No Mess Makeup

I try my best to look put together on a regular basis. Every so often I will go the extra mile and throw on some eye shadow, pencil and mascara. Once in a blue moon I will go balls to the walls and even go for the foundation (let's be real, tinted moisturizer), concealer, etc to give my skin a nice even tone. In the past I have shied away from the foundation simply because I hate the mess. I would end up getting it on my fingers, even with using cotton balls or pads.

While flipping through a magazine, I saw Michelle Phan recommended using a stippling brush (or at least I think she recommended it....there were a few beauty articles) to apply foundation. Last weekend, I stopped at the MAC store in the Natick Mall and purchased one.


This morning, I felt refreshed and ready to take on the world, which meant full face of makeup. I was excited to pull the new brush out of my brush holder to see if the coverage would be even and perfect. Well let me tell you, I am in love.

The bristles are different heights which allow the brush to hold onto the foundation (or at least I think they do). You simply blot the product on your face where you want the most coverage and then start smoothing it all over. The sensation you get as the brush moves around your face is just heavenly. I honestly stood there for a minute or two painting away.

I know I splurged by going MAC, so I understand if you wouldn't want to drop the money for the brand. But I would totally encourage a makeup enthusiast to go for the purchase, or if you simply like the feeling of tiny little feathers tickling your face, either way, totally worth it

Bathroom Chic

One would think that being a single girl living in a one bedroom apartment, I would have enough room for all of my stuff. Well that is just not the case. Last weekend I got down and dirty and really cleaned my apartment trying once again, to get my life organized. Part of the weekend was devoted to driving over to Target/Christmas Tree Shoppe/Michael's for frames and miscellaneous organizational items.

Occasionally I dabble in make-up, but I don't always remember to wash my make-up brushes. Honestly, I think I have really deep cleaned them once...in about 2 years...yeah...

Part of my problem is leaving them out to dry, I don't want to put them back in their pouch damp because that could cause mildew or something gross. While walking through Michael's I came up with a perfect solution! For about $5 I was able to purchase two small vases and blue marble stones. Now after I apply eye shadows and what not, I can quickly spray the brushes with cleaner and leave them standing upside-down to dry.


I think it looks rather cute. They have been living in these little vases for just over a week, and I couldn't be happier!

Best Thursday Ending

I used two of my gift cards this past weekend and purchased much needed snow boots. Just try to find a pair of quality size 7 snow boots right now, totally not an easy endeavor. Much to my surprise, all my stuff was waiting for me at my doorstep when I got home from class. It kind of felt like a mini Christmas. Too bad I only just took down my tree a week ago.

I happily have warm waterproof winter boots, new tasty coffee, face wash and new make-up tools. In case you have never ordered from Sephora, you should reconsider online purchases rather than store ones. You get to pick out your samples online. Yeah, most of it is perfumes, but it is still it is fun to pick things out that I really want to try out. There are also codes you can put in to get even more samples, I now have some Bare Essentials powered. Coooool. :)

Can't wait to try out my boots tomorrow. The bus stop is a good 15 minute walk away with the snow, I hope my toes stay super warm.

Best five minutes of my Wednesday

Ever since I left high school my skin slowly started to go downhill. It wasn't an all over the place issue, pretty much the irritations stayed on the lower half of my face. For the last couple of years I have been avoiding the obvious choice of heading over to see a dermatologist. To some degree I was in denial, to another I was afraid there was nothing to be done, the rest was just laziness. About three months ago I bit the bullet and went.

The appoint was quick and easy. I left with a prescription and hope that my skin could be rebooted. After a few weeks, I saw drastic improvement and now there is just some redness/scarring. I went to Sephora to see if they had any products that might help with cell turnover, which should then allow for the color to fade and disappear. One of the helpful employees showed me the Clearing Mask by Kate Somerville and I found it to be a fantastic product.

The instructions state that it should be used just twice a week, so I go with Wednesday and Sunday nights. This allows for me to feel rejuvenated after three days of work (and now one day of class) and then again prepares me for the week to start all over. The mask goes on smooth. Since I use it on the lower half of my face, I am able to really enjoy the fragrance it gives off. I think it is something like simple tea. After the five minutes is up and I wash the mask off, my skin really does feel happy.

Personally, I think I see a difference and I would say the feeling of relaxation that I get from it is worth the price. If anyone has any other masks they find to be helpful, please let me know. :)

$6 for a free makeup bag? Sign me up!

