Karen

Why You Should Never Skip Eyeshadow Primer When Doing Smoky Eyes (Quick Tip)

September 3rd, 2015 by Karen 12 Comments

Of course you can skip wearing eyeshadow primer when you’re doing smoky eyes, and if you do, the world as we know it will not fall apart.

EVERYTHING WILL BE OK, PEOPLE!

But I do think that primer is usually a good idea, especially when doing smoky eyes, because primer makes your lids smoother, which, in turn, makes your eyeshadow less patchy. Primer also extends the wear time of your eye makeup. Both are good things!

Since smoky eyes usually involve a lot of layering and blending — you do a little layering, then a bit of blending, more layering, more blending — and they’re a big part of the fun, you don’t want to be working *too* hard, you know? And that’s another way in which wearing primer can help, because it makes your life easier. By enriching the color of the eyeshadows you apply on top of it, primer makes those shadows more vibrant and more intense, which in turn equals less layering!

So, on top of all the other good things primer does, it also makes smoky eyes, as well as many other eye looks, easier and faster. That way you get to spend less time on your makeup, and more time harassing your cat. 🙂

Nowadays, there are many different kinds of eyeshadow primers out there and different ways to use non-primer products as improv primers. Classic eye primers that are dedicated to priming your lids are available from most of the big brands, and my favorite one for the past few years has been NARS Pro-Prime Smudge-Proof. I think it’s seriously the best one out there now, hands down, and I’ve yet to find one better, particularly for smoky eyes.

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Which of Your Features Do You Regularly Try to Emphasize, Enhance or Otherwise Alter the Appearance of With Makeup, and in What Way?

September 3rd, 2015 by Karen 23 Comments

I have a few things. The first one is my right eyebrow. It kinda stops halfway, so I have to — well, I fill in both of my brows, but my right one is shorter than my left, so I use brow pencils or other sorts of brow fillers to make it look longer.

So that’s one.

Oh, and my left brow is also thinner than my right, so I try to fatten that one up.

Another thing that I like to do is play up my eyes. I have really big eyes, but my crease isn’t very deep. You could call it a “hooded eye,” which is not my favorite term, because I think it makes some people feel bad, but let’s not even go there.

My crease isn’t very deep, so I like to create the illusion of a deeper-set eye with matte shadows, usually matte browns in the crease. Normally cool matte browns — those are my favorites — but I wear warm matte browns too. Matte browns all the way!

Oh! My nose. So, I have a little button nose, which El Hub says is adorable, but in pictures I like for it to look a little bit more, I guess, more — what’s the word? — sharp? So I usually take bronzer, and I just kind of shade the sides so it looks a bit sharper.

I don’t have any issues with my nose. I love my nose. It’s just that in pictures, and I don’t always do this, but in pictures, I do feel like when I shade the sides of my nose, my face looks a little more symmetrical.

One last thing: symmetry. See…and the only reason I notice these things is because I’ve taken pictures of myself over and over for eight years, but the left side of my lips is slightly thinner than the right, so I slightly overdraw that side in order to match with my right.

I mean, this is all just face paint, and it’s unnecessary. I don’t ever want to feel bad about myself without makeup, and I don’t want any other person to feel bad. I think that if you have the ability to sort of play and experiment and do what you want with your makeup, that’s a good thing for your self-esteem. At the same time, I’m perfectly happy with a bare face.

Just remember that you’re beautiful the way you are. I know that sounds cheesy, but it’s true.

Which of your features do you regularly try to emphasize, enhance or otherwise alter the appearance of with makeup, and in what way?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

You Go, Girl! Agata’s Cocktail Party Makeup in Action

September 3rd, 2015 by Karen 24 Comments

The lovely Agata of Her and Makeup (hey, girl!) sent these pics of her gorgeous makeup look yesterday. Doesn’t she look ready to par-tay!? She used the cocktail look tutorial from a few days ago as inspiration and tried the look first with a nude lip, and then with a bold.

