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Mother’s Day Gorgeous Gift Ideas: Roger & Gallet Bois d’Orange Fresh Fragrant Water

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Roger-Gallet-Bois-d'Orange-Fresh-Fragrant-Water-Spray

Mark your calendars! Here in the States, May 13 is Mother’s Day (click here to find out when it falls in your country). Want to get Mom something special this year? Looking for gift ideas? Check back over the next few days for a different Mother’s Day gorgeous gift idea (a new special something with which to spoil Mom). 🙂

My mom is the only person I know who makes a sour face whenever she drinks orange juice. She scrunches up her nose and knits her brow, as if she’s just bitten into the sourest lemon on planet earth.

To this day, whenever I see a carton of orange juice, I think of my mom standing in front of the fridge at home with a glass of juice in her hand. “It has vitamin C,” she’d say, and then slam it down and make that funny face. “Very good for you!”

LOL!

OK, so she may not be crazy about orange juice, but she absolutely adores citrus scents. If your mom does, too, she just might love Bois d’Orange Emperor Fresh Fragrant Water, a limited edition fragrance from Roger & Gallet, a 150-year-old French fragrance line.

Moms who appreciate hard-to-find luxury brands might like that it isn’t carried in every store. It can be hard to find here in the U.S. This particular bottle, one of three new pieces in the limited edition Emperor collection, is currently available online at Shop Londons (you can also find permanent Roger & Gallet fragrance, body and bath items online at Dermstore).
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New Milani Powder Eyeshadows, Long-Wear Eyeshadow Pencils, Glosses and Nail Lacquers Coming to Drugstores This Year

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milani powder eyeshadow in shocking pink

Drugstores are gonna be hoppin’ over the next few months, babe. Milani, for one, plans to launch a new line of eye shadows, a new shadow pencil and new shades of Crystal Gloss for Lips, Glitzy Glamour Gloss, Color Perfect Lipstick, and some new Nail Lacquers, too.

I’m still tracking down exact release dates for these, but here’s a look at everything Milani has lined up for the rest of the year.

milani powder eyeshadows 1Powder Eyeshadows, $4.49 each (a brand new product; will be available in 12 shades, exclusively at select CVS/Pharmacy stores)

milani powder eyeshadows 2
More Powder Eyeshadows, $4.49 each

milani powder eyeshadows in white lie, pitch black and shocking pink
Powder Eyeshadows from the left: White Lie, Pitch Black and Shocking Pink
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MAC Unsung Heroes: Care Blends Essential Oils, Grapefruit + Chamomile

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mac care blends essential oils

You know what they say. The squeaky wheel gets the…soothing essence of grapefruit and chamomile in a base of botanical oils. 🙂 That’s today’s Unsung Hero, MAC Care Blends Essential Oils in Grapefruit + Chamomile.

Pretty good on its own as a soothing super moisturizer, this $19.50 potion is even more potent when mixed, like with concealers, for the ultimate in dark-circle destruction. Combined with MAC Pro Longwear Concealer, for instance, which I already love, the mixture is like Hogwarts’ magic.

Playing Elliott Stabler to Pro Longwear’s Olivia Benson, Grapefruit + Chamomile makes the duo greater than the sum of its parts. The two products have such great chemistry together that now, when I use them individually, I feel like something’s missing.

So the Care Blends? — they’ve been around the block as limited edition products in other collections, like 2010’s Warm & Cozy, and I remember mixing the Sweet Orange + Lavender one into my hand cream and liking it back then, but now the Grapefruit + Chamomile version has a spot in the permanent line.

mac care blends essential oils

MAC Pro Artist Louise Z is the person who convinced me to give the Care Blends a try last summer when she raved about how it performed when she mixed it with under-eye concealer for a shoot she did with the Oakland Raiders cheerleaders. I thought, “If it’s good enough for the Raiderettes, it’s good enough for me!” 🙂 So I ran out and bought a bottle that day.
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Makeup and Beauty Blog Monday Poll, Vol. 216

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the makeup and beauty blog monday poll

  • You might be wondering, “So what the heck is this Monday Poll thing anyway?”
    Well, it isn’t much of a poll. It’s more just a constantly evolving (devolving?), somewhat random list of questions I’ve been putting out to readers every Monday morning for the past four years. I’ve always enjoyed reading your answers in the comments, and I hope you enjoy reading mine.
  1. Mood:
    A little tired because I haven’t slept well in a couple days (pre-trip jitters), but other than that, I feel great.

    I’m so excited about Kauai! Hiking, snorkeling, surfing, swimming. Maybe we’ll get in a little kayaking, too.

  2. Breakfast for dinner: yay or nay?
    Yay! Sometimes I get weird cravings for scrambled eggs or french toast , and I just never know when they’re gonna strike.
  3. Can you salsa dance?
    Nope, but I can fake it if my partner knows what they’re doing. I went to a salsa club meeting years ago with my girlfriends and ended up dancing with some dude who knew how to do all those turns and lifts. What a blast!
  4. One of your favorite places for a makeup/beauty break?
    Sephora and Target are my usual haunts (because they’re both about 5 minutes away).
  5. Have you ever written/composed a piece of music?
    Once in high school band, and it was really hard for me. We had to write and then perform our own instrumentals in front of the class.

    Mine was on the piano, which I played for years, and I guess I did okay. After hearing the piece, my teacher (who was also very kind) suggested I look into doing movie scores, LOL!

    Yeah, okay.

  6. Do you play video games?
    Puzzle ones, absolutely, but I’m not a hardcore gamer like a couple of my friends are. I’ve played a lot of Bejeweled at long, boring family functions (seriously, how did people survive those things before smart phones?).
  7. A silly movie you love?
    Night at the Roxbury! So dumb. But that’s one I can (and have) watched dozens of times. “Roxbury. Roxbury. ROXBURY!” Haha! I’m way too easily amused…

    OOH! The The Wedding Singer is also right up there.

  8. If you could wear a t-shirt right now with the phrase of your choice printed on it, what would the phrase be?
    “Hold on for one more day!”

    (Guess who’s been listening to a lot of Wilson Phillips lately.)

  9. What’s one thing in your makeup bag right now?
    MAC Studio Finish Concealer in NC42. Love it! I use it to cover dark spots from old blemishes along my chin. Stuff covers everything, and it’s so easy to apply.
  10. Weekly goals:
    To pack and get everything ready for the trip by tomorrow, so I won’t be scrambling at the last minute; to squeeze in a couple more runs; to load up on echinacea tea and Emergen-C (I always do it before and while I travel); lavish extra lurvies on Tabs before we leave (he’ll be holding down the fort here with a substitute assistant).

Hello and happy Monday, friend. 🙂 I hope you slept well last night, but if not, well, don’t worry! A little time spent doing something fun — like maybe today’s Monday Poll? — and you’ll be right as rain.

Grab your mug of tea, and let those fingers do the talking.

  • To complete the Monday Poll, just copy the following list, and paste it with your answers in the comments.



1. Mood:
2. Breakfast for dinner: yay or nay?
3. Can you salsa dance?
4. One of your favorite places for a makeup/beauty break?
5. Have you ever written/composed a piece of music?
6. Do you play video games?
7. A silly movie you love?
8. If you could wear a t-shirt right now with the phrase of your choice printed on it, what would the phrase be?
9. What’s one thing in your makeup bag right now?
10. Weekly goals:

Don’t forget to treat yourself to something nice this week, even if it’s just a quick mid-day latte from the coffee shop around the corner. It’s important!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

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