Whether to use a brush or a puff to apply powder depends on the kind of coverage you’d like (click here to see the video).
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Highlights from May 2009
1. In What Order Do You Apply Your Makeup? — Most of the makeup artists I know suggest starting with concealer, foundation and powder, but I prefer to do my eyes *first*. That way, if (when) I make a mess, I haven’t gotten too far into the overall look, and things are still easy to clean up.
2. Urban Decay Pocket Rocket Lipgloss: Stand By Yo’ Man — Each of the eight glosses in the set has a hologram hottie in the cap. Each hottie has a different guy’s name, and if you tilt the gloss from side to side, its hottie transforms from fully clothed to undies only. I think that’s just the coolest. Thing. Ever.
3. What’s Your Favorite Drugstore Hairspray? — I usually use hairsprays to set a final style, and there are two drugstore products I really like. If I want soft, flexible hold (say, if I’ve curled my hair), I reach for L’Oreal’s Elnett Extra StrongHold UV Hair Spray ($15). It’s an aerosol spray with UV protectors, and I love fine mist.
4. MAC Style Warriors Swatches and Pictures — I’m on the fence about the collection, but I definitely like the packaging a lot. The overall color palette isn’t as warm as I thought it would be, and where am I going to wear yellow lipgloss and eyeshadow, LOL? I get the feeling they may be more arty than wearable.
5. 5 Drugstore Mascaras, 5 Days — This post was written by blogger Caroline K, who takes us through five days of testing with five popular drugstore mascaras. This was one of my favorite posts of the month.
6. Poolside Champ: Banana Boat Ultra Defense Continuous Spray Sunblock — This shizz is probably the best waterproof aerosol sunblock I’ve ever used and has only a couple little downsides. First, the good stuff — it’s a broad-spectrum sun protectant offering both UVA/UVB protection and comes in three potencies, SPF 30, 50 and the uber-powerful 85. SPF is all well and good, but why I really love it is because it works like a lotion and not a flighty spray.
7. What’s Your Favorite Makeup Primer? — When my skin was super oily a few years back, summertime was always the toughest season for me. By mid-morning, my forehead and face would always take on what I liked to call THE SHINING!
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
What’s Been Your Least Favorite Recent MAC Collection?
June means we’re almost halfway through 2009 ALREADY! Can you believe it? Halfway through ALREADY!?
MAC’s sure been busy, haven’t they? Some of their recent collections totally curled my toes (Brunette Blonde Redhead, holla!), but a few left me uninspired (*ahem*, Grand Duos).
They’re still batting a good game though. I’m a MAC junkie at heart, so I (usually) don’t mind how fast they crank out new products.
Refresher course on MAC’s 2009 releases so far…
- January: Brunette Blonde Redhead
- February: Creme Team, Well Defined, Hello Kitty
- March: Kitty Kouture, Grand Duos, Viva Glam VI Special Edition, Sugarsweet
- April: Colour Ready, A Rose Romance, Double Dazzle
- May: Style Warriors
- June: Naked Honey (arrives next week)
Loading ...Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Take Your Roots to New Heights with Oscar Blandi Pronto Dry Shampoo
Hella stinky…
To save a little time last week and because I didn’t want to deal with restyling my ‘do, I flat ironed my hair on Tuesday and then just let it do its thang.
I made it a few days, but as the week wore on, my hair took on the scent of greasy, day-old fries.
One would think that’s when I took a shower, but nope. 🙂 Instead, I busted out Oscar Blandi’s Pronto Dry Shampoo ($21)… all in the name of beauty science, of course.
Dry shampoos sprays are fine powder mists sprayed onto the roots. They revive and refresh by absorbing excess grease, lifting roots and erasing oily shine.
They’re not meant to take the place of real shampoos and washing, but they do come in handy when I’m crazy busy, extra *lazy*, tired, or if I just want a salon blow-out or flat ironed hairstyle to last a couple more days.
Pronto has been around for a while, but it’s new to me.
The spray comes in two sizes, a tiny 1.4-oz travel can ($11) and a larger 3.2-oz regular size ($21). The formula is free of parabens and sulfates, and according to the company wasn’t tested on animals, yea!
What I liked
Pronto is by far the best smelling dry shampoo I’ve ever tried. Most have a strong, lingering scent, but Pronto’s faint lemon verbena dissipates quickly. It’s a *good* lemon fragrance, too — like freshly baked lemon bars versus Pledge furniture cleaner.
And when it comes to root lifting, Pronto kicks other dry shampoos to the curb. Using it my hair looked dramatically fuller at the roots than it does when I use Rene Furterer’s Naturia, for example, or Ojon’s Rub-Out Dry Cleanser.
What I didn’t like
Residue, yuck! Although my roots looked high and full of volume, the white, powdery residue was hard to miss, totally standing out on my dark brown hair.
It took me 10 minutes to vigorously massage and brush to nix the white cast, and that kinda defeats the purpose of my trying to use the stuff to save time.
If you’re a blonde or have lighter brown hair than I do, the powdery residue may not be as obvious on you, but if your hair is really dark like mine, you might be better off with Naturia or Rub-Out.
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Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll, June 1
- Mood:
- What was one thing that made you happy this weekend?
- Outfit and shoes:
- Current lipstick or lipgloss crush?
- What are your nicknames?
- Song that always tugs at your heart?
- How do you feel about 80s fashion?
- Favorite movie?
- Weekly goals:
A little frazzled and disheveled. I’m trying to juggle a couple of freelance projects along with house hunting so I’m doing ten things at once and feeling overwhelmed.
Going to the movies to watch Drag Me to Hell on Friday night. I love how a good flick allows me to get lost in the story and check out of reality for a few hours.
