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

Sometimes I feel like my beauty life is an episode of The X Files, because weird sh*t happens, and it happens over and over again.

Like this morning. I got up, washed my face and grabbed a pair of tweezers to tweeze my brows, and when I looked in the mirror, I noticed that my brow situation had gone full-on Yeti.

How this happened, I have no idea, but it was a rainforest up there! They seemingly went from normal to jungly and overgrown overnight.

I see myself in the mirror every day, so you’d think I’d pick up on these things sooner and be like, “Oh! Gosh, Karen, you’re turning into a Sasquatch…” but no. I’m apparently totally oblivious until the one day when I look up and see a thick carpet of hair growing on my brows…and my upper lip…and my chin. And it all just comes outta nowhere.

Now if I could only get those hairs to migrate over to my lashes…

Anyway, this is all to say that I finally tweezed today, and I feel like a whole new girl! It’s glorious! 🙂

I don’t know if you tweeze, but if you do, how picky are you about your tweezing implements? I’m super picky, but I swear by Tweezermans. I use the ones with the wedge-shaped tips to do my brows and upper lip hairs because I can grab a lot at once, and for those stiff, hard-to-remove witchy hairs on my chin (I mean, let’s get real — we all get the witchy hairs!), I use the ones with the sharp, pointy tips.

Did you know that you can get your Tweezermans sharpened? Yeah, if you send them in, they’ll sharpen them and send them back (thing is, it takes a while), and I think it might even be free!

I’ve never done it before, but I want to one of these days. If you’ve done it before, let me know. I’m curious…

So, while I was tweezing the living daylights out of my brows this morning in the magnifying mirror (my best friend and worst enemy), I spotted a minor breakout on my nose, so I grabbed these new POREfessional Instant Wipeout Masks by Benefit, which I’ve been meaning to try.

They’re $32 for eight masks, and they haven’t been around long. They’re designed to exfoliate and remove gunk from clogged pores on your forehead, nose and/or chin, and the star ingredient is a kind of mushroom extract that’s supposed to clean and shrink enlarged pores. And they also have a minty scent and menthol in them, so you get a bit of a crisp, cooling sensation, too.

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OK, I know that going to bed without removing your makeup is a big beauty no-no, but…let’s get real here: it happens.

Back when I was going out dancing a lot in my early 20s, I’d zonk out before removing my makeup at least once or twice a month (GASP!).

I know.

When I’m passing out on a friend’s couch at 4 a.m., washing my mug is the last thing on my mind, but that was a kinder, gentler time for my skin when I could get away with things like that… It was the time before serums, anti-aging creams and skin-related doodads and doohickies, also known as “the time when I could pretty much do anything, and my skin would be OK.”

Oh, how things have changed! I can’t really do that anymore, and ya know what? I don’t want to.

So, yeah, these days, never, although that might change after BG comes along… Heck, I probably won’t be wearing or removing much makeup at all for a while after she’s born. But ya never know!

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Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. TGIF!

I want your no-holds-barred, initial gut reaction, homie.

(In other words, don’t overthink it!)

I prefer sharp liner, for sure. Doesn’t matter if we’re talking about tiny tabby kitten flicks or winged liner of pegasus-ian proportions; sharp, crisp liner lines call to my soul.

Perhaps there’s a Goddess of Eyeliner, and she has my number on speed dial, and she keeps calling and leaving me mind control messages like, “You love precise lines, Karen… You cannot help yourself…”

Or, maybe I just respond viscerally to that kind of makeup.

Probably the latter, although I wouldn’t mind taking a call from the Goddess of Eyeliner every once in a while… That could be fun. 🙂

Ironically, I don’t actually do sharp liner lines all that often because they typically tack on another 10-15 minutes that I don’t often feel I have.

Yes, sometimes sharp liner really takes that long! — sometimes even longer if something goes awry, and I end up having to do damage control. Sharp liner takes no prisoners, yo! And it’s so unforgiving that even if it’s off by a couple millimeters, you can tell.

So, yeah, even though I’m like DAT WINGED LINER DOE, I still usually wear smudgy liner on a day-to-day basis because it’s easier to hide my application mistakes.

It’s sooo much easier to quickly draw a less-than-perfect line along my lash lines, then go to town smudging it out with a pencil brush (usually one loaded with a transition color to create smoother gradients), then be done with the whole business in less time than it takes to toast a Frosted Strawberry Pop Tart…

But enough about the sweet breakfast treats I miss oh, so very much, wah! What are your thoughts on sharp vs. smudgy eyeliner? Do you have a preference, and which do you wear more? Inquiring eyeliner-loving minds want to know. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

In the many conversations I’ve had with different makeup-loving ladies and gents, one thing I’ve come to realize is that when it comes to foundation, most people, when they find one they really like, stick to it like glue. They’re ride-or-die loyal, and I totally understand this, because finding a foundation that actually works well for you on every level is like finding a chupacabra unicorn (i.e., it’s pretty freaking hard!).

I mean, it’s not as hard as getting a spacecraft piloted solely by cats into orbit around Mars, but it’s hard! In fact, finding a foundation that works with your skin type, delivers the coverage you want and matches your skin tone (and undertones) is probably HARDER than sending astronaut cats into space.

So when I find a foundation that works for me, I’m loyal to it…for about three seconds, LOL! 🙂 OK, more like a few months, but I’m kind of a foundation junkie (you know this) and, depending on what kind of makeup I’m obsessed with at the moment, I’ll stick to something only until the next best thing comes along.

Right now, I’m all about minimal coverage and coverage that looks like real skin, so foundations along the line of compact cushion and tinted moisturizers are my jam. I’m really loving NARS Velvet Matte Skin Tint at the moment (I wear the shade called St. Moritz), but a few months ago I was all about fuller coverage and wore Dior’s Nudeskin almost every single day. Before that, it was Laura Mercier’s Flawless Fluide.

So, let’s talk foundation loyalty. What’s your take on it? Do you stick to one foundation when you’ve found one to love, or do you bounce around just because?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen