Are you Toned?

I’m a huge fan of native beauty secrets. I love when I meet a friend from a new culture and they start telling me about the things that the women in their country do to keep beautiful. It’s so fascinating to me. I know in the Dominican Republic, coconut oil is one of our biggest beauty secrets, as well as using garlic to strengthen our nails. Japanese women use nightingale droppings to wash their skin and keep it looking beautiful. Isn’t that amazing! Juara products were made using the natural beauty secrets of the women from Indonesia. I’ve been using their Tamarind Tea toner for the last two weeks in the mornings, and I'm really impressed.



First of all this contains some major antioxidants like Green tea, white tea, and black tea (which will keep DE Lookin 21 forever).It contains Tamarind which Indonesians use for various medicine ailments and hyaluronic acid (which lubricates the skin). The scent of this is like an herbal infusion of tea-light, but not overly powerful.
The bottom line is, I love how soft and ridiculously silky my skin feels after I use this (You usually don't get that feeling with toners which can leave your skin feeling tight and dry). Right before I apply my moisturizer in the morning, I’ve been applying this and I notice my skin is less oily than usual, but still feels like silk. One day I even forgot to apply my moisturizer and my skin still felt smooth. Another great thing is, this is paraben, fragrance and alcohol free (many toners contain alcohol which can strip the skin-but not this one). I’m loving this!

Do you have native beauty secrets you want to share?

Do you tone?

What toners do you love?

I apologies for the delay in posting. My laptop is being bad again so I've had to rewrite all of my post.

Big Hugs,

De

No New Post today

I'm at my mother's house and my Monday's post is saved on my laptop at home. I may post it when I get home tonight or just wait until tomorrow.

But, how was your weekend guys?

I'm a little ashamed to admit that Mr. DE and I partied like rockstars this weekend. Stay tuned this week for some great beauty reviews and of course a giveaway and a post on something I've realized about relationships.


Big Hugs,

DE

Perfect Gifts For Your Amore!

I got an e-mail last week from a guy who's girlfriend is a reader of mine, and a beauty lover as well. In addition to three other gifts he’s already gotten her, he wanted to buy her the perfect beauty gift. First of all, I want to say that your girlfriend is so lucky to have such a good guy like you. That is really sweet that you are putting so much thought into her presents! (I sometimes think Mr. DE gets my gifts the night before, lol j/k) Here are some of my personal recs, and girlies if you have recs too, please leave them in the comment section. Let’s help this nice guy out!

THE CLARISONIC- PERSONALIZE IT-FREE ENGRAVING

We reviewed this product before on here and gave it rave reviews. A great thing about it now, is you can actually get it engraved with a personal message. So not only is she getting a top-notch beauty product, but she’ll also see your words of love written on it too.

A Day of Pampering at Her Favorite Spa

When my honeybunn got me a day of beauty at my favorite spa, he was a very happy man for a while. Lol

Tarte Vanity Limited Edition Set

This limited edition palette is loaded with so many products, it’s crazy. 16 brand new eyeshadows, 16 brand new lipglosses, Deluxe lights Mascara, Mineral Powder Bronzer in Park Avenue Princess, a Deluxe Luminizer, Four Powder Blushes, Eyelining Brushes, Deluxe Eyeshadow, and eyelining Brushes. This is a MAKEUPLOVERS DREAM.



Beauty Gift Card

A lot of people may think that gift cards are not personal, but I disagree. A gift card allows you to buy anything and everything you want at your favorite spot! Why wouldn’t you love it!

Bag full of Beauty Goodies,

Why not do something very creative and buy a nice bag and give her some of the products we’ve recommended on this site (since she’s a big time reader). From Jan Marini’s serums, Carol’s Daughter scrubs, Sally Hansen or Essie Nail Polishes, Aubrey Honeysuckle conditioner, FHI Flat Iron, Lancome Mascara, NYC Bronzer, and Clarisonic. The list goes on and on.

What do you think he should get his girlfriend?

Help Him out!

Winner of the Carol's Daughter Hair Milk is Shanescia Eddie. Shanescia, you have 2 days to e-mail me or the prize goes to someone else.

Big Hugs,

DE

Carol's Daughter Appearance & Givewaway!

You ladies know how much I love hearing about women who took a risk, and succeeded. Lisa Price-founder of Carol’s Daughter should be such an inspiration to all of us. In 1990 she followed her passion of beauty by creating beauty products from Natural ingredients found in her home. Her clientele became so huge that she started her website in 1999 and now in 2008, you can find Carols Daughter stores all over and her products sold at Sephora. You go girl! Don’t I always tell you to follow your dreams!!!! You can do it –just believe. Anyway, Lisa will be on hand at 2 New York Locations wanting to meet her clientele. I’ll probably be heading to the meet & greet in Brooklyn so if any of my readers are going, please keep a look out for me. Here’s the info:

Saturday December 13-Carol’s Daughter Roosevelt Field Mall
11am-2pm
To schedule an appointment call (516) 294-1980
Saturday: December 20-Carol’s Daughter Heritage Store in BK
12pm-3pm

At the store, Lisa will not only showcase her pre-assembled holiday gift sets, but also create custom gift sets tailored to customers’ favorites. Visitors can sign up to have Lisa assemble their individually picked favorites, providing a customized gift created with love.

In honor of Lisa’s appearance we’re giving away one of Lisa’s most well-known products, and voted “best of Sephora” her Carol’s Daughter Hair Milk.



Send an e-mail to beautylogicblog@yahoo.com with the subject being “DE, I need Hair Milk added to my hair regime” Winner gets announced tomorrow, Thursday.

Winner of Sally Hansen pedicure set is: Candyce Richards. Candyce you have 2 days to e-mail me or the prize goes to someone else.

Hugs,

DE

Things that Make DE go HMMMMMM...

I tend to think of myself as a traditional woman. Mr. DE and I have been together a few years now, and although we are not free from problems, our relationship seems to be pretty strong. (At least I think it is.) This weekend a friend of mine e-mailed me to announce that she was getting engaged. Now this is a friend that I rarely see but because we text, e-mail and instant message so much, I consider her to be one of my closest buddies. After her announcement, I wanted to take her out to dinner so I met up with her at my favorite union square sushi spot, and we began taking about her relationship. I knew she was dating this guy in passing, but I didn’t realize they were serious. She began describing how happy she was, but then she said something that kind of made me feel uncomfortable. Now before I continue, please note, I believe that every relationship should find what works for them, but this was well a little too much for me.. She stated that her man and her had discussed the possibility that he may stray from time to time with other women, but she must not get offended because his heart is with her.

After almost spitting out my eel avocado roll in anger, I asked her why? Why would she accept such conditions? Did she not feel that she was beautiful, successful enough and worth a man that could be 100% faithful to her? She responded with an answer that boggled my mind, she said “DE, wake up, all men cheat. It’s better that he does it in front of me, then behind my back.” Do I believe all men cheat? I have in the past-yes. I grew up with a brother, and around many family members who believe that cheating was a way of life, but I’ve also had many male friends who love and respect their wife and the strong bond that they share, and would never stray or risk loosing that for a pretty face or a sexy booty. As I tried to convince her that she would never be happy knowing that her man was having infidelities, and he would never stop because she had given him the go-ahead, the more and more she resisted, getting angrier every time I spoke. I realized that this was a dead issue, and that if this was what she felt would work for her, then who was I to stop her.? But I left the dinner feeling incredibly uneasy. As a woman, I get constantly hit on (I’m sure all of you hot mamas do as well). Many times the men are incredibly handsome,funny, and successful, but I love Mr. DE, and could never betray him in any shape or form, so my thinking is, if I could control myself and my urges, and say No to a sexy man, why can’t the man I’m with be strong enough to do that as well? Why should I settle for someone who doesn’t believe that I’m worth that respect? I wouldn't and neither should you.

What do you think of this situation?

Do you believe all men cheat?

Remember that people will only treat you the way you allow them to!

Big Hugs,

DE

Sally Hansen Salon Pedicure Foot Soak

Sally Hansen has introduced their Salon Pedicure Set which includes the Mineral Foot Soak, Intensive Gel Callus Remover and Hydrating Foot Creme. Now, as you guys know, I take extra special care of my feet. Since I’m an aspiring reporter, one thing I do is walk a lot (since the news business is getting a little tricky, I’m thinking about starting my own news channel on youtube. I’ll talk about that later) so if I don’t give my feet constant attention, they could end up looking disgustingly callused, dry, and ashy. Now one thing I always do when I come home is give myself a warm, foot soak (it’s important for keeping those calluses off and relaxing me). Lately I’ve been using Sally's Salon Mineral Foot Soak and really feel the stress coming off of my feet when I use this.



It contains Dead Sea Salts and Herbs, and has this therapeutic aromatherapy scent that really relaxes me after along day of work. The dead sea salts really sooth my over-walked feet and they leave the bottom of my feet really soft, perfect so I can begin to exfoliate them with my pumice. (I don't like any calluses on these feet!)


I love this!!!and I want you to love this too. I’m giving away not only the Sally Hansen Mineral Foot Soak, but the entire pedicure kit which includes the Salon Ultra Smoothing Foot Scrub, Salon Intensive Gel Callus Remover and the Salon Hydrating Foot crème. Just send an e-mail to beautylogicblog@yahoo.com with the subject being “DE, my feet need to be soft like a baby’s too." Winner gets announced Wednesday Dec 10!

Stunning Eyes for Less!

One of my favorite (although pretty expensive) brands is Make up Forever. Ever since I got my make-up done professionally for head shots, and the make-up artist used their products on me, I fell in love, especially with their Iridescent Navy Blue eyeliner. The blue is such a robust shade, and made my almond shaped brown eyes really pop out. It’s absolutely gorgeous! Right after I was done with my shoot, I ran to Sephora and picked one up. About a month ago, I was running out and was heading back to Sephora to restock. On my way there, I had to stop by Duane Reade and pick up something for Mr. DE. Now, as a beauty fan, you know I can never just walk past the beauty aisles. I have to spend a few moments looking at the products, and checking all the new inventory out. As I was looking around, I noticed the Fresh Minerals display and their eyeliner selection.



Their $4.00 Royal Blue waterproof eyeliner looked exactly like my precious $16.00 Make up Forever one. Although I was hesitant to betray my Make up Forever, I reluctantly picked up the Fresh Minerals one (hey $12.00 in price is a big difference, I could buy my lunch with that) and I’m so happy I made the change. The Fresh Minerals Royal Blue is almost exactly the same shade as my Makeup Forever, a gorgeous, almost black but noticeably brilliant navy blue, and it glides on so smoothly -even after a gazillion times of applying. It's waterproof, and stays put on my eyes all day. I love this stuff, and at $4.00, I think you’ll love it too.

What eyeliner do you love?

These are hard times; do you have any cheaper alternatives for more expensive products?


Big Hugs,

Have a great weekend!

Christmas is Here!

Hey mamas, I always feel like the Christmas holiday is officially here when the Rockefeller tree goes up. It’s an amazing occasion, and since I’d always just watched it on TV, this year, I wanted to go experience it in real life. So, me, Mr. DE and a few of our friends went and had a blast! We shared a lot of laughs, hugs, and …….drinks. Now I have a big headache. So no new post today, but here’s a pic of the tree. I’ll be back tomorrow with a new product rec.




Have you put your Christmas tree up yet?

When do you usually do it?

Mr. DE doesn’t want to put one up, but I’m putting it up anyway!


Hugs,

DE

Tom's Shoes

Hey guys, no beauty post today but I wanted to let you guys know of a charitable cause that is very dear to my heart. When I would visit the Dominican Republic as a child, I would observe countless kids walking the streets without shoes. We as a country take for granted how important shoes are, but the fact of the matter is there are a whole host of diseases that can be transmitted if you don't wear shoes.
Anyway, Tom's Shoes is a great concept. The founder of the company visited Argentina, and saw that many poor children didn't have shoes and would get many types of foot illnesses. So his idea was to create a shoe company that for every shoe you buy, they donate a shoe to a child in need. In 2006 they donated 10,000 pairs to poor children in Argentina and 50,000 to kids in South Africa. This year they plan to donate 200,000 shoes to kids. I think this is a great cause and there is nothing more beautiful than charity.

Here is a video that Tom's Shoes made showing Ethiopians who suffer from Pondoconiosis.

www.tomsshoes.com

Big Hugs,

DE

Who Says You Shouldn't Play with Mud?

As soon as I see a camera, I smile, even if i have a masque on. It's like a reflex. :-)

On Sundays, I love spending the day by myself. I call Sundays my “me” day. I kick Mr. DE out (not really, he goes to the local bar to watch football with his friends lol), and I’ll do things like read a new book, watch a movie, attempt to give myself a mani, make some dinner from a new recipe, (I made jerk chicken last Sunday, yum yum!!), and then give myself a facial. I’ll deep cleanse with a scrub, then steam for around 20 minutes with a mix of lavender and chamomile, give myself an extraction, and then use a masque on my skin and end with a light moisturizer. One of my new favorite masques is The Body Deli’s Glacial Mineral Mud Masque.


This masque contains Canadian mud, bentonitie clay, aloe vera, water, squalene, and a whole list of other beneficial products for the skin. I love The Body Deli, and their raw food ingredients (and their blueberry scrub is fantastic). This masque has to be refrigerated, (like most of their products) and for some odd reason, I love the feeling of a cold substance on my face, so this is great! I leave this masque on for around 20 minutes and really feel it tighten and after a while my face starts to feel as if it has a heartbeat. It’s a great feeling. That must be the masque removing the impurities. The smell can best be described as a hint of mint with a drop of mud, lol. It's not offensive at all. When I remove the masque, my face is not dry or tight. (I assume because of the moisturizing ability of the squalene.) My pores are significantly smaller, if I have a blemish it’s been dried out completely, and my skin glows. After this I top it off with a moisturizer, and by the end of the day, my nose isn’t greasy, which is always good! I really love this masque

What masque do you love for your skin?

Have you tried the Body Deli Products?

www.thebodydeli.com

Hugs,

DE