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Outfit of the Day: Bumpin’ at 20 Weeks With a BLANKNYC Faux Leather Jacket and TOMS Majorca Peep Toe Booties

October 22nd, 2015 by Karen 66 Comments

Funny story about these pics.

I’m not sure where I saw or heard this tidbit of advice (it may have been America’s Next Top Model), but it helps you hit your poses when you take pics if you 1) suck in your tummy and 2) squeeze your butt.

Cheeks. Your butt cheeks. LOL!

I know, you don’t even need to say it. 🙂 But it helps, believe it or not. As far as photography posing tips go, it’s right up there with rolling your shoulders forward and working your angles.

Now, the butt-squeezing part? When you’re with child, totally doable. But the tummy-sucking is sooo not happening.

About this outfit here, nothing I’m wearing is official maternity gear. I had all of this in my closet before Baby Girl set up shop.

The dress, which I always get questions about, is what I now like to call “vintage.” I bought it eons ago, around 2001 or 2002, at a random store in San Francisco’s Fillmore district. It’s super soft and stretchy, and it’s become one of my go-to outfits lately.

The tag says it’s by a designer named Hot Sauce, which I Googled, but alas…I don’t think Hot Sauce is working anymore. (Ha! “Hot Sauce is working…”)

The jacket is easily one of my all-time best Nordstrom buys, the Faux Leather Jacket by BLANKNYC, and I’ve had it for about two years. I think it’s a pretty popular style at Nordies because they restock it every season in different colors.

I have it in basic black, and I wear it with everything!

It’s $98, and I’m always amazed that it wasn’t $300 because of how legit I think it looks. The faux leather looks totally real, and you can easily dress it up or down with a party dress or pants any time of year. Highly recommended.
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Fall Favorites Tag!

October 21st, 2015 by Karen 26 Comments

You ever play tag before?

No, not the playground kind, because hello? — pregnant lady here. I stand absolutely NO chance of outrunning anyone right now. I mean, even a tortoise with a hitch in its step would kick my @ss in a footrace.

I’m talking about the blog/YouTube Fall Favorites tag. Thank you very much to Andrew and Emma the cat at Andrew’s Off Day for this one.

And now I’m tagging you! If you wanna play, here are some questions (you don’t have to answer them all), and you can answer in the comments, or on your blog or your YouTube channel, but you have to pass the tag along to someone else when you’re done (I think; I’ve never done one of these before).

***The Fall Favorites Tag***

What’s your current…

♥ Favorite candle
♥ Favorite lip color
♥ Favorite beverage
♥ Favorite blush
♥ Favorite article of clothing
♥ Favorite movie this fall so far
♥ Favorite TV show this fall
♥ Favorite thing to eat on Thanksgiving
♥ Favorite Halloween costume of all time

Here are also some YouTubers I’d love to see participate, so tag, guys! You’re also it!

As always, thank you for watching.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Question for the Mommies Out There: What Does Baby REALLY Need?

October 21st, 2015 by Karen 138 Comments

“Holy crap! I can’t see my toes!”

No, this isn’t another post where I talk about zombie TV shows. 🙂

It’s about time, and how it flies when you’re having fun, because Baby Girl and I are already into our twentieth week together (!). We’re halfway to the finish line, and this hit me the other day when I got out of the shower and looked down at my feet (because I can no longer see my toes over my growing tum).

I tried to paint my toes but gave up. After contorting and bending myself into an awkward pretzel position wasn’t working, I ended up getting a pedicure for the first time in ages.

For this and other reasons, Baby Girl and I need your help!

essie bell bottom blues — Essie Bell-Bottom Blues

Basically, sh*t’s getting very, very real, and I have to figure what I need to have before she arrives in March — her gear for sleeping, pooping, soothing, eating, cleaning and staying warm and comfortable.

Thing is…I don’t know where to start. I’ve been researching online, but everyone recommends different things, and they recommend A LOT.

I’m talking CRAZY amounts of stuff.
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Neat and New to Me: Tom Ford Metallic Mink Eye Defining Pencil

October 20th, 2015 by Karen 25 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.

The answer, my friend, would be yes. A thousand times yes!

If a roving band of performance artists stopped me one day on the sidewalk in downtown Novato and asked, “Excuse us, miss [yes, they’d say ‘miss’]? Would you mind if we poured this bucket of melted Tom Ford Metallic Mink eyeliner on you to cover your entire body from head to toe like a fabulous coat of golden purply bronze?” I’d say yes, even though it would be hard to clean up, ’cause it would look fabulous.

tom ford metallic mink swatch — Tom Ford Eye Defining Pencil in Metallic Mink

All I have to say about this eyeliner is “Get outta my dreams; get into my car! — and grab me a backup while you’re at it, yo!” Metallic Mink looks SO lovely smudged along lower lash lines, especially with reddish browns or purply brown eyeshadows on your lids.

It’s a shimmery golden bronzed brown eye pencil with a slight essence of purple that comes through every once in a while, and it’s the closest thing I’ve found to BECCA’s fabled Cabrera liner. Although it’s not an exact dupe, it’s close enough to warrant a ticker-tape parade and a pair of naked baby angels playing harps. 🙂

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A Fall-Tastic Face of the Day With Gold, Olive, Burgundy and “JSS”

October 20th, 2015 by Karen 36 Comments

Random zombie-related transition…

I don’t know if you watch The Walking Dead, but oh, boy! — I hope you do, because it’s one of the best shows on television.

