Gnarly Head - a MUST have

I had to do it guys and gals.... I just absolutely had to write about a wine that has pretty much taken over my wine collection entirely.  I literally crave this wine - the bold flavor, the amazing color and above all ... the catchy name!  You heard it - Gnarly Head, Old Vine Zinfandel!  Want to know the real kicker to this sweet nectar of life?  It's got a 14.5% alcohol content AND its from the great state of CALIFORNIA!!!  That's right people - California makes damn fine wine and this one is proof of that. 

Gnarly Head - Old Vine Zin

My future plans definitely include a trip to the Gnarly Head winery - I plan on trying to get my hands on each and every wine this company makes.  So far I've only had the pleasure of trying the Zinfandel and believe me it's addicting.  The flavor is strong and smooth and hits your palate with a burst of individuality that each amazing grape put into making this sublime vino. 

What is the Shay secret to really getting the most out of this wine you ask?  Well here it is.... It is best paired with a bag of pistachios, a good game of rummy and excellent company.  You really can't go wrong if you follow those few simple recommendations.

Enjoy!

More fabulous finds

I've been neglecting my little blog for about three weeks or so... I feel horrible, but there is a good reason behind my disappearing act.  I went through a recent order spree of all kinds of fabulous goodies and I wanted to give them a good try before I wrote about them.  There are very few products out there than can either be raved about or slammed into the bin on the very first try.  So today I'm going to talk to you about a few products that I have tried and from this day forward will never run out of because they are amazing.  So let me get started...

I'm not a big "buy and try" girl when it comes to skin care.  I have my staples and they work for me.  The second I change, I have problems... With that being said I can't avoid aging and my skin was telling me it was time for something new.  I wasn't having break-outs or redness but rather a "dullness" (is that even a word?).  I just looked tired and well - old!  I was watching some tutorials by the wonderful Pixiwoo sisters and noticed that they kept mentioning EmbryoLisse moisturizer.  They raved about it actually.  Now those ladies have dry skin and I absolutely do not so I wondered if this company made something for oily skin and in fact they do - and it IS amazing. 

EmbryoLisse Emulsion Hydra-Mat for oily skin

Emulsion Hydra-Mat.  They describe this creme as moisturizing with a long lasting matte effect along with the ability to absorb excessive sebum and reduce shininess.  I'm here to say that it does work.  I have an oily T-zone and this creme has made improvements to my skin - I love it.  I highly recommend it - in fact based on my use and the words of the Pixiwoo sisters, I think that you should have a look around the site and find a creme that is geared to your particular skin type and give it a go.  This company truly produces great products. 

MAC Face and Body Foundation

Another great foundation find is MAC Face and Body Foundation.  If you are looking for a foundation that can offer you a full range of coverage - this is for you.  It has the consistency of water so give it a good shake and then apply - start by massaging it in lightly with your fingers and then blend with a sponge, or my current favorite, a beauty blender.  You can build this foundation to a full coverage if you want or just one layer for a light coverage.  Key word to this foundation is "body".  Yes ladies, take it right the way down your neck.  Please, please, please don't ever stop your foundation at your jaw line.  Tip of the day - match your foundation to your upper chest - that is the color you should use. 

MAC Studio Fix Powder Foundation

Now this one is probably not for you ladies with dry skin, however for those with oily skin this is great!  Apply a light dusting of MAC Studio Fix Foundation for a light coverage or again build for a heavier matte finish.  I love, love, love this foundation.  It's also a great one to use if you are going to be headed out after a long day of work and you don't have time to go home and re-apply your makeup - this baby is great for touch up work.  I do not use the applicator that comes with it - I prefer applying this with a buffing brush and really work it into my skin.  If I want to shimmer up a bit, I apply an illuminator to my upper cheek bones and voila!  Perfection.

MAC Studio Sculpt Concealer

Concealers can be tricky.... If you don't need them - please don't use them!  We get pulled into products by marketing and feel like we must have them if we want to be beautiful.  Concealers are for just that - concealing.  If you don't have areas that need to be concealed (acne - hyper-pigmentation, dark circles) pass this product up.  However, if you need a little extra help I highly recommend this one.  I have found that almost every concealer settles right into those fine lines around my eyes (which is where I need to conceal) and really extenuates them.  This is an extremely rich product that gives a matte finish.  I only use it if I need it ladies - if I'm a little dark under the eyes or have a blemish - otherwise no go on the concealer.  I'm pretty sure my jar of MAC Studio Sculpt Concealer is going to last me a lifetime.

OK, enough for today.  Here's a taste of what's coming up.... I received my Nars Illuminator in Orgasm yesterday along with a Makeup Forever waterproof creme eyeshadow and a Laura Mercier Tinted Oil Free Moisturizer- Oh how sweet it is... Can't wait to give these a go and tell you all about them.

Have a great day and stay beautiful ladies!

Eyebrow answer!!!!

If any of you ladies out there are like me you will have to deal with over-plucked brows for the rest of your life.  For some reason in our younger years, we thought that plucking was the answer to the never ending quest for beauty.  What were we thinking?!? I get so jealous when I'm going through my Vogue magazine and see all those gorgeous models with full luscious brows.  They really make or break most eye makeup looks and can change the shape of your entire face.  I've tried everything from powders to pencils to brow mascara - and even thought there are some awesome products out there in the aforementioned, I stumbled upon something amazing the other day that I just had to share with you straight away. 

I was spending a raining Sunday morning going through QVC - there are some really great finds there - try it if you haven't already.... anyhow my eye caught the Make-Up Forever Waterproof Eyebrow Gel.  I've never used a gel on my brows before so being that it was Make-Up Forever and it was waterproof I figured why not!  And bonus - it comes with it's own brush!  So exciting!

Make-Up Forever Waterproof Eyebrow Gel in Med Warm Brown

I love love love trying new products for the first time.  I woke up this morning in a good mood right from the start because I knew I'd get to give this a go.  The way to use this is to pop a small amount of the back of your hand, dip the brush (which is awesome by the way) into the product and apply.  I went in small wispy motions just because I was afraid that drawing it on would look... well... drawn on!  It went on like a dream!  I'm a red head and this color was perfect for me.  It's a warm brown so it matches perfectly.  I've used red colors before and my brows look ridiculous - completely fake.  This on the other hand is unbelievably natural looking.  You can go from natural to dramatic because it is amazingly pigmented and build-able. 

I'm starting my holy grail list of products and this one is definitely going on the top.  You won't be sorry!  Another bonus - it's only $29.00!!!!!  Great price for a Make-Up Forever right! 

Enjoy beautiful!

Tom Ford

Make no mistake about it.... Tom Ford is a God.  Not only does he understand how to make a woman look her most feminine with his impeccable clothing line, but he also has used his talent in creating beauty products that are hands down nothing less than amazing.  Oh and bonus - he himself is one beautiful man!  Now, his products are to say the least really really expensive so my collection is small, but I splurge as often as possible and hope to one day have a wide selection of my very own.  As for now, I own three products - 2 lipsticks and one creme eye shadow - but those products are absolutely enough to merit their very own blog post - they are THAT good.

Let's start with his lipstick.  I was given my very first Tom Ford lipstick as a gift - the shade was Black Orchid.  A deep eggplant color that looks like it would be the wrong color on most everyone. But this little treasure is perfect for all the right reasons.  First of which is pigmentation.  At $48.00 each, you would want this product to last for a very long time and being that one swipe across your lips is more than enough, rest assured it is going to last you.  Texture - like butter, literally.  So creamy smooth you will wonder if this is really a cosmetic product and not some doctor prescribed lip balm!  I'm serious!  Now, back to color... the name itself pretty much sums it up - it is almost black.  But here is a trick that I learned from makeup artist Lisa Eldrige... apply about a nickle size amount of the product on the back of your hand.  Then using your finger, pick up a bit of the color and push it into your lips for an amazing stain lip effect.  This color is gorgeous when worn in this manner - then if you want to step it up a bit at night, just apply straight from the tube - but start light and layer until you reach your desired look.  So so so pretty.

