What a crazy concept?!? Foundation in a spray can. Is it worth the $62 for a can of this unconventional foundation? Too many of my customers avoided this since it was a new and scary form of foundation (I worked in cosmetics at Nordstrom for a year). Dior Airflash is a spray can medium-full foundation with a fine spray nozzle that shoots out a fine spray of foundation. The concept is just the same as a can of spray paint. You have to shake it first to emulsify the ingredients so they will come out even. It even sounds just like a can of spray paint when it's shaken due to the metal balls inside that helps to mix it all together. You can either spray it directly on your face, or use a brush. I don't know who you are out there that is talented enough to spray it directly on your face. A fellow co-worker of mine didn't know how to apply this to a customer that asked her and she just started spraying. Afterwards, the customer took the next 10-15 minutes taking the foundation out of her ears, eyebrows, nose, eyelashes, eyes, etc..... A large rounded kabuki brush is the best way to apply this in my own experience trying it out in several different ways with different brushes. My favorite brush to use is the brush pictured with the Airflash. It is the Chanel Touch-Up Brush and it applies it evenly and beautifully. You also use a lot less product with a brush. The best way that I have found to use this is to shake the can a few times before each spray. I will hold my brush out about a foot away from me and spray the can in even thin stripes side-to-side (just like spray paint) across the brush about an inch away from the brush head (this helps not waste product). I do a really thin layer so I can ensure an even finish. Repeat as necessary. If you need more coverage then you can add another layer on top of your first finished layer on your face. I use circular motions and blend out as far as you need all over your face. It's actually a very very quick and simple foundation to use. You get a very even airbrushed look every time. Using this product everyday will last you a good 3 months of use or so. I have had mine for a few years since I only use it for special occasions. Dior Airflash foundation is so great for pictures! It is pretty water-resistant and does well in warm or humid situations. Many brides-to-be would come in and purchase this for their bridals and wedding because you truly get a beautiful skin finish for pictures or special occasions. A lot of TV News Anchors actually use this for a perfect complexion on camera. I touched up several News Anchors that would come in requesting one before they went on air. BUT...... There are always downsides to wonderful products.........I applied this foundation to many customers, and a bit of prep depending on the problem needs to be addressed before this foundation is applied:
The color guide can also be confusing, so I will shed some light on that;The shades go from light to dark. 10 is the lightest and 60 is the darkest. Any color ending in a "0" means it is neutral (pink and yellow tones), colors ending in a "1" means yellow tones (warm), and colors ending in a "2" means pink shades (cool).I am currently wearing shade 300 since I have a little bit more color from my self-tanner. All-in-all this foundation is perfect for hiding my sunspots, freckles and redness. I love the way I look wearing it and it is the quickest way to apply foundation. It is a must-have for pictures or just to have even perfect looking skin. ***I purchased this product myself. I am not endorsed, nor do I get paid by Dior or affiliates. The opinions expressed are my own experience with the product***
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This mascara has been long anticipated for fans of the Dior mascaras (which are absolutely incredible might I add).Back in the day, I just used to use whatever mascara my Mother used. It was the Maybelline Great Lash Mascara in the neon green and pink tube. It seemed to work fine. I started to get into cosmetics a little bit more and wanted to explore the world of Department Store mascaras. I had heard so many good things about the Dior mascaras. I purchased the original Diorshow mascara, and mascara was never the same to me. The discovery of it was like learning a new trick or skill and being so excited about it. That was the feeling of using the Dior mascara for the first time. It was like a new discovery, or an AHA! moment when you feel like you discovered something new, and it was wonderful.After awhile, the newness fades and I couldn't justify spending the money for Dior mascara anymore and just figured that it was just like Drugstore, and asked myself as to why was I spending that much.Fast-forward to working in cosmetics, about a year ago. I decided to give Dior mascara a go again since I worked in the same bay as Dior. IT WAS LIKE DISCOVERING SOMETHING NEW AGAIN!No matter what new mascara I decide to try; whether Drugstore or Department Store; I usually always revert back to Dior mascaras.I purchased the Dior Addict IT-LASH mascara hoping it would be just as good as the other Dior mascaras. Plus, it came in fun colors besides black (pink, blue and purple). The Dior mascara is supposed to be comparable to the extremely popular Benefit They're Real Mascara (Which I have tried and liked quite a bit). The brushes are very similiar with a synthetic brush with a spikey ball at the end to grab the small lashes and coat them all with a slick black coat of mascara. BUT!.........I used it and was not impressed. I was so disappointed since all of Dior's other mascaras (exception: New Look Mascara) are so great!The bristles of Dior's It-Lash just didn't grab my lashes the same as Benefit's They're Real did. You only have to do a few passes with Benefit's mascara to get a really thick and lengthening look, whereas, Dior's mascara barely puts on even a coat. I literally had to do at least 100 passes of Dior's mascara to even get it to look thick enough. So disappointing!!!I love the big bold look with mascara, but if you are looking more for a very very natural, almost nude eyelash look, than the Dior mascara is for you.I definitely think that Benefit has their formula so right! It is extremely thickening, lengthening and easy to get every single lash (especially with the little spiky ball at the end). Dior needs to go back to the drawing board and re-formulate.
Definite Winner: Benefit They're Real Mascara Where To Get: Benefit They're Real Mascara $24 Dior It-Lash Mascara $26 UPDATE!!!I decided to try the Dior It-Look Mascara again recently to see if my opinion had changed (sometimes they do) and sadly no. This is probably the only pricey mascara that I really don't mind giving away to one of my sisters and not care. It doesn't do anything for me and I will continue to love their older formulas (My favorites: Iconic Overcurl, Iconic, Blackout, Exstase, Diorshow) ***The opinions expressed in this review are completely individual and no exchange in monetary compensation was made*** To say that I own a lot of eyeliners is definitely an understatement! It’s clearly an embarrassing amount that I collected before, during and after my job in cosmetics at Nordstrom.I feel like eyeliners for me, are like finding the perfect nude lipstick (which I own extreme amounts as well). I am always on the search for that perfect mix of ease, wearability, smoothness, pigment, etc…. It was not hard at all to know what my go-to products were for my favorite looks; everyday, winged and tightline. Also each one is a different formula; pencil, liquid and powder. Click on product name to purchase or just to check it out. Holy Grail Everyday Eyeliner Cynthia Rowley Beauty Eyeliner PencilsThis eyeliner is a really creamy pencil formula. This eyeliner doesn’t budge once it sets in, and the ease of use is a definite winner in my book! I hate when I am looking in the mirror mid-day and it looks like I took makeup tips from a lady-of-the-night. I have oily eyelids and don’t need my eyeliner sliding around. It is smudge-proof, vegan, cruelty-free and paraben free. I received the silver pencil as a sample, and had to buy more. It is my ultimate favorite eyeliner pencil and I am not sure if anything else can top it. The longest lasting budge-free pencil I have ever used! They are also very inexpensive at $18 a pop, or $25 for a duo (better value) with free shipping. The silver is so gorgeous on the inner corner of the lids to brighten up and make eyes pop! Holy Grail Winged Eyeliner Nars Stylo Liquid EyelinerThis is the longest lasting of the bunch. You will get the best retro wing a girl could ask for with this extremely easy-to-use eyeliner. It has a fully saturated felt tip that stays nice and wet the entire ride along your lash line. Almost instantly dry formula delivers the best pigment. I am usually so bad at liquid, but the felt tip makes things so much easier. I lay it on the side and start on the inner corner of my lid and just let my eyelashes guide it along the lid to the outer corner. This eyeliner doesn’t dry out quickly like other eyeliners like it. I have had the brown one for over a year, and it is still very saturated. Definitely my favorite liquid eyeliner out there and so worth the $27. Holy Grail Tightline Eyeliner Laura Mercier Tightline CakesThis is the most natural eyeliner method out of the three. It also is a little different if you have never tightlined your lids before. Tightlining is when you actually put the product along the lash line on the underneath of your lashes instead of on top. You can see in the picture the method of slightly lifting the lid so you have more space to work with.You can use a pencil to tightline, but I love the cakes sooo much better because they are budge-proof and will stay put all day! They aren’t too bad priced at $24. I use the Laura Mercier Flat Eye-Liner Brush (Travel Size) to stick it on which is $25, but literally one of my favorite eyeliner looks. I will put the tip of the brush in water and get it pretty wet, then I will swirl it around on the cake itself until I know a good amount is on the brush. I don’t move the brush side-to-side like a pencil; instead you push it on in sections. I will push the product at the root of the lashes and move to the next section linking them together, etc….. It’s so natural and beautiful by itself. If you want more oomph to your lashes, you can line the top with a pencil to give even more dimension to your eyes. This method gives me the most compliments on my eyes and takes a little bit of getting used to, but it’s so beautiful!
