My friend Marisol recently told me about this time when she was getting ready to go out, and she had just put on a super intense matte red liquid lipstick, but she didn’t realize until after she put it on that it didn’t really work with her eye makeup.
So she needed to take it off.
But it had already dried! — so it took her forever and a day of frantically rubbing at her lips with tissues to take that lipstick off, because, as you know, with matte liquid lipsticks, you practically need a chisel and Thor’s hammer to remove them.
After she told me this story, I was like, “Ya know, it doesn’t have to be that hard!” Basically, if you have an eye makeup remover that works for waterproof eye makeup (or long-wearing eye makeup), soak a Q-tip with it, and run that across your lips (obviously, don’t take shots of the stuff; it’s not for swallowing), it’ll remove that matte liquid lipstick (or any long-wearing lipstick) in a snap.
I do this all the time when I’m doing lip swatches of liquid lipsticks. It’s a quick way to remove them.
The waterproof eye makeup remover I’m using now is the one by Klorane. It’s their Waterproof Eye Make-Up Remover with Soothing Cornflower, and it’s great. It’s $16 and comes in a blue bottle. I mostly use it for my eyes, obviously, and it takes off everything. It isn’t irritating either.
Plus, it also removes long-wearing lip products in a snappy-snap-snap.
Or is that just something with me? I dunno… I think it might be one of those things that you just don’t realize until you actually get to that point, and then one day you’re sitting around thinking, “I wish I had somebody to go to Safeway with me to get some fried chicken,” but you can’t think of anybody to call.
I mean, you guys are my friends, obviously, but it’s not like I can call you up in the middle of the afternoon, because a lot of you live halfway across the country or halfway around the world. It would be kinda hard for you to go with me to Safeway to get some fried chicken.
The big thing for me is that I don’t interact with a lot of people outside the house. I work from home, so I’m mostly in the house. You know, I go to my exercise class, but it’s not like I have a social group thing to go to every week or a set meeting like a book club.
I guess I could get involved in something like that in my town…
Looking down at one of my favorite Kauai beaches, Hideaways on the North Shore, and thinking ’bout life
I try to make friends, though, and I have met friends through the blog, like last week I met with one of the girls who reads here, Shakun (hi, Shakun!). I found out that we both live in Novato, so we met for coffee, and it was really super cool. We were actually talking about this very topic, why it’s so difficult to make new friends as an adult.
I mean, I know that it’s not equally hard for everybody, but I think that people do generally just get really busy, busier with their lives, and set in their ways too, as they get older. It’s not the same as it was when you were a teenager or in college when you could easily spend that extra hour or two to go to the mall with a friend to help her find an outfit for Friday night.
Nowadays, with those two hours, I think, my gosh! — I could be cleaning my house or doing any number of other things that need to get done.
I’m a very social person. I’m not antisocial at all, and I know that it’s better for me mentally to have a circle of friends. I’ve also read different studies about how with women, especially, it helps to have a circle of friends.
I was wondering if you’ve run into this issue, and if you have, what are some things you’ve done to expand your social circle as you’ve gotten older?
In the grand scheme of makeup application, it’s not like eyeshadow, where sometimes you’re blending four or five colors on your lids. Blush is usually just one shade on a relatively large area. It’s not as precise as placing color in the upper crease, so why is it so freakin’ hard to make blush look natural?
This gave me a hard time for years and still does from time to time, but here are two tips that really help. When I learned these, it was like the clouds had parted, and I heard angels singing, AHHHHH! More importantly, I wasn’t rollin’ around town anymore with two tiny circles on my cheeks (WHICH, OMG, I’VE TOTALLY DONE!).
Anyway, here are two things I do when I’m going for the most natural-looking blush.
Reduce any redness, and prep your canvas first
This one is really helpful for the most natural-looking blush. As opposed to just applying blush over bare skin, always start by evening out your skin tone as much as possible by concealing any areas of redness at all (like from pimples) on and around your cheeks, because you want your base as close to flawless as you can possibly get it before you apply your blush on top.
If you put something pigmented like a blush on top of an area that already has color — like on top of a red pimple — your blush will emphasize the area even more, so prep your canvas first. Apply your foundation and/or concealer wherever you need it, and then apply your blush. That way it’ll look like a natural sweep of color going across your cheeks.
Apply your face powder before your blush
The next tip is to apply your powder blush (if a powder blush is your particular blush poison, and it happens to be mine) on top of your face powder, instead of the other way around. So, if you’re starting with primer, you’d apply your foundation and concealer next, then your face powder, and then your blush.
Because products like to latch on to creams, and foundations are creamy products, if you apply a powder blush directly on top of your foundation, any areas that have more product on them will grab more of your blush, leaving with you some uneven patches of more intense blush color on your cheeks.
Instead, if you apply your face powder on top of your foundation, your foundation will grab the face powder first (instead of your blush).
One benefit is that because your face powder color is probably similar to your foundation color, it won’t appear uneven. Another benefit is that the face powder gives your powder blush a base layer with a similar texture (a powder), like a cushion, and generally it’s easier to blend similar textures together, like creams with creams, and powders with powders.
That layer of face powder acts as a cushion for your blush and makes it much easier to scoot those blush grains along and blend them out. The result is more natural-looking blush.
All about that leggings life
OK, so I totally went there. I bought a pair of Zella High Waist Leggings, and ya know what? I’m really excited about them!
I have a few pairs of leggings from Zella that are all mid- to low-waist, and ever since I had the baby, um…I haven’t been able to get back into them. They don’t fit me the same way they used to — specifically, my tummy hangs over the waistband. So, I’ve been wanting a pair of leggings that hold everything in, a.k.a mom jeans style. And ya know what? Whatever, I’m cool with it. I saw these high-waist leggings on the Nordstrom website, read all the good reviews and was like, darnit, I’m just gonna go there.
I’m still waiting for them to come in… When they arrive, do you want me to review them? LOL! I have reviewed workout gear on MBB before. If you think I should, let me know.
OK, so I know that I make grammatical mistakes left and right, and I make up words like haaay and write run-on sentences like this one and say “yay!” instead of “yea!” and use too many emojis and LOLs and elipses…
But I do make an effort to at least put my apostrophes where they’re supposed to go, although I don’t lose any sleep over it when I make mistakes or write “gonna” instead of “going to.” I’m not gonna (haha) throw a vase across the room when I come across one of my old posts where I said LOL 20 times and used punctuation improperly (although it does drive me batty when I mix up “you’re” and “your”).
That said, it would really help me if somebody over at Team NARS could clarify something about new Kiss Me Stupid Lipstick from the NARS Spring 2017 Wildfire Collection.
Like, is there supposed to be a comma in there? Is it, like, “Kiss me, stupid,” like you’re talking to someone and saying, “Hey, stupid! Get over here and kiss me”? Or, does it need an exclamation mark because it’s a declarative statement? “Kiss me stupid!” Because I want you to kiss me until I can’t even remember my name or see straight anymore?
I’m so confused…
NARS Kiss Me Stupid Lipstick, $28
Oh! I like this color a lot. When you first see it out of the tube, it’s like hmm… Typical matte, ’90s brown, but this bad boy is a desert sunset in a tube. When you try it on, it becomes a warm, satiny terracotta infused with a fiery reddish orange and subtle golden sparkles. It fits in fabulously with the whole Wildfire color story.
Swatches of the NARS Spring 2017 Wildfire Collection Lipsticks in Kiss Me Stupid (top) and Breaking Free (bottom)
NARS Asphalt Jungle Lip Gloss, $26
The whole “You gotta try it on to appreciate it” thing also happened to me with Asphalt Jungle Lip Gloss.
OMG! Swatch it. Ooh. Get it on your lips. Ah! Fall in love.
Asphalt Jungle Lip Gloss
This bronzed plum with multicolored flecks of glitter reminds me of MAC Oh Baby Lipglass, except that it’s like Oh Baby to the penultimate degree, with a plum tint and blue, green and pink sparkles.
Be wary of mirrors while wearing this one, because when you catch a glimpse of it sparkling on your lips, you’ll probably lose your sh*t.
Why!? Why is this one limited edition!? Life can be so cruel…
Availability
Oops! I need to back up a little. I got too excited there and forget to say that there are four lip products in this collection — two lipsticks and two lip glosses. The lipsticks are $28 each, and the glosses are $26.
Oh, and the lipsticks and glosses are unscented and unflavored.
Thank gosh! Remember a few years ago when NARS glosses smelled and tasted kinda like plastic? It was like nibbling on a Barbie doll.
Swatches of the NARS Spring 2017 Wildfire Collection Lip Glosses in Aragon (top) and Asphalt Jungle (bottom)
Now, back to Asphalt Jungle Lip Gloss…
The pigment is medium to full, so a little bit of your natural lip color will peek though, which works well in this case since it isn’t a very dark color and still seems perfect for spring.
I haven’t batted my lashes at anything other than a nude gloss in months, but I think Asphalt Jungle is incredible. Don’t miss it.
NARS Breaking Free Lipstick, $28
I wanted to love bright neon coral Breaking Free Lipstick, but it’s thick, patchy and super dry, guys. I just can’t get it to work. It catches on every lip flake and makes my pout look a thousand years old.
Not the biggest fan…
Breaking Free Lipstick
NARS Aragon Lip Gloss, $26
I do like chestnut red Aragon Lip Gloss, but I’m not head over heels in love with it. It’s opaque, but it strikes me as a pretty standard reddish brown.
Not necessarily what I think of when I think of spring lip colors (more like fall), but I think it’s pretty, albeit forgettable.
Aragon Lip Gloss
The verdict
For me, the lippies in this launch are all about the browns — Kiss Me Stupid Lipstick and Asphalt Jungle Lip Gloss. Those two are my favorites.
You’re the biggest part of me…
I was listening to an ’80s station on Sonos radio the other day while prepping lunch veggies for the week (I made these rainbow roasted carrots, yum!) when this song came on…
You’re the biggest part of me!
I always thought this song was called Make a Wish, Baby, but it’s not. Thank you, Internet, for finally clearing it up for me.
Also, thank you, Internet, for letting me know that it’s not a Hall & Oates song (OMG, LOVE THEM). It’s by a band called Ambrosia.
I have no idea who they are, but they sing this lovely song. I’ve been listening to it first thing in the morning for the past few days.
Well, yeah, if I eat five pounds of fried chicken, my skin will definitely not look the same as it does when I eat lots of vegetables and fruit and food that isn’t oily.
There’s a HUGE difference, and I notice it right away. The biggest difference for me is when I get enough veggies and fruit — basically, enough fiber and food that isn’t processed or fried.
The healthier I eat (and the more water I drink throughout the day), the better my body feels, and the better my skin looks. It’s dewier, and my fine lines aren’t as…fine-liney. My skin also looks smoother.
One thing I’ve been doing a lot lately is drinking green juices, which are mostly veggies and water, so they aren’t as high in sugar as pure fruit juices. I’m about to make one now.
I just blend a whole bunch of veggies, some fruit and water (pretty much, whatever I have around, but usually a combination of spinach, kale, cucumber, pineapple and pear, with a squeeze a lemon to cut down the grassy taste), and when I have one of those consistently and don’t eat as many cookies or as much popcorn and junk food, my skin glows.
I also notice that when I eat a lot of salty foods like chips and French fries, my body feels gross, and my face will look bloated.
I don’t really have any food allergies that I know of, except for occasionally in the fall when my regular allergies are out of control. Sometimes in the fall I’ll get hives when I eat dishes with fresh herbs in them, but it’s hit or miss, and I’ve never pegged it to the specific herbs, so I have no idea which ones are responsible.
I did go to an allergist once, but it wasn’t to test for food allergies. It was for sinus allergies, and they did a skin test, which basically determined that I was allergic to everything — all of nature. LOL!
How about you? Do you notice a difference in your skin when you eat certain foods? And does a certain kind of diet make your skin better or worse?
With all of that said, I started testing the new Maybelline Expert Wear Eyeshadows, which come out this month (Jan. 2017), assuming they’d be great.
Buuut…
Maybelline Spring 2017 Expert Wear Eyeshadows from the top in Linen, Cool Cocoa, Khaki Camo, Gold School, Night Sky, Made for Mocha, NY Silver and Fierce Fuschia
They aren’t my favorites.
I love the range of colors and finishes (there are 20 of them) and the fact that they’re only $3.99 each, but I just haven’t been able to get them to work for me. I’ve used eight of the 20, and every one has been consistently sheer, rough and chalky. They go on patchy, and I have a heck of a time blending them.
I dunno! I mean, I know that my blending skills have deteriorated over the past month (the holidays…), but I don’t think they’ve gotten that bad. After five solid minutes of blending the khaki color with my blending brush on my lids, I still couldn’t diffuse the edges.
I sent El Hub to the grocery store the other night to get some spinach for a dish I was making, and I got a text from him while he was at the store: “There’s kale everywhere but I can’t find any spinach.”
Kale: IT’S EVERYWHERE.
