Black Sweet: December 2010

Beautyland Tour: 1/1/11!

As we say “thank you to you, our loyal readers and friends, we also say “goodbye” to 2010 as we reflect on some of the best, worst, and most reliable products that have graced our lives. Cheers to 2011 and everything wonderful and exciting in beauty for the new year! I'm posting this a little late because I caught up on a lot of sleep. All in one day. Happy New Year!

Getting ready for a special New Years party? Sabrina from The Beauty Look Book will help you find that perfect metallic nail color. Maybe you can help her decide which one she should wear for her party!

Jane from shows us one of her all-time favorite lip glosses that has beautiful color and plumps the lips. Now LipFushion is in pretty holiday packaging making all the more lust worthy.

A few weeks ago Debbi from Diva Debbi spoke about the popular non-invasive procedure Ultherapy. Now you can read her interview with Dr. Salzberg and view her personal results. You may want to call your doctor immediately!

Jennifer from ends the year with her best and worst of fashion trends in 2010. See if jumpsuits, sweater dresses and more make her list of bests or worsts. It makes me wonder what 2011 trends will be.

Speaking of top trends in fashion, let’s see what The Budget Fashionista lists as her Top Ten Fashion Trends of 2011.

Charlestongirl from Best Things in Beauty is taking a bit of a hiatus this week, but she hasn’t left us this week without a perk. She’s giving away THREE Giorgio Armani Rouge d’Armani Lipsticks! Sign up today to win one.

Maybelline has a new line of products called FIT. Kelly from Gouldylox Reviews bought the foundation and shares with us her results. Does this drugstore brand live up to her expensive department store foundations?

Looking to add volume and luster to your hair? Fab Over Forty shares with us her go-to hair care line. Kerastase Volumactive is a product line that has long been in her beauty routine. See why it’s one of her favorites.

Amy from Café Makeup always shows us great beauty comparisons. This week she shares Chanel’s newest Spring Collection nail polish in Black Pearl. Will this new shade become another one of Chanel’s cult classics?

What better perfume aficionado is there than Gaia from The Non-Blonde? No one! See what she has determined to be the best perfumes of 2010 as we say goodbye to the decade.

Happy New Year!

Roots Only Hair Color Applicator. Genius!

More often than not, I color my hair at home. Now that it is getting longer, I try not to color my entire head each time, but reds fade fast and blah blah blah.Part of my problem is that it takes FOREVER for me to section out my hair (which is super thick) to color the roots. When I have tried some of the applicators that come with root touch up kits, the color-depositing doohickeys angled weird and I end up coloring way more of my hair than I had intended.So when I saw this, I got EXCITED.Roots Only Color Applicator is the first applicator I have ever seen that looks like this. Instead of angled spiky things, it has ten color applicator bits that make root touch ups FAST.You don't have to section your hair and go 1/3 inch by 1/3 inch over your head. All you do is mix the color in the bottle and deposit the color at your roots. You can rake the applicator through your hair and cover your head in two inch swaths. If everything goes right, you can cover your entire head in less than 10 swipes.Here are some tips for using this. First of all, start by combing or brushing your dry hair straight back and make sure there are no tangles.Pick a section of hair to start with. Use BOTH HANDS to comb the applicator back through your hair, without releasing any color. Then go over the exact same place again, squeezing with even pressure using both hands. Easy! I suggest using both hands because while it doesn't take a lot of pressure to make the color come out evenly, you do have to maintain that pressure throughout the entire application. Maybe I have wimpy hands that can't squeeze that hard for that long? It's not hard, I just find it easier to use both hands. After you've applied the color, take your gloved hands and give your roots a quick scrub, making sure you've covered everything. I covered my whole head in less than five minutes. It couldn't be easier.If you color your hair at home, you need to try this! Pick one up for $7.99! It's genius!Subscribe and never miss a thing! Disclosure/Disclaimer Statement. Makeup, beauty, skincare reviews & more! Copyright 2009-2010, Gouldylox Reviews. All Rights Reserved.

Maybelline Fit Foundation (Updated!)

Maybelline Fit foundation just hit the shelves at my Target and I was powerless to resist trying it out. My favorite foundations are currently Estee Lauder's Resilience Lift Extreme and Bobbi Brown's Skin Foundation, so a drug store formula would have a lot to live up to.This formula comes in 16 shades, with matching powders and concealers that will work with all of the foundation shades (6 in total). The foundation also contains an SPF of 18. According to Maybelline, this foundation has something called "skin merge technology", which helps the foundation blend quickly and adapt to your skin tone for a perfect match.I chose the lightest shade possible, to match my neck. In the past I have had a problem with brands not being light enough or turning yellow after a short period of time, which makes it hard for me to embrace a drug store foundation.I was thrilled that this foundation matched my neck and blended on to my face beautifully. It reminded me quite a bit of the Bobbi Brown Skin foundation that I had loved over the summer. It feels very natural and very light on the skin itself. It is slightly on the hydrating side (great for my dry skin), but that may not work for people with oilier skin. I don't normally experience issues with breakouts, but if a silicone-based, hydrating foundation is something that may trigger a breakout, this may not be for you. The best part? This foundation didn't turn yellow on me after a bit of wear, like most foundations do. Sweet!This gives a light to medium coverage, so if you have areas that need more coverage, you will want to have a concealer on stand by. You definitely will want to set this with either a powder or some kind of face perfecter to help it look fresh even longer. Before using my Dior Crystal Nude Skin Perfecter, the foundation did want to settle into some of the deeper lines on my face. However, once I set the foundation, that ceased to be an issue.Fit Foundation gave me a very luminous, radiant finish. It covered redness and large pores with ease and lasted throughout the day. I don't remember this last time I enjoyed a drugstore foundation this much!Fit Foundation, Concealer and Blush officially hit shelves in January, but keep an eye out for it now in your neighborhood!UPDATE! I also picked up the concealer and it is gloriously wonderful for under the eyes. It lends the same radiant glow to concealing that the foundation does. It's not quite as "glowy" as Laura Geller's Banish and Brighten, but it's gives a similar effect. I'm wearing the concealer (and the foundation) in this post. I picked up the 15 concealer and I love it!I bought this. Maybelline does test on animals.Subscribe and never miss a thing! Disclosure/Disclaimer Statement. Makeup, beauty, skincare reviews & more! Copyright 2009-2010, Gouldylox Reviews. All Rights Reserved.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

BEST of 2010 - THE MEGAPOST

Getting to Know The Beautyland Tour Guides :Jane from Daly Beauty

Here's today's installment of Getting To Know The Beautyland Tour Guides. Meet Jane, from Daly Beauty. Not only does Jane have hair that I covet, but she also has her beauty routine down perfectly. If you aren't familiar with her blog, you can check it out here.When did you start blogging and why? I have always been a beauty junkie, but I didn't know what that was until I started reading beauty blogs. I started blogging as an experiment (I know nothing about html or that programming stuff!)and as a personal outlet. My friends regularly would ask for advice, and I was also known to offer unsolicited beauty tips as well. So I guess I wanted to share what I know and what I love. Every blog seems to have a special voice - what's the message on your blog? My message is that beauty is everywhere if you look for it and that all of us are beautiful. Its all about finding the confidence to experiment and have fun while finding the beauty that is inside us all.Have you always been a beauty fanatic or did it come later in life for you? What made it blossom?I don't ever recall a time that I wasn't a beauty fanatic. My earliest memories are perfume related - standing on my tip toe at my mother's vanity and smelling her Shalimar, playing with her cake mascara (along with our dog - that's a whole other story...). My aunt was a full blown beauty and perfume junkie and I always felt at home in her room - her round bed with velvet tufted headboard and a dresser FULL of perfumes. Her room always smelled like the ground floor of a major department store and to this day that is my favourite smell in the world (after the smell of my children's heads...). I love to read and beach vacations - my dream is a long good book and a warm beach with crashing waves and sunshine. Heaven. I love to spend time with my daughters - they are 14 and 22 and we have a blast together, always. We love to shop naturally, and beauty shopping is something we could do every day. No one makes me laugh as hard as they do. One of our favourite activities is to get a delish coffee and get our hair done. Our stylist is a genius and can fit us all in, rotating between the three of us. For us, it's ALL about the hair. Modern and mid-century modern design and architecture are a passion as well, and I like to think I incorporate that clean simple and modern aesthetic into my beauty routines.What's your daily beauty routine?Simple - moisturize, tinted moisturizer or primer (lately a good primer on its own has been my go-to) a little concealer, blush/bronzer, neutral eye shadow and a touch of mascara. A nice plumping clear lip gloss and of course, perfume, and I'm good to go. If we were to invade your beauty closet what surprises would we find?That I have some makeup brushes over 15 years old...I care for them like babies and it amazes me how a good quality brush will last for ages. I do need to get some new ones though... How many lipsticks/glosses can be found in your handbag at any given time? Oh geez. At least 5. What's the best beauty advice you've ever received?Wash your face before going to bed. No matter how tired I am, I always do this.Subscribe and never miss a thing! Disclosure/Disclaimer Statement. Makeup, beauty, skincare reviews & more! Copyright 2009-2010, Gouldylox Reviews. All Rights Reserved.

