Hi!  I’m Katie!

Aside from the above being my very first gif, this blog is my very first venture into writing about skin care.  I don’t have a job, so I have to do something, you know?

There have been signs of A Beauty Blog as a decent enough venture for me for awhile now.  I should’ve gotten the idea after one of the multiple times I warned friends with whom I was vacationing that my night time routine takes approximately thirty minutes; or, maybe the thought should have struck me when a friend walked into my bathroom and said, half to herself, “It’s like a museum in here.  A museum of face shit.”

The most recent time I thought of writing all of this down was in the last few days when I looked around said bathroom and realized, 1.) That there were about 75 bottles of every type of skin goo possible, 2.) I really needed to start using it up in order to not be consumed by most-likely-beginning-to-become-sentient plastic bottles, and 3.) I actually had a LOT of thoughts about every single item and how and when I wanted to use it, or why I didn’t want to, and sometimes . . . it was expensive so I felt like I had to keep it.

There is, on top of all of that, a reason I have so much shit: I’ve had acne-prone, scarred, uneven skin since I was about 14.  I am extremely picky about what the hell I put on my face, and am not afraid to be a nopetopus when it comes to items everyone else seems to like.

Not only is my face often a mess (though I have reached a tentative equilibrium with it as of late), I long to be Katie with the Good Hair.  Not anything to do with, you know, Rachel Roy (though I have a sick denim jumpsuit of her design that I wear like a uniform; pictured above), but myself . . . with good hair.  I can throw thousands of dollars at these locks and you know what?  It’s still gonna be frizzy, the color will fade quickly, and split ends appear within four seconds of it getting cut.  Because of that, I’m also always on the look out for stuff that will get me as close as possible to my the hair of my personal goddess, Kathryn Hahn.

I’ve been pretty fortunate to, up until recently, have a job that involved lots of generous folks gifting me some really great beauty products that include some extremely expensive face masks, soaps, lotions, bath bombs, etc.  Part of why I can’t stand throwing anything away is that, even if something isn’t my cup of tea, I know that it’s worth something to someone, and an Average Jane’s opinion on a product that could break another Average Jane’s bank account might matter more than a paid review.

I think that, despite beauty blogs and skin care and all of that being very Of the Moment, that most people are getting their new stuff from the drug store – throwing it in their basket because it’s on clearance, or because they noticed that their hair is going crazy in the humidity and maybe this’ll work, or whatever.  At least, that’s how I do it.  But, I don’t think you have to be Into It, to be into it, you know?  So I’m hoping that this blog is a sort of starting point for the majority of people who certainly are interested in various “self-care” items but don’t have a lot of time or money to put into finding new things.  While a few things will certainly be a bit pricey, better that you know it’s worth it.  So here we go!  This is it!  This is my venture!  Cool!

Oh, one more thing.  So far, you’ve seen some lovely made-up photos of me, as I really enjoy caking on makeup and glamming around with my newly made ring light, but part of the whole point of this is my own personal letting go of constant heavy makeup in lieu of a more natural look.  Mainly, this was to help my skin out and give it a break once in awhile (a whole process that will certainly be its own blog entry eventually).  I kind of can’t stand when people are trying soaps over their makeup (what?!) or an eyeliner on their otherwise-perfectly made-up face.  Just so you have a starting point and we’re all on the same page, this is what I look like most days:

Aside from some 12-hour-old eyeliner and the lighting not being that bad, this is it.  I’m not going to edit photos, because what the hell would the point be if I did?  And this is actually a decent no make-up photo: Honey bunches, it’s going to get sooooo much worse!  Yay!  So let’s get together, I’ll tell you what the hell is on my face, and soon, you’ll tell me what the hell is on mine.  Get on board!