Friday, September 28, 2012

Favorite Items of September

Hey everyone and happy end of the month (almost)!

Below is a list of my favorite items that I've been using on a daily basis and/or have been helping me look awesome when I step out of my house.  You can also see me rant about these items on my YouTube channel.


- Clarisonic Mia with Deep Pore brush head : This is a great at-home cleansing device that cleans deep into your pores and removes all dirt, oil and makeup.  It leaves your face feeling smooth and refresh.  With this particular brush head, it has helped remove all my blackheads on my nose and reduce the size of my pores.

- Clean & Clear Finishes Pore Perfecting Moisturizer : This is very similar to benefit POREfessional (if you use this).  This softens the appearance of pores with light-diffusing minerals to give you a beautiful finish.  It's lightweight, oil-free and has SPF 15.

- Jouer Matte Moisture in Hazel: Absolute favorite of this month!  This foundation is lightweight, medium coverage and evens out imperfections leaving your skin with a smooth, matte finish.  This is perfect for all skin types with SPF 15 protection from UVA and UVB rays while Vitamins A, C and E deliver rich antioxidants to the skin.

- Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser Dark Circles Concealer in Medium: Best under eye concealer by far!  The smooth, easy-to-use applicator gently spreads the product evenly under your eye and instantly erases dark circles and fine lines leaving your eyes looking radiant.

- Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Cream Shadow in Pink Bellini: This is part of the Bobbi Brown Instant Pretty Collection at QVC.  I believe this is exclusively sold only at QVC unless you eBay it.  The shade is a neutral, light pink with a lilac shimmer.

- Maybelline Volum' Express One By One Mascara in Blackest Black: This mascara de-clumps every lash and coats each one from root to tip giving you the volume that you want.

- Mary Kay Satin Lips Set: This exclusive lip duo from Mary Kay is a god-send for those who have dry, cracked lips or for those who like to pick or bite your lips.  The two-step system gently exfoliates dead surface skin cells and moisturizes lips for at least 6 hours.  I use these items at night and in the morning, my lips are still moisturized.

- Revlon Color Burst Lip Butter in Berry Smoothie: This lipstick is a butter balm with beautiful shine and gives you soft, smooth and hydrated lips.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Just Another Manic Monday

Hey friends!  Today's cosmetic highlight comes from the fabulous makeup store of MAC Cosmetics.  I was never a MAC girl until I started learning more about makeup earlier this year.  Whenever I pass by the MAC store, I just hear a church choir singing an angelic tune as the lights around the store get brighter and brighter.  It's makeup heaven to most people, but to others it's either over-priced or intimidating.  Whatever you may think, everything in the store is of great quality and I haven't experienced any let down (yet).


Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Mascara Galore!

Mascara is always evolving with its revolutionary formula and bristles.  It seems like a new mascara is being debuted every week from all brands of low-end to high-end cosmetics.  The branding of these beauty tubes always seems to amaze me.  Some claim to enhance your natural lashes to look like false ones and others claim to help your lashes grow 5 times its natural length.  Whatever your needs are for your prime mascara, it's definitely a popular item that consumers stock up on all the time.



Wednesday, September 12, 2012

NOTD: Zoya Kelly

My nail polish collection is a solid variety of colors with one thing in common: black handles.  This observation was noticed a while back when I started researching the "toxic trio" in nail polish.  Heads up: if you don't know what I'm talking about, type "toxic trio" in your search engine.  After researching different, harmful ingredients found in beauty products, I re-evaluated my makeup collection and wanted to make sure that every item I own wasn't doing any harm to my health.  I started on my nail polishes and since have changed my habits on reading the small, tiny printed labels.  This may or may not be for you, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion about the effects of beauty products to your health.  If I continue on this path, I may never reach my goal of the purpose to this post.

Moving forward- once clearing out any polish that contained the "toxic trio", what remained in my nail polish collection were colors that were either OPI or Butter London.  I adore both nail polish brands and have wanted to try a new brand that was "toxic trio" free.  I did intense research on healthy polishes and Zoya was part of the list.  This brand immediately struck my interest not only because it was "toxic trio" free, but it had a black handle!  It sounds lame, but I did a recent Zoya haul at my local Ulta and am so happy I did so.


This color is perfect for fall.  The gunmetal tone has a undertone of blue and purple.  There's no shimmer or shine, but looks bad-ass when the light reflects of off your nails.  Since this was my first Zoya polish, I was kinda upset that the application was kinda streaky.  It's not as consistent as OPI or Butter London with just one coat.  So you definitely need 2 (or maybe 3) solid coats.  Other than that, I'm glad that this shade is part of my nail collection.


Do you have this?  Let me know and happy painting!

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Meal of the Day: BBQ Chicken-Touille

Remember the Pixar movie "Ratatouille"?  Just replace "rata-" with "bbq chicken" and this dish is as easy as that!

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

NOTD: OPI Schnapps Out of It!

It's September and already the transformation from summer to fall in fashion and beauty has arrived in a blink of an eye.  Everyone can say that the summer flew by so quickly that people are still in summer mode post Labor Day.  Well I'm not one of them- I LOVE FALL!  I already started picking up a few items that are perfect for the fall including a new nail polish by OPI from their latest collection.

The OPI Germany Collection includes 12 new shades that were inspired by what fashion editors are calling "Europe's hottest new fashion metropolis".  It embraces elegance as well as the avant-garde essence of modern Berlin.  Personally having travelled to Berlin over 7 years ago, I love the boldness of each color and the names are quite catchy.  These shades are great transitional colors into fall and are perfect for any activity, day or night.


Being a loyal OPI consumer, I couldn't resist purchasing at least one of the new polishes.  Among all the new colors, Schnapps Out of It! is a color that caught my attention.  It's a beautiful mauve/brown color with red and grey undertones.  There's a super fine hint of silver glitter and shine that's nearly noticeable after applying 2 coats of polish.  I don't know why but this color reminds me of rose petals.  When I first swatched it at the store, all I could this of was rose petals and potpourri (weird, I know).  Anyway, this color is great for those who are still holding onto their summer tan (guilty to that!).  The color on your nails is warm and very fall appropriate as the weather starts to get cooler.

   

Have you tried any of the shades from OPI German Collection?  Let me know.  Happy painting!