Nadine Jolie and My New Years Resolution

In one of my favorite classes at FIDM this quarter, I have had the pleasure to meet Nadine Jolie, 'grandmother of beauty blogging,' ex Lucky and Ladies Home Journal beauty editor, now turned author of two best selling books: Beauty Confidential: The No Preaching, No Lies, Advice-You'll-Actually-Use-Guide to Looking Your Best and Confessions of a Beauty Addict She was so personable, and offered such helpful advice from surviving our student days to blogging to insides of the industry. I felt motivated and synonym for inspired to really take my blog to the next step.


Nadine Jolie gave me the idea for my one and only New Year's resolution: I will blog about beauty news, useful tips, personal experiences, and all things beauty as often as I can. To be specific, 7 days a week, 5 minimum. I also have a new domain you can reach my blog on http://beautyforthought.com/.
I can't tell you how excited I am to take my blog to the next level at its new home. This move to my own domain has been highly anticipated - I kid you not it is last thing I think about before going to sleep and the first thing I think about when waking up these past couple weeks. I'm amped to get started and motivated to put forth my efforts into maintaining a great blog filled with fun and useful tips for all fellow beauty junkies.


I’m always on the look out for ways to improve my blog, so I encourage you to give me feedback. If there is anything you would like to see on my blog, I’m completely open to suggestions. Have a question about something? Ask me. If I don’t know, then I’ll find a way to get in touch with someone who does. You can also catch me on Twitter, follow me - http://twitter.com/Beauty4thought. After the new year I will be blogging much more frequently and if anybody wants to keep me in check be my guest.=)
Happy New Year everyone! Have fun and stay safe!



“May each day of the New Year bring happiness, good cheer and sweet surprises to you and all your dear ones. Happy New Year!”

Meeting Elizabeth Grant at FIDM

At a meeting for FIDM's prestige beauty circle, I've had the pleasure of listening to Elizabeth Grant tell her remarkable story. Elizabeth spoke to us about her inpsiration behind her brand and her passion for success. Elizabeth was a make up artist and has notably done makeup for Vivian Leigh and many others. During the final days of World War II, Elizabeth's face was damaged by a rocket that left her scarred for what she thought to be forever.

On a random visit to the doctors office, she came accross an open medical journal. On the page she read about an ingredient called torricelumn. This ingredient was still in its experimental stages.The doctor walked in an saw that she was writing down what she saw. He quickly took the book from her and told her she had no business reading medical journals. Luckily, that book was open to that page at the exact time of her appointment, with just enough time for her to jot down the ingredient information. Soon after with hopes of healing her facial scars, Elizabeth had a chemist formulate a solution with the torricelumn. The rest is history, and the start of Elizabeth Grant Cosmetics.


You can hear Elizabeth's passion in her voice. Elizabeth pressed on with her line because she knew she had something great. Elizabeth was the first person to formulate skincare products as a serum. Just after creating the torricelumn serum, Elizabeth marched up to Selfridges one of the largest department stores in Britain determined to get them to sell her product. Soon after, she had two front and center window merchandising displays reserved especially for her. Mind you she did this on a whim and without a business card!

We received cute little gold makeup bags filled with Elizabeth Grant skin care products including the famous torricelumn serum. I very much appreciated Elizabeth Grant coming to speak to us, she was incredibly inspiring and her story was enlightening. Hearing strong beauty figures tell their stories is a reminder that success is within an arms reach. Elizabeth left us with a piece of advice to all women in the beauty industry, "Never take a simple no for an answer."

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas everyone!

I just wanted to share with you the great gifts I got for Christmas that I am just dying to try!

My lovely family got me the Sephora Collector's Edition palette, and seriously it's HUGE. I'll definitely be using this for my night's out.

I also got a customized MAC Color Palette, it's a shadow quad. I can't wait to see how they look on me!


Sephora's facebook fan page is buzzing with what everyone on Facebook has gotten for Christmas from Sephora. If you've gotten something super cool from Sephora, post on the Sephora Facebook fan page!

Happy Holidays everyone, stay safe!

RAW Natural Beauty - Lipstick Lover

If you haven't tried RAW Natural Beauty yet, you need to hop on it because it's the next best thing since sliced bread. People are increasingly becoming more informed about the things we put on our body and how it affects us, and I can honestly say I've started to really question the safety of the cosmetics and personal care products I use everyday. I just had a presentation today on the dangerous effects of Benzoyl Peroxide, (another story for another day) and it just goes to show you have to pay more attention to the products you come into contact with. RAW Natural Beauty has launched a sassy video of a woman getting all dolled up for her date, and suddenly starts to eat her lipstick. It's so disturbingly interesting you can't look away.

LUSH Cosmetic Warrior Facial Mask

A few weeks ago my good friend Keshiia and I visited the LUSH store at the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica for a lovely shopping date. I jetted over to the facial masks that were comfortably sitting in bowls beneath ice. They looked more like dressings in a salad bar than face masks that claim to help your skin. A LUSH employee approached me and talked with me about my skin and what I was looking for. I have oily acne prone skin, so she recommended the Cupcake Face Mask or The Cosmetic Warrior for me. I decided to go with the Cosmetic Warrior. Why you ask? Well the Cupcake Face mask really seemed to sweet for me, even though I knew I wasn’t going to eat it, I don’t want to put something so sweet smelling on my face when it’s claiming to help my face, but hey that’s just me. I’ve never really been one to have a sweet tooth, I prefer salty foods and I usually crave that more.

The Cosmetic Warrior is a face mask that combats spots, cleanse dirt and calm and soothe all troubled skins. The ingredients are fresh garlic which is an antiseptic, tee tea essential oil which is an anti bacterial, kaolin which is the bulk of the mask that draws out impurities, honey is a humectants which helps aids in keeping moisture in skin, free range eggs helps tighten pores, and fresh grapes that help reinforce cleansing.

I apply this mask on at night for ten minutes, and it’s so fun to put on. I feel like a little kid again spreading homemade skin and hair care recipes because my parents didn’t want to buy me anything expensive. Since I’ve experimented with foods for my beauty regimen as a child, I had no problem applying this mask from fear of looking or smelling gross when using it. I’ve used my mask for 6 applications, though they say it lasts for 5. I’ve kept it in the fridge as instructed since it contains fresh ingredients, it must be kept refrigerated, and unlike most skin care products it has an expiration date. I have noticed that since I’ve used this mask my face has not broken out, and is much softer and less inflamed. I’m excited for my next purchase because I will be re-buying!

I first discovered LUSH when I was 15, I was shopping around and stumbled upon its San Francisco location on Powell Street (the first LUSH location ever in North America) and feel in love with the products because they were so fun to learn about and play with. I remember poking fun at their shower jellies and watching them jiggle while thinking to myself, ‘who would use these to shower with?! It’s like Jell-O!’ Their products are so creative and fun, every time you walk into one of their stores it’s like watching into the Exploratorium, you’re expecting to me amused. If you haven’t experienced LUSH, you need to get yourself into your nearest store, and I promise your curiosity will get the best of you.

Go to School and get Rewarded! Stila Lip Glaze

We all know there are just some days we do not want to get out of bed for anyone or anything especially work or school. There usually isn’t an additional incentive to showing up beyond getting paid or getting schooled, but fortunately for one of my classes last quarter we held a raffle for people who had perfect attendance. We all were really eager to see who would win the luck of the draw because we knew the prize was full of amazing products. Can you guess who won? =)

I was really excited when I got a little gift bag of filled with products just begging for me to try, but there was one item that I’ve grown really attached to these past few weeks – Stila’s Lip Glaze in Strawberry. It has become a staple in my makeup bag this season and I think I’ll use it to the last drop!

I love this lip gloss, it’s a translucent red that has medium thick thin consistency to it. It smells amazing, I usually don’t like lip glosses with a strong fragrance but this one is definitely okay in my book. This color may look intimidating in the tube, but the coverage is sheer and it gives your lips an effortless pop of color without looking overdone. I like wearing it for a day time look since it’s not too offensive at 8:00am when I leave my apartment.


You can find Stila at many retailers; 22$ at Sephora.com

Fall Trend: Plum Lips Maybelline Color Sensational

This year, plum isn't just a color for your favorite cozy sweater. Its the new trend in lip color and can be found in just about every beauty magazine. I absolutely love the look - its bold, daring, and unconventional. It gives an instant 'punch of attitude' once applied which can definitely attract double looks!


Maybelline New York has a huge marketing campaign going on right now for their new Color Sensational Lipsticks shown in tv commercials with that unmistakable tune "At Last" that you recognize while looking in your fridge 50ft away from your tv screen, and print ads that flood beauty and lifestyle magazines. Well Maybelline's major efforts certainly paid off, they were the first brand I thought of when shopping for a new lipstick. I bought their Color Sensational Lip color in 435 Plum Perfect a few weeks ago, and it was well worth it as it is my new current obsession. It glides on smoothly and the color lasts without fading. I'm really impressed with that packaging, its so sophistocated you would never know that paid under $10.00 for it!


When I apply this lipstick I use a lip pencil in a color similar to the natural color of my lips to prevent color bleeding, and I apply the with a lip brush. I then blot with a paper towel and reapply the lip color once more to allow the color to stain. This minimizes color transfer to things your lip comes in contact with, and keeps your color lasting longer.


Check out this website to read about Plum as the new lip color trend.
http://fashionista101.com/home/2009/10/19/fall-2009-beauty-plum-lips/