I know, I know, how can something be free and cost $6? Well, I will explain. My subscription to Teen Vogue is coming to an end and they have been diligently sending me mailers letting me know that yet again, it is my FINAL chance to reup. This notice that let me know not only can I get all 10 issues for $6, but they will also throw in a free car and truck themed make-up bag.

Sold.

I have needed a make-up bag for a while and refused to pay for it. I hope this bag is everything I am wishing for and more. Additionally, this is reminding me that I have a stack of fashion mags that are just dying for some QT with me and my couch.

Gaga that M.A.C. knows Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

While browsing in M.A.C. this weekend, I saw that their Viva Glam line now has lipsticks with Cyndi Lauper and Lady Gaga. As these are both part of the Viva Glam product line, very cent raised through the purchase goes to the M.A.C. AIDS fund. The fund helps to support the fight against HIV/AIDS.

While normally I would gravitate towards Cyndi's color as it is BRIGHT red, I figured the pale pink would be more useful for regular day to day use. As maccosmetics.com states, the lipstick features a high lustre finish and cool blue-pink shade. I think the blue tones is really what makes the product special. Taylor at the Nordstrom's counter recommended pairing the lip stick with Viva Glam 6 gloss, the results were amazing. (see above!)

I'm loving the two products together and definitely recommend them to those that love a great looking mouth. If Taylor hadn't been there to suggest the pairing, I don't think I would have purchased the lipstick. I need to give fair warning to anyone thinking about going Gaga, the lipstick on its own is very pale pink and needs the gloss to intensify it. Fortunately, the M.A.C. staff is always so helpful, has always been able to steer me into the right direction, and so I just suggest asking for a little guidance! :)

How To Be A Jersey Shore Guidette

Many of you have probably seen the dove commercial from 2006(?) where they show how lighting, make up, and photoshop can take a regular looking female and turn her into a billboard beauty.

Well, now funnyordie.com has come out with it's own version. Here Alyssa Milano is transformed into Snooki from the Jersey Shore. This transformation is genius. I am a huge fan of the Jersey Shore and have no problem admitting this. It is such trash, but the cast is just so out there that you can't help but want to tune in each and every week.

Alyssa Milano's Evolution: Jersey Shore from Alyssa Milano

If you have any interest you can follow some of the cast on twitter. So far on my Jersey Shore list I have the following four: @snooki, @itisthesituation, @mtvdjpaulyd, and @jenniwoww
Obviously, Ronnie and Sammi are too boring to bother with, and I just haven't gotten around to find Vinny. If you know it, please post the twitter account so I can add him on!

Do they know me or what?

My birthday is this week. Given the awkward timing of my birth being so close to Jesus's I often go about celebrating most of December. This past week I was able to see a number of friends, share a number of drinks, and ended up getting a number of gifts. Above you can see me sporting most of them. What can I say, my friends really understand me.

One friend gave me a leopard print Snuggie. After I opened the gift and subsequently let out a squeal in the middle of the thai restaurant she told me how she was hoping to get this for me before someone else did. When in the store, there was a few shelves of Snuggies, but only one leopard one. A woman was holding it, thinking about it, and eventually put it down for a moment to mull on the purchase decision. My friend was watching this whole thing go down, as soon as the box hit the shelf and the woman turned her back, my friend grabbed the box and dashed to the cash register. Moral of the story, when looking at a one of a kind (in the store) tacky item, don't put it down, someone else probably has a friend that has as bad taste as you do.

Another friend helped further my sunglass collection with a pair of hot pink sunglasses. These will be worn with pride. In fact they were worn this morning on my way to work. The glare off of the snow was completely unnoticeable.

The lip gloss is actually Venom. The Twilight lip plumping gloss. "Get bitten...be transformed" is written on the container the product comes in. I have tried it out. The color and the plumping seem to favor my bottom lip, which really shouldn't get any bigger. It is fun, and it does make your lips look you just sucked the blood out of some poor souls artery. Can't wait to sport it public.

The final gift in the picture is that beautiful metal flower ring. Don't fool yourself, that thing is heavy. It was a treat just seeing the friend that gave it to me as she now lives on the west coast. She told me she happened to see it and thought of me and had to purchase it. Of course I love it and of course I wore it to work the next day. One of my coworkers saw it and said "oh man that ring is just so you!!!". I smiled. It is fun to know that I have a style and look that is my own, no matter how tacky it is.

Well, tomorrow is the big day. I will be 26. Eeeep. Can't wait to see my family and home friends. This blog has been rather ignored this month due to personal stuff, it will probably be ignored again until 2010 as the holidays will keep me busy. On the off chance I can find time to write, I will.

E! Holiday Gift Ideas

Giuliana provided E! viewers with a gift guide for buying for females. Her suggestions were pretty awesome. I was totally psyched to see that she suggested the folding flats.


The flats she showed were about $60, which is so much more than what I paid for mine. I got a pair of gold ones from Mint Julep for about $20. I was dying walking back from an interview, needed a break, and remembered that I had seen these at the store earlier that week. I bought them and use them all the time. Walking to the T is more than just a few blocks from my house so I usually wear these until I get on the train. While looking for a picture of the shoes I found this great site that sells the ones I got, cute gold pouch and all!

The other item that she mentioned that I found particularly interesting, and that was Big Lips Skinny Hips. This is a lip gloss that doubles as an appetite suppressant. I don't know how I feel about this. A lip gloss that messes with my appetite? Does it taste bad or something? The funny thing is that I have no problem with Venom, which causes your lips to puff up, but messing with your eating habits is just wrong. Honestly, it probably has to do with how weight/eating is combined with fashion and beauty. Make-up does change a person's appearance, but this just seems to be messing with a girl a little much.

I did find a link that provided information on how to apply make-up to make your face skinnier.

Oooops. Sorry.

I saw this woman the first time one the way to work on the Friday before Halloween. She had an orange face and huge black hair with some gray streaks. Thought to myself, awesome Halloween costume. She had to be like a witch or something.

Yeah, saw her again this morning. Not a costume. Self tanner and bronzer issues. This reminds me of a girl I once knew that was often on the orange side. Very awkward. Why do women do this? What color was your skin originally that you thought orange was a better alternative?


I understand that getting a real tan or tan from a box are not the healthiest things for a person, but looking like an orange is down right awful. I'd rather just be pale...

Pretty AND Economical. Perfect

Saturday was filled with some very girly adventures. In addition to purchasing new underwear (see previous post), there may also be a charge on my credit card for some AWESOME new MAC products.

Coolest thing that I got would be the pallet that you can buy to hold eyeshadows. Instead of purchasing their their individual eye shadows, you can purchase the pallet and then buy magnetic eye shadow thingies that pop right in. Thus, giving a home to up to 15 colors. You get the same amount of the makeup, but now you have something way easier to carry and you don't have to worry about loosing one. AND to top it off, the magnetic circles cost less than the regular tubs. More pretty for your buck!

I did ask if there was any way for me to pop out the shadows I have from their individual packet, but I was told that wouldn't be the best idea. The guy helping me said he heard very sad tales ending with broken makeup. I am taking that as my cue to leave things as they are and just build up the pallete from now on.

Interesting side note, these palletes are also way better for the shadows as they help absorb the shock that it tends to be exposed to when being carried around in a purse or luggage. I never really thought about how travel could damage make-up but now I know.

In addition to the new eye shadow, I also got this great stick thing that enhances eye shadows. You draw it on your lip first wait like 15 seconds and apply the color. Man does it work! Super awesome product!

The EYES have it

On Friday, my friend and I did some shopping in NYC. Sephoras are all over the place and so we hopped in, as I was still in major need of a new eyeliner and one of y'all said it was a good place to find some. Needless to say, the women there are amazing. I was wandering around with no idea of what to look for and eventually was able to catch the eye of one of the employees. She immediately took me around the store showing me her favorite products for not only stay put waterproof eyeliner but also a number of other products that my make-up shoe box desperately needed. Here is the run down of what was purchased this weekend:

Urban Decay's 24/7 Glide-on Eye Pencil - ZERO. This was by far the best of the eye liners I tested. Before consulting the expert, I had drawn a number of lines on my hand testing out other brands. She showed me this one as I asked for a really dark shade and again I drew on myself. It looked amazing. When I went to clean off my hand with the make-up remover they have out for customers all the other lines wiped off easily. The Urban Decay line stayed put for a while longer. I did already use this pencil Saturday night, and it really was so much better than what I have been using.



Dior's Diorshow Black Out Waterproof Mascara They have a whole display that compares mascara lines. There are even little graphics which help you understand which will lengthen, curl, volumize or something else that I can't remember. The cut-out was still a bit much for me to comprehend so I asked my expert her opinion. I explained that since I wear contacts I needed something that didn't flake. She said that any good waterproof mascara should never flake. I also said I wanted the product to volumize my lashes as the stuff I currently had just lengthened and that wasn't helping with the overall look I was aiming for. She pointed me to Dior. I was a little gun-shy about going for this one as it is DIOR, but thought I should just go for it. Again, used it Saturday night. AMAZING. I am in love with this product.


eye BRIGHT by benefit This product is an eye brightener. It helps combat dark circles under your eyes. I have never really attempted to deal with the fact that my poor sleeping habits do affect my appearance. There are times that I attempt to use concealer, but that really doesn't do much. This pink stick will neutralize the color! (I also learned that if you suffer from a more red tone, green will neutralize that. Make up is really fascinating at times). I haven't used the product in real life yet, beyond when the expert attacked my face with it. But it did appear to work its magic.

I did come away with a few other boring things. Concealer stick, brush cleaner and pencil sharpener but those items don't seem to warrent their own little paragraphs. I will note that the casher that I had was super nice. At the swag thing I went to a month or so ago, I had signed up for Sephora's rewards card. Apparently, my information was entered correctly because she couldn't look me. I had to refill out the form. When the woman and I finished chatting and what not, she threw in a free lip gloss. I made sure to compliment her on her rings - they were fabulous.

HELP please

I am in the market for a new black eye liner. Lately, I have opted to wear it most days and am kind of sick of it smudging.

Any suggestions???

It feels good to be inspiring

I opted to walk a different way home today, which ended up being a great experience. For one thing, I saw a purple car drive by. It's not every day you see a purple car and that made me smile.

Second, when I stopped by the local produce market to buy a red pepper and a baguette the cashier took one look at my nails - which are still painted a bright blue - and proclaimed that she was going to quit biting her nails. She saw mine, wanted to be able to paint her's and so she was going to give up biting so that they could grow. I felt so cool hearing that, you know. Sadly, she quickly followed this statement up with the fact that she has quit before but always ends gnawing on them a few weeks later. FYI: not me --->

You might still be confused why I feel so cool. Well, strange as it may sound people don't actually worship my sense of style on a daily basis, and let's be real she wasn't worshiping me, just my nails. But she did still make a comment, and I am potentially altering her life even for a few months, so therefore, I am still filing this little encounter under AWESOME. Without that moment the day, well, kind of sucked. I woke up with a cold, had to walk to work in that rainy drizzle and then went straight home because I thought I should attempt to go to bed at a reasonable hour. But this post is not for complaining so it ends here. :)

What ever happened to JANE?

I wanted blue lipstick for this weekend. Anyone who follows me on twitter or has me on gchat is probably sick of me posting about this desire. But, well, I feel the need to express my frustrations.

Last night I agreed to go to a comic convention this weekend. Of course, I will be dressing up - Anime style - and immediately began to formulate my plan. I developed my concept while driving home around 1 am and the piéce de'la résistance was blue lipstick. I texted someone who I thought would be able to give me the inside scoop on where to locate such a product. He replied back with CVS which I didn't think would stock it, but figured maybe I was wrong. Well today I went on a hunt to get some items for the outfit. I ended up going to SEVEN different stores (including 3 CVSs) and no luck. Not only was there not blue lipstick, but it would seem that no one sells junk cosmetics anymore. There are only "real" lines.

What ever happened JANE and wet and wild? I feel that back in the day, when I was in middle school, I could go into any CVS type store and find make up in the most ridiculous colors. I can only assume that kids these days have more of a need to look like adults. We used to use crazy colored make up and wear the strangest outfits and it was fine. I see kids walking to school in the morning, and well, they look like me. They are in middle school, they should be awkward! Oooo, there's a thought, maybe they are awkward which means that I am too...no that can't be right.

Anyway, I digress, the bigger issue is that every store manager that saw me lost and wandering, attempted to help me out. Once I explained what I was searching for, they all told me the same thing. Blue lipstick is stocked at Halloween, other than that, there just simply isn't a demand for it. Well that is a bother. I'm sure my plan B will work out fine, but I am a little bummed.