I hope Sula Beauty’s Awake Till Sunrise Lipstick ($8, one of eight shades) comes close to the color of these tomatoes.
Fingers crossed…
Sula Beauty Lipstick: Awake Till Sunrise
Freida Pinto: Her Best Hair?
In Slumdog Millionaire, Freida Pinto plays a young woman from the slums of Mumbai, the very same city in India where she herself was born and raised.
Born October 18, 1984 to a high school principal and a bank manager, Frieda, who says she was five when she realized she wanted to be an actress, regularly appears in lists of beautiful and stylish women. After graduating from college in Mumbai, she spent four years modeling, doing runway shows and gracing magazine covers before enrolling in one of India’s most renowned acting studios.
It turned out to be a great career move. 🙂 Doors started opening for her right away. First, a string of TV commercials and print ads (Wrigley’s Chewing Gum, Vodafone and DeBeers); then, after six months of auditions and a stint hosting an international travel show, a shot to star in 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire.
This month she’s lighting up the silver screen opposite James Franco in the sci-fi reboot, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which I enjoyed MUCH more than I thought I would. If you’re a fan of thought-provoking science fiction and/or Freida, James or Andy Serkis, the actor who played Gollum in the LOTR movies, I think you’ll like this, too. It takes place in and around San Francisco, which is also kinda cool.
As usual, Freida’s hair looks great in the film. She might not take as many risks with her look as, say, Rihanna, but hook or crook, I think she always looks good.
Loading ...Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
What’s Blooming on My Deck
A flower from my echinacea plant. 🙂
How are you with plants? Do you have a green thumb?
There’s Something Fishy About Nails Inc. Kensington Hand Cream, and It’s Not the Scent
One of these days I’m gonna start a bumper sticker line for beauty addicts. You’ll find it at Sephora in one of those wire kiosk things that twirl, and the stickers will say things like, “I’m lost without Shu,” and “I’m a ho for hand cream.”
Speaking of that, have you tried the new (well, new to us Yanks) Nails Inc. Kensington Conditioning Hand Cream ($18 for a 3.4-oz. tube)? I like it so much that when I switched purses for the eighth time in just as many days, I was sure to move the tube over with my essentials (wallet, keys, lipgloss, iPhone, emergency travel packet of Nutella).
The cream, which recently made the trip out here from London and now lives at Sephora stores, contains caviar extract, which is fancy for “fish egg juice.” 🙂
Ingredients: Aqua, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Glycerin, Glyceryl Stearate, Stearic Acid, Cetearyl Alcohol, Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa Butter), Triethanolamine, Dimethicone, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Caviar Extract, Soluble Collagen, Parfum, Tocopheryl Acetate, Alcohol Imidazolidinyl Urea, Retinyl Palmitate, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Hydroxyproline, Lecithin Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate, Sorbitol , Tocopherol, Glyceryl Oleate, Butylparaben Ethylparaben, Isobutylparaben, Methylparaben, Phenoxyethanol, Propylparaben Citronellol, Geraniol, Limonene.
I’m not sure what, if anything, the caviar is doing in there (I suspect it’s more of a red herring, haha!) but it sure sounds rich. The non-greasy cream also contains a few other compounds, unfortunately, like various parabens and dimethicone, that I’d just assume not see in the list of ingredients, but the product’s performance is its saving grace. It’s supposed to reduce the appearance of fine lines while firming the skin and boosting collagen production. I can’t attest to any of those claims yet, but I will say this: it’s mad crazy moisturizing!
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Two Ways to Win a $50 eGift Card from Sephora!
- WINNER: The giveaway is closed now, and the winner is Paula! Congratulations, Paula! If you entered but didn’t win this time around, keep trying, and click here to enter any ongoing giveaways before you jet. 🙂
Mornin’, y’all (said in my best Southern drawl). I’m still a little woozy getting up, so please forgive me if my fingertips trip on the keess — on the keys, okay? I’ll be much better as soon as I’ve had some coffee.
Anything new in your corner of the aquarium? After a late dinner of baked trout wrapped in banana leave (that’s how they spelled it on the menu) and veggies last night at a place in San Rafael called My Thai (Great name, right? Great food, too.), we came straight home.
But then I brought my laptop to bed…
I gotta stop doing that. Wi-Fi has not been kind to me in the sleep department lately. It makes it too easy to stay up too late watching online TV and surfing the web for prospective cat rescues.
Must. Exercise. More. Discipline.
Yeah, right… Not with kitten season upon us and new episodes of Project Runway to watch. 🙂
Seriously, Burt, what happened, man? Gotta hold it together.
Anywho, I hope you have a great weekend ahead of you. Let’s try to get it off to a good start right now, and I’m sure by now you know what that means. It’s…
- One (1) Sephora eGift card containing $50 sent to the winner by email (international readers, you may opt to receive $50 sent by PayPal instead).
- There are two ways to enter, and you can do both of them for two chances to win. First, you can enter by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post, a comment about anything at all, like, do you ever upload your pic to sites like Daily Makeover to try out new looks and hairstyles? What do you think about makeup and fashion membership sites like HauteLook? What’s your favorite acne treatment for breakouts? Do you use your laptop in bed? — you get the idea.
