Tarte's Bridal Giveaway Contest

Oh my..."Hanky Panky" is the perfect title for this contest from Tarte Cosmetics and Hanky Panky! It’s wedding season, and it wouldn’t be the perfect wedding without the perfect bridal goodies from Tarte and Hanky Panky. Getting married? Enter to win custom gifts designed just for you and your bridal party!

One lucky bride-to-be will be the grand prize winner. She'll receive a prize valued at over $1,500. If you know someone planning to get married, please let her know about this contest!

The winner will receive a Roselyn Chemise, Garter, and Personalized Thong for herself and five bridesmaids, plus 12 signature rose thongs from Hanky Panky. Tarte will provide 50 Personalized Double-Ended Lip Glosses. Additionally, there will be a runner-up prize worth $200.

You or your soon-to-be-married friends can enter at this link. The entry deadline is June 10, so spread the word! The prizes will be shipped on July 1.

Photo courtesy of Tarte Cosmetics

Lisa Hoffman Spa Shower - Perfect for Summer

This is the time of year when a shower feels better to me than a bath. I love my relaxing soaks, but hot and humid weather makes a shower refreshing. Lisa Hoffman turns a refreshing shower into a treat with her Spa Shower products!

Each product in the Spa Shower line is available in a full size, or you can purchase the Spa Shower Packette ($9.95) that features all five products in airtight ampules that are perfect for travel any time of year. You can also try the packette if you want an introduction to the Spa Shower (these cool, travel-sized packettes are also available in Lisa Hoffman's Spa Bath).

Here's an introduction to each Spa Shower product.

The Spa Shower Cleansing Gel ($27.50) gently washes away excess oils, impurities, and dirt (yes, some of us work in the garden and get dirty) for a soft, clean finish. Like all Lisa Hoffman products, it's created using natural ingredients that are harvested from the rain forests in a sustainable manner. These ingredients nourish and protect the skin for a softer, smoother, and more radiant finish. The Cleansing Gel also hydrates the skin for increased suppleness and vitality. It has an earthy, fresh fragrance. It's scented with Lisa's Japanese Agarwood (more on that below). The Cleansing Gel is a perfect spa experience.

The next step in the regimen is Spa Shower Body Scrub ($40). During the summer, most of us bare a little more body, and we want our skin to look its best. The Body Scrub is a lightly exfoliating, cell-renewing scrub that deep cleans skin and removes excess dry skin flakes using natural exfoliants. This is a scrub that feels good. There's no suffering for beauty required!

First thing when you step out of the shower and your skin is moist, use the Spa Shower Body Oil ($36.50), a featherweight, non-greasy, and quickly absorbing body oil that's perfect for sealing in moisture after a shower. Sesame seed oil, Brazil nut seed oil, rice bran oil, acai pulp oil, and a "slew" of other botanical ingredients nourish and protect the skin against environmental and free radical damage. The Body Oil will leave your skin soft, healthy, and radiant with its slight sheen. I adore body oils, and this one is at the top of my list.

Don't want to use a body oil? Lisa Hoffman has a Spa Shower Body Lotion ($47) for you. With the same fabulous moisturizing effects as the oil, Body Lotion counts shea butter, grape seed oil, and acai pulp oil among its ingredients. Use it after your scrub, and your skin will be primed to accept its hydrating relief.

Each of these first four products comes in a pump container, which I really appreciate in or near the shower. No fumbling to unscrew a cap! Why don't all companies think about these details? A pump container can make the difference between a great product and a great product I will purchase again. Given the choice, I'll always go for a pump.

The ultimate finish to the pampering? Spa Shower Hand & Foot Cream ($35.50). This rich cream, loaded with shea butter, will leave your feet looking sandal-ready and feeling fabulous. The self-massage of my feet with Hand & Foot Cream make my feet feel loved.

The five Spa Shower products are scented with Lisa Hoffman's unique Japanese Agarwood. Lisa describes it as an earthy and fresh fragrance with notes of bergamot, spiced ginger accord, and warm amber. I'm not a "spice girl." I will admit that when I read the description and before I tried the products, I was a bit wary of the term "spiced" and the amber. Even this floral lover was impressed. Lisa's Japanese Agarwood is a nice, warm, and comfortable scent. During the Fragrance of the Year Awards in 2009, this fragrance was selected as one of the "Top Five Fragrances." Other nominees included some of the best names in beauty: Chanel, Tom Ford, and Karl Lagerfeld. Clearly, the fragrance appeals to a lot of sophisticated noses!

Just two more things...A portion of Lisa Hoffman's sales are donated to The Rainforest Foundation (our environment needs all the help it can get right now). Additionally, Lisa Hoffman Beauty donated over a million dollars worth of products to members of the military and their families. The company shipped 5,850 pieces of product kits to a local church in Honolulu, where the kits were assembled by folks from The Freedom Alliance to deliver to the USS Kidd, which docked in Honolulu for a quick stop on its way home to San Diego. Since it's Navy tradition for the sailors to return with some sort of gift in hand after a long deployment, the Lisa Hoffman kits were distributed to all 650 sailors to give to their wives, girlfriends, mothers, or friends as they disembarked the ship. In addition, Lisa Hoffman Beauty has extended a 50% discount to all military and military families to be able to purchase any Lisa Hoffman products online. I like that, and I want to extend a personal thanks to Lisa for her generosity!

Lisa's company sent me a packette set to hook me on Spa Shower. They were very successful! You can find Lisa Hoffman's Spa Collection at Lisa Hoffman's Web site and other online sources. Just Google Lisa Hoffman! You'll be happy you did.

Photo courtesy of Lisa Hoffman

Shiseido Luminizing Satin Face Color

I'm turning into a Shiseido collector! I now own multiples of several shades of Luminizing Satin Face Color ($30). That makes me a collector, right? All of them are delightful!

Characterized by its silky-smooth finish, Luminizing Satin Face Color imparts beautiful, subtly radiant color with just one swirl of the brush. It's available in both blush and highlighting shades, so you can use more than one to add depth, always with glowing results.

This wonderful pressed powder is available in six "regular"shades - four healthy, rosy blushes and two multipurpose highlighters - and three limited-edition shades that were released with Dick Page's Ocean Collection for Summer 2010.

The color lasts on my face all day. That's nice. No mid-day pale face here! There are the obvious shades for me, such as RD10 Petal (the one Renato Almeida, Shiseido's National Makeup Artist chose for me), and RS30Tea Rose, and not-so-obvious choices, like OR308 Starfish, and GD809 Shell. Then there are the gorgeous highlighters, PK107 Medusa, and BE20 Soft Beam Gold. I love them all! As with all of Shiseido's makeup products, this face powder/blusher contains ingredients that are good for your skin, something we don't always consider when selecting a blusher or highlighter.

Next time you go shopping, stop by a Shiseido counter and check these out. Don't pay any attention to how the colors look in the pan. Try them! You will be surprised. I was. You know how makeup artists recommend that women with fair skin use blushers a few shades darker then their skin as bronzers? Shiseido's GD809 Shell works perfectly for me! It's gorgeous. It gives me such a pretty complexion, and because it's sheer, it only takes a few swipes, and I look sun-kissed.

You can find Shiseido makeup and skin care at Macy's, Nordstrom, Bloomindale's, Sephora, and, of course, Shiseido's Web site.

A few of these were sent to me by the company. I purchased a bunch of them myself. That makes me an addict, right? Err, I mean collector. I prefer the term "collector."

Photo courtesy of Macy's

Living Proof Hold Flexible Hairspray

Living Proof has a new hair spray, and it's definitely worth checking out! I saw Living Proof Hold Flexible Hairspray ($24) at Sephora last weekend. Having recently started using - and loving - Living Proof Straight Making No Frizz Styling Spray for Fine to Medium Hair, I was intrigued.

Hair spray and I have such a difficult relationship. I need hair spray, but hate hair sprays that are heavily scented or make my hair stiff as a board. That rules out a lot of respected products. So, at Sephora, the first thing I did was spray the tester on my arm to check for fragrance. This one has a fragrance, but it's fresh and citrusy. I can deal with that, especially since the fragrance fades over the day.

What doesn't fade is its holding power. It holds my style! Here's what Sephora and Living Proof say in describing it.

Hold Flexible Hairspray modernizes hairspray and allows you to maintain your style without fear of collapsing [editorial note: I assume they mean without fear of your hair style collapsing]. Featuring the revolutionary No Frizz technology, Hold is perfect for all hair types. It effectively blocks humidity, adds shine, and protects style. Hold's technology is buildable - the more you spray the firmer the hold - but without flaking and dullness.

Here, more or less, is what the can says.

Humidity is your hair style's #1 enemy - making some hair frizzy and other hair limp and flat (mine included). That's why Living Proof's scientists invented PolyfluoroEster, a new molecule featured in Hold Flexible Hairspray that prevents the damaging effects of humidity. Hold can be layered for a light or strong finish, leaving your hair soft and natural feeling.

The first time I used it, I think I held the can too close to my hair when I sprayed. As a result, I got a heavy dose. My hair is so fine, it's easy to overdo hair spray. The second time I used it, I was better with the distance and nozzle, and I succeeded in spraying just the right amount of product for an effective all-day hold. Nice!

Living Proof has developed legions of fans with its frizz-fighting products. I checked out the reviews on Sephora's Web site after I came home with my new hair spray, and they were overwhelmingly good. It appears that Living Proof has another hit on its hands!

You can purchase this hair spray at Sephora, where I got mine. Or you can buy it at Living Proof's Web site. Let me know what you think!

Photo courtesy of Sephora

Would You Wear This?

One of my rare off-topic posts...

Stella McCartney, a respected designer and daughter of Paul McCartney (which means you have to love her), focused on ruffles and color in her Spring 2010 Ready-to-Wear Collection. I was browsing a magazine last night and came across a ruffled top, which left me wanting to see the rest of the collection. That's when I came across this photo on Style.com.

Stella, what were you thinking? Would you wear this tent yourself?

Photo courtesy of Style.com

Spotlight: Victoria Stiles, Makeup Artist on the Go

Victoria Stiles, or Vicki for short, is a young, go-getter makeup artist with an impressive resume and incredible momentum in the industry. If you haven't already heard about her, you will. Remember reading this post! I'm going to introduce you to Vicki here for a couple of reasons.

• I really like her; I knew from our first contact that she's a warm, inclusive, sweet gal - someone I wanted to count as a friend.
  
• I know some of you want to know what it takes to become an established makeup artist (hint: talent and hard work).
• I'd love to share some of Vicki's everyday makeup tips with you.

Vicki had a passion for makeup in her early teens! Her parents gave her the ultimate gift, the master bedroom suite with lots of space and her own bathroom, and she turned her little suite into a makeup lab of sorts. At 14, she had subscriptions to all the beauty and fashion magazines, including Allure, of course.

Along with her passion, she had an eye. She looked at the photographs in the magazines and worked to recreate the looks she liked. Imagine how much time that took! Makeup application for photo shoots can take an hour or more, and there was teen Vicki, perfecting makeup looks in her bedroom suite. It was only natural that she started to experiment on her friends, and one thing led to another. One friend recognized Vicki's talent and asked Vicki to do her daughter's makeup for special occasions. Knowing the teenage love for all things beauty, you know that had to be a thrill for all of them - mom too.

Fast forward, and Vicki was working as a makeup artist while managing a M·A·C store. With M·A·C, she had opportunities to work with celebrities. While she enjoyed that time in her career and perfected the "M·A·C look," she really wanted more variety and greater challenge. Although she had started as a model, she wanted to be on the other side of the lens, creating looks for fashion shows and magazines.

Vicki connected with a photographer who steered her toward wedding events, where makeup artists can make or break the beauty of the event just as easily as the dresses worn by the bride and her bridesmaids - or the weather. Vicki's business grew, based on her talent and referrals by happy clients. In fact, the area "list of bests" magazine, the Washingtonian, featured Vicki (and Loyd Cassler of Armani Beauty) among the best local makeup artists last year.

She had her eye on the fashion industry, though. She got that break through will, determination, networking, and talent. Of course, having an agent helped. Agents are the enablers in the beauty industry, and Vicki was a smart gal who signed with one. Over time, she has grown her resume to include print (e.g., Capitol File, the Washington Post, and O), celebrities (once, with little notice, she flew to Paris to work with Melody Gardot on her album cover), and the runway. You can see a list of clients at Vicki's Web site. It's pretty impressive.

There was a beautiful fashion shoot in Capitol File this spring (one of the photos shown at left). It was shot at the National Arboretum. I studied it, just as Vicki might have when she was a teen, because it was so pretty. I learned from Vicki that it was shot last December, in freezing cold weather. Who would have guessed that the model, photographer, makeup artist, and others who made those pages come to life were all freezing?

Vicki is always on the go, dividing her time among weddings, editorial shoots, fashion shows, and communication and networking. She even finds time to write a blog, Makeup Artist Backstage, organize events for charity (read about Makeovers for the Cure) here), and have a fun life! At the recent Makeup Show in New York, Vicki presented a seminar on developing your online presence. You can watch the video at her blog.

I asked Vicki what advice she would give to women who want a pretty, but fast, look for everyday. Here are her tips.

• Your skin has to look good if you want to look your best, so before investing in a lot of makeup, do whatever you have to do to perfect your skin! See a dermatologist if you have skin problems, and make sure to use the right products to enhance and protect your skin. Vicki mentioned drugstore staples, Cetaphil and Olay, as accessible products that can help you keep you skin looking good. She also mentioned several Chanel products, including a cleanser, that she counts among her own must-haves.
• I specifically asked about face primers, since I have been testing primers lately. Vicki recommends Embryolisse Concentrated 24-hour Miracle Cream because it doesn't leave a film. She often uses concealer as an eye primer.
  
• Find a nice foundation.Vicki likes water-based and silicone-based foundations. She likes silicone formulas because the foundation doesn't settle into pores or expression lines. She uses Armani Luminous Silk Foundation. She also likes Face atelier foundation.
• Vicki loves Bobbi Brown's Creamy Concealer Kit.
• Vicki thinks brow grooming is very important and often overlooked. She suggests doing your research to find a pro. In the DC area, she recommends Erwin Gomez.
• For eye shadow, don't go dramatic during the day. Stick with neutrals (brown, beige, nudes, and mauve) for the lids and a vanilla shade under the brows. She recommends using a dark shadow as a liner; it's softer and more natural looking than dark liner.
• Vicki believes there are fabulous drugstore options for mascara. She likes COVERGIRL Lashblast Length.
• She prefers cream blushers for a natural look. Find one that blends seamlessly. She loves the pink and coral shades in the MAKE UP FOR EVER Flash Color Case.
• She recommended Smashbox's Artificial Light Luminizing Lotion - it's a great highlighter.
• For everyday lips, select a lipstick shade that's two shades darker than your lips. She likes shades by Face atelier and MAKE UP FOREVER. Then add a bit of gloss over your lipstick, and you will have a pretty, natural look.
• One more tip. I asked Vicki to share with you one secret tip for flawless makeup. Without hesitating, she named billybBEAUTY's foundation brush.

Vicki recently partnered with Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics to develop a new OCC Lip Tar shade, Memento (shown at right), to benefit CancerCare. OCC Lip Tar combines the longevity of a lipstick, with the ease of application of a gloss. Memento is a hybrid color, developed using colors in some of Vicki's favorite M·A·C lipsticks. Check it out!

That's Vicki in a nutshell! Passionate, talented, knowledgeable, hardworking, and giving. I hope you get a chance to meet her someday!

Vicki's photo courtesy of Nicholas LaClair
Other photos courtesy of Capitol File, Fashion Washington, and Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics

Armani Beauty Blushing Fabric Giveaway Contest Winner

Congratulations to Clarisse, who was notified by e-mail! She won the Giorgio Armani Beauty Blushing Fabric - our special weekend giveaway contest. Her number was selected by random.org. This little blusher will be winging its way to France! I already know where Clarisse lives from the e-mail she sent after she left a comment.

I want to take this moment to thank everyone who entered. I appreciated your Memorial Day wishes. Memorial Day - all things considered - is a time for reflection for me. The majesty of the surroundings at Arlington National Cemetery is pierced all too often by salutes to the recently fallen. I hope for a peaceful world.

Thank you for all your kind notes. I should reprint some of the really sweet e-mails I get from you. I appreciate them! Thank you, also, for reading Best Things in Beauty! Even when I don't see many comments, I know you're out there from Feedburner and Site Meter. ♥

With each contest, I wish I had buckets of money (for a lot of reasons!) and could send a prize to all of you. Keep entering the giveaways; you are bound to win one eventually. The odds are good!

Photo courtesy of Giorgio Armani Beauty