Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup

What Was Your Most Recent Beauty DIY Adventure, and How’d It Turn Out?

November 15th, 2018 by Karen 1 Comment

A few weekends ago I colored my hair for the first time in…I dunno? Ten years?

It’s been a while.

For the record, it’s still not my most favorite 👎🏼 activity, and it isn’t remotely as relaxing or therapeutic as going to the salon, and it’s still preternaturally messy (even got some dye splatter on one of the bathroom walls, and of course it stained, yaaaay), but I’ve been looking for ways to save a little money, and doing my color at home again was an obvious choice.

In the benefits column, I don’t have to make an appointment anyplace because I can do it whenever I want 🙋, which is a huge, huge plus. I like the fact that I can do it when Connor’s taking a nap and just be done with it.

Also, my hair color routine right now isn’t particularly involved, so I think it should be manageable. I use a demi-permanent color, which fades gradually, so I feel like there’s less chance of me mucking things up and ending up with striped orange hair for three months. I’m only really trying to cover up my grays, and I’m sticking pretty close to my natural hair color, so nothing too extreme.

Now, if I were trying to lighten my hair or do some kind of cool highlights or an ombre effect, then I wouldn’t even attempt a DIY route without doing a lot more research and planning, because I can see something like that going very, very wrong. LOL.

Nonetheless, the color turned out OK — a little darker than I’m used to, but you know, it works for now. I’ll do it for a while and see how I feel in six months.

How about you? What was your most recent beauty DIY adventure, and how’d it turn out?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Yet Another Reason to Love Lisa Eldridge

November 14th, 2018 by Karen 20 Comments

lisa eldridge final — She’s like the British makeup nanny I never knew I needed.

How do I love Lisa Eldridge? Let me count the ways…

First, I’ve learned so, so much from her about makeup. Plus, she always does her own thing, and I’m so glad to see someone out there who brings it without doing makeup that isn’t your typical Instagram/YouTube/beat-to-the-gods look…not that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s just SO MANY PEOPLE do it, and at a certain point, everyone starts to look the same.

Sorry, tangent.
Second, she’s a total cat lady! I love it when her kitty cats 🐱 show up in her videos.
Third, and I know this is gonna sound so weird, buuuuut when I can’t sleep because I have insomnia in the wee hours of the morning (like I did last night!), I’ll fire up a Lisa Eldridge video on my phone, put on my headphones, and listen to her soothing voice talk about makeup. POOF! — I fall right back to sleep…

Last night I spent a couple hours awake in bed obsessing about relatives coming to stay for two weeks and how I haven’t had enough time to clean the house before their arrival, and at some point between trying to work out when I’ll be able to scrub the guest toilet, and finding a space for the Ninja Blender Box that’s been sitting on the dining room table for months, I turned on Lisa’s video about under-eye concealer, and sure enough, I’d drifted off to dreamland within a couple minutes.

Her voice is so soothing, and I adore her British accent and the fact that she’s talking about a subject I love. It feels like I have this magical British makeup nanny sitting next to me, and she’s stroking my hair ever so gently and talking to me about eyeshadow and skincare in a soothing, sweet voice until I fall asleep…

I’ve also fallen asleep to this one.

Lisa Eldridge…YOU DA BEST. You really are. You put me to sleep, but I mean that in a complimentary way. 😊 You send me off to the Land of Good Makeup Dreams when I can’t sleep at night, and it’s much appreciated!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Put a Cat on It!

November 13th, 2018 by Karen 13 Comments

chanel holiday 2018 eyeshadows top final — CHANEL

‘Cause if you liked it then you should have put a cat on it.

If you liked it, then you shoulda put a cat in it.

Don’t be mad once you see the tabby’s paw on it.

‘Cause if you liked it, then you shoulda put a cat on it.

Oh, oh, oh (oh, oh, oh) oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Oh, oh, oh (oh, oh, oh) oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

When you and I finally discover the mythical doorway to the alternate universe ruled by cat ladies and cross the threshold together, you’ll see. There will be cats on everything. Every piece of makeup. EVERYTHING! Because cats on makeup is the key to life!

Well, maybe not the key to life…but it makes things better. 😺

Paul and Joe does it, Chantecaille did it with big cats, and now Chanel went there with 🦁 lions. They put leonine heads on their holiday eyeshadows and holiday highlighter.

I’ve been wanting to use these shadows, but I couldn’t bring myself to sully the kitty cat designs on them. I’ve been surgically removing tiny amounts of the shadows from the sides of the pan (right next to the lion’s bushy mane) with the diminutive NARS 45 smudge brush, so as to protect the meow-velous design.

chanel holiday 2018 — Wearing Chanel Cuivre Lamé and Noir Lamé eyeshadows on my lids

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A Sephora VIB Sale Strategy (and a Skin Care Haul)

November 13th, 2018 by Karen 26 Comments

kate somerville skin care — New from Kate Somerville

I have revised my plan of attack for the Sephora VIB sale, because, let’s get real…only a few of the items I want are things I can’t function without (I’m talking to you, Kate Somerville Anti-Bac Clearing Lotion). Most of the things are things I only want because they’re on sale… I’m 100% my mother’s daughter that way (“It’s on sale? BUY IT. Don’t you ever pay full price, ever!”).

But really, how much do I actually need another bronzer, all-matte neutral palette or another coral lipstick?

Not much! LOL. But I still want them all, especially with new makeup coming out every five seconds, so I gotta check myself before I wreck myself…

How do I weed out unnecessary or spur-of-the moment purchases?

On the very first day of the sale, I put everything I want to buy into my cart, and then I wait… And wait. And wait. I let it all simmer there, brewing and stewing (and taunting me?). Then, juuuuust before the sale ends, I’ll see what’s left in my cart, and most of the time when I do this, there are things that have sold out, which whittles the list down, and from there I reevaluate what’s left and see what fits into my budget.

This tactic reduces the likelihood of me getting a whole bunch of things I mostly only want because they’re on sale.

sephora vib haul — ‘Twas a skin care haul (regular prices shown)

Um…but K-Dawg, does this actually work?

Dude, it totally does! Forcing myself to wait and really think about my cart and the grand total $ staring back at me helps…because I know who I am, and I’m a spur-of-the-moment shopper.

Waiting also forces me to look around at what I already have in my stash.

For this last sale, I knew I needed another bottle of Kate Somerville Anti-Bac, sunscreen/face moisturizer for winter (ugh, dry skin), an eye cream and some chemical exfoliators for mature skin, because every morning lately when I wake up and look in the mirror, instead of seeing my face, I see freakin’ Gollum’s!

What my heart was telling me I wanted, though, was a bunch of makeup — a Charlotte Tilbury palette, Shiseido eyeliners and eyeshadows (they recently revamped their entire makeup line, and it’s supposed to be REALLY good), some Charlotte Tilbury blushes and bronzers, and a Dior foundation.

OK, and maybe a few other things were in there too, ha ha ha. You know me too well!

Step 1: Shopping my own stash

The Charlotte Tilbury palette ended up being sold out, but everything worked out because I rediscovered my BECCA Chrissy Palette, which more or less serves the same purpose. I’m a little sad panda, 🙁 but if the CT palette is still around for the next VIB sale and I’m still lusting after it, I’ll get it then.

becca chrissy teigen swatches — Hello, old friend…

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#BECCAxChrissy Holiday 2018 Collection Glow Kitchen and Lip Icing Glow Gloss Kits

November 12th, 2018 by Karen 10 Comments

becca chrissy holiday 2018 2 — New #BECCAxChrissy holiday makeup

Chrissy Teigan gets me, man. She really does — and not just because she made one of my favorite face/eye palettes of all time.

Um, have I mentioned in the last 5 minutes how much I adore the BECCA X Chrissy palette? Yeah, you do not have to twist my arm to get me to wear bronze eyeshadow. LOL.

Well, Chrissy is back with another BECCA holiday collab, and it’s also gorgeous, especially if you have warm undertones and medium brown skin.

We’re talking bronze lids, rose gold highlighter, rosy nude lipstick and a whole lotta nude gloss, a.k.a Karen’s Makeup Dreams Come True, or K.M.D.C.T.

There’s two LE holiday kits, and both of them are available now at Sephora.

BECCA Glow Kitchen Kit ($44)

This kit contains three items, and errrrthang is new. These are never-seen-before formulas, which is very exciting to makeup weirdos 😜 like yours truly. There’s a loose rose gold highlighter, a matte nude rose liquid lipstick, and a pot called Glow Souffle Eye Shadow & Face Highlighter in Cinnamon Churro with a bronze eyeshadow in the flip-cap top and a creamy golden mousse highlighter in the jar. (Side note: The packaging looks a LOT like these old Tom Ford duos.)

I couldn’t wait to try Cinnamon Churro. The soft bronze eyeshadow feels almost creamy, so it’s crazy sexy blend-able, but the frosty finish and big flecks of glitter make it…problematic for 40-something lids. If I take it up too high into my crease — which is easy to do because of how gracefully the powder glides across the skin, and you know I like to go HAM on that @ss when it comes to blending — I look much older than I am because of mah fine lines.

Beautiful bronze color, though… Le sigh. If I were 22, I’d be on it like fried chicken on waffles.

Fun fact: The mousse highlighter in the duo smells like cinnamon buns, which are one of Chrissy’s favorite sweet treats… And now I’m craving cinnamon buns with extra icing, ha ha.

Um…where was I?

To put the formula in context, the mousse is denser than a Tom Ford cream shadow but less dense than a Chanel cream or a MAC Paint Pot.

So, basically, it feels like a makeup marshmallow (which is great), but, like the eyeshadow, the mousse is full of bling, so it gets a hard pass from me thanks to my experience lines.

becca chrissy holiday 2018 — BECCA Chrissy Holiday 2018

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