Just For Fun

So…what is the Monday Poll?

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 11 (!) 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.

1. What’s something that always makes you emo?

Honestly, my hormones. I blame them for everything. Just the other day… By the way, I’m kind of swelling with them right now. The other day I saw a lady with two babies — newborn twin girls — at HomeGoods, and I could feel the tears welling in my eyeballs. I was standing there with a lemon-printed Ralph Lauren tablecloth about to have a breakdown in the kitchen section.

Hormones.

And just generally speaking, and this is gonna sound weird, but I can’t watch apocalyptic stories, situations, movies and TV shows anymore… I hope it’s temporary, but I get too emotional, which is why you haven’t heard me talk about The Walking Dead for a hot second.

2. Snow or surf?

Ideally, live someplace where you can surf every day, and then go on vacation to someplace where it snows.

I joke around that Connor’s gonna be an Olympic ? snowboarder, because I really don’t like the snow, but if she were chasing gold medal dreams, Momma would put on layers of thermals to drive little bratus to and from snowboarding lessons. 🙂

As for Tabs, he’s never seen the snow, so a move up to a snowy place like Tahoe would probably not be in the cards right now…

3. Are humans alone in the universe?

Well, I think it’s a very human thing to say that we’re the only intelligent beings out there, and part of me wants to believe that because, I mean, inevitably the aliens ? are gonna be smarter and better at everything than we are, and when they do finally touch down, if you follow any sci-fi at all, we’re all screwed. But with the vastness of the ? universe (there are literally TRILLIONS of other stars out there) and our current technology, I think we just haven’t bumped into them yet. But it’s only a matter of time.

Who knows how long it’ll be? — a hundred years, thousands of years — but we’re gonna find them, or they’re gonna find us.

4. Did you (or do you now) wear braces? If so what was it like?

I did wear braces for over half my childhood and most of my teen years, and back then they didn’t have Invisalign. You had metal in your mouth.

About that…I remember it being extremely pointy. I was constantly living with pointy things against the sides of my cheeks and my lips. Imagine having screwdrivers and washers in your mouth all the time and having to live like that 24/7.

Eventually, I got used to it, but thank gawd I wore that retainer religiously afterward and didn’t have to put the braces back in.

5. Would you be OK with a stranger clipping your toenails?

If it was a creepy Craigslist thing in an apartment building tucked away in the deepest parts of town, obviously no, but if it was at my regular nail salon with the cheerful lady who always asks about my life, then it would be fine. 🙂

This new coffee that I got at Target!

Leave it to the sweet-toothed sassypants (aka THIS GIRL RIGHT HURR) to grab the sweetest sounding coffee drink on the shelf. I couldn’t pass this one up — Vanilla Bean Crème Brulée Light Roast Coffee by Archer Farms. The package says it has notes of vanilla and burnt sugar, and so I was, like, “Yup! That’s going in the cart!” If there was such thing as brownie coffee, or cupcake coffee, or birthday cake coffee, I’d be all over those, too. Give me sweet any old day of the week… Although, I do love a combination of sweet and salty, too, mostly because the salty makes the sweet tastes even more sweet. I started drinking this over the weekend and I love it. It’s sweet but not sugary sweet. You get the notes, like the essence of it, but it’s not like your tastebuds are assaulted by waves of crème brulée. I like it a lot.

I love trying new coffees, don’t you? Or are you more of a stick-to-one-coffee kinda lady?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Here are the questions to copy and paste with your answers in a comment:

1. What’s something that always makes you emo?
2. Snow or surf?
3. Are humans alone in the universe?
4. Did you (or do you now) wear braces? If so what was it like?
5. Would you be OK with a stranger clipping your toenails?

#notetoself Pay closer attention to the letter next to the shoe size when you’re ordering shoes online. Because it means something.

DUH, KAREN!

I decided to treat myself to new running shoes as a reward for writing in The Five-Minute Journal for two weeks straight.

(Well…I needed the shoes anyway, but this was a good excuse!)

So I ordered these cute Brooks Ravenna 9s from Amazon, thinking I’d get them in time to break in on my Saturday morning run, but alas…they aren’t on my feet.

Only as I was tearing into the box did I see that it was marked “WIDE” and “7.5 D.”

Apparently, the “D” means wide, for people with wider feet, which I didn’t realize when I put them in my cart.

I always get regular width shoes, which are sometimes marked as, but it’s usually just implied, width “B,” so back these go.

I did briefly consider keeping them anyway, because I was SO looking forward into running in them today, but better safe than sorry. These cuties are going back, and I’m going to re-order them in regular width.

I’m really particular about how my running shoes fit. No, seriously, if there’s even one grain of sand all up in there, I’m completely non-functional! I’m that nightmare person who will stop every five steps when I feel anything off with my shoe situation.

So, yeah, pay attention to that little letter when you’re ordering shoes.

That’s my tip for the day!

In other news…boy, oh boy, this felt like a long week to me. I am SO happy today is Saturday. I’m just settling in with the new Entertainment Weekly and my first cup of coffee, ah… 🙂 While I skim through this, here are some stories that caught my eye this week.

• Do you love Chanel? And video games? Do you live around Toronto? If you answered yes to these questions, you totally need to do those of us who don’t live anywhere near Toronto a solid and play these Chanel video games like right now.

  I MEAN, WHAT THE WHAT?! Um…can you imagine a Chanel version of Super Mario Bros? That would be so next level!

• These color-shifting pigments look like rainbows on skin. They’re made by an indie line called Dawn Eyes Cosmetics, which probably means that one of the big brands will copy the idea in the not-too-distant future, le sigh.

• What one woman learned from her lobbying for the Personal Care Products Safety Act (PCPSA) in Washington.

• Here’s how nail polish ? is made.

• This beauty editor bride prepped for her wedding by employing a beauty regimen that started six months before the big day. It started with monthly doses of “baby Botox,” a micro-droplet technique used on the brows and forehead to smooth fine lines, and a series of laser treatments for discoloration, sun damage and scarring.

  Any cysts from acne were immediately injected with cortisone at the dermatologist’s office, so the breakout would have time to heal and not leave a scar.

  That’s a lot to take in! Basically, my wedding prep was way less intense. I got a massage and plucked my brows the day before, and I also hired a makeup artist to help me get ready for the ceremony on the actual day.

• Foundations and concealers to try if your skin is breaking out.

• “Boy beat” has been making the rounds on Instagram as of late, but it means different things to different peeps. Sir John (my makeup hero) says “it’s an androgynous way to look at makeup being masculine and feminine at the same time, adding a bit more structure than you would have naturally.”

• This artist does cute illustrations of popular palettes and makeup collections.

• The best, coolest makeup tutorial I’ve seen in a really long time involves blue under-eye concealer, glitter and a six-year-old girl who happens to be Pink’s daughter.

• Why those oddly satisfying videos of frosted cakes and mashed lipstick tubes are…so oddly satisfying (according to science).

• In case you were wondering if your hair mousse or nail polish remover will catch on fire, this dude (who could possibly be a pyromaniac) has the answers.

And now, how to paint a realistic cat…

3D painting of Yves ? . Sound on for purrs ? . Thanks @choij_leo for this hilarious idea! . #9gagfunoff #weeklyfluff #buzzfeedanimals #cat #yvesthecat

A post shared by Yves The Cat (@yves_the_cat) on Mar 22, 2018 at 7:01am PDT

Have a great weekend, babe. Talk to you very soon. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

1. Zebra Sarasa 0.7 Gel Pens

I stole a couple of these ?️ off El Hub’s desk. Now I’m ? obsessed. The ink is darker than dark, and they absolutely will not skip, ever — to paraphrase Kyle Reese in The Terminator.

The ink also dries quickly, so you don’t get ink on your palm or your fingers while you’re writing (I hate that). Here’s a box of 12 for $13 on Amazon.

2. MAC Face & Body

Every once in a while I whip out this classic, which you can build from sheer to medium coverage, and fall in love with it again. I keep coming back to it over and over, year after year. It looks like skin, doesn’t feel heavy, and it doesn’t budge once it’s on.

I hadn’t used it for a year (no good reason, really) but grabbed it on a whim last Saturday before brunch at Wishbone. I wore it with MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural Powder, and I liked it so much that I’ve been wearing it every day this week.

3. Breaks

This is a “Duh, Karen!” kind of thing, but it’s so damn annoying how I forget the most painfully obvious life lessons and always have to re-learn things I should already know. (!)

You know this because I’ve said it about a million times, but I’m bad about building breaks into my workday.

There, I said it. Again. I’m the type of person who, if I’m doing something and I get on a roll, will do it for hours until I burn myself out.

This is a bad thing.

But when I take breaks throughout my day (please, Karen, remember this time!), even when I don’t feel like I need them, I’m much happier overall.

When I have a long stretch of time, like when the baby’s napping or when my parents are watching her, and I work for 50 minutes, or some other good chunk of time that’s less than an hour, then take a 10-minute break, I’m less frazzled and more productive.

And I’m not allowed to do anything productive during these breaks. That’s crucial. I can go for a walk in my front yard, or dance around for a song or two, or drink some water, or have a cup of tea, but I don’t allow myself to “think.”

Yay for breaks!

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Obvs, this may or may not apply to you, depending on your ears, but if yours are pierced, how old were you when it happened?

Mine were pierced the day I was born. Yup, at the actual hospital, because it’s a cultural thing for a lot of Filipinos, and I was born out there. I joke with my mom about it all the time and say that she mainly wanted a baby girl so she could put jewelry on a her, a.k.a. me. 🙂 And my mom LOVES jewelry. I think she’s a little disappointed that I’m not as crazy about it as she is.

So, yeah, I was less than 24 hours old.

Connor Claire doesn’t have hers pierced yet, though. El Hub and I had to compromise on that. He would rather wait until she has more an opinion on it herself, just in case she wants to be a tomboy (hey, I had my ears pierced, and I was still a tomboy, but I get it), and I’m fine with that for now… But I’ll probably take her to get hers pierced one of these days in the next two years. I dunno… We’ll play it by ear (haha). 🙂

Speaking of this, where does one get baby ears pierced anyway? I mean, I think I could take her to someplace at the mall, like Claire’s, but I gotta admit I’m a little nervous about letting a 15-year-old near Connor’s head with something sharp.

I guess I’m a worrywart that way!

So how old were you when you got your ears pierced?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

If you’re heading out yonder way, cruisin’ out to Napa, you might want to take a quick detour to Petaluma, and I say “might” trying to be all casual, LOL. What I mean to say is that you better take a detour to Petaluma. You have to! — because that’s where I had the best damn latte of my life. And I’ve had a lot of lattes!

This one will go down in the book of my life as “Karen’s favorite latte of all time.”

It even has a cool name: The Beekeeper Lavender Honey Latte. And I had it at Wishbone in Petaluma.

Actually, everything there was delish. The latte was just the rich and creamy icing on the cake.

I went on Saturday with El Hub and Connor Claire (Tabs had to work) for brunch, which they serve (along with regular breakfast, and I think they’re also open for lunch and have a happy hour on Thursday through Sunday) seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. But from what I’ve heard, brunch is mostly what they’re all about.

I’m already plotting my return…

When you walk in, you enter a magical hipster fairy tale land, and for a second you think you’re about to dine at a good witch’s house. There are oak tree branches hanging from the ceiling, woven baskets and homey cross-stitch pictures on the walls, colorful World Market mugs on the tables, and plants and flowers all over the place, as if the proprietors took a walk through an enchanted forest and used what they found to decorate the place.

But it doesn’t just look cool. The food is also pretty great. And colorful. A nearby table ordered Bloody Mary’s that came out with skewered fruit and veggie and edible flower kebobs (I had major drink envy). People watching while you eat there is a visual feast.

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If there’s anything I’ve learned about my skin over the past few years it’s that…it’s keeping me on my toes. It never stays the same way for long, but I’ve definitely seem some general changes, for sure, with the biggest being the prominence of my “experience lines.” They’re much more prominent under my eyes, especially when I smile, which is why I’ve taken to wearing less concealer and color corrector there. Oh, and less powder too.

It’s just that if I pile that stuff on like I used to, everything looks heavy and…not super cute.

I’ve also noticed that my skin is getting drier and drier. I do still have my oily spots, like in the center of my forehead and around my nose, but my cheeks and my neck (especially) are getting drier as the years pass, and when I ignore it, it gets borderline painful.

Another thing — oh, my gosh! — pigmentation. Where do I even start with this? If I don’t stay on top of it with an acid toner or a serum to keep the pigmentation in check, I’ll get these uneven patches on my cheeks, and those patches, they’re aggressive, man.

Oh, and I don’t know if this counts, but I’ve definitely noticed, particularly over the past year, that the skin on my eyelids… I guess it isn’t as firm as it used to be? My eyes are getting more hooded seemingly every day.

So, what are the biggest changes you’ve seen in your skin over the past few years? Let’s talk about it in the comments.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen