Karen

Super Blocky, Angular, Super Sharp Brows: A Do or a Don’t?

August 26th, 2015 by Karen 27 Comments

They’re everywhere on YouTube and Instagram! — crisp, blocked-out brows carved with concealer and filled in with various brow products that start at a sharp, narrow point and build out to a well-defined tail. Sometimes there’s also a steep, sharp angle in the arch.

They’re all about the drama. BIG brows that look right at home with big glam makeup like falsies, contouring, highlighting, winged liner — the whole shebang — and they’re the shizz now on social media.

I haven’t gone all the way to full-on big glam Instagram brows myself, but I’ve gotten pretty close a few times. When I’m feelin’ it, I will fill mine in and carve out the tops and bottoms with concealer, or fill the tails with a gel for definition, but I have yet to go all out, and I don’t think I will. I just don’t think it’s a look for me. Brows like that can look bangin’ and balanced on some people, but whenever I do something similar, all I can see are brows, brows, BROWS!

So I guess for me, full-throttle Instagram brows are a don’t.

What’s your stance on super blocky, angular, super sharp brows? Are you into ’em? Are they a do or a don’t?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Come With Me on My Walk!

August 26th, 2015 by Karen 25 Comments

This walk takes about an hour, and we go about three or four miles.

My favorite time to go is about an hour before the sun sets, because that’s primo critter time, also known as “the best time to spot deer,” although the only critters I saw today were a standoffish tuxedo cat and one very handsome quail.

Let’s go!

Novato is a beautiful town right next to Wine Country, and there are lots of fruit trees and interesting plants, like apples and pears and pomegranates, and sometimes they even grow right along the sidewalk.

Technically, these delicious-looking noms belong to other people, so I haven’t picked one yet…but I AM SERIOUSLY TEMPTED TO EVERY TIME.

I don’t know how much longer I can resist…

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Back to School Picture Day Makeup Tutorial

August 25th, 2015 by Karen 29 Comments

If you’re heading back to school this fall, chances are you’ll have to make some timely decisions before you start. Some will be important, like what classes you’re going to take, whether you’ll join band again (all I have to say is BAND GEEKS 4 LIFE!) or whether you can finagle a ride home from a car-owning friend because you don’t have the wherewithal to brave the school bus. (The buses at my school were exactly like Thunderdome! Freshman year in high school, a mean girl almost poured a can of soda on my hair; thankfully, my friend stopped her.)

Other decisions, like figuring out what makeup to wear on picture day, seem like small potatoes by comparison, and yeah, in the grand scheme of your entire school experience, picking a lip color (bold or neutral?) seems pretty lame, but do you really want to look back at your picture in the yearbook and cringe? GIRL, I’ve done this, and trust me, it’ll be hilarious in about 20 years, but for the timebeing, it kind of sucks.

So! Here are some things to help you take your most brilliant pic on picture day. This step-by-step tutorial will walk you through a back-to-school picture day look that everyone, even makeup beginners, can handle. When you’re done, you’ll still look like yourself, just a little more polished, and the results should look great on camera.

And even if you aren’t heading back to school this month, you can still do this look. It’s a good one for all kinds of picture occasions, like I.D. pics, or perhaps if you’re doing a headshot, or if you’re going to an event and you want to look sharp but not completely over the top.

If you’re ready, let’s start!

1. Find a window

When you’re putting on makeup for pictures, it’s really, REALLY important to have good light, and natural light, like from a large window, is fantastic for this. It’s big, bright and diffused, so find a window, and set up shop next to it (but sit in the shade, not direct sunlight).

2. Apply primer

You’ll want your skin to look smooth and your foundation to appear even, so start by applying a primer all over your face and on your lids.

If you haven’t used makeup primer before, it works a little like paint primer by filling in the tiny gaps and lines on the surface of your skin so that products layered on top of it look smooth and even.

It also has the added bonus of helping your makeup last longer, and since you’ll probably also be doing a number of other things on picture day, like picking up your schedule or getting books, you’ll want your makeup to stick around.

Don’t worry if you usually skip primer in your regular makeup routine. If you don’t want to buy one just for picture day, head to a beauty store or counter, and ask for a sample. 🙂
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MAC Brooke Candy for Fall 2015

August 25th, 2015 by Karen 15 Comments

Now, if you’re me, your first reaction to finding out about the new MAC Brooke Candy collection might have been, “Who the heck is Brooke Candy?” (I had to Google her.) I gotta hand it to MAC, because following their limited edition collaborations has been a good education in cutting-edge pop culture. My playlists are ever-expanding with new artists and performers.

I still have to listen to some of Brooke’s beats, but she seems kinda edgy…kinda raunchy, but raunchy can be hella entertaining sometimes (i.e. Lil’ Kim).

The new three-piece limited edition MAC Brooke Candy mini release arrives exclusively on the MAC website August 27, and since there are only three products, there’s not a lot to it — just two lipsticks and a liquid eye liner.

The lipsticks have an interesting formula called Amplified Cream, which is a little creamier and shinier than the regular Amplifieds, which I love, but the liquid eye liner, Boot Black, hmm… Of all the MAC liquid liner options, it’s my least favorite. Sucks that I can never get a crisp line with it, and it makes me feel like a 3-year-old trying to do liquid liner, or like liquid liner was put on this earth to torture me (“Liquid liner is your enemy, not your friend!”).

But I digress…

Let’s start the video! 🙂

mac brooke candy — MAC Brooke Candy packaging…

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How Outrageous Do People Get With Their Makeup at Your Workplace?

August 25th, 2015 by Karen 32 Comments

Luckily, the dress code here at Tabs the Cat Industries, LLC allows for a certain degree of creative flexibility (on pre-approved days, of course). My boss barely bats an eye when I show up to work wearing false lashes and a cray-cray cut crease. In fact, he’s more apt to reprimand me for not taking chances enough with my makeup looks, and I think he’s gotten tired of seeing me with neutral eyes, cheeks and lips.

Sorry, sir, but I’ve been in a makeup rut. 🙁 I’m just waiting for it to run its course. Hopefully fall inspires me to attempt some more interesting looks.

In the years prior to working for Tabs, I worked in a lot of different office environments, some with very casual dress codes and others with a more conservative corporate atmosphere.

The last one was a small literary agency where the dress code was super casual (so casual that it was nonexistent, really). My boss was kind of a hippy-dippy, very natural chick whose idea of outrageous makeup was lip balm. At that office, I was definitely the outrageous one, and I went buck wild! Sometimes I’d show up with colorful blue eyeshadow for no better reason than, “Why not? It’s Tuesday!!”
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Late Summer Sephora Haul!

August 24th, 2015 by Karen 17 Comments

My No. 1 rule when I shop at Sephora is to never, EVER walk around the store with a basket, because if I do, I’ll just keep dropping more and more things into it until eventually — whoops! — there goes all my fun money for the next few months.

I tell myself that I can only leave the store with what I can physically carry in my hands, but that doesn’t always work… You’d be amazed at how much stuff a short Filipino girl can carry, haha! 🙂

On my last trip I grabbed a few things — some re-stocks, some new things I’ve been wanting to try and at least one doodad (maybe two).

As always, my friend, thank you for watching.

Products mentioned

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

5 Magnificent Magenta Lipsticks That’ll Make You Yearn for Fall

August 24th, 2015 by Karen 34 Comments

Maybe it’s all this talk about El Niño, or maybe it’s just my burning desire to bust out the scarves, and boots, but I’m ready to say “peace out!” to bright, summery pinks and “ciao” to corals for the season. Yup, I’m starting to enter fall mode.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been reaching for darker nail polishes (I’ve got Essie’s In the Lobby on my paws today!) and transitioning to deeper lip shades, but I’m not quite ready yet for full-on fall lip colors like dark browns, wines and purples. After all, it’s still only August. 🙂

But I have been into what I like to call my summer-to-fall transition shade, the always lovely magenta.

MAGENTA! I love wearing colors in the magenta family around this time of year because they seem just as comfortable with scarves and boots as they are with daisy dukes and flip-flops.

So here are five of my current magenta lipstick faves that have been in heavy rotation lately…

1. NARS Audacious Lipstick in Janet ($32)

2. Tom Ford Lip Color in Violet Fatale ($52)

tom ford beauty violet fatale — Tom Ford Beauty Violet Fatale

tom ford beauty violet fatale swatch — Tom Ford Beauty Violet Fatale

3. Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick in Venom ($22)

Urban Decay Venom Revolution Lipstick 2 — Urban Decay Venom

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Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll, Vol. 387

August 24th, 2015 by Karen 51 Comments

You might be wondering, “So what in tarnation is this Monday Poll thing anyway!?”

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 seven 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.

A place for you that feels magical?
There’s a surf spot on Waikiki Beach near the big pink Royal Hawaiian hotel called Canoes, and it’s magical early in the morning, right at the crack of dawn.

It gets crowded later in the day because of where it is (right there on Waikiki), and it’s a popular spot for beginners…

Have I mentioned that I’m not a great surfer (I’m not about to charge any big waves or anything like that)? Because I’m not, but it’s still one of my favorite vacation activities. Right there at Canoes, right after sunrise, it’s not too crowded or busy, and you can ride these smooth, chill waves on your longboard that feel like they go on for-e-v-e-r…

I also love Hideaways Beach on Kauai. It’s secluded and kind of hard to get to (it’s at the bottom of a lush cliff with steps carved into the hillside), and because of that the beach is very peaceful and chill. It feels like time stops down there….

If you could be a celebrity’s personal assistant for a day, which celebrity would you choose?
Hmm… I’m gonna go with Pink, the singer, because in everything I’ve seen and read about her, she seems pretty nice and relatively normal. Maybe she’d even let me do some ab exercises with her, ’cause lawd knows I won’t do them on my own, LOL!

Life’s too short to…
…say “no” to everything. You have to say “yes” every once in a while, because you never know when you’ll stumble onto something new to you and absolutely extraordinary. Maybe it’ll just be a new favorite food, or maybe your life will take an amazing turn.
I own an embarrassing amount of __________.
Nude shoes.

Does one woman need 10 pairs of tan sandals? Probably not, but…

No, no buts. No one really needs 10 pairs of tan sandals, haha!

False lashes or press-on nails?
False lashes, fo’ sho’.

I think press-on nails are fun for about 30 minutes, but I just can’t function with them on my fingers! Even easy things like writing with pens and opening jars become challenging, and gurl — I don’t need any more un-necessary challenges in my life!

But a comfy pair of false lashes (shout-out to the Eylure 117s), I can wear all day.

Your turn. 🙂 Just copy and paste the following questions into a comment with your answers. I look forward to reading ’em!

1. A place for you that feels magical?
2. If you could be a celebrity’s personal assistant for a day, which celebrity would you choose?
3. Life’s too short to…
4. I own an embarrassing amount of ______.
5. False lashes or press-on nails?

Nice to see ya on this Monday, sweet pea! 🙂 Do this with me: deep breath in, deep breath out, ahh…

Refreshing, right? Sometimes you just gotta remember to breathe.

This is the first Monday in weeks in which I haven’t felt completely overwhelmed, and ya know what? It feels great! It doesn’t take much to throw me off my routine, and I’ve had quite a few appointments and little side projects lately. I’m looking forward to getting back into my familiar patterns and spending more time hanging out with you.

Hope things are chill for you this week. Sending you a warm Monday hug!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen