Mantha Noelle Makeup: Tips, Tricks, Hauls, Do's and Do NOT's from a makeup artist and addict

Haul/Review: Lush Christmas Goodies

2010-12-01T14:12:00.000-08:00

It feels like it's been forever since I've been to Lush. I stopped by my local Lush store yesterday to check out some of the new holiday collection items. I've already ordered a few good ol' holiday favorites online, but wanted to get a first hand look/sniff at some of the items that I haven't used before.

So White Ballistic
@*^$*&(!*@&#(*#@(&!!!! So White is my FAVORITE fragrance from LUSH. A very clean apple scent with a very faint undertone of roses. Christmas time at LUSH makes me soooo happy simply because of this bath bomb, well everything else is amazing too... but you get my point. I made the mistake of not stocking up on So White last year and trust me, I learned my lesson. It was as if I spent that past 12 months going through with drawls waiting for this time of year to come around in hopes that LUSH would release So White again. Thankfully they did! If you're new to the company and fall in love with a limited edition product you better be prepared to break the bank. LUSH does not bring back the same items every holiday season :( for example, my precious Let Them Eat Cake Lip Balm did not make a return this year. Alas, in knowing this I am stocking up. So I picked up 4 So White Bath Bombs when I stopped by yesterday. Side note, if you're a So White addict like me they put the So White scent into an exclusive soap gift set. Yup you read that correct, So White in soap form. You can ONLY get it in the Matryoshka gift set (check that out here)

Dear LUSH,

Please make a So White shower gel!

<3 Mantha

AVAILABLE AT: LUSH Cosmetics
PRICE: $3.95

SIZE: 3.1 oz (smaller size)

VALUE FOR PRICE: 5/5

EASE OF USE: 5/5

PACKAGING: N/A

MEETS EXPECTATIONS: 5/5

OVERALL: 5/5
WOULD I REPURCHASE: YES! YES! YES! YES! YES!

Bon Bon Lip Scrub
I think this is my new Lush obsession. Usually if I want to exfoliate my lips I just make my own sugar scrub. This is by no means saying the 3 lip scrubs (Bubble Gum, Mint Julip, Sweet Lips) in the regular Lush product line aren't worth purchasing, because they are. They just haven't tickled my fancy for some reason. Bon Bon on the other hand has tickled me. According to Lush it is inspired by a Scandanavian muled wine drink. To which I have to say I am no where near Scandanavian or up to speed on their culture so I can't attest for accurate in execution, but to me it tastes just like lemon sherbet. It tastes divine. I simply lick my lips, take a small amount of Bon Bon from the pot and put it on my lips, rub them together, then lick it off. Which yes, it's safe as all the ingredients are edible. Then tada my lips are soft and kissable. I am going to buy a back up for my own personal use as well as one for my freelance kit.

AVAILABLE AT: LUSH Cosmetics
PRICE: $8.95

SIZE: 0.9 oz

VALUE FOR PRICE: 4/5

EASE OF USE: 5/5

PACKAGING: 4/5

MEETS EXPECTATIONS: 5/5

OVERALL: 4/5
WOULD I REPURCHASE: Yes

Maple Taffy Lip Balm
As you've already read I was obsessed with Lush's Let Them Eat Cake lip balm from last holiday season. So, I am very partial to it and sad that it's not back. So my opinion is slightly skewed by this. Maple Taffy is EXTREMELY moisturizing as it contains shea and illipe butter, extra virgin coconut oil and glycerin. Did that all sound like a foreign language to any of you? Translation: lots o' moisturizing goodness that locks in and stays put for awhile. As for taste/smell, it doesn't do anything for me. There is genuine maple syrup in this lip balm. Do I taste it? No. Do I smell it? Mmm... kinda. Do I care that it's not prominente? NO! It's not my Let Them Eat Cake, no lip product could beat the scent of that for me. BUT, as for the whole point of the product; the moisturizing aspect. Maple Taffy defeats my precious Let Them Eat Cake.

AVAILABLE AT: LUSH Cosmetics
PRICE: $4.95

SIZE: 0.4 oz

VALUE FOR PRICE: 5/5

EASE OF USE: 5/5

PACKAGING: 3/5; the top of my tin is really snug and difficult to get off.

MEETS EXPECTATIONS: 5/5

OVERALL: 4/5
WOULD I REPURCHASE: Yes

Gingerbread House Bubble Bar
I was taken back by this bubble bar. I am NOT a fan of fresh ginger scents and to add to it I am not a fan of anything spicy scented. So when the Lush Times catalog arrived at my front door a few weeks ago I thought this bubble bar was insanely adorable in appearance, but sounded horrible for my nose. When I stopped by the store I kept far away from it. And as I was waiting in line to be rung up it was sitting near the register taunting me with it's sprinkley cuteness. So I gave in, sniffed it. Geeze Louise! Ginger and spice apparently are nice after all. This isn't very strong on ginger, don't get me wrong it is there just not as much as one would expect. To me it's very nostalgic, it reminds me of the scent of ginger snap cookie dough just before you put them in the oven. Yummy! My only gripe is that it's a little small for price, but clearly that didn't mean much as I bought it anyhow haha!

AVAILABLE AT: LUSH Cosmetics
PRICE: $6.25

SIZE: 3.5 oz

VALUE FOR PRICE: 3/5

EASE OF USE: 4/5

PACKAGING: N/A

MEETS EXPECTATIONS: 5/5

OVERALL: 4/5
WOULD I REPURCHASE: No

Black Friday/Cyber Monday cosmetic guide.

2010-11-23T22:02:00.000-08:00

TIP #1: SIGN UP FOR EBATES.COM!

"Ebates is the pioneer and leader of online Cash Back Shopping. The company was founded in 1998 by two Deputy District Attorneys in Silicon Valley who used to prosecute online fraud & identity theft before starting Ebates (so you can be sure we are very into secure online transactions!). So go ahead, sign up and start shopping now. Joining Ebates is always free - you'll never pay us anything. And four times a year or more, we'll mail you a Big Fat Check, or transfer the money to your PayPal account if you'd prefer. We can even send the money to your favorite charity. All 100% free." - EBates.com

EBates.com is NO JOKE. I've been using EBates.com for about 6 months now and have gotten $40.65 cash back. I know a lot of people think it's some big chain scheme, it's not. You don't pay them anything, they don't sell your information to some 3rd party company so you end up with spam. None of the negatives.

Long story short: EBates.com works through affiliation of very popular Internet stores. EBates.com gets money from these stores for referring you to their sites, lots of websites are like this but most of them just keep all of the money the stores give them for their referral when you end up spending money at said sites. Instead EBates.com provides you with money back too. You sign into your EBates.com account, find the website you plan on purchasing from it will tell you how much of a percentage of your purchase price they will refund, click the "shop now" button next to the store you want, shop away! Then the store your shopping sends EBates.com your refund and tada, it's yours. Down fall: you don't get the refund immediately. Every 3 months or so they will PayPal it to you or send you a live check if you want which ever of the two you ask to receive. Which kind of is a draw back, but I just got a check for $20 a few days ago and um... that's $20 I didn't have before to put in my gas tank. It's also like a present because you tend to forget about it. And then you get an email saying we've sent you your money, it's in your paypal!

EBates.com QUICK TIP: not every single company under the sun is on EBates.com, BUT most department stores are. MACCosmetics.com is not a site affiliated with EBates.com but Nordstroms.com is and Nordstroms sells MAC. So if you don't see a brands specific website check the department stores sites, you'll be getting the same products you want to buy and get cash back.

OH! Not to mention ALL the sites on EBates.com are going to give you double the cash back on Black Friday. So if the store you're interested in today says it will give you 5% back of what you spend. Then on Black Friday it would be 10%. AND when you signs up for EBates.com they give you an automatic $5 in your account OR a choice of a small denomination gift card.

TIP #2: DON'T TRY TO BUY SOMEONE A PRODUCT THAT NEEDS TO MATCH THEIR SKIN TONE.
In my experience never purchase someone something like a foundation or concealer UNLESS you can somehow sneak into their makeup bag and find out what shade they are. And I would only advise this if they already own the product and it's running out or about to expire, but perhaps can't afford it right now. Even brands like MAC who try to have their shade range stay consistent regardless of the product (powder, foundation, concealer), but never the less no matter how much consistency they try to maintain an NC15 in Studio Fix Fluid might not match someones skin tone as per say NC15 would in Studio Tech.

TIP #3: GIFT SETS, GIFT SETS, GIFT SETS.
Pre-packaged gift sets are the best thing you can ask for at holiday time. We all get so busy with all the things the holidays bring, decorating, baking, social events that sometimes you aren't available to put together a cutesy gift package and hand pick every item. Gift sets are specifically created by brands to be able to compliment every personal style, skin tone, and tend to generally be a hit. One brand with great gift sets is Philosophy (who is on EBates.com) tons of their Holiday themed items come in special packaging that you could just take a stick on bow slap it on and stick it under the tree. I REALLY love Philosophy's "Holiday Cookbook" that comes as a 6 scent sampler of their famous 3-in-1 shower gels. You can break each shower gel up and put them in a separate gift bags and give one to your crazy Aunt you haven't seen since your 12th birthday, or the last minute gift for the one person you forgot to get something for. Or split them up and give your Mom one every night of Hanukkah then through in maybe a loofa and a nice bath pillow.

Just a few little last minute things I thought of and though I'd share with all of you! Happy Thanksgiving, or... just simply Thursday for those of you non-American readers!

More from HauteLook!

2010-11-14T04:35:00.000-08:00

Amazing beauty deals all week long at HauteLook.com!

Monday 11/15: Mario Badescu & Urban Decay (again!)
Tuesday 11/16: T3 & Stila Deal Of The Day
Wednesday 11/17: Lorac Deal Of The Day

For those of you who aren't yet familiar with HauteLook.com:

"A leader in online retail, HauteLook brings the thrill back to shopping through 48-hour sale events with the world's top fashion, accessories, beauty, kids and home brands. Each day, HauteLook offers discounts of 50 to 75 percent off to millions of members in the U.S. and Canada. Membership is free to join and everyone is welcome.

In the last two years, over 1,000 high profile brands have chosen HauteLook to host more than 2,500 private events for women, men, kids, home, and beauty." - HauteLook.com

No joke ladies and gents! About 2 weeks ago I ordered $108 worth of Urban Decay products from HauteLook.com for $16.75. (a review is coming soon.)

Now I did do a little investigating because HauteLook.com has Stila and Lorac listed as "Deal Of The Day" which I've never personally seen on there. I couldn't get a 100% answer on what was so special about these "DEALS", but from what I gathered these specific sales typically have a set price for everything. For example: All LORAC products set at $4 each. AMAZING RIGHT? Again I am not 100% on this, but it IS worth spending a few minutes and signing up for the site because it is a members only site. It is FREE so don't worry there aren't any fees, but because the deals are so severe you need to be a registered member to even know what the sales are going to be. So I strongly advise you sign up and just log in to check prices.

NOTE: All sales mentioned above start are 8 AM Pacific Standard Time.

Big Fat Oil Slick

2010-11-01T10:08:00.000-07:00

When you're feeling in a funk do you ever feel the need to treat yourself with a hypothetical pat on the back? Well when I want to tell myself "cheer up butter cup" you know what I do? I buy makeup.

And BEFORE some of you think um, way to show off Samantha. Just keep reading. I am not being all snoody here.

Eyeshadows left to right: Oil Slick, Grind, Half Baked, Chains.

Set of 2 Big Fatty Mascara.

I am sure most of you have heard of the website HauteLook.com. And how blah blah blah you get a bunch of fancy crap for a cheap price. When I first started hearing about HauteLook.com all I kept seeing was stuff I CERTAINLY did not want. So I did NOT understand what the big deal was. I realized the key to using HauteLook.com is you have to check in periodically to see what brands they have up. The sales on the site are very short, they only last 1 to 2 days. Hence why I wasn't seeing too much of anything I wanted since then I have seen lots of brands that have caught my eye. A short list of these brands: Lorac, Paula Dorf, Tart, Skyn Iceland and more. Sidenote: they don't just sell beauty items. Clothes, shoes, home goods EVERYTHING.

I JUST purchased all this stuff from HauteLook.com and spent close to nothing for them. If I went to UrbanDecay.com and purchased each of these individually I would have spent $108 (not including shipping or taxes). That makes me gag just thinking about it. So how much did I really spend on these goodies? $16.75 (this is not including shipping too).

PRO OF HauteLook.com: CHEAP. CHEAP. CHEAP.

CONS OF HauteLook.com: Items can be a hit or miss. Sometimes brands put up GREAT stuff, but it's only items they have overstock on and are trying to sell off. But look at me, I found stuff I wanted and saved $91.25. WELL WORTH IT.

Friends and Family

2010-10-19T18:14:00.000-07:00

For the past few weeks now the pots been stirring about the annual Sephora friends and family sale. This year the sale entails 20% off essentially every item Sephora sells.

The sale begins October 22nd and November 3rd. During your check out place the "FF2010" in the promo code box.

A lot of people have heard me speak of my hidden gem, Ebates! And I still don't know why people haven't jumped in on this. But heres my PSA so you all can save a little even extra on Ebates during the Sephora friends and family sale. And not to mention it's holiday time so a lot of us will be doing online shopping with in the next few months and Ebates has a bajillion sites where you get cash back for shopping online. Yes, cash back for buying stuff online. No gimmicks, no nothing. I am the most skeptical person probably ever so when I considered signing up for Ebates I was like "watch, these people are going to want me to pay them to join, such a scam." I was wrong. Very wrong.

So after you sign up for Ebates you can start looking through the various sites that partner with Ebates to provide this cash back service, to just make things simple and on point for this blog here is an example of the site...

Type the word "Sephora" into the search bar. And see I am NOT BSing you, I personally have made $34.25 for using Ebates.

This will pop up as the search result. Pretty easy to explain. It tells you the webstore name, the $% back and then when you click the "SHOP NOW" button that will start to direct you to the same typical ol' Sephora.com

You will see this message BEFORE Sephora.com pops up. Which means you did everything right, go like normal and make your purchase. Sephora.com seems you were referred by Ebates to their site then tells Ebates you spent $XYZ.00 and how much cash back you're getting for making your purchase. And as you see in the image you will see the cash back in with in 2-3 days.

Here is an excerpt from Ebates.com explaining how there site works.

"People often ask: "This sounds too good to be true, how are you able to do it?" It really is quite simple. Just like almost every other online shopping center, we get a commission from the stores when you make a purchase. Instead of keeping that money - like almost all other sites do - we share it with you!
So, as long as 1200+ of the world's top online stores are happy to pay a bonus to attract the new, valuable customers we send their way, Ebates is going to continue to send Big Fat Checks to our satisfied customers across the globe."

So I STRONGLY suggest everyone who plans on stocking up on their expensive must haves during the sale to get even more back and go through Ebates! Because YES you can with out a shadow of a doubt still use the "FF2010" coupon code while checking out on Sephora even when using cash back through Ebates. So say you spend $400 during the sale, but because you went through Ebates you will get an additional $16 back. Which trust me, I know, $16 isn't anything HUGE. But now a days in this economy saving any thing extra is awesome. And think of it this way... they're giving you money so you can just turn around and go buy more make up.

And while I'm on it heres a run down of other beauty sites who participate in Ebates: Clinique, Ulta, YSL, Stila, Dermadoctor, Shu Uemura, E.L.F., Smashbox, Nordstroms, Macy's, QVC.

So, also think about it with way. Even when you want to order some makeup from brands that aren't sold at persay Ulta and Sephora you can ALWAYS click to Nordstroms and Macy's through Ebates and you'll get cash back for purchasing exclusive beauty items through online department stores.

Make Up For Ever Spring 2010 Catalog

2010-07-22T11:42:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned a few weeks ago I was approved for the MUFE Professionals Backstage Card. Late last week I received the actual card in the mail along with this catalog. It shows EVERYTHING MUFE carries via their NYC boutique. Sephora does not carry every MUFE item. They also do not carry some shades in certain foundations that the boutique does. So if you have ever wanted to order from the MUFE boutique and have not seen what was available from the store here is everything they carry. You do not have to be a Backstage Card member in order to call and purchase from the boutique. To my understanding though certain products that say "PRO ONLY" you do have to be a Backstage Card holder in order to purchase those particular items. The catalog unfortunately did not come with pricing.

PLEASE NOTE: The catalogs numbering system is off. So anyone who's curious as to why at the bottom of the page the first image starts at #4 is because MUFE included the cover and index as pages. So no you are not missing out on anything.

click each image to expand

COMPLEXION

EYES

LIPS

TOOLS

ARTISTIC

Make Up Forever Backstage Card

2010-07-07T11:24:00.000-07:00

So as I mentioned previously I have been applying for more professional discounts. After about a 2.5 weeks of waiting I got this delightful e-mail from Make Up For Ever.

Samantha,
Please accept my apology for the delayed response.

Thank you for sending in the approved credentials. We will mail you a new MAKE UP FOR EVER backstage discount card along with our most recent catalog. Once receive you may call us at our NYC Studio Monday through Saturday to place an order.

If you have any questions please call the NYC Studio.

Thanks!
Artist Relations

MAKE UP FOR EVER
8 East 12th Street
New York, NY 10003
Studio: 212 941-9337
Office: 212 925-9548
Fax: 212 925-9561

I got that e-mail on my phone while I was at work yesterday and it was so hard to resist screaming for joy. Anyhow, now on to what you all want to know: how to get it, what I submitted and how the application process went.

The essentials you need to apply: The MUFE application (click here to see it), a valid photo ID and proof of credentials. The MUFE discount breaks down to 2 categories one being for makeup artists and the other is for makeup students, other industry professionals (cosmetologists, estheticians etc etc) and performers and actors. Makeup artists get a higher percentage of a discount than the other category.

If you are a freelance makeup artist you will need provide:

Two (2) of the following along with a valid photo ID -
•MAGAZINE TEAR SHEET WITH NAME CREDIT**
•REEL WITH NAME CREDIT
•PROGRAM / CALL SHEET
•UNION MEMBERSHIP CARD
•AGENCY REPRESENTATION (sponsored comp card, representation letter, link to roster)

Valid photo ID and the following -
•PRO MEMBERSHIP CARD from other approved Pro Makeup Membership Program (choice of approved programs is at the discretion of MAKE UP FOR EVER Artist Relations)

I went with the second option and a little extra. I have put off applying for this membership for what seems like forever because being a member to me was like the coming of Jesus. If I didn't get approved I would have been depressed. Even though I had the credentials and proof to apply I was like I'd rather not apply and not have my heart broken than to apply and be delighted. Stupid much? I know. So when I did submit my application I said I am going all out and providing more than what they are asking of me because I'd rather be that annoying person who provides too much and gets approved than the alternative.

