Just For Fun

The giveaway is now closed, and I’m contacting the winner by e-mail. Good luck!

The beach at Haleiwa on Oahu’s North Shore

Snorkeling doesn’t bite

I’ve mentioned Shark’s Cove before as a top snorkeling spot here on Oahu. Another, more famous one is Hanauma Bay, but Shark’s Cove is free and easily accessible (there’s a fee to park and visit Hanauma Bay).

The cove gets its name from the shape of the reef as seen from above and NOT because it’s crawling with sharks. 🙂

It’s located right off the side of the road across the street from a grocery store and a snorkeling rental shop, and visiting is as easy as parking the car.

Yesterday El Hub and I spent a few hours tooling around in the water, joining schools of fish and looking for sea turtles (no luck!).

NARS Sandra Eyeshadow Duo

After a summery afternoon spent exploring undersea worlds, a girl’s gotta have colors she can wear out at night, like the two colors featured in today’s giveaway.

The prize

One lucky lady will win the NARS Sandra Eyeshadow Duo (a $32 value).

NARS used the same longwearing crease resistant formula they use for their single eyeshadows in this useful color combination of Bone and Silver Mist. Worn together or alone (wet or dry), they can be applied sheer or built up for a more dramatic effect.

• Richly pigmented powders
• Effortless blending and color coordinated
• Multifunction: use as eyeshadow, eyeliner or on eyebrows

How to enter

To enter the giveaway, all you have to do is leave a comment with the name of your favorite eyeshadow duo OF ALL TIME!

I’ll pick the winner at random from among the people who enter by 11:59PM PST Saturday night.

Onnea!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

The giveaway is now closed, and I’m contacting the winner by e-mail. Good luck!

The giveaway is now closed, and I’m contacting the winner by e-mail. Good luck!

The Shark’s Cove tide pools and snorkeling spot on Oahu’s North Shore

You have been targeted for termination, McG!

Happy Friday, girls. This week flew by, didn’t it? Got anything fun lined up for the weekend?

Are you a fan of the Terminator movies? The new one with C-Bale just came out. I loved the first two films and liked the TV show (I heard it got canceled, SHOOT!), but the new McG movie has my spider sense tingling, and not in a good way.

If you see it this weekend, let me know what you thought. Did McG do a good job, or should he have stuck with Charlie’s Angels movies and music videos?

Cyborg hair

Like cyborgs (now there’s a transition you don’t hear very often), we humans can change the color of our hair pretty easily. Earlier this month I dyed my roots, and now it’s a matter of extending the life of the coloring before I have to do it again.

That’s where the products in today’s giveaway come in…

The prize

One lucky lady will win two products from the Redken Color Extend line (a $27 value):

• Redken Color Extend Rich Recovery
• Redken Color Extend Shine Enrich

How to enter

It’s easy to enter and only takes a minute. To enter, just leave a quick comment on this post describing the color of your hair.

Mine is black, and I’m starting to get a little bit of gray. Right now it’s black with chocolate highlights.

I’ll choose the winner at random from among the people who enter by 11:59PM PST tonight (Friday).

Semoga Beruntung!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

The giveaway is now closed, and I’m contacting the winner by e-mail. Good luck!

The giveaway is now closed, and I’m contacting the winner by e-mail. Good luck!

One philosophy on Hawaii

There’s a chain of restaurants here in Hawaii that specializes in chili and rice. It’s called Zippy’s, and there’s at least one in every neighborhood.

Hawaii is a place of contrasts, which is a reason why I love it, but those contrasts can be a turnoff for visitors expecting an easily definable Polynesian paradise.

On the one hand, Hawaii has the grass skirts, coconut trees, fresh fruit and Hawaiian music portrayed in TV and movies, but it’s also an incredibly isolated, integrated (not just diverse) land with dozens of cultural influences contributing to create a place unlike any other in the world, where the locals (a local is anyone from the islands but can be a person of any ethnicity) speak a dialect of Pidgin English that’s probably more Pidgin than English, and Zippy’s can sell millions of bowls of Texas-style chili over white rice.

And a lot of the time, not even the locals know when or from where a particular food or phrase appeared, as if one day they woke up and everyone around them was eating chili with chopsticks, dipping Portuguese sweet bread into it and having fresh cut mangoes for desert. 🙂

Today’s giveaway

Ten Days of Giveaways keeps on chuggin’, my lil’ chocolate haupia pies!

Today’s giveaway lets you indulge day or night without having to worry about how all that decadence will make your thighs look in your bikini.

The Prize

Two lucky ladies will each win Philosophy’s A Diet You Can Live With shower gel set.

Each set comes with three Philosophy 3-in-1 Shower Gels in Creme Brulee, Pink Frosted Layer Cake and Fudge Cake (a $30 value), YUM!

How to enter

Entering is easy, and unlike that slice of chocolate cream pie, it’s totally fat free! To enter, just leave a quick comment below about anything at all. Tell me what you did last night, where you’d like to go this summer, your favorite video game or the name of your secret crush!

I’ll choose the two winners at random from among the people who enter by 11:59PM PST tonight (Thursday).

Powodzenia!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

The giveaway is now closed, and I’m contacting the winner by e-mail. Good luck!

The giveaway is now closed, and I’m contacting the winner by e-mail. Good luck!

First, that paddle board lesson…

Watching my first attempt at paddle boarding yesterday, a spectator might have thought, “That girl must be deathly afraid of sea turtles!”

That’s because of how determined I looked not to fall off my board into turtle-infested waters, LOL!

Howzit, ladies? Happy hump day!

I signed up for lessons not knowing much about stand-up paddle boarding, like that the board is NOT, in fact, just a regular surf board. It’s larger, more stable and consequently much easier to stand up on in the water than a surf board.

The lesson lasted about two hours. The school I chose was Rainbow Watersports Adventures, run by Nate and Heidi, a young couple who live on the North Shore.

Nate was the instructor and went over everything, preparing the equipment on land before we ever touched the water. I felt safe the entire time.

He was encouraging and cracked jokes to keep things light while guiding us from a beginner’s beach out a few yards around a jetty up the mouth of a calm, tropical river filled with schools of fish and sea turtles coming in from the ocean to feed. They’d pop their cute heads up right beside the board to say hi.

The river winds through a jungly, residential area with peacocks and other tropical birds hanging out along the water’s edge.

I don’t sign up for activities or lessons very often when I travel, but this time I’m so glad I did.

Time for a giveaway!

At home I sing a song I like to call Tabs Has Smokey Eyes when I do the dishes or vacuum.

Tabs is lucky enough to have naturally smokey eyes, but the rest of us need something like the Benefit Smokin’ Eyes Palette to get the look. 🙂

The prize

One lucky lady will win Benefit’s Smokin’ Eyes Palette (a $36 value).

This cute lil’ kit comes with everything you need to create sultry, smokey eyes *AND* get your brows in gear. It includes…

• One pan of Benefit Eye Bright
• One shimmery pink highlight eyeshadow
• One shimmery pewter base eyeshadow
• One matte deep charcoal eyeshadow
• One Pencil Eyeliner in Smokin’
• One pan of Brow Zings Wax in Light
• One Fluff Eyeshadow Brush
• One Hard Angle Brush
• One pair of tweezers
• Directions

How to enter

You know how we do this, girls!

To enter, just leave a comment in the comments section at the bottom of this post, letting me know the name of your favorite Benefit product of all time.

Mine has to be Benefit Creaseless Cream Shadow in Birthday Suit. That’s one for the ages!

I’ll pick the one winner at random from among the people who enter by 11:59PM PST tonight.

Ngikufisela iwela (that’s good luck in Zulu)!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

The giveaway is now closed, and I’m contacting the winner by e-mail. Good luck!

Hi, ladies! I just wanted to pop by to say hello. El Hub and I finagled a couple nights at the Ko’Olina resort on the western side of Oahu. This is a first for us, but my parents have a timeshare that they were kind enough to let us borrow for a quick getaway.

MOVIE FUN FACT: Ko’Olina is where the 2002 surf film Blue Crush (starring Kate Bosworth) was filmed.

Today we’re heading up to the North Shore to the little town of Haleiwa for stand-up paddle lessons.

It’s the latest thing out here. You stand up on a surfboard and paddle around with a long oar. There are lots of paddle-boarding races on the island, and you see people doing it at the different beaches. It’s supposed to be easier than surfing, but I dunno… I’m good with balancing sports but BAD with projectiles and sports involving batons, bats and rackets.

Here’s to not hitting anyone with my oar!

I hope you’re having a good day so far. Let me know how you’re doing. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

The giveaway is now closed, and I’m contacting the winner by e-mail. Good luck!

