Good news on the beauty front

#BikeGirlProblem of the day - Hair sticking in my lip gloss. Mostly I wear MAC Lip Glass. The above is Nymphette.
When you try to be a safe and alert rider and turn your head, your hair cannot resist being blown by the wind directly into your sticky fresh lip gloss.

Great News: You can get Lip Glass on the Back to MAC program! That’s when you return 6 used-up MAC containers. You get to choose a free lipstick or lip glass.

I turned in 12 containers last night and got an oldie-goody C-Thru and at Liz’s impromptu suggestion I took Nymphette and I am in love with it. I’m crazy about lip glass because the container is very small, colors are sheer, it’s thicker than most lip prods and you don’t have to really pay attention when you put it on. No precision is really required. Not like that high maintenance lipstick stuff.

Other good news: Cutting my hair myself for the past 6 months or so was a great idea. I got my desired haircut- a wavy little bob. People hated on Chloe’s shaggy bob but I loved that mutha and decided baby bangs and shaggy sides was my aim and now I’m there. 

My middle part is a little wonky but I don’t like to work too much on my hair and I don’t believe in fighting my waves. Even though I spend way too much time thinking about and discussing my hair and my plans for my hair with friends and co-workers and the internet. (Most of the traffic my blog gets is hair-related so people who get up in this piece have to wade through bike stuff to get to the hair posts :) Hi!

My Kit

When you open your mascara- Water-proof or not, date it! I have cute, hot pink masking tape to label things. In 3 months, when she's feeling dry- you'll know why! You'll feel so smart being so organized.
I keep water-proof forever b/c I rarely use it, but I also buy Maybelline Great Lash Waterproof because she's cheap and who cares if she dries out. One or two uses justifies the low price.


I also label all my lipstick tubes on the outside so I don't have to pick each one up and squint to read the tiny names on the bottoms.



Here's my kit wide open.



It's all inside an Art Kit that I got at Blick.


I use the large MAC custom palettes with the harness ripped out for eye shadows & blushes.



They're labeled for the "eyes" colors which is all my crazy-colors and the "Cheeks" one also has "neutral eye colors."

The biggest strike against using the pro-palettes is that you can't participate in the Back to Mac recycling program as well as you can play that game with the pots. When I first broke down all my pots and put them into the pro-palette, I threw them away and missed out on several free lipsticks and I still feel pain in my heart over this.

Also with Back to Mac - If you turn-in at a Pro-Store, you get to pick from more than just a lipstick. If you turn-in at a regular MAC counter, your freebie is limited to a tube of lipstick.

I will ride the cross-town bus specifically to go to the MAC pro store on the Upper West Side #1- Because it's peaceful over there and #2- Because they'll let me trade in for lipglass or dazzle-glass.

Another hot Back to MAC tip: Save your face product and eye-lash cases! As in, save your fake eyelash containers. They're a big chunk o' plastic that begs to be recycled.

I've purchased the Brush Cleaner from MAC, but I was advised that Baby Shampoo works just as well and now I prefer it. I love the smell. Ideally, you should wash your brushes weekly, however, my concealer brush gets funky-as-hell, so she needs a rinse & repeat more often.