Fun Beauty Memory Game (Plus Another Entry to Win a Day of Beauty!)

The other day, I shared an interactive quiz that Recyclebank created to educate you on Pantene's Nature Fusion plant-based bottle.  The products themselves use Pantene's powerful Pro-V formula with Cassia (a natural plant ingredient that infuse's hair with strength and shine) to make hair 10 times stronger.

The Pantene Pro-V natureFUSION Moisture Balance Shampoo gently cleans hair to remove residue and enhance natural shine.  The Pantene Pro-V natureFUSION Moisture Balance Conditioner helps regulate hair’s natural balance of moisture and protect hair from damage, and makes hair more manageable.  They both use ginger, calendula, and aloe vera to leave hair feeling soft and light.

Recyclebank is giving you a chance to test your knowledge and memory with their Pantene Memory Game, while earning 25 points and another entry for their Day of Beauty giveaway!

Test your skills!

No More Madness at JCPenney

If you're a fan of shopping at JCPenney, things are about to change.  On February 1, 2012, they are launching their new pricing strategy, No More Madness.

You might have seen the commericals - a woman standing in a jewelry store, only to see that the sign hanging above her indicated that their huge sale had ended the day before.

Another woman opening her mailbox, only to be inundated with tons of coupons flying out.  These are teaser commercials for their new look and sales approach, "Fair and Square pricing".  The commercial simply ends with their new logo, seen below, and "2.1.12", to indicate that something big is going to happen come the first of February.

JCPenney's new logo to go along with their new
"Fair and Square" pricing approach, launching February 1, 2012

Their new approach is to offer everyday good deals, and put an end to coupons, percentage-off sales, and additional promotions.  They will have a new "any item, anytime, anywhere" return policy (this sounds similar to Kohl's great return policy), and they plan to have a more streamlined store appearance, with less clutter, getting rid of tables in the aisles, and less signage around the store.

I have to say, the return policy and the fresh in-store appearance sound great, but I am not too thrilled about the new pricing strategies.  I'm not an avid JCP shopper, but when I do shop there, I am always heading to the sale and clearance sections, and almost always have a coupon.  In my opinion, their regularly priced merchandise is overpriced, and I only really shop there when I am able to nab a great deal.  Although they say that their regular prices will now offer "good deals all the time", I'm not convinced.  

This means what you see is what you get, and I'm not too sure that their prices will come down enough to satisfy their current customers.  I'm also not sure why their commercial shows one woman shrieking over the fact that the price tag has additional markdown labels (it has label over label of new sale and clearance prices).  To me, when you see that an item was labeled on sale, and then has an additional label to show that the item has been marked down even further, that is a great thing.  I always jump for joy when I get deals like that, especially when I have a coupon to pair it with.

If their approach is to avoid the "cluttered" feel of coupons and clearance labels, I think they will lose a large chunk of their customers.  

What do you think about their new approach?

Recyclebank/Pantene Quiz and All-Expense Paid Day of Beauty!

Recyclebank always has amazing initatives and exciting news and giveaways for you!  I'm helping to spread the word about the Pantene Nature Fusion plant-based bottle (so incredible!), and not only do they want to educate you, but Recyclebank wants to send you and a friend on an all-expense paid Day of Beauty! 

Just take the interactive quiz below, and you will earn 20 Recyclebank Points, and be entered to win the Day of Beauty!  So...what are you waiting for?

Fine Fragrance Body Wash for a Drugstore Budget!

I LOVE scented things - candles, lotion, soap, body wash, room sprays - anything where a fabulous or comforting scent can be incorporated into the product.  Whether it's a warm vanilla sugar, a sweet almond and fig, a pumpkin spice, or a simple shea butter, I'm on board.

That's why I was thrilled to received Caress' brand new Fine Fragrance Elixir Body Wash.  I received the Scarlet Blossom fragrance and I am so in love.  The scent is a blend of red lychee and patchouli oil along with their trademarked "Silky Fragrance Infusion", which uses a combination of multilayered fragrances and luxurious moisturizers to give that amazing aroma and smooth, silky finish on the skin. 

I use a shower "pouf" to apply body wash, and wow, did this body wash lather!  Some don't really create too much of a sudsy lather, but just a little of this created a mountain of suds!  It applied so luxuriously, and the application plus the fabulous infused scent, made my body wash experience so much more enjoyable!  It rinses off to leave behind amazingly silky and moisturized skin.  My skin still had a light lingering fragrance, which I really liked.  Sometimes body washes smell great, but they rinse off to leave behind no trace of the fragrance, so I feel like the great scent is wasted.  The fragrance this Caress body wash left behind was faint, but not too strong that it would conflict with any scented body wash or perfume that I would apply after a shower.

I also love that they call it a "Fine Fragrance Elixir", because I really feel that the name is fitting for the product.  The mix of scents is really sophisticated, and so unique.  I wouldn't expect to find something like this in a drugstore body wash.  If I could, I would walk around all day with the bottle to open and sniff it whenever I please - that's how good it is!

Overall, this is a new fave, and I will definitely continue to use it!  Caress also offers their Fine Fragrance Elixir Body Wash in Sheer Twilight, which uses black orchid and juniper oil.  They also have a full range of additional body washes in great scents, including their Exfoliating Body Wash, Silkening Body Wash, which also come in beauty bar soaps.

**I received this item for free on behalf of the brand or PR company to give my honest review and opinion.

Florida Blogger Event (Lots of pics!)

If you follow me on Twitter, you probably saw me tweeting pretty often in November and the first couple of weeks in December about the blogger event I was planning.  I reached out to Anna (she's amazing!), the front desk manager or Soleil Spa Palm Aire, a local spa in Pompano Beach, to see if she would be interested in partnering to plan a South Florida beauty/fashion blogger event.  She was completely on board, so I got to planning!

I reached out to a handful of companies to try and find sponsors and vendors for food, goodie bags product, and giveaways.  I was able to secure some amazing sponsors including:
Sweet Tomatoes for all of the event food, Zoya Nail Polish donated bottles of their holiday-esque polish Sarah for every goodie bag, as well as some of their amazing new Collection Samplers to raffle off, NYS Collections Sunglasses donated some super cute sunglasses to raffle off, Adriana Marie Co. donated a variety of t-shirts for all of the guests, Island Company donated travel sized bottles of their sun care products for all of the guests, Cilea gave donated 3 of their Lash Enhancing Treatment serums to raffle off, and provided $20 off coupons for all guests.

Anna from Soleil Spa also put together goodie bags with salt scrubs and bath salts from the spa, and we offered $10 mini facials and massages by the spa's therapists and aestheticians.  Anna  also had the genius idea of putting a different scented candle in each goodie bag, so for the raffle, instead of putting everyone's names in the jar, we put slips of paper with each scent written on them, and whichever scent we chose, the person with that corresponding scented candle would win the prize!

Here are some snapshots of how the event went:

Event set up in the Soleil Spa Palm Aire outside cabana

Cute postcards I created for each guest with twitter handles
for each sponsor, and the event hashtag for easy tweeting!

Food provided by Sweet Tomatoes

Raffle prizes!

NYS Collection sunglasses

Goodie bags

Adriana Marie Co. T-shirts

Close-up of the goodie bag including Zoya Nail polish,  Island Company sun care products,
Cilea Lash Treatment, and Soleil Spa Salt Scrub and Bath Salts

I also got in contact with Sashanie, a fabulous manicurist, who provided free polish changes four our guests!

Big ZOYA Nail Polish Deal!

I just scored two Zoya Nail Polishes in gorgeous colors for FREE and only had to pay shipping ($6.95), which is less than the cost of one bottle (bottles retail for $8).  You can get this same deal by heading over to Zoya's website, picking out two colors of your choice (this promotion excludes the "true" and "fleck" polishes), and just enter ZOYA2012 at checkout.  My grand total was $6.95 and I chose these two beauties:

Kotori

Zoya describes Kotori as : A dense bright blue shimmer superimposed over a sheer black base.  I'm head over heels in love with this shade and I haven't even tried it yet.  Before buying nail polish online, I always search online for swatches by fellow beauty/nail polish bloggers.  Looking at the swatch on a website doesn't always show the polish and payoff in it's truest form, and I love being able to see how the polish applies on actual nails.  As soon as I saw a swatch of this gorgeous chock full of shimmer blue, I was sold!

Lolly

I'm actually really excited to try Lolly.  It's a true hot pink matte.  I've only worn matte nail polish once or twice, and I'm always afraid it's going to get scratched without a protective top coat, but the swatches of this really intrigued me.  It looks bright and fun, so I can't wait to try it out!

Update: This deal was originally ending yesterday, 1/5/12, but it has been extended!!  It now ends on 1/9/12, so you have 3 more days to get your two free Zoya polishes!

Nordstrom Beauty Trend Show Re-cap

A few weeks ago, you may recall that I posted about how I was invited by Nordstrom's Beauty Social Media Specialist to Nordstrom's Beauty Trendshow in Coral Gables, Florida.  Nordstrom puts on these amazing fashion/beauty trend shows all over the country throughout the year, to debut over 20 cosmetics brands and trends, where models walk the runway in amazing outfits and makeup, while brand creators, representatives, and national makeup artists excitedly tell all of the guests about their newest products and techniques.  The entire event is high every, as all of the brand representatives and the amazing host, Nordstrom’s Beauty Director Karen DeLauro are so enthusiastic about all of the products.


So...I rolled my cute butt out of bed at 5:00am (yes..5!) to ensure that I got there at 7:00am, which is when the pre-show Red Carpet VIP party started.  (They hold the Trend Show before the store opens to the public.)  Luckily, I was able to bring a friend, who is also a beauty industry girl, and she met me at my house at 6 so we could make the hour drive together to Coral Gables (after a quick Starbucks run of course!).

We arrived at the beautiful Merrick Park outdoor mall, where were then walked over to the huge downstairs courtyard in front of the the Nordstrom entrance.  They had mimosas, coffee, and some breakfast pastries available to the huge crowd that came to see the show!

Strawberry mimosas - they know how to throw a party!

We were also greeted with a cute pewter colored tote bag (as you can see at the crowd shot below, everyone is carrying one)

They also had some tables set up with product, and some brand representatives outside to explain the products. 

We thought this was the pre-show party, but little did we know, the real VIP pre-party was awaiting us bloggers inside!  The wonderful Sharon (Nordstrom's South Florida Regional Marketing Manager) greeted us by the red carpet in front of the store, and led us inside to get the full VIP blogger treatment!  The entire cosmetics section downstairs was set up with a ton of extra tables and stools to prepare for the stampede of people that would come back downstairs to shop and get their makeup done after the show.  

(The lighting was dim, so excuse if some of my pictures came out blurry or with a weird tint, and some I actually took with my iPhone so I could upload them as I was live tweeting).

We were escorted upstairs, where the Nordstrom team was finishing to set up for the event.  We were introduced to Angela, who has been organizing the Trend Shows for 11 years!  She saw our pewter goodie bags that we received downstairs, and told us we could keep that one, but she had a much better goodie bag for us!  She handed all of the bloggers the same bag, this time chock-full of products (even full size!)  I'll give you a peek later in the post.  

Angela also took us backstage to see how the show comes together, and we got the AMAZING honor of meeting John Fussell, the Global Brand Ambassador and National Makeup Artist for Chanel.  We were able to chat with him, and even learned how he got his start.  He went to art school and then worked as a model booker (booking jobs for models at the agency he worked for).  At one of the photoshoots, the makeup artist never showed up, so with his art background (but never doing makeup before), he saved the day and stepped in as the makeup artist for the shoot.  He loved it so much, that he continued doing it on the side, sneaking away from the agency to do side jobs as a makeup artist.  He was later found out by his agency, when they were looking through a model's portfolio, and praised the makeup on a particular photo.  When they asked John who did the makeup for that photo, he admitted that he did.  From there, it's history, and he's now the National Makeup Artist for one of the most iconic brands in the world.

We had front row seats, and got a perfect spot near the end of the runway, so we could watch all of the models walk down and easily snap some pictures!

The host Karen (who I mentioned above) came out, and it was time to get the show on the road!

Brand representative and some male models showing off some Philosophy products:

Such a funny action shot!

Alex Chantecaille - the creator of Chantecaille Cosmetics!

Smashbox showing off it's amazing face primers and foundations:

Jeffrey Tasker - Regional Training Manager/Global Makeup Artist for Laura Mericer

John Fussell - Global Ambassador for Chanel:

 Beautiful in Dior!

Gaga-esque MAC Model

The Elie Saab dress flown in from Paris!

The show was incredible!  Following the show, we headed back downstairs, where we had an hour to visit all of the brands' counters and tables, where we received expert advice, tips, and more samples before our 11:00am makeup appointments.  Check out this cool device by NuFACE.  The representative gave my friend a mini lift - the handheld device uses microcurrent technology so you can lift, firm, and tone your skin at home.  

You apply moisturizer and then use this over it to tighten, lift, and contour your skin (and you can use it on your body too).  The demonstration was amazing.  She did half of my friend's face, and we saw an instant difference - being in our early 20's, you wouldn't think we needed any kind of "mini-lift", but it looked like she got a mini brow lift and her eye area looked widened and rejuvenated - it was super cool.

I also met the fabulous Myisha from Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare, and she gave me an Alpha Beta Peel.  This was a perfect way to prepare for my makeup appointment!  We even got a sample kit of the Alpa Beta  Daily Face Peel, so I'm really excited to try this again at home.   My skin felt really refreshed and clean. 

Angela was right when she told us it would be bombarded downstairs - she told us there were over 800 appointments that day!  Luckily, we had appointments, so after our respective face treatments by the Dr. Gross staff, we headed to the Smashbox counter for some more pampering at our makeup appointments.  

This event was so amazing and I want to thank Carla, Sharon, and Angela again for inviting me and giving us the VIP treatment!  I can't wait to attend one of next year's shows!


Here's a peek into my goodie bag: