Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup

Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup

A beauty blog blooming with fresh makeup reviews, swatches and beauty tips from your friendly neighborhood beauty addict

5 Fantastic Concealers for Dark Circles

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5 Fantastic Concealers for Dark Circles

Oh, the scourge of dark circles… They plague me! No matter how much sleep I get, I just can’t seem to get rid of ’em.

And it turns out I’m not the only one (who knew?). Last week I put out a call for your favorite concealers to hide dark circles, and almost a hundred of you answered! Tabs tallied the votes, and here are the top five.

1. The Balm Time Balm

This creamy concealer has been my absolute personal favorite for a while, and the votes showed it’s one of your favorites, too. Able to (almost) completely cover my dark circles, it’s also able to work that magic without looking heavy or obvious, and it lasts throughout the day with nary a crease. $18, available in six shades. [Grab it…]

2. Yves Saint Laurent Touche Eclat

A friend of mine over at YSL once told me they sell a tube of this cult classic highlighter every six seconds. SIX SECONDS! That’s 14,400 per day… Not surprisingly, the product’s earned beauty awards up the wazoo. $40, available in four shades. [Grab it…]

3. Bobbi Brown Corrector

Bobbi Brown Corrector is actually supposed to be layered beneath other concealers for a little extra oomph. It’s a helper product designed to treat uber-dark circles by adding extra coverage. $22, available in 12 colors. [Grab it…]

4. Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage

This concealer duo comes with two shades you can custom blend for best results. Fans love how well it blends, how smooth it feels and that it doesn’t settle into fine lines. $28, available in five shades. [Grab it…]

5. Benefit Erase Paste

A creamy, all-in-one concealer AND brightener, Benefit Erase Paste is a peachy pink-toned concealer with a touch of shimmer. I’ve tried it before and didn’t feel like it had enough coverage for me, but die-hards absolutely swear by it. $26, available in three shades. [Grab it…]

Have you tried any or many of these top five? If you have a favorite that didn’t make the list, let me know in the comments.

Now it’s time to cast a vote for the best of the best. Which will take the dark circle-eliminating crown?

What's the best concealer for dark circles?

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Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Does Too Faced Lip Insurance Lock Down Your Lip Color?

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too faced lip insurance review

The Problem: Your favorite pigmented lip products disappear faster than Coolio’s rap career (OMG, Gangsta’s Paradise!). Is there anything you can do about it?

Too Faced says sí, se puede! Worn beneath other lip products, their new Lip Insurance lip primer ($19, available at Sephora stores and online) is designed to prevent color fading, bleeding and creasing while simultaneously ramping up the richness of lipsticks and glosses. It’s also jam packed with ceramides and peptides to plump lips and help restore natural collagen.

Too Faced took out all the guesswork from choosing colors, too, because it’s only available in one, which they call Nude. Nude goes on clear with a matte finish and has a light, non-sticky texture that feels smooth like butter. Being a huge fan of Too Faced Shadow Insurance, I couldn’t wait to give Lip Insurance a try

too faced lip insurance review
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Benefit The Porefessional: Pore Your Eyes Only

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benefit the porefessional review

My 30s came with a few cool perks — wisdom, Tabs and El Hub — that have helped offset the drawbacks of getting older, but there’s one area of aging I’m still trying to offset: my pores. Compared to how they looked in my 20s, THEY’RE HUGE! They’re like Olympic swimming pools within which people could host a swim meet.

To some sad degree, it just comes with the territory. Over time, pores enlarge. Accumulated sun damage, other environmental factors and the natural aging process itself all weaken the support structures around them.

But Benefit says there’s hope. The new Benefit The Porefessional ($28, available now at Ulta.com, and Benefit counters and stores beginning next month).

The lightweight, oil-free primer is designed to minimize the appearance of those behemoth pores when it’s either worn as a primer beneath makeup, where it creates a smooth canvas for foundation and powder, and/or applied on top of your face paint throughout the day, where it softens the skin with a matte finish.
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Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll, June 7

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The entrance to Castello di Amorosa Winery in Calistoga, California

  1. Mood:

    2. Organized and ready to handle some bidness! I spent yesterday afternoon straightening out my workspace because clutter kills!

  2. What’s been the most inspirational makeup collection for you?

    3. I’d been using the same brown, pink and taupe palette for most of my life until the Barbie Loves MAC release a few years ago. That collection was like the match that lit my makeup fire! It was a gateway drug to a full-blown beauty addiction.

