Fab Reads at Total Beauty and My Halloween

Ever have those days where you can just spend hours upon hours reading about hair and makeup? I'm in one of those zones right now, and thought I would share with you a few articles from Total Beauty that I found interesting and useful:

17 Hairstyles That Take Less Than 10 Minutes

Top 11 Ways to Get Gorgeous in Minutes

10 Best Budget Beauty Tips

14 Secrets Your Hairstylist Won't Tell You

What are you lovelies doing for Halloween? My friends have decided that we are all going as characters from Gilligan's Island. Now I know some of you probably never watched that show growing up, but for me, it was one of those staple shows that was always on after school. I used to come home, eat a snack, and watch me some Gilligan's Island and Saved by the Bell. Ahhhh, the good ol' days....

Anyhoo, I am not big on Halloween. Yes I enjoy dressing up and doing fun makeup, but people always have high hopes for how fun it is going to be, and it never ends up being that great. There are too many expectations associated with it, and I prefer to just go out and have fun, without all the expectations. I would much rather stay home and pass out candy, while ooooh-and-aaahing at all the little kids in cute costumes. Anyhoo, I have been assigned the character Ginger, which should be up my alley since she is the glamorous one, but now I am stumped on the costume. I refuse to spend loads of money on a costume that I will wear for a few hours on a not-very-fun night, so I am on the hunt for a cheap white/gold dress and a red wig. Any ideas ladies? I was thinking if I can find a creme colored maxi dress then I can just add some bling and make it more Ginger-esque. What do you think?

MAC Style Black Looks

Ok, ok, give it to me. I know I have been suuuuuper delayed about giving you my opinions of the MAC Style Black collection. Overall I really liked it, but you have to use the products in moderation, unless you are going for an all black goth look. Although I can appreciate that, it's personally not my style, so I had to find a way to make the products work for me.

Here is a look with the Young Punk mineralize eyeshadow. Sorry its blurry, but it didn't seem so on my camera and I didn't take any more pics with my eyes open:

I was going for a nighttime look with shimmer and drama, but not too over the top. I applied the black greasepaint stick as eyeliner, then thickened the line in the middle of the lid. I smudged that a bit, then applied the young punk shadow using a damp 239 brush. I applied the shadow packed on over the greasepaint stick and then upwards until the crease. I then use MAC Trax eyeshadow in the crease and blended to soften the line between the young punk and the brow bone area. I lined my lower lash line and waterline with black kohl pencil and applied mascara. I actually really liked this look:

This next one was a trial of the Gilt By Association mineralize eyeshadow. I was not diggin this one cuz it looked kinda dirty:

This too was applied over the black greasepaint stick, but this was a messy application...I was just trying the color out to see if I liked it or not.

I knew I would not wear black on my lips, so I didn't pick up the lip products, but I thought it would be fun to try a hint of black on my lips using the greasepaint stick. As I have mentioned before, I like products that I can use for multiple purposes, so the idea of it just felt so ingenious. Here I applied the greasepaint stick ever so lightly to the center of my lips, over a dark brick colored lipstick:

Here's what it looked like with the flash on:

What do you think? Did you pick up anything from the Style Black collection?

Too Faced, Urban Decay, and Smashbox Deals!!!

I wrote this post then I had to modify it because there are just too many good deals to talk about! In addition to the fabulous Sephora Friends and Family Sale, here are other droolworthy offers:

Too Faced has their vintage sale going on now, and you can get some great products for ridiculously cheap prices! They were out of a lot of stuff a few days ago, but they restocked so it is worth checking out. You can even get an additional 20% off using coupon code tfglam, and apparently it does work on the sale items....SCORE!!!!

You may already know about this, but Smashbox.com offers free shipping on ALL purchases ALL the time. No dollar limit and no coupon codes required. They also give great deluxe size samples, AND, if you checkout between 9am-2pm PST on a Tuesday or Thursday, they throw in a free full sized item! They call in Let's Do Lunch....meaning you shop during your lunch break. In my opinion, its brilliant!

Lastly, Urban Decay is planning to have their next Friends and Family sale before the holidays, and their discount is usually 30% off, so if you have been wanting something from them, I would hold off from getting it during the Sephora F&F sale, and get it later during the Urban Decay F&F sale...and you know you all will be the first to know about it when I find out.

Happy e-shopping!!!

Sephora 20% OFF F&F Plus an Extra 4% OFF!!!

Good morning sunshines! The Sephora Friends & Family sale starts today......wooohooo!!! Although it's only for those in the US....booooo. For my international readers, I feel your pain because I know there are so many European and Asian products that I have been wanting to try and they aren't even available here, let alone discounted.....but so is life.

So before I get to my recommendations, I just want to let you in on a little secret (don't you just love secrets....hehe). The Sephora F&F sale is for 20% anything online when you use the code FF2009.

The sale is only in-store if you are lucky enough to know a Sephora employee who will give you an in-store coupon. But what I am about to share with you will save you an extra 4%!! That's like getting everything at 3/4 of the original price...yay sales!!

So how do you save this wonderful 4%? It's through an online portal called Ebates. You simply register for an account, which is free, and then in their list of online shopping stores, you find the shop you want to shop at, i.e. Sephora, click on the store's link to start shopping, and the site will direct you to Sephora's site. Then you just shop as you normally would. The way it works is that when you click on Sephora's site through the Ebates site, there is a special tracking number that tracks your account. When you check out, Ebates tracks how much you spend, and they add a percentage of what you bought (in Sephora's case its 4%) into your Ebates account. Once a quarter (every 3 months) Ebates will automatically mail you a check, but you have to have at least $5 in your account. If you have less than $5, Ebates will wait till you accumulate $5, then mail you your check.

Ok, so my skeptics out there are wondering, is this for real? YES!!! I have been using Ebates for over a year, and like clockwork, every few months I get my check! They don't sell your email address or anything, there is no spam, no hidden weird things! They help online shops with their sales, and in return, we customers reap the benefits!

One more thing, when you register for your Ebates account, there is a field that asks if you were referred by someone. If you type in my email address kajalcouture@gmail.com then you will get an extra $5 in your account after making your first purchase with Ebates. Free 5 bucks is free 5 bucks! Gotta love it! There are TONS of online stores listed on Ebates, so I highly recommend using the site for your online shopping needs.

So now to my Sephora recommendations. I have been reviewing a few products over the past week, but in case you have extra money to burn (ok ok so thats wishful thinking) and want some ideas for what to get, here are some products I recommend, in no particular order:

1. Ole Hendrikson Three Little Wonders kit - I reviewed the serum here, and I recently tried samples of the 2 moisturizers and I am in luh-uhv...they totally cured the dry patches around my nose within 1 week!
2. Philosophy Purity made simple - check out my review here
3. Philosophy Hope in a Jar or any of the sets that include Hope in a Jar (I'm thinking the Makeup Optional sets, especially since they have different ones for each skin type)
4. Urban Decay Book of Shadows or any of their 24/7 eyeliner sets
5. Urban Decay Box of Potions - check out my review here
6. Anything by DERMADoctor - I reviewed their sweat wipes here, but I have also tried a couple other products, and I have so much faith DERMADoctor products actually do what they say. One of my recommendations, thought I haven't tried it, would be the POETRY in Lotion, because it contains Retinol, which I think is the best treatment for acne and aging
7. The Clarisonic skin care brush - a great deal at 24% off, and it is the best thing I have done for my skin in the past year
8. Holiday sets - they are already a good price and its rare to get an additional 24% discount so I highly recommend getting your holiday shopping done now
9. Anything else that floats your boat!!! =)

So what are you planning to get? I am going to get the Ole Hendrikson set, maybe some Philosophy skin care, and perhaps a holiday set or 2.

Urban Decay Box of Potions Review

Hey there all! I really wanted to get this post done before Sunday, when the Sephora Friends and Family sale starts, because I think this is a great deal. Pictured below is the Urban Decay Box of Potions that contains their best selling Eyeshadow Primer Potion (also knows as UDPP), and their 4 newest primers:

- 1 oz Complexion Primer Potion - Brightening

- 1 oz Complexion Primer Potion - Pore Perfecting

- 0.3 oz Eyelash Primer Potion

- 0.07 oz Lip Primer Potion SPF 15

This set is already a fabulous deal because all the primers are FULL size, and this set is only $65, and the value of the entire set is $114. Ahhh, this speaks to my cheap heart...

So I tried all the primers except the eyelash one, and I can say that most of them are hits. The eyeshadow primer potion is fabulous, makes your eyeshadow LAST and LAST. It is a cult fave so you probably know all about it. If you look at the pic above, you will see that the wand is bent, which is a new feature to this primer. I think Urban Decay got lots of complaints that the packaging makes it hard to get all the product out, and instead of changing the packaging, they redesigned the wand so you can dig out more product. Hey, I guess that much improvement is better than nothing, right? =)

I tried both the face primers, and I was most excited about the pore perfecting one, because my pores are giii-normous, but I actually ended up liking the brightening one better. The tubes seem small, but are quite large:

I use just a dab to cover my whole face. Actually, the amount shown below was too much, I only needed about half to 3/4 of that much to cover my face and neck.

The one pictured above is the pore perfecting one, but the brightening one looks similar and I use the same amount. I apply to moisturized skin, before applying my makeup. The pore perfecting primer is a bit thicker and I can actually feel it on my face. Both have silica but the pore perfecting formula makes it feel heavier and I can tell that I am putting a veil of product on my skin. Once I got past that, and applied foundation, the primer really did make a difference! I don't think it shrinks pores, but it makes the pores less apparent, which is the point of the primer. It also make my makeup last through the night.

The brightening face primer felt a lot nicer on the skin. It is light and feels like moisturizer. Once it dries and absorbs, I can't tell that I am wearing the primer. I felt that this one did actually make my skin a bit brighter and a little lighter. Not light, as in my foundation wouldn't match, but just a tad...perhaps lightness is my measurement of brightness? In any case, this primer also made my face makeup last longer than without a primer.

I am a bit biased towards the brightening face primer, if only because of the feeling on the skin, but I know I will use both and they both give great results.

I also tried the lip primer:

This baby looks nude colored in the tube, but really does not give off much color. I tried to swatch it on my hand, but the swatch was not visible so I did not bother posting it. If you have really pigmented lips, it might neutralize the color just a shade or so, but will not erase the color like a lip erase or concealer will.

My expectation with this primer was that my lipcolor would last longer. Unfortunately this was not the case. I tried it both with lipstick and with lipgloss, using primer on only half my lips and no primer on half my lips. The end result was that I had the same amount of fading on both sides. There are two things that I do like about the primer:

1. It has SPF, and I find that most lipsticks and glosses don't

2. It moisturized my lips.

After my lipstick starts to fade, I usually get that dry, crackling look if I don't keep reapplying the lipcolor. With this primer, my lips did not get dry and crackly. They felt moisturized and the lipcolor faded evenly. Would I buy this again? Probably not, but I will definitely use it up, and I don't feel guilty about having it because I got such a good deal on the set.

Overall, if you have been considering getting 2 or more of these primers, that I recommend getting this set. Especially if you want to try the face primers, since those retail at $30. Plus, if you get this during the Sephora F&F sale next week, the whole set will cost you $52, which is a mega steal!

In other news, I am super exhausted and this may not be the best written post, but I just wanted to get it up since I won't have time tomorrow to even touch my computer. Tomorrow (Oct 17) is Diwali, which is the Indian equivalent to Christmas. It is the most celebrated holiday in India because we consider it to be our New Year. In India, businesses and schools are closed for about 2 weeks, and people celebrate like crazy! The streets are decorated with flowers and colorful garlands, households cook for several weeks prior to Diwali to prepare special sweet and savory goodies, everyone is in the street doing fireworks till the wee hours of the morning, and the whole country is in a festive spirit. I was lucky enough to be in India during Diwali a few years ago and I had the time of my life! I always get a little sad when I am home here in the US because it just doesn't feel like Diwali without all the fun and merriment. However, my family and I do try and have a Diwali party at our house so the party is tomorrow evening and my mom and I have been cooking all week to get ready, which is why I am so tired right now. That being said, I am really excited to see all our family and friends and just enjoy this special time. =) Diwali is definitely my favorite holiday....what's yours?

Please let me know how you guys are doing! I'm anxious to find out what you are lemming right now.

Book of Shadows Bandwagon

So I was perusing through Sephora online trying to browse through new products that I might be interested in trying out, when I came across this:
This is the Smashbox WISH Eye Wish Palette. It is a limited edition palette that contains 12 shadows, 4 cream eye liners, and a mini Photo Finish Lid Primer. Hello? Look slightly familiar to another product that debuted last year? Let me jog your memory:

The Urban Decay Book of Shadows!!!!! The one pictured above is the Book of Shadows Volume II, that contains 16 eyeshadows, 2 mini 24/7 eye liners, and a mini Eyeshadow Primer Potion. This is the second version of the 1st Book of Shadows that I was desperately trying to track down earlier this year (and successfully did so, might I add...wink wink). Ok, I understand Smashbox trying to get on the palette bandwagon but did they really have to create a product so similar to the popular UD one? yeah the number of shadows and liners is different, but the package looks the same! I know, I know, they are just trying to get their piece of the cosmetic pie, but they could have at least packaged it differently.

Sigh, I am so in love with my UD Book of Shadows that I just felt a little betrayed. Oh well, I just had to share that with somebody....back to work now....

Another Sephora Favorite - Murad Face Exfoliator

In my efforts to let you know about some of my current obsessions that are available at Sephora (for the upcoming friends and family sale), here is a review of the Murad AHA/ABA Exfoliating Cleanser.

This is one of the mildest exfoliators I have ever used! It is quite creamy, with small, fine Jojoba beads that gently and effectively exfoliate the skin. When I use it I remove my eye makeup and then use just this. I wet my face, put a dime size drop all over my face and rub gently in small circular motions. I then rinse with water for squeeky clean, soft skin. I get a nice exfoliation, without any harshness or a dry, tight feeling afterwards. Even though the company recommends using this 2-3 times a week, I feel like it is gentle enough to use daily, and I have done so for a couple weeks. I have dry skin too, and if it did not irritate dry skin, then it is definitely good enough to use daily on all skin types. This is the first Murad product I have tried but it has peaked my interest enough to want to try more. I know it is a bit pricier than most, but the results are fabulous and I definitely recommend this one, especially if you can get it at 20% off!

Speaking of good cleansers, I have also been trying out the MAC volcanic ash face products and I am very pleased. I will post an in-depth review of those products very soon, but both of them get 2 thumbs up from me! Enough so that I am now hunting for backups!

MAC Magic, Mirth, and Mischief Blush and Nail Lacquer Review

With the MAC Magic, Mirth, and Mischief collection launching this week (in stores this Thurs Oct 15th), I thought I would review the two products I purchased from the color collection. The first is the Mineralize Blush in Superdupernatural. This color is so lovely and will complement EVERY skin tone! It is a bronzy peach color with a hint of shimmer. I have been wearing it all weekend and I know that it will be my staple blush this holiday season. I love it because it provides a good amount of color when blended and buffed into the skin, but can also be layered to get a more opaque color. Here is a swatch:

Right: Blush color applied straight to the skin

Left: Blended out a bit

Here is a look I did with the blush, blended into the skin for a subtle glow:

I really like the mineralize blushes because they go on flawlessly and really do last awhile. If I want more staying power, since blush is the first product to fade, I apply a cream color base under a powder blush.

The second product I purchased is the nail lacquer in Lucky Number:

It really is a beautiful unique color that will be a beautiful contrast to the dark, trendy shades of fall, while still being in the same color family as the fall purples and blacks. It has such a beautiful shine and looks amazingly bright and glossy when the light hits it, as in the photo below:

I also purchased a couple of the shadow palettes from the holiday collection, and I got them as gifts for others, but I am soooo tempted to use them on myself! I probably will go back and pick them up for myself. If you read my previous post about the holiday collection launch party, you know that it was so dark in the party room that I could not see much, which is why I did not pick up more from the collection. I will definitely be going back to my local MAC to check out the mineralize sets and the other sets.

Do either of these products tickle your fancy? What are you planning to pick up?