Hair Inspiration Du Jour 4.30.10

So you all, I am getting my hair done tomorrow at Bumble and Bumble. Thank god, my roots have roots! I am going to go blonder for the summer.

The below is the inspiration for my color...











thoughts?

x

Information Du Jour 4.29.10

I found this to be very interesting, from WWD beauty Biz a a month ago.

The top beauty brands ranked by customer loyalty and shocker Estee Lauder is number one...
Estee Lauder owns MAC. Next came Clinique in the prestige brands. In the mass market brands the first was Mary Kay, then Maybelline and then L'Oreal Paris.


Interesting!

We all know that MAC has very loyal customers.

What is your favorite beauty brand in general? So hard to pick!

x

Inspiration Du Jour 4.27.10

x

Tom Ford Du Jour 4.27.10

Hello Ladies, I found a tid-bit of info out that has been drooling. One of the loves of my life, Tom Ford, is coming out with a lipstick line called Tom Ford Private Blend Lipstick Collection. Um, Hello! When he designed for Gucci his dresses were sex on a hanger so I am so excited to see what he is going to do with this lipstick line. The lipstick line will include 12 colors and be housed in a chic ivory and gold case. SIGN ME UP!

Supposedly he has a secret blend of a formula that is super pigmented and hydrating, which will include murumuru butter and soja seed oil.

I hear it will be exclusively sold at Saks and Bergdorf Goodman. As you know, sexiness doesn't come cheap, it will be $45 a tube. The line will hit the store June 1st. I for sure will be checking these colors out and picking up a tube or four.

Will you splurge?

Batlle of the Blue Eyeliners Du Jour 4.22.10

Hi all, so you know that one of my new obsession is navy blue eyes. I cant get enough!!

Anyway, I took a trip over to Sephora to grab a new Navy eyeliner. I knew I would be deciding between Urban Decay's 24/7 Glide on pencil in Binge and Make Up Forever's Aqua Eye eyeliner in 3L, described as an iridescent Navy Blue. They both retail at $17 Urban Decay and Make Up forever. What did I go with and what were my thoughts?

Upon initial glance and swipe I thought I would be going with the Urban Decay as it was slightly more shimmery and I wanted that gleam/shine to the the smokey navy liner look I was going for. I swiped both on my hand to compare.

Make up forever on the Left and Urban Decay. You cant really see the shimmer in this photo.

So I grabbed the UD and walked around for a bit, i guess I was rubbing my hand and whatever and all of a sudden it half way disappeared and smudged. No Bueno!! I thought the UD liners were almost smudge proof. I was wrong...clearly!

I of course wanted to see how big of a difference there was so I rubbed it some more on purpose and Voila, smudges! Anyway, I put back the UD and promptly went to get the MUFE to buy instead. Look how great the Make Up Forever stayed put. I was really impressed!!



Needless to say I will be sticking with Make Up forever liners from now on! I really recommend MUFE Aqua Eye eyeliners. I use the black all the time, I have now retired by Zero from Urban decay! Sad to say, but true. Make Up Forever's lasting power blows ALL competition out of the water. If you are looking for smudge free, water proof and long lasting eyeliner I would suggest heading over to Sephora to check out the line!

Will you try out? Have you used MUFE before?

x

PS- next comparison I do will have to be between MAC Greasepaint stick in Uniformly Blue and MUFE liner in 3L.

Embarrassment Du Jour 4.21.10

I have something really embarrassing to admit.

I bought....

The Shake Weight. I am hanging my head in shame.

Oh yes I did, my boyfriend made me go to Sports Authority with him so I of course needed to get something also as to not feel left out. I was walking around and saw this out of the corner of my eye and was laughing about the SNL skit about it. As I was laughing I realized I wanted it! Shock Horror! I wanted to try it out, who doesnt want more toned arms.

I thought it was going to be like a machine that shakes your arms but its not. You have to move it to, to shake it. I was really bummed when I got home and tried it. I will test it out for a week and see if it does anything, but I do not have my hopes up for this ridiculous thing. Good thing it was only $19.99.

Have you tried the shake weight?

x

Hair Du Jour: Hot Rollers and Hair Care Routine 4.21.10

The long awaited hot roller tutorial and information on my hair care. Hope this helps you all, I have gotten tons of emails about my hair care and how to use hot rollers.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Will you be trying out hot rollers?

x

PS- Don't forget to subscribe on you tube and follow me on twitter for more posts and pictures!

Glowing Cheeks in Action? 4.20.10

Want to see my secret to glowing cheeks post that I did here in action?

Check out my video on You-Tube of my Kim Kardashian look, its a whole look using my secret technique!

http://www.youtube.com/user/BelleDuJourNYC

Will you be trying this out?
x

NARS Belle Du Jour Summer Collection Review

So I finally got back to the NARS counter to pick up my goodies... I actually returned the Burn it Blue eyeshadow. As I looked at it again it just didn't wow me. The main blue was a bit sheer and the shimmery blue didn't pack the punch I was looking for.

All in all, I was again disappointed with the seasonal collection. It was pretty but did not have that WOW factor. I really disliked the cream blush. I usually love cream blushes and the color was BEAUTIFUL but the texture was very chunky. I put it on my hand and it looked like I had goosebumps or a rash. That is a no no for me! Oh well, more money in my pocket, however I did take home some gorgeous eye shadows from their normal line (Corfu, Mykonos, Pearl beach and Blondie e/s). I will always have a soft spot in my heart for NARS and love the brand dearly but I wish they would kick it up a notch with the seasonal collections especially one named Belle Du Jour! Bummer!

Will you be checking the Belle Du Jour Collection?

x

Style Du Jour 4.19.10

So ladies (and a few of you gents), I have been snapping pictures as I run out the door in the morning for work. I figured I would share as I know a lot of you like OOTD posts.

Here are a few of last weeks outfits. As you know, my style is easy, low maintenance, classic with a dash of hippy and a dash of glam. I go for a neutral palette with a lot of bold accessories. I MUST be comfortable and I love to layer! That is my style in a nutshell!






What are you loving fashion wise lately?

x

Sunday Inspiration Du Jour 4.18.10

Hi all, what a weekend!

I have been sick in bed with strep throat and my boyfriend broke his arm friday night. Poor guy!

Anyway, I needed some inspiration to get me moving and in the mindset for monday morning. I love to look at beautiful pictures of fashion, interiors, mood pictures and makeup to get me in the mood for my week. Hope you enjoy!

What inspires you on a Sunday night?

x

ps- come find me on you-tube http://www.youtube.com/user/BelleDuJourNYC

Obsession Du Jour: Fragrance 4.16.10

I just realized that I never spoke about my absolute favorite perfume here. I spoke a bit about it on Youtube but not here. Can't start slacking over here on my blog now can I?

Let me tell you about my preferences with scents, I like two scent..genres. I guess that's a good way to put it, I like light, clean scents and I also love anything with a Musk.

My favorite favorite perfume is by Jo Malone. It is Nectarine Blossom and Honey Cologne.

This is my favorite smell, it is fruity, clean and fresh without being saccharine sweet or cloying which alot of sweet smells can be. That right there is a recipe for a headache for me. This perfume is a bit pricey at $100 for a bottle.

From Jo Malone's website:

A youthful and fruity fragrance, Nectarine Blossom & Honey is inspired by the delicious scent of just-ripening nectarines and a taste of refreshing peach sorbet. Mouthwatering nectarine and peach with hints of plum, blackcurrant and vetiver are combined with the sweet warmth of acacia honey in this truly seductive

I recommend stopping by a free standing Jo Malone store to check out their fragrances. They are truly amazing and meant to be layered which is fun. The staff is very knowledgeable. Jo Malone is also carried at Saks in the US.

Also, I am testing out a new perfume that I am loving, it is uber expensive so I need about a week before I can review it. It is called Bal D'Afrique by Byredo. It is very exclusive and can only be found in BARNEYS. As soon as I smelled it I was obsessed but I didn't want to plunk down the cash yet. I will let you guys know, I have a sample! However, it is beyond amazing. I swooned as soon as I smelled this baby!

From the Byredo website:

A warm and romantic vetiver inspired by Paris in the late 20's and its infatuation with African culture, art, music and dance. A mix of the Parisian avantgardism and African culture shaped a unique and vibrant expression. The intense life, the excess and euphoria is illustrated by Bal d'Afrique's neroli, African marigold and Moroccan cedarwood.

Top: Bergamot, Lemon, Neroli, African marigold, Bucchu

Mid: Violet, Jasmin petals, Cyclamen

Base: Black Amber, Musk, Vetiver, Moroccan cedarwood

Let me know if you want to hear more about fragrance, I know its tough because it is so personal and you can not smell through a computer!

x

Inspiration Du Jour 4.15.10

I am really feelin' this girls style, I thought I would quickly share. Very Aspen feeling.

The denim shirt is a big trend for spring. Will you incorporate it into your look?

I will be, I picked up a great one from the GAP, soft and worn in. Be careful of wearing denim on denim when it is the same color though. I will show a few of my outfits!

x

Tip Du Jour 4.14.10

Ok, I love Urban Decay's Primer Potion but I HATE the packaging. Primer Potion is a miracle for me, it keeps my shadow on all day. But, really they need to re-do the packaging completely. I know they have re-vamped with a curved doe foot applicator but it still does not do the trick. It is so not economical or even anything close to good. Please see my point below.

I had thought I was completely out of product, I decided to cut it open with a knife and VOILA.




If you have primer potion before you throw away, cut it open to make sure you do not have a remaining supply. I have about 2 months of product left here!

x

You-Tube Du Jour 4.11.10

After many requests and a special someone's nudging... I am now on You-Tube. I don't know much about it yet and I have a bit of trepidation but here goes nothing. Bear with me on my journey into the world of You-tube.

Check me out here : http://www.youtube.com/user/BelleDuJourNYC

We will see how this goes, I am not sure of the direction I will be taking this in yet. I will be doing tutorials, reviews and street filming. I am thinking it would be really fun to take the videos out on the streets!

Subscribe for updated videos going up this week.

Would love to hear your comments, questions, suggestions and concerns!

x

PS- The accent in NOT NJ Yinka! Oh the HORROR! Long Island baby!

NARS Belle Du Jour 4.10.10

I needed to let you all know about this collection, well because It is inspired by Catherine Deneuve and the movie Belle Du Jour, which is where the name of my blog came from. One of my favorite movies of all time! Amber Valetta's look here is dead on to Catherine's character Severine here. By the way, if you have not seen this movie, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? The makeup and the fashion is out of this world.

Anyway, as soon as I heard about this I ran over to my favorite NARS girl @ Soho Bloomingdale's. She showed me the new goodies. My hopes were not too high because the recent NARS collections have been very disappointing to me. Moving along, the only this that stood out to me was the "Burn It Blue" cream eye shadow duo. It is a duo made up of an iridescent blue and a deep aqua. Gorgeous! I also checked out the new cream blush, I HATED it. The color was beyond gorgeous, a light peach. I mean it would have been the perfect color except for the chunks of glitter flecks in it that made it look chunky! Clearly, I passed on that. However, the Burn it Blue was worth the trip. I cant wait to wear it with a tan and coral lips! Gorgeous summer look!

My NARS gir, Stephanie,l pre-sold it to me, as Bloomingdale's is having their annual Beauty Event on Thursday. If you go to Bloomingdales, visit her. She is fabulous! Okay so, basically when you buy anything and spend over $50 at any counter you get free gifts. I pre-bought a few eye shadows from NARS (Blondie, California, Corfu and Pearl Beach), my face powder, La Mer Face Cream and I will prob pick up more on Thursday. She showed me the gift from NARS, it is a free duo lip gloss and a Duo Multiple Compact with Riviera and Portofino in it, I think. I can't remember but I will let you all know when I go pick it up.

What else do I need? Any suggestions?

x

NARS Obsession Du Jour 4.9.10

From left: Cadaqués, Beverly Hills, and Turks & Caicos.

My mouth is watering for the new brightly colored Multiples, officially called 'Tint Tubes'. The word on the street is they wont be available until May and will be a sheer color that will be buildable to an intense pop splash of fabulous-ness! How delicious do they look? They remind me of Popsicle sticks. I am jonesin' for the Orange called Turks and Caicos. I hope these live up to my expectations unlike the Spring 2010 collection!

Who wants in?

x

Obsession Du Jour and OOTD 4.8.10

Hola Ladies! I wanted to share a photo of the makeup items that I recently can not live without. Right now (remember, I change my mind a lot) if I was banished to an island this is everything I would need. Speaking of which, my best friend and I, in college made up an island that we would banish people to and they would become 600 pounds (Steph, can I bring my makeup if I become banished?)

Tangent...anyway, see below:


YSL Faux Cils Mascara in Radical Noir
MAC Paint stick in Process Magenta
MAC Grease paint stick in Dirty
Bobbi Brown Corrector in Peach (I have a funny story about this)
YSL Touche Eclat in #1
MAC CCB in Hush
Shu Uemura e/s in some taupe color
YSL Lipstick Pur in Tea Rose (amazing warm nude color, so easy and universally flattering)

YSL Tea Rose lipstick and my FIERCE eyebrows. That will be another post for another time!

Moving right along, here is my outfit, it is HOT in NYC right now. Thankfully it cooled since yesterday and is now in the 70's. Yesterday it hit 90 degrees, which is insane for April in Manhattan. That is August weather, I was very displeased!



Alexander Wang Cropped T with Cutout
Eryn Brinie White silk long shorts
Brown Frye boots- Ebay!
Cheap-o brown plastic Aviators from some rand-o street vendor.

Oh yeah, I post some more pictures daily on my twitter account for the blog, BelleDuJourNYC. Come find me ya'll!

What are you all loving right now?

x

Secret to Glowing Cheeks Du Jour 4.6.10

In the pursuit of the perfect glowing cheeks I truly believe I stumbled across the secret of ALL secrets of how to achieve this. My personal opinion is that it has more to do with the technique than the product but it doesn't hurt that this product is amazing.

I have been trying to decide if I should show you the results first or the steps to get the results. Which way would be more suspenseful?

Okay, I decided to show the outcome first, then lay it out step by step for you guys. I really don't know why I have never tried this technique or the at least no one has ever told me about it! Is there some secret glowing cheeks club that I was not privy to admission into? Oh well, I was experimenting in the bathroom on a particularly boring makeup day and I stumbled across something that made my cheeks look like this!

Flash

No Flash

Unfortunately my camera washed out the color a bit but let me tell you the effect. It was a glowing pink that looked like it was coming from within. This look is very youthful, like a rosy cheeked doll. It was reminiscent of the queen of glowing cheeks herself, Kim Kardashian. Who doesnt want that effect?

Onto the magic products and technique, I will take you through step by step.

1. Moisturize Face (I used Cetaphil)
2. On a clean, moisturized face take your foundation brush (mine is beauty of essence from CVS around 8$) and dab it onto MAC's Process Magenta Paintstick (this is the magic product, this thing is PIGMENTED beyond belief, creamy and matte). You can try this out with any very bright pink cream blush or base. It needs to be SUPER bright though.
3. Put the color BELOW your actual cheek bones, more like right along the bottom (please note at this point you will look like a crazy clown, or maybe I just did. We'll see..)
4. Blend it in with your fingers or brush.
5. NOW put on your foundation or tinted moisturizer (I use Laura Mercier's Tinted Moisturizer).
6. This tones down the crazy color and gives the effect that it is coming from UNDER your skin. AMAZING
7. I tapped a tiny bit of NARS "Desire" blush along the cheekbones.
8. I then highlighted the actual tops of the cheek bones with DIORS Amber Diamond shimmer powder (you can use any highlighter, MACs MSF, NARS Albatross, MAC CCB's) Anything that has a slight opalescent shimmer to it. This makes those babies POP!
9. An extra step that you can take if you have rounder cheeks is that you can take a bronzer and SLIGHTLY contour into the hollows of your cheeks ( MAC's Taupe is perfect for that, or any bronzer for that matter).

VOILA. What do you think? Really, the key to the whole technique is the cream based UNDER your foundation or whatever to really make it look like real skin that is blushing and glowing from under the makeup, not just color sitting on your skin. It is important that the pink cream blush or base is VERY bright as the foundation will tone it down and you still want to have some strong pink showing though (MAC's Pink Vivid pain stick would work, MAC's Pink Shock CCB would also, I think Illamasqua has a cream blush that would work well. Although, the paintstick is the perfect texture for this, not greasy, just perfect). I have been doing this every day since I figured it out and not deviating from these products.

Try it out and let me know how it goes and your results! Enjoy!

x

Heads Up: Sephora Beauty Insider Discount

Hello ladies, I wanted to give you a heads up on a Sephora Discount coming up. Starting April 12th for bauty insiders you will get 15% off your total order. Sign up now to take advantage!

What is your beauty list to buy? Mine?

• Refill of my beloved Lancome Bi-Facil Eye Makeup remover, I have another week before I run out. I must get it ASAP. Holy grail product. Nothing beats perfection.
• YSL Touche Eclat- Ran out
• YSL Peach Faubourg- Back up because I love this so much.
• NARS Belize Lipgloss
• Make Up Forever HD Blush in Nip Slip and Walk of Shame

(However, I just found the SECRET to perfect glowing cheeks, that post will be next.)

What will you be getting?

x

Muse Du Jour: Charlotte Kemp Muhl 4.2.10

Charlotte Kemp Muhl, however she goes by Kemp Muhl. She is a, what I like to call, MAW. Model. Actress. Whatever. She dates Sean Lennon and I just simply love her hippy, I don't care style. Very cool and of course she is gorgeous to boot.

Although, i would liek to point out that most times, people work very hard to create that "I don't care look".









x