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I'm Alicia, beauty is my love, sensitive skin & allergies are my specialty. Click: ABOUT for more infoThe Finest Labels
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Tag Archives: beauty
Breaking Down the Beauty Sample Box Craze
Hey Rosés,
Image via Getty
Beauty junkies around the world rejoiced when companies and services popped up selling luxury beauty, body and lifestyle samples. With most of them starting as rewards programs or members-only sites, the subscription sample box craze has blown up from the most generic to offering customized solutions.
Sample boxes are a great way to discover new products, get travel-sized editions of your favorite products, and as I have recently experienced, excellent gift ideas. Most of these sites have great rewards and brand ambassador programs where you can accrue points for free gifts and discounted full-sized products.
L to R: Birchbox, Conscious Box, Crave Box
After meeting the founders of Birchbox, I was an early adopter of their monthly subscription service and continue to write reviews of their products for the sensitive skin and allergy crew. See January, February, and March.
There are new subscription services popping up every week, so find out which sample box works for your beauty and lifestyle needs:
(in alphabetical order – no preferences or endorsements here!)
Beauty Box 5
- Breakdown: This company made a splash at the 2012 SXSW’s StyleX conference with their Tiffany blue boxes
- Price: $12/monthly $30/quarterly $100 yearly
- Products: Feature great local and international brands like Weleda, LA Fresh, and Supergoop
Birchbox
- Breakdown: Founded by two Harvard MBAs, one of the original beauty sample subscriptions features product customization and a full destination site for videos and tips.
- Price: $10/month
- Products: Luxury and mainstream brands include Ahava, Essie, Stila, Nars, Origins
Conscious Box
- Breakdown: Environmentally conscious products from organic to vegan, including beauty, lifestyle and food.
- Price: $12/monthly + $7 shipping, $33/quarterly + $7 shipping, $64/yearly + $7 shipping
- Products: VerMints, Kind Bars, Honest Kids Tea, organic candles, natural lip balm
Crave Box
- Breakdown: Recently launched, goes beyond beauty to include items for hobbies, pets and home. They offer subscription boxes and limited editions that can be won.
- Price: $10/monthly
- Products: NYX mascara, Puristics eye treatment, Mercy recovery drinks
Curlbox
- Breakdown: The ultimate box for all things curly and natural hair. Packed with samples and full collections from mainstream and independent brands for all types of ethnic and curly hair.
- Price: $20/monthly
- Products: Hair Rules, Ouidad, Shea Moisture, Karen’s Body Beautiful
Glossybox USA
- Breakdown: This British sensation is set to launch soon in the U.S.
- Price: TBA
- Products: Global brands include Dermalogica, Chloé, Clarins, Bobbi Brown
The Look Bag
www.thelookstore.com/thelookbag
- Breakdown: Online beauty shop TheLookStore.com partnered with celebrity beauty therapist Damone Roberts to bring customized picks. The Look Bag subscribers also receive 20% off The Look Store’s shop.
- Price: $10/month
- Products: Top picks from Damone Roberts include Cattiva, S.S. Soap, Frownies
Sample Society
www.beautybar.com/samplesociety
- Breakdown: Recently launched venture between beautybar.com and Allure Magazine
- Price: $15/month
- Products: 5 deluxe-sized samples from beauty brands like Murad, Stila, and Oscar de la Renta fragrance. Includes 1-year Allure subscription.
What are your favorite beauty sample subscription services?
Taste the beautiful life ~ Alicia
Posted in Body, Face, Hair
Tagged ahava, allure, beauty, beauty box, beauty box five, beautybar.com, birchbox, bobbi brown, cattiva, chloe, clarins, conscious box, crave box, curlbox, curly hair, damone roberts, dermalogica, eco friendly, essie, ethnic hair, frownies, glossybox, hair rules, harvard, hobbies, honest kids tea, karens body beautiful, kind bars, la fresh, mercy, murad, nars, natural hair, nyx, organic, orgins, oscar de la renta, ouidad, puristics, sample box, sample society, shea moisture, ss soap, stila, stylex, subsciption, supergoop, sxsw, the look bag, the look store, vegan, vermints, weleda
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OCC Makeup Spring/Summer 2012 Collection
Hey Rosés,
Model Phylicia Jones showcases the new Garden Party collection
Last Friday, I attended the Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics (OCC) Spring/Summer 2012 collection launch party at their studio in the Lower East Side. This vegan and cruelty-free brand revealed a new flower and fruit inspired highly pigmented collection called “The Garden Party.” It includes 6 new lip tars, 6 new loose eye shadows, and 6 new nail polishes. The color spectrum ranges from pink florals, leafy greens, and citrus oranges.
