Beauty product reviews, makeup tips and news from your friendly neighborhood beauty addict.
November 6th, 2008 | Karen | Filed in: Just For Fun, News
I played hooky earlier this week and drove into San Francisco to visit the de Young museum in Golden Gate Park. The museum has on display a new exhibit featuring a career retrospective of clothing designer Yves Saint Laurent, who passed away on June 1 of this year.
Yves Mathieu-Saint-Laurent was born on August 1, 1936 in Oran, Algeria, at the time a French colony.
Yves Saint Laurent
I don’t really know much about Yves Saint Laurent clothes (they’re out of my Old Navy budget), but I’ve seen and played with the YSL luxe makeup line at Nordies and Sephora and have always been curious about the man, so I thought the exhibit might be cool.
A cocktail dress and hat, circa 1960. I’d so rock this in a heartbeat!
The exhibit features over 130 original Yves Saint Laurent designs from the ’60s to the present day, outfits ranging from sleek, sophisticated cocktail dresses to intricate haute couture gowns.
Beyond presenting his clothes, the exhibit explores the man and what had been some of his sources of inspiration during his life — art, theatre, history, literature and nature.
There aren’t any compacts or lipsticks in the hizz, but I think his influence on the entire world of beauty, from fashion to cosmetics, comes through in the patterns and colors of his clothes.
Ah, the pantsuit. There are several pant suits and tuxedos up in the mix, items that were signature to YSL style. In the 1960s, YSL designed and dressed women in clothes that had historically symbolized male power. The shift signaled a revolution in the history of women’s clothing. Now we wear pants day and night!
A Shakespeare-inspired haute couture gown
Who doesn’t like pants, right? Heck, I wear pants like *every* day!, but YSL was also a master of the haute couture gown.
Before my trip to the museum this week, I’d never seen a haute couture gown in person. Fo sho, they’re extremely detailed — the pleating, bead work and embroidery — but in general they’re not something you’d wear to the library on a Tuesday. It took every ounce of willpower to refrain from touching.
Continue Reading…
November 4th, 2008 | Karen | Filed in: Just For Fun, Makeup
Every girl’s gotta have one in her rotation of makeup looks — a go-to smokey eye, cheek and lip combo.
My combo’s quick and easy (you know me), and I wear it to family functions and semi-formal events when I want to look mature and put together. 
Eyes: Brown smokey eyes with a touch of dark green
Cheeks: Peach cheeks
Lips: Coral lips
How to get the look:
On my eyes, I’ll use the Chanel Winter Nights quad ($56) and a black pencil (preferably waterproof) like Lancome Le Stylo in Noir ($23). I like MAC Sunbasque blush on my cheeks ($18; can also be used as a bronzer), a lovely gilded peach with pearl (think sun-kissed cheeks!), and the lips take a combination of three products: MAC Sublime Culture Cremestick liner ($14.50), Chanel Zanzibar Aqualumiere Lipstick ($26) and Chanel Glossimer in Gazelle ($26).
What’s your favorite smokey eye, cheek and lip combo?
Eyes: __________
Cheeks:__________
Lips:__________
How to get the look:__________
Share yours in the comments. 
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
November 3rd, 2008 | Karen | Filed in: Just For Fun
Relieved! For once, I’m glad it’s a Monday because it should be a slow week at work.
Valerie, by the hot mess known as Amy Winehouse (still lovin’ you, girl… just please go to rehab already!).
Running pants, t-shirt and cold-weather running jacket from Lululemon Athletica. Hopefully the rain clears up enough for me to actually do some running in this ensemble.
Messy ponytail.
Sleep, modern dental technology and plumbing (seriously, no thank you to outhouses), English muffins with a dash of butter and lots of raspberry jam, file cabinets, NonStopPlay.com, Shu Uemura lash curlers and the Orange Dream Machine from Jamba Juice.
Prescriptives Winter Reflections All-Over Highlighter.
Breakfast (I always wake up *starving*), going for a run, rearranging my workspace, watching Heidi get canned in tonight’s episode of The Hills.
Nothing yet, but later today perhaps Laura Mercier Oil-Free Foundation.
To call my parents, to find a strapless bra to wear with my bridesmaids dress, to obliterate the piles of paper on my desk and to stay positive no matter what.
Happy Monday, homie! Let me know you’ve got going on this week. Just copy the empty list, and paste it with your answers in the comments.