I think both look beautiful, and a girl’s gotta have options (I’m gonna try that bold pink lip next time I do this look!). 🙂

I just wish we lived closer so we could actually go to a real life cocktail party. Tabs would also be invited, of course. 🙂

If you decide to give the cocktail party tutorial a try, send me a pic of your look, or tag me on Instagram @karenmbb. I would love to see what you do with it.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick: New Shades!

September 2nd, 2015 by Karen 11 Comments

urban decay lipstick online exclusives — From the left: Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick in Sheer Beso, Sheer Bittersweet, Gash, Protest, Speedball and Strip ($22 each, available now exclusively on urbandecay.com)

The Urban Decay Naked palettes, as much as I love ’em, are total attention hogs, aren’t they? Between them and all that neutral eyeshadow action, and Urban Decay’s famous (infamous?) bright eyeshadow palettes, there isn’t much room left in the spotlight for other great products, like UD’s awesome Revolution Lipsticks.

And that’s a shame because the Revolutions are some of my favorite pieces in the entire line. I mean, where do I start?? The creaminess, the moisture, or how they hug your lips like they’re all up on ’em doing the nasty on the dance floor?

There’s so much to take in, and so much to love… 🙂 When you’re ready, click “Play” on the video.

urban decay lipsticks — 1) Urban Decay Sheer Revolution Lipstick in Beso, 2) Sheer Revolution Lipstick in Bittersweet, 3) Revolution Lipstick in Speedball, 4) Revolution Lipstick in Protest, 5) Revolution Lipstick in Strip, 6) Revolution Lipstick in Gash

As of right meow there are eight new shades of $22 Revolution Lipstick available exclusively on their website. Some are bright, like bad-@ss purple Speedball (Of course there’s a purple; it’s UD! That’s they’re signature color.), and some other interesting shades, too, like brownish mauve Strip, a nod to the ’90s — seriously, all you’d need is super skinny brows and a black velvet choker, and you’d look like you just stepped out of a hot tub time machine circa 1995!

I talk about six of the new shades in this video.
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5 Things I’ve Been Loving Lately

September 2nd, 2015 by Karen 15 Comments

1. Pears

Mmm… Sweet green, juicy pears. I love them so much right meow! I got a huge bag of organic pears at Trader Joe’s last Sunday, and most of them have already managed to find their way into my tum. 🙂 I might be on the verge of a full-on pear obsession.

I get that way sometimes about certain foods, where I ravenously crave them every day, over and over for weeks or months, and it’s starting to happen with pears.

I still haven’t succumbed to the temptation to “borrow” any from the huge pear tree I pass every day on my walk, but today may be the day… We’ll know by around 7 o’clock tonight.

2. Tocca scents

I keep a bunch of perfumes on this cake stand display on top of my dresser, but the only one I’ve been wearing lately is Byredo Gypsy Water, and I’ve been wearing it for months.

Hmm… This might be a good time to try a different scent every day with a scent of the day series on Instagram! That might be fun.

In the process of sniffing some of these today I discovered that a couple of them had gone sour. 🙁 The ancient bottle of Estée Lauder Private Collection perfume I’ve had forever smelled like moonshine, OMG!

It broke my heart to ditch it because it was a gift, but in the process of test sniffing these, I rediscovered some old faves, like, basically, EVERYTHING from Tocca.

Why did I ever stop wearing Tocca?? Their scents, while delicate, still have such presence, and whenever I wear one I just feel…chipper and glad. And, hello! — they last all day long too.

Today I’m wearing Violette, which I really like (but I like Bianca and Graciella even more).

3. Aveda Clove Color Conditioner

I have caramel highlights in my hair from about the mid-shaft to the ends, and I’ve been using and LOVING this Aveda Clove Color Conditioner ($21) to keep ’em looking vibrant and fresh.

All I do is wash my hair, then use Clove instead of my regular conditioner, and I leave it in for a few minutes before rinsing it out. I think it makes my highlights much richer (Clove in place of my regular conditioner once a week is enough to keep the highlights poppin’), and it has a fresh, very Aveda-esque herbal scent that I like. The only thing is…it’s kind of pain to keep the shower stall clean when you use it because it’s pigmented, so it’ll leave a stain in the tub if you’re not careful.

That’s why I bring a scrub brush with me into the shower, and after I rinse my hair, I’ll quickly scrub the shower walls to remove any spots or smears.
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What Were Five Fabulous Products (Makeup, Beauty, Fragrance, Fashion, Etc.) When You Were in High School?

September 2nd, 2015 by Karen 43 Comments

With my friend Jen at my high school graduation in 1993

What were five fabulous products (makeup, beauty, fragrance, fashion — you name it) when you were in high school?

OK, full disclosure — whenever I think of the actual year in which I graduated from high school (class of of ’93, yo!), I make a painful-looking smile with panicked eyes and just my lower teeth showing.

This emoji describes it perfectly: ?.

Because when I do the math…OMG!

High school was a lot of fun for me. I was a happy teenager (despite the occasional bout of angst), and I loved exploring, in the only ways I knew how to at the time, things like makeup, beauty, fragrance and fashion.

My parents were strict in a lot of ways, like with grades and after-school activities (I wasn’t one of those kids going to ragers at so-and-so’s house on a Friday night), but I was given free reign to express myself, and I tried a lot of different things!

Or course, I loved the trendy stuff, and a lot of the things I experimented with were the same things my friends liked, too.

There was a lot going on at the time (the early ’90s) with beauty, makeup and fashion, like…

Revlon Toast of New York Lipstick

GURL, three fourths of the flute section in band wore this color, no joke. When band practice was over and all the flutes were put away, the girls would bust out their Cornsilk compacts, and touch up their lips with Revlon Toast of New York. A deep reddish brown, it would be very relevant today because of the current ’90s revival.

I actually just checked online, and Revlon still sells it! I might have to get a tube for nostalgia’s sake.
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Urban Decay Holiday 2015 First Impressions

September 1st, 2015 by Karen 23 Comments

I was so confused today because I thought this was Urban Decay’s fall collection, and not the holiday collection, which is what it is.

I know that sounds really dumb…but in my defense, it’s 80 degrees outside! I’m wearing shorts and a tank top. I guess my mind just couldn’t make the leap to snowmen, Christmas trees and wearing mittens.

Heck, I don’t even have shoes on!

Be that as it may, it is holiday time in Urban Decay Land (ho-ho-ho!), so let’s don our mittens, our earmuffs and our J. Lo “Jenny from the Block” coat, and take a look. 🙂

urban decay vice4 — Urban Decay Vice4 ($60)

There are a couple of palettes in the release, some new liners (which I’m not crazy about, but I’ll get into that in the video) and a highlighter.

I have no idea how any of it fits with the holidays because, you know, there’s a lot of black in it and references to oil slicks, and nothing that seems particularly holiday-esque, but we’re just gonna go with it. 🙂
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CONCEALER TIP: Put a Little On, Take a Little Off, Repeat

September 1st, 2015 by Karen 19 Comments

NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer Pictures — My current concealer love, NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer

Guess who found a college graduation picture of herself at her parents’ house last weekend from 1998 (!).

OK, there’s sooooo much to talk about here, between the hand on the hip pose (why?), to the wanna-be Rachel haircut, to the brows (OMG, I just can’t!) and the lip, around which, if you look closely, you’ll see a carefully unblended darker lip liner (believe it or not, that was totally on purpose).

But I’d really like to direct your attention to the under-eye situation, namely 1) the lack of dark circles, and 2) the lack of concealer.

I WAS LIKE WEARING ABSOLUTELY NO CONCEALER.

I mean, it blows my mind! Seriously, though, you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.

Fast-forward to today, and you’d literally have to pry the concealer out of my T. rex claws. Ain’t nobody taking away my concealer without a fight, but getting full coverage that doesn’t look heavy is a pain. All I want is to cover my dark circles without it looking like I’m wearing a 10-layer cake.
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