To Thread or Not to Thread

For the past few months I have been religiously getting my eyebrows threaded and I absolutely love it.  Yes, it's sometimes painful, but it's probably the best method I've come across.  For years I used to get them waxed, but now that I've gotten older, I am noticing my eyelids starting to sag (not good!) and I don't know if that's from the constant waxing or just gravity.  Either way, I wanted to find a better solution. 

Then my friend Angie (who took all these lovely pictures you will see below) introduced me to threading.  I was desperate because at the time I was just tweezing, which is okay but my tweezers were unable to reach the REALLY fine hairs.  So I went for it and have never looked back.  For those of you unfamiliar with threading, it's literally twisted threads rolling over your hair and plucking in a very precise, sweeping motion - look it up! 

I've posted before and after pictures just to show you what a good job it does!

Before

After (excuse the redness)

Here are some action shots so you can see the full effect -

Look at the left eyebrow and compare to the right - see how much better?!

I highly recommend this process as it's really fast (my technician can do it in under 2 minutes - I swear) and it doesn't cause any sort of pre-mature aging to your eyes.  I know I can't fight aging, but I can definitely find ways to prevent it.  Also, I've noticed less and less hairs growing back, which is great!  Before I was going about once every 5-6 weeks, but now I can probably go once every 2 months!  Oh, and have I mentioned how cheap it is?   I don't know about other places, but my local fav charge $11!  I think for waxing I used to pay $15-$20. 

So that's my beauty tip of the day :)  I hope you guys enjoyed and let me know what your favorite hair removal process is!  Have a fabulous Hump Day!!

The Ginger Curse

I’ve always been a natural redhead, but not until my older years did I really start appreciating and embracing my unique features.  So of course, when I started to take make-up seriously, my first question was – what colors suit me?  Unfortunately, every single cosmetics “expert” seems to think the only colors I can wear are tan, copper, and every other shade of brown under the sun.  Well, that’s great and all, but I need color in my life. 

I will admit, browns do look the most natural on me, but after extensive research I have pretty much come to the conclusion that I can wear whatever color I want… except pink.  This is a shame because I really do love the color pink.  But what can ya do?   

Look at all the famous redheaded celebs NOT wearing brown!  This inspired me to do my own look, so let me know what you think!!

Products I used:

NARS primer with SPF 20

Too Faced Shadow Insurance

Physician’s Formula Powder Finish Concealer Stick “Cover Green”

MAC mineralize Foundation SPF 15 “NC15”

Bobbi Brown Creamy concealer “Ivory”

NARS blush “Deep Throat”

MAC Mineralize Skin Finish “Light”

Naked Palette – “Naked” (eyebrow)

Naked Palette – “Gunmetal” (eyelid)

Naked Palette – “Virgin” (highlight)

ELF liquid liner (black)

Maybelline Great Lash Mascara “Blackest Black”

Yes to Carrots Lip Butter “Berry”

MAC lip pencil – “Brick”

MAC Lipstick – “Dubonnet”



I also found this really helpful article in the L.A. Times about redheads - check it out!

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/21/image/la-ig-redheads-20100321

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Rants & Raves - Target Style

Happy Friday loves!!!  I am so excited for the weekend and to celebrate, I went out and bought a couple things from Target which I thought I'd tell you about! Firstly, my Bobbi Brown concealer is on it's last leg and because I was never a huge fan of it from the beginning, I thought I'd try something else.  Now, the funny thing is, when I first really got into make-up I thought that I would only get satisfaction from expensive, high-end brands like Mac and Make Up Forever.  Oh such a fool I was.  Don't get me wrong, I still love my NARS blushes and won't do without my Too Faced Shadow Insurance, but I've come to find that your regular drugstore can also carry amazing products for 1/2, if not a quarter of the price!!

Anyway, I picked up the Maybelline Super Stay 24HR Concelear in Ivory (yes, I'm always the palest one.. I'm an NC15 for crying out loud..)  I was really excited to try it because it's a liquid concealer and for the past year and a half I've been using a cream, which gets a bit tacky and well, I was just glad to switch.  Unfortunately my high expectations failed me.  I tried to take a picture of how it looked on my skin, but it it didn't show well so I'll just tell you - my undereyes looked like snake skin.  I put 3 dabs under each eye and blended it with my ring finger (apparently that's your weakest finger and applies the littlest amount of pressure so it doesn't stretch out your skin - good to know, huh?).  As I was blending, it immediately started to dry and crack.  If anything, it makes my fine lines even MORE noticeable, instead of concealing.. which is the point of a concealer... right???  I then set it with MAC mineralized skin finish thinking that would help, but honestly, it didn't do anything.  Needless to say, I'm taking this back and trying something else.  I heard YSL Touche Eclat is nice..