I think so. I mean…yeah, there’s zombies. But depending on how you feel about that. 🙂

It’s not just about the zombies, though. It’s also about people trying to survive after an apocalypse…but yeah, it’s definitely not a bright and polite British cooking show.

But it is great sci-fi/horror, and I like that. As well as British cooking shows. And Instagram cat videos.

The characters in The Walking Dead are faced with much more than zombies (like desperate, and very bad people). The zombies are just the backdrop to the struggle to survive after we’ve lost our modern conveniences. We watch them struggle with questions of morality and humanity, and I think it’s fascinating and frightening at the same time.

Anywho! The new season just started, along with a new season of The Talking Dead, which is the after show. They bring on actors who star in the show, people who work behind the scenes and celebrity super-fans who all just chat and wax philosophic about the last episode.

It’s a lot of fun! The last The Talking Dead episode starred TWD newcomer Katelyn Nacon, who plays Enid, a young teenage survivor, and Katelyn’s makeup on the after show was on friggin’ point!

She looked absolutely beautiful and very fall. I couldn’t stop staring at her eyes and lips the whole time! She was wearing a gorgeous warm brown matte color in her crease with golds and khakis on her lids and a glossy burgundy lip.

I couldn’t find a good picture of it online, but I still felt inspired to wear something similar today.

I turned to a few old-school faves like MAC Soft Brown and MAC Texture, which I used in the crease, then used MAC Shroom to highlight my brow bone and the inner corners, along with the ever-reliable MAC Powersurge along my lower lash line.

I also incorporated a couple of newer products, like the naughty-sounding BECCA Afterglow holiday palette ($39.50), which has three powder highlighters and Wild Honey and Flowerchild, two of my favorite BECCA blushes.

So I’m wearing Afterglow products on my cheeks and to highlight my skin.

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Makeup Shopping Update: Amore Pacific, MAC, Estee Lauder and Formula X for Sephora

October 20th, 2015 by Karen 44 Comments

amore pacific camore pacific cusion compactusion compact

Because friends always share their beauty finds (to help each other figure out what’s hot and what’s not), here are a few things I picked up last weekend…

Amore Pacific Control Cushion Compact in 208 ($60)
I’ve been dying to try a cushion compact foundation ever since I saw makeup artist and Butter London Global Colour Ambassador Katie Jane Hughes use one to blend concealer. This one even comes with a refill compact, so it’s like getting two foundations for the price of one. I wore it for the first time yesterday, and the coverage was sheer and lightweight and looked natural and absolutely lovely! I picked up shade 208, which is the darkest one available. Sadly, the shade range is very limited (boo), and 208 is a little peachier than I’d like. So I love the coverage, but I’m still on the fence about this particular shade for me… I’m gonna keep wearing it around the house for a couple more days to see how I eventually feel about it.

Estee Lauder Little Black Primer ($24)
A restock. I just can’t live without this lash primer.
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Try This Makeup Tip: Do Your Highlighting Before Contouring or Bronzing

October 19th, 2015 by Karen 24 Comments

Clarins Splendours Summer Bronzing Compact K air quotes — T-rex Karen says, “Gaaar! Do your highlighting first, and then do your contouring and/or bronzing.” Actually…I was supposed to be doing air quotes in this picture, but I think it looks more like I have T-rex claws.

For starters, there’s going to be a lot of “and/or” in this post, so I apologize in advance.

Buuut, the next time you don your war paint, try this: if you do any highlighting and/or contouring and/or bronzing (see?) try doing your highlighting before your contouring and/or bronzing, because the order matters! It make a difference.

This is probably a good time to mention that I don’t go gaga over contouring, but I will do it every once in a great while. Bronzing, on the other hand, is an everyday thing for me. I am completely non-functional without a little bit of bronzer, LOL!

Anywho, for the longest time, I did my bronzing before my highlighting. I’m not sure why though… I guess it was just force of habit.

my five best highlighters — Speaking of highlighters, here are five I really like

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5 Things I’ve Been Loving Lately

October 19th, 2015 by Karen 52 Comments

1. La Croix Blackberry Cucumber Sparkling Water

Ah, the elusive La Croix Blackberry Cucumber flavor…

FINALLY! My latest expedition to Target was a success. It’s never been in stock when I’ve checked before, but this last time, miracle of all miracles, it was! I spotted four boxes on the shelf at the Novato Target yesterday, but actually, by the time I’d left, there were only two, because right after I rolled up, a hipster-looking dude grabbed one.

If you ever come across a case, grab it. They’re in high demand, and they’re so, SO good. They aren’t really sweet at all. Just refreshing and light with nice notes of blackberry and cucumber.

2. NARS Madly Blush

When in doubt, NARS Madly Blush.

Yes, you can quote me on that, and it’s 100% true. I’ve been wearing this peachy beige blush all week long because the dang thing goes with everything. Seriously! Doesn’t matter what I’m doing with eye shadow or lip color; whatever it is, NARS Madly Blush works.

3. Try this clever lip combo (with Clever): MAC Patentpolish in Clever with MAC In Control Pro Longwear Lip Pencil

This was one of those happy accidents I accidentally stumbled upon. MAC In Control Pro Longwear Lip Pencil + MAC Patentpolish Lip Pencil in Clever = a deep rosy coral combo that looks faboo with neutral eyes and winged liner (it’s what I’m wearing in the pics in this post).
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