Temptation Tuesdays: Danier Leather

Thank you all for your feedback on last week's temptation. I decided not to go for the shoes after hearing from my cousin that they didn't fit her. I actually have bigger feet than her, so there was no chance of them getting on mine. Ah well, as the season unfolds I'm hoping to run into more size 11's that may actually fit! Moving on...

I nearly walked into 3 people last week as I was strolling through the PATH (an underground walkway in Toronto) and staring down a bright yellow leather jacket in the Danier window. I saw it, gasped!, and continued walking, remembering the mini spree I had recently been on and the toll it was taking on my wallet. I forgot to take a pic of it at the time, so here it is from the Danier website:

I let the weekend pass, hoping the jacket would escape my mind, only to find myself thinking about it this morning. So I decided to walk by Danier on my lunch break to see if it was still kickin' around (just in case...) and it was!!!! Only not in my size. *sigh* it wasn't meant to be. Right?

WRONG! The same jacket comes in a beautiful navy blue!!!! It's currently on sale - orginally $399, now only $199. I tried on the navy (in my size) and it fits like a glove! Here it is in brown on the manneqin (I tried to get a shot of the navy but it just didn't turn out right with the store lighting):

They only have 2 left in my size. It's a beautiful colour that I can imagine wearing with tons of outfits this Spring! My biggest hesitation is that I just bought this baby about a month ago:

For someone on a budget, is it necessary to have two short leather jackets? Keep in mind, one is brown the other is navy blue. Different styles. Different outfits, Different looks. Right?

Help me out here ;)

Cosmetics Choices: True Freedom or Beauty Burden?

Halfway through working a Gala event at a local Shoppers Drug Mart Beauty Boutique I stopped and looked around - I was surrounded by makeup. Well duh!!! It's a beauty boutique...but that's not what I meant. Look to the left there's Benefit, Smashbox, Clarins, Bourjois, Elizabeth Arden. Look to the right there's Lancome, Lise Watier, Shiseido, Dior. Look straight ahead there's Clinique and Balmshell, look behind and there's Guerlain. Never mind stepping out of the beauty boutique and being presented with Quo, Revlon, Loreal, Maybelline, Annabelle, Vasanti, and many more brands and products. And I won't even start to describe the Sephora experience!

I couldn't help but think that if an average, *non-beauty-product-obsessed* woman was looking to buy a pink lipstick, she'd be bombarded with choices. Every cosmetics line makes a pink lipstick...and it doesn't stop there. Today there are more shades than ever before - does she want frosty, matte, creamy, light, dark, bright, deep, rose, fuchsia, coral-pink, red-pink, brown-pink, moisturizing, long-lasting, yummy-tasting, expensive, middle-priced, or cheap? Does she want to support a cruelty-free brand? Is she interested in organic? What about mineralized? Should she buy from the brand that's donating to a good cause, or the brand that will get her 20x the reward points?

The bottom line: today's beauty consumer is faced with hundreds of choices when deciding on which beauty products to buy. I think most people view this as freedom of choice - the ultimate decision is made by the consumer based on her personality, values, and beauty style. Having more choices allows us to express ourselves in various ways and to differentiate ourselves from the rest (it also provides great content for us beauty bloggers!). But at what point do the many choices become overwhelming and turn into a beauty burden?

When faced with 10 lipstick choices, it's not just a question of what I want (knowing me, I'd want all 10 of them!) - to narrow it down, it has now become a question of how do I want to express myself? Sheena Iyengar* said it best in an interview with Globe and Mail reporter Simon Houpt, "given who I am, what do I want, and given what I want, what should I choose? And when I decide what I want to choose, I want to make sure that that’s a reflection of who I am and that who I am has got to be different than who everybody else is." (http://bit.ly/daZoZo) She argues that this is a pretty heavy burden to place on ourselves every time we need to make a purchasing decision. Do I want to be the girl who supports cruelty-free products? Or do I want to be the one that wears the $50 lipstick? Is long-lasting colour more important to me than ultra-moisturized lips? Do I feel comfortable wearing deep or bold shades or do I need a light or neutral colour to make me feel good about myself? What makes me feel good about myself? There is a plethora of self-defining questions that I think we subconsciously ask ourselves when making our beauty product choices, and it never really occurred to me until I read Iyengar's above quote.

Upon reflection, I realized that when faced with a smaller range of choices (e.g. choosing between 4 shades of pink) I am quick to make a decision - the fewer options make it easy for me to decide which shade best compliments my taste and style. However, when faced with an abundance of choices (e.g. 15 shades), I spend hours trying to decide which product to buy...could it be because the variety and slight difference in each shade are forcing me to decide who I am, or who I want to be, and how best to express myself right there in that moment? Am I subconsciously feeling the pressure to define who I am through my choice? This has definitely given me something to think about.

What are your thoughts? Is the power of choice a true freedom or is it becoming a beauty burden?

*Sheena Iyengar is the author of The Art of Choosing released earlier this month. I am very interested in reading this book and will definitely pick it up at my next trip to the book store. Let me know if you've read it - I'd love to hear your thoughts!

CARGO: Longer Lashes and Fresh Looks!

I owe CARGO Cosmetics some love. Every CARGO product I have is amazing! The colours are always very pigmented, the wear is long-lasting and the texture is soft and smooth. That's why I was so excited when I found out I won Makeup Junkie's CARGO giveaway! The juicy prize was CARGO's latest innovation in lash products - the Lash Activator Night:

Infused with ingredients like marine algae extracts, citrus-derived flavonoid, and and peptide-biotin complex this product promises to promote lash vitality and nourish the lashes for optimal growth and minimal lash loss. People who've used it have claimed to have noticed longer, thicker and stronger lashes. The Lash Activator Night can be worn nightly or daily as a volumizing primer and should be worn consistently for true results.

So let's test this out shall we? Starting tonight, I will apply it to my lashes every night before going to bed. I'll do a check-in after 2 weeks and again after 1 month. For reference, here's what I'm starting with:

Let's see these puppies grow! Stay tuned over the course of the month to hear about my progress :)

While I'm on the topic of CARGO, I'd like to share with you a look that I created using an Essential Palette and a Lip Gloss Quad...
As most of you know, I attended the Toronto Beauty Blogger Meetup in February. Before leaving, we were each given swag bags containing various products. CARGO was generous to donate some awesome gifts and I happened to get an Essentials Palette ($32CAD) in Cool Neutral:

I think it's so cute that the colours have their uses engraved in them! From Browbone to Outer Corner, this palette walks you through how to create an amazing look!

You're going to hate me now, but last month I also entered a CARGO Facebook contest and won a year's supply of the South Beach Lip Gloss Quad!!! ($25CAD) Don't worry, I wont keep them all to myself...*hint hint*):

Delicious isn't it? These shades are essential to any golden/bronzed look - it's going to be perfect for the summer!

So I decided to experiment with these two products and here's what I ended up with:

1) I covered the lid with the Tan shade labeled "Lid"
2) I filled-in the crease of my eye with the Warm Brown shade labeled "Crease"
3) I shaded the outer corner (and a bit of the crease) with the Dark Brown shade labeled "Outer Corner"
4) I finished off the look by highlighting the browbone with the Peach Ivory shade labeled (you guessed it!) "Browbone" and added some eyeliner and mascara:

Here are the finished eyes:

What I love about the Essential palettes is that you have all the shades you need to create a day-time or evening look. You can make it as simple or smokey as you like by adjusting the amount of each shade used!

I also added the Rose Nude Shimmer from the Lip Gloss Quad:

And finally, the total look:

I love this look - it really defines the eyes, yet is simple enough to be worn during the day with smooth and shimmery lips! It's very fresh and clean :)

Check out the CARGO website to see other shades of the products I used and to check out the rest of the line!

So what do you think of the look? Would you try it? Have you used any of these CARGO products before? I'd love to hear from you!

Temptation Tuesdays: Acree at Aldo

Everyday I seem to find either a clothing item, an accessory, a makeup/beauty product or even an electronic gadget that catches my attention and makes me think about it all day long. These evil items seem to plant themselves in my head and don't go away until either enough time has passed that they are out of style or I somehow manage to get my hands on them!
Today's item came as a surprise as I was browsing the Aldo website. I don't typically shop at Aldo - having size 11 feet makes it very difficult to find shoes my size...and on the rare occasion I do come across an 11 (only online as they never have my size in a store) they are either super uncomfortable or over 4" high (which doesn't work for me since I am already 5'10"). I'm usually left in disappointment and have to go to a store and put up with a rude Aldo employee who doesn't want to process my return - FYI: they get mad if you return more than 2 pairs of shoes at a time.
Regardless of the struggle to buy Aldo shoes, I do find myself browsing the website every now and then in the hopes that I'll one day be successful in the hunt for a comfortable and trendy shoe. Today, I may have found one. Ladies and Gentlemen, I bring you Acree:

Images from http://www.aldoshoes.com/ca-eng

This shoe does come in size 11 and because it's open-toe, there's a higher chance of my poor toes fitting in. I like the fact that the heel is not insanely high - the website says it's 2.5", which is manageable for someone my height. I also appreciate that the material is simple, it's not embellished or too funky which makes it easier to pair these with different outfits. They are currently selling on the website for $65CAD - not bad! I can definitely see myself wearing them with leggings or skinny jeans, and as the weather warms up perhaps with shorts or a funky dress.

So what do you think? Should I indulge?

MAC is my Poison...

As most of you know, I attended the MAC Warehouse sale a few weekends ago. This is a quarterly warehouse sale where most of the left over limited edition and discontinued products are sold at a discounted price. Occasionally one can find an item that is currently sold at MAC for a great deal, but typically it's stuff that's no longer in stores. I don't know why I keep going to these sales...I end up spending more than I budget for on products that I don't need and if I happen to like them, guess what? I probably cannot buy them again!
I guess, as the title of this post suggests, MAC is my poison.

Here are the pics from my latest hauls (yes, hauls - after the sale I felt the need to do more MAC shopping):

Here you can see numerous lip glosses, 7 paint pots, a couple of lipsticks, 5 blushes, some lashes, some gift packs, 2 paints, a shadow palette, 2 sharpeners, 2 solar bits, 1 pigment

I am most pleased with my new paint pots!!! *sigh* they make me smile :)

At the end of every sale they have $5 gift bags (proceeds go towards a charity). The above products were included in each bag - I bought four.

Because that purchase simply wasn't enough, I had to go to MAC last weekend and finally dabble into what was left of their Spring Collection:

The 4 Crush Metal Pigments, the SpringShine Blush Ombre, and the SpringSheen Sheertone Shimmer Blush (not part of the collection but too beautiful to pass up!)

The Crush Metal Pigments again

And don't worry...I went back again last week to get some lipsticks:

Top: Fresh Salmon Lustre Lipstick; Middle: Rose Maiden Frost Lipstick; Bottom: Boldly Bare Lip Pencil

I am not sure what it is about MAC that's so alluring, WAIT that's a lie... I do know what it is - the beautiful colours, the sleek packaging, the made-up employees, the loud music, the variety of different products...I could go on...
MAC is alluring and I love to shop there. So I did. End of story. Swatches to come later, when I have natural lighting so the colours show as they are, not with the tungsten tinge.

Good night.

Kelly Cutrone Book Signing

Last week a few of us Beauty Bloggers got together to attend the book signing for Kelly Cutrone's new book: If You Have to Cry Go Outside! For those of you who are not familiar with her, Kelly Cutrone is the Fashion PR guru who founded the PR, marketing and branding firm People's Revolution. She is the star of TV show Kell on Earth and has made appearances on The Hills and The City (tell me you've at least seen here there??). She was interviewed by Fashion TV's Jeanne Beker before taking the time to sign hundreds of books for her Toronto fans!

A stand of books waiting to be purchased and signed:

Jeanne & Kelly:

What I loved about Kelly's talk was how real she was. She didn't sugarcoat anything about her life, her success or her experiences, which I found to be a refreshing and relate-able approach. She talked about her life as a kid, her experiences of moving into the fashion industry, her downfalls (getting caught up in what you're 'supposed' to be in the fashion world) and her rise back up. She emphasized the importance of keeping fashion real and accessible to average people and talked about some of the things she had to give up in order to be who she is today. What hit home for me was her grounded-ness (I know, I'm making my own words here)...through the entire interview she maintained the importance of being yourself, sticking to what you believe in, and not letting anyone bring you down. She seems to be someone who trusts herself and isn't afraid to admit when she makes a mistake. She's definitely someone I think I can learn from so I'm very excited to read her book!

Kelly signing books:

Another thing I love, love, LOVED about her was the time she took to sign books. She made an effort to talk to her fans, rather than the greet-sign-move on approach that most authors take. She was so friendly and open to taking pictures with every single one of her fans - what an amazing woman! When it as finally my turn to meet her, she instantly recognized that my name was Indian. I'm proud to say I had a mini-convo with Kelly Cutrone on the meaning behind my name :) Turns out, she knows more Sanskrit that I do! (ooooops!!)

Me talking to Kelly:
Us depicting the meaning of "Anjali" (a gift or offering to God, usually flowers cupped in the hands):

I look at the picture above and all I can think is "AWESOME"! I'm so happy I had a chance to experience a presence like that of Kelly's. Oh and before I forget, here is what she signed in my book:

*sigh* I love Kelly.

EMANI Lipstick: Plush

At the beginning of the month I wrote about my Emani Minerals lipstick haul (read about it here). At that time I showed you Sex Pistol, an amazing deep coral. I just wanted to show you Plush, another perfect Spring colour from that haul:

I am not really in the habit of wearing lip liners - I like the soft look of a spring colour on it's own! However I do see this lipstick looking really defined and bold with a nice liner...
What lip liner would you pair with Plush?

And the winner is...

Congratulations to Olivia of Weekend Luxury - the winner of my 100-Follower Giveaway!!!!
This selection was made using Random.org. 

Thank you to everyone who participated in this giveaway, I hope to do more in the coming months so stay tuned and keep reading!  If you have any suggestions for topics you'd like me to write about, please feel free to let me know :)

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SPRING!

- Anjali

OPI Nail Lacquer: A Good Man?

Last month OPI released its new Hong Kong collection for Spring/Summer 2010. As I was taking a lunchtime walk through the PATH I couldn't resist picking up "A Good Man-Darin is Hard to Find" (great name!), a deep coral-red shade. I had heard all the buzz around corals this Spring and decided to treat myself :)

I think this is another shade that I need your opinion on. When I first applied it, I thought it was a little too bright and orange, but as I look at it day after day, it's starting to grow on me:

With the flash:

Up close:

At work, shot taken with my iPhone:

I think it's a great shade, but a little too orange and bright for my liking. I know corals are in, but I prefer the lighter, softer shades for my hands! What I do agree with is the name...a good man IS hard to find! But let's not get started on that topic...

Share with me: Do you like this shade? Do you recommend any other shades from the Hong Kong collection?

100 Follower Giveaway!!!!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND PARTICIPATION! KEEP READING & STAY IN TOUCH :) - ANJALI

I'm so happy to announce that I am finally over 100 followers!!!! Thank you so much to all of my loyal readers who regularly read and comment on my posts :) You truly are the motivation behind my blogging and I am soooooo appreciative of your continual support!

So as promised back in November, I am hosting a giveaway in return of your awesome-ness :)

Here's what's up for grabs: The NEW Hamptons Eye Colour Palette from Vasanti Cosmetics!!! (This retails for $40 CAD)

This beautiful palette is part of Vasanti's new Spring line, which is rolling out in stores across Canada this month! The colours include:
- Soft Neutral Beige
- Soft Peachy Pink
- Neutral Deep Brown
- Periwinkle Grey
- Intense Rich Navy

Be one of the first to receive it by entering my giveaway! Simply type "Spring is IN!" in the comments portion of this post to be entered! The following rules also apply:

1) All participants must be a follower of my blog. If you are not a follower now, become one by signing into Blogger and clicking "Follow" at the top, or follow using the Google Friend Connect on the side bar.

2) One entry per person.

3) All entries must include an email address so I can notify you by email if you've won.

4) You must have a screen name to win - no "Anonymous" entries please!

5) This giveaway is open to residents of Canada or the US only.

6) All entries must be received by 11:59pm EST on Friday, March 19th, 2010

The winner will be drawn and announced (using Random.org) on Saturday, March 20th, 2010 - the first day of Spring!

Thank you again for all your love and support - Good luck!!!

- Anjali

Cover FX Blogger Event, Pt 2: Bullseye Method

As mentioned in my previous post, I attended a Beauty Blogger event held by Cover FX in Toronto. As a take-away, we received THE BIG COVER UP! 3 Step Essentials kit. For only $79, this all-in-one kit provides you with 7 handy items to create your flawless look:
- 1 Skinprep FX Primer
- 1 Foundation Brush
- 3 Shades of Cream Foundation
- 1 Setting FX Translucent Powder
- 1 Instructional DVD

The foundations shades come in four options: B, C, E, or M
Because I have an olive undertone to my skin, I fall into the M category. Here's what my kit looks like:

To ensure its customers are using the product in the most efficient manner, Cover FX created the Bullseye method to using this kit...it's outlined here:

But you probably can't read that...so let me walk you through this fool-proof process!

Here is my "before" picture (yikes! that's me with no makeup on):

After applying the Skinprep FX to the entire face (this smooths pores, wrinkles and fine lines)...

1) Spot apply the lightest cream foundation shade on the highpoints of your inner face (bridge of nose, chin, and inner eye area)


2) Then, swipe the medium shade with short outward sweeps in a ring formation surrounding the lightest shade spots

3) Form a 3rd ring with the darkest shade along the perimeter of your forehead, cheekbones and jaw line in short outward sweeps

4) Use the foundation brush to blend the 3 shades in outward strokes and pats...and Voila!

The translucent powder can be found in the same container as the 3 shades of foundation:

Here's my final look after patting on some setting powder:

I absolutely love the look and feel of these products! They are light-weight and oil-free, leaving you with a natural, yet flawless face. I also love the versatility of the cream foundation - it's completely buildable, so if you need to add more under the eyes, on the cheeks, or on discoloured areas, you can simply apply more product without getting a cakey feeling. Virtually anyone with an olive undertone can use the "M" kit...just add more of the lighter or darker shades until you've matched your skin tone!
These foundations are perspirant-resistant...perfect for those summer days when you are literally running to catch the GO train and end up a sweaty mess by the time you board...wait, is that just me?
ANYWAY, I hope you enjoyed this mini-lesson on how to use THE BIG COVER UP! kit :)
If you are in search of that perfect foundation, I highly recommend trying Cover FX - their product can be found in Shoppers Drug Mart, Sephora, and The Bay (in Canada).

Have you tried Cover FX products? Which ones? How do you like them?

I'd love to hear from you :)