Lori Greiner Makeup Bag Giveaway! *CLOSED*

Hey everyone! Thanks for stopping by the blog! :)

I have another special giveaway for those who follow my blog and social media sites!

As you may know- I'm a fan of Lori Greiner and her clever inventions...

Perhaps you've seen her on ABC's hit show Shark Tank- helping other people launch their own great ideas!

Lori appears on the show this Friday, October 26, at 8/7 pm central!

From what I hear, it's going to be a very exciting episode! :)

As part of this giveaway, the winner will receive a set of my favorite Lori Greiner products--

2 quilted cosmetic cases!

Lori's products are all about organization- so these contain many more little compartments than your average makeup bag! You might recall my rave review for these makeup bags here-- I also show you how I organize my products inside!

These are still the makeup bags I take to work with me everyday for pre-newscast touch-ups, and they are a dream to travel with! I have them in leopard, but they also come in Tiger, Zebra, Black, Pink, and Lavender. Click here to see all the patterns!

For a chance to win:

-Subscribe to Beauty Broadcast on YouTube

-Like Beauty Broadcast on Facebook

-Follow me on Twitter

-COMMENT on this blog post telling me what pattern you want for your makeup bags! Please also leave a way to contact you- either email, twitter account, or facebook account.

This giveaway is open internationally, and will wrap up in one week- at 10 a.m. central time on Thursday, November first. The winner will be contacted on that day, and will have to get back to me by Tuesday, November 6th... otherwise a new winner will be chosen (this was the issue I had with the last giveaway!)

Thanks for checking out my blog, don't forget to watch for Lori on Shark Tank, and GOOD LUCK! :)

Give Lips a 3D Pop!

Hey everyone!

Thanks for stopping by my blog! :) As a lip product lover, I wanted to share a simple tip inspired by a very simple product that I'm loving right now! Over time I've realized that using just one shade on your lips can make them look rather flat. Think about how often we contour and add blush to our cheeks, or highlight and define our eyes with shadow? The lips have a beautiful shape that you can show off just by combining a couple of colors... or as I like to call it, making your own "lip cocktail"...

♥

Clearly I was feeling fancy and felt like making a fun graphic! While I used the CoverGirl Blast Flipstick, you can really combine any separate colors- have fun with it! Use liners and glosses as well and you'll find that even a small lip product collection will expand into a variety of new looks when you mix and match them. The nice thing about these Flipsticks (and I've picked up several from the drugstore), is that the colors are nicely coordinated. The one drawback is that sometimes they can look a bit frosty, or even a little dry. In that case, top the whole look with a sheer gloss and you'll still maintain the effect. Here's a look at the other colors I have, applied with the same pattern...

Perky

Smooch

I really enjoy all of the shades, but my favorites are probably Vixen and Smooch. Perky is just a bit too purple-toned for my liking, but can still be fun for a dramatic look. I find that the staying power with these is actually pretty good, and I'd definitely recommended to someone who feels a little intimidated by the "lip cocktail" concept. This way you have the color combo already chosen for you! 

Daily Nuggets...

• Cupcake has gotten quite interested in sleeping in the bathroom. If there's a towel or robe left out, she's on it!
• Where did fall go? It's like 80 degrees here today. 
• The Cardinals play again tonight- it's do or die for the World Series!!
• Just had the awesome realization that there's leftover pizza in the fridge :)
• This is pretty darn exciting & thank you @lynndmc for tweeting me this picture! This display is turning up in Walgreens stores all over! Check out Lynn- she has a cooking channel on YouTube that I just discovered! Mashed sweet potatoes? Yes, please! :) 

My First Inglot Eyeshadow Purchase!

Hey everyone!

I have a new video up- 

it's a haul from various brands including MAC, ELF, drugstore brands, and Inglot!

Inglot is a brand I've heard a lot of people buzzing about, but hadn't tried it... until now!

I really wanted to try the eyeshadows, so I went with the "Freedom System", in which you can choose a palette size (I chose the 10-pan palette), and then pick whatever colors you want to go inside. 

