A Lemming A Day

So yes my Lemmingista’s, I have been remiss in my posting. Doing a blog from your IPhone limits one a bit. I read & see other blogs, which are slicker, cooler, better organized and it makes me wonder if I should continue on. Tumblr does an amazing job of blogger support and I know if I had a computer I really could make this blog amazing. But enough of this “pity party”! On with the post!

So I received a 20% off coupon to ULTA on your ENTIRE purchase, and decided to indulge myself today. The major thing I picked up was the Smashbox set you see below. Actually quite an amazing value, it included blush/highlighter, lipgloss, a palette of 6 very generous eyeshadows, and a nice sized sample tube if their Photo Finish primer all for $42!!!!! The eyeshadow palette alone was worth that.

The NYX shadow palette was $9.59 and the colors are very soft and pretty. Then 2 of Prestige Total Intensity liners, which are freaking amazing!! My favorite is Bold Brown. Then a few little goodies from the sample bins and the Mint Green Polish is for a friend of mine who loves unusual nail polish colors.

So what have you hauled lately????

So, I have never been a huge fan if Smashbox, EXCEPT, every Tuesday and Thursday @ their website they have what they call “Let’s do Lunch”, where they will give you a FULL size item free with the purchase of any other item between 9:00am and 2:00 pm Pacific Standard Time. So being on the East Coast when noon hits, I generally see what’s on offer and have scored some nice values from time to time.

What’s even better is the “Curtain Call” Area. This is the sale area where you can pick up alot of their discontinued and limited edition items for half price. AND……with “Let’s do Lunch” score a freebie AND……they always give a nice sample AND……. (deep breath), if you register for “pretty points” you score even another nice sample!!!

So last year Smashbox had this amazing “Muse” eyeshadow palette with these soft pretty colors but it was $48 so I passed it up. When I checked the offer this past Thursday, I saw the palette was on Curtain Call for $24!!! SCORE!!! So I ordered it, plus got a pretty double ended lipgloss and a nice mascara sample from my “pretty points”. It was delivered today!!! Oh did I forget to mention FREE and FAST shipping too???!

Yeah, so Smashbox is seeing ALOT more love from me!!!

So my Lemmingista’s, want nice makeup at amazing prices with frebies and free shipping?!! Go to Smashbox and then tell me what you get!!! Hmmmm and tomorrow’s Tuesday too!!!

Laura Geller is a nice Jewish lady who sells her line of makeup products on QVC. During the recent snowstorm that hit the Northeast she was on selling her products, and having nothing better to do and my IPhone close by, I indulged in a few items.

Now by way of explaination Ms. Geller is most famous for her Spackle makeup primer (refer to previous post) and her “baked” blushes, eyeshadows and even eyeliners. She claims these are mousses of several colors blended and baked for 24 hours on TerraCotta pans in ovens in Italy. Ok, I’m a half-Italian girl and if you tell me it’s from Italy I’ma buy it! Her line was available on Sephora, but it has since been pulled. As far as I know you can now only buy it from QVC, her website or her store on Madison Avenue in New York, NY.

Ms. Geller also claims she attended and learned her makeup artistry skills under a famous Theatrical makeup artist. She did makeup on Broadway shows for many years before opening her own makeup studio and then creating her own line and selling to the masses on television.

I have previously purchased some if her baked blushes which are gorgeous swirls of harmonious colors. These are called Blush and Brightens. The foundation is called Balance and Brighten and the Bronze is, what else, Bronze and Brighten. She also produces regular foundations, lipsticks and eyeshadows.

So, the items that intrigued me were her Tropics lipstick and gloss and the Eye Rimz eyeliner.

The Tropics lipstick & gloss got me because Ms. Geller dais that the lip color was a best seller in her store called #46 and that this color looked good no matter who she used it on. So wanting to see for myself I ordered it. Well, Ms. Geller is true to her word. This lipstick looks corally in the tube. However, when swatched on my hand I see pink, brown, gold, a hint of red, and a bit of bronze. Perhaps it is this mélange of colors that makes it so adaptable. I know I was very pleasantly surprised when I applied it and it looked good. The gloss however is a bit gritty, but does add a nice shine. It can be used on it’s own, but I’m not sure if I ever will utilize it that way.

The Eye Rimz eye liner is a baked liner that can be applied wet or dry and comes with it’s own brush. To get the best and most intense effect I prefer to apply it wet. Just run the tip of the brush in a little water and then run it over the product. When I used it this way it gave an intense line of color and wore fairly well with little to no smudging. The amount of product is very generous and will most likely last for quite some time.

So, you should help a nice Jewish girl out and help her make a living and buy some of makeup, ok, my lemmingista’s??? Oy Vey!!!

So tonight here in the NorthEast we are experiencing a MAJOR snowstorm. So, of course, I did what everyone does when a snowstorm hits and went to the drugstore to stock up on toilet paper.

Well for some reason the thought of being snowbound for the majority of the weekend inspired me to haul, knowing that I probably would not be going out of the house until Sunday afternoon to work @ Macy’s, if at all.

So these lovely little pretties caught my eye and I just HAD to have them.

The eyeliner was actually recommended to me by my good friend joeybunny of MUA who sometimes writes for PinkSith’s blog and who will, hopefully, one day, do a guest spot here @ the Lemming. Unfortunately my Rite Aid only had Dark Brown and Teal in stock and, despite my previous profession of loving teal eyeliners, when trying any new products, I usually try brown first, because that’s a staple color for me. Joeybunny claims this wears extremely well. All I know is after I swatched it took some serious rubbing with remover to get it off my hand.

