Face of the Day (FOTD)

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

Aubergine Eyes and Berry Lips

January 7th, 2020 by Karen 14 Comments

aubergine eyes berry lips — I did my eye makeup with just an eyeliner.

Your fun fact for the day about eggplant: While commonly thought of as a vegetable in cooking circles, eggplant (also known as aubergine), is technically a fruit — specifically, a berry.

And now you’re ready to conquer the botany stage on your next trivia night! (Lucky you.)

I’ve got aubergine on my mind because one thing that Santa so kindly brought me for Christmas is the aubergine-colored Athleta workout top I’m wearing in these pics, so I did this combo the other day with aubergine eyes and berry lips.

When you want to do easy eye makeup, pencil liner is your BFF.

For the eye makeup, I used one of my favorite quickie techniques. I grabbed a long-wearing pencil eyeliner (ESUM Aubergine), applied a layer on my lids, and then buffed out the edges to mimic the effect of eyeshadow. I did this a few times to build up the color in the areas where I wanted more depth — the lash line and outer third — so that my hooded eyes would look more deeply set. Then, I lined my upper and lower waterlines and smudged the liner along my lower lash line to balance out the heaviness on the lids.

Finish with a couple coats of mascara on your lashes, and you’re done!

What you’ll need to look for in your liner

Ideally, you’ll want a liner that’s soft enough to blend with a brush, but you don’t want one that’s too smudgy, because then it’ll just move around on your bare lids and disappear. On the opposite end of the spectrum, you don’t want one that dries too quickly, because then you won’t have enough playtime to blend.

On top of all that, it also has to stick to your waterlines (and feel comfortable on there, too).

For this technique, I really the MAC Eye Kohls in Powersurge and Teddy (Costa Riche is a good one, too, but I’ve noticed that it tends to move a lot unless I set it with a powder). The Laura Mercier Kohls are excellent, too. Try the Stormy Grey shade!

aubergine eyes berry lips 2 — Key products worn in this look: ESUM Aubergine liner, Clinique Plum Pop blush and NARS Vivien lipstick

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Ringing in the New Year With Warm Browns and a Splash of Blue on the Waterline

January 1st, 2020 by Karen 12 Comments

urban decay stay naked threeesome in naked swatches — There’s a 100% chance I’m wearing pajamas right now.

First, hello and welcome to 2020, my friend! 😊 Hope you’re having a happy new year so far!

Second, I know there must be a scientifically explainable reason why warm orange browns look sooooo good with blues (is it because orange and blue are on opposite sides of the color wheel?), and my left brain knows this, yet when I see the two colors happening on my face, my right brain steps in and is like, GIRL, YES. My heart begins to flutter, and I get that tingly crazy makeup lady feeling in my toes! It’s one of those electric color combinations I love to wear.

I wore the combo yesterday to work at the bakery, where, speaking of color, I made the most beautiful blush pink buttercream frosting. Check it…

View this post on Instagram

Made the most beautiful blush-colored buttercream frosting at the bakery today! I would love this as an opaque pastel nail polish. 💅🏽 😍 Also, watching the frosting get fluffier is the most satisfying thing.🦄

A post shared by Karen | Makeup and Beauty Blog (@karenmbb) on Dec 30, 2019 at 9:19pm PST

I KNOW. I’m going to shop my nail polish stash for a similar opaque pale pink today.

But first, back to the warm browns and blue…

I knocked this out in about 10 minutes yesterday because, basically, it’s just a neutral look with a slice of color on the lower waterline.

If you’re wearing something like this and going about your business, most people won’t be able to tell that you’re wearing blue liner, but ya know, if I were to run into you at TJ’s and we’re chatting about the Mini Brie Bites, if you’ve got blue liner on like this, then I’m gonna be like, “BABES, whatcha got there? Tell me about this business on your waterline.”

This blue, by the way, is one of my MAC favorites. It’s called Take the Plunge, and it’s one of the Technakohls (which I love for the waterline because they don’t move), but (SAD PANDA) I just looked on the MAC website, and it appears to be missing in action. So, if you can’t find it, try something like Urban Decay Mainline, or really any of the dark blue/teal 24/7 Glide-Ons. Basically, if it’s a dark blue/teal, you’re good!

If you struggle to get bright colors to look bold on your waterline, you’re not alone. It’s common for blues like this to look muddy, especially if you wear liner on your upper lash line or upper waterline, because they can get mixed in with the blue and tone it down.

So here’s whatcha do…
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Behind the Scenes at the Bakery…and a Chocolate Smoky Eye

December 26th, 2019 by Karen 11 Comments

zoeva cocoa blend and caramel melange eyeshadow palettes — Powered by chocolate cake

Since I started moonlighting as a professional (still novice!) cupcake baker last October, and have been working in the back of the house at a local bakery, I’ve been exploring ways to merge the wonderful worlds of cupcakes, and cookies, and cakes, and other kinds of baking…and also makeup.

For instance, there are ways in which cupcake and cookie baking are similar. Like, for instance, the basic process you go through to make cakes and cookies is the same. First, you pull together your dry ingredients and your wet ingredients, and then you alternate the wet the with dry.

It’s also the same things when I’m baking at for fun at home, with the biggest difference being that everything is scaled up to crazy high proportions at the bakery. Like, the other day, I baked 15 chocolate cake layers for a single day’s worth of orders! This is compared to at home, where I’ll maybe make three layers, at the most.

Working at the bakery has been really cool because I’ve been learning a lot, but I’m always kind of afraid that I’ll do something horribly wrong, like burn a big-@ss batch of 600 sugar cookies…

Another difference between baking at home and baking at the bakery is how we perform prep tasks in piecemeal, and over the course of a few days.

At home, I’m the one who preps the ingredients, prepares the batter, bakes off the cakes or cupcakes, and decorates from start to finish.

You don’t even wanna know how much butter is in this big mixer right now…

But at the bakery, tasks are broken down into very specific subtask lists, so that at any point in time, one of the other bakers can pick up where another baker has left off. It’s incredibly efficient that way!

This look I’m wearing here, which I did with the Zoeva Cocoa Blend and Caramel Melange palettes, was inspired by that mega chocolate bake off I mentioned!

The Zoeva Cocoa Blend (left) and Caramel Melange (right) eyeshadow palettes

Oh, and here’s another big thing I’ve learned working at the bakery…and it’s likely incredibly obvious: people really, really, REALLY like chocolate cake.

Because we make a lot of chocolate cakes, and chocolate is considered one of the “foolproof” recipes. At the bakery, they give it to the newbies like me because, unless you’re a complete hot mess, you can’t muck it up. It’s an oil-based cake, so you just dump all of the ingredients into a container and mix them together, and you’re pretty much guaranteed to get a moist cake!

I used two food-inspired palettes by Zoeva in this chocolatey smoky eye… It turned out a bit pinker than I’d like, but you know, sometimes you get to that point and you can’t really go back, so you just go with it. LOL! 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood baking addict,

Karen