Runway model spills

In honor of Paris Fashion Week wrapping up here's a few videos of runway models taking a spill...













Stay safe models.

Temptation Is Beautiful Sweepstakes

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of KAO Brands. All opinions are 100% mine.

Kao Brands (Curel, Jergens, Biore, Ban and John Frieda) is currently running a great sweepstakes I thought some of you giveaway savvy bloggers might be interested in! The "Temptation is Beautiful" sweepstakes is super easy to enter (all you need to do is register on the sweepstakes website). There will be toooons of great prizes such as (DUNDUNDUN)....

A tempting beauty basket (ARV $75) for a daily winner filled with a nice selection of beauty essentials. The contents of the basket are:

• Curel® Itch Defense™ skin balancing Moisture Lotion 13 oz.
• Jergens® natural glow Foaming Daily Moisturizer Fair to Medium 5 oz.
• Jergens Naturals® Ultra Hydrating Daily Moisturizer 16.8 oz.
  
• Biore® Steam Activated Cleanser 5 oz.
• Biore® Make Up Removing Towelettes 30 ct.
• Biore® Deep Cleansing Pore Strips 8 ct.
• Ban® Powder Fresh roll-on or Ban® Shower Fresh roll-on 3.5 oz.
• Frizz Ease® Smooth Start® Repairing Shampoo 10 oz.
• Frizz Ease® Smooth Start® Repairing Conditioner 10 oz.
• Root Awakening® Smoothing Lotion 4 oz.
• Root Awakening® Hair Spray 10 oz..
  

PLUS a grand prize winner will win a trip to Las Vegas for themselves and 3 of their friends plus $1,500 in spending money! WoooooooHoooooo!

The sweepstakes is open to US residents and you can enter for the beauty basket and grand prize each day, so I definitely recommend starting to get in those daily entries! The sweepstakes ends on 5/8/2010 @ 11:59pm ET.

While you're dropping by to the enter the sweeps (and even if you don't) the site has a fun Temptress Temperature Quiz you can take. My Temptress Temperature is.... cold (womp womp). Is it sad to say I'm actually not surprised by that result at all?


Take the quiz at Temptation is Beautiful for yourself (hopefully you fare better than me) and post your results below!

Good luck everyone!

Paul Smith's "Vintage Perfume Bottle" Print - cute or tacky?

Key Purse and Frame Purse

Okay, that was sort of a rhetorical question. I actually find this print unfailingly cute. It's clean, it's classy and it's fun. The smell of perfume isn't even something I enjoy and I still love this print! Here's a close up:


However, there IS one thing about this print I'm not so sure of... on the back of each bag you'll find the following:

If you can't see because of the glare, it reads: "Happiness is like perfume: you can't give it away without getting a little on yourself". It's a quirky addition, fun and playful, but I kind of liked the print better when I didn't know that was there. What do you think? Is the quote a good addition or not?

Funky Monkey Snacks Review + Giveaway!

I was recently given the opportunity to try out Funky Monkey Snacks for the first time and woooow these are super delicious! I was able to try out each of the 7 flavors which includes: Bananamon (banana with cinnamon), Carnaval Mix (banana, apple, pineapple and papaya), Jivealime (pineapple with lime), Purple Funk (banana with açai), Applemon (apple with cinnamon), MangOJ (mango with orange juice), and Pink Pineapple (pineapple with guava).

In addition to tasting great, Funky Monkey Snacks are:

• 100% natural
• 100% real fruit
  
• nothing added (no added colors, flavors, sugars, or preservatives)
• GMO free
• 100% organic (Pink Pineapple is 95% organic and Carnaval Mix is 70% organic)
• gluten free, vegan and certified kosher
• made with full, fresh fruit slices and pieces (not dices)
  
• made in Brazil using tropical fruits at the peak of freshness
• made using a special, proprietary manufacturing process provides for a crunchier texture vs. conventional freeze-drying techniques

Top row: Jivealime, Pink Pineapple, MangOJ
Bottom row: Applemon, Purple Funk, Bananamon

My general impressions:

Pineapple: The freeze dried pineapple was a nice surprise. Pineapple is one of my favorite fruits and I'm admittedly extremely picky about it. I love fresh pineapple, but hate canned and conventional dried pineapple. I'm happy to say that the flavor of the pineapple slices in Funky Monkey Snacks is closest to that of a fresh, juicy pineapple. The flavor is pleasant and not too overpoweringly sweet with a slight tartness. The crispiness from freeze drying gives a nice texture, similar to that of a honeycomb type candy. The lime in Jivealime was refreshing and gave the fruit an even more tartness which I absolutely loved, while the plain variety in the Carnaval Mix was a little bit sweeter (perfect for pineapple purists). Pink Pineapple had a nice grapefruit essence which imparted a slight bitterness (characteristic of grapefruit flavor) and a nice flavor complexity.

Apple: The freeze dried apple slices are very similar taste-wise and texture-wise to what you would find in your standard crispy apple chip- but conventional apple chips typically have preservatives, sugars and/or oils added to them. Funky Monkey uses only apple and cinnamon (no sugars, no oils, no preservatives) in their Applemon snacks so the better option is pretty clear! The cinnamon in the Applemon variety is mild and very nice despite the pieces looking pretty heavily coated. I loved both the plain (from the Carnaval Mix) and cinnamon coated flavors.

Banana: Banana is another one of those fruits that I'm super picky about. I typically like bananas in baked goods or in cereals but don't really care for either the dried or fresh varieties. I was pretty surprised that I actually did like the banana flavor in these snacks. Compared to conventionally dried banana slices, Funky Monkey's banana slices are not as overwhelmingly sweet and the texture is not as dense and hard. The texture of these snacks is light and airy and but when eaten they have a slight creaminess to them as well. My favorite was probably the Purple Funk. Despite being crazy about health foods, I've never actually had açai so I'm not really sure what its is supposed to taste like. What I do know is that they gave the banana slices a nice splash of color and a mild flavor that didn't impart any extra sweetness or tartness, but rather a nice complexity to the taste. The Bananamon pieces seemed a little more airy than the Purple Funk and the cinnamon taste was a little faint, but very pleasant.

Mango & Papaya: These were the only flavors that I didn't really care much for. The pieces were a bit more dense than the other fruits and the flavor of the mango was reminiscent more dried fruit than fresh. MangoOJ had a slight bitterness to it, giving it more of an "adult" flavor. This is the only flavor I think most children probably wouldn't really enjoy (although adults certainly would). The flavor of the papaya in the Carnaval Mix was good and very reminiscent of fresh papaya but in general not papaya is not one of my favorite fruits. If you like papaya this is great.

Funky Monkey Snacks can be purchased at a number of major retailers including Whole Foods, Super Target and Safeway and online at Amazon.com.

I'm super happy that I was given the opportunity to try out these great snacks and will definitely pick up some again when I'm in the mood for snacking. I'd also like to offer one of you the opportunity to try them out as well!

--------------------

Funky Monkey was generous enough to offer one of my readers a sampler pack of Funky Monkey Snacks (1 pack of each flavor), yum!

*To enter all you need to do is visit Funky Monkey Snacks and tell me something interesting you found on their website that hasn't been mentioned here.

For one extra entry each you can:

* Follow this blog via Google Friend Connect
* Subscribe to my blog via RSS or email (if subscribing by email your email must be confirmed, also list your email here)
* Post this giveaway in your blog and leave a link to your post
* Tweet about the giveaway and leave a link to your tweet (you may tweet once per day)
*Follow Funky Monkey Snacks on Twitter
*Follow Funky Monkey Snacks on Facebook

Please leave a separate comment for each entry! Also make sure to leave your email address in one of your comments or have your email address visible in your profile.

This giveaway will end on March 24, 2010 at 11:59 PM PST. Open to US readers only. Good luck!

Giveaway winner: Redfuzzycow

**I was sent samples of Funky Monkey snacks to try for review purposes and allowed to post my thoughts at my discretion. I did not receive any monetary compensation for this post. All opinions expressed here are mine.**

Ecotools 6 piece eyebrush set & bronzer brush review

Earlier last month beauty accessory company ecoTOOLS launched a number of new and improved cosmetic brushes, some of which I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to try out for myself. If you haven't yet heard of ecoTOOLS, they manufacture a wide range of affordable and earth-friendly beauty tools, bath tools, skin care, and cosmetic bags. Their products can be found at Target, Ulta, and Whole Foods among many other convenient locations.


I was sent the new 6-piece eye brush set ($7.99) and bronzer brush ($9.99) to try out. The 6-piece eye brush set includes a large eye brush, angled crease brush, petite eye shading brush, highlighting brush, smudge brush and a hemp and cotton case with mirror. Each brush also has its name printed on it so that you don't get the brushes mixed up (ingenious). And $7.99 for 6 pieces... that comes out to less than $1.34 per piece which is pretty amazing!

I've been using more expensive cruelty free brushes and ecoTOOLS, despite being very inexpensive in comparison, definitely stands up to the higher priced competition. The brush handles are sturdy, the bristles feel soft and gentle on the skin, and the application results are great. My only qualm is that I wish these came in a more minimal package that could easily be recycled. The plastic outside packaging is very cute and is meant to be reusable, but I wonder how many people actually do reuse it. The following is a breakdown of my general impressions of the brushes:

ecoTOOLS vs. more expensive professional brushes:

• The more expensive competition that I've used in the past is somewhere in the range of two to three times (yikes) more expensive than ecoTOOLS.
  
• A problem I've often found with more expensive brushes is that are often wayyy too bulky. ecoTOOLS brushes are the perfect size: they are large enough to comfortably hold during application yet small enough to be conveniently stored at home or packed away for travel.
• Most professional brushes are made of "natural fibers" which come from animal sources. ecoTOOLS bristles are made from Taklon, which is a soft, non-irritating, animal-friendly (and vegan-friendly) fiber that gives results as clean and professional as natural fibers.
• ecoTOOLS participates in "1% for the planet" which means 1% of all ecoTOOL's sales benefit environmental organizations.
  

ecoTOOLS vs. other drugstore brands:

• The materials used by ecoTOOLS are much more ecologically friendly. Brushes and packaging is made of bamboo, recycled steel and aluminum, soybean oil, non toxic inks and crushed walnuts. Compare this with the largely petroleum based materials used by standard cosmetic brands.
• The most common problem I've found with drugstore brushes is that the bristles are hard, stiff and irritating! ecoTOOLS bristles are super soft and very gentle on the skin.
  

In conjunction with the release of their new brushes, ecoTOOLS has also teamed up with celebrity makeup artist Meredith Baraf to bring you a number of great tutorials on Youtube for creating flawless makeup. I've embedded all of the videos below, enjoy!

Cunning Cat-Eye

Flawless Face

Sultry Smoky Eye

Touched-up Face For Day to Night

**I was given 6 piece eye brush set & bronzer brush samples from eco-tools for review purposes. I was not given any form of monetary compensation for this post, all opinions expressed here are mine.**