  3. What are your favorite three cities in the world?

    4. Honolulu, New York City and Please-Don’t-Call-It-Frisco

  4. Describe your sense of beauty and style.

    5. Classic with a pinch of eclectic (code word for strange), edgier colors thrown in for good measure.

  5. If you wrote a memoir, what would it be titled?

    6. The Life and Times of a Cat Lady, or maybe Karen: The Girl Who Couldn’t Spell Freedom, LOL!

  6. What’s the last “coolest” thing you’ve bought?

    7. A pair of dangly shell chandelier earrings from H&M; they were hella cheap and go with everything. I don’t expect to have them long, though, because I’m bad about losing jewelry.

  7. The most played song on your iPod?

    8. I have no idea how it happened, but I’ve played Sheryl Crow’s Always On Your Side 851 times.

  8. Where do you go to get your staple makeup/beauty items?

    9. Mostly MAC counters and MAC Pro stores, Target and Sephora.

  9. Outfit:

    10. A gray sundress and flip flops. It’s supposed to be in the ’80s here today, so, yay/yea, summer!

  10. Weekly goals:

    11. To not let all of the time I spent organizing my workspace go to waste, to do more stretching, to run at least three times, to plan another fun day out with my girlfriends for some time in July and to go shopping for some new treats and toys for Tabs (he likes scratching posts and Pounce! treats).

Hello, and happy manic Monday, friends!

Here’s a seemingly random question, but if you have pets, do they go through phases where they’re more lovey than usual? After ignoring me for days like a petulant teenager, Tabs has again deemed me worthy of his affections.

While I slept on my side last night, he balanced precariously on my hip, adoring me with his eyes (kinda awkward when said cat’s 15 pounds and clumsy). And then this morning before I got out of bed he plopped down on my chest and blew stinky gravy breath in my face.

I know his newfound adoration won’t last long, so I plan to enjoy it while it lasts.

How’s your Monday coming along? Hope things got off to a fab start. Do you have a minute for the Monday Poll?

If you do, just copy the following list, and paste it with your answers in the comments.

Le list

1. Mood:
2. What’s been the most inspirational makeup collection for you?
3. What are your favorite three cities in the world?
4. Describe your sense of beauty and style:
5. If you wrote a memoir, what would it be titled?
6. What’s the last “coolest” thing you’ve bought?
7. The most played song on your iPod?
8. Where do you go to get your staple makeup/beauty items?
9. Outfit:
10. Your weekly goals:

I’m looking forward to a fun-tastic week for us all!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Sundays with Tabs the Cat, Makeup and Beauty Blog Mascot, Vol. 90

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Sundays with Tabs

I don’t know if he mentioned it, but Tabs had a pretty exciting weekend. Yesterday while I was in Napa he spent the day helping El Hub with some chores around the house. Because they’re both so busy nowadays they don’t get to hang out as much as they used to, Tabs because of travel (he was in Prague for a shoot week before last) and El Hub because of his day job (international man of mystery).

So yesterday they both just spent quality time together, replacing garbage disposals, planting catnip and watching Legend of the Seeker on Hulu — you know, typical cat/man things.

Complete the comic

Okay, are you ready to fly your crazy cat lady flag with me? 🙂 It’s easy. Just complete the dialogue for the above comic by leaving eight (8) captions in your comment. Then, Tabs will choose his favorites and turn them into the real thing.

Here’s an example:

PANEL #1: Tabs didn’t know what time it was when he hit Casino Royale, but he knew it was well after midnight. That meant he only had a few hours left to win back the money he’d lost to Ben Affleck earlier that night.
PANEL #2: Mrow… (stand)
PANEL #3: How zuz ist feel, heir Tabby, to vatch a veal gat pleh?
PANEL #4: I’m staring at you like this because it’s ironic…
PANEL #5: …and because there’s something you don’t know about me, doctor.
PANEL #6: Oh, was ist das?
PANEL #7: Not only am I immune to pressure, but I’m good friends with the dealer.
PANEL #8: BOOM! Haha! Read ’em and weep, dude!

Okay, I know you can do better than that, LOL! Help me out here.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Ring Me in the Open Thread

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Well, it’s official. I’m 100% NOT ready for the weekend to end.

It’s just that I had such a good time in Napa yesterday (with the exception of the mud bath!) that it’s making me dread Monday morning. Two of my best girlfriends from childhood, Jen and Cindy, went up with me, and we began the adventure with snacks at Dean & DeLuca, a fancy shmancy market in a little town called St. Helena. I had the gigantic bread ring in the picture at the top.

From there it was over to Castello di Amorosa Winery in neighboring Calistoga, a town at the northern end of the Napa Valley, for a tour and tasting.

The castle’s relatively new… How often does one say that? — “The castle’s relatively new.” It’s a replica of a real one in Tuscany; I have to assume that one’s a lot older. 🙂

Mark, our guide, gave us a tour of the grounds, throwing in tidbits about the winemaking process and ancient castles, of which he knew A LOT!


One of the castle’s two tabby cat guards
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