Adoxography

I’m not a blush person - too much high school Goth in my past - and I really fought this stuff for a long time, but I finally broke down and bought it during my Christmas shopping (one for you, two for me) and now it’s part of my daily routine. It adds a little nice color to cheeks, of course, and also can work as a light shadow and it smells of roses. One more thing to squeeze into my travel bag!

I’m kind of a lotion addict - there’s always some in my bag, in the desk drawer, in the bathroom, on the nightstand - but I usually think that they’re all about the same when it comes to stuff for hands and body. I bought this on a whim because I liked the bottle, I had a coupon and I needed lotion. Imagine my very pleasant surprise when it turned out to be really good.

My roommate is in love with the Smashbox counter at Nordstrom and “dragged” me there a couple of Saturdays ago to meet her favorite makeup artist. As it happened, they were having some sort of event and so the person who ended up working on me was one of the official Smashbox artists rather than a random counterperson. I felt very fancy.

He did a smoky eye using brown liner and shadow with gold accents and a wash of tangerine across the lid. I really loved it, so much so that I went back to buy the shadow, only to discover that it was part of a discontinued set - DuoTone (peachy orange and shimmery champagne). Happily, Sephora had a lovely golden red-orange shade for $9 that thoroughly satisfied me and so everything was lightness and joy, except for my general confusion about this new color trend in my life.

Clinique Moisture Surge Face Spray. An iPod and decent seatback movies don’t hurt either.

From now until June 1st, the Kiehls stores (but unfortunately, not the counters in department stores) will exchange three empty bottles of product for a new product of your choice - full sized, whatever you want. I walked out feeling like I’d stolen something, but in that junior-high “I totally just got away with something!” way. It was cool.

I’d been looking for an eye cream (the faintest beginings of lines in the corners!) and some magazine recommended the Abyssine Eye Cream. I mostly figured that one eye cream is about the same as another, but Kiehls is, of course, lovely and generous with their samples and so I got a couple the next time that I was in the mall.

1. The sample lasted quite awhile

2. I swear that I could tell a difference

 

I was, in fact, so convinced, that I purchased a full bottle. By the time I was finished with my thesis, I was totally convinced that it was the best $30 I’d ever spent. I wasn’t sleeping, I was eating junk, the rest of my face was in all sorts of stress, but my eyes looked great.

Last spring, Stila came out with these sheer popsicle stain nail polish colors that I fell in love with at a friend’s house. Went home - out of sight, out of mind until a couple of months later. Much to my chagrin, I discoverd that they were limited edition and only Orange Pop was still available.

Heartbroken! especially since I’m not really an orange sort of person.

Fast forward to the weekend when I was reading some random magazine with a random interview with a manicurist, who mentions that one of her favorite tricks is to mix a half full bottle of full color with clear polish to make a sheer color.

It was a lightbulb moment (I also sort of wonder if this is something that everyone else has been doing for years!). So tonight, I mixed clear polish with this dark grape Revlon shade that a friend passed on (too dark for her) and voila! A near perfect imitation of the long-lost Stila Black Cherry Pop. My summer nail polish is born!

Mail Call:

Haper’s Bazaar with Sharon Stone on the cover and about a million pictures of Kate Moss inside. I used to like her; now, I’d just like a little vacation.

Inspired and likewise running out of space, I went on a search and found

I was a hard core Goth for years - dark eyes, white skin, reddest lips in the world, unless I opted for burgundy or black. Whatever the color, I was a Lipstick Girl, without a doubt, usually Revlon Blackberry or this shade of dark red that’s been long since discontinued and, as a result, is forever enshrined in my mind as the Best Lipstick Ever.

Grew up a little, graduated to Clinique’s Black Honey as a Kinder, Gentler lipstick and then have been living the Gloss Lifestyle for the last few years. Then Benefit decided to have a sale.

At $5, I couldn’t go wrong - my lipstick collection now includes Diedrich (a brilliant red), Ankle Strap (a more mild red), Flirt (a rich brown) and Depth Charge (darkens colors). I’m having to relearn how to deal with saturated color, but it’s fun to experiment.

because nice nails never go out of style and because a top coat of this stuff made my favorite burgundy nail polish ( I recommend Succulent) stay on for a week without a touch-up, which makes it worthy of WORSHIP