If you have been following me on Twitter you have probably noticed that I have been hinting at a new and super awesome giveaway coming up on Sweet Tart Beauty! I encouraged you all to keep up with my Facebook fanpage and Blog so that you’d know the exact day this giveaway was revealed. Well today is that day! Thank you to everyone who has supported the blog switch from Dreammua to Sweet Tart Beauty in the past week.

To celebrate I have teamed up with some fellow bloggers to give away a Kindle Fire ($199 value!) to ONE lucky reader! I’m sure you have all read the reviews by now and you know that this baby is full of cool perks like:

• · WiFi
• · Access to thousands of apps
• · Access to 19 million movies, Tv shows, songs, and books!
• · Super fast Amazon Silk browser

Pretty awesome right! I told you guys this giveaway was going to be special. But that’s not all. We are also giving away a $20 Paypal cash prize to one lucky reader also, so there will be not one but TWO winners!

If you don’t want to miss out enter to win below!! I can’t wait to announce a winner! This contest will run from January 17^th - 31^st so you have two weeks to enter!! Don’t miss out on these amazing prizes!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

For those who follow this blog you may not be aware that I have made a move to Sweettartbeauty.com. This blog will be officially closed after March 2012. If you would like to continue to follow my post and be eligible for upcoming contest please follow me on the NEW website now. Thank you!

Sweet Tart Beauty is starting this year off in a very generous mood! There will be not one but two exciting contest coming up next week. The first one will go live on Tuesday with the second giveaway following right behind that on Wednesday. You will have two chances to enter to win a VERY high ticket price electronic item. This is strictly for followers of my NEW blog so if you want to have a chance to be in the running for one of these two prizes make sure you are following me at sweettartbeauty.com via GFC.

Now I want to address something before the start of these two contests, I know a lot of people are skeptical that it is possible to win something that is worth $199 or more, but I want to explain to you guys how this is possible so that you will have no doubts in your minds come next week. Often times when you see big ticket item giveaways in the blogger community, the contest was made possible by one of two ways. Either a group of bloggers got together and purchased the item for the giveaway OR the giveaway is being sponsored by a company.

Next week I will actually be co-hosting events that were made possible by both of the previous ways mentioned. The contest on the 17^th was made possible after a group of bloggers got together to raise money for the giveaway prize. The second giveaway taking place on the 18^th is being sponsored by a company called Besavvy.com. They were nice enough to provide the giveaway prize to a group of bloggers. I am excited for both of these opportunities and I hope that you guys will take part in both of these contests. Please keep your eyes open for the giveaway post that will go up next week, and please feel free to share them with your friends.

Thank you again to all of my new followers at Sweet Tart Beauty as well as those that have followed me here at dreammua.onsugar.com and are making the move with me. I hope to continue to build a relationship with all of you and I hope to continue to bring you amazing giveaways in the future. Before I end this blog post I would also like to share with you guys that I am one of many Blog Sponsors for the LA Glow Hollywood Beauty Event. If you have a chance I would like you all to click here and check out some of the other LA Glow Beauty Event blog sponsors! And if you have yet to read the post about the LA Glow Hollywood Beauty Event please click here! See you all next week and enjoy your weekend!

Are you a beauty junkie? Dying to make a career in the beauty industry? If you are like me you most likely answered yes to both of the previous questions. If you have been dying to receive expert training in the beauty field stay tuned because I have exciting information for you!

This April 15^th and 16^th LA Glow will be hosting the Hollywood Beauty Event at Universal Studios in Hollywood California! A two day LIVE hair and makeup seminar, featuring some of the industry’s most sought after film, fashion, wedding, and celebrity beauty artists. You will be receiving in depth information from artists who have worked with some of the biggest stars including Paris Hilton, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, and Beyonce! This is truly an event you won’t want to miss!! Some of the speakers include:

Anthony Nguyen

Anthony Nguyen’s work can be seen in the top fashion and editorial magazines in the world such as Vogue, Glamour, Elle, Cosmopolitan. During his hands on training sessions, Anthony will teach you exactly how to turn your model into a one of a kind fictional creature by conceptualizing and executing various painting techniques. His sessions include Year of The Dragon, which is a glamorous take on Chinese makeup artistry featuring bright hues and abstract lines.

Kyah Wright

Kiyah Wright is a two-time Emmy Award winning celebrity hairstylist whose genius has not only set the precedent for image-making, but has redefined the appearance of sexy, successful, and confident women. Kiyah is a fashion powerhouse with expertise ranging from signature hair designs to overall beauty consultation and transformation. As a charismatic visionary, this creative trendsetter has established her mark in the industry and continues to inspire with cutting edge developments and groundbreaking achievements. With an extensive resume, Kiyah’s on-camera makeovers have been featured on hit television shows like The Tyra Show, America’s Next Top Model, America’s Got Talent, and BET’s My Black Is Beautiful. She has also made guest appearances on Style Her Famous, Shear Genius, MTV’s HIRED, and can be found giving hair and beauty tips on AOL’s Daily Solutions webisodes. Kiyah’s work has been prominently displayed in magazines such as Glamour, Vanity Fair, Elle, Essence, and Vogue.

Nate Siam

You’ve probably seen Nate “Tsunami” Siam on Time Square in New York or on Hair Battle Spectacular. He is hailed as the expert of editorial hair design. His mind blowing training sessions at the Hollywood Beauty Event shows you exactly how to develop and execute a mind-blowing editorial hair design. Nate will show you the best techniques for Editorial Hair Design and how to create The Perfect Updo.

And…

Megan Martinez

Megan Martinez’s wide range of clients include Vogue Italia, Kanye West, NBC-Jay Leno, Pitbull, Bizarre Magazine, MTV, CMT, Surfer Magazine, Volcom, Betsey Johnson, America’s Next Top Model and many others. She is internationally known as a trendsetter in the world of beauty with vast experience in fashion, editorial, and avant-garde makeup artistry. There is no look that Martinez cannot create, and she thrives on inspiring new and seasoned makeup artists to reach higher in their craft.

If you are getting excited just reading about this event head on over to LA Glow’s Facebook page to enter to win two FREE tickets to the Hollywood Beauty Event! No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you, LA Glow is actually going to make some lucky person very happy! The ticket will grant you access to two days packed with valuable education from industry professionals, preparing you to jump start your own successful career in the beauty industry.

To find out more about this amazing event click here. Remember space is limited so if you want to go you can purchase your tickets here. Tickets are $337- $549, expensive I know but this is a wonderful opportunity to expand your knowledge and grow your business. And it’s affordable when you consider how much it would cost to attend a cosmetology school ($5,000+). Tickets are on sale until April 15^th 2012. Take advantage of this opportunity and if you get a chance to attend stop by and share your experience and brag about how long your client list has become!

I felt like playing with makeup today and came up with this purple look using my Coastal Scents 88 palette. I applied this eye shadow using my fingers and found that the color payoff was better when applied using this method. I will be recreating this look on my sister very soon in a video.

Hope you are all enjoying your New Years Week!!

Awww breathe in the fresh air of the New Year! I’m so excited to start 2012 and I have a lot of things planned for this year. I have decided to keep this blog even though Google Connect will no longer work on this blogging platform after March 2012. The reason for this is that I have loyal subscribers on this blog and it would be one huge hassle to get everyone to move over to a new location. So I ask that everyone that follows me on Google Connect please follow me using the Onsugar follow link to the right. Thank you!! Now on to other exciting news, I have finally buckled down and decided to spend more time on my photography. I have created a blog especially for my pictures at www.capturedbybeauty.com. So if you are interested in Photography please follow me on that site also, it would be greatly appreciated. Please ignore the crappy blog design right now, I will change the look of the blog very soon. If you are a book worm like me you might also enjoy my new book blog at www.msnovella.blogspot.com. It’s very new and I have only two book reviews on there right now, but I have a tablet full of unread books and I will be filling that blog up with book reviews in no time. I will mostly cover fiction, self-help, cooking, and mystery books on that blog. Sorry no romance books for me, I just really hate reading those.

I will still continue to blog on Buzzbeauty as well, so don’t worry. Coming up this year I will be reviewing the following items:

• · VS face primer
• · VS face illuminater
• · Clearasil Perfectawash
• · Sally Hansen Lip treatment
• · And yet another Voxbox!!

As you can see I already have things lined up and in the coming weeks you will be able to read those reviews. I will also start posting more Look of the days using Allechant mineral Cosmetics. I really like this brand and I love the fact that they are affordable and pigmented, which is a huge plus. Oh, I am literally beaming just talking about my plans for this year. I have already written out my 2012 to do list and I’m hoping that I will be able to accomplish all of my goals for this year. Some of them are;

• · Post regularly on ALL of my blogs
• · Make QUALITY YouTube videos
• · Take a photograph everyday
• · Take 20 min each day to remember what I’m thankful for
• · Relax

What are some of your goals for 2012? Let me know in the comments below and I look forward to speaking with you all this year!!

This year has been the year for beauty subscription services. We have seen some really great companies come along and we have also seen companies that were not so great. But, if you are like me and this is your only addiction then I have exciting news for you. Coming Spring 2012 the Beauty Army will change the way we think about Beauty subscriptions. It’s the beauty subscription of the future instead of receiving random packages in the mail and risking the chance of getting products you don’t want, The Beauty Army is allowing their customers to actually pick their own samples each month.

The Beauty Army is a monthly premium beauty sampling subscription service. Much like Birchbox, Go Go Girlfriend , and My Glam, except Beauty Army allows its users to choose their own samples or have them chosen for you. Giving customers the option to choose their own kit prevents waste and disappoint, so you’ll never receive unwanted products. Which means you won’t have to unload all your unwanted products on your unsuspecting friends. You will receive this amazing beauty box for $12 monthly or one full year at an 11 kit cost of $132 and receive your 12^th kit free! And as usual the shipping fee for your kit is included!

So I know you’re probably thinking what is their shipping policy? Well as for right now The Beauty Army only ships to addresses in the US via USPS First Class mail. If you order your kit between the 1^st and the 15^th your kit will be delivered that same month. If you place your order between the 16^th and the 31^st you will receive your kit in the early part of the following month. If you fall in love with a particular product in your Beauty kit, make sure to leave a review on the Beauty Army website and if you would like to purchase the full size item, The Beauty Army will have it available in their store to purchase with shipping being a flat fee of $5 per order.

Another huge plus is that the Beauty Army is a proud supporter of the Beauty Bus Foundation, an organization that delivers dignity, hope and respite to chronically or terminally ill men, women and children and their caregivers through beauty and grooming services and pampering products. So you can feel pleasure in knowing that your beauty kit purchase is helping a chronically or terminally ill person to feel beautiful also.

The Beauty Army also has an exciting rewards program based on Beauty Badges! Each new member will receive a cadet badge which gets you 10% off your first order. You will receive a promo code to use via email. A Recruiter Badge is earned when you get 5 of your friends to become members. The Recruiter Badge will get you one free month! Next up is the Captain Badge, this is earned when you fill out your fifth brand survey. You will receive free shipping on your next full size order. And lastly is the Major Badge, this is earned when you’ve referred five friends AND filled out five brand surveys. You will get 15% off your next full size order. Aww so much to say, my hands are literally burning right now!

Now I do have to inform you that for their launch in January they will be only giving out 300 kits. The reason for this is logistics. Beauty Army will use this inaugural run to test their delivery methods and ensure the best possible shipping experience for their members. They are expecting to sell out fast so if you want to be a part of the initial launch make sure you sign up now. If you would like to sign up please visit www.BeautyArmy.com/join. Once you have entered your email address please report to www.facebook.com/BeautyArmy and let them know I sent you there.

Feel free to just copy and paste the sentence below on their Facebook page:

“ I just joined the beauty revolution! Thank you buzzbeauty for recruiting me, I can’t wait to choose my own samples!”

Thank you and I hope you guys will check out The Beauty Army! Until next time :)

Good evening everyone. I have been spending the better part of this week in deep thought. I have noticed that in the media a lot of people are beginning to stand up to Cosmetic Companies and demand that they stop overly airbrushing their ad campaigns. The newest celebrity to see the removal of their cosmetic ad is Miss Taylor Swift. Now I was surprised to see that her Ad had been Airbrushed because she is the spokesperson for Cover girl Natureluxe , a company that encourages its buyers to be proud of their skin and not cover it up. As I sat and thought over this I started to wonder if what we see when we look at celebrities is all a huge mirage.

I remember growing up and seeing pictures of celebrities like Vanessa Williams, Beyonce, and Mariah Carey and just sitting and wishing I could look as perfect as they do. Because of this I grew up thinking that in order to be beautiful I had to have the same cosmetic products they were using and I had to dress just like them to be accepted. But, now to find out that those women are just like us and they have skin flaws just like we do, made me feel so much better about myself. When I was a teenager and first began to experience terrible acne, I would literally spend over an hour doing my makeup. It was so bad that I refused to go to the mail box without first applying a full face of makeup. I look back on that now and think how pathetic and pointless that really was.

As women I think we all would do well to learn to love ourselves as we are. Yes, makeup is fun and makes us feel nice, but when we become a slave to our makeup, it becomes a bigger issue. I think because brands choose to airbrush celebrities and then use the media to in a sense tell young girls that to be beautiful or to be desired they have to look a certain way, just leaves a breeding ground for low self esteem and body issues. I’m happy to be at the age now that I’m finally learning to love myself and not to judge my appearance based on the women I see in the magazines. My hope is that other women, especially younger women will learn to do this as well. I know this is a bit different from some of my usual post but I just woke up with this on my mind and wanted to share with you all. So just remember to love yourselves and get rid of negative thinking. We are all beautiful regardless of our size or our ethnicity. Let’s all do our part to promote peace and self love. I hope you all are doing well and please enjoy your holiday weekend!

Maybelline Baby Lips refers to itself as the lip balm of the future, and with its long list of benefits I have to agree. Thanks to bzzagent for giving me the change to try out this new product.

Straight from site:

Benefits:

• · SPF 20- Protects lips from harmful sun rays.
• · Shea Butter- Repairs and leaves lips feeling soft, moisturized and comfortable
• · Vitamin Complex- Aids in the prevention of oxidation of lip molecules and the restoration of damaged cells.
• · Centella- This small, herbaceous Asian plant delivers plumpness and hydration while replenishing elasticity and stimulating natural production for a line-free look.

I received four out of six of the baby lips from Bzzagent and I love all of them. This wonderful lip balm is available in two clear varieties (quenched and peppermint) and four tinted varieties (cherry me, pink punch, grape vine and peach kiss). I recieved cherry me, pink punch, peppermint, quenched. and  Maybelline Baby Lips claims to renew lips to their natural condition in four weeks. I have been using this for about five weeks now and I have not seen evidence of this personally. But, the lip balm does keep my lips moisturized for eight hours. I naturally have extremely dry lips and I often find myself reapplying lip balm multiple times throughout the day. But, with Maybelline Baby Lips, I only applied it twice throughout the entire day.

My favorite had to be the Peppermint lip balm. I enjoyed the tingling feeling that I got after applying this product to my lips. It also smells great and I found that when I was feeling a little blue, just applying this lip balm and smelling the peppermint fragrance perked me up a little. I would also like to add that none of these lip balms left a greasy feel on my lips. I could actually feel the moisture soaking into my lips. If you are interested in purchasing one of these lip balms checkout one of your local mass retailers. Each balm cost $3.99 but I have found them in stores on sale for as low as $2.