Glitterize your New Year's Eve!

Welcome to my new and improved blog site! Thanks to my lovely big sister, we spruced things up a little bit to give the site a new look for the new year!

Speaking of the new year, December went by in the blink of an eye. New Year's Eve is one of my favorite holidays because it's a good time to reflect on the year that passed and look forward to new beginnings.

This is also one of my favorite holidays because it's one of the only and most appropriate times I get to wear GLITTER! I know this blog is a little last minute but I hope to provide some last minute inspiration for you ladies!

NAILS

I'm really loving this new line of nail polishes at Sephora called Formula X.  I bought a set of them a while back and just love them. While individual bottles are $12.50, these glittered polishes are good for special occasions and a one time splurge.

Light My Fire is the perfect way to bling out those fingers for your holiday party!

Light My Fire- Formula X $12.50

If you're looking for a cheaper nail polish that's just as glittery and fun, try Hors d'oeuvres by Essie. This bottle is $8.50 and you can get it at Ulta or online on the Essie website. This is currently what's on my nails for the holidays and the mix of silver and gold is too cute.

Hors d'oeuvres- Essie $8.50

EYES

Pinterest has some of the prettiest makeup ideas for the holidays and here are two of my favorite looks for New Years. 

 This look includes a set of fake lashes, black liquid liner, a pinky eyeshadow to contour the crease of the lid and lots of gold glitter. 

There are a few options to set loose glitter on your eyelids:

• Using eyeshadow primer all over lid- Wait 15 seconds-Take an eyeshadow brush and pat loose glitter all over lid.
• Use a cream based eyeshadow of your choice and pat it on. While it's still wet, take your loose glitter with your eyeshadow brush and pat over lid. 
• Use eyelash glue and pat over lid before it gets tacky. Wait a few seconds and pat brush with loose glitter on lid. Just an FYI your bursh may get some glue on it so wash your brush under warm water with soap before it dries. 

To recreate this look you'll need a steady hand, liquid liner, and glitter liner. First create a cat eye effect with your liner. Once that's dry, use your glitter liner to trace above the outer corner of the black liquid liner and then use the glitter liner right under your lower lashes from the tear drop to the corner of your eye.

PRODUCTS

Since I love glitter so much, I've collected products over the use that I use for fun holidays like New Year's Eve, St. Patty's Day or Halloween. Here are a couple products I recommend.

Heavy Metal Glitter Liner by Urban Decay ($19) I have this in Spandex. I like this color cause I can put it on top of black liner without it being too loud and it's just a subtle look of glitter. This stuff stays on all day and is really pretty. The brush is tiny and makes it easy to apply. You can add as little or as much glitter as you like and it's just awesome. It comes in pink, turquoise gold purple and iridescent.This product is the perfect product to achieve the look above.

Glitter liner in "SPANDEX"

Glitter by M.A.C. ($21)

I love, love, loose glitter! It's great because you can create your own nail polish with it and use it to re-create some of the eyeshadow looks above. You can pick-up loose glitter at pretty much any drug store or beauty store around. The reason I mention M.A.C.'s is because I've literally had my loose Gold glitter from this line for above 5 years without as much of a dent in it. It'll probably last me the rest of my life because the glitter is so fine that a little goes a long way.

Glitter in "GOLD"

I hope I was able to spark your make-up creativity for not only New Year's Eve/Day but for the new year to come. Wishing you all a happy, healthy, and safe 2014!!!

Keep Calm and Treat Yourself to Makeup

At the end of every year for anyone usually it's a stressful time with holidays, family visits, parties to attend and money to spend on gifts. It's rough.

For me, work is at it's busiest from September through February every single year I've been with my company. This year we have the biggest billing disaster I've experienced with my company and it's been enough stress to have me take a month off. In lieu of these stressful times in and out of work, I've been trying to work on things to help keep me sane.

I read an article a few years back that when the economy went to crap back in 2008/2009 that sales of makeup went up. In particular, makeup sales went up.

 

While finding a way to stay sane during these difficult times and year end madness, I've come to find that besides yoga and running, makeup has been some sort of relaxing release for me.

