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#MakeupMonday – San Francisco Bay Area Beauty

If you follow me on Twitter, you know I was recently in the Bay for over a week for work and business (and some leisure ;-) ). While I was up there, I had more time than usual, so I decided to do something I’d thought about for a while, and that is to find the “happening” beauty spots in the San Francisco Bay.

Well. I tell ya. I was initially a little disappointed, particularly with San Francisco. Being the hip, “West Coast New York” that it is, I was expected to find my hip, funky little ‘off the beaten path’ stores. Instead, I was surprised to find mostly the same large beauty chains that one can find in most cities. I’m sure the hip little stores do exist and I’ll try finding them again on future trips. What I did find in visiting the big stores, however, was that these stores often carry brands and products that other stores in the chain might not. Here then is what I found on my first SF Bay beauty excursion; Continue reading →

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Shu Uemura to Cease US Operations

In major “get it while you can” news, L’Oreal is apparently pulling the plug on the Shu Uemura line in the United States. When they changed the formulation of the Nobara creme foundation – which was one of the best foundations ever produced – and then when Mr. Uemura passed away, you just knew something was happening and it wouldn’t be long before the bottom fell out.

L’Oreal holds all of the international rights for the Shu brand outside of Japan. Presumably this means that the line will still be available abroad, and of course it will still be available in Japan. But us makeup mavens in the US will have to suffer as L’Oreal decides to focus on more pedestrian brands and the generally more profitable fragrances market.

I can’t tell you how much this pains me. While this is a major brand in the Asian market, for whatever reason Shu Uemura remained more of a pro and cult status brand here in the US. It is unfortunate that with the conglomeration of more and more brands under big corporate umbrellas, niche/specialty lines are squeezed out in favor of those that will appeal to the most broad consumer base. Would there was a way for big business to recognize the value of both.

Shu Uemura – whether recognized in the States or not – is one of the best cosmetics lines ever. As long as the product quality remains the same, one way or another I will find these products and keep them in my kit.

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Rumor Has It – Shu Uemura

So if you read my “Top Ten Makeup Products Without Which I Would Die” post, you know that one of the top ten is Shu Uemura’s Nobara creme foundation. I also mentioned in that post that the Nobara was no longer listed on the Shu Uemura website and that Nordstrom’s had it as “Temporarily Out of Stock” which is usually the mark of death for a beauty product. Well, Rumor Has It that Nobara as we knew it has, in fact, been discontinued. “Word on the street” is that it will be back, reformulated (sigh!) and in a Stick format. As I mentioned in Top Ten, stick creme foundations are great for consumers as they’re compact, easier to work with and often not quite as pigmented as the type of creme foundation that pros use. It’s that last line that concerns me. The Shu Uemura cosmetics line was sold to L’Oreal in 2004 and it has pretty much my one exception to the I Do Not Buy L’Oreal Products rule that I keep. At the time of the sale they were keeping the line in it’s original state as Mr. Uemura created it (as such Shu Uemura has been a cruelty free line whereas L’Oreal products are not necessarily). Based on this change with the Nobara foundation, it seems now that they are making more of a move towards being a consumer line. That would be highly, highly unfortunate. Heaven help us all if they ever changed/discontinued the Cleansing Oils or the Depsea Water!

Obviously, none of this is set in stone. They may well be taking the same exact Nobara formula and putting it in a stick format and calling it a day. That would be great! For now, we shall have to wait and see…

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Top Ten Makeup Products Without Which I Would Die

As a makeup enthusiast and product junkie I love knowing what’s new in makeup-landia; what the trends are, what the hot new brands are, etc. As a makeup artist, however, I have to temper my enthusiasm with what works. Sometimes all you have 10-15 minutes to do the job and it needs to look like you spent an hour. This is where your Stand By products come in. No time for experimentation; I need to reach in, grab a product, and know exactly what it’s going to do. If you’re an aspiring artist, take note as many of these products are unilaterally loved by makeup artists all over. Makeup aficionados take note as many of these products are what artists are actually using, even when they say they’re using something else. ;)

Here then are my Top Ten products: Continue reading →

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