After weeks of sporting dark, chocolaty nails for the past couple of weeks (OPI’s Espresso Yourself), I decided to lighten it up a bit and get playful with my nail color today.

Before I go vampy again in the fall, I sassed up my nails with NARS Arabesque nail lacquer ($16 US), a fun pink glitter polish with a clear base. I did two coats above and what’s nice about glitter polishes is you can wear as much or as little as you’d like, just adjust the number of coats you apply.

One coat might be really nice over a subtle gold polish, which is going to be big for fall. If you do two or three coats, you can wear it as a bold, stand alone color that’ll catch all sorts of light throughout the day. I’m telling you, it’s really fun!

What color polish are you wearing today? Are you keeping summer alive with fun brights, or are you ready for fall with darker shades?

Enjoy this post? Subscribe to The Daily Cookie RSS feed and email to get more of my product reviews from your favorite beauty brands!

There are many products out there that claim to be lust-worthy, holy grails among millions, and are so hyped up - you must have them. One case in point: NARS Orgasm blush.

I have heard nothing but rave reviews about anything NARS puts out in this shade (check out my friend’s overzealous review here). And while I absolutely hate buying into anything that’s so pumped up (minus the Sex and the City movie, of course), I was (secretly) super stoked to get my hands on this NARS blush/bronzer duo ($37 US) in Orgasm and Laguna and couldn’t wait to try it out.

Orgasm blush is a pretty and soft peachy pink with subtle shimmer. It’s great to sweep all over your face to create a healthy glow - did you see Muse’s FOTD with just this blush and gloss? The results truly promises to live up to the hype.

Laguna, a camel brown with hints of shimmer, is the bronzer in this duo. I personally am not a huge fan of this shade - I feel like it looks a little flat on my skin as I tend to prefer just a bit more shimmer in my bronzers for more of a “glow”. But in a pinch, it’s great to have as a backup. (more…)

Good morning lovelies! I couldn’t sleep last night because I’m so excited to start my mini vacation to Nevada today!

I woke up at 4am (it’s true, your eyes aren’t deceiving you) so I thought I’d get ready early and share with you my Reno FOTD. It’s a fresh and light face with an emphasis on the lips for easy touch-ups in the casino - ha! You know I can’t have my face melting off in 90 degree weather with heavy makeup, right?

I just got NARS Dolce Vita Velvet Matte Lip Pencil ($24 US), a dusty rose shade, and couldn’t wait to wear it out. If you’ve never tried their Velvet Matte Lip Pencils, these babies are jumbo pencils that are really fun - kind of like using a huge crayon to color your lips. They are also enriched with vitamin E to help keep your lips moisturized. While this may help a little, I find that it’s still a little drying; after all it is a pencil. (more…)

Amanda Peet has been looking pretty amazing lately and I’m glad to see her back on the big screen. Check out how to steal her subtle and fresh look on Glam.com using Caudalie Tinted Moisturizer, $39 US, to get her flawless, natural complexion and Nars “The Multiple” Stick in Orgasm, $36.50, on your cheeks.

She’s is going to be in a new film coming out next Friday, Nov. 2nd, called Martian Child. It’s a romantic comedy starring John Cusack (he can do no wrong since Say Anything) as a recently widowed science fiction writer who forms an unlikely family with Peet and a young boy he adopts who claims to be from Mars - really?

Cusack and Peet’s characters ignore some sage parenting advice from the widower’s sister (Joan Cusack) and gets more than they bargained for when a series of strange occurances lead them to believe that the kid’s Mars claim may be true! Watch the exclusive Martian Child trailer now and then check out The Martian Child Project where you can create an online time capsule to share your interests with others all around the world or re-discover it in 5 years to see what you buried oh-so-long ago.

I woke up this morning to dreaded rain in San Francisco (and it’s still raining as I write this) so I decided to sass it up a bit and try my new red lips I bought from NARS over the weekend at the Nordstrom Trend Show.

Let me just tell you that I haven’t done red lips in sooo long but it’s the big thing for the fall and it’s so festive, I’m actually in a better mood with them on!

Get the look with NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Cruella ($23 US) and line your lips with NARS Lip Liner Pencil in Salsa ($19 US).

I also paired this bold lip with light eye makeup and bold, black liquid liner to offset the entire look.

I know many out there are scared of the red lips but I firmly believe that we call all pull it off. All you need to do is shop around, test them all and find the right shade for you. If you don’t believe me, stop by their counter one day; during the trend show, NARS claimed to have 22 shades to choose from.

So go and sass it up this weekend ladies!

Enjoy!

I just came back from a flurry of lip gloss, eye colors, perfume, and face creams; you name it, it was there at Nordstrom’s Fall Cosmetics Trend Show at the Downtown San Francisco Centre.

The day started off bright and early (8:30am on a Saturday!) where professional representatives from the likes of Laura Mercier, Chanel, Philosophy, Clarins, M.A.C., Estee Lauder and so much more were there to tell us what the new fall trends were. And it was very apparent that the look to go for this season was radiant matte skin (if you’re thinking of the cakey, thick, face of the early 90s, think again), bold black eyeliner, and beautiful plush red lips.

During show, they raffled away tons of freebies - a couple of Mercer Street Salon San Francisco gift certificates and cosmetic goodies from Bobbi Brown, Nars, Prescriptives, and Shu Uemera to name a few. Unfortunately, there were over a hundred beauty enthusiasts at the show and I didn’t win anything. Maybe next time, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t have a great time perusing the counters testing makeup and getting free samples.

I decided that my first stop would be the Nars counter to search for my perfect red lips. I tried one of their lipsticks at first and then one of their Velvet Matte Lip Pencils. In comparison, the lipstick was dry and getting drier by the minute so I decided against that even though the color was a beautiful deep red and opted for the Velvet Matte Lip Pencil ($23 US) in a similar color, Cruella. These lip pencils contain silicones and special emollients that help your lips stay moist and last long.

My next stop was the Bobbi Brown counter. I had never heard of a gel eyeliner before and always used pencil or liquid so I thought I’d give it a try. Currently, the have a cute little Long-Wear Eyeliner Set that includes 2 of their Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner in Black and Chocolate Shimmer, a mini eyeliner application brush and a mini Everything Mascara. This set is only $38 US and if you want it, you have to act fast. I hear it’s really hard to get and the 5 they had at the counter were gone within the first 45 minutes!

Finally, I stopped by the Chanel counter for a makeover. I tried their new Holiday Les 4 Ombres Quadra Eyeshadow in Radiant Gems. It features a cinnamon shade, silver, rose and a shimmery white. The makeup artist applied the cinnamon-y color on my top lid with the rose color right above that and highlighted with the white shimmer. Underneath, she lined my eyes with a gray and black pencil and blended in the silver shadow to create a kind of smoky eye that wasn’t too dark because it wasn’t on top as well. She very thinly lined my top lip with a black pencil just to create definition. She also put the silver in the inner corners of my eyes to make my eyes really pop.

I really liked the techniques used but I wasn’t quite sure if the shades were really for me since they were a little warmer than I normally wear. The eye makeup was also a lot more than what I’m used to wearing too, even for an evening face. Here are my attempts to take my own pictures in the bathroom. Let me know what you guys think!