Sometimes Yaya

London’s Cutest Cosmetics – Intro

Emerging from non internet land, here I am. Yaya in all my yayaness. As those of you who participated in the giveaways during the holidays are just getting your packages, I hope you enjoy what’s coming ahead on MOJ!

I’d love to introduce you to Eyeko Cosmetics. It may not be new to you as they have become a cult favorite for many. The cosmetics line has adorable packaging for all their products and boasts a collection varying from lip gloss to nail polish and everything in between. Though not as large a collection as you may expect from the overall breadth of CoverGirl and the likes, I’m sure continued support and outreach will push them to expand more and more.

Check out the info from the site:

“Discover Eyeko Beauty, London’s cutest cosmetics, an irresistible line of make-up must haves with a Manga twist and Japanese flavour.

Eyeko means LOVE in Japanese and is the brainchild of beauty innovators Max and Nina Leykind who began the collection in 2000 with Eyeko Cream. Created for girls to perk up their skin counteracting the draining effects of staring at their computer screens, late nights and city life – Eyeko Cream remains the No.1 best seller to date. A triple duty moisturiser, eye cream and highlighter with an antioxidant boost plus Vitamin C makes for a radiant complexion. Try Eyeko 3 in 1 Cream and NEW Eyeko Tinted Cream and treat yourself to perfect skin.

The hottest stars cite Eyeko Beauty as their most wanted for creating glowing skin, big eyes and lush lips. Innovative, feel-good, top quality formulations result in easy-to-use, multi-tasking products that flatter everyone. Eyeko Beauty tests on celebrities not animals! All that and it’s affordable too.

Get the look as seen on Kylie Minogue, Natalie Imbruglia, Gwen Stefani, Victoria Beckham, Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell, Courtney Cox Arquette, Mandy Moore, Anastasia, Jade Jagger, Helena Christensen and Thandi Newton to name but a few.

Eyeko Beauty has been featured heavily in many international titles including Vogue, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, OK! and Allure… Isn’t it time you made Eyeko your new best friend?“

Their new limited edition nail polish is all the rage and I wanted to let y’all see what the fuss is about. Considering that I had so much fun photographing and using the polish, I have decided to make it a three part post. This one is the introduction. To the brand, the quirky collection, and more. The second? You will soon see swatches of the polishes on my digits. And the last? How the colors stand up to matte-ification!

First you must understand that these are petite sized nail polishes. I actually prefer this size because I feel like the contents of this polish are what a gal like you and I could possibly use up in the lacquer’s lifetime.

Second? Each polish has the name right out front. No flipping the bottle sideways or upside down – or whichever direction for that matter. It also has descriptions too. What do I mean? Well the Lilac polish is for lovely nails, while the nude is for proper nails. Which ones are yours?

So what first? Well I thought it was kind of necessary to compare these bottles to the old ones. The old polishes from Eyeko were very adorable, but the quality was not so much. The bottles were either watery or clumpy and just failed to do the rest of the brand justice. Also – they had different packaging.

This is the current state of a bottle of polish from their previous collection. Not in great shape I tell ya. But from my experience with these polishes and the old collection – the new ones are definitely improved.

Check out how the size stacks up to other polish bottles. Note that I did not choose colors to show whether it is a dupe for each or not. I merely chose similarly hued colors for aesthetic purposes. Click to enlarge 🙂

What ya guys think? Have a favorite color yet?

Disclaimer: This product(s)was sent to the author for review by the manufacturer/PR. All reviews on MOJ remain unbiased and unpaid. For more info, feel free to contact the author.

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Order in the Court!

Mucho apologies from my side to yours. I have been under a cloud of no internet for the past two days and had no scheduled posts for your enjoyment.

What did I keep busy with? Hmm…

Might one of those be yours? (I have two bags full).

As I said to one of you lovelies on my Formspring (ask me questions any time!), the packages will be arriving before the end of this week or the beginning of the next! 🙂

As you can imagine… a load like this took up the bulk of my daytime hours pent up in a post office. I’m not whining – I love to send goodies across the globe! Just keeping y’all updated. 🙂

I’ve also been concocting new things for MOJ. What’s coming up?

New series:

Order in the court! (scroll down to check out the first one)
How do you plead?

MOJ across the net (coming soon):

MOJ on Flickr
MOJ on Youtube!

And without any more suspense, here is Order in the Court!

A new series on MOJ, Order in the Court! is a peek into the future order of posts on MOJ (get it?). Inspired by Karen – founder and editor of www.makeupandbeautyblog.com (Don’t know her yet? Check her out – she’s awesome!), four photos will be shown at a time with an image from the post, without showing the brand or anything else. This way, you guys can know what’s coming ahead, and try to guess what’s next if you want!

Do you like this new series? What do you want to see on MOJ?

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My Treasure Chest is a Tarte

The highlight of my 2009 holidays was partly all the goodies that I got for myself. There are some gifts that I don’t think other people would venture out to get for me, so I take the initiative. One of these? The fabulous Treasure Chest by Tarte. Once that Sephora e-mail came in my e-mail inbox, I had one thing on my mind until I brought the baby home.

The chest boasts 32 shadows (16 shimmer and 16 matte), 15 lip colors, a bronzer, a powder, and 4 blushes. The total damage? $52. I’m sorry, even E.L.F at a dollar a pop can’t match that. Especially not for the quality that Tarte gives with each and every product they put out into the market. I liked this so much I bought my bloggin’ bestie one for her birthday!

Once I got this, I have to say I found the perfect item for going to travel. The only thing you need when you travel with this super value set is mascara, brushes, and a lip gloss to go, so that you can keep it in your pocket when going out. That’s it!

This item is sold out on Sephora, but I’m sure if you used freshdeals.com, or Google you’d find yourself lucky. I saw these go for $120 used on eBay!

A close up:

Here’s how it happily rests in front of my mirror:

Check out the photo frenzy and FOTD of mine after the jump!

First, the Sephora stock photo:

Initially I tried to make an Olympics inspired FOTD with three metal hues. My attempts, as noble as they were – all failed. So I started again. My new idea? A bit of a sunrise or sunset you could say.

The picture with closed eyes makes one of the eyes look darker than the other by the top, but this was just an in photo shading situation.

I wet my brush to put down the golden color right at the bottom of the lid and blended shades of shimmer brown with bronze above. I have to say – I was feeling kinda lazy by this point so I smudged my mascara by the waterline to faux-line my eyes. Best trick I learned so far. You can use this tip when your eyeliner is all used up but you have lots of mascara. Better yet – you can use this tip when you have too much mascara for your own good! (like me…)

I was enjoying photo time as I was sporting my new favorite studded blazer from Express (more details in a future post).

Oh how I love the fishy face.

Tarte is an all natural company as many of you know, so that’s why I love this treasure chest. I also love that it’s easy to tote around, has a smashing outside design, and amazing quality of products inside. I used shadows, gloss, bronzer and blush from the set, and had to reach for my Tarte mascara (Lights, Camera, Lashes!) for lash assistance.

As I was surfing the net, I found Sara from guittarasara. She bought her own Treasure Chest but depotted it into a single palette. To check out all the shadows and powders depotted from the Treasure Chest and to check out how to depot your own set if you want here.

So… what’s your verdict?

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Magazine Weekend: Self Magazine January ’10

You can probably read me like a deck of cards. I’m following suit. The most of my hand contained NOTD’s galore and so of course you need to learn how to take care of it (your hand that is).

While reading Self‘s January issue with Carrie Underwood on the cover, I snagged some new year moves to make a new fit me for the next days of the rest of my life! (This is the extra caffeine talking).

The magazine gives you hints on how to create your perfect part in your hair (I know if I make mine uneven too much I resemble a misshaped poodle), the latest purple lip shades on the market and straight from the trendlines (as in headlines), and more. Of course they always have their weight loss challenges and tips from celebrities to stay in shape and eat healthy. As redundant as the topics can be, I can honestly say I rely on this magazine to give me fresh tips each time I flip a page.

Here I am sharing some tips from Roopika Malhotra‘s article on how to take care of your hands. They often take the beating because we wear down our sense of touch nearly the most, right? When was the last time your eyes, your taste buds, your sniffer, or your ears took a beating like your hand did while carrying shopping bags, opening a can of soda, prying open a jar of pickles, wrestling with store hangers, paper cuts, and the list goes on! Use these four easy tips to take matters into your own hands! 🙂

Did you find these tips helpful?

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In the Nubar Forest

This is a color that I have borrowed from a friend and have to refer to the pictures all the time because I feel like my life is not complete without it in my possession. Melodramatic? Perhaps. Orrr…. you can judge for yourself.

Nubar in Forest. I love this green. It’s not the weird neon/barf color that we were all crazy about when we were five or so (no? just me then). The color comes in the Going Green collection, which is almost as fantabulous as the Prisms collection fresh on the market, but perhaps equally as alluring as the Cleopatra collection with enough purples to rock my world silly.

As impulses with all polishes go nowadays, I had to try it out with a matte top coat, and my favorite is China Glaze’s Matte Magic. Surprised? Probably not.

Are you groovy with green? Matte or shiny? What’s on your nails?

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Questions? I Got Answers

A lot of bloggers have been making accounts for you to ask them questions on Formspring. So for days I’ve thought… What am I? Chopped liver? So I got one too.

Click over to http://www.formspring.me/MyOwnJudge and ask me whatever you want. Well – don’t ask me to send you money, I don’t have a lot. 🙂 I’ll answer them same day… it’ll be like sending your questions by Same Day Delivery Mail!

Ask me for advice, ask me how ~~tall~~ short I am, etc. The world is yours!

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LG Of the Jury – Powerful Advertising

In the past year (and I’m talking the last 360 odd days and not just 2010 y’all), the emphasis on ‘real models’ and ‘real shapes’ has been growing. Of course, in a world where the advertising has veered so far from being the epitome of the majority of its customers to an extreme in the present; that is for the most part unattainable. I know there are plenty skinny girls who are so without the help of a finger down their throat or a two carrot and one grape diet of the day. I also know most of the women in the world are not suited to just one formula and for the majority have extra meat on their bones. You know – the more to love.

Glamour had a photo shoot with plus sized models, Seventeen and Teen Vogue offer a plus size body type variation when doing outfit suggestions, Dove had (and still does) have a ‘Real Women’ campaign, and the list goes on. In the end it will not be worth a mention, and that’s a good thing. When we stop oohing and ahhing over a ‘normal’ model gracing the big name mags that land at ‘normal people’ mailboxes and accept it as the new norm, it will be the best type of change.

Bobbi Brown has long been a cosmetics line that has the variety every ‘normal’ woman needs for her collection. The brand has (in my humble opinion) the largest range of skin tone and skin flattering everything – from lip glosses to foundations. So why the surprise when the makeup artist looked to everyday people for her new campaign? I’m not surprised. I’m loving it.

She kept it in office (I believe) as some of them have their positions listed. You can also click over to check out the Pretty Powerful Women and get to know them all.

I always mention how great advertising can have an impact on whether the product makes or breaks it for me and you won’t be surprised that I love this campaign.

I love when a Pretty Powerful Woman is catered to by enhancing what is most natural to the first part we see and keep in contact with the most – her face. I love advertising that caters to pretty and powerful women with uplifting messages than sex and the need to ‘improve.’

And you Ladies and Gents of the Jury? How do you feel about this Pretty Powerful Advertising?

P.s. There is a Pretty Powerful contest on the site starting on January 19, and a video featuring the ladies and their makeovers. I couldn’t embed the darn thing, so check out the video over here!

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NOTD – Face Stockholm

I started to test out all the polishes that I have in my possession, with a strong emphasis on new brands and never used bottles. If you think that there are many of those in my household – you are absolutely correct. So without further ado, here are the pictures of my self made mani with FACE ~~Atelier~~ Stockholm!! I do have to apologize for the fact that I did not record the number/name while taking pictures, so all I can tell you is that it looks like a creamy metallic purple.

Also? I can’t find the nail polish for this brand anywhere online. If you know the secret, please do tell.

[edit] After posting this y’all alerted me to the fact that my silly behind didn’t look close in the image to see that it wasn’t FACE Atelier but Stockholm! Doh! Serious Homer moment here.

The color of this polish is so pretty when caught with a flash (as seen in all these pictures). When you take a picture of it without flash it is nearly completely black. Why did I still get the polish then? When it’s on my hands and I move it around in the light like a cat with an amusing ball of yarn, I catch the whole spectrum of purple and that is all I need to be happy.

Does anyone else do that when they are overly pleased with themselves? I do that with nails, makeup, and anything else I feel proud of myself in lol. I can take a picture and look at it and zoom into every corner of the photo for hours while on the subway afterward.

Check out how it looks on my nails:

This picture is with flash, but I did tilt it so that you can catch both how it looks with flash and without. The top part of the nail is basically what it looks like when you’re not twirling it around to catch any light.

Now that I found my error (we all make them sometimes – be happy I didn’t make more! lol). Here’s the link where you can find the polishes. And the color? From the site I think it might be 61.

How do you like it?

Any colors caught your eye recently?

Try this company before?

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Everything Under $10!

I usually try to keep my posts to a strict two a day maximum… but I had to do it.

There is an Urban Decay sale going on at Hautelook where the prices start at $3 and end at $9. This is not a joke. Run. Don’t walk. You have 40 hours remaining.

While you’re there, you could check out the other awesome sales they got going on as well. Just saying.

Click here for your invite!

Let me know what ya got!

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Vote for Me!!

I turn to you readers for support as I try to keep moving forward with this blog and aspirations for success.

I covered NYFW last season for the first time, and it would be amazing to have full access to the shows this time around. I would truly appreciate your vote for me (by clicking on the image below). If you don’t think I deserve it? That’s fine too, just leave a comment or send me an e-mail telling me what I need to improve.

Thanks again!

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