So I filled out the application and made copies of my MacPRO membership card, business card and ID. Originally my intent was to fax the credentials, but then realized on the bottom of the application it had an e-mail address. The application (if you're looking at it you'll see what I mean) does not specify how to submit it. So, I not having a fax machine and not wanting to pay to Kinkos to fax it for me. I just scanned everything and attached the files to an email and off it went.

I called the NYC boutique some time last week to check on my application. The girl on the phone was VERY nice and she told me it hadn't been processed yet, I told her I sent in about 2 weeks before and she told me it usually takes up to 3 weeks. So to give them another week or so and if I didn't get a confirmation email by then to call back. Well, didn't need to do that because I got my confirmation email.

I do NOT advocate people trying to doctor proof so you can have a discount. If you want a discount than you need to qualify for it. Don't lie just to get around the system. Because karma sucks. There is also the other category you can apply for, which I won't go into because I don't in any way qualify for it. But if YOU do, look into applying for that discount because even if it's less than the makeup artists discount, it's something.

ELF 50% Off Studio Series haul/review

2010-06-22T13:58:00.000-07:00

So I must confess I used to be one of those people who was a label snob and thought "ugh $1 to $3 for a product? REALLY? And this is supposed to be decent?" and spent forever avoiding ELF as if they were the plague. Thennnnn I ended up realizing they had a brush belt which I believe is only $15 and at the time my other option was the MACPro belt which looks very similar to the ELF belt so I was NOT about to pay all that simply because of a MAC logo on the belt. I've grown to be not such a brand name snob over time so to me $40 for something to put brushes in was stupid so I went a head and ordered the ELF belt. And I am so glad I did, because it is great quality. It's lasted through tons of wear and tear plus for the price which I think at the time I used a 50% off coupon code, it's been a good investment.

Ever since then I have been trying more and more of their goodies and it amazes me the quality of their product for the price point they offer it. The products in this order aren't things I have used before, but have heard good things about and thought could possibly be good items to show my clients. As I said previously in this blog I like having comparable/more accessible products to what I use in my kit with me when I am hired by clients to do makeup lessons or cosmetic parties to say "Hey look you CAN look stunning with out maxing out your credit card." Because the stuff I use in my kit can either be A) hard to find B) is not cheap. I show clients stuff I genuinely think are good comparable or lower cost items that I have tested myself and put my seal of approval on. And you know what, sometimes I order things like this and end up loving it to the point I do use it in my kit.

QUICK TIP: I always tell this to my clients and this is something I learned in cosmetology school. The price of the product you're interested in buying is not set on how much it costs the vendor to make it or is always an indication of the quality of the product. "You get what you pay for" does not always apply, though I DO believe in that statement 9 times out of 10. The price of the product you're buying is set based on... where it is sold. Example: Tresemme haircare products used to be sold exclusively in salons for an EXTREMELY high price. I remember being really young and going to the salon with my mom where she bought a Tresemme shampoo for about $30. Now the same products are in your local Target, CVS, Walgreens, etc etc. For $3-8.

Shopping list...

Studio Cream Liner: Black, Coffee, Midnight, Ivory
Studio Brushes: Complexion, Concealer, Eyeshadow, Powder (2x)
Studio Blush: Blushing Rose, Peachy Keen,
Pink Passion, Gotta Glow, Fuschia Fusion
Studio Daily Brush Cleanser
High Definition Powder

Studio Cream Liner
$3 each

Ivory, Midnight, Coffee, Black

I've heard a lot of gossip around the net about these cream liners. And at first I was like oh... ok they're like any other gel liner. Wrong. They're not a gel liner, I shouldn't have jumped the gun and assumed it because they're very creamy in consistency. Some colors are actually too creamy and causes inconsistencies in application so you have to go over and over with it until it's even.

Ivory has almost no color payoff. I wouldn't use this as an eyeliner. It has a shimmer to it so I think makes an excellent eyeshadow base. I have used it as a base in the short time I've owned it and it works pretty well, if you're fair in complexion like me you can do what I did and use this ALL over your eye from lid to brow and apply your eyeshadow to your lid/crease than leave this as your highlight color. If you have a problem with loose shadows or aren't comfortable applying them wet you could use Ivory as a base and it would help sort of be the velcro for your pigments. As it's a creamy product it will grab all the powder product you apply on top of it and hold tight. Midnight, has the best color payoff out of all the cream liners and is a very deep navy blue. Coffee, I do not like it. It's the creamiest in consistency of 4 of these and it causes it to smear/run. Black is over all a middle of the road liner. If you can not afford perhaps a MAC Fluidline or Make Up For Ever Aqua Creamliner, I would go for this. There are lower end brands with black gel/cream liners, but yesterday I was at CVS and saw Loreal's HIP gel liner going for $10.99. I haven't tried it so I can't speak to if it's a decent product. But $11 or $3, which sounds better? Over all, these don't take too long to dry and once they're on they stay pretty well.

Studio Brushes

Complexion brush. Powder brush.

Concealer brush. Eyeshadow brush.

$3 each

(scroll over the picture of each brush to see it go from being
compared to the size of my palm or finger to a side view of the brush )

Complexion brush

This brush I have to say is pretty amazing for it's price. I have one in my brush belt that I use on clients and I have one for my own personal use. It's very soft, VERY soft. I usually reach for this brush for to remove any excess powder after I've pressed (or beat for all my drag readers haha!) on powders with a powder puff.

Powder brush

This brush was super hard to photograph. It's a flat top semi-dense powder brush. It's made out of Taklon and HELLA soft. I bought two of these because I've heard SO many amazing things about this brush so I feared falling in love with it and wanting a second one. Which, I am glad I did. I love it. LOVE IT. I think every day I've worn a powder since owning this brush, it has been used. Have you ever worn powder foundation and it just didn't seem to sit on your skin right? This brush would be a good solution. This is AMAZING to buff powder on with if you're a powder foundation wearer. Lately I've been setting my tinted moisturizer with my MAC Mineralized Skinfinish, but I like a fuller coverage so I use this to buff my MSF over the tinted moisturizer and I've been getting the perfect summer coverage. Not to mention we all have moments where we accidentally apply too much blush and have to try to fix it with powders to tame it down. Sometimes, in my opinion, that can just make it look worse. You can use this brush to just buff the hell out of the blush and it helps.

Concealer brush

This is probably the one type of brush I use the least. Some people SWEAR by having to use a concealer brush for well... concealing haha. I MUCH prefer to apply concealer with either a very dense fluffy brush like MAC's 227 or a blending brush such as the 224 depending on what I am concealing. Concealer brushes just sort of spackle the blemished area with product. I don't even keep one in my brush belt. BUT, this one I am impressed with. I wouldn't ever use it for the purpose it's name suggests, but I do like it for applying emollient products (primers, bases, cream eyeshadows etc) to my lids. Pretty neutral on this.

Eyeshadow "c" brush

Sort of neutral on this brush. It's a decent packing on color brush. These types of brushes are ones I think you can never have too many of. This one is pretty middle of the road so I don't have too much to say on it. No shedding when in use, a little dye comes off the bristles on initial cleaning. That's about it. Well, I do own 3 or 4 of these so it's clearly not a bad brush or I wouldn't have so many.

Studio blush
Peachy Keen. Blushing Rose. Pink Passion.
Fuchsia Fusion. Gotta Glow.

$3 each

I am really neutral on these blushes. For professional use, no. Everyday use, yeah. I think they're pretty and I've worn them out, but it's not in-my-kit worthy. Some colors I would suggest to clients some I wouldn't. On a scale of lower end blushes I think these are one of best I've come across in blend ability. I am mainly annoyed with the fact that ELF doesn't specify the finish of their blushes. Most are a sort of frosted shimmer finish, some have huge chunks of glitter, and one satin finish in the whole slue of their studio blushes. For personal use, I try to stick to matte or satin finishes so if I were someone who was actually looking to spend my hard earned money on makeup and intended to use this regularly I would want to know what the hell the finish was before buying it. The only blush not featured is the Gotta Glow. If you read my previous blog you would know ELF accidentally fudged on my order and didn't send some products. Gotta glow would be one of them. I received it this morning. It sort or reminds me of Benefits Moonbeam but in a powdered form. I can't find my camera so no pictures of it.

Peachy Keen

Blushing Rose

Pink Passion

Fuchsia Fusion

Peachy Keen. Blushing Rose. Pink Passion. Fuchsia Fusion.

High Definition Powder

Can you tell I started getting lazy when taking pictures? Haha. This products simple. It's silica. Silica is pretty much what all transparent setting powders are. I think this is a decent product. Would I use it in my kit? No. It's not jet milled fine enough for me to want to use professionally. Would I suggest it to clients? Yes. I would suggest it for those who like to apply loose powder on their cheek bones to catch fall out than dust off. I've used it to set my foundation once or twice and it's not bad by any means. But I am very pale so it was fine for my every day makeup, if you're dark to an ebony complexion you would for sure see an ashy cast to your skin.

Daily Brush Cleaner

SO first things first. This was the second of the two items ELF forgot to send me. I got it this morning, I opened the bubble ENVELOPE they sent it in. And it was LEAKING. It does come in it's own box like any other brand new product does, but that's not going to do anything when shipping a liquid product. I was shocked they'd send a plastic liquid bottle in a bubble envelope, I was expecting a small shipping box. That's just asking for it to be broken open while being tossed around during shipping. Well they got what they asked for. When I actually opened the box it was in the bottle was wet, font printed on it had rubbed off the bottle. Granted there WAS a plastic wrapping around the cap as if it were to keep the plastic cap on the spray bottle clearly it didn't do anything. Because from what I can tell the bottle had too much pressure on it during shipping so it started coming out through the bottom of the twist off part. If you've ever gone to put your foundation cap on the bottle and it started too ooze out from the sides of the cap, that's what I am talking about. THANKFULLY it didn't get to the blush sent with it. It did get the blushes box wet, but didn't actually touch the blush itself.

Now I got this product for my own use. Because I will confess though I am SUPER DILIGENT, even anal retentive you could say about the brushes I use on my clients being sanitary. But my personal use brushes... I don't clean them as often as I should. I wasn't expecting this to be like some awesome brush cleanser, but it came in a spray bottle, was $1.50 with my coupon code, plus I am lazy and cheap. So I bought it not really paying attention to it when placing the order. But as I am looking at what font was left on the bottle, I noticed this and was so ANNOYED I had to take a picture of it with my phone.

.xxx Fl Oz? x.xML? CALL ME CRAZY, but the last time I saw an x in place of a number was in my algebra class in high school. That's straight up lazy. I am consider throwing whats left of this product away with out using it, because I am THAT annoyed with ELF right now.

Urban Decay Professional Discount

2010-06-21T15:56:00.000-07:00

For awhile now I have been looking into what professional artistry programs I want to apply to. I am currently a member of MACPro and I definitely needed to apply for other discount programs, but have been slacking big time on this. But, then again I also knew it wasn't worth my time applying to EVERY single makeup brand that offers a program, because it's a lot of time and effort getting together everything, faxing, etc. So I wanted to apply to brands I actually do use and have interest in. One of the brands with the least bit of info out there in regards to their professional program that I have tried looking up was for Urban Decay.

Last Friday sent Urban Decay's customer service an email inquiring about their makeup artist program and here was the response that I received from them.

"Thank you for your interest in representing our brand. We do have an informal make-up artist discount program set up. If you would like to be considered for a discount on our website, please fax your resume and credentials to 949-515-5614 Attn: Jesse. We will review your information and get back to you shortly. The discount offered is 20% for all qualifying and approved make-up artists. Have a wonderful day."

So I faxed over a copy of my resume, business card and a copy of my MACPro card just as a little something extra almost immediately after receiving that email. This morning I woke up and checked my email and I WAS APPROVED! This is the email I got confirming my approval:

"Thank you for submitting your resume for our Make-up Artist Discount Program. Your request has been approved. At the present time, we do not have a formal discount program setup. However, we are currently working on this and we’ll send you more details once it’s up and running. As of now, please enter the code [CODE WAS HERE] into the coupon box during checkout to receive 20% off your purchase. Please note that this code is to be used only once. If you wish to place another order with us, please contact me directly. This code is for your personal use only and should not be shared with anyone. If we find that you are in violation of these terms and agreements, your discount privileges can and will be revoked. If you have any further questions, please feel free to write back or give me a call toll-free. Thank you and have a great day!"

So for all of you other freelancers who have been trying to get an UD discount and haven't found any info there it is! Fax over your credentials to the attention of Jesse at UD.

QUICK TIP: ALWAYS have a cover letter if you are faxing something. It should state your contact information, the company you're sending it too, who it should be sent to the attention of and how many pages you are sending. So in case something happens the person who is receiving it knows how many pages you intended to send so if one page is missing they can contact you asking to re-send the info. Here is a sample of mine that I sent to UD, obviously information has been edited for the sake of my own privacy.

Samantha Noelle

1234 Hella San Francisco, CA

manthanoellemakeup@gmail.com
(510) 555-5555

To: Urban Decay Cosmetics
Attn: Jesse
From: Samantha Noelle
Date: June 18, 2010
Transmitting 2 pages aside from this cover.

Enclosed is my proof of credentials. I have attached my business card, a current professional membership card via another cosmetic brand and resume. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,
Samantha

Pretty easy stuff. I am also sending out applications to a few other brands, I'll let you know the process with each particular brand once I know if I have been approved or denied (I BETTER NOT BE! haha)

MAC Venomous Villians Collection

2010-06-20T02:06:00.000-07:00

MAC Venomous Villians Collection
September 2010 [US/Canada]
October 2010 [International]Credit: Specktra.net

For over a year now, since the release of the Hello Kitty for MAC collection in February of '09 there has been great suspense and speculation around the rumor mill about there being a Disney Villains for MAC collection. In December of 2005 MAC released the Tint Toons collection featuring Tinted Lip Conditioners with packaging and names dedicated to some of Disney's sweeter side characters; Cleo the goldfish from Pinocchio, Clarice from Chip n' Dale, Miss Bunny (Thumper's lady friend) from Bambi, Tillie Tiger from Disney's mini series called Silly Symphonies, and Daisy Duck. And now after all the rumors and anticipation, the Villains have arrived. The collection is being broken down to fall under the category of 4 Villains; Cruella De Vil, Evil Queen, Maleficent, and Dr. Facilier.

MAC Cosmetics is teaming up with Disney to create a limited edition color collection, intended to launch globally in late September in all MAC locations. The products will feature four Disney characters, on which the brand is keeping mum at the moment — although with a collection name of Venomous Villains, it is assumed that we’re not talking Donald Duck and Minnie Mouse here. Lipstick, powder, lip gloss and blush shades will be sold, ranging in price from $12 to $29.50. - WWD.com

CRUELLA DE VIL
One Hundred and One Dalmatians

Lipstick ($14.00 USD)
Innocence, Beware! Light yellow pink (Cremesheen) (LE)
Heartless Cherry red (Amplified) (LE)

Lipglass ($14.00 USD)
Wicked Ways Light nude with gold pearl (LE)
Devilishly Stylish Deep fuchsia with pink pearl (LE)

Eyeshadow ($14.50 USD)
De-vil Rich copper (Veluxe Pearl) (LE)
Sweet Joy Creamy pale gold (Frost) (LE; Repromote from Passions of Red)
Carbon (Permanent)

Penultimate Eyeliner ($16.50 USD)
Rapidblack (Permanent)

Beauty Powder ($25.00 USD)
Her Own Devices Cool nude (LE)

Blush ($18.50 USD)
Darkly My Dear Mid-tone brown plum (Matte) (LE)

EVIL QUEEN

Snow White

Lipstick ($14.00 USD)
Toxic Tale Bright coral (Satin) (LE)
Sinister Soft brown plum (Lustre) (LE)

Lipglass ($14.00 USD)
Strange Potion Soft coral pink (LE)
Hot House Deep raspberry with pink pearl (LE; Repromote from Strange Hybrid)

Eyeshadow ($14.50 USD)
Her Alter Image Light violet (Veluxe Pearl) (LE)
Vainglorious Bronze burgundy (Frost) (LE)
Vile Violet Deep blue purple (Matte) (LE)

Penultimate Brow ($16.50 USD)
Universal

Beauty Powder ($25.00 USD)
Oh So Fair Mid-tone pink with gold pearl (LE)

Blush ($18.50 USD)
Bite of an Apple Soft coral pink (Matte) (LE)

MALEFICENT

Sleeping Beauty

Lipstick ($14.00 USD)
Violetta Violet purple (Amplified) (Permanent at PRO)
Dark Deed Burgundy plum (Amplified) (LE)

Lipglass ($14.00 USD)
Revenge is Sweet Light yellow purple (LE)
Wrong Spell Deep plum with pink purple (LE)

Mineralize Eyeshadow ($19.50 USD)
My Dark Magic Deep pink with pink pearl / Deep plum with purple pearl (LE)
She Who Dares Deep navy with blue pearl / Deep forest green with lime pearl (LE)

Beauty Powder ($25.00 USD)
Briar Rose Soft violet pink with pearl (LE)

Nail Lacquer ($12.00 USD)
Bad Fairy Red with multi-changing pigments (LE)
Formidable! Teal green with pink pigment (LE)
Mean & Green Purple with teal pigment (LE)

DR. FACILIER
The Princess and The Frog

Lipgelee ($14.00 USD)
Resort Life Off-white with pink pearl (LE; Repromote from Lillyland)

Greasepaint Stick ($17.50 USD)
Slick Black True carbon black (LE)
French Quarter Black green with multi-colour pearl (LE)

Pigment ($19.50 USD)
Melon Bright golden peach (Permanent)
Brash and Bold Bright magenta (LE; Repromote from Makeup Art Cosmetics)
Push the Edge Deep bright purple with pearl (LE; Repromote from Makeup Art Cosmetics)

Magically Cool Liquid Powder (No known price point yet)
Truth and Light Sheer shimmer reflects silver and pink (LE)
Cajun Sheer bronze reflects gold (LE)

Mirror (No known price point yet)
I’m So Vain Round special decoration compact mirror (LE)

I have not been very excited nor happy with MAC's latest collections. This one I am so delighted to see. I'll need to take a deep look into what's in my personal and professional collections and see what I truly need from this Venomous Villians collection. I can already tell you I will go over board. I regretfully passed on A LOT of items/collections that I could have purchased from ahem, Barbie and McQueen. And I am still kicking myself for not getting on it with those collections. THIS ONE THOUGH, I am not messing with. If I even slightly think I need it, it's mine. Looks like I have some saving to do ya'll. Are you guys excited? What are you looking forward to from this?

Organization quick tip!

2010-06-16T18:26:00.000-07:00

I wanted to do a really lengthy meaningful blog today. But, I am feeling like crap. So I thought I'd show this to you gals instead.

I picked up this "makeup organizer" from Target. It was on an end cap near the markers and pencils with other desk organizing things. It seemed like everything on the end cap was their first batch of dorm room/back to school stuff and this stuck out to me BIG TIME and I got it for $11.99.

I just through random stuff in to it to show how much space there is because I have yet to figure out what I am going to keep in the compartments to the right. I do though keep the palettes that are to the left in that spot because it's officially their new home. Seeing as I have no where else to store them, no where that's functional at least because they're on the larger side of palettes. So that's what made me get this was I could have somewhere to store my bigger palettes up right and not have them laying down taking up a ton of space.

Just for reference the compartment where I have the few jumbo pencils, you can fit 24 of them in there (4 by 6 rows). And the compartment in the back, those are 4 MAC palettes. So you can see that part is pretty deep and I would still have enough room for another 2 more palettes to fit in there. I doubt I'll personally keep my MAC palettes in there, but it's a great option for someone who would.

Keep in mind that a lot of back to school things are coming out soon and desk/table organizers are AWESOME makeup organizing tools. And since it's back to school all the organizational stuff is going to be cutsiefied with designs and cute colors. So be on the look out for when you local big box stores set up their back to school/dorm displays. You'll start to see a lot of nice stuff that you can use to organize your makeup and tools. I think maybe sometime this week I'll do a guide of how to go shopping for makeup organization stuff.

ELF 50% Off Studio Series mixup

2010-06-15T12:23:00.000-07:00

Sometime in the wee early/late hours of the 8th I placed an order on EyesLipsFace.com. I ordered some stuff mainly because I have clients or parties where I give them lessons on the basic how to's of makeup. I like to have more cost effective items that are comparable to items I use in my kit in case the client can't find or have access to what I am using. A lot of whats in my kit are hard to find more pro brands or are from brands you can easily get, but are a little pricey and in this economy let's be real not all of us can afford to go to a MAC counter and buy ourselves everything from the new collection. So, even if these items aren't items I use in my actual kit for other jobs I like having something comparable to say "Hey look you CAN look stunning with out maxing out your credit card." And please don't think I just buy random things that I hear are good and let myself be blind sided about it before showing it to my clients. I actually use this stuff first and make sure it's worth suggesting to people because since I am not someone like an AVON rep who is making commission off suggesting a product to someone even if they think it sucks. I show clients stuff I genuinely think are good comparable or lower cost items. And you know what, sometimes I order things like this and end up loving it to the point I do use it in my kit. Because I am not afraid to say yes I do have a few ELF items in my kit. ANYHOW thankfully found a 50% off E.L.F. Studio Line coupon code. I ended up saving $25.50 using that code. How awesome is that?

The code is still active if you'd like to place an order. It's active until the 21st and the code is EGSTUD.

So, about 45 minutes ago I hear the mail being delivered when I went to go get it I was pleasantly surprised to see this bag from ELF. BECAUSE I received this package 2 days earlier than the tracking numbers estimated delivery date said. So I open it up and I am looking at everything and the order just did not seem right. Looking at the packing slip it says their were 16 items in the order, so I count everything. I only have 15 items. I am thinking "REALLY? REALLY?! I waited this long for a package and it's missing something". I go check my email invoice I got after placing the order and I start listing everything off. WELL turns out, they didn't miss just one thing. They missed TWO things and some how managed to send me a blush I did not order. Great right? Get online to eyeslipsface.com to contact customer service. I am thinking this is going to be a big hassle. Wronnnnng. They had an e-representative you could speak to in a live chat with no wait. Here is the transcript of the conversation so you can see how easy this was.

[Samantha] I just received my order [insert order #] and I am missing 2 products that I had paid for and received a product that I did not purchase.
[Brenda] Hello, thank you for contacting e.l.f. cosmetics, my name is Brenda, We apologize that there was an item or items missing or damaged in your order. Which item or items were they?
[Samantha] They were the Gotta Glow blush and the Daily Brush Cleanser
[Brenda] I apologize, would you like for me to reship it for you or give you a refund?
[Samantha] a reshipping would be wonderful.
[Brenda] Sure
[Brenda] they will send you an email with a new tracking number.
[Samantha] Awesome, thank you so much for your help.

BEYOND the best, hassle free and quick customer service I have had in ages. I was going to do a big overhaul of everything I purchased, but with these items not in the mix I think I am going to wait to do that. If you guys and gals want a review of what I did end up receiving before I get the other items let me know and I'll do it now.

Lazy day makeup; FOTD!

2010-06-13T20:34:00.000-07:00

So today's look was VERY simple, at least for me. I don't think most people would put on false lashes for a "lazy day", but I am weird. If I didn't absolutely have to leave my home and be presentable to society I wouldn't have done anything. Because it was 96 degrees! I am sure some of you living close to the equator may want to slap me for acting like 96 with a breeze is hot. But here in the Bay Area I am used to a nice slightly breezie 70 degrees year round. But, alas I had to be presentable and slightly attractive. I couldn't take a half decent picture to save my life. Why? Because soon as I de-sweated my face, INSTANTANIOUSLY MORE SWEAT. Gross. SO I went with the most stupid picture, since none of the pictures I did justice for the products. So just read through the product list below and you'll see the simplicity in a summer look with out feeling naked.

Eyes
Brows: NYX Retractable brow pencil in Charcoal and Yaby Brow Powder (001)
Primer: UDPP and MAC Paint Pot in Painterly
Lid: ELF Contouring Blush and Bronzer duo (bronzer)

Highlight: MAC Shroom e/s

Mascara: Loreal Voluminous

Lashes: Ardell #I-Don't-Remember

Face
Foundation: LUSH Colour Supplement in Light Yellow/Philosophy Hope In A Jar

Powder: MAC MSF Natural in Light-Medium

Concealer: MAC Studio Moisture Cover in NW15

Cheek: ELF Contouring Blush and Bronzer Duo

Bronzer/Contour: Benefit Hoola

Lip

Liner: NYX Slim Lip Pencil in Pinky

Balm: MAC Tinted Lip Conditioner in Close to Comfort

This was my first time trying LUSH's Colour Supplement since I had bought it. I totally confess I only bought it due to the fact I had the 10% off coupon I mentioned in a previous post. And I was SHOCKED. I really liked it. I mean yeah I have swatched it just to see the finish it leaves, but you don't ever know how much you may like a product until you WEAR IT. AHEM, how many of us have eyeshadows we have spent $14+ on and we swatched at the counter or store then soon as you get it home and use it, you hate it. But, all of the reviews I have seen about it talked about mixing the supplement with your moisturizer. Since I was trying to have on as least as humanly possibly today I went with the moisturizer combo instead of just straight out of the jar. With just a little concealing and a light dusting of MAC's MSF Natural I was GOOD to go. This is officially my summer "foundation"/tinted moisturizer.

Thanks everyone!

2010-06-13T19:25:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to say a quick thank you to Amy of Sugarpill for tweeting the Sugarpill review I posted. And I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who took the time to come read the blog. I logged on to my blog counter after a long day of not paying any attention to the blog, just to sort of see how things were on the blog front. And I had 3x as many viewers as normal. Which blew my mind. Then I figured out why this was. Which I just want to say, the amount of people who come here really doesn't phase me. I am not doing this to become some big blogger. I do makeup for a living and THAT'S what I love, this is just for fun so I don't want anyone to think I am doing this to be some big hot shot beauty blogger. As long as I am of some help to maybe one or two people than that's all I really could give a damn about.

So I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who came to read it, it means a lot you took the time out of your day to do that. I just hope it helped a little light for you on Sugarpill and how amazing it is.

PS I intend on placing another order with Sugarpill HOPEFULLY this week so I can get some stuff for my freelance kit.

REVIEW: LUSH Oatifix Fresh Face Mask

2010-06-10T01:39:00.000-07:00

I haven't done too many reviews and I haven't seen many online about LUSH Cosmetics fresh face masks. The largest reason why I think that is and this goes based on the LushUSA.com site, their head quarters is in Canada. USA, Canada... it should just be LushaNorthAmerica.com so we could have one big Continental party, but whatever. So for US customers with the possibility of lengthy shipping due to possible customs hold ups and blah blah blah the LushUSA.com site doesn't offer fresh face masks.

Because when LUSH says fresh, LUSH means fresh. These masks only have a shelf life of about 2 to 3 weeks depending on how soon you get them after they've been produced and on top of that they do have to be refrigerated. And now I know someones going to email me asking well how do you get this then? You can very much so buy the masks in LUSH stores. But LUSH stores are semi-sparse, I recently had a friend who had to go on a trip which was 5 hours away from his home and discovered that his nearest LUSH was in the same area. So if you are located near a LUSH store or two like I am, BE THANKFUL.

So here I am to break down the ugliness of LUSH face masks, you'll see what I mean by ugliness shortly. But thankfully Lush.co.uk serves to such a small area that they are able sell the masks on their website. More importantly them being on the Lush.co.uk means I have things to reference from/copy&paste.

LUSH says: "Use Oatifix to clean and soften dry and sensitive skin. You will be delighted to hear that Oatifix smells as tempting as a very posh breakfast. Oats are calming, ground almonds give you an exfoliating scrub, bananas are softening and illipe butter reduces redness. Get the Oatifix you need. Keep chilled."

INGREDIENTS: Glycerine, Fine Oatmeal (Avena sativa), Fresh Organic Bananas (Musa paradisiaca), Water (Aqua), Ground Almonds (Prunus dulcis), Illipe Butter (Shorea stenoptera), Kaolin, Talc, Vanilla Pod (Vanilla planifolia), Vanilla Absolute (Vanilla planifolia), Sandalwood Oil (Santalum austro-caledonicum vieill), Benzoin Resinoid (Styrax tonkinensis pierre), *Coumarin, *Benzyl Cinnamate, *Linalool, Perfume, Gardenia Extract (Gardenia jasminoides)

Thanks to Lou for causing me to have a nice moisturized face. Employee of the month in my book.
PLEASE NOTE: This was used and photographed May 10 so ignore the expiration date.

So as you can see from the ingredients list, this stuff is seriously fresh. Which can be a good thing. Suggestion: Steam your face with one of LUSHs toner tabs to open up your pores and help sweat out sum of the gunk. Then put on a fresh face mask straight from the fridge so it's cold and it will help detoxify your skin, but also the coldness seals your pores to help keep anymore gunk from getting in. It can be a bit annoying having to keep your skincare products in your fridge, at least for me it is. Because if I don't see it out on the counter in my bathroom or on my vanity table I tend to forget about it. So if you do forget it's chillin' out (PUN INTENDED) and surpasses the expiration date on any of these masks it's not a life or death situation, you can still use them. I would only suggest using them up to 3-4 days from the expired date or else then it could get a little too funky. I choose to keep mine in the cold cuts/cheese drawer of my fridge. All the way in the back corner so no one gets tempted to do something stupid and use my face mask as a dip.

container BEFORE using the product

Put the face mask on all over your face, neck and chest if you want. Be sure to avoid your eyes. It's advised to use this for only 5-10 minutes. I used it for 15, because Oatifix is aimed toward sensitive skin and is moisturizing which helps me when my face is having eczema itch fits. Now prepare yourself for pure, raw, unfilled in brows sexiness (aka the ugliness I mentioned above)

container AFTER using the product

So you see there's not much used for one mask. I got about 4 uses out of this tub of Oatifix. 3 of the times I also did my neck and 1 time my chest as well. So it goes quite the distance.

GRADE: B+

I give Oatifix a B+ mainly because it doesn't do anything for treating my personal skin problems or adding anything special to my skin. Now while I did get this product to help put some moisture into my skin and help treat a lapse in my eczema and because oats are calming to sensitive skin, it did do what I was looking for it to. I would probably repurchase this again exclusively for if I had another dermatitis issue on my face. I wouldn't use it for regular usage as a treatment. I do have oily skin and I know this is target toward dryer skin types. I would have assumed though this would have at least left my skin feeling softer, which it didn't do. Just left it a lot more moisturized. Which in this given situation is exactly what I wanted. So if I felt like I got some sort of benefit from this product beyond just helping calming my skin I would have easily given it an A, because as I have yet to mention oh my word it smells AMAZING. It's hard to not want to lick your face with this banana oat yummness smeard all over your face.

First time Etsy experience with Skin-a-Licious

2010-06-09T18:56:00.000-07:00

For some time now I have lurked around at soap and bath making e-tailers and was never sure which company to buy from. Etsy can be little intimidating with all of it's vendors. Then I came across a youtube video some time last week which was talking about Skin-a-Licious's company mission statement and products. I immediately paused the video and went to to buy some of their goodness.

Helen, the owner of Skin-a-Licious (who is a doll), started her company based on her son having eczema. Gah just saying the word makes my skin crawl. According to what I have seen online she began to educate herself on soap making and the ingredients she now puts in her products and their relation to eczema. And in lue of her knowledge of her soap making and ingredients/oils her sons eczema is now controlled, no longer needs medication. She also uses all fresh products. Anything containing goats milk or coconut milk are completely fresh, no canned processed junk.

NOTE: If there is something you see that I have ordered and it is not available you can always contact Helen via Skin-A-Licious' Etsy account and ask her when perhaps the item you are looking for will be available again.

SCORE! I've made it WELL known I have eczema, always have and always will. I have been prescribed a steroid ointment as far as medical treatment goes; Triamicinolone Acetonide for those who cared to know. And I HATE it. Ointments are just point blank gross. They're greasey and take forever to absorb blah blah blah, I avoid using this ointment at all cost so I am willing to try almost any other sort of product to control my itching if it avoids me having to use it. And using CUTE AS HELL products on top of that? I greatly obliged.

I am not even going to leave this to the end of the blog like I normally would say... I am TOTALLY repurchasing from Helen in the future. Customer service is amazing, I messaged her and told her how I write this blog and how I am a eczema sufferer and was intending on writing a blog on my order with her; since sending her that I have been looking at my blog view counter and my most viewed blogs are the ones where I talk about eczema which I found a little surprising when I realized that. I kindly asked if possible she could throw in a few samples of items that I didn't purchase which may be well suited for those with eczema so I could talk about them on here. With in an hour she had responded and said she always throws in a little something extra, but was glad I messaged her so she then knew what type of items to send so I could actually have something I'd be able to enjoy using.

She offers a variety of products, lip balms, whipped body butters, body spritzers, sugar scrubs, solid lotion tubes (I WILL be buying one of these next), adorable bubble bars, lush scent dupes, cupcake shaped stuff and I am sure more that I've forgot about.

First things first I ordered this the evening of the 2nd. And it shipped via USPS on the 7th. And it took all of two days to get from New Jersey to San Francisco. I was so impressed. I didn't think I'd be getting it til Tomorrow or Friday. It came in a Priority Mail box with one of those air balloons (not pictured) on top of this this adorable chest/box inside. Soon as I broke the seal on the priority mail box I could smell the aroma of the soap. It was wonderful.

Taking out the chest and opening it up TADA, soapy goodness. With an adorable postcard thank you letter, Helen was kind enough to hand write on the back of the post card with what the samples she sent me were. On the under portion of the lid to the chest there's a sticker stating that same exact thing that's on the thank you letter.

Shopping list...

Raspberry Blueberry Cake Slice soap

Cranberry Orange Muffin Treat soap

Cupcake soap

Coconut Lime Delight soap sample

Peppermint Pear Delight soap sample

Note: All of the following mini reviews are going to have a picture of the product labels and then one of the product itself. Be sure to scroll over the pictures of the products which will flip it to a comparison picture of how large each of the products are compared to the palm of my hand.

Each item comes wrapped individually in a plastic bag, with a stick on it with state which product it is, and then the bag is tied in a lavender twine so the product doesn't fall out. SO cute.

Raspberry Blueberry Cake Slice soap

available at: www.etsy.com/shop/hmgdesigns

$7.99

This soap is riiiidiculously cute and then some. I smell mainly a very faint Raspberry when I sniff it dry/unused. The odd thing is if I leave it sitting out and am 5 feet from it, I can smell it super strong. But right up to my nose it's VERY faint. I do suspect this bad boy is going to unleash a lot of scent once in the shower. And this thing is HUGE! Helen made this soap out of a 9 inch round cake pan and cut it up into little pie shape sections. I LOVE that she lists the the ingredients of the product on the stickers for each product. And the instructions made me laugh. It always makes me laugh when people need instructions for things like this. IT'S JUST SOAP, RUB IT ON YOUR PITS! I will be cutting this in little pieces and using it little by little. I don't think. It would be a smart idea to bring the whole slice into the shower.

The top half is full of goat's milk and is scented in Blueberry with real sprinkles spread all across it. The bottom half is scented in Raspberry Musk

Cranberry Orange Muffin soap

available at: www.etsy.com/shop/hmgdesigns

$4.99

When I smell this soap I have to close my eyes and sniff. But the first thing I smell is that universal muffin/cupcake warmth scent. Cranberry is the next strongest scent for me, it's a bitter cranberry not one of those fake smelling sugary cranberry scents. The the orange which I think is what gives this soap just a very small sweet essence. It with out a doubt a must for those of you who love bakery scents. I am not typically big on bakery scents, but it was SO adorable when I went to order stuff I had to pick it up and I do enjoy cranberry scents.

Cupcake soap in Honey I Washed The Kids dupe scent

available at: www.etsy.com/shop/hmgdesigns

$4.99

I am going to have a hard time using this soap, BECAUSE ITS TOO FREAKING CUTE. I'm probably just going to have it sit in my bathroom for awhile as a decorative statement before I can bring myself to ruin the cuteness. It does have the Honey I Wash The Kids scent to it, it's faint but you KNOW it is there. I have heard the select few who don't like the real version of HIWTK because you feel it's either too overpowering or too sweet. I think this may be a good suit for you who fall into that category. Because it has that nice honey and toffee scent with a lack of serious concentration in perfuming agents. You have to keep in mind though because these are hand made products each batch made varies slightly. So just like when you go to LUSH sometimes scents are stronger in the same soap when you buy it one time than when you buy it another. So if you order something in this scent and it's strong, you can't blame me. I am providing you warning.

Samples :)

Coconut Lime (left): This soap is made with fresh coconut milk and I assume a lime scented oil or perfume. I have been missing out essentially my whole life with out this. This is wonderfffffffffful. I need to buy a huge honkin chunk of this soap. My mom was just over and I left her smell it, she loves it so much she tried to walk off with it. You better believe I snatched it back.

Peppermint Pear (right): I was shocked by this. Genuinely shocked. I saw the name and thought to myself "this is going to smell vile" then I sniffed it and wanted to put my foot in my mouth. It smells divine. I also NEED a hunk of this soap too. It's waaaaaay more strong on the pear than on the peppermint, the mint is just sort of a faint compliment to the pear. DELICIOUS.

I strongly advise you check out Skin-A-Licious at their Etsy shop:
etsy.com/hmgdesigns

And please subscribe to Helen's youtube channel wear she posts updates about new products and all that goodness:
youtube.com/hmgdesigns

I have a serious addiction problem.

2010-06-08T14:54:00.000-07:00

I have an addiction to LUSH, it's like a disease or something... and one I am happy to have, but shit sometimes it gets out of control. So alas I have a collective LUSH haul to show. I ordered a few things on the 1st of the month from LushUSA.com that came yesterday and this morning I went to my LUSH store.

I get in these weird psycho waves where I feel like I need to hoard all this LUSH stuff (example: right now) and then I am like eh that's too much work to order stuff or drive to the store (which is only 15 minutes away mind you) and don't buy LUSH for months at a time.

I am going to break this down into each purchase because I had two entire different experiences with each and there's limited edition nonsense going on, some discontinued stuff, coupons, blah blah blah. So it's just easier if I break it down by order.

Online order

Shopping list...

Honey Bun Bath Bomb x 5

MUM Candy Fluff Flower Bath Bomb x 5

Hippy Chick Bath Bomb x 2

Colour Supplement Light Yellow Sample

Into Thin Air Sample

Now you may possibly maybe be thinking "did she really buy 12 bath bombs?" and yes, yes I did. All of the bath bombs I ordered were from either the Easter or Mothers Day specialty items. And they were all on sale for $2 each. $2 for a bath bomb, you better believe I was going to go into hoarding beast mode.

Hippy Chick
Originally priced: $4.95
3.4 oz

According to LUSH "You'll want to do the Hippy Hippy Chick with our refreshing grapefruit-scented Bath Bomb. We've just hatched this brand new shape and paired it with the zingy fragrance of our Happy Hippy shower gel. Perfect for getting chicks of every age into the bath tub, they'll be lining up to use this bird bath. Shower person? You can use it as an Emotibomb too!"

I never really thought anything of the Happy Hippy shower gel. It by NO means smells bad, I am just not a fan of grapefruit scents. I thought I'd at least give it a shot because scents do change while in use and mixed with your own personal scent. Not to mention I mainly got it because with just the other items I bought and shipping it would have been $26 and I said oh screw it just make it an even $30 and got 2 of these for $4 haha.

Mum Candy Fluff Flower
Originally priced: $7.95
4.6 oz

According to LUSH "This year we've got a blooming great gift for your Mum. Flower-shaped Bath Bombs have been popping up all over the Lush kitchens; you can get one, two, or an entire bouquet. Everything's coming up Candy Fluff, Sakura, and Still Life – back in this special shape only for Mother's Day. Once your mum has bathed in her bouquet, she can plant the seedy tag and use the stem to remind her where the wild flowers are."

Holy bahjeezus. First off let me put this out there because it bugs me when people don't know this and I see plenty of people say "Oh well this smells kinda like that one item, but not really." When YES REALLY because a lot of LUSH's items though in different forms (bath bombs, bubble bars, shower gels, etc) they do have the same exact perfumes and oils in them. Now I'll give it to you certain things may smell stronger is a scent than others, but they are the same scent none the less one variation may have a small tweak here and there or simply just more concentrated. LUSH's Candy Fluff scent is the SAME scent as Godmother Soap and all of the Snow Fairy holiday items. I personally could give two funks about the Candy fluff dusting powder because I have no use for them so I can't speak about that product. BUT Godmother on the other hand is one of my FAVVVVVVORRRRRITE LUSH items. So knowing this bath bomb was essentially a Godmother bath bomb just with a different name, I went and got 5. Yeah, I love Godmother THAT much that I needed to buy 5.

These originally were really expensive. 4.6 oz of a bath bomb for $7.95 is ridiculous because the year round larger size bath bombs are about 6.3 oz and range from $5.95 to $6.95. But, this bath bomb cost so much because the tag that comes on the "flower stem" has wild flower seeds in it and you can plant that tag and grow some flowers. I am actually seriously considering planting these to see if they'll work, should I do it?

Honey Bun
Originally priced: $3.95
2.9 oz

According to LUSH "Want to have loads of fun in the bath? Share it with your Honey Bun! Molded after a traditiona sweet. It's got the same toffee fragrance as our best-selling soap with sweet orange and bergamot oils. Pop one into your basket and hop right into the tub; every-bunny loves our bunny."

This is another product under the Honey I Washed The Kids scent umbrella. LUSH has a year round bath bomb that's very similar to this called Honey Bee and it's $6.40 for 6.3 oz. Conveniently my LUSH hoarding has paid off because I happen to have a Honey Bee waiting to be used in my stash so I can compare the two. Now if you're not familiar with LUSH Honey I Washed The Kids is described as a honey, caramel and toffee scent with a splash of bergamot oil (type of citrus oil). Now both bath bombs clearly smell along the lines of HIWTKS the only difference I smell is Honey Bun is stronger on the toffee scent. And Honey Bee is stronger on the caramel. And toffee is a sweeter of scents, so if you like Honey I Washed The Kids and really sweet scents you should look into picking this up before it's gone.

Now here I am yet again going to break down the price value of things. Because more commonly it seems as though people cut the normal size bath bombs in half and use only 1 half per bath. So this is convenient because Honey Bun is dome shaped with a flat surface. It is also close to half the size of Honey Bee which would 3.15 oz so there's only a very slight different between half of Honey Bee and Honey Bun. So you wouldn't have to cut anything in half and make a big mess.

Now if you're like me and prefer to use a whole bath bomb per bath you could just double up and use two Honey Buns. $6.40 a bath with Honey Bee year round compared to $4 a bath with Honey Bun on sale is nice.

I also a sample of the Light Yellow Colour Supplement which came with a coupon for 10% off when you went into a LUSH store. Now HOW RETARDED IS THIS, I made this order on the first and it arrives the 7th which is by all means great. But the coupon which came with the Colour Supplement expired May 31st? Retarded. REALLY. I do like it though so I went and bought a full size.

And I got a sample of Into Thin Air which I had NEVER even heard of until I had to look it up on the site. But taking out of the box I almost instantly through it out. It's really ugly looking. It's supposedly some cellulite reduction rubbing thingy, I don't know it looks disgusting.

ADVICE FOR PAYING WITH PAYPAL ON LUSHUSA.COM: DONT. It's a long story I won't get into too much. But I chose to pay with paypal on this order as I was too lazy to go find my wallet and get my credit card haha. Well my paypal account is tied to a different email address than the email I used to sign up my LushUSA.com account. I have various emails, I think something like 5 maybe 6. Which seems like it's excessive, but it's for a reason. I have a email for my freelancing/blog, I have a professional email for applying to jobs, I have my every day email address which emails get directly to my phone which I use as my email address for websites I shop on so when something I buy ships it goes directly to my cell phone. A few days after placing the order I go to log in with my email address and supposedly there was no account under that email address which wasn't possible since I had just logged on 2 days before to buy the stuff. Then it hits me my paypal goes to a different email since I rarely use paypal. So I email LUSH's customer service stating my problem and all I simply wanted to be able to do was track the progress of my order. They very nicely told me to sign in using the email from my paypal account and a password then I can check the progress on my order. Well, yeah... not so much. Didn't work. I didn't get a tracking number sent to any email address either and then magically the package was here. It wasn't a BFD, just annoying.

In store purchase

Shopping list...
(prices vary frequently)
Honey I Washed The Kids .53 lb/8.48 oz chunk
$37.80 per pound
Chox Away .31 lb/4.96 oz chunk
$27.80 per pound
Demon in The Dark .23 lb/3.68 oz chunk
$37.60 per pound
I Should Coco .23 lb/3.68 oz chunk
$37.80 per pound
Light Yellow Colour Supplement
Sexy Peel Soap Sample
Trichomania Solid Shampoo Sample

I was having a really rough morning and was feeling really depressed. So I said screw it and went to "my" LUSH store because I only have 1 sliver left of Honey I Washed The Kids and wanted to see if they would let me use the coupon for the Colour Supplement. Well clearly I walked out with more than that. I've said it before on here and I will say it again, if you are a Bay Area Lushie you REALLY ought to go to LUSH Bay Street in Emeryville, best guys and gals ever. So amazingly nice. Best customer service. The girl who helped me totally knew I was just restocking on some essentials and when I asked her about the Colour Supplement and the coupon she agreed that the coupon should have been made available for use past the 31st and laughed at how I got the coupon when my order exceeded the date of that promo. And was a complete doll and adjusted the price to 10% off the item.

There isn't much I can say about this purchase it is is pretty simple. I only bought Chox Away and I Should Coco because I found out they're being discontinued. Infact have a sample of I Should Coco from my last trip the my LUSH store, but still hadn't used it. So I figured oh what the hey I've never used them I'll give them a shot while I still can because I don't fathium I will fall in love with either of them so no worries about having to stock up. Which I knew Chox Away had been DCd in the UK, but was unaware either of these soaps were going to be DC'd in the states. RIP homies.

LUSH gossip: I also learned today Candy Fluff is either be DC'd or made Retro, I am not sure but I do know it wont be available in store anymore. Tramp shower gel is become Retro (this I've known for a bit, but thought I'd let chya'll know too). Heavenly Bodies butter cream is being DCd and Ring of Roses and Lemslip butter creams are now being made firmer like actual soap. To my understanding though they will remain very mild in actual soap ingredients and more moisturizing. Now if anyone else was aware of this before me, I WOULD LIKE A MEMO NEXT TIME JEEZ LOUISE way to leave me out of the loop, jerks.

Sugarpill Haul/Review

2010-06-08T02:04:00.000-07:00

YEEEEEEEEEEE!!! I have off and on debated ordering these products and for various reasons haven't ordered anything until now. One of the cons was I kept telling myself I have colors that are very similar to those and yeah I am sure I'll use them often, but if you already have something that looks like it why buy it? One of my pros was RED-friggin ay'-LOOSE EYESHADOW that... brace yourselves for this, reminds me of the ruby red slippers from the Wizard of youknowwho not to mention I have an obsession with red eyeshadow.WELL finally the 30th was the day where I said screw it I am ordering stuff.

Sugarpill is a homegrown company and by homegrown I mean straight out of my own backyard of Oakland, CA. I don't typically purchase from "e-tailers" or self starting makeup companies for a few reasons. Mainly because most companies just take Micas that they buy at wholesale prices, put it in a baggy or buy from private label cosmetic mass producers (take a look at ladyburd.com, if you're familiar with popular online makeup "gurus" you'll see the exact products they're trying to sell under their own name) and slap their own stickers on it and sell it as if it was really THEIR own creation. Which I am not knocking at all, I have used some of these sorts of products in the past and there's absolutely nothing wrong with them by any means. But for me I'd rather invest my money in someone's self starter company who REALLY is creating their product from the ground up because it's something they genuinely love. That's why I chose to order from Sugarpill because there was 0 doubt in my mind this company is genuine products started of their own creation from the ground up and I couldn't help but to support a Bay Area cosmetic line.

I received my package last Thursday and I could have posted this then, but I wanted to use it the stuff and have something stable to say. And as I know this is a start up company for their sake to get some accurate and honest feed back (if they even read this haha!) and for those of you whom are hesitant to purchase from a new company I wanted to take my time and give this review 100%. I've also done swatch comparisons to more known/widely available products.

PLEASE NOTE: My pros and cons are stated from the perspective of me being a Freelance Makeup Artist and as an every day consumer. So a pro as a consumer could be a negative as an artist. I don't want to confuse anyone so if in one part I suggest I LOVE something and then further down state a draw back to it. I have tried to define the perspective of what topic I am discussing, if coming from me as artist or regular every day Jane me.

Shopping list..

Burning Heart Palette

Asylum Loose Eyeshadow

Asylum Loose Eyeshadow $12

Available at: SugarpillShop.com

5 grams / 0.19 oz. (by weight, not by volume)

Compared to a MAC pigment which is 4.5 grams/0.15 oz and $19.50 a jar. Clearly looking at the numbers between the products you instantly know you get more with Sugarpill Loose Eyeshadow than a MAC pigment. To break it down even further because I feel like a lot of people just see a jar/tube/eyeshadow pan and just buy it not really thinking of the value or devalue behind it just more for the brand name that's on it. For example, when you go to an every day grocery store and buy 24 cans of Diet Coke and you pay $8 but when you go to Costco you pay $11 for 48 cans of Diet Coke, for most people they'd pay an extra $3 for 24 more cans of Diet Coke as it's a better value. So I think if you do want to invest into makeup it is worth your time waiting and looking into these little details so you get to see what is more bang for your buck. So Mantha here has put on her thinking cap and done a little math.

For a whole ounce of one MAC pigment by weight you would pay $2,080. If you were to buy a whole ounce of a Sugarpill Loose Eyeshadow it would be paying $1,129.

Not like anyone would need a whole ounce of a pigment quite possibly ever, but that goes to show what a huge effing difference there is. Being obsessed with red eye products, there's 0 I can say negative about this color. It's so pretty, it has sort of a wine tone to it so it isn't a true blue-red nevertheless it is beautiful. I am looking forward to the next time I do an intense red lip then adding just a hint of this on the center of my lip for a little extra something.

Anyhow, aside from it being red I think the product itself is wonderful. Sometimes when you use a pigment wet it can tend to look clumpy, clusters up like old wrinkled newpaper, then once it dries it's pretty difficult to blend out. I hadn't had any of those problems with this product. Went on very smooth when wet and blended beautifully. I was VERY pleased with this product. I WILL be getting my hands on more of these loose shadows. I HAVE H A V E HAVE HAVE HAVE to buy Decora next. Magpie has my name all over it too as does Junebug, Goldilux, Hysteric, Starling, and well... all of them.

In the picture below you can see when dry there is very little color pay off. I want you to keep in mind there was NO base under these products. I wanted to show the true vibrancy of these products with out an enhancer, just completely what they have to offer on there own (mainly because I believe they have A LOT to offer in payoff). So if you did use a base or primer with this product dry on top it would grip onto the base and have considerable more coverage than show dry with no base. In personal use I use my pigments wet so this isn't an issue for me. There also isn't a sifter, which I just want to throw that out there because that could be an issue for some of you. But, I am against sifters as they take up too much extra room in your jar as they dip down taking up space and it would be nice to see in the future small plastic caps like the ones that come with MAC pigments because I feel like it help keeps the fly away pigment mess at bay.

My biggest issue with the product is it's name. Not the name "Asylum", but the name of the actual product. On SugarpillShop.com it's just simply listed as a loose eyeshadows, but you can see on the box the products are titled Chroma Lust. From a marketing stand point (as I have a strong background in retailing) I wish the website will change the name instead of just listing these products as loose eyeshadow to Chroma Lust. I think at this stage in the game Sugarpill should stick to what they're calling the product. Not something just because every typical Sarah and Jane know what a loose eyeshadow is. So calling it a Chroma Lust on the site if that is in fact what they want it to go by, there can be little description stating somewhere they're the same deal just different name.

Example: When I hear the words "Lip Tar" I automatically think of Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics. They're relatively of a newish brand as well, but they took that one product which there are many similar products of that nature and gave it their own name so now when you hear "Lip Tar" you don't think "oh what in the hell is that?" You know what it is and you through the grapevine it is a good and reliable product.

I wish they would do that with Chroma Lusts or whatever they're opting to call them because I think 6 months down the road when Sugarpill catches on more people are just going to keep calling them loose shadows, so imagine you're watching a youtube video and someone says "and next I am going to use this loose eyeshadow in Asylum". I mean yeah it's simple they may say the brand name, but what if someone doesn't say the brand? You'd rather your product being known by and listed on your site under the same name across the board so when someone does do that youtube tutorial and doesn't say your company name, but does say "And next I am going to use this Chroma Lust in Asylum" people are automatically going to start associating Chroma Lust with Sugarpill.

Burning Heart Palette $34

Available at: SugarpillShop.com

4 grams/.14 oz. per each shadow (by weight, not volume)

Clockwise: Flamepoint, Buttercupcake, Love+ and Poison Plum

So I hate to compare these to MUFE/MAC eyeshadows because Sugarpill is it's own company and really does not need to sit under the shadow (and I don't mean eyeshadow) of the above mentioned brands. But in order to give you some perspective for the size of these shadows I have to reference more known products for you to give you a comparison. A MAC eyeshadow is 1.5 grams/.05 oz at $14.50 for a potted shadow and $11 for a pro pan refill. A MUFE eyeshadow is 2.26 grams/.08 oz and $19 per potted eyeshadow. So Sugarpill Eyeshadows are just a hair under 2x (two times) the product of a MUFE shadow and just over 2.5x the amount of a MAC eyeshadow.

While this is an amazing value, but as a freelance artist it's a little bit of an annoyance, I use larger palettes (15 to 28 eyeshadows per palette) for all of my powder products so I can open up all the palettes and see everything than do work. Because there aren't any companies that I am aware of with shadows that are of this same size there aren't any large size palettes with individual wells for them. I would have to keep these in their own 4 well palettes and carry around a few of them or use a Z Palette. Which I don't think is entirely necessary to have to go to a whole different site and buy a seperate palette to store them how I want. NOW, when Sugarpill grows more hopefully we can get perhaps a 10 pan pallete to put shadows in so when we're ordering the rest of our makeup crack we can just order everything we need in one spot.*cough*please?*cough*

You can see I put the MUFE shadow next to Poison Plum in the Sugarpill palette, I think this best shows you how much larger SP pressed shadows are. You can see on the right with the MUFE shadow there is a thick gap between it and the palette well.

These shadows cost $12 individually. So if you chose to buy the potted forms of these shadows you'd be paying $48 yet you only pay $34 for them collectively in the palette. Look at it like this... say you want to put together your own MAC quad. You go to the store and pick out whatever shadows you want, it's $11 per pan so $11x4= $44 + $5 for the empty quad to put them in brings it to $49. While the Sugarpill palette A) has a mirror where as MACs quads do not so instead of lugging around a quad and a mirror, I can just carry around 1 thing. B) CUTE. It's something I'd much rather pull out of my kit/makeup bag/purse than a MAC quad and let me tell you I put this quad in my purse tonight and took it out with me because of the mirror and when I was checking my face while out at dinner and people were asking where I got my compact at AHEM, cuteness. For shits and giggles here is a size comparison between a MAC quad and a Sugarpill palette:

Down side to Sugarpill palettes is they are a paper material so they're not so easy to clean and they aren't sold individually. In the pictures of the palette that I personally have taken you will see extra fall out from the shadow which is beyond normal, problem is... I actually really tried to get it cleaned off before taking pictures and because of it being paper it sort of gets stained. I hope in the future these palettes come out as a solo item so you can purchase them on their own and mix and match your colors all you want and eventually are redone to be a plastic body.

Similar to a MUFE eyeshadow singles there is a small hole in the under portion of the packaging where you could stick a pin in and pop out the eyeshadow (BLESS YOU PEOPLE FOR DOING THIS so the rest of us don't have to do any big depotting mess) you CAN do this with the Sugarpill palettes. My personal little peeve is, I don't want to ruin the adorable label on the backside of the palette hahaha so when I took out shadows instead of using a pin to pop them out I VERY carefully and lightly put my fingernail between the pan and the palette lining and popped it up. Which made me a wreck because I didn't want to make one of the shadows crack because some shadow crack easily doing this, BUT crisis was averted.

CUTE sticker on the back of the palette

little pin hole

As for the eyeshadows themselves I think they are gorgeous. INSANE pigmentation. I can already tell you I will be buying this palette again for my freelance kit as well as the Sweet Heart palette and just the single Bulletproof shadow (so I can have all of the shadows eep!). I can not speak words as to how AMAZINGLY pigmented they are. They blend effortlessly. I am in love. I am a Sugarpill shadow whore. Yep that's right. I said it, it's out there, can't take it back. SHADOW WHORE. The only "down side" to the product itself is the pigments are so intense it will stain your lid and that's including a primer underneath. It's not a big deal, you can use an oil based makeup remover to get off the stained portions and you'll be fine.

Overall... love. Pure love. I hope to try some more products soon. I am looking forward to using Sugarpill on clients and seeing how it works in action. I am really happy to have found such a great company so fresh to the game because I'll be able to see it grow and become a junky and want to buy everything and wah wah wah wah. The pros of the products and the brand beyond out weight the cons seeing as the few cons I found aren't very big in my opinion. So I will be buying more Sugarpill in the near future.

Oh and PS if you couldn't tell from the swatches, I hands down prefer Sugarpill shadows over the ones swatched next to them.

FOTD

I love how these colors are so bright they make my skin look SUPER pale.

Eyes
Brows: NYX Retractable Brow Penicl in Charcoal

Primer: UDPP
Lid: Love+ and Asylum

Crease: Flamepoint and Buttercupcake
Hightlight: MAC Next to Nothing e/s

Upper liner: Wet n' Wild Mega Liner in Black

Lower liner: Buttercupcake and Love+

Mascara: Rimmel Extra Super Lash

Lashes: EBay Lashes

Face
MAC Studio Moisturecover (NW15) and MAC Mineralized Skin Finish Natural (Light-Medium)

Cheek: NYX Rouge Cream Blush in Boho Chic

Highlight: MAC Shroom e/s

Bronzer/Contour: Benefit Hoola

Lip

NYX Round Lipstick in Tea Rose

EML (Eczema My Life) SOTD

2010-06-04T14:33:00.000-07:00

SOTD

Eczema style

Cleanser: LUSH Dreamwash

Shampoo: Neutrogena T-Gel and Hair One (Jojoba type)

Exfoliant: LUSH Ocean Salt

Moisturizer: LUSH Dream Cream

Ugh, today's shower unfortunately was more of a battle of epic portions between myself and my eczema. If you aren't familiar with what eczema is you can read all about it here if you'd like. But the general consensus:

"The term eczema is broadly applied to a range of persistent skin conditions. These include dryness and recurring skin rashes that are characterized by one or more of these symptoms: redness, skin edema (swelling), itching and dryness, crusting, flaking, blistering, cracking, oozing, or bleeding. Areas of temporary skin discoloration may appear and are sometimes due to healed lesions. Scratching open a healing lesion may result in scarring and may enlarge the rash." - Wikipedia

There are various types of eczema. I thankfully only have Atopic Dermatitis which is more so just itching and open sores that are caused from scratching the skin raw. I thankfully don't usually ever have any sores, mainly because my eczema is not chronic just sort of flares up when it wants to be a jerk. And when it is REALLY bad, it effects my scalp. I only use Neutrogena's T-Gel shampoo in those cases aka today. It's shpeel is "Controls The Symptoms of: Dandruff, Seborrheic Dermatitis [scalp eczema], and Psoriasis" which is very true. When using T-Gel though I try to keep it centralized to strictly on my scalp and roots because it can be very drying to the shaft and ends of your hair. I let it sit on my scalp for the duration of my shower then after I wash it out I follow through with a conditioning cleanser, today's choice was Hair One.

In all of my years of various eczema treatments I think hands down the two best products that have helped me are LUSH's Dreamwash and Dream Cream. I'll let LUSH explain the products them self; these are directly copied from LushUSA.com

"Dreamwash: This creamy Smoothie is made for those of you with sensitive, itchy, rashy and sunburnt skin. We put the most soothing ingredients in for optimal results, including calamine powder, aloe vera gel, rose and chamomile. It smells rather herby because it's full of herbs. Lather this soft pink soap all over to calm down your skin and when you're done in the shower, rub on our best-selling body lotion Dream Cream to make your skin so happy it'll think it's dreaming."

"Dream Cream: If you've got skin with severe problems, you could spend your whole life dreaming of a clear, trouble-free epidermis. Give our best-selling Dream Cream a try; we get loads of emails about how well it works. With a base of oat milk (traditionally used to calm skin), it's packed with every calming plant we could find: tea tree, lavender and chamomile, moisturizing olive oil and loads more. If it seems nothing works to calm your skin, apply a healthy dose of this, our best-selling cream. You can thank us later."

From what it seems like to me they're essentially (minus a few ingredient variances) are the same product just one a lotion and one a cleanser. If you're like me and are looking for something new to sooth your skin I STRONGLY suggest you try both of these. In my opinion if you're looking to help treat eczema with these, there's no point in you getting one with out the other. Even if you just simply have sensitive skin and no eczema I think these would do a wonder for you and are AMAZING together on sunburns.

On a day where I have time, I lather Dreamwash all over and just sit in an empty tub for maybe 5 to 10 minutes before I start my shower so the chamomile and calamine can help calm my skin down. Then start up the shower and rinse it off. If you don't have time to soak in it's goodness a bit before your shower than you can just use it like a shower gel, but giving it just a little time to sit on the skin even if it's 30 seconds helps calm your itchy nerves. I even use it on my face. I will use what ever facial treatment sort of cleanser I reach for that day, wash it off, and directly apply Dreamwash all over sort of like it's a mask and then it just ends up washing off as the water jets down through out the rest of the shower. After getting out of the show the key is following up with Dream Cream, it just seals in all the goodness (sort of like a ziplock bag) Dreamwash has just done and adds it's own touch of softness to your skin.

NYX Haul'er & CherryCulture.com review

2010-06-04T02:02:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been coming OBSESSED with drugstore/low end makeup. I go through waves where I only buy high end makeup, then I'll don't want to buy make up period, then I'll like want drug store makeup. On the 23rd I placed an order online with CherryCulture.com, because at the time they were having 25% off NYX. And they have standard free shipping with $40+. I ended up ordering 18 items which were all NYX. Majority of these products are for myself and not my freelance kit.

This is not going to be as quality of a blog/picture detailed as I would have liked it to be, because literally soon as I opened the boxes I got in the mail something came up and I got one of those "urgent" call from my mom saying she needed me to come help her with something that was mundane (got to love Mommies for doing that sort of crap) then I had to dart out of my house, THEN had to go to the doctors appointment and wah wah wah wah long story short, I have had a very long day so I haven't had time time nor energy to get down to the niddy griddy with these goodies. SILVER LINING: I did manage to throw on some makeup before leaving the house, some of which were these products so that's a plus for a slight review of some of this stuff, YAY for throwing in 2 cents. Though it's not as great of a post as I wanted it to be I did want to get this haul up ASAP, so if anyone wants more in depth reviews or better photos just comment and let me know. And yes, I did say boxes up there...boxes... PLURAL, another order from a different company came as well which I am going to hold off and show tomorrow because I want to really go in depth with those products. Now onto the goodness...

Shopping List...

Round Lip Gloss: Frosted Red, Whipped, Sorbet, and Ballerina Pink
Jumbo Eye Pencil: Hot Pink, Yellow, Orange, Cherry, Electric Blue, Purple Velvet, and Rock Mountain green
Rouge Cream Blush: Boho Chic
Single Eyeshadow: Silver
Retractable Eyebrow Pencil: Charcoal and Brown
Round Lipstick: Tea Rose
Pencil Sharpener x2

Jumbo Eye Pencils

Yellow. Orange. Cherry. Hot Pink.

Purple Velvet. Electric Blue. Rocky Mountain Green.

I always have had this weird obsession with eyeshadow bases. I got through waves where I use them regularly and then they sit in my makeup organizer untouched until we meet and fall in love again. I've never invested in "higher end" bases because I find Jumbo Eye Pencils to do the job exceedingly well. I have a lot of the more muted colors which are wonderful I use Milk on a daily basis as a base for my brow highlight but, I personally wear very bright makeup more times than not so I went ahead and purchased all of the more vibrant shades available. Purple Velvet, Electric Blue, and Rocky Mountain green are brand new to the Jumbo Eye Pencil line which I was very excited to see so I had to pick them up.

Pencil Sharpener

I LOVE NYX's sharpeners. Which you'd think a sharpeners a sharpener what's the BFD? WELL, it's not common that a 2 sized sharpener you'd pick up at a drug store fits Jumbo Eye Pencils. Some have a little stopper than will pop out of the larger size hole and the pencils snuggly fit in. I picked one of the NYX sharpeners up at a local beauty supplier not realizing it was an NYX product until I went to actually use it. After realizing that they first thing I did was try to sharpen a Jumbo Eye Pencil, perfect fit. Ever since NYX sharpeners and I have been a match made in cosmetic heaven. On my first sharpener the blades lasted forever, they didn't rust when I cleaned it, and then I lost it. Hahaha! So I made sure to pick up 2 of these, now that I am thinking of it I should have picked up 3. My intent was 1 would go in my kit and 1 for my personal use, but now that I think about it I should have got 2 for my kit since I always end up needing a sharpener and can never remember where I put it.

Rouge Cream Blush

Boho Chic.

I have a confession to make. I've never used a cream blush before today. Crazy huh? I am a freelance makeup artist and I have never used a friggin' cream blush. HOW SAD is that? Something about them just didn't make me feel compelled to need/use them. A good friend of mine/fellow cosmetic addict has been on a cream blush kick for awhile now so after hearing about him (yes a HIM) raving about cream blushes I said "Screw it. Samantha, just woman up and try one". I chose to actually purchase one from NYX's because I have heard rave reviews about their Rouge Cream Blushes and recently they were even featured as a hit item in Lucky magazine. So I went for the shade Boho Chic as it didn't seem too intimidating AKA exactly what I was looking for. And OH MY GOD. LET ME TELL YOU... I have seen the light. Hallelujah miss honey, I put this on today over my foundation on the apples of my cheeks before I powdered. A) the color is so simple, but SO perfect for a soft baby pinky cheek. B) the product itself was creamy, went on so smooth, and practically blended itself. BELIEVE when I say I will be buying more cream blushes and they certainly WILL be NYX's Rouge Cream Blushes.

Auto Eyebrow Pencil

Charcoal & Brown.

I am very particular about my brows and lately I have been switching up my routine. Do to my having black hair I typically use a grey/muted charcoal tone powder to fill in my brows. I never have deviated from it. When I find something I like for my personal use, I stick to it. Recently I got some samples of eyebrow products and the deepest shade it came in was an espresso shade. So I tried it just playing around and I was pretty shocked, I really liked the deep brown on my brows. So while amidst lurking around while about to place this order I figured I'd pick up some eyebrow pencils since I am now in debate over if I prefer grey or deep brown brows. Today while painting my face I reached for the Charcoal shade. Now typically being a powder brow filling kinda gal I was hesitant about even ordering this. In past experiences when I have tried a pencil and it said it was a charcoal shade, they weren't grey at all it's just a muted black and NO ONE EVER SHOULD USE BLACK ON THEIR EYEBROWS, it's just too harsh for an everyday; avant-garde and theatrical stuff is an exception to that rule at least for me. But, NYX has this true to it's name and a good pencil. Be aware it is very soft so if you don't like a strong brow go about these pencils with a soft hand. The Brown shade I can already tell you I wont be using on myself, it's just too light for me and too much of a red based brown so it will go in my kit. You can never have enough eyebrow stuff in your kit in my humble opinion, but I am a brow diva so call me crazy. I should have ordered Dark Brown instead which I will be sure to pick up next time I stop by my usual beauty supplier because I am pretty sure they have it.

Round Lip Gloss

Whipped. Sorbet. Ballerina Pink. Frosted Red.

Round Lipstick

Tea Rose

For my personal use, I have not been a big lipstick fan, or gloss fan really. I used to be a smoker and I for some reason always tried to wear lip products when I smoked and soon as I went to smoke a cigarette my lip product obviously would come off onto the filter then would get annoyed about reapplying. And me being a retardo I just blamed the lip product because at the time I would rather have stopped using lip products than quit smoking. And PS ladies and gents, regardless of smoking, not smoking, eatting, drinking or even just breathing your lip product will wear off during the day so you have to reapply, it's a sad and annoying truth. Now that I am no longer a smoker and in fact live a straight edge lifestyle (not to mention have accepted the annoyance of reapplying lip products) so I am trying to figure out what lip shades/combos I like best on myself. I have purchased NYX's Round Lipsticks before, infact Thalia is one of my favorite lip shades of all time. I heard plenty of good things about the Round Lip Gloss so I decided to pick up a few random shades. They are very thin in consistancy which is a little saddening but no biggy. I just simply prefer a thicker gloss. Quick over all on each shade: Whipped is the perfect nude shade for my skin tone, looks almost like I had skinned toned colored lips with clear gloss over them. Sorbet is a very light dusty pink with pearlescent reflects. Ballerina Pink, very girly pink with a white gold pearl to it. Frosted Red, reminds me a whole lot of MACs Rue d’Rouge Dazzleglass from the Euristocrats II collection that came out last summer. Incase you're not familiar with that Dazzleglass then Frosted Red is a sheer red with pink pearl. As for the one Round Lipstick I picked up it is in Tea Rose. Which was sold out every other time I have tried to order it so when I saw it was in stock I swooped it up quickly. It's gorgeous on. I actually wore it today with Ballerina Pink over it and now it's probably one of my favorite lip combos, maybe even my favorite lip combo period.

CherryCulture.com Review...

Customer service: 7/10

There was nothing amazing about the customer service, but nothing bad either. Nothing really to say about it.

Shipping: 4/10

I ordered these Sunday the 23rd and they got here today, 11 days after ordering my stuff. I do have to say I understand during promos e-retailers get more traffic so there is more likely a delay in your purchase. But, I have ordered from CherryCulture.com before which is located in Southern California so it's very close in the scheme of things and previously it's taken 4 days from the time I placed my order and it being on my door step. 2 of those 4 days the package was being processed through the USPS system, so previously CherryCulture.com has been very quick. When I ordered this particular order I got a notice saying it would take up to 5 business days for this to process. Yet, it took them 9 days. If it weren't for the prices and the fact I actually do like NYX products both personally and professionally and that they also sell Styli-Style which is sometimes a hard brand to get a hold of I wouldn't be buying from CherryCulture.com again. I may look into buying from NYX directly next time, my only problem is I do not not like how NYX chooses to promote their products with youtube "gurus" and their website is not very well put together, not to mention I am a HUGE RuPaul's Drag Race fan and the winner was supposed to be the new face of NYXCosmetics.com and ahem no where do I see Miss "the other" Tyra Sanchez. But this is just my opinion take it with a grain of salt.

Price: 10/10

I do have to say the pricing for these items are what made me not want to stab someone for the delay in all of this. On NYX's website they sell the Round Lipstick for $4 each and on CherryCulture.com they are $1.99. Plus 25% off I got on the one lipstick I did buy I got it for $1.50. And I don't recall ever seeing NYXCosmetics.com ever having actual such and such % off sales, just the bundle sales.

Packaging: 7/10

I think the package was well put together, but there was way too much packing paper. The products were wrapped in little bubble wrap envelopes then wrapped in bundle of packing paper and thrown into the box with more random packing paper on top and below it. Now I am ALL for the protection of my products and thorough packing. But this was a little excessive. Opening the box I thought, um... did I order some NYX or did I order packing paper? I actually ended up having to take out all the packing paper and had to shake it out to find my goodies.

(this is for CherryCulture.com only NOT NYX or it's products)

GRADE: D

HAUL/REVIEW: StrawberryNet.com

2010-06-02T16:56:00.000-07:00

FIRST THINGS FIRST... look at the date on this invoice.

May 29, 2010 is the day I ordered this. It was shipped from according to the shipping label Shau Kei Wan, Hong Kong. HONG KONG PEOPLE. And I received this today (the 2nd). It took a mere FOUR DAYS to come from Hong Kong to San Francisco. I am beyond impressed by this.

I have ordered from StrawberryNet.com in the past and I have continually had amazing customer service. This time around I ordered Benefit's Dallas box o' powder blush. I've heard some controversy over if StrawberryNet sells authentic products due to the prices they are able to sell the product at. Why would I waste my time buying something I even in the slightest thought was a fake product? I wouldn't. I have had this exact box o' powder blush from Benefit in the past and I have other ones currently. So in comparing the one I ordered now to my past/current experience with this same type of product, this is authentic. As I said I have had this blush in the past so I am not going to really dive into a product review because clearly if I am repurchasing the product I really enjoy it. This will be more of a review of the vendor and I'll through my 2 cents on the product plus some tips at the end.

Customer service: 10/10

I couldn't be happier with their customer service. I am a sucker for customer service so for me to rank them this well is saying something. I immediately received a confirmation email and they make it well known how to contact them if you have any concerns about your products. And if for some reason you encounter having to pay customs fee's for your purchase made with them, they simply ask for proof of payment for whatever you paid customs and they refund that amount back to you in whatever form your paid for your purchase. I think that's pretty awesome, even though I haven't had that happen to me personally.

Shipping: 10/10

I don't really think I need to say anything more to you about how quick the shipping is. I received my order confirmation directly after placing the order at 1:10 AM and at 7:55 AM I received an email stating my order had been shipped. 7 hour turn around from the time I ordered it to the time it was shipped, A+. And did I mention, FREE SHIPPING? No coupon codes, no minimum amount you have to spend to get it, ALWAYS free shipping. Unless you opt to want to rush the order to Express mail than it is $10 to ship to the US which they guarantee you will receive in 2-3 days. Which, no offense is pretty pointless because they state with their free parcel shipping you'll generally receive the product in 4-10 days. Another awesome thing if you would prefer to have you package sent as registered mail, where it has to be signed for in order to be delivered you get that option which too is free. I didn't realize that was an option my first time ordering with them so I had to go through this whole hassle of picking it up at the post office just for a simple lipstick. This time around I chose non-registered and it still got here safe.

Price: 10/10

This product normally retails for $28. StrawberryNet had a deal for Dallas being 45% off retail price, which took it down to $15.50. StrawberryNet also has a really cool loyalty program where for return customers you get a certain % off for each transaction you make with them. Your first transaction you get nothing off from them, but your 2nd purchase with them you instantly get 1% off, 3rd transaction you get 2% off, so on and so forth you can read about the program in detail here. This was only my second order with them so I got 1% off which took my purchase down to $15.34. And heads up, I've mentioned it before EBates.com... the cash back site has StrawberryNet.com as one of it's sites where you can get cash back (3% in this circumstance) if you go through EBates.com to make your purchase. Which I did, where I ended up with $0.46 rewarded to my EBates.com account for going through them to make the purchase. So with that deducted I theoretically paid $14.88 for this blush.

Packaging: 10/10

They packages this (pardon my french) mother fucker GOOD. It's very unlikely if you place an order from them that you would receive it cracked or damaged. The very CUTELY wrap the shipping box itself in a lavender ribbon, upon opening the box there is a thick sheet of styrofoam, remove that and their is your order confirmation, take that off and there are tons of packing peanuts. I put together a little slide show of my unboxing.

And THEN once you get the box open and actually get to your product they have it gift wrapped in this cute magenta wrapping paper. It's seriously like opening a present, hella adorable.

GRADE: A

Now for some deets about the product itself...

Dallas is GORGEOUS. If you took Benefit's other box o' powder blushes in Hoola and Coralista, let them mate and they had a baby it would be Dallas. Or if you squished NARS Orgasm/Laguna duo together into one pan you'd have Dallas. It is DIVINE. Benefit describes it as:

"An outdoor glow for an indoor gal face powder. Give your complexion a natural-looking glow that will leave you looking younger, healthier and more vibrant. This sheer wash of color dusted across your cheeks, forehead and chin gives any complexion a healthy looking radiance... it's a glow that defies even Mother Nature."

(looks a lot more pink in this photo than it truly is)

AGREED. I would say this product is universally good for all skin tones as an all over pick me up or for olive to deep skin tones this would be brilliant as a blush. I think it's best for paler skin tones if you do choose it as an all over color for a little warmth. For reference I am an NC15 in MAC face products and I personally use it with a either a fluffy blush or all over face brush (MAC 129 or 150, or even a 187) and just dust it all over my face primarily on my forehead, chin, sort of framing your face with it. I use this in conjunction with a bronzer though as for me it's just something I use to warm my skin up a little. Being pale as I am I could stand to have a more warm glow to my skin sometimes. Where as a bronzer for a lot of people would do that, a bronzer for me is just simply a fake tan. I wouldn't use this as a contour color nor a bronzer on it's own. You by all means certainly could. But, with the pinky tones to it since it's clash between a bronzer and a blush, plus shimmer, and blah blah blah I wouldn't suggest it as a bronzer on it's own and certainly not a contour shade.

I also like bringing this down onto my decollete as a little somethin' somethin' extra. The sun and I don't get along so I stay pale all year round. I burn verrrrry easily, not to mention the few times I have experienced being tan it just didn't work for me at all. It doesn't suit me. But, I do DYI style t-shirts (cut the collar off and stuff like that) not to mention I have a large tattoo on my chest so to warm up my pastey chest I really like using this on my decollete as well.

HAUL: New Skincare Stuff!

2010-06-02T15:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday while running some errands I picked up some new skincare stuff. I gottttt... St. Ives Green Tea Cleanser, Neutrogena Wave start kit, Wave Shine-Free Blemish-Free refills and the CVS Purifying Mint Masque (generic version of Queen Helene Mint Julep Mask).

For the most part these were purchased on a serious whim. The Wave I always thought was some sort of gimmick but was on sale for a good price, I have the St. Ives Green Tea Scrub already and like it so when I saw the matching cleanser on sale for $3 and some spare change yesterday so I thought I'd go for it and I use the Queen Helene mask at least once a week, but I some how lost the tube I had and ~~the CVS generic version was on sale for $2.99 so I picked it up.~~ EDIT: Do not get this. Unlike the Queen Helene mask this is super runny, it's a HUGE mess, when it dries it makes your face feel SUPER tight not very refreshing either. This is super low-budget grade stuff and the Queen Helen mask general runs for $3.99, just go with real deal if it's an option for you.

When I got this home I had to think, how in the hell am I going to bring these into my skin care routine? I realized I don't wash my face in the morning which is important and after I remove my makeup at the end of the day I don't actually use a cleanser targeted to treat my black heads/large pores which thankfully my only big facial skin gripes.

TIP: Every time you wash your face, do it TWICE. The first time washing your face, it will remove all the sweat, makeup, oils from your face. The second washing actually treats your skin itself. Removing your makeup and grime at the end of the day is essential. But, if you want to actually treat your skin itself, the pimples, the blackheads, white heads, oil production etc you have to wash your face a SECOND time.

Something about washing my face in the morning is awful for me. I am coffee kind of gal. I don't want to do anything in the morning until there is a cup o' coffee in my hand. So cleaning my face is not a priority to me when it REALLY should be. When you're asleep your body STILL produces oils, so if you're going to put makeup on your face for the day you NEED a clean slate to work with. Wash your face. So I think the Wave will help with the mornings, all I have to do is slap on a little pad, turn on the water to get it wet, turn on the wave and rub it all over my face. Hell, I can even do this while I am peeing in the morning.

The St. Ives cleanser I think will help me in the evenings. It has 2% Salicylic Acid which helps tame the wild oil producing beasts in your pores which causes them to back up and fill with gunk and through the chain of things cause a larger appearance in your pores. They have a whole shpeel on the back of the bottle stating how it is paraben and phthalares free (which I personally do not care about and I am not having this debate on my blog ever) and how they do not test on animals and that it does not contain animals bits as ingredients, THUMBS UP ON THAT!

I ALWAYS use Philosophy's Purity Made Simple cleanser to remove my makeup and then I just usually wash my face with it a second time and call it a day. And as amazing as Purity is, it doesn't have any ingredients in it targeted to reduce the apperance and crap in my pores. I think if you have normal to oil combo skin Purity is a great over all cleanser. For me it's great for removing makeup and I will continue to use it as what I use to remove my makeup, but as for something to actually clean and treat my skin I am hoping the Green Tea cleanser will do that. Or on days where I haven't worn any makeup or I am just super tired at the end of the day I can use the Wave Shine-Free Blemish-Free pads, they contain 1% Salicylic Acid.

This morning I am proud to say when I got up I DID in fact use the Wave and I was very shocked...

In the starter kit they provide you with the Wave itself, the velcro disk thingy mabobber, a single double-A battery and 14 cleansing pads.

I can't speak for it's long term use as I have only used it once, but I am impressed. If you weren't aware the Wave is battery operated and putting it together this morning (and I hadn't had any coffee so I was not 100% funcitional) figured out how to put it together easy as pie.

As you see one of the sides pops out and you have a place to put the battery. EMBARASSING MOMENT: I went to put the battery in and it started vibrating instantly. I thought "Oh CRAP, you mean I have to take the battery in and out every time I use this? Screw that. Hahaha what I failed to realize was I had accidentally pressed the on button.

To my surprise, so far I REALLY like the wave. It's ergonomically designed so you don't feel awkward holding it as you rub it across your face. I didn't get too many suds during washing, which is fine because after removing the cleanser from my face my skin felt really refreshed. I used the regular pads that the starter came with and so far so good. I am impressed. But I'll give a full review in a few weeks once my skin gets used to this new routine it'll be on. I have high hopes though.

SOTD

2010-06-01T16:46:00.000-07:00

So, I've never seen someone do this and maybe you guys could careless to know about this. But we'll see how it goes. I am going to try to do a new "segment" on this blog called SHOWER OF THE DAY. Since I get lazy with FOTDs I will try to do SOTDs. If you like this idea, let me know. If you hate this idea, let me know. They'll change every other shower/bath, I never have a set routine on bathing and I don't stick to the same products for long periods of time. So you most likely will never see the same shower/bath twice unless I become obsessed with one bath cocktail, which in that case I promise not to every day be like "HEY GUYS! SAME SHOWER AS YESTERDAY!"

Also, like FOTDs these will not be daily. This grosses a lot of people out, but I can not take a shower daily. For all of my life I medically have been suggested to bathe every other or every 2 days. I have eczema and washing with soaps and what not regardless of how organic/mild/fresh the soaps maybe on a consistent daily basis dries my skin out regardless of how much moisturizing I do following it. Then I'll end up having a very bad reaction and become very itchy. Not to mention I do dye my hair and frequent washing will fade hair color. I also have never been able to even wash only my hair daily due to the fact my hair is VERY textured, curly, and can appear to some people as dry if they are not well versed in hair types. So if I washed my hair daily it would A) become SUPER faded B) appear to be like curled up straw AKA not cute. Haha, so you'll get these often, but not daily. Unless you guys tell me you hate them, then I'll cut it out period lol!

SOTD

SHAMPOO: LUSH Curly Wurly

SOAP: LUSH Rockstar (was my first time using it!)

EXFOLIANT: LUSH Buffy Body Butter

FOTD

2010-05-29T21:55:00.000-07:00

I have watched this Nicki Minaj video probably a dozen times. Now let me be clear... my music of choice is usually metal. But there is a video vixen in me somewhere waiting to shake her ass some day.

You can see in the video she has a blue sort of purpley look which I thought oh that's kind of cute IF ONLY I COULD ACTUALLY SEE IT BETTER. THEN I came across this photo which was taken during that video so I decided I needed to do my own version of this look even thought it's not like you can really tell what the hell it looks like it's super pastel and washed out. And I doubt that's what it was really like, if you're familiar with Nicki and her makeup style it's usually pretty vibrant.

I also tried to use as much drug store/"low end" makeup as possible, which is semi-challenging for me because it's out of my norm.

FOTD

(it's not the best, I am still trying to figure out what lighting is best for FOTD's)

Eyes
Brows: Yaby Brow Powder (001)
Primer: UDPP
Inner Lid: B5 and B6

Outer Lid: D7
Crease: E7 and H7

Upper liner: Wet n' Wild Mega Liner in Black

Lower liner: B5 and Make Up For Ever #92

Mascara: Rimmel Extra Super Lash

Highlight: NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk (base) and C1

Face
MAC Studio Moisturecover (NW15) and MAC Mineralized Skin Finish Natural (Light-Medium)

Cheek: MAC Pink Swoon blush

Highlight: MAC Shroom e/s

Bronzer/Contour: NYC Sunny

Lip

Benefit Positint

88 "MATTE" Palette

2010-05-29T21:34:00.000-07:00

I never intended to purchase this item, I have plenty enough high end eyeshadows and pigments which I have spent a lot of time and money investing in. But, I went out on a whim and bought it on EBay because I wanted to see what was behind all the hype. I do own the well spoken of 28 neutral palette and the 10 pan blush palette which I assume are also from the same generic no name manufacturer. Those two palettes I actually do enjoy and got them for my kit as "just incase" items, but I do reach for them a lot more than I expected I would. This item will be for my own personal use because I realized there have been numerous times where I wish I had one specific tone of maybe a pink shade and I don't own it in a higher end brand so when that happens I can reach for this.

Mmmm pretty, is it just me or is just looking at makeup give you the meer "awwwh" moment like when you are watching fireworks on the Fourth of July? Yeah it's probably just me, BUT ANYHOW I DIGRESS.

The amount I paid for this was: $10.75. The seller had it listed as $1.80 for the item itself and $8.95 in shipping.

Here is my rant about this. The item I ordered on EBay stated it was the matte version of the 88 palette; there are three versions of this palette: matte, shimmer, and combo. Well, I wanted the matte finish because you can easily turn a matte eyeshadow into a satin or shimmer finish depending on what base you use underneath it or if you use perhaps a transforming agent on top. Not to mention I am on a bright colored matte shadow craze right now. But when it arrived this morning and I open it to find that I was sent the combo palette and I was pretty pissed off about it. Which it's pretty funny that I was so mad about it. But look ya'll I opened this FIRST THING after waking up and if this girl doesn't have her morning coffee, you better watch the hell out hahaha. So now that I have some coffee in me I could careless haha.

PROS: Wide variety in colors and tones. Low cost. GREAT if you're wanting to try out vibrant colors. If you are just starting out as a freelance artist. Great pay off with a colored base underneath shadows.

CONS: Colors vary widely in pigmentation/color pay off, some colors are straight up chalky as all hell, having to buy separate bases for colors to be true to pan, there are no true primary colors.

GRADE: C+

I've also done some comparisons between high end shadows that I have and some of the colors in the palette.

Now I am not at all saying these colors are perfect dupes for one another. I am just saying they're comparable options for one another. Some are very close in color, but are a completely different finish. So no harping because they are no absolutely a perfect match.

Mapping the palette was the easiest way for me to be able to refer to each color since they're not named and I can't just say "oh you know that one color next to the other color?" or else no one would know what the hell I was talking about.

For reference these were swatched with NYX's Milk Jumbo Eye pencil and I am an NC/NW15 in MAC products.

Hello Kitty Acrylics

2010-05-28T19:03:00.000-07:00

Recently I was cleaning out an old photobucket account. And I found this picture of a set of acrylic inlay nails that I did on myself when I was in cosmetology school.

Avoid my super crusty cuticles, but I thought I would share this with you guys! I don't wear acrylics anymore as it's a lot to up keep them. I really enjoy all the things you can do with acrylic nails, it's a lot more than just typical day to day white or colored tips. I've had dollar bill tips, the Hello Kitty nails, Louis Vutton print nails and tons of other styles. I am so stingy with money that I can't bring myself to pay someone to fill my nails when I can do them myself, but I have a really hard time filling the acrylic on my right hand with my left hand because I am right handed so it turns out pretty sloppy.

These are really easy to do. If you don't feel comfortable doing acrylic on yourself, bring in whatever design you want to your nail tech and ask them to inlay it under the acrylic. Stickers, fabric, money, pictures, candy wrappers. They should have no problem doing this, it may cost you an extra $5/10 but they should be more than able to do this. Hell, I could do it and I hadn't even actually been formerly taught how to do false nails, I just read how to do it from my text book!

Note: I have to say for legal reasons I "do not advise" (ahem) you get money placed in your nails. Defacing US currency is a Federal offense. So if you choose to have it done, please note most nail techs will ask that YOU cut the money (it's usually only $1 bills) so they are not liable for the defacing of government property. And sometimes they will have scraps of bills left around from other clients of theirs who have had currency placed in their nails for you to sort through, but best bet is just bring your own bill because if you don't I have seen nail techs charge up to an extra $5 for providing the currency to have put in the nail. And that's JUST for the bill itself not the fee for the extra work to put the bill underneath the acrylic. And how silly is it to pay $5 for the wasting of a $1 and then ANOTHER $5 to 10 to have them put it on your nails? VERY silly. Anyhow, I will say very bluntly... I have never came across a Federal agent who has arrested me for defacing US property and demand I pop my nails off. Haha that's BEYOND un-f&*king-likely to happen. And I have had this done numerous times.

Rockabilly Makeup

2010-05-26T13:22:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd show you all a look I did on a recent client for a prom look. I wish I had better pictures, but I snapped this one really quick before taking off from the gig, as you can see because it's blurry.

How cute is she? She was going for the rockabilly pin-up look. Her dress was an ADORABLE black and white polka-dotted halter with red accessories (as you can see)

I don't remember everything I used but here a list of what I do remember...

Foundation: Graftobian HD Glamour Creme Palette in Neutral #1

Powder: Ben Nye Neutral Set in Translucent

Cheeks: MAC Tenderling and Blush Baby Blush

Lips: Benefit Benetint and MAC Russian Red l/s

What's black, white and red?

2010-05-25T22:07:00.000-07:00

I got these done awhile ago and completely forgot to post about it like I intended to. But, I just put up the new layout on here and thought I should make a post as well. So here they finally are, MY NEW BUSINESS CARDS! My phone number is obviously what's blurred out.

I ordered them through VistaPrint.com. I think I paid only $18 for 250, which is by far the cheapest I've seen. It was nice because I designed it myself and they have a really easy upload tool if you want to use your own design. The down fall, custom designs are a buck or two more than if you choose one of their pre-designed cards. They also have tons of coupon codes lurking around the net. So check out EBates.com or RetailMeNot.com for any codes that VistaPrint.com my have going on. Actually, I advise EVERYONE. To sign up for EBates.com , it's a click through site. So you go to EBates.com where in this case you see they give you 5% cash back if you buy/place and order with VistaPrint.com.

The catch (wah wah wahhhh) is you have to sign up for an EBates.com account to even get access to seeing what the cash back %'s even are because the %'s vary for each site you have the option to get cash back for and there are A LOT of sites to get cash back on. And when I say A LOT of sites, I mean you even get cash back for shopping at Walmart.com, EBay and be still my fragile heart... QVC.com! When/if you want to shop through EBates.com you HAVE click where is says "SHOP NOW" on EBates.com for the site you're looking to go buy something at. Then quarterly they send you out a check OR you get the option to have them send you your earnings to a PayPal account (which is what I did cause I just end up spending it all back on makeup online haha). Now if you sign up, remember you HAVE TO, HAVE TO, HAVE TO (do you get the point? HAVE TO! hahaha) click "SHOP NOW" for you to get the cash back. I don't know really how to explain, it's like how credit cards give you cash back for using the card WITHOUT having an actual credit card. And the "SHOP NOW" link has some sort of coding that is able to track how much you get back for your purchases on the given site.

Example: YOU GET 4% BACK FOR SHOPPING AT SEPHORA and I made a very large purchase on Sephora.com during their 15% off friends and family event. WELL I saved 15% off with the friends and family coupon code, but if I had logged into my EBates.com account it and on their site clicked the "SHOP NOW" option Sephora.com from there I would have gotten another 4% back. AND I DIDN'T! I completely forgot :( Not a big deal it's only 4 measly %, but if you do a lot of online shopping like I do it does add up to be quite a bit back once they issue you your check or paypal or whatever. Right now I have $9.51 waiting to get deposited into my PayPal account when the time comes for it. Oh and I don't know if they still are doing it, but when I signed up awhile ago I got a $5 sign-up bonus or some crap like that.

