Sometimes Yaya

Shecky’s Girl’s Night Out Goodies

The Shecky’s Girl’s Night Out event is coming up (March 9-12) and I wanted to rave about one of the products I came across the last time I was at this event. Bath by Riley is the cutest company I have ever seen. You know the niche market of ladies having all the products they need in a much more ladylike and cutesy way? Think Juicy Couture, Miss Dior, etc.

When I was at the Girl’s Night Out, I came across Hand Candies and fell in love at first sight. Not enough words can describe how cute.

What is it? You probably want to choke me for the build up, but look. Y’all would be short for words too.

Hand Candies are basically little squares of body scrub wrapped as a candy. Take heed in the warning on the website! These look yummy and smell equally so, but they are not for consumption!! They are perfect for trying different flavors without committing to a big bottle of body scrub at a time – and how great is it that there are 40 different flavors of these? Also – these work best with traveling and if you are a stickler for not wanting to dilute your scrub like me. I really hate when my bottles get soaked with running water from the shower as I decide how much scrub I want to use, leave it open etc. The other great side? They are dry little squares, so you really don’t get stuck losing a dollop and staring at the floor of your tub wistfully with sadness deep in your heart.

At the event, all the lucky guys and gals passing the table saw Hand Candies in bowls separated by flavor. At the end of the table there was a big sink where you can sample a hand candy. The sampling was the reason why I bought ten hand candies right away you guys. This scrub is not only a highly effective scrub, but it also contains lotion. My hands were so soft after using the scrub that I kept telling my friend to touch them. She wanted to clobber me, but I wanted more Bath by Riley!

If you make it to Shecky’s Girl’s Night Out (and I would so love to meet you if you do), you won’t be seeing Bath by Riley until later in the year. You can check which events they will be gracing here. I can’t wait to see what brands and products will rock my world in less than a week from now!

Have you tried Bath by Riley? Are you going to Girl’s Night Out?

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Drugstore PSA

I would be a terrible friend if I didn’t disclose what I found to be a fact yesterday. I was drugstore perusing and found that Rite Aid lost their mind (in the best way possible). I previously mentioned on Twitter that they had a special on mascaras, but this time around? This week all nail polishes and artificial nails are BuyOneGetOne half off. Yes. ALL. This is great for all those polish companies that never have stinkin’ sales unless they are being discontinued are on sale!

But it doesn’t end there! Check out the rest of the beauty and skin care sales they got pumpin’:

Revlon: BOGO Free
Almay: BOGO 50% off (also offering $5.00 single check rebate on any two Almay products)
Prestige: (in store brand) BOGO 50% off
CoverGirl: BOGO 50% off
Neutrogena: BOGO 50% off(including the wave)
Physician’s Formula: BOGO 50% off
L’Oreal: BOGO 50% off
Aveeno: BOGO 50% off body, face, bath products
Scunci: BOGO 50% off hair accessories

They also have a BOGO free/50% off nearly all their store brand items.

——————

Who else is following the trend? CVS
CVS has BOGO 50% off all fragrances.
They also have the BOGO free sale on Revlon, and have BOGO 50% on Maybelline and Physician’s Formula.

——————

Walgreen’s is trying to be different with:
40% off Maybelline products
Pond’s: BOGO Free skin care
Olay Total Effects Skin Care/Body Wash: BOGO 50% off
Neutrogena: BOGO 50% off
Revlon: $3 off

Until Saturday, I will be checking out all the Rite Aids in the area (and knowing me, those far away as well) because their sales for the week are making me one happy gal. I was trying to curb my nail polish additions (as you can see the stash is ever growing), but I might have to make a big exception for all purchases incurred during these sales.

Plan on getting anything? Tell me what you find and what you get!

p.s. Don’t blame dear lil’ Yaya if your nearest drugstore have different sales. Consult your weekly ad to make sure they are honoring the same deals before you bring your purchase to the counter. I will not and am in no way financially stable to support everyone who will have a different drugstore sale (or else I wouldn’t be looking out for sales!).

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Traveling with an e.l.f.

It’s hard enough for people visiting New York to pack enough. Scratch that. Anyone traveling has a case of the Iforgots. I have it each and every single time I travel. When I went to Barbados? I had a checklist of all the things to bring and still missed some pretty important things. How could I have missed bringing shorts when I was venturing to the Caribbean? Similarly, when I flew to Florida, how could I really arrive without shampoo, lotion, or hairspray? Was I traveling to somewhere prehistoric? Was Jetblue chartering time machines!? The hardest thing is looking at yourself in the mirror and admitting that you indeed forgot an essential. It’s all your fault. Unless you have a butler. Most of us don’t. If only someone counted on us to be harebrained and forgetful.

As of March 1st (mmmhmmmm today), all travelers heading to NYC staying at an Affinia location are privy to a complimentary e.l.f. emergency beauty kit.

The e.l.f. emergency beauty kit includes:

–Super Glossy Lip Shine SPF 15 in Pink Kiss, contrary to popular belief, New Yorkers aren’t rude (okay, not all of us), so you’d be a smart petunia to have gloss to decorate that smile of yours – and SPF? Way ahead of the pack!
–Slanted Tweezers, because there is an obsessive compulsive plucker in all of us that escapes when traveling and without a tweezer. I can safely admit that I have tried to remove hairs with the strength of my nails in such situations. Don’t judge.
–Regular and Waterproof Mascara Duo, a swipe or two of mascara makes a gal look awake. As you know, the Big Apple doesn’t sleep – so go on and fool everyone!
–Nail Polish Remover Pads, when the beauty supply stores are creeping up on you and the Sephora stores are as plentiful as Starbucks you may feel the urge to change up your polish, or go bare from the variety.
–Eye Makeup Remover Pads, because what goes on must come off. Also because when you are not at home, you can’t reach for olive oil as a miracle cure.
–Clear Nail Polish, stops stockings from ripping. Makes bare nails look uber chic and taken care of. Keeps nails from cracking or breaking (don’t believe me? Compare wearing clear polish to no polish for a week!).
–Travel Hand Sanitizer, because a lot of sleepless New Yorkers make for a lot of grime and dirt. Oh, and the possibilities to grab a bite to eat on the corner of A and B are endless!

The super plus for me is that no one claims these babies back from you. You’re safe to tote this kit around as your save me super team until everything runs out. Then you might just have to return to New York. 🙂

All Affinia-stayers have to do is simply call or visit the front desk for a kit, no questions asked.

Having a beauty kit available for you at Affinia courtesy of e.l.f.? Super awesome.
Being able to land in NYC and ask the front desk “you got the goods?” Priceless!!!

Participating Affinia locations include: Affinia Manhattan, Affinia Dumont Hotel, Affinia 50 Hotel, Affinia Gardens Hotel and Affinia Shelburne.

Do you travel with e.l.f.?

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Tart Kisses

Upon my last visit to Sephora, I saw what I was looking for plenty of visits prior. The Tarte Natural Lip Stains have arrived. After I saw these babies in People Style Watch, I was so excited I could have ran up and down the street and told everyone about it a la The British are coming!

Are you guys familiar with Tarte Cosmetics? The ecofriendly cosmetics line rocks my socks with the quality of products they continue to put out. There is not a single stinkin’ season that they spare me and my wallet of any wants or needs (and there are plenty of both). Truthfully? The guys and gals behind Tarte can sell me a lemon of a car (that’d be a very poorly working car) and I’d buy it in a jiffy. The honest truth? They’d never do such a thing! They stand behind their products and I’m happy to as well.

The colors look like this:

Some tech talk from the site:

“What it is:

A natural lip stain that is clinically proven to increase lips’ moisture content by 6000%.

What it does:

After 10 years the wait is finally over. These much-anticipated natural lip stains are an extension to the best-selling and award-winning cheek stains. Just like the iconic cheek stains, each emotive, peppermint-infused shade smoothly glides on lips for a natural flush that will stay all day. So say goodbye to reapplying your lip color throughout the day and say hello to a gorgeous pop of color and hydration that lasts.

What it is formulated WITHOUT:

– Parabens – Sulfates

– Synthetic Fragrances – Synthetic Dyes

– Petro-Chemicals – Phthalates

– GMOs – Triclosan

What else you need to know:

The old meets the new with the infusion of our high-performance natural LipSurgence™ technology which is clinically proven to increase moisture content by an astonishing 6000%. This proprietary blend effectively increases skin’s water content for a ‘plumped up’ appearance leaving lips defined, smoothed, and hydrated. The result is naturally fuller, healthier lips without any irritation or stinging. Like the cheek stains, each shade of these natural lip stains will leave a natural hint of tint that will last throughout the day. These shades are great to wear alone or pair with your favorite tarte lipgloss. This product is free from gluten, animal testing, formaldehyde donors, oil, talc, MEA/ DEA/ TEA.“

Now… the only problem is that I cannot find any store that is fully stocked with these babies. I swear I will be turning into a Tarte junkie, sleeping outside of a Sephora waiting for a new shipment to arrive.

From the reviews I read on the wide web, a lot of people are fond of the product (did I mention they smell great?), but take up with the title of ‘lip stain.’ After coming in contact with these, I have to say they are not strictly a lip stain. The fact that they moisturize, and by doing that, add a bit of gloss makes me want to call this a hybrid of a tinted lip balm and a stain.

My swatches come courtesy of the testers on the counters of Sephora, and I will be reporting back as soon as I have a few of these babies in my lip product family.

Anything from Tarte getting you excited?

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Curls are so IN

Look y’all. I would be hard pressed to ever tell you that curly is not the way to go. Curly is Yaya all the way. When I was little, I used to cry because my hair was such a problem. I wasn’t savvy yet to the benefits of hair oil and sprays and such. I went completely natural with my hair and the frizz was tease factor number one. It was cute until the end of kindergarten and then it was back to reality. My grandfather (yes you read right) was the genius behind giving me pigtail braids that would last through any of my toss and turning dreams and still look neat for school. Whenever my mom or grandma offered to make my braids I would refuse. They were too soft with their hand and my braids would fall apart. How I longed to have sleek straight hair and maybe even bangs (another toddler horror story for another day). But my mom didn’t let up. She said if I didn’t like my hair the way it was, that she could easily shave it all off. Now look. No one could strike fear in my heart like my mama. She knew just the words. Soon as I transitioned into high school, my knowledge bank began to expand with hairsprays and leave in conditioners. Though I can’t say I haven’t suffered any epic hair fails after my learning sprees, I can say that I couldn’t love my curls any more than I have since those learning days.

Image Credit: Style.com

That’s the story of my hair. The story of fashion week? Let’s start with the invites. Once the season starts, to get an invite in the mail is of the highest level of excitement. It’s like Secret Santa at Christmas mixed with a surprise birthday party. You want it to happen. You want someone to think you’re special, but you just sit and wait. Then it comes. You ooh and ahh even if it’s terrible, because the experience can never be terrible. Right? Imagine my surprise party when I opened my invite for the Ports 1961 show. A small calendar just for fashion week, with a packet of seeds was in the mail. The date of the show was written in on the specified day in the calendar. As famous as they are for fancy invites, they didn’t fail this season.

You wouldn’t be surprised then, that no hail, sleet, or snow could stop me from attending the show. I was late, yes. I wrongly thought that I would be able to get from point A to point B and wherever else I wanted on the alphabet path during the first days of fashion week, to find that my little legs and public transportation didn’t agree. So I got to stand on my tippy toes to watch the show, with nary a backstage detail on the beauty or hair. The silver lining on my depressing cloud? Not a single thing could dampen my day once I saw the models. The models were rocking big CURLY hair. I took pictures and phoned home that the show’s hairstyle was what Yaya looks like in the mornings. Hello 80s? How nice of you to bring the hair back.

I met with the head stylist for hair for the show later on in my fashion week adventures (oh wait, did you doubt me?), and he said the Ports 1961 was a fun recreation of a big 70’s perm. He said 70’s but I couldn’t get the 80’s out of my mind. Any 70’s hair experts out there? I’ll research this and get back to ya.

The music at the show was a definite plus to me. Sometimes the runways turn into an excuse to run similar sounding techno back to back and ruins the experience. The collection had a vibe of Amelia Earhart going through the desert during the day and attending an Arabian Nights party. The makeup was soft, the hair was big, and the colors of the garments were in tune with all things fall and winter, with sultry sapphire and gold tones amongst others. According to the designer, the theme was the nature vs. technology, and you can definitely see it reflect in the fit and drape of the clothes. Check out all the looks from the show at my go to site for fashion week (outside of MyOwnJudge.net!) at Style.com.

Line up of models for the show

Do you feel big hair is back in? Reawaken the curl fiend in you!

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Milf in a Rampage

While most of you read the title and expected a hack (god forbid) or some drama where Yaya surely lost her head, I am only using two of the names of polishes in the line of Illamasqua polishes I got from Sephora not too long ago.

