Another Manicure, Another Polish

My color this week was Essie Overnight. Just another pretty pale pink. My polish collection is getting fairly redundant, so once I finish the trial phase(4 polishes to go) I will have to begin on the refining phase. Of course Essie will continue to put new polishes that I want to try. Like It's In The Bag from the Fall Collection and Pink Ribbon, which is a limited edition shade supporting Breast Cancer Research.

I also got my TestTube this week. The GoSmile kit contained a small tube of PM toothpaste. I have been using this the past two nights. The scent is like a face cream, but it gets really frothy, so I feel like it really cleaning my teeth, and because of the no-mint, it feels just right for going to bed. The other products in the kit were two of their ampoules and a travel toothbrush. I got a NIA24 Kit with small tubes of exfoliater, repair cream, and SPF 30. I got three neutral Jane Iredale eyeshadows, a thing of loose powder, which I'm assuming is mineral foundation, and a lil sample lipstick, whose top fell off and smeared on the other products. (it all came off though, but I threw that out). I got Dr. Brandt laser in a bottle, used it last night, it seems nice. It is hard for me to judge anti-aging products, but if it feels good then I'll use it, and maybe I will never have wrinkles. The other two items I got are Obaji vitamin C serum, full size bottle worth $75, I haven't used it yet, b.c I am finishing off a sample of NV Pericone vitamin c eye serum, but I love me some Vitamin C. Lastly there is BABOR eye cream, I haven't tried this yet either for the same reason.

I tried to place an order on spalook.com with my gift certificate but it is not recognizing the code :(

I really do like this program though. I think it is an awesome way to try products I haven't even heard about, and I can't wait to see what I get in my next tube.

Fall Trend Event

WOW! What a day, lets start from the beginning:

6:00 am: alarm goes off, hit snooze.

6:05 am: alarm goes off again, turn it off.

6:30 am: wake up.

6:40 am: get in shower, get ready.

7:20 am: I'm ready to go!!

7:30 am: head out to the metro.

7:45 am: arrive at metro where I stand on the platform for 15 minutes waiting for the train. There is such a drastic difference between weekday and weekend mornings!

8:15 am: sitting on the metro at the airport for almost a half hour because of track work.

8:45 am: finally make it to Pentagon City, once inside the mall I have to find the directory so I know which way Nordstrom is.
I then have to go out to the parking structure to get into Nordstrom since the mall entrance is closed. Once I got upstairs, I got my ticket stamped and was given my two train cases (one for the absentee husband) I am seated, given my breakfast, and fill out my raffle ticket. The show was interesting. Representatives from all of the brands came out to talk about their new products. Some were much better presentations than others. Some of the brands also gave out samples. The only sample I was able to score was the Trish McEvoy Blackberry & Vanilla Musk perfume. I have only smelled this from the bottle, but it is great! Somewhere in there I nabbed a mimosa, yummmm. The raffle prizes where amazing gift baskets from all of the top lines, which sadly I did not win. Le Mer gave out a $250 basket during their presentation to the person that got the sample with the yellow dot. The Smashbox guy also gave out a few bottles of photofinish and some of their other products to people sitting in the first and second rows. Lesson learned: next time get there way early to nab a primo seat and score mucho samples.

9:40 am: Show ends and everyone heads downstairs. When I got off the escalator I was handed two samples from Kneipp: their almond blossom hand cream and shower gel, along with flyer about the brand. I had never heard of them, I guess they do all natural products. Then I made my way to the Shu Uemura counter for my appt. I guess one of the make-up artists called in sick, which meant they were backed up and I had to wait. I went to the La Mer counter to get a sample of Creme de la Mer, one of the Holy Grail beauty products. The little jar probably has like $15 worth of creme in it, I will definitely be hoarding this:)

10:00 am: I get to sit down for my consultation. Since I didn't wear any make-up, there was no skincare consultation. She started by asking me how I normally do my make-up, which is emphasis on the eyes, lots of mascara and liner, and light lips. My make-up came out good, but its not a look I would ever recreate. I was totally mistaken on that blush I said I wanted. It turns out it was actually a lipgloss, oops!! I ended up buying what the real blush in antique pink; on me it is a nice bright, sheer pink. I also got the lipstick she used on me, lolishine in 922, a really pretty sparkly nude, which is totally the lipcolor of the season. Even though I didn't spend enough money (I was $10 short) I was still given the free eyelash curler. I told her about my issues with the curler and she told me to play with the angles, and tip it back a lot more than I had been. She also used it on me in the demonstration and it did not hurt at all. Now that I have another (free) one, I will give it a second chance and see if I can make it work for me.

10:45 am: I continued walking around the floor, very in the mood to get more stuff, and stopped at Laura Mercier. I was able to get a quickie consultation on the under-eye concealer system. On one eye, I demo-ed the entire three step process. On the other eye I demo-ed just the concealer. They both worked well, but the 3-step was definitely better. I was only going to get the concealer today, and buy the rest piece-meal, but they were doing a very rare and nice GWP, so I ended up getting it all. The first step is the Secret Brightener, followed by Secret Concealer, and topped off with Secret Brightening Powder to set everything. It was $77 for everything, but if you have been plagued by dark circles your whole life like me, it would be worth your time and money to get your own consultation. I did skip on the two brushes that are used to apply the products, more on those later. In my GWP bag I got: 2 fl. oz. tube of clementine scrub, yeay, I love scrubs; .5 fl oz tube of Laura's famous tinted moisturizer in Sand, I hope this is my color; a .11 oz petal glace lipgloss, a very pretty pink/peach color; and a full size powder eyeliner in eggplant, which is great because I am so into purple for this season.

11:00 am: I finished walking the floor and made two more stops. At the little Phyto stand I got my hair scanned. It was so cool, they take this wand to your hair, and there it is magnified on the screen. My diagnosis: I have very dry hair. She recommended a series of products which she wrote down for me and gave me a sample of Phyto-7 which helps to moisturize the hair. I guess I really need to step up my game when it comes to deep conditioning. I also went to this Norwegian perfume guy, Geir Ness, who was giving hand massages with his lotion, Laila. I can never turn down a hand massage, I just love them!! but Holy Euro-Trash bat girl; this guy was so over the top, and his package was bulging in ten different directions due to his skin tight pants, nasty!

11:15 am: I popped into VS to get the free lipgloss from my card in this months Allure. The color they are giving away is Hottie. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks just like Chanel's Spark.

11:20 am: of course no beauty shopping day is complete without a stop in Sephora. Now for all of my Blowout fans, remember when Jonathan gave us a glimpse of silky dirt and made us want it right then and there? Well it is finally out, although you wouldn't know because it was named Create Weightless Smooth. Tricky tricky, but it is definitely the silky dirt product, and I have it!! nanny nanny poo poo. I also bought a pointed concealer brush. I looked for a brush like the one that was used with the setting powder, but I couldn't find one, so that will happen later on. There was another card in Allure for a free Kinerase sample at Sephora, so I got that too. Sephora carries the Phyto line as well and I got a sample of the three products they make for dry hair, phyto-7, phytojoba shampoo and phytosesame conditioner. In my bag were also samples of fioravanti conditioner, sephora eyeshadow, and philosophy supernatural.

11:45 am: my final beauty stop was Origins. I wanted to get samples of A Perfect World face moisturizer and the scrub Swept Away. I also got to demo their new microdermabrasion alternative Modern Friction. The girl massaged it onto my hand and showed me how the product worked. The rice starch grabs ahold of dead skin so you can actually see if coming off in little blobs, when you don't see anymore blobs, your skin is clean!! This stuff is awesome and once my bank account gets replenished, I am totally getting this product.

12:00 am: There was no way I could come home with all these goodies and have nothing for my husband, so I popped into apple to get him an iTunes gift card.

Whew, what a day!!

Make it Real Simple

Yesterday I went back to Emma at Celadon for my new Wednesdays @ 12:30 standing appt!! It was so nice to have someone actually take the time to make sure my nails were well shaped and cleaned. Oh, and a much better massage, that went all the way to my elbow. It is so great to have this weekly treat. On a side note, I was telling my husband that I would love to add a massage into my weekly routine, but I defiantly cannot afford that now. One day though, one day.

I digress, I used Essie’s Real Simple this week, which was recently put out as a part of their Anniversary Collection. This shade is beyond pretty. It is a wonderful pale pink, but the shade is much richer than old fav Ballet Slippers. Celadon only uses OPI, though I believe they do keep a bottle of BS on hand. Emma liked it so much though, that she said she might pick up a bottle for her clients. I really think this will be a new Essie fav.

Test Tube Beauty

I stumbled across this website yesterday called TestTube. The concept of the site is that you pay $25 dollars for a tube that has a multitude of products in it. They list the products that have been in previous tubes, and the brands for the incoming tube. It seems pretty awesome, and something that would be a lot of fun. However, I'm skeptical about everything. Take look at the site, have you heard about this before, do you know anything about it?? Give me your opinions and help me decide if I should join.

Thanx!!

Weekend Update

Two great things happened this weekend.

The first was that I got my Dior Detective Chic and it only cost me $4!!!! Here's how: I did a make-up alley swap in which I traded 4 products for a $25 Macy's giftcard. Then I paid for the remainder of it with the rent.com giftcard I got for leasing my apartment. I say it cost $4 b.c that is what it cost me to ship the items I swapped. The compact is so cute and the powder is very light so I can dust it on liberally.

The second was my discovery of the Shu Uemura Mode Make-up event. This coming Saturday at 8am in the Nordstrom at Pentagon City there will be a Shu Uemura fashion show. The tickets are $15, but this includes a Mimosa breakfast, a train case and a raffle. The cost of the ticket is also redeemable in product. I bought one for me and one for my hubby, so I'll be getting 2 train cases, double the chance to win something, and I can get $30 worth of product. I am definitely getting that gold blush, I'll decide that day how to spend the other $10. OH, I almost forgot. They are also doing personal consultations all day long. I made my appt for 9:30, right after the show. I'll be getting a full skincare and make-up application and the appt is booked out for 30min. I am so excited for this event. I will post next Saturday after I attend.

Filigree for Fall

This week has turned about to be quite an exciting week for new cosmetics: both to me and to the market.

Shu Uemura has come out with a beautiful filigree collection including 5 powder eyeshadows, 2 sets of three cream eyeshadow sticks and 2 blushes. All of the powders have a beautiful filigree pattern. My favorite is the Filigree Rouge 4 Beige Gold. FYI check out the events link to find out when you can meet with a make-up artist in your area to get a personal preview of these glorious new products.

I also got 5 new products this week. Three of them came from great swaps on make-up alley. Last Holiday Season InStyle Magazine featured the Shu Uemura Geisha Lip Trio of sweet glosses. I thought they were absolutely gorgeous, but never sought them out. However, I stumbled upon one of them Pink Shell, and made a swap for it all the way from Singapore!! It has a wonderful creamsicle flavor and it is a very pretty pale shimmery pink. I also got a set of 5 lip glosses from Sephora, I haven't tried them yet, but the colors are gold, silver, pink, coral, and berry. My third MUA treat was a clinique GWP eyeshadow quad. The colors are absolutely gorges, they are: Starstruck, Golden Lynx, Sugar Sugar and Like Mink.

On Tuesday I went to the now Macy's (former Hechts) and hopped on over to the M.A.C. counter. I went straight to the lipglass display to check out Underage and Oyster Girl. The sales girl also showed me a bunch of other lip products, but I stuck to my guns and got the Underage. I love this color, it is a great pink/nude with tons of shimmer.


Today, J, S, and I took a stroll through Macy's during our lunch and were called over by the Benefit Girls. When my makeup artist asked me what I was looking for, I said "Whatever, I'm a make-up junkie" She first showed me Dr. Feelgood, which acts as a blotter/mattifier. Next up was You're Bluffing, this yellow stick counter acts redness. She followed up with Get Even, a really great pressed powder. I know I am getting to the end of my current powder, and this one is going onto the list of what I might get to replace it. She then used Dallas, a bronzer/blush/all over powder. I think that benefit is internally pushing this product. Since each girl used it on all of us. I even told my girl that I would like to try Dandelion, but she whipped out Dallas anyway. Yea, def some kind of contest going on there. Then we moved onto my dark under eye circles. We used a combo of boi-ing, ooh la lift, and eye bright, but I didn't feel like any of the products worked any better than plain old concealer. In the end, I was really impressed with the You're Bluffing, and made that my final beauty purchase of the work week.

Nail Revelation

Today I had a lunch date with J & S for a triple manicure. We went back to Natural Nails, and my second go-around confirmed what I have been thinking for a few weeks now: the pricier salons are worth it. Again, my manicurist, Nicole, rushed through everything, and I think in 10 minutes she had me under the dryer. I do go for the polish, but I also enjoy the experience, ambiance, and pampering, and I am not getting it at the cheapy nail salons. If you think about it a 12 min mani at $12 costs a dollar a minute. A 40 min mani at $25 cost roughly 60 cents an hour, so its more economical to get the better mani. I say you should always go for quality, it is worth it in the long run. This conclusion has led me to make a pretty bold move; I booked a weekly mani at Celadon, for the next 6 weeks, ladies, I am all set :)

For this weeks polish, I used Essie Delicacy. It is very pretty, but it is way to close to my skin color, and my nails are just blending into my fingers. I like light colors, but I still want them to stand out. So...up on makeupalley it goes!

I also wanted the share the fabulous book I just read:
The Booster by Jennifer Solow
The main character has an extra circular activity and she is quite the bad girl. Just reading this book made me feel as naughty as Jillian. I was completely pulled into the world of this book and it was absolutely incredible. If you are reading this, I command you to read this book too!!

My New Religion

I had my eyebrows threaded today and Oh.My.God. It was like a holy experience. It is such a cool technique the way the strings work to pull out the hairs leaving the smoothest lines I have ever seen. It didn't hurt, but it was a strange sensation. I left with the best brows ever and a new addiction. Sonia of Threads on L St is completely amazing and you can bet your Jimmy Choos I'll be making frequent and regular visits :)

Metrosexuals at the Nail Salon

I went back to 5th Ave Nails today, but this time I had Linda. She was extremely quick, like ten minutes. But she gave a good hand massage and polished fast and well. However, when I got back to work I noticed that the shape of my nails wasn't so great. When I sat under the dryer, there was a guy next to me who immediately starting blabbing. I think its totally cool for guys to get manicures, but being under the dryer means something needs to dry and that means he got clear polish. Men should buff and that's it, but I digress. He went on and on the whole time I was sitting next to him. It really irks me when strangers feel the need to talk my ear off, especially when I have nothing to say back and I just want them to shut the eff up. Unfortunately my three years in Georgia instilled some politeness in me and I have a hard time being my nasty old self. Its coming back in drips and drabs, thank god.

I went with Essie Vinyl Bikini and immediately decided not this keep this one. There is absolutely no color to it, I might as well have gotten clear polish like the guy next to me.

Update on eBay: I am still hunting for my Dior Detective Chic. Last week I bought Too Faced Snow Bunny and I got to try it out this morning. I have been lusting after this for months and I really like it, but it is extremely shimmery so I need to use a very light hand with it.

It may be the 21st century...

But its not the space age!! I've decided to rename Essie's Pearly White and make it Space Age Silver instead. It was so horrifyingly "Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century" that it just had to go. I've replaced it with Glamour. In the bottle they both had a similar shimmer to them, so I figured this was the best time to do a direct comparison. Now Glamour is what I would call pearly white. It really is the exact same color as a string of beautiful Mikimoto pearls. This is more what I was expecting.

I have also been highly coveting the Dior Detective Chic highlighter in beige vibration. Since its $55 dollars in the stores, I'm hunting on eBay like a mad-woman to try and get it at a better price. This compact is gorgeous, a beautiful creamy white leather case will look great for whipping out to use the mirror, and the powder inside has four wonderful colors that create the prettiest glow when swirled together. After seeing it in person yesterday, I have decided that I absolutely must have this. And I'm sure you'll feel the same.