Just For Fun

I false lashes, but because they take me forever and a day to apply, I definitely don’t wear them as often as I’d like.

What usually holds me back is time, and that’s my biggest tip. Unless you’re a false fringe expert who normally blazes through the process in 5 minutes or less, I think you have to budget extra time — in my case, at least 10 minutes — to fix things when/if they go wrong.

Sometimes it’s a last-minute decision, too, which I don’t recommend. I’ll finish an elaborate eyeshadow look on my lids and think, “False lashes would totally take this look to the next level!” So I’ll give it a try, thinking it’ll only take a few minutes.

Nope. No can do. I have to work slowly, and not under pressure from the clock. I usually need at least 10, preferably 15 minutes total, to put on a single pair, and that’s assuming everything goes according to plan.

My best tip/trick? It’s from a makeup artist friend who once suggested that I skip curling my lashes before applying falsies (thank you, Courtney!). Apparently, it’s a little easier to set false lashes on uncurled, straight lashes than on curled lashes.

Who knew?!

But if you absolutely must curl your natural lashes beforehand, just curl the tips. That way the rest of the lash shaft stays straight.

How do you feel about false lashes? Do you “go there” often? And what are your favorite false fringe tips?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

It may be a few years old, but Urban Decay’s Naked Palette and I still roll deep.

I feel like it’s just one of those palettes, you know? — the great ones, where you can pretty much take any two of its colors, wear ’em together, and not go wrong.

And the look possibilities are practically limitless!

Sometimes from across a crowded room, it’s easy to miss Naked’s neutral colors, but for real life wear, it’s tough to beat, whether you’re a responsible cubicle cutie or a video vixen.

What’s your “one” — the eyeshadow palette that never lets you down? Is it a Chanel quad, a drugstore mega-palette, a build-your-own? Which one do you reach for most?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Happy hump day. 🙂

I mean, what did you expect from a world-renowned kitty supermodel? Of course the dress code is going to be strict. 🙂

Here at the offices of Tabs the Cat Industries, LLC, brows MUST be fierce, with a heaping scoop of fabulous-ness on the side.

Natural-looking brows? Um, not if you ever hope to move up the cat corporate ladder.

Luckily, I don’t! I love natural-looking brows, and my favorite way to wear ’em lately has been with two different colors — you know, like in brow duo kits that pair a lighter and a darker shade.

When I used to use brow duo kits, I would mix the two colors together and apply that, but lately I like to use the lighter shade on the inner part of my brows (the side closer to my nose) and the darker one on the outer (the side closer to my ear), because the subtle gradient it creates sort of enhances the natural brow color transition that normally occurs from the lighter, sparser inner brow area to the denser, darker outer brow area.

An ombre brow effect, if you will…

A few more brow tips…

• When tweezing your own eyebrows, it’s helpful to map out the hairs to be tweezed by covering them with a light application of concealer or a light-colored pencil.
• When applying color to the brows, try focusing the application in the arch, rather than the inner portion near the nose, for a more natural-looking brow. A well-balanced eyebrow tends to be more dense in the arch.
• Don’t underestimate the effect of brushing your brows. First brush against the hair growth to separate, then up and back toward the ear to shape.
• For the look of bleached eyebrows, use Brow Set in a shade one or two shades lighter than your own brows. First brush the wand against the hair growth to cover the brow, and then dip the wand back into the tube and brush with the growth of hair.
• If using both a brow pencil and Brow Set, try using a darker pencil and a lighter Brow Set for more dimension.
• Fluid Line in an appropriate shade, like Dipdown with the 208 brush, is great to cover any scars or open areas in the eyebrow.
• A light powder eye shadow color like Shroom, Rice Paper or Arena placed under the arch of the brow highlights and defines the shape.

And you can do it with more than just powder brow duos. It works just as well with brow pencils, too.

For a while now I’ve been using light brown MAC Deep Brunette on the inner part of my brows and darker brown Deep Dark Brunette on the outer.

I love it! If you have similar hair color, try it sometime, and let me know what you think.

Be aware, though, that it may violate the dress code at your place of employment if you work for a fashion-forward feline dictator. 😉

How about you? What are some of your best brow tips?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

You might be wondering, “So what the heck is this Monday Poll thing anyway?”

Well, it isn’t much of a poll. It’s more just a constantly evolving (devolving?), somewhat random list of questions I’ve been putting out to readers every Monday morning for the past six years. I’ve always enjoyed reading your answers in the comments, and I hope you enjoy reading mine.

1. Is there a story behind your name and how you got it?
   My mom, after watching Airport 66, named me after the actress Karen Black. Mom thought Karen Black was “sexy,” and plus it wasn’t a common name in the Philippines at the time. It was either that name or Stephanie, and I’m so not a Stephanie.
2. If Hollywood made a movie based on your life, who would play the main parts?
   A really, really, really tan Reese Witherspoon with her hair died black or dark brown. She would play me. Ryan Gosling would obviously have to play El Hub. Obvs. 🙂 Even though the two look nothing alike, haha! But still.

   The thing is, Detective Unstabler (Chistopher Meloni) would be perfect for the part, but in the end the casting agent (Tabs) would go with Ryan Gosling, and speaking of Tabs, he would play himself…because he’s multitalented like that.

3. Have you ever gone out on stage to accept an award?
   Yes. The last time, I think, was high school graduation. That’s when my academic career peaked. It was all downhill from there…
4. When was the last time you were moved to tears by something beautiful?
   It was at Anthrolopologie last weekend when I was looking at those dog heads. I thought, I want one that looks like Shauna, and I remembered how Shauna would look up at me and give me that goofy smile, and I got kind of teary at Anthropologie looking at dog heads…
5. What’s your worst quality?
   It’s hard to choose from all of them. I don’t mean to sound like I have low self-esteem, but this is a tough one for me right now. Hmm… I beat myself up. I talk to myself in ways that should not be allowed. Maybe that’s my worst quality.
6. What’s your current favorite shampoo, conditioner or shower gel and why?
   It’s this one by René Furterer (I can never say her name) called Karité. It’s a deep conditioning hair mask, and it works great and doesn’t weigh down my hair.
7. Are you competitive?
   In some ways yes, and in some ways no. I get irritated when I know I can do better, but it’s more about competing with myself than others. I’m not going to sell my first born or hang somebody out to dry to get ahead of anyone.
8. What’s been your favorite fall makeup collection this year?
   MAC Indulge.
9. How did you learn to drive?
   Oh, gawd. Well at first my dad tried to teach me, and that was really, really terrible because he’s the worst teacher, and he has no patience. And in the truck I learned to drive on, the speedometer was broken, so my dad was always getting mad at me for speeding.

   Eventually, I just signed up for one of those driving courses where somebody came out to my house, and they had one of those teacher/student cars with breaks on the passenger side. All I really remember from that was that the teacher smelled like cigarette smoke all the time, so I drove with the windows down, and the wind always messed up my hair.

10. When you think, “sophisticated and pretty,” what’s the first beauty brand that comes to mind?
    Chanel. ‘Nuff said.

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

1. Is there a story behind your name and how you got it?
2. If Hollywood made a movie based on your life, who would play the main parts?
3. Have you ever gone out on stage to accept an award?
4. When was the last time you were moved to tears by something beautiful?
5. What’s your worst quality?
6. What’s your current favorite shampoo, conditioner or shower gel and why?
7. Are you competitive?
8. What’s been your favorite fall makeup collection this year?
9. How did you learn to drive?
10. When you think, “sophisticated and pretty,” what’s the first beauty brand that comes to mind?

I hope I can get my feet back under me this week… I’ve been so overwhelmed lately. I haven’t fully recovered from all that traveling this summer. I could easily not do anything for three weeks, and still maybe not be fully recovered.

Oh, well. That’s not gonna happen. Not on Tabs’ watch.

I hope we all have a great week.

Scratch that. I’m sure we will. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen