Happy Valentine’s Month beautiful readers!

I’ve never won anything. (At least not anything that I really wanted.) Have you? Spirit Beauty Lounge and I have teamed up to make it happen for 18 of you! Let the ‘for the love of green beauty’ gift giving begin!!

Every weekday for the rest of this month you have the chance to win one of the beautiful gifts featured above.  There’ll be a mixture of our favorites in green beauty, from skincare and haircare to makeup and nail polish from brands like Lina Hanson, Kjaer Weis, Tata Harper, Ila, W3LL people, Rahua, RMS, Mun, Strange Invisibles, Maya Water, Vapour Organic Beauty, Soapwalla Kitchen, Chocolate Sun, Alima Pure, Tatcha, Dr. Bronners, Kure Bazaar, BKR.

It’s super simple to enter; just click through the prompts on my Facebook page. The first giveaway is the delicious face oil from Mun… you won’t be disappointed!!!

oxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

 

 

We can all benefit from having a mentor, and Spirit Demerson, the owner of the eponymous online green beauty boutique, SpiritBeautyLounge.com, has been that for me over the past few years. She always has her finger on the pulse of what’s about to explode onto the green beauty scene, and she possesses the most broad mental database of all things green beauty product-related.(sometimes the extent of her knowledge and memory freaks me out!)  Also of great importance: I genuinely love, and use, the products she stocks, and I think her customer service is top notch.

She’s the biggest game in town (and the country) as far as online green beauty shops go, and you can see from her website that she has a very high level of aesthetic integrity. What you can’t see from her site, however, is what I’ll be sharing with you below: the inside scoop on Spirit Demerson. We had a lot of fun during the little photo shoot in her home that you’ll see below, and then Spirit answered my questions that are geared to let you in on  what this trendsetter/tastemaker is thinking, wearing, eating, drinking, putting in her home, and doing in her spare time.  Plus, she shares how she got involved in this industry in the first place, and what she thinks makes Spirit Beauty Lounge the very best place to shop.

 

Katey: What about who you are and what you’ve done in life prepared you to create Spirit Beauty Lounge?

Spirit: I have a funny background in all of the things I do everyday; design, beauty, retail, business and technology…I follow my passion, which has led me all over the place. I would go to art school, then take business classes, manage a beauty supply store, then go away to Spain on a modeling contract, go to cosmetology school, then fashion school, then take programming and networking  classes…in no particular order. I’m a fiend for information. When it comes to things I’m interested in, I can be an obsessive researcher.  Since I have so many loves, I wasn’t sure what career path I could stick to – until something formed that called on many of my passions at once, especially green beauty and business.

Katey: What questions do your customers reach out to you to ask?

Spirit: I hear from a lot of women when they’ve reached the end of their rope – they either want to get off of the chemicals they’re dependent on (steroid creams, accutane, benzoyl peroxides…), but fear a catastrophic withdrawal, or they’ve been trying natural line after line, product after product, and aren’t getting any results. That’s where we come in!  Offering a holistic, comprehensive analysis of your whole beauty routine, and finding alternative green beauty upgrades and solutions is my specialty.

It’s also funny sometimes to hear the way we women describe ourselves.  We all, including myself, can really over-dramatize our conditions.  I’ve seen women with enviable beautiful skin, describe it as dull, aging, hyper-pigmented, sensitive, scarred, congested, enlarged pores, roseacea…I think partly because we now are so educated about beauty and have this dermatologists vocabulary to describe things, we “see” more issues than we ever did before.

Katey: What does a day in your life look like?    

Spirit: My office is a couple blocks from my home but I prefer to work from home as much as possible.  I’m more productive in complete quiet, with candles or incense, my two computers, and my iPhone (this is New York quiet) I start with a morning routine that probably includes some 20 odd products or so (I’m a junkie!) and have a cold-brewed coffee and green juice before starting on emails, reviewing inventory, meeting with vendors, and then meeting up the “The Girls” (the office staff) to go over customer or order issues of the day.  I’ll have 2 or 3 more green juices throughout the day, and try to get my sig. other to take me somewhere amazing for dinner, before curling up into bed with my cat, Fatty.

 

Katey: When do you feel your most beautiful?

Spirit: Superficially – that moment before I leave the house, all dolled up, head full of possibilities and ready to conquer!  Spiritually, when I’m hosting a guest in my home or a dinner party – the lighting, candles, music, food, decor, the conversation is stimulating, everyone is gently intoxicated….bringing souls together in calm, sparkling interaction…creating symbiotic, harmonic beauty – that’s magic.

Katey: What do you do when you’re feeling unattractive and down in the dumps?

Spirit: My blessing and curse is that I’m an obsessive researcher.  When I’m really low, you may catch me spending hours on dermatology and plastic surgery websites, planning out my Frankenstein transformation.  But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned there are two healthier, more productive ways to fight that: 1. Exercise and 2. Put on heels and a bold lipstick!

 

Katey: What do you indulge in that is so not what people think of as ‘green living’?

Spirit: My guiltiest sin is fashion! I generally eat, buy and consume all organic and non-toxic but I have a weakness for beautiful non-eco clothes and shoes. My best effort is to only buy what I love, and will wear for many years (reducing consumption of ‘disposable’ clothing), to only buy natural fibers (admittedly many are worse than synthetic environmentally), and to observe the 1 in 1 out (to my sister as handmedowns) rule so I keep the collection small. But still, I’m the first to admit that what I spend on wardrobe could be put to better use.  Usually I’m a ‘Miranda’ but in that way, I’m a Carrie Bradshaw.

Katey: What are you excited about that’s in the works for SBL? 

Spirit: Kjaer Weis’ new foundation and May Lindstrom’s new face balm are rocking my world right now. They both did something that really hasn’t been done.  With the new foundation, it’s none of the shiny, heaviness of an oil-based foundation, but with all of the velvety coverage of one.  It applies like a thin veil yet still has significant coverage.  When I use it, I almost scratch my head like ‘how did that happen?” The May Lindstrom balm is filled with all these amazing, precious, rare active ingredients that aren’t just anti-inflammatory and hydrating, but actually encourage the skins own natural UV resistance and stress resistance – which means its a godsend for the type of skin that tends to react to EVERYthing. 

We’re doing an exclusive launch soon of a line that has a crazy cult following they built entirely on their own, and sort of under the press’s radar.  Our “early adopter” clients have already been begging us to carry it for a year now so I’m expecting a lot of excitement!  Keep your eyes peeled!

 

Katey: What’s in your beauty bag right now? 

Spirit: My ‘5 Minute Face’ is RMS Beauty Un Cover Up, Kjaer Weis Eyeshadow & Blush, and W3LL People Lip Shine.  People always ask me what I’m wearing when I have it on, which is unusual for makeup.  I kind of love that.

Katey: Why green beauty? (interpret this however  you like)

Spirit: Because we’re worth it.  Truly, it’s deciding to treasure your health, wellness, longevity and radiance, and a way of telling ‘Big Beauty’ to back off.  They hide the truth.  They rape the planet.  We deserve better…no, we deserve The Best.  Keats wrote: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” – that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” 

Katey: 5 things that your fans don’t know about you.

Spirit: I love watching Nancy Grace, Lifetime Movies, and eating waffles & sausage in bed on Sunday.  

I still listen to and consider myself punk rock.  

I’ve had 7 piercings and two tattoos.  

Beauty is only my 4th or 5th passion/obsession, under art, design, food & beverage, fashion and technology. 

I’m incapable of doing my own hair or nails & have to have them done every week.

Katey: What about a brick and mortar store?

Spirit: I would absolutely love to go brick & mortar here in my favorite city [NYC]! It would take some help but I think that would be amazing.  The name Spirit Beauty Lounge was actually the name of the project I wrote the business plan for in the first place – which was a modern organic luxury spa boutique with a lounge vibe. That plan grew into something else so rapidly, there really wasn’t a chance to come up with a name.  It became a virtual beauty lounge.  I have made plans to still get the brick & mortar concept going, but the site’s growth keeps me really busy!

Thank you, Spirit, for sharing so much with us. Can’t wait to see what you have in store for us next. xoxo

 

 

Today marks the start of a beautiful partnership.  Spirit Demerson, founder and owner of Spiritbeautylounge.com, the wonder woman who introduced me to so many fantastic green lines of makeup and skin care, and I, are teaming up to bring you ‘get the look’ blog posts.

I do the makeup while on a photo shoot, take the model’s picture at lunchtime, and send it off to Spirit to pair it with images of the products I used. Hallelujah!  This will make it so easy for you to quickly ‘get the look’, because you’ll be able to see the exact products I used, read how I used them, and click on the link to Spirit’s site to buy them. Couldn’t be easier.

To kick things off, please allow me to present the lovely Canadian model, Marla Boehr.

I prepped her skin by massaging in a few drops of Ila Rose Oil to combat the in-flight dryness I saw around her eyes, nose, cheeks, and mouth (She’d just flown in from Canada).

On her skin:
On her t-zone I sparingly pressed liquid foundation from Vapour Organic Beauty in number 125 and to make the finish look like bare skin, I lightly pressed it in with a slightly dampened beauty blender sponge.

On her eyes:

1. All over the eye area I pressed Kjaer Weis’s charmed shadow in a very sheer application with a medium domed brush. I blended it from the lid up all the way to her brow, sheering it out the further away from her lid I got. I swept some underneath her bottom lashes from edge to edge, as well.

In the crease of her eye I pressed a more tightly-domed shadow brush topped with  Kjaer’s shadow, Wisdom, and used a fluffier domed shadow brush to really blend it into the crease. I took what was left of the shadow on the tightly-domed brush and concentrated the placement of it under the iris, while using a cotton swab to barely blend it towards the edges.

In the inner corner of her eyes I pressed Kjaer’s shadow, Cloud Nine, which really made her eyes pop.

On her cheeks:

2. Onto a soft-tipped fluffy, but not densely packed brush, I blended together Ilia’s ‘All Of Me’ and ‘I Put a Spell on You’ and swirled it onto the apples of her cheeks. I used the same sponge I used on her t-zone to gently blend out the edges.

On her lips:

3. & 4. I used a combination of Ilia’s ‘Femme Fatale’ and Vapour Organic Beauty’s ‘Siren Ravish’ lipstick.  I first pressed Siren Ravish into her lips, and had her mash her lips together to really stain them. Then I applied Femme Fatale with a brush over top of the deeper shade, Ravish, and had her press her lips together a few times to really combine the colors.  I finished the application by gently tapping the pads of my fingers over her lips to soften the texture. Combining the two shades on the lips in this way creates a real depth to the mouth and wears wonderfully.

Finally, these are not products that Spirit has in her online boutique, as they’re not ‘green’, but I really like how they look and haven’t found an alternative that I like quite as much.

On her brows:

I used Laura Mercier Brunette Brow Pencil and Paula Dorf Brow Powder in Neutral

On her lashes

I used Covergirl Lash Blast in very black – very sparingly on top and bottom.

I’ll be testing out using different cameras for these how-to’s. This one was taken with my cracked-screen iPhone, which I think will be going into retirement.  Regardless, Marla rocked this look incredibly well and everyone on set loved it. Note: We were shooting clothes for the Fall, when lip color gets more deep and eyes become a little more intense. Try a purple, a burgundy or a brownish-red this Fall and you’ll be totally on-trend.

 

My first introduction to ILIA lipsticks happened last year while poking around ABC’s apothecary section (I think that ABC, in NYC, is one of the most well edited, well curated stores, both in content and aesthetic.) In addition to a ton of beautiful things for the home, they carry the best of the best when it comes to non-toxic hair/face/body products. When you’re in NYC you have to check it out. It’s beautiful, you’ll want to own everything, and you’ll be bummed that so much is so expensive. That said, these well designed, sleek little silvery tubed lipsticks caught my eye, and were reasonably priced compared to other high-end lipstick lines. When I gave one a try on the back of my hand, I was surprised to find how well pigmented the color was, and how smoothly it went on. The only down side was that there were only 6 or 7 different shades available.

I came home and wrote to the ‘info’ email address from the ILIA website and asked some questions. Almost immediately I got really thorough answers back from owner and creator, Sasha Plavsic (who hails from Canada, but now calls LA home). She explained to me that she’s learned  a cosmetic can still be completely non-toxic, even though it contains a very small percentage of synthetic color.  Synthetic doesn’t mean bad for us, just as all-natural isn’t always good for us.  Without allowing for that teeny percentage of synthetic pigment, she explained, there’s no way to achieve the rich intensity of the colors we love in favorite lipsticks from MAC, NARS, and Tom Ford, to name a few. So the base into which she mixes the color is all-natural, organic, super nourishing, healthy for the lips and perfectly healthy for the rest of you – which is important since we all eat and absorb our lipsticks into our bodies every day.

Sasha worked diligently to create a product that would meet the Environmental Working Group’s strict guidelines (if you aren’t familiar with the EWG, please check them out.) They are highly informative and influential as an online encyclopedia for ingredients found in cosmetics and rates their levels of toxicity. I will absolutely write about them in their own post this month, and found a way to offer all the intensity of bold colors like orange, pink, and red, that have been missing thus far from all-natural lines. Then Sasha put them in great-looking containers. I’m a sucker for packaging, and this woman knows what she’s doing, with her strong background in design and marketing within the branding world.

The best news ever is that ILIA just launched a new collection, complete with 14 lip colors – 6 are highly pigmented, and the other 8 are still well pigmented tinted lip conditioners.  I’ve been wearing ‘Nobody’s Baby’  and ‘In My Room’ the past few days, which look like my lips, but better. I also love the hot pink lipstick shade ‘Neon Angel’. In addition Sasha’s also come out with some cheek tints and highlighter creams in a tube that look wonderful. (highlighter creams are for cheekbones, eyelids, bridge of the nose, cupids bow, etc.)  I’ll give them a try over the next few weeks and report back.

Finally, I really love her no-color lip balm. It’s one of my new favorites for sure.

My only request: ILIA, can you work on coming out with a a bright orange-red for your next edition?  I’d proudly wear it every day.

*note about the photo above: this is how much of a beauty product nerd I am – I got the products from ILIA on Friday around 6 and I decided to call off my plans that night so I could stay home and play with them, and play with taking pictures of them for the blog. Don’t they photograph beautifully?  Thanks, ILIA!!!

ILIA is sold at a good number of locations across the country and around the world (GO ILIA, GO!), see here for specifics as well as online at www.spiritbeautylounge.com