Romy Raves

I have pretty much been using Q-tips my entire life and they are without a doubt an essential beauty/grooming/life tool that I always have on hand. Dare I say, I couldn’t live without them?!!

I was delighted to learn that recently this iconic little swab has modernized itself and come out with a fabulous enhanced version of it’s classic self called Q-tips® Precision Tips™ cotton swabs. This refreshing new design has pointed tips at both ends, making them ideal for precise application, accurate touch-ups, and for reaching small spaces.

So, Q-tips asked this beauty maven to test out these new Precision Tips and share how I would incorporate them into my beauty regimen. Here are some of my suggestions:

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This past Friday I attended a fun and fashionable event thanks to Glam Media and Philips Beauty. A handful of influential bloggers were invited to the Grove Shopping Center in LA to have breakfast, get glammed, schmooze with other bloggers, meet the Glam team and most importantly to learn all about Philips new Satin Perfect Deluxe Hair Epilator and have a Meet and Greet with Philips Celebrity Spokesmodel Alessandra Ambrosio.

OK I must confess, I am an Epilator virgin and have never actually tried this type of hair removal product so I was intrigued. After I was armed with a yummy soy latte, the brand manager for Satin Perfect walked us through this new product, explained all the products included in the deluxe kit (1 epilator, 4 attachment heads and a pair of illuminating tweezers) and demonstrated how easy it is to use. She demonstrated the epilator on her arm, didn’t flinch and her arm was smooth and hairless, my curiosity was peaked and couldn’t wait to try it at home later.

After the demo, I had my make-up done by a pro

Mingled with other bloggers, ate breakfast and sipped SatinPerfectini’s in honor of this special occasion (Yum!)

Then the highlight of the day came when we were treated to some intimate Q&A time with the uber gorgeous, yet equally down to earth, Victoria’s Secret Super Model and Philips Beauty Global Brand Ambassador Alessandra Ambrosio

She is absolutely stunning in person and was dressed in a cute cream shirt dress and Jimmy Choo heels barely showing at two months pregnant

She shared her top three beauty secrets which are hydration, SPF, and anti-aging serums from her derm. We asked her what she thought American women could stand to learn about beauty from the Brazilian culture, and I was delighted by her answer which was to accept and love your body no matter what size you are. She told us that in Brazil both large and small size women wear Brazilian Bikini’s (which FYI show a lot of tush), strut on the beach and really own it no matter what size, I love that!

Then we got into the pressing matter of the day: Hair Removal! She shared that Brazilians are obsessed with hair removal (after all they created the Brazilian Bikini wax, right?!) and ever since she was a young teen her mother told her not to shave her hair but rather to wax or epilate. She used an epilator in her early days of hair removal and is really impressed with how far these devices have come and how much gentler they are today. She aligned herself with Philips because they make a great portable epilator that she can easily use on the road and in between professional waxing. She even gave us a pseudo demo on her stellar smooth and golden bronzed legs, to show us how easy it is use. Oh how I wish I had legs like that!

Then we were all gifted with these fabulous summery yellow striped beach bags

Which included the new Satin Perfect Deluxe Epilation System to try at home, as well as a fab yellow beach towel and a gift certificate for a blow out from Dry Bar, Nice!

Then we went outside to watch the Philips Spring fashion show hosted by Alessandra and Celeb Stylist, Inge Fonteyne highlighting the brights of the Spring season and showcasing gorgeous smooth legs courtesy of the Satin Perfect Deluxe

It was a fun day and I was really excited to go home and try the Satin Perfect Epilator on my underarms. I have to say, removing hair with an epilator is a totally different experience than waxing or shaving and I think that the Philips epilator is very finessed and streamlined. It is super easy to use and does an amazing job at removing hair from the root, but it is a bit zingy and takes a little getting used to. However, I am delighted with the results of removing my hair with the Satin Perfect epilator and am happy to report that almost four days later my underarms are soft and smooth without stubble or a hair in sight.

Disclosure: Glam Media and Philips invited me for breakfast, glamming, an interview with Alessandra, to see their fashion show and gifted me with an epilator and blowout. All opinions and smooth underarms are my very own.

You know how much I adore beauty, right? And how I am just a little bit obsessed with social media and new technology? Well, given these passions, I jumped at the chance to review a new app that merges beauty with technology: L’Oreal MatchMaker by True Match

Basically, this app walks you through a series of questions about your skin tone and most flattering colors in order to determine which L’Oreal True Match Super Blendable Makeup is best for your skin tone. I found this app kinda clever, fun and super easy to use. I thought that the questions were perfectly designed so that I actually ended up with exact perfect shade for my skin tone (which I indeed questioned and double checked with the other shades at the the store) and I even bought the recommended concealer too.

So, I thought it might be fun to walk you through the app and share my observations along the way, sound good? Let’s go:

Here’s what the app looks like

Here’s the first screen you will see when you get into the app. I clicked on A little of both since that’s how my skin reacts, how about you?

Next, we look at our wrist and see what color my veins are, interesting question, don’t you think? Mine are More Blue, in case you are interested

Next, I had to pick my most flattering color combinations between warm and cool shades, I selected the cool tones with blues, greens and purples

Then, which type of jewelry do I look best in? EVERYTHING!! (Was that a trick question? The more sparkle the better)

Then, what is my natural hair color? (What is my natural color? It has been so long since I saw it, I cannot recall) OK, if you must know it’s a rather exciting Mousy Light Brown

Then eye color, green baby!

Next, the question that I always expect when talking about foundation, what is my skin tone? Medium

Step 8: Select the shade that most closely matches my skin tone. I found this question the most challenging because none of the digital color swatches matched exactly, so I went with the lightest one right in the middle

And Viola! Finished, wasn’t that easy? And now I get to find out my True Match shade

So here’s my True Match: N5.5 Perfect Beige, which happens to be one of the newest shades in the collection. I liked that I could click on the My Undertone button and learn that my undertone is neutral, I have red, blue and yellow in my skin, and that I look fabulous in all colors! And by clicking on the My Celeb Match button, I learned that Claudia Schiffer has the same undertone as me, fun!

So I went to my local CVS to buy my True Match, and while they had a nice selection of shades, they were out of my exact recommended shade since it is so new. So I selected N5 True Beige which was very close and I also bought the recommended True Match Concealer in N 4-5

I went home and played with the foundation for several days and here’s what I thought: It’s a great foundation for the price, thrilled it has SPF 17, I love love the wide variety of shades (33 to be exact!), it has a medium weight texture, offers moderate coverage and it blends really nicely. I also like the that they have other products like powder, blush and concealer (I thought it offered really nice coverage in the perfect shade for my skin tone) that are meant to coordinate with your True Match shade.

Overall, I like True Match Foundation and think that using an app to find your correct shade, is a fun and clever way to engage the consumer in a techie way. Why not checkout the app yourself HERE? It’s free  Hope you have fun finding your True Match

True Match Matchmaker App allows you to find your precise True Match shade by determining your unique undertone and depth through a series of focused questions.  Once you find your True Match shade you will be able to use the store locator feature to see which stores carry your shade as well as see who your celebrity undertone match is and get other product recommendations based on your unique shade!

Disclosure: Compensation was provided by L’Oreal Paris via Glam Media.  The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of L’Oreal Paris.