Karen

Saturday Surfing: September 23rd, 2017

September 23rd, 2017 by Karen 6 Comments

I really freaking love doing skin.

Is that boring?

It might be, but it’s true. I think my greatest makeup/beauty passions right now are foundation and concealer, which I’ve gotten VERY passionate about, and it’s mostly gotten to this point over the past two years, because for the longest time, foundation was more like an afterthought for me. Just something I did after doing the real work on my eyes, cheeks and lips, a.k.a. the color.

Now I’m obsessed with finding ALL. THE. WAYS. to get perfect-looking skin that don’t involve using 300 pounds of makeup.

It’s challenging, dude!

Maybe it happened after I had Connor at 41, but I swear to gawd, that first year of mom life was like a dog year. It felt like seven years passing over the course of 12 months. I’m not kidding!

But yeah, I’m really, REALLY passionate about foundation now, and this realization occurred to me the other day after someone asked me what my favorite foundation is, and I couldn’t give a one-word answer. Clackin’ away at the keyboard, I kept thinking, “I could talk about this for weeks.”

I want to learn everything there is to know about foundation. Like, if I had unlimited resources ($), girl, you know what I’d do? I’d review every single foundation in the world just to be able to try them. Then I’d arrange for personal makeup lessons with Sir John, Charlotte Tilbury and Pat McGrath. I think that would be so much fun!

Or am I just crazy? Does anyone else think that would be awesome?

Stew on that for a second, and if you have a moment between sips of coffee that I hope is hot and delicious, here are some articles that sparked my interest this week. I hope you find something interesting. 🙂

After seeing this sweet photo series of things that preschoolers stash in their pockets, I wish I could go back in time and see what I used to keep in mine.
The designs and creative nail art at Nailympia, one of the most prestigious nail competitions in the world, are BANANAS. It’s regarded as one of the fairest nail competitions because of its strict impartial judging guidelines.
Tim Gunn (who, in my mind, is my mentor/style godfather) calls out the fashion industry and asks for designers to produce clothes that work for all body shapes and sizes, and not just extremely tall, thin women.
What 10 people wore to their interviews with Anna Wintour (P.S. I would probably wear high-waisted stretch pants)
Ever wonder why beauty brands do gift-with-purchases, but nobody else really does? Here’s why.
Affordable drugstore skin care brand Simple has new hydrating cleansers for super dry skin.
The story of Patrick Ta is what happens when It Girls discover you on Instagram and blow up your makeup career.
A dad built an OTT two-story playhouse for his kid in the backyard, and all I have to say is, “Can I move in already?” That thing looks like a mini-mansion!
Revlon has a funky new hair dryer that looks like something from The Fifth Element.
A definitive timeline of Donatella Versace’s beauty evolution
Allegedly, this is the work bag professional women everywhere have been looking for.
Get to know one of West Africa’s most daring designers, Amaka Osakwe.

A post shared by Sephora (@sephora) on Sep 22, 2017 at 7:31am PDT

The Fenty Beauty Holiday (via Sephora’s Instagram) looks BOSS.

Sam Fine is a legend in the makeup world.

I’m headed out! Going to the East Bay to visit my family and some friends I haven’t seen in a while. Have a great rest of your day and a wonderful weekend. 🙂 Talk to you soon.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

R+Co Control Flexible Paste for Styles That Hold Tight But Never Feel Stiff

September 22nd, 2017 by Karen 2 Comments

r and co control review — R+Co CONTROL Flexible Paste, taming unruly baby hairs one strand at a time

Why are those tiny little hairs along the edge of your hairline called baby hairs? Is it because they’re cute and cuddly and adorable? Naaaaaw, girl. I think they’re called baby hairs because they’re unruly. OK? You can’t control them, they’re unpredictable, and, at any given moment, riiight when you think you have the situation under control, BAM! — they go bananas. HAHA! At least my baby hairs (and my baby) do.

I have a mega crop of baby hairs where my bangs part in the front, and I don’t know about yours, but mine are all uneven and at weird lengths, and — yay, lucky me! — they stick up and out at jarring angles, so I walk around lookin’ like I’ve just been electrocuted.

Girl, if there’s no product in them, I look CRAY, but this new hair styling product by R+Co called Control ($27) really helps. I’ve been using it for a week, and now I’m like ROUGE BABY NO LONGER RUN SH*T HERE.

Control is a soft, waxy styling paste with a semi-matte finish, and it grabs, holds and keeps flyaway hairs in place. It’s strong, but it’s not ’80s-style hairbear stiff, so my bangs can still move and don’t look heavy and greasy.

