Our favorite haven of products, cosmetics, and more has come with the Boom Boom Pow for 2009. No kidding.

With their opening of the new Times Square location in NYC, came a plethora of brand partnerships. So many that one is left to stand in a corner and try their best to contain their excitement.

These partnerships and/or contract acquisitions are nowhere near as "average" as when your local drugstore agrees to carry Snickers (although that to me is serious business too). No - these are products and companies that all have significant weight, or carry products instrumental to our product addiction advancement.

In no particular order, I bring to you:

Lauren Luke, also know to many YouTube fans as Panacea- one of the few well known makeup tutorial gurus now has her own line of makeup. She put together several crafty palettes for customers & she created tutorials to go with the palettes as well.

While I have yet to try out the palettes, I am head over heels in love with the packaging. It is too cute - with pink post-it like notes with her quotes. I also love that this is basically a backroom kind of business. There were no credit investors and all of LVMH involved - just lil' ole' Lauren. Don't get me wrong - I realize plenty a business meeting went into this, but I see this as the equivalence of MySpace changing around the way music artists got signed - a lot less middleman interaction.

Check out the Sephora product page here and her tutorials here!


Illamasqua is a UK brand who, to ladies across the pond, doesn't need an introduction. To me? I heard murmurs and whispers, but it took all of Sephora to educate me.

According to their motto, Illamasqua is a makeup brand for your alter ego, and it comes in a large array of bright shades from your cheeks to your nails.

Check out their Sephora product page here, and my introduction post about them here!



Curly girls in the house rejoice!

I don't know if I've educated you on my curls, but here we go again. I got ringlets. I got frizz. I got it all and I love it.

When I was little I used to look at girls with straight hair and I would fill up with envy. Why did I have to wear braids (which by the way - my grandfather did for me) to keep my hair tame, and these girls could mimic hair commercials? I was a hater.

With the tough love that is legendary in the Yaya household, my mother always told me if I didn't like my hair, she could easily shave it off for me. That surely was traumatic at times. But then one day - I used gel. And another - frizz serum. The list went on, and I was never the same. Now I smile when people tell me how lucky to have such curly hair, I laugh when they ask me if I get it chemically curled, and I smirk when they tell me to straighten it.

Ouidad (who I always thought was pronounced Oooh-weeee-dad) is as kind to curly hair as I am to mine now that I'm older and wiser. Except now - I can get my Sephora Beauty Insider points to reward my curly kindness.

Check out their Sephora product page here.

Bringing everything to your house, begins with flawless beauty. You no longer need to worry about spotty foundation or concealer. Or bronzer or anything!

Take the airbrush system into your diva home-quarters - and yes, the price is hefty, but the amount of uses and the end result you'll get far outweighs all costs.

Check out their Sephora product page here.


Now this is the one that I'm pinching pennies for y'all! I'm brown bagging it for days until I get this bad boy in my house and in my embrace!

Excited much? Yes! Who doesn't want to free themselves of all the creams, razors, and wax appointments? To go beyond to do laser hair removal will have me eating peanuts for days and I don't know if I can do it like the elephants can.

And do you know how often my smooth legs can walk into the Loboutin store post Silk'n SensEpil purchase and buy me some red soles for my soul?

Check out their Sephora product page here.