Category — Pretty Girl: Cosmetics and Beauty Finds

I’m dedicated to slathering on moisturizer with SPF every morning, rain or shine, summer or winter. I’ve been addicted to the best-selling and highly rated Olay Complete SPF 15 for at least 15 years, at $8.69 for 6 oz. a bargain, and didn’t feel any need to change. Until.

I’ve never used a foundation, or at least not since high school. And I’m not sure why I used it then. I’m faithful to concealer, and particularly YSL Touche Éclat.

But lately I’ve been feeling the need for a little more coverage: I seem to be using a lot more concealer! But I didn’t want a heavy coverage, so I decided to investigate tinted moisturizers with SPF. [Read more →]

Just like Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face, it’s Spring and time to think pink! I’m uber-excited to break out my pink manicure! Last year my pink passion was Posh Pink by Revlon, I confess: I still love it and will be wearing it this year too. But Moi needs to mix it up a bit!

On the plane I was still in no-electronics status and idling through More Magazine’s April article on “Beauty Breakthroughs” and discovered the Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure: 5-in-1: base coat, growth treatment, nail strengthener, color, shiny topcoat.

So off to  CVS where I snatched up a bottle of I Pink I Can. What do you think?

The newly-designed applicator has a wide flat brush: More found it “makes application considerably easier” ; I thought it a bit too wide for my pinkie and pointer fingers, but maybe with practice I’ll get a little neater. And with 42 colors, I’ll have a lot of opportunities to perfect my manis!

I paid $7.99.

One of the surprises I’ve had blogging about my shopping excursions is the comments and questions I get from someone who has stumbled across my musings, and taken the time to contact me! In truth, most of the comments have been from family and friends, but I’m starting to hear from strangers who’ve discovered me online, and started up a conversation. Last month I heard from Janet at Revlon. She introduced herself, and offered to send me some samples of Revlon Fantasy Lengths false eyelashes to test and provide feedback, either on my blog or directly to her.

I’ve never worn false eyelashes, but with the holidays and lots of parties coming up, why not! So a few days later, a small box was presented to me by the doorman, and I opened it to discover 4 samples of Revlon eyelashes in different shades.

I’ve read many interviews with actresses and singers about their love for false lashes, applied by their makeup artist. And because I don’t have a clue how to apply false eyelashes – nor a personal make-up artist – I first checked out Revlon’s website, then some other websites with tips for applying false lashes.

• Sidetrip to Duane Reade to buy an eyelash curler: apparently a necessity for false eye lashes to blend naturally with my own eyelashes.

After a few goofs in getting the adhesive to stick more to the false eyelashes than to the tweezers recommended to apply the lashes, Voila! False lashes. Then a little extra eye-line to more carefully blend the false lashes with my already-applied liner and I was ready to go to the party. The lashes seemed to stick the 3 hours I was out, although I did check them quite a few times with my fingertips and could easily have knocked them loose with all my fiddling. Then at home, I just peeled them off and left them on the sink to clean in the morning.

Note: the lashes sent to me by Revlon come with a tube of eyelash adhesive. From what I read online, the tube of adhesive is more efficient than the adhesive strips formerly provided. I watched a few online videos with tips for applying lashes, and I think being able to add more adhesive is a good thing: alot of false eye lash users complain about the lashes not sticking well.

Revlon Fantasy Lengths False Lashes: about $6.50.

Moi tip: I didn’t know false lashes could be washed and re-used: I’d assumed they were for one time only! Just carefully wash off the old adhesive and re-use

Ever since there was a blurb about it in O Magazine a few months ago, I’ve been trying to track down the Tweezerman Zip File, without success. Why? O touted that this would solve all my nail-file-lost-at-the-bottom-of-my-purse problems: Small but easy to find, no more covered in gunky purse stuff (don’t ask) and not snagging everything in sight, including my good nails. It’s a small nail file enclosed in a plastic shell with a little button you “zip” up and down to move the file in and out of its protective case. Sound too good to be true? It was: I couldn’t find it.

O Mag didn’t give any buying hints, so I checked the area drug and beauty stores, no luck.

So I’ve shopped and searched the manicure departments until SCORE! Today Moi found it, right around the corner at my neighborhood RickysNYC. $5.00. I love me some Rickys.

I asked: it’s only been in stock about 2 weeks, so I haven’t been walking right past the display. There were several colors to choose from, I picked baby blue with smiley-faced stars, because blue is Moi favorite color. And added bonus: this was a special promotion, and $1 from every sale is donated to The SmileTrain Foundation, which provides free surgeries to children with cleft-lip and palate. Go Tweezerman!

Give a girl a hand, nicely manicured, bien sur. And give a smile to a good cause.

