April 2007 Archives

Hi Beauty Snob,

I followed your advice and bought Benefit's Bad Gal Lash mascara. It's fantastic! It rarely smudges. However, it seems to be a bit too good at staying on my lashes - I never seem to get it fully off in the evening. I wash my face with Cetaphil and have tried using make up remover from Simple and Lancome. I live in the UK so can't buy the Ponds remover that you once recommended. Is there any other remover you would suggest?

Thanks for the blog!

Ulrika

Dear Ulrika,

Love,
The Beauty Snob

Post by Michelle
When my package from Beauty Addicts arrived the other day I was enchanted from the moment I opened the box. All of the compacts had come in awesome, shimmery, little sheer bags with tassels. What can I say? I’m a sucker for good packaging! Fortunately, the insides of those bags totally lived up to the cute packaging. I had never heard of Beauty Addicts before I received their products, but now, as the name suggests, I’m an addict. My favorite product was the Glow GLIMMERsheer in Mayhem. I’m all about having fun with makeup and this product is definitely one that encourages it! It’s a creamy lavender color with silver tones in it. Beauty Addicts separates their products into four different categories and all the colors in those sections compliment each other from product to product. Mayhem is from the Glow family. One half of the product is a sheer, softening gloss and the other side is a cream powder. Worn alone, the powder is fairly sheer, giving your skin a slight sparkly glow. If you mix it with the sheer gloss, it becomes thicker and the sparkly purple color becomes more apparent. The sheer is great as well because it really helps to keep your skin smooth and moisture filled. It’s perfect for a night out on the town! I really recommend checking out the site and ordering some stuff. They have all sorts of great products and according to the web site they have new products on the way. (I’ll have a review of their tinted moisturizer on the way sometime next week!) I know I’m dying to experiment with some of their other color families. Check them out and let me know what you think! beautyaddicts.com

Everyone has their favorite mascara and of course, I do too, but the one thing that I have found to be more helpful at building lashes isn't the mascara itself, it is what's underneath. Appropriately named the Underwear for Lashes, this lash base is applied first to build a foundation to give the mascara more to work with and cling to. Sure you can apply many many coats of mascara to achieve somewhat the same effect but then you'll end up looking like Tammy Faye Baker. This lash foundation allows more mascara to go on in a smooth and lengthening way. It will give you the advantage the girls with long, thick lashes have so you no longer need to be envious!! I have tried other lash builders and they all work pretty much the same way, but I love this one from Origins because it is less clumpy. They will try to sell you the mascara that goes with it but it will work with any mascara out there. $13 at Origins.

Post by Michelle
I’m not a huge lipstick person. Most of the time I stick to glosses or something a little more low maintenance. But there are some times when a gloss won’t do and I want the kind of color that only a lipstick can provide. When those times arrive I always use Philosophy’s Big Mouth Primer before I put my lipstick on. (It’s especially helpful if you are having a particularly dry lips day and need to wear lipstick.) It’s a cross between a chapstick and a makeup primer. It manages to smooth out and condition your lips while keeping your lipstick in place and not letting any of it flake off with dry lips. It’s a great addition to your lip routine and will definitely help keep your lipstick smooth and in place. $25 at Sephora Philosophy Big Mouth Lip Primer

Today I’m going to let you guys in on a little secret. I very rarely buy my own exfoliator. Sometimes I’ll get attracted by shiny packaging or the rave reviews of friends, but when it comes down to it, the exfoliator that I whip up in my own kitchen is the one I keep coming back to! I take extra virgin olive oil, mix it with sugar and there you go, cheap and amazing exfoliator that keeps your skin super soft and works really well. There are a million variations on this recipe, but this is the one that I use. I’ve heard of people using salt instead of the sugar, or plain old cooking oil instead of extra virgin olive oil and I’m sure, depending on your skin type, different variations work for different people. The one thing I DON’T recommend trying on your skin is baking powder. A lot of home exfoliator recipes will tell you to try that, but it is way harsh to use, especially on your skin! So, if you’re feeling adventurous, whip up a batch in your kitchen and give it a try. Your skin will love you for it!

