Just For Fun

I know that you’re not “technically” supposed to curl your lashes after you apply your mascara, and that almost everyone pooh-poohs the idea…but I do it all the time. 🙂 And I swear that it totally works! You just have to be exceedingly careful.

I do it because my lashes are like tiny twigs, straight and thin, and they struggle to hold a curl when I use a lash curler, especially when I couple that with a heavy-duty mascara formula, or one that just doesn’t have firm hold.

When I do curl after mascara, a few things help…

Like making sure that my lashes are completely dry before I use the curler. That way the lashes don’t stick as much to the clamping surface.

I also — and I know this sounds silly but I’m just gonna say it anyway — give El Hub or anyone within my immediate vicinity a heads-up, like, “I’m curling my lashes now, so please don’t make any sudden movements.”

It’s just that with the pranksters in my family, you never know when someone’s going to jump out from behind a corner and go “Blaaa!”

It happens a lot, and I’d rather sound a little kooky than accidentally rip out my lashes while I’m curling them…and that is a bigger risk when you curl them after applying mascara.

I’m also just very, very careful. I don’t press down too hard on the clamp, and I use easy, gentle pressure to avoid breaking lashes or pulling them out. I’m talking extra, super-duper careful.

I wouldn’t recommend this for everyone or say, “Oh, yeah, totally! This is the best way!” but it’s just what I do, and for me it works.

A commonly debunked beauty myth/product that you swear actually works?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Oh, the humanity!

I don’t know what sinister force keeps making me come up with these cruel, twisted beauty scenarios, but I’m sorry. 🙂

For my answer, I want to say MAC Face & Body, because I’ve used it for years, I love the dewy finish, and I can trust that it won’t give me breakouts or scoot and slide around once it’s on, but…

This is so twisted!

As much as it would pain me to forsake foundation (and it WOULD pain me), I am non-functional and Halloween costume-caliber frightening if I don’t have at least a hint of color on my face, so I’m going to go with the NARS Orgasm/Laguna Duo…

With a bit of bronzer and a dash of blush, Karen is a happy cookie.

Dastardly dilemmas: You can only have one face product (a specific blush, bronzer, foundation, tinted moisturizer, BB cream, etc.) for the rest of your life. What is it?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Happy hump day!

You know I love me some Kate Spade, but my girl didn’t make the clutch I like the most in my collection.

My cutest is a white satin clutch with a unicorn on it…

Yes, that’s right. A unicorn. 🙂

It’s from the Paul & Joe 2012 holiday collection, but wait! — this gets better.

The unicorn has flowers woven into its flowing mane, and it looks a little morose, awww! 🙁

Sad unicorn may not hold the number one spot for much longer, though. If the Kate Spade Hello Tokyo Cat Clutch ever goes on sale, I’ll be all over that faster than you can say, “That baby ain’t Ryan’s!”

Tell me about your cutest clutch or purse (and link to a picture if you have one).

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Um…I wish this was my cutest clutch!

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.

1. Stay in or go out?
   Let’s go out! Take me somewhere I’ve never been before, and show me something I’ve never seen.
2. A piece of makeup you can’t stop wearing?
   Laura Mercier’s Smooth Finish Flawless Fluide Foundation.

   Oh! It’s the stuff of legend. Full coverage, feels lighter than Fred Astaire looks on his toes, smoothes out pores, and it’s more comfortable than a great pair of socks.

3. If you won the lottery, what’s the first thing you’d do?
   I wish I could say I’d do something eccentric or extravagant like hopping on the very first plane to Kauai with nothing but the clothes on my back, or going to an animal shelter and proclaiming, “I will take ALL of the kitties!” but things like that would have to wait until after I took care of some practical things first.

   Assuming I’d already signed the back of the ticket and hidden it away in a secure location, the first thing I’d do is find a good lawyer, then a good financial advisor — both of whom have extensive experience shepherding lottery winners.

