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Tocca

With the Tocca Crema da Mano Hand Cream Collezioni, Variety Is the Spice of Life

December 11th, 2015 by Karen 12 Comments

tocca hand cream set

tocca hand cream set

I’m a bonafide hand cream addict. Raise your parched paw if you’re one too. 🙂

With the $32 Tocca holiday Crema de Mano Collezioni, you can moisturize your mitts with a different scented hand cream every workday of the week, because it comes with five fragrant tubes, each one with a slightly more refined, less sweet scent, in my opinion, than many of the other hand creams I’ve tried.

They say that variety is the spice of life, and I think that totally applies to hand cream. With these five, which are all about the scents, you can go with grapefruit and cucumber on Mondays and bergamot and gardenia on Thursday, for instance.

tocca hand cream set box

Tocca is known for their floral, feminine, long-lasting fragrances (I love the names they give their perfumes!), and for $32, you get five 1-oz. tubes of Tocca’s bestselling scented hand creams, including vanilla and sandalwood Collete, grapefruit and cucumber Cleopatra (I’m wearing that one today), bergamot and gardenia Florence, watermelon and frangipani Simone and peach and muguet Liliana.

The moderately moisturizing formula, which is almost as moisturizing as Soap & Glory Hand Food or L’Occitane Shea Butter Whipped Hand Cream, is enriched with coconut oil, shea butter and aloe for real-deal hand help.

tocca hand cream set

Even though I don’t think these are the most moisturizing hand creams around, they still feel substantial. I can’t stand it when I put on hand creams that are practically water (so useless). These, on the other hand, pack serious moisture, and sometimes I like using them when I know I’m going to be out of the house for a while, because they leave behind a light residue that feels like a protective barrier against the elements.

Plus, helloooo! — I think they smell lovely.

You can find the Tocca Crema da mano Collezioni now at Sephora, SpaceNK and online.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S.
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There are 12 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Daily Beauty

5 Things I’ve Been Loving Lately

September 2nd, 2015 by Karen 15 Comments

pears-final

1. Pears

5-novato-summer-walk

Mmm… Sweet green, juicy pears. I love them so much right meow! I got a huge bag of organic pears at Trader Joe’s last Sunday, and most of them have already managed to find their way into my tum. 🙂 I might be on the verge of a full-on pear obsession.

I get that way sometimes about certain foods, where I ravenously crave them every day, over and over for weeks or months, and it’s starting to happen with pears.

I still haven’t succumbed to the temptation to “borrow” any from the huge pear tree I pass every day on my walk, but today may be the day… We’ll know by around 7 o’clock tonight.

2. Tocca scents

Cake Stand Perfume Display 1

I keep a bunch of perfumes on this cake stand display on top of my dresser, but the only one I’ve been wearing lately is Byredo Gypsy Water, and I’ve been wearing it for months.

Hmm… This might be a good time to try a different scent every day with a scent of the day series on Instagram! That might be fun.

In the process of sniffing some of these today I discovered that a couple of them had gone sour. 🙁 The ancient bottle of Estée Lauder Private Collection perfume I’ve had forever smelled like moonshine, OMG!

It broke my heart to ditch it because it was a gift, but in the process of test sniffing these, I rediscovered some old faves, like, basically, EVERYTHING from Tocca.

Cake Stand Perfume Display 1 3

Why did I ever stop wearing Tocca?? Their scents, while delicate, still have such presence, and whenever I wear one I just feel…chipper and glad. And, hello! — they last all day long too.

Today I’m wearing Violette, which I really like (but I like Bianca and Graciella even more).

3. Aveda Clove Color Conditioner

aveda clove conditioner
I have caramel highlights in my hair from about the mid-shaft to the ends, and I’ve been using and LOVING this Aveda Clove Color Conditioner ($21) to keep ’em looking vibrant and fresh.

All I do is wash my hair, then use Clove instead of my regular conditioner, and I leave it in for a few minutes before rinsing it out. I think it makes my highlights much richer (Clove in place of my regular conditioner once a week is enough to keep the highlights poppin’), and it has a fresh, very Aveda-esque herbal scent that I like. The only thing is…it’s kind of pain to keep the shower stall clean when you use it because it’s pigmented, so it’ll leave a stain in the tub if you’re not careful.

