The cleaning set includes The Brush Guard Variety Pack, a 4 oz bottle of Squeaky Clean Brush Shampoo, a washing cup and drying vase, and a blotting cloth. The variety pack includes a set of 6 of their award-winning brush guards, which are essentially plastic mesh tubes of different sizes meant to be slipped on from the handle of the brush to cover the bristles. The mesh tubes help shape the brush as it dries, protecting the bristles from any damage. The drying vase, which is aerated by a spiral opening that runs around the cup, comes as a detachable unit with the washing cup. The washing cup is mug-sized with a bumpy scrub-board like bottom.

The pros:

This was overall a great set. I was impressed by the brush guards themselves, which at first glance looked too small to fit over their designated brushes. But they are actually quite expandable, and I was able to fit even my large, dense powder brushes into the brush guards without any trouble. The brush guards work well in allowing the brush to dry and protecting the bristles. They are going to prove quite handy when I have to travel with my makeup brushes. I liked the shampoo more than I expected. I usually use Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Shampoo to wash out my brushes when I don’t feel like splurging on a high-end brush cleanser. The Brush Guard’s shampoo, however, washed out my face brushes more thoroughly than my usual brush cleanser. My stippling brush, whose bristles are perpetually stained pink, was washed to a spanking new white. I did have to wash my foundation and powder brushes twice or three times each to get all the residue out, but I was using less product than I usually do. The bottle sells on its own for $8, which is a great deal for a quality brush shampoo.

My favorite part of the set was the washing and drying cup. The drying cup is essentially an outer shell for the washing cup, which you can detach when you need to use them separately. When you are done drying your brushes, you can just snap the drying cup back onto the washing cup, making for a little more space efficiency. But what’s really cool about the washing cup is the textured bottom—a virtual scrubbing board for your brushes. It is so much more efficient to squeeze a few drops of shampoo into the bottom of the cup and scrub your brush along the bottom to work up a lather. It works particularly well on large-face brushes in making sure that the entire brush is washed. And you can see all the pigment and residue that gets washed out of the brush accumulate in the cup—a nice reminder of why you need to regularly wash your brushes!

The cons:

I didn’t find the towel to be of much use. It was cute to have a matching towel to dry my brushes on, but a regular hand towel or even a paper towel would have done the same job.
I also had trouble using the brush guards on some of my brushes. Some of the brushes I own have with unusual handles, especially when the handle is thicker than the brush itself. It was difficult to put the brush guard on from the handle of the brush. I also don’t like to use it on my angled blush brushes because the angled shape doesn’t fit well into the cylindrical brush guard and it can lose its lost shape a bit.

The verdict:

If you’re looking for an inexpensive way to clean your makeup brushes, the Brush Guard set is a solid investment. If you already have a system for cleaning your brushes, you might want to consider trying out the Brush Shampoo when the time comes to replace your current brush cleanser. The Brush Guards themselves is a worthy investment to anybody who travels with their brushes, as they are versatile with most standard-sized brushes and seem durable enough to protect your brushes from getting bent, misshaped, or snagged in zippers. Of the various Brush Guard products, I’m fairly sure that anybody—from makeup amateur to guru—can find something to use. At just $20, you can buy the entire set, including the brush guards, cleaning shampoo, blotting cloth, washing cup, and drying vase.

Photo via iHeartKoreanBeauty.blogspot.com

We’ve seen Asian fashion and music trends continue to translate and grow in the United States over the past few years, and now Asian skincare products have started to dominate the beauty scene. As we last noted, BB creams and snail creams are hugely successful in Asia and now American cosmetic companies and skincare lines are working to develop similar products to fill the demand for them here. Growing up, I’ve tried several American cosmetic and skincare products, some of which have become part of my list of holy grail beauty products. Still, there was a lot of trial and error—trying different cleansers,moisturizers, and makeup foundations—to see whether they suited my skin type and tone. It was hard to find products that measured up to my expectations. Finally, I tried my hand at Asian beauty products and I suddenly realized what I had been missing!

Zhen, founder and owner of iHeartKoreanBeauty.blogspot.com, sells popular Korean skincare products internationally after she discovered how well Asian beauty products worked for her acne-prone skin. I got in touch with her about her blog and e-commerce site, and she was gracious enough to send me samples of some of her favorite products. There is no better time to give yourself a little makeover and overhaul some of your beauty products now that spring seems to be in full swing (it’s 70 degrees in New York!). Check some of the products I tried:

Jadilla J Original BB Cream

This BB cream comes in two shades and offers medium to full coverage but still looks very natural and gives a dewy look. At first, I thought it was a little too light and gray for my skin tone, but it oxidizes with the natural oils in my skin to create a more natural finish and glow. I’ve tried Missha Perfect Cover BB cream, and while I’m still a fan of the product, I’m liking Jadilla J Original BB cream more and more each day because the coverage is longer lasting. However, Jadilla J is a lot heavier so if you have oily skin, I recommend you stick with Missha. I also love that Jadilla J has built-in SPF and contains phytoncide, a tree extract which helps even skin tone.

Tony Moly Sweety Dual Lip Gloss

Lipsticks tend to dry my skin, so I love using lip tints and stains to give my lips a pop of color without drying them out. This God-sent dual lip gloss combines a lip tint on one end with a sheer lip gloss on the other end. The two colors and textures balance each other out beautifully. I’m surprised by how long-lasting the lip tint is because it stays vibrant throughout the day, and I only had to re-apply once after eating and drinking. I have tried other lip tints in the past, including Cover Girl’s Outlast Lip Stain and Liole’s Cherry Lip Tint, but this one seems to last the longest without drying my lips. The only downside to this product is the scent. It doesn’t smell as sweet or floral as other lip tints and glosses.

Baviphat Peach All-in-One Waterfall Cream

If you’re looking for a rich night cream to moisturize and repair your skin, Baviphat’s Peach All-in-One Waterfall Cream does that and more. At first, I was hesitant to try the product because all the product information was written in Korean, and there weren’t that many online reviews for it. But I had read in some beauty blogs that in addition to moisturizing your skin, it can also minimize pores, brighten your complexion, and whiten your skin for an even skin tone. After a week and half of using the products, I’ve seen some improvement in my skin tone and my pores. If you have oily to combination skin, I recommend applying only tiny dots of the product to your skin. It’s a very rich cream, and you don’t need a lot of it to soothe dry skin.

Baviphat Sweet Honey Lip Scrub

Other than their cheap drugstore prices, Baviphat’s other selling point is their cute packaging. This lip scrub comes in a lip gloss tube, so it makes application easy and convenient. Unlike other lip scrubs I’ve used in the past, the application of this lip scrub isn’t messy because you can control how much product you want to apply to your lips without getting your hands dirty. The sweet smell of the honey can be a little distracting, but it does the work of massaging and exfoliating your lips with its gentle micro beads.

All readers who spend above SGD50 will receive a 5% discount with this promo code: TZJ19W322G82. Offer is valid through April 2012.

Photo via CNNGo.com

Leave it to Korean cosmetic companies to be the pulse on beauty trends in Asia. The latest phenomenon: snail cream. Although this news isn’t earth-shattering—Europeans have used snail mucus in their products for years—snail cream has become ever popular in Korea and there’s a big reason why: the secret is in the slime. Korean cosmetic companies claim that snail guts contain skincare benefits, keeping skin youthful, soft, glowing, and dewy. News first spread about the benefits of snail slime in 2006 when Chilean farmers who were handling snails for the French food market touted how smooth and soft their hands were after working with snails. Since then, beauty products and face creams that contain snail extract have been selling quickly. Some Korean BB creams now also contain snail extract. Like any fad beauty product, there’s solid scientific assurance that snail cream is a heaven-sent secret to beautiful, youthful skin, but many people who have tried it find that it has helped improve the texture and appearance of their skin. What are your thoughts on snail cream? Have you tried any?

Bossa Nova earrings, taken by Malia Griggs

I have collected a lot of jewelry over the years—mostly from antique stores, friends and family. Some of it is pretty tacky (because who really needs a sparkly, silver flip-flop charm dangling from her neck?? Thanks, middle school), and lately, I have just wanted to donate most of it and start anew. I want a chance to figure out what my style is.

Enter JewelMint, a new jewelry line that is the brainchild of actress Kate Bosworth and her stylist Cher Coulter. Here’s how the process works: Visit JewelMint.com and take a Style Quiz, which asks you to describe your personal style and to pick celeb styles you like best. Then, like a dating website, JewelMint matches you with jewelry it deems most compatible with your quiz results. The jewelry, which is designed by Bosworth and Coulter, is added to your showroom. If you sign up for a JewelMint membership for $29.99 per month, you’ll receive a new item every month that works with your wardrobe.

It’s a fresh and interesting take on acquiring jewelry, and it all happens online with free shipping (score!). I took the style quiz—I said my fashion personality was “trendy” and “sophisticated” and that I liked to read Nylon, Elle and Vogue magazines. The site matched me with a variety of colorful bangles and a bright dahlia blossom ring. JewelMint was gracious enough to send me a couple pieces of choice for review, so I chose the Scarab ring and Bossa Nova hoop earrings. I was a big fan of the ring; it’s funky and looks retro with its ancient Egyptian flair (which appeals to the anthropology major in me). The hoops were a nice, medium size and threaded with shiny dark blue, yellow and turquoise. The pieces were well-made and fashionable without being overly flashy.

I was super happy with these new additions to my jewelry box, and although I’m not ready to become a full-time member just yet (read: poor postgrad), I recommend purchasing pieces for yourself and friends if you’ve got the cash! Because an outfit is just an outfit until you spice it up with a piece of jewelry that’s special—and that really meshes with your style.

Scarab ring, taken by Malia Griggs

Photo via IMDb.com

I read this article today about a Laguna Beach doctor who is close to finalizing a laser surgery that could permanently change brown eye color to blue. The laser is tuned to remove pigment from the surface of the iris, which reveals blue underneath.

I’m already a little freaked out by a lot of eye-related trends—surgery to give you eyelids, pupil-enlarging contacts and colored contacts, to name a few. One of the things that bugged me the most about “Memoirs of a Geisha” was the geisha’s blue eyes. What?? How many blue-eyed Japanese women do you see walking around? I know an Indian girl who wears blue contacts, and while it is a striking look for her, it’s clearly not a part of who she is. What’s so wrong with brown eyes, anyway? To me, the most beautiful aspect of people is their eyes. They’re seductive and come in a range of colors and shades (and, yes, I sound like I’m talking about nail polish), but it saddens me to see so many girls mess around with a physical feature that’s more than perfectly good.

I’m bombarded with so much media that emphasizes the blonde, blue-eyed Caucasian ideal, and as an Asian, it can sometimes be a struggle to look in the mirror and see beauty in what’s mine, especially if what’s mine is generally overlooked as being blah or “bad.” Here’s food for thought: What hair and eye color do movie villains/bitches almost always have? Right. What worries me is that this new laser surgery takes “optical cosmetic alteration” (a term I just coined) a step further than contacts trends by adding in the factor of permanency. It’s a commitment that, unlike a tattoo, you can’t easily remove or hide.

As a disclaimer, I’m taking five cultural anthropology classes this semester, so it’s possible I’m just on my everything-is-culturally-insensitive soapbox. Still, I can only hope this doesn’t turn into the cool, costly thing for Asian girls to do. What are your thoughts?

