The Light in Your Eyes

In middle school, my then-bestie and I wore metallic liquid liner from Hard Candy in an array of colors from simple silver to cracked-out red, electric blue and more. Despite being barely old enough to technically refer to ourselves as teenagers, we were loud and proud and seriously into makeup. This was the beginning of a love affair that will never end. Today, I like to think I'm starting to get it closer to "right."



Metallic liquid liner memories aside, it's always fun to try something shimmering, and summer is a great time to take the plunge. Flipping through the latest issue of Glamour, I found a photo and little blurb about the funky, shimmering new "lash tinsel" by Hard Candy. I became immediately, sight-un-seen, obsessed. The tinsel is a gel-based mascara that glitters gloriously in three shades (gold, silver, and a lovely blue). I'm picturing it with thick black liner and a pale pink lip for evening, or softly standing alone in silver, pool-side with a great tan and an otherwise bare face. Nab yours here.

Some more glittery summer beauty inspiration below. After all, it's time to sparkle... and have some fun!

For those who dare, a dramatic dusting of multi-tonal glittering shadow is divine.

Quieter girls, fear not. You can get a shimmer-y effect with the simple addition
of gold metallic pencil smudged into the corners of your eyes.

Silver liner on top and gold on bottom is ethereal and cool.
Photo borrowed from: Bellasugar.com

Summer Belles

My darling colleague and partner in crime has recently started a fabulous celebrity-looks newsletter, Buzzaratti. Everything she writes about is $250 or less and has a major celeb following. You must sign up immediately so as to avoid spending your summer not looking as cute as you could! That said, I am shamelessly stealing a trend alert from her for this post. It's the hair comb, girls. And it's ridiculously fabulous.

I grew up in a house filled with vintage treasures--antique mirrors with charming cracks and discoloration, hundred-year-old chairs whose velvet had been redone countless times, and even a turn-of-the-(twentieth)-century white lace dress so fragile I refused to take deep breaths while wearing it... but wear it I did, and proudly. One of my absolute favorite items as a child was a gorgeous hair comb from the early 1900's that had belonged to somebody's grandmother's mother or something along those lines. It had been produced at the dawn of plastic, made in an amber-hued, hand-etched heavy grade plastic that I don't even think you can find these days. The comb was to be tucked into an up-do, or used to pull back one side of the hair. There are countless uses for a comb like this, but I honestly thought the trend had died with my ancestors.

Enter Kim Kardashian. Her new Belle Noel jewelry collection seemed cute enough when I saw the pieces flashed around in the weeklies and on some fashion/accessories blogs. Nothing really stuck out though until I received my Buzzaratti newsletter this Sunday featuring the Belle Noel hair combs. Utterly princess-like and incredibly luxe, the combs retail at $45. They are the perfect touch for summer when trying to up the ante on your sweet little sun dress. Yet I have a feeling this is one trend that will move swiftly through Indian Summer and into fall. Pencil skirt and pointed stilettoes paired with palladium comb-adorned ponytail, anyone? Check them out here.

PS. More on palladium later. Intrigued?

The one I had as a kid looked like this!