Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup
A beauty blog blooming with fresh makeup reviews, swatches and beauty tips from your friendly neighborhood beauty addict
Are you ready for some football!? The Niners game is about to start. I bet Tabs is watching from the Rainbow Bridge because, as you know, he was a big fan, and the Niners were his team.
Well, his heart was always with the Mill Valley Wildcats, because that’s the team he played for, but as a Bay Area native, he cheered for San Francisco.
If the Niners win tonight, they head to the Super Bowl.
So exciting!
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Hello and happy Saturday, my friend! 🤗 Before we get goin’ and do this, I just want to say thank you for visiting me this morning. It’s still early, but I already have a list *this long* of things I’d like to do before the weekend ends. At the very top, paint my nails!
I NEED PAW PAINT. DESPERATELY. We have to have bare nails when we work at the bakery to eliminate the chance of nail polish getting into the food (makes sense, right?), and although I’m completely cool with naked nails, I miss having some color on my fingertips. I just feel more like “me” when my nails are painted, ya know?
I think it’s an Essie Angora Cardi day. 😁 It’s one of my go-tos.
While I go bring my nails back to life, here’s your weekly dose of surfing…
I hope the rest of your weekend is just as wonderful as you are! 😊
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Thanks, gals, for recommending Dansko work clogs. I found a basic brown leather pair (nothing fancy) at DSW in their sale section on deeeeeeep discount — fifty bucks! They’re usually $109 at DSW and online, but for some reason this pair was the only pair I could find in the store at that price. Weird!
Anyway, I wasn’t sure about them at first because when I tried them on in the store, they looked a little high, the arch support felt almost uncomfortably stiff, and because the section that hugs the heel doesn’t come up as high as my tennis shoes do, I was afraid I’d fall out of them, but since they were over half off, I just went for it.
I’ve been wearing them for almost two weeks now, and my goodness, I love ’em! Every day my feet, back and my hips just feel better and better.
From the side, they look pretty high, but when you slip them on, they feel like flats. I was nervous about this at first, but I guess that substantial arch area is there for a reason, because my arches feel *extremely* secure and supported. I don’t feel like I’m being tipped forward like I do in heels.
The girls at the bakery recommended breaking them in for a few hours at a time, and then ramping up to a full day’s wear. They told me to bring my tennis shoes in and switch into them when my feet need a break, which I’ve been doing.
One last added bonus: The clogs are much easier to clean than mesh/fabric tennies. When flour or frosting ends up on my toes (which inevitably always happens), all I have to do is wipe it right off!
I can see why people who are on their feet all day long recommend these with such passion. They really do work!
My feet (and whole body, really) thank you again for suggesting them.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
P.S. I saw this at work yesterday, and it cracked me up! Just in case you were looking for spare parts for your unicorn…
P.P.S.
I got all the nostalgic feels with this late ’90s-inspired look with bright blue inner corners (thanks, MAC Tilt). Was anybody else obsessed with blazingly bright inner corner highlights way back when? I most certainly was. I usually rocked MAC Vex around the tear ducts. (Side note: normally accompanied by a frosty brow bone and HELLA SKINNY brows, OMG!)
I felt like revisiting old-school inner corner highlights with this look because I saw a character wearing something similar on a show I just started watching on Netflix called Spinning Out.
It’s a drama about some Olympic hopeful ice skaters (January Jones of Mad Men fame is in it), and if you start watching it, just FYI, 1) there’s more drama than actual skating, and 2) you won’t be able to look away, because something over-the-top happens to the characters every five minutes. It’s not Melrose Place in the ’90s caliber bat-sh*t cray, but it’s pretty close.
Anywho…like I was saying, one of the main characters wore a similar look with a shimmery blue inner corner highlight to a skating competition. I, on the other hand, wore it around the house to do laundry. 🙂 I did keep it on when I left to pick up Connor at preschool, but I buffed down the blue quite a bit to make it more wearable and less in-your-face.
It had been a while since I wore such a bold statement inner corner, and doing so reminded me that a pencil brush is your friend, especially when you’re placing shadow in a tight space like the inner corner.
Sure, you could easily press some shadow there with your finger — and that’s something I do all the time with shimmery peaches, beiges and pinks for a soft highlight — but if you want concentrated, intense color, grab a pencil brush.
I like to start by applying the shadow around the inner corner with the pencil brush. Then I wet the brush head with a setting spray, dip it back into the same eyeshadow (don’t forget to tap off the excess), and apply the just around the tear duct to intensify the color and shimmer and create a subtle gradient.
Then, I take another pencil brush and soften out the edges.
I think this effect looks super cool with many different colors — blue, green, light purple, even pink!
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MAC Fashion Legacy is a real heavy lifter, and by that I mean that you can wear it with minimal makeup on the rest of your face and have a full finished look in less than five minutes. Bright red lips: spiriting makeup lovers to work on time, one tube at a time!
I wore this to the bakery yesterday and didn’t feel the need to touch up at all during my shift, which included making a delicious sheet of pecan chewy bars (here’s a recipe in case you’ve never heard of them).
Fashion Legacy is an opaque, fire truck red, and it’s one of the MAC Retro Matte liquid lipsticks. I like the Retro Mattes because they stay glued to your lips, so they don’t scoot, but the formula is still a little flexible, so your lips don’t look like a cracked, gross mess as the day wears on. I can eat and drink with them on my lips, and my lips still look presentable afterward, so they’re great for parties (or long days at work).
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen