IBS New York 2011: The Event

Last Sunday, for the second year in a row, I spent the afternoon at IBS (International Beauty Show) in NYC. The trade show, presented by American Salon magazine, spans three days and showcases some of the best products brands have to offer, many of them at really great discounts that can only be found during the show. The event takes place annually at the Jacob Javits Center in NYC and the convention center is packed with different booths at which products (think nails, hair care, skincare, and beauty tools) are sold and demonstrations are held. The demonstrations run the gamut from hair cutting and coloring to gel nail application/nail design and waxing (don't worry, face only!). The show really caters to beauty professionals - salon owners, hair dressers, nail technicians - with educational classes (some free and some for cost) being given by individuals who are at the forefront of their respective fields as well as brand manufacturers. Though I unfortunately didn't have the chance to take advantage of the classes, I did score some really great things (stay tuned for the haul post!). All in all, it was a great day (even the pouring rain couldn't stop me!). I got to spend some time with my good friend (and fellow beauty enthusiast) Nancy and with Jenny from Beauty and All That. I even got to meet a new blogging beauty, Cristal from Beauty Goodies. Love meeting new beauty lovers!

Here are some pictures from the show. It was so packed!

Some goodies at the Stila booth

One of many hair demos

Mmmm rows of polish at OPI!

Check out this patriotic wig!

Nancy and me

Anatomically correct body painting

More body painting

Jenny and me

I spy Kevin James Bennett at the Royal & Langnickel brush booth!

How cute are these mini polish sets from China Glaze?! These are from last year's Up & Away collection. $6 for a mini 6 pack!

China Glaze's new Anchors Away collection

Gorgeous shimmery pigments from Naked Cosmetics. Check out the middle tower! It's the new Twilight collection and it's already very popular. The teal color when used wet looks AMAZING!!

More shimmery goodness at the Naked booth

Killer lashes on this pink car. I might be just a tad jealous ;)

DermOrganic hair booth. Love that their products are formulated with Argan Oil!

Some rockin' hair

I'm very intrigued by the Supersmile teeth whitening line. My coffee/tea-stained pearly whites are no longer so pearly!

The incomparable Nick Arrojo doing a hair demo at his booth

And finally....need I say more?! ;)

Weigh in: Were any of you also at the show? Are you planning to attend any of the other upcoming beauty shows?

Stila 24kt Luxe Lip Gloss Collection

As a Stila lip gloss lover, I just couldn't pass by this collection without letting you all know about it. This new set houses four full-size 24kt glosses, all of which are perfect for adding some sparkle to your lips. The formula is packed with nourishing and antioxidant-rich vitamins (A, C, and E), and, in fact, contains real 24kt gold!

The Shades:

Radiant Sunset - a mid-tone red

Precious Coral - a light peachy coral

Golden Charm - a warm sheer gold

Vintage Merlot - a deep berry

This collection would make a great holiday gift (or stocking stuffer!). The colors are very complementary to the warm lip trend we're seeing for the Fall and Winter seasons. This set retails for $30 (an $88 value) at http://www.stilacosmetics.com/. Quantities are limited, so scoop up this "golden" set while you can!

Barbie Gets Her Groove On With Stila: The Complete List Of Fall Items For The Barbie Loves Stila Collection

Aqua might have been a one-hit wonder, but they were spot on when they sang the lyrics to their infamous song "Barbie Girl." As a girl, I was most definitely a "barbie girl in a barbie world." Though I have grown out of my doll phase, I still look to Barbie as being an iconic figure of style and beauty. From the blonde hair to the well-known prettified face, Barbie has the ability to transcend age. Enter Barbie Loves Stila, a collection of make-up items centered around this female figure. Pretty colors dazzle, and there is something for everyone. Each woman can be her own "Barbie girl."

I have already given you the scoop on the Smudge Pots that are new to the Barbie Loves Stila collection, but I can now share with you all the rest of the product details. Inspired by the debut Barbie runway show (NYFW Fall 2009), the collection features glamorous, yet still wearable, beauty. So what can you expect from the Fall offerings? Keep reading!

The Collection:

Barbie Loves Stila Lip Enamel Trio ($32) - Includes the colors: Joy (red), Happiness (light pink), and Tickled Pink (Barbie signature "power pink," exclusive to the Barbie Loves Stila collection). The glosses contain Rhodiola rosea, a plant extract that has been shown to increase levels of seratonin and dopamine in the brain and to elevate mood. Happiness abounds! This lip trio can be found at Sephora, http://www.sephora.com/, Ulta, and http://www.stilacosmetics.com/.

Barbie Loves Stila Lip Glaze ($22) - The famous "twist and click" gloss pen is available in three shimmer-infused colors, XOXO (red), Sugar Lips (pale pink), and Pucker Up (bright pink). The lip glazes can be found at Sephora, http://www.sephora.com/, and http://www.stilacosmetics.com/.

Barbie Loves Stila Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Liner ($20; NEW) - Created exclusively for this collection, this liquid liner dispenses from a "marker pen" with a waterproof, smudge-proof, and smear-proof formula. The liner pen is available only at Ulta stores and http://www.stilacosmetics.com/.


Barbie Loves Stila Smudge Pot (see here for details) The smudge pots are available at Sephora, http://www.sephora.com/, Ulta, and http://www.stilacosmetics.com/.

Barbie Loves Stila All Doll'd Up Palette ($28) - This refillable palette contains four eyeshadow trios (for a total of 12 shades), allowing for the development of a range of glamorous looks. The palette is available at Sephora stores, http://www.sephora.com/, Ulta, and the http://www.stilacosmetics.com/.

I am really digging the colors (pinks are simply synonomous with flirtatiousness and girliness!) and I am very interested to check out the new liquid liner pen. Does anything grab you?

New From Stila: Barbie Loves Stila Smudge Pots

Say hello to three new Smudge Pot shades, the new members of the Barbie Loves Stila Collection. Each Smudge Pot is infused with shimmer, and as is the case with all Smudge Pots, can be used as a liner or as a cream shadow.



The Colors:


Little Black Dress - black with pink shimmer

Purple Pumps - purple with pink shimmer

Cobalt Clutch - vibrant blue with intense shimmer

These new Smudge Pots are pre-launching exclusively on the Stila website right now, and you can find them for $20 each. I'm thinking Purple Pumps will be mine ;-)

Stila Champagne Glow Eyeshadow Trio - Review and EOTD

Nothing does more for a girl's state of mind than a little champagne - Stila's Champagne Glow Eyeshadow, that is! A trio of neutral, shimmery shades - from L-R in the picture above, a pinky champagne, a burgundy/brown, and a taupe - these colors are very wearable and daytime appropriate. The colors can be applied wet or dry and go on smoothly, without any grittiness or chalkiness, as can sometimes be the case with mineralized products. Baked into three distinct sections of color and contained within an aluminum tin, these shadows are nothing short of gorgeous to look at in the pan. There is some fallout with use, not completely unexpected with this type of consistency. The shimmer within the product is not chunky, though; it is soft, and there are no large pieces of glitter that fall off of the brush with application. The shadows do go on rather sheerly, but the color can be built up by packing on more color (the intensity can be increased by applying the shadows wet as well). Today I was aiming for the light, I'm-not-wearing-very-much-make-up look, so I thought I would reach for this trio as a simple, yet fresh, summer daytime eye is effortless using the coordinating colors. With a turn of the head, the sunlight illuminates the beauty in each color. Even if you are not generally a fan of mineralized shadows, I wouldn't cross these off of your list too quickly, at least not without a look at them for yourself! They are super soft to the touch and won't leave your face covered in sparkle after you have applied them to your lids - instead, a pretty, subtle sheen results. I have one warning, though! The disc upon which the shadows sit tends to spin a little bit when you touch down your brush, so be prepared ;-) Below is the look I sported today!

EOTD:

UDPP

Soft Ochre Paint Pot

Champagne color on the lid

Taupe color in the crease

Burgundy/brown in the outer crease

Clinique Long Pretty Lashes

I wanted to include a swatch picture as well, even though the colors were hard to capture (the colors are in the same order as they are shown above, from L-R):

In addition to Champagne Glow, there are also two other trios available - Bronze Glow (which features a rose, a gold, and an ivory) and Gold Glow (a gold, a bronze, and an ivory). I gave you a look at Gold Glow with my very first blog post on Stila's My Mother, My Hero set (do you need a reminder? Check out the review here). You can find all three at Sephora as well as online at the Stila website. They each retail for $28. I'm telling you now, though, they will last you a long time!

Have you experienced these eyeshadow trios yet?

Stila Sheer Color Tinted Moisturizer SPF 30 Oil-Free

Not long ago I never thought twice about foundations or coverage - sheer, medium, full...huh? - but then college hit. I went from having smooth, flawless skin with just the occasional hormonal breakout, to actually having to deal with covering up some mild acne scarring and an overall uneven skintone. With more to conceal, I turned to foundations with medium-full coverage. Now, my foundation of choice (as I've previously raved about!) is Revlon Colorstay, for its buildable to full coverage potential.

Now that the humid, sticky weather is upon us, though, I feel like my skin preparation should follow more of a minimalist approach. Liquid foundations can feel a bit heavy when the days are hot, and so I have tried to work with other options. Tinted moisturizers are great (especially when they have sun protection), but they generally provide more of a sheer coverage, which doesn't work out so well for me.

A month or so ago, while browsing the Stila display at Sephora, I came face to face (hello, gorgeous!) with their tinted moisturizer options. They had a few different ones to offer, and the Sheer Color Tinted Moisturizer SPF 30 Oil-Free quickly caught my eye. I had read on the Stila site that this formula offered more of a medium coverage foundation, and taking into account the sun protection properties it provided (twice as strong as the original formula), as well as the moisturization factor, I decided to give this one a try. For my super-ghostly-white skin, I ended up with the lightest shade (shocker!! lol), Fair, Light 01. This shade matched my skintone very nicely and blended in amazingly.



Sooo.....now for a little review of the product and some insight into why I think this product works for me. I have found that the formula of this tinted moisturizer, while it does feel a bit thicker than usual when you apply it (I use my fingers), absorbs nicely into my skin and does not leave my face feeling greasy. The result is a more even looking skintone; redness/blotchiness is minimized, while my freckles and beauty marks are still visible ;-). When I sweat, I don't feel like this is melting off of my face. I have been using the tinted moisturizer without a primer (I generally use one when I apply foundations) with an additional light sunscreen underneath - hey, you can never have too much sun protection! - (Right now my sun-protectant of choice is the Jan Marini Antioxidant Daily Face Protectant with SPF 30. See here for product review), and a light setting powder on top. The only thing I dislike about this tinted moisturizer is the packaging. It comes in a rather hard to squeeze plastic tube, which I can see having to cut open eventually to retrieve product (think Urban Decay Primer Potion).



Here are some photos from yesterday of me wearing this Stila tinted moisturizer (please ignore the extremely frizzy do!). I wasn't kidding about the minimalist make-up! This was a lazy day!

Products used:

Jan Marini Antioxidant Face Protectant SPF 30

Stila Sheer Color Tinted Moisturizer SPF 30 Oil-Free in Fair, Light 01

Smashbox High Definition Concealer in Fair (under eyes)

MAC Studio Sculpt Concealer in NC15 (around nose and a little on blemishes)

Urban Decay Primer Potion in Sin

Clinique Long Pretty Lashes Mascara in Black

The finished look after adding Laura Geller Blush n Brighten in Roseberry and Revlon Super Lustrous Lip Gloss in Pink Whisper

For further swatches of this product (in my shade, of course), you can check out my previous Stila haul post here. The Sheer Color Tinted Moisturizer SPF 30 retails for $36, and can be purchased from the Stila website and from Sephora (as well as other locations Stila is sold). I recommend giving this one a look, especially if you dig the lightness of a tinted moisturizer with a little more coverage.

Have you tried this tinted moisturizer before? Any of the others from Stila? Are you a fan of any other tinted moisturizers? I want to hear about your experiences!

Collective Stila Haul: The Make Up Show, Sephora, and Online Purchases

Stila has already gotten some love from me (see my first post), but now I want to show you some of the other goodies I recently picked up from the Make Up Show in NYC, from Stila's 40% off sale online, and from Sephora. I was really itching to try out some of their products, especially their best-selling Smudge Pots (gel eye-liners) and the infamous Kitten eyeshadow. Having already snagged a few items from the new Indian Summer collection at the Make Up Show - the 24K Smudge Pot ($20) and 24K Lip Gloss in Brilliant Pink ($22) - I was really interested in picking up a few other items. So, when I heard about the sale I was obviously eager to pounce. I ended up ordering the A-Lister set, a compilation of eight of Stila's best-selling and award-winning products, Smudge Pots in Cobalt and Bronze ($20 each generally, $12 each with the sale), and an empty quad (regularly $16, but $9.60 with the sale) to house the four shadows from the set. In the set there are four full-size shadows in Kitten, Wheat, Go-Lightly, and Mystic (all gorgeous, neutral, and shimmery), a sample size of the Convertible Color in Peony, an Illuminating Tinted Moisturizer SPF 15 in Shade 01, a Major Lash Mascara in Black, and a limited edition Lip Glaze in "Ulta" Mate Pink. This set was $40, which I thought was a pretty nice deal for all of these products. It's definitely a great way to sample some of Stila's best! Also at Sephora, I picked up the Oil-Free Sheer Color Tinted Moisturizer SPF 30 in Light 01 ($36) for those summer days when it's just too hot to wear a heavier liquid foundation. So far, I'm really liking it!

And now for some pictures of the damage!

And for some product close-ups:

Clockwise from top left: Kitten, Wheat, Go-Lightly, and Mystic shadows

Clockwise from top left: Smudge Pots in 24K, Cobalt, and Bronze

Left to right

"Ulta" Mate Lip Glaze and 24K Lip Gloss in Brilliant Pink

Somehow, the Peony Convertible Color didn't make it into the group shot! Here she is in all her glory ;-) :

Peony is such a gorgeous nude shade! And the best part of these Convertible Colors is that they can be worn as either cheek colors or lip colors! I absolutely love versatile products! Don't you?

And now.....for the swatches!

Swatches from top row, left to right:

Kitten, Wheat, Go-Lightly Eyeshadows

Swatches from bottom row, left to right:

Mystic Eyeshadow, "Ulta" Mate Lip Gloss, 24K Brilliant Pink Lip Gloss

Left to right:

Peony Convertible Color, Illuminating Tinted Moisturizer (Shade 01), and Oil-Free Sheer Color Tinted Moisturizer (Light 01)

Clockwise from top left: Bronze, 24K, and Cobalt Smudge Pots

I am really excited to try all of these products out! All of the colors are stunning and will fit nicely into my cosmetics collection.

As an initial review (based upon my swatching only), the Smudge Pots were fantastic. They offered pigmented, shimmery goodness! Interestingly, the 24K felt the smoothest. The shadows also felt incredibly smooth and were easily blendable. The colors were shimmery and pretty. Peony Convertible Color was absolutely lovely. I can easily see wearing this both on my cheeks and my lips; it had a very soft and creamy texture. Both lip glosses applied with the traditional Stila brush applicator (you must keep twisting the gloss container until the product dispenses through the tip), and while I didn't find them particularly pigmented, the colors were nice subtle pinks. The 24K Brilliant Pink gloss had the wonderful gold shimmer in it. I will definitely reach for these glosses this season. Also, to note, all of the products featured in the Indian Summer collection contain true 24K gold particles. WOW!

You can find these products (as well as others from the Stila line) at the following locations:

Sephora stores or at http://www.sephora.com/

Ulta stores or at http://www.ulta.com/

Online at the Stila website, http://www.stilacosmetics.com/

So there you have my haul, swatches, and mini-review. Now, I'm left wondering...what items do you have in your Stila collections (or what products of theirs are you loving or lemming right now)? Let me know! I'm all ears ;-)