christine-murphy dot net

Yeah, I know I said I was going to make my own makeup box.  But that changed when Mike and I were at this outdoor store called Cabela’s, where I saw these fishing tackle box inserts.  They were pretty cheap, well under $20 for a four-pack, looked like a good solution for my BE makeup storage needs.  So I bought a four-pack.

I don’t own anywhere near as much BE makeup as some women I’ve met on message boards and stuff, so my collection only filled two of these boxes.

This box holds all of my eye shadows, as well as items also in the smaller containers.  I can fit a lot of them in here because I can set them sideways and still get the box closed.  At the top, I have sections for lip colors and eye stuff like mascara, eyeliner, brow gel, etc.  As you might be able to tell, the vertical dividers can be removed.  But the long horizontal ones can’t be moved.  If I had known that, I would have looked further.  But, oh well, I’ll make do with what I have, it’s better than what I HAD (which just involved throwing it all into a bag, where it was hard to see what was there).

The “medium” sized containers will not fit sideways, not if I want to close the box. So they go in this way. These are foundations, Mineral Veil, Bisque, etc.  I also made spaces for my Kabuki brushes, which will not fit into the brush roll (which you will see in a few moments), as they don’t have long handles.

Now we have the large containers, which do not fit at all, since I can’t move the horizontal dividers in these things. They are a foundation, a 25 SPF Mineral Veil, and a Soft Focus Glee.  If I were to use one of these boxes for travel, I’d leave the foundation and Mineral Veil at home (since I have  a smaller 25 SPF MV), and dispense some of the Glee into an empty smaller BE container.  I have a foundation that’s about to run out, I’ll just use that container, and put in in the same place in the box where that old foundation was.

This is my brush roll case. I got it for free when I was in the BE club, where I was getting foundations auto-shipped to me. I’ve since canceled that, but the freebies were nice. This came with a couple of brushes that I didn’t already have.  You can also purchase a similar brush roll at a BE Boutique, Sephora, or any other good cosmetic department or beauty supply store.

And this is what it looks like when it’s opened up. One of each brush I own, except for the Kabuki brushes that are in one of the boxes, are here.  I have a few duplicate brushes, due to getting them in kits and all, but I keep them aside until the old ones wear out and I need to use them.  No need to waste valuable space in the brush roll on them!

So I only used two of the four boxes I bought for almost my entire BE collection.  No doubt I will need more boxes someday, and I can always buy more if necessary.  But my plan for now is to use one of the empty boxes for my travel kit.  I can take whatever makeup I want to use on the trip out of the other two boxes and assemble it into a kit that will fit easily into my suitcase.  The brush roll can just go into the suitcase as it, it doesn’t take up much space.  This will be nicer than them all jangling about loose in a bag, they will be easier to find and use.

So there you have it!  And you don’t have to go to Cabela’s to get boxes like this, any place that sells fishing supplies will have these.  My only suggestion is to get them slightly larger, if you have more of the large BE containers than I do.

Srsly.  I have so much Bare Escentuals makeup, that I need one central place in which to store it.

I know…they make all sorts of  “train cases” and the like, that I can order from their website.  But they are kind of pricey, and also not big enough to house my entire collection.  I also COULD go to Home Depot and buy some sort of compartmentalized tool box, but I don’t even feel like doing that, I hate Home Depot and have panic attacks after about ten minutes in that place.

I was thinking that I could make one at a cost of next to nothing.  In fact, it might not only cost NOTHING, but it would not even require me to go shopping for any supplies.

We have several L.L. Bean shoe boxes sitting around.  We save them because they are very nice, sturdy boxes, but haven’t really done anything with them yet.

So one of those can be the base for my makeup box.  It would be plenty big enough for all of the product that I have, including brushes.  I actually have a brush roll case that I got for free when I used to have the BE foundations auto-shipped to me…most of my brushes should fit into that.

And then I have tons of other cardboard boxes of varying sizes…Amazon shipping boxes and the like.  Those I can make into trays, and use scrap cardboard to make dividers to hold varying sizes of BE jars.  I could have one tray for foundations, Mineral Veil, and concealers, another for eye colors, and another for blush, Warmth, Soft Focus Glee, that sort of thing.  And then there’d be a part of the box for products that don’t come in the little round jars, such as lipsticks, glosses, mascaras, etc.  And a place for brushes that don’t fit in the roll case, and a place for the roll case itself.

Sounds pretty easy…easier than creating my own seo software. But it won’t look like an ugly cardboard box…I have tons of scrapbook paper and other craft supplies that I can use to decorate this to my heart’s content.  Maybe the only thing I might need to buy is some kind of clear paint to coat the whole thing, to keep it from getting wet and falling apart.

Now, this would not be a portable box, this would be my home storage area for all of my BE goodies.  When we take our trips, I can easily see what’s in my box, pluck out what I need for the trip, and put all of that into my little travel makeup case.  No way do I need to haul my entire BE collection along with me at all times!  That would be a bit much.

This might be a fun thing to try, and I’m going to try to do it while spending as little money as possible (hell, I already spend a lot on the makeup itself!).  If I do it, I’ll take some pics and post instructions, so you can try to make one yourself!

Yep…up way too late, and I ended up watching QVC online.  There was a two-hour Bare Escentuals show on, and I watched it.  All two hours of it.  I didn’t REALLY need anything, but of course, I got sucked in.

I bought the kit you see here…the I Love BE Grand 9-Piece Color Collection.  It’s actually an excellent value for the money, because, unlike some of the other kits they have on the Q, this one has full-sized product.  I had been considering getting just the Rare Minerals Night Treatment, it’s $60 but they had it on Easy-Pay…but then I saw they had the same full-sized product in this kit, for not all that much more money.  And I’ll actually use the other stuff in the kit, the colors are to my liking, and I would definitely use the foundation.  The kit was on Easy-Pay, too, which I like.

When I first started using BE, I was getting foundations auto-shipped to me every few months.  But then I did the math and realized that this was not very cost-effective.  It is actually cheaper to just go to Sephora or the BE Boutique at the maul and buy them there.  But it’s even cheaper when they come in these QVC kits..many kits come with a foundation, so I’ll have enough that way.  So I quit the auto-ship thing…actually, I never formally told them that I quit…my credit card with them expired and I just didn’t bother updating it.  And they just quit sending me stuff.  Works for me!  I wish that Proactiv was that easy to cancel!

So, I got a great deal here…if you’re looking for a nice BE bundle o’stuph, get on over to the Q and check it out.  I’m glad I watched…I guess I could have just whiled away my insomnia by reading sites like allireviews.com…but this was better and more useful to me! I can’t wait to get my new goodies!

If you’re a Bare Escentuals fanatic like me, you know how wonderful their mineral veil product is.  The only way I could have thought of to make it any better was to add SPF to it.  And now, it’s here.  Check it out!

So now, in addition to giving your face that airbrushed, finished look, you can protect your skin from the sun at the same time.  As someone who likes to go to lots of baseball games in the summer, and who burns easily, this is especially important.

I actually already have a container of this stuff…it came with the Sea Yourself kit that was a “Today’s Special Value” at QVC last year.  The kit is still available at the Q, albeit at a higher price than the TSV offer.  Most of the products in the kit have some SPF protection, which was why I bought it.

All BE foundations have an SPF of 15.  When I used the foundation together with the 25 SPF mineral veil, it worked VERY well.  If it worked well for me, it will work well for anyone.  I really hated the idea of putting greasy sunscreen on my face (which was pretty much the ONLY way, until I discovered BE).  But the minerals are NOT greasy at all, nor do they dry out your skin.  Perfection!

Also, you can never apply too much mineral veil.  Carry some with you, perhaps in this compact, and you can reapply as needed during the day.  That way, your face will always be protected from the harmful rays of the sun!

I’m very happy that this product is now available on its own…I would not want to keep buying whole kits just to get this one item.  If I had to do that, I’d have to break out the job search paperwork so that I could afford this! But the 25 SPF product is the same price as the regular mineral veil, $19. That may seem like a lot, but one container will probably last you all or most of the summer.  As with most BE products, a little goes a long way!

My battle with acne seems to never end.  I really need to find one product line that works well, and stick with it.

I used to use Proactiv.  I decided to stop using it because there was no way to slow down the auto-ship thing enough so that I wouldn’t end up with piles of boxes of product.

Don’t get me wrong – Proactiv worked for me.  But there are only two ways to get it – auto-ship, or at a mall kiosk.  I personally boycott mall kiosks because the people who work at them tend to be pushy and annoying.  I mean, I go into the mall in search of one specific item, and to get to it, I have to walk past these kiosks, where the salespeople yell at people as they walk by, trying to sell everything from a Custom usb drive to a new cell phone plan – none of which I came to the mall to get.

Also, the prices of the Proactiv products at the mall kiosk are a lot higher than auto-ship.  So I won’t be buying any more Proactiv.  I had enough trouble getting the auto-ship canceled, and I’m not about to start that back up again.

So after I stopped using Proactiv, I tried the Rare Minerals Blemish Therapy.  It isn’t bad, but after several months of using it, I found that it doesn’t work as well as Proactiv.  It does a good job of concealing and drying up existing zits, but it doesn’t do much for me when it comes to preventing breakouts.

Now, this recent rash of breakouts could just be hormonal, as it’s coincided with a bout of daily hot flashes.  Those seem to have passed for now, but I still have zits.

So what I am going to do now is try AcneFree (pictured above).  I’ve seen the commercials for this on TV, and it looks to be the same sort of 3-part system as Proactiv.  But it has two things about it that appeal to me.  For one thing, it is half the cost of Proactiv.  And for another, I can buy it at a store like CVS, no shipping charges, no difficult-to-cancel auto-ship crap, I can just buy it when I need more.  Heck, Mike is on so many meds that he practically lives in the CVS in Melrose, he can always pick the stuff up for me when I need it.

Anyhoo, I’m going to buy one of these AcneFree kits and see how well it works.  Stay tuned for updates!