Which camera friendly foundation for my clients, which airbrush, which mascara? Where do I buy spoolies in a group? Then there is the LABELLING MONSTER!!! I don’t have many ingredients to put on my labels. Mica, Stericte of one kind, or another, other than that a best buy date and that’s it. I do have to trademark my company name and logo and I have not a clue in the universe how to do that. I will find out today. The Government makes most small business stuff easy. Unlike the State of Michigan. Dear God! I have no clear answers on ANYTHING! It used to be easy, but now it’s impossible. They have a, “Business One Stop site,” which you need to apply for a code for (did it) and then you need to figure it out. Almost the biggest hurdle yet. Deciding on how to and which colors to market first was easy, compared to getting the infoout of the stupid state of MI. I still don’t have a state re-sale liscense, which is fine, because I am not selling goods, or services right now, but I’m opening my wesite in a week and then…I don’t exactly expect to have hundreds of sales, or anything, but a few and I need the darn thing set up. It was easier to get the Paypal link working and my shopping basket. Come on!!!!!
My supplier of containers is done. I have yet to make the labels, again, waiting for the logo to be trademarked. I hope and pray this business is a success. Not huge, just enough to stop some of our worries. Maybe get Steve into a private school. I’m terrified about next year.
All products can be found in the links and I suggest these stores because of their commitment to customer service.
There will be more on my vlog, but these are some of the things I loved in 2009. Too Faced Shadow Insurance. All my eye primers do a good job, this stuff glues my shadow in place all day, no matter how chalky it starts out. Ala, Coastal Scents. Which I love, but can be very fly-away. I buy a lot of my higher end stuff at Sephora. I’ve found them to be superior to Ulta in many ways. Mostly in customer service. Don’t lead me to the Revlon when I want Urban Decay and told you so twice. It does not matter that I’m in Yoga Pants and a workout top. I want what I want and I am not looking for judgement, thank you.
Coastal Scents Gel Liners. Superior, in my opinion, to MAC Paint Pots. They are waterproof and in a side by side test conducted on Youtube by makeupbytiffanyd, they are shown to be as good with the staying power of MAC. At a third of the price. I use them under my shadows to create amazing color. I didn’t link directly to that video, rather her channel, because all of her videos are really good. She’s totally into MAC, but in the bridal market, you really need to be.
NYX products. Which can be found on their site, or in many other places. I suggest Pinkholik. They have great prices and amazing customer service.
TKB Trading anything. I am delighted with this company. Beyond delighted. They are super fast with shipping and have colors I’ve never dreamed of in stock and plenty of stuff to make your own eyeshadow from, along with recipes. I am totally in love.
Zoya Nail Polish. Colors, staying power, everything about it. I have the catalog of colors, because I bought my first set through Zoya and I swear I want every darn one of them. It’s sad.
Vera Wang Rock Princess Perfume. I buy one new perfume a year and usually it lasts me two years, so I always have two to choose from. The combination of Betsey Johnson and Vera Wang Rock Princess (cheap at T.J. Maxx) is a perfect compliment to my moods and wardrobe. One of them always works well on me. The only problem is, that as oily as I get, perfume does not last on me. I need an atomizer for them.
My Flat Iron. Not expensive, Revlon(available in every store that sells curling irons, etc), but I never thought I would want, nor need a Flatiron. I can’t live without it anymore. I use it about half and half with my curling iron. When I do my hair.
Urban Decay 24/7 Eye Pencil in 0. WOW!!!!! It stays all day, if I set it with powder. I use Kat Von D’s Motorhead in either side, depending on my desire for sparkle.
Speaking of Kat Von D, I am in love with her shadows. I can find exactly what I want every time.
What I still want? Some NYX, Graftobian foundations for my kit, and buckets of bobby pins for clients. Oh, and Mildew from Urban Decay. I love, love, love that color. It’s in the Show Pony box, which would be a good investment for the end of the year and tax deductible, since it’s for work. I’ve been reading tax laws for services and man, it’s complicated.
One of my YouTube Guru’s was asking if Face Primer was needed, or was it a gimmick we’d all fallen for. I thought it was a wonderful question and since I have several primers and some time this week, I thought I’d do a “Primer-Face-OFF!”
Here’s the skinny. I prime my face on one side only, put on the same foundation every day and see what’s what, with photos. I’ll wear the same blush and I won’t use rice paper, or napkins all day. We shall see what we shall see.
I have several foundations, so we’ll try it with Revlon’s Colorstay and Bare Minerals. I’ll use MAKEUP FOREVER’s HD face powder with both. If a product does well in round one, we’ll send it to round two. That’s a head to head competition with another primer.
What shall we try? E.L.F’s Studio Primer, Bare Minerals Prime Time oil free primer, Smashbox PhotoFinish in light, Sephora’s Oil Free Face Primer and Olay’s Regenerating Serum in Oil Free, which is not a primer, but feels and acts like one, so I’m testing it. I’ thinking about the Lush TeaTree toner stuff, but I’m on the fence Still, I do use it as a primer sometimes, so why not? I’ve heard some people use Milk of Magnesia, so I’m up for odd primers. I will be using an oil-free moisturizer, Oil of Olay Total Effects Oil Free and my regular eye primers.
I have very oily and sensitive skin, so this should be interesting. I’ll place the results here, and on YouTube in my channel. Every primer will be photographed at 2, 4, 6 and 8 hours. I hope. That’s the goal, anyway. May the best product win.
Yesterday, I received an e-mail from, Hiller’s Market’s Attorneys. In said letter they demand a retraction from me and for me to apologise, or I would be sued. It was a facsimile of the letter and Acrobat messed up the conversion a little by leaving out letters in words. Pardon the Tilda’s.
“Dear Ms. Liedel:
I represent Hiller’ s ~market. I write regarding your December 16, 2009 blog post on the
“Over 40 Princess” blog. In that post, you state, about Hiller’s, “Very controversial in the Arabic
Community because of a strong support of Israel and it’ (sic) anti-Palestinian stance.” This
statement is false and we demand that you immediately retract and correct it on your blog in a
prominent place. Hiller’s is not controversial in the Arab community and has never taken an
anti-Palestinian stance.
The statement is particularly harmful to Hiller’s because of its strong ties to the local
Arab community. Please see Jim Hiller’s December 9, 2009 post to his blog on
www.hillers.com.Init. he details the history of the Beirut Bakery and his family’s connection to
the Detroit Arab community. Hiller’s sells products from Lebanon and Jordan as well as
products from Arab businesses throughout the Detroit area and Hiller’s employs many Arab
Americans. Jim Hiller is an active member and supporter of ACCESS (Arab Community Center
for Economic and Social Services), the Arab American ~national ~museum, and the Chaldean
Association of Detroit.
Your post is libelous and defamatory and Hiller’s will take all appropriate legal actions to
make sure it is corrected. Please contact me either by email, letter or telephone to let me know
**********************************************
Okay, this is the end of the letter. I now post what I posted about Hiller’s.
“Hillers. Very controversial in the Arabic Community because of a strong support of Israel and it’ anti-Palestinian stance. I have strong feelings about that too, which I won’t go into, but I do shop Hiller’s once in a while. They have a wonderful meat counter.”
They missed the good points and landed on the bad. So, I will state it this way. “I have been told that some people believe that Hiller’s is unsupportive of some communities, and will not shop there. I do shop there and they have a wonderful meat counter.”
This is now an editorial piece based on my opinion and other conversations. I do not state who’s views I uphold and any assumptions ae just that, assumptions and probably wrong.
This is now, clearly, my OPINION. Actionable? No opinion is not actionable. I am allowed to have one and share it. I do not state anything, other than I shop at Hiller’s and they have a wonderful meat counter. I am of the opinion that Miley Cyrus dancing a pole dance was in bad form. That is my opinion and I am welcome to it. I can talk about my OPINION all day. People can and should disagree with me. I am also allowed to restate things I have been told as just that, “I have been told that…This is not defamation. It’s just another opinion being passed on and that’s free speech. My first article stated opinion as fact. That was a mistake and it will be corrected. It was made with no intention of malice on my part at all. Which is made clear by the statement that I shop there and they have a wonderful meat department.
I was planning my shopping trip tomorrow to Hiller’s. No longer. Nothing Hiller’s Market has ever done, or said, good, bad, or indifferent would make me stop shopping there. Politics and personal opinion have never really stopped me from shopping anywhere, except WalMArt. Instead, it was the heavy handed letter threatening libel and slander against me. I have thought hard over my choice of places to spend my hundreds of food dollars in Ann Arbor. Hillers, great meat market, or no, will no longer receive my business. A kind letter, outlining concerns would have netted them a full retraction, followed by a sincere apology.
Jumping in with attorney’s immediately, threatening me with a lawsuit (blood out of a turnip) made me upset and cry. So, they’ve lost my business. Especially since I have strongly supported them on my other blog. To the point where I got a letter from the owner thanking me for my support. You can work with people, without jumping into the lawsuit fray right off the bat. If someone states something libelous about me, I tell them to remove it and move on. Because once it’s on the Internet….
All the attorney had to do was point out and ask kindly. That’s it. Cited proof of your strong ties was enough to make me re-think my initial opinion. I would have happily pulled the blog post, no questions asked and we could have moved on. If you are a business entity trying make good customer relations, this is not the way to go about it. A carrot is much better than a stick. End of story.
I love, love, love Arabic makeup. I have to tone it down, or I look silly, instead of unbelievably stunning, but I still watch every video I can with lessons on it. Oh who am I kidding? I’m in an area with every skin tone, every country, race, and creed represented. The University of Michigan (Hail to the Victor’s, except right now we doth sucketh) draws a marvelous crowd of all sorts and types. I feel blessed when I grocery shop. We have stores for Japanese, Asian (That’s all of Asia with an impressive array of frozen treats that are restaurant worthy. Dim Sum with Naan anyone? Delicious stuff), Indian, Whole Foods (Meh, okay, too commercial) a WONDERFUL Plum Market. Similar to Whole Foods, but local and try hard. The employees there have never looked at my kids like they are wild animals. Their training for their staff must include something on autism, because people know and are kind). Plum also does not advertise their sales, so it’s a delight each week and the sale stuff is high end, but priced amazingly, and Hillers. Hiller’s has a wonderful meat counter. When I eat meat, rarely now, it’s got to be worth the price.
Anyway, off topic. I’ve found my Arabic Guru on YouTube. Her name is Sarah and she is so terrific. She explains beautifully and even gives thought to talking to people who don’t understand the looks. Her website is a feast of beauty and raw talent that goes beyond what training can offer. I don’t think everyone can do makeup if they are trained. Never have. You’ve got to love it so much that you try four different looks in a day and your lids hurt from re-applying sometimes. You’ve got to scour magazines for trends and not just English Magazines. I buy Arabic and Indian magazines too and watch more Bollywood stuff. I also look at every runway show on earth and look for trends. I have subscriptions to all the fashion mags (cheaper and I used Diet Coke Reward points for most of it) and read-reread and mark up magazines, pull pages and scan them. I wish W was smaller.
I can tell when makeup artists are doing this too, and this woman must. Her looks are current, stunning, traditional and not. She makes it more than Persian makeup, or Eastern, it’s a work of art and I cannot suggest you watch her channel highly enough. Especially if you are aspiring. She can teach you about lining eyes in a way no Western site can. You don’t have to do it like her, but her steps are good for any artist to study and learn from. Bravo!!! Five Stars and cheers with wonderful tea, to a new Guru for me!
That all these Fashionistas’s are blabbing about the beauty of it all is nice, but it’s all unwearable and it all reminded me of Star Wars. Art, 100% YES!!!!!! Fashion? Time shall tell.
Contest Name the Kitten
I have an adorable babymy son, GENE-GENE gave me for my birthday. Runt is not gong to work forever. So, send me your suggestions and ideas. No vengeful Gods. Runt is a boy and dark grey with white, in case you think the vid is black and white. The contest will end, Devcember, 24, 2009 at midnight Eastern time. I will hopefully, announce the winner on December 25th. Winners will recieve a autographed, framed photo of Runt and his signature (paw print) along with my eternal gratitude. I can’t come up with any more names for boys! Nothing normal, like Tiger, etc. I want different and fun.
The OFP Show, Stands for
Over Forty Princess will air tonight at nine Eastern time. We’re talking saving a fortune by making your own mineral makeup AND I’m giving away a sample of my first in my line of eye shadows! Made up and mixed by me!!!! I don’t care if I’m talking to myself. I’m gonna have a ball.
