lightly brushing the color onto my lips or cheeks and blending with a finger. It’s totally easy and kinda fun.
Last night El Hub and I decided to catch a movie. We were running late for the show, so I grabbed Pomegranate Crush on my way out the door and applied her in the car on the way to the theater (Gran Torino… SO GOOD!).
The gel creates a light red stain on my cheeks and a deep red-plum on my pucker. I feel just so-so about it on my cheeks but love the way it look on my lips. It’s the perfect shade of I-MADE-OUT-WITH-CHRISTIAN-BALE-FOR-HOURS red.
According to Stila, the product’s aptly named. It really does contain pomegranate extract, which, they say, reacts with your body’s natural pH levels, resulting in a shade of plum uniquely tied to your body chemistry.
I love the way it looks on me, but the staying power — that’s another story. It’s not the longest wearing lip stain in town, petering out in less than four hours on either my lips or cheeks.
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