Newest Obsession: EOS lip balm!

My newest choice of lip balm to apply to my lips after applying makeup in the morning, before going to bed and numerous times in between is the EOS lip balm. This delightful little ball-packaging resembles a cute little Easter egg and this gave me the idea that they would probably make amazing little gifts or party favors for your upcoming Easter shindigs. The design is literally so out-of-the-box and the rubbery container has such a pleasant feel in your hands, with enough grit that it will not just slip out of your hands. The bottoms have a sturdy base so that they don't roll off your table. EOS stands for "Evolution of Smooth" and you can find their product-line here. I'm not sure if these are sold in Canada, but in the US, I have found them all over the place, Wal-Mart, Rite Aid, QFC and ULTA to name a few. They can cost anywhere from $2.99 to $3.79 US each. They last you a long time and there's a lot of product inside of them so it's not a waste of money. I do agree that they are more expensive than your regular Chapstick lip-balm but the flavors are fantastic and they claim to be all-natural.

The manufacturer's page claims that they contain long-lasting moisture due to their contents being full of shea butter, jojoba oil and vitamin E. They do go on clear and colorless, so if you're expecting a pigment from your lip balm, this will not provide one. The products are gluten-free, without parabens, petrolatum and phthalates.

They come in the following flavors:

•  Summer Fruit
•  Lemon Drop SPF 15
•  Strawberry Sorbet
•  Honeysuckle Honeydew
•  Medicated Tangerine
•  Sweet Mint

My favorites are Strawberry Sorbet and Honeysuckle Honeydew, and I am not a huge fan of Medicated Tangerine or Lemon Drop but they are the ones that are probably most useful because the tangerine one is a super-moisturizer and lemon drop protects your lips from the harmful rays of the sun by being SPF 15. Really whichever ones you choose depends on what's available at the store and what your favorite flavor-profiles are. I usually like very sweet lip balms but some people really dislike very flavored makeup. I know that over the summer they had a pack that contained a purple balm which was in "Strawberry Sorbet" but I haven't seen that one in stores, it sounds delicious though.

When you're not looking to splurge on anything but you want to get something for yourself or your friends, these are a great purchase because they are useful and don't make a huge dent in your pocket. Many articles I've read have chosen these as the lip-product to purchase, especially during this recession.

You can purchase them here:

Comic Book Nails

Lately, perusing the blogosphere and fashion magazines, what has stood out as an awesome new trend is comic book nails! These are highly graphic, colorful manicures not for the feint of heart. If you're down with this look and want to experiment with it, you'd better be ready for lots of compliments and attention from guys and girls alike!

Comic book action bubbles are a simple way to spruce up your nails, using a white base and colored polka dots on top, you can add pizzazz by creating zig-zagged and imperfect speech or action bubbles outlined with a thin-tip black polish. Write your words of choice like 'Splat!', 'BAM!', 'Pow!' and 'Zap!' or whatever other fantastic word you can think of!

Another fabulous way to incorporate this look and to make it look more 'unified', you can use a single-colored background base color and keep your dots in one color as well, such as white. The only thing you would be varying in this version of the manicure is the position of the action and speech bubbles as well as the words you put within them.

If you're into a particular superhero you could do your nails in tribute to them! This lady chose Spiderman and did his mask on her thumb and webs on all the other fingers with a red background and black thin-tipped fine brush nail polish. The spider webs are simple to do, just make semi-circles radiating from your cuticle and then draw the lines straight out from the cuticle to complete you spider web. The mask is a little more complex because you will want to draw the eyes afterwards with white polish and then outline them in black after the polish is all dry.

Another graphic idea is to do a heart on your middle finger with a simple heart-shape and then a cardiogram line drawing on the rest of the nails with a black fine-tipped brushed nail polish. Keep your background color a simple pink or red but make sure that your heart can stick out with a more saturated color.

If you don't want to choose one particular superhero over another one, because you're just such a huge fan of them, take all of the iconic symbols from their outfits and incorporate them in black over different colored base nail polishes. Notice how the background colors are representative of each particular hero, for example, Batman's colors are black and yellow while the Green Lantern's colors are green and black.

Check out my jewelry store website here: http://www.bonanza.com/booths/LethalGlam

Tools you can use to create these looks can be found here:

Makeshift Hairclip

This DIY is for all the women out there who have gotten to work and realized they'd forgotten their hair clip when they needed to put their hair up and out of their faces. This is a super easy and practical thing to be able to make on the fly so stay tuned to find out the simple tips and tricks to achieving your own makeshit on-the-fly hairclip. This lets you stay away from using painful rubber bands to keep your hair up which are horrible for your hair and pull it out when you need to take it out.


You will need:
- A store card/club card you no longer need (don't use credit cards, it's not the safest thing to use, just in case you lose it)
- a pen/pencil/chopstick
- drillbit/exacto knife/hole punch





First, find an expired club card or store card of any kind (the example uses a Duane Reade Dollar Rewards Club card) or ask your coworkers for one. You can then use either a hole punch or a drill-bit or exacto knife, or really anything sharp that you can get your hands onto puncture two holes on either side of the card. Do this about one hole diameter away from the card's edge so you can have maximum endurance and the 'clip' won't break. If you have lots of hair, you should punch the holes in opposite corners of the card so that using it on the diagonal will hold more hair. Then you will need either a pen, pencil or chopstick, or really anything that will work to punch through the clip and to hold your hair in place, a ball-point pen works wonders, just make sure you use something that won't bleed ink into your hair.

Put your hair into a bun, twisting and looping it around to accommodate this type of hair clip, use one hand to hold onto your hair and the other to place the card around it, then shove a pen through both holes, making sure it passes through your hair and your card will curl around your bun, holding it snugly in place.

DIY: Make your own deodorant

Nowadays, we all try to be as healthy and focused on eating organic and lifestyle improving things, but we still use products that are harming us without our knowledge. In the spirit of being as health-conscious as possible, and trying to eliminate all the harmful toxins I've written about in my article "Deodorant Expose", I decided to show you this recipe for making your own deodorant. It's a hard deodorant, kind of like hard perfume, but it lasts a long time, is very refreshing and smells better than most of your store-bought deodorants ever will. The added bonus is that it's very healthy for you and you can't go wrong, you can apply it as often as you'd like.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Baking Soda

1/4 cup Arrowroot Powder (you can find this in health stores)

4 tablespoons Coconut Oil

10 drops of essential oil (any flavor you choose)

A jar with a lid

First in a small bowl, mix up all the dry ingredients. Then start to add the oils a little at a time. Mix with a fork or any other mixing utensil until you get the consistency that you like. If you put it in the microwave for about 15 seconds it will soften the mixture, of course this depends on how strong your microwave is. It makes it liquid consistency which is much easier to stir and put into your jar if you're having trouble doing it the other way. It will solidify as it cools off.

To apply to your armpits, you take a small amount in your fingers and kinda warm it up but rubbing your fingers together, then rub it in each armpit. You only need to apply it once! The other nice thing, no more deodorant marks on your shirts! Also, this is inexpensive to make and the ingredients won't expire on you for a long time.


Here are all of the ingredients you will need to make quite a few of these deodorants (you can give them away as party favors or gifts to your dearest friends):

2012 Academy Award Fashions

The stars aligned last night for the 2012 Oscars to give themselves and their fellow filmmakers a pat on the back for the good work they've done this year. But what's more important than which movies won which awards? The fashions all these stars wore, that's for sure! If you'd like to see the photos larger, just click on them and the full-sized image will pop up! Enjoy!

The Good
As much as I dislike the fact that Angelina Jolie basically only wears black, nude or white gowns, this dress looked absolutely amazing on her. I think she could have worn some more jewels for the event, but the smile on her face really just makes the outfit. Brad Pitt could be a little better looking if he just did something with that outdated hair that just doesn't flatter his face. Angelina wore Atelier Versace and Brad Pitt wore Tom Ford.

George Clooney showed up with his leading lady, Stacy Keibler, on his arm, he wore Armani and she wore Marchesa. They were the cutest couple of the night, I like their fashion sense and style more than I like Brad and Angelina's simply because I've seen Stacy take more risks than Angelina (it probably helps she has that amazing figure) and George always looks clean-shaven and proper, unlike Pitt.

Natalie Portman wore vintage Dior Haute Couture from 1954. She looked like a beautiful mixture of Grace Kelly and Elizabeth Taylor in this 50's inspired look. Her Harry Winston jewels were absolutely breathtaking and befitting Hollywood royalty such as herself. This retro chic look hit all the right notes.

Jessica Chastain wore this beautiful black and gold Alexander McQueen gown which was perfectly complimented by her strawberry blonde/reddish locks. She didn't wear lots of heavy jewelry and that's the right decision considering how jam-packed this dress is with dripping gold florals.

Although I'm not usually a fan of Michelle Williams for her uber-conservative and shapeless dress choices, last night she got it right in this Louis Vuitton vintage gown in beautiful tangerine. Kudos to her for pulling off that pixie haircut and bright color combination, she was bright and fresh and reminded us of Spring.

Milla Jovovich wore a delicious white Elie Saab gown to the event and her hair and makeup were all from the right retro inspirations. She can do no wrong, she did used to be a supermodel!

Meryl Streep wore this gold Lanvin gown which was chic and effortless, just like her third Oscar win and 17th nomination!! She looked like a Grecian Goddess in this easy-to-wear gown. I really admire that she considers comfort as well as beauty and doesn't just wear something because it looks good but is extremely uncomfortable like many other stars do.

Missi Pyle's Valentina Delfino couture gown deserves honorable mention at this year's Academy Awards because it was completely eco-friendly. It was made out of peace silk and recycled polyester as well as being dyed with natural dyes to get that beautiful aqua turquoise color. She's saving the world one beautiful gown at a time.

Octavia Spencer did it all right and went elegant in this Tadashi Shoji gown. The gown flatters her shape without hiding her body, like plus-sized fashions tend to do.

Although I do not agree with Cameron Diaz on her choice of hairstyle/makeup, her Gucci dress was perfectly beautiful and acceptable for the Oscars. It may have looked nicer if it had more color so we could see the distinct ruffles at the bottom. But it's good enough to not be in the 'bad' category. Next time, I hope she decides to put on some extensions or freshly dye her hair for the event.

Glenn Close stunned in this Zac Posen gown with a jacket which showed off her amazing body. She chose the right hairstyle and makeup and was a sight at the Oscars. Beautiful and classy, feminine and masculine all wrapped into one outfit. Great job to whoever her stylist is!

Gwenyth Paltrow surprised everyone and showed up in a Tom Ford dress attached to a cape! I'm putting her in the 'best dressed' category for that brave and outlandish choice. The dress didn't flatter her body so much, but who cares, because all I could look at was the cape anyway!

The Bad
Emma Stone is a beautiful and talented funny girl but this Giambattista Valli dress completely ate her up. She looked like a giant Christmas Present with that oversized bow that made her head look tiny in comparison. This dress did nothing for her figure or face, this is a dress that nobody should ever wear, regardless of the occasion (unless you're trying to blend in with a pile of presents).

Poor Melissa McCarthy, I don't know what her stylist was thinking when she was advised to wear this atrocity. Draping and ruching can be done very  beautifully, especially in larger-sized fashions, to contour a woman's body and make it appear thinner than it is. However, this Marina Rinaldi dress did the exact opposite and probably added about 50 lbs to Melissa McCarthy. The color choice was all wrong, the embellishments were gaudy, and the sleeves were befitting a butterfly, not a human.

Jennifer Lopez (J. Lo or whatever name she goes by now) relived 2000 with this super low-plunging neckline gown by Zuhair Murad. Unfortunately for J.Lo, this dress was the wrong color, had a strange lined pattern which accentuated all the wrong places, and was completely inappropriate for the event. J.Lo disappoints me every time she goes to red carpet events because she looks much better dressed down, she has the worst taste in gowns.

Kristen Wiig wore this ruffly explosion dress by J. Mendel in a color that was very close to her own skin-tone. I'm not a fan of this dress or her hair styling, too much randomness for an event where she should have looked classy and beautiful.

Sandra Bullock really disappointed in this drab Marchesa gown that looked like a tuxedo-dress gone awry. Her gown engulfed her and hid her beautiful shape, and the embellishments were more befitting a siren gown rather than what this dress turned into.

The Glitter
Ellie Kemper, the funny redhead from 'Bridesmaids' wore a copper Armani Prive gown and it looked great on her, even matching her red hair, she definitely stood out from the crowd at the Oscars.

Melissa Leo's dress was like a glitter explosion strapless dress on top of a short-sleeved glitter explosion shirt. It was all  just too much glitter and contrast, even her heels remind me of the '90s. This Reem Acra gown stood out for all the wrong reasons.

Anna Faris was an absolute fright last night in her Diane von Furstenberg glitter gown in severe black. The hair and makeup were so aging on her and she completely deprived us of any joy when we looked at her. That dress was like a black sparkle hole, sucking the life out of the usually entertaining Anna Faris.

What was up with the glitter at this event? It's like somebody sent out a memo for everyone to wear glitter and they did! Rose Byrne looked okay in this Vivien Westwood gown, although she looks a little too skinny for my taste, and this dress isn't accentuating anything super-feminine about her body. Otherwise, her hair and makeup looks good, at least it's an improvement over Anna Faris.

Pastel Dream Lookbook

Pastel Dream Sunday by lethalglam featuring studded jewelry

Foil dress
fashion.1stdibs.com

ASOS bucket bag
$50 - asos.com

Studded jewelry
$15 - topshop.com

Pastel Bangle Set
$25 - oasis-stores.com

Pastel Dream Sunday

Pastel Dream Sunday by lethalglam featuring studded jewelry

Foil dress
fashion.1stdibs.com

ASOS bucket bag
$50 - asos.com

Studded jewelry
$15 - topshop.com

Pastel Bangle Set
$25 - oasis-stores.com






Pastels are all the rage this spring, so if you're obsessed with trends, make sure you adhere to this girly,  romantic one! I'm a big fan of the mint mixed with peach and pink with a hint of gold. Mesh is a great mix with this girly combination to add a touch of toughness! Hope you're all having a great weekend and wonderful Sunday, see you tomorrow with more posts <3 


xoxo,
Alex