So I’m sure you heard already, but Max Factor is discontinuing sales in the US. This means that a nice chunk of shelf space in some major retailers is left  open and waiting to be filled with something else fun and enticing.  At WalMart (at least in our local area), I was happily surprised to see this space filled with Hard Candy Cosmetics, a brand that’s been so difficult to find in recent years that I’ve heard many people asking if they’re even still around. Not only are they still here, their offerings have expanded greatly and the price point is exceptionally reasonable, averaging 6 bucks with a few slightly more expensive products.

After hemming and hawing a bit I finally decided to adopt a Walk The Line liquid eyeliner in Night Sky, a silvery gray liner loaded with multicolored glitter. The packaging claims two things: Dries fast, and stays put. I wouldn’t say I’m 100% behind either of those statements. I applied this liner as I usually do with a liquid liner, and by the time I left for work 20 minutes later it still wasn’t dry. I ended up with a line on my upper eyelid and I was not pleased. Next time a shot of cool air from my blow dryer will definitely be called for. If you have time and patience this could work better for you, but I work at 4 in the morning and thus have very little of either. I have to say that the glitter did seem to last pretty well, though the silvery base color faded quickly. Perhaps a regular liner not loaded with glitter would stay better, but I wasn’t what you’d call nuts about this one at all. Read the rest of this entry »

Wanna hear a great entrepreneurial story? Read on about Karen and what she is doing at CurlsLikeUs.com.

Once, while on a trip to NYC, I had the opportunity to have my haircut and styled at a salon that focused exclusively on curly hair. To my surprise, after washing my hair the stylist used paper toweling to remove excess water from my hair.  He said he preferred using an old t-shirt but that was not allowed at this upscale salon.  He went onto explain that traditional terry cloth towels have too course of a texture to them.  Not only can this texture disrupt the natural “S” formations of your curls, it can roughen up the hair which can cause breakage, split-ends, frizz and even inhibit your hairs ability to shine!

Karen put this new information into developing her own  product, the Curl Cloth. The Curl Cloth removes just the right amount of moisture while setting your favorite styling product in the hair.

The Result? After testing out the Curl Cloth for the past few weeks, I will never go back to using anything else.  Read the rest of this entry »

As many would say – eye creams are just expensive specialty skin moisturizers that trick you into spending more money on another skin care product. And I understand this, I really do, NOT!  Mainly because most of my facial moisturizers don’t work well around my eyes, they are either too moisturizing, too tingly, don’t absorb well and leave my eyes feeling greasy, or maybe it is just my “wild imagination” believing that my eyes need their own special eye treatment. Anyway you slice this subject; I adore an excellent eye cream.

A few weeks ago I started using DDF Advanced Eye Firming Concentrate with its Turmeric Complex.  I love Turmeric and cook with it in many of my favorite veggie dishes (yum), and also heard of many of the health benefits of using Turmeric. Read the rest of this entry »

A few months ago I started looking for a particular shade of gray nail polish. While I surfed and searched and asked around a couple people pointed me in the direction of ManGlaze. I checked it out and found dark gray and black matte polishes. Nifty, but not what I was looking for. So I filed the info about matte polish away in my brain and promptly forgot about it. Isn’t that always what happens right before something shows up everywhere and you think “Huh, didn’t I just hear something about this a few months ago”?

Suddenly it seems matte is all over the place. I saw on twitter that Zoya had a BOGO deal on their polishes and since I was dying to try them out anyway I hopped over there and made sure to add Loredana($7) to my basket o’ goodies. Loredana is from the Fall 2009 Matte Velvet collection. There’s also a Winter 2009 Matte Velvet collection, which makes 6 matte colors from Zoya. Loredana is described as a gunmetal gray with shimmer and I’d have to say that’s a pretty dead on description. How you can get such great shimmer and still have a matte polish I don’t know, but Zoya nailed it(little pun there, pardon me).

I’ve been hearing good things about Zoya lately and so far they don’t disappoint. Zoya is free of toluene, formaldehyde, DBP and camphor, making it a safer polish. Plus it’s been formulated for long lasting wear on natural nails, no easy feat. It only took two fast drying coats for perfect coverage and I honestly could’ve done passably with only one coat had I felt lazier. I have artificial nails on right now which really helps color to stay unusually long, but matte polishes are billed as being less long wearing than typical polishes. It’s recommended you not use matte polish with a base coat, but I’m gonna say you should try it anyway, if only to avoid staining from the very rich colors. Of course you want to skip a top coat, shiny top coats pretty much defeat the point of a matte, yeah? The color takes some getting used to, everytime I caught a glimpse my brain told me something was wrong with that picture, but it started to really grow on me after a few days and I got compliments left and right over the color.

(I have pictures, honest, but I seem to have misfiled them somewhere, so stay tuned for an update with them in this spot. Sorry)

Ultimately I’m really diggin these new polishes and I would definitely recommend you give them a shot. If you aren’t totally sold on the matte polish you can pick up a matte top coat and get a more flat look that still has little bit of a shine. Have you tried a matte polish yet? What are your thoughts?

Okay, before you go dowsing yourself  with kamikazes and cosmopolitans hear me out and read the rest of the post… Then you can plan a night out with your girls if you want. I’ll have a Roy Rogers please!

So we all love Lush, that’s a given. But until recently I’d only loved it online since I don’t live anywhere near a brick and mortar location. Mr. Mo and went over to Seattle to catch a Pearl Jam concert (yes, it WAS flippin amazing, thanks for asking) and in order to burn some time we stopped by the Bellevue Square mall. Just so happens that Bellevue Square has a Lush location inside. Entering  Lush is like nothing you’ve ever experienced. It’s a lovely, soothing experience that even had Mr. Mo tweeting “What is this place? I feel so relaxed all of a sudden”. It was during my divine hand treatment that I discovered Ocean Salt Face and Body Scrub.