At the Safeway by my house, they only have a small area for spinach, but like 12 different sections of kale.
Kale has been everywhere lately, and I have mixed feelings about it. I know that it’s super good for you, but I can only eat it if it’s steamed or completely obliterated in a smoothie.
There’s just something about raw kale that makes me feel like I’m eating an old shoe…but I’m trying to eat more of it because of how good it is for you, so I’m always trying new kale recipes.
It’s a sweet salad with quinoa, dried cranberries, pomegranate seeds, walnuts (which you can candy) and a vinaigrette. It comes together really quickly, too.
The recipe calls for raw kale, but I steam mine.
This recipe, BTW, makes a lot of salad, so if you’re planning to eat it by yourself, just know that you’ll be eating kale FOR DAYS. I made it on a Saturday afternoon and was still eating it with dinner on Tuesday.
How do you feel about kale? If you have any good kale recipes, hook a girl up!
Cheeks by NARS Bumpy Ride Blush. It’s available now for $30 in the NARS Spring 2017 Wildfire Collection
Geez, for a blush called Bumpy Ride, this sure is smooth…
Badum-bum.
Either someone at NARS was having fun on New Product Name Day, or they were thinking about that time they bounced across Idaho in a Pre-Cambrian Era Subaru Outback that practically launched them into outer space every time it hit a pothole…
Wait — never mind. That was me.
Officially, this is pink
NARS calls it a shimmering candy pink. I was dubious at first, so I pulled out a few other NARS pinks for comparison — Gaiety, Desire and New Attitude — and Bumpy Ride looks nothing close to what I’d call a standard-issue pink.
It’s more of a coral with pink dreams to me, and the closest thing I can find to it is NARS Day Dream, which is a tad more coral but less pink.
$30 NARS Bumpy Ride Blush
It’s also VERY shimmery
Holy crap, this is a shimmery blush! And the funny thing, it doesn’t look that shimmery in the pan or in swatches.
Because of that, I grabbed a regular blush brush to apply it, thinking, “This’ll work.”
I swiped it across the pan once and popped it on one of my cheeks, but when I started buffing it out, wow — lots o’ shimmer. We’re talking serious luminosity, but it’s grown-up shimmer…like if the MAC Mineralize Skinfinishes put away their childish dreams of becoming a pop star and finally got a “real job” (air quotes). The pigmented particles are finely milled (there’s really no actual glitter in it), and the effect is elegant.
The thing is, though…this kind of shimmer doesn’t mess around if you have any textured areas on your cheeks from acne scarring, large pores or dry patches. It calls them out, and right now my cheeks are a tad dry, so Bumpy Ride makes them look even drier.
A swatch of NARS Bumpy Ride Blush
The coral pink color
A bright candy pink can be totally fun, but sometimes when I wear them I feel like I’m trying too hard to look young. I think that coral pinks like this one, on the other hand, are more matronly youthful, to coin a phrase (that I hope isn’t completely ridiculous). If you’re a 30- or 40-something, you might like this one. I think coral pinks can be very flattering on mature skin.
The verdict
NARS Bumpy Ride Blush is pigmented, pretty, fresh and luminous, but it’s SO luminous that it shines a spotlight any textured areas it hits. I recommend starting with a layer of a smoothing primer first (ones with silicone are basically skin spackle, and the one by Make Up For Ever in the gray tube is my favorite), and then applying them delicately with a skunk brush.
In non-makeup news, the other day Connor and I went on our first play date together.
At least, I think it was a play date.
We didn’t really have play dates when I was growing up. Kids just went outside and played, but it’s a different world now…
Anyway, last year around this time, I took a birthing class through our healthcare provider (Kaiser), and a few weeks ago I ran into one of the ladies who took the class at the same time with me (I bumped into her at Sephora). Her son is now two weeks older than Connor.
We exchanged phone numbers, so then we met up this week at a Panera. It was nice talking with another mom with a baby around the same age, and Connor got to hang out with another baby, which she hasn’t really done much yet.
I think she was blown away…
You mean there are more of us out there!?
She was so cute, you guys! The first thing she did was try to share her toy with the other baby. She has this plastic ring with round plastic teething coins on it (looks like keys, so we call them her “car keys”), and she kept trying to give it away.
Overall, I think it was a successful first play date. For the new moms out there, when you guys meet up with other moms, what do you usually do? If you have any mom/baby play date ideas, please let me know.
