Best. Lipstick. Ever.

I'd never even heard of this company when I read about this new lip product on my favorite beauty blog of all time, The Non-Blonde. This is what she had to say:

This Cle de Peau lipstick is one of the softest, smoothest lipsticks I've tried. It's almost like a balm, but with great coverage and excellent pigment (though some of the lighter shades are a bit more sheer). The staying power isn't as amazing as the regular lipsticks, but there's only so much you can expect from a super moisturizing lip color. I chose no. 117, which as you can see is a reddish plum, but I already see a couple of others in my future.

My lips were cracked and miserable, so I headed out to Neiman-Marcus, the only place in San Francisco with a Cle de Peau beauty counter. I took vl_redreign with me, and they did a complete skincare and makeup makeover on me -- and it was lots of fun! I like all the products I've tried so far, but this lipstick is truly the softest, silkiest, most balm-like lip color I've ever used, including some of the best "natural" and some of the most expensive designer brands on the market.

I, too, am a non-blonde, and I ended up with 117, the same color in the photo above. I also bought 114, which was basically the same color as my natural lips, to use mostly as a lip balm. It works better than my actual lip balm! There's a new color, 123, which I haven't tried yet, but looks nice in the sample colors on the website.

Now, the big drawback: The cost. I'm used to forking over $30 for Chanel lipstick, which dries out my lips if I don't slather balm over and under it. This stuff is FIFTY BUCKS, yo. But honestly, it's just that good.

I have now purchased Cle de Peau products three ways: In the store (fun but not convenient for me), on the N-M website, and by simply phoning the local beauty counter directly. Everyone's been very helpful, sends or gives me buckets of free samples, and seems to bend over backwards to let me try things and then exchange them if they don't work out. I'll write about their skin care line later, but for now, my verdict on the Extra Silky Lipstick is: worth the price and then some.

So, testdog65  gave me a Sephora gift certificate for Solstikwanzanukkamas this year, and I used it to buy some new eyeliner pencils. I've been using Chanel, but they seemed just a bit too smeary for me. But all the others I've tried have been too hard and irritated my skin.

I bought the Sephora "Slim Pencil" for eyes, and it went on easily and didn't smear. It also lasted longer than the Chanel -- no doubt because it didn't smear, LOL.

Best of all? Five bucks each.

I'm thrilled! Thanks, testdog!

Look what I won on Ebay!!!

These shoes are fierce!!!

Also....

OMG!!! I was looking on the MAC site at the Spring/Summer collections, and they are coming out with this one shade called Violetta!!! *SQUEEEEEEEEEEEE* I so MUST possess this when it comes out.....yes!!!

 Uh, hello? *peers around asylum door* I just joined and hoped I could rant about my freckles/negative body image for a little while...?

The weather outside is frightful, but the spring makeup ads are delightful. Or so Nordstrom tells me.

I got a little email today from my BFFs at Nordstom's Chanel counter, letting me know the spring 2008 colour cosmetic collection was in. (Why is it that throwing that extra "u" in the word makes it just so much more chic?)

Unfortunately me and spring colours not so much, including these, but for those less wintry than I.... it's all here.

The other good news is that with each purchase (limitations apply blah blah blah) you'll get a free sample of their new and not yet available in stores anywhere for any price although when it is, I guarantee it will be a big one, Sublimage Serum. The Sublimage line is very costly and much beloved by those who use it, so it might really be worth it if you already want to try some of these pretty things.

On second glance, perhaps I will try this new lipstick in "Frivole," after all.

I have mild rosacea. When I was in my 20s, I had what I thought was "acne," which I'd had continuously since my teens. But at some point, it stopped being adolescent acne and became rosacea, or what we called then "adult acne."

Since there was no web and very little public awareness of even the existence of rosacea, I had no idea that I had it. I had, I thought, "adult acne." And "sensitive skin," which to me meant that I burned easily and everything made me break out.

I thought that acne was caused by too much oil on your skin, so I used things that de-oiled me. Which of course made it all worse.

One day I was talking to a skincare educator from Aveda, who handed me a small bag of Aveda's "sensitive skin" line, and asked me to just try it. I did. And within days, my acne cleared up, never to return.

My pores got smaller, my skintone evened out, and I actually used to have total strangers compliment me on my skin.

I have really really dry skin on my forehead and on my cheecks right under my eye area. Can anyone recommend a good, but inexpensive moisturizer? Please and thank you.

Also, I bought Bare Minerals yesterday from Sephoria, and I used it today. I can't tell a difference from my skin from before I put it on to after. No, really. I can't.

I've been experimenting with every kind of foundation you can think of: powder, liquid, etc. My problem is my skin is oily, I have acne (ugh, I thought I was over the acne thing when I was a teenager. How wrong I was!), and I am starting to see deep pores, and of course, I have the whole eye bag thing going on. I like the powder foundation, such as Bare Escentuals, but it doesn't cover enough of my problem areas. As far as liquid foundation, ugh, what can I say? It covers MOST of my flaws, but not all. I have to buy oil-free makeup, but alas, as soon as I do the whole moisturizer - foundation - concealer - powder thing, my face starts looking very distorted in color. Plus, with the oily skin thing, it makes my foundation start to break down immediately.


Any recommendations as to foundations I should try? I'm at my wits end trying to keep everything covered.

I really do need to find a sugardaddy or something, because my sister kidney wasn't overly keen on being sold for me to buy more shoes.


Oh, and I've found the best site ever. It's called Three Custom Color Specialists. I found it while browsing Isaac Mizrahi's designer site, and Three Custom is the best thing ever. If you've been hanging on to a bit of lipstick, eye shadow, blush, etc. this company can custom mix it for you. You just have to send a sample for them to work with to make sure they get the color right. I don't know whose idea this was but it as brilliant. How many people hang on to a tiny bit of makeup hoping to find a color that's "close enough"?

As a woman of color, it's sometimes hard to find what you want as far as makeup is concerned.

We tend to have dry skin, or, Ebonically speaking, we be ashy a lot.

I have yet to find a soap or body wash that doesn't dry my skin to crocodile texture, a lotion that helps with the dryness that isn't thick as cream. I despair.

However...I have made a discovery about my other problem.

Makeup.

Way back in olden times, when I was single and could spend all my hard-earned on me, I found a Fashion Fair counter. Fashion Fair is for women of color, and they used to have the most amazing products. My favorite was a shade of lipstick called Chacolate Raspberry. It even smelled divine. I cherished it, and believe it or not, I still have it. The original tube that I bought way back in 1985.

Let it not be said that I am not a pack rat.

Thing is, once I moved to Oregon, it was hard enough finding other black people, let alone products for them. Unless one wanted to brave the ridiculous maze otherwise known as Portland, one was left wanting. And I was, forever.

Until now.

Now I'm in the Bay Area, and I have just discovered a Fashion Fair counter...in the mall 5 minutes away from my house.

Red is a happy camper.

And come January, you know, when I have money again, I am taking my fabulous ass to Macy's, hitting up the Fashion Fair counter, and spending a ridiculous amount of money to make myself fabulous again.

Think of it as my New Year's resolution. Start with the face, end with the feet.



Sigh.

I was rummaging around my makeup case, so I figured I would post what I had in my case and my opinions of it.

Disclaimer: My opinions do not represent the management of this asylum. XD

( Mascaras Ahoy! )

I went to Seattle recently, and brought with me a sample of CHANEL INIMITABLE MASCARA MULTI-DIMENSIONNEL sent to me by my BFFs at Chanel. I was getting ready to go out, and put it on, and immediately let out a loud squee of joy, because never in my life have I seen my lashes transform so totally as they did with that one stroke of the brush.

This stuff is unbelievable. It's what I always thought mascara should be and never was.

Okay, it's what I always thought my LASHES should be and never were.

It's not waterproof, but they have a waterproof formula I haven't tried. It lasts all night and even when I sometimes "forget" to take it off before I go to bed, amazingly doesn't leave dark rings under my eyes the next day.

This is the best mascara I've ever used, by which I mean, until now I had never actually used mascara. I'd used black stuff that went on my lashes and then betrayed my hopes and dreams.

Since I was in Seattle, I immediately ran out and bought two tubes at the original Nordstrom.

I love this holiday special edition lip collection from Chanel, but I won't buy it because hello... who would ever USE it and ruin the pretty flowers? I'm just saying.