My new spring favorites (L to R):
Demure (berry-toned fuschia), Pennyroyal (darkest peach neutral), Memento (plum-toned pink)
Lip Tar is OCC’s infamous best selling liquid lipstick, pretty much magic in a tube! The ultra-saturated lip color has the longevity of a lipstick and moisture of a lip gloss. With just a small bead-size squeeze, you can wear as is for a lightweight opaque look, or blend with other colors to create a customized hue. The all-natural formula is great for sensitive skin, and even hours later and after eating it maintains moisture and color with soothing peppermint oil, vitamin E, and hemp oil.
Check out the new “Garden Party” collection and pics from the event:
The collection: S/S 2012 The Garden Party
New Lip Tar fomThe Garden Party collection: Ophelia and Digitalis
BabyCakes NYC vegan cupcakes to match OCC’s vegan makeup!
Believe the hype and have your own Garden Party this spring! Stop by the store to try before you buy, even though every color is great and can be mixed to perfection…
Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics
174 Ludlow Street
New York, NY
www.occmakeup.com
What is your favorite OCC lip tar color?
Taste the beautiful life ~ Alicia
Posted in Face
Tagged all natural, babycakes nyc, beauty, cruelty free, cupcakes, demure, events, eye shadow, foundation, garden party, green, launch party, lip gloss, lip tar, lipstick, loose powder, makeup, makeup brushes, memento, nail polish, obsessive compulsive cosmetics, occ makeup, orange, pennyroyal, peppermint oil, pink, sensitive skin, store, vegan
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March Madness: Final Four Beauty Looks
Hey Rosés,
If you’re like me, you’ve spent the month of March MAD! MAD for Mad Men’s triumphant season 5 return, and MAD for the March Madness twists and turns! (Or just plain MAD your guy spent more time with basketball than you – hmph!) The annual NCAA College Basketball tournament starts with 68 teams and narrows down to the Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, and coming up next, the Final Four. Out of these four teams only two will go on to play in the championship game, ultimately winning the “Big Dance” this Monday April 2nd.
“Love & Basketball” movie cover – so not relevant, but I had to pay homage in a basketball post!
Inspired by the upsets (sorry Duke!) and Cinderella stories (go Ohio!) this year, I want to arm you with a Cinderella look (not upset look!) to show your team spirit during the games this weekend. Check out these inspirations from the colors of the Final Four teams…pure MADNESS!!
(or at least enjoy the mancandy in the pics below!)
Kentucky vs. Louisville
Ginger + Liz in Chase Me
Purchase: $12 gingerandliz.com
Get Kentucky Wildcat cerulean blue nails. This formula is free of toluene, formaldehyde, DBP.
Dior Addict Lipstick in Rock n Roll
Purchase: $30 bloomingdales.com
Get a Louisville Cardinal red colored vibrant creamy lipstick.
Kansas vs. Ohio State
Urban Decay Eye Shadow in Radium
Purchase: $18 sephora.com
Get royal blue eyes Kansas Jayhawk style from Urban Decay’s new richer formula.
NARS Blush in Exhibit A
Purchase: $28 sephora.com
Cheer every 3-pointer with this matte vivid red Ohio State Buckeye blush.
Who are you rooting for this weekend?
Taste the beautiful life ~ Alicia
Posted in Body, Face
Tagged basketball, beauty, blue, blush, cerulean, chase me, dbp free, dior addict, exhibit a, eye shadow, final four, formaldehyde free, ginger + liz, ginger and liz, kansas, lipstick, louisville, makeup, march madness, nail polish, nars, ncaa, ohio state, radium, red blush, red lipstick, rock n roll, royal blue, toluene free, urban decay
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Beauty News: Sephora Releases Summer 2012 Tangerine Tango Pantone Collection
Hey Rosés,
Today Sephora released it’s orange bright summer collaboration with Pantone Color: Summer 2012 Tangerine Tango Pantone Collection. Color swatch company, Pantone, named the orange-coral color Tangerine Tango its 2012 color of the year.
Solange Knowles wears Lancome Rouge in Love lipstick in MissCoquelicot, $25, at Sephora
Clockwise: Cover dress: Cynthia Rowley; Orange Cardigan: Uniqlo, Swing Skirt: H&M, Orange patterned trench: DVF
Images via TimeOut NY
Last week singer/actress/model/DJ/fashion extraordinaire Solange Knowles splashed the cover of TimeOut NY Magazine in full orange tangerine. What I love most about her spread is the flawless execution of mixing and matching tangerine clothing and beauty. Bright orange tangerine lips can be hard to pull off for any skin tone…
…Enter the Sephora + Pantone collection, great for all skin tones: deep, medium and fair. They have warmer and cooler hues of the orange sensation. There is a wide range of products from lipstick, powders, eye liners, false eye lashes, and nail polish.
Sephora.com even equips you with a shade matching tool so you can pick the best tangerine shades for your skin tone. Be daring, take a leap with Tangerine Tango this summer!
What is your favorite tangerine look?
Taste the beautiful life ~ Alicia
*All Images via Sephora except where noted
Posted in Face, Series
Tagged beauty, beauty news, celebrity, color, eye lashes, eye liner, fashion, lancome, lipgloss, lipstick, makeup, nail polish, orange, pantone, powder, sephora, solange knowles, summer 2012, summer collection, tangerine, tangerine tango, timeout ny
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Spring Clean Your Make-Up Drawer
Hey Rosés,
NARS Spring 2012 and Marc Jacobs Spring 2012
Today is the Spring Equinox, which means pastels and color blocking are officially back! Yet also means it’s time for the dreaded spring cleaning. This season while you’re cleaning those dust bunnies behind the bed and donating those clothes you haven’t worn in two years, make sure you give your beauty drawer a thorough overhaul. Not only will you protect your skin from expired and tainted ingredients, you’ll have more room for the new bright and refreshing spring color palettes!
Here are some tips on how to kick off your make-up spring cleaning:
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Dump Products Every 3-6-12 Months
Every beauty product expires and has a limited shelf-life, regardless of its ingredients or when you open it. Unless it has an explicit expiration date, once any item with natural or synthetic ingredients is opened, it should be used or disposed of within three and no more than twelve months. I use the seasons or fiscal quarters as a reminder to throw out my mascaras and lipsticks, the products that capture the most bacteria and can cause infections like pink-eye. Remember, “all-natural” and “organic” products expire faster due to less preservatives.
Below is a quick guide on when to toss your make-up:
Toss Every 3 Months
Mascara
Toss Every 6 Months
Foundation – Liquid & Cream
Concealer
Body Wash & Lotion
Facial Wash & Lotion
Toss Every 12 Months
Pressed Powder
Eye Shadow
Lipstick/Lipgloss
Pencils – Eye & Lip
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Wash Your Tools Weekly
Whether it’s a broom, sponge or a make-up brush, start your spring cleaning off right with clean tools. I wash my natural and synthetic make-up brushes every week with a make-up brush cleanser. It keeps the bristles in prime condition and disinfects any residue and old color-distorting product.
Use an easy spray like Ulta Professional Brush & Sponge Cleaner $10 on ulta.com
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How do you remember to update your makeup?
Taste the beautiful life ~ Alicia
Posted in Face
Tagged bacteria, beauty, brush cleaner, concealer, expiration, eye liner, eye shadw, face wash, first day of spring, foundation, lip gloss, lip pencil, lipstick, lotion, make up, marc jacobs, mascara, nars, recommendation, shelf life, spring 2012, spring cleaning, spring equinox, ulta
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