Ready for the New Year 2013!

So, the end of the year is approaching, and a new year is about to begin. For many people that means getting into an exercise regime, diet, cleansing, etc. It would be great to have time for all of that! We all have busy lives and many of us just want simplicity.

Start from the outside and work your way in. Beautiful skin, meditation, lots of water, and a good diet filled with fruits and vegetables. Running my business and working full time is super challenging, so I try to make every choice a good choice. Transitioning from having my second baby has been hard. The skin problems and hair loss have been knocking on my door, but thankfully I have kept them under control this time around. Because all the makeup I make is so mild and non-comedogenic (doesn't clog your pores) my skin has done much better than it did after my first baby. For the over-production of oil I have been using my facial mask at least once a week and that has worked greatly. If you think you don't have time for things like face masks, think again! Just apply the mask before the beginning of a TV show, and when the show ends or on commercials rinse the mask off. Your skin will feel so soft! I don't know why the post-partum made my skin produce more oil, but that's why I decided to formulate the mask. It has oatmeal and kaolin clay, two key ingredients for oil control. Contrary to what I believed, my moisturizer has not made my skin more oily at all! I love it, I can definitely see improvements in my skin firmness. I just love it when people tell me: "you're 32? I thought you were 24!." It's all about preventative care ladies!

Oatmeal and Kaolin Clay Mask

My Christmas present? I got hair extensions, yay! A girl should be entitled to feel beautiful, right? That's my motto.

Come visit me at Art and Flea on Thursday Jan 24th from 5pm-10pm at Fresh Cafe (831 Queen St., Honolulu) and visit my new website www.dehandmadecosmetics.com. Private consultations and makeup parties are available. Email dehandmadecosmetics@gmail.com or call 808-232-4773 with the date you have in mind and I'll pencil you in my calendar (Oahu customers only for private consultations). You make income with makeup party as the hostess keeps 25% of the sales of the party (25% when I come to your party, 30% if you do the party on your own). If you want to host parties on a regular basis you can purchase a sample pack. Email or call with any questions, ok?

Stay beautiful!
Eva

Someone Please Pinch Me!

Today is such a special day for me because D&E Handmade Cosmetics is featured on the front page of the Today section of the Star Advertiser. If you have a login for the paper's website you can see the article here: http://www.staradvertiser.com/s?action=login&f=y&id=177809131 or just check the physical paper (I bought a few copies!).

Thank you so much to Shantel Grace who graciously did my interview and wrote this story along with H&K Handbags' feature. I was thrilled to learn about Hunnelle and how she is rocking Rawards! Visit www.rawartists.org for more info.

If you haven't joined my newsletter yet, please do so here to the right of the blog, that way you will know when I'm running a sale and releasing new products. I released new eyeshadow sizes (1 gram eyeshadows for $3.99), and will be releasing a few more products this month. There will be a huge sale after Thanksgiving, so be sure to visit www.dehandmadecosmetics.etsy.com to shop your healthy cosmetics! If you live on Oahu you can check out the cosmetics at Art and Flea at Fresh Cafe, 831 Queen St. I will have my collection there on Nov. 23 (the day after Thanksgiving a.k.a. Black Friday). For more info visit www.artandflea.com.

Downtown Decadence

D&E Handmade Cosmetics will be at Downtown Decadence: Persimmon and Posh. This benefit event supports the YWCA of Honolulu. To purchase tickets online visit www.ywcaoahu.org. Thusrday October 4th, 5:30 - 8:30pm at 1040 Richards St., Honolulu (YWCA). Come down and support a great cause!

Keep Me Young

I have been pondering with skin care since I first started my cosmetic line. Creating skin care products takes time. You have to do a lot of research about the ingredients if you want to deliver something really good. I am now in my thirties and I'm all about preventative care. With that in mind I released my first moisturizer, Keep Me Young. I know aging it's a beautiful thing, however, we all have the right to battle wrinkles if we want to! Now, lets check the properties of the fabulous active ingredients found in this moisturizer:

Hyaluronic Acid: Most powerful moisturizer and humectant known so far, provides smoothness and softening to the skin, excellent anti-wrinkle effects, promotes growth of new skin cells, supports wound healing.

SkinLift DPHP: Long-lasting firming and moisturizing effects, powerful anti-wrinkle action by stimulating synthesis of collagen fibers, inhibition of age promoting elastase enzymes, inhibition of free radicals, maintains integrity of the skin barrier, penetrates deeply into skin.

Skin Tight Algae Extract & Pullulan: Immediate skin tightening effect and also long-term effect by protecting skin cells from oxidative stress and strengthening skin’s connective tissue by stimulating collagen synthesis & renewal of tissue cells. Pullulan also retains moisture.

I have done quite a lot of research, and so far I have not found any other moisturizer in the market that has all three of these ingredients. I am really proud of this product, and of the high-quality ingredients that went into it. Keep in mind that when you buy handmade, those active ingredients are really there, delivering better results than commercial products where you only find traces of active ingredients. Come take a look at Keep Me Young Moisturizer in my Etsy Shop.

As always, thank you for reading and thank you for your support. If you like this please share it with a friend!

Stay beautiful,
Eva



Keep Me Young Moisturizer

Baby On Board, Makeup Out the Door!

Wow, I can't believe the last time I blogged I didn't have my baby girl yet. Time just flies by! Well, she is here now :) She was born on July 10th. I am so thankful because I had a great delivery. I had contractions pretty much all day Monday. I even made lipstick and eyeshadow through my contractions. Later that night when I could only get through the contractions by staying on all fours on the floor, my husband said: "That's it, we're going to the hospital or you're just gonna have that baby here." We got to the hospital at around midnight and my little one was out at 7:30am weighing 6 pounds and 10 oz. She is so beautiful! Everything I was expecting and more :) (ahhh, motherhood is so wonderful!!!). Here is a picture of her:

So, other than nursing and cuddling my little one and playing with my toddler, I have had a bit of down time to create some great new colors. I was going to post some here, but my little one is now crying so I must go. But please visit my Etsy Shop and check the new arrivals section, they're all there! I even posted a gel eyeliner that is absolutely AMAZING! It will last all day and night.

Till the next one! Stay beautiful!!

Happy 4th and a Little Bit of Everything!

Happy 4th of July! In celebration of the holiday use coupon HAPPY4 to obtain 15% off discount at D&E Handmade Cosmetics. Of course 4th of July until Hawaii time :-)

So far, no baby yet... I have an appointment tomorrow. Let's see. I'm only 5 days away from my due date. It's incredible! I'm so ready to carry this little girl in my arms and not in my belly. Being pregnant is awesome, because, well technically you get to eat whatever you want, but I'm just plain uncomfortable now. It's really hard to sleep, not that it will get any easier when the baby is here and waking up every 2-3 hours. This pregnancy has been harder for sure. Probably because I have a two year old as well.

Talking of motherhood. Check out my new "about" page on Etsy. It's nice that Etsy gave artisans a page to explain people about themselves and their shop. I had fun putting it together. If you don't see the relation of motherhood and the page, then, go check it out! :)

I added about 6 or 7 new products. I haven't had time to put them here in my blog, but please visit my shop and check them out. I finally got out around making that AWESOME rice powder mineral veil. It comes in a large 20 gram jar size, and a 10 gram jar size perfect for your purse. Here's one of the new eyshadows:

Champagne Mineral Eyeshadow

I must go get ready for 4th of July BBQ. Thank you for reading, and as always, thank you for your support.

Stay Beautiful!

Eva

Contractions and Makeup Don't Mix

Ufff, I've been having some tough contractions tonight... I had one order that came in today and I even ended printing the label online. I never do that, I always go to the post office to get postage and drop off all the packages there. But I was afraid I didn't make it to Monday and then the order would stay behind. One of my customers asked me if I was going to close the shop for the time I was in the hospital and I had told her I wasn't planning to, but now that everything is getting way real I think I might. I really don't like closing the shop, I feel like it loses relevancy. Seems like I'm going to have to though, at least from how I'm feeling tonight. I don't think I will have time to update shop announcements, listings, etc. to keep it open AND have all these contractions shennanigans at the same time. My due date is July 9th, so if you're planning to get something do it quickly because this baby is coming SOON....

Making Make-up

A lot of people ask me why do I make make-up? This question doesn't have a single answer. It started as something else, and then well, it just became what it is today and it continues to evolve. First, I'll tell you how it started. After my daughter was born in 2010 my skin simply changed. I don't know if it was the hormones or what, but it got worse as time progressed. I spent hundreds of dollars in products trying to find something that worked and nothing did. So decided for a while to just live with my skin the way it was. Don't get me wrong, I tried passively to improve my skin, but the overwhelming feelings of new maternity and the busy schedule made my skin problem very much secondary. After some time had passed, and I was still with my skin problems, I decided to take on modeling. You know how when you're a little girl, you dream of being something? I always wanted to try modeling. But my short stature and not too skinny self never really helped me. After becoming a mother I did become quite skinny so I thought I'd gave it a shot. It was just something I always wanted to do.

I did a few photo shoots here and there, got into different websites modeling bridal, so I was happy but I quickly realized that it wasn't really as fun as I thought it would be. I'm creative in my own ways, but I didn't feel modeling was fulfilling. It did teach me and drove me into something. One, if you want to model you need to have good skin, really good skin. Photographers can retouch your photos, but nothing glows like beautiful skin in photos. Two, if you want really pretty makeup, go to a pro. They know all the little secrets of how to make you look beautiful. Here's a picture of great makeup artist Lani Jayme whom I worked with several times that can attest to what I'm trying to say:

As you can see, makeup artists are just that, gifted people who take beauty to the next level. So, where am I going with all this, and how all of this took part and set D&E Handmade Cosmetics into motion? For one, I love fashion, I love makeup, I love the fact that it lifts our womanly spirit. I can have a really bad day, and gorgeous makeup will brighten up my mood. My post-partum skin problems, and then the modeling stint made me research skin care. That's where everything started. I discovered that a lot of these skin care products have LOTS OF BAD STUFF. Lots of it! It's really hard to pinpoint what is irritating your skin when you have 40 or 50 ingredients. So, I learned, not only that I could make my own cleansers, but I could make other products as well. All of a sudden I felt empowered about controlling what was on my makeup and my beauty products. I decided that I wanted to pursue this as my creative venue and never stopped ever since. I decided to share with other women the products I began making.

My Etsy Shop will be one year old in September, and my products have traveled as far as Greece and Malaysia. I feel honored that there are people out there that believe in my product, and continue to come back as customers time after time. Based on time constraints I haven't made any more cleansing products, but it is definitely in my plans. Just yesterday I added my 80th product on Etsy and it made me feel very jubilant. I continue to get inspired and create beauty products to share with every woman out there, and knowing that what I create is actually good for their skin, that it doesn't contain harsh chemicals, and most importantly, that it was never tested on precious animals makes me feel like somehow I'm making a difference in the world.

As far as makeup artists and models, I'm neither one of them, but I can make gorgeous colors for their photoshoots and their artistry, and also for the rest of us, because we all deserve to feel beautiful.

Till the next one. Stay beautiful!

Eva

Pastels!

I just realized that all of a sudden I've had a preference for pastel colors in my new creations. My new eyeshadow/blush Dream Pink is absolutely gorgeous. I never thought it would came out that pretty when I was attempting the color. So, I wonder if it's the fact that I'm about to have a baby girl that has me wishing on pastels. Which colors do you wear in the summer? Do you change your makeup for the seasons? These are some great summer colors available in my store:



Dream Pink Mineral Eyeshadow/Blush



Sweet Peaching Mineral Eyeshadow

Lucky Star Mineral Eyeshadow

Ocean Breeze Mineral Eyeshadow

Rice Powder



D&E Handmade Cosmetics Touch-Up Veil

 I offer a wonderful product in my store, but I believe I have only sold it once or twice. This product is my mineral veil. This product is really amazing, really soft and fluffy. It provides great oil control, minimizes lines, wrinkles, and pores, and the jar that it comes in is huge. It's a 20 gram jar for only $7.99. I like to evaluate why such product doesn't sell more often, and I can only come to one conclusion: one of the ingredients is cosmetic grade cornstarch.

Cornstarch has acquired a bad reputation, especially among those who have acne. I have read blog after blog as to why we should avoid cornstarch, especially if you're prone to acne. This is really sad, considering how great of a product cornstarch contributes to. This acne-prone blogger over here says that she started using a L'oreal product without knowing it contained corn starch until after she started using it, and even though she wouldn't have purchased if she knew it contained cornstarch, she states that she really likes the product and she haven't had any problems with it so far. Interesting.

I think a lot of the problems with acne have to do with oil, and not so much what kind of powder you're using. If you don't clean your brushes frequently, oil and bacteria will build up in there, and it will make you breakout. I'm really against those minerals that have a screw/unscrew brush cap. I think that it's disgusting, because you are creating bacterial contact 100% of the time with that brush. The worse thing you can do to your skin is not clean the tools that you use to apply your cosmetics.

It doesn't matter if I believe in my product so much, since people don't want to purchase it. I'm considering moving from cornstarch to rice powder. Rice powder it's about 25% more expensive, which means I will have to charge a little bit more for the product. But apparently rice powder has some really great properties, so I will experiment and see how it goes.

What is your preference? Do you pay attention to the ingredients of the makeup you wear? Or do you just look for minerals/vegan/organic labels in general?

Thank you so much for reading. Until the next one.

Stay beautiful,
Eva

My Etsy Life

I am in week 35 of my pregnancy, and for whatever reason, I have a surge of creativity and desire for doing all sorts of things with my Etsy shop... You would think I should be winding down to welcome the arrival of my second daughter, but I'm not and I'm not stopping! :) I recently signed up my shop for Candy Referral. This referral program allows customers and potential customers to refer their friends to my products. It offers your friend a 15% off discount, and you receive 25% off for every successful referral. I don't know if it's going to work at all, but hey, I've got to try! Being a businesswoman is about taking risks. If you're interested in signing up and referring a friend you can do so here. You can also share it on Facebook and Twitter. Please sign up for the monthly newsletter (hint hint receive Reader Only offers!).

Until the next one. Take care and stay beautiful!

Eva