Need for Speed: New Quick Drying Nail Polishes
Today's modern polishes promise to dry faster than a speeding bullet, but which ones actually save the day? Top manicurists have known about pro top coats for years - those specially formulated clear coats that left lacquer intact for an extended wear manicure. Compatible with nearly every brand, topcoats like Read more
Verb Detangle+Defrizz Conditioning Leave-In Mist Review
To be completely up front about things, I hate washing my hair because it's a nightmare to comb afterwards. It’s much like that of a 6 year old little girl. It tangles like nobody’s business and is a nightmare to comb after washing. It’s so bad that my hairdresser Read more
Delfin Spa Cellulite Reduction Apparel and Anti-Cellulite Lotion Review
Everyone deals with cellulite. And no one is a fan of it. We've written about coffee ground products like Gail's DIY Coffee Scrub or isola Jamaican Coffee & Sugar Scrub, that are said to help minimize the appearance of cellulite due to the caffeine. Now there is another product system Read more
Mom: Get Glamorous Twitter Party
This year we're mixing things up with our Mom: Get Glamorous contest! We're adding a Twitter party, where some of the great brands participating in the contest are also giving away products during our party. Come join us on May 15, 2013 from 1pm-2pm EST and tweet with @TheMakeupGirl @ClumpsofMascara Read more
You may be wondering why I’m bothering to write about an eyebrow pencil. It seems like such a drab product compared to more colorful makeup like eye shadow and lipsticks. True, but if the eyes are the windows to the soul then the brows are the frame to a beautiful portrait–your eyes! It’s amazing how properly shaped, well groomed brows can make such a difference in making your eyes stand out.
I’ve mentioned I have gone through no less than 4…count ‘em…4 tubes of this eyebrow pencil. This pencil provides a wonderful solution to a real problem. Weather you have sparse, overplucked or just thinning brows, Brow Power can help. As we get older, our brows as well as our lashes get thinner. Developed with leading plastic surgeons, these brow pencils infuse a blend of brow-conditioning ingredients including saw palmetto, nettle extract, green tea, biotin, lecithin, grape seed, panthenol, and vitamins A, C, E. Your brows really do make a difference and can frame your eyes beautifully. Read more
It seems like thicker, fuller brows are suddenly EVERYWHERE…eyebrow implant procedures are becoming more popular by the minute, so for those of us who crave thicker, fuller brows but were not born with the brows of Arizona Muse and cannot afford eyebrow implants, I decided to ask Christina Snead of blink in Minneapolis, MN for her recommendations on how to begin the process of growing our brows out. blink is a brow beauty boutique in Minneapolis that specializes in waxing/threading, makeup application and facials. Christina Snead Snead is one of the partners in beauty at Blink (the other is Brook, who is also amazing) and has been in the aesthetics for over 12 years and she is the only person I trust with my brows.
Q: First of all, how does one even begin the process of growing their brows out? Read more
Over the years I’ve come to learn that amazing beauty products are not only found in traditional beauty/cosmetics stores, but in out of the way places you wouldn’t normally consider. My most recent great findis Mitsuwa Marketplace.  This place was recommended to me by Ji Cho, owner of Nami Restaurant in Minneapolis, MN and beauty product guru…seriously the woman is insanely knowledgeable about every and anything beauty related.  Mitsuwa Marketplace is the largest Japanese Supermarket in the U. S. They are mostly located in California with one in New Jersey and the one I visited in Chicago. This place is awesome and carries a wide variety of Japanese groceries, general items, electric appliances and beauty products. They even have a bookstore as well as a food-court with fantastic Japanese food.
I went to Mitsuwa Marketplace with the intention of getting a deep conditioning treatment and a cream for my ends…I came out with shampoo, conditioner , conditioning hair treatment, cleansing face oil and brow pencil and this was after I decided to put some products back on the shelf! The selection of cosmetics and beauty products were just amazing. They had products for your hair that I never even knew existed. The shampoo and conditioner that I bought were both from Shiseido and they’re absolutely wonderful, very moisturizing and an absolute steal! I paid just $18.99 for both 550ml bottles (they were on special that day.) The conditioning treatment is also pretty amazing, the brand is called IchiKami and that is about all I can decipher because everything else is in Japanese. I love the cleansing face oil, it’s very gentle on my skin but still thoroughly cleans my face without making it feel dry. I keep the brow 
pencil that I bought from there in my make-up bag at all times. It has two sides, one side is your traditional brow pencil with a much finer tip for a really precise application and the other side is more like a liquid liner…but for your brows. The pencil fills in my brows, but they never look overdone and I have to wash my face to remove it because I’ve been to the gym a few times after having applied the brow pencil and it stayed put through my entire workout…and my workouts are pretty intense ones that produce buckets of sweat.
I regret not getting some of the other products I had my eyes on, like the liquid liner (my beauty guru Ji said that the Japanese liquid liners have a finer more precise tip than their American counterparts, she also suggested the fake eyelashes which are apparently pretty great.) I did discover that  Mitsuwa Marketplace does have an online store which made me pretty ecstatic, but the selection of beauty products available online is kind of limited compared to the store, lucky for me I will be spending this summer in Minnesota which means I will have plenty of opportunity to try every product  I had my eye on. Have you been there and discovered some great beauty brands yourself?
It’s no secret that since moving from Minnesota to Florida exactly one year ago I’ve experienced my share of brow challenges. Not knowing where to go, I’ve taken the advice of other people and ended up with insanely thick and overly arched brows, as well as, brows that were a lot shorter and gave me an E.T. like appearance. I was resigned to either waiting until fashion week so that I could have them done by a studio I trusted in New York or magically having the finances to book a trip to MN every eight weeks to visit my usual brow studio there…neither option was very realistic, so I was relieved if not a bit anxious when I heard about Gee Beauty in Bal Harbour Shops…a mere fifteen minutes away from where I reside.
Gee Beauty was founded in Canada and have only recently opened their second location in Bal Harbour in August. As previously mentioned, I was a bit hesitant to try yet another brow studio in Miami due to my not so pleasant experiences, but my anxiety all but dissipated upon a brief visit to the Gee Beauty website. I was instantly assured that my brows would be in expert hands as soon as I saw that they offered a service called Brow 911, which is specifically designed to “rescue your brows,” I could barely contain my excitement the day before my appointment , I just knew I would leave with much improved brows and Gee Beauty did not disappoint at all.
The space is absolutely beautiful, modern, clean, inviting and very chic. Besides being incredibly attractive with gorgeous brows, the staff was really friendly and seemed very knowledgeable about the products that they carry (based on conversations with other customers that I overheard.) My appointment was with Natalie Gee, co-founder of Gee Beauty and brow magician…also incredibly attractive with very expertly applied make up and brows to die for. Natalie explained that she would be threading my brows…which I always prefer over waxing since I always tend to break out after a brow wax and about fifteen minutes later she sat me up in front of the mirror and I swear I just about teared up at how amazing my brows looked…trust me you would have too if your brows had undergone any of the pre-Gee Beauty torture mine experienced. My brows looked incredibly well groomed, they were thick, just the right length and the arches were absolutely perfect, I could not have been happier.
In addition to brow services such as brow tinting, clean up, shaping and complete brow overhaul, Gee Beauty also offers a vast array of beauty services such as makeup application and lessons, facials, tanning, faux lash application and tinting as well as an entire menu dedicated specifically to the fellas…if I were a fella I would definitely go for a service called The Sean Connery. Gee Beauty also carries some pretty amazing and hard to find beauty brands such as SkinCeuticals, Malin + Goetz, Rodin Olio Lusso, St. Tropez Tan and Talika…to name a few.
With the season in Miami getting in full swing and the holidays right around the corner, I can’t help but feeling like I got wind of Gee Beauty just in time. I mean the brows I had before seeing Natalie would have been just fine for Halloween but I would have faced some difficulty explaining them after October 31st and  I am ecstatic that now I won’t have to.
 “If your eyes are the windows to your soul, your eyebrows are the curtains.â€
I’d like to thank the anonymous beauty babe who came up with that bit of wisdom – and I’m sure eyebrow expert to the stars Anastasia Soare of Anastasia Beverly Hills would, too. Anastasia has built a legacy creating products that cater to the brow-obsessed, and her 2011 Christmas Holiday Gift Sets do not disappoint.
 I’ve been a longtime fan of Anastasia Beverly Hills, but up until now had only used a select few products. Naturally, I was psyched to see what the Holiday Sets had in store…
BRIGHT EYES, BIG CITY – Nordstrom, $39
This kit is awesome. It’s a great sampling of products that contains everything you need for a perfectly polished brow: clear eyebrow gel, tweezers, brow powder, and a selection of illuminating products that keep your eye area looking dewy. If you’re just jumping into brow shaping, this is the kit for you.
ALL EYE WANT PALLETE – Sephora, $32
This eyeshadow kit comes complete with 9 stunning neutrals, a mini mascara, and the Anastasia signature clear brow gel. The shadow lasted me through a workday, and it was easy for me to transition into a nighttime look by playing around with the colors a bit.
