Soft Teal Wings With the Urban Decay Naked Wild West, a New Tea From Trader Joe’s, and Chocolate Chip Cake!

I was chatting with someone IRL a couple weeks ago, and she told me that sometimes she puts on her makeup in the morning before sitting down to work because it makes her feel more productive, and I was like, “YES! You are my people!” 😸 That’s totally what happened in this look here. I was researching luxury vinyl flooring, so these soft teal wings happened…

Side note: over the years, our carpet has become completely thrashed thanks to the cats, so now I’m learning all about laminate versus vinyl plank flooring versus hardwoods… If you have any flooring knowledge bombs to drop on me, I’m all ears!

I’m wearing the new Urban Decay Naked Wild West Palette here. Just a couple of the brown matte shades on my lids (Spur and Nudie) and the shimmery teal (Bud) on my lash lines.

I’m still on the fence about this palette and haven’t quite figured out if I think it’s must-have… This is my third time using it, and although I do like the mix of brown, taupe and gray mattes, coupled with the fun blues and golds, I don’t know if it’s that practical. I’m gonna give it a couple more tries, then check back in with you…

By the way, I’m also testing a new concealer from bareMinerals called The bareMinerals Original Liquid Mineral Concealer. It’s a medium-coverage brightening liquid concealer you can build up in layers to full (specifically for the under-eye area). It’s comes in 17 shades, and it’s available on qvc.com for $25 a tube now.

This was my first time using it (I’m wearing Medium/Tan 3.5 C!). So far, I think it’s alright… It’s a little more coverage than I’ve been wearing lately, so it’s kind of shocking to see real-deal concealer on my skin again.

To its credit, it doesn’t pool up in my fine lines or anything, so it’s not super obvious, but I do have to blend out the edges quite a bit because the pigment is very concentrated. I think it should be fine on its own, but it might be a tad too heavy if you like to set your concealer with powder.

In non-makeup related news, I found a delicious new herbal tea at Trader Joe’s called Blood Orange Rooibos, and it’s naturally very sweet to my taste buds (I don’t even add sugar). It has just a touch of citrusy tang too.

I’ve been drinking less Earl Grey tea lately because I read somewhere that cutting down on the caffeine might help with my migraines, which, ugh, have been terrible lately.

I mean, I love me some tea and coffee, but I’ll try anything at this point.

Anywho, if you see this one TJ’s, grab a box. Then grab an extra one for me, hahah! Kidding. It’s super good though, especially with dessert.

I had a cup last night with a slice of gluten-free chocolate chip cake that Connor and I made last weekend.

Not only is this cake easy and delicious, but it’s light and moist, and it just melts in your mouth (the secret ingredient is unsweetened applesauce). If you decide to make it, you could have it in your tummy in less than one hour.

The fact that the star ingredient is applesauce almost makes me feel like it’s healthy… 🙂 Yeah, maybe that’s a stretch! It’s still good though, and it’s one of those cakes that’s nice to have around in case company stops by (for when the pandemic’s over).

If you came over, I’d cajole you into having a cup of tea and a slice, for sure!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen