Just For Fun

Low-key obsessed with Lizzo at the moment…

Oh, you haven’t heard of her? Neither had I until like two days ago, and after playing her new single, Juice, over and over for two hours straight, then deep-diving through her videos on YouTube, I’m wondering why she isn’t running the free world yet a la Beyoncé. I really hope her singing career blows up this year.

Do your self-esteem a favor and press play now.

She’s like Missy Elliot meets Beyoncé meets the Shirelles meets Lil’ Kim meets Cece Peniston, all wrapped up into a single gorgeous package. I just started following her on Instagram, too. She’s talented, hilarious, fearless when it comes to fashion, and all about the boooooty.

AND DID I MENTION THAT SHE PLAYS THE CLASSICAL FLUTE?! WHILE SHE TWERKS?!

Seriously, who does this…?

A lot of her songs are about positivity and loving yourself, and her videos feature women of different shapes, sizes and colors.

I’m suddenly feeling the need to get my hair done and check my nails…

That baby in the bathtub is too cute!

I’m getting a Tweet vibe from this song (remember her?). Also, everyone looks so moisturized and fabulous!

Her older stuff is good, too.
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It may be a little too early to stake this claim, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the label “dance mom” is in my near future.

Not in the cray-cray reality TV sense, of course, LOL! I’m not about to launch sordid plots and stir up drama about costumes and choreography.

It’s just that Connor Claire started taking toddler dance lessons at a local studio last fall, and they had their winter recital on Sunday, and man! — the kid’s a total ham. She took to the stage like a duck to water.

The show had it all — a big auditorium with bright lights, loud music and an announcer with a game show voice. Since this was Coywolf’s very first time on a stage in front of lots of people, El Hub and I thought she might cry or go all “deer in the headlights,” but to our surprise, she was totally into it, and when the lights came up and the music started, she started shaking her hips like she meant business.

Even with the sparkly costumes and the lights and the stage, the program was pretty low-key, which I really liked. There were kids of all ages, shapes and sizes (even boys), and even some adults who also attend grownup dance classes. It wasn’t intensely competitive, and it seemed like everyone was having fun.

Mostly, I just want Connor to do something active that she enjoys, ya know? And I’m so happy that she appeared to like her first experience performing.

It sure went differently than my stage experiences did as a kid. Mine were piano recitals, and they were absolutely terrifying because it was just me, a big-@ss grand piano that sounded louder and scarier than the one at my house, no sheet music (we were required to memorize our pieces), and my hella grumpy piano teacher frowning in the wings. Needless to say, I did not look forward to them, and performing on stage was something merely to endure, not to enjoy.

But this dance show seemed like a lot of fun for the kids, and as long as Connor wants to keep doing them, I’ll be there with glitter and hairspray.

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So…what is the Monday Poll?

Excellent question! It isn’t, contrary to its name, an actual poll, like with little clicky buttons. It’s just a list of five more or less random questions I’ve been posting on this blog every Monday morning for the past quadrillion years (since 2007). I love reading your answers, and it helps me get my week off to a good start. ?

1. Goofy or serious?

G o o f y.

2. Hella sharp Instagram brows OR hella sharp Instagram contour? (Oh, and “neither” is not an option. You’ve gotta pick one.)

Ough… I have to go with the brows, even though I’ll look OTT, because Instagram contour on me is even more OTT. (Hint: Ever seen a real life Skeletor?)

3. Matte red lipstick or false lashes?

Wow. OK, since my lashes are thin right now, and I don’t want to risk accidentally pulling them out while taking off the falsies, I’ll pick matte the red lipstick…even though getting those edges crisp and even is a pain in the @ss.

4. What are you having for lunch today?

One of those Trader Joe’s cheese pizzas with the cauliflower crust. (They taste like real pizza, I swear!)

5. Something on your desk?

The Revlon Cream shadow palette I got at Ulta last week.

If it ain’t broke…

I sat down to put on my makeup yesterday and did a glowing bronze BECCA-inspired look for the fifth day in a row.

This got me thinking about signature looks, one of which I apparently have at the moment… Do you ever think about having a signature look, or do you have one meow? I’m all for evolving and changing (particularly this year, since one of my “themes” for 2019 is embracing change), but if I already know what works for me, why not stick to it a while? So many style icons do it, so why can’t we regular folk? Ariana Grande’s got her high pony. Anna Wintour’s been wearing that same helmet bob for years, and my patron saint of coolness, Stevie Nicks, has been rocking the whole boho-witchy thing since the dawn of time!

Do you ever think about adopting a signature look? Contrary to popular belief (a.k.a. Tabs), mine would NOT be crazy cowlicks and questionable brows. If I were to stake claim to one right now, it would be bronze and glowing a la J. Lo!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Question time! Here they are to copy/paste with your answers in a comment. Talk to you soon.

1. Goofy or serious?
2. Instagram brows OR Instagram contour (and “neither” is not an option; you’ve gotta pick one)?
3. Matte red lipstick or false lashes?
4. What are you having for lunch today?
5. Something on your desk?

