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Welcome to Beauty Diary: Seven days of getting glam with an industry insider. From publicists to professional makeup artists, this is a week in the life of someone who lives and breathes beauty.
Photo by Aretha Sack
I'm taking preventative measures before heading on a trip: Vitamins, clean skin, a healthy looking new pedicure. I'm going to be breaking in a new pair of heeled jellies from Sway Chic and Band-Aid's blister bandages are the truth. Beauty
Aretha really put me back on the moisturizing game. I've been moisturizing like crazy with Lubriderm Sensitive Skin Unscented Daily Moisture. My nails are so long I need a pump for ease.
Off the plane I immediately get Tex-Mex with Aretha and do some light cosmetic shopping at the local H.E.B. I needed new mascara and conveniently left mine at home in Bushwick.
I'm obsessed with the L'Oreal Voluminous Butterfly Effect Mascara brush. It makes it easy to get long lashes when you forget your lash curler. I LOVE the coverage of the Jos
Aretha and I are dying for a fill so we head to the local nail salon. We just leaked the first color from S/S 2014 on our Instagram, an electric turquoise aptly named Wet. I'm too excited to have the turq back in my life so I get my nails painted & then c
Aretha opts for something v. lavish and chooses to get her nails painted in another S/S release color: 'Biscuits,' the second of four colors to be It’s a creamy off-white and looked so luxurious that she had to slap a D&G decal on them for full effect.
We're prepping for a cross promotion/event/pop-up madness and the shoot of our lookbook. It's been a little stressful so the night before the shoot I sleep in pink dots made with love by Mario Badescu's Drying Lotion.
My shoot day essentials: LOTS of water, Nivea SPF Lip Balm, Neutrogena Face Sunscreen, a bottle of 'Wet' for on-set touch ups and Visine for tired eyes (plus a wet swab of the stuff can help reduce the redness of blemishes!).
Minus the insane winds we encounter at our location, the shoot is a success! Props and hair were flying everywhere—we had to take refuge in the car to do the nail changes. I can't wait to share the amazing photographs with all our Floss Gloss fan girls. W
It's the day of our event! We're nailing the crowd with $10 Floss Gloss manicures and nail art designed by Nails Yall.
I'm wearing my vintage Tommy Hilfiger cut-off overalls for a classic Americana look.
Because this is our longest day I know I need my beauty look to easily transition from day to night. I choose Lime Crime Velvetine Matte Lip Stain in Red Velvet as my lip and use Fox and Doll Cocoa Rose Hair Powder (made in San Francisco!) f
I touch up my lips and apply some more bronzer and darken my eyeliner for our nighttime look. I packed my Neutrogena make-up remover wipes with me in case of full face emergency or to clean up the edges of my bright lip. Red lip still going strong
Aretha's beauty look was so good I had to document it.
She just bought the Sephora aerosol foundation and it makes her skin glow! We both have been obsessed with the ease of the Baby Phat roller ball eye shadow and Chermoya black glitter liquid eyeliner for a strong wing. She finishes her look
We meet up with some local friends at a newly opened pool hall and bar, The Grand, which has a Dazed and Confused vibe: Longhair metal boys, local babes, lanes of pool tables, and cheap drinks.
The bronzer the better! My Smashbox bronzer has been more of a loose than a solid compact for a while now, but I can't bring myself to toss it because it really is the perfect warmth with a hint of shimmer. I also use Nars Orgasm and Super
Monica's highlighting puts ours to shame and she lets me use her MAC Soft and Gentle shimmer highlighter and my weekend is made. Bring on the party!
Janine Lee met her now business partner Aretha Sack at art school in San Francisco, where Floss Gloss was originally established as a nail art crew. Aretha would custom mix drugstore polishes to great admiration of fellow students. In Janine's words: "Aretha had the babes wildin' out on my nails at the college cafes in 2009 when the nail polish color scene was still pretty bleak." The duo launched the business while working full-time service industry jobs, debuting their first collection in August 2012. Today, the company offers around two dozen hues (with names like 'Faded' and 'Partybruise'), retailing at over 60 shops worldwide—and is still run entirely by just Janine and Aretha. The two have recently relocated from the West Coast to Brooklyn, NY.
In her week of documented beauty, Janine shares some of the colors from their upcoming release, a few survival tips for life with super long nails, and a brilliant second use for Visine, all while traveling, shooting a lookbook, and hosting a pop-up mani station.
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