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

Have You Tried These PUR Cameo Contour Dual-Ended Contour Sticks?

November 24th, 2015 by Karen 24 Comments

I’m not cuckoo for contouring. On myself. I feel like it looks a little harsh on me, and whenever I do it, my cheeks and my nose end up looking sharper and more chiseled than I’d like, which makes me look more, I dunno…villainous?

Call me crazy, but I’d rather have chubby cherub cheeks any day of the week.

Still, every once in a while (it’s a rare occasion), I will “go there” and do some contouring, and when I do, I like creams more than powders, just because I think it’s a softer, less obvious look, which is the effect I get with these $39.50 Cameo Contour Dual-Ended Contour Sticks by PUR Cosmetics.

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Rimmel Keep Calm and Lip Balm Is More Than a $2.50 Makeup Meme

November 23rd, 2015 by Karen 32 Comments

Tabs and I both agree that the whole “Keep Calm and Carry On” meme/slogan thing feels pretty played out, but he has a suggestion to revitalize it…

Ha! I don’t even care if it’s overdone. I’m a sucker for colorful packaging and sans-serif fonts, so I’m all about these almost unbelievably affordable $2.50 (!) Rimmel Keep Calm Balms.

All ahead, cute factor 12. 🙂

When Baby Girl is in elementary school, if she asks for a lipstick to call her own and keep in her My Little Pony backpack, I’d get her one of these…and then I’d borrow it all the time, LOL!

They cost less than a Starbucks latte — just $2.50 each — which makes them prime targets for drugstore stress shopping, so when an obnoxious stranger at Target offers you unsolicited, highly personal advice (FYI, it happens a lot when you’re pregnant), and you desperately need something to calm your nerves, you can add one of these to your basket without throwing your monthly makeup allowance out of whack.

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The Smith & Cult Holiday Trio in Red and Glitter

November 23rd, 2015 by Karen 22 Comments

smith cult holiday trio 2 — The Smith & Cult Holiday Trio in Red and Glitter ($54, available now at Neiman Marcus stores and online)

I can haz Smith & Cult paw polishes…? Because I’d like a wall of shelves filled with them.

It’s the bottles, man! I could spend hours starting at the bottles…

It’s as if whoever designed the bottle plumbed the depths of my makeup-loving soul for things that make my heart flutter, like the cursive typography, the hefty glass, the oval curves and the Dali-like cap (it looks like it’s melting!).

I love it when beauty products are actually, like, beautiful…and I friggin’ LOVE these bottles.

smith cult shattered sould — Smith & Cult Nailed Lacquer in Shattered Souls

These three fun shades are part of the new $54 Smith & Cult Red and Glitter Holiday Trio available now at Neiman Marcus stores and online. The trio comes with three full-size bottles of Smith & Cult Nailed Lacquer from the brand’s permanent line in poppy red Kundalini Hustle, creamy eggplant Dark Like Me and golden glittery Shattered Souls.

Kundalini Hustle and Dark Like Me are both fully opaque, while Shattered Souls is glitter in a clear base.

As far as bargains go…this isn’t one of those sets. Smith & Cult nail polishes usually sell for $18 each, so $54 for three doesn’t constitute a price break, but I still think you get a nice combination of complementary colors (there’s also another trio available with pastels).

Smith Cult Kundalini Hustle — Smith & Cult Nailed Lacquer in Kundalini Hustle

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Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll, Vol. 348

November 23rd, 2015 by Karen 70 Comments

You might be wondering, “So what in tarnation is this Monday Poll thing anyway!?”

Well, it isn’t exactly a poll. It’s more of a constantly evolving (devolving?), somewhat random list of questions I’ve been putting out to readers every Monday morning for the past seven years. (It’s like a kickstart for your brain.) I’ve always enjoyed reading your answers in the comments, and I hope you enjoy reading mine.

Where do you usually spend the holidays?
Well that’s a good question! It gets a little complicated sometimes, but we usually spend Thanksgivings here in the Bay Area at my parents’ house in Union City, which is about 40 or 50 miles away. I little more often nowadays, though, El Hub and I will just spend a quiet holiday here by ourselves with Tabs in Novato, which, truth be told, has been nice (I like being in my own house, ya know?).

Christmases are more complicated. El Hub’s parents live in a town called Redding, which is about 200 miles north, just south of the Oregon border, and my parents live in the East Bay, so we usually split the holiday between the two sides of the families, which means A LOT of driving on our part.

We’ll spend Christmas Eve at my parents’ house, which is when we’ve always celebrated, and then, at the crack of dawn on Christmas morning, we drive up to Redding, which gets us there around noon, where we celebrate the day with El Hub’s side of the fam.

Things will change after Baby Girl arrives, ’cause you know how that goes. When you have the babies, people come to you (I hope), and all I have to say about that is THANK GOODNESS.

I’m looking forward to hosting the holidays at our house, to be honest, and starting some traditions of our own at home with our daughter. 🙂

Time to toot your own horn! What’s your Thanksgiving specialty dish?
I make some killer garlic mashed potatoes, yo. Fluffy, buttery, and they melt in your mouth.