For about 2 months now, I've been waking up just a touch earlier every morning to fix my hair and makeup every day before work. They say you should "Dress for Success" and I'm a firm believer in that. Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.

I really enjoy putting makeup on every day cause it's a great form of artistic expression. When I catch myself in the mirror even when work is hard, if I see my makeup looks nice I somehow automatically feel better. It may sound silly but I'll even take a second to touch up my makeup throughout the day just to have some personal time to be artistic. Having my degree in Studio Art makes it hard to be inspired by day to day responsibilities and in finding a minute or two a day to do something I love, whether that's make-up, painting, or painting my nails seems to always be what makes me happy. 

My Grandma just recently passed away at 89 years old and she was still getting her hair done, drawing her eyebrows in and getting her acrylic nails done the entire time. These are the things that made her happy, the things that made her feel pretty. 

At the end of the day it's about finding what makes you smile, what keeps you calm and what keeps you happy. As long as you never give up on the little things that do that for you, you're golden. 

Life is too short not to do what makes you happy. 

Dedicated to my Grandma Antoinette Marie Scarpaci.

Beauty & Change

I've been thinking a lot lately about change in general but what about when it comes to beauty and change? Not only do trends, styles, recommendations, treatments and technology change but so does your skin.

As I've gotten older I've really tried to do my best to take care of my skin better by doing the following:

• Limiting my alcohol intake weekly.
• Exercising regularly.
• Sunscreen.
• Moisturizing. 
• Exfoliating.
• Cleansing.

Even doing the above on a regular basis can't prevent age from taking it's course. Sooner or later our eyebrows & lips are going to thin, our eyelids are going to be droopier, laugh lines will start to appear. Most of us average income women won't be dishing out money for botox, lip injections, nose jobs and face lifts unless we're wealthy so how do we deal with the ever changing reflection in the mirror?

This is definitely something I've contemplated. I know it sounds vein but I think all women deal with this at some point. I don't want my eyebrows to thin. I already have thin lips so will they just disappear? I've come to terms with my Italian nose so that's not an issue but I don't want my jowls to hang or to look in the mirror and see an older version of myself.

I've never been a huge fan of plastic surgery and how it looks on people. I think it looks unnatural and it's almost too obvious looking rather than just seeing a regular person and thinking "oh hey, that's an old woman."  But the pressure celebrities have to look young seems far more extreme than people not in that type of limelight or situation. They are in a category all by themselves when it comes down to it.

All in all the topic puzzles me. While it might sound crazy to you, having been educated in skincare at one of my prior jobs, I've really taken notice of my skin over the years. I've paid attention to how the skin on my body has changed, my face has changed and how it reacts to different things. It's really fascinating to me how certain things effect our bodies so much but I think having been in the skincare industry has made what goes on with our skin more noticeable to me.

What worked for me in my early 20's makeup wise does not work so well on me anymore. The products I was able to use then, I have far outgrown and the products I use now I'll outgrow eventually as well. Time is fascinating isn't it?

All we can do is embrace the skin we have been given and do our best to take care of it. We all need to remember that we are given wrinkles as a reminder of the life we have lived. I want to make sure I have laugh lines versus frown lines. If my lips thin, well I still got a bright smile. At the end of my life it won't matter because it's the life I put in my years that matter more than the lines that life puts on my face.

The irony of this blog I'm writing is I just happened to read another blog similar to it today from a different woman's perspective on aging.  She titled the article "Making Friends with my Wrinkles" and I really appreciated her side of things. She has the right attitude. She doesn't want plastic surgery and she's getting older. She debates her options and her attitudes from this point in her life. What does she do, you ask? She decides to accept her ever changing skin.

Really at the end of the day, this is all any of us can do. When you look in the mirror everyday remind yourself of how lucky you are for another day to conquer this life and that change is an inevitable part of it.

Thanks for reading!!!!

Fall 2013 New Nail Trends

As I was writing my Fall 2013 Beauty Trends blog I realized that a lot of fun new looks with nails was also big with the changing season so I decided to write a whole separate blog on some of the cool new looks on the horizon.

Hints of Black

I'm really feeling the nail trends on the runways lately. I was on the black nail polish train when black nails became big in 2007-2008 but coincidentally had dyed my hair black around the same time so people used to tell me I looked goth and shortly after I got over the black nail polish trend. Ha! Ha!

 I like the new idea of having subtle hints of black on your nails and think the "half moon" nail polish look is really neat. Check out this quick and easy tutorial I found on youtube to give this trend a try at home! DIY Half Moon Nails Tutorial 

3D Effects

I think ever since nail stickers became a huge seller on the market and started selling like mad, beauty companies since have been less afraid to try and create even more fun nail products for women to experiment at home. I know for me, I don't like to dish out money on my nails very often because it seems kind of wasteful. I am a creative person at heart and why not do it for myself at home. As time goes on there are more and more options for people to try fun looks like these at home.

Pick up some rhinestones at Walgreens. Pinterest different DIY nail art. Cut some lace and lay it on your wet nail! Have fun with it! 

Metallic

Silver nail polishes with purple undertones seem to be a popular choice of color recently as well as gold and dark silver colors. Check out some of the types of metallic nail colors trending now.

OPI Nail Lacquer in Peace, Love, and OPI, $6.95

Orly Nail Lacquer in Angel Rain, $4.99

Topshop Nails in Aurora $10

Essie Nail Polish in For the Twill of It, $8

  Oxblood Red

Oxblood red will eternally be a staple color for the Fall when it comes to nail polish colors. It's just so pretty. Below are a couple of my favorite colors by Essie and OPI.

OPI Lost on Lombard $9

Essie in Sole Mate $8

Essie in Bordeaux$8

 Thanks for checking out my blog! Hope you enjoyed checking out the latest in nail trends!

Fall 2013 Beauty Trends

A new season is slowly but surely creeping upon us and soon Summer will change to Fall. While it's bittersweet, it is always fun to switch up looks with the seasons and Fall is one of my favorite beauty seasons for a change!

Matte Manis

These are fun and I've done these a lot in the last year. Grab a bottle of your favorite nail polish and mattify it using a matte top coat that you can buy at your local beauty stores. The one I use and love is Essie's "Matte About You". I've previously blogged about this trend and it's totally fun and easy. The matte top coat seems to dry must faster than a regular top coat.

 Bushy Brows

This season get ready to put your tweezers down and cancel your waxing appoitments. Bushy brows are in! If you had told me this when I was 14 I would have felt much better about my huge caterpillar eyebrows. Ha!

The way to help achieve this look even if you have thinner brows is to fill them in with eyebrow powder for a more subtle look or an eyebrow pencil for a bolder look.

Here are some of my favorite products to help you achieve this look:

• Too Faced Brow Envy Brow Shaping & Defining Kit $35.00
• MAC Eyebrow Pencil $16.00
• Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Powder Duo $23.00

 Bold Lips

 
Bold lips is another trend for this Fall. Orange, brown, plum and ox blood red seem to be the top four color choices when it comes to lipsticks this season.

Here are a few lipsticks I'd choose for trying out these looks:

• NARS Afghan Red Satin Lipstick $26.00
• NARS 413 BLKR Semi Matte $26.00
• Shiseido Day Lily Perfect Rouge $25.00

 Low Ponytails 

 This is a sigh of relief when it comes to hair trends this fall. I refuse to spend more than 10 minutes on my hair on a work morning and a low messy ponytail will be a fun go to. For New York Fashion week this year, this look was seen a lot of the runways with parts down the middle and side swept bangs. Secure an elastic band at the base of your neck and take a teaser come to it or curl the ends to give it your own flare!

Enjoy trying something new this Fall with your beauty look! Hope you had fun reading!

GUEST SPOTLIGHT: My Darling Chic Sissy

For those of you who don't know me on a personal level I have an older sister named Corie. We are 2 1/2 years apart in age and growing up we were always pretty close. I remember just always wanting to be just like her as kids. I always wanted to dress like her, act like her, do what she was doing. However, I did notice the older we were both getting the more we had different interests, different style and different goals.

When I was a freshman in high school she was a senior. She always had this thick, gorgeous hair that I never had. Whether she knows it or not she had really developed confidence within herself by the age of 17 and I remember being envious of that. The early years in high school for me were totally uncomfortable and awkward. I had a hard time figuring myself out and who I wanted to be at that age but I remember thinking, "Man, Corie has it together!" And I admired that in her. She was a tough chick and already braver than she knew.

The years went fast but now that Corie and I are adults we have both developed our very own individual styles. I really enjoy when we get together because I'll share beauty tips with her while she is always a huge help in putting the perfect outfit together. Being sisters we're always VERY honest with each other so it helps to have someone like her to turn to!!

Corie has always been huge into fashion, shoes and trends. She has a knack for it and always looks awesome! Last summer her and I finally had the idea that we should start our own website called "Darling Chic" We started to add both her fashion blogs to it and tie in my beauty blogs. We have both have had talks of starting our own business together or something so we could incorporate this passion of ours. Check out our website and "Like" us on Facebook at Darling Chic.

However, Darling Chic has been put on hold for just a little bit. My sister was offered an amazing position this year to work in Switzerland for 2 years. When the news struck, the feeling of it was the exact definition of bittersweet. My sister has always had the dream to live in Europe and she is now living that dream with her wonderfully supportive husband by her side.While it stinks to not have her home, knowing she is happy and making it happen for herself is more than enough to make me so so so happy for her.

They say you should surround yourself with people who inspire you and she is one of them. So here's a shout out to my beautiful sister. Thanks for the constant inspiration. Love, love, love you!

NORMAL/COMBINATION SKIN: My Summer Skincare Regime

Another summer is coming and going way to fast of course and as I continue to battle my ever changing skin I figured I'd write a review of the new products I'm using and trying for the summer.

Skincare experts say not to use the same moisturizers in the Winter as you do in the Summer because your skin changes with the climate. While it is a little annoying to switch up products throughout the year I had some help with finding some new items to try this summer.

Thanks to IPSY , my monthly glam bag I received a couple months back helped me to try all sorts of new products. Not to mention Sephora just gave me a new item to try as well which I liked. I really enjoy trying out products SO much that I'm testing out some new Mary Kay skincare items for a friend/representative I know from there. This is also helping me to personally figure out what works best for my skin since this summer has called for some imbalances in my skin.

I've been lucky enough to have really clear skin most of my life with the occasionally pimple here and there. I have a decent diet and workout at least 3 days a week, drinking lots of water at work but no mater what my skin gets pretty oily in the summer.

This summer however, my chin has been my problem area. I've never had an issue with breakouts and this summer I have. Here are some of the products and tips I've been using that seem to be helping.

Refrigerating my daily moisturizer. 

Sounds insane but I follow several beauty bloggers on YouTube and I learned a few months back to try this trick of putting your moisturizer in the fridge and that it'll help keep your face matte all day cause it helps shrink your pores. It really has worked not to mention it's a refreshing way to wake my face up in the morning.

This is the moisturizer I've been using for the past few years:

I switched up my nightly moisturizer. 

 

I am basically addicted to PREVAGE Anti-Aging Night Cream. It's expensive but so worth it. I've been using this at night since I was 23 years old and I feel like it's prevented a lot of damage and wrinkles to my skin. It really helps restore skin overnight with some super special ingredients but I've always felt like this is a better Winter night cream. It's pretty thick so it's better for when my skin gets drier in the Winter.

IPSY gave me a sample of Josie Maran's Argan Oil and I put it on my skin before bed one night and I woke up the next morning and saw an immediate difference. My skin looked so soft, toned and rested. I don't know if it was a case of switching skin care that I could tell a huge difference after one night but I instantly loved this. I use this in place of the Prevage every night before bed and it's been a great substitute for a Summer moisturizer.

Vitamins!!! 

I went to Sephora recently to pick up a birthday gift for my Dad and received a sample of Pure Truth Activating Sample by Ole Henriksen 

This oil is made up of 100 percent pure organic rose hips seed oil, a natural source of active vitamin C, vitamin A, and essential fatty acids. These ingredients help brighten skin, improve tone and help fights wrinkles.

I've been using this oil like a serum under my daily moisturizer for a week or so now and it definitely helps give your skin a natural looking glow. It's orange which is a bit funny to put on your face at first cause it almost looks like you're applying an instant tanner. It has a funny smell but nothing too terrible and it absorbs really fast. I feel like this has helped fade old acne scars as well as give me a brighter look in the day.

Bye-bye scars

 In order to aid in fading some of the spotting on my chin from the acne I've gotten this summer I purchased this new product by Garnier called Skin Renew Clinical Dark Spot Corrector. I use this on my chin every night after I've moisturized and have been using it on and off for a week or two and am slowly seeing a difference. It says to give it about 4 weeks to see results and that sounds about right. It has mixed reviews from customers but was awarded the Readers Choice Award by Allure in 2012 which is typically pretty promising from my experience. I wasn't looking to spend major bucks on a treatment so this works fine for me. A little goes a long time and this should last awhile as the tube is a little smaller than a toothpaste tube.

Keep in mind, this is what has worked for me and we all have different skin types and makeup but I hope if any of your have experienced some similar problems that these tips will help!

Thanks for reading!

Simple Summer Tips For Staying Shine Free

  It's that time of year again ladies...where our hair starts to frizz and our skin gets extra shiny. Sheesh! I wanted to give you some tips for trying to calm some of that shine down on your face during these humid summer days we are having. Let's get to it!!!

1.) For those of you moisturize daily, I just heard a great tip today from top skin care professional Boldijarre Koronczay who is the founder of Eminence Handmade Organic Skincare. When washing your face, make sure to use cold water especially if you have naturally oil skin. It helps shrink down your pores which helps eliminate the oil produced. He also suggested to keep your moisturizer in the fridge because it helps keep your skin matte longer. I never thought of that nor tried it so I'm really excited to try this out.

2.) Keep oil absorbing sheets with you in your purse. For some reason I tend to get really shiny midday at work and so about halfway through my work day I blot my face with these sheets and then apply some powder to help me resist getting greasy looking again before I leave for the day. You can pick these up at your local CVS, Jewel and Walgreens. The prices range from $5.00-$10.00 depending on the brand.

3.) Use Mineral Veil by BareMinerals. I love this stuff! I use these on top of my under-eye concealer to set it and at the end of applying all my makeup I brush this on my T-Zone, chin, and cheeks to finish off my makeup look every day. A little bit goes a long way and it's lasted me a year so far. On the plus side it's one of BareMinerals Top Rated Customer products. You can get this at Sephora or at an BareMinerals counter. This cost $20.00 dollars but is well worth it!

4.) Wash your face with cold water and an oil-free face wash. Neautrogena is still one of the top sellers for this and so I decided to buy the generic version to see for myself. So far so good. I wash my face once or twice a day and it seems to tame my face from getting super greasy. This costs about $5.50+ depending on where you go but you can get it a Target, Jewel, Walgreens and CVS.

5.) Adjust your diet a little. Don't eat a lot of greasy food or salty food. These kinds of foods tend to aggravate the skin.Eat lots of greens, lean meats, fruit and veggies.cucumbers, tomatoes and green leafy vegetables. Also, drink lots of water every day. It's been proven the more water you drink the less oil your body is signaled to produce.

Hope you enjoyed reading and hope you enjoy a SHINE FREE SUMMER! :)

Dove Real Beauty Sketches

I noticed a lot of people were posting this week on their Facebook pages about these "Dove Real Beauty Sketches" videos on YouTube.  It seemed to me that it was mostly women were posting about these videos and everyone seemed really touched by it. I finally checked it out yesterday and it moved me to tears.

The story behind these videos is there is a Forensic Artist who had these random regular women come in and sit behind a sheet so he couldn't see them. One at a time, he began to talk to the individual woman he would be drawing and asked that they describe themselves to him. He asked them to explain to him the shape of their face, their hair, their features and how they looked to themselves. Each woman seemed to do the same thing and focused on their imperfections. A lot of them pointed out the features they didn't like about themselves and didn't speak highly about their features at all. It was really kind of sad.

