Real Life Beauty

Color Me Wonderful!

Christina

Everyone has his or her favorite color– it may not nec­es­sar­ily be a color that you wear all the time but it is that one color that you know makes you look your absolute best. For Chantal , her  new favorite color is coral, a mix between hot pink and bright orange that jumps out at her every time she shops. She even posted this pic­ture so her read­ers could get a true sense of what she meant:

Chantal on her For the Love of Chantal blog asked her read­ers to tell her their favorite color so we’re going to do the same thing! What is your favorite color and why? What is it about that color that makes you feel fab­u­lous? Or, is there a color that you just can’t help but buy even though you wouldn’t nec­es­sar­ily clas­sify it as your “Favorite”? Tell us!

Cosmoprof Worldwide 2010

Christina

Cosmoprof has been the world’s most impor­tant inter­na­tional event in the beauty and cos­met­ics sec­tor for more than 40 years. With their sealed joint-venture agree­ments with other inter­na­tional organ­i­sa­tions, they hav been gen­er­at­ing new top-level trade fair events in every part of the globe:  Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna (Italy), Cosmoprof Asia (Hong Kong), Cosmoprof North America (Las Vegas); Guangzhou International Exhibitions Ltd (Guangzhou), BeautyEurasia pow­ered by Cosmoprof (Istanbul). Remember our report on Cosmoprof North America in Vegas last year?

So this year, we asked Sonya (eipysgudps), who’s based in Italy, to help us film and cover the event in Bologna (Apr 15-18th). Below is the first report she’s giv­ing us fresh off the event!

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Do Your Makeup Within 7 Minutes

Christina

Want to learn how to do your makeup quickly? Here are our 7 min makeup con­test win­ning entries!

A col­or­ful spring look by sol1991los, a sexy, smoky eye look by detailoring, and finally, a light, easy-going day­time look by touseledkitten.

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Super Shimz of the Month — ilyjessicaomg

Emily

Name: Jessica (I-love-you-jessica-oh-my-god, not i-ly :) )

Occupation: Student, study­ing to be a teacher.

What she’s wear­ing today: Forever 21 tank top, 2 pairs of leg­gings, (the studs are falling off), black, knee high boots. Bangles and bracelet (birth­day pressie).

What she eats for break­fast: Cereals and black coffee.

Her groom­ing rou­tine: She never blow dry her hair. (Even in the cold nights). Astara cleanser twice a day.

Beauty Advice: Always take off your makeup at night. If not, it ages your skin by ten days.

How long does it take to get ready in the morn­ing: usu­ally 20 min. can take up to 30 min depend­ing on what is used.

What she has in her purse that’s unusual: a weight watch­ers pam­phlet, needed for her minor classes.

Where she shops online: Shoes; GoJane.com.

Her splurge and her cheap thrill: Splurge — a prod­uct that lasts long, and bathing suit. Cheap thrill — NYX glit­ter and E.L.F. (but not the fake lashes)

Her favorite celebrity look:  Chanel Iman — rocker/ casual; edgy with­out trying.

image source: http://stylebehavior.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/it-girl/

Introducing Our Latest Beauty Expert: Nina Curtis from the Nile Institute

Carrie

Nina Curtis, Founder and President of The Nile Institute

Welcome Nina!

We wanted to intro­duce our lat­est beauty expert to join the Shimmer Beauty Advisory Board, Nina Curtis from the Nile Institute in West Hollywood, California.     She is best known as a thought leader in well­ness and the Esthetician’s Esthetician.  Ms. Curtis has a twenty-five plus year his­tory in the pro­fes­sional skin care indus­try, where she is respected as an inno­v­a­tive skin care spe­cial­ist, edu­ca­tor, lec­turer and busi­ness­woman.  Originally licensed as a cos­me­tol­o­gist, Ms. Curtis has obtained cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in Aromatherapy, Reflexology, Acupressure, Energy Modalities, Reiki and Color Light Therapy.

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March Beauty Tips

Carrie

Did every­one feel the love that February is sup­pose to bring? And, you were to treat your­self and be your own Valentine.  Now it’s time to move on to beauty sug­ges­tions for March. Spring is well-known as the time for “spring clean­ing” and your makeup bag and even your med­i­cine cab­i­net could prob­a­bly use a good look­ing over as well.  Toss out any foun­da­tions, con­ceal­ers and lip­sticks that are more than a year old *ahem, you over there, get that nasty stuff out of there*. Mascara that was opened more than six months ago need to be tossed out as well.

And finally, while you are han­dling that spring clean­ing, go ahead and check for any­thing with a strange odor and toss it out. Out with the old, in with new..wait, that’s not the spring clean­ing say­ing is it? Ooops! Well, it works any­way! If it’s old or smells odd, it needs to go.

Spring col­lec­tion from O.P.I.

Once all the old is out, you can head to the store for replace­ments and check out the new spring col­ors. And, on your way home, how about swing­ing by for a mas­sage or a warm jacuzzi soak? Treat your­self heav­i­ness of win­ter will wear on you in many ways and a nice relax­ing mas­sage can help you relieve ten­sion and start off on a fresh note.

Image source: eideard.wordpress.com

Nordstrom Cosmetics Trend Show Spring 2010

Emily

This is the cov­er­age for the one in Seattle. Each loca­tion will be slightly different. 

The theme for this sea­son is “Escape to Beauty”. MC and DJ both dressed in casual vaca­tion clothes. The whole show is divided into 3 scenes. We have a good crowd, and the show was a good one too, so there were tons of cheer­ing and whistling. Here are some pic­tures for those of you who didn’t make it. 

Prizes for the giveaway throughout the show

Prizes for the give­away through­out the show

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The show just starting

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Here’s the World’s Best Skincare. Skincare is in and big for this Spring, with lumi­nous skin being the key trend.

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Nordstrom Cosmetics Trend Show Spring Collection part 2

Emily

Continue from Scene 1. Scene 2 cov­ers World’s Best Makeup and scene 3 is World’s Best Fragrances

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Armani Luminous Silk Foundation

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Guerlain brought the New Terracotta 4 Seasons Spray Bronzer and this happy girl was picked to try it. Look at how happy she is when she know she can bring that bot­tle home! The other 2 prod­ucts Guerlain unveiled for us are the Le 2 de Guerlain Volumizing Mascara, which is 2 sided, wax free, and hence flake free, and per­fect for both upper and lower lashes, and the Rouge G Lipstick. The lip­stick has crushed ruby and mother of pearl in it and made with primer so it would be a long last­ing wear!

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Smashbox shared with the audi­ence a few bot­tles of Halo Bronzer that isn’t avali­able in store until next month (April)!

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YSL demon­strated the Volume Effet Faux Cils Noir Radical, which gives the illu­sion of 8 hours of sleep

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Finally, CHANEL showed us the body art neck­lace, Trish McEvoy the “Must Have Collections — All About Eyes”, and Dior Creme de Rose lip balm.

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Dior also showed us the “Capture Totale One Essential”, which helps to detox­ify skin cells to pow­er­fully cor­rect all vis­i­ble signs of aging and renew skin’s youth­ful appear­ance. Again, it gives your skin sleep and relax­ation that it needed. If you stop by Nordstrom, don’t for­get to try that Creme de Rose Lip Balm. It’s full of shea but­ter and other good­ies and keep your lip soft and moisturize.

Our Wonderful Shimz

Carrie

I don’t know about you, but I often spend hours going through hun­dreds of our mem­bers pho­tos. Thinking about, maybe that’s how I will pose in my next photo. Or, maybe this is how I would wear my hair; but mostly, what is the best way to share all these pho­tos. These pho­tos, some­times pho­to­shopped, mostly not, are more amaz­ing and pleas­ant to browse through than mag­a­zines. So I decided I will make a col­lage to show you just how diverse, col­or­ful and gor­geous our Shimz are.

Collages of beauty queens

our Shimz. click to view full size

And with that, I would like to express my thanks to all of you. 200 of you. For shar­ing bril­liant makeup tips and skin­care tips with every­one. For shar­ing a piece of your world with us.

Stay Beautiful,

MyShimmer :)

Super Shimz of the Month — Dollyyblush

Christina

Name: Candice (Dollyy)

Occupation: Makeup Artist

What she’s wear­ing today: Ivy Tech hoodie from her sister’s school.

What she eats for break­fast: Special K bar. Don’t really like break­fast but have to.

Her groom­ing rou­tine: She just lets her hair dry nat­u­rally. Uses mousse before head­ing out.

What she has in her purse: pens and pen­cil bag, makeup bag — pow­der, bronzer, mas­cara, lip gloss, lotion, brush. don’t like lip­stick, lov­ing daz­zle glosses from M.A.C a lot lately

Where she shops online: Sephora.com, Philosophy.com and maccosmetics.com.

Her splurge and her cheap thrill: Jamba Juice for both! That and M.A.C cos­met­ics for splurge, red cherry fake lashes for cheap thrill.

Her favorite celebrity look:  Kim Kardashian’s smoky eyes “Any female can put on a smokey eye look and feel gorgeous.”

See more of Dolly’s makeup looks and tips at: http://theshimmernetwork.ning.com/profile/dollyyblush