More of the best beauty bloggers

Mikaela's Jet Set Beauty
Both Mikaela and Shivaughn are flight attendants/estheticians, which means their knowledge of on the go, traveling everywhere beauty are unrivalled. Great reviews, advice and a constant stream of original information (I learned about Benev!). Give them a click.

Makeup Loves Me
Reviews galore. Reviews abound. For those of you who love reviews, here's a blog to check out.

Clumps of mascara
Brittany cares deeply about all kinds of cosmetic products, but appears to have the most passion for lashes (comrades!) and nails (her reviews are so good they almost make me reconsider my hate for nail polish). Plus her emphasis on real girl prose and realistic beauty goals is refreshing.

Makeup by RenRen
Ren is a pro makeup artist, lover of bright colours, queen of couture eye looks and one of those people whose skill is inspiring. Just check out her work!

More frequently read beauty blogs

Palacinka Beauty
Now here's a concept, beauty reviews, not just for white girls. Let's face it most of the time, when we hear how great a lipstick colour is, or a conditioner is, we naturally assume it will be great for us, while completely disregarding the ethnicity of the reviewer. Palacinka beauty solves this issue, their panel is manned by a variety of women from different backgrounds, so when thinking, gosh, that sounds good, we can check if we may have a similar eye colour or skin type to the person reviewing. Plus they picked a great name, Palacinka in my mother tongue means "crepe" the world's best food (and the only food I can make).

Nicciknows
Nicci does know, she's a proffesional makeup artist/product junkie (do those two not usually go hand in hand?) who for some reason has allll the connections for great web deals. If you shop for your beauty products on the web regularly, make sure you bookmark Nicci, cause sh ehas the inside track on all the great deals.

Makeup makes me happy
You said it sister. Roselyn cares deeply about cosmetics and agrees with me on the many many merits of the new John Varvatos fragrance (GORGOUS!). Plus she does great contests and interviews. Keep an eye out for her upcoming beauty awards.

Stylebell
Hair REALLY does make a difference in one's self esteem. There's nothing quite like walking out of a salon, completely transformed. And here is where hair is worshipped. Now our girl here has something in common with me, curly hair, curly, frizzy, unmanageable and deadly hair. And she too worships at the food of the GHD like I do. Kindred spirits...

Product Review: Skin Perfekt gel in Luminous

Well, nothing will get me perfekt but this is pretty great.
The truly amazing thing is it keeps me matte for a loooong time, there's an absorbent clay in here. I find it thicker than most primers too, almost as thick as a balm, which I like because I found it to do a better job of filling in my pores and fine lines than anything else in the past. The tint is great, but no means enough coverage for all of my myriad of flaws, but for most AWESOME. My color is Luminous (sigghhh for no more tanning) plus they don't label it but this has a touch of sun protection so woooohooo for that.

The truly amazing thing is my mom randomly walked into my makeup room the other day (yes I took over my sister's old room to be able to spread out) was attracted by the blue packaging tried it on and came home raving. So much so that today at work, she actually BOUGHT a whole one to herself. Now for my mother, the woman who won't buy LOREAL because it's too expensive to spend 65 dollars on a single product is truly saying something. She noticed such a dramatic filling in of her lines that her coworkers kept asking if she had Botox (not my mama, she's the world's lowest maintenance woman, which is why this all in one appeals to her).

If it's lines and pores that bother you, and you don't have too much acne or discoloration, give this one a try.
More...
Isododecane - emollient highly suitable with silicones that has the ability to "waterproof" it's companions
Polysilicone - 11 - silicone, smoothing
Dimethicone - silicone, smoothing
Retinyl Palmitate - vitamin A
Tocopheryl Acetate - vitamin E
Montmorillonite - lightly absorbing clay
Thioctic Acid - chemical name for alpha lipoic acid/antioxidant
Titanium Dioxide CI 77891 - provides the coverage and sun protection
Iron Oxides CI 77499, CI 77492, CI 77491 - the color


Image courtesy of sephora.com

Product Review: Philosophy Purity Made Simple

Ahhh, someone had to be the voice of dissent on this one. That's right, I don't like it. And I work at Sephora, people come in every day raving that it's the best stuff that's ever touched their faces.

I guess I'm one of the few for whom it caused HORRIBLE eye irritation. I mean my eyes were red and stinging for quite a while. But no wonder, check out the ingredient list below, all of those essential oils should not be used around the eyes at all. In fact black pepper oil, is so sensitizing, even in the smallest concentrations that it has been shown to cause contact dermatitis.

Now the majority of the ingredients are ok, the first 5 are cleansing and mild. But the bulk of the list ruins it. I'm sorry, I refuse to put this around my eyes anymore.

However on the rest of my face, it's pretty darn great. I can actually see it dissolve all the makeup I put on, my face immediately feels smoother and softer afterward. A lot of the EO's are potent antibacterials and therefore anti acne, such as the sandalwood and palmarosa, so yes I have noticed a fair bit of improvement on my horrible zit situation (but I HAVE been using it with Clarisonic so that's arguable). For me to feel dry and tight after something it would have to be like pure alcohol and witch hazel, but with most cleansers I do notice some discomfort in terms of how "stretchy" my skin is. None with this.

The only reason (besides the eye irritation) I won't repurchase is because it's not all that good at getting scrubby stuff off my face. I use aluminum oxide crystals every day to exfoliate (yes the microdermabrasion stuff) and always find them mingling with my skin oils and getting all over the place, in my eyebrows etc etc and they're very hard to wash off with just water, which is why it's important to me to have a cleanser that can help lift the suckers away. This does not.

Verdict, great as a makeup remover, awesome for acne, gentle on the face, feels hydrating but is NOT for the eyes.
The ingredient breakdown
Water, obvious
Disodium Lauroamphodiacetate - Mild surfactant
Limnanthes Alba (Meadowfoam) Seed Oil - emollient
Coco-Glucoside - gentle detergent
PEG-120 Methyl Glucose Dioleate - thickener
Aniba Rosaeodora (Rosewood) Wood Oil - looks good on the ingredient list, no skincare use
Geranium Maculatum Oil - balances sebum production
Guaiacum Officinale - fragrance, is VERY irritating to some, like myself
Cymbopogon Martini Oil - in other wordds palmarosa oil, sebum control
Rosa Damascena Extract - moisturizing
Amyris Balsamifera Bark Oil - is a slightly less irritating version of Sandalwood oil
Santalum Album (Sandalwood) Oil - drying, irritating
Salvia Officinalis (Sage) Oil - some healing properties
Cinnamomum Cassia Leaf Oil - rubifacient, potent irritant even at this concentration
Anthemis Nobilis Flower Oil - chamomile oil, soothing
Daucus Carota Sativa (Carrot) Seed Oil - regenerative (though not in a cleanser and not this low on the list), sun sensitizing
Piper Nigrum (Black Pepper) Seed Extract - soooo should not be used around the eyes, potent rubifacient
Sodium Trideceth Sulfate - wetting agent
Hexylene Glycol - solvent, thins a formulation
Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Alcohol - preservative
Polysorbate 20 - surfactant
Glycerin - humectant
Carbomer - solubilizer, emulsifier
Triethanolamine - emulsifier, PH stabilizer
Methylparaben - preservative
Propylparaben - preservative
Imidazolidinyl Urea - preservative
FD&C Yellow No.5 - color


Image courtesy of sephora.com

More of my favorite beauty bloggers

Serge Lutens- Nearly all the facts
I think I have another soulmate. And it is the author of this anthology on the world of my husband Serge. This woman knows her stuff, and lives within deliverable range of the exclusive line...urr another reason to live in Europe. She also runs another hilarious site, where she basically bitches about idiotic and annoying things throughout her life, but is INTERESTING. I lauggghhhhed out loud.

Product Girl
Our gal here really knows her stuff when it comes to new product launches, awesome web sales and the like. Plus contests galore!

Pretty By Nature
Noel cares about natural. Though I will never fully agree with this widespread obsession, I do appreciate someone who is a)commited b)informed when they choose to make a lifestyle change. If you too want to commit and need information, I can't think of a better place to start dipping your knowledge toes.

Perfume Posse
The folks at Perfume Posse, Patty, March and Lee are the ABSOLUTE last word on perfume. Their reviews are not only extensive, inclusive and evocative, they really give you an accurate picture of a whole story around fragrance, the backstory, the personal story, the notes (clearly) and the final word.

Product Review: Serge Lutens A La Nuit

I do love Jasmine, I do love Serge. I knew I'd love this.

The notes: jasmine (Egyptian, Indian, Moroccan), green shoots, cloves, white honey, benzoin and musk.

On me I feel a lot of powderyness. On my wrist it starts off a very tart jasmine, as if infused with vetiver. Then it settles to a nice powdery floral, with some sort of lemony citrus note. I do love the feeling. I find that sniffing it throughout the day makes me feel so womanly and grown up (actually I feel the same way about Serge stuff in general). And like all the rest of his fragrances, it has some musky, grungy sexual notes, which I always appreciate in a fragrance, seeing as how I am a big fan of that year round, all day. I find the level of muskiness in this church appropriate, which means by most people's standards, it's hot date appropriate.

And if my nose can smell it all day (my level of perception=lower than you can imagine) means it's POTENT!

Image courtesy of sergelutens.blogspot.com

So, a SCAM at a salon, going on in Calgary

You KNOW I made a facebook group about this:

This girl comes up to me at the mall the other day, telling me she's running a promotion to get more people to the Lather salon. The deal sounds great, a haircut, 2 shampoos/blowdries, a 25min microdermabrasion and one round of laser hair removal on the face for 55 bucks. AWESOME right? Well I thought so. So I bought two, one for me, one as a gift.

Right away I call the salon and they tell me something interesting, the company they hired to do the marketing, Heightened Marketing, is not supervising what their employees are saying or claiming and is not getting back to the salon AT ALL! Their employees are offering whatever they want, whether the salon approves or not, just to close the deal. For example, the girl I talked to, told me I had till June to use my packages, but I only had till April.

The salon is NOT gonna cover any "agreements" we make with a promotion girl, so read the back, there's a WHOLE lot of conditions on there, including that there are absolutely no refunds.

Now I tried to contact Heightened Marketing. The number on the back, the voicemail is what you get (there's not even a hold function, as if there's actual operators working) and the voicemail is full. I go on their website, the customer service number on there is a WRONG number. And no one picks up on their new client hotline.
Really proffesional right.

The worst thing is, on my way out of the mall I see another girl talking to a group, and I go up to her to ask her why Lather salon can't get in touch with them at all? What does she say to me? "Whatever", says to call customer service!

I was about to lose my mind, but the kicker, I call the salon to DEMAND my money back, and they say they may not even fulfill the offers anymore, cause these people are literally making them look bad (it's like, stop paying the company and see how quickly they call you!). So off course I booked my time right away, I figured I pay for it, theres no refunds, I'll damn well do it. If they DARE to turn me away when I get there I'll be pissed.

I wanted to let you all know, don't get robbed, don't give your money to these people. If you see one of those girls, throw 'em a finger and say it's from Elena!

Spread the word, invite everyone to this group.

Email this post to everyone you know, becase Heightened Marketing Solutions works worldwide, and I doubt that they're doing this just in Calgary.