The two shadows just attracted me because, basically, I never met a neutral I didn’t like and these are billed as “Satin Finish” which upon swatching proved to be true. There were a variety of other colors, but the snow was coming and I didn’t have time to take a pic for you, my dearest Lemmingista’s.

The gloss was just, well, PINK! I love pink!!! So I grabbed it and made a mad dash for the checkout clutching my goodies and a four pack of Scott Toilet Tissue.

So my dear Lemmingista’s, are you enduring foul weather? What have you hauled lately?? Tell me your Lemmings!! That’s what we’re all about here, RIGHT?

A very famous commercial asks “What’s in YOUR wallet?”. Well, a makeup junkie is always curious to see what’s in your cosmetic bag. You may have discovered some fabulous product she didn’t know about or a new use for an old product.

Now, you may be looking at the pictures below and asking, ummmm, do you honestly need and use all that??? Well No, not really, BUT I MAY need it. You see, to me, this is a Security Blanket of sorts, if I have all this with me, at any given moment I am prepared for a beauty crisis. I know my cheeks can be blushed, fading foundation fixed and lips perfectly glossed. It’s insurance in makeup form. Should the Apocolypse come, I need not fear, my trusty makeup bag is well stocked to see me through a nuclear winter!

Another thing you may notice is repitition of a particular color of lipstick and gloss. Various shades, but pretty much the same thing over and over. Well yes, this is something most women have happen to them. They have one lipstick or gloss color that always works for them and they pick up the same one from multiple makeup lines. Again, security measure. You know you can rely on that one shade to always flatter you.

So essentially a woman’s cosmetic bag is her little piece if reliability in an imperfect world. Something she knows she can count on when things around her start to fall apart. If nothing else she knows she can at least have some control over her appearance.

So my very dear Lemmingista’s „„„,What’s in YOUR Cosmetic Bag??

Earlier this week I posted new Shiseido lipglosses and lipsticks and tonight I had a chance to swatch them for you. I can only say that I hope I identified them correctly.

I also discovered 6 new blushes that are eerily similar to NARS blushes. Since Shiseido owns NARS (if you work for Shiseido you can order NARS product on your gratis), I would suspect some of the colors are very similar.

Tomorrow I will post the new Sheer Mattifying Compact Makeup Colors.

Will you be buying any of these any time soon???? Let me know!

The items you see below are my HG’s (Holy Grails, see very first post). These are items I use on a frequent basis and have re-purchased.

The MAC Blot Powder I was introduced to by the lovely ladies of MUA. This is amazing stuff! It keeps your makeup in place all day without looking cakey or dry and controls shine. A word to the wise, order one shade darker than you think you need.

Urban Decay Primer Potion (UDPP) is another excellent product. A dab of this on your lids will keep your eyeshadow from creasing or fading all day.

Clinique Precious Posy blush is actually the only blush color in the entire line I use. I have actually used up one these. That’s how much I love this color. It’s also an excellent dupe for NARS Orgasm blush. I should know, I own both.

Clinique Lucky Penny eyeshadow is another product I have used up and ordered a second, if you look closely, you may be able to see where I’ve “hit pan” on this. It’s just this beautiful shimmery coppery pink with a little bit of brown undertone. It’s pretty much my “go to” shadow when I don’t know what to put on. It pretty much goes with everything.

The Bourjois Shimmering Taupe is pretty much the same as Lucky Penny, a good “go to” shadow, especially in conservative work environment. There will be MUCH more on the subject of taupe shadows later. This particular group of eyeshadow shades has an almost cult following among some makeup junkies.

NYX gloss in Chestnut is just a really pretty peachy gold gloss for not alot of $$$. These run $5 and come in huge range of shades and the formula is very nice and not at all sticky.

Last, but not least, is my beloved MAC Browset Gel in Girl/Boy which is a rusty red shade to match the color I dye my hair. I discovered this years ago after Revlon discontined theirs and cannot even begin to count how many I have used up. They run around $13-$14 and last at least 6 months or more. It has a mascara type wand and you just brush the product right into your brows and once dry it does not flake or smear. Truly a great product.

So there you have it, some of my most used and treasured products.

Tell me what yours are!!!

This is a great line of skincare and makeup. I wonder how it even got into the store where I work as a part-time cosmetic SA. It’s produced in Japan, as when the stock is unpacked all the boxes are marked Ginza, Japan. The skincare is some of the best you will find, however the color line of this brand is often overlooked. Fairly recently, however, the line hired makeup artist Dick Page to create a line of lipsticks that all supposedly contain a small amount of red pigment in each shade. They range from a gorgeous pink called Baby to a deep rich red called Dragon and came out about 6 months to maybe a year ago.

I found these beauties lurking in a tester box behind the counter and just had to photograph them for you. I apologize for the quality of the pictures as they were taken in a hurry. However, the lipsticks are named “Glowing Matte”. It seems a contradiction in terms, but I have yet to swatch these, so I’ll hold my opinion until then.

The glosses are very pretty IRL (in real life) and contain a fair amount of sparkle and judging by the color of them, I think they may be meant to be layered over the lipsticks for evening wear or to give them a little more OOOMPH!

Shiseido usuallynpigments their colors very well and these products seem to be no exception.

Happy Hunting! If you track these down and love them, let me know.