Social Honeycomb

You Need This: Pond’s Wet Cleansing Towelettes

I don’t think it’s really a secret that I wear makeup. Most days, you can find me with tinted moisturizer, concealer, eyeliner, eye shadow, mascara, lip balm, and bronzer. Think about it – you probably don’t *really* even know what I look like. Seriously.

With this in mind, Katie Lewis from Los Angeles-based Rocket XL reached out with a solution for me when it comes to the scary time of day when I actually remove my makeup. When she offered to send me a complimentary pack of Pond’s Wet Cleansing Towelettes, I figured I’d give them a whirl but stick to my Vaseline makeup removal routine. I mean seriously, I learned that habit from my mom (not from crazypants Tyra), and it’s hard to break old habits.

But let me tell you this. Of this 30-pack of Original towelettes, there are maybe 4 left, and I’ve only had these for a few weeks. They are amazing. I had never considered a product like this, since I’m old and set in my ways, but the Pond’s Wet Cleansing Towelettes have basically changed my life when it comes to de-glamming at night. They remove makeup very easily, and my eyes and skin always feel refreshed and clean, never sticky, slimy, or dried out.  And apparently, Pond’s towelettes remove 40% more makeup than other similar products.  If you saw one of these things after it did it’s job on my face, you’d believe it.

I’m totally, absolutely, 100% converted. I’ll be buying another pack of Pond’s Towelettes this week, and retiring my Vaseline to a forgotten nook in the bathroom cabinet. For women (or Rock Gods) who wear makeup, I highly recommend giving these a try if you haven’t already.

Thanks again to Katie at Rocket XL for her spot-on outreach!

Should I Buy It? You Bar

I heard about You Bar today, and it seems like a really cool idea.  You get to create a custom energy bar (or a shake or trail mix) by choosing all the ingredients that go into it.  Talk about being in control of your diet.  Love that.  You Bar’s a little on the pricey side, though - you’re looking at almost $35 for a package of 13 bars. 

Is it worth it?  Should I get a box of my Amanda Bars?  The Taste Tester said they’d be mouthwatering…

You Can Find Me in the Shower…

Seriously – because I have amazing new soap!

The always elegant Shelley Greenberg, perhaps better known as @thespottedduck, recently did a giveaway on her blog that got me pretty excited.  To a commenter chosen at random, she was giving away a bar of soap from DeShawn Marie, a Boston-based artist/magician/creator of all-natural, gorgeously unique handmade soaps.  Needless to say, I asked Shelley if it would be OK if I entered 1,000 times, since I love cool soaps (and fancy soaps, too, RL), but to be fair I could only get one shot.  Well, toss me in the shower and pat me dry, I am one lucky girl – I won the soap!

I chose Grapefruit Orange.  I love citrusy scents in the spring and summer; consequently, my favorite lotion of all time, space and energy is Jo Malone Grapefruit, so I figured DeShawn Marie’s Grapefruit Orange would be a perfect complement.  My lucky bar arrived today, so naturally I had to take some pictures.  Check ‘em out:

The scent is heaven – I can’t wait to lather up!  Thanks to Shelley and Deshawn Marie for putting together a wonderful giveaway.  And everyone should definitely check out DeShawn Marie’s other products as well.  I know I’ll definitely be trying some different types – she makes all sorts of handrolled soaps that are really pretty - so take a look yourself.  And geez, stinkbomb, take a shower.

Fashion for Real People

There are times when I’m reading through ELLE or Glamour, and I’m looking at these amazing editorial photo shoots and incredible clothes, shoes and accessories, and I think to myself, “No one looks like this! No one in real life can pull this off!”

Then I hop from the glossy to the screen.

While I’m not exactly giving up fashion magazines (Hell no–a girl can dream!), I get a healthy dose of fabulous from LOOKBOOK.nu each day.  The site celebrates real people and their style, and showcases homegrown photo shoots from fashionistas around the world.  It’s all about sharing your style inspiration with a hip and happenin’ web-based community.  There’s something very poetic about it.

If you think you’ve got the hotness, apply to join the community–and subscribe to get the goodness.

