Sunday, December 27, 2009

Virgin Mobile US & e.l.f. Cosmetics

How serendipitous that on the exact day my cell phone stops being able to charge, I would receive a cell phone to review?  Here’s my story: I’ve been having a blast working with e.l.f. cosmetics the past few months.clip_image002[5]  When e.l.f. contacted me to see if I’d be interested in test driving a Virgin Mobile USA phone in conjunction with their Sexiest Mouth in America Contest.  I told them to count me in.  A few days later, the exact day my own phone craps out, I received a Rumor 2 cell phone from Virgin Mobile USA!  I love this phone.  It is easy to use and navigate.  The best feature for me is the slide-out QWERTY keyboard.  For a commitment-phobe like me, the fact that Virgin Mobile USA has a no contract option, is fabulous.  All you need to do is buy the phone (The Rumor 2 is $129) and you then have the option of plans from ranging from $29.99 to $49.99 per month for unlimited voice.  Another really useful feature I discovered is Virgin Mobile Connect which allows customers to get all of their social networking updates, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and You Tube, on one single dashboard with a single login.  Make sure you stop on over to vote for The Sexiest Mouth in America on Virgin Mobile USA’s Facebook page before the contest ends on January 3, 2010.  I’ve discovered another reason I love Virgin Mobile and their no-contract plans.  My mother-in-law is currently visiting from Sweden and needs a cell phone.  How totally convenient that I can hook her up with my Rumor 2 and a one month plan?  She visits a couple of times per year, so this is the perfect solution to her cell phone needs.

elflogo I’d heard about e.l.f. eyes.lips.face., cosmetics for years but had never tried any of their products.  Working in Hollywood, I’m lucky that I get to try new cosmetics and have a number of friends who are make up artists so I feel like I’m really in the know.  Somehow, e.l.f. had eluded me.  Again, serendipity stepped in when I was in Chicago for BlogHer (blogging conference).  I was in the elevator at the hotel and a friendly guy was in there as well talking to another blogger about cosmetics and I thought I heard him say “e.l.f.”  I jumped in and asked if this was indeed e.l.f. that I had been meaning to try.  Turns out it was and I was invited to the e.l.f. hospitality suite to meet with the executives and make up artist and check the products out.  Now, as I mentioned, e.l.f. had been on my radar for a while.  What I knew was that every product sells for $1.  Turns out that is no longer entirely true.  They have expanded their product line and in addition to their original e.l.f.product line of $1 items, they also have mineral and studio lines.  As I perused the products, tried a few out and talked with the e.l.f. team, I knew I wanted to know more and tell my friends all about it.  After the conference, I kept in touch with the folks at e.l.f. and was really excited when I was chosen to host one of the first e.lf. MUAH (Make Up At Home) parties.

elfTable I recently hosted the MUAH party and invited a dozen of my friends.  None of them had heard of e.lf. so I knew I had a great audience to introduce to the line.  We were fortunate to have Hollywood make up artist, Shannon Hughey on board to do our make up.  This was the first time Shannon had ever used e.l.f.  After we watched a brief dvd giving us a bit of background and some tips, we checked out the huge assortment of products e.l.f. sent for us to try.  Everyone found several products they really liked.  Shannon did some amazing makeovers.  Since it was my friend Eunice’s birthday, Shannon did her make upelfShanEun first.  Check out Eunice’s blog post about her e.l.f. makeover including the before and after photos.  Speaking of photos, pro photographer, Laura Joyce, was on hand to party with us and document our fun and transformations.  I was thrilled to have Fresh Brothers pizza to sponsor our party.  Growing up in the Boston area, and having lived in Italy, I am acutely aware of how FreshBroself difficult it is to find good pizza in LA.  My difficulties ended when Fresh Brothers opened their LA locations.  All of their food is really fresh and delicious.  Fresh Brothers offers a   “create your own salad” which is unique in that it allows you to choose exactly what you want in your salad and then they make it your specifications.  Debbie, owner of Fresh Brothers brought us some of their most popular pizzas, including their famous Miller Special .  I also love, love, love their buffalo wings, as do my friends apparently,FreshBrosPizza because they were demolished halfway though the party.

Here is why I like e.l.f.: As a crazy busy mom, I can go days without wearing much, if any make up.  I can’t stand spending $20 for a lipgloss only to barely use it and then it just gets old and gunky.  I have noticed that e.l.f. products, tend to be sized smaller than other make up brands.  If that helps them keep prices low, I’m all for it.  Because, frankly, I’ve never used up an entire tube/jar/bottle of anything over the 20 or so years I’ve been wearing make up.  With e.l.f. products, you can try a bunch of different things and spend less than $20.  My personal favorites are the studio make up collections, especially the 83 piece Essential Make up collection for only $30.  Our artist, Shannon, used the $40, 141 piece, Master Make Up Collection at our party and gave it a big thumbs up.

elfLongtableEveryone left the party with lots of goodies from e.l.f., as well as new looks that Shannon Hughey taught everyone to be able to do on their own.  Shannon became a fan of e.lf. as well, and let’s be realistic, a celebrity maketrying on gloss up artist has her choice of make up, so that is all the endorsement I need.  She has been bringing her e.l.f. cosmetics to her Hollywood set work and especially raves about their Studio Brush Collection.  Although previously only available online, e.l.f. went into Target for the holidays.  I was really looking forward to finding the make up at my local Target because I actually didn’t get any make up at my own e.l.f. MUAH party!  I let all my friends take it all.  I figured I could pick up a few things at Target, but never was able to find any.  My sister-in-law who was at the party, found some, lucky her.  When I told my friends at e.l.f. that I couldn’t find anything, they told me that it was so popular, it sold out ahead of schedule.  But, I got some good news: e.l.f. is getting all geared up to relaunch into Target in March with even more products.  In the meantime, order online directly from e.lf. at eyeslipsface.com and receive free shipping when you spend $75.

1 comment:

Joyce Rocks said...

e.l.f. is great. I introduced it to a friend partly because of their generosity at the Chicago BLOGHER conference!