Wednesday, April 17, 2013
And Then There Was One Makeup Bag That Could Hold It All…
I’m not calling myself a high-maintanence traveler (necessarily), but I will say I’m a woman who likes to have all my essential makeup items with me “just in case.” Of course my husband would argue he couldn’t possibly see a situation where a smoky eye emergency would hit (not like he would actually use those words. It would be more like, “You’re kidding right? There’s no way you’re going to use all that makeup over three days.”) Whatever. I like having choices. If Rachel Zoe can bring 7 huge suitcases for a week in NYC because she likes to keep her options open, I can rationalize bringing 50 different makeup items for the same reason. Now up until now my makeup bags have stifled me — forcing me to make hard decisions between palettes and products — finding that as soon as I unpacked I forgot essentials and made bad decisions. It was a constant battle… And then I was introduced to the Hold Me Bag ($85.00) and I was finally freed from my shackles.
Now I know $85.00 sounds like a lot but it’s one of those investments you’ll never have to make again. Not only can I pack every makeup brush but the main compartment has a generous side pocket so I can bring all my palettes! And I have to say as someone whose constantly made the mistake of investing in makeup bags with compartments that there’s something liberating about easily being able to have all my products in one main section. Let’s face it — you buy those makeup bags with compartments so you can “get organized” but you never end up putting the products back in their original place. And, the compartments take up so much space diving the bag that you can only get a fraction of products in a large makeup bag. Drove me crazy! So below you can see my chaos I bring on every trip these days and how the Hold Me bag does in fact hold it all!
All the products I’ll bring on my 2-day trip
Voila! Everything fits and is super easy to find.
A few other things to note: The bag comes in several adorable patterns. Of course I chose the cute little Endochine Kitten Dolls because I’m a huge cat lover. All the bags have black “Knew Suede” exteriors because it’s super easy to clean (which I have tested and proven several times because I’m a slob) and tie up into a flat, easily packable package.
One more thing! The one I bought is full-size (10″H x 7″W x 2″D closed) but they also offer an adorable Baby Hold Me (7″H x 5″W x 2″D closed) in all the same cute patterns!
Posted by janna Tags Hold Me, Makeup Bag
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Posted by janna
Tags Fresh, Sephora
What’s Better Than a Free Birthday Gift from Fresh and 15% off at Sephora? Nothing! (Except Maybe a Day at the Spa)
Welcome to my happy place…
Free Birthday Gift from Fresh: You all know Fresh is one of my favorite brands of all time and I happen to collect their Fresh Sugar Lip Treatments in every color and stash them all over my house and in every handbag. They glide on creamy, hydrate my lips instantly, drop the perfect amount of pigment, and even have SPF 15. You can imagine my joy when I found out that as of April 1st, Fresh will gift customers with a free Sugar Kisses Mini Lip Duo during their birthday month. This exclusive sweet treat includes a Mini Sugar Lip Treatment Sunscreen SPF 15 and Mini Sugar Rosé Tinted Lip Treatment Sunscreen SPF 15.
Simply sign up for the program in any Fresh store and you’ll receive a postcard during your birthday month inviting you to come and pick up your gift (one per customer, per year). Then you can pucker up at your party or whatever celebration you have planned!
In July, program participants will also have the option of redeeming their gift on Fresh.com with a purchase of $40 during their birthday month.
15% Off ALL BEAUTY for Beauty Insiders! Use code: CHIC: This one is a no-brainer. It’s the only thing that’s going to hold me over until November’s Friends & Family 20% off. And by hold me over I actually mean it’s the only thing that’s going to allow me to rationalize making a ridiculously large Sephora buy.
Happy Shopping my lovelies!
Thursday, April 4, 2013
My New Article on Huffington Post: I Get My Claws Out to Fight BB Creams
For those of you regular Beauty Binge readers, you know I haven’t given into the BB Cream craze, in fact, I’ve never even reviewed one. Why? Well I guess you’re just going to have to read my latest article in the Huffington Post (just click on the hyperlinked headline) to find out why I’m having a cat fight with these popular products:
The Problem with BB Creams: ’Beauty Balms’ or ‘Blemish Balms’ Claim to Be All-in-One Miracles
Posted by janna Tags BB Cream, BB Creams, Huffington Post
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Posted by janna
Tags Amore Pacific, Blush, Bronzer, Cle de Peau, Eyelash Extensions, Foundation, Laura Mercier, lipstick, Lipstick Queen, MAC, Mascara, Orlane, Primer, Tarte, Tinted Moisturizer, Votre Vu
7-Minute Makeup Routine (Yes, I Timed It)
I know you all think I plop myself down in front of my vanity every morning and spend a good hour putting on my face — using several different concealers to camouflage my puffy eyes, carefully sculpting the perfect winged eye, prepping and painting on the perfect statement lip — ok that’s me on a big night out, but not during the week. I mean come on, I live in crunchy Northern California now so I’ve kind of been forced to embrace the “Fresh Face Look”. The good news? I found that I can actually look surprisingly good after dedicated 5-7 minutes to my makeup routine. And for those of you mommies and worker bees who don’t have more than a few minutes to slap on your makeup in the morning, you are going to love me forever:
Photo courtesy Dogwithbeards via deviantart
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Podcast: Favorite New Beauty Products in My Arsenal
Tune into the My Beauty Binge podcast this week to hear me share some of my favorite new beauty products that just joined my coveted arsenal. For those of you who regularly read my blog you know it’s tough competition for beauty products in my house. One wrong move and the product is banished to the beauty graveyard. On the other side of the spectrum are the new products that manage to rock my world enough to immediately make it into my daily regimen. 