- Second, you can enter by following me on
Twitter @karenmbb and retweeting (RT) the following message:
- Follow @karenmbb and RT to Win a $50 eGift Card from Sephora! http://bit.ly/qvLqty
- The deadline to enter is Sunday, August 14, 2011 at 11:59PM (PT).
- Entrants must enter using a valid email address and/or Twitter account to win.
- A maximum of two (2) entries per person — one within the comments at the bottom of this post, and a second entry via Twitter addressed to me @karenmbb.
- Contest is open to individuals of any country who have reached the age of majority according to their local laws (18 in the United States with these exceptions: Alabama and Nebraska, 19; Mississippi, 21).
- Sephora eGift Certificates can only be redeemed online and are not valid in stores or available for purchase or redemption in Canada. International winners may opt to substitute the Sephora eGift card prize for $50 sent directly to their email address by PayPal instead.
- Tabs and I (heretofore referred to as “T-Money and K-Dawg”) will select one (1) winner at random from the entries either left in the comments at the bottom of this blog post or addressed to @karenmbb on Twitter.
- The winner will be announced here within 48 hours of the deadline.
- Void where prohibited by law.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
- WINNER: The giveaway is closed now, and the winner is Paula! Congratulations, Paula! If you entered but didn’t win this time around, keep trying, and click here to enter any ongoing giveaways before you jet. 🙂
Essie Brand New Bag Collection: Fall 2011
Three of the six colors from the Essie Brand New Bag collection ($8 each), available now.
From the left: Very Structured, Glamour Purse and Case Study.
Not pictured: Carry On (a mulberry merlot), Power Clutch (a dark green) and Lady Like (a demure pink).
Revolutionizing Brows with $4 Inglot Freedom Brow Powders
Today we’re going to get a bit intimate about a topic we shouldn’t shy away from anymore. Now, it may be uncomfortable to discuss, but I think it’s too important to ignore. Ok. Are you ready?
Eyebrows.
See? That wasn’t too bad, right? Eyebrows are so unique to each and every one of us, and there is no single perfect brow color, thickness, or shape. Some are sparse, others overgrown. Some are slanted (or curved), others straight. Some would meet in the middle if left to their own devices, while others are light wisps that barely extend the full length of the eye.
Whatever the case may be, brows can define and shape an entire look. And they do, backstage every fashion season, among other places, with the help of artists like Pat McGrath.
But eyebrows are also easy to take for granted, and sometimes to neglect. They’re such a strong feature that they can be easy to forget. Oh, we might do a bit of tweezing here, and maybe a professional waxing every few weeks, but very often, that’s it.
Some brows, however, just won’t play nice. They may need to be trimmed a bit to lie flat, or brushed to stay in shape. Perhaps they were over-tweezed, or fell victim to an overzealous esthetician with a large vat of wax. Perhaps you dyed your hair a completely new shade, or were born with naturally sparse brows. If any of these sound familiar, have I got a product for you, and yes, it’s from Inglot.
Today we’re taking a look at their brow powders.
Like many of my loves from this Polish makeup company, Inglot’s powders are part of their Freedom System, and fit into the same palettes that their lipsticks do.
The formulation: amazing. Although they’re obviously a powder, they’re so creamy and smooth that they almost melt into the skin and hug even the sparsest hairs (they apply in such a way that you don’t get fully opaque coverage, which could look unnatural).
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The LORAC Naked Lace Collection Kit Wants You To Misbehave
Can love for lace be hereditary? A trait passed down from generation to generation? I ask because of my granny, who, bless her heart, has every square inch of surface area in her apartment covered with lace doilies. The tables, chairs and even the top of the TV. If it’ll fit a lace doily, granny’s got it covered (literally).
I, too, love lace, but I prefer mine with a darker, sexier edge, like the products in the new LORAC Naked Lace Collection ($28) kit have.
LORAC regularly releases cute sets at great prices, but this new one is probably one of my favorites ever.
It was the purse that sucked me in…
Cute, right? 🙂
Along with the purse, the kit comes with two eyeshadows, a blush and three mini lipglosses in easy-to-wear beige, taupe, pink, peach and nude.
Clockwise from the blush on the bottom, that’s Blush in Rendezvous, Mini Couture Shine in Trend Setter, Mini Couture Shine in Vintage, Mini Couture Shine in Muse, Eye Shadow in Negligee and Eye Shadow in Boudoir
A few thoughts on the products…
- The eyeshadows might be a tad frosty for some, but that frost seems to light up my eyes, and I like how easily they blend. The shimmery beige one, Negligee, reminds me of MAC Ricepaper, and Boudoir looks a lot like MAC Satin Taupe.
- I love
Rendezvous, the pink blush. If it were warmer and not quite as pink, it could be a dupe for NARS Orgasm. One layer (I use the bounce technique) gives cheeks a natural flush. - If you like nude lip glosses, then brace yourself for this: the three Mini Couture Shines, which have a light vanilla flavor and scent, are a lot like non-sticky versions of MAC Lipglasses. Pretty? Most definitely. They are. 🙂
Swatches from the left, that’s the Eye Shadow in Negligee, Eye Shadow in Boudoir, Blush in Rendezvous, Mini Couture Shine in Vintage, MIni Couture Shine in Trend Setter and Mini Couture Shine in Muse
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