Lots of New Products and GWPs Courtesy of the New Bloomingdales Makeover Catalog!

The flagship Bloomingdales on 59th and Lex has just completed a massive renovation of their beauty floor. To celebrate, Bloomingdales sent out a very nice catalog featuring new products and is offering extensive Gifts with Purchase October 15th-25th. The store will be offering new brands and has a full calendar of events throughout October including makeovers, facials, skincare classes, and opportunities to meet makeup artists such as Dick Page and Poppy King. You can call 212-705-2000 to get more information on the events and look below for some of the Gift with Purchase information and highlighted products.

Gifts with Purchase:

• Lancome: Choice of 7 piece gift with any $35 Lancome purchase. 3 sets to choose from.
• Dior: 5 piece gift with $100 purchase
• Clarins: Choose 2 deluxe travel size treatments when you purchase any 2 skincare products
• Trish McEvoy: Must Have Lips 3 piece gift with any $75 purchase plus a Deluxe Makeup Planner with $250 purchase

• Shiseido: Skincare bonus with purchase of any 2 High Performance, Benefiance, white Lucent, The Skin Care or Pureness products plus a travel size The Skincare Instant Eye and Lip Makeup Remover and mini Perfect Rouge Lipstick with any foundation purchase
• Shu Uemura: Best-Of 6 piece gift with any $125 purchase
• SK-II: Full size Signs Uplifter with $325 purchase, plus a limited edition golden and Swarovski compact with $500 purchase
• Giorgio Armani: 6 piece Glamour Kit with exclusive full size Lip Shimmer shade with $95 purchase
• Benefit: Creaseless Crea Shadow in Bunny Hop and mini Bad Gal Lash with $65 purchase
• Laura Mercier: 5 piece Flawless gift with $85 purchase
• Estee Lauder: 7 piece gift with purchase of $29.50 or more. Large navy tote when you spend $55
• Prescriptives: Essential Makeup 5 piece kit when you spend $65. Full size Flawless Face Primer when you spend $95 as well as a pink tote and full size Intensive Rebuilding Cleanser when you spend $125
• Yves Saint Laurent: Must Haves 8 piece gift with $125 purchase
• Clarins: Eye Opening 5 iece gift with cosmetic bag with $200 purchase
• Bare Escentuals: 4 piece Radiance Gift with $35 purchase

New Products:

• Shu Uemura Planet Cat Palette ($65), Planet Ribbon Palette ($65), Rouge Unlimited Lipstick in Jupiter Brown ($25).
• Dior Serum de Rouge Lipstick ($32) contains 10 times more active skincare ingredients than other lipsticks. In 8 shades.
• Giorgio Armani 2009 Crustal Palette ($98) has matte and sparkling color for the eyes and a powder in a translucent golden shade. ArmaniSilk Lipstick in a limited edition shade ($38) is also available.
• Trish McEvoy Bejeweled Collection ($95) includes a Petite Makeup Planner in quilted white with black stitching, Petite refillable makeup bag, refillable makeup page, Dual Resort Bronzer, Easy Going Blush, Delicate Pink Eye Shadow, Sable Bronze Glaze Eye Shadow, Amethyst and Deep Aubergine Definers, Eye Base Essentials in Bare and Beauty Booster Lip Gloss in Brightening Pink.
• Laura Mercier Color Wardrobe ($98) is 2-tiered and contains 6 Eye Colours, 3 Cheek Colours, 6 Lip Stains, 2 Lip Glazes, a double ended Eye Colour brush, and a double ended lip brush.
• Lancome Oscillation Powerfoundation ($48) is a micro-vibrating, polishing mineral makeup.

There are a number of other Gifts with Purchase available in addition to more new products and fabulous-sounding events. I'm definitely checking out the new store tomorrow!

Images from the Bloomingdales catalog.

Post Purge: The Carnage

So I think it's time to admit that you have a makeup addiction when your 'to toss' pile becomes larger than most people's collections. I went through my stash and tried to be as ruthless as possible in attempt to declutter and, undoubtedly, make room for new makeup! Yes, there's Armani in there. And Becca. And Chanel. And Julie Hewett. Like I said, I was trying to be ruthless!
What I've learned:

• I should never buy drugstore makeup. Almost every drugstore item I had ended up getting trashed. I'm not sure if it's because I couldn't try the items beforehand and so they weren't quite perfect, or if they just seemed expendable to be because they cost less and I had an easier time letting go. Either way, it's money wasted since the products are headed to the garbage. No more CVS "cheap fixes" trips now matter how much Allure lauds an item or how long the wait is at the pharmacy counter.
• No more buying makeup because it's on sale. When Sephora cleared out Becca I bought a ridiculous amount of product. As in I went to 4 separate Sephoras and could have opened my own Becca counter afterward. Many of the items were tossed long ago, but some remained taking up space, collecting dust because I thought they'd come in useful some rainy day or just couldn't bare to throw them out because they were such a "great deal." Their day has come. Bye bye opalescent liquid with sunscreen. So long gray-green face shimmer! That Armani blush and eye shadow you see? Sale buys. Ditto the Julie Hewett.
  
• Just because the product looks great on an airbrushed model in a magazine or a color is heralded as the "next big thing" does not mean that they are right for me. Sure the fuchsia Chanel lipstick looked great in Elle, but the model was 17 with flawless skin and the shade was airbrushed to be just right. If the credits were even being honest about what product was actually used. And those vampy berry lipsticks I'm getting rid of? NOT for very full lips! My lips entered a room 10 seconds before I did!
  
• No more minerals. I went through a Bare Escentuals phase because their Upper East Side boutique was so tempting! Hundreds of pots of open sparkly color! Free pastries on Sunday! I amassed an embarrassing number of the aforementioned sparkly pots of color, and they sat untouched. I decided to decant them into stackable containers thinking I'd be more inclined to use them if they were more accessible. I wasn't. I didn't. They are beautiful but so messy, especially when I'm trying to get ready for work and haven't had caffeine yet!
• And finally--and I realize this is probably sacrilege--I just don't use Gift with Purchase (GWP) items. I'm sure Estee Lauder just rolled over in her grave. The bag would have 5 more GWP items in it if I hadn't used them for Sephora's Cash for Clunkers today. The Benefit Creaseless Cream and Lipstick were Sephora gifts with purchase. I never would have chosen those shades if I had to pay for them, and haven't opted to wear them since they arrived. Let's not even talk about the products I purchased that I didn't need just to qualify for GWPs filled with products I never use!
  

Have you purged lately? What are you getting rid of? Have you learned anything through the process? Share your epiphanies!

Designer Fragrance and Cosmetic Company Outlet

Tucked away in some outlet malls and in the Loreal Building in New York City you might find true gems--Designer Fragrance and Cosmetic Company Outlets. The Estee Lauder owned Cosmetic Company Outlets receive a good deal of attention on various message boards for the 30% off retail, limited edition and discontinued products and undistributed gifts with purchase available for sale, but I always make sure to check out the Designer Fragrance and Cosmetic Company Outlets (DF&CCOs) for some amazing deals. DF&CCOs carry high end Loreal brand products (from Lancome to Giorgio Armani to Kiehls) and while the typical discount makes the shops worth a trip, their frequent blow outs draw me in. I picked up the following during one of their "4 for $40 sales."
They also frequently have prepackaged kits at unbelievable deals. I scored all of these brand new, perfect condition Shu Uemura products (4 shadows and 2 blushes) plus the palette for under $40. At retail, these would have cost me nearly $150!
You can Google for outlets in other areas of the country, but for NYCers, you'll find one at 575 5th.

Click images to enlarge.

Armani Beauty Spring Collection 2011 Eye Pencil

When I initially spied the Armani Spring Transluminence Collection at Saks, I completely ignored the 3 eye pencils included. To me, they looked like basic brown, black and green pencil liners, and while I don't think I need another brown liner, I was certain I had no use for a $27+tax one. Well folks, I was wrong. While the shades are not spectacular, the texture and formula certainly is. These glide on like no other liner I've tried--almost like a liquid or gel but with the ease of use of a pencil liner--and set for all day wear. You have a minute of so of smudge time but once this baby dries, it's on for the long haul! It lasted through both snow and a workout with nary a smear, flake, or fade. The brown has a very subtle shimmer when applied as well. Despite my initial hesitation, I am going to pick up the green as well. I purchased mine from Bloomingdales, but Saks also has the collection if you're looking to pick it up in person. Online, it's available at Nordstrom.

Favorite Bronzers and Highlighters Part 4

The last and final installment in my favorite bronzers and highlighters!
Bare Escentuals Feather Light Mineral Veil (also known as Illuminating Mineral Veil) ($19)- Feather Light Mineral Veil is completely sheer and colorless but with a very luminous, shimmery finish. It can be used lightly all over for evening or on special occasions (it looks particularly nice in candlelight) or just applied to the areas one would normally apply highlighter for a sheer sparkle that won't alter the color of your blush. It may sound silly but to just call it shimmery really isn't doing the product justice--it i almost teeny diamond-like shimmer. Subtle but lovely. (Click on the image below to enlarge it--it sows off the shimmer more accurately).
Body and Soul Charade Blush- sadly this line (and consequently this blush) has been discontinued. I went wild for Body & Soul Cosmetics when they first debuted, largely on account of the stunning, glamorous vintage packaging though they did have some wonderful, high quality products, among them the blushes. Charade was the very first cosmetic item I purchased when I got to college. I went downtown (all by myself in the big bad city of Philly!) to Joan Shepp, a luxe boutique, paid what I remember thinking was a king's ransom on a college student's budget, and brought this home to admire lovingly. To this day I still love Charade! It's a soft matte bronze shade that looks very natural, even on my fair skin. It's highly pigmented so a little goes a long way, but it really does make me look sunkissed and not orange.

Giorgio Armani Sheer Cream Blush 1 ($40)- the texture of this item is not what most people think of when they hear "cream blush." It's very dry and almost hard to the touch, though it blends well and since the product is so pigmented, simply gliding your fingers gently over the surface of the blush will pick up adequate color. This is a soft apricot bronze with white shimmer. This works perfectly as a bronzer on my very light skin without making me look dirty. It is pricey but since so little is needed with each application it will last a long time.