So for about a decade into my makeup wearing stage I have tried numerous red lipsticks without success and had given up until just recently.  With red lipstick seemingly being the item du jour lately, my longing for that perfect shade of red returned, plus Valentine’s Day is right around the corner so visions of myself in a pink dress with red lips were swimming in my head. I decided to visit my happy place…also known to many as Sephora.

Before heading to Sephora I decided to do some research and Googled the best red lipsticks for my skin tone.  I had already tried a lot of the red lipsticks that came up in my search results, but for some reason had never given NARS a try. I wanted a matte red lipstick that would look great on my brown skin.It actually did not take me very long to find the lipstick I craved…OK actually it ended up being a lip pencil.  Once I tried NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Cruella I knew my search was finally over.  The Velvet Matte Lip Pencil is a lip pencil and lipstick combined into one very easy to apply crayon.  The color is absolutely beautiful and I do not need to line my lips before applying it nor does it bleed.  I love that there is absolutely no shine to this lip pencil so my lips end up with a velvety look and texture…almost like a rose.

Since I bought the lip pencil I have been wearing it on a consistent basis…not just out at night, but also during the day with just jeans and a t-shirt and my red lips never manage to look out of place.  I cannot wait to wear this on Valentine’s Day…with or without the pink dress I had in mind.  Oh and did I mention that I have since returned to Sephora and purchased the Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Bahama and Dolce Vita…methinks I have finally been cured of my addiction to lip glosses! If you have been struggling with finding the perfect red lipstick, I highly suggest to head to your nearest Sephora and give any one of the NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencils in red a try.

The neons, on the other hand, totally intrigue me. I’m not one to regularly incorporate many not-seen-in-nature colors into my daily beauty routine, but I’m always open to experiment, and the more “adventurous” side of Bobbi’s new collection is definitely inspiring me to dabble outside my comfort zone! Some of my favorite collection highlights include the three punched-up lip gloss additions – now in Citrus, Cosmic Pink, and Ultra Violet – which are fun and spring-festive but sheer enough to not appear costume-y or kitschy.

I also adore the new eyeshadows, in Ultra Violet Shimmer Wash and the stunning cobalt Blue Bell. Of course, I realize that these shades aren’t for everyone (and they require a very skilled hand to wear them chicly), so what do you think – gorgeous or gimmicky?

- Alexandra Gambardella

*Guest beauty post from my friends at TheFind.com.

The Vegas-based beauty brand has a lot to live up to. The line was inspired by the city’s glamorous nightlife, and they even refer to themselves as “The Sexiest Makeup in the World”….so when I tested out their Blood, Sweat, and Tears lip trio, I was hoping to be nothing less than amazed.

Naturally, each product in the trio serves a different purpose. While you can definitely wear each of the shades alone, I prefer using the three together for the best effect.

Blood: Blood is a red lip stain. Stains can be tricky, but this one is an awesome product for first-time users because it isn’t too dark upon first application. I prefer a darker lip, so I put on about 2 or 3 coats. TIP – Make sure you exfoliate your lips before applying ANY lip stain! If your lips are dry, you’ll wind up with uneven color that is hard to remove.

Sweat: A shimmery champagne sparkle, Sweat adds some needed dimension to Blood. I found that when wearing alone, this product wears off pretty quickly…so for best results pair with Tears to lock the sparkle in.

 Tears: Tears is a standard, slick high gloss. The sheen lasted longer than other clear glosses and added the finishing touch to Blood and Sweat  that will make your lips pop.

Here I am testing out Blood, Sweat, and Tears lip trio from Rain Cosmetics.

I was very pleased with the collection and it has officially been added to my daily beauty routine – a girl can never have too many red lip stains! The set retails for $30.00. Check out  www.raincosmetics.com to learn more about other products in the collection.

Have you tried Rain Cosmetics products before? What was your experience?

Step 1: Take a parting from ear to ear (from the back of the ear, across the top of the head to the back of the other ear).

Step 2: Clip the front part of the hair out of the way and tilt your head back slightly (to ensure that your ponytail does not end up saggy or buckles.)

Step 3: After deciding on placement of the ponytail (low, high or middle of the head), brush rear portion of hair into your hand loosely holding it, and with the other hand grab the ponytail tight against the head and secure with a hair tie.

Step 4: Release the top section with your head still tilted back slightly and brush front portion directly into the other ponytail (trying to avoid disruption of the other ponytail but don’t be afraid to brush the hair straight into and over the previously created ponytail) and secure with an elastic hair tie in the exact same way as above.

Step 5: Using hairspray for fly-aways, lightly smooth and spray fly-aways with hands or a fine tooth comb…only lightly skimming the top of the hair.

Bonus step: If you would like to make the ponytail sleeker or dress it up a bit, try grabbing a small section of the ponytail near the elastic hair tie and begin wrapping it around the elastic to hide the hair tie.  secure wrap with a hair pin and bobby pin making sure that the pin is not visible.

And there you have it, two versions of the perfect ponytail…thanks to amazing hairstylist Pearson Knight for walking us through creating the perfect ponytail!

Philadelphia, PA, January 31, 2012 – Vlogger’s  love affair with makeup and beauty products started long before she reached her teens. (Sign one from above that you are meant to be a guru.) One of her first words, spoken at 9 months, was “lipstick.” (Since that is practically impossible for a baby to pronounciate, why are we not calling her a freaking PRODIGY?)  By age 9, she had a critical eye. (Because she is the Tim Gunn of beauty.) Her mother, she confides, was not good at applying her lipstick. “I had to put it on her,” Vlogger says. “She didn’t know that it would last longer—and look better—with lip liner as a base.” (Insightful.)

Today, the 16-year-old is dispensing makeup advice via her video “channel,” on YouTube. (I love how the PR person puts channel in quotes. I can see her rolling her eyes and saying out loud “quote unquote channel” with a big sigh.)

A high school junior in the Philadelphia area, Vlogger started doing videos in 2010. “I knew kids in school who made great videos of themselves singing, but I wanted to teach people a skill,” she says.  She liked makeup, and since she also knew a few application tricks (that she likely learned from the beauty counter of her local department store) and do-it-yourself makeup recipes (Dr. Google is also good for this too), she decided to specialize in beauty application and products. (This is where I want to put specialize in quotes. She knew a handful of tricks so at 15 she wanted to “specialize” in beauty.)

In a single month, she gained more than 850 subscribers (i.e. everyone in her high school and their friends). To date, she has over 215,000 uploaded views and over 5,800 subscribers. Her goal is to top 10,000 subscribers. “When I reach 20,000, I want to open an online store with my own makeup line,” she says. (So knowing a handful of beauty tricks + reaching 20K subscribers = the ability to have the skill and know-how to launch a business. DUDE sign me up. If that’s all it takes, why didn’t I attempt that sooner?!)

Vlogger, who with other beauty gurus was featured in a Wall Street Journal article on teens who make makeup, initially faced some skepticism from schoolmates. “Some of them thought it was weird,” she says. But then a girl on the bus told her she loved the videos. “She said, ‘Keep doing it—don’t care what anyone says,’” she recalls. (Advice from A GIRL ON THE BUS = Lucy setting up shop to dish out advice for 5 cents to Charlie Brown.)

An attractive brunette with long, wavy locks and dark eyes, Vlogger has an easy conversational style. “Don’t mind my little frizzy hairs,” she says in a video made on vacation. “It’s, like, legit really hot here.” (Too legit to quit, in fact….Hammer time!)

Made with the camera she bought herself, the videos are fun to watch.  The camera zooms in to show the products and her expert application.  (As opposed to a camera her mom bought her that does not zoom. ) The action is quick and MTV-like (OMG I didn’t know MTV-like was a camera style now), often with a voiceover instruction. She frequently takes a whimsical approach. A video on New Year’s Eve makeup, for instance, begins with an eye-catching graphic:  a clock and then a countdown. (A creative genius!) It takes her three to five hours just to plan the tutorial and pinpoint the camera angles. (because that’s how it is for all gurus, dontchaknow?)

Her tutorial on how to tackle blackheads has landed more than 44,000 hits. “Every single teenager has blackheads,” she notes. Tips for making your eyelashes longer have garnered more than 21,500 views. Other topics include pumpkin masques, summer nails and “How to Make Press-on Eye Shadow.”

Her YouTube fans would approve. As one watcher commented: “i just want to say that you inspire me so much. you are amazing in everything you do and i love how much effort you put into your videos just to please us. thank you for being by FAR the best makeup guru on youtube. love, your greatest fan.” (like, omg, you are the bestest!)

Ok, before I die from laughter…this was a SERIOUS press release sent to me and a bunch of my fellow beauty bloggers. It also completely falls in line with how this generation seems to think that if you slap up a YouTube channel you are suddenly entitled to three things: 1. the title of guru, 2. free stuff  and 3. a PR-blitz on just how awesome you are. No, that comes from hard work, longevity and being truly amazing. I’m a veteran beauty blogger and have been doing it for 7 years now…and I am NOT a guru. I’m not sure why this was newsworthy enough for someone to pitch to me, but I think I am more appalled at the pitch itself.

Have your say…

This week, we are loving Zolani Organics, a skincare brand dedicated to creating products that are not only high in quality, but help sustain economic income for needy families in Ghana, West Africa.

As someone whose full-time employment lies in nonprofit communications – a nonprofit dedicated to providing aid to Ghana, specifically – I felt an immediate connection to Zolani Organics.   Zolani is a company I like to call “Fair Trade Fabulous” as all products contain lush, locally-harvested ingredients and a portion of each sale goes towards sending books and school supplies to children in West Africa.

