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A beauty blog blooming with fresh makeup reviews, swatches and beauty tips from your friendly neighborhood beauty addict

Karen

What Scent Are You Wearing?

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Before I left home this morning I spritzed on some Burberry Summer for Women Eau de Toilette ($79), a limited edition fruity green floral available now at select department stores.

Isn’t the bottle gorgeous? There’s not much to it, but I love the way it looks in the light.

Officially, the fragrance profile includes…

  • Top notes: pomegranate, orange, mandarin and green leaf
  • Middle notes: rose, freesia and lily of the valley
  • Base notes: cedar wood, sandal wood and white musk

Because of the citrus and freesia notes in this, it totally remind me of another one of my Burberry faves, Brit Sheer. Both scents last all day on me, too.

What scent are you wearing today? When I asked him, El Hub’s answer was “I’m wearing Speed Stick in Ocean Surf.” 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. I still have to tell you what happened with Urban Decay today, but right now I’m plum tuckered out. I’m going to try to catch some Z’s before they all get away… Sleep well, beautiful (you too, Tabs).

MAC Unsung Heroes: Teddy Eye Kohl

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MAC Teddy Eye Kohl

I firmly believe that life’s too short to waste wearing boring brown eyeliners (or, on an unrelated note, wearing shoes in summer).

Today’s inductee into the hallowed halls of MAC Unsung Heroics is called Teddy, and when it comes to boring, he’s anything but. Teddy is a MAC Eye Kohl ($14.50) pencil, an intensely rich, dark bronzy brown with subtle golden shimmer, and it’s that shimmer that takes Teddy from the bored-room to the bedroom best room (haha! oops, bad pun).

I think I use Teddy almost as often as MAC Powersurge. It’s one of those colors that always seems appropriate, day or night, and it totally hits the spot when I want to draw extra attention to my eyes but don’t feel like wearing basic black.

Its soft, creamy texture glides along my lash and water lines, defining the shape of my eyes. Every so often I’ll even wear it as a base by smudging it onto my lids; other times I might layer it beneath powder shadows, where I think it looks particularly cute with bronzy golds like MAC Woodwinked.


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Two Ways to Win All Four Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potions (a $76 Value)

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  • WINNER: The giveaway is closed now, and the winner is Sol C.! Congratulations, Sol! If you entered but didn’t win this time around, keep trying, and click here to enter any ongoing giveaways before you jet. 🙂

Sometimes the word “tube” refers to something bad, like that time years ago when you were in line at the grocery store. You were wearing a tube top and carrying your friend’s little girl, and the child reached up and pulled down your top (true story!).

And then sometime the word “tube” refers to something great, like the new packaging for Urban Decay’s four Primer Potions — Eden, Greed, Original and Sin. UD moved them into easy-to-squeeze tubes, making it that much easier to use every last drop.

A lot of gals love these primers, and I do too. They accentuate the richness of both powder and cream shadows and extend how long they last on the skin, keeping products in place from dawn till dusk. Or way past dusk, depending on your schedule. 🙂

I think Eden’s my fave. Which one’s yours?

A Makeup and Beauty Blog Giveaway!

  • One (1) Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion in Eden (a $19 value)
  • One (1) Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion in Greed (a $19 value)
  • One (1) Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion in Original (a $19 value)
  • One (1) Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion in Sin (a $19 value)

  • 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, what’s your favorite Urban Decay product of all time? Have you ever lived in a big city? Where would you live if you had all the money in the world? Do you have any regrets? Who inspires you? What shoes are you wearing today? — the sky’s the limit!
  • Second, you can enter by following me on twitter Twitter @karenmbb and retweeting (RT) the following message:
    • Follow @karenmbb and RT to Two Ways to Win All Four Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potions (a $76 Value) http://bit.ly/jXtokl

  • The deadline to enter is Thursday, May 12, 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).
  • 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

P.S. Happy hump day, young lady. 🙂 My flight must have just taken off about 20 minutes ago, so I’m probably about a third of the way from San Francisco to Los Angeles. I’ll touch base again soon. Have a good one today.

  • WINNER: The giveaway is closed now, and the winner is Sol C.! Congratulations, Sol! If you entered but didn’t win this time around, keep trying, and click here to enter any ongoing giveaways before you jet. 🙂

MAC Surf Baby Collection Questions and Answers

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mac surf baby swatches

You asked some great questions in the comments on last week’s first MAC Surf Baby pictures post, and I thought it might be helpful to try and answer them here.

The collection breaks onto beaches makeup counters May 26 in North America (internationally, this month).

How are the Skin Sheen Bronzer Sticks used?

MAC Surf Baby Skin Sheen Bronzer Stick

Q: I apologize for the silly question, but I don’t think I understand how the bronzer stick is to be used. Is it for contouring, or are you meant to dab it all over and blend like foundation?

— Kim

Hey Kim,

Not a silly question at all. Are you familiar with the NARS Multiples? These Skin Sheens are kinda like thicker, stickier versions of those (basically, like a cream bronzer). They’re more pigmented, though, so a little goes a really long way.

I generally use the non-shimmery shades, Billionaire Bronze and Tan-Tint, for contouring and to add a bit of color to my forehead and cheeks, which are parts of my face that tend to really darken when I tan. As for the shimmery color, Gilty Bronze, I like to use it as a highlighter, wearing it on my upper cheek bones, brow bones and down the bridge of my nose.

To apply the Skin Sheens, I usually swipe a synthetic skunk brush like the MAC 188 across the top of the stick and then apply the product to bare skin or atop a liquid foundation/tinted moisturizer. Fingers work great, too, but I find that a skunk brush deposits a great amount of color — neither too little nor too much — and blends the product well, so it doesn’t look obvious or streaky.

mac surf baby swatches Skin Sheen Bronzer Stick in Billionaire Bronze
From left to right: Skin Sheen Bronzer Stick in Billionaire Bronze, Tan-Tint and Gilty Bronze

mac surf baby Lipglass Krazy Kahuna
Skinsheen Bronzer Stick in Tan-Tint along the curve of the apples of my cheeks to contour
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EOS Shave Cream in Vanilla Bliss Shaves Hair and a Few Minutes Every Time

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eos shave cream vanilla bliss

My BFF Cindy is a practical girl, and lawd she knows me well. Fed up with me arriving late to our homegirl dates, she gave me an ultimatem after the last time, threatening to take away my lipgloss if I ever did it again.

Got. My. Attention.

With horror like that hanging over my head, I was extra careful to set aside enough time to get ready last Friday before our ballet date.

I was ahead of schedule when I finished my hair and makeup, so I pulled up Google Images on my computer to take a really quick break.

“S h i r t l e s s C h a n n i n g T a t u m” [ENTER]

When I bolted back to consciousness 15 minutes later, I was, as usual, running late. “No problem,” I told myself in a soothing voice. “Lots of time.” And then I glanced down at my legs and noticed — WHOA! — a thicket of fur on my shins (enough to make a full-length coat).

It has been said that Asian women don’t have a lot of body hair. Well, tonight on MythBusters: my furry legs. 🙂

Thank ye beauty gods for EOS Shave Cream ($3.49)! It delivered one of my fastest shaves ever.

eos shave cream vanilla bliss

I’ve actually used the same cream in a different scent before. Last summer, I hacked away my body hair with the Pomegranate Raspberry version. I loved how soft it left my legs, how quick it made my shaves and how it never gave me bumps, but I couldn’t stand the scent (sickly sweet). Still, I liked how well it worked enough to finish the bottle.

But then I moved on to other things, discouraged by the scent, and forgot about EOS Shave Cream…until I tried Vanilla Bliss! It’s just as creamy and moisturizing as the Raspberry one, and also works with or without water. It’s one of six flavors in the EOS Shave Cream line.

eos shave cream vanilla bliss

The scent? Like vanilla ice cream and warm apple pie… And SO much better than the one in Pomegranate Raspberry (at least to me). It’s a softer scent and not at all overwhelmingly sweet.
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A NARS Summer 2011 Face of the Day Inspired by Tabs the Cat and His Pretty Green Eyes

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Happy Tuesday, pretty. 🙂 Tabs woke me up early this morning and then insisted that my makeup today pay homage to him (what a diva!).

Refusing his requests usually leads to scratches, so I reached for one of his current collection crushes, NARS Summer 2011, and told him I would “see what I can do.”


NARS Summer 2011 products clockwise from the eyeshadow trio at the bottom: Cap Ferrat Eyeshadow Trio, Exotic Dance Eyeshadow Duo, Carthage Lipstick, Dogo Eyeshadow Duo and New Order Blush

I built the look with two things in mind — 1) Tabs’ pretty green eyes, and 2) the word “Mixey,” one of his many nicknames (a shortened version of Meow Mix).

Green crops up a few times throughout the NARS Summer 2011 collection, and I tried to really incorporate it into this look, mixing some different colors together.

Unlike my look last week using the Stila Stunning in Sayulita palette, the green here isn’t as obvious or BAM! It’s a subtler hint of green.

The look’s built around the Dogon Duo and Cap Ferrat Trio Eyeshadows. Dogon’s duo chrome taupe side has a touch of green shimmer to it, which I mixed with the light and dark greens in the Cap Ferrat Trio, and then applied to my lids.
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