Just looking at that ramen makes me drool!
Random Acts of iPhone Photography, 10.25.11
What Are You Wearing on Your Nails?
I rarely like a color so much that I’ll commit to wearing it on both my peeties and paws at the same time, but I’m doing exactly that with Blue Streak.
It’s Sally Hansen’s $4.95 Insta-Dri in Blue Streak, and I can’t tell you how many girls asked about it at the conference last weekend.
The wide brush covers a large swath of the nail with every pass, which cuts down on the brush strokes, and it dries fast for a polish packing this much pigment. I’m wearing two coats here, and each one dries in less than five minutes.
It’s available now at Ulta stores, among other places that carry Sally Hansen polishes, and also online.
Stuff seems pretty sturdy, too. The mani I gave myself on Friday is still going strong. No chips whatsoever (note: I also applied a base and top coat). And I love the way I feel when I see it on my nails. 🙂
What are you wearing on your nails today?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
A Monday Face of the Day with the New Laura Mercier Luxe Colour Portfolio for Holiday 2011
Okay, so I haven’t figured out why the new $98 Laura Mercier Limited Edition Luxe Colour Portfolio palette comes in a faux snakeskin box, but I do think there’s something mysteriously luxurious about it.
Part of Laura’s new holiday collection, it combines the… Yeah, I’m drawing a blank on the snakeskin holiday thing, but nonetheless, here’s a super quick face of the day. 🙂
The palette comes with six non-venomous powder eyeshadows, three cake liners, three powder blushes and three eye brushes, and it’s available now at Laura Mercier counters and also online.
Review/swatches, and perhaps a decent holiday snake reference, coming soon!
The Beauty Social, Oct. 2011: Want to Start Your Own Beauty Brand?
From the left: Beautylish Beauty Director and segment host Ning Chao, Cover FX Founder and Co-Creator Jenny Frankel, theBalm Founder Marissa Shipman, LORAC Founder and Celebrity Makeup Artist Carol Shaw, Celebrity Hairstylist Byron Williams
Marissa Shipman, founder of theBalm Cosmetics, says that starting theBalm was a very organic process, with the idea growing and evolving over time.
On how to get things off the ground with your own beauty brand, she says, “You just really need a good idea and a good place to start.” When she started talking about wanting to sell her own beauty line, her dad had concerns. “Get a job, get a job,” she remembers him saying, but she was determined, felt prepared and decided to just go for it.
Jenny Frankel, founder, co-creator and executive vice president of Cover FX, actually started out as a chemist working for MAC (she created Clear Lipglass!). “It was tremendous for me,” she says of her time at MAC, “because it was a great learning experience.” On starting your own line, she says the real secret is doing your homework. “Before you invest your money, do your homework. Test on your friends, and if it’s something you want to do as a business, do a business plan. Do a little homework.”
Jenny and Marissa both suggest running your ideas by your closest friends and family first, the people you know you can trust, before you invest a lot of your own time and money into it. If your friends love it, other people might, too.
Jenny’s idea with Cover FX was to create a product that was for sensitive skin but provided full coverage and had lots of color choices.
“Seventy-five percent of all beauty ideas fail,” she warns, “but if you have a compelling point of difference, and you’ve done your homework and have a good idea, that still means that the other 25% of the ideas out there succeed.”
[Continue reading…]
Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll, Oct. 24
Totally lovin’ Warby Parker…
- You might be wondering, “So what the heck is this Monday Poll thing anyway?”
Well, it isn’t much of a poll. It’s more just a constantly evolving (devolving?), somewhat random list of questions I’ve been putting out to readers every Monday morning for the past three years, which I guess makes this somewhere around Vol. 191. I’ve always enjoyed reading your answers in the comments, and I hope you enjoy reading mine.
- Mood:
- If you could dine (for free) anywhere in the world tonight, where would it be?
- Do you have any siblings?
- If your pets could talk, what would they say about you?
- Which one do you follow most often, your heart or your head?
- What are three songs on your road trip playlist?
- Would you consider yourself renowned or famous for anything in particular?
- Your favorite place for dessert?
- Scariest movie you’ve ever seen?
- Weekly goals:
Happy but still pretty tired. I got in late last night from Santa Monica, and as much as I enjoy traveling, the actual traveling part of it really wears me out. This pumpkin chai latte from Starbucks should help, though.
