I’ve already discussed my disenchantment with Sephora’s reward program. I like accumulating points that I can redeem for future purchases. I recently signed up for the SpaceNK Ndulge rewards program, in which you receive 1 point for every dollar spent. If you accumulate 100 points ($100), you receive a $5 Ncentive (reward), which you must use in 3 months.
SpaceNK offers a number of premium beauty brands. You may earn points by shopping at SpaceNK stores. SpaceNK has a number of boutiques within Bloomingdale’s stores. For those of you who live in the DC metro area, there is a SpaceNK boutique within the Tysons Corner Bloomie’s.
THERA°PEARL® Eye-ssential Eye Mask is an eye mask comparable to other gel eye masks, except that it contains “pearls.” THERA°PEARL® can be used hot (don’t nuke it over 15 seconds) or cold.
TheraPearl Eye-ssential Pack
I like to use it cold in the summer. While THERA°PEARL® Eye-ssential Eye Mask can be put in the freezer, I just put it in the refrigerator. I put the mask over my eyes to soothe burning cheeks after sun exposure. If the elastic band is not too constricting, you can wrap it around your neck: Allure said that cooling your neck was best to cool down.
A mindless, but potentially calming, activity (like watching fish in an aquarium) is gently pressing the mask to shift the pearls from side to side.
The THERA°PEARL® Eye-ssential Eye Mask costs $13 through THERA°PEARL®’s web site. It is widely available at drugstores and supermarkets, where you might find it for less.
NOTE: The THERA°PEARL® Eye-ssential Eye Mask reviewed for this blog was supplied as a PR sample.
While I’m fickle about skin care and makeup, I’m devoted to the LUSH Floating Island bath melt. When I last went to LUSH, I purchased several Floating Islands. I also picked up LUSH’s Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter, a first for me.
I love LUSH Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter! It’s a thick,thick cream for your cuticles. Lemon extract is first on the ingredient list, followed by emollient natural butters and oils. Lemon brightens the nails.
LUSH Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter is the best thing that I’ve found to treat my dry, ratty cuticles. It’s fun to use, because it smells so good. When you compare this with Sally Hanson cuticle creams, for example, LUSH Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter, at $17 for a 1.5-oz tub is a good value.
I like LUSH Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter so much that I’ve added it to my favorite hand, foot, and nail products:
I was pleased to receive a sample of Natural Essentials Healing Dry Oil for dry or damaged hair. It includes exotic oils from all around the world, including coconut oil, which is widely used as a hair treatment in tropical climates, and camellia oil, which is part of traditional hair care in Japan. Its fragrance transports you to a tropical paradise, with piña colada in hand.
Natural Essentials Healing Dry Oil
One word about the brand’s name: “Natural” refers to the oils themselves, not to the formulation. Like Moroccanoil, Natural Essentials Healing Dry Oil contains silicones and other ingredients that you wouldn’t consider “natural.” Natural Essentials hair care products do not contain sulfates, parabens, drying alcohol, phthalates, gluten, or artificial colors.
As can be expected, Natural Essentials Healing Dry Oil delivers a silky smooth finish.
I also received:
Natural Essentials Strengthening Dry Oil for normal to dry hair ($10/1.5 fl. oz.)
I’ve been disappointed with the performance of sulfate-free shampoos. They don’t do a good job of cleaning the scalp, but Natural Essentials Nourishing Shampoo does a better job than a couple of other sulfate-free shampoos that I’ve received.
Natural Essentials Healing Dry Oil ($10/1.5 fl. oz.) and other hair care products are available at select Walgreens, Harmon Discount and Bed Bath & Beyond stores. For more information, check out the Natural Essentials web site.
I am a fan of beauty.com – and I’m not saying this just because I’m an affiliate of beauty.com. Beauty.com offers many premium brands, with terms more attractive than those of Sephora.com:
Single checkout with drugstore.com, which means that you can stock up on things that you might find at CVS, Walgreens, and Rite-aid while you are shopping for beauty. There’s more: for example, I bought a Northern Light desk lamp through drugstore.com to manage SAD.
Credits of 5% off every order that you can redeem later. Sephora offers a crummy sample for 100+ points earned (or $100+ spent) – I say “crummy” because often I don’t care for the samples offered.
Lower threshold for free shipping (Sephora.com’s is $50)
Well, beauty.com/drugstore.com increased its threshold for free shipping from $25 to $35, but still it’s a better deal than Sephora.com. Of course, you will not find all the same brands that you might find at Sephora.com.
PS If you join Ebates, you get cash back every time you shop online – on top of the beauty.com/drugstore.com credits earned. The going rate on Ebates is 5% for beauty.com/drugstore.com.
Can you tell that I’m a fan of Leonard Cohen? I couldn’t resist LUSH Gorilla Perfume (both solid and spray) in 1000 Kisses, which is inspired by Leonard’s song 1000 Kisses Deep, or rather a rendition of the song by Madeleine Peyroux. LUSH Gorilla Perfume in 1000 Kisses was one of my picks for my Valentine’s Day Gift Guide.
LUSH Voice of Reason Gorilla Perfume
Now LUSH has come out with 9 new Gorilla Perfumes. I have to try Voice of Reason, which was inspired in part by Leonard: his face is even on the label.
Here is how LUSH describes its Voice of Reason Gorilla Perfume:
Inspired by literary figures like William Burroughs and Neal Cassady and wordsmiths like Gil Scott Heron and Leonard Cohen, this scent conjures the Beat Generation and spoken word artists congregating at street corners, basement clubs and coffee shops. Strong aromas of French Gitane cigarettes and espresso with sandalwood and tonka bean as the main ingredients.
I had a chance to sample Voice of Reason Gorilla Perfume and it really smells of tobacco. It would make a fine men’s fragrance.
Prices for Voice of Reason Gorilla Perfume:
$24.95 for 0.3oz
$59.95 for 0.8oz
$60.05 for 0.9oz
$89.95 for 1.4oz
$90.95 for 1.5oz
$174.95 for 3.1oz
The 9 new Gorilla Perfumes will be available at select LUSH stores across North America and lushusa.com. The stores are:
Detroit, Partridge Creek (limited time)
Portland, OR
New Oreleans
Chicago, Bucktown location
Los Angeles, Glendale location (limited time)
Austin
New York City, Union Square
Philadelphia, Walnut Street location
Alas, the LUSH store in Tysons Corner doesn’t sell the 9 recently introduced Gorilla Perfumes. It did, however, have testers available.
The DC Metro Area hosts a large Asian community, and there are many stores that cater to this market. Today I’ll introduce you to some Asian beauty stores in the DC Metro Area.
– to see place markers
More Shiseido in Fairfax Circle carries Shiseido, Clé de Peau Beauté, Enprani skin care and makeup, skin care sets, face mask sheets, Darkness beauty implements from Korea, and some unexpected items (underwear!).
Lotte Plaza in Chantilly features a comprehensive selection of international foods. Grocery shopping in its produce section is a contact sport. There are so many shoppers there that you can’t maneuver. Bunny LaRue wrote:
Lotte Plaza is great. I have seen no less than two fist fights there. When they first opened I made the mistake of trying to get some shrimp, I nearly lost my arm. The lady that runs Cinderella is really nice.
Which brings us to the next shop off the beaten beauty path: Cinderella, which is located in the courtyard of Lotte Plaza. Cinderella carries a wide variety of face mask sheets (which I predict will be the next big thing to come out of Asia after BB cream), Korean skin care, Darkness beauty implements, and cheap costume jewelry. Don’t let the crowds and craziness dissuade you from going!
While I love shopping at Lotte Plaza for the all the fun things that I can find, Super H Mart in Fairfax is brighter, lighter, and, dare I say, cleaner than Lotte Plaza. Never mind that when I entered the store, Gangnam Style was blasting through the speakers!
Within Super H Mart is the Amore store, which carries high-end cosmetics and skin care brands from Korea’s Amorepacific Corporation. The displays are as elegant as anything you’d might find in an upscale department store: skin care sets from Sulwhasoo, Laneige, and IOPE are presented on back-lit display shelves. I was surprised to find the Sulwhasoo face powder compacts that I wrote about at the Amore Store. IOPE color cosmetics are also found there. As can be expected from a Korean beauty emporium, Amore carries Darkness beauty implements and face mask sheets.
Those Sulwhasoo LE powder compacts!
Across from Amore is the Shiseido store, which carries Shiseido and Clé de Peau Beauté color cosmetics and skin care from Shiseido, Benefique, Qiora, and SK-II.
BTW SK-II is actually a P&G brand, which is why Allure mentions SK-II’s pricey face mask sheets with MUA Pat McGrath, who’s P&G’s global creative director for its beauty brands (Cover Girl, Max Factor, Dolce & Gabbana, and SK-II).
Make Up Plus within Lotte Plaza in Silver Spring carries Clio makeup from Korea and, of course, skin care, face mask sheets, and Darkness beauty implements.
eCosway is a shoppers’ club in which you pay a $20 VIP membership to get discounts. For $60, members can recruit other members, who can recruit other members … in other words, a MTM or MLM scheme. Cosmetics and skin product lines include Beauty Code, Bioglo, L’élan Vital, and Colour Sense. I suspect that these are all eCosway brands. eCosway also sells cleaning supplies, nutritional supplements, and more. Does it sound like Amway, but with a brick-and-mortar store?
The Style Page interviewed Trae Bodge in 2009, and also published a Get The Look article on Trae’s Bronze Goddess look (a perennial for summer BTW, so you might want to check it out). I decided to catch up with Trae and find out what she’s been doing since 2009. Trae writes:
Since we last spoke, a lot has changed! In late 2009, I began to question whether I was still growing professionally in my position as Creative Director of Three Custom Color Specialists. While my time with Three Custom was incredible in so many ways, I realized I needed to see what else was out there. My assumption was that I would land in the corporate beauty space, either in product development or communications, however, as I interviewed, I began to wonder whether I was travelling down the wrong path particularly because my skill set was so broad, which tends to be a detriment rather than an advantage at many corporations.
While I interviewed, I freelanced in a variety of areas, including product development, copywriting, marketing and editorial, and discovered that I really enjoyed writing about beauty, lifestyle and consumer spending for my favorite client, the Real Deal by RetailMeNot.com. I continued to interview at beauty corporations, but the more I wrote for RetailMeNot, the more troubled I was by the thought that were I to accept a role in corporate beauty, it would mean leaving behind the work I loved.
Coincidentally, right around this time, there was a noticeable uptick in the communications and marketing efforts at RetailMeNot. I made them aware of my media experience with Three Custom Color Specialists in hopes that there might be an opportunity for me in that area in addition to the work I was already doing for them. It turned out that they were just starting to look for a consumer spokesperson who could write for the blog and represent the brand in the media in a way that was authentic to the company culture. Not only had I been writing for the company for some time now, but I am notoriously frugal, so it was a great fit! I have been in my new post for a year, and I love it! In addition to writing about two blog posts per week, I share my shopping and saving tips on outlets like the Today show, Better.tv, CBS On the Couch, CNN, numerous FOX, ABC, CBS and NBC affiliates as well as national and local radio networks across the country.
Tangee Natural lipstick is an iconic lipstick: just read the testimonials from women even older than The Style Page (!) They fondly remember Tangee Natural as their first lipstick.
First of all, let’s get one thing out of the way: “Natural” refers to the lip color, not the ingredients. While Tangee Natural is bright orange in the tube, it turns to a soft blush rose on the lips.
Tangee Natural lipstick
The soft blush rose color stays on, and Tangee Natural feels comfortable on the lips. This lipstick would suit women with fair to light skin tones with blonde to light brown hair. As I have dark brown hair (from the bottle!) and a light complexion, I need a deeper shade of lipstick.
Tangee Natural’s appeal is that it’s an iconic lipstick. This is one lipstick that cries out for retro-packaging: Gabriela Hernandez, are you listening?
Cold Cream 'n' Roses 
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