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Get a Tracy Reese for Clinique Gift with Purchase Now Through Nov. 20 at Nordstrom Stores and Online

November 15th, 2011 by Karen 32 Comments

Cool! Even Tracy Reese likes Clinique. 🙂

The chic designer hand picked eight of her favorite Clinique makeup and skin care products for the new Tracy Reese for Clinique Gift with Purchase, available now through November 20 online and at Nordstrom stores (while supplies last).

Now might be a good time to resupply. Just spend $25 or more on any of your favorites from Clinique, and receive the Colour Surge Eyeshadow Trio, Different Lipstick in Raspberry Glace, Quickliner for Eyes in Black/Brown, two makeup bags (designed by Tracy herself) and travel-size versions of Clinique’s Rinse-Off Foaming Cleanser, the Even Better Skin Tone Correcting Moisturizer in SPF 20, and one High Impact Mascara in Black (grand total: a $75 value).

Swatches from the left: Color Surge Eye Shadow Trio (first, second and third), Quickliner for Eyes in Black/Brown, High Impact Mascara, and Different Lipstick in Raspberry Glace
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Now Through Oct. 31, Get a Sweet Gift with Purchase at Nordstrom.com

October 27th, 2011 by Karen 10 Comments

Nordstrom Gift With Purchase

If you’ve been looking to restock your beauty supplies, foraging for a new fall fragrance or just trying to get a jump start on your holiday shopping, now might be a good time to walk your mouse over to Nordstrom’s online store (looks like it’s online only).

Now through October 31 (or while supplies last), they’re offering a sweet gift with purchase worth more than $80. Spend $100 or more in combined makeup, beauty or fragrance, and take home 13 travel-size goodies in a sparkly black cosmetics bag (so disco!).

You get…

ARCONA Gentle Solution Treatment (0.33 oz.)
Balenciaga Paris Glass Vial Perfume Sample (0.13 oz.)
Bare EscentualsÂ® bareMineralsÂ® Flawless Definition Volumizing Mascara (0.16 oz.)
Donna Karan Cashmere Mist Whipped Perfume Sachet (0.03 oz.)
CAUDALIE Premier Cru Cream (0.06 oz.)
Clarins Hand and Nail Treatment Cream (1.06 oz.)
Clinique Quickliner for Eyes in Black (0.005 oz.)
Elie Saab Glass Vial Perfume Sample (0.03 oz.)
Kate SomervilleÂ® ExfoliKateÂ® Intensive Exfoliating Treatment (0.16 oz.)
Laura Mercier Deluxe Foundation Primer (0.5 oz.)
Living Proof Full Body Boosting Thickening Cream for All Hair Types (0.5 oz.)
Mario Badescu Seaweed Night Cream (0.17 oz.)
philosophy ‘the microdelivery’ exfoliating wash (1 oz.)

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The Beauty Social, Oct. 2011: How to Turn Beauty Blogging into a Career

October 25th, 2011 by Karen 49 Comments

From the left: Beautylish Beauty Director and segment host Ning Chao, Temptalia Founder and Editor Christine Mielke, Makeup Bag Founder and Editor Erika Valente, me (looking extra Lloyd Christmassy), and Romy Raves Lifestyle and Beauty Blogger Romy Schorr.

Even though I was a little nervous (blast you, Lloyd!) and blinded by the stage lights, I really enjoyed speaking on the blogging panel at The Beauty Social last weekend, and I wanted to share some of the highlights with you while they’re still fresh in my mind.

In hindsight, I wish I’d recorded the session, or covertly taken a few notes, but I do remember most of my answers (NOTE: these are paraphrased, because I can’t remember the exact quotes) and some tidbits from my fellow co-panelists, Christine Mielke of temptalia.com, Erika Valente of makeupbag.net and Romy Schorr of romyraves.com.

Q: What inspired you to start your blog?

Me: Well I’d always really loved makeup, and I’ll never forget the day when I was 14 and my mom took me on that first trip to the Clinique counter… I started the blog in 2007. I was freelancing at the time for magazines, mostly doing travel (for the in-room magazines on cruise ships) and health and fitness articles. I really wanted to break into beauty writing, though, and I kept pitching different magazines, but no one would hire me.

They (the magazines) were mostly drawing from their in-house writing staff, so I kept getting rejected from these beauty magazines, yet I had this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I just couldn’t let go. I knew that I wanted to create and write about beauty, but I didn’t know how to go about it.

Then in February of 2007, the Barbie Loves MAC collection came along. 🙂

I think in every beauty junkie’s life there’s always that one release that turns their casual hobby into a full-blown obsession, and for me it was Barbie Loves MAC. I went to the mall, got my little haul, and then when I got back home, that little voice in the back of my head was whispering, “Wouldn’t it be kinda cool if you took a few pictures and posted them online?”

So I borrowed a friend’s camera — and at the time I couldn’t take a picture to save my life — took some shots, and posted them online (using a free blog from wordpress.com).

That’s how Makeup and Beauty Blog was born. There wasn’t a business plan, a big reveal or a rollout. It all sort of happened organically, and it’s been one of the happiest accidents of my life.

Erica: Erica said that she, too, had always been a lifelong beauty junkie, and one of her main inspirations was her entrepreneurial husband. She’d always loved trying and buying new products, but her beauty stash had grown exponentially. One day her husband suggested that they find a way to turn her obsession into a business so that they could write off her beauty expenses, which eventually led to Makeup Bag.

Christine: Before Temptalia, Christine had been actively posting looks on Live Journal. She was in school at the time and recalls posting looks after class. She started Temptalia to archive all of her looks in one place, and her blog has just grown from there.

Q: What was the turning point that made you realize that your blog was successful?

Me: It was probably about six or seven months in, after I’d gotten an invite to cover SF Fashion Week. The blog had been bopping along as a hobby at the time, with me doing brief product reviews every few days, but I decided to approach that Fashion Week as I would a freelance assignment…and I also used it as an excuse to get a new camera. 😉
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The Beauty Social, Oct. 2011: Want to Start Your Own Beauty Brand?

October 24th, 2011 by Karen 13 Comments

The Beauty Social
From the left: Beautylish Beauty Director and segment host Ning Chao, Cover FX Founder and Co-Creator Jenny Frankel, theBalm Founder Marissa Shipman, LORAC Founder and Celebrity Makeup Artist Carol Shaw, Celebrity Hairstylist Byron Williams

Marissa Shipman, founder of theBalm Cosmetics, says that starting theBalm was a very organic process, with the idea growing and evolving over time.

On how to get things off the ground with your own beauty brand, she says, “You just really need a good idea and a good place to start.” When she started talking about wanting to sell her own beauty line, her dad had concerns. “Get a job, get a job,” she remembers him saying, but she was determined, felt prepared and decided to just go for it.

Jenny Frankel, founder, co-creator and executive vice president of Cover FX, actually started out as a chemist working for MAC (she created Clear Lipglass!). “It was tremendous for me,” she says of her time at MAC, “because it was a great learning experience.” On starting your own line, she says the real secret is doing your homework. “Before you invest your money, do your homework. Test on your friends, and if it’s something you want to do as a business, do a business plan. Do a little homework.”

Jenny and Marissa both suggest running your ideas by your closest friends and family first, the people you know you can trust, before you invest a lot of your own time and money into it. If your friends love it, other people might, too.

Jenny’s idea with Cover FX was to create a product that was for sensitive skin but provided full coverage and had lots of color choices.

“Seventy-five percent of all beauty ideas fail,” she warns, “but if you have a compelling point of difference, and you’ve done your homework and have a good idea, that still means that the other 25% of the ideas out there succeed.”
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The Breast Cancer Awareness Month Sign Project and Giveaway: Send in Your Sign Today!

October 13th, 2011 by Karen 8 Comments

Lovies, I have been so touched by your submissions in the The Breast Cancer Awareness Month Sign Project and Giveaway. So many of you have not only shared your awareness signs, but also your personal stories, and it’s been an honor participating with you, as usual.

If you haven’t had a chance to enter yet, you still have time. We’re only half way through October, but don’t delay. Bust out your favorite drawing pens, pencils, paints — heck, maybe even a few lipsticks or liners — and keep those signs coming (to submit it, you can even use your camera phone)!

Just be sure to leave a comment on the original post after you send your sign by email, Twitter, blog posting — you name it — to let me know, and please include a link or other reference to how you sent it, so I’m able to track it down.

Here are some of the lovely ladies standing up for awareness with us and participating this year. I hope you do too!

The Breast Cancer Awareness Month Sign Project and Giveaway

Email or link to a picture of yourself holding your support sign (like the examples above), and leave a comment on the original post. Not only will you be showing your support for the cause, but you’ll also be entered to win a prize package worth more than $1,100 in makeup and beauty products provided by MAC, Clinique, Make Up For Ever, EstÃ©e Lauder and Bobbi Brown.

To Enter…

Take a picture of yourself with a sign that reads, “October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.” Whether you show your face is up to you, but I do think it would be great to see your lovely mug. 🙂
Send it to me. You can either email it to me at karen@makeupandbeautyblog.com, OR post it on your blog/facebook page and leave a link to the pic in the comments on the original post, OR upload it to Twitter and send a tweet to me @karenmbb.
The giveaway is open to US and international readers, but you must be the age of majority according to your country’s local laws (18 in the United States with these exceptions: Alabama and Nebraska, 19; Mississippi, 21).
One entry per person.
Deadline to enter is October 31, 2011 at 11:59PM PST.

Please comment on the original post to enter.

Please take a moment to show your support, and send in your awareness sign today.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Thank you.

The 2011 Breast Cancer Awareness Month Sign Project and Giveaway

October 1st, 2011 by Karen 197 Comments

WINNER: Drum roll, please…Â Patti! Congratulations, you’re the winner of more than $1,000 in makeup from MAC, Make Up For Ever, Clinique, Estee Lauder and Bobbi Brown. Thank you to everyone who took the time to share a sign this year. Hopefully someday soon, a cure will change the meaning of Breast Cancer Awareness Month for people around the world.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month Hey, friend. I’ve been sitting here for the past half an hour trying to figure out how to put my feelings into words. I write a sentence, then cross it out, write a sentence, cross it out.

I can’t think of a more elegant way to say it, so I’m just gonna say it…

You and I have been together for a really long time. Going on five years now, which is like 20 years in Internet time, and I think of you like a sister. Sure, we don’t fight over who got to wear that oversized Esprit sweater to the dance or argue about who got to use the car last Friday night, but watching you move about your life and just chatting about whatever — the books we’re reading, the food we’re eating, the makeup we’re lemming, the pets we’re loving — I feel like we’ve become a part of each other’s lives.

And just as there are defining moments that bring family members closer together, I think The Breast Cancer Awareness Month Sign Project we started last year did that for us.

Many of us reading right now have been affected by this dreadful disease, and I hope we stand together again this year to show our support for our sisters, our mothers and our friends. It’s such a small gesture, really, but I hope that in some small way the good wishes we send out into the universe help someone through a difficult time.

I’ve run donations for breast cancer charities in the past, and I encourage you to also support the cause that way if you’re able to, but I know that you’ll have many opportunities to give and show financial support on other sites this month. What we’re doing here this month is about increasing awareness, showing support and standing with solidarity — like a psychic hug and a hand squeeze — to the men (yes, men), women and families facing this disease.

Join me this Breast Cancer Awareness Month by taking a picture of yourself with a sign like the one at the top of this post, and you’ll be entered to win a prize package worth more than $1,000 in makeup and beauty products provided by MAC, Clinique, Make Up For Ever, EstÃ©e Lauder and Bobbi Brown. It can be a large sign or a small sign, like on a Post-It, or a camera phone pic of yourself with your sign written on your arm.

For this year’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month Sign Project, so many great sponsors stepped up to the plate. I can’t thank the wonderful people at MAC, Clinique, Make Up For Ever, EstÃ©e Lauder and Bobbi Brown enough for their generosity. If you’d like to know more about what a few of these brands are up to this year for BCA, check out BCAcampaign.com.

One (1) lucky lady or gentleman will win an epic package of prizes provided by MAC, Clinique, Make Up For Ever, EstÃ©e Lauder and Bobbi Brown (a $1,126 value).

MAC Beauty Powder in Alpha Girl ($25)
MAC Cremesheen Glass in Looks Like Sin ($18.50)
MAC Paint Pot in Vintage Selection ($17.50)
MAC Big Bounce Shadow in Black Diamond ($16.50)
MAC Big Bounce Shadow in Count Your Assets ($16.50)
MAC Eye Shadow in Diva in Distress ($19.50)
Clinique Chubby Stick in 01 Richer Raisin ($15)
Clinique Chubby Stick in 02 Whole Lotta Honey ($15)
Clinique Chubby Stick in 03 Fuller Fig ($15)
Clinique Chubby Stick in 04 Mega Melon ($15)
Clinique Chubby Stick in 05 Chunky Cherry ($15)
Clinique Chubby Stick in 06 Whoppin’ Watermelon ($15)
Clinique Chubby Stick in 07 Super Strawberry ($15)
Clinique Chubby Stick in 08 Graped-Up ($15)
Clinique Great Lips, Great Cause Key Ring ($16)
Clinique Happy Heart Body Wash ($26)
Clinique Happy Heart Body Cream ($30)
Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion Luxury Size ($38)
Clinique Moisture Surge Extended Thirst Relief ($46.50)
Clinique Quick Blush in Pronto Pink ($22.50)
Clinique All About Eyes Serum ($26)
Clinique Superbalm Moisturizing Gloss in Grapefruit ($14)
Clinique Long Last Glosswear SPF 15 in Air Kiss ($14)
Clinique Color Surge Butter Shine Lipstick in Fresh Watermelon ($14.50)
Clinique Bottom Lash Mascara in Black ($10)
Clinique Colour Surge Eye Shadow Quad in Pink Chocolate ($25.50)
Clinique Colour Surge Eye Shadow Duo in Strawberry Fudge ($18)
Clinique Vitamin C Lip Smoothie in Pink Me Up ($17.50)
Make Up For Ever HD Microfinish Powder ($30)
Make Up For Ever Smoky Lash Mascara ($22)
Make Up For Ever Highline Eye Shadow Palette ($45)
Make Up For Ever Aqua Eyes #2L ($18)
Make Up For Ever Aqua Liner #14 ($23)
Make Up For Ever Rouge Artist Intense #30 ($19)
Make Up For Ever Rouge Artist Intense Moulin Rouge ($19)
Make Up For Ever Lip Line Perfector ($18)
Make Up For Ever Lab Shine #S2 ($18)
Make Up For Ever HD Microfinish Blush #4 ($25)
Make Up For Ever Uplight #22 ($29)
Make Up For Ever Faux Lash #157 ($15)
Bobbi Brown Pink Ribbon Collection in Ruban Rose ($44)

First, take a picture of yourself holding a sign (or ask a friend to take one of you) that reads, “October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.” Whether you show your face is up to you, but I think it would be great to see your lovely mug. 🙂 (If you sent in a picture last year, please send in a new one.)
Send it to me! You can either email it to me at karen@makeupandbeautyblog.com, OR post it to your blog/Facebook page, OR tweet it to me @karenmbb, OR post it using a photo sharing site like PhotoBucket or Flickr.
Third, leave a comment at the bottom of this post with either a link to your picture or a note to tell me that you sent it by email.

The deadline to enter is Sunday, October 31, 2011 at 11:59PM PST.
Entrants must have a valid email address to win.
A maximum of one entry per person; entries must include a picture (linked or emailed) and a corresponding comment left at the bottom of this post.
Giveaway is open to individuals of ANY country who have reached the age of majority according to their local laws (18 in the United States with these exceptions: Alabama and Nebraska, 19; Mississippi, 21).
I will choose the winner at random (1 winner) from all of the entries received by the deadline on October 31.
Your entry picture must remain online and visible for a minimum of 48 hours after the deadline.
All entries become the property of Makeup and Beauty Blog (specifically Tabs) and will not be returned; they may also be republished in this or a future post on the blog.
The winner will be announced here within 48 hours of the deadline.
If the winner cannot be contacted or does not respond within three (3) days, an alternate winner will be selected at random again.
Void where prohibited by law.

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Technical Difficulties, or How to Make Your Thursday Go from Rad to Lame in 10 Seconds or Less

September 8th, 2011 by Karen 43 Comments

Rough day

Hi, ladies. I hope your day has gone smoother than mine. It’s late here on the West Coast, so I’m gonna keep this short and sweet. I’m on my eighth cup of Stress Relief Tea right now because the MBB server conked out earlier tonight. Consequently, the last few hours have been about as much fun as a root canal without anesthesia. I hope to have the missing posts restored tomorrow morning so we can get our beauty back on track.

Good thing stuff like this doesn’t happen very often (knock on wood) because, quite frankly, it sucks. 🙂

Have a great night. I’ll see you soon.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

From London to L.A.: Nails Inc. Nail Polishes Launching Today at Sephora

August 11th, 2011 by Karen 32 Comments

The British are coming! The British are coming!

YAY! 🙂

And they’ll be staying at Sephora while they’re here. Nails Inc., a cult favorite brand of nail polish colors, treatments and specialty top coats from across the pond, officially goes on sale today at Sephora stores and also online.

The brand’s been around since 1999, with products ranging from $9.50 – $25 each, and colors inspired by catwalks worldwide.

The 42 polishes in their color line are going for $9.50 each at Sephora — some with super glossy cream finishes, glittery finishes, and others with shimmery metallic finishes — and each one is named after an iconic London locale like bright sunflower yellow Carnaby Street, beet red Piccadilly Circus and bright geranium pink Brook Street.

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