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Black Friday for Beauty Addicts

November 27th, 2009 by Karen 20 Comments

Black Friday beauty deals

Rise and shine, ladies! I hope you got your grub on yesterday. I think I gained at least a pound, but I look at it as carbo-loading for Black Friday. 🙂

Black Friday — what an ominous phrase, right? Overlooking, for a moment, the irony of dedicating the day after Thanksgiving to shopping, are you hitting any stores? I’m building my shopping list right now (great list of ongoing health & beauty deals). I forgot to do any serious Black Friday planning this year, so I’m winging it today. So far this morning I’ve tracked down a few interesting deals…

bbw-blackfriday2009 Bath & Body Works: AWESOME sales storewide, like their buy 3, get 3 free Signature Collection sale; a $100 Limited Edition VIP Gift Bag w/$40 purchase for $15; comfy-looking robes for $29.50, marked from from $49.50.

The Body Shop: Buy one, get one free on all seasonal bath and body, home fragrance, accessories and gift sets. Scents include Merry Cranberry, Nutmeg & Vanilla, Black Velvet Apricot and more.

CVS: Of course, you have to sign up for their free CVS card for most of these, but they’ve got a buy 1, get 1 free on Revlon (and many Cover Girl) cosmetics and beauty tools; Clairol Herbal Essences Conditioner or Shampoo for $3 each; a Conair Ceramic Straightener for $10 (always nice to have a spare).

gap-blackfriday2009 The Gap: 50% off all women’s and men’s sweaters, pajama pants and cozy fleece for kids and babies also 50% off.

H&M: 25 percent off one item of your choice from 8-10 a.m. Friday. Select items storewide will be marked down to $5 and $10.

JC Penny: Lots of amazing deals (way more than I’ve mentioned here). JC Penny went all out this year. All women’s dresses and wallets $50 off, all Playtex 18 Hour & Underscore Boxed Bras for $9.88, Playtex Secrets Foam Underwire $14.88, 50% off women’s sleepwear…

katespade-blackfriday2009 Kate Spade: Extra 25 percent off sale items.

Kohls: The website was so busy that their site even went down this morning! Lots of big markdowns so keep trying, but be sure to use coupon code TURKEY15 to save an extra 15% on all orders.

Macy’s: Get an extra $10 off $25 purchases from their Black Friday ad! DKNY Women’s Down Coats for $79.99, DKNY Women’s Sweaters for $27.99, Cultured Peal Strands with Sterling Silver Clasp for $79 (regular $300).
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NEW: Direct Replies in the Blog Comments

November 22nd, 2009 by Karen 43 Comments

Minor blog remodel

Hi, ladies. There are a couple of small changes on the blog today — just some little things to hopefully make your visits more enjoyable. 🙂

Direct Replies

This one’s long overdue, but now we can respond directly to other readers by clicking the small speech bubble to the right of a comment.
To leave a reply

Shortcuts to Bargains, How To and Popular Posts

The sidebar box has new shortcuts to some of my favorite budget beauty products and how-to posts, which I’ll update often. Just click the tabs marked POPULAR, BARGAINS and HOW TO to peruse.

Hope you’re having a good weekend so far. I’m kinda taking it easy today…

Anyone else see New Moon yet? I’m dying to dish but don’t want to post any spoilers. The comments are fair game, though! 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Have You Sampled Beauty Sample Sites?

November 21st, 2009 by Karen 10 Comments

Members Only Beauty Sites

Rue La La! Have you heard The Skinny? Exclusive Beauty VIP members-only sample sites are Haute!

And new ones are cropping up all the time — sites that sell collections and sets filled with sample beauty products at prices that often amount to HUGE savings of 50-75% off (versus purchasing the products separately at retail). Some, like Beauty VIP, go a step further, delivering members-only coupon codes and discounts on cosmetic surgery, beauty services and spas.

Membership’s usually free but required to browse the deals or to place orders online. Ironically, there’s rarely anything exclusive about joining these sites. A name and email address are all that’s typically required, but there’s just something alluring about the promise of exclusive goodies. 🙂

10 Top Beauty Sample Sites

Site: Gilt Groupe
Shtick: Mainstream beauty (Jemma Kidd, Mario Badescu and more) and fashion stuff, too

Site: Rue La La
Shtick: Luxury fashion, house stuff and beauty

Site: Swirl
Shtick: A product of Daily Candy; clothing and accessories up to 80% off retail
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Be Back Soon…

November 18th, 2009 by Karen 26 Comments

Ouch...

Hi, ladies. Just checking in. I hope you had a good hump day. This headache of mine pretty much put me out of commission this afternoon, but I’ll be back to my old self soon.

Have a good night.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Subscribe to Makeup and Beauty Blog: Never Miss Another Post

November 15th, 2009 by Karen 2 Comments

Don’t let school or work get you down! Ease your way into each day with a little bit of makeup and beauty. 🙂

Each morning at around 11 o’clock my time (Pacific Standard), an email with my latest posts goes out to Makeup and Beauty Blog subscribers.

If you aren’t already subscribed, the emails can be a great way to start your day. I try to keep things interesting, alternating makeup and beauty news with giveaways, product reviews, photo posts, tutorials and tips. I’ll never share your address with anyone for anything. You’ll get just one email per day, delivered fresh and hot out the kitchen (not really, but you know what I mean).

Thanks for visiting.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. If you’re completely swamped with email, you can also subscribe by RSS feed or follow me on twitter or facebook.

Thank You

November 1st, 2009 by Karen 14 Comments

Thanks for your help, BCA 2009

Ladies, just wanted to quickly say thanks for your help making October 2009 a good month in the fight against breast cancer. With your help, our combined donation to Susan G. Komen for the Cure was $500 this year ($250 more than last year).

Pat yourselves on the back. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Blogging for Breast Cancer: Cooperation Is a Beautiful Thing

October 25th, 2009 by Karen 4 Comments

Good morning, ladies. 🙂 I hope you slept well.

Can you believe that today’s the last Sunday in October? November’s right around the corner. By this time next week, we’ll have said goodbye to yet another Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which means no more pink ribbons for a while (they’ll go back into storage).

Why it’s personal to me…

Blogging for Breast Cancer

I’m kinda melancholy about it, but I feel like the world made good BCA progress this year. No cure yet, and much of the increased awareness comes via corporations commercializing the cause, but ultimately the how/why doesn’t matter, does it? More of us are aware of the disease than we were a month ago, and that’s a good thing no matter what.

Strike while the iron’s hot

There are still seven October days left for one final push to raise funds for research and support. That’s why I’m upping the ante in our MBB fundraiser for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. I pledge to match every $1 you donate through the widget here with $2 of my own (up to $500 total). If you can give $5, I’ll match you with $10 (for $15 total).

Can you help? And if you make a donation to Komen through a different blog or through their site directly, just e-mail me a picture/scan of your receipt, and I’ll make the same 2-1 match (up to $500 total).

I feel like we should strike while the iron’s hot because soon we’ll move on to other causes, and the holidays will take center stage.

Please help make one final push before the end of October. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

The Beauty of Blog World 2009: A Beginner’s Guide to Web Traffic

October 24th, 2009 by Karen 14 Comments

The Beauty of Blog World 2009: A Beginner's Guide to Web Traffic

Even though Blog World wrapped up last weekend, I wanted to talk a little about traffic building because it was one of the most discussed topics at the event.

Assuming it’s one of your goals (it doesn’t have to be), the experts had a lot to say about building readership/viewership to websites and blogs. Today I’m going to gloss over the jargon and give you some tips you can implement on your own.

Previously in The Beauty of Blog World…

Tip #1: Produce desirable content

This one’s the most important tip but also the hardest to define. “Content is King,” the traffic experts say, but what do they really mean? Answer: If you think about it, what draws you to your favorite makeup counters, stores, websites and blogs? In my case, I visit MAC counters because I’m *obsessed* with their makeup; I read Zen Habits because it helps me relax. Ultimately, we visit the places that give us what we want.

As a practical matter, I think it’s harder (although not impossible) to attract readers to personal journal blogs because, let’s face it, our lives usually aren’t as interesting as we think they are. But when we blog with passion about specific topics (keeping in mind that no one owes us their time), we tend to attract people with similar interests.

Tip #2: The power of key words

What words would someone use on Google to find your blog?

Whatever they are, those are some of your key words, and you want to use your key words in as many places as you can — in your domain name (i.e. lipstickeyeshadowandgloss.com, catsinuniform.com), in your URLs (i.e. catsinuniform.com/cat/uniforms/catuniforms.php — the parts between the / slashes), in your post titles (Cat Uniforms Under $10, My 5 Favorite Lipsticks of 2009, Don’t Gloss Over These Lipsticks, etc.), within the text of your posts and also within the text using HTML header tags (h1, h2, h3, h4). The more you use your key words, the more credit your blog will get from Google and the other search engines for searches using those terms.

Tip #3: Links

Not only do links translate into direct traffic to your blog, as they get clicked wherever they appear, but they also contribute to your placement in the search rankings on Google.
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