Black Orchid

As I am a redhead, it's pretty hard to find a red that looks right on my lips.  I've never let my hair color stop me from wearing any color I want, but let's be honest here..... you have to be careful with red lips - they are such a statement and you really can't afford to have much room for error.  So after many trials, I have found like orange reds work best for me.  Scarlet Rouge is the perfect red in my opinion.  Again, layer this color for your desired look and rest assured you will have the perfect red lip.  As for fading?  Not gonna happen with this lipstick so don't you worry.  I tend to touch up my lips no matter what, it's a habit.  But with Tom Ford there really is no need... it's just amazing.

Scarlet Rouge

Now for the cream eye shadow.  My grandmother used to make a whipped cream coffee frosting.  I can remember sitting at her house watching her make this recipe and just waiting for her to frost the spice cake so that I could lick the bowl.  The frosting was so smooth and airy... It glided onto the cake and looked so rich and inviting.  Well ladies, that is exactly how this product looks and feels.  It is hands down the best cream eye shadow on the market in my opinion.

Tom Ford Cream Color for eyes.... heaven.  I purchased this little number in Spice - a rich bronze gold color with a strong brown undertone.  Today I'm wearing it on the outer corner of my eye over my Mac paint pot in painterly.  To add just a bit more warmth I softly ran a little bit of Mac Texture in my socket line and a faint swipe of Cranberry underneath my eye.  The cream shadow just added the perfect amount of depth to the light warm colors and blended like a dream.  Again, the best thing about this is it's ability to build on it's color.  For the day, just a small amount is all that I needed, however it can be worn very intensely for a night on the town.

Cream Color for Eyes, Spice

We all need to spoil ourselves on occasion... so I recommend you try one of Tom Fords products next time you decide to treat yourself.  You will NOT be sorry.  Go on beautiful - you deserve it!

Lovely things

For those of you out there that are like me you will understand what I mean when I say that a girl can never have enough makeup.  I mean to the average person one taupe eye shadow is the same as the next but to us makeup obsessed women, it is absolutely a completely different color and to that end, we should probably have it in our personal collection.  My makeup addiction has been around for as long as I can remember and that is a fair amount of years... however I didn't always have the means to indulge in expensive trips to the beauty counter until a short time ago.  The other day I was trying to organize my lipsticks and realized that the drawer I was keeping my makeup in was just too small and it was time to breakdown and organize. 

Now here is the deal - makeup enhances our beauty but the makeup itself is just as beautiful.  Companies spend a fortune on packaging and more often than not, the package is just as gorgeous as the product on the inside.  So I decided I would not only organize my collection, I would display it.  I didn't want to hide it in drawers or train cases - I wanted to show it off.  Now granted, it may seem like a small collection right now, but trust me it's growing daily. 

Full Display Case

My photography leavse a lot to be desired, but hey, you get the idea right?  This is a shot of the front of the case.  It has five glass shelves that are behind a glass door.  I use the bottom shelf for odds and ends of my hair products and facial cleanser stash - I always have about two or three back ups just in case. 

Two top shelves

The top shelf houses my skin care products which range from under eye creams, morning moisturizers, night moisturizers and primers. This is one important shelf.  It's the beginning and ending of each day so it absolutely deserves top shelf honors. 

Shelf two holds my foundations, concealers, powders, blushers, bronzers and gel eyeliners.  Why the eyeliners?  Simple - I have several creme shadows that are packaged just like the liners - I'm a little particular about how things are arranged - mainly for ease of access.  So I separated the two completely - just works for me.  Love this shelf - it's what makes up the canvas for all of the rest....



