Rise and shine, morning glory! How did you sleep? I’m actually sleeping right now, yep, at this very moment. I’m transmitting this post electrochemically from a dream, a trick I’ve developed after years and years of blogging.
What are you up to today? I’m thinking about going out for breakfast, like a real breakfast with bacon, eggs, pancakes, the whole nine yards. That, of course, means braving the cold rain outside, which I’m not looking forward to AT ALL.
While I get my sh*zz together and get ready to go, what did you think about the Giants winning the World Series this week? To be honest, I’m not a big baseball fan (more of a football/basketball kinda girl), but it’s easy to get excited when the home team is doing well and crazed fans are running around screaming “GO GIANTS!” at every turn.
And I saw some interesting Giants-themed makeup this week, a lot of it being worn by those very same crazed fans. I wonder how many people went to work like that. Heck, I wonder how many people actually went to work at all!
The Weekly Roundup: Posts You Might Have Missed
KORRES 10-COLOR
PENCIL KIT
Holy wow! That’s a lot of liners. And they’re full size too!
The pencils in the Korres Limited Edition Vitamin E 10-Color Pencil Kit work out to just $3.25 each ($32.50 for the kit). Of course, all of them are green. 🙁
No, not literally. I mean they’re eco-friendly and 100% natural, according to Korres, made with moisturizing Vitamin E and jojoba oil. And considering that eyeliners this size (standard 0.04 oz. pencils) usually go for $16 apiece, the kit’s one of the best holiday bargains I’ve seen this year so far.
Korres included a wide range of pigmented colors in popular shades from their permanent line… Read more…
NARS TROUBLE MAKER
LIMITED EDITION KIT
I got in trouble today, ladies. Yes, the principal called me into his office and said, “Karen, you are no longer my favorite trouble maker.”
Wha!?
“The new NARS Trouble Maker set is, and you’re just going to have to learn to live with it… You may go back to class now.”
The $60 limited edition kit was designed to help your eyes raise hell. To that end, it comes with a Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base, Larger Than Life Volumizing Mascara, an Eyeliner Stylo and a bottle of Eye Makeup Remover.
I’m happy to hang out with this Trouble Maker. It comes with some really nice pieces, like the eye primer. That one’s the frickin’ bomb dizzle!
The mascara and makeup remover are above average, too, while I think the liquid liner’s just good (not great). In a nutshell, it’s a pretty sweet kit for the money and a good value from NARS. Purchasing the products separately would cost $89 (the Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base alone costs $24), so $60 isn’t too bad.
One could always get the set with stockings in mind, keeping the primer (seriously, it’s amazing!) and the mascara or makeup remover, and giving the remaining items away. Read more…
NARS CRAZY HEART
LIPGLOSS SET
I learned something oddly thrilling today. The new NARS Crazy Heart Set ($50) glosses are sheer enough to apply while walking down the street without a mirror (try it sometime), yet pigmented enough to make an impact on passers by.
This is brilliant news! Now I can devote more precious time and energy to important things, like unraveling the mystery behind Zac Efron’s allure.
The set comes with five sheer shades from the NARS permanent lipgloss line — Easy Lover (a hot pink), Babe (a reddish orange), Orgasm (a shimmery golden pink), Turkish Delight (a creamy light pink) and Misbehave (a cherry red with golden shimmer) — all of them highly wearable, with the exception of Turkish Delight, which looks kinda milky before it mellows into an attractive pale pink.
MAC Nymphette-s might like Orgasm, Nymphette’s sheerer cousin, and ladies who’ve always wanted to wear red lips but were too afraid to try should take a look at Babe. Read more…
BOBBI BROWN
GLITTER LINER
Above is what happens when your home team wins the World Series while you’re swatching Bobbi Brown Glitter Eyeliner in Silver ($20).
Last night was crazy! After the game we could hear loud booms off in the distance that I presumed were revelers detonating cherry bombs, or perhaps the start of that zombie invasion I’m always talking about.
I was ready to go into Apocalypse Mode and head for the hills! Survival kit? Check. El Hub, Tabs, emergency purse and this new Bobbi limited edition liquid liner? Check.
Why the liner? Ya know, because it’s nice to look good in the face of certain doom. Read more…
HOURGLASS EXTREME
SHEEN HOLIDAY SET
I love the blue top I’m wearing in this picture, but I’m not entirely proud of the stretchy black pants I’m wearing with it (too many 100 Grand bars before, during and after Halloween), even though they’re incredibly comfy.
How comfy are they? Well, they’re almost as comfy as the glosses in the new Hourglass Extreme Sheen Kit ($45).
Yes, you read that correctly. The three glosses in the limited edition holiday set are almost as comfortable as stretchy pants. 🙂 And they’re some of the most delightful lip products I’ve ever worn.
The colors in the kit lean toward the warm end the color spectrum, like Ignite, a golden peachy pink; Siren, a shimmery reddish copper; and Child, a pale warm pink. Read more…
BOBBI BROWN
SMOKEY EYE PALETTE
Okay, methinks it’s time to stop scaring the neighbors. With last week’s beehive and that other blast to beauty’s past, I got more than a few sideways glances every time I went outside.
I don’t really know my neighbors very well, but I’m sure they know me — as the crazy lady who walks her cat on a leash while wearing lots of eye makeup and bathrobes. Ha! Gotta love it.
I kept getting that look, you know the one, where they’re afraid to make eye contact, but their glassy, straight-ahead stares betray what they’re really doing, which is watching you from the side with their peripheral vision… I do it a lot at restaurants to see what everyone else is eating, haha.
This morning I decided to give ‘em a break and go back to wearing something a little less shocking in public. Out came the new Bobbi Brown Smokey Eye Palette ($45).
Have you seen it yet? One of three new kits in the just-released Choose Your Glam collection, it comes with four powder eyeshadows perfect for black/gray smokey eyes.
I’ve been chomping at the bit for this one, specifically for the sparkly black Long-Wear Eye Paint in Onyx. Read more…
$5 WET N WILD
COLOR ICON KITS
I wonder how much it costs to mail a letter to the North Pole. I ask because I’d really like to thank Santa for releasing these Wet N Wild Color Icon Kits ($5) for the holidays.
Being just $5 each and coming with six coordinating shadows and a mini-eyeliner, the four kits give new meaning to the words, “travel friendly.”
Well, the liner’s nothing to write home about. I mean, it’s nicely pigmented, but it feels a little rigid against my skin. The shadows, on the other hand — oh, the shadows! Rich, bold and just as buildable as the the company’s fab Color Icon Singles.
Again, these are just $5, WOW!
Of the four kits — Sugar Plum Fairy, Golden Goddess, Snow Sprite and Night Elf — I’ve tested two of them so far. Read more…
L’OREAL HiP EYE
SHADOW DUOS, MIDNIGHT MUSE
As much as I love a good bargain, budget beauty doesn’t always deliver. With some drugstore beauty products, you just don’t know what caliber of quality you’re gonna get.
The HiP Eye Shadow duos we looked at last week from the new L’Oreal Midnight Muse collection showed a lot of promise, and you showed a lot of interest, so I took two of them (Enchantress and Darkwave) out for indoor test drives today.
Now I know why these HiP shadows have so many fans. 🙂
The matte and high-shine shimmer shadows in both duos are easy to blend and exhibit very little fallout. These are top-shelf drugstore beauty products. We’re talking glass case material here, like the kinds of products that deserve their own display at the very front of the beauty aisle. Read more…
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Nina says
im going to read posts now. 😛
been in and out of the internet ….
Karen says
Hi, Nina. Me too. I’ve been in and out Internet-wise today, among other ways. Talk about lazy days. I haven’t done a whole lot since breakfast. What are you up to?
Nina says
yesterday we moved one more batch of stuff that the movers didnt take (mostly fragile ones); today were moving the contents of the refrigerator then we are done!
other than that, i just chillaxed yesterday – i felt like we deserved to do nothing. we went to mass and the hubs had a church meeting after … i watched tv! 🙂
mkdallas says
Regarding the World Series…while I was bummed for the Rangers (since I am a Texas girl), I found Tim Lincecum to be not only a stupendous pitcher but strangely hot, lol. I could so see him in a remake of like, “Dazed & Confused” or “Fast Times At Ridgemont High”. This makes me slightly ashamed since I’m old enough to actually be his mother, but whomp…there it is.
Karen says
Haha! Don’t be ashamed. Tim’s a cutie alright, and I like that he’s a bit of a loose canon, verbally speaking. Kid curses like a sailor.
lexi says
I wasn’t into baseball until I met my husband. He even left his job and went to Umpire school. I really learned a lot about the game and now I really appreciate it. I even liked listening to it on the radio when I couldn’t watch the game. This win is sweet. It made up for the loss to the A’s in ’89 and to the Angels in ’02. The Giants are true underdogs that everyone…including the entire ESPN baseball analysts. They are also biased against West Coast teams…don’t get me started. So this win just touched everyone in the Bay Area. 52 years is a long time but it was well worth the wait. That parade was bananas but you could feel the love in the air.
Timmy’s also half Filipino!
lexi says
I didn’t finish a sentence…The Giants were underdogs…nobody thought they could stop the Braves, the Phillies and Cliff Lee and The Rangers….WELL THEY DID IT!!!!!!
Karen says
That is so cool that your hubby went to umpire school! So, I wasn’t a big baseball fan either, but the whole Giants Cinderella story made it pretty compelling. It’s amazing how folks got into it around here, and I was like, “Please take me with you on your fun bus!” That parade in the city was epic! SF’s a small city, mind you, but they shut that bad boy down.
Kim says
I don’t follow baseball anymore but was happy that the Giants won because it made me cheer “The Giants win the Pennant! The Giants win the Pennant!” in my head, over and over. That audio clip always makes me happy. 🙂
Karen says
Haha! I know exactly which audio clip you’re talking about. 🙂