Makeup Trends of 2011

Let's take a look back at some of this year's biggest makeup trends.

Eva Mendes is actually wearing 2 of this years hottest trends, the cat eye and metallic shadow. The cat eye has been seen on a ton of celebrities (most notably, Adele). It's a quick and easy yet sexy makeup trend which I LOVE because it looks great under glasses! Shiny, metallic eye shadows have been hot this year. I have always loved any color eye shadow as long as it is super sparkly and shiny so I have been loving that this is actually in style!

source: taaz 

Bold lips were huge this year. Even some unusual shades have been seen like orange and neon pink. This is my personal favorite makeup trend, I have been rocking bright lipstick since high school!

Bright eye shadow has also been a huge hit this year. I have been loving seeing all the pretty color combinations and creative use of color on the eye. The photo below is of Keiko Lynn, she has an amazing blog with lots of great makeup tutorials!

Keiko Lynn

Before I leave you for this year lets see who this years biggest style icon was. Without a doubt the moment this year that made me say WOW, was when I saw Kate Middleton at her royal wedding. She was the most beautiful bride I have ever seen, and reportedly did her makeup by herself! EVERYTHING was perfect, the hair, the dress, the jewelry and the makeup. She has impeccable style and I can't wait to see what she wears in 2012. 

What were your favorite beauty trends of this year? Can't wait to see what this next year brings!

Happy New Years Everyone!

Best of 2011

So obviously this month I have not been so great at writing, the craziness of this month really slowed me down. We went out of town for Christmas this year to visit my in-law's and it was STRESSFUL trying to get everything figured out and packed before Christmas. But I'm back and have some exciting plans for 2012. Tutorials and giveaway's, hurray!

Before we begin 2012 let's take a look back at all the lovely hair trends that we've seen this year. 

The biggest hair color trend of this year was definitely ombre color. It seem's that the super drastic ombre trend is fading out, but I think ombre in general is here to stay. In 2012 I think we will see a lot more of this trend but in a soft natural way, seen below on Jessica Biel. Her hair is definitely on my hair do list for next year!

If you have curled your hair this year, it's most likely been in beach waves. These gorgeous loose curls have been seen on everyone throughout the year, including me! I think this trend is here to stay for 2012.

Retro glam waves! Star's have been wearing this at every awards show of this year. Selena Gomez looks AMAZING with her vintage inspired dress and glam waves. I even wore this look to my husbands Christmas party and it was one of my personal favorite hair style's of the year!

Braids have been HUGE this year. I have seen braided hairstyles galore and I love ALL of them! Fishtail braids, french braids, maiden braids, braided bangs, and so many more. This is another trend that I don't think will fizzle out any time soon, and I couldn't be more happy! I love beauty trends that are super easy and work on most length's of hair.

source: Free People

 source: A Beautiful Mess

Come back tomorrow so that we can look back on some of the biggest beauty trends of this year!

One Length Bob

I have been growing my hair for what seems like FOREVER! I cut it pretty short right before I got married 6 years ago and it is finally gotten to my collar bone. My hair grows SUPER, ridiculously slow. I have been working so hard, for so long to grow my hair out but every once in a while I see a hair cut that make me think about chopping it off again. I love this haircut! It's a newer, more modern take on the super layered, Victoria Beckham bob that has been so popular. It's all one length (or very long choppy layers, about to the shoulders or shorter, and slightly shorter in the back. I have been oh so close to forgetting my dream of long locks and doing this cut!

Jennifer Aniston made this cut popular. Is there a cut that she's had that hasn't been a major hit?! Love the one length, slightly graduated bob. To get the texture she has try a sea salt spray or some hair wax. 

Dianna Agron from Glee looks gorgeous with this short haircut. She has a few more layers in hers and it's a little shorter. To get her volume use a volumizing mouse or spray at your root's before blow drying.

Katy Perry also recently chopped her hair into this short one length bob. This length looks so good on her and frames her face so well. And can I tell you how much I love the pink root's, they are so fun! I think this is her best look yet.

So what do you think of the one length bob? I'm hoping that I can influence some of you to get this cut so I can live vicariously through you and keep my length! :) If my hair grew faster than a few inches in 6 years, I'd be all over this!

Holiday Inspiration

It's that time of year and the Christmas season doesn't feel like it's started until I watch some of my favorite  holiday movies. My absolute favorite? Little Women. I watch it every single year and it totally gets me in the holiday spirit. Besides being a wonderful movie, there is some beautiful hair! I just love this hair era. The gorgeous long, unruly hair and lavish updo's, not to mention the beautiful clothing. The funny thing is, if you look at a lot of the updo's in the movie they are totally in style right now!  Center part, hair twisted back into twists and braids. So beautiful and classic. Here are a few pictures from the film for inspiration:

Ever since seeing this movie I have wanted to grow my hair this long. It has been an epic fail so far.

 My favorite look in this movie is when Jo and Laurie walk in the woods. 

Amy's hair is always perfection. I especially love her updo's when she's older.

all photos from :the fan carpet

So, are there any movies that you HAVE to watch during the holidays? My other favorites are White Christmas (of course), It's A Wonderful Life, and Holiday Inn. It doesn't feel like like Christmas time until I watch them!!

To Shampoo Or Not To Shampoo

Beth asked a seriously great question! 

I've heard that shampooing your hair every day will damage it and when I take the time to blow dry and straighten my hair, I try to make it last 2 days anyway. What about the days that I put product in my hair to make it curl? Can I still skip a shampooing? Do I only condition that day or nothing at all?

I get this question a ton and my advice is that washing your hair hair everyday is a bad idea. Your hair goes through a lot of trauma and is at it's most fragile when it's been washed and is sopping wet. Then add brushing, blow drying and styling to that everyday and you are putting your hair through a lot of trauma. Also, when you wash your hair you are washing out the natural oils in your hair therefore drying it out. 

My weekly routine:

Sunday-wash hair and style for church

Monday- wear same style as Sunday

Tuesday- wear a cute up style (usually one of these)

Wednesday- wear in a cute up style

Thursday- wash and style for the weekend

Friday- wear same style as Thursday

Saturday- wear in a cute up style

I only wash my hair about twice a week. By washing your hair as few times as possible throughout the week you are not only saving your hair from breakage but you are allowing the natural oils to help keep you hair from becoming dry and brittle. If I feel like I still have to much product in my hair from the day before, I'll do an up style instead of washing. I do know that not washing your hair everyday is not an option for a lot of people. If you need to wash everyday I recommend carefully towel drying your hair, combing with a wide tooth comb and air drying, and putting in a leave in conditioner or shine serum to replace your natural oil. 

We already looked at up styles for long hair here, so let's look at a few cute do's that you can do with shorter hair!

Jennifer Aniston's hair isn't short but her braided fringe would look so cute with short hair. 

source: Redbook 

This upside down french twist would be so cute on short hair!

Any hairstyle with braids is cute and easy!

tutorials found here and here. Plus her blog has a TON of cute tutorials for short to mid length hair!

Volume Recipe

How do you get volume? I get this question a ton and I must say, I have a pretty darn good answer! Start by holding up sections of hair where you would like volume and spray the roots with a dry shampoo. I like to use Tresemme's Fresh Start Dry Shampoo, but use your favorite brand. Rub the dry shampoo into your roots, it will leave a white film on your hair but rubbing will help blend it in.

find it here

Now on to teasing. Take sections of hair where you sprayed and hold hair vertically with one hand. Take your teasing brush in the other and brush straight downwards to the root (got it? clear as mud?). You want a teasing brush made with boar bristle, those stiff bristles are essential for getting an amazing tease and then help smooth over the top.

 find it here

Lastly, you need to smooth over the teased hair so that you don't have any of your teasing underneath visible. So who knew, dry shampoo does more than just hold you over until your next wash! It gives you some incredible volume!

Poor Mans Product- Shampoo

 My all time favorite Shampoo is Redken's All Soft. Your hair feels AMAZING after you use it! It's great for all hair type's and leaves your hair soft and silky. Of course being a professional product it cost's an arm and a leg. A 300 ml. bottle runs from about $13-15 dollars! 

find at Redken

My poor man version? Tresemme Moisture Rich shampoo and conditioner. Tresemme's whole line of shampoo's and conditioner's are fantastic! They are the only non professional brand that I have felt measure up to the professional one's. My favorite is the moisture rich but they have several different type's and you can choose the one that matches your hair type and needs. And is definitely more budget friendly at $3-5 for about 900 ml.! 

find at Tresemme

So why should you use professional products? I have a few times when I really try to squeeze some professional shampoo into my budget

• If you just colored your hair darker. You just spent a lot of money getting your hair done so treat it well! Non professional products are harsher on your and you will see your color fade faster. If you can only afford one choose a good shampoo over a conditioner.
• I do like to try and use professional shampoo more in the winter time. My hair get's super dry and it's worth the extra money to buy it. However when I do buy it (especially when it's colder) I try to wash my hair only a few times a week. You are saving shampoo and your hair doesn't get as sweaty and dirty as it does in the summer. 
• If my hair is very damaged. If I just highlighted or damaged my hair in some way I will use professional shampoo. In this case a good repairing conditioner is more important than a shampoo, but I'll usually try to use both if it's extremely damaged. 

P.S.- Hope everybody has a very happy Thanksgiving!

Total Eclipse Of The Heart

I promise this is the last Twilight post! I finished the third movie, Eclipse, Sunday and went to see Breaking Dawn with my sister on Monday. I will say this much about Breaking Dawn.... I didn't think it was any worse than the previous 3. Take that statement as you will :)

Edward was looking pretty good in Eclipse hair wise, although his makeup and contacts were not very flattering some of the time. 

I really don't know what to think about Bella's hair. It looked to me like instead of a hair piece or extensions that blended with her natural hair color (or more like didn't blend) she just wore a full wig. It wasn't very bad most of the movie except the very beginning, she has her hair down but combed back showing her hairline and it looks like they either used makeup or some kind of editing trick to blend her hairline with the wig. It seriously drove me CRAZY! I don't know why things like that bug me but they totally do! 

Alice's hair style just gets better every movie, she looks adorable in this one. Jasper's hair looks horrible in this movie. His hair looked way better styled back with more volume!

I didn't really like the way Rosalie's hair was styled and Emmett just looks like he didn't brush his hair that day!

I thought Esme and Carlisle looked okay. Esme hair is a lot darker in this one, can vampire's even dye their hair? 

Jacob looked pretty great this movie. Let's just say after reading the books I was team Edward, but after watching the movie's I am leaning more towards team Jacob!

all photos were found at MTV

So there you have it! It's been a fun filled week of Twilighty goodness and I FINALLY got to see Breaking Dawn. It seems like I have been waiting forever for it to come out. Have any of you seen it yet? What did you think? My favorite part was the wedding! Everyone looked SO good. Perfect hair, flawless makeup. Alice's finger waves were dreamy!

New Moon, New Looks

I watched New Moon last night and in my opinion the movies get a little bit better with each new one. New Moon was a LOT better than Twilight. The acting was getting better and the looks were more polished. 

Let start with Bella. Her hair was much better this movie. It was styled better and her hair extensions weren't as noticeable. Although there are times when you can still see the poorly matched extensions underneath her natural hair. You can kind of see it in this pic, she has a lighter reddish brown natural hair color, then the darker extensions underneath. I felt like they weren't as distracting in this movie. Laurent also looks quite a bit better. His dreads are lightened at the ends and looks more like natural dreadlocks. 

I actually liked Edwards hair better in the first movie. It's a little bit shorter in this one and I think it looks better a little longer :(

I'm liking Alice's hair much more in this movie.It's a little bit longer and styled better. The makeup in this one is sometimes downright awful! They went WAY overboard with some of the characters white makeup and it looks really bad. Although some scenes (like Bella's birthday party) they looked great. 

Everyone else has pretty much the same look as Twilight, just a little more sleek and polished. I loved Esme's hair in the first movie, but it's fun to see her with a different straighter style. She looked great in this one!

Jacob looks about a billion times better in New Moon. His haircut looks amazing (among other things :))!

 Tonight is Eclipse night! I'm getting ready for Breaking Dawn which I'm going to see Monday. Have any of you guy's seen it yet? When are you going to see it? I decided to wait until after the weekend in hopes of avoiding most of the crowd.

Hello, my name is Marie and I'm a Twilightaholic!

I have a love hate/relationship with the Twilight movies. I read the books before the movie was even conceived and fell in love with them. They are a series that I can read over and over again. The problem I have is that before the movie was cast I had my own Twilight world created in my head. I knew what Bella and Edward looked like and acted like and let's just say the cast of the movie was NOT what I had imagined in my head. Actually just one of the cast, Bella. I just CANNOT see Kristen Stewart as Bella. I'm sure she is a lovely girl, she just isn't Bella to me. The rest of the cast is great, my personal favorite is actually  Billy Burke (Charlie). He was not AS big of a character in the book, but Billy Burke was so funny and lovable in the movies! 

So enough about my thought's/rant's about the movies, let's talk about the hair! I'm going to do a 3 part series about twi-hair and it's evolution throughout the 3 movies. I'm having a Twilight marathon before I go see Breaking Dawn next week!

Let's start with Bella. I did like her hair. I think it only helped Kristen Stewart better portray Bella. It's long and simple, and I love her headbands. The one thing that drove me batty (and maybe nobody else noticed this) but she obviously wore a hairpiece to make her hair longer. The problem is that the hairstylist didn't match the hair piece to her natural color very well, so she has reddish brown hair on top and black hair underneath. You really can't notice very often, just in certain lights, but it seriously made me crazy! :)

Now on to Edward! Obviously his look was a BIG hit since pretty much every female on the planet want's to now marry Robert Pattinson. His hair cut and color were perfection in this movie and totally made Edward officially swoon worthy!

 My little boy even rocked the Edward look for a while (minus the ice cream mustache) :)

Carlisle and Esme were just how imagined they would be. Carlisle with his blond neatly styled hair and Esme with a beautiful old fashioned but modern style. 

Rosalie AND Emmett are actually not how I pictured them in the book. I didn't like Emmett's buzzed hair at all. Nikki Reed is probably the last person I would have picked for Rosalie! She has naturally dark hair (anyone remember her from the O.C.?) and I think her dark hair suits her more. Her blond hair just doesn't look natural to me. But she is stunning and her hair is styled beautifully. 

Alice and Jasper are JUST like I imagined them! I really like Jasper's hair, although I wish it was highlighted less (I mean come on, he is supposed to be from Civil War era!). Ashley Greene is a PERFECT Alice. Her hair is cute but I like it the least in the first movie. That annoying little flipped lock at the bottom of her hairline drives me batty, I just wanna take my scissors and snip it off! 

Jacob... oh, Jacob. Long hair is just not for you! I know it's long in the book but this long wig even makes Taylor Lautner look not so hot! Luckily he ditched the wig in the next movie and he turns in to a hottie to rival Edward! 

 Wanna know my favorite hair in the first Twilight movie? Hands down, Victoria. Her hair is beautiful and EXACTLY how I imagined it in the books. The cut, color and style is perfection.

source: All photo's are from MTV

So what do you guy's think? Are there any other twihards out there? How do like the hair in the first movie? Any character's that didn't live up to your own imagination?

Mature Women

Do you ever think about what you will be like when your older? Will you be conservative? Will you sport the "classic grandma" short hair cut and perm (not that there is ANYTHING wrong with that)? When I think of myself I'd like to think I would be like my Great Aunt Dottie. She is in her 80's and a total fireball! She showed up to my wedding with bright red hair, a huge fur coat and lots of big beautiful jewelry. I'm cursing myself right now because I can't find a picture of her anywhere! She is amazing and totally what I want to be like at that age! 

What really got me thinking about this was an older lady that sat in front of me at church on Sunday. In a sea of short, permed old lady hair this woman had purple hair, PURPLE! She had a short, cute cut that was styled spiked out and looked amazing! I was so mad that I didn't have a camera or even my phone with me to take a picture. She was by far one of the coolest old lady's I had ever seen (except for my Aunt Dottie of course!).

Here are some more inspiring older woman with big personalities!

Patricia Field is 70 and a fabulous costume designer. She has styled the cast of Sex And The City, The Devil Wears Prada, Ugly Betty among many others.

source:styleite

Betsey Johnson is another awesome mature woman at the age of 69. She is an AMAZING fashion designer with a big personality, and is known to end her fashion shows by doing a cartwheel down the runway!

 source: the fashion informer, fashionindie

These ladies are so inspiring! Who says you can't still have fun with your look when you get older? What do you guy's think? Short and permed or spiked and purple! :)

Red Lips

The fall season is upon us and I'm starting to see more of my favorite fall makeup trend, red lips. I love red lips! Which is funny because my husband HATES them and makes an annoyed face every time I wear it. But I won't be discouraged and proudly wear my bright shades of lipstick anyways. I don't wear a red lip often but when I do I feel beautiful, even if I'm just sporting it with my pajama's while I do dishes. A bold lip is my absolute favorite beauty trend, and I think anyone can pull it off. Choosing the correct shade of red for your skin tone is SUPER important, it may cost more but purchasing your lipstick at a store like Sephora where you can try on different shades is worth the extra cost. However, Walgreen's and CVS both do returns on opened makeup, so if you get a shade that doesn't work for you just bring in your receipt and packaging and try again!

Here are some inspiring red lip photos:

source:sfgirlbybay

 source:InStyle

 source:makeup geek

 source:vanity fair

Would you like to know my perfect red lip formula? I have pretty fair skin (okay, think 1 step lighter than a white sheet!) and this has been my favorite red lip products. I start with Maybelline Color Sensational lip stain in cherry pop. I start by putting on a first layer and blotting with a tissue. Repeat until you get the desired intensity. 

 I finish with Covergirl Lipslicks in daring. I HATE the feel of lip gloss, but this gives a nice sheer color and gloss but doesn't feel sticky. It's actually very moisturizing and I often use different shades of this like a chap stick.  

So there you have it! What do you guy's think about bold lips? Do you love it or hate it? It can be a hard look to get used to if you have never done it because it's SO dramatic. But if you wear it confidently, you can look gorgeous!