Five American Beauty Brands that you need to know about!

Hi I’m Cindy from Prime Beauty. In the interest of feeding our shared makeup obsession and our never ending quest to discover the best beauty products worldwide, Lisamarie and I decided to do guest posts for each other. Ladies pull up a chair, grab a cold Kokanee and let me introduce to you to some of my favorite American beauty lines.

  

PurpleLabs is the brain child of Karen Robinovitz. One evening while attending a fashion soiree and nibbling off the hors d’oeuvre tray for 20 minutes, Karen said “If my lip gloss could plump my lips and not my hips that would be my dream.” Two weeks later, she found a chemist and a business was born! Huge Lips, Skinny Hips was the debut product and is still her signature product. Now this might not seem like such an exceptional story except that Huge Lips Skinny Hips is an unusual product. It’s a plumping lip gloss but with the extra ingredient Hoodia which is an appetite suppressant. Brilliant! What woman doesn’t want Huge Lips, Skinny Hips—get it? I’ve tried both the No Panty Lines (clear) and Kitty Pole Dancer (yeah, I know) which is a pale barely there pink. The glosses are very thin—they are purposely designed that way so that when you lick your lips, you get some of the benefits of the hoodia. From the website “This gloss is not a cure for anything but instead, it’s a fabulous way to set your intention and hold it. Think of it like tying a string around your finger to remind yourself to do something… this something is to be healthy.”  The line also includes Cheek Implants, a cream blush with collagen, Lashionista Modelista, a double ended mascara and eyeliner duo, Luvah a lips gloss duo with a stain and gloss, Silk Sheets, a creamy foundation packed with beauty treatment ingredients, and Luxury Squared a concealer/highlighter duo.  PurpleLab products can be found online at HSN, Be-Glowing and Beauty Mark.

Rock and Republic has a highly successful line of designer denim and clothing, but did you know they also have a phenomenal cosmetic line? The Rock & Republic cosmetic line includes; Contrived Pressed Powder Blush, Imitate Mousse blush, Saturate eye color, Bound Gel eyeliners, Extremist mascara, Luxe Lip Gloss and makeup brushes. I own Spank blush and Exile eyeshadow; both are wonderfully pigmented and easily blendable. Spank is a matte neutral ballet pink, very wearable and great as an everyday shade. Contrived blushes come is matte and shimmer. Exile is a shimmery peachy bronze that makes my blue eyes pop! Saturate eye shadows come in three textures; matte, satin and shimmer. The texture is medium-soft; soft but not so much that they crumble. R&R packaging is gorgeous; the round black and silver compacts have the RR logo and are HUGE-- I can’t see myself ever using up the blush. The compacts are so big and heavy, that they are kind of impractical for your purse or makeup bag but will make an impressive statement on your vanity or dresser.  Rock & Republic cosmetics are available at Rock and Republic online  but the line has been showing up on invitation only sale sites like Hautelook and Ideeli frequently. I purchased mine on Hautelook, for an invitation click here

You might recognize Cat Cosmetics President, Owner and Creator Catherine Hickland from her work on One Life to Live, Loving, The City, Texas, Airwolf, Knight Rider, and countless other television series and movies. Catherine is a big believer in the connection between looking good and feeling good, in fact she has written several inspirational books and tours the country giving talks and seminars. 

On my favorite Cat products is the Hello Gorgeous Face Palette. The palette contains: Catnip Bronzer / Whiskers Blush,  Purity Base Eye Shadow,  Treasure Shimmer Shadow/ Peace Contour Eye Shadow,  Joy Smoky Eye Dry Liner Shadow, and Sable Powder Brush & Tips & Tricks Guide. Everything you need in one place! My daughter has tried to steal it several times, but I've managed to hang on to it!

The Hello Gorgeous palette contains Catnip Bronzer, a slightly shimmery but not glittery highly pigmented bronzer--a little goes a long way and the brush that comes with the palette makes for a perfect application. This is actually my least favorite of the entire palette--the shade is a bit off for me. It's decent, but I have other bronzers I much prefer. Whiskers blush is a shimmery soft pink blush, but again not too shimmery. It gives more of a glow and we all love to glow, right? Whiskers is very pigmented too, when I used the brush that came with the palette, I picked up too much so I've switched to a skunk brush---ahhhh perfect. There are 4 eye shadows--Purity, Joy, Treasure & Peace. All are very soft and pigmented. Easy to apply and blend, they are just lovely. Purity--a neutral matte shadow that works great as a wash or to even out the eyelids if you have any discoloration. Treasure--a shimmery peachy gold that I LOVE on the lid--it makes my blue eyes really POP! If I use purity underneath it tones down the color to make it very neutral---great for an everyday or office look. Peace--a shimmery bronze. Okay, I admit I'm a sucker for almost any bronze eye shadow. But this is purrfection (sorry, I couldn't resist). I use on the lid or in the crease. It's a medium bronze--shimmery w/o glitter, not too dark, no red tones. Joy--a matte medium brown I use for liner. I like this shade because it's not too dark, most brown matte shadows end up looking black. I have used this both wet and dry as a liner and I think I prefer wet---it lasts all day!

 

Lipstick Queen - After not finding any lipsticks she liked, 18 year old Poppy King, found herself a business partner and founded Poppy lipsticks. She ran that business in her native Australia for 12 years. She was then approached by mega cosmetic conglomerate Estee Lauder and joined them in 2002. She soon was a top New York cosmetics executive but found that the corporate world didn’t suit her "As you go up the ladder, you get further and further away from the end user. That's not what I'm in the business for," she explains. Poppy left in 2005 and penned her first book Lessons of a Lipstick Queen: Finding and Developing the Great Idea That Can Change Your Life.  How inspiring is that? In late 2006 she launched Lipstick Queen with Saints and Sinners, a collection of lipstick duos in a single shade with sheer and opaque options. And you gotta love her personal style--she looks like a 40's movie star!

I ordered the three piece Discovery Set from QVC which includes two of Poppy’s best sellers; Medieval- a sheer red that imparts the look of just bitten lips, Saint Pink- a neutral pink leaning toward cool and a new shade, Sigh- a shimmering mauve/rose shade. These lipsticks are smooth, moisturizing and the consistency feels more like a balm than a lipstick. They apply like a dream and are fairly long lasting—they last for about 3 hrs on me through my required 49 (okay 4) cups of tea. I like the fact that they do leave somewhat of a stain on the lips so when they do wear off you have a little color left behind. Poppy King has managed to effectively combine a gloss and a lipstick in one—these have the shine and sheerness of a gloss but the rich color of a lipstick. The consistency is perfection; light and emollient with a nice slip and just the right amount of pigmentation. Don’t be scared by the color in the tube—it applies very sheer and all the shades are wearable by all skintones. Lipstick Queen products can be purchased at QVC, and www. lipstickqueen.com along with Mills Brothers and Saltridges yay!

Three Custom Color Specialists - I'm sure you can all relate to finally finding the perfect lipstick or blush that you felt was made just for you only to have the manufacturer discontinue it. No worries! Three Custom Color Specialist has you covered. They can produce discontinued shades for the Lips, Cheeks, Eyes & Face. All formulas remain in their personal files for easy re-ordering. Manufacturing time is 2 weeks from the date an order is placed. Or how about creating your own custom shade? Your own personal shade can be created  from a splash of nail color in a baggie, a piece of fabric, a paint chip, a photo from a magazine, two lips colors blended together to create the ideal shade... anything! How cool is that?

The only product I have (so far) from this brand is the Cream to Powder Blush and it is divine.  The texture is remarkable; when I dip my fingers into the pot, it feels creamy & moist, but when I touch it to my face, it instantly turns to into a very fine, delicate powder that still blends like a cream.  Weird, but in a good way; it feels like satin on the skin.  The shade I chose was Rose and I guess I expected something more pink, but this is more of a tawny red and it looks so natural (no shimmer) like I just went for a run--um, yeah, sure. Thank you Three Custom Color Specialists for helping me look like I actually exercise.

I hope you've enjoyed peeking at some of my makeup stash and will investigate some of these American brands. Thank you Lisamarie for the opportunity to interact with your lovely readers! Hmmm, I seem to be craving pancakes and maple syrup!

- Cindy -