***I am not paid, nor endorsed by any brand mentioned. All items were purchased on my own and opinions expressed are my own as well*** Hairspray..... A necessary evil right? I want my hair to feel as natural and healthy as it can, and sometimes hairspray likes to crash the party. My hair won't do all of those fun hairstyles I see on Pinterest without it.I know I say this in all of my product posts, but I am so serious when I say I "collect" beauty items. If you talk to my husband, he will call it hoarding, but I am definitely an organized hoarder if that's what you want to call it. I keep it all neat in a cabinet, and when I have found my favorite, I give it all away except for the one or two that I love. Hairspray is no exception in my arsenal of beauty products. I probably owned about 10 bottles at all times at one point. I have probably tried out about 50+ different hairsprays in my lifetime and have found favorites and my not-so-favorites. I would always go back to Big Sexy Hair Spray & Play Volumizing Hairspray every time but at a price point of $17.95 and up it gets a bit pricey and I felt like I was getting punched in the gut by 3 grown men every time I purchased it. Nothing was ever as good, and I would crawl back every time until I found my new favorite that works the exact same at only $6, which is a third of the cost of Big Sexy Hair.Schwarzkopf got2b 2 Sexy Voluptuous Volume Hairspray $5.97 at Walmart I use to use their Glued Blasting Freeze Spray in the yellow can: Although it was one of my favorites for a few years, the spray nozzle would always get jammed from the stickiness of the hairspray and it makes your hair crunchy. The yellow can definitely holds extreme hairstyles, such as the one I use to have in High School where it was the bigger, the better.
I know that most of us wish for that voluminous blowout look for our hair. There is a product that will give amazing volume without the stickiness and weighing down the hair. It’s the Phyto Paris Phytovolume Actif Spray. If you can’t tell by now, I am kind of a collector of beauty products. I like to find the best of each product and won’t stop buying them until I can find something that works great! Once I find that holy grail product, I tend to just give away the other items that I collected. At one time, I owned about 20 hair volume products, but none of them live up to their claims like Phyto does.What I like about Phyto is that they are a very natural product company using things like Nasturtium extract, silk derivative, hydrolyzed wheat amino acids. The Phytovolume says that it “lifts hair at the roots while amplifying the diameter of each strand to visibly impart body.” I would say that is exactly what it does.On towel-dried hair, I will lift up sections of hair and spray one spray several inches away at the base of the root all over my head. If I am wanting all over hair volume, I will continue to spray all of my hair like a wild person.I can sleep with it wet with Phyto in it and will wake up with a huge lion’s mane the next morning, but I feel that it looks the best when blow-dried. I flip my head over when I blow-dry my hair so my hair dries away from the base for more volume. I also like to use a big round brush to lift the roots for massive volume. Most formulas I have used in the past are sticky and my hair gets really greasy very quickly. The Phytovolume Actif is the perfect weightless formula that I think I will continue to use for a very long time.Phyto has amazing hair products that I am very passionate about, and was able to convert a bunch of my friends because it is amazing product!
***I am not endorsed, nor do I get paid by Phyto or affiliates. I purchased this product on my own. The opinions expressed are my individual opinions*** Top - Splendid V-Neck White LS Tee $48 Zappos.com
Skirt - Button Front Maxi Skirt $69.95 Pyramidcollection.com Handbag - Chanel Natural Python Crossbody Handbag $5,200 Madisonavenuecouture.com or a less expensive version by Coach $187.50 Tradesy.com Necklace - J.Crew Floral Pastel Necklace (Sold Out) but on auction at ebay HERE Shoes - Aida Flat Gladiator Sandals $150 but on sale for $39 Final Sale Gilt.com Bracelet - Dorothy Perkins Flower Cut Out Bracelet $15 Dorothyperkins.com Top - French Connection Valencia Peplum Top $29.99 (Final Sale for this color) Frenchconnection.com
Shorts - Dorothy Perkins Black City Knee Shorts $35 DorothyPerkins.com Shoes - Twelfth St. By Cynthia Vincent Paige Flats $178 Shopbop.com Handbag - Asos Mini Satchel Bag w/Scallop Bar $38.11 (Free Ship) Asos.com Ring - Aquamarine Vintage Ring $64.34 Etsy.com Earrings - Metropark Brushed Sphere Earrings $16 Metropark.com Necklace - Cache Silver Long Tasse Necklace $58 Cache.com Necklace - Delia's Triple Layer Dreamcatcher Necklace $9.90 Delias.com Nail Polish - Yves Saint Laurent 1 Pop Rouge Nail Lacquer $27 Nordstrom.com UPDATE 12/11/2016!!!! Since this topic is a very popular one, I decided to start using my blog again. I don't even know why I stopped. Life, I guess. About LiLash, the only one you should be using now is the one with the black box. If you are using any of the other ones that I posted several years ago, they are expired or still fake. Lilash continues to be my favorite lash growth serum and since they don't ship to the US, it has been hard to find, but I found a reputable seller on eBay that is even recommended by LiLash themselves on their site (Link below pics). It is not cheap and cost me $119, but I would rather pay more knowing that my product was 100% authentic! LiLash has made several steps to improve their packaging and boxing to ensure authenticity, including a holographic logo built on the side of the box. All photos of the newer black box LiLash is authentic. If this is not what you are receiving, than it is fake. OLD POST, OLD INFORMATION THAT IS NOT RELEVANT! Who doesn't want fabulous lashes? Just about everyone does and a lot of people will try to look for a deal to get them. LiLash is an amazing product that promises to deliver, and deliver it does. It is a simple-to-use eyelash serum that you apply once a day to the lash line with the small brush that is attached to the handle. With a simple daily sweep, after a couple of months, gorgeous lashes will emerge. Well, I am one of those that wanted that after taking my eyelash extensions off after 7 months, and dealing with allergic reactions to the glue used to adhere the extensions. (My husband thought I was ridiculous for going that long in misery, but the lashes were so fantastic!) I literally had stubs for lashes, and I had just started my new job at Nordstrom in cosmetics. I was supposed to be the example of great makeup and that meant having great eyelashes to show off the perfect mascara. I am allergic to most eyelash adhesive glues, so falsies was not an option either. I originally purchased a lash conditioner from Trish McEvoy, and since it is so natural, it takes a lot longer than traditional lash enhancers. It did a great job of growing a ton of new lashes, instead of just making my current lashes longer. I was still not satisfied with the results, because while I had a ton of new growth, it just wasn't making them big and bold like I had seen from my other co-workers results. I had asked what they were using, and they said LiLash. It gave great results without getting a prescription, and didn't have the same side-effects like changing the color of your iris and building up skin on the eyelid. The only side-effect I have seen is slightly darkening the lid where the serum had been placed. It is not noticeable once makeup has been placed. This brings me to my search for a deal. I had looked all over the internet. I am usually an ebay pro when it comes to getting authentic product. I purchased LiLash from a person that had a ton of feedback and