Some pictures from my friend Jen’s birthday dinner.
I’ve known these two since I was eight (yikes!).
by Karen 8 Comments
Some pictures from my friend Jen’s birthday dinner.
I’ve known these two since I was eight (yikes!).
by Karen 10 Comments
Last night I went to dinner with a few friends, and afterward we were invited to take a quick tour of the kitchen. I whipped out my camera and took a few shots of the chefs doing their thing.
by Karen 85 Comments
WINNER: Etsy Breslin, for her caption, “DOUBLE MAKEUP RAINBOW ALL THE WAY!” 🙂
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
WINNER: Etsy Breslin, for her caption, “DOUBLE MAKEUP RAINBOW ALL THE WAY!” 🙂
It’s shapin’ up to be a lazy Sunday up in here, one filled with cheese crunchies and high-intensity relaxation. I should probably go grocery shopping (one can only survive on crunchies for so long), but going out in the rain is not high on my list of things I really want to do right now. I’d rather stay home, chat with you and read. Truth be told that sounds GREAT!
I might bust out my makeup brushes and try this really simple look from the CFDA Vogue Fashion Show earlier this week. Isn’t it pretty? Perfect for a lazy day.
Pat McGrath’s team did the makeup and used things from the new Dolce & Gabbana Ethereal Beauty Holiday Collection.
It’s just about as complicated as I could handle right now.
That reminds me, are you doing anything fancy for Halloween? Do you have a costume in mind?
Tell me about it (or anything else) in this week’s open thread. I’d like the company.
If you’re new to the open thread, here it is in a nutshell:
It’s like coffee talk. We get together and chit chat in the comments at the bottom of this post. Any topics, from makeup, music, books, food — you name it.
Stop by whenever you can this afternoon or tonight. Unless the rain stops (and I seriously doubt that’s gonna happen), I’m not goin’ anywhere.
See you soon! 🙂
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
by Karen 10 Comments
What’s shakin’, bacon? Happy Sunday! I’m taking it a little easy today because I was out late last night with some friends down in San Jose. Of course I got lost, because that’s what people do in San Jose. We went to a cozy wine bar called Chin Chin and did some catching up. Now I’m watching Tabs tear the sh*zz out of his cat tower while I eat pumpkin buttered toast for breakfast, yum.
Oh, have you seen Catfish? It’s a documentary about a photographer who falls in love with a girl on Facebook. He decides to meet her in real life but begins to suspect she doesn’t really exist when he tries to track her down and can’t. It’s a mystery of sorts and pretty interesting. Well worth checking out.
Have you had a good weekend? What’s the weather like out there? It’s storming like crazy here! I feel like we went from summer to winter without much of a fall. I hope we get a break from the rain soon, because if we don’t, Tabs may tear the roof off this mother.
Here’s a look back at some of the makeup and beauty stuff we talked about this week. MAC A Tartan Tale got a lot of attention in Beauty Land, as does almost everything from MAC. How do you feel about the collection? Are you stoked about it or not impressed?
GUERLAIN ROUGE
BRILLIANT BEE LIPSTICK
This Bee is a creamy, full-coverage (yes!) deep violet with tiny flecks of golden glitter, and it feels like a feather on the lips, ahh…
I’d heard the Rouge G Le Brilliant lippies were long wearing, and this one lives up to the hype. It wears off slowly over about five hours, which usually includes a snack or a meal.
Oh, and the bomb @ss tube! I’ve never seen anything like it before, but it’s also really functional. Guerlain squeezed a mirror in the cap (I LOVE the logo!), and the tube has some heft to it too. Should I ever find myself an unwilling member of a Jersey Shore club brawl, it could double as a weapon.
Kids, violence is NEVER the answer…but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared. Read more…
LUSH GOTH JUICE
HAIR STYLING GEL
Goth Juice?
Before you answer that, I’m referring to Lush’s Goth Juice ($16), a medium-hold non-sticky styling gel, and not a new energy drink for fans of The Cure.
Seems like noses either love or loathe Lush products, and even though they don’t always agree with my nose (I’m more of a fruity florals kinda girl than a hippy/pot brownie babe), some of their stuff just works.
Like Goth Juice. Sure, it’s got that eau de lemon and Pine-Sol thing going, but for fast, effortless, undone styles, Goth Juice gets it done.
Lush credits a mix of botanical oils (hemp and flaxseed), fresh lemon infusion, olibanum (a resin from the boswellia tree; also goes by the name frankincense) and oakmoss for making the magic happen.
I busted out a full on elle-oh-elle when I read the product’s description on the company’s website:
“Olibanum and oakmoss leave your hair smelling like the deep, dark pine forest where Robert Smith goes to be alone.” Read more…
DOLCE & GABBANA
EVOCATIVE COLLECTION
While I was cruising down (Saks) Fifth Avenue today, otherwise known as surfing their site (they’re having a Friends & Family Sale; I didn’t come across the new Ethereal Holiday Collection, but I did window shop almost everything from the Evocative Collection for fall.
I’m not sure how Evocative’s vampiric berries, wines and pinks go with her springy blues and that one totally random coral, but being confused has never stopped me before, ha!
I’ll just try to wrap my head around something tangible…like the ultra pigmented, creamy coral Classic Cream Lipstick in Cosmopolitan and Shine Lipstick in Orchid. They should help me focus, but if I’m still out of sorts after that, the buttery soft and sheer beige, pink, taupe and purple shadows in the quad should help. Read more…
MAC A TARTAN TALE
SWATCH PREVIEW
Heya, ladies. Here’s a smattering of products from the massive MAC A Tartan Tale holiday collection launching on October 28 (that’s next week!). I thought you might like to see a few swatches. Tabs is demanding lip and face shots soon. Read more…
NYX SPECIAL
EFFECTS LASHES
Wow, how fun are these NYX Special Effects Lashes ($10; available in 40 styles)? I’m building up the courage to wear the brown spotted Leopard ones out in public, and I’m almost there. I’m thinking mall date, perhaps?
Electric blue Midnight Walts is another story… I’m reserving that one for private, in-home displays of cray-cray. I feel très Looney Tunes with ‘em on, not gonna lie.
I love how many there are to choose from (40 in all), and at $10, they’re $5 cheaper than the freakiest $15 Urban Decay Urban Lashes and half the cost of falsies from Shu Uemura (which are great, I might add).
I’m not sure about the other styles, but Leopard and Midnight Walts didn’t come with lash glue. Luckily I had a spare tube on hand.
As you might expect, some pairs are easier to apply than others. Leopard was a cinch (took about five minutes); Midnight Walts, on the other hand, wasn’t (took about 15 minutes). NOTE: I’m incompetent when it comes to applying false lashes, so your results may vary. That I was able to apply either of these without losing an eye was a minor makeup miracle. Read more…
DIOR ENDLESS
SHINE QUINT, HOLIDAY 2010
What up, buttercup? How was your week? Mine was pretty peachy, thank you very much, and I owe it all to Dior Endless Shine.
We spent Wednesday afternoon together, you know, just frolicking like cherubs with cameras. Turns out the holiday quint, one of two in Dior’s Holiday 2010 Collection, is quite the budding photographer.
With the quint’s peach shade demanding so much of my attention, it only seemed right to build a look around it, so I picked out some complementary bits o’ holiday makeup from Chanel, NARS, MAC and Dolce & Gabbana and put together this here face of the day.
That’s Dolce & Gabbana Crayon Intense in 10 and 12 and Dior 5-Colour Iridescent in Endless Shine #529 on my eyes, NARS Blush in Sex Appeal on my cheeks, and Chanel Glossimer in Pleasing atop Chanel Rouge Coco in Patchouli on my lips.
What do ya think? Are the eyes too frosty? They’re smokey but not loud. Now I just wish I had somewhere to go.
Hmm, I wonder what time Tuttimelon opens. Read more…
MAC A TARTAN TALE
EYE SWATCHES
Once upon a Tartan’s Tale, I peeped eye colors I would regale, but not so many, I’m sad to say, as I had hoped earlier today.