KISSES ON MY LIST – Sephora, $30
This limited edition gift set comes with six lip glosses in a spectrum of pouty pinks and neutral shades. Perfect for the holiday season, you’ll be looking kissable when standing under that mistletoe.
Ultimately, my favorite set was “Bright Eyes, Big Cityâ€, but any of the kits are a great way to introduce a friend (or treat yourself!) to the brand. The eye sets have a nice variety of products, with shadow highlighters and colors that suit all skin tones, and the lip gloss collection will leave your lips plump and color-perfect.
Do you use Anastasia’s products? Share your experience in the comments!
The importance of well groomed eyebrows should never be underestimated. After all, eyebrows frame our face and also has the power to transform it. Yet there are still many of us out there, who will invest in facials and top of the line skincare and makeup, but then kind of forget about the brows…or worse yet go to an inexperienced aesthetician and get our brows completely hacked in five minutes after we have spent the last three months growing them in…ok I digress.
I was given a referral (from a pretty reputable source) of a place to get my brows done before a photoshoot and ended up having a good amount of my eyebrows waxed off in a few minutes and left with horribly thin and dramatically arched brows that I have to constantly fill in (which for someone who likes to spend 5 minutes or less on her daily makeup routine, is very annoying.) Plus I cringed every time I looked in the mirror because I looked like I was constantly surprised or tired and older…sometimes all three at the same time. Being that I had just moved to South Beach and knew absolutely no one, I had no idea of where I should go to get them fixed, if that was even possible nor would I have trusted another “referral.” My only option was to continue filling them in and hope that since I was in the Sunshine State my eyebrows would grow in faster…because everything grows faster in the sunlight…right?
My brows did start growing in…to their natural shape and not the hyper arched scrawny line that was waxed on to my face. While I was ecstatic (and still continue to be) about my brows growing in, they now looked a hot mess. I needed a major brow overhaul. Lucky for me a trip to my hometown of Minneapolis, MN for my friend’s wedding was in my near future so instead of taking my chances on an unknown salon/spa and have my brows defiled, I decided to wait until I was in Minneapolis to go to the only person who understood my brows and their needs (she was actually the first person to clean and shape my brows to perfection) and immediately after booking my Flight to MN, I booked at appointment at Blink For Beauty to see THE brow guru herself, Christina Snead.
Christina has been in the aesthetics and fashion industry for 12 years and is an absolute expert, you only have to glance at her brows to know that you will be in the best of hands. The first time I saw Christina was after a makeup artist shaved off most of my eyebrows and filled them in with brow powder to hide the deed (imagine my surprise after I got home and washed my face!) I don’t know how she did it, but Christina saved me from looking like something out of Star Trek and I’ve never looked back since. I was hoping that she would again be able to work whatever magic it is she does and save my brows for the second time.
The next morning after my flight to Minneapolis, I woke up and headed straight to Blink For Beauty (I would have gone right after my flight landed but the studio is not open at 11pm). Upon walking through the door I immediately felt reassured and relaxed. The space is absolutely breathtaking. It is modern and sleek yet very relaxing, warm and welcoming…much like Christina herself. It’s always a great idea to get there a bit early to browse the great selection of jewelry, dresses and beauty products that Blink For Beauty carries, I especially love the wrap bracelets and products from Coola.
I didn’t even need to explain the torture that my brows underwent in Miami; Christina pointed out where too much had been waxed off and explained to me what she would be doing to clean them up as well as to make sure they would grow back into their natural shape. In twenty minutes my brows were transformed…as well as my entire face. No longer did I look like an surprised, angry, tired Klingon, but my face somehow looked cleaner and more refreshed. I swear her chair has magical powers because although she is removing hair from your face, she manages to make the process absolutely relaxing and painless. I always get a bit sad when the service is over because I absolutely love being in the Blink For Beauty studio surrounded by calming music, relaxing scents, the nicest aestheticians I have ever met and the pretty great, but hard to find beauty products.  When I did manage to tear myself away from Blink For Beauty, I of course, had to leave with a bracelet…
In four weeks, when my brows are again ready for a tune up, my plan is to fly to Minneapolis and once again head straightaway to Blink For Beauty. I am convinced that paying for a plane ticket is a much better choice than walking around and having people speak some weird language to me because they honestly think I might be a Klingnon (thanks to my brows) and to be honest Blink For Beauty is definitely worth the plane ticket, after all they have transformed hair removal into an art form. Now, if only I can convince founders Christina and Brook to start traveling and teaching their “art of hair removal” secrets to the rest of the nation…first stop of course would be Miami.
