Update on Beauty Products

We have updated our beauty products section a bit, so we figured that we would share a few links with you to some of the new pages.  It is not yet 100% fabulous, but moving in the right direction.  If you are interested, you can check out what we have started.

Decorative Cosmetics - yes, the subcategory of cosmetics that is decorative in nature is "makeup".

Cosmetic Tips

Fragrances

Hair Care

Skin Care

Makeup Guide

Beauty Tips

Remember, you are absolute beautiful even without makeup.

Lean how to maintain healthy hair & skin here on Apparel Search.

Handmade Full Coverage Cosmetics

A mom of two who developed the skin condition vitiligo a decade ago has launched a luxurious, handcrafted new line of healing full coverage cosmetics, packed with natural ingredients, specifically for those living with confidence-sapping skin conditions.

Kandor Cosmetics is a bespoke collection of premium full coverage foundations, concealers and finishing minerals, all blended by hand and wonderfully enriched with essential oils. Each product is brimming with bountiful natural ingredients yet provides a flawless full coverage finish – even on problem skin.

“I have been struggling with bad skin ever since I was a teenager. It started as really bad spots, then when they finally went I developed Vitiligo,” explains 21-year-old beauty entrepreneur and Kandor Cosmetics creator, Keira Walcott.

“Vitiligo is where skin cells attack themselves and melanin is lost from the skin, creating white patches. My first ever patch was on my face and from there, it took off and spread over various parts of my body. I was devastated. I started formulating makeup in my mom’s kitchen as nothing else ever worked or if it did (after 10 layers) it didn’t give me the coverage I was after – there are so few products specifically for those with skin conditions. I never left the house without makeup until launching Kandor Cosmetics. It’s so rewarding to see these formulas making a real difference to men and women like me, and my confidence has skyrocketed.”

Lilumia Makeup Brush Cleaner

Lilumia International launched ZOË, the first fully automated makeup brush cleaner that can wash up to 20 makeup brushes in 5 minutes. 

ZOË dries them too. A first in beauty tech, ZOË is the easiest and fastest way to get rid of built-up dirt, oil, and makeup in your brushes on a regular basis.

Plumping Lacquered Lip Ink

Dior Addict Plumping Lacquered Lip Ink

Get addicted to the Dior lip ink.  This provides long-wear color and volume-boosting effects.  Shop for this beauty product at Saks Fifth Avenue.

At Saks Fifth Avenue Style code: 0400098216931

Sun Hats and Foundation

Sun hats and beauty products.  

Stay out of the sun and maybe you won't need as many beauty products.

What Makes You Glow with Beauty

Step one, where to find the tips & tricks to maintaining a beautiful glow.  Do you want to know the secret?  We suggest you visit the Saks Fifth Avenue and look for the Beauty Spring 2018 catalog.

Bella Hadid NARS Cosmetics Fall 2017

NARS Cosmetics taps Bella Hadid for Fall 2017 campaign.

Image: TNI Press

Bella Hadid has been announced as the campaign model for NARS Cosmetics' Fall 2017 collection campaign. Bella stars alongside Justin Grossman and the campaign is inspired by the rebellion and self expression of the rock and roll era. 

See more of Bella Hadid.

Pro-mastered Eye Shadow Palettes

We have some incredibly exciting news.  Cinema Secrets Pro Cosmetics (known for the bright blue Makeup Brush Cleaner every professional swears by) has launched their FIRST EVER custom blend, HIGHLY pigmented, pro-mastered eye shadow palettes! 

Cinema Secrets Pro, a brand favored by professionals in the industry for over 30 years, has exciting new launches ahead in 2017! These palettes, The Natural Collection and (one of our personal favorites metallic palette) The Chroma Collection are just the beginning of a very amazing year for CS! 

Eye Shadows that FEED The Metallic Frenzy.

Pro-mastered Eye Shadow Palettes

We have some incredibly exciting news.  Cinema Secrets Pro Cosmetics (known for the bright blue Makeup Brush Cleaner every professional swears by) has launched their FIRST EVER custom blend, HIGHLY pigmented, pro-mastered eye shadow palettes! 

Cinema Secrets Pro, a brand favored by professionals in the industry for over 30 years, has exciting new launches ahead in 2017! These palettes, The Natural Collection and (one of our personal favorites metallic palette) The Chroma Collection are just the beginning of a very amazing year for CS! 

Eye Shadows that FEED The Metallic Frenzy.

Pro-mastered Eye Shadow Palettes

We have some incredibly exciting news.  Cinema Secrets Pro Cosmetics (known for the bright blue Makeup Brush Cleaner every professional swears by) has launched their FIRST EVER custom blend, HIGHLY pigmented, pro-mastered eye shadow palettes! 

Cinema Secrets Pro, a brand favored by professionals in the industry for over 30 years, has exciting new launches ahead in 2017! These palettes, The Natural Collection and (one of our personal favorites metallic palette) The Chroma Collection are just the beginning of a very amazing year for CS! 

Eye Shadows that FEED The Metallic Frenzy.

Pro-mastered Eye Shadow Palettes

We have some incredibly exciting news.  Cinema Secrets Pro Cosmetics (known for the bright blue Makeup Brush Cleaner every professional swears by) has launched their FIRST EVER custom blend, HIGHLY pigmented, pro-mastered eye shadow palettes! 

Cinema Secrets Pro, a brand favored by professionals in the industry for over 30 years, has exciting new launches ahead in 2017! These palettes, The Natural Collection and (one of our personal favorites metallic palette) The Chroma Collection are just the beginning of a very amazing year for CS! 

Eye Shadows that FEED The Metallic Frenzy.

Chinese New Year Luxurious Beauty

Giorgio Armani

Chinese New Year Highlighting Palette

LIMITED EDITION. Celebrate the Chinese New Year with a Highlighting Powder of light gold shimmer, bronze and champagne pearls. The Highlighting palette is stamped with a graphic monkey pattern as an ode to the year of the Monkey. Natural and Transparent Glow. Soft and Fine Texture. Made in France.

Yves Saint Laurent

Chinese New Year Palette

Celebrate the year of the monkey: a year of ambition and charm. Inspired by handcrafted metal work, this glamourous limited edition gold palette is reminiscent of Yves Saint Laurent's appreciation for bringing artwork to life. Create a YSL signature look using warm pink and beautiful taupe shades for an illuminated eye look. YSL wishes you a lucky start to the New Year. Made in France.

Shop for all of the above at Neiman Marcus.

Thank you for taking the time to read our luxury beauty product blog post. We hope that you have found this news to be informative. 

Learn more about Neiman Marcus here on Apparel Search.

If you have comments or questions, please add your thoughts in the discussion area below.

Star Wars Collectible Mascara

 Are you ready for Star Wars beauty?

The Force Awakens.  Get the look.

Become a Covergirl Jedi.

If cosmetics is not your thing, you may want to check out the limited edition Star Wars Ugg boots.

The Green Beauty Rules

The Green Beauty Rules: The Essential Guide to Toxic-Free Beauty, Green Glamour, and Glowing Skin

ISBN: 978-0-7573-1870

Paige Padgett, makeup artist to the stars and most specifically, Jillian Michaels, is revolutionary in the beauty industry and is finally revealing her brand of beauty magic in her first book The Green Beauty Rules: The Essential Guide to Toxic-Free Beauty, Green Glamour and Glowing Skin (HCI Books -- $21.95). Filled with tips and tricks to get glamorous toxic-free make-up looks this green beauty expert has the 411 on killer toxins and chemicals found in most beauty products. The Green Beauty Rules is a simple, step-by-step beauty detox plan which guides readers on what to try, buy and toss for a healthier and gorgeous lifestyle. 

Chapter by chapter Paige Padgett explains why she got started on this green beauty journey, what to look out for, and why to care about the ingredients of your favorite cosmetics. Paige explains "After attending Ken Cook's 'Ten Americans' lecture I was blown away to find that an average of 287 chemicals are found in our bodies. Some of these chemicals were banned 30 years ago. Shockingly enough, some of these chemicals compound in our bodies and are passed down through our parents. Since then I decided I would eliminate toxic chemicals from my cosmetics and teach others how to do it as well.”

Since making the greening shift can be overwhelming, Paige holds the reader's hand throughout the transition. She stresses to take things one step at a time, figure out what products work best for you and how to get the most out of certain products that can be used for more than one need. 

One of the best takeaways from Padgett's book is that "green,” "natural” and "organic” do not need to be expensive. Green beauty products have come a long way since she first started and now products are vibrant, smell great, and are as effective (if not more) as popular brands. 

Highlights from the book include: 

•    Debunking the five biggest green beauty myths (Chapter 1 Green Beauty Pioneer) 

•    Three eco-attitudes and how to flow between them (Chapter 1) 

•    Paige's 80/20 beauty diet (Chapter 2 Beauty from the "Outside In”) 

•    Sample Green Beauty Routine (Chapter 9 Green Beauty Looks) 

•    The difference between natural, organic, and chemically safe (Chapter 3 Organic, Natural and Naturally Derived) 

•    How to effectively use the Environmental Working Group Skin Deep Database (Chapter 5 Transition to Clean) 

•    The 60-Second Save – How to quickly identify chemically safe products (Chapter 6 Shop like a Pro) 

•    Tools for identifying greenwashing, reading labels and decoding packaging seals and stamps (Chapter 3)

