Karen

The Urban Decay X Kristen Leanne Collection Daydream Palette

January 17th, 2018 by Karen 12 Comments

urban decay kristen leanne daydream 3 — I vote cake frosting.

So what do you think that is there on the front of the $26 Urban Decay X Kristen Leanne Daydream Palette?

Is it…

A. Cake frosting (*nods enthusiastically*)
B. Body lotion
C. Shaving cream

Because it looks like all three to me.

But if I can only choose one (Monday Poll flashbacks), I’ll go with cake frosting because — hi! — I’ve been watching The Great British Baking Show for five days straight.

Incidentally, that show is like chicken soup (with baked homemade crackers) for the soul. It’s almost a cure for the common cold, but I digress…

urban decay kristen leanne daydream — Got a Daydream on my lids and lash lines…

Isn’t this palette cute? When you open it up, there are five warm neutral powder eyeshadows inside.

Daydream is part of the new Urban Decay X Kristen Leanne collection, which is available now. It’s a collab between UD and spunky, cruelty-free makeup-loving YouTuber Kristen Leanne. In a nutshell, she has colorful hair, she loves rainbow looks, she’s got tattoos, and she owns a hair color company called Arctic Fox that’s all about mermaid and unicorn colors…so she’s all about color.

There are two eye palettes in the collection — a colorful one and a neutral one. The latter, of course, is the one I wanted to try first.

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10 Ways to Work MAC Fix+

January 16th, 2018 by Karen 23 Comments

There are so many ways to use Fix+ (officially, MAC Prep + Prime Fix+) beyond the standard makeup setting spray procedure.

I love Fix+ and use it daily to prep my skin, and I’m so into it that I even bring a mini bottle with me when I travel.

MAC recently added three new Fix+ “flavors”…

OK, they aren’t really flavors. Just different scents with the same Fix+ formula as the original, which is still my favorite, BTW (has a white floral/green tea scent). Now there’s also Coconut, Lavender and Rose.

Spraying Coconut ? on my face right now…

Ah… I love it.

I don’t know if you’ve ever used Fix+ before, but if you haven’t, give it a try. It’s weirdly much better than water, and it doesn’t leave splotches. You can use it as a setting spray or as a moisturizing skin prep spray to wet your skin before doing your skin care, but those aren’t even half the things it’s good for.

Here are 10 more ways to work MAC Fix+…

1. You can spray it on your hair!

Yes, that’s right. You can spray it on wet hair to loosen tight knots. Or, if you have naturally curly hair, spray it on your hair while it’s wet or dry to kick up your curls.

2. As a body moisturizer/refreshing body spray

You can also use Fix+ on your bod. Store it in the fridge, then spray it all over your arms, torso and legs for a cool, light, refreshing layer of moisture.

3. Intensify your brows

For an intense brow look, load an angled brush with your favorite brow powder, and then spray it with Fix+. Apply that directly to your brows and watch out!

4. Conversely, use Fix+ to mellow out an overly intense brow application

If you accidentally apply too much brow pencil and make your brows too dark, dampen a spoolie with Fix+, and run it through your brows to take down the intensity a few notches.

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Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll, Vol. 507

January 15th, 2018 by Karen 32 Comments

Good morning and happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day, friend! Thanks to the healing power of convalescing on the couch while watching hours upon hours of The Great British Baking Show, I feel a little better today. 🙂 I think I’m in good enough shape to ?? paint my nails, hence the rainbow ? of bottles there at the top.

I’m thinking green or yellow today…

If you’re around, this week’s Monday Poll is a lightening ⚡ round. For each question, you have two options. It’s that simple…OR IS IT? My best advice is to go with your gut. Don’t overthink it.

Have fun and I’ll see you in the comments.

1. Brushes or fingers?

Eek! I wanna say fingers, but I gotta go with brushes…

Wait — no! Fingers. I meant fingers.

WAIT! Brushes! Yeah…brushes, for sure.

2. Long or short nails?

Short.

3. Drugstore or department store?

Girl, why you make me choose??

I guess I’ll go with department store… I guess, even though I ? drugstores too.

4. Lotion or body cream?

This alligator requires gallons of body cream.

5. Wax or pluck?

Pluck.

BONUS: Spend it or save it?

My heart says spend it, but my head/wallet says save it.

Now it’s your turn! Just copy the questions below , nd paste them with your answers in the comments.

1. Brushes or fingers?
2. Long or short nails?
3. Drugstore or department store?
4. Lotion or body cream?
5. Wax or pluck?
BONUS: Spend it or save it?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Sundays With Tabs the Cat, Makeup and Beauty Blog Mascot, Vol. 484

January 14th, 2018 by Karen 5 Comments

So, today some bigwig VCs (venture cat-ipalists) visited the office because Tabs wants to expand the company and take it global. Tabs wanted to impress them and put his best paw forward, so he donned his favorite collars and struck some of his most successful power poses.

You know how it is. It’s all about making a good first impression. 🙂

The meeting went well, I think. Tabs wooed them, of course. You should have seen their furry faces when he told them about the time he performed the halftime show in the Kitten Bowl with Justin Timberlake (remember the famous cat wardrobe malfunction?).

The investors seemed impressed, so hopefully now they put in an offer. Tabs is asking for a year’s supply of gravy and a Chanel blanket in exchange for 10% of the company.