Dark jeans, white t-shirt, red hoodie, black Locals flip-flops.
NARS Supervixen! I’ve been wearing it 24/7 for the last three days.
Bratasaur, Kate, Katie, Karonie, K-Money, Abs…
I have a few: Blackbird (The Beatles), End of the Innocence (Don Henley) and A Change is Gonna Come (Sam Cooke).
There are some things I like, but overall I’m not too crazy about that decade of fashion since I lived through it the first time around and have the awful pictures to prove it. If acid washed jeans, chunky shoulder pads and big hair with side wings come back in style I might just die…
The Sound of Music.
Go to bed early, continue with my visualization exercises (hey, if it’s good enough for Olympic Athletes…), get back into the habit of running, call up a few friends who I haven’t spoken to in a while.
Heya, ladies. How’s your Monday so far? Mine started off kinda rough — I got sucked into a black hole of admin tasks all morning, but now I’m slowly starting to crawl out so things are looking up.
I know you’re busy too, but when you get a chance let me know what’s going on in your neck of the woods by copying the list below and placing your answers into the comments.
Le List
Mood:
What was one thing that made you happy this weekend?
Outfit and shoes:
Current lipstick or lipgloss crush?
What are your nicknames?
Song that always tugs at your heart?
How do you feel about 80s fashion?
Favorite movie?
Weekly goals:
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Sundays with Tabs the Cat, Makeup and Beauty Blog Mascot, May 31
Tabs is usually down to hang out for HOURS at a MAC counter with me, but today he was absorbed in a new site he found. While I surfed the counter for makeup, he surfed the web on his iPhone.
Here are some of the links he bookmarked this week…
- Ever wonder what your emo alter ego would look like?
- Kiss me, you impetuous, glitter-studded, hard-rockin’ fool!
- Must. Have. These. Earrings!
- Is Neutrogena’s latest sunscreen a harbinger of what’s to come?
- Yes, please, I’ll take all of them to go, thanks!
- Um, I don’t think I brought enough sunscreen…
- Here’s a cool giveaway for an IcyBag and some goodies from Sephora.
- Having trubs keeping track of all your to-do lists? Never fear, Evernote is here!
- Here’s a way to get the beachy hair look on the cheap.
- Yah, the colors don’t really pop, but Chanel’s new Les Naturels Summer collection is still rocking my boat.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
What Are Your Favorite Pigmented Lip Glosses?
Can I ask you to recommend some lip glosses which have good color payoff? My natural lips are kinda plummy-pink…
Cheers,
Kewal
Hiya Kewal,
I love lip gloss more than Spencer Pratt loves his creepy, fleshy beard!
Here are some of my favorite pigmented lip glosses, in no particular order.
- NARS Lip Gloss ($24): These are semi-sticky with a medium weight; they’re also taste- and fragrance-free. The one I can’t get enough of is called Belize, a shimmery, pinkish mauve with golden pearl.
- MAC Lipglass ($14): Or, if you prefer a thicker gloss, check out MAC’s Lipglasses. They come in tons of colors! My favorites — Lychee Luxe (a shimmery, reddish coral), Nymphette (a shimmery, pinkish gold) and Spite (a creamy, plummy brown).
- Chanel Celestial Lights Glossimers ($27): If you’re looking for a little more bling than either the NARS or MAC glosses pack, splurge for one of the ultra-pigmented, uber-sparkly Chanel Celestial Lights Glossimers. I really heart Venus, a sparkly hot pink.
Do you have any other pigmented lip gloss suggestions for Kewal?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Crowd Favorite Makeup Primers
A few days ago I asked for makeup primer recommendations, and you replied with some *doozies*.
The crowd favorites were by Smashbox (Photo Finish Foundation Primer, $36-49), MAC (Prep + Prime, $19-28), Laura Geller (Spackle, $23) and Philosophy (The Present, $25).
A few of the others that were also mentioned more than once…
- Bare Escentuals Prime Time, $21 — “…really good for keeping my makeup long-lasting … but keeping oil at bay? nah, it didn’t do anything with the slick factor…” – noi
- Monistat Anti-Chafing Gel, $8 — “…chafing cream all over my face. Super cheap and works like a high end primer, has the same ingredients too. Google it. All the cool kids are doing it.” – Martha
- Tarte Clean Slate, $27 — “…a lightweight, clear gel primer that feels slightly thicker than Laura’s. After it absorbs, it feels drier and a touch smoother, too.” – Yours truly 🙂
One time, at WordCamp…
So WordCamp SF was pretty cool.
They hold them in cities all over the place, but this one was in my neck of the woods.
WordPress is the software that I and about 15 million other folks use to blog. When I’m writing a post, the screen I see looks like this:
If you have a WordPress blog or think you might like to start one, check here for dates of WordCamps in your area. Each all-day conference costs about $20 in the local currency and covers blog writing, video production, plugins (mini-programs to enhance blog functionality by adding the ability to do polls and stuff like that), mobile blogging and upcoming features. And they even throw in a buffet lunch. 🙂
I expected to see mostly dudes in the audience, but there were plenty of women, too (yay!).
I kept my eyes peeled for gals in blinged-out makeup but no luck.
My favorite part was listening to a presentation by Cali Lewis of Geek Brief TV. She talked about video podcasting (with iTunes), which is something I’m interested in trying. If you’ve done any online video production before, shoot me an e-mail.
I was beat by the end of the conference and just ended up chillin’ with a bean and cheese burrito, a bucket of dulce de leche Haagen Daaz and hella episodes of Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Totally exciting Saturday night, I know! 🙂
Are you having a good weekend? What did you do last night?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen