i've made no secret of my girl crush on jennifer garner--i absolutely adore her. i think she is gorgeous and adorable and perfect in every way. so when one of my favorite beauty sites--totalbeauty.com--sent an email how i could recreate jennifer garner's makeup, i was ridiculously thrilled. no really, i was. i've spent a lot of time googling her lipstick, to disappointing results. i have only come up on one, which is a chanel that i, coincidentally, already owned (we're soul mates, hee!). it's a light pink color, but she is normally photographed in brighter pinks, which i love and that is what i am looking for. of course, all the tips were helpful--glowing skin and warm lips and eyes. trouble is, i still dont look like jennifer garner.

see how to recreate her look here

http://www.totalbeauty.com/content/package/p_jennifergarner?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=daily31&utm_campaign=daily31_jennifergarner

i dont think so...

one of my favorite beauty sites is totalbeauty.com--it's so informative. however, yesterday i was looking at the fall 2008 beauty trends and i was a little bit shocked to see that black lips and yellow eye shadow were two of them.

i have a huge problem with this.

black lipstick isnt going to look good on anyone--ok, maybe on the runway because of the amazing lighting tricks, clothes and the fact that a professional applied it and probably did something to it. black lipstick on its own, on a real person, in the daylight isnt going to look good. i keep seeing this month's magazines hawking black lipstick and i think this is terrible. i repeat, black lipstick isnt going to look good on anyone. it's harsh, it's dense and it's going to look muddy. just say no to black lipstick.

yellow eyeshadow? REALLY? REALLY? REALLY? now, i love me some colored eyeshadow and i would never, ever even think to wear yellow. yellow can be a tough color to pull off and so near the eyes makes it even more difficult. and if you factor that the color will be reflecting on the whites of your eyes to make you look jaundiced, i am going to have to pass on that too.

it just goes to show you: some trends are not supposed to be followed.

winning combos

so i've been trying to step out of my beauty rut. yesterday i wore purple eye shadow--i hadnt done that in a very long while. today i am back to a light-colored sparkly eye shadow (bare escentuals playful) in the interest of time, but i found a new lipstick combo that i am just loving (i've been trying to play with the stuff i do have). bare escentuals gelato lipstick (medium pink with a subtle shimmer) topped with lancôme juicy tube in fruity pop (a pretty super-light pink with pinkish sparkle). it's the perfect neutral-y, light pink color with a hint of sparkle.

they're out to get me

another FAVE-like lipstick discontinued. thanks, Givenchy, for discontinuing lip lip extreme in dinner beige. i will add it to my list of favorite lipsticks that i should have bought more of.

good things come to those who wait

i've mentioned before that i am completely obsessed with chuck's makeup from pushing daisies on ABC. i spent a night researching it online (don't judge), but couldn't any info and then i got frustrated and gave up. i didnt even intend to pick up the search, but like kismet, the search found me because i was in sephora one day and there was the color that was chuck-ish.

i might have heard a choir of angels singing behind me.

so while not searching, i found it (i just know that has to mean something in my real life) and let me tell you, it was quite a relief because i NEEDED it!

it's such a pretty, coral-y color and just so fresh and right for spring. it's from stila and it's high shine lip color in michaela. and while i don't normally like stila's packaging, the etched floral pattern on the tube is really, really cute!

lip lip hooray

it's been a while since my last post--staying on top of the fall tv season, catching up on my magazines and hanging out with friends has kept me pretty busy. but i had to come out of my cozy little hibernation to wax poetic about Shiseido The Makeup Automatic Lip Crayon in LC3. i have more glosses and lipsticks than any girl has a right to, but it is my right and i will continue to amass as many as possible, as i am in search of perfection.

this glides on so smoothly; it's a pencil but it has the look of a gloss. and the color? the color is so sweet and luscious--it stains your lips like you just ate strawberries or were eating a popsicle. it's lovely and bright, but so pretty and natural at the same time. i definitely need to pick up some more--and so do you!

random thoughts

so every magazine i've opened up in the last few weeks has heralded the return of lipstick. i can't help but wonder, where did it go in the first place? lipstick is back? really? when did it go away? i never stopped using it. should i have? no, but that's not what the magazines are telling me.

it wasnt like they werent being sold in stores. it wasnt like the brands werent coming out with new formulations and colors. so really, lipstick never went away. why are they telling me it did?

of course, i am the queen of glosses and for the most part, i wear a gloss every day (or a couple of different ones--i am like a mad scientist), but there are times when i wear lipstick. sometimes you just need the "done" lipstick look (and nothing can ever replace the perfect red lipstick). besides, i have my favorites that cannot be abandoned.

it just goes to show, you have to do what works for you and makes you feel good--because in the end that's what beauty is all about (at least it should be).

i think i got it!

it's no secret i am obsessed with izzy stevens' lipgloss. i googled everything i could think of to figure out what the shade was. nothing. one of my favorite sites www.makeup411.com, which lists the products movie and tv stars use, only had the makeup katherine heigl wore on roswell. while this wasn't helpful, this site in general is awesome. you can check out what you're favorite movie and tv stars use to get those gorgeous looks--it's even organized by movie and tv listing. so i had to figure out the shade on my own. after hitting countless department stores and sephora, i think i found a pretty good facsimile: CHANEL ROUGE ALLURE in Tender. this is the prettiest shade of light pink--it's the grown-up, sophisticated incarnation of the bubble gum pink shade you wore when you were younger. it has a supersmooth consistency and the lightest specks of glitter. not only is it an absolutely gorgeous shade, the sleek CHANEL packaging will instantly make you feel like a glam diva.

get yours now

you can never have too many

i am obsessed with beauty products, but the worst of it probably has to do with my desire to acquire as many lipsticks and glosses as humanly possible. if you saw the makeup bag i lug around every day you would probably faint and then judge how many lipsticks and glosses i carry with me EVERY SINGLE DAY. regardless of brand, color or my particular face that day, they all go in the bag. and this includes a couple of lip palettes too. if there was a serious world lipstick and gloss shortage or unexpected lip emergency, I am your girl. so you can imagine how I nearly swooned when I saw the LÉVRES MULTIFACETTES DE CHANEL—or CHANEL lip palette, for the rest of us. seriously. it’s gorgeous. perfect little squares filled with tempting shades of sinfully luxurious color.

get your own now!

the first time

the day lancôme discontinued beige esquisse rouge absolu was a sad, sad day. i don't remember much else about it except i was really, really angry and wondered how i was going to replace my favorite lipstick. i am a reasonable person, things like that shouldn't be so upsetting, but it was "THE FAVE." my friend K and i started calling it that because it was perfect and it went with any look; you could wear it with any eye shadow, you could pair it with a smokey eye or rosy cheeks. you could wear it to an interview or even use it on those casual, but still want to look polished days. "THE FAVE" was perfect (i know i said that already, but it's true). it was this beige-y, pinky color that looked good on everyone.

i think it's about this time that i realized i was a beauty junkie--that products were my crack. i've always been obsessed with products; thinking about what works, what doesn’t, what could work, what i want to try next. what i am dying to try next, actually. and I am always dying to try something new. i love to know what people are using, what is working for them and if people ask (let’s face it, even if they don’t), i love to tell them what i am using and what works for me. it's like being a kid in a candy store (actually, i think as a kid i might have preferred looking in my mom's makeup bag instead).

but the day i found out it was discontinued--i made it a practice to buy two or three at a time so i wouldn't have to worry about running out, which makes the whole thing a little bit ironic--something changed. it was like i had to go out and try even more things so i would never be blindsided if something i loved was discontinued. i'd be able to bounce back, ready with 2 or 3 products in my arsenal.

it's been years since "THE FAVE" was discontinued and i've been lucky to find some shades that have come pretty damn close to the perfect hue, which has taught me to not have beauty prejudices. the must-have product doesn't always have to break the bank to be perfect, but if it does, then it's certainly worth it!