Seperation Anxiety: God, I wish I had More of This Body Souffle

When I finished this, I kind of acted like my dog does when he finishes his food bowl and wants more…
I (honestly) found myself clanking the container against the sink in a desperate attempt to make more appear. Too bad I don’t have some one to come to my rescue and leave more product in the container every time it empties.
Damn…my dog is sooo lucky. When he wants more, he just gets more…
JEALOUS

Tags: carols daughter, makes my body feel like butter, ocean shea, smells so good I want to eat it

TIMES SQUARE! IT’S ON WITH ALEXA CHUNG!

My very first non television makeup job was two years ago doing grooming for an LRG campaign with photographer Kareem Black.  It was an incredible experience, with one of the images from that shoot ending up on a billboard in Times Square.  I would say that I’d always dreamed of having work in Times Square, but the truth is that everything happened so fast that I never really had a chance to think that far ahead.  Two years later, I’ve got my second billboard with a promo for the MTV show ‘It’s on with Alexa Chung’

Nothing but lips for this – Which was so much fun!  It was great to get to get a chance to experiment with different colors and textures – Especially since it’s not every day that I get a request to create something like an icy blue pucker.

Last week I took a trip to Times Square, and despite sitting on a cinderblock for 20 minutes while refusing to move out of the way so a newly married couple could take their wedding photos in front of the screen – I didn’t get to see the promo for myself.  Allegedly it’s still running because Kareem has a video of himself standing in front of the jumbo tron (He also shot this billboard).  I’m also told that you can also catch it during The Hills (Good looking out Jenni!).

Anyway, Kareem’s video is below.  And all three promo’s can be viewed in the video section of this site

MTV Alexa Chung Times SQ Billboard from kareem black on Vimeo.

MTV Alexa Chung Times SQ Billboard shot by Kareem Black

Tags: Alexa Chung, Billboard, Jumbo Tron, Kareem Black, LIps, MTV, My Work, Promo, Times Square

Don’t Wait Until Everything Is Just Right. It Will Never Be Perfect.

I’m back.

I’m sure you’re wondering where I’ve been since my last post was over a month ago.  The easy answer is that summer was drawing to a close and I was trying to make the most of whatever sunshine days remained.  But the honest answer, which is also the more difficult one, is that a friend passed away.  Her death was sudden, and I am absolutely devastated by the recent events.  She was extraordinary, and a huge support for me during what has been a summer of elevated emotions and enormous life changes.  I miss her terribly, and I am deeply saddened and also angered that our time was cut short.

She changed my life and I will always be grateful for how she has helped me to grow as a person.  From knowing her, I truly understand the beauty of a friendship with another female, and all of the comfort, strength, spirit and joy that comes with it.  I don’t think that there could ever be a person who could possibly take her place, and I will never know a friendship like the one I shared with her again.  I can only hope that I can carry the things she said and taught me through the rest of my life, and someday pass the same kind of friendship on to another person.

I haven’t been out a whole lot recently, and I certainly haven’t kept up with maintaining this site.  I kept telling myself I didn’t feel quite right yet, and that as soon as I did I would get back to things.  But the truth is, if it weren’t this it would be something else.  And the likely hood of everything being just right – All at once – Is pretty slim.

With that said, it’s time to get back to the grind.  There’s lots of great work that I’m excited to post here and share with all of you.  It’s stuff I’m really proud of, so, be on the look out this week for more proper updates.

Text Files: MAC Lipstick in…Reel?

Marfa: I bought a bright fuschia lipstick today

Me: Cool.  From where?

Marfa: MAC – It is called Reel.  I channeled my inner Jilly and went for something a little radical.

Me:  Good for you!  It’s good to try new things with makeup.  It’s temporary so if you don’t like it you can change it easily!

Marfa:  Very true.  I look like one of the girls off European Vogue.

(A few hours later…)

Me:  Girl I can’t find this MAC lipstick. You’re sure it’s called Reel?

Marfa:  Sorry I meant rebel.  Obviously I can’t read.

Me:  OMG that was my first MAC lipstick ever when I was 16!  I love it!

Marfa:  I told you I channeled you.

I swear that this exchange really happened today and that these text messages are verbatim.  I guess my friends really do know me too well!  Get MAC lipstick in REBEL, here.

Tags: Lipstick, MAC, Marfa, Ridiculous Text Messages, True Life

I’m an Idiot

I’m going to come right out and say this, because no matter how many times I have tried to re-work this statement, it really doesn’t sound any better…

I burned my neck. Badly. With a curling iron…While simultaneously trying to put on mascara.

