How much do I love birch box ?

It's like Christmas once a month! Birch box is a service where a surprise package of curated cosmetics arrives in your mailbox for 10.00.
It's just so much fun to come home after a long day and find small treats of lipgloss and perfume!
Go treat yourself and sign up , you can even do it just once , no heavy commitments. If I could do one a week I'd be in ! It beats a combo Meal and helps me look a lot better !

Notorious Nails

You all know how i love the beauty products ! I can honestly say i knew more about Gel nails before at least half of the nail salons on the East Side of Los Angeles and Pasadena for more than a year.Finally they have gotten with the program but the idea of doing it at home is pretty cool. I've been saying for about 2 years now , if the nail polish industry takes this on it will put a big dent in salon visits !
Well friends Nutra Nail Gel Perfect is here ! Its UV light free so that is a huge plus.

Over the summer i figured since i knew so much more and was so critical of the techniques used at various salons around my neighborhood, that i bought an entire set up for myself. I have the full on light, the brushes, several gel kits,etc but it isn't easy and i found dragging the light out and setting up was a drag. I didn't click with it and i didn't really care for my own results.
Also no matter what they say it does weaken and wreck your natural nails, granted nothing like the aching damage of acrylics but its not the innocent product they claim either. No matter ,you have to suffer a bit to be fabulous so deal!

The nail kit relegated to the back of the closet i figured gels at the salon were what i would get when i felt like returning to them, however i read about the Nutra Nail Gel-Color a couple of weeks ago. The online product reviews were mixed, and i had tried there plain gel kit several times to really mixed to disappointing results. The old kit is basically superglue to strengthen, and it does shine but it also chips off in huge chunks. I was not impressed but its been a few years and i figured with new chemical innovations maybe it would be better .

I meant to get it on line but good thing i didn't my local ( and not known for being so well stocked ) CVS has a huge display yesterday, end cap and everything ! Already cleared out of many colors, but they had Flame which is a really great red.

So dear readers I'm typing away 5 minutes after application and i have to say its fabulous ! Don't know if it will last, but it went on super easy, in 2 coats its got great coverage, its shiny and awesome.
You'll have to wait for the update on wear but so far I'd say go out and try it its less trouble than even polishing your nails at home !

manic panic love

There are Hair Dyes and then there's the gold standard Manic Panic. I always start out with the Splat dye kit because it has the bleach pack included plus a great blue dye but for the up keep Manic Panic Rules.

Nothing says summer like packing on the blue , doing some chores and then washing the dye out right over the lawn. I can say this I've been doing that for about 3 years now and no grass has been killed in the process.

Expensive and Stinky

Fresh may have made a mark with great smelling products ( a la' the brown sugar series of scrubs, creams even lip items) but the Soy Face Cleanser must rank as the worst smelling most expensive cleanser in the universe. Not to mention the rank awful weird look of the product. I went in to get the charcoal series was talked out of what i wanted , ended up with this stinky mess !

Don't waste your money on the Soy Face Cleanser, gentle on the face and eyes it maybe but on the nose ........you couldn't find any harsher !

Is there anything worth buying this Spring?

I can't say enough good things about the Makeup For Ever HD foundation ! I know they are pushing it with ads that seem pretty fake " the first foundation ad not using any photo touch ups" but I'm sold.

I went to Sephora to get primarily the almost plastic looking orange lip gloss in their ads ( sephora's ad mind you) and once again met with the blank stares from the clerk that had NO idea what i was talking about. I said to her I knew i should have brought it in, its orange, its the only image in the Sephora ad in Allure/Vogue/ In Style, more blankness. In fact the last blank face read like " an Ad " what's that? You would think that a corporate machine as large as Sephora might just post their ads next to the time clock or staple a tear sheet to the paychecks, i mean come on , i expect that at Macy's but at Sephora,,,,,,,i was disgusted , and once again wondered why i didn't make a career out of my love for cosmetics.

But i digress, go get Make Up For Ever anything and everything. Yes, its expensive but there isn't a powder, foundation or lipstick that isn't worth it. I love the liners , eyeshadow too, but you all know you can replicate those items..(i actually put some crazy liners back and swapped Sephora Brands for some that day) but when it comes to foundation, money does seem to make a difference.

I am totally in love with this line, so go to Sephora and play in its section, but don't ask about the orange gloss, not even when i returned with the Ad could anyone say for sure which it was. So if you get anyone's ear, tell them they should have little signs that say , this one , this one right here,,,,yes this is the one in the Ad !

why did that link not work

I hope this works if not google coolhunting.com/culture/papergirl.php
or papergirl berlin, because that is actually where the idea began !

Papergirl Inspires Me to do Good

So in looking for something on line i came across this website and am thrilled to say i got me thinking of something that i could do that didn't just mimic Papergirl but had a charity angle to it as well.

Papergirl operates in a growing number of cities and gives away artwork.

Around Valentine's day i was in a Goodwill looking for ( yes still looking for the ABC murder books, see previous posts ) and i ended up in the T shirt aisle thinking look at all these hundreds of t shirts, so many logo's , so many " work related" give aways. In Los Angeles it seems like the number of t shirts made for any given movie must be exponential to the profit margin. Long story short it just stayed with me, so many people need free shirts but they can't actually get in the stores to get them.
That was when the Papergirl idea and the Brand You project came together !
I'm pledging to buy at least 100 t shirts in May, wash them, Tag them ( Nick o's coming up with the logo for our project)

We are going to make the act of giving the art ! ( and we want the emphasis to be on the person not the Logo's )

Our manifesto is " Not the Logo, You !)

so stay tuned for more Visuals as i get ready for my first May delivery !