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bag & watch by Michael Kors, dress by Taylor Made, glasses dolce & Gabbana
-SDS
-August 7, 2014
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ALMOST RESPECTABLE
beauty
RADICAL SKINCARE
Six weeks ago, I received my first bottle of Radical Skincare Advanced Peptide Antioxidant Serum.
I’d never heard of the company before but my curiousity was peaked when I’d found that their brand mission statement was…
“MORE HONESTY, MORE POTENCY, MORE PERFORMANCE. STRONG SKINCARE WITH STRONG VALUES…….”
I was curious after reading about the company.
I stopped using other serums, and used only the Radical Skincare Serum, so I could form an accurate opinion. I would use my moisturizer on top, of course.
I do have issues with redness so I was curious if the product work work for that issue, which it did. I had a clean, natural even look to my skin without makeup, and there was a noticeable difference.
The serum boasts 13 different ingredients that work together to give your skin improvement in every area.
I believe that it is best to save money, and refrain from $30 lip liners, to have more budget to apply to your skincare routine. There is tons of expensive science behind certain skincare lines, and it only makes sense to spend the money on something that will actually make a lasting difference. I’ve never known a lip liner to alter the course of a person’s life, but great looking skin is a must!
In a society in which 30 year olds are running to get their face botoxed… it just is common sense to try to preserve what you have before it gets to that point!
Click the link above if you want to read more and learn about all the products that Radical has to offer! Their site is great and I’m excited to try more from their line.
As for my skin, I loved the serum, see benefits and am hopeful that continued use of great products will keep me out of the plastic surgeons office as long as possible! I think at this juncture, I’d prefer to invest in skincare, health (and handbags) rather than injections that will make my face look hard as a rock! (Injections are not in my budget, my husband would murder me! This leaves me with having to work with what I’ve got!
-SDS
-July 13, 2014
CHEAP BIOTCH…THE $30 MAKEUP CHALLENGE
I got shocked lately, in trying to stick within my monthly Beauty Budget. When I added up the cost of the products I used daily…I came to a conclusion…it’s expensive to be me. The other day, before purchasing yet another $30.00 tube of designer lipstick, I decided to challenge myself and see if I could buy an entire arsenal for the same price. Not only that, how would it look?
Back in the day, I was a District Manager for a retail clothing chain, and the chain also decided at one point to carry a small line of cosmetics, known as NYX. Now NYX has added a longer list to their friendly priced products, so I decided to start with them for a lip liner and lip stick. The matte color shown here is Summer Breeze. It has tons of pigment and is not so matte that it dries up your lips. I also chose the illuminator from NYX and was pleasantly surprised. It was more of a gold tone as opposed to a white so it looked more naturally dewy to me.
The ELF Cosmetics bronzer duo was fantastic, and was under $4.00 and I was not expecting much but it was fabulous! Look Ma, No lashes! Being on a budget, I refrained from using false lashes and decided to try out New York Color Mascara. Loved it! I believe it was less than $5.00 as well, and that’s quite a savings compared to the designer $30 a tube mascaras out there! I will buy this again.
My personal theory is that by saving money on certain things, then there is a bigger budget allowance for bigger things, such as top of the line serums and moisturizers. To me, this is where the money matters because you are paying for tons of research and better ingredients. Moisture and repair is where it makes more cents to me to spend. Additionally, your technique of application has everything to do with how you turn out, as long as the product meets a certain standard. The price friendly products above, all had decent features and benefits.
This was a helpful post to me, because it made me more mindful of the money spent on cosmetics in the past as well as what I will spend in the future! Not only that, I pretty much look exactly the same as if I’d had on a $400 collection of products!
-SDS
-July 7, 2014
TOP GLAM SWIM SUITS for 2014
It’s been a year since the last Top Glammy Swim Suits Edition was posted so I figured it was time for yet another edition.
I realize that swimgerie… a new version of lace embellished swim wear is attempting to come in… it looks too crazy to be worn poolside, so I denounce this as a upcoming trend.
I also realize that a mere 5% of females have what is considered to be an ideal beach body. If you don’t believe me, go to the beach. Or the pool. Or ask a man. Or Google it. Just because you are skinny, won’t mean that any swim suit will make you look fabulous. Just because you are larger, doesn’t mean you’re not sexy, but the wrong suit can make a mess of most of us. Naked is not always a good thing. A big boob is not always a great boob. Cheese should always be covered. Period.
It is because of this that I have chosen very structured swim suit designs to be included in my Top 10 post this year. Structure by design is good. It creates the illusion of firmness and solid form.
Structure is a win-win for us all. Basically, if your body is lacking in fit or form, the right suit can solve a myriad of problems. The shape of a suit can help to create shape where none truly exist, or hide what does.
As for accessories, I am a firm believer in poolside accessories. They help you to give the allusion of being dressed and having a tailored appearance. They can sort of hide the fact that you are basically naked in blaring daylight, which isn’t truly a great thing for very many.
I asked my husband to get his opinion, before doing any research, “What percentage of females do you feel probably have a perfect beach body?”
“5%,” he immediately decided with absolutely no thought put into his answer. After doing some reading, I found he was right. So this leaves out me and 94% of you reading this.
What this means for you and me, is that while we may have one or several visually pleasing parts to our physique… society and media now has an insane expectation of our nakedness. The right suits can help everyone feel fabulous and a little less self aware.
The suits we have here are all for a wide array of body shapes and types.
The top three pictures all show fabulous yet simple suits that allow for the individual person to shine. The criss-crossed, hip exposed picture above is great for creating contour and the hat is a perfect fun look.
While I did include some great full sized models here, you have to admit the red hot bikini with bling rings on the brunette does look amazing. If you can wear it, do it well. The thing with these type of unstructured bikini tops, is that if you have a floppy chest, you should not wear these. Trust me, you are doing more harm than good. It is so much better to cover it up and let the world assume you are perfectly fabulous than to prove to them that you are not.
The suit above comes in several colors but it’s so hot in black. The style adds structure to a flat chested or a larger chested person. If you have a great back, it’s going to show it off, yet appear fair covered by today’s standards.
I absolutely adore the cut of this monokini. It’s so classy. Again, it adds form and structure and the ruffle would help a smaller chest to have a bit more volume.
This Lane Bryant suit is adorable in metallic gold animal print. Again, the hat and bracelets add an extra bang for those times you want to appear more fashion forward, keep the sun off, control the wind blown hair and rock the summer like the girly girl you are.
This ruffled monokini comes in all types of colors, and it also has a great contouring ability due to the shape as well as the padded boost cups. There is a thick, structured band holding up the top around the back, so this is something to look for when you need more chest support in a swim suit.
If being a glamour puss is your thing, a solid color is best most of the time you want to make a statement. A multi-colored and patterned suit is usually a bust that washes a person out. A strong and bold swim suit print can usually make a larger person appear even larger. Solids or well done color blocked suits are best.
And this was so adorable, I had to include it. Yes, it is a bikini. It’s
a well structured bikini on a well structured woman. The top clearly has under wires for support and the shape is great. However, the accessories and the hat make this so much more fabulous. For the self conscious, a really sheer black cover up would look amazing as well.
These suits make me want a vacation now.
SDS
-June 7, 2014
STUDIO GEAR CC CREAM Review!
the perks of
STUDIO GEAR CC CREAM
As a cosmetics professional, I can’t tell you how many times I hear, “I want to look natural but perfect.” What I’ve learned is that people are not always good at describing what they are looking for. Another issue is that they look at media images and are wanting to obtain the natural perfection we see, not realizing how much lighting, makeup and photo shop it takes to obtain that “I just woke up this way” image.
Studio Gear’s CC Cream is a great option for people who don’t like to wear makeup, yet want to look better. It has natural looking coverage, SPF 20 and hydrates the skin, giving it the currently sought after natural, dewy glow.
(sponsor)
Studio Gear CC Cream comes in three colors, so I wasn’t sure the Linen color would match my pale skin, because when I received my sample from the company, it initially looked a lot darker than what I would wear. Wow! As I put it on, it changed colors to blend perfectly with my coloring! I wore it for the past week, when I wasn’t looking for major coverage, but actually the coverage and evenness of skin tone was so amazing, that I added some blush, lip color and eye makeup, just to see if it could double as a full coverage, and the result is shown here!
I love the fact that the cream is moisturizing my skin while preventing line and wrinkles, restoring skins elasticity while also brightening and illuminating!
(sponsor)
Readers of the blog can get a 10% discount on the Studio Gear
website if you click here! Studio Gear has a full line of fabulous cosmetics, so check out their site for even more fabulous products!
(Powered by BrandBacker)
-SDS
April 18, 2014
YOU MAY HAVE MISSED…..
BLACK FEATHERED ANGEL
This week I had the opportunity to do a full shoot in which I got to style, do the make up and photograph some photos for Jennifer’s acting/modeling portfolio.
I wanted to share some of the photos here on the blog because I absolutely had a blast spending the day together and working on her shots!
Although I work in cosmetics, as well as own my own Apartment Locating business in Houston, I also enjoy doing freelance makeup and small shoots here and there. It’s a passion.
I decided to go for a more retro look this time, and used the new line of lip colors by Estee Lauder, Pure Envy, to give her that bold, sculpted lip look. I had used a nude lip in previous shots, shown here.
The black feathered dress I used is a special vintage find that I own and it waits patiently in my closet for events such as this! I use this fact to illustrate my continual point, in that fashion doesn’t have to kill your finances. I actually bought it years ago. I’d taken over as District Manager for a chain of fashion stores in Houston, and they had decided to close out their formal collection, so I purchased this at a total steal although at the time I’d had no place to where it to!
I would almost be upset at how wonderful it looks on Jennifer, but she’s such an angel and so fabulous that it’s impossible to be upset with her for being 5’10 and gorgeous! And young. And smart.
I’ve always been so interested in advertising and how exactly people a select few work their way up into ad positions with retailers. I once worked for a US company that kept making odd choices in the catalog models and styles and sales began to suffer with each poor decision.
Once, they hired an actress from another country to be our model. The problem was, they paid her a lot of money, but 98% of our demographic didn’t even know who she was so the large salary spent accomplished nothing. I always felt it would be a better decision to find a fabulous unknown, and develop her and your company image simultaneously. If your product is great and your catalog is great, do you need a multi million dollar face?
Anyway, there will be other themed pictures from different parts of the shoot shared in the future here! What are your thoughts?
-SDS
