I have been on the search for a good mascara for years now. In fact, that is one of the first posts I put on this blog and after a while I had to abandon my quest because I just tried too many mascaras and started getting confused about the details on each one.  All I could remember was that I didn’t like a particular mascara but that wouldn’t help anyone.

Well, my luck finally turned around and I found 2 mascaras that I love.  The first mascara I found via the Sephora Lash Stash I bought around Christmas. The Buxom mascara by Bare Escentuals. It is no longer included in the sampler but there are some new ones right now so I might put that kit on my Christmas list this year. The thing I like most about the Buxom Mascara is how the brush separates the lashes and is a nice black color. The only downside is that it isn’t waterproof so if you are having a bad Allergy day with watery eyes, this is not the mascara to wear that day.

available from Sephora in Black and Blue for $18

My second favorite mascara right now is Maybelline’s Volum’ Express the Falsies Waterproof Mascara. Wow that is a long name for a tube of mascara. LOL They might need to shorten it a bit so people can remember it. Basically, last weekend I was left alone at home on a Friday night and headed over to Kroger after work for snacks and beer. Along the way to the checkout area, I passed the beauty aisle and decided I wanted to treat myself and I bought blue nail polish and then this mascara. I figured for $6 what did I have to lose. This is a great mascara. Very black, very pretty on. One thing that can be an issue is that this mascara is thick and can clump so you really have to make sure you are scraping off excess product on the side of the tube before you begin to apply. Then you really just need 1 swipe over the lashes, not multiples. What would be perfect is the brush from Buxom and then this waterproof formula.

available in Black and Brown at most drugstores ~$6

Trips to the salon use to be exciting but dreadful at the same time. I love walking in with flat, dull hair in need of a good cut and color and seeing the transformation take place. But… I would always hate the sales pitches at the end for products.  I am a very simple person when it comes to my hair routine and I just don’t need a thousand products. I mean I am still on the same bottle of gel that I bought 4 years ago!  I have been trying lately to improve my hair. Two years ago when I first became engaged, I went to the salon for a routine cut and color and my stylist introduced me to a weekly hydrating mask that has worked wonders for my hair. No pressure, no real sales pitch. Exactly what I needed.

So six months ago when he told me about Moroccan Oil and how it would transform my hair I went for it. It seemed simple enough. Wash my hair, comb it out, apply a little oil and then blow dry as normal. Nothing else was needed but I would see a dramatic difference in my hair. Makes you a little skeptical huh?  Well, I am now a convert. I love Moroccan Oil – it is fabulous and leaves your hair shiny, soft, and healthy. You only apply a dime size amount to the ends of your hair because if you do the roots you will end up with a greasy mess and facial breakouts – not cool.  Adding the Moroccan Oil to my normal routine along with eating a more healthy diet of fruits, veggies, and my vitamins I just can’t believe my hair. It is actually long again! How cool is that?! I never thought I’d see the day where I would want long hair and it would look good. 

I did a little research on Moroccan Oil and I found that the oil is actually Argan Oil which is produced from the Argan tree which is native to Moroccan.  This tree and its oil is valued for its cosmetic and medicinal properties.  This tree dates back 1.6 million years to Tertiary Period and it lives for 200 years. Now that is a long life!  There has been some worry about extinction of this tree but steps have been made and land set aside to keep these trees growing. Processing the oil from the kernels of the tree takes about 2 hours and it will last 18-24 months.  The Moroccan oil found in hair products is not actually pure oil (hence the generic name Moroccan Oil vs. Argan Oil) as it is a mixture of a few silicates and the oil.  The results are still the same but the price is a tad cheaper and it will last a little longer.

Another bonus about this oil is that it is helping women. How? Well all the argan oil produced today is being produced by a co-op of women. The profits from the sale are given to the women of the Berber tribe who work to establish an ecosystem reforestation project so that the supply of argan oil will not run out. The money is also providing access to healthcare and education to these women and supporting the entire community as a whole.