•    The three P's to avoid—perfume, parabens, petrochemicals (Chapter 4 The Nasties) 

•    Paige's Top Ten daily use products (Chapter 5) 

•    A step-by-step guide to greening your beauty routine (Chapter 5) 

•    A list of the top estrogenic chemicals to watch out for in products (Chapter 4) 

About the Author: 

Paige Padgett, a leading authority on green beauty, has never been afraid to go against the grain. An irreverent free spirit, she follows her instincts and her heart. At the mere age of 12 she announced to her family that she was no longer eating red meat. Ironically, her half-Native American grandfather was a cattle rancher. It was no surprise then, that when beauty experts said she couldn't provide safe and eco-friendly makeup artistry and still create beautiful faces, she set out to prove them wrong — and did. 

Now considered a leading authority on green beauty, Paige is the Green Beauty Expert for Dasani ECOmmunity Facebook Page, DailyGlow.com, Jillian Michaels Wellness Team, and founded Paigepadgett.com, a green beauty website. In addition, she is often sought out by the press and has been featured in Shape, Elle, GenLux, Tresdope.com, Beautyblitz.com, The Los Angeles Times, Vegetarian Times, Natural Health and Whole Life Times Magazine. Her television, radio, podcasts and live appearances include "Martha Stewart Radio," "San Diego Live," "The Jillian Michaels Radio Show," "Green Is Good," "The Healthy Voyager" and "The Jillian Michaels Wellness Cruise." 

Author Interview:

1. What makes a beauty product "green"?

For me it's being chemically safe and ideally with primarily natural ingredients. Organic is a bonus especially for make-up. It's impossible to find color that is 100% organic but often you will find organic ingredients. I strive for chemically safe ingredients.

2. What are some of the health reasons to consider a green beauty routine?

Cosmetics are filled with toxic chemicals that are linked to birth defects, endocrine disruption, neurotoxicity and cancer. That's enough reason for me.

3. What is the difference between organic and natural?

Unfortunately, the word "natural” means nothing in marketing and on labels. There's no regulation for the term. Organic is more regulated but regulation is a bit lax and ambiguous for the average person. According to the USDA, in order for a product to use the term "100% Organic” it must be just that, excluding water and salt. To use the USDA Organic seal a product must be at least "95% Organic excluding water and salt.” To use the word "Organic” a product must have 70% or more organic. If a product has less than 70% organic ingredients the term "organic” is not allowed on the label anywhere. So you see how confusing it can be. You really have to research it.

4. What are the different eco-certifications out there and which ones should I pay the most attention to?

ECOCERT, a French certification, and USDA Organic are the most common in the US for cosmetics. There are others such as NSF International (NSF), Organic and Sustainable Industry Standards (OASIS) and Organic Consumers Association (OCA) which are US organizations as well as BHID, a German certification, The Soil Association in the UK; Certech, a Canadian organization and Australian Organic are all respectable seals and should be sought out.

5. When looking for a green beauty product, what ingredients should I see at the top of the label?

Natural ingredients you can pronounce. For example, castor seed, apricot seed or sunflower seed oil are first in a lip gloss. The closer they are to the top the higher concentration of the ingredient.

6. What green beauty swaps can you suggest?

Look for white willow bark and grapeseed oil instead of parabens, and essential oils instead of fragrance.

7. What are your favorite green beauty resources? Are there resources people can use to help them become more educated and chemically safe with their cosmetics?

My go-to resource is http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/. You can also check out the companies who signed the compact for safe cosmetics (the EU directive) at safecosmetics.org and, of course, http://www.paigepadgett.com. These are the resources I use myself and recommend to others.

8. If people choose not to 100% go green, what are some harmful ingredients you recommend that they avoid?

Omit fragrance. By eliminating fragrance you can cut out 30-300 potentially toxic chemicals. More than 90% of chemicals in fragrance are petrochemicals. Phthalates are especially of concern since they are fragrance and are linked to a birth defect in boys. If you see the word fragrance, perfume or parfum, don't buy it.

9. What do you feel is the most common misconception people have about green beauty?

That one must sacrifice beauty and performance to be clean and environmentally friendly. You don't have to sacrifice performance, taste or beauty. Especially today; there are so many gorgeous and luxurious chemically safe and eco-friendly products on the market. The colors have come a long way too. They are no longer muddy. You can have vibrant pinks now.

I do artistry for celebrities, television and magazine shoots using chemically safe make-up and it's always glamorous. There are so many options out there you simply have to find what works for you. As with all cosmetics, people prefer different textures, colors, smells, etc. You have to learn about every product individually to know if you like it. It is the same for all cosmetics.

10. Being a make-up artist - is it realistic to be able to do your job well by only using all-natural, green, clean make-up?

It used to be hard to be 100% clean as a professional artist because brighter, more vibrant colors are needed but that has changed in the past 5 years. I approach green beauty like a diet – in terms of our skin, it eats a high percentage of what you put on it (60%). At this point, I always say if you are clean all week and you want to wear the neon lipstick on the weekend, then wear it. It is the 80/20 rule -- you can pick and choose your chemicals for the other 20 percent.

11. What is a green beauty expert? What does it mean to be green?

Green beauty expert means that I specialize in chemically safe and eco-friendly make-up. For me, being green is both a micro and macro issue with respect to the health of the individual and the environment.

12. What are the top major toxic chemicals to watch out for? Why?

Look out for parabens, fragrance and petrochemicals. Parabens are in nearly everything so you are getting much higher accumulations of them than other chemicals and fragrance has potentially hundreds of toxic chemicals. Petrochemicals are linked to so many diseases such as birth defects and cancer.

13. You tell people to become a "box turner." What do you mean? Read the packaging and ingredient labels?

When a company is clean they will nearly always incorporate it into their marketing. They are proud of it. And the more specific they are the better. Transparency is everything. But you still have to know what you are looking for like key words, certifications, stamps and seals. Some are great, others mean nothing.

14. You talk about the 80/20 rule what is that?

I see cosmetics as a diet just like a nutritional diet. Your skin "eats" 60% of what you put on it so I use the 80/20 rule which means if I am clean in my beauty/hygiene routine 80% of the time, I can wear my favorite perfume or blue eye shadow, although most often I don't want to. That is what happens once you start educating yourself more. I also factor in my overall lifestyle...eating organic, buying chemically safe household items and cleaners, and organic clothes/cotton when I can. It's all connected as is evident on my website: paigepadgett.com.

15. Do your green beauty interests extend to all facets of your life?

Definitely. I think everyone should realize that little changes have big impacts. For instance, I purchase used cars, forego plastic bottles and any plastic bags when shopping – the usual stuff. But greening my personal and professional beauty kits had been one of my biggest efforts for the environment. Eating organic is also a huge part of who I am. I'm a Lacto-Ovo vegetarian (I only eat eggs and dairy) and I buy local produce. These are things everyone can do as they are not difficult. I look forward to doing more on a larger scale in the future.

Available wherever books are sold or to order directly from the publisher, contact: www.hcibooks.com or (800) 441-5569 

The Green Beauty Rules: The Essential Guide to Toxic-Free, Green Glamour, and Glowing Skin 

Paige Padgett 

ISBN: 978-0-7573-1870-2 $21.95—September 2015 

Black Opal Splurge Lipsticks

Black Opal Beauty, a leader in the cosmetics and skincare industry for over 20 years, proudly introduces four vividly elegant lip shades into their signature Color Splash Luxe Crème and Luxe Matte lipstick collections. These sumptuous, hydrating lip shades are enhanced with moisture-binding formulas, giving lips a fuller look and feel while providing long lasting, intense color. Be bold and daring with the bright French Pink or purple violet Berry Wicked Luxe Crème Lipstick or subtle and sexy with the soft lavender Iris or nude beige In The Buff Luxe Matte Lipstick shades.

Formulated to nourish, moisturize, and condition lips, all Black Opal Color Splurge Lipsticks are infused with vitamins A, C and E to provide superior antioxidant protection and smooth finish. The collection is available in select Walmart, CVS/Pharmacy, Rite Aid, Duane Reade, and Beauty Supply Stores, and online at www.blackopalbeauty.com. 

Thank you for taking the time to read our beauty product blog post. We hope that you have found this news to be informative. If you have comments or questions, please add your thoughts in the discussion area below.

Cosmetic Storage Key to Beauty

Clearly better storage doesn't have to take up lots of space.  The Clarity Wide Stacking Collection is beautifully designed with maximum storage in mind. The clear construction allows you to see which drawer to access, and they're each designed to stack on one another to save counter space without sacrificing capacity.

• Made from thick styrene
• Raised top serves as a tray or allows you to securely stack multiples
• Cosmetic Stacking Box can be used alone or on top of other units
• Divided Stacking Box features two drawers, each with three divisions

This beauty of a makeup storage system is currently available at The Container Store.

You may also like the following cosmetic brush and other beauty tool organizer from Umbra.

The Tubo Countertop Organizer by Umbra® pictured above is also currently available at The Container Store.  Save space on a desk or countertop and save precious time in your day with the helpful Tubo Countertop Organizer by Umbra®. It's just the right size for storing cosmetics brushes or pens and pencils. Seven different sections keep everything organized.

Thank you for taking the time to read our beauty blog post. We hope that you find this cosmetics storage product to be helpful.  Do you have suggestions regarding better products?  Share your opinions and suggestions in the comment area below.