I even almost forgot to post it for you guys until I was watching the NAACP Image Awards tonight and read about MissMerli’s woes over Keri Hilson’s choice of accessories. (p.s. check YouTube for Monique & Tyler Perry’s speeches. They were inspirational to me) Check the image here. The problem was mostly in the details. The fact that there was one single glove. Not a la Michael Jackson. A la ‘I am a socialite returning from a ball and had too many glasses of wine and now I have no idea where my second glove is.‘ I even suggested she sported the single glove to mask the fact that her manicure was not completed on the other hand. Shoot, I’ve done similar things!

As I carefully zoomed in on Miss Keri Baby’s nails though, I spotted a very familiar minty green. Is hers Illamasqua? If it’s not, it sure should’ve been. Here’s how the polish looked on me:

As you can probably tell, the left is with flash and the right is without flash. The color looks a bit like both pictures depending on what light you’re looking at it under. Check out the pic below for what the color looks like with average indoor lighting.

This color is Milf. I tried to see if I could do a stripe NOTD with Rampage but took the tape off my nails too early. I am still learning this process of doing diagonal stripes. Previously, I used to do it free hand, but as soon as I get my timing and pressure down right with this tape nonsense, I will be amazing. The day will come!

See the uneasy wiggles around the diagonal? Work in progress.

Has a celebrity rocked your favorite mani?

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Crazy Sale on Lorac!

There are many brands that Sephora introduces me to and then sometimes takes them away. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Lorac is one of those brands.

But that’s okay for the next day or so because it is on sale at Hautelook with prices starting at $4 and not going past $10. Yes you heard me right.

Come join HauteLook for your sample sales and cheap designer duds.

Click here for your special invite!

Don’t forget that when you when you sign up through this link, you get a $10 credit to spend on whatever you please!

If the link is not working, copy and paste the following link in your browser: http://www.hautelook.com/invite/missyaya

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Tardy to the Party

Tardy is the kindest word that I can attach to my timing in regards to Mercedes Benz New York Fashion Week. Here’s the catch up (and if the following schedule of posts is too many too often for y’all, let me know!).

I got the ball rolling during the actual Fashion Week by doing a guest post for Miss Brittany over at Clumps of Mascara about the Vessel by Lois runway presentation, and trust me when I say that I could’ve went to just that first show and would have heard all the buzzwords and trends right away.

Image Credit: Style.com

With scheduling and location conflicts for many shows, you try to make one person act like as many clones at one time as possible. Want to know a true story? There were two shows going on within an hour of each other and next door to each other. I went to the first show to cover the backstage prepwork, snuck out through the side staircase (no one could leave because they were doing a test run of the show), ran around the block (with a camera, notepad, and no jacket), only to go into another show, cover the backstage prepwork there, only to return to the first show to catch the runway, and then back to the second. I probably would’ve attempted a lot more fashion herculean tasks similar to this if they were closer together, but that was not the case.

So of course, it is with great sadness that I admit to you that I only got to see Toni’s backstage prepwork and not the runway show. Too bad too, because the dresses were phenomenal. The collection was a bit broken in half with soft, sheer fabric in shades of gray, and some dark pieces, with black and gold. Check out all the runway photos from the show here.

For this show, MAC provided the cosmetic creations, Zoya for nails, and hair was styled by the peeps from Cutler Hair Salons.

The look? A feminine, ethereal, “all about gold” theme. Once you look at the line, you’ll notice that the makeup matches the collection well.

Head makeup artist for the show, Dhai Naidu (pictured above) was swearing up and down the prep area that the item to buy from the fall brand collection is called ‘Hang Loose.’ The artists used Studio Moisture Tint foundation to cover up blemishes, but still keep the girls looking real; showing their real skin, freckles and all.

The polish colors were berry much in tune with autumnal shades, breaking out the berries (did ya catch the berry before?), and of course some glitterin’ gold. The colors used were Sloane, Nova, Casey, and Richelle. Sunshine, the head nail artist for the team had some test swatches with various combinations of colors ready before each girl got set up with her color. Some gals rocked a single blinged out finger with berry on the rest. Nothing new for us beauty junkies, no? But I did love the pink glitter and the creamy gold. Such a switch for the colors, right?!

The hair was sleek and neat, usually arranged in buns with gold threads, sequins, and applique dipping in and out of strands. The hair team used Cutler Volumizer Spray, along with Redken Workforce ’09. I was most impressed with the closeups of the hair (tell me you’re not!).