That’s why I bring a scrub brush with me into the shower, and after I rinse my hair, I’ll quickly scrub the shower walls to remove any spots or smears.
[Continue reading…]

There are 15 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Aveda, Fragrance, Hair, Just For Fun, Tocca

5 Things I’ve Been Loving Lately

August 21st, 2015 by Karen 18 Comments

tocca-candles

1. Tocca Cleopatra Candela Luxe ($54)

tocca-cleopatra-candle

Kind of a sucker over here! Yep, I’m a sucker for fancy candles, and this one is from Tocca, the makers of Bianca, which is one of my premiere most perfect perfumes of all time. Candela Luxe is a new collection of luxury candles inspired by their fragrances, and each one comes in a gorgeous glass you can repurpose. They’re also rated to burn for 60 hours (!).

The one I have is the Cleopatra, which fills my immediate vicinity with the aromas of clean, crisp cucumber and sweet grapefruit.

Ahh… 🙂

2. L’Oréal Paris Infallible Pro-Last Nailcolor ($9.99)

loreal-2-step-nail

These dynamic nail polish duos have twin tips! One end has a colorful base shade, and the other end has a (very lightly) tinted top coat. The idea is that you can skip an additional base coat, and just use one of these with its accompanying top coat.

They come in a variety of colors (I’ve been wearing them a lot in videos). I’ve tested a creamy light blue shade called Endless Sky and a creamy taupe called Timeless Taupe, and Endless Sky chipped on me pretty quickly (like within a day!), but Timeless Taupe made it about five days before the first chips appeared at the edges, which isn’t bad for me, considering the heck I put my nails through every day, all day.

I’m going to try Always A Lady next, which is a dark reddish brown… I guess I’m in the mood for fall!

3. Trader Joe’s Sour Gummies ($1.99)

tjs-sour-gummies

ERHMAHGOSH! There’s a key lime sour gummy!

I think I may have mentioned that I’ve been all about sour flavors lately (especially lime), and that’s why I put this in my shopping cart the other day.

Man, oh, man! — I’m so glad I did. They’re delicious. They’re gummier and firmer (furmier? LOL!) than regular sour gummies… They also stick to my teeth worse/more, which isn’t ideal, but I can overlook that on account of them being so tasty.

The flavors are lemon, grapefruit (YUM), lime and tangerine, and they’re all in little “T” or “J” shapes.

I WILL be getting another bag on my next trip to Trader Joe’s.
[Continue reading…]

There are 18 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Just For Fun, Loreal, Tocca

Treat Yourself to a Little Everyday Luxury With the Tocca Love Yourself Luxury Spa Set

February 12th, 2014 by Karen 11 Comments

Tocca Luxury Spa Set
Tocca Luxury Spa Set
Treat yourself to Tocca

No shower for me today (and possibly tomorrow) because of the sutures on my boo-boo arm. This makes me sad. 🙁

You don’t understand — it’s like Anakin Skywalker with the Force. The drive to clean is strong in this one…

Doesn’t matter how tired I am at the end of the day. I will always (well, 98% of the time) find the energy to take a shower. I just can’t sleep with sticky skin.

So imagine my shock yesterday when the surgeon told me that I shouldn’t shower for a while. He said that I should give the sutures a couple days to heal before getting them wet.

My first thought was, “No. Huh-uh. Not gonna happen,” which was quickly followed by a more reasonable, “Well, if I’m stuck taking sponge baths for a while, you better believe those sponge baths are going to be epic.”

I gotta get my beauty thrills wherever I can, and today I’m getting mine with Tocca’s $78 Love Yourself Luxury Spa Set.

The luxurious three-piece set will get you squeaky clean, and when you’re done, you’ll float out of your bathroom like an elven angel smelling lightly of gardenias… 🙂

This morning I lit the mini Florence candle that comes with the set and used my imagination to pretend I was at a spa. One sponge bath with the Bubble Bath and a few spritzes of Eau de Parfum later, and my day was off to a great start.

If you need to treat yourself to a little luxury, you can find the $78 (a $110 value) Love Yourself Luxury Spa Set now exclusively at Sephora stores and sephora.com.

The set includes…

  • 1.7 oz Eau de Parfum
  • 2 oz Mini Candelina
  • 6.8 oz Bubble Bath

Tocca Luxury Spa Set
The three-piece set includes Tocca’s Bubble Bath, Eau de Parfum and a scented candle — all in their Florence fragrance.

