Tuesday, April 7. II will be visiting my parents in the midwest over the weekend (the shop will be in capable hands and otherwise open regular hours). I’m going home to celebrate my mom’s last radiation treatment!  (That’s after 6+ long months of chemo and radiation).   So I think she deserves an extra day with me, don’t you?

Sunday, April 14. It’s Easter, and therefore a major holiday.  Go hunt some eggs and bite the heads off chocolate bunnies.

So this morning I stopped by the mega natural foods mart because I wanted to try a product I am thinking of adding to my line up.  I try not to shop there because they engage in some pretty predatory/unethical business practices against their locally owned competition.  In this case, they are the only store in town that carries this line, and sometimes a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do in the name of research.

Turns out the branch closest to my house doesn’t carry the line I was looking for anyway. When I asked the helpful person in the beauty department if they carried it, she asked me what I thought of the line (hereafter referred to as “Line A”).   I told her Line A is really good (one of the main reasons I don’t carry it is because Mega Natural Food Mart does, and I try to stock smaller and more hard to find brands).  She then asked me what I thought about Line B, which they also don’t carry in that store but are considering adding (it seemed to be a choice  between A and B).  I told her I think line B is overpriced, isn’t all that natural, and doesn’t work very well.  She replied that “well, line B has sales reps come by all the time” and implied they would probably go with Line B because of that reason.  So I am left standing there thinking, “What the heck?”  If omnipresent sales reps are a main criteria for stocking one product line over another, that really makes me question whether they even think about whether the products are any good or what the ingredients are.   It also reinforces the discouraging feeling that large companies that devote a lot of resources to sales and marketing are going to get more shelf space and magazine write ups,  even if their products suck. (Duh.) It is pretty much what my cynical self would have expected, but somehow I was still a little surprised.

To bring my mini-rant to a close, please shop at your locally owned co-op, grocery, or organic beauty store. Or if you don’t live anywhere you can get the products you want, use a good independently owned online source rather than one of the big companies that don’t know their products and don’t support diversity in the marketplace.  Mini rant is now officially over.

P.S. Don’t forget the Portland Boutique and the online store will be closed January 15- January 26 for vacation.

There are three new blush colors: Garnet Luminous Shimmer is a medium glow-y red/pink, Geranium Satin Matte is a deep neutral rose for a natural look on medium to darker skin tones, and Antique Rose Satin Matte,  a soft neutral rose that will lend a demure tint to lighter skin tones.

Due to many requests, I am now stocking the Satin  Finishing Powder in Keiko (a light neutral, good for 1-3 foundation colors)  and Hanae (medium neutral, a good match through most 3-4 foundation colors).  Finishing powder lends a soft-focus over mineral foundation or bare skin.  If you would like to see a darker colors in the shop, please let me know. I am happy to stock them if I know there is demand for them.

Fantastic new eyeshadow colors for fall include:  Viola (a pearluster smokey violet), Praline (a pearluster green gray that is great for every day), Mocha (a pearluster cool, rich brown), Plum (a luminous shimmer deeper purple-pink),  and Smoke (a deep blue/gray/green luminous shimmer).

Last but not least, there are some great new mineral eye liner colors: Pewter and Black Violet in satin matte, and Koan (a lovely medium gray shimmer that would alsodouble as a good shadow for the much sought after “smoky eye”), and Enchantment (a darker smoky violet shimmer).  You’ll be all mysterious and and sultry for your upcoming holiday soirees.

If you’ve never used a powdered eyeliner, you should come give them a try.  They are easy to use, quite forgiving, and stay on a long time.  You can use it dry with  a brush for a smudged line,  or dampen an angle liner brush for an instant liquid eyeliner and a more refined look.   The learning curve is gentle, and once you get the hang of it, pencils seem a little blah.