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10-Minute Work or Weekend Makeup With Red Blush, Red Lipstick and Smudgy Bronze-Black Cat Eyeliner

January 13th, 2018 by Karen 24 Comments

10 minute makeup — Today’s 10-minute makeup

A few things:

It’s Saturday morning, and I’m wearing the same pajamas I put on Thursday night.
My head feels like it’s being squished in a vice (yes, I’m still a walking germ factory).
I haven’t washed my hair in three (four?) days.

But thanks to the healing power of makeup, I can pretend I briefly look like I’m a somewhat functioning adult, LOL!

This 10-minute makeup look was 1) to help myself feel better, and 2) for Sheena (yay for the Bay, girl, woo-hoo!), who liked the NUDESTIX Intense Lip + Cheek Pencil in Purity post earlier this week but wanted to see me use a darker color from the line.

This time I used warm red Stiletto, and I used it as both a blush and a sheer lip color. And then I also did a smudgy, bronze-y black cat eye.

Everything I used is listed below, and if you have any questions, you know where to find me (hints: it involves Netflix, a laptop and my couch).

nudestix stiletto — When you’re trying to not look like you’re a walking germ factory…

One note about the skin. I used a very sheer liquid skin tint to even everything out just a touch, then boosted the coverage on my cheeks with a loose foundation. This is a very cool shortcut I like to do when I’m pressed for time/have very little patience.

Also, because I went into this look planning to only spend 10 minutes on it, and because the pencil was an opaque bright red, I opted for the sheer lip stain because I figured I’d be able to fudge the edge of the lip line (which I did).

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Antonym Cosmetics Organic Certified Highlighting Blush in Cheek Crush

January 12th, 2018 by Karen 10 Comments

antonym highlighting blush cheek crush — Grown lady disco shimmer

Whoa, disco lady! This is way shiny… Almost too shiny for me. Antonym Cosmetics Organic Certified Highlighting Blush in Cheek Crush ($42) is a two-for-one combo. You get a baked blush and a highlighter in one alluring pan, and, seeing as how it was made in Italy and all (the land where the best baked powders come to life), I hoped it would romance my cheeks…but alas, I just can’t hang with the intense shimmer and the limited pigment.

antonym highlighting blush cheek crush k — Cheek Crush on the apples of my cheeks and my upper cheekbones

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Antonym Cosmetics Certified Organic Eyeshadow Quattro in Noisette

January 11th, 2018 by Karen 15 Comments

antonym cosmetics quattro eyeshadow noisette — Living life on the edge…purr usual

For some people, living on the edge means base jumping from a skyscraper, surfing 50-foot waves, or getting hitched in Vegas to the lifeguard they just met at the hotel pool five minutes ago (granted, he was hot).

My idea of life in the fast lane is trying to use a matte eyeshadow that I’ve never used before in a 10-minute makeup look…

What can I say? I GO HARD.

Sometimes this gamble doesn’t pay off, and I end up with a choppy, patchy mess. Sometimes, however, it does, like it did with Organic Eyeshadow Quattro in Noisette ($39) by Antonym Cosmetics.

If you have lined lids and/or otherwise refuse to get drawn into eye makeup drama, I think you’re gonna love this. It’s from Antonym Cosmetics, a cruelty-free, organic line from Miami that I just started wearing and loving.

(Side note: Why aren’t more makeup peeps talking bout this line? It’s still flying under the radar for now, but they recently launched on the Sephora website (that’s how I found them). I’m convinced they’re going to blow up soon because every one of their products I’ve tried so far has been profesh-caliber — like Hourglass meets NARS.)

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Hello From Camp Sniffles

January 10th, 2018 by Karen 43 Comments

In the comments the other day, Kim and I (hi, Kim!) were talking about how in the movie The Fifth Element there’s this one scene where Milla Jovovich takes an electronic eye makeup applicator — BY CHANEL! Of all brands! — and puts it on her eyes, and with the push of a button she’s instantly outfitted in futuristic eye makeup.

I need one of those right now for, like, my entire face, because I caught another cold (!). So I want a full-face stamper with a setting to “Pep Up Sick Face.”

That would be awesome…

Poor Connor caught a cold over Christmas, gave it to me and El Hub, finally got over her cold, then picked up another cold right after New Year’s.

So it’s been cold city around here. ??

She’s starting to feel better now, but there was a trip to the doctor’s for a chest X-ray a couple days ago, a low-grade fever and two impressive Exorcist-like projectile vomiting incidents.

Hold on… I can hear her upstairs in her crib singing ? to herself.

She’s definitely feeling better. 🙂 That’s good.

Anyway, she didn’t have pneumonia, thank goodness. Just another cold.

Of course, now that she’s feeling better, I’m down for the count, right? I guess this is just an opportunity for the human employees of Tabs the Cat Industries, LLC to test our immune systems.

Thank goodness for The Great British Baking Show ??? because I’ve been marathoning it on the couch. This afternoon I learned all about Yorkshire pudding and churros. *cough* *sniffles*

Mary Berry ?‍? has been keeping me company while I down cups of honey vanilla chamomile tea ? and drink Emergen-C. Thanks, Mary! 🙂 She’s the British grandma I wish I always had, the one whose house I’d go to after school, and she’d always have tea ready, homemade biscuits (a.k.a. ? “cookies,” to those of us on this side of the pond) and tiny little cakes.

Mmm…

Hope things are going well over there. Stay healthy, please!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen