Face of the Day (FOTD)

A MAC Smokeluxe Veluxe Pearlfusion Palette Face of the Day

June 19th, 2013 by Karen 17 Comments

Every weekday at 5 p.m. on the dot, the children in my neighborhood leave their homes and start yelling like banshees in the street.

I’ve tried to figure out why they do it, and what they’re yelling about, but as far as I can tell, there’s no rhyme or reason.

This really has nothing to do with my makeup today (I’m wearing the new MAC Smokeluxe Veluxe Pearlfusion). It’s just that I can hear the kids outside as I type this, and I want to open my office window and yell back at them, “JUST WAIT UNTIL YOUR 30s!! THEN YOU’LL ALL HAVE SOMETHING TO SCREAM ABOUT!!! GAHHHHH!” 🙂

Oh, but the 5 p.m. outburst is nothing compared to the ice cream truck ruckus. That’s when all hell breaks loose, and I’m usually one of the kids screaming. “ICE CREAM! YAY, IT’S THE ICE CREAM TRUCK!!!”

Haha! Okay, I’m putting away the all-caps and exclamation marks (for a minute).

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A DMV FOTD, and the Kindness of Strangers

April 25th, 2013 by Karen 34 Comments

“Aww, you’re not smiling in this pic. Get back there and take it again.”
— DMV Picture Lady

Nope, I wasn’t smiling. I was at the DMV this afternoon for what felt like ages, breathing in the scent of humanity — which, by the way, smelled like a mix of cigarettes, man funk, greasy roots and barbeque potato chips — and listening to teenagers fight with their mothers (was I ever that bratty? I’m pretty sure I was, sigh).

I was fussy because, you know, the DMV, and because I ended up not having enough time to put on false lashes before going (boo!).

Eyes: MAC Soft Ochre Paint Pot (lids), NARS Cyprus Eyeshadow (lids), NARS Galapagos Eyeshadow (outer third and lower lash line), MAC Bare Minimum Eye Shadow (brow bone), Dior Diorshow Artpen Liquid Liner (upper lash line), Bobbi Brown Jet Liner (waterlines), Chanel Le Volume de Chanel Mascara in Prune (upper and lower lashes)

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Makeup Breakdown: The Better Than False Lashes Look From Too Faced Cosmetics

March 27th, 2013 by Karen 36 Comments

A Too Faced Cosmetics Makeup Breakdown — My new fave makeup look…

Hello and welcome to the hump! I’ve been awake since the crack of dawn because your nephew has figured out a new way to annoy me.

A good 30 minutes before my alarm’s supposed to go off, he claws at the side of the mattress so that I’ll wake up and feed him the gravy he so richly deserves.

tabs-feel-my-wrath — Feel my wrath, woman

Tabs isn’t exactly a kitty rocket scientist, but when it comes to food, the gears in his tiny brain churn just enough for him to put two and two together. Ah, the joys of pet assisting a plus-size diva super star…

Needless to say, I’m feeling like I need an extra jump start to go along with the coffee this morning, so I’m thinking about re-creating the same look I wore in the Too Faced Better Than False Lashes post from the beginning of the week. I feel extra sassy when I’ve got this makeup on, and it’s my new favorite look. 🙂

I guess you must like it too, because I’ve gotten a lot of requests for a step-by-step breakdown. So here it is!

Since it was a post for Better Than False Lashes (by the way, have you entered the giveaway yet?), I’m wearing mostly Too Faced makeup.

Also, today’s the last day of the Better Than False Lashes giveaway, so if you haven’t already entered, head on over right away! You don’t want to miss out.

Enjoy the rest of your Wednesday, and I’ll talk to you soon.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. What makeup are you wearing today? Tell me about your look in the comments.

A Bright, Glowing Face of the Day With the New Too Faced Summer Eyes Summer Sexy Shadow Collection

March 7th, 2013 by Karen 35 Comments

Too Faced Summer Eyes Summer Sexy Shadow Collection 1 — Too Faced Summer Eyes Summer Sexy Shadow Collection

Dear Insomnia,

I think we need a break… Our relationship isn’t working. I’m just not that into you.

Love,
MBB

My mom always says to look on the bright side, so looking at things that way, the fact that I couldn’t fall asleep last night was a good thing, because it allowed me to finally watch the new episode of Southland (one of the best shows on TV!!).

While watching it I realized that 1) if I ever meet Ben Mckenzie in real life, there better be a fainting couch nearby because I’d probably swoon, and 2) he’s on twitter, which gives me another place to follow him.

Another silver lining to last night’s insomnia? It gave me extra motivation to do a bright, glowing makeup look today with golds, tans and corals — some of my favorite colors these days. 🙂

Two new products play starring roles in this look — the brown, coral and gold eye shadows from the “Classic” row in the new Summer Eyes Palette from Too Faced and the coral NARS Satin Lip Pencil in Lodhi. And on my cheeks, that’s good ol’ Chanel Frivole.

By the way, if you were thinking that the Summer Eye Palette looked familiar, then good eye! The same palette was released last year but on a very small scale. Too Faced decided to re-release it this year with a new shade (Seashell, instead of last year’s Sugar Sand) to let fans who missed it get their paws on it now.

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A Beauty Breakdown for the Aerin Beauty Casis Gloss Makeup Look: Radiant Skin, Gold Cat Eyes, Peach Cheeks and Pink Lips

February 27th, 2013 by Karen 49 Comments

A Full Breakdown of the Aerin Beauty Casis Gloss Look — A full breakdown of yesterday’s Aerin Beauty Casis Gloss review from start to finish

Thanks for the great feedback on yesterday’s Aerin Beauty Casis Gloss review, my friend. 🙂

There were quite a few requests in the comments for a full breakdown of the look, so here it is!

I always enjoy switching things up, so for this look, I used products I already had in my makeup bag, but in a slightly different way.

The tweaks? I wore a full-coverage foundation all over my face (not just on my chin, which is what I usually do), used two face primers (a trick I recently learned from a Sephora artist) and added some highlighting and contouring.

Before we jump in, let me just say how this was kind of a long process. There was a lot of layering, blending and buffing from start to finish. Wish I could say that I whipped this out in five minutes, but it took more like 45, LOL!

Not the quickest makeup look around, I know. If I were running to TJ’s to buy Buttermilk Pancake Mix, I probably wouldn’t go there, but for pics or maybe a party, I’d do it again, assuming I had time.

Okay, here we go — all of the makeup products in order, from start to finish.

Caudalie Vinosource Moisturizing Sorbet (face)
SK-II Skin Signature Eye Cream (lids and under-eye area)
MAC Prep + Prime Natural Radiance Face Primer (forehead, cheeks, nose, chin and around my mouth)
BECCA Rejuvenating Primer (forehead, cheeks, nose, chin and around my mouth)
NARS Pro-Prime Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base (lids)

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A Valentine’s Day Look With the New NARS And God Created The Woman Palette

February 14th, 2013 by Karen 45 Comments

Oh, twist my arm, why don’t ya?!

That’s what I said to one of the Sephora gals who mentioned they were offering Valentine’s Day makeovers today. 🙂

I figured it would be a good chance to hang out, try some new products and play a little hooky. ‘Cause, ya know, I’m all about ~~playing hooky~~ multitasking.

When I sat down in the chair, Chelsea, the makeup artist who did this look (thank you, Chelsea!), asked me what I had in mind. I told her my makeup mantra (“No fear!”) and that she could do whatever she wanted, just as long as she incorporated the palette from the new NARS And God Created the Woman Set.

She used a mix of products from NARS, Too Faced, Make Up For Ever, Benefit, Kat Von D and Sephora.

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Inspired by Illamasqua: A Black and White Speckled Cat Eye Face of the Day

February 12th, 2013 by Karen 46 Comments

Oh, that trip to Sephora the other day with all the dudes milling about? I forgot to mention that I didn’t leave the store empty handed.

Nope. I walked out of there with a scribe…

Scribe? The white liquid liner from Illamasqua?

From the makers of White-Out correction fluid, LOL! No, no, but it looks a little like that, doesn’t it?

I picked it up because of that speckled cat eye look Illamasqua did for their spring 2013 Imperfection collection. Ever since I saw that promo pic, I’ve been obsessed with the idea of dotted cat eyes with black and white…

This afternoon I decided to give it a try, and the first thing I did was line my upper lash lines with MAC Blacktrack Fluidline, because I wanted something with a matte finish to contrast with the liquid liner’s shine.

Then, I did the white dots using Illamasqua Scribe, and finished with some black dots using Milani’s new Ultrafine Liquid Eye Liner in Black Vinyl.

Give it a try! — and if you do, um, save your mascara for the very last step. I made the mistake of doing my dots last and ended up with white liner all over my mascara…

Yup, hot mess.

I was already wearing two coats of Chanel Le Volume and didn’t want to make matters worse, so to clean up the white on my lashes, I painted over it with the black Milani liquid liner I used for the dots (Black Vinyl).
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A Face of the Day With the New Benefit World Famous Neutrals Most Glamorous Nudes Ever Kit

November 30th, 2012 by Karen 33 Comments

This is the face you make when your parents try to FaceTime you from across the Pacific Ocean for the very first time, LOL!

Both my mom and dad are retired, in their mid-60s and not the most technologically savvy people. Example: Even though I’ve explained it to them a bunch of times over the last six years, they still don’t understand what a blog is (“Why do you post so many pictures of makeup and Tabs on the internet?”).

But bless their hearts for trying and for keeping an open mind to new gadgets and gizmos.

They’re on Oahu right now, and it’s been a couple days since I’ve seen them, so they FaceTime’d me (is that even a verb?) this morning to say hello and to show me the ocean. How sweet!

Because they’re my parents, I spent 10 minutes looking at my dad’s left ear before they figured out how to hold the iPhone. When they finally worked it out, my mom grabbed the phone to chat…

ME: “Hi, Mom. Whatcha up to?”

MOM: “Oh, I went to a country line dancing class this morning. It was a lot of fun. Dad says he went to the gym to walk on the treadmill, but I think he went to the buffet instead. You know. Retired people stuff.”

ME: “That’s cool.”

MOM: “Where’s my tabby?”

ME: “He’s sleeping at the top of his cat tower. I’d wake him, but I’m not in the mood to get scratched.”

MOM: “You know, if I had a grandchild, I’d take her on vacation with us.”

ME: “You know, you already have a grand-cat.”

MOM: “I know! But I can’t take Tabs with me to Hawaii. If I had a granddaughter, I could bring her to the pool, the beach and all that fun stuff.”

ME: “Are you asking for a grandchild so you can have something to do on vacation?”