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!

While shopping at my local Whole Foods a few months back I came across a woman giving out samples of a orange-colored juice from a company called Sibu. Being a bit jaded from the continual outcropping of liquid supplements I asked, “What’s the gimmick with this drink?” I found out that the secret ingredient found in this supplemental drink is the Sea Buckthorn Berry – a cherished fruit that is native to Tibet. Sea Buckthorn is loaded with Omega fatty acids 3, 6 and 9 and also claims to have exceptional nutrient qualities for hair, skin and nails. Read the rest of this entry »

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! Read the rest of this entry »

One of the distinct benefits of working at the airport is that it’s like free market research. I get to see what people carry in their cosmetics cases and what products everybody loves. When a woman has to pick and choose what she’s going to shove in that little one quart bag and what she’s going to toss in the trash, you can tell which items she loves the most because they’re the first ones to get saved. One of the things I started seeing more and more of was the Dermalogica AGE Smart Multivitamin Thermafoliant (say that 3 times fast!), and everyone I asked about it just loved it, so of course it moved to the top of my “must try” list.

I shall not bore you once again by waxing poetic on my love for exfoliants, but let me say that I was so excited to try this that even the $49 price tag didn’t dissuade me. Read the rest of this entry »

My eyes and neck are my aging troublespots… and since turning 40, I’ve been turning to eye treatments to work their miracles on my crow’s feet, circles, and drooping eyelids!  Top complaints with eye treatments are that they either feel and appear greasy and my makeup slides off, or that they aren’t moisturizing enough and the product actually exaggerates my fine lines and wrinkles – true story!

For a few years running, SkinMedica has been one of my favorite skin care lines and when their new SkinMedica Illuminating Eye Cream came out, I had to give it a try.  Read the rest of this entry »

Aromaleigh is closing up shop.
Scared ya, didn’t I? Don’t worry, it isn’t forever. Kristen and Steve are FINALLY headed out for their honeymoon and to celebrate we’re being treated to a special coupon code. You (and me and anyone else you tell about this) can save 20% off your order at Aromaleigh.com through 11:59 pm Eastern on March 6th just by entering the code HONEY20 at checkout. Of course you can only use one code at a time, so the current items that are on sale with the 25% code will be discounted less or you can just place a separate order for those items.

But wait, there’s more…… Read the rest of this entry »

Love, love, LOVE facial primers! I got addicted to them a few years ago and continually enjoy trying them all.  Primers help to smooth or “prime” the surface of your skin and prepare it for a flawless foundation application. Jan Marini’s new Face Primer packs a nice “anti-aging” punch too!

Jan Marini’s Age Intervention® Prime Face Primer

Age Intervention Prime Face Primer gives facial skin an immediate airbrushed effect while providing remarkable rejuvenation benefits. Age Intervention Prime features an innovative and proprietary formula that includes newly developed topical agents that target elasticity, skin volume, inflammation and wrinkling to deliver extraordinary results.

Jan’s primer retails for $75 on most retail sites, and we are giving one away on Mythbuster Beauty – so don’t miss out on your chance!

A few weeks ago I posted about my new Chanel polish and Kellie commented that she’d seen a Sally Hansen polish in what she believed was almost an exact dupe. Of course I immediately headed out to hunt down this fabulous find. After a bit of searching I managed to locate where it USED to be on an end cap at WalMart. The display was for the new Complete Salon Manicure line from Sally Hansen, and most of the colors had already sold out, including Commander in Chic, which was the color Kellie recommended. Instead I picked up a pale buttercream yellow called “Yellow Kitty”.

Normally this pale yellow wouldn’t be my type of color, but I have enough reds, pinks, and purples to last me a lifetime, so I thought I’d change it up a bit. The polish claims to be a Base Coat, Strengthener, Growth Treatment, Color, and Top Coat all in one bottle. The brush is flat and has a curved tip that I initially thought was kind of gimmicky. Turns out that the shape of the brush is actually pretty handy in covering the curve of your nail without globbing over onto your cuticles, and I really like it. The light color is more apt to streak than a darker one, but after 2 carefully applied coats I had great, even coverage. I didn’t apply a top coat before letting it dry thoroughly, and the next morning it was ready for a real challenge: My Job. Read the rest of this entry »

Okay, we all know about cotton swabs and their many magical cosmetics uses. Wet, dry, straight, angled…there are about a million ways you can use those little babies. I love that such a simple, inexpensive item you have hanging around your house can be so useful and versatile, so I thought I would share with you my second favorite household beauty tool, a plain old 3×5 card. Read the rest of this entry »