Random
Just Another Day At Work
Insanity at the Fire and Reason video shoot on Sunday: Me and super stylist Valissa Yoe!
Princess of the Posse on High Snobette
Worked on this last month for the Winter POP Lookbook. Photo by Tone. Makeup/hair by Jillian Villafane.
*Side note: I heart this shirt*
Go here to view the full post!
Her Lashes Are AMAZING
The third woman, and the first Hispanic. Please don’t wake me.
Wedding Entrance – The Extended Version!
I have watched this AT LEAST a dozen times, and it still doesn’t get old. The re-creation for the Today show might actually be even better than the original!
Stila Loves the LA Lakers…Seriously?
Hmmm…
I can’t sleep, so I’m perusing the web and visiting all my favorite sites…
I go to the Stila website, and this GIANT image pops up:
I immediately think this is weird (Although I suppose it’s a great marketing idea, even if it seems like a rather strange collaboration), and I am dying to know if they actually wear this set.
Since I still can’t sleep, I did a little google search and came across this next picture:
OK…I will resist the urge to comment on their outfits, even though the outfits are even more of a quandary to me than the fact that Stila gave them their own cosmetic set.
Now about that make-up…
I am completely positive that they are not all wearing the ‘Stila Loves the Lakers‘ set. This just isn’t possible. However, what is possible is that they are in fact all wearing Stila cosmetics since it seems that Stila is the official 2009 make-up sponsor.
In any case, even though they might not all be wearing the colors and products featured in the set – It retails for only $36.00 and does have some great items (I love Stila smudge pots and convertible color) – So, maybe you should try it out anyway.
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!
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:
Bye Bye Binders
Back in the day (Ok, really just up until a month ago), I was working off a binder system.
INSPIRATION BINDERS.
Lots of people keep these – Or at least they’re pretty common with creative types. Personally, if I came across makeup that I loved in a magazine, I would rip out the page and slide it in to a clear plastic sleeve and put it in one of the many binders that would take up way too much space around my room. It was a system that served me well for a time, but after almost a year of ‘inspiration binder’ keeping…Things got a little out of control.
I also got a little bit lazy, and towards the end I would rip pages out of magazines and never put them inside the binders at all. Then there were occasions where I’d find myself sorting through these binders for a reference, and I’d end up removing pages while shaking my head trying to figure out why I even thought I liked some of the images in the first place.
In any case, that antiquated system is DONE. I’m over it.
The timing couldn’t be better since just the other day, photographer and friend, the fabulous Miss Marley Kate put me on to something much more efficient. Gone are the days of tearing out pages from books and magazines! A little site called Image Spark is changing the game and making it much easier to organize and refer to images that may inspire you.
Now all I have to do is upload the images that I like to my very own reference library. I can even create moodboards for specific styles that I want to separate from the rest of the pack. If you use firefox, there is also a plug-in that takes things one step further by allowing you to click on any image you come across while perusing the web, and automatically uploads it to your Image Spark library.
The best part is that the site is still pretty young, which means that it’s still possible to get a user name that actually is your name.
Check out Image Spark and search for me under (what else?), Jillian.
Eyeliner Modeled After Mont Blanc Pens? Fact or Fiction?
Usually I’m pretty good at being in the know about anything and everything beauty related. But, occasionally someone around me hears about a cool product and puts me on to something I hadn’t even noticed. Such is the case with a particular eyeliner from the French cosmetic line Le Metier.
My friend Charles claims that Le Metier based their eyeliner design on Mont Blanc pens. The reason? Apparently Mont Blanc pens are so expertly crafted that they write under any circumstances. And so, by basing an eyeliner on Mont Blanc technology, the result is an eyeliner that will draw a perfect line every time it’s handled. Supposedly even the shakiest of hands, and the most cosmetically challenged can achieve line perfection when armed with this eyeliner.
I haven’t tested it yet, but I’m planning a trip to Bergdorf next week to check it out and will let you know what I think.
Have any of you heard about this? Is this just another urban legend, or is this eyeliner the real deal?
Is this the Holy Grail of eyeliner?
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