Le list
Mood:
First song I heard today:
Outfit:
Hair:
Lovin’:
Cheeks:
Lip liner:
What I’m looking forward to today:
Foundation:
Goals for the week:
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
November 2nd, 2008 | Karen | Filed in: Just For Fun
Blast! That rotten cat’s at it again. After meowing up a storm last night he went and disappeared today. Can you help me track him down?
He texted me from his iPhone to say he’s in Vegas at a comic book convention … somewhere in this picture (click here for a larger version).
Hope you had a good weekend, girls.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen (and Tabs)
November 2nd, 2008 | Karen | Filed in: Just For Fun
Yowza, I got off to a late start today… Dark, primeval forces took hold of Tabs last night, turning our cute little tabby cat into some kind of furry hell beast. At around 2am, after El Hub and I had gone to bed, Tabs started meowing at the front door to be let outside, so, El Hub, being the trooper that he is, got up to let him out.
Ten minutes later we hear “Meeeoowwww! MEOW!!! MEEEEoooOOOOOoow!!” at the door. He’s screaming his little tabby brains out to be let back inside, so, El Hub goes and lets him back in.
This cycle of doom went on for a couple hours — cry to go out, then cry to come in — until Tabs finally decided in his little evil way that he’d tortured us enough and stopped. We would have just let him cry himself silly outside, but he’s got a set of Pavarotti pipes on him that would have kept the entire neighborhood awake.
But now, of course, Tabs knows that he can control us with his cries, so he feels empowered, and we’re basically at the mercy of our cute 10-pound cat.
My tired ass sure would appreciate any insights into feline psychology, LOL!
“It looks like nothing can stop the gold fever train that roared through the makeup world earlier this year, and now it’s chugging all the way to the holidays! Remember Chanel’s Gold Fever Collection? Well, Holiday 2008 is here, and — you guessed it! — gold (with touches of red, bronze and beige) still plays a starring role.”
“One of my favorite things about makeup is that there’s always room to step up your game. I love to imagine all the tips and tricks that I’ve yet to learn. I’m always looking to get better at doing smokey eyes. I’ve come across hundreds of smokey eye tutorials, and I think these 10 are some of the most helpful ones. I hope you find them useful…”
“I momentarily set aside my issues with the huge bling-bling jewel on the top of the MAC Infatuating Rose: 6 Cool Eyes palette ($38, part of the Passions of Red collection) today. Sure, the packaging is cheesy enough to pair with crackers and wine, but I don’t care because the shadows inside this little cheese log more than make up for it.”
“MAC’s highly anticipated collaboration with designer Emanuel Ungaro arrived on counters nationwide today, and it reminds me of stargazer lilies — like a dreamy watercolor painting, with pops of bright but sheer magenta accenting its palette of soft pastels.”
“A few days ago I reviewed L’Oreal Skin Genesis Wet Cleansing Towelettes with BHA. A few of you gals then offered up your fave makeup removing wipes and cleansers in the comments. Here’s a list featuring your recommendations and why you love ‘em!”
“Have you seen that commercial for L’Oreal’s new Bare Naturale Mascara ($9) in which Penelope Cruz looks into the camera, bats her eyelashes and then BAM! — they morph into super lashes, all thick, lush and magnificent?”
“Slivers of silver and gold thread through these mixes of matte and shimmer. Inspired by classic Coco tweed, each of the four Les Tissages blushes (also referred to as the Chanel Tweed blushes) look like little works of art set in classic black Chanel compacts.”
“My secret to wearing reds like Lancome’s Absolute Rouge is to apply them using a MAC 316 Covered Lip Brush ($19). With the 316’s firm, pointed tip I can really get in where I need to get, precisely controlling my lines and delivering the right amount of pigment for my look — kinda like drawing with a sharpened pencil versus trying to draw with a stubby crayon.”
“A few years ago, when I worked a 9-to-5 gig in downtown San Francisco, I’d bring my makeup and brushes with me to work and apply makeup in the bathroom on my breaks. I’ve always had issues packing light, even for work, so streamlined I was not. I’d walk around looking like I had a turkey stuffed in my bag. If I could turn back time, I’d totally give myself this palette along with a note that read, ‘Streamline, girl!’”
“Ladies, when it comes to smoldering smokey eyes, the secret sauce is in the blending. Dark eye makeup looks best when it’s blended really well, and nothing can steal smokey eye thunder like a patchy makeup job that draws attention away from your eyes and onto your makeup. Lawd knows I’ve rushed through my share of smokey eyes. Regrettably, there are few eye makeup looks that can so easily go awry.”
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
the colors are gorgeous and the combine...