Rise and shine, fellow feline friends and makeup fanatics, and happy Caturday! Have you kissed your kitty yet today?

So…yesterday afternoon I got a much-needed reminder from the universe to TAKE FREAKING BREAKS. Seriously! I put Connor down for her “nap,” a.k.a “rest time” now, because she’s at the point in her toddlerhood where she doesn’t always sleep anymore during nap time. Sometimes she just chills out in her crib looking through books or listening to music.

Anyway, I usually buzz around the house like a sprinter at nap time trying to do everything on my to-do list before she gets up, and even if I’m beyond tired, I power my way through it because it’s the biggest block of time I have.

But yesterday my body and mind desperately needed downtime, and for once I actually listened. Instead of tackling the tasks on my nap time to-do list, I put on my headphones, cranked up the music, took out some makeup and played.

And you know what? It was exactly what I needed. I felt SO much better after just doing my own thang for 30 minutes.

I’m doing the bronzy thing again with the #BECCABFFS collection. That’s the Malika palette on my cheeks and lids and the nude lipstick in Yours Truly.

So, a gentle reminder from me to you in case you need it: TAKE THOSE BREAKS, GIRL. They’re necessary. As a matter of fact, I think it would be a good idea to take a break right meow with this week’s reading list… ?

• Now I love Frank Ocean even more than I did before because he breaks down his skin care in this GQ interview, and it involves night cream and retinol.
• In this interview with Denise Cartwright, the founder of skincare line Crude, Denise dishes about the sexist history of soap and describes how she built her business starting with just $30.
• This beauty writer tried everything in the Trader Joe’s beauty section, and these are the nine things she loved the most.
• Interesting —> The skin care products top plastic surgeons use in their everyday beauty routine.
• How to layer your acids in your skin care routine.
• Looking to change the billion-dollar skin bleaching industry, Rwanda is cracking down and enforcing a ban on bleaching agents, especially hydroquinone and mercury.
• This baby’s voluminous hair landed her a gig with Pantene.
• Why bobs have been a big deal for almost a century.
• I love this so much! The interior of this house was inspired by a Revlon Lipstick shade called “Parisian Pink.”
• Smart toilets for cats: Could this be the future of kitty litter?
• Speaking of felines and tech, peep this $1,800 treadmill made for kitties.

La-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la-la

Does every mall in America look exactly like this?

Someone please make me this.

Ride it, my pony.

I’m going to try to spend the rest of this weekend relaxing and avoiding that R.Kelly documentary on Lifetime everyone’s been talking about… OMG. What are you up to?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Oh, babes… You know, you’d think that being an “adult” (“air quotes”) would make things like going to the dentist easier, but it most certainly does not. At least for me.

Sigh…

I went the other day, and I’m not kidding, even though I spent a good three days mentally preparing myself for the two fillings beforehand, I still left the dentist’s office feeling like I had just run back-to-back marathons.

(Let’s just say that there were a few shots involved, moments of sheer panic and lots of clenched muscles.)

By the end of it — an event I’ll characterize as an ordeal — I felt so emotionally drained that I needed to do something to keep it together afterwards, and that something was finding a safe place to LOOK AT MAKEUP. Sooo I made an emotional emergency pit stop to Ulta, which is conveniently located just three minutes away from my dentist’s office in Petaluma.

Side note: I found a new dentist! Now I go to Permalla Dental Care in Petaluma, and Dr. Permalla is fantastic. She’s kind, caring and has endless amounts of patience…even with me, the world’s most anxious and difficult crybaby, HA HA! She uses cool dental techniques to make you feel as comfortable as possible, and out-of-the-box tools like NuCalm to decrease stress. The entire office has a good vibe, and — bonus (well, I think it’s a bonus) — everyone who works there is a woman! And they’re all super nice.

Right before I left the dentist’s office, the doc told me not to eat anything chewy or crunchy for the next few hours because of the numbness, and she didn’t want me to bite my tongue, so of course, me being me, I interpreted this as “I should eat a pint of häagen-Dazs Dulce de Leche ice cream,” which I totally did after I got home from Ulta!

While I was there at Ulta, I figured I should look for this $8 dual-ended Clinique mascara (there’s primer on one side and mascara on the other), which my friend Chelsea recommended in the comments, but it was out of stock in the store AND online (BUMMER), so instead, I restocked my favorite conditioning wash by Joico and got a cream shadow palette from Revlon.

Oh, and you know how there’s always that one person looking through every freakin’ bin in the area near the cash wrap where they have all the little extras? THAT WOULD BE ME.

I found a few interesting things there this time, like this big-@ss bag of pink glitter! The glitter pieces were MASSIVE, and dude — if I’d had this during my clubbing days in the ’90s, I probably would’ve just poured the whole thing all over my body from head to toe. Dang, that’s some serious glitter.

I also saw a product for boob sweat (it’s a thing?!), and my old fave, the UD Naked Basics palette, which I’ve always thought was vastly underrated.

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