Come in out of the cold! (Or, getting that sun-kissed glow in the dregs of winter)

I don’t want to say that I am tired of winter (because without winter we couldn’t have spring, summer, or fall), but can I say I’m tired of wrapping up in umpteen layers to walk two blocks to and from the train every day??

Ugh, the weather has got me down, and I’ve been feeling like I look sallow (which is probably not really true, but I digress), and I had been resorting to what some would probably call excessive application of blush. That’s not typically a good look, so I was thrilled to learn last month that Caudalie has a tinted moisturizer and bronzer that actually looks great.

Cult Classic: Embryolisse 24-hour Miracle Cream

I first read about Embryolisse maybe a year ago in a magazine, which one I can’t remember. But it sounded amazing– a hand lotion that you could also use on your face as a primer and makeup remover (skin willing)? As someone looking for a bargain, whether it’s something cheap that works well or something more expensive with more than one application, my immediate reaction was, “Sign me up!”

Business Beauty: Sample swapping

I think I’ve said multiple times that I work in NYC, but I suspect the reality isn’t what it might sound like if you’ve never worked this city. Let me explain.

I’ve worked at a big company where the office was multiple floors and too many people to ever know everyone by name. It had many hallways to catch up with office mates and many kitchens to bump into that office crush. That definitely exists here.

Now I work at a small company in a teeny space  with no chance of the mystery of a new face and a kitchen shared by many small companies where the likelihood of your lunch getting eaten by a stranger is much higher. Ugh!

Sometimes in this situation a girl can get bored.

One day, this bored girl spoke with another bored girl in my tiny office and found out that she was also into beauty products with more samples than she could handle. So the two bored girls decided to swap samples.

Gilt-y pleasure at Caudalie Bleeker

Hi!!! Remember me? I started a blog last year that I said I was going to keep up with?

Yeah, about that, sorry I petered off, it was a busy year, mostly with work, very little personal stuff, some fun trips

(<– this happened again)

and just a lot of hustling, all of which has made it more difficult to post new stuff.

But, it’s a new year, I have new energy, and I really want to make this work. And I think I have some nice stuff to show you guys if you’ll let me.

Case in point, my recent trip to Caudalie’s fairly new location in NYC on Bleecker Street.

Business Beauty: Kitting out your workout

It should come as no surprise to anyone that knows me that I am notoriously bad  about working out. As in I don’t like to do it. There are a few athletic activities I do enjoy, like tennis in the summer, and an occasional neighborhood run (though for the latter, I demand perfect weather conditions).

But these activities are generally few and far between, as in I usually go hard for a few weeks then sit on the sidelines for months at a time.

I have become very good at finding reasons not to work out, but this year, in an effort to take better care of myself, I’m trying to be a little healthier, which includes working out a thismuch more. So I realized that one excuse, which is that I don’t like the way I look right after a workout, has got to go.

I’m on a bit of a roll so far, alternating between local Zumba classes and some buddy workouts with a trainer, and most of these activities are happening immediately after work, which means I’ve got to add some new items to what I call my pharmacy drawer at work, ie, the drawer with nothing work related and everything health and beauty related. And so, to keep me motivated I started thinking about ways to make my workouts more palatable from a cosmetic perspective and some of my ideas, mainly for face and hair maintenance, are below the jump.

Oh, you were looking for me?

At this point, the answer to the above question is probably NO, but, to my few readers, sorry to have fallen off the face of the earth. February is a super busy month for me at my day job (financial journalist/editor, for those who don’t remember)– not only was I sick at the end of January and beginning of February, we host a big industry event in the middle of the month, then I went out of town, then we had two big issues back to back to sort out, etc., etc. It’s been a little crazy.

And every day I thought, “Today is the day I will write my next post,” and it just didn’t happen. Now I know why everyone always says it’s so hard to blog– you have all of these ideas that you want to get out and it’s difficult to find the time to do it when you’ve got the day to day to worry about.

In any case, I want to give this a good try at least to see where it can go, so I’m getting back on the horse, as it were, and as my first post back, I want to talk about shaving cream.

Under the weather…

I’ve been a little quiet this week because I’ve been sick the last few days. I think it’s just a head cold, so thankfully I haven’t succumbed to the monster flu of 2012/2013. But still, I’ve managed to use an impressive amount of tissue at the Busy Beauty Gal headquarters. Add to that the fact that I’ve been dragging myself to work all week, and you can imagine why I’ve been too tired to do much much writing. I did manage to scout out a recipe I want to try to help blast away my cold here and a sorbet I can buy that should do the same thing here. Anyway, I’m hoping to be back to normal next week with some new posts. Enjoy your weekend!

Beauty News: Alterna Haircare gets celebrity spokesperson in Katie Holmes

High end haircare line Alterna Haircare has its first celebrity spokesperson in Katie Holmes, according to Alterna’s website. Holmes will be a part of the Spring 2013 marketing campaign, the largest since the company’s launch. The natural, organic line is sold at Sephora, Ulta, Beauty.com, QVC and high-end salons. Alterna is also planning the launch of its own online shop in February.

For more details about the partnership or the company, visit the Alterna Haircare website.

Note: Logo sourced from Alterna Haircare website.

Lunch Break Beauty Buy: BB bust, simplified cuticle care

This Lunch Break Beauty Buy features a couple different products because of a mishap (of sorts) with one product, plus the successful trial of another. But let me start first with beauty balms.

By now, you’ve heard of BB cream, right? That liquid foundation-moisturizer-primer-other miracles in a bottle that is supposed to be better than the tinted moisturizers of the past? (If the answer is no, just smile and nod.)

I haven’t participated in the BB cream craze up until now for lots of reasons, though mainly because of a lack of the right colors or lack of the availability of the right colors due to buying decisions at various stores. (For the record, my skin isn’t blue or purple or something else crazy, just a shade of brown between medium and dark.)

But, this BB cream bust is actually due to operator error. In this case, the drug store I shopped had an entire array of colors for two brands, one low end and one in the medium price range, and I chose the wrong color in both instances (too dark).

So, I expect to revisit this topic soon with the correct colors and a bit of a review for anyone who hasn’t tried these products already.

Being the girl I am, though, I had also purchased another item that I hadn’t used or even opened that I think is perfect for this post, the Sally Hansen Salon Manicure Cuticle Eraser + Balm.

Starting the week off right: January 20, 2013

I hope you had a relaxing weekend! I had dinner and dessert (love to Junior’s in NYC) with a new friend, some reading and a little cooking.

Part of my reading this weekend was catching up on blog posts by some of my favorites, with the below as the highlights:

• My favorite television chef personality in the world, Nigella Lawson, generated a bit of a buzz with a post on her own blog, Kitchen Witter, last week, when she revealed that she declined some airbrushing for a promotional photo for her new show “The Taste”.
• After the Golden Globes, tons of blogs are writing up detailed instructions on how to get the awards look sported by your favorite celebrity. The run down by  Fifteen Minute Beauty Fanatic (starting with Kate Hudson) is comprehensive.
• Another recap of Golden Globes looks was posted by a beauty loft took a different approach, selecting the top five based on the coordination of hair and makeup with clothing and accessories.
• The Small Things Blog wrote an ode to the color raspberry including beauty products and fashion.
• Refinery 29 highlighted Scarlett Johansson’s red carpet makeup for “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof”, she had a wonderful bright lip look going.

Enjoy, and have a great week!