Ok time to shut the hell up, I went from talking to business cards to ranting hahaha. I hope you all like the new layout.

Change isn't that bad

2010-05-24T13:00:00.000-07:00

I am moving! I don't know if I have said that on here previously... either way what's it matter I just said it and am saying it again, I AM MOVING! It's a very long and drawn out story as to why I am moving which I will spare you all from hearing (you're welcome). I am a huge creature of habit. Don't get me wrong, I am not by any means with in the box of "normal" or cookie cutter. But, like most humans I like normalcy. I like to come home to my stuff and know it's going to be the same as I left it. Well, Miss Mantha here is in for a change. I wont be moving for another month or two as the house I will be moving into is getting a huge upgrade. But in the mean time it gives my family time to get rid of the old and get ahold of the new. We're down sizing so we're detoxing our now home of useless crap and trying to get new stuff we know we'll need for the new house (new stuff as in dual purpose organizing furniture).

I KNOW I've said it before that I am a big QVC'r. And I am so DELIGHTED I found this item on there. I'll have my own private living quarters at the new house, but unfortunately no bathroom so I'll have to bring my Lushie goodness with me to the bathroom which is on the upper portion of the house. The AWESOME thing about this is the mirror and the top 2 shelves come off as one unit so you can carry it where ever with you. Both levels are broken into quarters so you can keep your hair goods in one section, face cleansers in another etc etc. EXCEPT in the top level of this organizing god-fairy the manufacturer provides you with a little insert for your lipsticks! You can see my Studio Moisturecover and ihavenocluewhichitis Dazzleglass standing up because they're in the lip organizer. You can check it out here, it's on sale from $44 to $27. I am also really thankful I found this because sometime ago I saw something similar on PBteen.com which is a little more "cutesy", but was $200! TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS to organize my soaps and makeup essentials? I think fucking not.

It's messy I know, moving = chaotic clutter.

FOTD

Eyes
Brows: MAC Brow Shader in Soft Charcoal/Maple
Primer: UDPP
Inner third: MAC Chrome Yellow
Outer Two Thirds: MAC Orange
Crease: MAC Impassioned and Make Up For Ever #92
Highlight: NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk (base), MAC Yougurt (to help blend Impassioned), white shimmery color from Wet n' Wild ColorIcon Pride palette.

Face
Graftobian HD Glamour Cream foundation in Bombshell
w/ MAC MSF Natural in Light-Medium to set
Cheek: ELF blush via the Contouring Blush & Bronzing Powder duo
Highlight: Benefit Highbeam
Bronzer: Benefit Hoola

Lip
MAC Brave lipstick

LUSH!

2010-04-22T13:04:00.000-07:00

Last week LUSH Cosmetics had a spring fling web chat where you could win contests and also buy limited edition products. For the chat they had discounted shipping so I kind of had to buy some of the limited edition products. I ordered The Comforter shower gel, Honey Hugs shower gel, and Carmin Miranda soap (which isn't limited edition it's just a retro item). I didn't expect these to come in the mail today but the UPS truck JUST delivered them. And I am soooo delighted. I have a doctor appointment which I should be getting ready for right now, but I had to post this real quick!

The Comforter shower gel (8.4 oz)

LUSH Cosmetics description: Just like it's namesake, this luxurious shower gel is just as wonderfully fragrant as LUSH's The Comforter bubble bar. It's made with cypress and bergamot oils and tantalizing cassis for mysterious and seductive showering pleasure.

My description: This is WONDERFULLY scented. It's very concentrated so it's a lot stronger than the actual Comforter. If you have smelled The Comforter solid perfume you will know that it is a SUPER strong concentrate of the scent. I would say the shower gel is about in the middle of the the solid perfume version and the bubble bar as far as strength of the scent goes. I've heard some people say that the stronger concentrates of The Comforter scent reminds them of cat urine. Well, let me tell you I have twin 1 year old fur cat babies (Luci and Ethel) and I wish their pee smelled like The Comforter because lord almighty it would make cleaning their cat box a hobby and not a chore. hahaha!

Honey Hugs shower gel (8.4 oz)

LUSH Cosmetics description: Squeeze this honey shower gel straight onto your body and lather up for soft, fragrant skin. The sweet orange and bergamot oil fragrance will remind you of our best-selling, mouth-watering Honey I Washed the Kids soap. Your skin loves nothing better than fresh, decadent ingredients, so bee good to it and pick up a bottle or two.

My description: HOLY JESUS. I read a comment on LUSH's facebook that they said Honey Hugs is similar to HIWTK, but has it's own individual scent. WRONG. They lied. This smells just like HIWTK, but better. Better as in it is a lot stronger in scent. It smells to die for. The next time I can get my hands on this shower gel, I am going to hoard it like a rabid beast saving food for winter and buy at least 2 16oz bottles.

I am in love.

Miranda, eh. It's not for me. I dragged my cousin to the LUSH even I blogged about a few months ago and he really liked the sample of Miranda that I got in my goody bag so I gave it to him. I don't typically order from LUSH online because I have a few stores near by, but since you can typically only get Miranda from ordering online I picked him up some. I personally am no a fan so I wont waste your time on reading a review for something I haven't used/don't like the scent of. It's not bad... just not for me. I got samples of Noubar and HIWTK. Haven't tried Noubar, the wet scent is a little weird... it smells like if you could some how make guacamole out of nuts. VERY weird, but I am excited to try it and see how the scent is with my skins chemistry. And HIWTK is my favorite soap so I could never complain with a free sample of that.

I'll touch back and give a review of everything once I use them. Now time to rush and get ready for the doctors since I should be leaving in about 10 minutes and I am still in my PJ's!

New addiction: NAIL POLISH!

2010-04-18T10:30:00.000-07:00

I have always had a problem with nail polishes. I am one of those people who is super A.D.D. about nail polish. If it doesn't look perfect I take it off and I can't typically do glitters, shimmery finishes, or super bright colors on my hands (toes are a whole different story, brighter the better) because I just constantly get distracted by it. BUT, because I am out of work right now. I've decided I am going to practice my nail painting skills. I think the main reason I am so paranoid about my polish being precise is because I am not even in my application. So, I'm work on it. I am also OBSESSED with dark cream finish colors. And the other day my friend Cory sent me a swatch photo of Illamasqua's Rampage nail varnish and I've gawked at every day since he showed me.

Credit: http://lextard.blogspot.com/

When I woke up this morning I had an email from Sephora warning me that today was the second to last day of their Spring beauty insider discount code (15% off when you use the code MADNESS at checkout). Well... I obviously ignored this email and did not buy this nail polish or anything. NOT. It was the first thing I saw when I woke up and I also really wanted to pick up another Pacifica blood orange body butter. So I ordered both the polish and another body butter this morning. If the nail polish is as wonderful as I think it may be I will for sure be picking up more nail varnishes from Illamasqua.

ALSO, I will be redoing this blog shortly. I just put up this layout, but it's too pink for me. I ALSO will finally get up all the stuff I bought for my kit soon. I am so lazy sometimes. I ordered all this stuff for my kit and I had tons of boxes/bubble mailers come in and just ended up not throwing any of it out and it's massively cluttered up my room/make up space. So my goal for today is to clean up my room and get everything re-organized and soon as I have a space to work functionally I will have pictures up and can start doing FOTD. Because I told myself I am not allowed to do any serious makeup until I get this space cleaned and it's been a week or two now.

Go Go Gadget!

2010-04-13T13:01:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gents, I did a little spy work yesterday. I always wondered why brands would have such great value sets at Sephora. The Benefit Legally Bronze set I mentioned before... $105 worth of product for $35, um... AMAZING VALUE. But how can these company's afford to have these significant price cuts?

If you are a fan of Fresh cosmetics, Benefit cosmetics, Make Up For Ever, Dior and shop at Sephora. You're in luck. The same company owns all of these brands; Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton better known as LVMH. If you don't know of LVMH they own/are responsible for branding MANY luxy brands (Fendi, Givenchy, Louis Vuitton, and plenty more)

Because LVMH owns these brands and Sephora they make more money using Sephora as an outlet to sell these brands than to offer these deals through the brands websites since well, Sephora is more accessible.

If you look at any of the brand's listed above you'll tend to see more "Sephora Exclusive" sets or value offers. Well, Dior isn't likely to have any value sets but you'll see a lot of exclusive items for Sephora from them. You'll also see for example in Sephora's LashStash Deluxe set they have mascara's from both Benefit AND Fresh. It seems as LVMH owned brands manage to make their way into these sampler sets, gee I wonder whyyyyy. It's smart, it's all just marketing to keep their money THEIR money, so you wouldn't per say see these sets at counters in Macys or Nordstroms since they aren't LVMH owned companies. As I've said time and time again, I love Benefit so that's no issue for me. MUFE is like a drug for me. I haven't tried ANY Fresh products yet, but I do want to try some of their lip scrubs and a mascara. So for my own personal greed, LVMH do your thing. Reel me in with you exclusively cheap sets. Because it is working.

And this is also not to say that non-LVMH brands don't have Sephora exclusive items because you will. Just not likely at as good of a value as you would see compared to LVMH brands.

Rollin', rollin', rollin'

2010-03-26T23:36:00.000-07:00

So the hauls are rolling in through the mail, so far 2 orders have arrived but I am going to wait until the majority of my new kit stuff is here before I flash it around here. So far I have received stuff from CameraReadyCosmetics.com and Urban Decay. I still have stuff out from ELF, Sephora, Cherry Culture, and 4 or 5 things from ebay.

Today I had to head over to Target to pick up a prescription and while I was there I figured I would look at the ELF stuff. I have never tried ELF stuff before and there are certain cosmetic items I believe you FULLY need to invest money on, but I did order some really basic things from ELF's website because they were cheap and just basic items I didn't feel obligated to invest money into. The stuff I ordered isn't available at Target (or else I would have just bought it at target duh!) but I felt the need to look at Targets selection just to check the quality of everything. And shockingly I was kinda impressed. Well, really impressed because I picked up like 10 brushes. Hahaha. I am too lazy to go check which brushes I got BUT I do remember the Studio Series blush brush. LOVE IT. I got two fan brushes too. I am not sure why because I don't typically ever use fan brushes BUT it's one of those things I see and go "OOOH! PRETTY." Then buy it.

I also managed to stop by Michael's as well. I kept hearing all about this Maxine Thomas mop brush series from Loew-Cornell, primarily the 3/8" size. Which I didn't even see a SKU sticker for it on the display so I don't think my Michael's carries it. BUT, they did have the 1/2" size which I did fall in LOVE with. It's an amazing brush for an all over wash of color.

Let me just say though. I love goat hair brushes (Maxine mop, MAC's 239 and 217) I just simply love the application they provide. HATE CLEANING THEM. They stain so stupid easily from colors. I have 2 of MAC's 239 brush and one of the bristles are stained as Bitter and the other is stained with Clarity. You can clean and clean and clean and clean and those stains aren't going anywhere. I hate the dirty look of them. Ugh, but they apply color so well.

Stila sale!

2010-03-23T16:25:00.000-07:00

Quick update. I've been totally sick lately and have not been able to leave my house, can you tell from all the blog posts? Haha being stuck in my house has given me time to find stuff worth posting! I should get sick more often, NOT.

HauteLook.com is having a discounted selection on Stila. If you're not familiar with Haute Look it's simply a distribution company that buys overstocked or discounted items from higher end name brand items ranging from homegoods, clothes, toys, makeup, skin care and blah blah blah then resells them for an extremely discounted price. Like right now, they have Three Custom Color items on sale from 51-58% off. SO just a heads up Stila will be on there tomorrow starting at 8AM PST. The only downfall to Haute Look is you have to signup to be a member in order to view/purchase the sales. They also do NOT carry every item that brands sell. Just overstocked items so don't get your hopes up. But DO check it out if you like Stila, you may find something you'll really like.

QUESTION FOR EVERYONE: What kind of FOTD's do you want to see? I need to do more FOTD's. I fear doing them and posting daily looks or tips and tricks will lead me to wanting to do youtube videos. Hahaha and I am not really sure how I feel about that. So what types of looks would YOU like to see? Or what type of blogging do you want me to do?

Tip: Coupon Codes

2010-03-23T01:20:00.001-07:00

So we all know makeup can be on the pricier side. Especially when you have to buy a lot of things online. I know of plenty of people who don't have a Sephora near them but are big MUFE fans so they have to order products online. Aside from having to pay for the actual product you also have to pay for shipping which I feel like most places try to dick you over on. So your best bet is looking out for discount codes. On virtually EVERY online checkout you get a small box that says "discount/coupon code", if you have a code that works you'll end up getting whatever the code gives you. MOST makeup brands have email newsletters you can subscribe to which promote new items or collections. But more importantly hand out discount codes. A lot of the codes I see are for free or discounted shipping or specialty samples. But sometimes you can really find some nice deals where you get a % off.

My advice, RetailMeNot.com. AMAZING site. For example, what I most commonly do when buying ANYTHING online I google, for example, MAC Cosmetics coupon code. The problem with this is there are 274,000 websites that come up for that search. A waste of time going through some sites to try to find a code that actually works. Because a lot of sites just have made up coupons just to try to get you to look at the advertising banners they have set up and blah blah blah. RetailMeNot is great because they have a search bar where you could type in something like MAC, maccosmetics.com, eyeshadow and whatever websites they have codes for pop up and you can see what they have for discount codes. The even better thing is they break down codes into active and nonactive discounts. Most codes do have an expiration on them so they don't last forever, but I really enjoy that RetailMeNot does this so you don't have to sit there copying and pasting these codes and testing which work and which typically don't. I say TYPICALLY because I know for sure sometimes RANDOM codes do give some sort of reward for one person but not work for 20 other people who try it too.

I recently have decided to get more serious about my freelance makeup artistry so I had to purchase quite a few new items over the past day or two for my kit (which you'll see photos of once it all gets here). So with all this hauling I've stumbled on a few codes. So here are a few I came across. Keep in mind that most websites only allow you to use 1 code per order so you'll have to choose what's best for you.

SEPHORA COUPON CODES

TIP: the best part of sephora's coupon codes is even if you get the standard 3 free samples that come with every order you still get an extra sample if the code you use gives you a specific coupon.

BECHOICE: Choose a free Bare Escentuals 10 day foundation sample, mascara sample, or a refillable compact.
BEMATTE: Receive a bareMinerals matte foundation in your shade, plus a mini brush to apply it with, free with any online merchandise purchase. While supplies last.
OAKPRIME: Korres Oak Primer Deluxe Sample.
CHOOSEME: FREE deluxe sample with purchase. Choose 1 of 5 items. Boscia tinted moisturizer, BENEfit benetint, MUFE HD primer, Chloe parfum or Skyn Glacial fase wash. While supplies last.
MUFE: When you have 3 or more MakeUp Forever eyshadows in your cart you can use this code and get a free MUFE eyeshadow palette.

BENEFIT COUPON CODES

HIGHBEAM and CANDYSHP: Enter both promo codes at checkout and receive a comp High Beam satiny pink illuminator (add to cart before checkout), plus free shipping with any purchase more than $40. Offers end March 26.
GOLDSTAR: 10% off all purchases $50 or more through 4/4/10 Not valid with any other offers.

ELF Cosmetics

EGBRU: Get a free Studio Line 11 pc Brush Set when you $25 order.
SORRYPATTY: 50% off up to the first $15 you spend.
SPRINGNAIR: Buy 1, get 1 50% off on all makeup through 4/15/10.
MARCHMINI: Free mini makeup collection with order of $20 or more. Expires 5/01/2010

MAC COUPON CODE

lash310: free shipping and free sample zoom lash mascara

This is NOT McDonalds

2010-03-20T21:40:00.001-07:00

Ba da bop ba ba, I'm loving it. And I am not talking about Mcdonalds, at least not today. But I am sitting here watching QVC do a show on kitchen appliances. And I know you're thinking Samantha, kitchen appliances on a beauty blog? But give me a moment to explain, watching this has reminded me of something.

I feel like most people think that QVC is a primarily a shopping outlet for senior citizens who can't their leave homes. BIG OL' FAIL. With that said sometime last month I was channel surfing and came across this AMAZING deal on QVC. It was their "Today's Special Value" so it was a one time deal. And I've NEVER got such an amazing beauty deal.

Philosophy super-size home facial 3-pc.set

32 oz Purity Made Simple cleanser
32 oz Microdelivery wash
Supersize Oxygen Peel kit

Now before I say how much I paid for this lets uncover the real value of this. The regular super sized 32 oz combo set of Purity Made Simple and Microdelivery is $84. Sounds pricey, I know. BUT QVC is the only retailer that sells the 32 oz. If you went to Sephora the largest size they sell in both products is 16 oz, and they don't come as a combo set so you have to buy them separately. Now I've done the investigating for you all, you'd be paying $69 having to purchase the 16 oz bottles separately from Sephora. So to get 32 oz worth of each product you'd have to buy 2 of each of the 16 oz bottles and you'd be paying $138. IN-f$#king-SANE. So just buying the 32 oz set from QVC you save $54. NOW lets move onto the Oxygen Peel, normally retails $50 for 10 peels. In this Today's Special Value you got the super sized set of 20 peels. The 20 set is not available to purchase alone so I can't say OFFICIALLY how much it retails for. Now, this is where you need to brace yourself, QVC says the retail value of this set is $167.

I GOT IT FOR: $84.96

They also gave you the option to lock in this value and have the product auto delivered to you every 8 months, I went for this option. I previously had the super size combo set on auto-delivery, so I just changed over from just the cleansers/wash to this special value and I am now essentially paying $0.96 for the super sized Oxygen Peel!

I know not everyone likes Philosophy, but I am a huge fan of Philosophy's skin care. So this particular deal was good for me. But they do have deals like this on all of their other beauty brands. I know a lot of beauty consumers are so used to spending the same amount for their favorite products where ever they go be it Sephora, Ulta, Drugstore.com and etc. But QVC genuinely cares about giving you a deal so you CAN get a deal on QVC every now and again on your favorite beauty products. So just watch out for when these deals are around.

Tip: You'll get the best deals from QVC on products when they are doing an on air presentation of an item. A lot of brands, beauty brands at least, tend to have specialty presentations where they have an hour or 2 demo on that specific brands merchandise that QVC carries. So even if they do only 1 hour of for example Laura Geller for the day, the promotions they offer on the presentation are available ALL day on QVC.com so even if you miss the live presentation but know Laura Geller is having a show on that day.
CHECK THE WEBSITE!

GEEZE Louise!

