Clash of the Cosmetic Companies: Milani vs. MAC

Any beauty lover worth his/her weight in lipgloss has taken the time to search for more affordable options when it comes to beauty buys.  My beauty blogging buddies - Nikkia, Kerris, Kia, Toni P., Tia and Yannize (aka BBM Divas) spend countless amounts of blackberry airtime trying to decide if the latest collection is worth a splurge or contains a dupeable item. 

Well recently we came across a gem by way of Milani cosmetics-Milani Lip Flash.  As many of you are already aware MAC released their Dare to Wear Collection to much excitement.  I cant lie the lip products are indeed gorgeous and I happen to own 4 of them (3 lipglass, 1 lipstick) so imagine my surprise when we discovered that the Milani Lip Flash pencils were a strikingly close dupe of these.  I believe I paid maybe $5 if that for them and come on $5 vs $18 is a no brainer (though I had already paid for the MAC ones but that is besides the point people!)  Here are some comparison swatches:

 Above is the display at CVS.

These are the Lip Flash swatches (the sorta clear swatch in the first photo is not Lip Flash BTW)

These are the Dare to Wear swatches.

Now I know one is a gloss and the other is a pencil but seriously once the gloss sets it is the same consistency and feel as the pencils in my opinion.  I would even go as far to say that the pencils aren't as drying to the lips.  Now before the MAC maniacs come for me, I love MAC just as much as the next person but that is honestly my opinion.  Just about everything else is comparable - color pay off, wearability, sparkle factor - yep its all there. 

I haven't been able to locate the Lip Flash pencils on the Milani site but they have been in every CVS I have been in over the past few months from DC, to LA to Miami so be sure to check them out.

Bridal Work - Images at last!

Most MUA's will tell you that when you work with brides it is pretty much guaranteed that you will NOT see any images of the work you do on that day.  Unless you know the bridal photographer or establish a hook up on the spot you can forget about it.  I, for one, have come to terms with it, though it would be nice for my portfolio I am not going to go hunting brides down for images.  I am satisfied if they are just happy with the look I give them for the day.

Well as luck would have it I came across a blog post via Twitter of a bridal vendor I worked with a few months ago on a wedding at the beautiful National Harbor.  The bride and her family were really great to work with and now I get to see images from that day!  Head on over to Belle Soeur Bridal Blog (Hey Alison!) to read about the day and see me in action!

**UPDATE**   I am on a roll today!  As soon as I posted about the blog I came across a video of another bride I worked with this summer.  Check out the Sweet Marital Bliss theater to view a vid of Angela & David's wedding day.

Going back to Cali, Cali, Cali...

As I mentioned before I had to travel to CA in August through September for work.  Well as luck would have it I have been asked to go back again.  I just found this out not even an hour ago so I prepare mentally for my upcoming trip, I figured why not share some of the things I did on my downtime when I was there last...

The pool area looked so inviting from my room...too bad I didnt get to experience not any of it!  LOL  I worked pretty much from sun up to sun down so the little bit of downtime that I did have didnt allow me to lounge by the pool.  So close, yet so far...


I made serious use of Yelp while I was there.  I stayed in Commerce literally walking distance from The Citadel Outlet Mall but there is only so much food court I can do.  I did happen upon a pretty good Pho restaurant at the food court though.  YUM!  I had been wanting to try it for a while so I was rather excited about that.

I also was determined to have some shaved ice while there.  I first learned of this dessert via Xppinkxx's blog, which I love by the way, come to think of it I learned of Pho via her too - she is such the bad influence, in the best way possible!  So to Yelp I went and 30 minutes later I found myself in a little place called Class 302 and the only black girl for miles!  LOL  Can you imagine what the patrons and owners mustve been thinking when I walked in there?  I had on heels for one so my height was quite apparent, locs, and HUGE anti-socials (sunglasses in case you didnt know)  hilarity!  Thankfully they had pictures because the menu was totally not in English, all Taiwanese baby!  I made it work though and here is what I ordered...

 The infamous shaved ice and it was soooooo worth it!  And they gave you so much.  Mango, strawberry, condensed milk...joy in a Styrofoam cup I swear!  And yes the image is first because I ate some of this first.  As soon as I got back in the car actually.  Greedy...

 I think this was shrimp, and it was spicy, other than that I dont remember.  Not because it wasnt good but just that my memory sucks.

 My entree came in this cute little box - and there you have the address info and number in case you find yourself in the area.  Def worth it.

This was salmon, perfectly cooked, not overdone, salty, sweet, just yum.  Hands down one of the best meals I had in Cali.

While there my friend Kesh needed a mini-vacay so she came on out with the understanding that I couldn't hang out too much.  We did manage to have dinner though...we wanted guacamole desperately.  So I asked a co-worker and she gave me a suggestion.  Said it had the best food, etc, yada yada.  Come to find out she thought when I said my girlfriend was in town that I meant girlfriend+girlfriend.  So she pointed us in the direction of a gay-owned, gay-frequented restaurant!  LOL  And how about we didnt care?  LOL  The food was awesome, as were the beverages (read: STRONG!) so it was all for the good.

 This was my dinner, seafood enchiladas FTW!  So upset I cant think of the name of this place.  Have to check my Foursquare history because immediately after I checked in here I started to get followed on Twitter by a gay pride twitter account.  LOL  I love it!

Also while Kesh was there I checked Yelp again for a good brunch spot.  It just happened that it was right around the corner from People's Revolution!  I was extra amped about that especially since I had recently finished reading Kelly Cutrone's book, meanwhile Keisha had no idea what I was talking about.  LOL  Nevermind, Blu Jam Cafe is where we ended up and again Yelp can really do no wrong.  I am all about eggs benedict and they did not disappoint, see for yourself...

I mean come ON!!!!

I had one last Yelp adventure while in California.  I wanted to try Hortacha (a drink of Mexican culture the contains cinnamon, sugar and ground rice that is said to be a cure for hangover - no I didnt have a hangover) so I did a search and there was a place right around the corner from the office.  Once again I was a fish out of water being the only black girlie in the place but again it didnt matter to me!  I ended up ordering my drink along with the fish tacos...

 while it was yum, my stomach was not happy afterwards...I wont speak on that any further...

The tacos were very good.  Light and flavorful.  The peppers, eh, while on Yelp everyone raved I didn't really see what all the hoopla was about.  They weren't bad, they just weren't awesome.

So that was it for my food adventures.  I leave you with some random un-FOTD's.  I don't know if it was the water or what in CA but my skin dried out considerably.  Due to that I didn't really do too much in the way of makeup.  That's how the whole liner and a lip movement came about.

Really random FOTDs and crappy cell pics

The title says it all but I bothered to take the pics so I may as well force them on you.  I dont know product info or exact dates so if you have a question I can try to answer but other than that...Enjoy! 

 been into my Kevyn Aucoin books and the whole Sam Fine look lately-that contoured neutral look, not to be confused with natural.  I am all over it.  Still on the hunt for the perfect contour though, in this instance I used a brown shadow

 uh yeah I dont know.  I wanted to do a pink lip with a smokey silver eye, works for me I guess :shrug

 natural look with a forced smile...mustve been work bound...

 in sunny CA in August on business but this was during some down time obviously.  I was all about a bold lip and eyeliner while there

 see?  still bold lips and eyeliner and my little faux turban look that my friend clowned me about but I love it!

 This last pic was taken in September.  I was on my way to my friends 30th bday party.  I did her makeup for the big event and tried to do a Ledisi type pin up on my hair.  I think it went pretty well.  See below for a pic from the party with some of my friends...

 The birthday girl Kesh and a shot of her makeup

 Here's a pic of some of the crew.  Purple is the bday girl Kesh, fav color.  Everyone else wore either black or grey.  The end!

Hair Update - 1 year post big chop and 5 month old locs

Just wanted to check in with an update on the hair.  It has been a year since I did the big chop and my hair is really thriving.  More-so since I started loc'ing, in my opinion.  I think if I was still a free natural I wouldn't experience the same results, only because my hair tends to curl into itself quite a bit.  My new loctician even said the same thing at my last visit (I will get to that a bit later).  On to the pics!

 this was when I first started back in late April/early May-I started with two strand twists on top and comb coils in the back

 

 at this point in the game about a month later they are beginning to look more like locs to me for some reason but see how spacey, ugh

 

as I stated here, my front and sides have always been my problem area.

 But the back thrives no matter what, except for one tiny little patch close to the nape of my neck that refuses to do right...

eventually the sides started to catch up, this is June/July

 yay finally!

 loc maintenance is needed but at this point my hair is growing rapidly and it takes too long for me to do it so...

 I let it do what it do baby - this is in August.  I am on a business trip and BUSY.  No time to worry about what my hair is doing for real.

finally home after CA business trip and itching for some color, wanted it that exact color...

 instead I got this - do you see color?  cause I don't.  Oh and don't mind my face I was trying a drag inspired look - eh not so much...oh and after the color my hair dried out and I didnt retwist my whole head, it was too much.  I did the front and back and kept it moving, until...

 I finally found a loctician that i LOVE!  You would think there would be an abundance of natural salons in 'Chocolate City' and I guess there is a decent amount, but I needed a certain something that I wasn't finding.  Now I have found him and my hair is very happy, and so are my arms since I don't have to do my own maintenance. We discovered that I actually have a lot of locs, not as small as sisterlocs but damn near close so as they continue to grow I will have to be careful with them.

My hair is definitely growing and I am in love with them.  Salih said that he didn't realize how long they were the first time he did my hair because my hair curls into itself a lot, which I already knew.  This last time I went for loc maintenance (about a week ago) I was so surprised by the length and I see my own hair every day.  Salih went through and carefully performed maintenance on each and every loc so I probably wont have to visit him for another month or so.  Though it did rain quite a bit yesterday and I chose to go without an umbrella, only because I could but I kinda like when they puff up.  :)

Its Over...Leave It!

So as you may have noticed once again I have let this poor little blog fall by the wayside once again.  I was on a roll for a second there and feeling proud of myself but then we had a major project come up at work that forced me to get deployed for a few weeks and then reassigned for a good 2 months from my regular position (I am still on my reassignment).  Even more disconcerting than letting the blog go is I let a few readers down.  Remember my Summer Solstice Giveaway?  Well right when I was set to send the prizes out I got deployed and so the gifts still sit in my closet.  I have ever intention of still sending them out but ok its Fall now so I will be adding a little something more seasonally appropriate to apologize for the all around suckiness that has ensued around here since August for the readers who won.

I have decided to move on from TaTB, its suffering because of my day to day life and not to mention that whoever this other blogger is with a similar name to this blog keeps popping up in my Reader and its pissing me off.  I will still blog but I am going to do it under my name (since I own the domain anyway) and I havent decided just yet if it will just be beauty based since I write about beauty for The Examiner or what.  Until I make the final decision I will leave TaTB up and when I have the new blog address I will post a link to it here.  Thank you so much for checking me out, see you soon!