Karma's a b*tch: R4TU Exposed!

If you're part of the online mineral makeup community, you may have heard about a beauty forum called rant4theugly (aka R4TU). It's basically a forum where women complain to each other about anyone and everyone in the makeup industry.

But it quickly became a Kristen Bell hate fest (the R4TU creator even states that she created the site so there could be a place to complain about Kristen/Aromaleigh and that other companies were later added for "fairness") and the women (hereinafter referred to as "the Rant women." I really want to call them something else, but I'm a lady.) there jumped on every word Kristen ever posted on her blog, Twitter and Facebook whether it was related to personal family issues or her makeup company in what appeared to be a thinly veiled attempt to take Kristen and her company down. Any topic was fair game for the Rant women. They even went so far as to accuse Kristen of possibly lying about her father's death. That's abominable!

Three of the Rant women are (clickable links):

Jenna Whitman (owner of Stardust Cosmetics)
Jeanine Fitzgerald (aka Hottie McNaughty)
Dawn Wilson (aka Sassy Banjo, aka rant4theugly)

PLEASE READ Hoyden's blog post "True ugliness revealed..." and view screen shots of conversations among these women (and others who have their real identities hidden behind screen names--yes, we do know who some of you are) in what they thought was a private moderator's forum. There was some sort of password glitch and several people were able to view this hidden forum and see what they were really saying out of the public eye (there's even some stuff about me). You will be shocked and appalled at the true ugliness the Rant women spew.

True ugliness revealed. . .

True ugliness revealed - Part II

My first professional facial!

Hi Nesters!

I just had my first professional facial.  I enjoyed it so much, I wanted to share it with you. I'm warning you it's a lengthy post. I just wanted to be thorough in the details you can clearly imagine my experience in your head.

For Christmas, my husband Jason gave me a gift card for a Signature Facial from facelogic (it's not a typo, they don't capitalize their name). I've never had any sort of pampering treatments before aside from having my hair cut/highlighted every three months and getting pink & white acrylics every other week (but those aren't really relaxing types of pampering). I've never even indulged in one of those quickie neck massages you can get at the mall. So I don't know what took me so long (6 months) to make my appointment but I finally did it. Perhaps I was afraid of the unknown or maybe the idea of a stranger touching my face didn’t appeal to me. Not sure.

So here's how my day went. . .

Diagram tutorials in FOTD posts

Hi Nesters!

In the past, I've posted a few FOTDs in which I've diagrammed out the placement of the colors I used in the look directly on the closeup photo. For some reason, I stopped doing it. The subject came up recently in a discussion on the iPhyrra forum and it got me thinking about using this feature again in my FOTDs.

I don't do videos or step-by-step photo tutorials like some bloggers do (waaay too time consuming for this busy mom), but I think diagramming is something I could do on a regular basis.

Is this a feature you would find useful? I'd appreciate your feedback.

Links to posts that included diagram tutorials:
http://robynsnestblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/my-first-fotd-of-new-year.html
http://robynsnestblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/soft-green-purple-fotd-aromaleigh-hot.html

Wordless Wednesday: Almost ready for picking!

(Close up - yum!)

Aromaleigh "Lost in Faerie" swatches!!!

Hi Nesters!

Today, I received the full set of Aromaleigh's upcoming limited edition collection Lost in Faerie. As you can see, there are 25 shadows in this collection. The shadows come in 5 gram jars and are packed to the hilt. Aside from having many different colors to choose from, the shadows themselves have many different finishes.

Visit: Aromaleigh Mineral Cosmetics

Below are my swatches of the shadows applied dry over a base of body lotion and taken indoors with flash.

erlina, annysia, elysia, meliora, naida

trixy, pherenice, xylia, donella, elodie

emerenta, caelia, liriope, alina, olinda

eglantine, sorette, loxy, donella, zanna

rosina, ellette, luella, cleantha, celinette

My top five are: meliora, trixy, elodie, emerenta, and caelia.

Which ones are you drawn to?

❤ Robyn ❤

Milani "Tropical Fiesta" Nail Lacquer

Hi Nesters!

I first blogged about this fabulous nail color in April of last year. I'm wearing it again now and I love it so much (it's such a cheerful happy color) that I want to share it with you again (just in case you missed my original post or you don't go back through archives). So here it is!

********************************************

(orig. post 4/25/2009)

I purchased this "Tropical Fiesta" Milani Nail Laquer at Walgreens. It's the first time I've ever used this brand and I must say I'm very impressed. It really only needed one coat to give full opaque coverage but I did two just for the wearability factor. It was very shiny on its own but I used a quick-dry clear top coat just because that's what I always do to protect the color. Upon application, the polish spread very well; almost like it was "self-leveling." And I absolutely loooove this color. It's not really pink and not really red -- it's somewhere in between. A perfect summer "go to" color.

My blog has a new look!

Hi Nesters!

As you can see, I've made some visual changes to my blog. There are many sides to me and on occasion, I feel the need to express those in various creative ways. One way I do that is through my blog.

As some of you know, I've been intrigued by Marilyn Monroe for many years. I've always wanted to add her somewhere here, but she just never seemed to fit in with my regular theme. So instead of trying to make that part of me "fit in," I decided to let it take center stage. For now, I'm enjoying the feminine girly feel to my blog and I hope you don't find it too distracting.

sample of old blog header background

Robyn

My first zucchini of the year!

I was getting the coals ready for the bbq this evening, decided to check on my veggie garden, and there they were...two full-size ready-to-pick zucchini. I ran in the house, grabbed my scissors and harvested them. I washed, sliced and quartered, and steamed them. They were so yummy with dinner.


I put a cherry next to them for size comparison.

Veggie garden update

Hi everyone! Here are some updated photos of how our veggie garden is progressing. I didn't realize how very huge some things have gotten until I saw the before photos.

Garden the day I planted (March 28)


Garden today.


The basil looks miniscule next to the squash, but it's actually big enough that I harvested some last week for a homemade pasta sauce - yum!


I've got a few tomatoes on the vine already (still small and green though) and more blossoms waiting to turn into tomatoes. I think I need to plant one more. I want LOTS of tomatoes this summer.

The parsley is looking pretty good. Haven't use it yet, but I need to.

The bell pepper is pretty puny but it does have a blossom on it. At this point, I can't tell if it's going to turn into an actual pepper though.


Thanks for taking a little trip through my garden!