The holidays are the best time to get great beauty bundles for your best girlies, or - umm - yourself. What could be better than getting the best makeup brands at the best prices? Adding a little shimmer to your holiday look could never hurt, and these beauty kits will help you create the perfect look for the year to come. Even better, you can break them down and give the individual components out to lots of people (now that’s some smart shopping!).

Below are some of the best beauty bundle deals out there right now. I’d just wait until the lines die down at the mall (or stick to online shopping) to get these; you don’t want to end up like that Wal-mart employee.…

The Sephora Brand Ultimate Blockbuster: This amazing kit includes 84 eyesshadow colors (both cream and powder) and 60 lip glosses. Also included in this mega make-up kit are blushes, face powders, and brushes. Customer reviews rate the $50 kit at 4 stars, making it a great deal. While some reviewers complain about poor makeup quality, overall I find it hard to complain about such a diverse kit. While you may not find bright blue to be useful on a daily basis, I assure you it will come in handy one day for an 80s party.

Bare Escentuals: Bare Pleasures Kit- This kit includes 9 Bare Minerals eye shadows in neutral and bright tones. These shadows are blendable and easily layerable. They are also easy to convert into eye-liners with a touch of liner-sealant. If you’re an even bigger Bare Minerals fan, I would suggest checking out Nordstrom’s exclusive Bare Escentuals Ultimate Indulgence Collection. This collection is exclusive to Nordstrom and features 20 eye and face powders. These hues, ranging in color intensity, are a $200 value at only $75! That makes it quite easy to justify picking up one for a friend (and yourself.) Read More »

And dressed in leather.

$400 of makeup products for free? Sign me up!

Don’t like Obama? Here are some tips for livin’ abroad.

Everyone was lookin’ hot at last night’s American Music Awards.

Spend less money at the bar.

Megan Fox hearts Zac Efron. Get in line, sister.

No more selling sex on Craigslist for free, ladies.

The First Lady has quite a booty.

Is Suri Cruise the next Paris Hilton?

Mac teams up with Hello Kitty. So cute.

Note to self: keep potatoes away from butt.

[Welcome to my Weekly Love List. A list, on all things I love. Because if I love them - well then obviously you may (and should) love them too. As the Backstreet Boys song says (and yes I am actually quoting them) “My Love is All I Have To Give.” So with that throwback, here are this week’s list-worthy things…]

1. My Dropbox – Does your friend have all the good pictures from last night on her camera? Did she just buy the new Britney album that you want but are too embarrassed to purchase? We all know how annoying it is to transfer files via email – that stuff takes forever - and now you don’t have to. My Dropbox is a program you and your friends download. Wanna share some pics with eachother? Just drag em into your box (that’s what she said) and – voila! – any friends who are linked up with you now have the files too. It’s technology at its finest.

2. Healthy Mac & Cheese? 18 grams of fiber in one serving, and it’s GOOD. My late night munching self is in LOVE with this idea.

3. Eco Friendly organization. We all know we are supposed to hold on to every exam all semester long, along with our bank statements, our shopping reciepts, and a plethora of other junk that just ends up splattered all over our desks, and floors, and cars… and the list goes on. So check out these great, eco friendly ways to divide up your important documents and tuck them away in a neat, safe place. I don’t really love these, but my roommates love seeing the kitchen table, so I guess that’s good enough.

4. Laura Mercier ‘Almond Coconut Milk’ Hand Crème - It fits in your purse, makes your hands baby soft, and makes you think you are sipping pina coladas on spring break instead of cramming for your econ final.

5. Frustration Free Packaging. How many times do you spend 25 mintues trying to open up your new phone/Bluetooth/Barbie Doll and you just end up with a missing tooth, a bloody lip and the urge to scream and stomp on the product? Whoever designed that hard plastic packaging should work for national security. But, thankfully, Amazon.com is ready to do away with “Wrap Rage”; they are introducing a line of “frustration free packaging,” in recyclable cardboard boxes. Perfect for those of us with a need for instant gratification. Easy to open AND eco-friendly? Now that I L-O-V-E.

[Every Saturday I wake up early, brush on some much needed concealer, and come here to bring you the best beauty products, tips and ideas. I’ve changed your life with some awesome makeup innovations, so now I’m back with more beauty finds that will enhance your eyes…and your life.]

The Smoky Eye. It’s one of the most powerful make up maneuvers a woman can use. It’s sexy and seductive, but do it wrong and you can look like you took a swift fist to the eye. Or like a crack whore. Thank God that some very clever brands took all the mystery out of the smoky eye. They’ve made it simple for us. So if you want a fool-proof smoky eye, try one of these fantastic products.

Stila Smoky Eye Talking Pallet ($40 sephora.com)

This little pallet could be called “Smoky Eye for Dummies.” It comes with 4 shades perfectly suited for a smoky eye, but the really crazy thing is that it actually talks you through the steps. You press a button, and it plays an audio recording taking you step by step through the process. Stila has some of the best eye shadows around, so you get the best of both worlds: quality product and technical instruction all in one little box! Plus is comes in 5 different color collections so you can pick the perfect shades for you.

Too- Faced Smoky Eye Pallet ($32 sephora.com)

So it may not talk to you, but the Too Faced Pallet does have a step by step instruction card. The thing that makes this pallet special is that is comes with NINE colors. They are divided up into three different looks - a soft brown for day, a classic black for evening, and a bold color combo. It keeps things simple and organized and gives you plenty of options for whatever mood you are in! Read More »

In this weekly series, actress / model and fabulous CC blogger, Jen, will be using her make-up know how to teach us all how to look flawless in class, out at a party, or grabbing coffee with that cutie from Psych 101.]

So, you woke up late and didn’t have time to wash your hair. No one will notice, right? Yeah right. That sh*t is greasy. Pulling it into a ponytail won’t help, wearing a hat is just not cute, and lookin’ greasy is not an option. What are you supposed to do?

According to Jen, it’s all about the baby powder.

So I’m a MOT.
A Member of the Tribe.
A celebrator of Hanukkah.
A person who likes deli.

Which means, that along with the typical rites of passage of teenage-dom (such as PMS, acne and that oh-so-awkward stage of braces and Steve Madden loafers), I also had to learn how to manage that fro of mine that at 12 went from straight to curly and never looked back.

Couple that with two perms due to my pre-mature desire for curly hair (yes, they still had perms in 1998), and you’ve got yourself an expert mane-tamer. So thank me later, and de-frizz now.

Here are my top must-have products for curls, waves and fros: Read More »

[Makeup is a wonderful thing. I mean, we all know what we look like when we wake up vs. when we hit the streets. (Let’s not think about it…) That is why every Saturday I am bringing you the best of makeup: tips, tricks and the best products out there. No more guessing at the store; now you can shop armed with the information you need!]

When you think of technological innovation, makeup is not usually the first thing to come to mind. But those clever beauty developers are always coming up with new ways to incorporate new technologies into making us all look fabulous. Here are some of the most amazing technological advances in beauty right now.

Lancome Oscillation Mascara – ($34 sephora.com)

Lancome has always been the leader in mascara innovation, but they really did something truly unique with Oscillation. The brush actually vibrates! 7000 vibrations a minute. So what does that mean for your lashes? I know it might sound like a gimmick but it actually does a killer job of separating each and every lash. So not only does it eliminate clumping, but each lashes get coated with a superfab mascara, giving you extra length, curl and volume. Read More »