Hi I’m Cindy from Prime
Beauty. In the interest of feeding
our shared makeup obsession and our never ending quest to discover the best
beauty products worldwide, Lisamarie
and I decided to do guest posts for each other. Ladies pull up a chair, grab a
cold Kokanee and let me introduce to you to some of my favorite American beauty
lines.
PurpleLabs is the brain child of Karen Robinovitz. One
evening while attending a fashion soiree and nibbling off the hors d’oeuvre tray
for 20 minutes, Karen said “If my lip gloss could plump my lips and not my hips
that would be my dream.” Two weeks later, she found a chemist and a business
was born! Huge Lips, Skinny Hips was the debut product and is still her
signature product. Now this might not seem like such an exceptional story
except that Huge Lips Skinny Hips is an unusual product. It’s a plumping lip
gloss but with the extra ingredient Hoodia which is an appetite suppressant.
Brilliant! What woman doesn’t want Huge Lips, Skinny Hips—get it? I’ve tried
both the No Panty Lines (clear) and Kitty Pole Dancer (yeah, I know) which is a
pale barely there pink. The glosses are very thin—they are purposely designed
that way so that when you lick your lips, you get some of the benefits of the
hoodia. From the website “This gloss is
not a cure for anything but instead, it’s a fabulous way to set your intention
and hold it. Think of it like tying a string around your finger to remind
yourself to do something… this something is to be healthy.” The line also includes Cheek Implants, a
cream blush with collagen, Lashionista Modelista, a double ended mascara and
eyeliner duo, Luvah a lips gloss duo with a stain and gloss, Silk Sheets, a
creamy foundation packed with beauty treatment ingredients, and Luxury Squared
a concealer/highlighter duo. PurpleLab
products can be found online at HSN, Be-Glowing and Beauty Mark.
Rock and
Republic has a highly successful line of designer denim and clothing,
but did you know they also have a phenomenal cosmetic line? The Rock &
Republic cosmetic line includes; Contrived Pressed Powder Blush,
Imitate Mousse blush, Saturate eye color, Bound Gel eyeliners,
Extremist mascara, Luxe Lip Gloss and makeup brushes. I own Spank blush and
Exile eyeshadow; both are wonderfully pigmented and easily blendable. Spank
is a matte neutral ballet pink, very wearable and great as an everyday shade.
Contrived blushes come is matte and shimmer. Exile is a
shimmery peachy bronze that makes my blue eyes pop! Saturate eye shadows come
in three textures; matte, satin and shimmer. The texture is medium-soft; soft
but not so much that they crumble. R&R packaging is gorgeous; the round
black and silver compacts have the RR logo and are HUGE-- I can’t see myself
ever using up the blush. The compacts are so big and heavy, that they are kind
of impractical for your purse or makeup bag but will make an impressive
statement on your vanity or dresser. Rock & Republic
cosmetics are available at Rock and
Republic online but the line has been showing up on invitation
only sale sites like Hautelook and Ideeli frequently. I purchased mine on Hautelook,
for an invitation click here
You might recognize Cat
Cosmetics President, Owner and Creator Catherine Hickland from her work on
One Life to Live, Loving, The City, Texas
On my favorite Cat products is the Hello Gorgeous
Face Palette. The palette contains: Catnip Bronzer / Whiskers
Blush, Purity Base Eye Shadow, Treasure Shimmer Shadow/ Peace
Contour Eye Shadow, Joy Smoky Eye Dry Liner Shadow, and Sable Powder
Brush & Tips & Tricks Guide. Everything you need in one place! My
daughter has tried to steal it several times, but I've managed to hang on to
it!
The Hello Gorgeous palette contains Catnip
Bronzer, a slightly shimmery but not glittery highly pigmented
bronzer--a little goes a long way and the brush that comes with the palette
makes for a perfect application. This is actually my least favorite of the entire
palette--the shade is a bit off for me. It's decent, but I have other
bronzers I much prefer. Whiskers blush is a shimmery soft pink
blush, but again not too shimmery. It gives more of a glow and we all love to
glow, right? Whiskers is very pigmented too, when I used the
brush that came with the palette, I picked up too much so I've switched to a
skunk brush---ahhhh perfect. There are 4 eye shadows--Purity, Joy,
Treasure & Peace. All are very soft and pigmented. Easy to apply
and blend, they are just lovely. Purity--a neutral matte
shadow that works great as a wash or to even out the eyelids if you have any
discoloration. Treasure--a shimmery peachy gold that I LOVE on
the lid--it makes my blue eyes really POP! If I use purity underneath it tones
down the color to make it very neutral---great for an everyday or office look. Peace--a
shimmery bronze. Okay, I admit I'm a sucker for almost any bronze eye shadow.
But this is purrfection (sorry, I couldn't resist). I use on the lid
or in the crease. It's a medium bronze--shimmery w/o glitter, not too dark, no
red tones. Joy--a matte medium brown I use for liner. I like
this shade because it's not too dark, most brown matte shadows end up looking
black. I have used this both wet and dry as a liner and I think I prefer
wet---it lasts all day!
Lipstick Queen - After
not finding any lipsticks she liked, 18 year old Poppy King,
found herself a business partner and founded Poppy lipsticks. She ran that
business in her native Australia for 12 years. She was then approached by mega
cosmetic conglomerate Estee Lauder and joined them in 2002. She soon was a top
New York cosmetics executive but found that the corporate world didn’t suit her
"As you go up the ladder, you get further and further away from the end
user. That's not what I'm in the business for," she explains. Poppy left
in 2005 and penned her first book Lessons
of a Lipstick Queen: Finding and Developing the Great Idea That Can Change Your
Life. How inspiring is that? In late 2006 she launched Lipstick Queen with Saints and
Sinners, a collection of lipstick duos in a single shade with sheer and opaque
options. And you gotta love her personal style--she looks like a
40's movie star!
I ordered the three piece
Discovery Set from QVC which includes two of Poppy’s best sellers; Medieval-
a sheer red that imparts the look of just bitten lips, Saint Pink-
a neutral pink leaning toward cool and a new shade, Sigh- a
shimmering mauve/rose shade. These lipsticks are smooth, moisturizing and the
consistency feels more like a balm than a lipstick. They apply like a dream and
are fairly long lasting—they last for about 3 hrs on me through my required 49
(okay 4) cups of tea. I like the fact that they do leave somewhat of a stain on
the lips so when they do wear off you have a little color left behind. Poppy
King has managed to effectively combine a gloss and a lipstick in one—these
have the shine and sheerness of a gloss but the rich color of a lipstick. The
consistency is perfection; light and emollient with a nice slip and just the
right amount of pigmentation. Don’t be scared by the color in the tube—it
applies very sheer and all the shades are wearable by all skintones. Lipstick
Queen products can be purchased at QVC,
and www. lipstickqueen.com along with Mills
Brothers and Saltridges yay!
Three
Custom Color Specialists - I'm sure you can all
relate to finally finding the perfect lipstick or blush that you felt
was made just for you only to have the manufacturer discontinue it. No
worries! Three Custom Color Specialist has you covered. They can produce
discontinued shades for the Lips, Cheeks, Eyes & Face. All formulas remain
in their personal files for easy re-ordering. Manufacturing time is 2
weeks from the date an order is placed. Or how about creating your own custom
shade? Your own personal shade can be created from a splash of nail
color in a baggie, a piece of fabric, a paint chip, a photo from a magazine,
two lips colors blended together to create the ideal shade... anything! How
cool is that?
The only product I have (so far) from
this brand is the Cream to Powder Blush and it is divine. The
texture is remarkable; when I dip my fingers into the pot, it
feels creamy & moist, but when I touch it to my face, it instantly
turns to into a very fine, delicate powder that still blends like a
cream. Weird, but in a good way; it feels like satin on
the skin. The shade I chose was Rose and I guess I expected something
more pink, but this is more of a tawny red and it looks so natural (no shimmer)
like I just went for a run--um, yeah, sure. Thank you Three
Custom Color Specialists for helping me look like I actually
exercise.
I hope you've enjoyed peeking at some of
my makeup stash and will investigate some of these American brands. Thank you
Lisamarie for the opportunity to interact with your lovely readers! Hmmm, I
seem to be craving pancakes and maple syrup!
- Cindy -