May 2012 Archives

The red carpet took a turn towards the dark side when Kristen Stewart walked it this past week. Between her mostly black ensemble and smokey eye makeup she looked more like an evil queen than innocent princess. And I have to say I likey! Best of all she paired the intense eyes with nude lips and a barely-there wash of color on her cheeks

A nail polish inspired by outer space? Yes please. Especially when it’s Orly Galaxy Girl, one of the nail polishes from the Cosmic FX Collection.

Now, this collection isn’t new—it actually launched back in Fall 2010. But the whole collection is filled with polishes that sparkle and shine, thanks to multi-dimensional flashes of color. This is thanks to Mineral FX technology, which includes specialty mica, and both crystals and glass particles.

Galaxy Girl is one of our favorites from the collection. It’s part purple, part rust, part chocolate brown and liberally filled with teal sparkle and shimmer.

And, really, doesn’t the name just make you want to be Judy Jetson?

Orly Galaxy Girl nail polish retails for $10 at beauty.com.

I recently realized I had a sensitivity to SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate) and have since been going through all the items in my beauty regimen to eliminate this pesky ingredient — you’d be surprised what you find it in. My favorite daily face scrub had SLS in it, so it had to go. This is why I tried Alba Botanica’s Hawaiian Facial Scrub. Their packaging clearly states: “100% Vegetarian. No: Animal Testing, Artificial Colors, Parabens, Phthalates, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate or Sodium Methyl Sulfate,” so I figured I was in good hands. Even though I tried it because it didn’t have that pesky SLS, I adored it for other reasons. It left my skin absolutely fresh and glowing, it wasn’t harsh and didn’t dry it out, and it smelled divine (probably due to the pineapple and papaya enzymes). Needless to say I have a keeper on my hands.

We’ve long been fans of Burt’s Bees. So when the brand launched an offshoot, the adorable Gud, that’s designed to make people feel—you guessed it—good, we simply had to check it out. And with the addition to Gud by Burt’s Bees Floral Cherrynova Body Wash to our arsenal, are we ever glad we did.

Cherry blossoms and almond milk combine to create a scent that’s refreshing, invigorating and somehow calming all at once. And did we mention it smells delicious? Plus, the formula conditions your skin, thanks to soothing chamomile.

We love the design of the bottle, too, with its bright and cheery flowers and sweet pink top. The amazing amount of lather that’s created from a small amount of the body wash upon a pouf sure doesn’t hurt, either.

This stuff sure is good. Or, should we say, gud.

Gud by Burt’s Bees Floral Cherrynova Body Wash retails for $7 at gudhappens.com.

When it comes to nail polish removers, a lot of them just don’t remove all that much or all that well. Especially when it comes to glitter polishes that tend to stick onto the nail annoyingly well! Thankfully, Sephora Collection Instant Nail Polish Remover doesn’t fall into that category.

When we first started using this remover, we were pleasantly surprised by how quickly and easily it removed polish from all 10 of our tips. The bottle comes with pre-moistened foam that you can use in place of cotton balls, though we admit we still prefer cotton balls to the foam. However, one cotton ball is enough to remove polish from all 10 nails!

Plus, the formula doesn’t strip or dry out the nails, so they look and feel healthy. AND it doesn’t smell terrible! This nail polish remover is a win all around.

Sephora Collection Instant Nail Polish Remover retails for $9.50 at sephora.com.