My favorite images captured on my camera for the day were the box of hair sequins above, and this one here:

I’m sure anyone who had one person handling hair, nails, and makeup each, could get ready just as quickly as these gals! (And don’t we all wish for a round the clock entourage that would help?)

How did this show strike you? Any favorite pieces yet?

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EOS – Evolution of Smooth

I have been hearing about EOS lip balm for a while now. The cute packaging, the roundness. Everyone had something to say about it, but I felt a little left out. Not anymore!

After a quick trip to Walgreens, I found a holiday three pack of the buggers still on sale by the counter. The three pack was meant for the winter holidays, but worked for February just fine.

The pack that I purchased had two mint flavors (peppermint and sweetmint – a lot like the Orbit gum!) and a sweet flavor (honeysuckle honeydew – which my mom stole from me). I think the trio I purchased may have had an error as it said that I’d get a summer fruit flavor, but oh well!

back packaging

There are so many things that I liked about these even before use.

First – the rubberized packaging. Think of a rubber grip cover for your phone. It feels like that but is in a cute round shape.

Second, I already mentioned it – how cute is this miniature roundbottom? If you are a sucker for cute packaging, you won’t get far saying no to this.

Also, I am very much a fan of packaging that screws in instead of just popping off. After numerous a handbag accident where a cosmetic item has decapped itself and then proceeded to soil the contents of my bag, I can really appreciate packaging that requires opposable thumbs to open it.

But then of course, we had to open the product for the real review to begin.

All cuteness aside, I was looking for some soft results.

I really liked that the lip balms weren’t pots. That’s the most important part! I remember when I would purchase pots of lip balm and use them much like I use my EOS lip balm now, except after a while, there would be a dip inside, and my pots were retired to only in home use. Having to use your fingers to dip in transfers all kinds of germs and bacteria to your lips (and oftentimes into your mouth as a result), and it also keeps the bacteria in the pot. The aforementioned fact of the balms screwing open helped them stay covered as well.

The one negative that I have with this lip balm is that when your lips are really dry, you cannot just drag the little ball over your lip. It pulls the skin and leads it to crack. When you have dry lips and are using an EOS lip balm, just tap it over your lips till they are hydrated and then drag it all around.

The lip balms sell in drugstores for around $3.29 each. Not bad right?

I was most excited to have a miniature clear cosmetics case from this three pack as well.

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Let’s Catch Up

I took a whole week off y’all. I’d say I’m sorry, but I’m really not. I haven’t reached this level of exhaustion since I had three jobs and went to school full time. Fashion Week really kicked my butt. More so because it hit right in between starting a new (temporary) job, registering (and attending) for school, and plenty of dates (birthdays, Valentine’s Day, the blizzard!). I felt like not only was I running across the whole tri-state area but I was constantly fighting a cold. Germs? Not I. But it took a toll.

Did I just sit on my butt though? Y’all should know better. Though my nails have been sacrificed in the name of fashion (crazy weeks tend to crack and break nails for some annoying reason), I have a stash of images and reviews for y’all to just go crazy with. I haven’t had a single chance to post them prior to today because as some of you may know through my Twitter rants, I have been under a cloud of poor internet connection (have you ever waited 2 hours to upload 4 photos?). My fashion week coverage? Let’s look at it this way. The shows are for fall and winter, whereas the spring and summer are what we currently care about. So my fashion week posts will come in gradually. The immediate photos and videos brought to you from design houses and news cannot be matched, so I ask (what I like to think) unique questions backstage, and I take my own photos. And soon enough, you’ll see ’em all!

As you may have heard eons ago, Maybelline is the new sponsor of New York Fashion Week. So it’s only fitting for me to tell you that on one of my numerous days of entering discount stores, I found one that was selling out old polish shades. Even eBay got nothing on this! I found the old school mattes and ran home giddy. I wanted to purchase more for giveaways, but there were no doubles!

First installment in my vintage Maybelline NOTD? Matte Stone.

left image with flash, right image without flash

with top coat – left image with flash, right image without flash

I really like this color. The way it looks without a topcoat is satin-y, and a bit like a faux leather fabric stretch over your nails. I liked it better with a topcoat because it was a perfect creamy balance between gray and brown. The most amazing thing about this NOTD is that the age of this polish did not affect the color or quality at all. The consistency is great – two coats gave me no trouble with this baby.

Do you have any vintage nail confessions?

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