Face of the Day (FOTD)

A Simple Everyday Makeup Look That Fits in the Palm of Your Hand

February 12th, 2020 by Karen 10 Comments

mac yash in hand — I gotta hand it to these products…

Just a quick reminder that makeup doesn’t have to be overly complicated. 🙂

I did this look with makeup that I could quite literally carry in the palm of one hand!

It’s non-fussy, natural-looking makeup that I wore to go to dinner and window shopping with the fam-bam last Saturday, so, minimal base coverage with an ultra sheer tinted moisturizer and soft, barely-there color on my lids, lips and cheeks. There’s also the teeniest, tiniest wing on the outer corners.

The liner was the most “complicated” (air quotes) part. First, I drew a line of black liquid liner along my upper lash lines, then winged out the ends. Then, after it dried, I layered a light-colored liner directly on top, stopping about three fourths of the way from the inner corner to the outer corner. I did this to open up my eyes a bit so they appear a little less hooded.

mac yash lipstick — My makeup on most weekends looks like this.

Makeup worn in this look

Base: Covergirl Clean Fresh Skin Milk Nourishing Foundation in 590 Tan/Rich

Blush: MAC Glow Play Blush in Grand

Brows: MAC Clear Brow Gel

Lips: MAC Yash (from the Loud and Clear collection)

Lashes: It Cosmetics Superhero Mascara

Liner: Charlotte Tilbury Liquid Liner (black liquid liner) and Urban Decay Scorch (lighter pencil liner)

Lids: MAC Omega and Tromp L’Ol

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Happy hump day to you! 🙂

Monochromatic Makeup With the MAC Loud and Clear Collection and Glow Play Blush: Coral Lids, Lips and Cheeks

February 11th, 2020 by Karen 15 Comments

I’m a fervent fan / enthusiastic adherent of monochromatic makeup, and that’s because I only have so many brain cells, and I like not having to expend them all thinking too deeply about matching my lids, lips and cheeks.

I’d rather conserve a little more of my life force for other things, ya know? And I need every single drop of life force I can spare to just make it through the day, ha ha ha!

Monochromatic madness!

Fast and Flirty Valentine’s Day Makeup Tutorial: A Romantic Monochromatic Soft Peach Look for All Skill Levels

A Monochromatic Multitasking Makeup Look

Monochromatic Makeup: Playful Pinks, and a Play on Cat Eyeliner

Today’s (7-Minute) Makeup: Monochromatic Lids, Cheeks and Lips

The key players in this monochromatic coral look are blush, eyeshadow, lipstick and gloss from the new Loud and Clear collection and the Glow Play Blush collection by MAC, both of which are on counters now.

The eyeliner is an old MAC standby called Teddy… I love me some Teddy! It’s an pearly reddish brown pencil liner and a workhorse staple if you like wearing warm orange browns, reddish browns, orange, or coral shades on your eyes.

I’m wearing Teddy here with matte orange coral Painted by Umber eyeshadow, and I like the contrast between Teddy’s pearly finish and the matte eyeshadow. That’s a minor detail, but I think it elevates the look a little.

I wore this look to the bakery the other day, and it was a day when sugar cookie dough, otherwise known as “the bane of my existence,” was killing me softly… You see, I had to roll out 60 heart-shaped Valentine’s Day cookies, and the temperature in the kitchen was warmer than usual (we’ve had a couple of warm, spring-like days in the low-60s lately).

A toasty outside temp means that everything inside the bakery warms up faster than usual, and that means MISERY if you’re handling sugar cookie dough.

Basically, you wanna keep your sugar cookie dough as cold as possible, because when it’s cold, it “listens” to you and does exactly what you need it to do. It stays thick and retains its shape as you roll it, and it continues to do so as you stamp out your shapes with a cookie cutter and move them to a baking sheet. Yup, when it’s cold, it is very, very good dough.

However, as the dough warms, like it does in an unseasonably hot kitchen, it embraces its inner rebel and becomes progressively ill-tempered and misbehaved. Your sweet, previously kind-hearted sugar cookie dough transforms into @sshole dough. 🙁 It picks up dents and fingerprints, stretches out where you don’t want it to stretch out, and becomes nearly impossible to transfer from the counter to a baking sheet.

WARM SUGAR COOKIE DOUGH HATES YOU.
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All Star Products for 3-Minute, No-Makeup Makeup

February 4th, 2020 by Karen 14 Comments

Some days you have 20 minutes to put on your makeup…and some days you only have three.

Yesterday was a “three” day for me. I had to drop off Connor at preschool in the morning before heading to the bakery, as usual, but because I was running late (I’d just finished making her lunch, and then I accidentally dropped EVERYTHING on the floor, ARRGHHH! It happened in slow motion, too! I’ve re-lived those sliced bananas falling to the ground about 20 times already.), I only had a sliver of time to transform myself from full-on two-month-turned zombie to quasi, two-days-dead semi-zombie. Three minutes, to be precise, and yes, I timed it, because without a timer, I’d never make it out the door on time.

I’ll be the first to admit that there isn’t anything glamorous or dramatic or life-changing about this makeup, but you know what? Sometimes I crave looks like this, like on the days when lunch falls on the ground (THOSE BANANAS ARE STILL HAUNTING ME), and the last thing I need is to be deeply challenged by my concealer or crease color.

If I were to compare this type of makeup to a hair style, it would be like running a brush through your hair, and putting it in a neat, low ponytail before donning a cute baseball cap. 🙂

The real MVP in this look: Charlotte Tilbury’s Hollywood Flawless Filter

I love and wear it ALL THE FREAKIN’ TIME (my shade is 5 Tan). This tinted moisturizer has very fine pearlescent particles that make your skin look dewy (but not oily), and it gives enough coverage to hide redness and ever-so-slightly diffuse pigmentation and freckles. It’s also still somewhat sheer and doesn’t look thick.

(You will not look like you’re wearing a mask.)

From a few feet away, most folks won’t even be able to tell you’re wearing makeup. They’ll just assume you have naturally flawless skin. LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOOOOOOVE IT.

Other key players

What else is doing the heavy lifting here?

I’m also wearing two gel cheek products by Chantecaille — their Radiance Gel Bronzer and Hydrating Gel-Cream Blush in Happy. I mixed a few dots of both on the back of my hand and patted/blended the combo directly on my cheeks with fingers. Just like Charlotte Tilbury Flawless Filter, these two moderately pigmented products deposit natural-looking color and don’t look obvious or heavy, so they’re ideal for fresh-faced cheek color that lasts all day long.

I wear them all the time and love them to bits.

Eyes and lips

I did the bare minimum on my eyes and lips.

A quick lash curl and a couple layers of mascara (IT Cosmetics Superhero, a superstar for thickness and curl) and a dash of dark brown eyeliner on the upper waterline (just at the roots of the lashes) immediately opens up my eyes.

Next, I quickly filled in my brows with MAC Brun eyeshadow using an angled brush, then ran a clear brow gel through them. I like to do the clear brow gel last because it mellows any overly dark spots.

Last, but not least, I lined and filled in my lips with a nude liner, then topped them off with a glossy lip tint.

Done and DONE, in less than three minutes! 🙂

Isn’t it nice sometimes to just get your face on quickly so you can jump directly into your day?!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Smokey Eyes, Smudged Sparkly Eyeliner, and Why Clean Tapered Blending Brushes Are Your BFF

January 23rd, 2020 by Karen 18 Comments

smokey eyes sparkly lashlines — Back in my happy place!

Can I get a whoop-whoop from all my kindred spirits out there? — the makeup lovers who love rubbing freshly washed air-dried brushes ever-so-gently across their face, and love the fresh scent of those baby soft bristles? (Side note: If this describes you, I bet you also like sticking your face in clean laundry when it comes out of the dryer, too!)

