Back to Black

Chanel has done it again. A new nail polish made its debut at the Spring 2011 show and I have had my eye on it! What color you ask, black, of course. But not a matte or glossy black. Its almost like an iridescent black with green and grey hues if tipped a certain way towards the light. It's called Black Pearl. Whatever. It's amazing. And j'adore!

Initially, I saw it on the models when looking at pics from the runway show online. Then this morning, I interviewed Blake Lively (who is very sweet btw) for the Rockefeller Tree, and she was sporting Black Pearl. I die! So we talked nail polish for a minute and she confirmed it was Chanel's newest creation. What she failed to mention was that because she is a personal favorite of Karl's and a huge Chanel aficionado, she has the shade before it hits the shelves. Oh and she's a celebrity. Lucky girl!

Chanel's Black Pearl doesn't hit stores for another couple of months, but you better believe this girl (with the help of Bonita Thomas of course) is getting her hands, or should I say nails, on this deliciously dark hue!

Here's to you. Here's to me.

Kathy.

Don't you be hatin' on my chocolate lips!

Call me retro, or maybe a little chongalicious, but I'm officially taking it back to 1994 and rocking the brown lipstick this fall. I know I know. This can be bad-real bad. I'm getting major flashbacks of my 8th grade picture and graduation portraits (at San Mikol) when I lathered up my Revlon Coffee Bean lipstick like there was a brown lipstick drought at CVS. Literally all I needed to complete my look was a black sharpie for my eyebrows and to make an appearance on the George Lopez show. Or better yet, my brown lipstick and I could rock chancletas, a tube top midriff, and run for Miss Hialeah. As I discovered, brown rouge can be amazingly fabulous and I think I'm tipping the scale on the fabulous side.

It's now 2010 and glossy mags and runway shows have shown us that brown lipstick has gotten a bad rap. And I've also graduated from experimental chonga to fashionista and I beleive everyone should get second chances, including brown lipstick. So when MAC Cosmetics (my favorite makeup brand EVER.) came out with the Disney Venomous Villains collection I became obsessivo. And dare I say bold, when I was instantly attracted to this very rich, deep chocolate brown shade that was part of Sleeping Beauty's, Mallificent's palette. It's called "Dark Deed". So bad its good! I gave it whirl and whoa whoa whoa! Can we say fabo?! I'm usually a nude lip, smokey eye kind of girl who occasionally dabbles in the red lip look. But brown was so out of my comfort zone and I'm happy that I stepped out of that box bc experimenting can be so fun! And the compliments aren't bad either. wink.

Check out my pic above. I recently wore the shade to a Knot party in NYC and I added a little confidence, a little sexy bedhead and voila! GORGY!!!!!!!!! Dark Deed is officially in my fall makeup rotation. Don't be afraid to rock it ladies! (NOTE: best not to wear deep brown with tons of gold jewelry, particularly earrings and necklaces, that have your name engraved in cursive. That's just too ghetto and not fabulous!)

Here's to you. Here's to me.

Kathy.

Dios me salve Maria.

I wouldn't call myself a super devout Catholic even though I went to Catholic school my whole life and will send my children to Catholic school one day. But, I love God. I love the Baby Jesus. La Caridad del Cobre. La Virgen de Regla. Or any Incarnation of the Virgin Mary for that matter. But for some reason, I seem to be very much fascinated with and drawn to religious pictures, figurines, artifacts, and/or motifs. (Maybe I was a saint in my past life? Hmmm...Santa Katerina. Not a bad ring.)

Anywho, on a recent trip to Mexico, I made a pit stop to the local market to do some shopping. Some of the stores are very formulaic and cater to tourists with their sombreros, tequila shot glasses, and silver jewelry. I'm a little more authentic than that. But I popped into this one store and I was relieved with their more traditional and unique local selections. After browsing some beautiful hand painted pottery, a vision appeared in my midst! La Virgen! La Virgen de Guadalupe to be precise. Mexico's Mary.

In a wooden box, I found beautiful vintage looking photographs of la virgen on sepia paper, with accents in bright blues, golds, and garnets made the image so distinct and delicate. Immediately I thought, "OMG. this will be perfect for my casita!" It has become my new project. Now that I think I'm all HGTV, finding the perfect aged frames for these photographs is going to be my mission. Ill be hitting flea markets, consignment stores, and thrift stores for my bargains. And I'm excited for it.

Asi que, say a little prayer for me and my new DIY endeavor! Amen.

Here's to you. Here's to me.

Kathy.

Happy IPAD bday!

It's been too long. A little over a month since I dropped some serious two cent knowledge on this blog! Between a fabulous wedding in Tampa, flus and colds, birthday drunches,visiting best friends and living an awesome life, I had no time. And can I just say how lucky and blessed I am?? So thankful thankful thankful. Blessed blessed blessed. I pinch myself everyday.

But I just wanted to share this photo of my bff Javy, at his dirty thirty drunch!
One of the best feelings in the world is watching someone you love open a gift that they sooooo wanted and watching the expression on their face go from curiousity to surprise to elation to screaming! And that's exactly what transpired when Javy got his coveted IPad. And I have to say, I'm so grateful for the amazing friends and siblings who chipped in to make this little dream become a reality.

My thoughts on gift giving is, give someone exactly what they want and love. And if its too much mula, (in the case of the Ipad, and lets face it, no one in our circle is rolling in Diddy dollars) why not do a collective gift where everyone can pitch in and be a part of the gift extravaganza?!

Javy is not one to emit much emotion, but to see him feverishly unwrap his gift and see the excitement only seen in that of a little kid on Christmas, was so worth the group effort!

Did I mention, that I, Kathy Liz Suarez Buccio, am a big fan of collective gifts?? I'm just sayin.

Here's to you. Here's to me.

Kathy.