Why I Think that Lauren Luke is the Cat's Pajamas

If you haven't heard of Lauren Luke, you have been probably living under a rock. She is the amazing youtube beauty guru, who shows how to create awesome beauty looks (such as Effy of Skins' makeup)in videos that are generally under 15 minutes. Not only does she have that going on, she has her own makeup line, By Lauren Luke, which Sephora just started carrying! I especially think she's great because she has done all of this while having Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), which I also have. One in ten women have PCOS, but many go undiagnosed. It comes with a ton of yucky side effects ( a greater risk for diabetes, acne, possible infertility, depression, general badness), and sometimes it can really feel isolating. It is a real confidence-sucker, and I know from experience that it can be hard to feel attractive or likeable when you body seems to be rebelling. In spite of this, she puts her youtube videos up, teaching us mere mortals beauty tricks, which in turn bring confidence (how can you not feel fabulous knowing that your makeup is the same as Anne Hathaway's red carpet Oscar look?). If you haven't already, check her videos out.

My Lip Gloss is Poppin'

Yes, I did just quote Lil Mama. It's still summer, and even though I am raring at the bit to wear fall's deep, deep lips, I feel weird wearing lipstick (obviously there are some exceptions). However, I am not opposed to a good lip gloss during the summer months. Currently, my favorite lip gloss is the Jelly Balm by L'Oreal Hip in Succulent. Though a bit expensive for a drugstore brand, it has the quality of a a more upscale brand. I don't find it to be sticky, the color is beautiful (they aren't kidding around with a name like High Intensity Pigments), and best of all, it is long lasting. Seriously. For some weird reason, lip gloss seems to disappear off of my lips within 15 minutes of putting it on. I don't know if I constantly lick my lips (I really hope not-- I don't want to be the freaky girl who walks around licking her lips all of the time), but this stuff actually stayed on. A miracle! I like to put a little bit of foundation on my lips before I apply it, to get an especially amazing color pay off. Fer serious.

I Have Found Love In a Spray Can (Dry Shampoo)

For my entire life, I have had to deal with my hair looking beautiful and bouncy in the morning, but by mid-afternoon, looking flat and gross. Enter dry shampoo. It is lift and body in a bottle. A spray here, a spray there, a quick scrunch and a brush through-- and shazaam! Shampoo (as in the live real kind!)- commercial hair! The problem is that most dry shampoos are expensive. I happen to be a poor college student, and I have to spend most of my money on textbooks and food (by textbooks and food I mean clothes). Luckily, there is Batiste. For a little over $7, you get over 5 ounces of dry shampoo-iness-- more than twice as much product as the cheapest kind that you will find at a more upscale beauty shop, for much less money. I really like the Batiste "Blush" scent. It kind of smells faintly of baby powder and roses, but the scent fades quickly. I bought mine at Sally Beauty, but you can also find it at Amazon.com.

Eyebrow Massacre

I have really thick, Brooke Shields-esque eyebrows. Or I did, up until two weeks ago, when I accidentally destroyed them. It started off innocently enough-- one pluck here, one pluck there, until I noticed that one eyebrow was much larger than the other. Easy enough, or so I thought. I could just pluck the one a little more until it matched the tinier brow. Except that's not what happened. The originally more prominent brow suddenly became the smaller one! When my mom saw my eyebrows, she was horrified. They looked thin, awful, and sparse-- and it didn't help that the Sephora catalogue came a week later, saying that big eyebrows were in. So now I'm in the painful growing out stage, and it is extremely hard to resist the urge to tweeze. But at least they are growing back-- I heard that Jean Harlow had her eyebrows shaved off for a movie, and they never grew back. So, I guess that the lesson here is: less is definitely more when it comes to plucking eyebrows, especially if you are a pluck-happy lunatic, and don't shave off your eyebrows, because it is possible that they might not come back.