Makeup & Beauty Blog

The new limited edition Bobbi Brown Sheer Lip Color in 21 Pink Taffy (one of my current summer obsessions), from the Surf & Sand summer collection

Just a few of the things I’m currently obsessing over/lusting after…

1. This straw fedora

Bustin’ my JT moves…

Even though I firmly believe that Justin Timberlake should be the only person wearing a fedora, I can’t quit this hat. I got it at Target a couple years ago for a trip to Kauai, but since then it has become one of my summer staples.

2. Three Twins ice cream

I will happily blow my daily calories on this ice cream.

It’s just so flavorful and rich and dense… I could seriously eat this stuff every day.

Mmm…lemon cookie.

3. Bobbi Brown’s new Sheer Lip Colors from the Surf & Sand collection

Bobbi Brown Bobbi Brown Sheer Lip Color in 18 Sunlit Pink, a mid-toned bronze

Sometimes you feel like opaque lips, and sometimes you don’t. For those latter days, there are the four new limited edition Sheer Lip Color ($26 each) shades in the Bobbi Brown Surf & Sand collection — Sunlit Pink, Summer Nude, Peach Sorbet and Pink Taffy.

I like these, because even though they’re technically (“air quotes”) sheer, they’re still pigmented enough to show up on my lips. That, and they’re smooth, slick and moisturizing.

They remind me a lot of the Chanel Rouge Allure Coco Shines.

All four are available now at Bobbi Brown counters and online.

Bobbi Brown Sheer Lip Color in 19 Summer Nude, a light beige

20 Peach Sorbet, a nude peach

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Three cheers to eight years!

I’ve been craving pizza lately, and El Hub is always craving pizza, so for our wedding anniversary dinner last night, we drove up to Ca’ Momi, the yummy Italian restaurant we discovered last month in Napa.

We ordered some things we knew we’d like (bubbles and bruschetta), tried some new things we weren’t sure about (baccalà), and then walked around downtown Napa to let our tummies settle.

Not a bad way to celebrate eight years.

Bruschetta. Yeah…hard to go wrong with cherry tomatoes, garlic and basil.

The Baccalà mantecato alla veneziana appetizer. Creamy whipped cod dip served with crispy polenta crostini (I didn’t much care for this one. Kind of tasted like a slightly bland tuna salad.).

The Margherita Pizza from Ca’ Momi Restaurant in Napa. San Marzano DOP tomato sauce (here’s what the DOP signifies), mozzarella di bufala Campania DOP and fresh basil.

El Hub’s dish, the Calabrese pizza with organic raw onions, zucchini, buffalo mozzarella and Alle Pia spicy salame Calabrese. Yes, he inhaled it, whereas I could only finish half of mine.

The Oxbow Public Market, where Ca’ Momi is located.

Downtown Napa at dusk. It was actually a pretty hopping place, even on a Monday night.

Wearing the new Bobbi Brown Surf Palette ($65) on my eyes

Hey, surfer girl, hey.

Sure, have a seat next to me on the towel. You can put your board over there by the Surf Palette — yeah, that one with the linen packaging and the four glittery shadows, three shimmer shadows and beige matte shadow inside.

It’s cute, yeah? All of us in the group have one… You should totally get one, too!

The Bobbi Brown Surf Palette, $65

Cool, cool...

We could always use another gal pal to charge the waves with us.

Nah, no worries if you can't surf for sh*t. It's not like any of us are going to win the Vans Triple Crown. We just like to hang out, catch a few waves and watch out for each other on the water.

Um, of course we also hang out on land. What do you think this is? One of those sisterhoods that stops when you get out of the water?

Rules? No, I wouldn't exactly say we have rules. Not really. I mean, we're all pretty mellow here, so there's no, like, Bravo-style backstabbing or anything. No one's gonna steal your beach bum boyfriend.

There is one thing, though… You do have to put up with a couple of the more eccentric members and their makeup habits.

Actually, to be more accurate, they're more like addictions.

I mean, you already know that Bobbi is totally into makeup, since you guys are acquainted, but you probably don't know that she also insists that we all put on at least a little bit of eye makeup whenever we go out for food, which we usually do after surfing.

Something about always looking polished no matter what...

You'll have to ask her.

And that girl over there? -- the one holding the huge tabby in her lap? That's Karen, another one of our member makeup fiends.

She's cool, but I have to warn you, if you start talking to her about makeup or cats, homegirl turns into a talking Terminator! She absolutely, positively will not stop.

Cat lady surfer says what meow?

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Essie Fashion Playground and In The Cab-ana (used as an “accent nail”)

Accent nails: yes or no?

(Where one of your nails is a different design or color.)

Quick! — don’t overthink it. Go with your gut.

For me, they’re a really cool resounding yes. I particularly like to have that extra pop of color tie into my pedicure.

For my BFF, though, they’re a strong “No.” We had an in-depth conversation about them the other day, and she was very firm on the matter. The idea of purposefully interrupting the uniformity of her manicures freaks her out.

How about you? Do you do accent nails?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

NARS Thasos Nail Polish, $20

Have you ever basked in the sun on Thasos?

Thasos, a Greek island in the Northern Aegean Sea

Wouldn’t you like to?

I sure would…

Before today, I didn’t even know this beautiful Greek island existed (there’s also a town on the island of the same name).

Thank you, NARS, for the geography lesson.

I painted my paws with this new creamy mint NARS Nail Polish today.

Two coats of NARS Thasos

Yup, NARS recently reformulated their nail polish line, and when they did so, they added a bunch of colors, kept some old ones, changed the brush (it’s now flat and wide and covers the entire nail in one swipe), and the cap, which is more like Chanel’s caps now, with a removable square cap on top of a cylindrical one.

The new line of 43 polishes ($20 each) arrives July 15 at NARS boutiques and narscosmetics.com, and August 1 at Sephora stores and NARS counters inside department stores.

I can’t gauge the wear time of Thasos yet, but I definitely dig the application. The brush was really easy to use, and the creamy formula wasn’t streaky at all. I only needed two layers.

As for the Island of Thasos, uh, when are we leaving?

That water looks incredible…

Postcard says what now?

To quote Liz Lemon, “I want to go to there.”

Let’s take a dip!