Voluminous Million Lashes by L'Oreal (With a Healthy Dose of Social Commentary)

I am always searching for a mascara to make the most of my lashes. I was a little hesitant to test this mascara after reading a lot of the online reviews, but when it showed up in my mailbox I decided to give it a try.L'Oreal's Voluminous Million Lashes claims to give you seriously dramatic lashes, with tons of volume and the look of a million lashes. Here is a screen grab from a tv spot Eva Longoria did for the mascara in a foreign market.Unless her lashes grow like shark's teeth, I can clearly see where the faux lashes are placed. I get that things have to be dressed up for television and print, but makeup ads are making me mental with all of the ridiculous retouching and faking the benefits of the product. I know some of the ads may even have a disclaimer that the photos have been retouched (this product doesn't contain a disclaimer in the 12/10 In Style), but that doesn't make me feel any better.

(The lashes are slightly more realistic in this mag ad, but not by much.)

What bugs me about this is that it sets the expectations so HIGH. In my mind, I know my lashes will never look like this in real life, so I take my expectations down a few notches and expect them to look half as good as Eva's. But there is one problem.THAT ISN'T GOING TO HAPPEN EITHER. So no matter how I look at it, I'm going to be disappointed. My lashes will never look that lush and long and thick. I'm just not sure it's responsible to keep the expectations so high with the knowledge that it won't ever live up to the dream. I'll also shell out another $7.99 to try another type of mascara that might offer closer results to whatever impossible look is floating around in my mind's eye. So either way, some days I end up feeling like I lost. That can't be good, can it?

(My measly lashes with NO primer. Normally, they are invisible without some primer.)

At the end of the day, this mascara did a surprisingly good job. It didn't make my lashes look any thicker or curlier than other mascaras I have tried. It did make my lashes slightly longer, which was fantastic. I didn't experience the clumping some people complained about. I also didn't experience the flaking. Mine wore very nicely for a full work day. I liked this mascara. Just don't base your hopes on the ads. Unless you are really good with daily use of false lashes.This was sent for review. L'Oreal still tests on animals. Rumors are this will change in 2013.Subscribe and never miss a thing! Disclosure/Disclaimer Statement. Makeup, beauty, skincare reviews & more! Copyright 2009-2010, Gouldylox Reviews. All Rights Reserved.

TSA Friendly Travel Essentials

by Anne Houseman, Beauty Xpose

The past month has been a whirlwind of travel for me, and I know for many of you, there’s big NYE travel coming quickly. Whether by rail, road or air, a journey can make even the most well-traveled beauty buffs cringe with the thought of leaving behind their complete beauty stash. So what’s a gorgeous jet-setter to do? Snag one these four travel must-haves, and you’ll be ready for a luxurious excursion.

1. Stylish Luggage

You’re going to be lugging around your loot throughout your journey, so why not get a bag you can be proud to show off (sorry — grandma’s flower tapestry luggage just isn’t cutting it). While I don’t own one, I’m digging the latest addition to the Dooney & Bourke 1975 Signature Collection: the Travel Juliette ($345).

Available in black, brown, bordeaux, cobalt, red, plum and taupe, this classic bag features a stylish silhouette and should be spacious enough to hold your carry-on items or your belongings for a weekend getaway. With both small handles and a large, adjustable strap, this versatile piece of luggage should be a snap to carry. And if it isn’t? Well, then that hot TSA agent can help you with your tote after your pat down.

2. A Soothing Skin Care System

Between swigging eggnog, munching on fatty, sugary treats and staying up all night watching the ball drop (not to mention all the champagne and bar hopping in freezing temps), your skin will be screaming S.O.S.! When I’m on the go, I stave off a dry, lackluster complexion with Amala Rejuvenate Travel Spa Treatments for Face and Hands ($48).

Featuring products made from cocoa bean and fresh organic Jasmine (which smells potent, but DIVINE), Amala’s TSA-friendly hydrating kit is designed to replenish moisture, renew elasticity and smooth skin. Normally a $118 value, for just $48, you’ll get four, luxurious 15 ml products: Hydrating Hand Cream, Rejuvenating Hand Cream, Hydrating Face Cream and Rejuvenating Collagen Mask. The products are decadently rich (a little goes a long way!) and will hydrate even the driest skin, making you feel like you brought along your own personal esthetician.

3. Glow on the Go

This time of year, it’s pretty easy to be blinded by both blizzards and your own vitamin D-deprived complexion. But just because you’re traveling doesn’t mean you have to forgo your faux glow. Lose your wan pallor while saving precious luggage space with a travel-size bottle of Fake Bake self-tanning lotion.

