The Most Asked For Lips...

Much like at a cosmetic surgeon's office, I get requests to "make me look like her!" Usually it is a picture of a celebrity with hours of makeup done and a completely different skin tone than the customer has. But if she wants a specific look, I can make a specific look. There is one lip style that I constantly get requests for; and that is the "Kim Kardshian light pink lip." If the customer is very fair, the style won't work of course, but if she has a great tan or medium skin color, this is one of my most popular and favorites.

-First I scrub the lips with The Lip Scrub so that there is no dead skin on the lip area. Just rub some of the scrub on and wipe off with a tissue-


-Then I apply ColorSave Renu Your Lips which is a great, non sticky lip primer. This is actually a drugstore product that i was turned onto by accident and I am addicted to. I have drier lips that lipstick always cakes on, and this is like a great barrier between my lips and the lip color


-Using a liner is an important step because you don't want the color fading or bleeding, and I only use NARS Velvet Matte in Roman Holiday. The nice thing about these pencils is that they are competely matte, so they won't disrupt the lipstick color that you wear on top. Also, you can wear these alone as your lip liner and lip color, or use them as a lip color base-


-Next is the lipstick. I use NARS lipstick in Roman Holiday because it is a sheer, delicate pastel with a creamy consistency that doesn't disappear on lips. When you work with sheer colors like this, they need to be very smooth and soft-



-And the final step is a very sheer, sorbet colored gloss. I use NARS lipgloss in Turkish Delight or just a clear gloss will work just as well.




If you prefer a more nude lip with a little less bubble gum pink, I would substitute a nude lip pencil such as NARS Velvet Matte in Belle De Jour and NARS lipgloss in Greek Holiday. It imparts a pretty sand color with a hint of gold sparkle. Gorgeous!




As far as eyes go, this lip style is perfect for a more dramatic eyeshadow/liner look. Play with a rocker/smoky eye in a dark navy or smudgy gray for a total glam grudge look (Gucci Fall 2009)

A Sneak Peek...

Here are a couple of my favorites from the newest Stephanie Johnson collections...

Shock Me

On most days, I am a pretty neutral girl. I like a ballet slippers-esque colors on my nails, a sheer gold on my lids, and a little gray eyeliner. But some days I just want some color...to break out of the old and feel like a true makeup trendster. The NARS nail color in Schiap is the perfect way to feel pretty and bold again. It's the cosmopolitan of the nail polish world; schocking pink, delicious, and refreshing. Plus it seems that trend-setter Marc Jacobs has caught onto my favorite bright color too (see above.) And when I'm feeling back to my normal self, I can just wipe it off...no commitment necessary. If only everything were this simple and fantastic...

The most delicious hand cream

Marzipan is one of those foods that I can get absolutely sick eating. No, I don't get sick of eating it, I just eat so much of it that I get sick. But much like consuming too much alcohol, it somehow vanishes from my memory and I do it again and again. I just love everything about this confection made of crushes almonds, sugar and eggs whites. I love it by itself, shaped as fruit or little animals, covered in chocolate, and baked into desserts.
The funny thing is that I don't have as much of a love affair with almonds by themselves. I can eat them because they're very good for me, and I try to eat them as much as possible, but there is still something so dry and tasteless about them. It's incredible to me that marzipan is even related to almonds at all!
But thanks to my love of marzipan in all of its forms, I've also created an obsession for body products that smell similar to it. We all know that there is nothing worse than a product that tries to emulate a smell and having it actually come out rather foul (this tends to happen with fakes of vanilla, chocolate, coconut, and lemon.)
Burt's Bees Almond Milk Beeswax Hand Creme's first ingredient is actually pure sweet almond oil! There is nothing fake about this marzipan-scented hand cream (well, other than the fact that it isn't marzipan at all....it just smells like it.)
I can only hope that Burt's Bees will make an entire Almond Milk line because there is nothing more authentic smelling than marzipan itself...

Ice Ice Baby

A nice perk about being both a cosmetic boutique owner and a freelance beauty editor is the very generous companies who ask me to try their products. I will never forget my very first box of goodies sent to me close to six years ago when I had just started to write for a fashion website. I couldn't believe that the company not only sent me an entire box of products, but that they weren't "sample size," and they were in fact the actual retail size! By now I am used to getting boxes of products and sometimes it's hard for me to keep track of who sent what. I am always honored when a small and upcoming brand sends me products and items for my opinion. I always get so excited when I see a new, sometimes homemade brand reach big stores and I know that I helped them get there. Another great reason why I love receiving these boxes of goodness is because a lot of times the product is really, really good.
Such was the case when I received a box of Skyn Iceland products quite a while ago. I had heard of the brand and am familiar with the effects of stress of my skin, so naturally I had a great time washing, scrubbing, spraying, and lathering.
Well, they say that you can tell if you love a product instead of just liking one by whether or not you carry it with you. It's funny to me, but sometimes I never even realize how much I liked a product until there are only three drops left and the thought it being without it makes me want to hide my face/hair.
This exact scenario happened this week when I went to reach for my Skyn Iceland Arctic Face Mist and only a slosh of blue liquid started back at me. OH NO! My skin needs that icy tingle after I wash it, my skin needs that spa-like smell, my skin needs that post-workout glow, my skin needs more!
And there it was...that addiction to a truly great product, one that I took for granted and only realized how attached I was to it after it threatened to leave. That is the test of a great skincare product...and trust me...I try a lot of them!

Now Brewing...

I copied this from Women's Health Magazine because I couldn't have said it better:
"What can't green tea do? OK, your taxes. Anyway, when it's hot, the bionic brew releases catechins, a type of antioxidant with proven anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. (The tea's antioxidants start to degrade as it cools, so drink it while it's hot.) A 2007 study in The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry found that drinking two to six cups a day not only helps prevent skin cancer but may reverse the effects of sun damage by neutralizing the changes that appear in sun-exposed skin."

I just love Green Tea body products. Although they don't benefit you as much as a cup of the tea itself, I still like to imagine that the anti-oxidants are somehow seeping into my pores. I keep my Green Tea body lotions in the fridge so that on a hot summer day I can take it out, slather it on, and cool down instantly. Yum!

Making a good thing even better...

One of the great things about owning a beauty boutique is always knowing what is coming out months in advance. As cosmetics buyer, I receive documents called "sell sheets" before the season begins with pictures and descriptions of the products soon to come. This is both good and bad because on one hand, I am ahead of the curve and can let my customers know what is going to be hot next season, and on the other hand, I get really anxious to see the new products already! This week I received the Fall and Holiday Sell Sheets for Urban Decay and let me just tell you...it just gets better and better each season! So far, for Fall, we can expect mini cream liner kits in six crazy colors, three new Deluxe Eyeshadow colors (Freakshow; purple with red sheen, Frigid; purple with blue sheen, Ruthless; neutral champage, three new shades of their cult lipstick (Naked; a pink nude, Confession; a deep burgundy, and Oil Slick, a glossy black infused with microsparkle!) Some other items for Fall include two new colors of their creamy lipliners (Wallflower, a rose color and Paranoid, a peachy coral), and a new Surreal Skin Cream to Powder Foundation set with a cute flat brush.
Another addition to the line for fall will be a slew of new primers! There will be two new primers for under your foundation, one for Brightening and one for Pore Perfecting. I just love primers like these because they really do finish your look and give you an airbrushed appearance. I have a feeling that they will be huge for fall under all kinds of makeup (powders, minerals, liquid, cream, etc.) Another addition to the primer family for fall is the Eyelash Primer Potion. It is the first fiber filled lash primer that I have ever seen and I can't wait to see how thick it makes my lashes. It has wheat protein to condition lashes and keep them from getting brittle, not not mention it strengthens them for the long term so you can bat away. And lastly for fall is a new lip primer that is packed with vitamins (and SPF 15) for seamless long-lasting lip color.
And speaking of primers....the picture above is the fabulous new wand for the best selling Primer Potion. Due to customer demand (and inability to reach that last little bit at the bottom of the container) they finally created the bent wand. And now I am off to go and try what is new in stock...and bide my time until the fall stuff is finally delivered!