So to sum it up, if you haven’t tried Moroccan Oil yet run to a salon near you (Marbella Salon in Houston) and start with the small bottle of Moroccan Oil or the shampoo and conditioning products. You will not be sorry.

I have always wanted to try a facial primer. I just didn’t know which one to try after I tried a free sample from Sephora and it felt heavy in a sense. So I put it in the back of my mind and didn’t really research any further. That is until I entered a contest over on the Sunshine Rewards Forums. It was simple. I just had to go to Glow.com and find 1 item that I wanted to try and post it in a thread. That was it! And you know what, I won! My prize was a box of goodies from Sunshine Rewards and Glow.com. I wasn’t sure what I was going to get so I was surprised to find full sized products when the box arrived.

My favorite is Clean Slate by Tarte Cosmetics. I use this primer every single day. I kid you not! It is perfect and very smooth and light feeling when you apply it. I just squirt about a dime sized amount in my palm, rub my two hands together and then run my hands all over my face. That is it! So simple, yet it really makes a difference in my makeup routine. I use less products and my skin is silky smooth. Definitely a product that I will be buying again and again. Plus it lasts a really long time so it will be an every 6 to 12 month purchase. Well worth the $30 price tag in my book.

I have often heard that it is healthier for your hair not to wash it every day. I can totally get behind this idea except for one little problem: I have fine, oily hair. Not washing every day often causes my hair to be pretty darn oily by the time I wake up the next day. After talking with my coworkers this past February, I decided to revisit the not washing everyday method. It was mainly because I was being lazy. Working 15 hour days causes you to rethink your daily routine because every little bit of sleep you can get can make all the difference between having a good day and a bad day.

So I started visiting my old fashion forum friends again and a thread was posted about dry shampoo and baby powder. Now I have tried baby powder before without success so I wasn’t too keen on revisiting it. The dry shampoo was new to me. So I decided to keep reading. What I found was some great products and tips.

For baby powder, the tip is to shake the powder all over your scalp the night before and rub it in. Don’t worry if your hair looks gray or flat. While you sleep the powder will soak up the oil and by morning your hair will look fresh and clean. The only downside is that baby powder smells and if you don’t like that smell then it is going to bother you. Unfortunately, the smell does not subside while you sleep.

Dry shampoo was a new concept to me. I first heard about it from the Lush website but I thought it was too “hippy” for me to try. I decided to rethink my ideas on the product and went with an aerosol can from Sephora. I figured if I was going to try it, the safest one I could try would be from Sephora – I was worried about messing up my highlights.  My coworker decided $18 a can was too high and she hit up Sally’s and bought the Batiste brand to try out and liked it. After a few weeks I decided I should probably do the same since the Sally’s version was only $7. What I found was that both worked the absolute same way. So I have since bought replacement cans from Sally’s and not Sephora. While I love Sephora, with this economy it is all about saving money and Sally’s does just that.

Houston got their first Nordstrom’s Rack last weekend and I used my day off from work today to check it out.  While I was disappointed in the over all look and feel of the store as well as the prices on the clothing, I was impressed by the sale items in the beauty section.  There wasn’t a huge selection but what I did come across was Stila eye shadows for $6 and duo eye shadows for $8.  I also found philosophy 3-in-1s for just $9.  These are two great gift items for Easter and Mother’s Day which are right around the corner.

There were also some great hair products on the shelf – Moroccan hair oil which is great for strengthening hair and shine (I use it all the time now) and the Bumble and Bumble products.  I did notice though that the Bumble and Bumble products were full price and I didn’t look closely enough at the other hair items there to know if they were the same way or if it is just Bumble and Bumble.

So Stila & Philosophy lovers – check out Nordstrom Rack for some savings on your favorite items.

