An Introduction.

While Teri is super busy finishing up a great feature for you that will be posted here on Wednesday, I thought I would lend a hand and write a few posts while she continues being the busy little worker bee.

But first, let me take a moment and introduce myself to you.

My name is Cindi, and around here I am the "assistant". 

I am a maniac makeup addict. I get so excited about makeup it is scary. When I attended my first CEW Beauty Awards Demonstration a few years ago, I went back to my hotel room and cried. I had two tote bags full of makeup, skin care, and fragrance products that I needed to try and vote on. And I am proud to say that I did try each and every single product I received. And I found something to love about everything I tried.

For the fun facts. I am 30 years old, married, with one little girl. I have very fair Irish skin with some freckles, medium golden blonde hair (more reddish gold than blonde), and green eyes. My facial skin is usually on the normal side, but I battle with a few dry spots in the winter. The rest of my body tends to be very dry, especially my legs. I am on a never-ending quest to find a body cream that keeps my legs soft and smooth with only one application in the day.

I absolutely adore mineral makeup. I use either Illuminare liquid foundation, Bare Escentuals, or Sheer Cover for my foundation every day.  I find that the minerals cover my redness and last all through the day. Ooooh - and I just got to try some newness from Jane Iredale, and I will be sure to report on that really soon. Beside that, I am game to just about anything.  I love trying new products and colors and am never afraid. I may cause a bit of rubber-necking from passers-by in the school line or at the grocery store. But hey, what can I say - I love to experiment with bold colors. And it is only makeup. I can wash it away at the end of the day and start with a fresh new canvas tomorrow.

I look forward to your comments, and hope to bring you a little insight into my passion for makeup and everything beautiful!

In Search of More Pink.

So my daughter, Doodles, & I (and hubby too) were at the Mall Saturday night on a mission. First plan of attack was to use her expiring 20% off coupon at Limited Too (she is 11!) and secondly, I wanted to find a few more great "Pink Products" - meaning more beauty products that were in support of BCA.

On our way to the bigger and better Sephora store (they just relocated in the Mall) as we surpassed L'Occiitane, Doodles stopped dead in her tracks and asked if I knew about this one yet. I had not seen L'Occitane's BCA entry, so we entered the store. I was so excited to see that it was a limited edition Shea Butter Ultra Rich Body Cream in which 15% of the purchase price of $36 was to benefit the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. I made the purchase - yippe - it smells divine! So far, I have only tested it out on my hands, but I will be sure to post a full review soon.

Our next stop was definitely Sephora. As we entered, Doodles thought that the entire Piink collection from Sephora was for BCA, but as I quickly explained how that was just their little collection of Piink, she didn't quite care. "It is Pink, Mom", she was squealing, and went on how she needed something from here - so I let hubby stay by her so she could touch and try everything out, as this gave me a chance to roam around to find more of what I was really looking for.

Of course, I grabbed Philosophy's Shower for the Cure ($20) as soon as I saw it. I love their 3-in-1 shampoo, bath, body washes, but I don't splurge on them that often. Well, this was the perfect chance. I love the fresh, clean scent. I stopped by the end cap of Bare Escentuals and gave their Pink Passion ($48) set a good look-over, but having not been the biggest fan of their glosses, I decided to look around a bit more to see what else I may purchase instead. That is when I made my way to the Stila section to look for their BCA It Gloss Trio, but I soon found that they were sold out already. (Mental note to myself, order one tonight - they are still there on the website!) Across from Stila, was a huge collection of makeup brushes. That is where I found Sephora's BCA Mini Kabuki Brush ($10) - which I could always use! It is so perfectly hot pink - and a great size, so that was quickly added to my basket. Almost immediately as I turned around, a few lovely ladies were holding LORAC's Perfectly Pink Blush ($25). Seeing as that was on my list to look over, I asked where they found it, and I headed on over to grab one up. The blush is just too pink for me, but not for my extremely fair sister who looks awesome in a really pink blush. It will be one of her stocking stuffers (from her baby daughter). And that got me thinking back to BE's Pink Passion set, and how my Mom might really enjoy that. So I ran back and grabbed it for her. Ooh, another present down, and Christmas shopping was not even a thought when I got to the mall. That got me thinking - I always spend about $20 on a little trinket for each of my kids teachers - and what a better way than to grab something now that will benefit BCA too. I ran over to hubby with the idea, where he asked how much I was planning on spending tonight - geez, the nerve of him, and ultimately agreeed that it was a nice idea. So I grabbed 4 more Shower for the Cures'.

So I was done - or so I thought. Right next to the register they had tubes of a pink GoSmile Morning Rush Toothpaste ($5) that I just needed to add to my order. How sweet - I hope!

Done? My poor daughter. I guess that hubby had already explained that we were on our mission to get more pink beauty items and not what "Doodles wants, Doodles gets, totally unnecessary for an 11 year old items". So, yes, we were done! To the tune of $188 - not bad.

After the $36 at L'Occitane and this, I dared not ask hubby to step into Nordie's so I could take a look see at their counters. I also knew I'd be back during the week with no one in tow. ;)

A Good Idea, but...

Bare Escentuals has created a lip palette for your every mood. Basically, what this means is that the palette contains five pearlized shades to change your lipstick.

Unfortunately, these adjusters don't do more than lighten your lipstick by adding a lustre pearl finish to it. And with most of my lipsticks, no matter which "mood" shade I chose, the result was basically the same.

I think I will give up on the mood idea, and continue to alter my lipstick appearance with my many tubes of lip glosses, as I have done for years.

A good idea, but not enough of difference to make it a winner for me.