The lid secures onto the palette with 4 super strong magnets- the whole palette seems incredibly durable! The palette came empty, and all of the shadow pans were individually packaged, allowing me to have the oh-so-satisfying experience of placing the magnetic pans of shadow exactly where I wanted them in the palette. I can't imagine running out of any of these shades anytime soon. Each pan is quite large! 

When you get to the website- there are SO MANY shadows to choose from! It's a little overwhelming. While the tiny pictures give you a somewhat decent indication of the shadow you'll be getting, it's hard to be sure. To be honest, I just started randomly choosing "pretty" colors- making sure to include 3 must-haves... a pearly highlight, a matte brown, and a matte black. I didn't realize that I'd end up with a palette that formed such a nice even split of warm & cool colors. I like that I can get a nice plummy/lilac look, as well as a warm brown look. 

From the top row of the palette (left to right):

-395 (pearl)

-344 (matte)

-460 (DS)

-40 (AMC Shine)

-63 (AMC) 

From the bottom row of the palette (left to right):

-314 (matte)

-607 (pearl)

-421 (pearl)

-329 (matte)

-62 (AMC)

♥

I am so happy with these shadows! :) I think the quality is awesome- whether you're talking about the pearly shades or the matte, and the price is quite good, too! I believe there are also larger or smaller palettes that you can get- as well as other makeup products that can fit into the "Freedom System". One more thing- as an Inglot newbie, I didn't understand the way some of the finishes were labeled. I mean, I understand the meaning of pearl and matte, but what's AMC? And what about DS? No clue. And I couldn't find anywhere on the website explaining this stuff. But I did find this blog post that was able to shed some light on the various finishes... Apparently DS is "double sparkle"- a matte-based shade containing glitter. AMC stands for "Advanced Makeup Component"- a semi-matte base with sparkly, and "AMC Shine" is a super shimmery shade, with even more shine than the pearl colors. So while ordering can be a little complicated, I'm very pleased with the product! :)

Daily Nuggets...

• It's been a great weekend having my parents down for a visit. Mom & I put in quite a day of shopping yesterday! Dad & Tyler fit in 2 afternoons of golf. 
• A pretty exciting day for St. Louis sports fans- Rams and Cardinals are playing today!
• I have 2 kinds of candy corn- green apple & caramel apple and they are awesome! Better than regular candy corn, in my opinion. 
• Made apple cider sangria last night- YUM! :) 

QVC Beauty Test Tube! Fall 2012

Hey everyone!

It's always a good day when I come home to find a pink box on my doorstep... containing the QVC New Beauty Test Tube!  All the products come packed into the tube- and there's also a little magazine with all the info you could need on the various products- plus the latest issue of New Beauty magazine!

These come every couple of months (I'm pretty sure... sometimes I lose track of time!), and I've ordered them on autodelivery- so I don't have to place a special order each time. For around 30 bucks you get to try a bunch of cool products, and the makeup products included are pretty much always full size! Other products are pretty generous as well. This one must be so new it's not on the website yet, but the last Test Tube is if you want to check it out. I'll shoot out a tweet or Facebook update when I notice that this one is available online. I should probably also point out- I pay for these & am not affiliated with QVC or the various brands featured in the Test Tube. I also did a video on it back in May 2011.  

I'd also like to say- I have discovered SO MANY favorite things through the Test Tube over the past year or so. I've heard about Birch Box, and I've tried Glossy Box. But I must say, the Test Tube seems to offer lots of products- and so many things that turn out to be awesome. If it wasn't for the Test Tube, I might not have found out about some things that are now major favorites, such as: Dr. Dennis Gross Alpha Beta Glow Pads, Philosophy Inner Grace, Philosophy Field of Flowers, Wen Cleansing Conditioner, and Fresh Sugar Lip Balm... and then I've also gotten a number of other great products I already knew I loved like tarte Lipsurgence, Mally Evercolor Shadow Sticks, Laura Geller baked eyeshadow, and Josie Maran Argan Oil.

Here's what came in the newest Test Tube!

-Living Proof Full Thickening Mousse (new to me)

-Wen Cleansing Conditioner in Winter Vanilla Mint (love this!)

-Mally Evercolor Automatic Eyeliner in Onyx (love this!)

-Smileactives Tooth Whitening Pen (new to me)

-Perfect Formula Strong Nail System Daily Moisture (new to me)

-Philosophy Full of Promise Restoring Cream (new to me)

-Perricone MD High Potency Eye Treatment (new to me)

-Bare Minerals Marvelous Moxie Lip Gloss in Sparkplug (new to me)

Each product has its own page in the Test Tube booklet. I think that's super helpful, especially with the skincare products so you know when to apply various serums or creams that might come in the kit. You can also learn about the claims and what you can expect the products to do.  

And as I mentioned- New Beauty Magazine! You might want to look closely at page 30 of the issue that comes with this Test Tube... just sayin! :) 

♥

Daily Nuggets...

• Just so you know- I posted another Try This, Not That video! It's all about Foundations. 
• This morning my alarm woke me from a nightmare. It was my wedding day, nothing was ready, and my mom was freaking out. 
• I got to interview an 82-year-old dance instructor yesterday, and then line danced with the group. All seemed right with the world in that moment! 
• Tyler is competing in something called the "Tough Mudder" this weekend. Watched YouTube videos on it yesterday... GOOD LORD. Seems like torture to me! 

 

Then I googled the following question: "Has anyone died during the tough mudder?"

Apparently nobody has, but I'm still worried. 

Catching Up!

Hey everyone! I just felt like doing a little catch-up blog, since it's been awhile! :) Last week at this time, I was in major freak out mode since my blog was the victim of a malware attack. Fortunately my blog did not spread the malware, but somehow, some "malicious code" was found in my blog and it prevented people from seeing my blog due to the potential danger. I really have no clue how hackers do what they do, but apparently blogs can be "attacked" (don't you love this terminology?) somewhat randomly, without being specifically targeted. Anyway, I was so frustrated because I had no idea how to fix it. I ended up signing up for Webmaster Tools, a free service through Google. With some trial and error (making a long story very short here), I was able to get my blog verified, allowing Google to dig into the html code of my blog and figure out what was wrong. I think much of the problem had to do with an Instagram widget on my blog. Anyway, it's all fixed now, and the moral of the story is this- get your blog verified on Webmaster Tools- before you have a problem. That way you'll know about potential threats before you get a sea of tweets from readers saying they can't read your blog.

I posted a video today on my TV News Makeup routine for HD! This has been a major request from the news peeps I keep in touch with on Twitter and Facebook, so I was glad to finally get that done! It was a 21 minute video!! I set my alarm for 4 a.m. to star the upload, because I knew it would take hours. Through reading the comments, I'm excited to see that so many others also find it informative and interesting! I feel like I often have the goal of keeping my videos as short as possible, but with this video, I realized short isn't ALWAYS better. I had the opportunity to help one of my co-workers with her makeup last week, and as I explained things to her, I realized just how important the little details are for someone who's learning the basics.

Here's another thing I'd like to chat about- tutorials in general. I get the occasional comment from someone saying "all of your looks are the same- it's boring!"... a couple of things immediately go through my mind.. 1.) The fact that there actually are differences (sometimes subtle ones, but differences nonetheless) between that look and other looks, and 2.) They're all happening on the same face, of course they'll be similar looking. When you have more than 700 videos, it's true, there is going to be some overlap with similar looks. And I'll probably never be one to really get super crazy and do looks that I wouldn't wear out of the house. But here is my point  with all this... a lot of times I'm doing tutorials to demonstrate a new product and how it works. The goal isn't necessarily to create a radically different look with it- but to show you how the particular product applies, what the options are, and how you can use that one quad, palette, or whatever it may be- to create a look. So that's something I kind of wish people would keep in mind... my objective with some tutorials is not always a drastically new look, but to showcase a new product. I'm sure many of you know exactly what I'm talking about and understand, but I just wanted to get that off my chest. 'Nuff said on that topic! :)

I would also just like to say thank you so much for the kindness and support. I love making these videos, and just get a lot of personal enjoyment out of it. But the feedback is so encouraging- it motivates me even more. Thank you to everyone who takes time out of their day & welcomes me into their home through the computer screen. I am continually thankful and honored!! Have a great week everyone!

♥
Emily