Tocca Luxury Spa Set, Bubble Bath
The Bubble Bath has notes of Bergamot and Gardenia

Tocca Luxury Spa Set, Bubble Bath
Paraben-free

Tocca Luxury Spa Set, Florence Perfume Bottle
Florence’s fragrance notes: Gardenia, bergamot, violet, iris and blonde wood

Tocca Luxury Spa Set, Florence Perfume Bottle
Tocca Luxury Spa Set Box
I love the thought of this set being an everyday escape…

Tocca Luxury Spa Set Box
Hello, gorgeous!

There are 11 comments on this post. Leave yours.

Categories: Daily Beauty

At the Barneys New York Love Yourself Beauty Event on Sept. 20-22, Get a Sweet Bag of Samples From Chantecaille, Sunday Riley, Deborah Lippmann, Tocca and More

September 20th, 2012 by Karen 13 Comments

barneys new york love yourself beauty event

Okay, here it is: you, me, Tabs — we blow off the rest of the afternoon, drive into the city, hit an ice cream shoppe, and then go cruising for makeup.

What do ya say? Come on! You know you want to. 🙂

I need a break… Tabs has been working my paws to the bone! This morning, we had a “gravy emergency.” I won’t go into it now, but needless to say, I’m pooped.

I could really do with a few hours of meow time right now.

Let’s see… We could start with fresh-squeezed lemonade and semi-sweet chocolate chip cookies at Specialty’s (yep, that’s really how it’s spelled), do a little shopping at Union Square, maybe stop by Nordstrom to see Dick Page work his magic at the Shiseido counter.

And after, a trip to the Barneys New York beauty department where they carry one of my favorite under-the-radar makeup lines, Sunday Riley, and niche perfumes you can’t really sniff anywhere else (hello, Frederic Malle Geranium!).

And right now they’ve got a pretty sweet gift with purchase set.

It’s to celebrate their Love Yourself Beauty Event, going on now ’til September 22. Spend $200 on any combo of makeup, skin care and/or perfume, and get a blue and tan makeup bag bursting with fancy beauty samples like…

  • Hourglass No. 28 Primer Serum
  • Sunday Riley The Influencer Extra Volume Glossy Mascara
  • Deborah Lippmann Nail Lacquer in Money Now Sleep Later
  • Koh Gen Do Makeup Color Base in Lavender Pink
  • Sue Devitt Defining Eyeliner in Oslo
  • Radical Skincare Age-Defying Exfoliating Pads
  • Giorgio Armani Regenessence Multi-Corrective Rejuvenating Cream
  • By Terry Creme De Rose Nutri-Lift Comfort Cream
  • Malin+ Goetz Vitamin E Face Moisturizer
  • Chantecaille Rice and Geranium Foaming Cleanser
  • 3Lab The Cream
  • Ren Glycolactic Radiance Renewal Mask
  • NARS Skin Double Refining Exfoliator
  • YSL Forever Youth Liberator Serum
  • L’Artisan Parfumeur Paris Eau de Toilette in Batucada
  • Costume National Deau de Parfum
  • Tocca Violette Eau de Parfum
  • Kai Fragrance

The offer also includes men’s grooming products, so you could snag something for yourself and/or your woman/man. In my case, I’m not so sure about that… El Hub acts like face moisturizer and eye cream are the devil’s work!

If you can’t make it to Barneys, the offer also applies to online barneys.com beauty purchases, too. No coupon code necessary. Just fill your cart, and the goody bag automatically pops up when you hit the $200 barrier.

barneys new york love yourself beauty event
Makeup and nail polish samples from Sue Devitt, Deboran Lippmann, Hourglass, Sunday Riley and Koh Gen Doh
barneys new york love yourself beauty event
Skin care samples from YSL, Radical Skincare, NARS and more!

barneys new york love yourself beauty event
Perfume samples from Kai, Costume National, Tocca and L’Artisan Parfumeur Paris

[Continue reading…]

There are 13 comments on this post. Leave yours.

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About Makeup and Beauty Blog

Welcome to Makeup and Beauty Blog
Hi there! I’m Karen, your friendly neighborhood beauty addict, and I’m a Bay Area girl who hoards brown eyeshadow and covets coral lipstick. Every morning, I wake up and say, “I’m going to do something other than a smoky eye today.” Then…I end up doing a smoky eye anyway (most days). When I’m not putting on makeup, taking pictures of makeup or writing about makeup, which I’ve been doing daily since 2007 (!), you’ll find me hanging out with my hubby (“El Hub”), my four-year-old daughter (Connor Claire) and my torbie girl cat (Pretty Girl Rosie, a.k.a. PGR).

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