Sometimes having too many options can be a little overwhelming, but when entering the Pink Quartz Minerals shop I feel like a kid in a candy store! Doree is a one woman DIY powerhouse who makes a variety of all natural makeup, but she always makes time to create any item to your exact specifications. What color do you want that lip balm? How opaque do you want the color? Want to add a flavor? An all natural sweetener? How about customizing the label with any text you want? Even cooler, these options are standard and there is never an extra charge for them. I have been loving my marshmallow flavored, stevia sweetened, deep rose lip balm for months and I’m actually excited to order a few more.

As someone who really doesn’t wear much makeup - usually some tinted lip balm or mineral foundation - my affinity for Pink Quartz Minerals might seem surprising. Keep in mind though that I’m a really particular shopper; I always know just what I want… and what I don’t want.

Unlike most products out there, all of Doree’s handmade goodies are safe for your eyes, lips, skin, and face, which says a lot about how “natural” they really are. The ingredients consist of only 6 minerals (except the lip balms of course), and there are never any preservatives, chemicals, or animal-based ingredients. Everything is vegan friendly, and truly hypoallergenic and non-comedogenic. I was visiting family recently and took a peek at the ingredients on my little sister’s sparkly lip balm set. Talk about night and day! There was a huge list of chemicals and it was petroleum based, too. Yuck! What bums me out is that makeup containing dangerous, junky ingredients is standard. Thank goodness for businesses like Pink Quartz Minerals who have integrity and create only safe and exquisite makeup items.

I also had the pleasure of trying the mineral foundation and the fabulous vegan kabuki brush. Both are amazing! I bought the sample kit to find the perfect shade for me, but you can also have a color custom blended. I’ve been asked so many times “Are you wearing makeup? Your skin looks so nice.” Could there be a better testimonial? During the visit to see my family, my mom tried the kabuki brush and could not stop raving. “It’s so much softer than the expensive one I bought and doesn’t shed all over the place either”. Since she doesn’t stop by this blog too often I’ll let you guys know that I’m going to order her a brush and sample kit, too

Unless you’re madly in love with your makeup and can identify all the ingredients on the label, I really encourage you to try some of the lovely handmade products from Pink Quartz Minerals. They’re safe, affordable, and bring out your natural beauty so you’ll look and feel like a million bucks.

Taged as: custom, DIY, eco friendly, Etsy, handmade, sexy, under $25, under $50, vegan

Guess what we’ve been doing lately? Just like every September and October, our brains and lives get totally into Halloween mode while we work on our Halloween Costume section and our Halloween website. After a ton of research and harnessing our Halloween Super Senses, we’ve completed our Hot Halloween Costumes List for 2008! It’s full of the best, most popular costume ideas for everyone in the family;

• Girls Costumes
• Boys Costumes
• Women Costumes
• Children Costumes

Whether you need an awesome costume idea or are just curious about what the trends will be like this Halloween, check out our list! If you’re a big Halloween fan like us, be sure to visit our other site 365 Halloween and subscribe to the RSS feed. When October rolls around we don’t do much else besides keep 365Halloween.com updated every day, so it’s always lively over there!

Taged as: fun, Halloween, holiday, kid friendly, unique, website

Since we announced the addition of the Hot Vintage Clothing Stores monthly feature we’ve been finding new stores to feature from helpful visitors like you. We want to thank you all for your suggestions and to keep them coming in.

This month Mable’s is featuring Filthy Gorgeous Vintage because of their wide variety of 60s, 70s, and 80s clothes, their stock is from both coasts of the US, they ship worldwide, and more. View the Hot Vintage Clothing page for more info.

Below is a sneak peak of some hot auctions going on right now from Filthy Gorgeous Vintage.

 

Vintage 80s New Wave
Bubble Slv Gray Lines
Mini Dress M-L

Vintage 60s Accordian
Pleat Caftan Tunic Mini
Dress S-M

Vintage 60s Fitted Wiggle
Pencil Skirt Baby Blue
Dress S-M

Taged as: accessories, eBay, eco friendly, indie, one of a kind, retro, vintage

It was many months ago that I randomly discovered ibride. They were featured on several design blogs and I instantly fell in love with their line of ornate wall art trays. Since they were seemingly everywhere at the time, I didn’t bookmark any online stores. Of course the name ibride quickly slipped from my memory and I have spent the last few months keeping en eye peeled for those gorgeous baroque flourishes and collages of anthropomorphic animals. Quite a hybrid of style, eh? In fact, the name ibride is actually a play on words that is meant to represent “hybrid”. The company consists of 4 French relatives, Rachel, Benoit, and Carine, who I wish I could find more info about online. Their official website is in French and is Flash based so it doesn’t lend well to translating. Anybody know more about them?

Their stunning art trays come in 3 different themes; vintage ladies, animals in nature, and hybrid human/animals attired in exquisite vintage clothing. The imagery is simply amazing, but it’s the colors that really grab me: brooding, muted shades with splashes of vivid color. Everything they make is truly a hybrid of modern and classic. Better still, the laminated trays are made from a recycled wood core!

And lest I forget to mention their newer offerings: furniture shaped like the lower half of an animal. The Basset Stool and Dog Stool (both shown above) are available in black or red. Joe the Polar Bear book shelf measures nearly 4′ tall and is super limited edition.

All but 4 of the trays offered at Burke Decor include Free Shipping in the USA.

Taged as: animals, art, bedroom, free shipping, gift idea, mod, nature, over $200, recycled, under $100, under $50, unique, wall art

Image (c) roboppy

A couple months ago a friend emailed to tell me about a berry that I “might be interested in”. She pointed me to the now infamous NY Times article about the “Miracle Fruit“, and I proceeded to flip out. For those of you who haven’t been introduced to this truly magical berry, it makes sour things taste sweet and food in general just tastes better. How exciting is that? It contains a substance called “miraculin” that binds with your taste buds for up to 2 hours of “everything tastes like heaven” fun. Wow, talk about a natural sweetener. Sign me up!

But there’s just one problem: availability. Wikipedia says Miracle Fruit was documented way back in 1725, yet it only gained popularity in America in 2008, thanks largely to the “flavor trippers” referenced in the NY Times article. Without a solid growing infrastructure in place, it’s been really difficult to obtain the berries or the packaged tablets. Most retailers run out of stock for months at a time! I tried to find some seeds so I could grow my own, but at the time nobody had any stock available.

This morning I opened up an email from my homies at Think Geek and almost fell out of my chair when I saw they are now selling Miracle Fruit tablets! The date on the email said it arrived yesterday, but by the time I arrived at their site they were already sold out and taking backorders. Noooo! But since Think Geek is located in the USA (unlike most retailers) and has amazing customer service, I’m just going to backorder a couple packs now. What can I say, I have an insatiable sweet tooth and the idea of sucking on a lemon and having it taste like candy is too novel to resist.

Every story I’ve heard about Miracle Fruit has been funny and amazing. If you’ve tried this miraculous berry, please share your story in the comments. I’ll report back when my shipment arrives

PS- I predict that this berry is going to be so instrumental in getting people to eat healthy. We’ll start by eating a miracle berry before a big leafy green salad - you know, so even the most picky tastebuds can “tolerate” real food. Then we’ll only need a half berry as our bodies become used to eating well. Then one day we’ll realize that we don’t even need to “flavor trip” anymore. Did this idea occur to anyone else?

Taged as: food, fun, funny, gift idea, health, novelty, sweets, Think Geek, unique