Bottom two shelves

 Shelf three - the most expensive shelf... All of my eye shadows, mascaras, and liners.  Here is where the look of my face steps into color and definition.  I'm pretty happy with my eyes - guess you could say I got lucky.  They are a real strong green and are round shaped.  Which means I can do a lot with them.  So I go heavy on shadow, mascara and liner purchasing.  I always go back to neutral tones, but I'm branching out into color as well.  My green eyes go best with purples and greens so I have a few in there somewhere.  I wanted to display my mascaras one by one, but I found that every time I grabbed one that was in the back, they all fell down - drove me nuts so I found these little glasses in my kitchen and put them in there - still pretty cute.  Did the same for my pencil liners as well.

Shelf four - the shelf that adds color to my bathroom.  The lip stick shelf.  You can see the color range I like to stay in - warm peaches, pinks and nudes.  I have some great reds in there too - a couple from Tom Ford and one from MAC.  But I'm mainly a gloss girl so that is what my collection pretty much consists of - again, branching out in this department as well. 

So there it is - my display case for all of my makeup.  I got something big so that I could add to it - a girls gotta plan for the future right?  I hope this gives you an idea for a different way of organizing your makeup drawer and using those great little treasures to not only enhance your beauty but to add to beautify your home decor.

Have a great day beautiful!

Sleek Palettes

Sleek Eye Shadow Palette

I finally got my Sleek Eye Shadow palettes in the mail and yup, you guessed it... I'm one happy girl.  First let me just start off with the packaging.  These little wonders come in the sleekest (hence the name I suppose), sexy packaging I've ever seen.  Black and thin as an iPhone, and with a nice big mirror on the inside.  Just absolutely impressive - look for yourself!  Bare with me now beauties... I'm just breaking into the picture part of blogging - for now photos with my trusty iPhone will have to do until I break down and purchase a video camera so I can start with some tutorials... but even still, you can see how great the packaging is.


So... let's just dive right in.  I'll begin with the Primer Palette 600.  I am a faithful primer girl and I am loving the selection of colors in this palette.  Just look at those swatches!  Heaven!  So rich and creamy with a great pigment that allows you to use them under shadows or all by themselves.  Today, I wore the copper bronze color (bottom row, third from the right) all over my lid and then added a dark copper brown cream shadow (by the God himself, Mr. Tom Ford - but that is an entirely separate blog, of course).  My shadow has not creased or faded at all.  This primer palette is simply a miracle.  

Primer Palette 600 by Sleek Makeup

Ok, moving on... Because I had heard really good things about this brand from the fabulous Pixiwoo sisters, my first order consisted of the primer palette and two more shadow palettes - I guess I just knew I was going to be satisfied so why order small.  Now I wish I had gone ahead and ordered the other 4 or 5 palettes that were available!  Ugh!  In any case... let's get back on track.  The Original Palette 594 is an awesome sight - the top row contains 6 cool smokey dark colors in and the bottom contains 6 warm cozy colors.  I loved this palette from the start because of the versatility of it.  Perfect to take on vacations because you're not limited to one look because of space limitations - these colors are perfect - from soft and natural to ramped up a bit for a night on the town.  Love it!

The Original Palette 594 by Sleek Makeup

Now for the last palette of my little Sleek collection... The Bad Girl 596 Palette.  Just look at those colors!  I could create never ending smokey eyes with those as well as simple out on the town or professional looks!  I'm a green eyed girl and those wine/plum colors on the end are screaming my name!  So gorgeous!  

The Bad Girl 596 Palette by Sleek Makeup

There they are ladies... unbelievable, fantastic and fabulous.  So let me wrap this up with the two most important facts about these shadows.  


Pigmentation - hands down - AMAZING!  The color payoff is super fabulous.  Each swatch you see above was made with only ONE swipe across the shadow - one swipe!  You just can't understand how truly amazing these shadows are until you try them for yourself.  Which leads me to fact number two...


Value - These palettes (drum roll please) are only $10.00 each.  $10.00!!!!  For the color payoff and the selection of colors you would be insane not to buy at least one palette right?!?  Just simply fabulous.


So, have a look at www.sleekmakeup.com and roam around the site.  They kept their site simple and easy without a lot of fluff like most places tend to do - but they really don't need to catch your attention with flashing lights or music - the products speak for themselves.  