Photo via AllLacqueredUp.com

There might not be a better nail invention ever created than Sally Hansen’s Salon Effects – Real Nail Polish Strips. The product has been creating a big buzz on the beauty blogs and there’s a good reason why. These nail strips are not only faster to apply and dry quicker than regular nail polish, but they take out the work in nail design and make wearing prints on your nails easy and fun. And speaking of nail trends, animal prints aren’t just for your handbags, fur coats, shoes, and clothing. Now you can wear your favorite leopard, zebra, or cheetah print on your nails. It’s sophisticated, chic, and edgy at the same time. What a glorious thing, right?

For the best results, cut, shape, and clean your nails before applying the nail strips. Remove any existing nail polish on your nails to ensure that the strips stick and last. Choose a strip that best fits your nail shape and size and remove the adhesive tape. Using the wooden stick that comes in the package, pin down the tape onto your nail and press down. Then, sculpt your nails using a nail file and remove the excess. For a more detailed step-by-step tutorial, watch this how-to video.

Photo via harveyprince.com

Life-altering moments are usually found in the big experiences, like finally getting that career break or falling in love with The One. But Shaan Hathiramani, founder of Harvey Prince, thinks that something as small as the little molecules that our noses pick up as scents can in fact change our lives.

Tapping into the growing field linking smell to memories and emotion, his up-and-coming company—already making splashes in the likes of Vogue, The Early Show, and The New York Times—has been rolling out nine “scents with a purpose.” Empowering women and changing their lives might be tall orders for a fragrance, but Shaan argues, “Smell is one of our most ancient and powerful senses. You can smell something and be overcome with some memory or feeling.”

It all began when Shaan and his brother wanted to create a custom fragrance that captured their mom’s effortless beauty and ageless aura as a Mother’s Day present. The brothers found their inspiration in the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, whose studies showed that pink grapefruit and mango mask the scent of fatty acids breaking down with age. Not long after Shaan and his brother circulated their product on the Internet to share with friends and family, blogs began to pick up on the fruity, floral perfume—and so an entire scientifically inspired lifestyle brand was born.

While this first perfume might have been made for a mother in mind, it’s less about one’s age and more about the spirit of youth. Shaan laughs about emails telling tales of teenage perfume swipers in the house: “Ageless is beloved by moms and borrowed by daughters everywhere.”

Over here at Mochi, we love that every fragrance revolves around such a state of mind, with a very real story behind it. Shaan says of a new Yogini scent in the works: “There’s a post-yoga glow that stays with you through the day. We were inspired by that moment and wanted to provide that to anyone who wanted to access it—the scent is grounding and soothing.” On the flip side, the upcoming Hello scent is meant to add a fresh jolt to a long afternoon at the office or late night at the library. “Use this instead of reaching for a 5-Hour Energy Drink,” he suggests.

Sure, this all sounds a little fantastical. How much can a perfume actually do?  Yet women who haven’t gone out in months credit a renewed confidence for dipping their toes back into the dating pool to Ageless. Someone even reports dabbing on the perfume one day and being greeted at the crack of dawn by the husband who hand’t uttered a good morning for years.

Shaan presents a logical argument behind their mission: “The modern woman has lots of demanding moments and moods in her day that require different reactions and personalities. A scent can add this little spark into your day.” In other words, the right perfume could draw out the right emotions to help us tackle different situations. While it might not tell you what to say in an interview or what to do on a date, it can boost your confidence or help you stay calm.

And believe it or not, these scents do seem to evoke the same energy in the majority of their sniffers. “Surprisingly what people tend to consider youthful scents will be in a similar category of smells—more floral scents—as opposed to sharper, peppermint smells,” Shaan says of Harvey Prince’s survey findings. “Everyone has their own experience and memories to draw on and will tell a different story around the scent, but the reaction will generally be the same.”

At the end of the day, whether perfumes can really change our lives, we’re loving this young company’s positive, individualized approach to fragrance. Anyone can relate to one of Harry Prince’s many perfume personalities, and no one will argue with paraben-free, hypoallergenic products. Like Shaan says, “You don’t have to be in your 30s to have a quality perfume—and you don’t have to buy the Justin Bieber perfume either.”

Photo via Asos.com

I love autumn weather, especially when the crisp air and early sunsets signal change afoot. In many ways, the fall season is like the start of a new year, arming us with a different set of color schemes, clothing, and trends. A timeless look that never goes out of style is red lips. Throughout the summer, we’ve seen coral and orange lips, but as we transition to autumn, we’re still all about the deep and rich bordeaux reds. The makeup powerhouse NARS makes great lipsticks that have a moist, satiny feel. Their lip colors Afghan Red and Shanghai Express are excellent ways to rock red lips this season.

If you’re looking for a grunge-y look, go for red lipsticks with a brownish undertone or dark purple lipsticks. Earlier this year, we saw MAC release a set of bold and bright lipsticks that included lilac purple hues. You can still wear these concert-worthy looks in the fall with dark purple lips, like Yves Saint Laurent’s Rouge Pur Couture in Noir Laque (blackberry plum) and Dior’s Rouge Lipcolor in Hypnotic Red (deep eggplant).

But bold lips aren’t for everyone. If you’re wearing a dramatic eye look, you’ll want to tone things done with your lips. Nude lips also pair well with a natural look and go well with a number of skin tones. Try Lancome’s L’Absolu Rouge in Couture Suede or MAC’s Viva Glam “Gaga” Lipstick.

What fall lip trends are you seeing this season?

Jen Brill via Style.com

Who says smart girls can’t also be sexy? Ever since Tina Fey made wearing glasses a fashion trend, everybody—whether they need them or not—wants to rock the four-eyed look. Glasses can complement your outfit and make you look more sophisticated, polished, and elegant. Here are some ways you can help highlight some of your best features wearing glasses:

Strong, well-groomed brows balance out a pair of thick-rimmed glasses and frame your face. Be sure to maintain the shape of your brows by threading, waxing, or tweezing them routinely. You don’t want to overdo the plucking, so only remove stray hairs and groom them according to the natural shape of your brow bone. Go for an angled arch and try to stay away from round arches.

Conceal your dark circles with a pale concealer as wearing glasses tends to casts a shadow under your eyes. After you apply concealer, put on your glasses to make sure that your eyes look bright and refreshed.

Create depth in your eyes, using a black eyeliner to tightline your upper lashline and create a subtle cat eye. Tightlining also makes your lashes look fuller than they really are. If you don’t want the eyeliner to look harsh, you can use a brown eyeliner to soften it up. When it comes to eye shadows, try gold and bronze colors for a more neutral look. And for a bolder, more dramatic look, create a light smoky eye using navy blues and grays.

Get full, dramatic lashes by curling your lashes and applying black mascara. Apply mascara from the roots of your lashes and motion the lash wand upwards. If you prefer fuller lashes, you can apply false eyelashes.

Go bold with your lips. Complete your look with a bright red, orange, or pink lip. Don’t be afraid to also experiment with fall’s darker colors, like a deep purple or burgundy red. Be sure to apply lip balm before putting on lipstick to help keep your lips moisturized and use a lip liner to prevent the color from bleeding.

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Photo via Style.com

As September Fashion Week quickly approaches, we keep getting news of fashion designers breaking out into the world of beauty. Charlotte Ronson recently launched her own makeup line at Sephora. Now, Alexander Wang takes a dip into beauty by monopolizing the best fashion accessory ever: nails. Like fashion designers Prabal Gurung and Tracy Reese, Wang will be collaborating with Sally Hansen to produce his own nail color collection. The colors will debut in his spring show, which is less than two weeks away. We can only imagine how’s Wang’s sharp-edged chic aesthetic will shine through in his nail lacquer collection. Perhaps navy blue nails paired with a loose-fitting, oversized gray sweater, tight glitter jeggings, and a pair of platforms? Wang is sure to re-define his concept of “cool” in his Spring Collection, and the nails will be just as representative of his cool understated boho glamour.

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