Download the podcast from iTunes or listen to it streaming on your computer here (it’s the 1st podcast) and it’s free! If you hit the “SUBSCRIBE” button in iTunes you will automatically get all my podcasts!
Posted by janna Tags Bite Beauty, Christian Dior, Dior, Eminence, Pixi, Podcast, Sampar, Sania's Brow Bar
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Posted by janna
Tags Bold Brows, Brow Pencil, Maria, Sania's Brow Bar
Farewell, Warlock Brows: Sania’s Brow Bar Angled Mechanical Brow Pencil
Haven’t we all been there before? You try filling in your brows just like the makeup artist at the counter showed you and instead of natural-looking bold brows you end up looking like Hannah on Girls, or worse, like one of the models from Marc Jacobs Spring/Summer 2013:
Hannah made the tragic mistake of allowing her co-workers to excessively pencil her eyebrows, morphing her once normal brows into the dreaded “warlock brows”
Holy brows, batman! I know MJ was going for Edie Sedwick in his SS2013 Collection, but this is just plain scary.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Banished to the Beauty Graveyard: Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tar
This was the fastest banishment (in truth I’m sending it straight back to Sephora) in the beauty graveyard’s history. Usually I don’t make the Sephora return deadline because I like to give a product up for banishment a few chances. Not with the Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tar ($18). There has been some buzz around this high-pigment liquid lipstick so I was so excited when I first opened the cute little zippered pouch that came with instructions, a tube, and a lip brush. I bought it in Anime - seriously neon fuchsia since fuchsia is such a hot color for Spring.
Friday, March 8, 2013
Podcast: How to Get the Wearable Trends from the Runways & Red Carpet
Tune into the My Beauty Binge podcast this week to find out the hottest makeup trends that rocked the runways and the red carpets these past few weeks. You will also learn how to recreate the most wearable, flattering trends at home.
Jason Wu NYFW 2013
Download the podcast from iTunes or listen to it streaming on your computer here (it’s the 1st podcast) and it’s free! If you hit the “SUBSCRIBE” button in iTunes you will automatically get all my podcasts!
Posted by janna Tags Bite Beauty, Celebrities, Celebrity Beauty, Dior, Lancome, Lipstick Queen, MAC, MAKE UP FOR EVER, Sephora Collection, Stila, Tarte
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
MAKE UP FOR EVER Makeup Bag Remix: How-to Videos and More!
A few weeks ago, I wrote about MAKE UP FOR EVER’s Magical Mystery Tour called “Makeup Bag Remix” coming to a city near you. I was lucky enough to experience this fun event in all its glory when the MAKE UP FOR EVER trucks cruised into San Francisco. I was put into the talented hands of Make Up Artist Genoa, who taught me a few tricks on how to utilize my existing makeup to create a day look and how to use a gorgeous MAKE UP FOR EVER palette (see below) to magically camouflage my puffy eyes AND create the perfect hot pink lip.
Now what was totally unique about this event is I had to beg Genoa to show me new MAKE UP FOR EVER products. That’s right, it’s the opposite of getting bullied at the makeup counter. These makeup artists stick to their word and show you how to utilize ONLY the products in your bag unless you request to see some new product. I took a few short videos (and please excuse the extremely unflattering angles. I took one for the team) to help you recreate the magic at home.
How to Conceal Puffy Eyes
Shockingly Genoa used the MAKE UP FOR EVER 12 Flash Color Case ($99) to completely neutralize my puffy eyes:
First she patted the white onto the puffiness and then created a sunrise color with the coral and yellow and then layered it on top of the white: (If video doesn’t show up for you, click here)
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Currently Loving: Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer Creme Compact SPF 20
That’s right. I made the big move to cream foundation by introducing Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer Creme Compact SPF 20 ($45) into my regimen. For those of you who have read Beauty Binge from its infancy you know that a couple years ago I was reluctant to even wear foundation on a regular basis. I was under the delusion that I didn’t need foundation until Makeup Artist Maria Luxen gave me a shoulder shake and pointed out all the redness in my skin. To make a long story short (to read the long story and the review of the Amore Pacific foundation click here) shortly after my intervention I discovered the AMOREPACIFIC ‘Time Response Skin Renewal’ Foundation SPF 18 ($90) which was the perfect starter foundation with its light coverage, dewey finish, skin soothing ingredients, and SPF.
So what went wrong? Well, it takes a lot for me to admit this but I needed more coverage. There I said it. I noticed that it was taking me way too long to apply and blend the foundation, it still looked streaky when I was done, and I could still see redness underneath the makeup. Now making the move from a sheer liquid to a cream compact is pretty dramatic (and luckily unnecessary) so you can imagine how excited I was when Laura Mercier sent me their Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer Creme Compact SPF 20 ($45) in Blush. Instead of thick and heavy coverage like most creme compacts, this is the baby steps version providing light to medium (but buildable to heavy where you need it) coverage with the added benefit of providing hydration and SPF.
Posted by janna Tags Anti-Redness, Foundation, Laura Mercier, Tinted Moisturizer
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