My 25 Beauty Confessions!

Jeanne has pressed upon me that I should fill out this Sephora top-25 list, as anti-beauty as I am...being a young, working woman, I really can't avoid the beauty industry! The other day, my boss took a long look at me and said, "You look different today. Are you okay?" It took me a moment, but I realized that due to a rushed morning I hadn't had time to put on mascara. Voila, a noticeable difference!

1. What is the 1 product you'd grab if your house was on fire?
Facial wash! (I'm using Boots' Botanicals moisturizing face wash and I like it. Did you know actress Keeley Hawes is the face of Boots No. 7 in the UK? LOVE HER.)

2. Which friend would you let make you over?
Jeanne! Homegirl knows my likes and dislikes, and she is always super-stylish. Or, fictional friend, Joan Holloway of Mad Men--she would probably tell me to hike up my ta-tas and wear tighter sweaters.

3. What celeb do people think you look like?
I want to say Winona Ryder, but really? I would absolutely DIE OF SUPERFICIAL JOY if I grew my hair long to look like Anna Friel.

4. What beauty product do you save for date night?
Benefit BadGal lash mascara. It's a bit va-va-voom for the everyday work face, particularly because I tend to smear mascara on my glasses lenses and BadGal is close to impossible to get off.

5. Which of your guy friends takes longer than you, to get ready?
Like Jeanne, anyone who takes more than 20-30 minutes. I take ten minutes to shower, towel-dry my hair, style it, throw on some clothes, and bing bang boom! We have our routines down pat.

6. If you could create your own miracle beauty product, what would it be?
A fine, non-flyaway powder that provides SPF and good, even coverage to smooth out my red areas and make my face look less freckly. A friend once told me there is laser surgery to remove freckles in South Korea, in order to achieve "porcelain face." Just give me a powder and a big ol' brush, please!

7. How many different Sephora stores have you been to (and in which cities)?
Stanford Shopping Center, San Francisco (Powell)--with Jeanne, San Francisco International Airport departures terminal, and probably New York City...somewhere? Yikes.

8. What's your best beauty tip?
Definitely sunscreen, and don't skimp on the SPF number--stick to 30 or more, most formulations I've used around 30 still protect your skin and don't feel like zinc oxide library paste.

9. What beauty products do you love to splurge on?
Hair conditioners and/or deep conditioning hair masks, because I have a misguided notion that conditioning my hair will make it straighter and less frizzy. I bought a tub of amazing honey deep conditioning goop in Japan that lasted me a good year and a half, so it's pretty much always a good investment.

10. Which of your girlfriends would you bring on a Sephora shopping spree?
Kati, Jeanne, Miss C., and probably my mom. She buys crazy, impulse things at Sephora that I then get to use because they don't work on her. Win!

11. What is your signature scent?
A mixture of my Chai-scented deodorant and Satu Vanille from Anthropologie, which I picked up on sale and on a whim. I think the scents blend well with one another. Otherwise, I am still looking for the perfect citrus perfume for summer, but I don't want it to clash with my deodorant--very important.

12. I am on an endless quest for the perfect _________.
Oops! See #11. Citrus/lemon/orange-scents. And tinted moisturizer that doesn't feel like I'm smearing dried-up paint on my face.

13. How old were you when you were allowed to wear makeup AND how old were you when you actually started wearing makeup?
Oh boy, was I a late bloomer. I made a brief foray into trying to buy makeup at the local CVS in my college town, but never made much an effort beyond face wash and lotion until senior year of college. I had a NARS makeover at our local Sephora while home on break and the makeup artist was so refreshingly frank and really listened to my needs, it turned me right around. I started experimenting and finding what worked well on my when I lived on my own two years ago. Living in Japan for a while was a makeup disaster, I was sweaty and oily all day long, although makeup shopping in Tokyo is endlessly entertaining. Whitening lotion!! Ladies, really.

14. How many beauty products does it take to get you ready?
Let's see. 1: Face wash, 2: lotion, 3: Neutrogena tinted moisturizer blended with previously mentioned lotion, 4: eyeliner in bronze, brown, or black, 5: mascara, 6: pressed powder. Occasionally, I'll use blush. In the car, I put on lipgloss and/or lipstick and that's it. I sure don't look camera-ready by any means!!

15. What lipstick/lip gloss is in your purse right now?
Blistex Deep Renewal with SPF15 and CoQ10 formula (it smells like marshmallows!), Maybelline shiny-licious gloss 87 in pink sorbet, Kiss My Face lip balm in vanilla honey, and Sonia Kashuk lipstick in sheer calypso, from Target.

16. Who is your celebrity beauty icon?
Obviously, love Keeley Hawes and Anna Friel, they are badass ladies. I love Thora Birch's look as Enid in Ghost World, that movie is basically my life, after all.

17. Where is the craziest place you've ever applied your makeup?
The bathroom on the 30th floor of the United Nations Headquarters? It didn't seem particularly momentous or crazy at the time, mostly just lazy and sloppy.

18. Who of your tagged friends is ALWAYS camera ready?
Does my mother count? The lady certainly didn't pass on the photogeneity genes to me!

19. Name the beauty brand you'd most love to be a spokesperson for?
Anna Sui, that packaging is so elegant and Gothic I want to EAT IT.

20. If you could name your signature nail polish, what would you call it?
Purple Primal Scream.

21. Out of your tagged friends, who's the most Sephora-obsessed?
Uh doyyy, as Liz Lemon would say, Jeanne.

22. Fave mascara right now?
I wear Maybelline Colossal Volume Express every day for work, it's...fine. Neither colossal nor really volume-adding, but as long as it makes me look more awake than I actually am, I'm not complaining!

23. The last thing you bought at Sephora?
I probably got a bunch of sample-size things. This reminds me, I need to go pick up an eyeliner pencil sharpener and a new brush...and maybe add to my not-quite-right pressed powder collection.

24. I try never to be seen without wearing _______.
Sunglasses. And lip balm.

25. One beauty product you recommend to ALL of your girlfriends?
DHC foaming cream facial cleanser! So, so great.


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