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3/30/15

New Honeyed Grapefruit Cleansing Wipes

If you can't view the video click HERE to see how well these guys work at getting a full face of makeup off

At every trunk show/workshop I do I have at least one women who timidly raises her hand during the skincare portion of the evening and says "I use face wipes, is that okay?"  After turning to my dermatologist and getting the approval that face wipes are indeed okay I was emotionally on board so the answer is yes!  I still prefer a traditional cleanser myself but I have to carry wipes in my kit so I can have a clean slate before the makeup applications that I do so I'm always on the hunt for good ones.
I started using the Honeyed Grapefuit Facial Cleansing Wipes from Beekman 1802 ($7 for 30 wipes) a few months ago because they met my criteria for wipes (which is surprisingly hard to meet!):
  • Alcohol-Free (dries you out)
  • Petrochemical-Free (no bueno for your face)
  • Sulfate-Free (drying)
  • Fragrance-Free (irritating)
  • Dye-Free (irritating)
  • 100% Biodegradable (being nice to the Earth)
  • They must get every stitch of makeup off of your face - mascara, eyeliner, the whole nine

These guys actually list Fragrance as the last ingredient on list so I talked with them about it and they clarified that the Fragrance was Honey with Grapefruit, Lemon Blossoms and Guava.  Nothing synthetic.  Bueno!  I'm in!

So, I used them in my kit and people went NUTS for them (I had been sent an advance set of them - they weren't even on the market yet so I couldn't direct people to the Beekman site).  I have wanted to add cleansing wipes to Erin's Faces for a long time because so many of you use them and I want you to have something  healthy that works.  A few of my labs have them but their ingredient lists don't meet my requirements.  There are manufacturers that make wipes and I could control the ingredient list but I'd have to buy 10,000 of them.  You guys - we are not there :) - yet!  So, until we are I'm going to carry these crazy yummy Honeyed Grapefruit ones.

What's in them?  Okay - we've got Aloe Vera (healing), Calendula (anti-inflammatory), Goat's Milk (soothing), CoEnzymeQ10 (reparative), Vitamin C (brightening) and Vitamin E (hydrating). What's not in them?  Alcohol, Petrochemicals, Sulfates, Fragrance and Dye.  And they are 100% Biodegradable and get everything off!

Where can you get them???  Here :)!

3/21/15

DIY Eyebrow Tinting

First off, you're not supposed to tint your eyebrows - so there's that.  The box literally says don't use this on your lashes/brows because it can blind you.  Amazing.  So I'm not brave enough to tint my lashes but I'm down with brows.
I used RefectoCil's Brow and Lash Tint in 4.1 (also avail on Amazon).  It comes with a little plastic applicator that doesn't look like it would actually do anything but it ends up working very well.  

You can buy a mixing plate or just use a piece of foil or a disposable plastic plate or something and you squirt some of your color on there and then mix in some of the developer (pictured above) which is basically the same thing as Hydrogen Peroxide just FYI.  You're supposed to put a bit of the Eyebrow Tint on the plate and then eyeball adding the developer to it, which honestly feels a little scary when you're not a professional hair stylist but I just thinned out with like 10 drops and it was fine.

So then you use the little plastic applicator and paint it on your brows.  There's a chart that says how long to leave it on.  You get your "time" based on your natural brow color (I'm between a 6 and a 7) and the color you're going to dye it.  So for me it was 10-20 minutes (which seems like kind of a large timeslot!) so I split the difference and did 15 minutes.  If you're nervous I would err on the shorter timeframe as you can always go back and dye them again if they're too soft.  I then used a makeup wipe to get it off.  It does dye your skin too which you can clean up pretty easily with the makeup wipe but the skin under your brow will stay dyed til you take a shower (but it just looks like you filled it in with brow powder).  People do who do it regularly do it about once a month.


Here you can see way the dye picks up on every hair - the ends of this brow are white and don't show up so it's nice that after dying them they DO show up.


So what's the verdict?  I LOVE not having to fill in my brows everyday and feel much less like a redhead poser since I'm not rocking a brown eyebrow with red hair.  That said, my red hair is a copper gold (warm) and this dye color was a cooler, pinker red so I'm just going to get my actual hair dye color (or a couple of shades deeper) and use that with the developer BUT, I'm so glad I went ahead and tried tinting my brows as it was super easy!

3/11/15

New Makeup Palette for Spring - Eyeshadows/Lips/Cheeks

All of my shadow, liner, cheeks, highlight and lip are from the little guy on the left :)
You guys!  I am SO EXCITED to share my new Nudes Eyeshadow and Lip/Cheek Palette ($75)with you for Spring.  It sold out within the first 10 days of launching it (yay!) but I'm getting more in so worry not.  Most shadow palettes on the market come in with a dozen shadows at around at least $50.  For the price of one lipstick you get that plus not one, but twelve, lipstick shades!

Here's the story - you get 12 Eyeshadows - 3 mattes and 9 satins/shimmers that work as shadows, eyeliners, cheek highlights and (if you're blonde/brunette) brows.  You also get 12 Lip Shades that double as Cheek Colors.  The video below walks you though a couple of different ways to work with it.

Click HERE if you can't see the video

I've been asked if there are any doubles with any eyeshadows I currently carry - these are the color equivalents - 


Here are some other fun palettes new to the market this season -


Stila's Nouveau Natural Eyeshadow Palette ($49 for 12 eyeshadows) and their Convertible Color Palette ($49 for 12 lip/cheek shades) which are sold separately give a similar offering but with brighter lip/cheek colors.

Tarte's Tartelette Amazonian Clay Matte Eyeshadow Palette ($44 for 12 eyeshadows) is a good pick if you are a matte shadow fan


Not new but Urban Decay's Naked Palettes ($54 for 12 shadows and brush) are the ones who launched 1,000 ships...err...eyeshadow sets.

Hourglass just came out with seven of these beautiful Modernist Eyeshadow Palettes ($58 for 5 colors) so there's one for every skintone. 


3/7/15

Nutrition & Self Care for Healthy Skin from Ladies Who Know


Hi all!  This week I've got a guest post from two of my favorite ladies - health coaches Beth Wittig Clayton and Kimbre Lancaster - who have tips for using food and more to help clarify and fortify your skin.  Enjoy! xo Erin

Hi there!  Beth and Kimbre here! We are health coaches here in NYC and have been avid users of Erin’s Faces products for years. As health coaches, we love the fact that Erin creates products that are so beautiful, so luxurious for the skin and all-natural. Her products are one of the first that we will recommend to clients looking for a healthy and safe way to beautify and clear their skin. As nutritional and lifestyle experts, we also help our clients to find ways to start at the center of it all and nourish their bodies with foods that naturally help to clarify and rejuvenate the skin, while also focusing on lifestyle suggestions that set them up for success. When you bring incredible natural products together with self-care and nutrition, amazing things start to happen; you have happier, healthier, softer and clearer skin.
 
KIMBRE’S EASY RECIPES FOR HEALTHY SKIN

Guys! We think a lot about what we put on our skin, but we sometimes forget that the things we put in our mouth effect our skin too. It's all connected. So here are some simple winter recipes that not only warm your spirit but make your skin sing. The goal here is to introduce foods that fight free radicals with rich antioxidants, help reduce inflammation and boost both oxygen and blood flow to the skin.  


Green Tea and Lemon Zest: Use a knife to carefully remove a section of the peel from a fresh lemon. Squeeze the peel, yellow side down towards the tea, and then allow the peel to steep along with the tea. The polyphenols and EGCG in the tea boost blood flow and oxygen to the skin, while the limonene in the oil of the lemon peel helps your risk of certain skin cancers.


Rosemary Roasted Winter Vegetables: Sprinkle fresh rosemary and cracked sea salt over chopped pumpkin, carrots and sweet potatoes. Roast these dice sized chunks at 350 until softened.This triad of sweet vegetables is packed with various carotenoids, and the rosemary not only packs a punch of antioxidants of its own, it's also another powerful cancer preventer.


Power Nut Mix: Mix together 1 Tbsp walnuts, 1 Tbsp Sunflower seeds and 1 Tbsp Dark Chocolate Chips. The Omega 3‘s and Vitamin E from the walnuts help the immune system fight inflammation and clear your skin, while the flavanols from the chocolate help improve hydration and circulation to give your skin that rosy glow.


Skin Happy Salad:  Mix a healthy portion of fresh kale (stems removed) with a drizzle of olive oil, a small dash of coconut aminos, some fresh chopped garlic, and a heaping tablespoon of nutritional yeast. Massage with your hands until soft. Massaging helps break down the kale for a more palatable texture, while mixing together all the flavors you just added. The olive oils polyphenols help control harmful free radicals, the coconut aminos provide seventeen different amino acids (plus vitamins and minerals), and the Vitamin B12 from the nutritional yeast helps prevent both dark and light spots from forming beneath the surface of your skin.


Happy Hour: Hit up your favorite raw bar for raw oysters in a half shell and ask for the house mignonette. This vinegary sauce traditionally contains raw marinated shallots. Raw shallots detoxify, making room for the zinc in the oysters to come in and improve the growth and functions of the skin cells themselves. Ask your server to help you pair this with a glass of light red wine to bring in resveratrol, a powerful antioxidant found in numerous studies to reduce and prevent the signs of aging. Be sure to stop at one glass, to prevent dehydration.

BETH’S SELF-CARE SUGGESTIONS FOR CLEAR SKIN


Hydration!  
Okay, this may sound like a no brainer but is SUPER important. The skin’s main function is to remove the toxic and metabolic waste through the body, and if there are more toxins than hydration in the body, the skin has to pick up the slack for the kidneys and liver. The PH of the skin changes, allowing bacteria to flourish.
 

Change your pillow cases every few days!  
I know! This is a lot. You may have to stock up on pillow cases. Pick natural fibers that are breathable as well. The longer you go, the more bacteria is depositing on your pillow case, and the more is flourishing as you put your head down to rest and re-depositing on your face, leading to inexplicable morning pimples.
 

Food Sensitivity Testing!
If you are sensitive to a certain type of food, the big ones being gluten, dairy, and soy, then oftentimes your body will let you know that there is inflammation breeding. Your skin will become more inflamed as your intestinal track does so.  Take the big allergens out of your diet for a couple weeks and add them back in slowly and one at a time, to see if your skin or digestion is affected. Knowledge is power!


Include MORE Omega 3’s and Antioxidants
Just as Kimbre suggested in her recipes, we need a healthy ratio ofOomega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids in order to keep inflammation at bay in our bodies. However, the Western diet isn't rife with Omega 6’s and pretty low in Omega 3’s, so we need to supplement. Bring in more fatty fish (salmon), hemp seeds, and chia seeds. Antioxidants in deep purple and red fruits and vegetables also fight free-radicals, which can increase inflammation. The more Omega 3’s and anti-oxidants you have, the less inflammation on your skin.


Lower your refined carb/sugar intake (Replace with sugar-stabilizing carbs)
The more sugar you are eating (or foods that metabolize as sugar in the body), the more insulin your body is producing. Just as sex hormones increase acne, so does the hormone insulin.
 
Get your hormone levels checked…
If you feel like you are doing EVERYTHING right and you are still getting pesky hormonal acne on your jaw line and neck, it may be time to go to the doc to test your androgen levels, especially if there is additional hair growth. This could be one of the signs of polycystic ovarian syndrome or testosterone/estrogen balances.  No need to worry! There are absolutely natural ways to treat this but it’s great to have the information. For more info, check out The Hormone Cure by Dr. Sara Gottfried. 

Rock On & Be Well,
Kimbre & Beth

Who are Beth and Kimbre?

Beth Wittig Clayton teaches people how to lose weight naturally without all the guilt and deprivation through fundamentally shifting their relationship with food, leading to new levels of empowerment not only in their bodies, but in their lives. www.bethwittig.com

Kimbre Lancaster is a professional actress and health coach who prides herself on helping clients creating space in their life to achieve their dreams, discover foods that fit their bodies individual needs, and naturally combat disease. Creatingthespace.org http://www.invisible-film.com

3/4/15

Erin's Faces - Liquid Shadow How-To

If you can't view the video above click HERE

You guys - these are literally the easiest shadows on the block!  


My new Liquid Eyeshadows are sheer, shimmery and gorgeous!  Click the video to watch how to apply but basically you swipe it on your lid, soften with your finger and go - it takes about 10 seconds.  The colors are gel based and once they dry they're on for good.  You can wear them alone or on top of an eye shadow primer (my preferred method) and there's a shade for every skintone!

Have fun!