Once the artist completed his drawings of the individual woman who described themselves to him, he called in the other women who interacted with them before the drawing and he would ask these other women to describe the individual he just drew and each and every time the other person speaking about them would say kind things about how they looked. The ladies being drawn who described themselves having "big chins" or "dark circles" were re-described to the artist by these other women as having "soft features", "a kind smile", "nice hair" and other really kind things.

At the end of that the artist would put his two drawings next to each other and hang them in this huge empty room where the drawings had taken place. The first picture was always the way the woman had described herself and the second picture was of how that woman was described to him from other women's point of views.

It was amazing to see the difference between the two pictures. Watching the women who were drawn see themselves in these two different drawings of themselves was really something. The artist had them describe what they saw was the difference between the two portraits he created of them and one of them women was even crying.

Check out the video below to see this amazing experiment:

I couldn't help but get sad after seeing this. Why are we so hard on ourselves as women? We are our worst critics. We are obsessed with being perfect, looking perfect and staying flawless that we forget to look in the mirror and admire the beautiful things about ourselves. I have to say that I think a lot of it is our cultures fault. The media can't stress enough how we should stay young, thin and wrinkle free forever by comparing us to celebrities with abnormal lifestyles. It just doesn't seem fair we have this kind of pressure on our shoulders when there are so many other things so much more important than how we look.

It's time to get our confidence back and to stop being so hard on ourselves. We're all beautiful in our own ways and it's time to start recognizing that within ourselves and teaching our daughters the same.
I challenge all of you to do this for yourselves. When you say out loud that your ugly, fat, and unattractive, those bad thoughts and words really settle harshly inside of yourselves and you continue to believe it and continue to say it and it's just a vicious, destructive cycle. Practice saying kind things about yourself and you'll start to feel so much better about yourself.

I'm curious to see what it'd be like if they did this same experiment with men. Would it be similar or would it be completely opposite??? Either way it really had me thinking. I think it'd be interesting to see the similarities and differences.

I'd really love to hear your thoughts on this and perspectives. While I could go on about this subject forever, I think it'd be more interesting to hear your thoughts.

The "Side Part"

Hello my lovelies! Since taking a much needed break from coloring my hair, I have already become bored with it. I got about 3 inches cut off of it about 2 months ago to get rid of the rest of my ombre' to leave me with a pretty blunt cut that sits at my collar bone. I'm not going to lie, it's been really hard not to do something drastic to it.

I've debated chopping it off again, putting highlights in it and even for mere second considered blunt bangs before I remember that bangs looked HORRIBLE on me. I have somehow managed to stop myself every time. It's been almost a year since I colored it which is the longest I've gone in 5 years.

To change things up I have been checking pinterest out, googling spring tends and looking through magazines and the celebrity who's hair I keep gravitating to lately is Jessica Alba. Every time she has her hair styled or down it looks awesome. I've been noticing how she has been pulling off this awesome deep, side party lately and it's super cute on her.

Check her out..

Apparently a deep side part down your hair is actually a trend this year so it's a good time to start playing around with your parts if your interested in this look as well. It looks great a number of ways. 

Here are some ways to try this look now! 

1.) Where it down with curly hair. Pump up the volume with some volumizing hair spray and a tease comb. 

2.) Factor it into a low pony tail by creating a deep side part and slicking it back with an elastic band.

3.) Tuck one side of your hair behind your bands for this cute look.

 Here are two of the tools I suggest using to help you achieve this look:

1.) I use the Monroe Teasing U Brush Model No. 2280 this is a rather inexpensive brush to help achieve some quick volume and the pointy end to help separate my hair. to get a straight part.

 2.) My favorite hairspray is Big Sexy Hair Spray & Play that you can get at most drugstores and Ulta.

Thought I'd share a new look for you ladies to try this Spring if you're as bored with your hair as I am. I even tried this trend (or #1) myself this morning .The look turned out pretty cool! What do you guys think??

Thanks so much for reading! Hope you enjoyed!!