Makeup Junkie Site Restored

Last week my site went through some unfortunate events and a lot of bloggers are going through this right now. Makeup Junkie was being labeled by Google as hosting "malicious software". After trying everything I could, my site was eventually deleted! You can imagine the panic I went through (thanks to my husband for keeping me calm and collected). I'm still not sure what caused it all but I eventually had to take off any third party links to ensure I would get my site back.

I just want my readers to know that my site is back to normal so please don't be scared to come back! :) I suggest any bloggers going through this to post in the Blogger and Google forums listing what happened in the most calm and polite manner. I posted asking why my site was deleted and I received a response rather quickly. My site was back and running the next day thankfully! I remember that moment of feeling like I've lost almost 3 years of my work and thoughts! Good luck to those that are frantically trying to get their site back - I feel for ya! Don't give up because eventually things will be resolved! :)

Hair 101: Healthy Hair Tips

Healthy hair doesn't just happen on its own. Like any relationship, maintaining your hair requires some effort (for some A LOT of effort). How many of you are wishing your hair would just grow? When I used to work at a salon, I used to get women all the time telling me how they were painfully trying to grow out the asymmetrical bob. Read on to see how you can get healthy hair and promote hair growth. Love your hair and your hair will love you back!

1. Lead a healthy lifestyle. I may not always eat the best foods or exercise regularly but I do make an effort! Eating good foods, staying active, and taking multi-vitamins will do wonders for your hair. When I was pregnant, I ate healthy and took multi-vitamins. When I added Calcium pills to my regime in my 3rd trimester, I noticed my hair grow at twice the speed! My hair was always so shiny and thick. My co-workers at the time used to ask me if I got my hair done. I guess it is true when they say what you put in your body counts!

2. Cut your hair every 6-8 weeks. I'm lazy when it comes to this kind of stuff but believe it or not getting regular trims will promote hair growth. Women used to groan when we would tell them to come in more regularly instead of once a year. This didn't go over to well with gals trying to grow out their already short hair. As painful as it may be, trimming your hair regularly means you'll have to get less and less cut off each time you come in. When you don't trim your hair, the breakage will continue until it reaches your root which will eventually make your hair grow slower. If you see a lot of fly-aways or short hairs at your roots, that is breakage.


3. Protect your hair at all times. The majority of us use some sort of hot styling tool everyday which is why it's especially important to protect it. If you protect your hair with a styling product first, it will burn the product off rather than your actual hair. Even if you will be wearing your hair au naturale, you still need a protector in your hair to protect from the sun and pollution. For really damaged hair, curly and frizzy or if you regularly colour your hair, I recommend Moroccanoil Treatment. This oil treatment adds protein to the hair, restoring it back to its natural healthy state. It's light-weight and absorbs quickly into the hair so your hair will never feel oily or heavy. You can use this wet or dry as a style finisher for added shine and to tame frizz. It smells amazing and you can also massage it on your nails and cuticles!

For normal hair, I like to use Schwarzkopf OSiS + Buff Styling Cream. This product is a styling cream, leave-in conditioner, and protects your hair from heat, the sun and pollution. It is light-weight enough for even the finest hair. If your hair has a slight wave and you're going for that beachy wave, apply this to your hair damp and let it air-dry. Then take pieces that are straight, and curl with a flat-iron or curling iron. The results are gorgeous!

Moroccanoil Treatment and Schwarzkopf OSiS + Buff Styling Cream are sold at most salons and beauty supply stores. In Toronto, you can purchase at Lift Beauty Boutique.

Have you tried these products? What do you think? What are your healthy hair tips? Makeup Junkie wants to know!

Tags!

Wow, I've been MIA again for a while...gosh. It's been hard to sneak in some time to post. D:

Geesh, I feel awful. Oh well, that's how it is!

I've been busy with school and all, and I have stuff to do (at least this one will pay!), but yeah...been completely ignoring stuff lately. :( Also, it's been hard for me to get to my stuff because my external hard drive is on the fritz, and all my blog stuff is on there. Grrr.

Okay, so! First things first.
A reader e-mailed me some time back. I promised Denise that I would post about this. Denise is a makeup artist who is also a rep for a high-end brand, Motives. I haven't tried anything or bought anything from the site, so if you decide to try it be careful, etc etc. :) From what I've seen, the products look really interesting, though. Just wish there was more colors to choose from!

To all my new followers (and to all my old ones), thank you so much for following my blog! :) I hope you enjoy reading.

And now for the tags:
MakeupJunkee tagged me to for "6 things that make you happy". I'm sorry but I'll be boring and post this without pics. :/

So! What makes me happy? :)
1) It may be sad, but the Internet makes me all sorts of happy. I like that I meet loads of people on it and make lots of new friends. Also, it's such a huge source of information, I can practically learn about anything I want to by just reading up on it! It's greattt. No wonder I've been hooked on it since I was 8! Oh dear, 10 years. LOL. Back then dial-up was so expensive, too...

2) Music makes me happy, too. I like listening to music, and I'll listen to anything once. I mostly like rock though, but I branch out if I like the song/artist. I love that music lets me express how I feel (I love singing :) I wish I could get back into it!), even just by listening to it. And that it's totally something that I can relate to. Don't you love curling up in bed with a cup of hot choco on rainy days, listening to your fave songs on your iPod/mp3 player/computer? Okay, I'll be honest--I don't drink hot choco nor do I curl up in bed on rainy days--I'm too busy staring out the window. I love rain!

3) Family and friends make me happy. If you notice, I put them under 1 item, and I did that because I consider all my friends family, too. I love my family, and my friends, they just make my life so much easier and whole. (Please pray for my mom, she needs a hysterectomy in the near future for Myoma.)

4) I love my hobbies. I can be under a lot of stress but my hobbies make it a lot easier on me. When I can't deal with something anymore, I watch TV or a movie for a bit (yes I do consider them habits), or I sew, or knit... Or, I play with makeup! ;) Hobbies are great stress busters, don't you agree?

5) Makeup! Do I really need to say any more?

6) Food also makes me happy. Even if it also makes me sad sometimes (eek, I've been piling on the pounds lately!).

For "6 things that make you happy", I tag everyone who hasn't done this yet. Since I haven't been around lately, I don't know who's done it and who hasn't. :(

This next tag came from Maya. The rules are:

1. Open your first photo folder.
2. Scroll down to the tenth photo.
3. Post that photo on your blog and tell us the story behind it...
4. Tag 5 or more (or less) other people to do the same!

Okay, I'll be cheating a little since my laptop is in the shop and my external hard drive is broken. I'll get the photo from my photobucket account.


This is a picture of my college best friend, Sam. This was taken for a project I did for one of my Fine Arts classes. She was supposed to be a marionette, like a doll, but I guess I didn't manage to pull that off all too well. I did her makeup, her hair, and made the pinafore she was wearing (too bad it doesn't really show in the picture). I also took the photo (sorry for the fake eyebrows, eh. meant to do them better in photoshop but ran out of time...yes she does have eyebrows LOL I just erased them for this photo). The theme was the 7 deadly sins...this one was gluttony. Sam loves wafers. :3

Okay, I taggggg...everyone who hasn't done this. >>

I guess that's all for now! My skin is looking great recently, I hope it continues... if it does then I'm totally making like a giddy post about it or something. XD This is the best my skin's been in years! Still oily, but a lot better.

Okay, I'm off to do homework and stuff~!

Beauty Feature: Beach Babe Beauty

For most of you summer started in June, but my summer didn't start until last Friday! This past weekend was a scorcher (after a month long drought!) and what do you do when it's sticky hot? Go to the beach! And that's exactly what we did. Most women that go to the beach don't wear anything on their face other than sun block. I was tempted to bare my natural skin but the makeup junkie in me just couldn't! I decided to use this opportunity to put some talked about beach must-haves to the test!


1. per-fekt Skin Perfection Gel To Go: I had featured this product last week (click here), but I didn't really get to test it's sweat-resistant/water-resistant claims. After sitting in the hot beating sun and splashing around in the water, my face didn't melt off all day and looked bronzy and glowy. Even with all the sweating, my skin didn't feel heavy or sticky. Great alternative to a tinted moisturizer and bronzer!


2. Bobbi Brown Perfectly Defined Mascara: This is the one mascara I've been using all summer long. It perfectly defines, separates, adds volume, and lengthens all in one. It also doesn't flake or smudge. My lashes looked great in and out of the water. This mascara also has tube technology which means it comes off in little tubes with warm water!


3. Becca Beach Tint in Watermelon: The last thing you want to do is bring your whole makeup stash to the beach. This creme stain for cheeks and lips is a definite must-have! It is oil-free, streak-free, and waterproof. Surprisingly it didn't sweat off my watermelon glow and lasted on my lips after drinking. It did come off a bit on the lips after eating something oily but that is to be expected. A little goes a long way so start with a tiny drop and blend into the skin with your finger. This colour also looks gorgeous on tan skin. The light watermelon scent is just delicious!


