My Experience at Anastasia's Brow Salon

So this post will be horribly uninformative as I accidentally deleted all my footage and pictures of the before and after. Regardless I'd like to share my experience at Anastasia's Brown Salon with you all in case you were as curious as I was about it. A little background on the company: Anastasia's is a famous brow salon located in Beverly Hills, and she's credited for taking care of many celebrity's brows. I'd always been curious about it, but was discouraged by the hefty price tag. I get my brows threaded for a measly $8 (and thats including tip) so $30 for a wax (pre-tip) is a bit off putting for me. However my brow salon of choice is considerably far from where I go to school, so I figured i'd give the Anastasia Brow Salon located in a Nordstrom near me a go.

The visit:

Despite not having made an appointment, she was able to graciously accomodate me about an hour or so after I arrived at the mall. So heads up! Make an appointment! Next she led me in to a small room where she gave me the normal small talk of where your brow should start, arch and end. Next she filled in my brow with a high arch (to preserve as much hair as possible) and waxed whatever didn't fit in the stencil. After that she put on whatever balm they use to soothe the freshly waxed skin. Then she used their brow powders to fill in my brow using their medium arch stencil.

Now here's where I started getting a bit uncomfortable. I have a pretty high pain tolerance (I don't ever take painkillers, not even novacaine) but I guess some of the wax was sticking to my brow and so she used a disposable mascara spoolies to try and remove it. No problem...it didn't bother me until thirty seconds or so. The skin became really raw there from all the scrubbing with the spoolie, and she didn't realize she was hurting me until my eyes started tearing. Not completely her fault of course, I don't like to whine to people who are doing me a service unless its absolutely necessary. Next she placed highlighter all over the ball of my eyes, underneath the brow bone, and in the inner corner (to perk up the brows, brighten the eyes etc). Now my only issue was...I was clearly wearing eyeshadow as I had wanted to film my before and after. I was a little upset that the emollient highlighters were now all mixed up in my eyeshadow, but figured it wasn't a huge deal.

Overall when I saw the end product, i'd have to say I like how my brows looked, but I didn't love it. I think i've only loved how I had my brows shaped once, but they were definitely far from the worst I've ever seen them. I do think the benefit to their stencils is they'll never overpluck, but I think its limiting as far as customizing each brow shaping. Also I'd like to note that whatever she used on my brows post wax made me break out horribly along my brows. Generally I'm not sensitive to products. In fact, the only thing that's ever broken me out badly is BB creams. I had 5-6 tiny pimples spring up in the next two days after my waxing session. I'd hope it's just a bad reaction from the ointment and not due to negligence or dirty tools. Looking back on it now, I really wish she had just asked if I wanted the cream highlighters or soothing gels (but the soothing gel is definitely more understandable...but I find all the highlighters pretty unnecessary).

PROS:

-No matter which location you go to, you can expect a tweeze that is relatively the same

-They don’t believe in plucking the brow too thin, and the stencils they use help to reduce over shaping

-They have a stamp card program! Much like many bubble tea places if you get (either 9 or 10) stamps then you get a free wax! Pretty cool (and asians love free stuff hehe)

CONS:

-Expensive, and few locations

-I wish they just had eyebrow shaping and left out the highlighters, filling it in etc. I really think she should have asked before she applied it all over my makeup

-I didn’t feel these were the best and most appropriate brow for me, but it wasn’t awful either.

-I had a horrible reaction to the soothing balm they use post waxing

Overall I don't think i'd return and try it again. The shapes just weren't overly flattering to my face shape, but they weren't horrible either. If not for how painful the extra wax removal was and my bad reaction to the creams I might have considered going back, but I don't think Anastasia's is for me.

Sorry quick post, will update this in the morning :) but here's the swatch of that blush. I've been waking up at 7:30 every morning despite being on break, so I'm pretty tired once midnight comes around but I wanted to get that video up

BH is having a sale until 8/1/2011 11:59PM

All the other 120,88,28 color palettes are on sale too

Explanation of Codes/Finishes

BHWM # Warm Matte

BHWS# Warm Shimmer

BHCM# Cool Matte

BHCS# Cool Shimmer

BHMM# Metallic Matte

BHMS# Metallic Shimmer

I decided to swatch all their freeform palette colors that I have. I don't think the digital color is quite accurate to how they look in real life. If you click the pot of color on your screen in the digital palette maker it gives you a blown up image, those are a bit more accurate.

Sale Prices:

6 color palette w/shadows $11.57

15 color palette w/shadows $20.27

IMPORTANT: THESE WILL NOT HOLD MAC SHADOWS, AND YOUR MAC PALETTES/ZPALETTES/UNII PALETTES WILL NOT HOLD THE SINGLE POTS. THE MAGNET SYSTEM IS REVERSED

Click the images to blow them up + increase picture quality

Swatches are on bare skin, no primer.

BHWS12, BHCS05 (worst performance, skip this one), BHCMO4

BHCM19, BHWS18, BHCM02

BHCS06, BHCS10, BHMM20, BHMS05, BHMM02

BHWM08, BHWM11, BHCM16, BHWS10, BHWM02

BHCS17, BHCS08, BHMM19, BHCS13

Love all of them especially the SHIMMERS. The bright shimmers are ironically my fave (I'm more of a neutral kind of girl) but it's nice to have a decently priced, pigmented, easy to work with color on days you want to play with color (without investing a whole lot in it). The only one I dont recommend is BHCS05, its supposed to be a silver shimmer but its more like packed silver glitter that doesn't pick up well. That's the only color I encountered difficulty with

I swatched all the ones I had :[ hopefully you can google for others.

L to R: Canmake Blush PW25, PW05, Pink of #9 Cheek and Highlight

Color Stripe Palette #1

Jill Stuart lippie next to a MAC one, quite a bit larger

Lip Swatch of Jill Stuart's Baby Coral

Close up of the blotting tissues, you can see the Jill Stuart wording throughout the blotting sheets :)

L to R

NYX Concealer in a Jar in Biege, "Hot Pink" Cream blush, "Glow" Cream Blush

The top dots are the color blended out, and the stripes are the color out of the pan, SO pigmented

Snow White is the Red :)

Circe, Doll, Chloe, Louisiana, Fig

Swatches (and better photos) of the Round Lipsticks to come =]!!

Swatches under natural light

Snow White, Circe, Chloe

Fig, Doll, Louisiana

Squiggly lines to the left is the lip liner in "Natural"

(Swatches with flash)

All purchased from Cherry Culture (I think theres a sale right now!)

Oh and found a photo of me wearing Circe the first day I got it! I was so excited to find a nude that wasn't too light and could be worn on it's own. Im not 100% sure about my MAC shade now, I think im between NC20-25 at the moment. But im 118 in Make Up Forever, which is a perfect match for me

Last photo is for...i'm sorry I forget your name >.< and couldn't find your e-mail. But as I mentioned...its just a loose shirt with a wide neck. You have to kind of use your imagination to figure out how it can be worn

Helllloooo my wonderful blog readers :)

Sorry for the kind of underwhelming blog posts lately. I know that people have always enjoyed that I talked about personal things on my blog, and I'm glad because thats what I originally intended it to be. I wanted my blog to be a place I could connect with people and share more of my life outside of youtube, beauty, etc because these things are honestly only a very small part of my life. However as I've gotten larger on youtube and as many other youtubers have addressed, the hate and negativity surrounding youtubers has been ridiculous. I'm no longer going to talk about life, friends etc because my friends, family and the people I associate with don't deserve to be harassed, stalked, snooped on etc (essentially punished) for the decisions I've made to make videos. Also as many of you have noticed, I'm no longer going to host my own blogtvs. At least I can teehee at the "haters", but my friends receive nothing and don't deserve the invasion of privacy.

So with that being said, I'm sorry. I'm quite sad myself...I had lots of funny pictures, stories etc to share. I agree that it's completely ridiculous a few bad apples have to ruin it for everyone. I know some of you guys have followed me from day one, and I really and truly appreciate it. But once again I won't let my friends be punished for the decisions I make.

Therefore, this blog will from now on only be reviews, swatches and the like (boring stuff). Probably the only other people it will feature are people who have also made the same silly decisions as me to "put ourselves out there". But if we didn't who would you have to titter about all day?

I seriously considered deleting my twitter as well, but im going to keep it around since its honestly the easiest and fastest platform for me to communicate with people when they ask a question. So if you wanted anything answered somewhat quickly, just head over there @mszjackiechu. Sometimes I don't see it right away but if I don't get back to you that day try again and hopefully I'll see it that time!

Have a nice summer guys :)

-Jackie

My First Jewelmint Purchase :)

So I had heard a lot about this company. I have to say I was pretty doubtful at first (I'm a critic/pessimist) particularly because the company was a subscription service and I had never dealt with a company like that before. For those of you guys that don't know what Jewelmint is, its a monthly subscription service and for $29.99 a month (however, theres a million 1/2 off codes floating around) you get to pick a piece "chosen" for you :) however I'd ALWAYS advise to hit the "show me more" tab on the left main screen so you can see the ENTIRE website's selection for that month

Pros:

-Unique jewelry, everyone should find something they like

-Quality pieces and packaging

-Often have 50% off coupons

-Has ideas on what to wear with the pieces you choose

-Offers FREE jewelry if you refer your friend. Give your friends your referral link and you'll receive a free credit for a piece of jewelry :) I like this because I feel as if most referral programs only offer partial credit towards a purchase, here you actually get something when you refer someone (IE EVERYONE, even if you have no following can get something!)

-Shipping is included :)!

Cons:

-Once you've made your first purchase, you MUST remember to skip that month if you decide you don't want anything! (This could be hard to remember for some people)

-The style quiz is super fun! But often times their top pick for me actually wasn't my top, however the more you use the site the more the site gets to know your taste =] This is why I suggest you ALWAYS hit the show me more tab

I only decided to check it out and purchase two pieces because I heard good review after good review about this site, and not just from people who received these for free. Subscribers, random blogs and yes fellow youtubers (whose opinion I know I can trust and count on) only had good things to say. I decided to buy them on my own (even though the company previously messaged me) because I think my email to them got lost and I was afraid of the pieces I'd like selling out. I definitely don't regret my purchase :) and am very happy. Please watch my youtube video for more info!

PS. I chose to skip this month- but the versailles earrings are back in stock if you have the same taste as me! :) Overall I'm kind of surprised by how much fun I had with this site >.< I bought these on the 31st so I was surprised by how much I looked forward to June's selections =]