Marissa's Pick of the Week - "Aqua Net for Your Face"

Fix + by M.A.C. Cosmetics ($18) is a must have in every makeup artist box! I also recommend this product for the Party Girl or someone with a 14 hour or more work day. You can use it alone to re-freshen your skin, or on top of makeup to set everything in place. With ingredients like green tea, chamomile, and cucumber, even sensitive skin would enjoy this thirst quenching cocktail. I have used Fix + on every client I freelanced for. Such events include weddings, parties, and funerals. When I followed up with my clients they all said their makeup stayed in place until they washed it off. I did makeup for a party at 11 AM, and they said their makeup was still fresh at 2 AM. As strong of a sealer as it is, it feels just like water. It's not sticky or heavy, so you won't even realize you sprayed it on after it dries. It's like glue for your face, or as a friend of a friend said, "It's like Aqua Net for your face!"

Bronze Beauty Makeup Tutorial

My favorite summer look is a monochromatic bronze face. Your complexion is flawless and tanned. You shimmer in the sunlight. You glow in the moonlight. It looks like the sun just melted on you.
To give a natural sun-kissed look,  I didn't use any pencils. I wanted everything to blend together without any hard lines. All the makeup and brushes in this tutorial is Lancome.

Marissa's Pick of the Week - Best Sunscreen!

Since May is both Skin Cancer Awareness month and Asian Pacific American Heritage month, I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone feed two birds with one pine cone for this week's pick.
IQQU Advance Sunscreen ($28.99) by Michelle Phan is unlike any other sunscreen I've seen. It's oil free, paraben free, fragrance free, and won't clog your pores. The consistency is kind of dry- not so much powdery, but not creamy either. (You have to feel it for yourself.) It's got an SPF of 35, protecting you from both UVA (aging rays) and UVB (skin burning rays) damage. What makes this formula even more special? You can apply it on top of makeup without messing it up!

Important Sunscreen info:


SPF doesn't last all day. In fact, to calculate when to reapply your sunscreen, take the SPF and multiply it by itself. The answer is how many minutes your protection will expire. For example: SPF 35 x 35 = 1225 minutes (just under 21 hours). So for those of you who think SPF 15 is enough, I hope you are only outside for 3 hours a day. Remember that some indoor lighting is also harmful to your skin.

Putting a foundation with SPF 10 on top of a moisturizer with SPF 20 does not equal SPF 30! This is a common  misconception. You will only have the protection of the highest SPF you are wearing.

Sunscreen is not sunblock. Sunblock disables your skin from absorbing almost all sun rays. Sunscreen actually absorbs some of the ultraviolet rays. This allows for a tan, but protects from burning.

Marissa's Pick of the Week! -Tweeze Me, Baby

I really loathe plucking my eyebrows, but since waxing regularly doesn't fit in my budget, I might as well get some good tweezers to make the process easier on me. Tweezerman makes excellent quality grooming products to fit the needs of everyone. My favorite product is the Pointed Slant Tweezer ($30) recently released by Benefit cosmetics. These are super sharp, therefore precise. You can pluck out super short hair and thin hair with these. If you want save $5, you can get the simple stainless steel ones on the Tweezerman site.

AIDS WALK & RIDE 2010

Unfortunately, Jay couldn't be with us because of major surgery the previous day.

Thanks to everyone who donated money on  behalf of Pomps n' Gloss, and to Bahirah for joining me this year.