Sakurako Shimizu’s Tech-Chic Creations

It’s all about the accessories, right? Right. Innovative artist Sakurako Shimizu has found a way to elegantly marry technology with chic jewelry–this stuff is wearable, clever, and amazingly cool.

There’s the HTML earrings that put your head in between code:

The HTML Jewelry-Tag necklace:

And the Waveform series, that turns sound waves into shiny accessories.  This one is a giggle:

Hat tip the lovely Jessica Sutton for pointing out this talented artist.

Five iPhone Apps for Holiday Shopping

I’ve done about 0.2% of the holiday shopping I need to do. With limited time, a limited budget and a 45-minute public transportation commute to my nearest accessible shopping destination, I need to make sure I plan a smart attack on the stores. Consequently, I’ve been checking out some holiday-themed productivity apps in the iPhone App Store today, and wanted to share my favorites with you. There’s a lot of overlap, but take a look.

Christmas Shopping List: This one is probably my favorite of the bunch. It allows you to enter gift recipients’ names, your overall budget, and how much you’re spending on each person. When you click on each person’s name, you can create a list of gifts you plan to purchase for them. Seems like a really great app, and for $1.99 I think I can get it for myself as a gift!

Gift List Budget Shopper: This one’s a little slicker-looking, but busy. It lets you categorize and manage your gift-shopping, by individual and occasion. What it adds to the mix is a spot to enter the stores where you’re buying gifts. You can also import wish lists sent to you by family and friends.

Nice List Holiday Gift Manager: This one celebrates the naughty and nice concept around Christmas gift-giving. You can add people directly from your contact list, and then mark gifts on the list as purchased, wrapped or shipped, accordingly. You better hope you’re on someone’s nice list this year…

WishList: This one really boils it down. It’s a really basic way to create a list of people, their wish lists, and the stores where you’ll find those wishes. If you’re into simplicity, this app’s for you.

GiftBox: This one has cute little gift box icons that represent if you’ve finished shopping for someone, have it under control, or haven’t started yet. You can also make notes for gift ideas and take photos of gifts while you’re shopping or after you’ve wrapped so you know exactly what gifts you bought and who they’re for.

Create and Share Your Looks on ShopStyle

For many women, shopping out in the real world is a social activity that involves a variety of human interactions.  But with online shopping, it’s usually a solitary delight.  But ShopStyle makes online shopping a social slice of heaven with a vast collection of shoes, handbags, clothing, accessories and more.

On ShopStyle, lovers of “pretty things” can create a profile and build their own stylebook.  You can spend hours surfing around, favoriting all sorts of gorgeous and ridiculously expensive things that you’d want in your closet if you had an unlimited budget.  From your stylebook, you can create individual looks where you combine specific items, that you can then share to ShopStyle groups and members.  And if you’re really proud of your stylebook and looks, you can create a customized blog widget to share with your friends and readers.

Gone are the days of flipping through a glossy mag for fashion ideas–you can check out what people are pairing, mixing and matching on ShopStyle any time of day, any day of the week.  While you’re browsing groups like Wear to Work or Express Yourself, you can rate members’ looks and save items from their ensembles to your own stylebook.  It’s sort of a style-building collaboration, or having a patient, quiet, fashionable friend with you in the store.

If you’re in the mood to update your closet, get some new style ideas or pretend you can afford a huge and  super-luxurious wardrobe, I’d suggest creating a profile and poking around the site.  And once you join, follow my stylebook to see what looks I’m lusting after and share your must-have picks.

Happy styling!

Want! Villainess Killer Beez Soap

I love cool soaps.  Love.

Sabon is one of my favorite stores on the planet–if you haven’t been in person, get yourself there and indulge in one of their complimentary first-timer well water scrubs.  Now that I’m checking out Villainess (thanks @HollyGrande), I’m finding myself saying over and over “want” “want” “want.”

First on the list?  Killer Beez soap:

Happy Birthday, Social Honeycomb!

My little blog turns 1 today.  I’m a proud blogmama today, on my first social media birthday.  Happy Birthday, Social Honeycomb!

Saturday in Amandaland

Was your Saturday better? I doubt it.