My Target trip wasn't a complete failure however because I ended up finding a nude shade that actually complimented my pale complexion and didn't wash me out (like most nudes tend to do..)  Look!

This is a combination of a Sonia Kashuk lipliner in "Nude" and Rimmel's moisture renewal lipstick in "Summer Angel".  I love how smooth it goes on and although it's not the longest lasting, it does make your lips feel incredibly moist.

I also bought a Say Yes to Carrots chapstick in "Berry" (mainly because every single chapstick I own has been washed and therefore, destroyed) and a tube of DUO eyelash glue so guess what my next blog will be about?!!??!

Let me know what concealer you guys are enjoying and any other nude lipsticks you recommend!!!

Have a wonderful weekend!!!  xoxoxoxoxo

H20 is a necessity.

So let me be clear – I am no expert on skincare but I have had HORRENDEOUS skin since the age of 13 and consider myself pretty knowledgeable on the subject.  I’ve been suffering from major acne starting at a young age – trying everything from ProActiv to Retin-A to pretty much anything with Benzoyl Peroxide in it.  I’ve seen probably about 10 dermatologists in my life (mind you, I’ve moved quite a lot), and now that I’m older I not only have to look for oil-free, acne-fighting solutions, but anti-aging as well!!  In the past year I’ve tried Philosophy and Dermalogica, which I will post separate blogs on those 2 products later.  But for this one I wanted to talk about my most recent skincare purchase – H20.

For those who don’t know, H20 is a skincare company based in Chicago, but they have stores all over the U.S. and internationally as well.  Their concept is basically formulas created from sea minerals and antioxidants.  You can check them out here à http://www.h2oplus.com/ 

It intrigued me because I’ve never really explored the more ‘organic’ side of skincare before.  Honestly, I thought for years the more it stung the better!!  So these are the products I got:

Sea Results overnight perfecting peel

Sea Clear mattifying toner

Night Oasis oxygenating energizer serum

Sea Results eye mender plus

Night Oasis overnight eye complex

Anti-acne clarifying face wash

They also included a free gift (which came in that cute brown & blue bag):

SPA unscented hand & nail cream

Marine toner

Face Oasis ultra hydrator

Face Oasis dual-action exfoliating cleanser

Night Oasis oxygenating energizer serum (which I already got, but they gave me another sample)

I chose these products based on the quiz you can take via their website.  It’s really quick and handy because some of the products I had absolutely no idea what they meant!  Like, Face Oasis ultra hydrator – ok, that’s just a moisturizer.  But it took me awhile to figure it out!!  Maybe I’m just slow…

Anyway, I’m going try these for a week and let you know how I like them.  I am a bit overwhelmed, but excited at the same time! 

Let me know what your skincare regime is and if you have any tips!!!

Hello! I'm Naked.

Hello my lovelies!  This is my very first blog post so bare with me here.  I’ve been an avid blog stalker for awhile now, so thought I’d give it a try!  I know I’m a Johnny-come-lately when it comes to the Urban Decay NAKED palette, but every time I walked into Sephora they were sold out.  I almost gave up until I went onto the Sephora website and demanded they e-mail me the second it came back in stock.  So, low and behold, two days later I get not one, but FOUR emails from Sephora alerting me they were available again!  I placed my order immediately and one week later I am a proud owner of probably the most popular eye shadow palette ever.

Here is my first Naked “look” (please excuse the odd angles and extremely bad lighting) – I promise I’ll get it right in my next blog!

For the lid, I primed it with the Urban Decay primer potion that came with the palette (first time user, but I think I still prefer my Too Faced Shadow Insurance – we’ll see!)  Then for the lid I used “Naked”, for the crease “Buck” and for more depth in the outer corner I used “Darkhorse”.  And for the brow highlight “Virgin”.  I know I stayed pretty safe the first time around, but I am so excited to continue using this palette and mixing up the different shades.

Let me know how you like your NAKED palette or if you have any other palette preferences!!