CoverGirl Lashblast Length Mascara

This weekend I ventured out of my L'Oreal Telescopic Clean Definition Mascara comfort zone and purchased CoverGirl's Lashblast Length mascara. Well, let's just say I was underwhelmed. Why? Click to keep reading... I always buy black brown because sometimes plain black can be too intense. Well, it's definitely light brown. The consistency is also dry and clumpy. I had to brush my lashes 30 times just to get the mascara to show up.

Definitely NOT a good buy.

Lip Gloss

I mentioned at the beginning of the year that bright lips are going to be BIG this season. I'm not necessarily speaking of red lips - more like pinks and purples. Many beauty blogs and style magazines are saying its the return of the lipstick. I, however, cannot stand lipstick. It's mainly the taste and its ability to always land on my teeth. My solutions... Lip stains and my two FAVORITE high pigmented lip glosses - Benefit's Lip Gloss and Victoria Secret's Beauty Rush Lip Gloss (only the opaque colors like the purple shown below on the right).

You can increase the color intensity by adding more gloss to your lips, so don't be afraid to buy a dark color. They always start pretty sheer. Your lips always feel moisturized (important for dry climates) and always look shiny and kissable. Great for Valentine's Day. =)

IIDA Couture Update - Hair & Makeup

We met with the creative director of Toni & Guy at Scottsdale Fashion Square last night to brain storm the hair and makeup for our look...

Originally wanting to go for a black bob, we ended up with a long braid swept to the side. Understandably, our model wasn't too excited about chopping and dying her hair. We thought the braid embodied a natural quality that would fit with the southwest landscape theme. We will be incorporating some multi-colored hair weave.

The makeup, however, will bring about a "hard" quality to the look. We will be doing a heavy smokey eye (even more dramatic than what is pictured) - using maroon at the edge of the eye and fading into black. The lip is the opposite of this picture - we chose a nude, glossy lip.

What do you think?

Soon-to-be Hairspray Addict

Beauty confession - Until recently, I only used hairspray to keep flyaways under control when my hair was in a ponytail. Plus, I've had the same can of hairspray for the past two years.

As of two days ago, I finally took the advice of many hairstylists and beauty columns by spraying sections of my hair before curling it. Wow, all I have to say is I'm addicted.

So, here's my question to all of you...What hairspray do you use? Why? I'm in the market for a new bottle, and all I've ever really used is Dove's hairspray.

Benefit's Lust Dusters

For Christmas my sister-in-law, Nicky, gave me three shades of Benefit's Lust Dusters. They are loose shimmery powders that can be applied to your eyes, cheeks and lips. Keep reading to for a mini review...

So far I have applied them as my main eye shadow, on top of other eye shadows and on my cheeks. All in all, it's a really great affordable product (3 for $10.00 at Sephora) and works best when applied on top of a base eyeshadow. Check them out!