‘Tis the Season…

(pre-NYC transformation)
I spent the past weekend in New York updating my Winter beauty look, and let me tell you, it was quite a glamorous transformation. I died my ever-oxidized blonde locks into a healthier and richer chocolate brown – thanks to the fabulous fingers of uber-colorist, Ludovic at The Pierre Michel Salon. Ludovic has been beautifying A-list clients including Sharon Stone and Michelle Williams for the past 13 years, so needless to say, I was in good hands. Why brown? “Chocolate brown is the color this Winter because it is warmer for the skin,” says Ludovic.
Next, I marched on over to the newly opened Sephora on Lexington Avenue and Fifty-Eight Street. The trend of the moment is golden eyes – the more shimmer, the better – and red lips. For blush, a just-walked-in-from-the-cold look is natural and necessary.
So here it is: The Ultimate Beauty Whore… transformed!
(post-NYC transformation)
On eyes, Laura Mercier Eye Book, exclusive for the Holiday Season. I blended the golden color with a bit of the burnt brown in my crease and under my lids. On lips, Bourjois Rouge Heprfix in Rouge Ultime 7. On cheeks, what else but Stila’s Convertible color in POPPY!
Send us your Winter wonderland transformations! And remember, it’s all about color!

Sunday Night Beauty Crafts

Doing it yourself can be so liberating…
Here, from one of my favorite at-home beauty books, is a fabulous recipe for creating your very own, individualized roll-on lip gloss.

“French Kiss Roll-On Gloss
Super shine for sloppy kisses. Your pout will beg to be whisked off for a weekend on the Rive Gauche, where it can be smooched in the style that it deserves.”

Ingredients:
1/4 cup castor oil
A pinch of cosmetic-grade mica in a color of your choice (for clear, disregard this step)
A few drops essential or flavor oil (choose your favorite, classic pepperment, or wacky root beer, green apple or bubble gum)
Six, 1/3 ounce mini roll-on bottles CLICK to buy!

Instructions:
In a small bowl, stir together the castor oil, mica and flavor oil. Decant the mixture into the roll-on bottles, pop in the roller ball and cap. It’s really that easy!

Give it a try! You never know, that perfect kiss may just need a little personalized work!

SOURCE: Beauty Magic: 101 recipes, spells and secrets. By Jennifer Knapp; Chronicle Books, 2004

Gobble, Gobble…

WHAT I’M THANKFUL FOR…
I’m thankful for:
Nars Turkish Delight lip gloss – a “pink sorbet” color with mega shine minus the goo.
Kerastase Nutritive Elixer Oleo Relax hair drops – the most fabulous anti-friz serum in all of hair care land! (my mane is always soft, friz-free and curly when I use this product)
Marc Jacobs by Marc Jacobs perfume – a staple fragrance that smells of gardenia and musk. (I’ve worn this for the past 5 years and still continue to get loads of compliments)!
Kinerase Intensive Eye Cream – my new dark circle savior!!! It moisturizes and minimizes bags and darkness. Alas, I feel like a pre-teen again! (also a great base prior to using eye make-up!)
Kiehl’s Coriander Bath and Shower Liquid Body Cleanser and Hand and Body Lotion – an old favorite past time that has become a new and welcomed bathing treat! The smell is a delicious blend of Winter richness that lathers and rinses leaving my skin soft and radiant. And the lotion compliments the shower gel, moisturizing and reviving dehydrated skin.
Mario Badescu Drying Lotion – the closest thing that I’ve found to a zit zapper. This is a miracle product that literally dries out those nasty little pimples overnight! It’s like magic!
MAC Splashproof PowerPoint Eye Pencil in Engraved – a liner that goes on strong and lasts so long! Easy to apply and fun to smudge… I use it to line my lids as well as that sensitive area inside of my eye! (very mysterious….)
Tend Skin Razor Bump Solution – An oldie, but goodie! After a painful wax in that “intimate area,” Tend Skin is a welcomed soother. It actually rids the region of redness and ingrown hairs! TRICK!!! Tend Skin can also be used on acne for a quick fix… 1,2,3 and the pimple is gone!
C.O. Bigelow’s Dr. Hiosous Quince Hand Lotion – a salve that literally saves my chapped and cracked hands! All natural, it smells of a mixture of fruit extracts and carrot oil and it lasts for an unearthly amount of time. This is my absolute favorite hand cream in the world… I never leave home without it!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL MY FELLOW BEAUTY WHORES!

WEEKLY MUST-HAVE

(me posing in Cover Girl’s Smoothwear Lip Tints Barely Berry, #210)
Anyone who has read this blog knows that I have a fondness for red. In an August post, I wrote a Weekly Must-Have citing Stila’s POPPY convertable lip color as the “Bentley of all reds…”
Well now I stand corrected.
On a recent shoot that I did, a friend of mine turned me onto Cover Girl’s Smoothwear Lip Tints, a new product by the Procter & Gamble team. I reluctantly tried the gloss over my Labello Cherry chap stick (another red-tinted lippy) and to my surprise, I actually loved the way that it made my lips look. It wasn’t hooker red yet it gave my pucker the desired “volume” (plump) that so many red glosses cease to create. It also wasn’t gooey or smelly and it didn’t bleed into the cracks of my mouth (another MAJOR problem with reds…). So, kuddo’s to Cover Girl and their new and improved line of lip tints. I’m a major fan!

Try Barely Berry, #210 (right). The perfect blend of gloss and color – a chic red worn alone or over your favorite lip stick.

TODAY’S TRICK…

Here’s something I’m sure you’ve waited a lifetime to hear… “your lips are just so… kissable.”
Okay, so I have the trick of ALL tricks for kissable, shiny, moisturized lips: VITAMIN E OIL (not the pills or the massage oil or a mixture of vitamin E, rose and other such nonsense… just pure vitamin E from the bottle does the trick). It’s what all the famous make-up artists use of their super famous clients. I use it every night before going to bed and during the day under AND over my daily lip color.
Better then any lip pumper, less goey then MAC lip glass, pure, straight-out-of-the-bottle Vitamin E Oil adds natural lustre and plump to any pucker… Guaranteed.
You’ve got a trick of the trade? SHARE WITH US HERE!!!

From the LIPS of Ms. Kaycee Flinn…

My fabulous and foxy friend, Kaycee Flinn, wants to share her new beauty discovery with our blog readers. SO, here it is:
“BELLA IL FIORE LIP TINT!!! This is my new favorite beauty product. I am not a big fan of wearing make-up, especially lip stick and gooey lip gloss. So for me, my lips were bare naked until one day as I was going through my pile of gift bags, I discovered lip tint that isn’t thick and gooey, doesn’t taste bad, and doesn’t have the feel of lipstick. It lasts while giving you the natural, beautiful look that we all want. It’s changed my life (or at least that of my lips). I swear by it (as does my boyfriend) and you will too!!!”
Bella Il Fiore Double Agent Lip Tint comes in three rocking shades…
Here is Kaycee wearing tint number 002.

SEXXXY!

The Lip Gloss Challenge

On average, every woman in America owns at least a dozen lip glosses in their lifetime. Okay, maybe not, but it’s a fair assessment.
These days, lip-glosses offer their consumer’s lucious lips anything from color, stain, shine, conditioning, plumper, or any variation of the above. So what’s really the deal when it comes to the gloss – glam or gimmick?
You tell us!!! email us your raves and disses…

The Rating System:
1 kiss: not even worth a peck
5 kisses: tres fab, must have

We’ll post the results sometime within the next couple of weeks!