I’m sorry, but, there really isn’t anything else to say about it.  Sometimes things are better put with pithy words, particularly when you’re mortified by the visual image that those very simple words convey.

I’m going to guess that you’re wondering a few things, one of which is probably why I was trying to do two entirely different tasks at once…

The honest truth is that I was in a rush to go to a BBQ, and in my haste an enormous surge of vanity overwhelmed me and I made a bad judgment call regarding my multi-tasking capabilities…and I accidentally maimed myself.

Despite putting burn cream on it, as well as aquaphor…The situation got worse before it got better.  I’m talking a really nasty case of “Um, my neck is oozing and it HURTS, and this wound sort of makes me look like a Leper,’ which eventually led to me thinking that I Maybe shouldn’t go out last Saturday night.

As I’m sans health insurance, I am not only a make-up artist but my own doctor as well.  So, I shimmied over to Duane Reade and scooped up a bottle of iodine and a box of Snoopy Band-Aides to help battle infection and also liberate my inner 5 year old.  I also picked up some Haribo Gummy Cola things and Cheese puffs – Those were to soothe my worries, just in case you were wondering.

The iodine seems to have been a good call, because everything has dried up quite nicely and the pain is extremely localized to the one particular area and doesn’t hurt anywhere near as much as it did a few days ago.  My only concern now, is that it’s going to scar.

I have some Ambi Fade Cream , but I’m wondering if I should try out Mederma Cream instead.  Thoughts?

Tags: burns, curling iron, fade cream, oops, scars, skincare

Have You Ever Been Addicted To the Creamy Crack?

As a child, my very curly hair was something I always hated about myself, and watching my mother relax her hair every few weeks certainly did not encourage me to love what I was given.

At 27 I’m growing out Japanese straightener, and learning to love my curls has been an ongoing process involving nurturing my hair and my relationship with it every single day.  In fact, this is as close to natural as my hair has been since 2002.  I was platinum blonde circa 2003-2004…Began Japanese straightening by 2005…and by early 2006 I had graduated to a weave – Which I would become addicted to for the next 3 years.

I miss the weave…and I often think about putting one in again.  If you’ve never had one, I can’t explain what it’s like to have PERFECT hair and then suddenly have hair that’s not.

This fall, Chris Rock is exploring this exact subject in his documentary ‘Good Hair.’

Here’s the official trailer.  Chris Rock is in it, so it goes without saying that it’s hilarious…But, it’s also pretty thought provoking, particularly when he makes a failed attempt to sell some Black hair to a wig buyer, and jokingly says “So my nappy hair isn’t worth anything?”

I’m not much of a movie goer, but I can not wait to see this.

Tags: Chris Rock, Good Hair, Relaxer, Trailer, Weaves

Seperation Anxiety: Avon Liiv Botanicals Vital Day Cream with SPF 20

I will seriously miss this cream!

I get sent so many products to test, that it becomes difficult to kill something. But, every once and a while I fall in love with a product so much that I get really sad when I get to the bottom of the jar.

Such is the case with this amazing day cream from Avon that I’ve been using regularly for several weeks now.

imikimi – Customize Your World!

This stuff is incredible, and since it’s packed with natural plant extracts AND offers an spf of 20, I strongly encourage all of you to try it out. It’s dye, fragrance, and preservative free – making it a great go-to moisturizer for the hot summer months!

It regularly retails for $15.00, but you can score some on Amazon for the bargain price of just $9.99!

Cop it here:

Tags: Avon, Moisturizer, SPF

Slutty Spam: STOP

When I made the decision to update this blog regularly with content that might not always be about beauty, I have to admit I was a little nervous.  Sure my life is interesting, and I have a lot to say about a lot of random things…But, in the back of my mind I couldn’t help but wonder if I might run out of things to write about at some point.

40 thousand unique visitors come to this site every month (Not too shabby considering I maintain this site by myself) – Hundreds of you visit every single day – So, there is definitely a lot of pressure to be interesting and witty and, basically keep you coming back for more.

Blogging is a little bit like dating:  You want to be yourself, and as open and honest as possible…But you also want to make sure you’re appealing to the person that you’re communicating with.  And since 40 thousand of you are having a love affair with my blog, the pressure to keep it real and still be endearing is HIGH.

The only negative about maintaining a popular blog, is that the amount of spam in the comment section also increases…And in this particular case I think it’s gotten out of hand.

