Clarins

by

Beauty Quickie: Sweet Lips

Who: Clarins
What: Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector in shade 01
When: Constantly
Where: In my car, at my desk, in the bathroom, in the kitchen…
Why: This moisturizing gloss does just what it says it will do – it makes my lips look naturally perfect. A cross between a gloss and a balm, it adds a lovely hint of color, fills in fine lip lines, softens, smells fantastic and adds just a touch of shine. I just plain feel pretty when I wear this. And that’s what gloss is all about!

by

ALERT: Sephora Sale!

Hello my pretties! Just writing a quick post to let you all know that Sephora.com is having an awesome sale right now. I just decided to peruse it to see if there were any good finds, and yes, yes there are. Many great brands are represented, with a variety of products, many at less than half price. There are lots of great Stila and Korres products, so if you’ve been wanting to try that fig bodywash I recommended a few weeks ago, now’s a perfect chance!!

If, like me, you’ve been wanting to treat yourself to something new for spring, check out the sale. And here are some current promo codes I’ve collected, so if you do order you can get a little something extra for free!

BODYLIFT: this code gets you a free Clarins High Definition Body Lift

ESSENTIALC: this code gets you a free Murad Skincare Travel Set

SUPERSERUM: this code allows you to choose from two Shiseido skincare serums

Happy shopping!

by

Pretty Hands, Part Two

Okay, so I’m still working on my goals of great skin and nice looking nails. It’s going pretty well. My hangnails are, for the most part, gone, and I only rarely catch myself gnawing on a nail. And my Clarins face wash is just delightful! It smells great, is extremely easy to use, and, unlike every other one-step cleanser I’ve tried, it doesn’t dry out my skin at all!

Now that my hands and nails are (mostly) mended, it’s time to step it up a notch and get them looking really good instead of not that bad. So I’ll be starting a weekly practice of performing the following at-home manicure, which I adapted from a version I read about in Allure Magazine about a decade ago.

1. Trim or file nails to desired length and shape.

2. Fill a sink/tub/bowl with warm water and a few drops of olive oil. Soak hands for 5 to 10 minutes. Remove hands and pat dry.

3. Massage a generous amount of hand cream all over hands, paying special attention to cuticles. Gently push back cuticles once they have been thoroughly moisturized.

4. Swipe nail polish remover over each nail.

5. Paint nails with desired polish!

Easy and effective. Slathering a gob of lotion on right after soaking your hands in the warm water/olive oil mixture helps seal in moisture. The nail polish remover will remove any excess lotion and oil from your nails so your polish will actually stick to your nails. And in a 10 to 15 minute period you can have soft and pretty hands!

by

Resolutions

It’s that time of year, when countless magazines, websites and television shows remind us that we are not perfect and encourage us to resolve to do better. Like the rest of America, I’m planning on finally getting that gym membership and eating more fruits and veggies. But the resolutions I’m most excited about are those that involve looking fantastically beautiful and perfectly put together.

Time for beauty resolutions.

I thought of many, but I think my main focus will be on two areas: great skin and pretty hands.

I’ve been blessed with some pretty good skin. Occasional volcanic pimple aside, I don’t really break out and I have small pores. I do get rather dry in the winter but that has always been curable with moisturizer. So I can get by on little effort and still have okay looking skin, but I can also try a little more and have fantastic skin. So my number one beauty resolution this year is to cleanse and moisturize every day.

It seems simple, but just making sure you wash your makeup off at night can make a huge difference in tone and brightness of your skin. Not to mention it’s a lot easier to avoid bumps and blemishes if your pores aren’t clogged with yesterday’s foundation.

In honor of this resolution, I surfed my way over to the Clarins website (www.clarins.com) and completed the beauty prescription survey. It only took a few moments, and matched me with a slew of covetable products. I ordered the Water Purify One-Step Cleanser as my new year’s treat. I can’t wait to see how it works.

My second resolution is to achieve beautiful hands. This will be a harder task, because I’m a nail biter, have really dry hands, and currently have about 47 hangnails.

To stop biting my nails I have enlisted my boyfriend’s help. (He scolds me loudly when he catches me doing it; I now know how our dog feels when he sternly tells her to stop her incessant barking.) Where scolding falls short, I’m hoping a good manicure will pick up the slack, so I also plan to keep my nails trimmed and painted with a clear nail strengthening top coat. My current favorite comes from Essie.

I’m still on the lookout for the perfect hand lotion, so please feel free to let me know if any of you have found the miracle cure for dry hands.

I figure concentration on a nice complexion and repairing my damaged hands will be enough to keep me busy for a while. Now if I could only find time for the gym…