Enjoy your day or night beautiful!

Avon - the good and the BAD

I was hoping I would never have to do a post like this... but I would be crazy to think that every product I try is truly amazing.  I guess that is the price I have to pay for loving makeup - if everything was great - I wouldn't have room in my powder room or money in my bank account right? 

Yesterday I received my recent order from Avon.  I have a thing with Avon.... I can remember my mother having this lady at our house one evening with her pink suitcase and bad polyester suit.  My mother brought out a TV tray and this woman proceeded to layout everything that was in her bag on the tray and then asked my mom for a little bowl of water.  There were about 10 little round pink compacts with various colors of cream products in them... green for red, yellow for pink, etc.  My mom sat beside the tray and this woman applied the products with a little pink spatula - but everything had to be mixed with water otherwise it wouldn't even spread onto her skin.  So that is my memory of Avon along with add slogan, "Avon calling" - you can imagine why I've stayed away all these years.

I am a dedicated follower of the fabulous Pixiwoo sisters and they use lots of Avon products in their Tutorials so it seemed that it was time for me to set aside my outdated image of the company and give it another go.  Out of the three products I ordered, there were two hits and one HUGE miss.  I've always said if you're going to give both negative and positive feedback - end with the positive - so I'll start with the big miss....

Ideal Flawless Invisible Coverage Liquid Foundation

The Ideal Flawless Invisible Coverage Liquid Foundation did not work for me - AT ALL.  Now, I have normal to oily skin, classic T-zone, so I gravitate toward foundations for all skin types, but oil-free.  This one claimed to be just that.  Application was easy and nice and actually felt lightweight in the beginning.  About two hours later that all changed.  It is now sitting on the surface of my skin and is sliding off of my T-Zone.  Horrible.  It is cakey around my nose and rough on my cheeks.  Completely unsatisfied.  I can't see that this product would work for any skin type at all!  It is definitely wrong for oily because my T-Zone is screaming for help right about now.  Needless to say, I'm staying far away from Avon foundations - it is that bad.

Now... for the MagiX Face Perfector SPF 20.  I'm liking this product so far.  Very important for you beautiful ladies out there to use SPF on your faces.... make sure it's in at least one of your face products.  Hint:  If you use and SPF 20 moisturizer and an SPF 15 foundation you are not going to get a total of SPF 35 - the higher SPF is the coverage you are going to get - not a combination of the two...OK, so this claims to be a gel to powder product and it is.  Love the way it feels and spreads and I felt like I was getting a nice base for my foundation.  Being that I'm wearing it under that horrible foundation, I'm on the fence as to whether or not it is adding to the foundation disaster - but I'm pretty sure it's not.  Stay tuned because I'll try it under a "good" foundation tomorrow and let you know...

MagiX Face Perfector SPF 20

Mascara..... SuperSHOCK Mascara is a definite hit.  I love the brush on this product - big and fat! That is exactly how my lashes were after applying it as well - BIG AND FAT!  Nice!  I'm a lash girl as I've mentioned before so this product is going into my amazing mascara file and staying there.  It definitely compares to the Armani Eyes To Kill, but still is one step away from achieving equal status because it doesn't dry nearly as quickly.  However there is one thing this has that Eyes To Kill will never have and that is affordability!  This little wonder was only $4.99!!!!! Now that is the sale price but regularly it is still only $9.00 - NOT BAD AT ALL!  Do yourself a favor and get your hands on this - it really is a great product at a great price.

SuperSHOCK Mascara

OK, so there it is ... my review of a few Avon products.  I would imagine that just because I had a bad experience with the foundation doesn't necessarily mean you will too, but I put it out there just for information purposes.  Again two out of three is a good average so as a whole, I think Avon is on the right track.  They also sent me a free lip gloss that I wanted to use this morning, but forgot!  I'll try it out later and tell you what I think. 

Enjoy your makeup beautiful!  C'est la vie!!!!