BEAUTY

Get hon­est reviews and sug­ges­tions on items you can pick up at the many beauty retail­ers here at MOA. Learn about prod­uct launches, beauty events, celebrity sight­ings and much more.

Prod­uct Review: Fiber­wig Mascara

By: MOA Beauty-ista

On a recent search for a new mas­cara I stum­bled across Imju Fiber­wig ($24 at Sephora).  Fiber­wig is a top sell­ing mas­cara in Japan and claims to be ‘resilient to tears, sweat and oil’ while pro­vid­ing ‘false eyelash-like results’.  This prod­uct comes in one color (black), and upon appli­ca­tion the ‘fibers’ coat the sur­face of each lash.  While this prod­uct does not flake or smudge (good­bye rac­coon eyes!), I did find that it took sev­eral coats to lengthen and it doesn’t really seem to add vol­ume at all.  It also would not hold the curl in my lashes (which were stick­ing straight out by lunch!). Over­all a very aver­age mas­cara. Beauty Blog Rat­ing: C

Get Your Glow On

By: MOA Beauty-ista

Every year around this time, I reach a point when I look in the mir­ror and I can’t believe how pale and pasty I look (can you say March in Min­nesota?).  After search­ing the inter­net for a win­ter vaca­tion get­away, I reach for the ‘glow’.  There are some great glowly make-up options that can help get you through these win­ter months with­out look­ing like Casper’s twin sister.

Aveda Inner Light Shim­mer Accents ($21.50 at Aveda, pic­tured left) – This is a liq­uid shim­mer with nat­ural pig­ments that help to cre­ate a lumi­nous look (think J-Lo).  Slick a lit­tle over your foun­da­tion and blush and you’ll be left with a youth­ful, sun kissed look.

Nars The Mul­ti­ple in South Beach ($37 at Sephora, pic­tured cen­ter) – This is a cult favorite that I have used off and on for years (I ini­tially bought it because I read in a mag­a­zine that Julia Roberts used it!).  South Beach is a soft, shim­mery apri­cot color.  Put this on over a lit­tle self tan­ner, and you’ll look like you just got back from South Beach.

MAC Iridescent/Loose Pow­der in Sil­ver Dusk ($20 at MAC, pic­tured right) – This is a superfine loose pow­der that I use over my blush.  It adds a very sub­tle shim­mer and just the right amount of pigment.

Beauty Bites

By: MOA Beauty-ista

Beauty on the Go

This is genius. Sephora now has a vend­ing machine filled with about 30 of their most deli­cious prod­ucts located on MOA’s first level, west side (at the bot­tom of the ele­va­tor). This makes it easy to get your prod­uct fix (or pick up a gift) with­out get­ting dis­tracted or hav­ing to wait in line. Prod­uct selec­tion includes Urban Decay Eye­lid Primer, Make Up For­ever HD Pow­der, Kin­erase eye cream, a vari­ety of per­fumes and much more.

 

 

 

 

Hand Relief

I recently dis­cov­ered the most delight­ful hand cream. L’Occtaine Shea But­ter Hand Cream ($26 for 5.2 oz) avail­able at L’Occtaine. With shea but­ter, almond, jas­mine and ylang-ylang, this thick cream smells clean and fresh, but some­how inno­cent (like a freshly washed baby). It blends nicely and is extremely mois­tur­iz­ing – per­fect for that dehy­drated skin that comes with the Min­nesota win­ter! L’Occitane is located on level 2, West.

 

 

 

 

 

Beauty Blun­ders

Ever have one of those morn­ings when you’re rushed putting on your makeup, you sprint out the door, sit through an impor­tant meeting…then finally have a moment to look in the mir­ror, only to real­ize you have mas­cara all over your eye­lid (eek!)? Don’t let this hap­pen to you. Stop in to Bare Escen­tu­als to pick up their On the Spot Eye Makeup Remover ($5). The small box con­tains 24 liquid-filled swabs (that look just like Q-tips). To use, just snap (or bend) the swab in half and the liq­uid (make-up remover) flows into the cot­ton por­tion. This is a sim­ple and effi­cient way to fix make-up blun­ders. A must have for your make-up bag. Bare Esec­n­tu­als has two loca­tions: level one, East & level two, north.

Mis­sion Foun­da­tion: Laura Mercier vs. Make Up For Ever vs. Stila

By: Erica Dao

I’m a reg­u­lar user of liq­uid foun­da­tion and my cur­rent sup­ply is dwin­dling down to its last pump. Yikes! So, I set out on a mis­sion to find the next best replace­ment. I absolutely love my cur­rent foun­da­tion, but I don’t want to spend another $60.

I headed to Sephora com­pletely clue­less of what my next makeup endeavor would be. But to my relief, one of their lovely makeup artists made a few sug­ges­tions and offered sam­ples for me to take home. The sug­ges­tions were based on my per­sonal cri­te­ria: some­thing to address my com­bi­na­tion skin (oily T-zone and dry in other spots, espe­cially in the win­ter) and want­ing medium cov­er­age with a nat­ural fin­ish. Here are my reviews on each of the three contenders:

Laura Mercier Silk Creme Foun­da­tion - Oil free ($42): The tex­ture of this foun­da­tion is very light & creamy. The con­sis­tency was sim­i­lar to a whipped body cream vs. a tra­di­tional liq­uidy foun­da­tion. The cream glided over my skin effort­lessly and offered a nice, porcelain-like fin­ish. The foun­da­tion made my skin look almost flaw­less and pro­vided a healthy glow. It was also mois­tur­iz­ing. The only down­side is that this line doesn’t offer a large vari­ety of shade, which may make it a bit dif­fi­cult to match cer­tain skin tones.

 

 

Make Up For Ever HD Invis­i­ble Cover Foun­da­tion — Oil free ($40): This foun­da­tion def­i­nitely pro­vides a richer fin­ish than Laura Mercier’s. The cov­er­age is slightly fuller, but does not feel heavy or cakey. It’s pretty long-lasting and makes my skin look flaw­less. This makeup comes in 25 shades, so you can’t go wrong with find­ing the per­fect shade. The foun­da­tion is a great option for those who work in the spot­light — the makeup is designed to with­stand bright & harsh light­ing and cre­ate a soft-focus effect.

Stila Nat­ural Fin­ish Oil-Free Makeup ($38): This foun­da­tion was a bit runny and did not glide over the skin as well as the other two foun­da­tions. The fin­ish was a bit dull on my skin and a lit­tle too matte for my lik­ing. It did pro­vide decent cov­er­age and does come in a wide vari­ety of shades.

 

 

 

 

 

Ver­dict: I would highly rec­om­mend both Laura Mercier and Make Up For­ever — it’s a toss up and I don’t think you can go wrong.

Stock Up at Bath & Body Works

By: MOA Beauty-ista

It’s that time of year again – the Bath & Body Works semi-annual sale is tak­ing place now! Hol­i­day bath sets are 50 per­cent off and other hol­i­day scented items (like shower gels and lotions) are 75 per­cent off. Dur­ing my visit I stocked up on their spa socks (con­sid­ered a hol­i­day item, but really could be used any time of the year) at $3.50/pair, antibac­te­r­ial soaps at $3/each and foam­ing body wash at $3/each. Stop in before the end of the month to check out

Tinted Love

By: MOA Beauty-ista

The Laura Mercier Tinted Mois­tur­izer ($42 at Nord­strom and Sephora) has had a buzz going among beauty fans for years (peo­ple love this stuff!). Strangely, I had never actu­ally tried it for myself until I recently received a sam­ple. But I can hon­estly tell you that I now under­stand what all the buzz is about. This is a sheer, light­weight for­mula with just a hint of color. I tried nude, which worked per­fectly with my light skin tone and gave just the right amount of cov­er­age, leav­ing me with a healthy and ‘glow­ing’ com­plex­ion. This prod­uct is not at all greasy (like some of the oth­ers I’ve tried) and really seems to even out the skin tone. It also con­tains a SPF 20. While $42 may be a bit steep for some, I can tell you that a lit­tle goes a long way, and I would expect a tube of this to last for quite a while. Over­all a great prod­uct. Beauty Blog Rat­ing: A

Effort­less Brows

By: MOA Beauty-ista

I am a fair-skinned blonde with very light eye brows; some­times in pho­tos it lit­er­ally looks like I have no brows what­so­ever. I like to get them tinted and shaped at the salon, but who has the time and money to keep that up (espe­cially when a tint only seems to last for a week or two!)? Recently I’ve been on the look­out for a new brow regime – one that looks nat­ural and doesn’t take much time. My expe­ri­ence has been that pow­ders don’t seem to have much stay­ing power and pen­cils don’t look nat­ural. Enter the Anas­ta­sia Brow Pen ($21 at Sephora). This cute lit­tle pen is my new best friend. It reminds me of a felt tip pen, which allows you to pre­cisely draw on each indi­vid­ual hair (but quickly and eas­ily). The brow pen does a great job of fill­ing in my brows, leav­ing a nat­ural look. The prod­uct glides on eas­ily and seems to stay all day. You can either use alone, or layer a pow­der on top for some addi­tional tex­ture. The Brow Pen is avail­able in two col­ors (light and dark), so it’s easy to find a match for all hair colors.

Sephora is located on level 2, West near Macy’s.

Beauty Bites

By: MOA Beauty-ista

THIS WEEK ONLY

Sephora is offer­ing 20 per­cent off Bare Escen­tu­als Get Started foun­da­tion kits. This is a great price if you’ve every wanted to try min­eral foun­da­tion. The foun­da­tion kit includes every­thing you need (two bareM­iner­als foun­da­tions, All over Face Color in Warmth, Min­eral Veil, two face brushes, one con­cealer brush, Prime Time Foun­da­tion Primer and an instruc­tional DVD). Nor­mal price is $60. Price through Sat­ur­day is $48.

SEASON OF SURPRISE

Visit a Bare Escen­tu­als Bou­tique now through Novem­ber 30 to draw from a jar full of goodies….and receive a free luxe gift when you spend $30. See store for details.

Pre­scrip­tives No More

If you are a fan of the Pre­scrip­tives brand, it’s time to stock up. After 30 years, they’re shut­ting this brand down in Jan­u­ary of 2010. This is sad news. I have always been a fan of Pre­scrip­tive lip­sticks (SoHo was my sig­na­ture color for many years), and they have some great foun­da­tions (I plan to pur­chase sev­eral jars of Vir­tual Skin before they’re gone). Pre­scrip­tives is avail­able at Nord­strom, Macy’s and Bloom­ing­dales. Be sure to stock up on your favorites by January!

Seal it with a kiss (in a per­fect shade of red)

By: MOA Beauty-ista

Red lips have been show­ing up every­where, from the Video Music Awards to Scar­lett Johan­son to the women on Mad Men. The look of a deep red lip against a fair com­plex­ion is one of my favorites, and a great look for fall. Here are a few fab­u­lous new lip­pies that can help you achieve the per­fect red lip.

Chan­nel Lip Lac­quer in Coro­man­del and Dragon ($32 at Nord­strom and Bloomingdale’s). You must check these out. They’re new at Nord­strom and the gals there told me that in the first week they’re sell­ing like crazy. These are a cross between a lip­stick and a gloss, and they almost stain your lips, which helps the color last for hours (through cock­tails, din­ner AND dessert!). Coro­man­del is an orange-y red while Dragon is a deep red-red. Both would make for a great evening look.

Laura Mercier Satin Lip­color in San­gria ($22 at Nord­strom). This is a brand new prod­uct and the first semi-matte lip­stick to com­bine long wear and com­fort in a non-drying for­mula. When first applied, this prod­uct feels creamy, but it then changes to matte and almost ‘sets’ itself. This is done with Soft­i­san®, a light­weight “seal” that adheres to your lips to lock in the color and mois­tur­ize with­out feath­er­ing. San­gria is a nice, deep blue-red color, and this is a great over­all prod­uct – a must have for your makeup bag.

Prod­uct Review — DuWop Eyeliner

By: MOA Beauty-ista

I like the DuWop line, so when I noticed their Eye­Catcher Pen­cils ($18.50) on a recent trip to Sephora, I decided to give them a try. Each of the pen­cil col­ors is tar­geted at a spe­cific eye color (the the­ory is that they’ll make blue eyes bluer, green eyes greener and brown eyes richer). The eye­lin­ers uti­lize com­ple­men­tary col­ors to set off the color of the iris. They also con­tain flecks of metal­lic shim­mer to pick up the high­lights in the eye, fur­ther inten­si­fy­ing eye color.

I pur­chased the ‘Blue Eye Inten­si­fier’ which is a brown color with gold flecks. I’ve been wear­ing it with a neu­tral light brown shadow. The liner does not go on very smoothly, and per­son­ally I don’t think it shows up very well on the eye. I’ve sharp­ened the pen­cil sev­eral times, think­ing that might help it go on a bit eas­ier or increase the color inten­sity, but it doesn’t seem to work. Per­haps I am used to a slightly darker liner, but this one just doesn’t do much for me. I also don’t think it does any­thing to bring out my eye color. Over­all, I love the con­cept of eye makeup that brings out the color of your eye, but this one didn’t work for me. Rat­ing: D

Facials at Nordstrom…who knew?

