Beauty Tips

Warm Tones With Chanel Cream Eyeshadow Sticks and Rouge Coco Lipsticks, and a Happy St. Patrick’s Day! 💚

March 17th, 2021 by Karen 15 Comments

chanel warm tones coco lipstick — Swatches!

Wouldn’t it be just grand if every decision were only as complex as what lipstick to wear for the day!? Adulting is hard, man! Oh, well…

This week I’ve been working on the flooring project I talked about, which means trying to figure out when to start it, what material to use, whom to hire, how to test our existing tiles for asbestos since the home was built in the 1970s, figuring out how to remove the old carpet, whether we can coordinate the project to coincide with some repairs we have to do, which may or may not require us all to temporarily live someplace else with our cat while the work is done, which has been…challenging, but at least I figured out what lipstick to wear for the day! 🙂 That was easy, peasy, lemon squeezy compared to asbestos testing (OMG).

chanel rouge coco lipstick coco adrienne — I couldn’t decide between these two, so I tried both!

Yesterday I had the best time trying to figure out which of these Chanel Rouge Coco Lipsticks to wear… I mean, the orangey red shade is obviously fun and fierce and shiny. It sings “Spring is here!” Unsurprisingly, I also love the nude beige pink, which looks so elegant and sophisticated! They both have their own cool vibe.

chanel warm tones coco lipstick smile — Chanel Rouge Coco Lipstick in 416 Coco

chanel rouge coco adrienne — Chanel Rouge Coco Lipstick in 402 Adrienne

Ultimately, I went with the orangey red because I needed some “lipstick armor” to get through the day, but which one do you prefer?

Oh! — I’m wearing cream shadow in this look because these ones from Chanel are awesome. I’ve also been on a cream shadow kick. These double as shadows and liners, and, in case you’re wondering, yes, they’re comfortable on the waterline. Not drying at all! I’m wearing a matte light brown called Contour Clair on my lids and matte dark brown Rouge Noir on my lash and water lines.

chanel warm tones eyes down — I’m wearing Chanel Blush No. 20 cream blush on my cheeks with Chanel Malice powder blush on top.

chanel ombre et contour — From the left: Chanel Stylo Ombre Et Contour Eyeshadow-Liner-Khol in 12 Contour Clair, 04 Electric Brown, 08 Rouge Noir

I blended out the edges of the lighter brown with what I *thought* was a clean blending brush, so I was surprised when — whoops! — orangey brown appeared in my crease. Turns out I forgot I had used this particular brush with the UD Naked Wild West Palette, and it had some leftover matte brown in the bristles. I actually ended up liking how it turned out though!

Don’t ya just love fortuitous makeup accidents?

By the way, happy St. Patrick’s Day! ☘️💚 Connor Claire and I painted our nails green this morning to celebrate. She’s part Irish on El Hub’s side.

expressie express to impress swatch — Two layers of Expressive Express to Impress

I was going to make corned beef and cabbage in the Instant Pot, but eh…I might just make a Whole Food’s Frozen Cheese Pizza with some green broccoli on it instead! 😁

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Soft Teal Wings With the Urban Decay Naked Wild West, a New Tea From Trader Joe’s, and Chocolate Chip Cake!

March 16th, 2021 by Karen 39 Comments

I was chatting with someone IRL a couple weeks ago, and she told me that sometimes she puts on her makeup in the morning before sitting down to work because it makes her feel more productive, and I was like, “YES! You are my people!” 😸 That’s totally what happened in this look here. I was researching luxury vinyl flooring, so these soft teal wings happened…

Side note: over the years, our carpet has become completely thrashed thanks to the cats, so now I’m learning all about laminate versus vinyl plank flooring versus hardwoods… If you have any flooring knowledge bombs to drop on me, I’m all ears!

I’m wearing the new Urban Decay Naked Wild West Palette here. Just a couple of the brown matte shades on my lids (Spur and Nudie) and the shimmery teal (Bud) on my lash lines.

I’m still on the fence about this palette and haven’t quite figured out if I think it’s must-have… This is my third time using it, and although I do like the mix of brown, taupe and gray mattes, coupled with the fun blues and golds, I don’t know if it’s that practical. I’m gonna give it a couple more tries, then check back in with you…

By the way, I’m also testing a new concealer from bareMinerals called The bareMinerals Original Liquid Mineral Concealer. It’s a medium-coverage brightening liquid concealer you can build up in layers to full (specifically for the under-eye area). It’s comes in 17 shades, and it’s available on qvc.com for $25 a tube now.

This was my first time using it (I’m wearing Medium/Tan 3.5 C!). So far, I think it’s alright… It’s a little more coverage than I’ve been wearing lately, so it’s kind of shocking to see real-deal concealer on my skin again.

To its credit, it doesn’t pool up in my fine lines or anything, so it’s not super obvious, but I do have to blend out the edges quite a bit because the pigment is very concentrated. I think it should be fine on its own, but it might be a tad too heavy if you like to set your concealer with powder.

In non-makeup related news, I found a delicious new herbal tea at Trader Joe’s called Blood Orange Rooibos, and it’s naturally very sweet to my taste buds (I don’t even add sugar). It has just a touch of citrusy tang too.

I’ve been drinking less Earl Grey tea lately because I read somewhere that cutting down on the caffeine might help with my migraines, which, ugh, have been terrible lately.

I mean, I love me some tea and coffee, but I’ll try anything at this point.

Anywho, if you see this one TJ’s, grab a box. Then grab an extra one for me, hahah! Kidding. It’s super good though, especially with dessert.

I had a cup last night with a slice of gluten-free chocolate chip cake that Connor and I made last weekend.

Not only is this cake easy and delicious, but it’s light and moist, and it just melts in your mouth (the secret ingredient is unsweetened applesauce). If you decide to make it, you could have it in your tummy in less than one hour.

The fact that the star ingredient is applesauce almost makes me feel like it’s healthy… 🙂 Yeah, maybe that’s a stretch! It’s still good though, and it’s one of those cakes that’s nice to have around in case company stops by (for when the pandemic’s over).

If you came over, I’d cajole you into having a cup of tea and a slice, for sure!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Warm Reddish Brown Smokey Eyes With Teal Lids and Liner | Day 2 With the Urban Decay Naked Wild West Palette

March 5th, 2021 by Karen 2 Comments

Don’t ask me why this never occurred to me before, because you know I love streamlining, but today I wore the same shade of eyeshadow as a lid color and a liner color, and WHOOP-WHOOP! — my world is forever changed.

Do you ever do this? Because if you do, you’re officially a genius.

There’s a dark matte teal in the new Urban Decay Naked Wild West palette, and that’s what inspired me to try it.

I wanted some contrast between the lid color and liner, so I started by applying the lid shadow with a flat eyeshadow brush. Next, I buffed out the edges with a clean domed shadow brush, then blended a couple of warm matte browns into my crease to soften the edges.

After that, to amplify the intensity of the liner, I wet an angled brush with MAC Fix+, loaded it with the teal shadow, and lined my upper upper and lower lash lines. I kept the upper lash line crisp and buffed out the lower lash line for just a whisper of color…

I really like the harmony between the lid and liner colors, and there’s also a slight gradient affect!

I’m going to try it again in the near future, but not with this exact same shade of teal because it’s a little patchy…

It’s been a minute since I’ve worn colorful smokey eyes, and I figured out one of the reasons for this while I was doing this makeup — the shape of my eyes has changed so much in the last year, and that’s made doing looks like this a little more challenging to do.

Ya know…it’s just time doing its thang. Plus, the stress of the pandemic. *shrugs*

So what do we do? We adjust, right?

I feel like colorful shadow generally looks better on me when I keep the color lower on my lids and don’t go too far out in the outer corners… Took me a while to figure this one out, but eh, better late than never!

Gosh, I wish makeup magazines talked about this more — how the shape of your face changes as you get older. It feels like I’m relearning everything and starting from scratch. I mean, I knew this was coming, but I don’t feel like I was given an adequate heads-up, LOL!