I have been using eye shadow primers for years now.  I love the way that they smoothe your eyelids and just grasp onto your eye shadow without caking it on.  I also find that when you use a primer that you use less shadow. When you get addicted to an eye shadow only for it to be discontinued, using less and stretching it out is awesome.

For the past few years I have been using Benefit’s Lemon Aid.  It is primer/concealer.  I have been very happy with it but was curious to see what else was out there and I had a free sample of Too Faced’s Shadow Insurance.  So for the past two weeks I have been using my sample since my Lemon Aid was out to see what I thought.

So what did I think?

As far as the Shadow Insurance went I really liked it.  It was very light and easy to apply.  It grasped my shadow and it held it for all 15 hours that I wore it to work.  By the end of the day, my shadow looked as if I had just applied it.  What I didn’t like was that it wasn’t a concealer so it did not hide the dark circles under my eyes like Benefit’s Lemon Aid does.  Since I don’t have dark circles all of the time it isn’t a huge deal but I think I will be shopping for another shadow base/concealer for when I do wake up looking a little less rested than I should.  As luck would have it, Sephora did send me an email right after I bought the full sized Shadow Insurance.  Apparently Benefit has come out with a shadow base/concealer stick called Stay Don’t Stray.  I think I’ll be checking it out when I go to the mall next weekend.

I have never been great with my skin care routine. I think part of it is due to the fact that my skin is sensitive and the other part is that I am just lazy.  My skin seems to resist too many different products on it at once.  I either have to pick between sunscreen, makeup, moisturizer, or acne cream.  Most of the time I can mix the makeup with something else in the list but usually never something else in the list with another thing minus the makeup.  Otherwise you will hear me screaming because my face is burning and I will be bright red.

It can be super frustrating!  I was shopping the other day though and found a moisturizer made by Clean and Clear that looked interesting.  It is moisturizer + acne cream.  I decided to go for it and wear it every night to see if it would do anything to my skin.  It has been working fantastic.  I no longer have burning, itching or redness when wearing a moisturizer and acne cream. I can moisturize my face and prevent breakouts.  The only thing I am disappointed in is that there is no sunscreen in this moisturizer so I definitely can only use this one at night and will need to buy a daytime moisturizer.  So in short thumbs up for the new Clean and Clear Advantage moisturizer.

Note: I was not paid for this blog post nor was I given any free samples. This is just my personal experience using a new product that I bought through drugstore.com and wanted to share. If you would like to try it out it is around $7 on drugstore.com. You can get 5% back on your purchase by using the Sunshine Rewards link in my side bar and signing up for the program. It is 100% free.

Wow!  I was surprised to surf over to the Sephora website tonight and find out that they are celebrating their 10th birthday.  For some reason I thought they were much “older” than that, maybe it is due to their presence in the cosmetic industry over the last decade.  I am very excited about this occasion as I have grown to love Sephora ever since I discovered them in 2002 while vacationing with my mother in San Diego.  I had seen the name Sephora in Lucky magazine but didn’t give it much thought.  I thought it was the name of some drugstore brand makeup or some tacky store so when we passed our first store I actually told my mom to just keep walking.  I am not sure how we ended up going into one of their stores on that trip but something made us finally walk in and we haven’t looked back.  I shop at Sephora anytime I need new makeup.  I would never think of shopping anywhere else.

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!

Are you like me and still trying to master that perfect smoky eye?  After much practice, I am still not quite where I want to be but I wonder if people ever really get to perfection in something like this.  Stila cosmetics has come up with a new way to help teach you how to create and perfect the smoky eye technique.  How??

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.

According to WebMD, nearly 90% of the population surveyed drink water everyday.  The average water consumed each day is around 50 ounces which is slightly more than the 6, 8oz glasses of water which is recommended each day.  Besides keeping us hydrated so that we can perform our daily activities, water has many heath benefits as well.  Let’s review some of the pros to drinking water so that you can stay healthy, hydrated, and happy.

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!