This 2 oz bottle is carry-on ready and is sure to keep your complexion warm — even if the temps dip below zero where you’re heading. For longer trips (did someone say a two-week beach vacay?), play it sun-safe, and stash a larger bottle of Fake Bake Sunless and Skinny self-tanning lotion (6 oz) in your checked bag. And don’t forget the SPF!

4. Mini-Sized Makeup

Every time I travel, I spend a painstaking hour figuring out which makeup I want to bring that is 1) versatile enough to go with all my planned outfits, and 2) can fit in a single, small makeup bag so I can avoid checking a bag. Needless to say, this is a very stressful process for a beauty buff like me. But no more. Enter the Lorac Box Office Hit Full Face Palette, sold exclusively at Ulta.

For a mere 35 smackers, Lorac gives you everything you’d possibly need and/or want to create different makeup looks each day you’re away from home sweet home. The Lorac Box Office Hit comes complete with 12 generous-sized shimmer eye shadows, eight lip colors, two eyeliners, a blush and a bronzer — all in one super-compact crocodile embossed “book” that’s smaller in height and length than an iPad. In all, the eye colors are fairly sheer and in what I’d consider the “neutral” category (even the darker colors are fairly “safe”), so there’s bound to be a fit for even the most discriminating shadow wearers. Go soft and subtle for day, and amp it up with a smoldering look when you hit the town at night. The best part? You can stash this kit in an over-sized clutch and bring it with you anywhere!

Photos: Dooney & Bourke; Amala; Fake Bake; LoracDisclaimer: Amala and Lorac products furnished complimentary for review

Post Christmas Beautyland Tour

Can you believe it? It's the day after Christmas - where did the year go? Our beauty blogging friends were busy this week, like Santa's elves, helping you find the best of the best. Check out our favorite features from the last week.We are smitten with Chanel's Ombres Perlées de Chanel for Spring 2011. Check out Café Makeup for Amy's review, The Beauty Look Book for Sabrina's review, and Best Things in Beauty for Charlestongirl's review. Think we love it? Get a gift card for Christmas? This could be your purchase - treat yourself! We reviewed other products from Chanel's spring collection, so make sure to read all of this week's Chanel features.Kari found a makeup primer that can be used before or after your makeup application. Intrigued? Find out more about Dior's Crystal Nude Primer at Fab over Forty.Want a golden glow for New Year's Eve? It's not too late to pick up Guerlain's L'Or Makeup Base. Find out why you need it from Gaia at The Non-Blonde.Was Jennifer hoping for Philosophy's Hope in a Jar in her stocking? Recently featured in Oprah’s “Ultimate Favorite Things,” Oprah loves this product. Read Jennifer's review at BeautyXposé.Benefit granted two Christmas wishes for Laurie: 1) they gave her an awesome spray tan, and 2) a new boxed blush, Bella Bamba! Benefit’s newest face powder brings something new to the Benefit line-up, with promises of a 3-D brightening effect. Read all about it at Product Girl.Kelly proved she's game for anything at Gouldylox Reviews. Water Marbling isn't for everyone, but if you find yourself snowed in, it's a fun look to try.Jane got in the Christmas spirit at Daly Beauty. Head over to find out what's ringing her bells for the holidays.Find out why Debbi's knocked over by a Dior advertisement from 2007 - still airing, still alluring. When you visit DivaDebbi, let her know if you think Charlize Theron knocked it out of the park for Dior.Was Santa good to you? Hope you enjoy your holiday!Subscribe and never miss a thing! Disclosure/Disclaimer Statement. Makeup, beauty, skincare reviews & more! Copyright 2009-2010, Gouldylox Reviews. All Rights Reserved.

Black Sweet

Pages

Beautyland Tour: 1/1/11!

Roots Only Hair Color Applicator. Genius!

Maybelline Fit Foundation (Updated!)

Happy Holidays Everyone!

BEST of 2010 - THE MEGAPOST

Getting to Know The Beautyland Tour Guides :Jane from Daly Beauty

Voluminous Million Lashes by L'Oreal (With a Healthy Dose of Social Commentary)

TSA Friendly Travel Essentials

Post Christmas Beautyland Tour

Hard Candy Eye Def Glittering Eye Shadow

FOTD - Radiant Skin

Sally's Find! Gorgeous Shadow from Real Colors

Sephora New Ultra Vinyl Lip Pencil in Coral Glow

Dior Diorskin Crystal Nude Natural Matte Skin Perfecter

Advertisement

Popular Posts

Blog Archive