By: MOA Beautyista

I have a great tip for you. The MOA Nord­strom has a secret spa area on the sec­ond floor where they do facials. Who knew, right? They fre­quently offer spe­cials with skin care pur­chases where you’ll get a com­pli­men­tary treat­ment in this secret spa. Once a month they offer a free Osmotics Sig­na­ture LED Photo Reju­ve­na­tion Treat­ment with a $150 Osmotics pur­chase. They offer these types of spe­cials with many of the lines, so you should always ask what spe­cials are going on when pur­chas­ing your skin­care prod­ucts at Nordstrom.

I was lucky enough to expe­ri­ence one of the Osmotics Photo Reju­ve­na­tion treat­ments, after which I saw some great results. Touted as “The Ulti­mate Non-surgical Face Lift”, this treat­ment promises to reduce wrin­kles and age spots while tight­en­ing the skin. This tech­nol­ogy was devel­oped by NASA; the LED Photo Reju­ve­na­tion Treat­ment uti­lizes cer­tain wave­lengths of light to improve over­all skin health and radi­ance. I was told that it’s also great for rosacea and acne.

The treat­ment is done by med­ical esta­ti­cian (just like in the dermatologist’s office). You lie on a table and the esta­ti­cian starts by putting a gel-like sub­stance on your face. She then takes a metal wand with a ball at the end and gen­tly (and very slowly) rubs it over your ‘prob­lem areas’. For me, that’s the laugh lines around my eyes and mouth. The entire process takes about a 30 min­utes. It isn’t painful, but you do feel the slight­est bit of dis­com­fort – how­ever, the results are worth it. After just one treat­ment, my lines were ‘soft­ened’ and when wash­ing my face that night, I noticed that my face looked great and skin seemed tighter. I can only imag­ine what type of results you’d get with mul­ti­ple treatments!

In addi­tion to offer­ing the LED Photo Reju­ve­na­tion Treat­ment as a GWP (gift with pur­chase) at Nord­strom, they also sell this pro­ce­dure out­right for $75 per treat­ment – an amaz­ing deal when you con­sider that this same treat­ment is sold at spas and der­ma­tol­o­gist offices for up to $200 per treatment!

For more infor­ma­tion talk to the gals at the Nord­strom skin­care counter or call them at (952) 883‑2121 x1423.

Celebrity makeup artist to visit Mall of America…

By: Erica Dao

Ladies, I’m sure most of us have scoured every beauty and fash­ion mag­a­zine to absorb as many pro­fes­sional beauty tips as pos­si­ble. Let’s face it, we all want to accen­tu­ate our best fea­tures and mask our flaws. What if you could get the advice straight from the source sans pag­ing through end­less mag­a­zines? What if you could have a true pro­fes­sional makeup artist who has worked with celebri­ties like Vic­to­ria Beck­ham, Gwen Ste­fani and Kate Bosworth work with you? Well you can this Sat­ur­day, Oct. 10 at Nord­strom! Gior­gio Armani celebrity face designer Tim Quinn will be at Nord­strom in Mall of Amer­ica from 10 a.m. — 5:30 p.m. to design your look with makeup secrets from the runway.

Quinn’s words have graced the pages of “W,” “Glam­our,” “Lucky,” “Cos­mopoli­tan” and more. He’s also worked back­stage at awards shows like the Acad­emy Awards, the Golden Globes and the ESPYs.

To book a con­sul­ta­tion with Quinn, visit the Gior­gio Armani Beauty counter at Nord­strom or call 952–883-2121. I just called today and time slots are fill­ing up fast.

Hair Diaries

By: MOA Beautyista

My bad hair day has turned in to a bad hair year. I swear my hair started thin­ning out when I turned 30 and I think I’m try­ing to over­com­pen­sate by using too many prod­ucts. That com­bined with not enough time in the morn­ing to wash and style my hair has left me feel­ing limp and stringy. As a result I’ve been wear­ing my hair pulled back six days a week (but not in a cute Heidi Klum sort of way).

No one knows hair bet­ter than my dar­ling sister-in-law, a styl­ist on the East Coast (whose hair ALWAYS looks good). In a recent email exchange about my ‘hair trauma’ she responded with some great prod­uct tips:

“Red­ken Spray Starch ($13) is won­der­ful! Spray once on each sec­tion before you flat iron and it will help straighten and hold your style all day long. It is also a great root lifter. For fab­u­lous waves spray Red­ken Spray Starch on each sec­tion before you curl your hair with a 1 ½” curl­ing iron. After you are fin­ished curl­ing each sec­tion, put a dab of Red­ken Rough Paste ($16) and one pump of Paul Mitchell Super Skinny ($18) in the palm of your hand. Rub your hands together to mix this prod­uct cock­tail and fin­ger it through your hair. Top it off with a light coat of hair­spray and your hair will turn heads all night long!”

Red­ken and Paul Mitchell prod­ucts are avail­able at Trade Secret, Regis Salon and Mia & Maxx Hair Stu­dio.

 

Mario Bade­scu Now Avail­able at Nordstrom

By: Jen­nifer L.

This is a brand I’ve been inter­ested in for awhile. I’ve seen lots of write-ups in mag­a­zines, and it seems like many celebri­ties use these prod­ucts (Martha Stew­art, Gwyneth Pal­trow, Sharon Stone and Cher are all fans). I recently noticed a Mario Bade­scu dis­play at Nord­strom, so I decided to try a few products:

Vit­a­min C Serum ($40)

I’ve been into serums lately, and this is a great one. It has 7.5% Ascor­bic Acid (aka Vit­a­min C) to reduce dis­col­oration and brighten the skin. It also has Hyaluronic Acid to retain skin’s nat­ural mois­ture and col­la­gen to enhance skin’s elas­tic­ity. I put it on at night, and swear that my face looks brighter in the morn­ing. Although the prod­uct comes in a green jar, it’s actu­ally a clear liq­uid which is dis­trib­uted with a drop­per. I put a few drops on after wash­ing my face (before mois­tur­iz­ing) and I feel like it imme­di­ately ‘plumps’ up my skin, leav­ing it feel­ing mois­tur­ized and almost sticky. By the time I wake up in the morn­ing, my com­ple­tion looks almost….dewy. Love it.

Dry­ing Potion ($17)

This is one of their best sell­ers, and they say it’s ‘an excel­lent acne spot treat­ment made with a blend of calamine and sal­i­cylic acid to clear up and soothe unsightly pim­ples overnight’. The liq­uid comes in a small jar in which it’s lay­ered with an almost clear liq­uid at the top and a solid pink liq­uid at the bot­tom. Direc­tions say not to shake, but rather to dip a Q-tip in to the pink liq­uid and dab it on your blem­ish. I wouldn’t exactly call this a ‘mir­a­cle’ prod­uct (and promis­ing ‘overnight’ results is push­ing it…at least for me), but I did notice that it helped to clear up a small blem­ish more rapidly. I would give it a beauty blog rat­ing of a C+.

Get Beau­ti­fied at Nordstrom

By: Jen­nifer L.

We beauty-istas love our beauty events and this is one of the season’s best. Beauty on Loca­tion starts this week at Nord­strom, fea­tur­ing skilled arti­sans from every line repli­cat­ing fall makeup trends or mod­i­fy­ing them to fit your make-up wardrobe. From pow­dered foun­da­tions to black creamy lin­ers and extreme lashes, the amaz­ing team at Nord­strom cos­met­ics will show you the per­fect way to com­pli­ment your fall look. Nord­strom fea­tures advanced artistry lines like Gior­gio Armani (their award-winning foun­da­tion is a ‘must try’) and Shu Uemura (Madonna is a fan). Plus they offer beauty exclu­sives from Trish McEvoy, Laura Mercier and Bobbi Brown. Call or visit to reserve a time with your favorite line (or try a new line with a com­pli­men­tary con­sul­ta­tion). Their num­ber is (952) 883‑2121. Space is lim­ited and events fill quickly. Men­tion the MOA Beauty Blog to receive FREE samples!

SCHEDULE:

Sept. 16 & 17: Pre­miere Chan­nel Artist Matthew Anthony

Sept. 16: Lan­come GWP with a pur­chase of $39.50 or more

Sept. 18 & 19: Lan­come offers com­pli­men­tary makeup appli­ca­tion and GWP

Sept. 16 – 20: Triple rewards for Nord­strom card holders

Oct. 2 & 3: Beauty on Loca­tion Fall 2009 – The largest cos­metic event of the sea­son! (This is the big one, not to be missed. Includes all of the lines, lots of GWP’s, national artists, exclu­sive prod­uct launches, deluxe size sam­ples and much more.)

Oct. 10: Meet celebrity face designer Tim Quinn of Gior­gio Armani

Oct. 14 – Nov. 1: Estee Lauder GWP

Oct. 30 & 31: MAC Hal­loween week­end (more details to follow)

Nov. 4 – 22: Clin­ique GWP fea­tur­ing Trina Turk exclu­sive cos­metic bag with pur­chase of $25 or more

Nov. 13 & 14: La Mer facial spa event

Bare Escen­tu­als Launches New Product

By: Jen­nifer L.

Bare Escen­tu­als has launched a matte ver­sion of their best sell­ing bareM­iner­als foun­da­tion, bareM­iner­als MATTE SPF 15 Foun­da­tion ($28 at Bare Escen­tu­als, Nord­strom & Sephora). This prod­uct promises to absorb excess oil and elim­i­nate shine for a nat­ural, matte fin­ish. The foun­da­tion is infused with clin­i­cally proven RareM­iner­als® ActiveSoil™ Com­plex, which min­i­mizes pores and pro­motes cell turnover for fresher, smoother skin. It also fea­tures their new click, lock, go™ sifter, with no spills and leaks.

I like Bare Escen­tu­als and have many friends who use the prod­ucts. Although the reviews on sephora.com are mixed, I am look­ing for­ward to try­ing this one.

Do-it-Yourself Facial Peels

By: Jen­nifer L.

I have a con­fes­sion to make. I have seri­ously thought about pur­chas­ing med­ical grade acid on eBay to give myself an at-home facial peel. I know – what am I think­ing, right? For all I know, I could be pur­chas­ing bat­tery acid that would burn my face off…leaving me with a hor­ri­ble red, scabby face like Saman­tha in that episode of “Sex and the City.” But who doesn’t want to do a lit­tle some­thin’ to freshen things up?

Thank­fully, there are lots of do-it-yourself peels avail­able (that won’t burn your face off). Although they don’t exactly have the same effect as a med­ical peel, they do offer some nice ben­e­fits for your skin. Here are three I’ve tried.

Phi­los­o­phy Microde­liv­ery Peel ($65 at Nord­strom, Macy’s & Sephora)

Love this peel — I’ve used it for years with great results. It really bright­ens up a dull com­plex­ion. This is a two step process that exfo­li­ates the skin while deliv­er­ing vit­a­min C and pep­tides. You start by putting the bicar­bon­ate vit­a­min C crys­tals on your face. This is an orange grainy-like sub­stance with a cit­rusy scent. You mas­sage this on your skin for about two min­utes before apply­ing the acti­va­tor gel on top. This makes the first layer start to foam, while warm­ing your face. You leave that on for another minute before rins­ing. Imme­di­ately after­wards, you are left with brighter, smoother skin.

MD Skin­care Alpha Beta Daily Face Peel ($80 at Nord­strom & Sephora)

This is a very easy peel and Bryna from Nord­strom tells me it’s one of their most pop­u­lar prod­ucts. It’s for­mu­lated to improve skin firm­ness, tone and tex­ture and they rec­om­mend daily use. This is another two step process and it comes in the form of wipes in lit­tle pack­ets (think indi­vid­u­ally wrapped handi-wipes). You wipe step one (the ‘peel pad’) on first. This makes your skin feel tingly, and if you have any irri­tated or sen­si­tive patches, it will almost burn (but I like that…makes me feel like it’s work­ing) Leave it on for about two min­utes before wip­ing the neu­tral­izer pad on. This leaves your skin feel­ing fresh & revi­tal­ized and it’s great for acne prone skin.

Kin­erase Instant Radi­ance Facial Peel ($75 at Nord­strom & Sephora)I love the Kin­erase line & this is a very sim­ple and basic peel. With lac­tic and fruit acids, this peel claims to ‘pro­mote smoother, clearer-looking skin in only five days with lit­tle or no irri­ta­tion’. Pre-moistened appli­ca­tors (they look like lolipops) come indi­vid­u­ally pack­aged. You swab the appli­ca­tor over your face & neck at night…put your mois­tur­izer on top and go to sleep. I tried this one for a few nights (although not the rec­om­mended five days), with lit­tle results. I also didn’t like that the cot­ton part of the appli­ca­tor almost started to fall apart on my face (leav­ing me to pick off the remain­ing lit­tle chunks of cot­ton). Although I’m sure the ben­e­fits increase with more use, I am some­one who likes more instant results (espe­cially for this price). Per­son­ally, I’ll stick with the above two products.

Stock Up Sale

By: Jen­nifer L.

I like nice hand soaps in my bath­room and kitchen, and for the longest time I used Kiss My Face foam­ing soap that I’d buy at Tar­get for $7.99. But recently I switched to Bath & Body Works Gen­tle Foam­ing Soap ($5.00). This stuff is great (plus more reces­sion friendly!), and with scents like Fresh Lime Basil, Kitchen Lemon and Sweet Pea, they’ll make your entire bath­room or kitchen smell deli­cious. Best of all, you can’t beat the price, as they’re cur­rently on sale for 5 for $15 (or a mere $3 each!!). This is a bargain…I bought 10.

De –Stress For Less

By Jen­nifer L.