This scrub has fine and coarse sea salt that makes me love it as a facial exfoliator. It has a tangy earthy smell that comes from things like grapefruit and lime with vodka. Hold onto that thought, the vodka will show up again later. Some of the other awesome ingredients in this scrub: avocado butter, coconut fat, seaweed, violet leaf and lanolin.  These all help to smooth and soften skin, but they don’t leave a slick oily feeling like a lot of salt scrubs. There’s nothing worse than losing your footing on the bare floor because you’re all slippery from the scrub you used, or is that just me?

So why the vodka? As explained by the Lushociate (Lush associate), the vodka helps to brighten skin, and I’m sure the citrus juices help with that as well. Sure enough, my fair skin was practically glowing when she got through with me. The color was much more even and the alabaster tone made me feel like a roman sculpture. I fell in love instantly and scooped up a tub to add to my quickly growing pile of goodies. I would caution you not to use this if you have large blemishes or broken skin since cuts+salt=ouch, but otherwise it’s a refreshing experience. A big tub(8.8 oz for $32.95) is spendy if you plan to use it as an all over body scrub, so I try to limit it to mostly face and upper body. I like to follow it with my new glob of shower jelly, so fun. If you want a special luxe item to really pamper yourself and love a nice tough scrub then this is it!

Hyperpigmentation never became an issue for me until I hit my mid-30’s and Boom! – Larger, more prominent dark spots (and I am not taking about cute little freckles either) which started to appear around my cheeks and forehead.  At one point I made an appointment with my Dermatologist for solutions.  Over the next six months, I began a series of Glycolic Acid Peels that did help with the overall texture, clarity and evenness of my skin.  However, I did keep noticing that there were a few spots that just wouldn’t go away.  Earlier this year I started using a prescription strength Hydroquinone cream. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever visited DonorsChoose.org? You choose the cause you prefer and watch as your dollars team up with the donations of others to help public schools do their thing. My husband and I love DonorsChoose because he can help provide geography supplies and I can help provide early education curriculum but we can both donate together. Do you know who else loves DonorsChoose.org? Aromaleigh Cosmetics, that’s who!

In an effort to help DonorsChoose , Aromaleigh is making a deal you can’t refuse. Don’t believe me? Just listen:
Would you like to chat with me on the phone for 15 minutes, giving me all of my amazing details about what your dreamy, must-have, most highly coveted eyeshadow color is? Would you then like me to make it for you, send you a nice big jar, and feature your color on the Aromaleigh website, named after you? Well… it’s not a silly dream you had last night. It’s real… and it’s the driving force behind this year’s “Pretty Inside AND Out” DonorsChoose.org Social Media challenge.

Here’s the short version(the full deal can be found on the website)… Donate just $15 to the Aromaleigh DonorsChoose Challenge page and receive the stock eyeshadow of your choice. Not bad right? Well, if you donate $35 or more than you can have your very own custom color created and shipped right to your door!! Plus it will be featured on the website and available for purchase! You can have your creation named after you or choose to have it named after someone you love, how awesome of a gift would that be?! So pop over and take a peek at the deets, pass the info on to your friends, and then let us know what color you’re dreaming up!!

If you have oily or blemish prone skin then you know it can be tough to find a good cleanser. Many cleansers  on the market strip your skin of its natural oils, leaving it dry or flaky while still producing plenty of oil. So now you have flaky skin that’s itchy AND oily. The excess oil helps keep the flaking skin in place and your pores get all clogged up and then you have new blemishes, so you go back to the super strong cleanser and the vicious cycle continues.  And then you start getting older and realize that that dry skin definitely doesn’t help with the appearance of fine lines. Suddenly the search for a gentle cleanser that can tame your problematic skin moves up the priority list.

In my quest for the perfect skin care regimen for my skin I have tried a TON of cleansers. I’ve tried pretty much every formulation out there too, creams, gels, foams, bars. Some I’ve downright hated, some have been okay, and some I’ve really liked, though I never found one that I have the desire to use and purchase faithfully…until now.

I received a gift certificate to SkinCareRx a while back and decided that it might be worth my time to buy something I needed instead of splurging on makeup like I usually do. After all, if it’s not my money  then  who cares if I’m not nuts about it, right? Two simple clicks took me to the cleansers for oily skin and I waited for something to catch my eye. To be honest, the first thing I noticed about PCA Skin’s Facial Wash for Oily/Problem Skin was the price. It’s the least expensive oily skin cleanser on the list($21.50) and I really wanted to get as much as I could out of my gift certificate.  Yes, I’m cheap, that’s how I roll. And I couldn’t be happier. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ll be dog-goned!  Almost two weeks without a flare up, and then guess who comes to visit?  A lovely, deep blemish on my chin.  With so many spot treatments available, each claiming to clear up blemishes overnight, containing ingredients like Benzoyl Peroxide, Salicylic Acid, Tea Tree Oil, Sulfur, and onto “kitchen cupboard” tips like applying ice, heat, or a tiny dab of minty toothpaste.  Do any of these emergency spot treatments really do the trick?

In my four decades on the planet, I have tried MANY spot treatments, and realistically know that zits cannot go away instantly (especially the deep ones), and it will take patience (and keeping my picking-fingers away from it), to assist in its disappearance.   I want to share with you two spot treatments that I have found that really make a difference. Read the rest of this entry »