So enough of the back story.  How is Sephora celebrating this monumentus ocassion?  With limited edition makeup and gift sets of course!! My Christmas list, which wasn’t going to be very much, is quickly growing as well as my friends and family wish list.  (Each November right before Thanksgiving a Friends and Family code for 20% off is released.  You can use this and shop through SR for the cash back so make sure you are signed up with Sunshine Rewards - click the link on the right if you aren’t!).  A few things on my list include:

The Lash Stash - a set of 10 mascaras by various brands for just $35.  Why settle on one mascara when you can have 10??

Make Up Forever’s new HD Invisible Coverage Foundation - this is a new medium to full coverage oil-free foundation that is made for photos and spotlights.  The coverage and finish of this foundation leaves your skin smooth and flawless under any light conditions.  $40 and available only at Sephora in 25 various shades.

For the Bare Minerals fans there is a new gift set -> Extreme Glitters which contains 3 fun eyeshadows in silver, purple, and bronze shimmer, a shadow brush, and eye lid primer.

These are just 3 of the new items available at Sephora to help celebrate their tenth birthday.  I am very excited and might just have to take a small detour to the mall this weekend to start scoping things out and to see what the colors look like.

Happy Beauty Shopping and Happy Birthday Sephora!

By including verbal instructions in their new smoky eye palletes.  There are 3 color families to choose from - traditional smoky, sapphire smoky, and any occassion (muted colors) smoky eye palletes that are retailing for $40.  With the click of a button located in the middle of the inside cover, instructions are read to you on how to apply the colors and where on your eyelid you need to apply them.  I think this is an excellent alternative to the video I posted months ago because you can’t always bring a laptop with you when you are travelling and want the smoky eye look.   I haven’t seen this in stores or even picked one up for myself because I just received the email notice this afternoon but I am super excited about the possibilities.  I will be putting this on my Christmas list so I will report back what I think in the upcoming new year.  If you have tried this already please let me know what you think and how you like it.

Pros:

• Hydrated skin - less flaky dry skin, acne, and oil in general on your face
• decrease in water weight - yup, drinking water actually helps decrease the water weight you are carrying after a night of salty foods
• Decrease in calorie consumption each day - on average drinking water cuts 200 calories out of your daily calorie intake
•  Water drinkers tend to drink less soda and fruit juices - both of which are high in calories and salt
• Water drinkers tend to eat more fruits and veggies in their diet and consume more low fat dairy products.

For more information check out WebMD and continue to increase your intake of water to see benefits specific to you!

Smoker’s lips (those fine lines around your mouth) is on the rise, even in nonsmokers. Why? Apparently, too much pursing as you sip on a water bottle or sip through a straw, can cause the same wrinkling around your lips.

Eeek! I drink the equivalent of 4-5 bottles of water each day! I think I will be bringing a large plastic cup to work to drink out of instead. If you want to avoid these wrinkles, the tip suggested either trying a wide-mouthed bottle (try the HEB branded water) or switching to a glass.

Two years ago, I discovered the art of using brushes to apply pieces of my makeup - mainly eye shadow, blush, and eyeliner.  I have to give the beauty experts credit.  They were and still are right that when you use a brush you can blend your makeup better and you use less product.  Taking that into consideration, I finally purchased a foundation brush from Sephora and have been trying it out.  At first I felt like I was painting foundation on my face.  I wasn’t sure how much foundation to dispense nor how much to apply onto my face using a brush.  It took a little playing and practice before I got a handle on using a brush with foundation and I am really glad I made this purchase.  I find the brush helps to spread the foundation all over your face and gives a smoothing effect.  I also find that I am now using less product than even before I started using a brush.  It really is similar to painting and finding the right amount of product to “paint” on your face.  Definitely two thumbs up on this beauty trend/technique!