promised that it was authentic and directly from an authentic purchaser. I purchased it for $40. I did a ton of research of what a real box needed on it to be authentic, but I never saw any pictures of the actual product to see the authenticity. The box seemed to check out OK. I thought it felt super cheap when I took it out of the box. The serum was pretty runny, and that seemed to be a dead giveaway. I used it for about 4 months, and sometimes I felt it was working. The only reason I felt that way, is because my eyelashes were in the process of growing back from all being ripped out from getting the extensions taken off. I actually did find a deal, but it was still $89.99 from Overstock.com and it is exactly the same as one that my friend has that was purchased through the website. The original retail price is $139.97, so it is still quite a deal. It takes about 8 weeks to see the advertised results. I have been using it for 2 weeks, and can already see results. Here is the difference: At first glance, they look the same. The font and size of the font is very different between the two. Also, the metal band are different widths. The font on the real one for "Purified eyelash serum" is much taller and larger than the font on the fake one. The LiLash portion on the fake one is much thicker and pushed closer together. The metal band around the fake one is smaller than the real one. The lip of the fake one is much larger than the lip of the real one The fake Lilash on the left has a printed number, whereas the real Lilash has the authentic stamped number sequence. So there you have it! Don't be fooled like I was!
I am not endorsed in any way or form from LiLash. This is my personal experience with the product. Sweater: J.Crew Merino Scarf Sweater $98. Purchase HERE
Scarf: Similiar $11. Purchase HERE Jeans: Vanity Sasha Jegging Deco Premium Jeans $59.95. Purchase HERE Belt: Dorothy Perkins Camel Belt $8. Purchase HERE Handbag: Dooney & Burke Dillen II Handbag $223.50 On Sale HERE Boots: DSW Kelly & Katie Christy Boot $99.95. Purchase HERE It's been awhile since I have posted, but with good reason. Since I am in the beauty industry, and have access to a lot of product, I have been gaining knowledge on great and not-so-great products, and now I have more information to share about what is working for me and my skin. Whoever said you lose the acne phase in your early adult years is a liar. I have had a serious bout with it for the last little bit. Probably because all of the makeup I wear to go to work is clogging my pores, and not to mention a few out of whack hormones. I try a lot of things to help clear this up, but it always seems zits are like weeds. You try taking care of one, and another will magically pop up. Shiseido is a leader in skincare, and has been since the 1890's, so I decided to give it a go with their products. I wash my face with Shiseido cleanser, take a super-soft cotton square (Shiseido also sells these), shake the bottle to my Shiseido Pureness Refreshing Lotion toner medicated with salicylic acid (0.5%) and pour some of it onto the middle of my cotton square and wipe it all over my face. I follow that up with the Shiseido Pureness Blemish Clearing Gel on a cotton swab for spot treatment (also 0.5% salicylic acid) on a zit. I usually do this twice a day, in the morning before I put makeup on, and at night after I take it off. I always use a moisturizer afterwards since salicylic acid can be very drying to the skin. I have been doing this routine for two weeks now, and I can say with confidence that I have not gotten a new blemish since I have been doing this, and that is a rarity since one or two always pop up every day. The toner fortunately prevents new ones from popping up. Not to say that I will never get a blemish again, and I am sure one will show its ugly face sometime, but the amount of clearing and healing of my face is immense, and I feel that my skin is under control. Shiseido products never cease to amaze me. There is a reason that the company has been around for so long. Their products really do work miracles, and they have a product for every type of skin and every problem. |
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