The Pearlglides are, without a doubt, my favorites from the tale no doubt, but I await, so patiently, the final act, let’s call it three.
From what I’ve seen of the collection’s eye products so far, and I’ve only seen about a quarter of it, nothing’s completely stolen my heart (but the Pearlglides have it on layaway).
A lot of what I’ve seen has been surprisingly sheer, which I guess would be cool if we were talking about Clinique, but this is MAC. In other words, where’s the beef pigment? Read more…
H2O PLUS
HAND AND NAIL CREAM TRIO
Quick, name one hip hop song in which Timbaland does NOT appear as a guest artist.
Takes a minute, doesn’t it? The guy is everywhere! He’s like a hip hop virus. I had my iTunes on random yesterday, and I swear the man was uttering nonsense in every other song. “Uh huh, uh uh,” “freaky-freaky-freaky!”
But no matter how many times he’s been featured in songs — and I’m fairly sure it’s in the hundreds — I bet I have him beat hands down in one area: hand washing. Because I like to wash my hands. A lot.
This also means my hands get dry. A lot (often?).
It’s worse in the colder months, which means hand creams? — totally my BFFs. Lately I’ve been getting my moisture on with these travel-friendly 2-oz. tubes of Hand and Nail Cream from H2O Plus. Read more…
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
by Karen
Tabs would like to give you kitty hugs and nose kisses to thank you for showing your support this Breast Cancer Awareness Month. With just one week left in October, you still have time to enter The Breast Cancer Awareness Month Sign Project and Giveaway. It only takes a minute, but the gesture means a lot. Just send in a picture of yourself with your support sign, and be automatically entered to win the special prize of $400 in makeup from MAC and Chanel.
Please be sure to leave a comment on the original post if you do submit your sign entry by email, twitter, blog posting, etc.
These lovely ladies are standing up with me to raise awareness this month. Won’t you please join us?
Click here to see a larger version
Email or link to a picture of yourself holding your support sign (like the examples above), and leave a comment on the original post. Not only will you be showing your support for the cause, but you’ll also be entered to win a $400 prize package of makeup from MAC and Chanel.
Please comment on the original post to enter (and not on this post here).
Please take a moment this weekend to show your support.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
P.S. Does your phone have a camera? You might be able to snap your pic and email your entry from there. 😉
by Karen 4 Comments
Dynamic beauty duo Tori and Rupert scour drugstore aisles and cosmetics counters looking for share-worthy beauty booty like this gem from Garnier.
For all you wavy-haired girlies out there who love your locks but want to tame those frizzies, have I got a product for you! I discovered Garnier this year after I went on a product testing frenzy. I decided to stop straightening my hair every day (my poor fried locks 🙁 ) and embrace my hair’s natural texture, and I was determined to make it work.
And lo and behold, I did! Thanks to Garnier Fructis Wonder Waves Mousse (about $4 for a 6.8-oz bottle). It promises to define your waves, leaving them soft and touchably smooth. Of course, I had my doubts about such a claim because it sounded far too good to be true. I squirted out a puff of the foaming mousse (which smells amazing!) and scrunched it onto damp hair and let it work its magic overnight. Sure enough, the next day after letting my hair air dry it came out just as promised.
by Karen 6 Comments
Do you sea? Over there on the counter? The new H2O Plus Bath Aquatics Escape Collection looks like the ocean in a box. The $22.50 gift/travel set comes with four 4-oz. bottles of bodacious sea-derived body care.
What do you get, besides a good-looking present?
BIG bottles — well, big for a gift set. As a matter of fact, the bottles are a little too big to bring in your carry-on (the TSA limit’s 3.4 oz.), but that’s both a blessing and a curse. At least you get more for your ducats.
All four have the same fresh scent, a mix of watery notes, baby powder and lemon. I like it. H2O calls it Natural Spring…
I wonder if it’s located near the Irish Spring, haha!
Right at the top of the box are the words, “sea-derived skincare,” and each of them contains cool things like watercress, Iceland moss, algae and seaweed.
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