The ancient Hawaiians must have had some *hella* tan and crusty feet…

I’ve been slathering mine with sunscreen, covering the tops with the stuff and getting sunscreen between my toes, and I haven’t suffered any burnt piggies or ankles yet (knock on koa wood).

My feet take a beating every summer, being uncovered and unprotected as much as they are, but nothing could stop me from busting out the flip-flops.

You can get your puppies in gear this season by winning a grab bag filled with Peppermint Foot goodies from The Body Shop! 🙂

The prize

One lucky lady will win five Peppermint Foot products from The Body Shop (a $64 value):

• Peppermint Cooling Foot Lotion ($16)
• Peppermint Cooling Foot Spray ($10)
• Peppermint Pumice Foot Scrub ($14)
• Peppermint Intensive Foot Rescue Treatment ($18)
• No More Rough Stuff Pumice ($6)

How to enter

Like yesterday’s giveaway, today’s is easy to enter. Just leave a quick comment below describing your favorite pair of summer shoes/sandals. Be sure to use a valid e-mail address so I can reach you if you win.

No secret here, but my favorite pair of summer shoes are my yellow Aerosoles platform sandals. 🙂

I’ll choose the winner at random from among the people who enter by 11:59PM PST tonight (Tuesday).

Ya’ll know that crusty feet and cute sandals NEVER look cute together.

Kali tihi!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

The giveaway is now closed, and I’m contacting the winner by e-mail. Good luck!

1. Mood:

Cheerful. I slept well last night, and I’ve been able to catch up on some reading on this trip.

2. Outfit:

Khaki green jersey sundress.

3. Eyes/cheeks/lips:

Urban Decay Get Baked Palette on my eyes, NARS The Multiple in South Beach on my cheeks and Chanel Levres Scintillantes Glossimer in Venus on my lips.

4. What book are you reading?

How to Write Fast (While Writing Well) by David Fryxell

5. A song that can always get you on the dance floor?

It Takes Two, by Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock.

6. What’s your least favorite type of clothing:

High-waisted pants. I have a short torso, so when I wear high-waisted pants that end up just below my boobs I look completely redonkulous. Oh, and I also hate having to wear socks… They oppress my feet.

7. What lotion are you wearing today?

I picked up a random bottle of Vaseline Firming Smoothing Body Lotion at Longs Drugstore yesterday. Not bad stuff.

8. Do you dance by yourself when no one is watching?

HECK YAH!

9. What was your last meal?

Two malasadas (Portuguese doughnut holes; deep fried doughnuts covered in sugar) from a Leonard’s Malasada truck last night. Not exactly the most nutritious of meals, but very tasty!

10. Weekly goals:

Learn to stand-up paddle board, spend lots of time with my family, relax.

Good morning, pretties! I hope your Monday’s been smooth sailing from that first sip of coffee.

Let me know how things are going with you. Just copy the following list, and paste it with your answers to the Monday Poll in the comments. 🙂

Le List

Mood:
Outfit:
Eyes/lips/cheeks:
What book are you reading?
Song that always gets you out on the dance floor:
What’s your least favorite type of clothing?
What lotion are you wearing today?
Do you dance when no one is watching?
What was your last meal?
Weekly goals:

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

The giveaway is now closed, and I’m contacting the winner by e-mail. Good luck!

Hawaii is like something from an artist’s imagination. Everywhere I turn, colors catch my eye — a vibrant rainbow painted across the sky, thick bunches of bright flowers along the side of the road or the stark blue sea that spans the horizon.

Colorful things have always made me happy. They get the neurons firing and endorphins pumping, and I don’t think we can ever have enough color in our lives, especially when it comes to nail polish!

Speaking of color, it’s what today’s giveaway is all about. 🙂

The prize

Two lucky ladies will win a set of all six nail polishes from the Barielle Sugar Rush summer 2009 collection (a $48 value).

Swizzle Stix

Sweet Addiction

Lemonade

Grape Escape

Decadence

Cotton Candy

How to enter

To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment in the comments section below with the name of your favorite candy of all time!

Mine has to be Snickers candy bars. *LOVE* those! 🙂

I’ll pick both winners at random from among the people who enter by 11:59PM PST tonight (Monday).

ご幸運を祈ります!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

The giveaway is now closed, and I’m contacting the winner by e-mail. Good luck!