Anna Sui Eyelash Curlers

Gotta love these Anna Sui Eyelash Curlers. I ordered them recently just to see what beauty tools from a designer house such as Anna Sui would be like in terms of quality. I was pleasantly surprised! For about the same price as a standard set of eyelash curlers I got something of comparable quality and functionality.

Holiday Palette Roundup

By: Lucy Seagraves

Few things thrill a girl more than a great makeup palette. There’s just something about having multiple color options at your fingertips that makes you feel like Gucci Westman herself. Here are some of the best palettes to gift this holiday season - perfect for your color-shy sister, lipstick loving mom and your makeup collector best friend.

Fab in 5 Minutes or Less

On weekends, I usually spend a while on my makeup if I don’t have to rush off anywhere. During the week is another story. I like to sleep late, and even getting up at 7 is pushing it. If you’re like me, try these steps to get gorgeous pronto.

1) Your skin is most important, so first be sure to moisturize. Personally, I love Dove’s Sensitive Skin Day Cream. It’s not really a cream, it’s much thinner and you can apply makeup right over it. Next, apply your fave foundation. If you don’t have a favorite, try a mineral version—they’re great for sensitive skin and they cover redness very well. Apply with a brush and blend!

2) Next, add some color to your face. Take a light bronzer (don’t go too dark, unless you have naturally darker skin—otherwise you’ll look crazy and be orange in the wintertime). Apply where the sun naturally hits your face. A little goes a long way. To save time, also use the bronzer as eye shadow. Apply it from the lash line up to the crease of the lid.

3) Layer a little blush on only the apples of your cheeks. If you can’t figure out where they are, smile in the mirror and apply where your cheeks are plumper.

4) Curl your eyelashes. I cannot stress enough how important this is; it can really pull your look together. Clamp the curler down over your lashes and hold for 5 seconds. Apply 2 coats of mascara.

5) Lastly swipe on a pink, sheer lip gloss.

Give it a try and get some extra sleep in the am!

Post-Turkey Day Makeup (camouflaging the extra pounds!)

I don't know about everyone else, but between Thanksgiving and Christmas I turn into an eating machine. My Grandma is constantly baking all sorts of festive goodies, and my coworkers are always bringing in tons of fattening snacks. How can you say no to a cookie shaped like Santa? Thankfully, there are a few ways to hide the extra weight on your face.

First of all, make sure your foundation shade is correct. Since we all get naturally more pale in the Winter, your Summer foundation simply won't cut it. Take the time to go up to a makeup counter and try on a few different shades to find your perfect match. If it blends into your skin without an obvious line, you've found a match!

Once you have a good base, you can create contour with blush. Since I am very fair skinned, I tend to use a rosy blush shade and a silvery-pink highlighter. Darker skinned gals can use more of a golden highlighter. With a brush, create the chiseling of your cheekbone. Find the correct spot to shade by sucking in your cheeks. Apply the darker shade under your cheekbone. Brush on highlighter just above the cheekbone. To hide a double chin, or a large forehead, shade the sides with the darker blush and add a little highlighter to the center.

Most importantly, don't forget to blend! There should not be any visible lines. Also, avoid using too much highlighter--especially if you have oily skin! A little will go a long way.

Happy Holidays! And here's to having another cookie!

Drugstore Beauty Secrets

In case you didn’t already know, drugstores have some great beauty finds for fairly cheap. When I first became a self-proclaimed makeup-whore, I instantly fell in love with department store cosmetics: Lancome, Clinique, and all the others. What I didn’t know at the time was that many of the high end brands actually own some of the drugstore brands. In fact, many of the products in drugstores are exactly the same formula as their high end companion.

One of my fave makeup brands, Lancome, actually owns L’Oreal. When I found this out, I automatically went to CVS and stocked up on mascara, lipgloss, and eyeshadow. Indeed, I found that most of the products were identical to my fave Lancome buys. The only difference is the packaging and how the lines are marketed.

My best find so far is L'Oreal’s Voluminous mascara –it is the same as Lancome’s Definicil mascara. It plumped my lashes and no clumps were to be found. Another great find is the Line Eraser retinol lotion by L'Oreal. It is so similar to Lancome's Resurface that an actual Lancome employee couldn't even tell them apart! L’Oreal’s Rouge Pulp lip gloss is the same essentially as Lancome’s Lip Brio. Most of the shades even match up.

The one thing that I would suggest still purchasing from Lancome is their skincare products. The line is incredible and I haven’t found a drugstore match yet that can quite compete. Their moisturizers can’t be beat.

Lancome is great and the packaging is usually gorgey—but give me the cheaper version anyday!