The reason you’re staring at this bevy of brushes is because I built a big-@ss pile of dirty brushes I’d been needing to wash since — gulp! — before Thanksgiving. Weeks ago, I tucked them away in a corner of my office and kinda forgot.

WHOOPS!

Well, I washed them yesterday because the bakery has been closed this week. Apparently, no one comes in this time of year because many people are still on their New Year’s diets, but folks start to fall off the wagon toward the end of January.

So…I finally had time to wash this big-@ss pile of brushes, and I also had time to do the makeup love of my life: SMOKEY EYES.

A few things…

I always forget what a difference clean tapered blending brushes can make. Just in case you don’t know what I’m talking about, this is what they look like:

tapered blending brush clean — It’s handy to have a few around.

Whenever I’m doing smokey looks, clean tapered blending brushes are very, very handy… At the very least, I like to keep two or three on deck. Having bristles that don’t have any eyeshadow on them is key because the clean brush hairs pick up/remove excess eyeshadow while also softening any hard edges, so everything looks that much smoother and more seamless.

Another thing? You’ll want to use the lightest touch while blending, and avoid pressing so hard that the bristles splay out (this just presses the powder into your pores, which makes it harder to sheer out your shadow). All you want is the very tip to lightly touch your lid.

smokey eyes tapered blending light touch — Please don’t smash your brush head into your crease.

smokey eyes sparkly lashlines unblended blneded — You know those pics of yourself online where you look crazy? YUP.

Last, but not least, always keep a clean tapered brush around for a last blending pass at the end. After you’ve done everything — base, blush, lips, the whole schebang — lightly blend your eyeshadow one last time, both on top of the lids and along the edges of the shadow to finalize the shape of your eye makeup.

It makes all the difference!

Makeup worn in this look

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A Triple Threat! — Blue Wings, Purple Waterlines and Peachy Glitter Eyes

January 9th, 2020 by Karen 9 Comments

Do I miss the days when I had hours and hours to whisk my eyeshadows into clouds of fluffy color?

Yes and no.

Yes, because I’m in awe of myself — literally in awe — for ever having the patience to do elaborate eye makeup once upon a time.

But also no, because banging out these quick 15-minute makeup looks before I leave for work at the bakery has taught me all kinds of creative tricks!

One thing I’ve been doing lately is combining different elements I’ve worn in various looks to come up with something new.

For this look, I incorporated three makeup elements I’ve been wearing across quite a few bakery-day looks lately.

A colorful lower waterline
Colorful cat eyeliner
Glitter

1. Work your waterline.

Lining your lower water line is an easy, low-stress way to add a pop of color to your look without committing to lots of intense blending. Here I’m wearing a dark purple liner, which is the same one I used in the aubergine look the other day.

2. Embrace your inner colorful cat eyeliner.

Not as low-stress as a colorful waterline because you have to map out your wings and line up the flicks evenly, which is never an easy task, but if you resolve to be cool with imperfection (I am these days… It’s a learning experience!), you’ll get a lot of bang for your buck. You can always keep it simple by using a single bright liner — pencil, liquid or an eyeshadow applied with a wet brush — or you can jooj it up by layering different products together. Here I’m wearing a blue liner, which I topped with a shimmery blue-green shadow mixed with a glittery black shadow.

3. Go for the glitter!

I know it isn’t for everyone, but in controlled amounts, glitter really adds a little something-something. I patted a peach glitter on my lids with a finger, and even though it ended up all over the place (hello, eyebrows!), I’m cool with it.

Key makeup worn in this look

Eyes: Maybelline Tatoo Gel Liner in Striking Navy (cat liner base) and ESUM Aubergine (lower waterline). MAC Now and Zen palette (I blended Soft Brown and Omega as a base, combined Tilt and Black Tie, and patted that on top of the blue liner before patting Honeylust on top for glitter.)

Cheeks: Hourglass Illume Sheer Color Trio in Sunset

Lips: MAC Velvet Teddy topped with Magically Delightful Lipglass

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen