Karen

So…what is the Monday Poll?

Well, it isn’t exactly a poll. It’s more of a constantly evolving (devolving?), somewhat random list of questions I’ve been putting out to readers every Monday morning for the past 11 (!) years. (It’s like a kickstart for your brain.) I’ve always enjoyed reading your answers in the comments, and I hope you enjoy reading mine.

1. Fringe or ruffles?

I’m gonna go with the one I would put on a wedding dress — ruffles all the way!

Or…one tasteful ruffle. That’s all I need.

2. How old were you the first time you dyed your hair?

Does dyeing my mustache count? Haha.

Off the books, I was in middle school, and there was a bottle of contraband Sun-In involved. I put some in my bangs, but it didn’t really do anything.

The first official time was with hair color out of a box, right when I started college. Jen and I went to the Thrifty in our neighborhood, bought two boxes of blonde hair color (yes, blonde), and used that on my hair to lighten it.

We’d heard from a friend of a friend that that’s what you had to use to lighten black hair… It worked a little. It was kind of reddish and uneven, but thank goodness my hair was dark and you couldn’t really tell how uneven the color was.

3. Can you multitask while you eat?

Honestly, what can’t I do while I’m eating?? I work with a diva kitty and a two year old.

You can do a lot of things with a baby in your lap. Like, I can feed her. I can feed myself. I can pet the cat with my foot. All at the same time.

We were at lunch yesterday sitting outside at a place in Corte Madera, and El Hub couldn’t even eat a sandwich with Connor sitting sidesaddle on his right hip. I kept thinking, “amateur.”

4. Have you ever slept in a tent?

Yes, and I can count them all on one hand. And I plan to keep all the times I ever sleep in a tent on one hand going forward. Because I don’t like sleeping in tents. 🙂

5. What’s something you’d like for your kitchen?

Well, if a complete remodel isn’t an option, I’d love a new sink and faucet… That’s the practical side of me talking. The impractical side of me wants all of the purple Le Creuset pieces I saw at Sur La Table yesterday. There was an ombre baking pan and a purple dutch oven shaped like a flower… I died a little. ?

The pink drink that’s NOT the pink drink

This might look like a pink drink, and when I hold it in my hand and shake the ice cubes around, it sounds like a pink drink, but it’s not a pink drink! You know I’m a Starbucks junkie, and so I’m always trying new things, and this drink is super tasty — not too sugary or calorie laden (if you’re concerned about any of those things). It’s a passion iced tea, unsweetened, with a splash of coconut milk.

It tastes like the pink drink but isn’t nearly as sweet… I think it’s super good! I got this yesterday when I was walking around the mall, and since it looks like it’s going to be sunny here again, I may have to go back for another one.

I hope wherever you are today, you’re feeling warm and happy. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Here are the questions to copy and paste with your answers in a comment:

1. Fringe or ruffles?
2. How old were you the first time you dyed your hair?
3. Can you multitask while you eat?
4. Have you ever slept in a tent?
5. What’s something you’d like for your kitchen?

I’ve lost so many objects and items throughout the years, but I have a foolproof method for finding lost items that always works for me. It’s somewhat unconventional, though. I just kinda let whatever’s lost be lost for a while until it eventually shows up and makes itself known. 🙂

And I’ve been doing this for years because it stresses me out to look for lost things. I know that if I use this method (more like non-method), I’m eventually gonna find whatever’s missing… It may take five minutes. It may take five years, but eventually the lost item will find its way back into my life.

For example, I’ve been missing my tablespoon measuring spoon for weeks, but I haven’t looked for it. I’ve been using a teaspoon and doing three teaspoons instead (because three teaspoons equals one tablespoon). Well, I found the missing spoon last night! I’d left it in a bag of brown sugar.

LOL.

So, yeah, this method probably isn’t for everybody, but it works for me, and I’m telling you all this because I can’t find my bottle of Annick Goutal Des Lys perfume…

It was an LE scent from back in 2002. I remember discovering it one day at Nordstrom and immediately falling in love with the peppery notes and bright citrus undertone. I loved it so much that I bought right there on the spot, which I never do with perfumes.

Currently, I have NO IDEA where it is, and I actually have looked for it! I’ve combed through all of my drawers and scanned and re-scanned all of my counters, and I just can’t find it anywhere, so now I’m a little stressed out about it because I loved that scent, and I’ve kept it around for all these years… I hope it turns up eventually.

On that note, while I continue to cherish the crème brûlée and vanilla notes wafting off my first precious cup of coffee this morning, here are the stories that caught my eye this week…

• Although I will occasionally partake of a glass of wine or a frou-frou drink with an umbrella and tropical fruit ? in it, I’m not a big drinker, and that’s mostly because I’m swinging from the chandelier after one margarita! You think I’m kidding, but I’m not…

  Anywho, I still want to visit Sfumato Fragrances in Detroit, a fragrance store that transforms into an 18-seat craft cocktail bar called Castalia Cocktails at night. And all of the cocktails they serve mirror the scents sold in the store, so you can get your swerve on while you find your new signature scent.

• Technology previously used in the food industry is being adapted to help researches find ways to capture subtle transient fragrances from products as they’re being washed and make them longer lasting when used on skin. To overcome this challenge, researchers adapted “…a device known as the twister bar headspace sorption extraction sensor,” according to the American Chemical Society, “commonly used in the food industry to detect chemicals that could contribute to off-flavors or scents. The sensor absorbs trace amounts of volatile fragrances deposited on the skin after a shower. Combined with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, the team can gather a profile of the scents that remain on skin after rinsing. Then, fragrance evaluators are brought in at the last step to validate and verify the results.”

• While we’re on the topic of fragrance, these are the finalists for the 2018 Fragrance Foundation Awards, and now of course I want to smell them all. 🙂

  Do you recognize any of your favorites? The only one I know is Bath & Body Works Cucumber Melon. I’ve been pretty much in the same scent groove for a couple years now (hello, Byredo Gypsy Water), so I’m down to find a new favorite perfume.

• Wherefore art thou, Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics?? OCC, the O.G. of indie vegan makeup brands (and arguably the line that first put liquid lipsticks on the map), abruptly shuttered their website, store and social media presence without any explanation.

• What makes curly hair curly, according to science.

• Gah! The MAC Aaliyah collection arrives in June! I’ve always loved her music, but I wonder why nobody ever talks about her secret marriage to R. Kelly (she was under the age of consent, from what I can recall).

  Anyway, it’s supposed to have ’90s glam vibes, so I’m wondering if there will be any unblended dark lip liner involved.

• Lots of scent stories this week for some reason, including this one about why some people gravitate toward body products and perfumes that smell like cupcakes, ice cream, cookies, chocolate, vanilla, caramel… OK, now I’m really hungry. The article also discusses Jessica Simpson’s defunct beauty line, Dessert.

  I love dessert. I’m physically incapable of saying no if you put a strawberry cheesecake in front of me, but I’ve sniffed a few dessert-themed products at Sephora that made me want to gag. Oh, man.

• In case you were wondering, why yes! — each bottle of Chanel No. 5 contains a REDONKULOUS amount of jasmine and ? rose.

• Here’s something I’d never thought I’d see in print: Jaguars in the wild go bat-sh*t crazy for Calvin Klein’s Obsession for Men perfume.

  SAY WHAT?

OK, now I have to go run some errands in the rain. Here’s to hoping my mascara doesn’t run. Wish me luck!

Have a great day, babe. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Where your black stretchy pants at?! BECAUSE I GOT A GO-TO BROWNIE RECIPE, AND NOW YOU GET TO HAVE IT TOO (gotta sing that last sentence out loud because these are that good, if I do say so myself).

I dedicate this pan of brownies, or as they would say on The Great British Baking Show, this “tray bake,” to my high-waisted black Zellas, which are a touch too snug and borderline indecent at the moment.

I also dedicate them to my people, a.k.a. chocoholics everywhere. Oh, you know who you are. You read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when you were a kid, and when Augustus Gloop fell into the chocolate river, you secretly wished that would happen to you someday!

[Continue reading…]