What traveling tips do you have when it comes to makeup? Any tips or tricks you’ve found to make sure everything has a safe voyage? How do you deal with any airport restrictions (like liquids)?

Mom’s can be difficult to shop for, because so many of us have darling mothers who spend little time fussing about their looks and adore their minimalist beauty regimens. Of course, some of us also have mothers who are bigger beauty addicts than ourselves (sigh, don’t I wish!). Today’s guide, however, is dedicated to finding the perfect beauty products for the mom who doesn’t mind looking amazing, as long as it is easy, quick, and painless.

THE MINIMALIST MOM | Surprise her by providing her with a basket of beauty goodies that improve her regimen without adding hours to it. Everybody loves their skin to look their best, so we think this is one aspect to concentrate on for moms with less beauty product love and more natural beauty love.

Find the best gifts to give. Continue reading →

BOBBI BROWN EVERYTHING MASCARA

An everyday essential for lashes. Bobbi Brown Everything Mascara has an innovative, all-in-one formula that lengthens, thickens, and defines – without smearing, smudging or clumping. With special conditioning and strengthening ingredients for beautiful, luscious lashes. See how-to video here.

• Applicator: Medium-sized brush, very typical mascara wand you’d find in a variety of mascaras.
• Clumping: As a fairly light-weight mascara, it did not clump in the three or so coats I put on my lashes.
• Curl: It held a curl quite well, though I didn’t feel it benefited from much curl because the lashes seemed too short.
• Ease: Applying this mascara was as easy as the majority of mascaras; the wand is not new to the scene nor is it obese like some of the cult favorites (ahem, DiorShow), so the user can easily get to the inner corner lashes as well as the lower lashes without getting black streaks all over them.
• Length: This mascara did not give me the length I desired. This mascara is described as an “everyday” mascara, so wearing this without any other makeup works. I prefer my mascara to have insane lengthening powers, though.
• Thickening: There was some thickening, but not by much. Like it describes itself to be: it’s a natural-looking mascara.
• Volume: I didn’t notice much difference in my lashes in terms of volume – they were blacker, a touch thicker, but I didn’t see any appearance of them being fuller.
• Best: The best part about this mascara was that it didn’t clump, and I do like that it’s a great natural lash alternative to the market of bigger and better lashes. This is a great mascara for someone who’s not heavily into makeup, but they like to feel/look pretty from time to time.
• Worst: It’s a bit pricey at $20 a pop; compared to the myriad of drugstore mascaras just under $10, I feel you could probably get away with using one of those if your budget doesn’t allow this.

She used:

• Urban Decay Primer Potion
• Chrome Yellow eyeshadow
• Passionate eyeshadow
• Expensive Pink eyeshadow
• Beauty Marked eyeshadow
• Shroom eyeshadow
• Blacktrack fluidline
• Fiberlash mascara
• ID BareMinerals in fair
• Springsheen blush
• Cubic blush
• Lightscapade mineralize skinfinish
• Soft and Slow lipglass

See a full-face shot, Continue reading →

Skyler tells us about her very enviable storage solution…

I call this my “Personalized MAC Pigment/Glitter Rack.”

I have an extremely handy grandfather, Doug, and I approached him in the summer about making me a customized pigment rack. I had searched high and low for one to buy, on eBay and otherwise, but nothing suited my needs (or my wallet). They were either too big or too small, too ugly or too cheap. Since I knew Doug, a woodworker, had made tons of furniture for my family members over the years, I figured a pigment rack would not be out of his range. Of course, he had no idea what the hell a pigment was but he was very willing to make it for me. I wanted something high-quality, sturdy, easily accessible, and something that could withstand my day-to-day use. I wanted to be able to see each pigment colour as well. I gave him a rough blueprint and he ran with it. He measured the cut-outs with an actual pigment jar and I asked for additional spots so that my collection could grow and still fit into the unit.

To take a peek inside, Continue reading →

For those of us staying in and avoiding the crowds, you can still scoop up a few snazzy beauty deals through the web.

Makeup.com is having a pretty decent sale – 15% off everything from November 22nd through the 26th with code BLACKFRIDAY Spend $60 or more and receive free shipping, too.

Save 20% off Lancome purchases from November 19th through the 26th both online at www.lancome-usa.com as well as in-store at Lancome Boutiques (see coupon for locations). To use it online, simply enter code OURGIFT. to receive 20% off plus free shipping. If you’d like to make a purchase in-store, please print out the coupon here.

Spot any good beauty deals? Let us know in the comments!