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Sephora’s Beauty Studio gives you exclusive, one-on-one access to Sephora’s experts. The talented people in the Beauty Studio offer complimentary, in-store Express Services to help you achieve different looks–from a classic smoky eye to an easy, every day look–in a few minutes.  The Express Services are available in-store and are quick and easy to take advantage of–no appointment or minimum purchase required!  Each of these walk-in Express Services gives customers a complimentary, step-by-step tutorial led by trained Sephora makeup artists. If you’re not sure how to wear one of the latest trends, you can check out the trend Express Services, which highlight three major trends from the current season. Among the core Express Services, learn how to deal with liquid eyeliner, false eyelashes, concealing, and flawless foundation.

Make an appointment for a 60-minute dedicated makeup session where an expert artist will create a look for you and help you learn how to re-create it (free with minimum purchase of $50) or opt for a 90-minute private session with a Personal Beauty Advisor who will help you refresh your entire beauty routine along with an expert makeup application (free with minimum purchase of $125).

And if you don’t have time to stop by in-person, the Beauty Studio has plenty of how-to videos that you can watch from home!  In the above video, Sephora PRO team member Eric Soto demonstrates just how important blush and bronzer can be to enhancing the complexion.  One great tip he mentioned is that a subtle highlight above the brow can help give it an instant lift–without the painful surgery!  He recommends powder blushes for all skin types, cream blushes for drier skin types, and cheek stains for normal to oily skin types.  If you have a cool undertone, Soto suggests using a rose, pink, or berry color.  If you have a warm undertone, he recommends using a blush in the peach or apricot family.

Get a COLORVISION Makeover!

Starting now, go to the Sephora Beauty Studio any day of the week for a complimentary lesson in how to wear the season’s hottest colors.  Or, during special event weekends, like this upcoming weekend (August 17th through 19th) and next weekend (August 24th through 26th), join makeup artists from your favorite brands, like Givenchy, MAKE UP FOR EVER, Stila, Dior, Givenchy, Hourglass, and Sephora’s makeup artists.

During your complimentary makeover you will learn how to create some of fall’s hottest looks from the brands you love and take away a special gift following your consultation (while supplies last).  Take your pick from three different looks, including Crimson Velvets, Blackest Blacks and Nouveau Purples, and let Sephora help you put your best face forward this fall! Find a store holding an event near you!

Not sure which look is for you?  Consider perusing our latest high-res galleries featuring Sephora’s COLORVISION!

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A Little Weekend DIY:  Bedazzled Shoes

There was such an overwhelmingly positive response and requests for a how-to on my Swarovski-bedazzled wedding wedges–so here you go! This was the first time I’ve ever done something like this, and the more crafting experience you have, the higher quality your work will be, but even as someone who hasn’t done a craft project in years, like myself, the results were surprisingly satisfactory There was a learning curve, so I’ve included all the things I’ve learned in this guide.

I’m not at all an expert at this, and this was my first attempt. I was inspired by a pair of Gucci heels that I saw in Vegas last month. They were, quite possibly, the most stunning, jaw-droppingly gorgeous shoes I have ever laid eyes on. I’m definitely going to attempt creating something using the black crystals next. I thought I’d try it first on a pair of satin wedges (BP Fae, $59.95, also available in black) I picked up for my wedding. They weren’t too pricey, and even if they didn’t turn out perfect, you’d never really see them since the gown goes well past the floor.

What You Need

• Pair of shoes
• Flatback Crystals/Rhinestones (approximately 15-40 gross, depending on size of crystals/area to cover)
• Adhesive (I used E6000, GemTac is also a good pick)
• Tray (to hold the crystals)
• Tweezers
• Plastic Stick

I purchased all of my supplies from Dreamtime Creations. I had no problems with the service through them, though there are other crafting websites out there, too. This retailer happened to have a sale at the time, so that’s what made me go with them.

Step-by-step guide/my experience and lessons learned…  Continue reading →

China Glaze Sun-Kissed Nail Lacquer

Is That Highlighter All Over Your Nails?

China Glaze Sun-Kissed Nail Lacquer ($3.00 for 0.50 fl. oz.) is described as a “hot highlighter yellow.” It’s exactly the color of a yellow highlighter; it has that same oddly cool undertone that makes it look almost green-tinged at certain angles; there is a fine dusting of yellow micro-shimmer that’s just the right side of noticeable even under natural light. It’s vibrant, almost neon (to me, it doesn’t quite have the same impact as a true neon). None of the yellows that I’ve swatched in the past are remotely close to this–they’re all more traditonally yellow. Sinful Colors Innocent is more of a chartreuse and has a cream finish. NYX Lime is similar in composition/texture, but it is greener. China Glaze Electric Pineapple was the closest but still rather green–plus it is also a cream. I doubt that this is the first of its kind, though, so I’d love to hear your dupe suggestions!

Yellows can actually be notorious for being a pain to apply, but Sun-Kissed was one of the better-applying shades in the 12-piece summer collection!  It was mostly opaque after two coats, though there was definite nail line showing, especially under brighter light.  There were also some visible brush strokes.  The consistency was barely thick, but not quite the same as I’ve come to expect from China Glaze.  It flowed well and didn’t pool too much along the sides, though you’ll want to make sure to wait in-between coats–and the drying time was longer than usual, too.  I’ve tested several shades in the past, and the formula consistently yields a week of wear with no chipping but minor tip wear.

The Glossover

	China Glaze Sun-Kissed Nail Lacquer Review, Photos, Swatches B+
	This can be a tough color to pull off, but it will inevitably be easier for those with cooler undertones! It's almost so yellow that it starts to cast a little green, though it's not really a chartreuse.
	Product 8.5/10 Pigmentation 9.5/10 Texture 9/10 Longevity 9/10 Application 4/5
	Where to Buy
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See more photos & swatches! Continue reading →

The internet is an insanely powerful tool; it can do so much good, but it can cause great harm, too. Something that runs rampant on the internet is copyright infringement. As anyone who has ever published any type of copyable content on the web knows, it happens, it’s inevitable, and you could spend your whole day attempting to police it.

There is the day-to-day problem of individuals republishing your content on their blogs, social networks, and the like. It’s annoying, but it’s probably not severely damaging and less likely done with real harm intended. It’s not good. Copy and paste is your friend, but don’t forget to copy and paste the source of your content, too (and make sure you’re allowed to take such content and republish it). This is why I do appreciate things like Pinterest’s bookmarklet that automatically grabs the source so you can share easily but still attribute the work to the original author.

But there are more serious violations, and it happens when brands and corporations, who should know better, do so. About two years ago, e.l.f. cosmetics sent out a newsletter to their subscribers. I had several readers forward me the newsletter, because there was an unauthorized photo of my eye used in it (you can actually still view here. It sucks to have it copied without permission, but it sucks even more beceause the photo didn’t use any e.l.f. products and therefore I felt it was very misleading. e.l.f. also has at least two instances of using my images on their website (under Beauty Tips here for “Island Glow” and “Has your beautician messed up your eyebrows?”).

It took around six weeks to get a response out of e.l.f. regarding the newsletter image usage, and they apologized and said it was a mistake. Except, you know, that it was done twice more on their website, and those instances were never, ever addressed by the brand and despite the steps I’ve taken, they remain there. (It is, for the record, probably likely that whoever is in charge of sourcing the images did a Google Images source and copied and pasted willy-nilly.)  These are the reasons why I do not feature e.l.f. on Temptalia; e.l.f. as a company needs to accept responsibility for the actions of their employees or design teams and remedy them, not ignore or perpetuate those activities.

Swatch & Learn and The Swatchaholic have recently experienced something similar: Sinful Colors (nail polish brand available at mass) used their images without permission and published them in promotional pamphlets (and neither of them used Sinful Colors in their images!). Parent company Revlon recently addressed this matter this morning seemingly only a day or so behind when the incident was discovered–which is pretty quick for a major corporation like Revlon. What resolution Revlon works out with the individual bloggers is their matter, and ultimately what makes each blogger feel whole again is also their matter. (I just became aware of this incident this AM when reader Athena asked me about it and was starting to write something when Revlon posted on their Facebook.)

In all likelihood, somebody working on the pamphlet is at fault, and that person is hopefully found out and learns their lesson. I can’t imagine the CEO of Revlon sitting at their desk going over something as minute as promotional imagery used in a subsidiary brand, can you? But it does speak to the larger issue of how easy it is to use someone else’s work and pretend like it’s yours or that you have the rights to it.

Education of what you can and cannot do with other people’s images/content is what’s going to prevent future incidents like these. This is not legal advice (speak with your legal team/lawyer if you want to understand what is and isn’t copyright infringement).  When it comes to the etiquette of republishing content, the bare minimum is to provide a link to the original source and some indicating that they’re the actual source. If it’s somebody’s 100% original content, say a blog post and photos, it is unlikely that it’s okay for you to take the whole thing and put it on your blog. You might consider sharing an image or an excerpt from the post and then linking to it, so that people read and visit the original author’s site. You wouldn’t take someone else’s image and put your own watermark on it.

Brands need to make their teams aware that taking images without permissions is not allowed and it’s a bad practice (which could potentially cost them money, least of all customer loyalty).  I plead with brands to take five minutes to ask permission and work out those details, because getting caught is so much worse.  Instead of using Google Images and taking whatever you see of there (which is NOT your stock photo library!), cough up a few bucks for stock photography or use Compfight and look for images with the right permissions.

Update @ 7/26: I received this yesterday afternoon, but I just received permission to republish it this morning. e.l.f. reached out to be with this email:

Christine, My name is Joey Shamah and I am the CEO of e.l.f. cosmetics. I am writing in response to your blog “Copycat, Copycat when will it end” – We are in agreement that intellectual property is sacred and should not be reused and misrepresented by companies or individuals. We also concur that as companies grow and workload gets divided, it is not expected of all executives to review all creatives that the company puts out.

That being said, I can only apologize if an outsourced creative designer unethically took your images and misrepresented them as our own. I can assure you this that actions like these are not condoned by the company and we have built our business with fair and just business practices.

Regarding your decision on not featuring elf, I would ask that you reconsider – although I understand if you dont. I would hate for your readers and followers to miss out on a great brand because of the action of one individual. Thank you for your time

Regards
Joey

P.S. – all images have been taken down from our site – the email link you sent is being taken down momentarily. we are contacting our ESP provider to make sure it is removed asap.