Amazing Party Looks and Deals

Thanks to Walgreens for underwriting this post. I was paid as a member of the Clever Girls Collective, but the content is all mine. Visit http://moms.dailybuzz.com/channel/style.

It is pretty common knowledge that my other job is writing and testing out beauty products. I am not choosy either. From lipstick to liner, sunless tanner to hair serum I will give it a try. If it works I am on board. When the holidays roll around I go into a sort of hyper-drive in the make-up department. For amazing party looks and a break from the cold weather blues one of the first places I stop is my local drugstore.

One of the best places I have found to look my best each holiday season is Walgreens. I'm a sucker for their Essie nail collection. This month they have the brand new Cocktail Bling collection and soon to be released Luxeffects glittery top coat with texture. I cannot wait! You can find the whole set right there from "Bangle Jangle" to "Set in Stones". Did you know that setting off your nails with a bit of color is one of the easiest way to complete your party look?

Have more time and want more shine?  Check out the luxury hair care line from Frederic Fekkai.  It is a personal favorite of mine that I always keep stocked in my bathroom. Even better is that I can restock my own shelves from Walgreens.  The Fekkai Glossing Starter kit will get you on the right track for gorgeous hair.   Made with olive oil the shampoo, conditioner and glossing cream create gorgeous shine and help get rid of static cling in your hair. I use it almost year round because it is perfect for fine or color-treated hair that gets easily weighed down. 

Don't stop there though, creating the whole package for your office holiday soiree takes time.  You want your colleagues and your boss to see you at your best at and away from your desk.  This is where my absolute, all-time favorite mascara can help.  Lash Blast Fusion is a great volumizing mascara that stays put.  It has a tiny bit of glitter to it that gives lashes another dimension that works just like you.  The whole Cover Girl line at Walgreens is simple to use but adds a polished look that works for any party, be it holiday, office, happy hour or out with friends. 

So the next time you are looking to stuff some stockings, perfect your look for an upcoming event or simply try something new check out Walgreens for some really amazing deals and looks this season.

I Will Not Be Winning Any Grill-Offs Any Time Soon

Do you smell that? It smells like something is burning.

Oh, right! It's my hair!

Last night I was making grilled chicken sandwiches for dinner and I did what I always do when I light the grill. Except this time a massive fireball erupted from it and suddenly I was yelling, "Oh! Oh! My hair is on fire!" No one seemed to notice. They were all playing inside with my mother.

I grabbed for my hair on the right side of my head and a handful of shriveled, charred hair bits fell off in a clump in my hand. Sick. Heart-breaking, actually. I've been trying for so long to go without highlighting or cutting it. Well, now it certainly needs to be cut but how I don't know. My four inch roots will have to stay. No one is going to highlight or lowlight broken, burnt crispies that used to be hair.

Later, as I was getting ready for girls night I realized that I also burnt off half my eyelashes on one eye, my right eyebrow and a good deal of the hair on my right wrist. The stench of burnt hair stayed with me all evening. When I asked H to "touch it! just touch it!" He said, "Um. It doesn't feel any different to me." Thanks, big guy.

Truthfully, it could have been so much worse. I didn't even get a hint of a red, burning blush to my skin. I could have charred half my face or arm. If I was wearing long sleeves it could have been an 911 nightmare. Also? Never light a grill that has had its lid closed. Yup. I did that. Lessons learned. I created that gas pocket all by myself and didn't even realize it. Now I get to walk around with my grilling dunce cap on for quite some time. Or at least until half my hair grows back out.

Competition for the Cruises?

The transformation was almost complete. Three inches had been lopped off my hair and the Gwyneth look was being ushered in. The bangs had indeed grown out. Just in time too because I'm headed to Atalanta this week for a work thang and wanted I my hair to look it's shiny best.

Then the unthinkable happened.

Fringe.

Just a bit. Um.. OK, that's fine I suppose until my stylist took out a large chunk by accident or what, I'm still confused. I screamed, "WHOA! WHOA! WHOOOAAAH! What are you doing?!?! WHAT just happened?!" She looked at me in horror and realized that she had gone and taken out too large of a chunk. She claimed she could fix it and I braced myself, white knuckled in the chair. I knew what was coming. Gone would be the cut I had taken a year to achieve. Ushered in would be the cut that I had painstainkingly grown out in the last year. The hair style I loathed the most. My BP escalated as I watched more fringe being cut in and my long hair now being reduced to just the back. Yick. I was left with what reminded me of the Florence Henderson 'do.

I would not cry.

Suddenly, it was clear. The only way to fix this mishap would be to just cut it all off. I would go from cutting off three inches to six. Oy. Not the look I was trying to achieve. There are a couple of reasons I'm uber-sensitive about my hair. Not only is it tough to grow out but my hair is like a talismn. When I was a gawky teen with longer hair I had some issues, shall we say? My hair was one way certain people exerted their control over me. I left the smallest state in the country to get away from this person and still with about eight states between us the problems continued. I promptly transferred to another university and spent the first week skipping around campus Julia Roberts-style a la Sleeping with the Enemy. It was then that I cut my hair. I turned myself into the platinum blonde cute (a term I loathe. I would rather be called a C. U. Next Tuesday) college coed.

In this new 'do I seemed sunny on the outside but the angry, man-hating and fearing girl who was never anything more than cute (think 5 year-olds, bunnies, fluffy clouds, giant lollipops and the color pink.) was roiling away in a dark, twisted mess on the inside. I wanted a WWF style smackdown cage fight with the world. I raged often breaking glass in my sorority house parking lot just for the release. I went to group and one -on-one therapy. It too me years to get over that earlier mess. I felt like I had been through a war. I worked so hard to emerge a woman who had no bitterness and hate. A woman with self-esteem. What transpired was a the person I am today with longer hair. Hair that I could put in a ponytail if I so chose and no one was going to tell me to take it out and cover my face and neck with it. Hair that suddenly removed me from the realm of cute and illicited compliments of 'beautiful, or heavens to mercatroid! 'hot' and even 'sexy'. I felt transformed.

Cutting my hair back into the short hair cut I realized does not just make me frustrated that now I actually have to style it each day vs. putting it up when I need to be out the door quickly or like the average suburban housewife, it feels like I just killed a part of me that was very vital. I don't see the woman I've become in the mirror right now. I see the girl who fought so hard to get away from so much pain and misery. I don't like that too much, it reminds me of too many hard times.

What can I say? As pathetic as this may all sound, because I know it is just hair and it will grow back, I guess I really am like Tony Manero, "I work really hard on my hair."

But Katie Holmes and Suri Cruise?



You have some competition.



Now if I can only get it to look that good each day...