Tonight, more than New Orleans, Barcelona, Tuscany, Buenos Aires, Paris, Vancouver or Hong Kong, I’d choose my parents’ house in Union City, California, the sinigang capital of my world. 🙂
Sinigang is a filipino sour tamarind stew made with rice, vegetables and fish, or another meat, and I couldn’t imagine anything better than having a big bowl of it for dinner tonight before curling up on the coach in front of the TV.
I do. I’m the eldest of two. My baby brother, who isn’t much of a baby anymore, turned 30 this year.
Probably, “B*tch, where’s my gravy?”
My heart. I’m a firm believer in going with your gut.
Roam by the B52s, Interstate Love Song by Stone Temple Pilots and Michael Jackson’s Wanna Be Starting Something.
Well, folks do like my blueberry peach cobbler. Oh, and I’m pretty famous among my friends and family for being able to go from breezy to bratty in 10 seconds or less.
Without a doubt, Pinkberry! I miss it already…
GOOD GRIEF! I wish I could go back in time to when I was four years old and un-see Salem’s Lot. Never having seen that movie would have saved me many a sleepless night.
Get back into my exercise routine before I fall out of the habit entirely, get back into the habit of eating salads a few times per week, make some headway on my reading list, and smile! 🙂
Hey, friend. I’m glad to be typing this from my desk at home and not from my laptop in a hotel room. Things were kind of hectic over the weekend with The Beauty Social stuff, and I’m still getting back on track.
I think the beauty blogging panel went well yesterday, and I’m happy to report that I did NOT fall walking up to the stage, so that’s one recurring nightmare that has yet to transpire in real life. I’m afraid, though, that my bangs looked a little too Lloyd Christmassy… More on that in a few.
If you have a minute, stop by and say hi in this week’s Monday Poll. I feel like we haven’t talked in ages.
- To complete the Monday Poll, just copy the following list, and paste it with your answers in the comments.
1. Mood:
2. If you could dine (for free) anywhere in the world tonight, where would it be?
3. Do you have any siblings?
4. If your pets could talk, what would they say about you?
5. Which one do you follow most often, your heart or your head?
6. What are three songs on your road trip playlist?
7. Would you consider yourself renowned or famous for anything in particular?
8. Your favorite place for dessert?
9. Scariest movie you’ve ever seen?
10. Weekly goals:
If you’re having a tough Monday so far, hang in there, love! We’ll get through it, I swear.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Can I Get an Amen…
…From the gals who love neutrals? 🙂
(The Becca Lost Weekend Palette, $49. For swatches, click here.)
Sundays Without Tabs the Cat, Makeup and Beauty Blog Mascot, Vol. 162
Dear Diary,
Been a nice, relaxing weekend so far. No runways, raging parties or ridiculous drama. I actually needed some peace and quiet, so I even decided to give my assistant/driver the weekend off.
I know! I’m too kind, but she’ll be very busy next week.
I needed this — this alone time with my kitty thoughts, ya know? Oddly, even though I lack opposable thumbs and am no longer legally allowed to drive, I’ve still gotten quite a few things done…
On Friday night I had a couple of friends over for drinks and appetizers. I served warm turkey Temptations and made this new catnip martini that I saw featured in a recent episode of the Nate Berkus show. Per usual, the Russian Blue from next door got WASTED.
Good times…
And then yesterday I had my masseuse come over and work out the kinks in my back. It wasn’t budgeted…but whatev. It’s a business expense, and I need to be in tip-top condition for napping.
[Continue reading…]
Burt’s Bees Thoroughly Therapeutic Honey & Grapeseed Oil Hand Creme Knocks My Nose for a Loop
Every year I shamelessly use fall as an excuse to justify stocking up on certain things — things like boots, hats, lip balms (gotta have one for every jacket!) and, of course, hand creams.
To wit: even though I probably already have enough tubes of hand cream to last me through the next ice age (stashed in the car, on my nightstand, on my desk, in every purse…), I still couldn’t resist bringing home Burt’s Bees Thoroughly Therapeutic Honey & Grapeseed Oil Hand Creme ($10).
It’s been around for a while, but I’d been so enamored by another one of Burt’s products, his Almond Milk Beeswax Hand Creme (which I still love despite how long it takes to absorb), that it took me this long to branch out.
True to form, Burt’s bees kept Thoroughly Therapeutic 99% natural, incorporating honey and hydrating grapeseed oil, and they were kind enough not to test it on animals.
