Leave it How You Found It: Earth Day

Today, as I'm sure you are aware by now, is Earth Day.  Earth Day is a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment.

Something us beauty girls should be very aware of is consumption and packaging. Luckily, some of our favorite brands can help us recycle when we're done:

• Origins will give you a free sample of an Origins product every time you bring in an empty from any make up brand
• MAC will give you a free lipstick (counters) or eyeshadow (stores) for every six MAC containers you bring. Just check the package for B2M printed on the cardboard. 
• Kiehls gives you new products for old! 3 empty Kiehls packages earns you a lipstick, another 2 and you get a travel sized product, and then a further 5 and you get a $25 product. 

One thing I've been doing for the last couple of years is refusing all plastic bags in stores and bringing my own LL Bean tote everywhere for shopping. Little things like that make such a big difference in the world and if we can all do a few small things, bigger change will come.

What's your favorite eco-tips?

Drinking My Way To A Better Self

I am a binger. It is well known. When I get into something, I really do. Regular exercise? No thanks, but I’ve done 3 5.30am bootcamps in the last year, and go from not doing any running for 9mths to running 5 miles in 2 weeks. My husband despairs of my ADD and my inability to form good habits. My latest obsession? Should I do a detox cleanse? It is right up my alley in terms of quick benefit, requires intense short period of suffering, and comes easily delivered and downed in yummy bottles. I am a lazy, lazy girl.

Why do I want to cleanse? Well, the first thing to state is that it is not about the weight loss. I know that any weight lost during the cleanse is short-term, and will be gained back quickly. I have felt that I've been eating a lot of crap over the winter period, and it would be awesome to start the summer as I mean to go on - clean, fresh, healthy, toxin-free. Hopefully I'll have shiny, bright, clear skin at the end of this, but mostly I'm interested in seeing whether the sudden intox of healthy enzymes kick boosts my energy and gives me a taste for green things. 

The cleanse of choice in NYC is Blueprint Cleanse. They offer 3 different levels, depending on your detox experience and requirements. I’m obviously a beginner cleanser (earlier in the week  I went for burgers at Bill’s – the hip new burger place that Jenny took Nate to for his birthday a few weeks ago on Gossip Girl), and my cleanse would consist of 6 bottles of juice – 2 green ones, a lemon and cayenne pepper drink (that’s for the Master Cleanse peeps out there), a pineapple and mint one, and a beet-based one, as well as their famous Bottle No. 6 Cashew Milk with Cinnamon, Vanilla and Agave. (How yum does that sound?). I really want to do it so bad, but at $65/day for 3 days, it’s a little steep for me.

 

There is a second option, and that’s the head to Liquiteria, which is a juice bar in the East Village which, according to internet gospel (you know it speaks the truth!), can mix up similar juices for you. Apart from the apparently oh-so-good Cashew Milk mix. Liquiteria aren’t cheap either, and 6 juices are approximately $50. Cheaper than Blueprint, but not delivered my door in nice little icepacks. 

Blueprint also publish a book called The 3-Day Cleanse with various juice recipes for a range of cleanses. So maybe I could mix up the juices myself and detox that way. My initial DIY reaction to this is “SCORE!!! I am so there”, but actually, I don’t have a blender, 8 gazillion bottles for storing juice, and really, once I bought all the ingredients at whole foods, I would probably have spent $50/day as well. 

After some serious um-ing and aw-ing, I've decided to try out Liquiteria for the next three days. I've been preparing myself by mostly eating salad for the last couple of days (since the burger really), and man, I'm already hungry! I had my last diet coke at 12.30 today, and my last carbs were a handful of goldfish a couple of hours ago to stave off some serious hunger. 

Nails of the Week: Orly Rage

I don't think a photograph can do justice to this beauty. Wow. It's a gorgeous rose gold with dense, dense shimmer, almost like molten metal. It applied like an absolute dream. This is two coats, but I probably could have done one. There are minimal brush strokes, and it dried super quickly with the help of the China Glaze quick drying topcoat. Seriously gorgeous.

MAC Art Supplies Haul

L-R, Black Line, Undercurrent, Dirty, Zinc Zone, Below Ground

I don't really know what happened here. Normally I am super on the ball at scoring MAC new releases on the day they come out, swatching them all and getting it online. I've been super looking forward to this collection since I scored my first Greasepaint Stick at Style Black, but something happened (well, real life really!), and I only got a chance to pick these up last Saturday, and then it was a whole week before I was able to sit down properly and play around with them. So sorry, and I feel bad myself.

Okay, into what I picked up. I could easily have all 8 of the Greasepaint Sticks, but even I know that that is unnecessary and there are only so many smudgy smoky eyes a girl needs. And it's not as if I have a mad crazy hectic social life that needs a smoky eye each night! So, I managed to restrain myself to just three:

(From top, Dirty, Zinc Zone, Below Ground)

• Dirty: This is a greyed taupe. It reminds me of Satin Taupe in a smudgeable form. I cannot wait to do a look with this. It's gorgeous, with a touch of silvery shimmer and yummy blendability
• Below Ground: A light-mid tone brown with a shimmered finish. Soft and easy to use. Not super overwhelming in terms of color. I can see myself using this one a lot, although maybe not coming into summer. 
• Zinc Zone: Granite gray. Think Knight Divine in smudging form. Will work for a more sophisticated smudged eye. Love. 

 Mini Grease Paint Stick Sharpener

Greengrease and Uniformly Blue looked fun as well, but I can't have everything!

I also picked two Pearlglide Intense Liners. Pearlglide Liners are really nice and soft and are nearly as good as Urban Decay 24/7s (let's face it - is there a better liner than the 24/7s?). Out of the six colors available, I picked two:

• Black Line: Supersoft black with gold shimmer. This is like a thinner, darker version of NARS Aigle Noir that came out at Christmas last year. I have that, and I never use it :(
• Undercurrent: a darkened shimmery teal. I cannot control myself when it comes to teal eyeliners. They are my all time favorite liner color. I looked through my liner stash, and I have nothing like this. Score! :)

Although I am mad crazy for lipstains, something made me not love the MAC ones - the reports of dryness, and the fact that when I buy a Covergirl stain, they dry out in months, so I decided to pass these. Strength!!

Did anyone else pick up anything from the Art Supplies collection?

Pret A Papier comes out on Thursday, and I'm going to go to the new MAC at Times Square to take a look at it. Although I love my Flatiron store, and I feel like I'm cheating on them! 

The Oops I Slept in Approach to Make Up

I woke up late this morning, and while I was running around frantically getting myself together for work, I thought to myself – I should write a blog post about “the bare minimum” – that is, what do you throw on when you have slept through your alarm by an hour!

I should first say that this only really applies to “workday makeup”. I regularly go out without a scrap on my face on the weekend and it does not really bother me. In fact, as I write this, the only make up I have on is a bunch of swatches on my arm! However, I definitely have “a face” that I put on for work. Instead of going through my whole look today, I’m going to talk about what I use to make sure I’m presentable on just 4 minutes (maybe less!) in front of the mirror. In reviewing this post, it seems that my main goal is to use products that it is impossible to make a mistake with.

 

1.      Mascara. Not negotiable. Always wakes your eyes up. Right now I'm using Maybelline Colossal, which is okay but I don't love (flaking after a 8hrs)

2.      Instead of tinted brow gel, I use clear. Keeps my brows in place, but far more room for error and no chance of making a mistake with. 

3.      Concealer where you need it

4.      Tinted moisturizer as a quick base. 

5.      Benefit Posietint on the apples of your cheeks

6.      A very light dusting of ELF High Definition Powder

7.      Neutral, always suitable lipstick (for me it’s MAC Crème Cup at the moment for my default lip).

As you can see, in my eyes, full eyeshadow and gloss are skippable steps for me. I’ve also focused on products that are virtually impossible to make a mistake with, so most are quite subtle, but enough to make me look a little bit less like I rolled straight from bed to office. 

What is your slept-in late routine? Any recommendations for uber products that will rock mine?

This post contains affiliate links. Jolie Laide Girl represents only the author's opinions, and is in no way influenced by the use of affiliate links.

A Hint of What's To Come

Yep, that's a photo of my "unreviewed and unswatched" make up. I've got a lot of work to do over the coming couple of weeks! The blog will be busy busy busy - watch this space!

Nails of the Week: China Glaze Nude

I am continuing my love affair with all things China Glaze and all things nude and neutral. I am by far the youngest person in my working environment, and frequently feel that way in my typically scatterbrained approach to things. Sometimes its nice to look down at my nails and they look pretty and sophisticated. China Glaze Nude does that for me. It is quite sheer, so this was 3 coats (and I believe 1 or 2 days wear when I took this picture).

On other nail related thoughts, I received a couple of colors from the China Glaze Poolside Neon collection this week along with a bunch of other colors from Transdesign this week - yay!! So excited to try them out. But I was disappointed to see that Essie polishes have jumped from $4 to $8. I really don't want to pay $8 for an Essie polish!! Can anyone recommend any reputable ebay sellers that sell at around the $4 mark?