The weather in New York is absolutely splendid today. I am always really sensitive to the heat because I start sweating as though under a heat lamp, so these breezy interruptions are godsends.

I wanted to put up some sale notices so that no matter your location, your day could be just as breezy!

Laura Geller Cosmetics starting at $12 at Rue La La. Click for your invite!
Also on sale at Rue La La: Judith Ripka Jewelry, Prairie, Surrey, Jack Victor

Some other sales:
American Apparel (womenswear, menswear, handbags), Judith Lieber sunglasses, Hazel&Harlow Jewelry all on sale at Hautelook. Click for your invite!

Marc New York, Walter (the cutest womenswear ever!), Olivia Care body products, Blush lingerie, Yochi designs jewelry,  White Watches (white accessories) at ideeli. Click over for your invite!

Vera Wang Collection, DKNY shoes, Derek Lam, Keds, Tommy Hilfiger, Adidas for men, Diesel shoes for men at Gilt. Your invite!

Planning to get anything? Let me know!

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H&M quickened the pace from inexpensive clothing store to designer collaboration mastermind (think Madonna, Jimmy Choo, and Sonia Rykiel), to beauty brand, and now they are becoming an E-commerce presence (just wait my darlings - September is not that far away).


Though I've always said they need to have their clothes available online, their gigantic market makes me wonder at what capacity their stock will be and how often will you see sold out items online. Additionally, I'd be impressed if they offered free shipping of any sort.

But back to the matter at hand! I ventured out and got me some store brand polishes and lipglosses. I was expecting something cheap and fab, much in line with the rest of the store.

My first choice for the polish (sorry for the blurry photo) is Bella's Choice. It's a fab Tiffany's blue mixed with a little more seagreen. The polish goes on pretty smooth and doesn't really need a second, and certainly not a third coat. The other plus was the square shape of the bottle. Something about right angles on nail polish bottles makes me want to grab one of every color. Weird?

Left is with flash, right is without (how color looks in reality). I wasn't thoroughly impressed with the gloss, and didn't find it amazing enough for a review. It does what a gloss inherently is made to do. Maybe I made a faulty color selection.

The polish though was pretty good, except for the price. The polish is $5. Yeah I know I've bought plenty items that are exponentially more expensive, but this is how I look at it - a place that sells shirts from $5, shouldn't the polish be a bit cheaper? No? Maybe it's just me.

Have you tried any H&M beauty products yet?
 

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Gossiping and paparazzi shots can get you only so far. I can't be concerned with who ate where and dodged whom through which back exit. Okay I lied. When it comes in a magazine I indulge sometimes. Online though? It's strictly beauty and fashion for moi. Too much good stuff online to waste it on gossip, no? I love seeing candid shots of celebrities as their styles change before magazines get their hands on it.

Check out your girl Rihanna leaving Maestros Steakhouse with red hair. The red lip and red hair from the front evokes Jessica Rabbit to me. The extra shots of the back are a thumbs down for me, but her style is her style! I'm totally appreciating the ensemble though. From the fire engine lips, to the proper cleavage (hey man! She's on a date!), to the open shoulder mini, and the neutral pumps. The absence of heavy jewelry or accessories is also a definite win for me.

Do I have anyone with me?

What's Your Verdict?

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My honey and I have a running joke that pregnancy is as contagious as the flu. When we are at family functions he jokes about holding too many children and when we go to Babies R' Us to buy gifts for showers we kid about something being in the air. So you wouldn't find it hard to imagine that watching the BET Awards was full of storytelling between us!

Miss soon to be Mrs.Kasseem Dean (Swizz Beatz) aka Alicia Keys is Miss Baby Bump performer of the moment. She hit the stage in a minidress and high heels that I would think twice about rocking and I have no bun in this oven.

Alicia Keys rocked out to her own songs, followed by a tribute to Prince and got on top of a piano no less! If you asked me, the first dress was a bit too short for that belly, but being that she looked so darn gorgeous, I'd say this is one of those times when the preggo lady is always right!




Check out some other gals who didn't let any trimester mess with their showtime:

As promised, here are two of six NOTDs from the Zoya Flash color collection. This was during a time of my nails requiring mending so I used falsies to swatch colors. I'm loving the collection as a whole. My only qualm being that a top coat is necessary to maintain the shine. It doesn't dry matte, but it doesn't dry shiny either. Then again, almost everyone uses top coats anyhoo, so what's the problem, right?

Jancyn my favorite shade of tangerine orange. Creamy and mostly opaque in one coat, but optimally two coats are necessary. Flash on right and none on left.




Jolene is a cute bubble gum pink that is unlike any pink shade I've ever had. It's also a darn good true to bottle color match.



Do you have a favorite from the Flash collection?

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When you get a spare minute or two to wander the aisles of your drugstore (or you do it on purpose on a regular basis - I won't judge!), you might notice there are some fancy things going on in the health and beauty aisles.

My favorite change has become the new advances of press on/glue on nails. For less than $10 you have an instant manicure, which, even at your clumsiest, will last you at the least two days. I've had $20 manis that didn't make that cut!