But… you knew it had to be coming… I am only 50% happy with the products I have tried.  I love the Urban Decay eyeshadow in Mildew and you can either layer it thinly for a spring look or thicker for a fall look.  There is no glitter in this eye shadow so there are no worries about having glitter all over your face.  The blending ability and ease of use help me to give this 5 stars.  What I am less than impressed with though is Stila’s tinted moisturizer (SPF 30).  This is a product that has been out for a few months now.  I was curious to try it since I am fair and can use all of the SPF I can get on a daily basis and I tend to break out if I’m not careful with my makeup routine.  I had never noticed before but the other Stila tinted moisturizer (SPF 15) is not noted as being oil-free.  So I paid the extra $6 for the newer version and have tried it out about 3 times.  I find this formula to be thicker and darker than  my usual tinted moisturizer.  I really had to work hard at blending the moisturizer into my skin and spreading evenly.  I have never had this issue with the other version and I just find the thickness to be strange being that this is moisturizer.  Due to the difficulty in applying from thickness as well as the darker color I am giving this a 2 star out of 5 star rating.  I have it packaged back up in the box and ready for return.  My face does pretty well with the older version acne wise so I’m not going to change it up just because this product is being advertised as “oil-free”.  I have a sneaky suspicion the other one is oil free but they are trying to get you to spend the extra few dollars on the newer version.

Well the day finally came when I ran out of my Sephora eye makeup remover and I was  going to try the Stila brand since I had some luck with the free sample not too long ago.  Unfortunately, Sephora didn’t have this in stock so I went over and grabbed the Make Up Forever Sens’Eyes.  Can I just tell you I am in love with this product!!!  I have only used it once but I don’t think I’ll be switching to something else any time soon.

To use it you squirt just a little onto a cotton pad.  Then you smooth it out over the cotton pad and apply to your eye lid by just gently placing on the eye lid and holding for a few minutes.  While you are holding the remover is dissolving the makeup and picking it up on the pad!  No rubbing involved.  I did the same thing with my lash lines and everything came off.  I had no eyeliner or mascara left over after I finished applying the remover and I didn’t lose a single lash.  This product is totally worth the $23 selling price.  Only thing you have to remember is not to press on the pump too hard or too much of the product will come out.

Shopping spree and new products to try out except I don’t know what to spend it on.  I’m not sure if I want a new Philosophy 3-in-1 since I finally used up the last of my Crumble Berry Pie scent (so not my favorite) or if I want to splurge on a new She Uerma eyelash curler since I have had no luck lately with my quest for new mascara.  But then there is always those products I always think about trying but never buy because they are a little pricey or the latest trends in makeup.  Tough decisions.  I might just splurge and try the new trend -> teal eyeshadow over a shimmery brown.  I figure I already have Stila Kitten which is the perfect light, shimmery brown maybe I should just splurge and pick up the Urban Decay eyeshadow Peace as shown below.  I’ll report back what I decide on and how much I like it.

Since buying my eyeliner brush I have learned that by adding a tiny bit of water to any eyeshadow you can have instant eyeliner.  The only down-side is that if you use too much water you can end up with a complete mess in your compact or hard spots from adding the water.  Too Faced actually has a promising tool - Liquif-Eye which is a stiff brush with a pot of solution that you rub across any eyeshadow and create instant eyeliner.  While this isn’t really new from what I was doing before I thought it would be good for traveling or keeping my eyeshadow clean (ie not drenched).  So here it is:

As you can see its rather compact.  I would say the whole thing is about as tall as a pencil liner.  It is not any thicker than a tube of mascara so great for traveling.  I have tried this out twice so far and well I’m rather disappointed in the product.  Yes it stays true to its word in that it is not messy and it can turn any eyeshadow into a liner but… it doesn’t really work unless you are using a dark shadow as the liner on top of a really light shadow on your lid.  In other words, eyeshadow as a liner and not a shadow just isn’t dark enough without trying to cake it on.  I can see this coming handy with the Benefit Bebe Cakes which are dry liners that you add water too.  I think I’ll dig one of those out this weekend and give this a try with it.  I quit using the Bebe cakes because they are very dark and one off stroke can leave you with Cleopatra eyes instead of subtle eyes for work.

So overall - I think its an easy product to use and helps keep eyeliner from going on too thick or ruining shadows by adding too much water, I just don’t think it delivers what it is marketed to do.  So my recommendation is to stick with a brush and your Stila Smudge Pots and forget the Liquif-Eye (or at least return it before you lose out on the $18).