   I guess I’m just boring and responsible that way…

4. What posters and pics did you have on your walls growing up?
   Oh, man, I had so much random crap on my walls when I was a teen. I remember a HUGE New Kids on the Block poster; I think they were all sitting on a stoop and smiling up at the camera. It was hung right beneath a framed picture of five kittens, each a different color, that my mom embroidered by hand.

   But my pride and joy was a Nagel-esque picture of an ’80s lady with a single tear rolling down her cheek and a caption that read, “Memories…” My grandma got it for me from a poster store at the Newpark Mall for my sixteenth birthday.

   I wish I still had that thing…

   Oh, and I also had a movie poster for Casablanca hanging just above my desk.

5. Do opposites attract?
   Sure, why not? Based on my dating experiences, though (mind you, I’m happily married now and have been with the same guy for 13 years), I think it’s easier on the relationship when you’re not constantly at odds with each other over hot-button topics like religion, politics, kids — that sort of thing.

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

1. Stay in or go out?
2. A piece of makeup you can’t stop wearing?
3. If you won the lottery, what’s the first thing you’d do?
4. What posters and pics did you have on your walls growing up?
5. Do opposites attract?

Good Monday morning, my friend. 🙂

I always make my first cup of coffee extra large on Monday mornings…and then I treat myself to a few minutes of Karl.

Here is your Karl Lagerfeld quote for the week:

“Change is the healthiest way to survive.”

— Karl Lagerfeld

Word, Karl… Word. We may disagree on sweatpants, but we’re in tune on this.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Among the contenders for makeup problems that have plagued me off and on throughout the years, but for which I currently have viable options — finding a perfect full-coverage under-eye concealer that looks natural, doesn’t call out my fine lines, and doesn’t have a tricky pump or come in a fragile glass bottle; finding a perfect foundation match so that I didn’t have to mix two shades (not even my favorites from MAC, NARS and BECCA have a single perfect match for my skin); or finding a perfect pimple-covering concealer that doesn’t aggravate my acne — this time around I’m going to go with storage.

If I could just find a better way to store my makeup — one that was cute, efficient, kinda different, not too expensive, and didn’t involve a million little screws from Ikea — my biggest (current) makeup problem would be solved.

Being a packrat makeup lover, I feel the need to hoard every coral lipstick and gloss on the planet.

This has been a problem for me.

Right now I use a bunch of clear stacking drawers from the Container Store, and it gets the job done, but I would love a cuter, more functional solution that made me smile instead of cringe when I saw it…maybe like a vintage hutch with tons of drawers and personality.

Answer this: If I could just find a ______, my biggest makeup problem would be solved.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Happy hump day. 🙂

Good grief, this one was hard! I don’t know what I was thinking. It’s bordering on cruel.

I use so many different brushes, and I can think of good reasons to use each and every one of them, too, like, could you even imagine having to do your eye makeup without an angled brush?

Well, I’m sure you can imagine it because you’ve probably done it before, but doesn’t an angled brush make it easier? I use them for so much of my eye makeup heavy lifting, like tightlining, filling in my brows and creating the little flicks at the end of my cat liner.

Straight up, without an angled brush, my makeup life would be a colder, harder, more desolate place. Picture rocky, storm-battered canyons with me huddled on an empty plateau under angry clouds shouting “WHY?!” at the sky as thunder roared and black mascara streaked down my face.

Yeah, bad place.

Buuut, since we’re doing this anyway, let’s see… 🙂

If I were forced to pare down to just one brush (GOOD LORD!), I guess it would be something versatile, like a domed blending brush. Like the MAC 217. I use mine to…

• Apply cream shadows on my lids
• Buff and blend out any edges
• Sweep color into the crease
• Dust highlighter on the tops of my cheekbones
• Apply and blend under-eye concealer
• Pat loose and pressed powders on my face and cheeks

And I’m sure (I’d hope) as time went on I’d discover more ways to use it and more makeup hacks, like maybe bundling a bunch of them together like sticks with a rubber band and using that as a powder or bronzing brush.

OK…I dunno about that one, LOL!

Dastardly dilemmas: You can only have one makeup brush for the rest of your life. Which brush is it?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen