Everything I Know About Being Beautiful I Learned On The Internet

I am puzzled how we did certain things before the internet. If you didn't know where something was you couldn't just hit mapquest. If you couldn't figure out who the hell that one guy in that one movie was you couldn't go to IMDB. And if you wanted to try a new beauty product you were stuck either trying things out blind, or with suggestions from your immediate circle of friends.

Well the dark ages are over and I am trying all sort of things recommended on the internets.

If you are like me and ever stayed home from school or work during the nineties and flipped past QVC you saw their show about Bare Escentuals. The commercial made all sorts of wondrous promises of great makeup and better skin and perhaps handsome nude men come to your house each morning to airbrush this shit on or something. Of course I wanted to try but ordering makeup (especially expensive makeup) from QVC was sort of a hell no for me.

And I forgot all about the stuff until people starting writing about it. Sundry reviewed it and had amazing results. But BE seems to cause an internet war everytime some one reviews it. But my skin was all crazy from the hormones and my current makeup wasn't really working for me. So I got the starter kit, there are similar kits available at Sephora, Amazon and Ulta (seems like each kit offers a slightly different selection of products). I had a variety of gift card, discount, certificate thingys so I chose the Nordstrom kit. And I fucking LOVE it.

Sadly, no handsome men come over to apply it for me but other than that it is just about perfect. The foundation gives excellent coverage with no caking, the "mineral veil" is a lovely fine powder that sinks beautifully into the skin, the "warmth" (which BE's site swears is not a bronzer but I am totally using as a bronzer and also as an eyeshadow) works beautifully when layered with a peachy blush and the brushes are lovely. The "skin rever upper" is a nice light moisturizer, too light for me during winter but I am guessing that it will work nice in the summer. "Clear Radiance" is supposed to be a highlighter which seems useless to me. Maybe because I am pretty anti-shimmer.

Overall this stuff is amazing, my skin looks great, I don't look overly made up, it doesn't make me feel greasy or dry, it doesn't cake and it stays on all day. My guess from the battles on the internet about this stuff center from a couple of core issues. One, there is an ingredient bismuth oxide which some people have an allergy to. The reaction seems to be itching and dryness and redness. If you have that reaction you are just not going to like these products. Two, if you are into certain makeup applications you might not like it. It's really light, it is just a brush on product so if you are set with your sponges or liquids it just might not be for you.

If you don't love what you are using I do recommend the Bare Escentuals, but purchase it somewhere with a great return policy so if you hate it you can return it.
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Because I am all about product reviews tonight, Burt's Bees lipbalm seems to be an internet favorite. So when I lost my Kiehl's and could only run to the drugstore I thought I would give it a try. And I thought it sucked. I could see why if you are comparing it to chapstick or Carmex how it might be an improvement. But the moisturizing effect doesn't seem to last. And the peppermint is irritating on the lips (plus I don't really want minty lips). I am trying to come up with a way to pawn it off to J so I can replace it with the Kiehl's. So the internet is not always right!
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Lastly, the girls at Makeup Alley (which those girls are lovely but freak me OUT) recommend a aspirin mask. As a PSA, if you are allergic to aspirin this is not for you. But disolve four or five uncoated plain aspirin (pure aspirin not Excedrin) in a few drops of warm water and mix with a couple of drops of facial cleanser (they also recommended honey instead of cleanser but I haven't tried it) to make a paste. Apply as a mask and leave on for 25 minutes and rinse (and moisturize!). There is an acid in the aspirin that exfoiliates the face and gives you a lovely smooth finish. Gorgeous and for pennies!

Ah, thank God Al Gore invented the internet.