Holy Grail Products for the Eyes

I figured after doing a lot of reviews, it would be a great idea to do a post about all the products that I truly love and cannot live without.  These are the things I reach for everyday and can depend on to perform every time.  This edition focuses on eye products and the next will be face and lip products.  I wholeheartedly recommend these items to anyone.

SHU UEMERA LASH CURLER ($19.90 on Amazon) - if you have ever complained about eyelash curlers that pinch your skin, pull your lashes out, make your lashes stick to the curling pads, or, God forbid, chop your lashes off, look no further.  There is no comparison to any other lash curler and I've tried an ton.  Even those goofy heated ones, this is hands down the best.  It gives your lashes that nice wide eyed natural looking curl without leaving them looking crimped and sticking straight up.  You can use it on lashes that have mascara on them without the lashes sticking to the pads.  The pads last just about forever, I've had mine for years and there isn't event the hint of a dent in them.  I love this curler so much I have three.

MAYBELLINE THE ROCKET MASCARA Waterproof in Very Black (~$6-7 at the drugstore) - I have very fine straight short lashes that will not hold a curl unless the formula is waterproof.  This mascara holds my curl like a champ and it has out performed many high end mascara's I've tried.  I'm looking at you Benefit They're Real, Guerlain and Dior.  It does not make the super long but once I curl my lashes and put a coat or three of this on, my lashes are curled until I'm ready to take my makeup off.  It doesn't flake or smudge but will require a waterproof eye makeup remover to get off.  For days when I'm feeling like a super glam look without glueing false lashes on, I will curl my lashes, put a light coat of this on to lock my curl, wait for it to dry and then layer a lengthening mascara on top such as the Benefit one.

LIOELE AUTO EYEBROW PENCIL ($13.98 on prettyandcute.com) -  I cannot leave my house without coloring my brows in because they are so sparse.  I discovered this brand after hearing Jenn on From Head to Toe rave about how much she loved it.  One pencil lasted me about 9 months using it every single day and I am down to the very nub and will need to order another soon.  The tip is not round, it's kind of like a tilted rectangle, or parallelogram for you nit picky folks, and the formula is not too creamy or too waxy.  I use the color grey which matches my skin tone and hair color perfectly.  Anything too much darker would look too harsh.  It is a twist up and does not require sharpening, and the other end has a convenient spoolie to brush out your brows and blend in the color.  You can purchase it on http://www.prettyandcute.com - just use the discount code KLOVE10 for 10% off.

MEET MATT(E) NUDE FROM THE BALM ($42) - I've only recently gotten into using matte eyeshadows and I am in LOVE with this palette.  You can easily get natural daytime to ultra smokey night time looks and the shadows are huge.  The peachy color is a perfect blending color to smooth out harsh lines and I just think you get such a sophisticated eye look with matte colors.  They are very well pigmented and go on smoothly without any chalkiness.  I suggest using a primer or a cream shadow as a base for the color to cling to and if you do you won't have any issues with creasing or fading.  Who doesn't love adorable packaging?

GUERLAIN TERRACOTTA TOUCH Glow Enhancing Perfector -($43 on Sephora) - this is a splurge item for sure and I blame my cousin Vanessa for getting me hooked on this crack.  You use it under your eyes and on your cheek bones and under your brows to get a beautiful highlight.  It does a good job of concealing under eye circles IF they aren't TOO dark.  You may need something with more coverage under this if you do, then layer this on top.  I have not found anything that takes away my "tired Mama face" like this.  It brightens me up, gives me a beautiful glow where I want to highlight, and I even use a touch of the down the bridge of my nose and on my Cupid's bow.  Make sure you use a hydrating eye cream and wait at least 5 minutes to let that soak in before applying this.  I usually dot it under my eye with my ring finger or use a dense Sigma P80 flat top brush to stipple it in if I'm feeling particularly fancy.  Fingers blend just fine.  I usually put this on AFTER my foundation because the foundation does a decent job of concealing the darkest parts and this finishes it off.  I recommend setting it (and your Tzone in general) with a finishing powder.

PHYSICIANS' FORMULA 2in1 LASH BOOSTING EYELINER - ($10-12 at the drugstore) - ok if you love a felt tip liquid liner, you need this in your life.  The formula applies butter smooth, lasts all day long without smudging or flaking.  The felt tip is long enough and flexible enough for precise cat's eye winged liner and you can often take advantage of drugstore sales to get a great deal.  Once I've applied this I always like to set it with a similarly colored powder shadow just to keep it from budging.

Another month of awesome from Ipsy May 2013

Once again the Ipsy monthly beauty subscription has beaten its competitors to a pulp.  The comparison was so staggering that I've finally pulled the plug and said sayonara to Birchbox, who was my first beauty sub love.  For a paltry $10 a month this is what I received from them.

Here is the roundup and price point for each of the items:

Full sized Zoya nail polish in Blu (a robin's egg blue) - $8 retail

Full sized Pacifica Roll On perfume in Tahitian Gardinia - $12 retail

Mini Pacifica Coconut Crushed Pearl Bronzing Butter - $7 retail

Full sized Mirabella lipstick in Daydream - $22 retail

Sample of Yaby concealer in Honey - $4.85 retail

AND as a bonus for being a good customer - they sent me a full sized Urban Decay Moondust Eyeshadow in Glitter Rock! - $20 retail

So my $10 this month got me $71.85 worth of products!

The Pacifica brand is pretty easy to find in Target and Whole Foods - I'm a fan of their Blood Orange scent, and while the Gardenia is more floral than I usually reach for, I will still probably use it on occasions when I want to feel particularly girly.

I'm not much of a bronzer user but I will probably use this to try to get rid of my running shorts/sports bra tan.  Hopefully this won't turn me into an Oompa Loompa.

I have a love hate relationship with Zoya.  Their jelly polishes are so finicky and tend to bubble on me, their Pixie Dust polishes are sheer LOVE.  This pale blue creme polish is a meh to me.  The color is pretty for springtime but its a little gloppy and doesn't self level all that well.  I will add a few drops of polish thinner and see if that redeems this one.

This Yaby concealer was not a hit for me.  The color wasn't salmon enough for my under eye circles and it didn't work for my blemishes.  The texture wasn't all that blendable and it settles into my fine lines.

The Mirabella lipstick has a nice feel to it, creamy and not drying but the color is a fail.  Frosty 80s Barbie pink does nothing for my skin tone and it makes my teeth look yellow.

I am pretty thrilled about the Urban Decay shadow bonus.  Ipsy really outdid itself and the high end shadow single was the icing on the cake.  It is a glittery pink with iridescent sparkle.  Definitely not your daytime everyday shadow look, but for an evening out it really gives your eyes a pretty pop.  Lots of fall out with this folks, so I used a finger to apply and would suggest an eye primer to keep everything in place AND do your foundation after your eyes so you can easily brush away the fall out on your cheeks.

The Survival series of Beauty Subscriptions stands at Birchbox and Glossybox CANCELLED, Ipsy, Julep and TestTube still going strong.

Well played, Ipsy, well played.

Contouring - lose 5lbs without even trying

Have you ever wished that you had more defined cheek bones or that your face didn't look quite so puffy and round?  There are a few really easy make up techniques that you can use to give your face a little more definition and make it look like you've lost 5lbs without even working at it.  By playing up the natural shadows on your face, you can make your face look slimmer using a matte bronzer or even a matte shadow if you can find one in an appropriate shade.  As always, with any application - practice makes perfect and you can always wipe it off and try again.

The effect should always be subtle, and you should always apply with a light hand.  In the photos below, the only difference is the addition of a bit of matte bronzer to the hollows of my cheeks and to my jaw line and temples.  You should have to look pretty closely to see a difference between the two.  You don't want a streak of dark that is too noticeable, especially during the day.  You have a bit more room to play if it's a night time look as far as going more dramatic with the contour.

You can figure out where to apply by looking in the mirror and making a "fishy face"  sucking your cheeks in.  You want the contour to start at your hairline and be in a slight triangle shape with the wider area starting at the hair line and it coming to a point that ends in the line that comes straight down from the outside corner of your eye.  Don't bring it in too close to your mouth, you want the color to be the darkest at the hairline then softer as you get to the middle of the apple of the cheek.

You also want to apply it along the jaw line to make that area look slimmer as well as along your temples and hairline for a bit of warmth.  Usually if I'm using a bronzer to contour, I don't bother with a different color as a "bronzer".  It's just easier to sweep the same color under the jaw and along the temples to give my face a bit more life.

Here are a couple of brushes that I use pretty regularly.  The one on the left I use when I'm looking for a quick bit of definition.  The angled shape lets you get right into the hollow of your cheek and the soft fluffy bristles don't pick up too much product which looks too unnatural on the skin.  Keep a clean powder brush handy to blend out the bronzer if you over do it.  The Real Techniques Contour Brush I like for when I want a more precise application or when I'm doing my makeup for a special evening out.  Both work great, and even a plain old blush brush would work fine with powder bronzers.  If you have a cream bronzer that you want to contour with, just use your fingers in the same area and it will work just as well.  I prefer powders because my skin is oily and cream bronzers as well as blushes tend not to last very long on my skin.

Angled contour brush and Real Techniques Contour Brush

When picking a good bronzer to contour with, you want to stick to matte shades that do not have any shimmer or sparkle.  You are trying to deepen the shadows in an area and shimmer will only make that area look more noticeable.   The ones that I have listed in the picture below work for tons of skin tones and the texture is very easy to work with and they do not look orange on the skin.  You do not want to look like Snooki or an Oompa Loompa trust me.  They are in descending order of price with the NARS Laguna being the most expensive and the NYX Matte Bronzer really in the drugstore price range.  I reach for all three pretty equally, but will say that the Too Face Chocolate Soleil smells the best.

Top to Bottom:  Nars Laguna, Too Faced Chocolate Soleil, Nyx Matte Bronzer

You can also lightly contour your nose by using a fluffy eyeshadow blending brush and put the bronzer down the sides of your nose to make it look a little thinner.  Be cautious not to over do it in the nose area or your face is going to look really odd.

There are days when I skip the blush entirely and just add a bit of contour with lip stick. brows and mascara, then I'm out the door.

Birchbox April 2013 - Women's Health Box

I was ready to bash this month's box, really I was. I find that getting foil sample packets a bit of a disappointment, and I did not get the full sized chubby lip crayon that I was seeing on other people's blogs.  The subscription envy was strong this month.

Let's take a peek at the contents shall we?

Caudalie's Huile Divine - which is their response to the Josie Maran Argan oil phenom
Nexxus Anti Aging Hair serum
Strivectin anti wrinkle eye cream
YoungBlood's Anti Shine Mattifier
3 Weleda Body lotion samples

I hate to admit it but I'm actually going to use most of these samples (save for the hair serum one which sounds kind of hokey to me)

The Caudalie oil smells fantastic even if it is not exactly earth shattering and transformative on my hair. I'll give the YoungBlood mattifier a go in my T zone to see if it can keep my foundation from sliding right off my face after a few hours.  And who would say no to something that might actually help my fine lines and wrinkles.

Not me baby, not me.

So even if the Birchbox this month didn't blow my socks off, it was solid.   And I can deal with solid.

You can't outrun a bad diet

I've been fat a long time, and unhealthy for even longer than that. At my heaviest I weighed 188lbs, and on a 5'2 frame there is no way to shake it where the word FAT did not come out. I stopped shopping in department stores because having to go into the fat ladies section and trying stuff on was just demoralizing. I avoided photos, I ignored my expanding waistline as much as my huffing and puffing at the smallest exertion.

About a year ago my doctor gave me the Come To Jesus talk about my health and future. I was staring down the barrel of Type II diabetes if I did not get my shit together, and my weight under control.
It's kind of amazing how much denial one can be in until someone rubs your nose into your own pile of crap and tells you your choices are killing you.

So I started exercising, a lot. I lost 10lbs and two dress sizes and put on lots of lean muscle over the course of 6 months using P90X and TurboFire from BeachBody. I still feel TurboFire is my soulmate workout, and would recommend both programs whole heartedly.

It took me that long however to realize that you can't outrun (literally and figuratively) a bad diet. Exercise cannot cancel out the crappy food you put into your mouth and those choices are what end up sabotaging your results.

So in October I started a program called Take Shape For Life, which is a diet plan based on Medifast food with an awesome health coach (Shawna Barboni shawnaATbarboniDOTorg) who helps motivate you along the way.

I was and still am conflicted about these kind of diets where you severely restrict your calorie intake using prepackaged food and drop weight really quickly.  I'd done Nutrisystem, Weight Watchers and SlimFast in the past, and nothing was able to keep the weight off.  I always felt these kind of plans were essentially cheating your way to a slimmer body and didn't do anything for your cardio health at all.  In three months I dropped an additional very stubborn 15lbs and another dress size. I wasn't the model Medifast client and I didn't have an enormous amount of weight I wanted to drop. I cheated here and there and I continued to exercise vigorously.

What my time on TSFL taught me is that there is no one solution. You cannot approach it as you would a short term diet, and all your choices, make a difference. My short stint on Medifast helped me look at food as fuel, and use it as a tool to a greater goal. The quick 15 lbs helped to further motivate me and challenge me to take my fitness to another level by starting to run regularly.

My TSFL coach lost over 100lbs, so you can see that it is darn effective.

I still use some of my leftover Medifast meals to help control my eating choices during the week but I'm in a cardio focus these days. It is nice to have the options nearby when I am tempted by my kids' snacks or the drive thru.

I don't feel like I've been cheating anymore by using TSFL to help drop some weight. It has motivated me to become even more active, to push myself farther than I thought I could go, but it isn't the only weapon in my arsenal either.

I'm probably about 15 lbs from my dream body, and currently at my "goal" weight as far as dieting is concerned. I'm going to work on my endurance, muscle tone and overall strength and I figure the rest will be along shortly.

MOVE more, EAT better, BE BETTER.

Double chin city - 2006?

March 2013

St. Patty's Day 10K

Step out of your comfort zone and rock a bright lip for Spring

The weather is warming up, and nothing says sunny longer days to me like a bright lip color.  I used to see other women rock a bright lip stick and think that would never work on me.  Too bold.  Too attention whoring.  Too much.

Lemme tell you, I trained myself to wear bolder lip colors, and now that I have conditioned myself to reach for them regularly, the mental perk I can get from a gorgeous Vivid Rose or a Classic Red lip is fantastic.  Think Marilyn Monroe, Dita Von Teese, Scarlett Johanssen or Gwen Stefani.

The iconic bold lip color is a classic beauty staple that ANYONE can pull off.  Even you Miss Shy Wallflower lady who only wears plain chapstick.   And come on, what guy has EVER thought too himself, wow that is a fabulous nude lipcolor you are wearing.  None.  No one.  Seriously.  There was a scientific study done somewhere.  OK maybe not, but a man will notice a bold lip 100x over a neutral or nude color any day.

Cool toned brights (think more blueish undertone and   less orangey) will make your teeth look whiter and look great on just about any skin tone.  A great one that I really like is the Vivid Rose from Maybelline's Vivids collection.

Anytime you are going with a bold lip, the rest of your makeup should be minimal.  So, neutral eyes and soft cheeks.  The statement lip should be the only thing making a statement.

Step 1 - Pick out a color that you love how it looks in the tube.  Ignore the voice that says "Oh my GOD YOU HUSSY".  Trust me, the bitch don't know what she's talking about.

Vivid Rose with natural face

Step 2 - Wear it as a stain.  This is the most forgiving sheerest application.  Take the lip stick and tap it against your top lip and transfer to the top lip.  This isn't a smear or swipe.  Just tap it on lightly, then rub your lips together to transfer the color.   You can build the color up bit by bit until you get to where you start to feel a bit awkward about wearing a bright color.  Remember, we are pushing boundaries here.  Then go out and run your errands, don't look at your lips too much, and don't think about it.  That wasn't so bad was it?

Sheered out lipcolor as a stain

Step 3 - Wear it as a lipstick.  Swipe it on, blot, and don't let yourself get talked out of it.  Keep in on the whole day, reapply after eating or drinking.  Smile when people compliment your lip color, because they will.

Rinse, repeat, be fabulous.

Step out of your comfort zone,  you can do it.

NOTD: Springtime quick art

Revlon Colorstay in Marmalade, Kiss Nail art polish in White and Zoya Pixie Dust in Vespa on the accent