Russian Navy

Nail trend colors for Fall 2010 are here, why don’t you try Navy?

Although many, many things in my life seem to fall through the cracks, I really try to keep my feet and toes looking somewhat decent with a pedicure every two weeks.  One of my girlfriends has been wearing a very dark, somewhat purplish, navy blue shade called “Russian Navy” from Opi all summer. When I came upon it at the salon last week, I decided that it was my turn to go navy!

While my toes were being lacquered up, a very sweet, 70-ish year old lady was having her toes done too, and chose a very conservative peach, pinky color, and glanced at my feet and enthusiastically said, “Oh, I like that color! But, I always go for the same shade because you cannot take those risks at my age!”

“Oh you should, you really should!” I replied.

You know, going bold with your nail color is an excellent way to get a little expressive in a very temporary way.

Here’s a challenge, have some fun and take your nails sometime soon to the navy (navy blue), or possibly to turquoise, lime green, sky blue, or whatever… the possibilities are a whole lot of fun!

I love using a pre-foundation primer, but for some reason the silicone in many of them congest my skin. The very smart cosmetic company tarte recently released a silicone-free primer ReCreate, which contains skin nurturing Jojoba and Sunflower Oil as well as Vitamin E. This primer is a great way to prep your skin and add some additional moisture without the worry of breakouts.

Want to win one?

Wende Zomnir, co- founder of Urban Decay, allows her 7-year-old son Crash to apply false eye lashes to her lids to demonstrate a point.

If Crash can do it, so can you. Oh really? I am always nervous about wearing false eyelashes, mainly because my timid self is afraid of them looking “false.” I also imagine a co-worker being polite, but doesn’t want to point out that one of my eyelashes is flapping half way off every time I blink while having a conversation with them.

Urban Decay offers several varieties of false lashes that look very chic (tease seems way cool – it might be worth the risk!) Any of you use false eyelashes? And if you do, any tricks or tips you could share?

Do you know what yesterday was? If you said “Thursday” then you get partial credit and a warning that nobody likes a smart aleck What “it”was in my neck of the woods was the counter launch for MAC’s To The Beach collection.

I went in about a week ago asking about the collection, since Karla at TNBTTGSY swatched them and made me want them SO BAD. Seriously, she swatches like nobody’s business. Anyhow, I was just dying for some of the collection and I hopped in to see if it was out yet. It wasn’t on the counter but my gal Jessica let me sift through the spanking new testers and pre-order what I wanted. You can bet your buns I went straight down after work yesterday to pick up my new babies. Good thing too, 3 of the 5 items I picked were already gone and the store had only been open for 3 hours! This is a really fun , not too bright(imho) collection and I will get tons of use out of my purchases.

For a full selection of swatches visit Karlas posts here and here. And click through at the end for my pictures as well

I nabbed Sweet & Punchy and Humid($14.50), two gorgeous shadows and Float on By($14.50), which is a beautiful dark green/turquoise eye pencil. Since no purchase is complete without lip color I also grabbed Lipglass in Splashing($14), a pretty pink, and a lipstick in Funbathing($14), a bronzed plum color. Funbathing is almost exactly a more sheer version of my favorite lipstick ever, MAC’s O. It’s a perfect way to wear my favorite color through summer and I’m so tickled that I just might have to go buy another one before it sells out. I highly suggest you run to your nearest MAC counter ASAP and give this collection a whirl, I love it. And hurry, some of these products are already sold out online! (more…)

Or, Ingredients Matter.

I had my first serious reaction to eye makeup about a week ago. The thing is, it was ultimately my fault.
I have in my possession some mineral shadows that contain dyes. While these aren’t strictly “mineral” shadows, the range of color offered from these dyes gives me some of the variety I crave. I am aware that many D&C dyes and other synthetic colors can be a problem, particularly in the eye area, but I decided to use the product anyway.
This isn’t a new concept for me. Writing here and researching certain common ingredients has led to an increased awareness on my part about the possible hazards of cosmetics. Knowing this I make my choices accordingly. I know the hubbub about parabens, and I understand it, but I will still purchase products with parabens. However, I have issues with ingredients like bismuth and dimethicone, and try to avoid them as much as possible. I have a responsibility to myself and the other women in my life to weigh risks and benefits and decide what is most important. These are personal decisions, and I won’t ever fault anyone for purchasing strictly organic products OR for not giving a damn and purchasing whatever they feel like. If you have the information you need then, well, you’re a grown up and you are entitled to do whatever you please. (more…)

Who took advantage of the Urban Decay Friends and Family deal this time around? *raises hand* Ooh, ooh, I did! There were some new spring goodies available and of course I added a couple of them to my basket as well.

The two things I just had to add were the new makeup setting sprays by Skindinavia. There are 3 formulas available, but I just grabbed two to try out, the De Slick spray and the All Nighter formula. With my active job and the stuffy air in our work space, makeup has a tendency to slide right off of my oily/combination skin. I’m always on the lookout for anything to help keep my face in place, especially if it means I don’t have to touch up my makeup every hour or two and pile on powder. (more…)

I was, sorry to say, defeated in my quest to own the Stacked1 set of pigments from MAC ($32.50 if you manage to find some). I did manage to hit the counter right after they recieved a second shipment of the stacked2 sets. While Stacked1 was a set of beautiful purples, Stacked2 is earthy tones of gold and light copper with an olive green thrown in for good measure.

Holy shimmery shine Batman, these pigments are super shiny metallics with just a tiny touch of glitter to really make them glow. Like most MAC pigments they’re super multi-use, and can be mixed with just about any product you have. I prefer mine foiled with a shadow sealant as an eye color, but I’ve used them above my cheekbone for some highlighting as well. I’m not a huge fan of the crumbly texture rather just a smooth powder (Temptalia has some great pics of the texture in the jar), but it blends and applies well without feeling chalky or chunky. The shiny color stays in place well with a sealant, and be sure not to get any on your clothes or you’ll look like a glitter bomb all day. One thing about these stacks that is both good and bad, there is a ton of product in each jar! If you’re like me and rarely repeat colors often then this will last forever.  I don’t think I’ll ever get to the end of these jars unless I start finding some serious extra uses for it. Since we’re still in the last dying clutches of winter here, I can’t think of a better way to coax the sun from its hiding place than by wearing something to give it a little inspiration, like these shiny reflective pigments!

Wow, is anyone else seeing the 80’s coming back in force? Mr. Mo and I were at the store a few days ago when we saw a hoodie with a paint splatter design all over it. We just sort of looked at each other and shook our heads. For one thing, I am nowhere near old enough to be retro folks, and for another thing, a lot of these looks were bad enough the first time around, no need to repeat. Ya dig what I’m saying here?
For some reason though, just about every nail company out there has a neon collection for summer. China Glaze has Poolside, Zoya has Flash, OPI has their Brights, and everyone else is in a rush to crank out their own bright colors and keep up with the bigs. And since it’s my commitment to you to try and keep up with the trends (and because I’ll use any excuse to buy nail polish), I went out and picked up a couple new neon nail colors so I could give them a trial run for you.

I’ll be honest with you and fess up that I bought some knock offs, since I’m not nuts enough about this trend to spend the big bucks. The colors were very similar to others available and I just wanted to see how it feels to stare at these colors all day long. I ultimately couldn’t bring myself to buy a neon green polish and instead settled on hot pink and a bright orangey color. I opted out of blue since I have more than my share of blue polish already and don’t get nearly enough use out of the ones I already have to justify buying more. I used separate colors on each hand and once I saw the two side by side I was thankful I wear gloves most of the day at work.

When Mr.Mo saw the orange color he asked if was “like, a mango color”. I think that was much nicer than my personal description of “baby throw up orange”. Maybe it’s my fair skin, and maybe it’s the florescent lights at work, but this color made me feel ill every time I looked at it. I don’t know that I would’ve liked a true hunter safety vest orange any better, but since most neon orange this summer has a yellow tint to it  I would suggest skipping it unless you feel it’s flattering. I can’t imagine it working too well with very tanned skin, though I think that with dark skin or something slightly less pasty than my skin it might be nice. The pink was much more manageable, though it was a bit brighter than I managed to capture in pictures. It was easier to get opaque coverage with the pink and  it didn’t seem quite so out of place as the orange or a bright green might have been. It’s not my favorite ever, but I far prefer it to the orange. I think this color is pretty well suited for all skin tones and definitely more appropriate for the workplace than some of the other neon offerings. These colors are much better on a shorter nail and with a nice shiny top coat to keep them bright and fresh.

I don’t know that I’m quite ready for the neon trend to reappear, but it certainly seems like I’m in the minority on this one. What say you, have I seen the light, or am I not too bright?

We have a local Ben Franklin store in our small town that’s a treasure trove of random finds and knick knacks. I love to wander the beauty section and see what sort of obscure things they’ve managed to dig up recently. I was checking out an end cap when I stumbled across these sets of 5 shadows from LA Colors. The setup and color selections were reminiscent of this set that Jami (Bionic Beauty) found at Hot Topic a while back, and she seemed relatively pleased with them so I decided to pick up one or two and give them a shot.  Given that LA Colors is a manufacturer and wholesaler, the odds are probably pretty good that this product and the Hot Topic version are the same thing with different lids on the cases.

I was pretty shocked when I opened this at home and swatched it with my fingertips. The formula is surprisingly smooth and velvety, and the pigment is fairly dense, so you get a nice bit of color with every swipe.  Lighter colors seem to be a bit chalky, especially apparent when first applied with a brush, but once they warmed to my skin and settled a bit the metallic finish really shined through. The darkest color in the Wildflower palette, a sort of berry/wine color, was heavily pigmented, and I learned the hard way that just a dab will do ya. I used these shadows over my favorite primer, Too Faced Shadow Insurance, and I just don’t think they’d stay as well without it, since the swatches on my arm rubbed off easily. In the end they actually stayed rather well, with a noticeable wash of color after 17 hours of wear, including a nap. These aren’t going to be your colors for a special event or your big close up, but they’re a fun way to add some variety to your color collection. Oh, and did I forget to mention the very best thing? These puppies only set me back…*drumroll*…$1.59 plus tax. Yes, for about 2 dollars I got 5  decent eye shadows. I’m going to call that a MAJOR score.

If you’re not lucky enough to find LA Colors at your local five and dime, you can pick them up for just a bit more online at Cherry Culture, where they’re currently marked at $3. What a fun and frugal way to try out some great colors to welcome spring!

My favorite foundation?

And my genuine knee-jerk response would be, “NO Foundation at All!”

Yeah, I would prefer the look and feel of 100% natural skin as opposed to makeup any day.  I never routinely wore foundations until my mid-30’s and started noticing some uneveness of my skin.  And although becoming a lot wiser with the passing years, my skin has continued to be blotchy in places around my cheeks, chin, and forehead. Finding a foundation that can provide natural light to medium coverage, without looking cakey, too matte, or shiny, blends perfectly with my skin tone, and most importantly, does not make me break out is a very difficult one! (more…)