When I first started getting comment spam of the Viagra variety, I shrugged it off.  Shit happens, and someone in Mexico or Canada with way too much time is trying to make a buck and let the world know that they’ve got some low price, street market Viagra for sale.  I get it.  These are hard times – No pun intended.

But lately, the spam situation is out of control.  Not only are people leaving full on Romance Novel style entries in the comment section – But, they’re leaving them in OTHER LANGUAGES.

As someone who has always wanted to go international, this is not exactly what I had in mind. It’s also thoroughly annoying.

I thought I had a spam filter on the site, but apparently it’s not really doing anything and I’m not sure what else I can do to stop it.

With so many visitors I am getting tired of moderating each and every comment that comes through because it becomes hard to differentiate between the real comments and the spam when I’ve been clicking for 20 minutes on comments and marking 75% as spam.  After a while it becomes inevitable that I end up deleting a legitimate comment.  This is bad, because I really want my readers to be involved and feel like they’re part of the conversation.

If any of you have any ideas on how I can combat this, please leave your suggestions in the comment section…

Thanks!

Tags: aggrevation, Blogging, spam, Traffic

CHA-CHA-CHA-CHANGESSS!

So this blog is about a year old.  The new site isn’t quite at the year mark yet (Not until October), but the blog is (I migrated it over from blogspot).

I’ve decided going forward that I’m going to be blogging about anything and everything that I want.  As much as beauty is my passion, I’m also equally passionate abut my own life.  And if I’m going to be able to continue to update this blog regularly, I’m going to have to start including other content that isn’t always related to beauty.

And seriously, with every girl out there being a product whore, beauty blogs are a dime a dozen.  Sure my advice is ACES – I mean, I am a legit professional – But, why would you come here to read about the same products you could read about somewhere else.  Sure, I am way more interesting and entertaining than they are – But, I don’t like being like EVERYONE ELSE.

There will still be blogs about beauty.  It’s my job, it’s my passion, it’s the thing that pays my bills.  But, my love of beauty has been influenced by so much more than standard product reviews.  My life IS my work, and it’s in every single face that I create.  So why not write about the life experiences that have shaped the artist I’ve become?

I hope you’re not mad.

If you’re apprehensive about the switch, let me give you a few reasons why this change is going to be a GOOD thing:

› Continue reading

Tags: Changes

NEW HAIR!

I cut my hair last week.

This is huge as I haven’t had a proper cut in MONTHS.

4 years ago I started Japanese straightening my hair.  HUGE MISTAKE.  I suppose it suited me at the time.  I was working some stupid hours: Waking up crazy early to do makeup at a morning news show, and then working the 9-5 grind in advertising.  At that point in my life I barely had energy – And taking time to do my hair was the last thing I wanted to do when I would wake up at 4 am.

At the time I started thermol reconditioning, I also had a boyfriend who preferred my hair straight…And back then I was all into my relationship and acting silly and really not myself (I know, it makes me want to vomit too).  My friends had even started calling me ‘Stepford Jillian.’

Thankfully I’ve come to my senses, and I’m 100% me.  I’ll never let go of my identity again.  EVER.  Now that I work for myself (It’s been 2 years since I started freelancing, can you believe that!?), and I’ve rediscovered who I am and what I feel passionately about, I decided that fake straight business no longer suites me.

While it’s been great and empowering to finally be able to say I know who I am, getting back to my roots (literally), has been no easy task. The ‘growing out’ process has been a real bitch, and at the present time two thirds of my hair is curly and the ends are still straight.

This was becoming a major problem on days that I didn’t feel like blow drying my hair.  I started wearing lots of hats to cover up the mess, and the other day I decided I really needed to take action and do something to make my hair more presentable. So what’s a girl to do when she doesn’t want to cut her hair short, but she needs to cut off as much hair as possible to speed up the ‘growing out’ process?

This!

It’s a little Cyndi Lauper, don’t you think?

Not having hair on the right side is definitely weird – And, also kind of liberating.  It’s also got me seriously considering chopping all my hair off for the first time in my life.  But, baby steps.  I’ll keep this for a bit, and revisit my short hair thought later this summer.

I know I always tell you what make-up I’m wearing when I post a photo of myself.  In this case, I would if I could…But, I’m not wearing any.  In fact that’s me in my pink polka dot sleep shirt – Just moments after waking up.

I’m usually not into taking pictures sans make-up (makes me feel naked), but everyone around me was DYING to see my hair cut, so I put my best natural face forward and snapped a pic!

Am I the only one who doesn’t like being bare faced in pictures?  Or do you ladies feel the same way?

Tags: bare face, Cyndi Lauper, Hair