Moi tip: If you don’t live in NYC and you can’t find the Zip File near you, get it online at drugstore.com

Bloomies at 57th and Lex just gave their cosmetics department a face-lift, and this gave me the perfect excuse to run over there and pick-up one of life’s little necessities. To be honest, if I hadn’t read incessantly about Bloomingdale’s cosmetic’s department’s rehab in the NYTimes, I probably wouldn’t have noticed; I tend to be a bit myopic and focused on what I’m doing. I do remember when I was at the Clinique counter a few weeks back I was trying to make my normal cut through to 59th Street and the passage I took was completely closed and I got lost on the main floor of Bloomies: construction was going on!

According to the NYTimes, Bloomies cosmetics had an extreme make-over that’s been in the works for the last 11 years, and gives the area a more spacious, welcoming feel with more helpful, less intrusive salespeople. Hmmm…I’ll let you know….

conveniently purse sized

I was there because I was dangerously low on one of my make-up essentials, my YSL Touche Éclat. Commonly called a concealer, I knew and believed what YSL claims: Touch Éclat is 8 hours of sleep in a pen. I have migraines. I don’t sleep well. I have brown spots that no laser or dermatolgist’s cream has been able to erase. I need serious concealer. And Touch Éclat provides serious coverage. [Read more →]

12 noon flight. Walked the dog: √. Pilates class: √. Rollon packed: √. Quick shower and hair wash: √. Blow dry: YIKES! My trusty dryer brush broke in my hands, the screw attaching the brush to the dryer literally broke in pieces. 

So I quickly grabbed the dog’s hair dryer (yes, you read that right) and blew my hair into a very full witchi-poo do and used a scrunchy (take that! Carrie Bradshaw!)

Let’s be fair: I’ve had the hair dryer for at least 5 years, and I abuse it 2-3 times weekly. I don’t just dry my hair, I wrap it around the brush and pull my hair straight and dry. I’m way too clutzy to use a round hair brush in one hand and a hair dryer in the other. We even bought one of those stands to hold the dryer while my two hands are free to manage the brush: didn’t work. Then I discovered the Conair dryer brush, and I’ve been happily blowing my hair dry for years. When I get caught in the rain, I give it a quick brush blow dry and voila: full, straight bouncy hair.

I have alot of hair. A lot. I’m not complaining, but I’ve heard my hair stylist complain MANY times how long it takes her to dry my hair, and it makes all her other appointments run late.  Plus, I have crinkly hair: not sexy wavy crimpy hair like Shakira, but bushy crinkly hair like a bad 80s perm. So imagine me and my can’t-walk-and-

chew-gum clumsiness trying to get ready in the morning. So I’ve mastered a system of shower, run around and do stuff for about 30 minutes while my hair air-dries, then 15 minutes with my dryer brush and voila! Sexy Breck girl hair (OK, I dated myself).

who needs a blow-out with a dryer brush?

Good news: Today I bought a new Conair  Hot Air Brush for $27.79 at CVS. And immediately washed and dried my hair.

Moi  tip: I travel alot, so I bought a similar brush in Paris at Darty that runs on European electrical current so I don’t need to carry a  transformer.

This season I’m flashing pink on all my nails with a little help from Posh and Strawberry, no not the Spice Girls, the Revlon girls! I’ve found some delicious new colors. My tootsie toes are a hot bright shade called Strawberry Electric, and my fingers are twinkling with Posh Pink.

Posh Pink and Strawberry Electric

My pilates instructor loved the new tootsies!

Moi tip: My usual nail bars don’t stock Revlon, but I prefer their colors, so I bring my own polish when I go. Then, I have the time and selection beforehand to find colors I really like; plus, I have the color for touch-ups, or when I’m counting pennies and want to do my nails chez moi.

Pretty sandals and a new pedicure, ruined by oozing blisters and redspots. Girls prancing down the sidewalk with dirty bandaids and tattered tape under sandalstraps.

Sound familiar? At the start of warm weather, or on a winter get-away, when your tender tootsies aren’t conditioned to the constant friction of sandal straps, a short walk can turn into painful limping, and often bloody oozing blisters that make walking painful and result in very un-chic sock with sandals or my husbands fave, dirty bandaids and tattered tape stuck to every possible spot the sandal strap might touch my fragile feet.  Not to mention all the frantic searches for a drugstore, or those times I can’t find a bandaid and have to resort to tucking wads of toilet paper under  the straps.

BandAid Active Friction Block Stick $7.49 at drugstore.com

This year I discovered BandAid Active Friction Block Stick….sort of a ski wax for your feet. I bought a stick early this summer when I ran to the drugstore to stock-up on BandAids to keep in my purse all summer…an annual shopping ritual. For $7.50, what the heck! I tried it. Plus, this year I was determined to learn to walk in thong sandals, something I’d never mastered.  I put the tiny stick in my bag, and the first time I wore sandals, and started to feel that rubbing sensation, I reached into my bag, pulled out the BandAid wax, and rubbed the wax over the red area…and no more rubbing! All summer long I carried the stick and waxed my feet, and shared my new discovery with friends who thought I was rubbing deodorant on my feet.

Voila! Thanks to BandAid stick, I have pretty feet!