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Sahag Makeover

Sahag Salon Workshop is known for their edgy haircuts and transformational colors. John Sahag was one of the pioneers in dry cutting in NYC and the precision it offers. While I never had the pleasure of meeting him, he was a legend, especially in the Armenian community, and known in the industry as the “mad professor of hair”. It’s been a while since I had a dry style cut and maybe it was that or the genius that is Karmela Lozina, but my cut was phenomenal. She took the dry ends and only took off what needed and somehow my hair looked longer than when I came in. And it felt better than it has in years, the airiness and overall luster. We also talked hair health and Nutrafol supplements (her recommendation, the mens version over the womens), plus using Revita Hair Growth Shampoo is everything you need to boost hair strength, and especially good for women with thinning hair. I’ve actually been taking Nutrafol but the women’s version for the past few months (you need 3+ months before seeing a difference), so that was was great motivation to keep going. She also said it had a high dose of turmeric so you never get sick, which now that she mentions it, I usually get weird colds when seasons change which hasn’t happened this year. Her other advice was to drink a lot of water and eat avocados — which is like 50% of my diet — and between all of that your hair becomes like Wonder Women’s lasso. So I’ll be reporting back on that in a few months! Although after this cut I was feeling really good about my hair’s health.

[Outfit Details: Min and Mon Verto bag, Rag & Bone hat (similar), Fit Flop shoes, Levi’sForever 21 belt (similar), Levi’s Icons Jacket, H&M pants (similar)

Laura Geller 20th Anniversary Collection

The magic of Laura Geller continues! For the celebration of the brands 20th anniversary, she’s roaring in those 20s with the most unicorn envy, flapper worthy, limited edition collection. Inspired by the glitz and glam of the Roaring Twenties, (she even sent me a flapper-esque tiara, could you die?!) this launch is absolutely swoon worthy. Along with her covetable new collection, Laura’s got a lot to celebrate. She started off in the industry as a Broadway and celebrity makeup artist until she decided to launch her own line, Laura Geller Beauty, to bring her professional techniques to the masses. Additionally, Forbes dubbed her ‘The OG of Highlighting‘ (Sorry Becca) when her Contour and Highlight Kit debut in 1997 earning her the title of the longest standing beauty founder in QVC history. Her brand has successfully continued to grow and expand, so a major congratulations is in order. Also I really just love her as a person, she’s the real deal and a total inspiration.

Becca X Chrissy Teigen Glow Face Palette + Sunlit Bronzers

Becca X Chrissy Teigen Glow Face Palette

OMG Becca is bringing it! Their latest launches are so hot! There’s the Becca x Chrissy Teigen Glow Face Palette and 5 new bronzers that make up the Becca Sunlit Bronzer collection. All the details below but I just want to shout out what an awesome brand they are. Last week I had two opportunities to hear their President, Robert Debaker speak, first on a panel at the Pioneering Beauty event and the second when he accepted the brands CEW Beauty Insider Award for “Most Buzzed About Beauty Collaboration” for the Becca x Jaclyn Hill Champagne Collection (you can see all the winners HERE). Also in proud moments, Jaclyn replied to my congratulations tweet, which hit 1500 likes in no time (NBD!). What a force and their ability to bring really great products to market and cool girl collaborations continues with their latest launch!

Becca X Chrissy Teigen Glow Face Palette

So first of all, I love Chrissy Teigen and I wish we were besties/related. Secondly, did you all see the launch party with Chrissy and Becca when they had a slumber party in pink onesies to celebrate this collaboration? I almost died — and no I wasn’t there or invited, but I lusted over social media and pretended I was. As an amazing consolation prize, the palette arrived in the mail this week and I almost lost my mind! I’m going to be real candid when I say I saw the palette on social media, and was slightly underwhelmed. Seeing it in person was a whole other story! These colors are BEAUTIFUL, and buildable from a soft shimmer glow to super pigmented (as if Becca would have it any other way). Two perfect peachy highlighters, with a blush and bronzer that makes for the perfect all in one summer face palette.

Chrissy x Becca palette available at Sephora

Chrissy Teigan x Becca face palette swatches

Swatches left to right: Rose Gold Highlighter, Hibiscus Bloom Blush, Beach Nectar Highlighter, Malibu Soliel Bronzer

CEW Beauty Insider Winners Announced!

I love a good award show. And I look forward to the CEW Beauty Insider Awards every year. It’s a great networking event and opportunity to reconnect with so many of the brands I work with in person. I live tweeted most of the winners but wanted to share the quick run down, especially since I’m so excited that so many of the winning products are ones I use and found in my bathroom! All of the above can be found on my shelves with the exception of Hey Honey, a brand I’m new too and found in my gift bag. I don’t know how I missed the memo on them since they are available at Ulta and Dermstore but the brand won the QVC Beauty Quest Award, which is a big deal! The rest of the winners came as no surprise, especially Olay Total Effects and Regenerist products, which as some of you know my mom and I partnered with for the clinical testing before the products were released and saw major results (You can learn more HERE around that experience). So without further ado the 2017 CEW Beauty Insider Award winners are:

This Weekend! The Makeup Show NYC

This weekend, May 7-8th, kicks off the NYC Makeup Show, which for those who don’t know, is the holy grail of beauty brands and makeup professionals. The Makeup Show is the largest pro makeup event in the United States and teaches event goers techniques straight off the NYFW runways as well as giving them the opportunity to mingle with talented artists and shop their favorite pro brands (at a super discounted price, might I add). It’s also a time for star brands to unveil their latest collections and products for the first time ever. Like MAKE UP FOR EVER, will preview four products from their new Professional Artistic Collection which aren’t slated to launch until September. They also are offering discounds on some of their most esteemed core products.

The show runs from May 7-8, 9;00 am-6:00 pm at The Metropolitan Pavilion, 123 West 18th Street, NYC.

The Makeup Show is open to all professionals working or studying in the beauty and fashion industry. For tickets and to learn more visit: themakeupshow.com/nyc

Coachella Diaries: Neon Carnival, Victoria’s Secret Angel Oasis, Nylon, Bumbleland and more!

Coachella is always my favorite time of the year and this season, the parties were especially epic! The classics like Neon Carnival, I always look forward to as well as some new events like Victoria’s Secret Angel Oasis. This year we made it a double date and I traveled around with my girl, Kristi from Currently Crushing. For all the music, you can livestream the performances at live.coachella.com, as for the parties here’s a peek into them! All the parties featured in the video with details below!

COACHELLA DAY 1

Pre-festival hike with with Asics and Cobra Fitness Club.

If you’re in the Palm Springs Area, the Tahquitz Canyon Trail is a beautiful way to start the day. Asics outfitted guests outfits including these ASICS DynaFlyte sneakers for a pre-festival hike.

Victoria’s Secret VS Angel Oasis

This party did not disappoint, set in a beautiful mansion and with impeccable grounds there was not a shortage of activations or VS Angels dancing! They customized Levi’s denim jackets with angel wings by Phoebe Paints and Julia Adelina. Sarah Potempa of The Beachwaver and her team were doing hair (just like at the VS Fashion Show!), while Tarte was on makeovers (yes, their Shape Tape is everything it’s cracked up to be), and LECHAT was providing nail art and gel manicures. Frasier Sterling was also customizing chokers and RAD + REFINED was bedazzling their sunglasses and featured a special performance by Bebe Rexha! They also debuted their new Sexy Little Things collection, which is so hot! Quick slide show below of some favorites!

Burt’s Bees Bring Back the Bee’s Campaign

James and I at the Westin Mission Hills Bee Farm

I love bees. They literally make the world a brighter and better place. They pollinate all sorts of fruits and vegetables and the fact that they are disappearing at such an alarming rate is something we should all be paying attention to. From 2015-2016, the bee population has declined by a whopping 44% primarily due to unreliable food sources and pesticides. Which is why I’m so happy to see Burt’s Bee’s take some initiative on this! I kind of can’t stress enough how much these littler hard workers do for us!

Burt’s Bees is bringing back their ‘2016 Bring Back the Bees’ campaign where they helped plant over one billion wildflowers (an important food source for bees) again this year. The brand hosted their 2017 Bring Back the Bees kick-off party with actresses Troian Bellisario and Zosia Mamet, who are teaming up with the brand to combat declining bee populations, one selfie and lip balm at a time.

Read Before Desert: Coachella Packing Guide

I can’t believe Coachella is almost here! I’m so excited for some time with my boyfriend and to see all my LA friends in what I consider three of the most fun days of the year! I’m not even sure if I’m more excited for the festival or the parties! I keep seeing all of these ‘what to wear’ and ‘festival makeup’ tutorials but not so much the nitty gritty essentials that have made the experience so much better. So here it is, my compilation of must haves that will make your life so much easier:


 SPF! And a minimum of an SPF30 at that! I have my sunblock in everything from my primer, makeup to my self tanner! With the amount of sunburns I’ve seen and the amount of fun you can expect in the sun, don’t skip on sun protection! Pick your favorite but some new ones I’ve been obsessed with is Paula’s Choice RESIST Smoothing Primer Serum SPF 30, which has skin benefits, and acts like a primer with spf so your makeup goes on smoother. Murad City Age Defense SPF 50 is a current favorite as well, it’s probably the smoothest and most lightweight SPF I own, and super purse friendly. Lastly my assistant turned me onto Almay Healthy Glow Makeup + Self Tan SPF 20, which after a long winter and white legs instantly makes me look tan. It also makes my legs look ten years younger and covers all my spider veins and even some burn marks I have from some mishap clothing steamer experiences. Just a disclaimer though, don’t wear under white or pants, it does run (or at least it does for me even though I wait hours before putting anything over). It’s just my go to before going out and then I like to wash it off at night.

Moisturize – it gets dry in the desert! You want a good moisturizer to start and end your day and put back the hydration. The reformulated Olay Total Effects is a 7 in 1 moisturizer that does it all from replenishing moisture, evening skintone and smoothing out fine lines and wrinkles. The biggest note though for Coachella is in the updated forumla they added 50% more Vitamin E and twice the amount of Green Tea Extract which are two powerful antioxidants that protect skin cells against free radical damage (aka damage from sun exposure). I talk more about this product HERE.

Portable Steamer – those cute clothes mean nothing if they are all wrinkled from traveling. Personally I love Conair Turbo ExtremeSteam Handheld Fabric Steamer, granted it’s a little bulkier than some of the others on the market, it’s by far the best portable steamer I’ve ever used and works as well as my heavy duty one at home.

My Olay Journey is Live!

Results Matter – My 28-Day Journey with Olay

If you caught me in last month’s issue of Health magazine, you may have seen my partnership with Olay and interview where I shared my results of the 28-day clinical trial for the re-launch of their award-winning Total Effects Anti-Aging Moisturizer. You can read the whole article HERE. Formulated to nourish skin and reduce the 7 signs of aging, Olay re-engineered the original formula to now include 50% more Vitamin E and double the amount of Green Tea Extract to provide full protection against free radical damage.

Why does this matter? Natural antioxidants in our skin gets depleted in our skin over time due to sun exposure (wear that SPF!). Vitamin E and Green Tea Extract which are present in Total Effects, help to boost antioxidant levels while delivering powerful anti-aging benefits that improve the appearance of sun-damaged skin. Olay also reformulated other core products this year to enable women today to achieve the best results for their skin.

I am thrilled to unveil how I was able to test the performance of these new formulas in a most exciting way *drum roll please*….through a split face blind test with my mom! Want to find out if Olay’s reformulations really deliver results at any age? Watch our video here:

Ouai Style Bar opens at Bendel’s, Caudalie Moves, Malin+Goetz new store, Knockout launches at Bloomingdale’s and more!

Hair cut by Juan Carlos Maciques

It’s been an eventful few weeks of new beauty shops popping up around the city. Here’s a rundown of the events and new openings and products we’re excited about! Also I finally got a must needed chop (ugh the dry ends are no joke when you have this much bleach in your hair!) from celebrity hairstylist Juan Carlos Maciques, who cuts out of Rita Hazan, I even trusted him to do light layers. It’s been so much more curly and bouncy since the cut that I haven’t been straightening it as much and loving my natural wave! On to the good stuff… beauty lovers of NYC, here’s what’s now in your backyard:

Ouai x Dyson Styling Bar opens at Henri Bendel

Jen Atkin, celebrity hair stylist and creator of the hair care line Ouai launched an exclusive dry style bar pop up in collaboration with Dyson at Henri Bendel through April 30th. The featured menu offers four hair styles complete with Ouai products and the Dyson Supersonic hair dryer. Styling services will be available Tuesday – Saturday 11am – 6pm. All I know is that I’m literally foaming at the mouth to get my hands on that Ouai Foam Conditioner! Location: Henri Bendel, 712 5th Avenue, NYC, 2nd floor. Bookings and details HERE.

Madison Reed Color Bar featuring T3

We stopped in to the new-ish Madison Reed Color Bar for a root touchup and styling. Some of you may be familiar with their online service, providing customizable hair color based off of a short yet informative questionnaire. The perfect shade is sent right to your door for comfortable at-home hair coloring. Now you can experience their products along side their expert colorists at the Madison Reed Color Bar, where you can order your shade online and bring it with you or be color matched in person and they’ll do your hair for you. It’s the best of both worlds, affordable home color price tags with expert hair stylists to do your hair. They also use T3 Micro Tools, which we got a demo of these incredible hair styling tools as part of our color service at the event. Literally the T3 Volumizing Hot Rollers and hair dryer have changed my life — the hot rollers came as a shocker to me! And the Twirl Convertible Curler which lets you change the barrel size is next level genius! Stay tuned for more info on their hot tools, and demo but it’s so exciting they use these at the salon!