Just For Fun

Temptalia
Christine’s a fellow Bay Area girl and one of the most talented beauty bloggers around. I love the looks she does with bright makeup colors. Her site has a busy makeup forum and a massive archive of reference pictures and tutorials covering a variety of dramatic makeup looks. We’ve hung out a few times, and she’s as beautiful and sweet in person as she is online.

Amy Kuschel Bride
Amy Kuschel creates custom couture wedding gowns, each hand crafted in her San Francisco bridal salon and design studio. I love all of Amy’s elegant and sophisticated dresses, but her Tandie gown is the one I wore on my wedding day.

Hovey Lee
Also representing the San Francisco Bay Area in style, Hovey Lee has a huge selection of clean and sophisticated fine jewelry. The company really gets the whole online shopping thing, too. Their site is well organized and makes it easy to find the perfect piece. I subscribe to their email newsletter, which goes out about once a month and contains sale information and new item announcements. Hovey’s Linney necklace is one of my favorite pieces, and I wear it almost every day.

Jeanine Payer
Hand engraved quotes adorn all of Jeanine Payer’s elegant jewelry pieces. I’m saving up for the Alden ring. It bears the following quote by Walt Whitman: “The strongest and sweetest songs yet remain to be sung.”

[Continue reading…]

MAC Cosmetics Face of the Day: A Smokey Eye with MAC Pigment in Purple
“Layering extends the staying power of your eyeshadow and provides extra dimension. Try starting with a layer of a cream product — I like MAC Paint Pots, MAC Paint and MAC Cream Color Base in Pearl — and applying a powdered eyeshadow on top of the cream.”

Face of the Day: Wonder Mint Teal Lashes
“Because the weather out here has been hotter than Christian Bale in a Speedo, I wanted to keep my look light and perspiration-proof. To maintain the emphasis on my lashes, I went with a slice of light violet on the lid.”

Face of the Day: A Pink and Blue Pastel Eye
“Pastels aren’t usually my style, but today the makeup gods chose to bestow enough courage upon me to attempt this pink and blue eye, inspired by Shiseido’s spring makeup look.”

MAC Cosmetics Blue and Green Face of the Day
“If you’re new to makeup, this would be a super easy look to try! Please ask if you have any questions about reproducing it yourself. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll track down someone who does.”

MAC Originals Face of the Day, Full on Lust
“Build color slowly. First, if you’re clumsy like I am, I find that it helps to take the time to build a color slowly, layer upon layer. First, I dipped my crease brush in the eyeshadow pot, swiped it gently on some tissue to remove the excess shadow, and then applied Charred (a shade of grey) in a light layer using a sweeping motion in my crease. I applied about five light layers before I got the color where I wanted it to be.”

MAC Cosmetics Woodwinked Pink and Gold Face of the Day
“Shhh… I have a secret beauty tip. If you ever wake up looking like an extra in Michael Jackson’s Thriller video, reach for MAC Woodwinked eyeshadow ($14). Its warm, golden shimmer restores life to dead tired eyes.”

A Salute to St. Patrick’s Day: Green Chanel Garden Party Eye
“Dior concealer rocks when it comes to covering dark circles. Before I applied my makeup today I had some serious dark circles. I stayed up late last night, partying with the neighbor’s cat while watching ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians,’ my latest guilty reality TV pleasure. In the pics above, can you see the purple in the inner corners of my eyes (and believe me, they are pretty dark today)? LOVE. YOU. DIOR.”

Makeup Tips: MAC Parrot Face of the Day
“This is a really easy face of the day that I wore to work today. It took just five minutes to do my eyes… Yup, it’s official. Me likes the MAC Parrot.”

What makeup are you wearing on this lovely Friday? Does your look have a color theme?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

DailyCandy
DailyCandy sends out a free daily e-mail from the front lines of fashion, food and fun. Hip and edgy, their coverage of accessories (shoes and bags) helps me satisfy my inner Carrie Bradshaw. I subscribe to the San Francisco edition, but they produce versions for a number of other cities as well. I totally dig that they feature up and coming designers.

I♥Makeup
I have a thing for Bollywood, especially the beautifully glamorous stars, and I♥Makeup gives the scoop on the looks worn by famous stars like Aishwarya Rai (love her!). It’s a great blog, and I♥Makeup is a sweetheart, too. When you stop by, tell her congrats because she just got engaged.

MakeupAlley
You don’t even know how many hours I spent browsing Makeup Alley at my previous job. They would have fired my ass if they ever found out! One of the most extensive makeup review sites on the Web, it also has an active forum of members who are very passionate about makeup. I regard it as an instrumental learning tool for any girl (or boy) interested in cosmetics.

[Continue reading…]

1. Mood: Groggy but happy

 

2. Lips: Chanel Astral Glossimer

 

3. Fragrance: Estee Lauder Private Collection Tuberose Gardenia

 

4. Food craving: Vegetable pad Thai

 

5. Makeup craving: The NARS Bridal Palette, which I saw on Bella Sugar the other day

 

6. Theme song: Whatever U Like, by Nicole Scherzinger

 

7. Nail polish: My fingertips are bare with the exception of the nail on my left pointer finger, which is painted with two layers of Dior Liquorice nail enamel. My toes are still rockin’ It’s Delovely, the coral shade from my visit to the Lippmann nail bar a couple weeks ago.

 

8. Hair: I’m wearing it down, with loose waves a la Jennifer Aniston.

 

9. Shoes: Hot pink Havaianas flip flops

 

10. Goal of the day: To start a new journal, to survive work and to eat a ton of ice cream.

Your turn! Just copy the list, insert your answers and leave ’em for me in the comments. 🙂

Le list

Mood:
Lips:
Fragrance:
Food craving:
Makeup craving:
Theme song:
Nail polish:
Hair:
Shoes:
Goal of the day:

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Happy Sunday, girls! I hope your day is going well. I’m on my way to a quick brunch (Mmm… French toast).

Brunch.

What is it about that word? — brunch? I love it. Not quite breakfast; not quite lunch.

Most Popular Posts of the Week: June 16-22

• Chanel Fall 2008: Early Reviews and Swatches
  “The entire gold-themed collection lands at Chanel counters this July, but here are three members of the fall collection. I’ve yet to see the items I’m *really* lusting after — the Gold Fever Highlighter and the Gold Light Glossimer — in person, but these should tide me over for now.”
• Review: Bumble and Bumble Creme de Coco Masque
  “The texture of Creme de Coco Masque is just slightly thicker than Bumble and Bumble’s Deeep [with three Eees] Conditioner, which is quite thick, but it was still easy to apply from roots to ends. Coconut is either a love it or hate it scent, so be warned: this smells like coconut.”
• Dior Fall 2008: Impression Cuir Fall Pics and Full Product List
  “Due for release this August, the collection features rich, romantic colors like burgundy, plum and copper and embossed animal-inspired textures — think crocodile and python. The makeup gods say dark lipstick will be big this fall, and I’m looking forward to Fantastic Plum Rouge Dior. I think it’ll look great with my warm winter coat and knee-high boots.”
• MAC Makeup Fafi Tutorial: A Black and Gold Smokey Eye
  “Begin by blending an even layer of Dior concealer onto the entire surface of your eyelid. This gives the eye products we’re about to use something to latch onto and intensifies the color of the eyeshadows.”
• MAC Cosmetics Neo Sci Fi Face of the Day
  “I’ve had sun on my mind lately and felt inspired this morning to reach for a few brighter-than-bright items from MAC’s Neo Sci Fi collection. I didn’t really feel like going buck wild with a lot of blending or a wide variety of products with my look today, and I limited myself to just two (!) eyeshadows.”

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

You know I love lists, and it was only a matter of time before I made a list of my favorite, well, lists. 🙂 It’s Friday afternoon, and you may be sitting there at work or in school, achin’ for the bell to ring. While you wait, grab a snack and browse through some of my favorite lists.

• 9 Things I’m Glad I Know
  “How good it feels to be useful. Shoot, I can’t do calculus or play basketball (or any sport involving projectiles), but at least I’m not a bump on a pickle.”
• Beauty in Time: 9 Things I Would Say to My Younger Self
  “Savor eating fried zucchini sticks at three in morning and staying a size 2 because that high metabolism will be GONE FOREVER in four years (sigh…).”
• 9 Things: My Makeup Lust List
  “MAC PowerPoint Eye Pencil in Tealo and Forever Green ($13.50) — Wee! I love green eye pencils. I can’t get enough of green eye pencils, and I want to try these because they’re supposedly waterproof, too. I hope they’re nice and blendable like the Technakohls. Both of the greens that I want are out of stock on the MAC Web site (boo), but the Nordstrom site has ’em in stock (yay).”
• 9 Things: Toot Thy Horn
  “When I’m feeling a little sad or down, one thing I do to cheer myself up is make lists. Yesterday, I had a craptacularly rough afternoon and cried, oh, about six times. There are just some days when you feel like you can’t get anything right, ya know? After the sixth round of tears, I made a list to remind myself of the things I’m pretty darn good at.”
• 43 Things I’m Thankful For — The Non-Makeup Edition
  “Modern medicine and dentistry. It’s kind of a weird thing to be thankful for, I know. But last night I watched an episode of the HBO TV show, Rome, and one scene showed an ancient Roman guy getting operated on. The process included straps, a saw and a filthy kitchen table. I have only three words to convey how I feel about ancient medicinal practices: SO NOT COOL.”
• 9 Things I Wish I Didn’t Know
  “Driving home from the gym tonight I heard the song Baby Got Back on the radio, the 1992 smash hit by celebrated lyricist Sir Mix-a-Lot (LOL). I cannot stand that song, but for reasons unknown I am able to recite every single word of it. As soon as that intro starts I am compelled to sing: ‘I like big butts and I cannot lie! Those other brothers can’t deny!'”
• 9 Random Things: The Getting-to-Know-You Stage
  “Last week, during dinner at one of my favorite Thai restaurants, there was a couple sitting next to me who were clearly on a first date. My nosy ass couldn’t help but eavesdrop on their conversation between bites of yellow chicken curry (what can I say? I multi-task) and spring rolls. The boy hailed from Texas and liked indie rock; the girl liked to meditate and go hiking. They looked cute together, but there were several awkward moments of silence during which both of them sat there, obviously nervous, nibbling away at the Pad Thai for way too long.”
• Just for fun: Random Acts of Beauty
  “Random Act of Beauty: October 24, 2007, 5:35 p.m. — I finally find sunblock that doesn’t leave my neck feeling sticky, Shiseido’s Ultimate Sun Protection SPF 55 for Face & Body, at my local Macy’s Shiseido counter.”
• Just for Fun – Seven Things You Didn’t Know About Makeup and Beauty Blog
  “I believe everyone should have a theme song! Your theme song can change depending on where you are in life or what you need at the moment. Currently, mine is Jay-Z’s ‘Dirt Off Your Shoulder.'”

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen