MAC Holiday – Formal Black: Nordstroms Exclusive

While the entire collection is beyond super fanstatic, two of my favorite sets are LE Nordstroms Exclusives. Here’s a quick peek: 

A black satin cylindrical clutch trimmed with velvet/bow detail. Elegantly hosts a cool-toned range of M·A·C evening favourites: Pinkphonic Glitter Eye Liner, Etiquette Glimmershimmer, Rose Pigment and Oyster Girl Lipglass.

A black satin cylindrical clutch trimmed with velvet/bow detail. Elegantly hosts a warm-toned range of M·A·C evening favourites: Glamourgold Glitter Eye Liner, Ritzy Glimmershimmer, Melon Pigment and Precocious Lipglass.

Information taken from: http://shop.nordstrom.com

MAC Holiday and Bridal Make-Up: Coming Soon…

MAC Holiday:

MAC always releases an army of deliciousness every holiday season, and this year’s is no exception. In fact, this is the best MAC Holiday Collection I’ve seen since Adorn came out 2 years ago. The packaging is much more glamourous and elegant then last year’s faux croc and Asian themes.  And the brush sets… the best MAC has EVER released. I love the way they’ve been group and the quality is a vast improvement from past collections.

Bridal Make-Up:

As an engaged women one year from bride, I decided to give my make-up a trial run and see what different lines would suggest for my coloring. Surprisingly, each major house suggested the same thing! Finding this incredibly odd, I recruited a friend and had her approach each counter as a pre-bride. Guess what? Same recommendations…

Stay tuned to discover what those colors were.

My Latest Drugstore Finds

Like most of you, I’m a high end kind of girl who doesn’t mind paying extra for my Shu Uemura Cleansing Oil because… its better than anything else on the market. I would turn my nose up at the idea of buying make-up or skin care from the drugstore because “I could afford better.”

But what about the products hiding in your CVS that are just as good as their high-end counter parts. Would you then be willing to go the discount route?

Every now and again I find great bargains at the drugstore that make me squirm because the product is sooo good, but my inner snob rebels.  So, while I will never purchase foundation from Walgreens (MAC all the way, baby!), I have recently discovered two treasures that I wanted to share:

NYC Copper Sparkle Nail Polish:

This may actually be my favorite vampy nail polish of all time, at it retails for less than $3 a pop!! The color is a magnificent blend of dark brown and blackened plum with tons of… you guessed it, copper sparkles. The combination sounds a bit odd, but try it. In real life, its magic.

Neutrogena Oil Free Acne Wash:

I was at a girlfriend’s house for a spa party and noticed this in the bathroom. This staple for high schoolers has the same active ingredients as DDF Salicylic Acid Face Wash… in the same percentage! So… $35 for DDF, or $5 for Neutrogena??

Living by the Snooze Button

Hello Everyone. I’ve missed you! After all the ups and downs that I’ve recently encountered, I felt entitled to a little vacation.

So I informed my boss that I was *cough cough* feeling a little under the weather, and just took a little time to myself.

Its autumn in Washington, DC and I love. This truly is my favorite time of the year.

I have great new products that I can’t wait to tell you about and a hand full of aumsing anecdotes to keep you entertained.

Stay tuned.

2006 Fall Trends

As promised, here is a break-down of what’s hot for fall:

• Colors of the season: Chocolate and black. Finally, black is the new black and I can revel in the east-coastiness of my waredrobe. And chocolate, mmm… Its a huge color for the season and looks so flattering on 99.9% of skintones.
• Accent colors: Gold and red. Gold jewelry is back with a gigantic bang and it looks fabulous with this season’s influx of chocolate brown. Beyond jewelry, try mixing a little gold-tone in your make-up to give yourself the autumn glow.
• Headbands. I’m really loving the thick, black patent leather ones. It looks preppy but polished.
• Leggings. *bleh* I am not a fan of these, but already they’re everywhere. I’m more tolerant of the full length style that tucks into your boots as opposed to the God-awful legging shorts that have been popping up. for color, I reccomend sticking to chocolate brown, charcoal grey, and black. The colors are slimming and hide a multitude of sins.
• One of my favorite pieces this season is the slim fit, long sleeve, black knit shirt with thin horizontal white stripes. Yes, horizontal stripes are evil, but there is something so wonderful about this top. Right now I’m loving it with darker colored khakis but may eventually pair it with black mini skirt, black tights (TOTALLY different from leggings) and a low slung belt.
• Straight Hair. Goodbye beachy waves and hot rollors. Stick straight, super shiney hair is back!
• Full eyebrows
• Vampy nailpolish
• Chocolate, gold, and nude make-up. Just think warm tones.
• Ankle boots
• Skinny jeans in dark washes

Sad Times…

I apologize for not posting the Fall Fashion Follow-Up promised for Friday, but I received very distressing news that left me shell-shocked. A close friend, my child hood sweetheart, was killed in a motorcycle accident. I had been away on vacation so I missed the funeral and my chance to say goodbye.

I took a few days off from work and blogging to compose myself and attempt to come to terms with this tragic loss of life. The man that died was one of the greatest people I have ever known.

Rest in peace Shawn Newberg. A part of me will always love you.

Use It Up Challenge Update: A trip down memory lane

So I have to admit, this challenge was a lot tougher than I expected. First of all, I did not stop shopping just because I wanted to streamline my storage space. In fact, I have even more beauty products cluttering up drawers, shelves, and boxes.

What I have learned is that there are tons of products that I hold on to that I really don’t need, use, or have any interest in using. I simply hang on to things because I have a hard time throwing things away. Somehow I convinced myself that its wasteful to throw away items that you paid good money for. (Then again, I’m probably just rationalizing because I don’t want to thin out my stash.)

What I was able to do was look at all the things I haven’t touched in over a year. I have over 2,000 beauty/fashion and business magazines! And while I needed those when I was still in business school (marketing major), I really don’t need them all now. So after a lot of encouragement from MusicMan, I donated close to 1,800 magazines to my public library. (They sell them at warehouse sales to raise money.)

That’s when I started to look at all the other things I have tucked away in the corners of my home. I finally let go of all my ex-boyfriend memorabilia. Ok, ok… so I kept *some* things, but I also tossed out enough stuff to fill three large freight boxes. I mean, honestly, I’m getting married. I really shouldn’t keep the anthology of old love letters. I wouldn’t be happy if my fiance kept romantic reminders of his past flames, so fair is fair.

Amid this strange re-construction of memory lane, it occured to me that as soon as I closed my eyes and dropped the trinkets into the trash, I no longer felt any attachment to them. I suppose they were just emotional safety blankets that reminded me instances where I was undeniably cared for.

Beyond all that, I realy did use up a few items:

• Frederic Fekkai Glossing set (shampoo, conditioner, and the ever-so-fabulous glossing creme)
• Go Smile Toothpaste
• 2 Philosophy 3-in-1 Shower Gels (Frozen Lemon Custard and Powdered Sugar Cookie)
• Bottle of Chanel Allure body creme
• A trial sized bottle of Shu Uemura’s Pink Sukura Cleansing Oil
• The last bit of my Fresh Lemon Sugar edp
• Bliss Shock Therapy

LOL. I’m a little weirded out by the amount of body wash that I go through…

DuWop Buttercream, Dessert for Your Skin

$17 at drugstore.com

I’m definitely a foody person when it comes to autumn scents, so I thought I’d love this body creme. Upon first sniff, it tricks you into believing it is something special and magically delicious… But that was the first and only thing good about this product.

I’ve read reviews that claim this product is very oily. I don’t know if my travel size was a dud, but it was actually a disgusting blend of oily and sticky. I might as well have massaged real frosting into my skin. Except real frosting would not dry down to the retched decaying scent of butter gone bad.

I had to hop in the shower immediately to rid myself of that awful experience.

If you like foody scents, do yourself a favor and stick to Bath and Body Works.

Something of a challenge…

MusicMan and I were randomly discussing how I wanted to rearrange the house when I move in and realized that we had completely different plans. More than that, I am going to loose about half my storage space!!

Now I don’t know about you, but I’ve spent the better part of a decade picking up pieces here and there to create the perfect wardrobe for myself. So first and foremost, I’m not getting rid of any clothes, shoes, or purses.

That leaves the pairing down game on everything else.

Before I start weeding out products, I wanted to create a bit of a challenge for myself. Something the ladies on MUA refer to as the “Use It Up Challenge.”

Basically, you give yourself some sort of incentive to use up as many products as you can within a certain time frame. Its not about wastefully (IE: over excessively) applying your La Mer in order to clear out space. The idea is to take stock of products that are 1/2 empty to nearly gone and just finishing them off. If its really expensive and you’re saving the final application, please save it until you need it.

Here’s an example. I have four bottles of sunblock on a bathroom shelf and they’re all basically the same thing. So I’ll pick the bottle that has the least in it and move that to the front. The idea is to keep using that particular bottle of sunblock until its all gone, clearing up a little real estate on my shelf.

I’m a little unsure on what I want to give myself as an incentive. With all the new collections coming out, I like the idea of rewarding myself with 1 new product for every 2 that I use up.

Here’s a list of things I’m going to start pairing down on:

• Shower Gels and Bar Soaps
• Body Lotions
• Body Splash/Spray
• Sunblock
• Face Wash
• Face and Eye Cremes
• Product Samples
• Shampoo and Conditioner
• Hair Styling Products
• Nail Polish (This is more of a case of tossing out colors that I know I’ll never wear again… like baby blue or colors with huge chunky flecks of glitter)

I also have at least a thousand magazines in my house that I keep for inspiration in make-up, fashion, or advertising. There’s no way MusicMan is going to let me move in 30 copy paper boxes of magazines into his townhouse. So it will be another challenge for me to figure out some method of weeding through these.

Living It and Loving It

I just had the best weekend in a very long time and I'm still enjoying the afterglow. Saturday was light-hearted, playful, and just plain fun.

Outfit:

• Banana Republic black halter with bronze buckle detailing
• Banana Republic knee length skirt. It was a gauzey confection of black and white swirled together
• Calvin Klein sling backs (black)

Face

• DDF SPF 50 
• Smashbox Photo Finish Primer – Color Correcting Formula in Green. I LOVE this stuff!! Its my new favorite product. I didn't need to wear anything else on my face to even my skintone or control oil.
• MAC Sheertone Shimmer Blush in Margin

Eyes

• MAC Prep + Prime Eye
• MAC Melon Pigment all over the lid
• MAC Lily White pigment to highlight the inner corner and browbone
• MAC Water Nymph Eyeshadow for the outer corners and crease. This aqua teal is the sexiest color I've seen in a long time
• MAC Delphic Fluidline (A blend of sea foam green and aqua) for the upper lash line
• Benefit Bad Gal liner for the lower inner lash line

Lips:

• Chanel Glossimer in Pagoda

Music Man's band was playing a local event that is basically the combination of an all day summer concert and a carnival. The small child in each of us adored the petting zoo, caramel corn, cherry milkshakes, and carnival games. But as a couple, we cuddled on the ferris wheel at sunset while pointing out different sites and enjoyed a few quiet moments alone.

As soon as we got off the ferris wheel his band called and we had to deal with load-in stuff. I felt pretty being driven across the ground in the little carts to the back stage area where we had an excellent view of Sugar Ray's performance. I took a moment to acknowledge how cute Mark McGrath was circa 1998.

Music Man's set was great. Both the band and the audience seemed really into the performance even though it was so late. Overall it really was a phenomenal day.