Zolani Organic products are heavily reliant shea butter, a nut extract from the locally-grown African tree. Shea butter is a luxurious moisturizer, is rich in vitamins A, E, and F, and the collagen-boosting properties have even been connected to fading unsightly stretch marks. If you haven’t treated yourself to a rich shea butter product yet, this is the product to try – you’ll feel fabulous inside and out, knowing you are helping a child continue his or her education.

Visit Zolani’s “About Us” page for more information on the brand’s mission, and be sure to check out their blog to learn more about current fundraising goals.

I found the Yellow Diamond perfume to be very  floral and fruity on my skin.  The top notes includes Citron, Pear, Neroli and Bergamot, the middle notes are Freesia, Orange Blossom and Mimosa and the bottom notes are Amber, Wood and Musk.

I applied very little, but the fragrance was still pretty intense, after a while I swear I could taste the fragrance in the back of my throat.  The perfumed body lotion was the same…much to intense for my liking.  I did however like the perfumed shower gel.  For some reason it did not seem as intense as the perfume and body lotion, it left a barely there, soft fragrance on my skin.  However, I would only use the shower gel if I were going out at night and did not plan on using any other fragrance.

If you’re into floral, fruity scents I would recommend giving this a try, what I would not recommend is using the shower gel, body lotion and perfume at the same time…not unless you enjoy being swarmed by bees or are intentionally trying to dissuade any form of human contact. If you’ve worn this perfume, I’d love to know what you thought of it.

*Disclosure

eos Smooth Lip Balm Sphere: Not only do I love the scent of this pink sphere (Strawberry Sorbet), my 4 year old Brody, loves it too…and has been known to sneak some when I am not looking. It’s comprised of shea butter and Vitamin E. It’s 95% organic and 100% natural. It gives long lasting hydrating and I LOVE it.

NouriSHEA Lip Balm: This is another 100% organic shea butter and essential oil lip balm. The scent is Mango, which I typically don’t tend to gravitate to, however, it does smell good and the lip balm is very moisturizing.

Pacifica Coconut Pearls Luminizing Lip Quench: This is by far my favorite of the bunch.  It is 100% vegan and uses coconut oil, avocado oil, cocoa seed oil and Vitamin E to nourish dry, cracked lips. It gives a beautiful iridescent sheen to your lips as well, so many times it doubles as my “lip gloss.” The coconut fragrance is heaven. This is also a very large lip balm and has lasted me about 8 months so far (it looks like I’ve barely used it!)

Barista Bath and Body Indulgent Lip Balm: I love coffee. No, I mean I LOVE coffee. I have a Keurig that gets so much use, you’d think I’m the area Starbucks. I found Barista Bath and Body while at Cosmoprof North America last summer. They have a complete line of coffee-branded products, but froth is my favorite. It smells of peppermint and coffee, is vegan, and uses olive oil, shea butter and jojoba oil to moisturize the skin. Yum.

Not Soap, Radio lip balm: The bottom two pictured are lip balms from Not Soap, Radio. The first one, Cherry Cordial, is from their Cocoa Nostra Confectionery collection. It’s vegan, natural and contains cocoa and fruit extracts. Cherry Cordial smells of milk chocolate and cherries and is yet another lip balm Brody steals from me (who can blame him?) The second lip balm is You’re the Cutest from their Greeting Card collection. It’s hard to pin down exactly what flavor this is as it is different in every batch (according to their website), but the one I have tastes to be a strawberry-cherry combo. The greeting card lip balm has a little more weight and lasts longer than Cherry Cordial, but both serve their purpose.

Have you tried any of these lip balms? Which is your favorite?

*Disclosure

After just 30 seconds under a salon’s LED lamp, you’ll have glossier color pay-off and a tough-as-nails finish that doesn’t feel any thicker than your regular manicure. For the trend-spotters who can’t wait to get gel versions of the most recent collections, you may be out of luck for now, but the good news is, GelColor comes in 30 of the brand’s most popular classic shades, including Lincoln Park After Dark, You Don’t Know Jacques, and I’m Not Really a Waitress. And there’s no better way to improve on the original than with a long-wearing gel coat that’ll keep your favorite shades chip-free for several weeks!

- Alexandra Gambardella

Guest beauty post from my friends at TheFind.com.

At under five dollars per product, Calgon’s  Ageless Bath Collection is an affordable, easy way to give your skin the antioxidant protection it deserves.

I’m an unashamed bath product enthusiast, so I was excited to try the Luminous Bath Pearls.  Calgon’s exclusive Vita-Pearl technology includes Vitamin E and collagen to moisturize, while the pearl powder blend imparts a luminous glow.  The scent, though slightly overpowering at first, was quite nice and refreshing, and my skin had a soft shimmer once I dried off.

If you have ultra-dry winter skin, I would advise against using this product alone as a moisturizing agent – it’s best to pair it with a richer lotion for dry skin relief. Overall, the Ageless Bath Collection is wonderful little treat that feels much more decadent than the price tag would lead you to believe.

Learn more about Calgon’s Ageless Bath Pearls and kiss your dull winter skin goodbye! Have you used this product?