And my blueberry peach cobbler isn’t half bad, either, and it’s really easy to make. (Here are both recipes if you’re interested!)

To fill in your brows, which do you prefer — brow gels, powders, pencils or a combination of two or more?
I’m a brow pencil/gel combo girl, because I like that when I fill in my brows with a brow pencil, it looks like I’m creating more little brow hairs, and then the gel sets everything, holds the shape and keeps the hairs from flying all over the place.

Also, at least for the time being, until I embrace some other technique, my brow filling workflow is a little unorthodox, because I start with the brow gel, before going in with the brow pencil…which sounds backward, I know, but it works for me.

How do you feel about rimming your water lines? For you, is it a do or a don’t?
It’s definitely a do! I love wearing liner on my water lines to draw extra attention to my eyes, especially when I use greens, blues, purples and reddish browns, which I think go well with my brown eyes.

Do you have freckles?
I most certainly do, like the one I’ve had just under my right eye ever since I was a little kid, and now I have a bunch more of them on my nose and cheeks.

Your turn. 🙂 Just copy and paste the following questions into a comment with your answers. I look forward to reading ’em!

1. Where do you usually spend the holidays?
2. What’s your Thanksgiving specialty dish?
3. What’s your preferred method of filling in your brows? Gel, powder, pencil, a combination of a few things etc.?
4. Rimming your water lines: a do or a don’t?
5. Do you have freckles?

T-minus three days till turkey day, aah!

As you can probably tell, I’m very excited about that. My parents are on a trip, and El Hub’s parents have other plans up north, so it’s just going to be me, El Hub, Baby Girl, Tabs and maybe my younger brother, who’s one of those people who may or may not show up at the last minute with a tub of macaroni salad…but you just never know.

I hope you’re having a good Monday so far, and I hope it’s the start to a great week. Thank you for being here with me on this Thanksgiving week. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Sundays With Tabs the Cat, Makeup and Beauty Blog Mascot, Vol. 373

November 22nd, 2015 by Karen 29 Comments

Dear Diary,

I’m feeling very thoughtful today — and apparently very generous as well. After my morning modeling routine (I practice daily to keep my edge), I had a long conversation with my assistant about her Thanksgiving work schedule.

Rather than requiring her to work her regular schedule, purr usual, for the first time in Tabs the Cat Industries history, I’m giving her the day off.

Am I getting soft in my later years? No. But I do appreciate loyalty. I also strongly believe that it’s important to recognize exceptional employees, which is why I’ll be spending this Thanksgiving with mine.

I know it’s unorthodox for executives to mingle with the support staff over the holidays, but while my assistant was giving me my mid-morning shiatsu massage, she started getting emotional, saying how much she loves being my companion, how I’ll always be her “oldest baby” (What’s that about? I have no idea!), and how she hopes we’ll be able to spend many more Thanksgivings together.

Although I pride myself on my ability to “keep it together,” I couldn’t help it. I got a little emotional, too.

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Neat and New to Me: NARS Alhambra Eyeshadow Duo

November 20th, 2015 by Karen 12 Comments

Neat and New to Me

Unlike my Unsung Heroes series, which features permanent collection products I’ve known and loved a long time, the Neat and New to Me series showcases permanent collection products that slipped under my radar for a while, but then I discovered them! — and now I think they’re neat and new to me.

I wore the NARS Alhambra Eyeshadow Duo last weekend to shop for maternity jeans, and you know what? You know your eyeshadow is doing something right when you’re shopping for jeans (which is usually traumatic enough as it is) in your sixth month of pregnancy, and you feel extra huge, and you’re in a dressing room with the worst florescent green lighting known to womankind, and you look in the mirror and think, “Dayum! My eye makeup looks good…”

Thank you, NARS Alhambra. 🙂

You can make a woman feel good in gold, EVEN when she’s in sickly greenish lighting.

On one side of this warm-toned powder shadow duo lives a metallic rosy gold; on the other, a golden champagne.

They might look a little scary and frosty in that swatch below, but trust! — they aren’t that shiny or brash on lids once they’ve been blended (which is easy to do because they’re both also incredibly soft).

Like a superhero satin, the finish shines, but it’s about six degrees away from “discotheque,” so you can tell your fine lines to chill. Alhambra’s got this.

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Baths: With or Without Foamy Bubbles?

November 20th, 2015 by Karen 19 Comments

Oh, my gosh. Gimme those foamy bubbles every time! They make bath time so much better.

Buuut, I won’t say no to bath salts if there are no bubbly options available. I mostly just like sitting in the tub…although I haven’t taken a real bath since I got pregnant with Baby Girl. I’m just a little nervous about slipping or not being able to get out, because my balance has been off.

I mean, a shower gets the job done, but a bath gets it done so much better. I miss ’em!

The other ish is the whole cleaning the bath/shower thing. My tub is about 30 years old. It has seen better days, if you know what I mean, and the only time I like to take a bath in it is during the few days after I thoroughly clean it.

How about you? Baths with or without foamy bubbles? Inquiring minds want to know. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. TGIF!