A great gift to give any women in your life is Giella custom blend cosmetics. There is no more guessing on what shade will work best for you (or her). They make cosmetic pencils for lips, eyes, and brows. They also have concealer. For your lips, they have custom blend pencils that range from sheer to cream to full bodied. You can even add soy butter and conditioners if you like. For your eyes, you can create the perfect eye liner. You can keep it matte or add some shimmer in gold, silver, copper, or bronze. For brows, you can create a color that matches your hair, softens your brows, and is smudge proof. Madison and I tried the nail polish they also have this afternoon. It dried pretty quick with a great shine. The lipstick and lip gloss also has a great look to it. I love that you can customize everything, so it looks best with your hair color and skin tone. We watched While You Were Out Today, and this is a great show to see how much a little of the right kind of makeup can make a difference!  I’m not sure if they used this kind of makeup.  However, they had a lady that had 80’s makeup and was using all the wrong colors.  When they updated her look and showed her the right colors for her skintone, the difference was amazing.

The best part is that this can all be made while you are waiting. It takes about 5 minutes to make. You can find this at Henri Bendel’s in New York City, selec t salons in Baltimore, Louisiana, and Philadelphia, and online at www.giella.com.  To do this for Christmas, here’s what you need to do:

Purchase an empty lipstick case, lip gloss wand, cheek tint or concealer compact or nail polish bottle, and we will fill it according to what your gift recipient wants.  They will send the empty component(s) (for lips, cheeks or nails) with instructions of how to pick the perfect color and texture online at www.giella.com. Then they will mail the personalized custom colors and keep the formulas on file for future reorders.  How easy is that shopping, and you (or the woman you are shopping for) gets exactly what they want!

Did you know that a lot of what you use to make ourselves look better is actually doing the exact opposite? A lot of the time they contain toxins and preservatives (everything from synthetic fragrances to petrochemicals to formaldehyde) that are bad for you and even worse, bad for the environment. The Green Beauty Guide is a book that tries to show you the way to a natural beauty. By reading this book, you will learn how to decipher product labels without needing a masters degree and avoid the really bad chemicals (check out the toxic ingredient list). I especially learned a lot in Chapter 3 about understanding what you are paying for. They completely breakdown who all gets your money when you buy a product and how much the ingredients for said product really are. It will floor you when you realize how many middleman there really are. Not only does this book tell you what not to use, it lets you know what products are good and safe for you and environment. It has all the latest research on the best organic products including makeup, hair care, tooth care, skincare, sun protection, and baby products just to name a few. There are even some DIY recipes to try out.

This is a book all women should get their hands on. It is very scary to see what ingredients our makeup has that is doing harm to both us and environment. However, this book can also send us to a better path for makeup and other items that are green. It is definitely a good, informative read.

Challenges of Life is a blog that has a little bit of everything.  I read posts about how to get your kids to eat vegetables and tips to applying makeup.  As you can tell, she covers all aross the board.  Normally, orange is not a color I like especially on a theme.  However, Challenges of Life pulls it off with style.  This blog has an awesome design.  You don’t have 40 million widgets blinking at you.  Everything just compliments each other.  Her blog theme is very pleasing to the eye, and her sidebars definitely do not take away from the post content.  Like I stated in my last review, the only thing I would change is that she needs an about page.  I like to read about the author of the blog.  It gives one a better understanding of why they write about what they do and gives another glimpse into their life.

Now that we are heading into summer, I have been on the lookout for sunscreen for me and kids (more so me though — I have some spf50 for them already).  It is really hard to find a facial product that isn’t greasy and slimy.  I find that the more greasy that a sunscreen feels, the more it makes my face break out.  Trust me, I do not need any more help in my breakouts — I do fine enough on my own on that one.  When I saw that Screen Inc. had some dermatologist approved facial sunscreen, I knew that I had to try it.

The first kind I looked at is chicscreen.  Now, this is spf 16+, and you should be reapplying every two hours to keep the protection strong.  The nice thing is that you can apply this under your makeup.  I had to giggle a bit when I read the warnings on this.  The two things I found humorous was the warning that I was a smart gal so I shouldn’t eat it and that no boys are allowed to use it since this product is was designated for the feminine crowd.  This was not tested on animals.

Secondly, there was the manscreen.  I loved this stuff.  This also is spf 16+ and should be reapplied every 2 hours.  Directions for use:  shower, shave, screen.  No man can screw that up.  Bill liked that it didn’t smell fruity.  For some reason, he doesn’t want to smell like a dozen of roses when he walks out the door.  The warnings on here also made me smile:  apply only to you dapper face, for manly men only — no youngsters, and use your noodle — don’t swallow this stuff.

Next, there is the teenscreen.  Same as above — spf 16+ and make syre you keep applying it for protection.  To quote the directions, just like deodorant, use Teen Screen daily.  The warning I liked the best is “as much as you love avocado and green tea, don’t swallow this product”.

Lastly, there is the tweenyscreen.  This one has a tropical fruit scent (you know, the one Bill didn’t want to smell like when using sunscreen which makes me want to use it all the more!).  It is spf 16+ and needs to be reapplies after 2 hours like the rest.

This sunscreen is already in complience with the upcoming standards on testing and packaging from the FDA.  They also have received the Seal Of Recommendation from the Skin Cancer Foundation.  Personally, I liked the sunscreen so much that I am extremely excited to see that they are going to be coming up with a spf30 lipscreen and a spf 35 extreme sunscreen.  I am also able to extend a special discount to all of you.  If you enter BLOGGER10 with your order, you will save 10%!  This is a sunscreen you should try out this summer and you’ll never go back!