Accidental Post

Well, Hello world!

Sorry for the brief hiatus from the blog.. it's really been a crappy week and a half. I won't bore you with details but basically 1. My apartment flooded and 2. I had to have a minor surgery. Nothing huge! But enough to make me just want to cuddle with my heating pad all day.

Aaand now I'm back and I have a lot to talk about!
Just a peek at things to come:
- Many Reviews! Example: Dior mascara oooo
- Weird news in the beauty world
- Celebrity looks and how-to's
- And finally a review of L'Oreal's Lash Serum this Friday!

Ok, so -- As a general rule I like to at least learn something from bad situations, and indeed I did with the whole apartment debacle. I'll share with you the beauty parts of it =)

Well when I came home at around 10:30 that evening to find my apartment flooded, I called my mother (who doesn't live very far) and she came up to help me and the maintenance guys get the whole thing sorted out. At about 1:30 am we decided to go to a hotel and call it a night. Now, all of my living room is now packed into my bedroom so accessing my desk, closet, drawers, was rather difficult.

I guess I thought I would only be out of my apartment for the night, but I ended up being out of a home for 3 nights. Luckily, a very dear (male) friend of mine let me stay at his place until I could go back. *Thank you!*

I went back to my apartment the next morning to gather my work clothes, make-up, socks, etc. Well, for some reason, I remembered deodorant and toothbrush and make-up and forgot face wash and other various not-necessarily-necessities but things that a beauty girl always likes to have.

My first evening there I needed to shower and be clean, and since I'm not a funk nasty I checked his bathroom to find something to wash my face and hair with. Which.. guess what? All men's stuff. I don't know why I thought otherwise, haha!

And let me tell you—men’s products are different than women’s!!

First of all, I used LIQUID HAND SOAP as face wash. After alllll this time of lecturing my mom on how she needs to use products on her face that are designated for her *face* and then I have to resort to this!! Eeekk ehhh GROSS….

Um.. Kind of…?

Luckily, (and I’m sure accidentally), he had purchased hand soap with “White tea and vitamin E.” There are definitely worse ingredients out there, that’s for sure! And after a few days, my face actually felt kind of nice. Now, I’m not sure what kind of build-up would occur after prolonged use of that product, but for the limited time I had with it, that little puppy held its own!

Well.. then it was on to cure my attention-needing hair. I look in his shower and there are two products: a Suave 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner and Irish Spring exfoliating body wash. Hrmph. Great! Not that one day of this would kill me, but my poor hair needs a separate shampoo and conditioner for the sole fact that my ends have entirely too much color on them and are damaged and need super conditioner. Well, and that I have somewhat fine hair that gets weighed down but conditioner at the root.

But! I had no other choice, so there I went. Me, Suave, and the Irish stuff. The body wash actually wasn’t that bad, and the shampoo smelled nice. But the aftermath wasn’t so great. I had forgotten body lotion, and the exfoliating body wash just made me itchy. And without a hair dryer, (anoooother forgotten item), I was reminded of my hair’s natural texture: straight, flat, and frizzy at the ends. I even tried the twisty-bun-makes-Giselle-waves that I’ve read about, but had an epic fail. Thank you!

To tie this in to something that might be somewhat relevant, let me tell you what I learned:

1. As with the hand soap turned face wash, if you’re in a bind, there is likely something hidden in your cabinet that can perform a temporary double duty.

2. Everyone’s hair is different. Find what works for you and expand on that! Don’t believe the latest crazes, but also don’t be afraid to experiment with them~ you’ll never know what might be a surprise and what will make you appreciate what you already have!

3. Sometimes your face needs a breather. I’m guilty of wearing foundation almost every day—to work on weekdays and being social on the weekends. At least 1 day a week, spend a day with just moisturizer and a dab of concealer! You’ll enjoy it, I promise. =)

4. Don’t be dumb when you pack. Even if it’s for a couple of days, haha!!

However, this packing mistake did serve a great purpose. I was so inspired by all of this—now I want to look up ingredients, statistics, trends, flops and fails, and I’m sure more things that will hit me when right before I go to sleep.

Thanks for tuning in to this lengthy story! Have you ever had an experience like this? Anything that took you out of your beauty comfort zone? Tell me 'bout it! =)

Until next time~

Beauty Maven

Hi. My apt flooded. Posts when that's sorted out--
Sent from my iPhone

Estee Lauder: New Lip Collection

Hello!

The other day I went into Dillard's to get some new colors from the Michael Kors for Estee Lauder line, (gorgeous pinks and corals!), and sadly the ONE lipgloss I wanted was sold out! Aww. But then the new Hydra Lustre Lipstick LOVE and Kissable Lipgloss display caught my eye-- 12 new super girly colored lipsticks. Yay!

Then I committed a beauty maven sin-- I purchased a color without trying it out first. No! The coral was just a little bit too bright for my liking.. it looked a little funny against my skin tone. You'll see!

So let's take a look at these... the colors I have are Coral Kiss (both for the lipstick $19.50 and gloss $18):

The Lipstick has "L<3ve" written on the side- cute! Which makes up for the old lady packaging..
















The color wears well but is a little on the dry side.

The lipgloss has cute packaging, too!



























Lipgloss:














Lipstick: (sorry for the blurriness..)













Lipstick + Gloss:














(See?! Looks like the flash is messed up but this really is the color!)

It has a non-sticky feel and a semi-mango scent. However, as with many glosses, it really doesn't have much staying power. If you're interested in one of the glosses, I'd get the corresponding lipstick just to make sure the color stays put!

I signed-up for a make-up consultation with their visiting make-up artist next week, so I think I'll try out another color and/or return this =\ I really want to like it!

What do you think of this new collection? Love it? Not impressed? Gonna check it out? Lemme know!

Until next time~
Beauty Maven

Best Winter Face Moisturizer EVER

Hello!

We in honor of the recent snow in my area, I thought this post was appropriate!

Not only do I have combination skin AND sleep with a fan, but I also do not have any kind of humidifier whatsoever-- and thus this winter has been drying out my skin. (Oh no!)

To the rescue? The Body Shop's Vitamin E Illuminating Moisture Cream!! ($18.50)


















Here's some info, according to the website:

Best if you want to: Give your skin a luminous, healthy glow with a nourishing daily moisturizing cream that contains light-diffusing particles to help minimize the appearance of fine lines.

How it works:

• Vitamin E is a natural antioxidant that moisturizes and helps to protect against premature aging and environmental aggressors.
• Community Trade shea butter moisturizes and helps to soften and refine skin.
• Super-fine mica minerals diffuse light to create a bright, illuminated complexion.

(*Head's up* It does not contain SPF.)

After seeing this product in a magazine, I decided to try it out. I used the normal face lotion before, but it was during the summer and it got too heavy for me. I remember playing with this before though and liked that it had a luminizer in it. Yay!

Time for some pics:



























Here it is not rubbed-in-- it's a light pink~




























Applied to the right side~ the reflection from the mica is in the pink family.

























See? Luminous without being glittery- and this was after I gave it time to soak in. Nice!

Extra tidbit, too: if you do decide to get this, be sure it's the *illuminating* one-- they have another jar that is Vitamin E with SPF that looks exactly the same!

What kinds of moisturizers do you use? How important is SPF to you? Do you look for multi-tasking products?


Until next time~
Beauty Maven

Experience: Manicure, pt. 2

Apologies in advance for not having many pictures for this one.. sure wish I did!

Last week I had an entry about getting acrylic nails put on. This weekend I went home and decided I would get them taken off then (due to regrowth, and I just wanted to take them off instead of filling them in.) While at JCPenney with my mom I stopped by the Salon to see if they had an opening, thinking that the process would only take about half an hour. They did not have an opening, sad day, but the woman told me what to do to take them off:

"You have to soak them in acetone and scrape at them. Don't use a plastic dish because the acetone will eat right through it -- use glass. But just soak and scrape, soak and scrape. It takes a while, about an hour and a half."

HOUR AND A HALF?!

So my mom and I bought some acetone and that was our project that night. I soaked while she took the edge of a metal nail file to scrape. And it DID indeed take an HOUR and a HALF.

Intense.

But each time she scraped some of the acrylics came off! I had the French tips, which means there was a thin plastic strip glued to the ends, and we got most of the white off. But MAN it was a process! I still had some left over, and I tried to buff it away, but at this point I just decided to paint them and hopefully cover-up any ridges.

If I were you, I would enlist some help in removing nails. This method is MUCH better than ripping them off- ouch!- but I would enlist a friend's help instead of going to a salon-- you could at least have a buddy and be able to watch a movie or something.

I liked having the nails, but unless I somehow come across a large sum of money in order to get them filled every week and a half, I won't be getting them again soon.

I want to hear some stories! =)

Until next time~
Beauty Maven