2010-03-19T13:24:00.000-07:00

I am still working on this getting to be a better blogger deal! I have so many blog ideas that I get so overwhelmed that I don't know what to post. Kinda funny huh?

ANYHOW. So... I am sure you all have heard of this epic win Sephora has going on for the Benefit Cosmetics Legally Bronze value set. I noticed this about a month ago on Sephora.com and I WANNNNNNNNNTED IT. But it was one of those times where you suddenly turn into an idiot and don't do what you know you should do, I didn't order it. It's a $35 kit that contains $105 worth of full sized Benefit products. Now everyone is seemingly getting this for High Beam and Hoola, and by everyone I mean you can include this girl in on that too. If purchased seperate they are $62. Do I need to say anything else about how REALLY epic of a win this is? I think not.

Now let me tell you all, I love Benefit. LOVE LOVE LOVE Benefit. They're founded out of San Francisco so while they were still a relatively smaller brand I had heard plenty about them sense I am from the Bay Area. At the time I know they didn't have too many counters country wide, but they had one at a Macy's near by and I gradually started picking up one or two Benefit items from there. Then I found out there was an actual Benefit boutique near my house (4th street in Berkeley if anyone from the Bay Area wasn't aware of that location, WHICH SHAME ON YOU IF YOU WEREN'T AWARE! Ha!) I think the whole line is really amazing. It is on the pricer side, that I can not deny. But if you have EVER considered trying out Benefit, I HIGHLY recommend you get this value set and get it ASAP. You can call your local Sephora and see if they have it in stock. I just stumbled across it being back in stock (when it was sold out for what felt like FOREVER) on Sephora.com, so it's on their for the time being if you want to buy it online.

Now I also picked up a $10 Benefit To Go sampler set. Nothing too exciting (to the untrained eye), but it was cute and I have little to no Benefit in my kit right now so I picked it up while I was at it. It has samples of Posietint, Some Kind-a Gorgeous, That Gal, and High Beam. I've never tried any of the item in this little combo aside from High Beam, which let me tell you... I could never have enough High Beam. So I am pretty excited! I'll keep everyone up to date on how I feel about these items.

Hahaha, now I am the biggest cheap skate ever. Sephora has a pretty nice US flat rate shipping of $5.95, but if you spend over $50 you get free shipping. At the point with these 2 items I was at $45, now I knew I still had to pay sales tax but I either could have purchased something for $5 and got free shipping or have paid $5.95 for shipping, yeah it really came down to a $0.95 debate... I clearly bought something else. I searched $5 in the search box and this Pacific Tuscan Blood Orange Body Butter came up.

I recently subscribed to this super adorable girl on youtube, gtgirl (whom if you love lush, she does amazing lush reviews), where she had mentioned this body butter and raved about it. So when this came up in the search and I only need to spend $5 on the dot and this was $5, I snagged it up.

I'll do a whole big review once it gets here for you guys. I also got some samples of stuff I've never tried before so this ought to be pretty exciting!

De-LUSH-us

2010-02-21T10:56:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I got the chance to go to my first Lush event. And boy am I glad I went. I got an email a few weeks ago saying my Lush store was having it's 1 year birthday event and the first 200 people to RSVP would receive the retro Happy Birthday Bubble Bar for free and at the event if you spent $45 or more you'd get a free goodie bag with full-size products including retro items (which are normally only available from Lush.com/LushUSA.com). Now, I hadn't been to Lush since November, so I jumped on the chance. I RSVP'd to the email with in 5 minutes of receiving hahaha.

I didn't get too much. I could have easily spent too much money, but after a long day at work I just wanted to get in and get out so I didn't get much time to browse and justify buying random stuff I didn't need, thankfully. I would have loved to have not been so drained from work because the party seemed awesome and I could have taken more advantage of all the fun! Everyone, employees and customers were all really energetic. There was a DJ, balloons everywhere, from what I heard there was trivia games going on through out the day.

I have to say my Lush is amazing. Everyone there is SUPER friendly. Every time I go in "I haven't seen you in ages! How are you? Have you seen the new so and so product?" I have to say I know it is apart their sales tactic, but working in a retail store with a similar selling tactics I do have to say A) It works. B) It's not fake. There is no used car salesmanship about them doing their job. The people at Lush, at least mine, OBVIOUSLY really enjoy the products they sell and seemingly enjoy their work place. I can not say more good things about Lush's staff and if you're from or ever in the Bay Area, visit Lush Bay Street.

BOUGHT

I bought Porridge because I have Keratosis Pilaris (chicken skin, sexy right?) on my arms and legs so it's ideal to exfoliate regularly to slough off dead skin cells. I always liked the idea of Porridge because though it's mildly abrasive it seemed pretty nourishing. And I have to say now that I have it and have got to use it, my assumptions were on the mark. I don't like the scent when it's not in use, it's not awful but when you're in the shower lathering it up, it smells wonderful. Kinda weird. I do also have to say I previously bought Buffy Body Butter for my chicken skin. But Buffy is SUPER abrasive, I have pretty sensitive skin when it comes to chemicals but when it comes to scrubs and massage treatments my skin can take some abuse. And Buffy was so abrasive I felt as though I could only use it 2, at max 3 times a week. Though it has tons of amazing butters to moisturize your skin it doesn't even out the abrasiveness which sometimes left my skin feeling achy. And ideally you should exfoliate your skin daily to help tame chicken skin. Not to mention at $21.35 for .43 lbs. Buffy is not as much of a value compared to Porridge at $27 for a full pound of soap.

Honey I Wash The Kids Soap
I have a love hate relationship with HIWTK. I LOVE IT. It's a simple soap that smells amazing and lathers well, doesn't just lather but CLEANSES your skin. Nothings worse than a soap that's all suds and no cleanse. The scent will lightly stay on your skin after you use this soap but it wont interfere with any fragrance you put on top of it. But as for that hate part, well there's nothing to hate about this soap it self haha. I like to try new things but this was the first item I ever bought at Lush and since my first purchase this has been the only soap I've continually reached for. I can't seem to bring myself to go out of the box so to speak. (as you can see with this purchase I forced myself buy other soaps).
Godmother Soap
Godmother and I have an odd relationship. I smelled Snow Fairy Shower Gel around the holiday time. And I remember HATTTTTTTING it. But at the same time I remember smelling Godmother and loving it. At the time not knowing both these cleansers were the same scent supposedly, maybe my nose just can pick up scents right hahaha! I have to say, I still don't think Godmother smells like Snow Fairy. Call be crazy and random as hell, but I think Godmother smells like Tazo Passion tea. Anyhow, I love the scent but sadly I don't think of it as a "shower soap". By shower soap I mean something that leaves your skin feeling cleansed and refreshed. I just get the refreshed feelings. It seems like it would be a better displayed as cutesy dish hand soap. I've only tried this once so I'll try it again and see if my opinion changes.

I don't even know what to say about street party. It just seemed like fun when I saw it on LushUSA.com and I wanted to try it. Heads up, if you're going to Lush ask for this bath bomb by name, the sweet girl who helped me at the store didn't know what I meant by the "Canadian Olympic products" she said to me "they only sell Canadian products in Canada, but um--- we have this new bath bomb" LOL! I had never used a glittery bath bomb so once I got it home I was to impatient to wait to take a bath to actually REALLY use this. I broke it in half and filled up the bath a little and let it go. I was taken back by the glitter. I had a friend who was over come take a look and their response was "it looks like a kinder garden craft project."

Now I know the picture isn't the best quality, but you can clearly see the overwhelming amount of glitter. I like the novelty idea of this, and I'll use the remaining half of the bomb but, as for repurchasing... not gonna happen.

I am obsessed with The Comforter. I originally got this as a free gift in my last Lush purchase for a promo they had where if you spent $75 or more you got a free bubble bar or bath melt of your choice. The Comforter being one of the biggest products I chose it for the value. And I am so glad my cheap butt picked it. It smells so fresh, TONS of bubbles (pending on how much you use of it), and IT MAKES PINK BATH WATER! This will probably be repurchased every time I go to Lush.

Free Gifts

I don't know how I ended up with 2 of these. I didn't realize 'til I got home one ended up in my shopping my bag when I had my free RSVP one in my purse, but I wont argue. I am neutral on this. Someone who I showed my new stuff to smelled this and said it reminded them of a floral scented urinal cake before anyone urinated on it. And maybe now that statements stuck in my head and I am partial to the thought but I agree somewhat. It has a utility grade floral cleanser scent to it, where it's not a natural floral scent but you can tell floral was the idea behind it. The description on LushUSA.com says "With bergamot oil to give it a citrus scent and gentle vanilla absolute, it smells somewhat like an orange cake with ice cream on top." Not the case for me. I think I pick up the African Marigold oil in it most. It's not bad, I am very glad I got it but this is not an item I would have bought on my own.

I could SHOOT MYSELF IN THE FOOT. Ugh. I am not a big floral scent fan. The girl who helped in the store showed me they had this bubble bar as a special item to purchase yesterday only for the event because it is a retro item, but soon as she said it smelled of jasmine and I instantly passed. Then what do you know, I got it in my free gift bag. Got to my car after leaving the event and laughed that it was one of the items I had because I was really off put by the idea of jasmine, smelled it anyhow... HOLY CRAP. It smells divine. It would be perfect for the end of one of those stressful days. I could have bought a slew of them as back ups and wouldn't have to order them on the website and pay shipping and handling, but no I was tired and prissy and didn't smell it in the store. I will MOST DEFINITELY be buying this online.

Adorable soap, but wont be purchasing. Well, I haven't tried it yet so that could very well change. It is another retro item. It's a cute soap. It's a light pale green (think Peppermint Patti nailpolish from MAC). Smells of a strong Kiwi based fruit salad. Even has little Kiwi seeds on the top of it. The scent just isn't something I favor. Who knows though, I hate how Porridge smells dry so maybe this could change too. I'll keep you posted.
o
I've never used solid perfumes before so I am no completely sold on this yet. As mentioned, I love me some Comforter. But this perfume just is not on point. Something about it comes off as a medicinal scent.

WHERE HAS TIME GONE!

2010-02-15T18:05:00.000-08:00

Wow, wow, wow. I failed epicly at the blogging deal! Gee Samantha, get with it. It's been 7 months since I wrote a blog. DO FORGIVE ME. Things are changing in my life and I need to make some personal changes too! I've decided I want to start trying some new things, sometimes life becomes so stagnant and change is good. *end of rant*

MAINTAINING THIS BLOG IS ONE OF THE CHANGES I AM GOING TO MAKE! NOW, I'm one of those people who either goes big or goes home. SO, I want a decent amount of followers. SO I AM THINKING... when I get 1,000 followers, I will give out 1 full MAC 15 well palette with colors from the permanent line of the winners choosing. But I am not 100% yet. I really would love to have a contest, lets be real free stuff motivates people haha. I am just not confident if I want the palette to be the contest prize. Once I decide and my followers accumulate more and more you will be the first people to know.

TO MAKE UP FOR LOST TIME...
FOTBDAY (Face of the birthday, haha my birthday was on the 12th!)

pardon the awful quality, stupid G1 camera!

Eyes:
Urban Decay Primer Potion
NYX Milk Jumbo Eye Pencil
MAC 3D Silver(pro)/Jewelmarine glitter
MAC Mixing Medium Eyeliner to adhere glitters (pro)
MAC Black Track Fluidline
MAC Black Black Pigment (pro)
MAC Knight Divine Eyeshadow

Face:
MAC Face and Body N1 mixed with MAC Studio Fix Fluid NC15
BeneFit Highbeam
MAC Blush Baby Sheertone Blush

Lips:
LUSH Cosmetics Let Them Eat Cake Lip Balm
MAC Viva Glam Gaga Lipstick

dazzle, dazzle, dazzle.

2009-06-28T00:50:00.000-07:00

I recently have become a dazzleglass lover. And I've heard some hit or miss information on as to if you can B2M for dazzleglasses. Well, today I decided to take some of my empties to the freestanding I regular (I live near 2 freestanding stores, 2 counters, and a pro store; the one I go to is in the mall I work in). And to end all rumors, you CAN B2M for dazzleglasses. Anything with the word glass in it is B2Mable.

I got Funtabulous, Like Venus, Baby Sparks, and Rags to Riches. I asked for Love Alert not Like Venus. But, it doesn't really matter because I'd of eventually ended up owning both.

Very excited to finally get my hands on Funtabulous. My freestanding store has been out for awhile. It's gorgeous, as are all of them.

And! Annnnnd, I got to check out the Euristocrats II collection (July 2nd) while I was there. Via Veneto is the dazzleglass version of Lavender Whip. Which I am very excited about. I will definitely be picking it up in addition to the other 2 limited edition colors, Rue de Rouge and Euro Beat. The remaining are 4 of the 7 dazzleglasses to come out with Euristocrats II are already permanent (Date Night) or will become permanent with the launch of this collection (Internationalist, Local Colour, and Roman Holiday). So limited edition colors rank first for me then I'll pick up the others over time. As for the lip sticks, I am not a huge lipstick kind of broad. But, I do like Cockney.

Sugar and spice and everything nice.

2009-06-19T18:37:00.000-07:00

After months of being an epic failure of promising do to this tutorial, its finally here. Not sure what I am talking about? Here is a hint.

When I originally came up with the B2M reject necklace, MAC was no longer accepting depotted items. Well... way for them to go and start accepting depots again when I finally get this made. If you don't want to waste your depots on doing this, I can make you one but not for free. I make other various things with my depots so, let me know and we can work something out.

Everyone always asks me how I came up with this. Truthfully, I originally had sprinkles because I was trying to come up with a Halloween look last year and was going to apply them to my face. After Halloween passed I realized I had a massive amount of sprinkles left. I was about to throw out all of my depots around this time when I realized I could do something with them. I don't own many things that need to be depotted because I only purchase Pro Pans, so when I get a potted shadow or blush it's because it limited edition which doesnt come in Pro Pan form unfortunately. So it didn't mean much to me to throw out 3 or 4 depots at the time. One thing led to another and I came up with the necklace.

Alrighty, first things first.

At a minimum you will need the following...

1 depotted well... pot.

For the sake of all things cute and going along with this theme, I choose my Dear Cupcake pot.

top coat.

Any top coat will do. I choose the Sally Hansen nailgrowth miracle simply because it dries quick and I am impaitent.

sprinkles.

I personally like the rainbow nonpareilles so I went with these, but anything will do. I got mine for about $2 at Michaels craft store in their cake decorating isle. Obviously these can be obtained from a grocery store.

On to the arts and crafts...

You'll want to open your pot and apply your top coat to the under portion of the lid. If you're using a fast drying top coat then you need to be quick. If you're using a regular ol' top coat, let it get a little tacky before moving on.

The easiest way to go about this with out making a huge mess is to get an empty box, shoe box lid was what I went with. You'll want to now open up your sprinkles, I used the lid from my sprinkle bottle and poured some into it. If your sprinkle container, bottle, thingy... whatever it maybe called has a shifter in it you can just shake the sprinkles out.

Now attack top coat with sprinkles. I just poured my sprinkles from the bottle cap onto the pot lid. You see why doing this in a box comes in handy or else you'll have a massive mess of fail sprinkles all over the place.

You may notice some inconsistencies with the the sprinkles adhearing. Which is normal. Be sure to flip the lid down and check the appearance from the sprinkles while the lid is closed, if you like what you see than no need to go on with the next few steps, if theres not enough... then continue freely. All you have to do to fix this is take more top coat and apply it over your sprinkles. For me the easiest thing to do was dab the top coat on the areas that were lacking in sprinkles and not glob it on all of them, it might make the dye on the sprinkles smear.

Attack again. If you need to do reapply sprinkles more than once feel free to do so.

Once you feel like your done with applying sprinkles, let the pot sit OPEN for 20 minutes so everything has an opprotunity to dry. After 20 minutes close the lid and shake. You may see some sprinkles fall off like pictures above. This is standard. If you have an excess amount of sprinkles come off you can always reapply more. But it's best shake off any possible loose sprinkles now so incase you make this into a necklace as I did you wont hear any random rattling inside the pot.

Shut pot and you are done! If you want you can seal the pot shut with nail adhesive. I did this because it got pretty annoying when people reached toward my neck to open the pot and see inside, but you certainly don't have to.

If you want to make a necklace out of this it's rather simple. I bought a necklace on a chain which each chain connected to the pendant in the center and clasped at the ends together, essentially it was 2 seperate chains connected to 1 pendant. I removed the pendant and glued the chains to the back of my original necklace. Pretty easy.

Need me to elaborate on anything?

Comment :)

FOTD!

2009-06-19T18:16:00.001-07:00

After a solid two months of trying to locate Juiced e/s, going to 3 freestanding stores and 2 counters. I gave in and had to buy Juiced on AllCosmeticsWholesale.com. I am not down with buying make up online, but when times get rought rules are meant to be broken. Aside from juiced ACW also had Dark Edge, ahh be still my heart. I LOVE Dark Edge, LOVE it. I originally got it in the Tempting Quad, I use it constantly and fear I'll hit pan soon so, got a back up. The things limited edition and discontinued products will make you do. SO! In lue of my finds... FOTD!

(all MAC unless stated otherwise)

Painterly Paint Pot

NYX Slim Eye Pencil in White (brow highlight base)

Chrome yellow e/s (lid base)

Next to nothing e/s

Bright Future e/s

Juiced e/s
Temping e/s

Dark Edge e/s

Black Track Fluidline

Carbon e/s (to set black track)

Shroom e/s

Red Cherry #412 eyelashes

BeautyShopOC.com

2009-06-19T17:39:00.000-07:00

So recently I have fallen in love with Red Cherry eyelashes. I bought a few at a local beauty supplier, but they were $2 each. Which is not all that bad for lashes but I knew I could find them cheaper online. Thanks to my best friend, Google, I came across BeautyShopOC.com. For $16.69 which includes tax and shipping, I got 12 pairs of my favorite 118's. Thats $1.39 a pair. Made my life much? Oh yeah. I really do love this site. If you're just checking out Red Cherry’s you can order just a single pack of lashes OR if you have already tried a pair and have fallen head over heels (AHEM, 118's) you can buy them in bulks of 4, 6, and 12. I am sure you'll wonder why it says Bliss when I am saying they're Red Cherry's. Haha, Red Cherry eyelashes also are packaged as Bliss and Ever Lashes but they are all the same exact thing.

They also sell NYX for pretty good prices. The best part, they break down the NYX products in comparison to their MAC dupe counterpart. They show you pictures of the MAC product and the NYX product side by side so you can the differences. This is really great for anyone just starting to get into makeup but is a little overwhelmed to jump into the deep end of the pool.

OH! Also, shipping was super quick too, I ordered these around 11PM on the 14th and I got them this morning.