I love spas. From that ‘spa smell’ to the soft robes to the free prod­ucts in the restrooms. There’s just noth­ing like treat­ing your­self to a spa day, but unfor­tu­nately spa treat­ments aren’t always in the bud­get. Don’t fret ladies…there are many great prod­ucts that can help you cre­ate that spa expe­ri­ence at home. And while not exactly the same as an after­noon of pam­per­ing at Spalon…you can cer­tainly come close in own bathroom.

To get that fab­u­lous ‘spa scent’ in my home bath­room, I always start at Aveda (W2). Noth­ing smells cleaner to me than their Sham­pure can­dle ($30). This fra­grant can­dle will fill your bath­room with a relax­ing scent, sim­i­lar to their Sham­pure Sham­poo, but some­how more deli­cious. Think ylang ylang and laven­der. The can­dle seems to last for­ever (the box says 50 hours) and there is a refill option once you make the orig­i­nal pur­chase. Well worth the investment.

My other Aveda favorite is their Foot Relief foot lotion ($19). This is an invig­o­rat­ing lotion that has an amaz­ing laven­der and rose­mary smell. Put some on under socks before bed and your cal­luses will have all but dis­ap­peared by morning.

Next I head to Lush (E1). You haven’t lived until you’ve expe­ri­enced Lush’s bath bombs (which range in price from $2.95 — $7.35). Drop one of these lit­tle balls of won­der­ful­ness into your bath for a fra­grant, fizzy, lux­u­ri­ous soak. They have about 20 great scents to choose from. My per­sonal favorite is Avo Bath, which smells like a com­bi­na­tion of lemon­grass and avo­cado. It’s refresh­ing, relax­ing and mois­tur­iz­ing all at once.

My final stop is at Sephora (W2), where I pick up a good relax­ing face mask. There are a mil­lion great masks out there these days, but a recent pick of mine is the Peter Thomas Roth Cucum­ber Gel Mask ($45). This gen­tle gel mask hydrates and calms the skin and it feels cool­ing and relax­ing. It’s the per­fect mask to help you relax and unwind and is espe­cially great for sen­si­tive skin. Though it’s not the kind of prod­uct that will have a dra­matic impact on your skin, it will help moisturize…and it feels darn good.

Four Fab­u­lous Lipglosses…

By Jen­nifer L., Mar­ket­ing and Beauty Guru

I am obsessed with lip gloss. I grew up play­ing the trum­pet and as a result spent my entire ado­les­cence walk­ing around with hor­ri­ble chapped lips (can you say clown face?). Since that time I must have some­thing on my lips at all time… balm, lip­stick, gloss…or if I really get desperate…Chapstick. But my pref­er­ence is always a good lip gloss. Lucky for me there are many, MANY great lip glosses out there these days. Here are a few of my favs:

Bare Escen­tu­als Buxom ($18 at Sephora, Bare Escen­tu­als & Nordstrom)

If you haven’t expe­ri­enced this lip gloss you must run (don’t walk) to Sephora, Bare Escen­tu­als or Nord­strom imme­di­ately to pick it up. This is an absolute must have for your make-up bag. Comes in an extra large tube, feels amaz­ing on your lips and has great stay­ing power. They say that ‘Dolly’ (a mauve-y pink) is a good choice because it looks great on every­one. I also love Brandi (a pink­ish red) and Gin­ger (a brown red). Love, love, love this lip gloss.

MAC Lip­glass ($14 at MAC and Nordstrom)

I’ve been using this gloss for many years, and though I love to try oth­ers, I always come back to Lip­glass. It’s is a great durable prod­uct that will stay on your lips for hours with­out mov­ing. It has a thick tex­ture and over 35 col­ors to choose from. I love ‘Desire’ which looks like a dark pur­ple in the tube, but goes on a lighter, purplish-red (very flat­ter­ing on pale skin).

DuWop Venom Gloss ($18 at Sephora)

It’s called Lip Venom for a rea­son – it burns like heck the first time you apply it. Seri­ously, it takes some get­ting used to. But this extra thick gloss stays on your lips for­ever. Plus there are a vari­ety of nat­ural shades avail­able. It’s sup­posed to give lips a ‘bee sting full­ness’, and I do think it has a slight plump­ing affect. This is an inter­est­ing and fun prod­uct to try. Not for every­one, but per­son­ally – I love it.

 

Aveda Lip Glaze ($16 at Aveda)

I like this lip gloss because it has a minty smell and taste. It’s not at all sticky, is sooth­ing and light­weight. It has almost a grainy tex­ture (which may be a turn-off to some) and doesn’t have as much longevity as some of the other brands, but over­all this is a very nice gloss.

Beauty Events

By Jen­nifer L., Mar­ket­ing and Beauty Guru

If you’re some­one who likes a good salon blow-out (and really, who doesn’t?), take note. Now until the end of August, you can stop into Trade Secret to have a pro­fes­sional wash and style for $15 (or free with a $75 purchase).

Nord­strom also has a great beauty event going on now. With a $100 beauty or fra­grance pur­chase, you’ll receive a pur­ple quilted cos­metic bag filled with nine fab­u­lous sam­ples includ­ing an Anas­ta­sia mini mas­cara, Bliss Lemon & Sage Body But­ter, CAUDALIE Gen­tle Cleanser and more.

Finally, check out the ‘Glammy’ event on August 20 at Bare Escen­tu­als. Any­one who comes in to check out the prod­ucts at any time through­out the day will receive 20% off their pur­chase. A great way to try out the prod­ucts at a dis­counted price.

Not to Prime is a Crime!

By Jen­nifer L., Mar­ket­ing and Beauty Guru

Ready for your close up? Not with­out foun­da­tion primer. Primer is an essen­tial step in every girl’s daily make-up rou­tine, and these days there are more than ever to choose from. Primers are put on before foun­da­tion (after mois­tur­izer) to help your foun­da­tion go on smoother and last longer. Many ques­tion whether this step is nec­es­sary, but I’m a firm believer in the power of a good primer. I have been a faith­ful user of Smash­box Photo Fin­ish for years ($36 at Sephora). LOVE this primer. It’s a clear gel-like sub­stance that makes your skin feel silky smooth. Foun­da­tion slides over it and seems to ‘melt’ right in to your skin. The result is a truly flaw­less com­plex­ion that lasts for hours.

But with so many new primers avail­able, I decided to check out some other options:

Urban Decay Com­plex­ion Primer Potion – Bright­en­ing ($30 at Sephora)

As a take-off of its wildly suc­cess­ful eye shadow primer, Urban Decay now offers two dif­fer­ent foun­da­tion primers. This one promises to make skin look brighter and feel tighter. It is white and odor­less with a lotion-like con­sis­tency. I really wanted to like this prod­uct, but was dis­ap­pointed. It sim­ply did noth­ing for my skin…which nei­ther looked brighter nor felt tighter. Would not rec­om­mend this prod­uct over my beloved Smashbox.

Urban Decay Com­plex­ion Primer Potion – Pore Per­fect­ing ($30 at Sephora)

Now this one was a lit­tle more inter­est­ing. It has a thicker con­sis­tency (think Elmer’s Glue), but a lit­tle goes a long way. It claims to ‘min­i­mize the look of pores and fine lines to deliver a soft-matte, air­brushed com­plex­ion’. Although the prod­uct does not go on smooth (this stuff is thick!), foun­da­tion glides eas­ily on top. After apply­ing foun­da­tion, my face looked lovely and almost (dare I say) air­brushed! This primer also seemed to keep oil at bay, and kept my make-up look­ing good (and my com­plex­ion look­ing matte) for hours. If you are look­ing for a primer (espe­cially if you have oily skin), this is a great option to check out.

Kor­res Face Primer ($28 at Sephora)

Kor­res is an inter­est­ing nat­ural line of prod­ucts, and the gals at Sephora told me this is one of their hottest sell­ing primers. The prod­uct has a lotion-like con­sis­tency and it goes on very light and smooth. Foun­da­tion smoothed eas­ily on top and make-up looked good when fin­ished. It also smells del­ish (like cit­rus). While this is a “nice” primer and I may have seen some minor ben­e­fits, I didn’t love it (didn’t hate it) – and would rate it average.

MAKE UP FOR EVER HD Microp­er­fect­ing Primer ($32 at Sephora)

I went into this primer with high hopes. MAKE UP FOR EVER claims to be the go-to brand for indus­try insid­ers. I had seen some mag­a­zine ads for their new HD prod­ucts, and was intrigued. Can a primer really make my skin ‘glow from within’? This prod­uct comes in var­i­ous shades (green to min­i­mize red­ness, yel­low to lighten dark com­plex­ions, etc.). I chose the neu­tral ver­sion, which has a light flo­ral scent, comes out of the tube white and goes on like a lotion. After apply­ing foun­da­tion, my skin may not have looked flaw­less, but it def­i­nitely looked bet­ter than with foun­da­tion alone, and my make-up seemed to last for­ever with­out any touch-ups. I’ll still hang on to my Smash­box, but this is another good back-up option.

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