Beauty Blog » 2008 » March

I was standing in line at the Pinkberry’s in Pasadena, when this girl walked by me and I got two nostril filled whiffs of her perfume. Immediately my brain triggered hints of nostalgia and I had a flashback of junior high and trying to remember the combination to my locker before the third period bell went off! Holy smokes, what was this girl wearing? Was that?…no it couldn’t be, was that GUESS?!

I didn’t know they even sold it anymore! Isn’t it odd how scents and music can instantly transport you back in time to a particular moment or event? Well Guess Perfume does that for me, followed closely by Liz Claiborne the triangle series. I use to collect all the different size bottles and display them proudly on my nightstand, like tiny trophies of my keen sense of smell and style.

Well after smelling that girl in Pinkberry, I must have experienced some sort of nose damage in my youth because - yeck! It was strong and overpowering! I can’t believe I use to bath myself in this stuff.

Here is a picture of my beloved Liz Claiborne scent circa 1990’s! Certain male colognes bring me back as well; Cool Water for Men, Drakkar Noir, Curve for Men, Acqua Di Gio … ahhhh young amor!

What was your signature scent from the past?

Interesting finds in Beauty …

MAC makeup has a line of bold and colorful makeup designed by Heatherette. Take the weekend pop quiz at BeautySnob.com and win the Heatherette MAC makeup collection for FREE! It’s easy, just guess who is the celebrity featured in the photo.. contest ends on March 30 (11:59pm)!

Take a sneak peek at the new Starry Eyed Baked Eye Shadow Trios from LORAC at Beauty and the Blog!

Physicians Formula is giving away 1,000 FREE Organic Wear Blushes! Find out how you can receive your free blush at Makeup Blog’s post called: “How green is your makeup?”

Good luck with the contests and free giveaways, thanks always for reading! - Michelle

Now that the weather is heating up, seems like my pores are starting to open up as well. One of the unfortunate side effects of warming weather, I was staring at my nose the other day and saw dreaded black heads forming from dirt or clogged pores.

I decided to purchase one of those blackhead tools that my mom keeps trying to use on me! She’s pretty strange like that, she likes to squeeze things out of family member’s pores. This is the same lady who enjoys tweezing my dad’s toes. Yes, yes I know, my gene pool is ripe with insanity.

Well suffice to say, the stainless steel Tweezerman tool is excellent. Truly a must have for any girl. All I did was wash my face with warm water, soaked a face towel in hot water and left it on my face until it cooled down to open my pores. I took the tool and pressed firmly but gently where I saw a blackhead and watched it ooze out.

Works better than those expensive Biore strips, since you can focus on the really juicy blackheads.

To purchase the Stainless Steel Tweezerman Blackhead Tool, click here.  

You deserve a relaxing fragrant bubble bath to soothe all your aches and pains! L’Occitane is a great brand of luxury body care, skincare, fragrance and bath products for ladies and gentlemen.

Purchase the L’Occitane Honey Harvest Bubble Bath and bathe in the lap of luxury.

Originally sold for: $32.50

Currently sold for: $26.50

(you save 18%)

To purchase L’Occitane Honey Harvest Bubble Bath, click here or any of the links above.

To shop for more discount luxury Bubble Baths, click here.

I have never had nice feet. Never. They are dry, nasty things with curled toes and heels so dry they could sand wood. I am not kidding. I use to be so phobic about it that I would wear socks to bed, even in the summer so that I wouldn’t run the risk of scraping my gnarly feet against my partners legs.

To add to my misery I was born and raised in California, the land of perpetual flip flops! Us die hard Californians don’t necessarily restrict our “sandal” wearing to the seasons of Spring and Summer, nay for a real Californian “flip flops” can be worn through just about any season and to almost every event. You can imagine my horror then as my peers sported their dainty feet with flower painted toes and I had man feet with hard core calluses and dry cracked heels! It’s a small wonder I survived puberty, is all I am saying.

Through the years I have spent a small fortune buying every foot cream and special softening sock known to man trying to remedy my chappy feet. To no avail, if anything the condition just got progressively worse through the years and the skin just got thicker and thicker.

I bought pumices of assorted styles and substances ( lava rock, salt, special stones, blah blah blah) I would scrub and scrub, the skin would flake off and like evil magic reappear thicker and drier than before. I seriously gave up, and just wrote it off as my burden to carry through this life and resigned myself not to every date anyone with a foot fetish because they would probably throw up at the site of my feet.

Finally, I found the holy grail of dry cracked feet! A diabetic chum of mine told me about Flexitol Heel Balm which was recommended to him by his podiatrist. He has worst feet then mine, but his are due to side effects of diabetes.

(click on image to purchase)

I am not going to pump it up for you. Simply said it works, if you really do have nasty feet it’s the solution you have been searching for AT LAST!

• It’s cheap! Suggested price: $7.39 Now: $5.99 at drugstore.com!
• I’ve seen it sold at Target, too!

Simply apply twice daily, morning and night. I think in the beginning, you should apply after you shower, and you scrub the excess dry skin from your heels with a callus remover of some sort:

Then apply Flexitol Heel Balm liberally to the affected areas. You will begin to see results within a few days. Quite awesome, after my feet started getting better I started just applying the balm to my dry heels when I had the time. Regardless I swear by it now and it saved my sandal wearing life!

I am sure it will work for you as well, let me know how your progress goes. This really is an issue that is near and dear to my heart!

Let’s snap to it ladies and the occassional cultured gent…Here comes this weeks Smarter Beauty Blog Week in Review!! (cue applause)

We begin our beauty week discussing the gold digging conclusion to Paul McCartney and Heather Mills ugly divorce battle. Suffice to say, that she devil ended up with 48.6 million dollars! Read more and chime in on how you feel about her and the settlement in my post “Heather Mills stars in Golddigger!”

(click on the image or the link to bring you to original post)

So I finally gave mineral make-up a try, read my post on whether it works? The Hits& Misses of mineral makeup and what I and people think are the best brands… Post title: Best Mineral Make-up? Hits and Misses and Does it Work?

(click on the image or the link to bring you to original post)

Lord have mercy! Don’t miss this Spring’s Runway 2008 Hair and Makeup Looks! In the aptly titled “Spring 2008 Runway Looks - The Stupid, The Ugly and The Crazy!”

(click on the image or the link to bring you to original post)

Editor’s Note:

Hello my Lovelies,

Wow! Is it just me or did this week whizz by? Ok perhaps that was a poor choice of words as it evokes images of urination, but you get my point!

I hope you continue to enjoy my blogging. If there is ever a topic or product you want to discuss feel free to email me and maybe I will blog about it and get the forum of discussion rolling.

Happy Easter Sunday & Happy Bunny Day Everyone!

Michelle

Spring is HERE! I guess the pollen in the air is laced with acid because you have to see Spring 2008’s Runway Looks!

Behold, I present to you this year’s crop of ….

THE STUPID…

Introducing the Grouch’s girlfriend “Garbage Pail Head” …

(designer Jeremy Scott collection)

Hey Lady, Hey Lady! There is a bird’s nest on your dome!

(designer: Moschino)

This is your face on drugs… any questions?

(Agatha Ruiz de la Prada Spring 2008)

THE UGLY

Wow! You should really have that looked at, is it itchy?

(Alexander McQueen Spring 2008)

Frau Unibrow is that you? Guess it’s hard to find work after Austin Powers!

(Andrea McWha Spring 2008 Collection)

The Great Gatsby Girl got into the meth jar again…tsk, tsk!

(John Galliano, Spring 2008)

and THE CRAZY

Argh! It’s the girl from The Ring, after a hot and heavy make out session with Ronald McDonald!

(Comme des Garcons, Spring 2008)

Umm, you weren’t suppose to take the disco ball home and make a hat after the party tard!

(image credit: Antonio de Moreas Barros Filho)

Last but not least it’s “Romanian - SARS - Ninja - Barbie” (human hair eyebrows comb included)

(Noki, Spring 2008)

Well I hope you enjoyed this latest trip to the circus with me, I can’t wait to see what these fashion titans think up next!

P.S.

Did I miss any really freaky ones, collection wise? Show me! What did you guys think of these makeup and hair choices?

Ahhh, so I have finally decided to give this whole “mineral” make-up thing a try! Anything that is supposedly good for your skin, while concealing your blemishes and providing a healthy natural sheen is worth giving a shot. I will cross my fingers that the products live up to the hype.

So I scoured the web and according to Beauty Polls consumers raved primarily about Bare Escentuals (Bare Minerals), followed by a small cult following for Everyday Minerals.