Makeup worn in this look

BASE: Urban Decay Stay Naked Hydromaniac Tinted Moisturizer in 50 mixed with Lancome Skin Feels Good in Tan set with MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Medium Golden

EYES: Urban Decay Naked Wild West shadows in Standoff (base), Nude and Ghost Town (crease), Whiskey (outer third), Tex (lids and lash lines)

CHEEKS: Chanel No. 22 cream blush

LIPS: Origins Coral Daisy sheer lipstick

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. TGIF! 🙂

Bronze and Gray Lids With the Urban Decay Naked Wild West Palette

March 4th, 2021 by Karen 9 Comments

urban decay naked wild west swatches — Yup, more naked. 🤭

Seriously, how many more of these are they gonna do?!

The newest incarnation of ze Naked palette calls itself Naked Wild West (no relation to Kanye), and it’s inspired by the California desert.

No, not dessert. DESert. 😂

I patted Rustler, the shimmery bronze shade, on my lids and was surprised to see taupe-y grey undertones when I blended out the edges.

Kinda cool…both literally and figuratively, hahaha. To complement the gray, I lined my upper lash line with an angled brush that I’d dipped into Pony Up, the matte dark gray.

I did remember to tap my brushes to unload any excess powder before applying but still ended up with a little bit of fallout on my cheeks. Not a lot though…

I hadn’t done my base yet (a 50/50 mix of Urban Decay 24-Hour Hydration in 50 Medium, and Lancôme Skin Feels Good in Tan, set with MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural) so I just wiped it off. No biggie.

For my cheeks, I swept a low-key hero from the UD permanent line, the Stay Naked Threesome trio in Naked, onto my cheeks (the bronzer and the blush).

Incidentally, I’m still on an Origins sheer lipstick kick, so I layered two shades on my lips — Honey Blush and Fuchsia Fields — to finish the look.

Just for fun, I tried the makeup with a brighter lip using Honest Beauty Passion.

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It’s nice to have options, ya know?

In other news…I’m all “mommed out” from the birthday excitement of the past few days, and I’m super tried right now! I skipped exercising yesterday, so I told myself this morning that I had to work out today…but right now all I want to do is take a nap.

Ugh, I know I’ll feel better when I’m done with it though. I just have to remind myself that I don’t have to give it 100%… 50% today will do!

You already know this, but Target has some weird stuff.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Smudged Cat Eye | Day 4 With the Honest Beauty Get It Together Eyeshadow Palette

February 26th, 2021 by Karen 9 Comments

honest beauty smudged cat eye side — Today’s smudged cat eyes; I really love this!

Leave it to the cat lady to love a smudged cat eye, hahaha! This is yet another look — I’ll say “inspired by” the tutorial card that comes with the Honest Beauty Get It Together Eyeshadow Palette.

honest beauty smudged cat eye swatches — Just four eyeshadows

The tutorial suggests using the beige shade all over the lid as a base, but I thought that might look a little weird on me, so I buffed the matte brown shade (Soft Bronze) on top of the beige to define my crease.

Gosh, these shadows blend so well! But that’s just one of the great things about this palette.

Can we talk about lips for a second, because I need to know if anyone else out there has been into tinted lip balms lately? They’re SO MY JAM, which is kinda funny because until recently I’ve been solidly Team Liquid Lipstick for the last few months. My previous lip logic was that if I’m going to wear something on my pout during the pandemic…it had to last long enough under my mask to ensure that I wouldn’t have to keep removing my mask to reapply it.

I know, interesting logic. 🙄

Turns out tinted balms are a great no-drama/low-effort option, since I can 1) easily apply one without a mirror (doing it right now, as a matter of fact), and 2) remove it just as quickly with a tissue when I’m about to mask up. Plus, hello moisture! (Side note: my lips have been dry lately.)

This sheer plum tinted balm by Origins is called Night Bloom, and it’s low-key epic in terms of moisture. I get old-school Clinique Black Honey vibes from the color because it looks crazy dark in the tube, but it’s just a sheer plummy tint when it’s applied.

Night Bloom pairs really well with mauves, taupes, browns and bronzes, a.k.a. all of the colors in the Honest Beauty Get It Together Palette. It’s also sheer enough to wear with just bare skin and mascara.

In case you’re wondering, it smells and tastes a little minty, but it’s not overwhelming.