These days, my numero uno #hairgoal is for my mop to look casual, like IDGAF. Sure, I might’ve fussed over this hair, but nobody needs to know, LOL! In other words, I want the antithesis of prom/beauty pageant hair. Nothing overly lacquered or styled.

r and control before — Baby hairs say WASSSSSUP

r and control after — What baby hairs? Um, please excuse the rand-o white hairs… I’m between coloring appointments and apparently couldn’t be bothered to use Rita Hazan Root Concealer.

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5 Recent Makeup Revelations

September 22nd, 2017 by Karen 16 Comments

1. Nobody rocks bold lips to baby story time.

And all I have to say to that is WHY?! There’s a severe lack of bright red lips and hot pink lips on display at baby story time at the library, which bums me out, because moms needs a little fun sometimes (yes, I’m always checking out everyone’s makeup, even at baby story time).

Two weeks ago, one gal wore a medium pink gloss, and I wanted to high-five her!

I’m thinking about going with deep green lips next time, just to keep things interesting.

2. Speaking of lips, Urban Decay Rehab Makeup Prep lip balm is really, REALLY good.

It tastes and smells like coconut, fits in the pocket of my Kate Spade wristlet (which is basically a massive wallet with a strap), is hella moisturizing, and my hair doesn’t get stuck in it.

That’s a lot of good all around for $15 at UD counters.

3. There isn’t a single clean eye brush anywhere in this house at the moment.

Not one. I haven’t washed my eye brushes in WEEKS, and I don’t have a good reason. I’ve just been been putting it off, but I used the last clean one this morning (a flat shadow brush from NARS), so sh*t just got real.

In my defense, waiting as long as I have has forced me to get creative with my blending and to use my fingers more often.

As the saying goes, laziness is the mother of invention. 🙂

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Bumble and Bumble Prêt-à-Powder Très Invisible Dry Shampoo: Another Great Dry Shampoo to Add to Your List

September 21st, 2017 by Karen 7 Comments

bumble and bumble pret a powder tres invisible dry shampoo — I may or may not have just sprayed half a pound of this new dry shampoo on my roots…

Man, this stuff smells good! It’s all powdery and musky…and naughty, with just a hint of sweet jasmine.

Can a fragrance smell like you’re purposefully trying to get in trouble? Because that’s how this dry shampoo smells to me. 🙂

There are actually two versions, both of them new from Bumble and Bumble, and both of them with darned-near impossible-to-pronounce (for me) French names, seeing as how I butcher everything en français.

I think I’ll just call them “the new Bumble dry shampoos.” They’re available now in pretty blush pink packaging for $29 each, which gets you a 3.1-oz. bottle.

One of them, Très Invisible, is for normal-to-oily hair, and the other one, Très Invisible Nourishing, is the more moisturizing version for dry, damaged or coarse hair.

They’re called “invisible” because that’s how they’re supposed to look in your hair, even if your hair is dark.

The directions say to spray them from 10-12 inches away from your hair, and to concentrate on your roots, which is pretty is standard for dry shampoo. I can’t see the product at all unless I get carried away and use a ridiculous amount, and even then, I can’t see it anymore after I brush the powder through my hair, which is a step you’re supposed to follow with these.

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Product Shout-Out: NARS Saint-Raphael Precision Lip Liner

September 21st, 2017 by Karen 3 Comments

OK, this is one of those off-label uses of a makeup product, so if you’re a stickler about only using products in the way they’re intended, you might want to look away. For a second.

On the other paw, if you’re open to experimentation, I found a very effective color corrector completely by accident.

Well, technically, it isn’t a face product. It’s an opaque matte orange lip pencil, NARS Precision Lip Liner in Saint-Raphael. It’s one of the new NARS Precision Lip Liners.

I’ve been using it to color-correct a desiccated former pimple that’s now purple, and it totally works.

I wouldn’t use it on under-eye circles, though, because it is a lip pencil, and I don’t know if it’s approved for use along water lines or around eyes in general. But I’ll use it on my chin, my cheeks, forehead, nose and the sides of my mouth.

Here I’m using it as a color corrector on my chin to hide Julian the pimple, who is STILL plaguing me.

We (or I) could literally talk about color correcting for hours. I think it’s fascinating, but to briefly summarize (haha, good luck to me), orange color-correcting products appear to cancel out/neutralize purple and blue shades, because orange and purple sit across from each other on the color wheel, where they stare each other down 24/7, throw shade and give each other the evil eye…

Typically, you’d apply orange color correctors on purple areas, then layer concealer or foundation on top.

karen bare skin before with julian — The before shot: Julian the pimple is obsessed with me…

nars saint raphael as color corrector — It’s called makeup improv, and I’m into it.

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