4. YSL Gloss Volupte Sheer Sensual Gloss Stick SPF 9 in Iced Lychee: New for Fall but a must for Summer! Gloss and lipstick in one - LOVE! This sheer gloss stick gives your lips extreme shine and drenches your lips in moisture. I love the way it feels on the lips, although I wish the moisturizing factor lasted longer. I layered this over top of the Becca Tint to enhance the colour a little more and to protect my lips from the sun. Iced Lychee is a sheer pinky-coral and gave my lips a bit of colour, but I prefer using it over top of a stain for more colour and moisture. While I've become a fan of this gloss stick, I'm not sure I would pay $30 USD for a sheer lip colour!


5. Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Dry Touch Sunblock SPF 85: Sunblock is essential when frolicking in the sun. This sunblock contains Helioplex technology which delivers the highest UVA protection. The Dry-touch technology helped quickly absorb into my skin and got rid of excess shine without a chalky-white finish. The sunblock has a light scent and never felt heavy or sticky on my skin. It's also water-proof and sweat-proof! I love the high SPF factor because I didn't have to reapply every half hour.

Have you tried any of these products? Hate 'em? Love 'em? What are your beach babe must-haves? Makeup Junkie wants to know!

The Clearasil Challenge

So I have been using the homemade brush cleanser and I LOVE how much money it saves me. I have been noticing though that my brushes could be whiter. I figure that I use Clearasil for my face so I took a dollop of it and after I disinfected the brushes with my cleanser I took a bit and scrub scrub scrubbed. They were so SPARKLY and CLEAN and WHITE!!!! Take the Clearasil challenge and see what YOU think!!!!

And The Winner Is...

Webgrrl Toronto! Congratulations!

You have won all 6 Annabelle Cosmetics Studio Pigments plus 2 brushes! Makeup Junkie hopes you enjoy these fabulous pigments as much as we do. We will be contacting you shortly for your mailing address.

Thank you to all the Canadian readers that participated. We wish we could give you all a prize but don't worry! Annabelle Cosmetics is doing their own contest called the Ultimate Makeup Junkie Contest (we know it's unrelated but we're flattered Annabelle used our name!). The contest will be running from August 17 until October 12. Click here for more details.

www.annabellecosmetics.com

Beauty Feature: Annabelle Studio Pigment Give Away!

We at Makeup Junkie love quality products for a steal and we know our readers do too! Canadian cosmetic giant, Annabelle Cosmetics, will be launching the line's new Studio Pigments ($8.50 CDN) August 16 exclusively at Shoppers Drug Mart! If you love to express yourself using bright bold shades then you'll love these pigments. Recommended by the Makeup Artists in the Annabelle Studio, these pro performance loose powders are highly concentrated and super pigmented. Their incredibly ultra fine texture make these powders easy to blend together.

Available in 6 shades: Karma, Cobalt, Dragonette, Greed, LOL, and Magentini

Top Row L-R: Magentini, Karma, LOL
Bottom Row L-R: Dragonette, Greed, and Cobalt
The above image is a swatch of the powders dry. You can see they are still highly pigmented when used dry. The colours are beautiful and bold and all compliment each other nicely. You can create many different looks or use one shadow for a sheer wash of colour and use another shade wet as a liner! Use Annabelle's A-8 small shading brush and press onto the lid rather than back and forth. This will prevent any fall-off onto your cheek and help the colour go on a little bit heavier. Wet the A-14 angled liner brush, mix with the powder and line your lash.
Top Row L-R: Magentini, Karma, LOL
Bottom Row L-R: Dragonette, Greed, and Cobalt
The above image is a swatch of the powders used wet. The colours have double the intensity and are very long-wearing when used wet. The packaging is an excellent design. The powders are enclosed in a snap closure container that makes these pigments mess-free and transportable. When you open the container there is a small hole the size of a pea where the colour comes out of. These pigments definitely stand up to the quality of M.A.C.'s Pigment Powders but at a fraction of the cost! Hopefully Annabelle will add more shades to the line!

Now that we've gushed all about Annabelle's fabulous Studio Pigments, Makeup Junkie will give one lucky reader (Canadian residents only - sorry!) all 6 Studio Pigments plus A-8 and A-14 brushes! All you have to do is email us telling us you absolutely have to have this prize! Click on "Contact Us and Product Submissions" for our email address. Winner will be announced next Monday, August 17th, at 12 pm!

Annabelle Cosmetics available in stores all across Canada. If you are a US resident and would like to purchase Annabelle products you can purchase over the phone at 1 800 387-7710.

www.annabellecosmetics.com