The excitement comes from the variety of shapes and sizes in these nails (I never found it necessary to scratch my brain through my ear!), most importantly with much more short length options. The designs are getting funkier, brighter, and more original. The best one yet? Broadway Nails Fashion Diva Color changing! Fun in the sun and all business inside.

Summer is nothing without an appropriate amount of bright colors on your toes and fingers. Anyone too afraid to have a neon orange or a bold bright blue should be ashamed! The only times you may hide is on interviews. (Once you're hired, rock those neons ;)!!)

I was holding out on my Zoya swatches. The flash collection is nothing short of my dream come true.








My favorite part of the packaging

I'm rocking Jancyn on my toes as I type this, and the NOTD shots will be arriving shortly. You should grab up these colors ASAP with the Zoya Nail Polish Exchange campaign. It's like Back2MAC with nail polishes (*and a $3.50 shipping cost per bottle). Check out the details here. Hurry - it ends on June 30!

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Recently I volunteered to babysit a tot of a friend. Just as I was asking this young gentleman to do homework, he was busy using water to adhere a temporary tattoo. It took some negotiating, but don't doubt my parental guardian skills y'all, I still got him to do the work! Soon as he settled down though, I sat by the computer chuckling at the coincidences in life.

Not too long ago, at The Makeup Show New York, I came across a childhood past-time crossing over into the laps of beauty gals. Glitter body art tattoos from Glimmer Body Art.

I admit I was skeptical at first. Really? Temporary tattoos? and glitter? Disaster in the works. Wrong! I was stuck waiting in line watching how these fab tattoos applied.

Check it out:

Caught a glimpse of the temp tattoo on the artist who was doing the demos for people. This is the one that made me go hmmm - this is kinda cute!

How to, a photo journal (I was a fly on the wall as the artist applied a tattoo on a person at the show):


First you stick the stencil on the desired area on your body (ankles, wrists, necks, and forearms were popular choices). I asked if these stencils could be reused and got a doubtful answer. The stencils aren't that expensive so I'd say you could part with it after one time use.

I've confessed sins of being away from the blogging and internet world for a bit, but you will finally understand that the beauty side suffered too.

I had a holiday four pack of Stila smudge pots just waiting eagerly to be swatched and used for months, and it took the summer for me to crack open the packaging.

As you may have read previously, both the company and the smudge pots themselves are in the top ranks of my makeup standings. If this was the World Cup of Cosmetics, they wouldn't need a qualifying round. Click here to check out my tutorial with another smudge pot.

See the snow designs on the packaging? Yeah, I def got this in the winter!

I'm back on the NOTD grind! What better way to get the ball rolling than with trying new brands for MOJ?

I added some Dashing Diva polishes to my collection recently, and have been itching to show you guys.

The inaugural Dashing Diva mani comes fresh on the tails of trend reports that a light gray is the new cool color of the hot summer upon us.

Taking stock of the inventory in my closet I realized that I tend to purchase light grays at all times, so I suppose the reports are correct. Is your summer wardrobe gray friendly?

The color Milk Mauve is pretty true to color from the bottle. It's a subtle gray/blue/white mix. The left image is with flash and the right is without. The left is what the color looks like in sunlight and the right is how it looks when it gets darker.

It's really creamy and wears well. I liked that it didn't go on super thick and didn't chip for the first week (I try to change up my polish every week anyway, so it got the job done!).

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Recently, I woke up to a small lump under my arm. I knew it was an inflamed lymph node, because that's usually what happens when I get a bad cold. But I wasn't sick! I was horrified. I was already thinking a million things that could possibly be wrong. Set up a doctor's appointment pronto and started researching my deodorants. My mother scolded my bad habit of not washing off my deodorants before sleep and my thoughts were racing.

Fast forward to the doctor looking at me like a loon and telling me it was nothing, and just another way of my body getting ready for the monthly gift. Whew! (Sorry for all the extra information y'all!). But I was still stuck on researching my deodorants.

I've read often about the antiperspirants that have aluminum contents and whether or not they lead to illnesses and cancer. The information out there has no final answer on the topic, so it's not necessarily black and white. (Check out cancer.gov FAQ page on the topic here). Considering the information and my nasty habit of not washing off the deodorant at night, I figured I'd be better off finding something that tackles odor and lets my sweat be. If you must know, I sweat a lot under any inkling of heat as is, so having dry pits wouldn't help the rest of me much.

During my search in drugstores, I couldn't find too many deodorants that weren't doubling down with antiperspirant duties. The few that I found were for men and weren't available in an unscented version. So I hit the net and found a surprisingly large selection with decent prices. Here are a few:

More Aquolina...

What do you use to beat the funk and stay fresh?

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Don't give me that side eye. I'm back. Life kicked my butt, and I have finally gotten ahead of the rat race to kick it right back into gear. Thanks for being so patient with me all!

I have so many products waiting for me to give them a chance to brighten my day and I wanted to get the ball rolling with Victoria's Secret lipsticks. You can't sleep on these babies!

Following an event too many days ago, I remember asking a pretty gal what was on her lips. I thought she had Schiap from NARS but she sure as heck did not. She said the name of the brand and I could swear that was the secret Victoria had been hiding. The shades and the cream consistency of these lipsticks is a bit awe inspiring.