Wow, I can’t believe it, it’s finally here - today is officially The Daily Cookie’s one-year blogiversary! I just had my mani/pedi party yesterday with some of my friends and even a Daily Cookie reader who was able to join me from Oakland. It was tons of fun and I’ll post all about the event with pictures and announce the winners of the huge Stila and SECRET runner-up raffle bag from Lancôme!!!

For the last year, I’ve had so much fun sharing my ideas on the newest beauty trends with you and allowing myself to even play with some makeup colors I would have probably never dreamed of trying if it weren’t for you. I mean, who else is going to try out fuschia lips and orange eyeshadow for you to see right?? Here’s a little snapshot of the looks I sported on the site.

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Last Saturday I hosted a hair dying party for a few girlfriends of mine with L’Oreal Feria and I gotta say, it was a grand old time. I mean, just check out the spread - gift bags, beautiful reads while you wait, yummy munchies, hanging out with the girls drinking some vino and getting beautified is what it’s all about!

We sat around, ate and chatted a bit before getting started. Thankfully I had some help from my friend Helen who assisted me in dying the girls’ hair. For all the girls, we used the new and improved L’Oreal Feria that just released this month. If you’ve used Feria in the past like I have, know that it’s all the same gorgeous multi-faceted colors but the formulas are totally revamped.

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For the past couple of days, on the days I’ve been wearing makeup anyway, I’ve been super obsessed with the gunmetal gray smoky eye and pairing it with a mod-inspired pink lip. My pink lippie of choice? Bobbi Brown’s Creamy Lip Color in Crystal Pink.

Now, to my utter excitement Bobbi Brown is releasing her new Creamy Lip Color ($22 US) formula (first debuted earlier this year) in four new colors for the Shimmering Nudes Collection in Baby, Pink Sequin, Pink Buff, and Sunset Nude - woot!

And as if that weren’t enough, she’s coming out with a new Shimmering Nudes Palette ($50 US) with seven eye shadow shades you can mix and match to create a the perfect nude look with just a touch of glam thrown in.

Gear up for a beautifully gray fall with Bobbi Brown’s new Shimmering Nudes Collection, on counters beginning September 2008.

PS - If you read Makeup and Beauty Blog and enjoy her FOTDs, doesn’t this model bear a striking resemblance to Miss Karen?  I certainly think so!!

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Last week I had the pleasure of getting my eyebrows groomed by the ladies at Bombshell Brow Bar in San Mateo, CA. Christina is the brow extraordinaire and her sister Stephanie runs the business side of things. Together, they make a great team in bringing me the best brow experience I’ve ever had - hands down!

Bombshell is nestled in a cute little plaza in San Mateo and its decor reflects the sisters’ personalities perfectly. It’s got retro glam written all over it. Sexy lingerie, fun trinkets and jewelry adorn the shop with just one chair so that each client gets 100% of Christina’s attention. The result is a really personal experience and really great looking brows.

For my visit, I sat and chatted with both ladies while Christina waxed my brows. She uses a formula that smells deliciously fruity and made for sensitive skin. Carefully, she cleans up my much neglected brows while telling stories of how Bombshell came to be. After working for years as a brow specialist for the likes of Benefit, she and big sister Stephanie decided to branch out on their own, opening up their own brow bar - to much success!

After the waxing and trimming was done, she massages in quick astringent over the area to help soothe the skin and reduce irritation and redness. Now for the fun part - filling in my sparse brows!!

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We’re full of winners today at The Daily Cookie and I’m so pleased to announce the winners of the Kat Von D Beethoven Palette - Congratulations to Jennifer from TX and Lisa from CA for winning this now SOLD OUT on Sephora goodie!

If you want your chance to win monthly prizes from me, just sign up for my newsletter where I’ll always bring you fabulous contests and specials offers right to your inbox. If you’re not on the mailing list, what are you waiting for, do it now!

Congratulations LORIEN SMYER!!

You’ve been chosen to come celebrate The Daily Cookie’s one year anniversary with me and my friends at Lavande Nail Spa on Polk Street in San Francisco this Saturday, Aug. 30th, at 4pm! Bring a friend, sit back, relax and have fun! We’ll have a ton of food and drink plus goodie bags with products from all your favorite brands like Prescriptives, tarte, MAC, and China Glaze.  Can’t wait to meet you!

For those of you who can’t join us, don’t forget about the Stila raffle! Last day to enter is this Friday; check out the details here.  And, you never know - there might be TWO winners!!

Happy Wednesday everyone!!

Last week after a brow appointment I had in San Mateo (more on that to come!), the Boyfriend and I decided to stop in Burlingame, CA to eat dinner in its quaint little downtown area. I haven’t been down there in a little while and I forgot how cute it is with shops, yummy-looking restaurants and a Sephora where I can actually find parking! If you’re ever in the neighborhood, spend an afternoon there - it’s fun

We decided on Trapeze on Lorton Street for some European-inspired grub. Neither one of us was that hungry so we didn’t go all out, but agreed that it was nice to get out of the house.

Skipping appetizers, we happily wolfed down a couple of pieces of bread each with this yummilicious twist on the olive oil and balsamic dip. We asked our server about the concoction and it sounds pretty easy to make - combine roasted garlic, red onion, sun-dried tomato, basil, olive oil and balsamic in a food processor and you’re all set to go! You know the Boyfriend and I are going to try making this at home very soon.

For our entrees, I opted for the Crab Tortellini in a tomato cream sauce topped with caviar. I gotta say, I really wanted to love it - crab and pasta? C’mon! The tomato cream sauce was very reminiscent of Chef Boyardee and because I do eat Chef Boyardee on occasion and like it, this is probably the only reason why I didn’t give this dish a total thumbs down. I mean look at the color of that sauce! To make matters worse, the caviar was kind of useless and crunched in my mouth. It didn’t add flavor and the contrast in texture was really what I was wanting. ‘Nuff said.

The Boyfriend tried one of the evening’s specials, a Seafood Risotto filled with scallops and prawns, some lemon zest and parsley. I tried a couple of forkfuls and couldn’t decide if I liked it - maybe because I kept thinking it was good but that some of the risotto was undercooked. The Boyfriend enjoyed the first few bites as well and then got bored with it - oh well.

Overall, the food was not that inspiring but that starter dip with bread that they serve might be enough for me to want to give Trapeze another go around. Hopefully next time we go out the food is better but spending time with my babe sure was fun enough!

Hope your Monday is going well, I’ve got a lot of fun stories planned for you this week so please stay tuned!!

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You all know how much I complain about my short and wimpy lashes. I’m always in search of the best lengthening and volumizing mascaras on the market. While I’m content (read: begrudgingly accept) with the look of my lashes most days, I still see women with lush eyelashes, the kind where you don’t even have to wear mascara, and I always wish that I could be so lucky.

While on my continued quest for perfect lashes, I’ve been given an opportunity to try out a product from Jan Marini called the Marini Lash Eyelash Conditioner. The Marini Lash contains a proprietary peptide in it formula that’s been dermatologist and ophthalmologist tested for safety. The formula is meant to help build thicker and denser lashes over time.

Now, for the test drive. I was fully expecting this product to look like a clear mascara that I could just apply on my lashes. Low and behold, the wand looks nothing like a mascara wand but rather like a liquid liner that you apply to the root of your lashes.  Duh, that makes complete sense that you’d want to target the formula to the base where the hair grows.

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I’m loving all the Olympics coverage going on this week so while looking through my makeup stash for new goodies to play with, I came across CoverGirl’s new Eye Enhancers eye shadows in Golden Sunset and got inspired by all the pretty gold medals that have been handed out this week.

Golden Sunset eye shadow trio has three pretty shades of golden copper and bronze. I love that these are pretty pigmented and silkier than what you’d imagine from a mass beauty brand - a nice step up from the CoverGirl I remember using in high school!

For super quick gold look today, I’m wearing the darkest shade at the lash line and fan out the color using the middle gold shade in the crease. Highlight with the lightest color and I’m just about ready to head out the door.

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I’m still on the fence about the vampy lip trend even though it looks amazing on all the models. I think the trick for this is finding a dark shade that suits you and how precise your application is. Trust me, a wobbly hand might result in that scary drunk girl after the club at 2am - yikes!

But if you’ve got an even hand you can recreate this look for yourself with Smashbox’s new Wicked Lovely Collection for fall, where every woman can be naughty or nice. And while you may think that the dark lip is only best suited for the naughty ones, I bet you nice girls can pull it off too - really!

Use a combination of lip pencil and gloss to update the trend from the dark, matte lips of the 90s. Define your lips with Wicked Lovely Lip Pencil in Tempt, a deep black cherry shade. Loosely line your lips and fill them in with the pencil to create a long lasting base color. Top it with Wicked Lovely Lip Gloss in Sultry, a sheer black cherry shade, to complete your lip look nicely.

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