Recently in Gloss Category

We are kicking off the holidays with Thanksgiving next week which means it's time for holiday gift shopping! Black Friday is the most frightening day for me. I will be in LA celebrating with friends and family and will stay home stuffing my face with leftovers and do all my shopping online. We thought we'd make it easier for you, too and have created a 5 part gift guide for the following types of beauty snobs:

FRUGAL SNOB, JET SET SNOB, FRAGRANCE SNOB, SPORTY SNOB and DIVA SNOB.

We will post one guide per day until Thanksgiving so you'll have lots of options to shop for come Black Friday! Have fun!

Frugal Snob

I don't think I need to spell out why this is an amazing gift at $55 (worth $350!).  I think you can pretty much get through the entire year (all four seasons) on these colors!  LORAC Double Booked Full Face Collection ($350 Value) $55

I am buying a dozen of these anti-aging eye rollers as stocking stuffers. I know my frugal snob friends will love them and continue to treat themselves to it! I keep mine in the fridge and when I wake up puffy and angry looking, I simply roll it around my eyes (towards the inner corners). Olay Regenerist Anti-Aging Eye Roller here $20.69

 

What's more fun than playing in a tub full of Philosophy bubbles?!  Well there is something more fun but this is a rated G beauty site so I won't get into that.  No need to pull out soap, shampoo, and bubble bath-- with Philosophy you get all three, and then some.  Philosophy Best of Sephora Set ($97 Value) Best of Sephora Set $55

Now isn't this the cutest little make up kit you've ever seen? Too Faced celebrated its 10 year anniversary with the Too Faced Decade of Glamour Beauty Wardrobe Makeup Collection. It comes with its most popular products for the past 10 years. This is a great try me kit for Too Faced, or I'm thinking of giving it as gifts to the younger ones in my family. It's cute just to display on their dresser, and i love the silhouette of the girl in the bronzer/blush. The products are all deluxe sample size but for $19.50 for a $195 value who can go wrong? It's got a variety of color and product so this is great for the experimenting beginner or the beauty lover like us!

It comes with:

- 6 Eye Shadows (Astro Turf, Zsa Zsa, Label Whore, Pixie Dust, Ooh and Aah, and
Lovey Dovey)
- Beauty Balm in Girly Grapefruit
- exclusive Bronzing Powder
- 2Gossip Glosses (Sabotage and Tattle Tale)
- 2 Lipsticks (You're No Lady and Marcia Marcia Marcia)
- Bauble Gloss in Ring Pop
- mini Lash Injection Mascara
- Glamour Gloss in Love Bites
- Ooh La Rouge Blush Duo in Pink Provacateur
- Juicy Jewel Doublesided Gloss Stick in Vanilla Ice
- Sun Bunny Bronzer Duo,
- full-size Lip Injection
- and a mini Lava Gloss Eyeliner.

Get it at Sephora for $19.50.

"Chrome is cool and icy- it's a very modern, but still pretty way to illuminate the skin." - Bobbi Brown

I flew home last night to a mound of mail and packages (24 days worth of mail and blogger packages is a sight to see!) I opened each and every one of the (10) boxes from cosmetic companies and when I saw what was inside the Bobbi Brown package I got a bit miffed.  Not to be ungrateful and all but hello-- I so could have used this CHROME palette during my trip to Asia! It's a tri-fold compact that has 10 eyeshadow shades, 4 lip shades, plus mini brushes to boot. It would have saved me a lot of room in my luggage! 

I played with the shadows after the hubby and boy went to bed and was surprised how subtle the shadows are on the lids (considering how dark they look in the palette).  I used the "Iron" matte shadow as a base and highlighted the brow bone with "White" matte shadow.  I then put "Charcoal Haze" along the lash line to smoke my liner (may be used as a liner itself) which made for a really pretty daytime look.  To test out an evening look, I lightly dusted "Cyber Grey" and "Storm Cloud" sparkle shadow over the entire the lid-- smokin' hot!  I love playing with make up and can do this all night long!
Bobbi Brown Chrome Palette ($75) here.
 
The collection also has three new limited edition lipsticks: Port Lip Color, Chrome Metallic Lip Color and Plum Pearl Metallic Lip Color.  I did not get any samples of these so will stop by Neiman Marcus later this week to test out.  

The collection also includes Bobbi's holiday Chrome Mini Brush Set- the perfect present for the beauty-junkie in your life (wait, that would be moi!). The set, which comes in a chrome zip-around cases features a Mini Face Blender, Bobbi's new Mini Angle Eye Shadow Brush and a Mini Eye Liner brush.

Also available at Nordstrom. Bobbi Brown Chrome Palette $75, Bobbi Brown Metallic Lip Color $22, Bobbi Brown Chrome Mini Brush Set $55.

Laura Mercier is a great line of cosmetics for a natural look. This Laura Mercier 'Renaissance' Collection is great because it is such a good value. And it's like they compacted everything as well as they can for traveling. They made the concealer brush double ended, so that it's two brushes in one. And they have their fabulous secret concealer in a pot, with the setting powder underneath. It also comes with their Flawless Skin Day Creme with an SPF 15 in a deluxe sample size, a mini Black Thickening and Building Mascara, Pink Champagne Lip Glacé, and an eye color duo, all in cute cosmetic bag. Of course, kits are always a great value, but what's even better is that it's also on sale. So for $167 worth of product you only pay $38.90 for all of it. I mean, when does Laura Mercier really go on sale anyways?

YSL is proud to support the search for the cure. 30% of your purchase of Golden Gloss N° 27 will be contributed to the National Breast Cancer Coalition Fund through the end of October.

Dress your lips in a veil of shimmering gold with Golden Gloss. The gloss forms a mirror-effect on the lips which sparkles with mother-of-pearl. A complex of nourishing oils (Nigelle and Cameline Oils) protects the lips while providing total comfort. The magic and shimmer of gold* captured on the lips!

* contains 0,2% of 24 carats gold $28.00

Left -- bloggers preparing for yoga. I'm in the blue shirt taking a picture with my phone of Didge Project!. Right -- Karen is the one blowing the kiss!

Karen Robinovitz, the creator of Purple Lab, always puts on the most amazing events. She has the BEST taste -- whether in clothing, restaurants, or, naturally, beauty. To celebrate the launch of her brand's new lip gloss color, Goji Berry, she invited a few bloggers to Tribeca for a yoga session in the apartment of Libby Weintraub which was accompanied by an amazing performance by the Didge Project. After some relaxing OMs we had psychic readings by Linda Lauren which were eerily spot-on, munched on raw chocolate (I'm obsessed with raw chocolate now!), and of course drank Goji Berry smoothies! As for the Purple Lab lip glosses, they're appropriately called "Huge Lips, Skinny Hips" since they contain Hoodia to curb hunger as well as lip plumper. Each gloss is named after something dear to Karen's heart (hence Goji Berry, named after Karen's fave drink. The formulation of the gloss is rich in antioxidant, vitamin E and C).

To learn more about Purple Lab's glosses click here and to learn about the process of creating your own beauty brand click here to read about Karen's exciting journey!

We're kicking off October with lots of pretty in pink products in support of breast cancer research! Purple Lab has partnered with the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation to launch SWAC "SEALED WITH A CURE," a feel good lip gloss equipped with ingredients that boost beauty, health and confidence. SWAC has been delivered to help increase awareness and funds for Triple Negative Breast Cancer research. A portion of the proceeds will go to the foundation. The gloss is: Paraben-free, has health boosting and immune system enhancing ingredients including Mangosteens and Echinacea, in an ultra-moisturizing, non-sticky formula, scented with uplifting Vanilla, has real gold flecks, and enriched with anti-aging peptides. All in one fabulous tube for $18.50 at www.b-glowing.com

MAC's latest and greatest showed up at my door this weekend and I was transported back to my high school days in the 80's. The Greasepaint sticks in black and blue? Reminded me of my Robert Smith of The Cure moments. Blue flame eye shadow? I did that, with the black eyeliner (I didn't say I looked pretty!). The only thing I stopped at was black lipstick back then, way too Goth for me. I was just trendy, never rebellious or strange (I remember the Goth kids with black lipstick and safety pins in their noses, yikes!). What's worthy of checking out is the Glimmer glass lip glosses. The 'Bling Black' is actually a pale gold with flecks of dark silver. Could be very sexy on date night! Even the skincare is black, I loved the Volcanic Ash exfoliator and mask, very gentle yet gets all that gunk out of your poors. I am definitely giving the black lipstick and black lip gloss to my niece though. Can't imagine what the hubby would do if I showed up at dinner with black lips. What about you? Will you try the black lipstick and black lip gloss? MAC Style Black Collection here.
 

Images from InStyle.com and People.com

Pink lips I like; pink glossy lips, now that's a whoooole other story.

I'm not one to wear a deep red or an orange lip, so I've always found a pink lip to be a happy medium when I'm looking to make a bolder statement than I would ordinarily (day-to-day I'm all about a light, natural gloss). I like to wear hot pink lips matte (check-out shu uemura Rouge Unlimited Pink Collection), with my hair pulled back out of my face. I'm not into Taylor Momsen's 80s Madonna look and while I think Rachel McAdams looks fab, I think she would have looked even better were her hair a bit more out of her face. As for Katy Perry's look, it's way, way too Barbie for my taste. She looks like one of those young beauty pageant girls with the obsessive stage moms!

My current gloss obsession is the Limited Edition Pure Color Multi-Gloss from Estee Lauder. When I first saw the tube I wanted to eat it, the multiple colors look like candy! It's also quite bright looking in person but goes on as sheer as can be and SO shiny! I love a shiny lip with bare skin and a touch of bronzing powder along the cheeks. It looks so healthy and youthful.

I got both the Amythest and the Rose Gold and keep them  with me no matter where I go. The color is very sheer so in the evenings I use it as a top layer over my favorite lipsticks. I just wish it didn't taste so bad, I feel like I'm eating medicine, yuck! But hey, it looks fabulous so I'll continue using it but will try not to eat, drink nor lick my lips when I have it on.  This is limited edition so I think I'm going to stock up on another couple of tubes this week before they run out.

Estee Lauder Multi-gloss is $18 at Saks Fifth Avenue