Well after reading all the rave reviews for Bare Escentuals I went to my local Sephora and bought a starter kit. The tarantula eyed sales rep assured me it was the best, and that for only $60 dollars I was getting a $181 dollar value kit.

Click on image to check out Kits at Sephora.com!

So I went home and tore into my little kit. I immediately bypassed the instructional video (Who has time for that? Plus I regard myself as a makeup Svengali - ha!) What follows is what I liked and dis-liked about the Bare Minerals makeup.

HITS

• the bare vitamins serum they include in the kit, to prep your skin pre-application was light, scentless and absorbed readily into my skin without leaving any yucky heavy coating
• Believe me, I was skeptical, however the powder did manage to mask my facial flaws (I mainly suffer from red/pink zones and the occasional crop of 1-2 big zits during certain times of the month). It was not heavy or cakey and I was complimented at work that my skin looked specially “glowy” that day!
• Attention Gym Fans! - you can wear it to the gym! Does not streak, or sweat off or have that “oh my god, why is she wearing so much makeup to the gym vibe”… but enough coverage to entice the cute gym chaps.

MISSES

• It’s messy! - I guess I was just not use to it. Being a lifetime foundation and pressed powder user. Plus I tend to wear black, alot! The first time I used bare escentuals I made the mistake of wearing my shirt first and I got tiny specs of powder all over it. First time, last time situation.
• Also, initially I felt that it dried my skin. Another humbling moment for yours truly, I should have watched the instructional video because I have come to find out that a “little” goes a long way. In my skepticism, I was using too much and it started settling in my wrinkles and drying my skin. Now I use just a sprinkle and blend with the brush so I get a nice soft result.
• The “tan” or “bronzer” powder was too dark for me, I am really fair and I felt I looked like an Oompa Lumpa. But you guys may not have that problem.

So does it work? Answer, YES!

It was slow going at first, trying to change my habits and get use to my new facial cosmetic regime. But I will say that I do get complimented on my skin tone when I use it, and I have not had any additional break-outs or skin irritations.

During my research there are some who swear that EverydayMinerals is better, that it’s more pure and does not cause any irritation or itching. Well I did not experience those symptoms with Bare Minerals but if you want to give EverydayMinerals a shot, the company sends free samples!

EverydayMinerals starter kit costs $75.00, click here or the image to go to EverydayMinerals.com!

To shop for Bare Escentuals Makeup & Cosmetics, click here.

Well Paul McCartney and Heather Mills long divorce battle has finally come to it’s gold digging end. The outcome, Heather Mills received 48.6 million dollars in the settlement!

Lordy, it’s enough for me to turn off my computer and burn my keyboard in effigy. Odd part is I use to have sympathy for Mills, what with the one leg and animal rights persona she use to peddle. But now, she just exudes a “gold-digging-makes-me-ashamed-to be-a-women-vibe” that I loathe.

Heather Mills initial monetary settlement request was $250 million! So I suppose we should be grateful that she finally accepted 48.6 million and let the whole bloody thing die. She is quoted as saying:

“They’ve called me a whore, a gold digger, a fantasist and a liar,” she said in one of a series of torrid television appearances in October.

To that I respond: “Well if the ONE shoe fits, Miss Mills!”

In honor of Heather Mills and all women like her; here is a tiny gold bucket and shovel you can add to you keychains. Ha!

14K Gold Bucket and Shovel Charm - $79.99

Do you think I am being to harsh? What are your thoughts?

Heather Mills - Love Her? or Hate Her?

In other Beauty News! …

Read about the Fragrance of the Year Awards, otherwise known as the “Oscars of the Perfume World” at SugarShock Beauty Blog …

Glow this spring with Lancome’s Color Ideal Illuminateur! Learn how to highlight your features, mix with foundations or lotions for an all over shimmer or simply use as eye color. Finish reading at Beauty Daily Blog!

Searching for Acne Scar Fading Tips? Dermatologist Jeffrey Dover, MD and regular folks like you and me chime in on what are effective treatments to remove acne scars at TeenVogue.com!

Editor’s Note:

Well this week I got rear ended by a Mercedes, so I have to confess my blogging took a back seat to my back pain! But I should be re-charged and highly medicated next week…

Stay tuned! Same beauty time, Same beauty channel…

Well unless, I get hit by a bus? Whoa..that wasn’t even funny huh?

Michelle