When the Spring arrives everything lightens up, with sheer formulas and colors that look like Easter eggs and sheer tingts of spring flowers. One great collection, from Aveda for Spring/Summer 2012 is called: “Sea Blossoms.” The sea-centric tones are in pastel pinks, corals, violets and blues, with a bit of gray and green. All are soft and pretty, easy to wear with everything, and feature some of the trendiest tones for Spring, including coral and blue. According to Janell Geason, the Global Makeup Artist for Aveda, the collection’s vibe is: “1970’s at the beach.” There are pastels for eyes, face and lips, including two Petal Essence Eye Color Trios, Two Nourish-mint Smoothing Lip Colors, Two Nourish-mint Rehydrating Lip Glazes, and one Petal Essence Face Accents Trio.
For lips, the Rehydrating Lip Glaze ($18.00) in “Coral Sea” adds just a hint of the trendy coral color that was seen all over the Spring 2012 runways, but it is sheer and shiny, so even the most “orange averse” and embrace the trend, and this lovely lip glaze. “Beach Thistle” looks alarmingly violet in the tube, but slides on sheer, silky and almost pink. The Nourish-mint Rehydrating Lip Glaze nourishes lips with antioxidant pomegranate, plumps with peptide technology, smooths fine lines, and glides on beautifully. These are infused with plant emollients, organic vanilla and a hint of mint. The two new Smoothing Lip Colors ($18.00) in “Star Coral” and “Oyster Pink” pump, smooth, moisturize and color with organic spearmint and vanilla flavor. Star Coral is the brightest of the lip products, a clear, creamy bright coral that will flatter medium to deep complexions and enhance a tan, while Oyster Pink is a soft, whisper of pink. 
The Petal Essence Eye Color Trios ($22.00) offer a light, medium and deep shade. A standout is the trendy “Violet Coast, ” featuring a soft violet, greyed green, and bold purple for a pop! of color. The soft, blendable colors have mineral-derived mica for long lasting color, and the products are free of parabens, talc and mineral oil. For the face, try the universally flattering Petal Essence Face Accents Trio ($24.00) in new, “Shimmer Shell.” This trio of bronze and shimmery tints include a soft nude, copper, and a striking, bright copper pink. Use them separately or together for a sheer, shimmery glow. The powders are talc- and mineral oil-free and luxuriously infused with the soft scent of certified organic lavender. Everything is packaged in 100% Post Consumer Recycled Newsprint with sleeves of 100% post consumer recycled fiber, and printed with soy ink. The limited edition collection is available at Aveda stores and the Aveda Web Site until August, 2012.
Say Hi to the sun with Sun Club cosmetics collection by Essence. This brand was already popular in Europe when it launched in the United States, last year. Essence is a line of fun, fabulous color cosmetics and most of the lipsticks, eye shadows, pencils and glosses are under $5.00 , some starting at just 99 cents! The idea of color is to have fun with it, and with Essence, you get decent quality plus a lot of different types of products and colors to play with. However, just because it is inexpensive. but that doesn’t mean it isn’t good. Brights and nudes go hand in hand for trends this Summer. Two eight-packs of shimmery colors: South Beach and Long Beach are new from the Sun Club Collection. The mini-sized squares let you mix and match, with trendy colors that match the trends: “South Beach” features fashion-forward shimmers and super shimmers. A bright turquoise, soft orange, hot pink, shimmery champagne, soft light blue, green blue, shimmery browned plum, and a greyed lilac. A dual-handled mini brush offers a brush tip and a sponge tip. All you need to create an upbeat look for a sunny day! It’s a great way to experiment with new trendy colors without making too much of a commitment. “Long Beach” offers black, brown, grey and neutrals. When eyes are the focus, lips should be soft. Try Essence XXL Nudes Lip Gloss. Although the gloss is very sheer, it adds a dazzling shine in a silky base featuring pampering vitamin E and panthenol. There are three new colors: “01 Pure Beauty,” “03 Nude Kiss,” and “4 Toffee Forever.” Nude Kiss adds must a hint of pink with a lot of shine and just a little shimmer. Pretty and easy to wear. You get a lot of glamour and trendy colors for so very little! Get Essence Cosmetics at Ulta, or check out the Essence web site.
LipToxyl X3 Revolumizing Lipcare (srp. $32.00) is one of those nifty products you may think you can do without, but then you try it and you’re hooked. The new lip-plumping, line-lifting product may not replace painful lip injections, but it does a good job of making lips look plump and volumized. The ultra-lightweight formula hydrates, soothes and volumizes lips with something LipToxyl calls; “Lip Response Technology.” This is a blend of naturally-derived ingredients that help to plump and repair lips so that they look “cushiony” and full. The unique, gel-creme is enriched with a combination of bioavailable minerals that help to stimulate the fibroblast activity and provides protection. Infused with DermLift Complex, a cutting edge blend of polysaccharides and microalgae that provides instant and long-term skin firming. More specifically, the LipToxyl Revolumizing Lipcare has a a variety of minerals (iron, magnesium, copper, silicon and zinc) that help to balance skin’s moisture levels, increase healthy skin cell respiration so its elasticity is improved , and it also has a Polypeptide blend that allows minerals to be more effectively absorbed. The actives promote and regulate cell regeneration, keeping skin’s outermost texture healthy and smooth. Aloe Vera provides soothing, while Sodium Hyaluronate acts as a water-binding plumping agent. The gloss also contains Vitamins A & C for anti-oxidant protection. 
You can use LipToxyl with your favorite lip color to increase lip volume and reduce surface lines or try one of the tinted LipToxyl glosses. The product is paraben free and easy to use with a wanded applicator. A LipToxyl study (based on only 12 volunteers which doesn’t seem to be statistically significant) claims Lip plumpness increased by 158%; Hydration increased by 155%; and Smoothness increased by 533% . Surgery and fillers are painful and expensive, and while LipToxyl isn’t going to replace those, it is a non-invasive and painless way to get that “little extra” for your lips, And at $35.00 in a lip gloss form, that’s definitely worth considering.
When the mercury rises, the blotting papers come out! New from nifty NYX Cosmetics are three new blotting papers ($6.00/100) that do three specific things (besides dull excess shine). They are: Tea Tree; Blemish Control; and Green Tea. The slim packets of papers come in colorful “envelope” style packaging perfect for pocket or purse. All absorb excess oil without messing up your makeup, but the Green Tea blotting paper has Green Tea antioxidants to protect and rejuvenate skin. It absorbs oil quickly and effectively leaving skin looking fresh and matte. The Tea Tree blotting paper has tea tree oil to help prevent blemishes. It helps to control t-zone and oily areas on face and of course, removes excess oil, but for those with real blemishes, there is the Blemish Control blotting paper featuring paper treated with salicylic acid to help prevent breakouts and produce a more radiant complexion. There is also a Matte Blotting paper to help keep your complexion non shiny. 
Also new from NYX are eight new NYZ Xosmetics Stick Blushes that add long lasting color in mini-sized, creamy,swivel up stick: Magnolia, Pink Lotus, Hibiscus, Tulip, Orchid, Tea Rose, Water Lily, Pink Poppy and Tulip. There’s something for everyone, from the nude-ish Hibiscus to the rosed-brown Water Lilly, and the bright pinks of Magnolia and Pink Lotus.My personal favofrite is “Tulip,” the sheer, medium deep pink that adds a much wanted color back into Winter weary cheeks. No matter which color you choose, your face will benefit! Visit NYX Cosmetics at www.nyxcosmeticsw.com
SueDevitt’s Lip Enhancing Gloss in “Bermuda Triangle” (third from the left in the photo), launched a while back, but the sheer, barely-there hint of peach with a lot of shimmer and shine is a way to wear the new, peachy/coral/orange trend in a subtle way. The luxurious gloss is delivered with a brush-tipped wand. Infused with Sue Devitt’s Micro-Aquatic Complex, the gloss has water- infused shea butter (one of the most moisturizing ingredients around) plus orchid extract, pack a punch to banish dry lips, while Peptide-5 promotes collagen production (for fuller, more youthful lips) and hydrolyzed elastin and marine collagen also hydrate and make lips
more supple.
Also not 100% newly minted, but still trendy is the Gel-to-Powder Blush ($22.00) infused with Sue Devitt’s Micro-Aquatic Complex. The silky gel/cream slides on as if you were born with natural color. “Marion Reef” looks alarmingly hot pink in the silvery, round, mirrored compact, but on the skin, it can be as sheer as a natural blush, or as bold as you want for color that really pops. To see more Sue Devitt, visit www.suedevittbeauty.com
