The Beautiful Blog

PlantLove™ Botanical Lipstick
What it is:
A lipstick tube made entirely out of corn - a renewable and abundant resource. This environmentally-friendly innovation also emits less greenhouse gases, which many scientists believe to be the major cause of global warming. The outer carton is made of flower paper embedded with real flower seeds. Simply moisten, plant, and wait for a bouquet of wild flowers to grow!

What it is formulated to do:
Smooth and silky, the innovative botanical formula is infused with Orchid Complex™ and meadowfoam seed oil as well as jojoba and shea butter. Not only that, but it’s environmentally friendly, containing no mineral oils or petroleums.

What else you need to know:
CARGO is donating two dollars from the sale of every shade to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The PlantLove™ seeds we sow today affect future generations so we are investing in the earth and our children for the future of the planet!

Blue jeans are American’s uniform - we play, we work, we date - we wear our jeans - A LOT!  It’s tough to find a great pair of jeans so here are a few tips for you!
1.  Avoid Mom jeans like the plague… you know, high waisted, elastic, too short - I  know they may be comfy but they make your butt look big, your thighs look wider, and your legs look shorter.  Just don’t do it!

2.  If you don’t know what looks good on you, ask the opinion of  a brutally honest friend.  Don’t take kind friends jean shopping, lol.

3.  If you don’t know what looks good on you, opt for wide leg, on the long side,  a very dark wash, and make sure it has a little ’stretch’ in the fabric.

4.  Try, try, again!  Give yourself time to find ones that you like - I recommend going to a huge department store and try on as many different brands, styles, and sizes as you can stand.  Once you find a style and brand you like you can always go back and get them again (until it’s time for an update, but I digress).  Take your best friend, a HUGE mocha latte, and have fun together. 

5.  Try www.zafu.com  - you can answer a few questions and they’ll make suggest for you.  Of course, it just so happens that all the jeans I liked (out of the 29 suggestions) were around $200!  But if you find a pair you love, that look great on you and you can wear them over and over and over, it’s worth the investment.

My favorite pair of jeans??????  Are from TARGET!!!! They were $19.99 and I practically live in them.  Go figure!

Happy jean shopping and have a beautiful day!

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run his/her fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone. People, even
more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and
redeemed; never throw out anyone.
Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of
each of your arms. As you grow older, you will discover that you have two
hands; one for helping yourself, and the other for helping others.

We all have them….  those bloated, icky days, when we look in the mirror and see….. ugh, fat.  Maybe its er, that time of the month, or maybe we just indulged in a few too many potato chips.  But the results are the same - bloated, puffy, and we feel like nothing fits.  We look and in the mirror and feel even worse!

I like to have a couple of ‘fat day’ outfits… something that hides the bloat and makes me feel thinner.  For casual days - have a rockin’ pair of blue jeans that you LOVE, just make sure they have a little bit of stretch to them or you won’t be able to zip them on a fat day! (I highly recommended investing in one pair of really great jeans that you can wear again and again rather than a bunch of soso pairs).  Wear a really great, flowly top:  a peasant shirt, a baby doll top, an empire waisted blouse - whatever suits your personality.  The shirt should be loose and come down over your belly to hide the bloat!  For dressy days, my favorite outfit is a pair of loose, flowy black pants with a sleeveless long, cowlneck top.  It hid EVERYTHING, but the clinginess factor still made me look thinner.  It didn’t hurt that it was all black!   Avoid tucking in your shirt or wearing a tight top.  Pair your outfits with some great accessories - chunky, eye catching jewelry, a cool scarf, a great bag.  Do something a little extra fancy with your hair or makeup and you’ll draw attention far far away from that belly bloat. Some light activity and drinking enough water may help it go away faster.

Second - try to avoid the bloat to begin with!  Salty snacks, bubbly drinks, too much alcohol, extra carbs, and PMS are all typical culprits.  Eat healthy, exercise, and drink lots of water! 

Try to remember that while you meet feel huge, most people really won’t notice.  They’re too busy worrying about their own bloated belly!!!

Have a beautiful day!

I love the new spring colors!!!

At the fashion shows, makeup artists experimented with live-wire colors in shocking combos like orange and purple, Kelly green and red, and spots of bright blue just about everywhere (even on the lips!). The trick to wearing lots of vibrant colors at once is to make sure the undertones match. And, try using the color in an unexpected place—a flash on your lashes (ahem, Longo’s brilliant new mascaras), or, Make Up For Ever’s Flash Color in Pale Blue 20 as eye liner. Make Up For Ever Flash Color, $17 Vincent Longo Vibrant Eye Waterproof Mascara, $24 Dior Dior Addict High Shine Lipstick, $25 Pop Beauty Lid Neon, $22 Push the limits of reality with spring’s newest mascaras. Guerlain Le 2 uses two different brushes—a big one for length and volume; a tiny one that’s tilted seven degrees for super precision—to achieve unbelievable lashes. Smashbox Bionic Mascara is ionically charged, binding to and volumizing lashes with magnetic force (really!). LORAC introduces an innovative four-sided brush for a multitasking mascara that literally does it all, and CARGO’s blu_ray™ Mascara was created to look perfect on High Definition TV—making you ready for your close-up, in HD, that is. Smashbox Bionic Mascara, $19 Guerlain Le 2 de Guerlain Mascara, $35 LORAC Visual Effects, $19.50 CARGO blu_ray™ Mascara, $20 Look neo-classy in spring’s boisterous spin on glamour. When it comes to shadow, gold is the new beige. It’s the light, sparkly, warm-weather neutral that works day to night. We love smudging it on a little imperfectly; the refined texture of this season’s luxe cream and powder shadows made even a purposely-sloppy application look gorgeous. Add a succulent coral pucker—matte or shiny, whichever you prefer—and you’ve got the most classic look of the season. LORAC Eye Shadow Gold, $17 Shiseido The Makeup Hydro-Powder Eye Shadow H12 Lemon Sugar, $23 Tarte Double Dose Acerola Rush, $21 Sephora Brand Maniac Mat Long-Wearing Matte Lipstick Mat 07, $12 Spring’s freshest runway looks conjured up Botticelli’s famous Birth of Venus painting—fresh skin, nude lips, and glowing cheeks epitomize today’s modern Madonna. Score the look with some of spring’s most exciting new products—Hourglass’ gorgeously addictive foundation (our creative director is hooked), Stila’s brilliantly strategic contouring kits (hello, cheekbones), Benefit’s super-fresh Thrrrob powder, and NARS’ new nude gloss which—thanks to a touch of apricot—is wearable on every skintone. Hourglass Veil Fluid Makeup Oil Free SPF 15, $60 Stila Face Contouring Trio, $38 Benefit Cosmetics Thrrrob, $28 NARS Lip Gloss Greek Holiday, $24 From eggplant to violet to burgundy, purple lids are spring’s most avant-garde trend. On the runways, purples were given an Impressionist flare; different tones and textures were layered for a shimmering, Water Lilly-like effect. This approach may seem dramatic, but it’s actually quite wearable. The light, shiny highlighters will soften the darker purples—start out bold, and take the color down with highlighter till you reach your perfect degree of purple haze. Laura Mercier Liquid Eye Liner Bordeaux, $22 Stila Matte Eye Shadow Batura, $18 Urban Decay Loose Pigments Yeyo, $20 Too Faced Galaxy Glam Eye Shadow Super Nova, $19.50 Lips stains that give a fresh, slightly rouged, just-been-kissed look are hot for spring. We love this new crop of stains because they’re moisturizing (stains and chapped lips decidedly don’t mix), infused with good-for-you antioxidants, and many (Stila, Too Faced and Smashbox) can actually personalize their color to a shade that looks best on you. Now that’s a kiss we want. Stila Cherry Crush Lip & Cheek Stain, $24 Smashbox O-GLOSS Intuitive Lip Gloss With Goji Berry-C Complex™, $22 Too Faced Mood Swing, $18.50 Sephora Brand Lush Flush Wine Lip & Cheek Stain, $10

For the beach lover… you can’t get any closer to nature than this!  Great for those winter days when you can’t put your toes in the sand, lol. From www.essentialsbycatalina.com

2 Tablespoons Canola oil

2 Tablespoons beach sand

3-5 drops rosemary oil

Combine and mix into a paste using a fork. Massage scrub onto feet, concentrating especially on problem areas. Rinse off with warm water and pat dry.

Karite, aka Shea Butter, means life.  Shea butter is a wonderful moisturizer with great antioxidents and supposedly healing abilities.  You’ll find it is becoming popular in a lot of high end and eco-friendly lotions and skin care products.  L’Occitane sells an itty bitty tub for almost $40!  But you can purchase it at Brambleberry.com for less than $7 a pound. If you’re into organic (I love to purchase organic whenever I can!) visit Essentialwholesale.com for about $22 per pound. You can use it plain or melt it and add a few drops of essential oil.  Or whip it in your KitchenAide for a frosting like consistency.  According to the Shea Institute, it is good for dry skin, blemishes, wrinkles, and sunburn, just to name a few. 

What a great way to beat the winter blahs and dry skin at the same time! 

Get your caffeine buzz and kissable lips all in one place - Spazzstick lip balm.

This cool cool stuff is made in Alaska!  It’s lip balm with a kick - a caffeine kick!  You’ll find it in vanilla, mint, chocolate, and orange flavors.  Find out more at www.spazzstick.com.  Of course, if you like your lip balm caffeine free, check out our Lippies!

Here’s a great website for the beauty addict who wants to do it herself - www.makeyourcosmetics.com. They have a large database of recipes for making your own lotions, creams, bath soaks, makeup, and more.  The recipes vary in difficulty, ingredients, and shelflife, so spend some time poking around until you find a recipe you think is doable.  They even have links to buying some of those hard to find ingredients. 

These would make great gifts, fun things to leave for guests in a guests room, and I think some of these ideas would be great for a pre-teen birthday party, too! I can’t wait to try some!

Here’s a recipe I found intriging…

I Love My Body Butter Bars
submitted by HBN Founder and President Donna Maria

These bars leave your skin feeling soft, smoothed and sensuous. The rose and cocoa are delicious and decadent additions! This recipe can be halved, quartered, etc., to make less product.

Buy Ingredients!

Blending Procedure:

1. Measure the the butters, sweet almond oil and beeswax into a Pyrex measuring cup and place the cup into a bath of boiling water. When the wax is nearly completely melted, remove the cup from the water and stir the ingredients to thoroughly combine.
2. Allow the mixture to cool for about 1 minute before adding the jojoba oil and virgin coconut oil and stirring to ensure the mix.
3. Add the rose and cocoa absolute and stir to combine. Pour into molds of your choice. I usually use 1/4 ounce molds shaped like ovals so they fit nicely into the hands but you can use any mold you like. You can also use deodorant or other “stick” containers. (Number of bars depends on size of mold(s) used.)
4. Allow the bars to cool completely before using. Space permitting, pop them into the freezer immediately after pouring — this seems to enhance the texture of the finished bars. To use, warm a bar between your palms to transfer some of the oils and butter to your palms. Massage dry skin with your oil infused palms to soothe and moisturize. Love your body!

Going on a trip?  Taking an airplane?  Make sure you check what cosmetic items are allowed on the plane and what must be checked.  I’ve heard countless stories from friends and acquaintences about all of the beauty products they’ve lost to the airlines.   I lost the cutest little pair of cosmetic scissors that way!  I totally forgot that they were in my makeup case. It’s not only sad to lose your favorite items but expensive!  Here’s a couple of websites with approved beauty products and information, but since airline regulations are always changing your best bet is to call the airline ahead of time. 

Sephora

Bath and Body

TSA