Garden in Kyoto Trio set: $79

Eyeshadow $39
This is how vain I am, not only do I want my make up to make me look pretty, I want my make up to look pretty too! The prettiest packaging out there is from Chantecaille, brilliantly hued eyeshadows and glowing blushes are delicately pressed with butterflies and flowers which appeals to my girly girl sensibilities. I saw this at Barneys the other day and of course had to buy it, I love sparkly silver eyeshadow and that butterfly is just so cute! The little butterflies in the center provide a contrasting color that lasts throughout its entire use. The trio compact on the right is called Garden in Kyoto, it's a lipgloss, blush, and eyeshadow set and I bought it because it is so dainty and pretty. I also adored the name- it conjured up images of butterflies and cherry blossoms for me :) But these aren't only pretty to look at, Chantecaille is donating 5% of all proceeds to the Monarch Butterfly foundation (okay, call me Mariah Carey, I don't care, I love butterflies!) Seriously though, I love Chantecaille cosmetics, the eyeshadows blend easily and last all day, the blush and lipgloss colors are absolutely sublime and make you want to sit in front of your mirror all day long to play! Also available at eLuxury

Post by Michelle
My hair is stick straight. I rarely get knots in it. (Don’t tell anyone, but when I’m in a rush, I sometimes leave the house without remembering to brush it. You wouldn’t even be able to tell the difference!) But on the rare occasions that I get a knot, it’s a doozy. My super secret fix is Knotty Girl No Pain Daffodil De-Tangling Spray. It’s made for kids, to help when brushing the snarls that inevitably form in their hair. I love it because it coats the hair and I almost never hear the snap of split ends forming after I’ve used this. The bottle also says it helps remove the “gross stuff that weighs down your hair.” I’ve never noticed a huge difference after using it, but my hair does have a general better feeling about it. I usually chalk it up to the fact that the rare and elusive knot is gone from my head! $7.50 at bigelowchemists.com

Post by Michelle
So, once I started writing for this site a whole world of beauty products I never knew existed opened up to me. Seriously, Tina and Kelly have introduced me to so many potions and lotions and creams that i'm in love with and many of them are taking the place of my old standards. One thing that will never change is my deep devotion to is Smith’s Rosebud Strawberry Lip Balm and Moisturizer. It’s amazing and it has multiple uses. I never have less than three tins in use at all times. (One in my purse, one at home and one on my desk in the office.) This is what I put on my lips every night to prevent chapping. It seriously coats and protects without being to sticky. In a pinch it can even be used as a moisturizer, but I don’t really recommend slathering it all over your body. I only use it as a moisturizer when I’m out and about and am in a pinch for something to put on a really dry patch of skin. The tins also last forever! I’ve been using the one on my nightstand every night for months and it’s only now showing signs of getting low. At $7.00 it’s also a great price. Bigelowchemists.com

My sister brought back a jar of Santa Maria's body cream for me when she went to Italy and it was the first I've ever heard of this line. I used it and loved it, the smell, the consistency and the purity of the ingredients - the whole thing! I wanted more but couldn't really find it anywhere. Well, it is now being sold at eLuxury and let me tell you, you have to get your hands on some of this stuff. I love this travel gift set because it comes with everything I am looking for heading in to Summer but this is also the perfect Mother's Day gift for those with moms who have everything. And who wouldn't love getting a luxury beauty set? It comes with the Refreshing Tanning Water, Shower Gel, SPF 4 Body Lotion and Moisturizing Body Cream. Handmade in Italy from all natural ingredients. $158 at eLuxury.

I have a really hard time finding a fragrance that doesn't annoy me after half a day of wear. I like light fragrances and I don't want to smell like everyone else. How weird is it to run into someone else wearing the same perfume? It's like altered reality for me because smells have such strong mental associations attached to them. I get totally grossed out by the way some men smell and when I was dating it was the first test for me, I have to love the way the guy smells. Needless to say, I think my husband smells dreamy =) So back to my point, I was looking for a new fragrance and was going without one for quite a while until I got a sample of Serge Lutens' A La Nuit from Barneys. The pushy salesgirl insisted that I take it and I was about to toss it when I decided I'd give it a spritz for the hell of it. It smells so good!! There is a hint of jasmine but is not overly floral. All the scents in this line are so delicate and light. It is impossible to buy fragrances online so you have to go into Barneys and test them out. Ask for samples and try it for a week to make sure you like it after many wears (I have an entire shelf of perfumes I don't use because I hated it after one use). Trying them on in the store is totally pointless, you are disoriented from all the different smells around you and the scents change with your body chemistry and temperature so you really need to spend some time with it. Serge Lutens Fragrances are $100 at Barneys.