Beauty product reviews, makeup tips and news from your friendly neighborhood beauty addict.
August 26th, 2009 | Karen | Filed in: Beauty Tips, Fragrance, Just For Fun, Nails
Oui, oui, I’ll be loving you forever, Coco, but a big hunk of my heart now belongs to Dolce & Gabbana.
I wore Light Blue on my wedding day, and Sicily scented my skin for years.
This fall, I plan to fashion more D&G memories thanks to their new Fragrance Anthology.
Each of the five complex eau de toilettes smells naturally lush — not synthetic or artificial — and lingers for hours on my skin.
My favorites are 18 La Lune (a white floral with notes of apple, lily, tuberose and musk) and 10 La Roue De La Fortune (a green floral with pink pepper, gardenia, jasmine and vanilla). I think both smell totally femme and just plain pretty.
To buy: Sephora, $65 each
They cover forehead zits and bald eyebrow patches — ’nuff said. For soft, flexible hold and shine, I smooth mine down with a pinch of Bumble & Bumble Brilliantine.
To buy: Bumble & Bumble, $20
I’ve been rocking out to Do You Believe in Love since Sunday, and dagnabbit I’m not ashamed!
Huey and his homeboys cranked out dozens of karaoke-worthy tunes in the ’80s.
Join me for this brief trip back to a time when the saxophone solo reigned supreme. 
To buy: Greatest Hits CD, Amazon, $14
The pimp daddy of all toothbrushes! My dentist gave me one of these bad boys last week and I’m hooked.
The ultra-soft brush head has alternating rows of bristles with different heights. The long ones help it wiggle into those hard-to-reach nether regions between teeth. Brushing my sensitive teeth and gums with it is kinda like brushing with a big fluffy cloud (ha, nimbus clouds, get it?!).
If you brush and floss like you mean business, mamacita, give the nimbus a try.
To buy: Nimbus, $10 for a pack of five
So effortless, so yummy, so very last days of summer… It’s my new favorite meal for when I’m too hot or lazy to cook.
To buy: Head to your local grocery store or farmers market to get your ingredients, and prepare it at home (the recipe)
Zoya makes it easy to get durable, chip-free manis and pedis with this fantabulous six-piece kit.
Nail polish remover, base coat, nail strengthener, top coat — all the essentials for a salon-quality manicure — and the numbers on the bottles totally fool proof my process.
To buy: Zoya, $48
I’ve been a crazy stress case lately because of that condo sitch (yup, it’s still up in the air), but this caffeine-free tea has definitely helped. It’s probably the best stress relief tea I’ve ever tried.
It contains Kava, a root native to the South Pacific and used by islanders for centuries to calm the body and soothe the mind, and tastes like cinnamon and chicory. I like to add a little milk and sugar.
To buy: Vitamin Shoppe, $4
What are some things currently rocking your world (beauty or otherwise)?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
August 18th, 2009 | Karen | Filed in: Fragrance, Just For Fun
Good luck!
Are you on the hunt for a signature scent? If you are, take a look at the new online fragrance finder by Bath and Body Works.
It asks you a few questions about your mood, tastes and dislikes, and then matches you up with a Bath and Body Works scent. I’ve seen things like this before, but I like the way this one’s done.
Last week it helped me find Sweet Pea ($27).
Looking for a new fragrance for fall; need a boost to get through a challenging week (hello!) — take a minute to try out the Fragrance Finder, and enter to win today’s giveaway.
Bath and Body Works is sponsoring the prize. Five lucky ladies will take home one bottle of their signature Bath and Body Works Eau de Toilette scent (a $30 value).
Entering is easy. There are two different ways, and you can do both of them for two chances to win.
First, you can enter by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post. Use the Bath and Body Works Fragrance finder to find your signature scent, and then reveal the name of your fragrance in the comments.
My scent is Sweet Pea!
Second, enter by following me on Twitter and retweeting (RT) the following message:
RT @karenmbb: RT to Win Your Bath and Body Works Signature Scent. http://bit.ly/KTxlH
I’ll pick five winners at random from among the people who enter by 11:59 PM PST on Thursday, August 20.
Vidimo se!
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Good luck!
August 15th, 2009 | Karen | Filed in: Fragrance, Product Reviews
Happy Saturday, gals. How’s it going? What do ya think of these solid perfume sticks by Crazylibellule and the Poppies ($18)?
I should have stuck my hand or something in the picture to give them some perspective, but they kinda look like chubby little lipstick tubes.
Developed by Sephora co-founder Isabelle Masson-Mandonnaud, each of the 29 unusual fragrances contains a mix of notes like dark chocolate, Tiare flower and ginger. Because they’re generally light, like eau de toilettes, they’re designed to work alone or layered with each other (or other scents).
I’ve tried four of them — Chere Louise, Jeanne Voyage, Josephine Jonquille and 26 Juin Ile d’Yeu — and love ‘em all!
Fragrance profiles…
- Chere Louise: rose, pepper seed, iris, hyacinth, storax (a plant used for making incense), patchouli, guaiacum wood (a tropical shrub)
- Jeanne Voyage: Silician bergamot, amberwood, Spanish mandarin, heliotrope, violet leaves, rose sap, musk, nutmeg, iris
- Josephine Jonquille: Tiare flowers, patchouli, black chocolate, jasmine, lemon, ginger, cardamon (an herb from the ginger family)
- 26 Juin Ile d’Yeu: orange, vanilla, jasmine, plum, black pepper, lily of the valley, peach, musk, wood, rose orange blossom, cardamom, orange
These are the kinds of perfumes that work great when I just want a lil’ something-something, like for those times when El Hub leans in to snuggle.
The tube makes them kinda fun to apply. I’ve been swiping the sticks (which deposit a thin, slightly waxy film) on my wrists, neck and between “the girls,” taking a minute afterward to thoroughly massage the film into my skin.
The scents seem to last about half the day, but the sticks travel well and they’re a blast to apply. So far I’ve spotted them online at Sephora, Beauty Habit and Crazylibellule.com (LOVE the music that plays on the site), but I haven’t seen them in any stores yet. Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: A
District 9 took a lot out of me last night…
Continue Reading…
August 5th, 2009 | Karen | Filed in: Fragrance, Product Reviews
Stress relief doesn’t always come cheap (hello, Bliss spa!), and some of the ways I like to unwind are viewed as socially unacceptable (going apesh*t on an annoying coworker, for instance).
Thank goodness for affordable stress-relieving miracles like Origins Sensory Therapy Peace of Mind ($10) …
It may not replace a trip to the spa (or beating the crap out of my pillow until I foam at the mouth), but it helps to bring my heart rate down when something has me seeing red.
Like aromatherapy, Peace of Mind’s light, non-greasy lotion radiates a soothing peppermint, eucalyptus and basil fragrance when I (or El Hub) massage a few drops into the back of my neck and shoulders, where I hold a lot of my tension.
Continue Reading…
August 5th, 2009 | Karen | Filed in: Fragrance, Just For Fun
Comics are an art form that light my imagination on fire, and when I heard that DKNY planned to release a limited edition pop art/comic-inspired bottle of their famous Be Delicious fragrance, my spider sense tingled.
DKNY Be Delicious combines notes of American apple, cucumber, grapefruit, magnolia, tuberose, white muguet, rose, violet, sandalwood, blonde wood and white amber.
If you’re a fan of pop art/comics and dig flirty, floral, citrus scents, enter today’s giveaway for a chance to win this limited edition bottle.
One lucky lady will rescue a bottle of DKNY Be Delicious Eau de Parfum spray in its limited edition Delicious Art bottle (1.7-oz bottle; a $55 value).
Entering is easy. There are two different ways, and you can do both of them for two chances to win.
First, you can enter by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post. In it, tell me three things you find d e l i c i o u s.
This one’s easy for me.
Second, enter by following me on Twitter and retweeting (RT) the following message:
RT @karenmbb: RT to Win DKNY Be Delicious Eau de Parfum (Pop-Art Bottle) http://tinyurl.com/la88eg
I’ll pick the winner at random from among the people who enter by 11:59 PM PST on Friday, August 7.
Bonne chance!
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
P.S. Tabs loves comic books so much that he signed on last year to star as a character in his own graphic novel…
Am...
