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Clinique Gift w Purchase @ Macys

Ooo a free gift from Macy’s with any $21 purchase from Clinique full of spring colors, plus some new anti-aging products and the launch of the fake-bake no streak tanning product line is in too just in time for Mama’s day. Click here to check out the goods.

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Benefit Benetint

I think I’m too old for most of the Benefit stuff…it really sucks too because the packaging is so fun and cute, but with the exception of Benefit F Y Eye, it just doesn’t work. Take for example one of the signature products BeneTint. Conceptually, it is great. In a varnish type bottle, it will give your cheeks and lips instant glow – a very oh so natural glow…unless you are in your mid to late 30′s like me lol. The first thing I did when I got my Benetint home was spill half the contents on my bathroom vanity (it didn’t stain) and then in an attempt to make it all ok, experimented with the tint itself – with disappointing results.

I do think however, that if you have younger supple skin, it would really look amazing. Can someone with that skintype give a better review? Swapping my half-full bottle on MakeUpAlley if interested…

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Nordstrom’s Cosmetic Trend Show Fall 07

Staci, Chastity and I got up super early this morning to check out the new fall lineup from all the different lines. It was fun – they served mimosa’s & had little breakfast boxes with fruit, yogurt & muffins and a cute train case full of samples. The makeovers were booked with MAC – and I totally messed up by being a control freak and asking for Russian Red only because I saw it on Kat Von D and thought it super cute, and it is…on her. Not me. blah. Staci’s makeup was way cute and so was Chastity’s – they had the cat eye smokey eye combos with nice sheer lipglass. My mom said she didn’t like my makeup color choices either – I don’t know, it just didn’t match or something. I did end up buying the MAC mineralize foundation though – I will be sure to give a review as soon as I’ve worn it for a bit. Oh! I forgot that they put on some falsies too – AND charged me $11 bucks for some lashes I totally could have bought at CVS for 2 bucks. blah again.

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Origins Youthtopia

Origins ‘Youthtopia™’ Skin Firming Lotion with Rhodiola kinda sucks. I’m somewhat new to Origins, and just purchased this product plus some others – here is the rundown and how it’s all kind of panning out:

Origins Youthtopia – don’t like it, it seems to leave a greasy film that attracts dust & dirt to the face. Am I doing something wrong??

Origins Modern Friction – nature’s gentle dermabrasion, except that it’s not really gentle – this stuff will remove every ounce of residue or oil that is anywhere near your face. I LOVE it! I am starting to use it as a body scrub too around once per week. It is a teeny tiny bit stingy too, just an fyi.

Origins Ginger Souflee – omg I love it!

Origins – A Perfect World : still undergoing review

Origins – Dr. Weil Mega Mushroom eye treatment – like it, I think it’s working!

Origins – Dr. Weil Mega Mushroom face serum – liked it, but didn’t see any major difference after a 3 week run.

sofar, Origins is getting a pretty good scorecard with a couple of products not really working for me, but I would consider purchasing more products especially in the cleansing department. I will update after I finish the remaining products.

Origins is available at Macy’s

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Attn: Northridge Shopping Divas

Just today I decided to take an evening trip to my local Northridge Fashion Mall and not drive all the way down to the Topanga mall, which btw is totally my favorite mall in the whole world…and I notice 2 new stores that I had no idea where there: Coach (yes a boutique, upstairs kind of by BBW) and Sephora (!!!) but check it out – the Sephora is actually inside the JC Penny store! Crazy, I know.

Usually I cut through the JC penny store to get to the other side without having to make the long ass stroll by stores that I never go to to get to the Fredericks of Hollywood, the Doggie store etc. quick and in a hurry. Today as I was scuttling by the hall, out of the corner of my eye I caught the Murad logo, and stopped in my tracks. JC Penny carries Murad?? Then I looked to the left, and saw Bare Escentuals and thought…wow product placement is all over these days…and then I saw Benefit pop materials and looked up and saw that it actually was a mini-me Sephora inside JC Penny, mildew smell from the outside mall fountain and all lol. It’s not a full size sephora, but probably has most of the basic kits and pallettes and what not, and it sure beats having to drive all the way down to topanga on a friday evening during traffic hour! Another kind of surprise at the Northridge Macy’s store : They gave a chunk of the shoe department to Bare Escentuals for thier little boutique too – so now you can get all your messy minerals at macy’s!

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Chanel Hydrabase Lipstick

Who isn’t on the hunt for the perfect pinup girl red lipstick? I know I have been going on mine now for almost 15 years. I had one once by Wet n Wild which I think ended up costing $1.06 at the time, and I used it until my fingernails couldn’t scrape anymore pigment out of the tube…and then the real hunt began. Recently, I tried Coco Red from Chanel:

but it was a bit too orangy, even with a darker mauve kind of color as a base. Does anyone have any tricks besides using a dark burgandy lipliner or a true red lipliner as a base color which will flake my lips up like plate techtonics? I’d love any and all suggestions!

Chanel stuff is available at Macy’s online & offline.

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Philosophy

ok, I am going to go out on a limb here…but I after using an arsenal of Philosophy products in the last month, I kind of am beginning to think that it’s sort of like the Avon of Macy’s. It just doesn’t really do anything out of the ordinary, spectacular or even memorable. It’s kind of just…mediocre. The scent is kind of generic and floral-ish, the packaging and typography like anyone can make it on msword, and well…I’m just not going for it.

Here are the array of products that I used and eventually ended up giving away or just storing in my ever-expanding ‘maybe someday I will use it’ cabinet:

3 in 1 shower gel, shampoo & conditioner. Yea right. when you pay $400 for a color & extensions, the last thing you need is an all in one.

But I will totally give this a point because I do understand that I am a hair-obsessed client and realize that not everyone feels the same as I do when it comes to hair.

Lemonade hand lotion: smells good, like lemonade lol, but wears off rather soon and my hands are again dry and in need of lotioning up.

Purity Made Simple – a nice facewash, simple, says it takes off makeup, perhaps it does, no fragrance, and gentle enough.

Amazing Grace perfumed oil – super floraly, too heavy, too much like a cheap perfume you can buy at RiteAid

Amazing Grace fragrance spray – ditto

Amazing Grace body lotion – actually my favorite of all the philosophy stuff I tried, it kind of smelled like the beach in the 70′s…sort of coppertone cream-esque. Not quite sure if it offers the body tightening it claims to.

Amazing Grace body scrub – smells ok, not too heavy in the floral dept. but the sugar scrub crystals are pretty much parallel to a generic scrub you can get at your neighborhood wal-mart.

Dark Shadows – an illuminating creme for under your eyes and upper lip to reflect shadows & darkness. Totally doesn’t work

Microdelivery peel pads – gentle enough, not too stingy, but don’t really notice anything happening.

so yea, Philosophy is getting dumped into the same bucket as Avon, Mary Kay and Jafra in the arena we call Spa-View.

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I’m SO over Bare Escentuals…

I know that 6 months ago I raved and raved about BE being the bomb, but now after a bad bout with the Rare Minerals and trying out Bobbi Brown’s tinted moisturizer, I am on a WHOLE new propaganda cycle. I sooooo totally love the tinted moisturizer craze – because 1. it covers well enough to even out my spotches, and if I go one shade darker, it looks like I have a sun-kissed glow without actually being in the sun; and 2.it has a more natural finish instead of the ruddy kind of complexion that I was starting to notice in all my photos from the BE mineral powder.

So in lieu of the MAJOR application process that I used with BE (i.e. concealer brush, concealor pot, application brush, kabuki brush, foundation pot, warmth, bare radiance, mineral veil, swirling and tapping, and having a mineral veil mess on my counters) I am opting for the sheer luxury of 1 Bobbi Brown tinted moisturizor balm, my fingers and a q tip to dap tiny dallops of color on my face before blending it in old-school style with my fingers and *poof* I’m out the door. Fantastic!!!

Check me out on MakeUpAlley to swap for all of my Bare Escentuals makeup – I’m SO over it!

If Bare Escentuals is still your thing, OR if you want to try Bobbi Brown get it at Macy’s!

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Chanel Precision Rectifiance Intense

The title of this product is hella long – check it out: Chanel Precision Rectifiance Intense Creme Correction Rides Retexturizing Line Correcting Serum SPF 15. whew. And after all of that, I didn’t really see any siginificant benefit of this uber-goop and it actually kind of left a weird cold-cream type of film on my face AND smelled like old school cold cream that my grandmother stashed in her bathroom.

I’m super glad that it was a sample packet and not something that I actually spent my money on. I have no idea how much it even costs, but I doubt I would ever need to know that bit of info. If anyone has had any positive experiences with any Chanel skincare I would love to know – sofar I adore the Chanel Nailpolish line and the Glossimer lip line but that is about it. Even the navy blue liquid eyeliner was unusable because it burned my eyes. Maybe they need a new skincare revamp and take the people from the lipgloss and nail polish department to consult on what is new school and what is old school? Just a suggestion, of course…

Chanel Stuff is available at Macy’s

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Bare Escentuals Rare Minerals

OMG I totally HAD to have the BE night treatment Rare Minerals after I went bananas with the mineral makeup phase…and it was just so chic that I was confident that it just couldn’t be disappointing…but…well, let me just recap what actually happened and let you make up your own mind as to if you want to use it or not. First of all, it comes with a signature built-in ‘puff’ that is supposed to make application super easy.

I eagerly opened it up my first night and puffed it onto my face. It was kind of weird to feel a powder on my face because to be honest, I am usually slathered in anti-wrinkle moisture goo every night that not feeling layers of stuff on my face was a bit odd. So i kept it up. Day 3 brought major dryness. I also thought that the puff thing was a bit clogged because it wasn’t really feeling like any product was getting onto my skin. After digging around with the applicator puff thing, I basically got frustrated and just picked it off. My 3 day old package was now officially ugly. Plus it had hella buildup that I can only describe as product-plaque on it and so yes, it was time to get rid of it.

Day 4 came along, and as I opened up the cannister, apparantly the puff makes the package obvious as to which lid you lift, and I opened the wrong one – causing the powder to spill all over my clean white sheets. Now I was down to 2/3 of the product. I still was feeling overly dry, and didn’t really feel like anything positive was coming out of this whole experience. I read the directions again and saw that if you need to moisturize before applying the rare minerals, you can do so – but then it was beginning to feel like I was applying makeup at night to go to sleep, and well that is just gross. Day 5 brought along another spill and by day 6 I was swapping it out on MakeUpAlley.com I’m totally admitting that I didn’t give Rare Minerals it’s full run, but as with the regular Bare Escentuals product line, this is just too MESSY to be a fabulous beauty product. Sorry to say that when it gets swapped, it simply doesn’t make the cut.

If you still MUST try Bare Escentual’s stuff, you can get it at Macy’s of course!

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