I may have just found a blowout product that's near perfect. Alterna Perfect Blowout Cream has lots of things going for it that my hair absolutely loves:

• Fighting humidity.

• Creating lots of shine. Lots.

• Protecting the hair from heat damage.

• Enhancing smoothness, softness, and straightness.

• Reducing frizz.

• Never getting crunchy, stiff, sticky or goopy.

That's a lot to love! There's just one thing that keeps Alterna Perfect Blowout Cream from being completely perfect. Alterna says their products are not animal tested, and I've seen comments online from people who have emailed Alterna for confirmation, and have gotten it. I thought Alterna's products were not animal-tested, and that's why I've been comfortable buying them.

However, PETA's Caring Consumer web site doesn't list Alterna on the “does test” list or on the “does not test” list. That means they're one of the many companies in-between. Maybe they don't test and they haven't documented it yet for PETA. Or maybe they outsource their testing so their hands don't get dirty. At this point, I don't know why they're in limbo land.

I haven't contacted Alterna directly myself yet, so I don't have any first-hand information. I'll report back with anything I find to give us a comfort zone with Alterna products.

If indeed Alterna does NOT animal test, then yes, this blowout cream would literally be perfect. Utterly, astoundingly, stunningly perfect. It's that good. I really hope I can keep using it.

~BigSis

Posted under Beauty and Skin Care

The past couple of mornings when I used my Urban Decay Primer Potion, I knew that it was just about time. Time for what you may be wondering… If you're a UDPP user, you probably already know what I'm talking about.

Urban Decay has an almost ‘cult like' following when it comes to some of their amazing products. I think both of us have had some of the purple kool aid, too! 🙂 I recently mentioned how much I love Urban Decay's 24/7 Eye Pencils and the Heavy Metal Glitter Eyeliner and BigSis mentioned her love for the eye pencils much earlier this year. And, months ago after BigSis told me how much she loved the Primer Potion, I bought myself some Sin Primer and have used it every day since.

There's only one problem with this UDPP and it's the cutesy container that it comes in. The wand can only go straight down into the container and loads of product is left stuck in on the sides and at the bottom. It obviously hasn't kept us from buying it though.

When we were on our trip last month, (yes, still talkin' about BlogWorld in Vegas), BigSis showed me her little jar FULL of potion that she managed to get out of her ‘what appeared to be' empty UDPP bottle. She had seen “the hacking” mentioned on some beauty blogs after she bought the product so she knew there was precious potion hiding in the container. And luckily, she shared that with all of us.

If I hadn't known about that, I would have tossed my “seemingly empty” bottle in the trash once I couldn't get any more to come out on the wand. And after you see what's left in this container, you won't want to throw yours away either until after you hack into it.

I never did ask what she used to hack into her bottle but I decided that this should do the trick!

Here's my unsuspecting little container!

Not much potion on this wand.

I was going to cut the bottle lengthwise but I decided that might be a good way to end up the ER, so I started by cutting off the top.

The plastic was actually much easier to cut than I thought it would be.

Just look at all the precious potion hiding in here!

Look closer.

Score!

Can't stop now, I'm on a roll!

And look how much was stuck at the bottom.

It was a messy job, but…

time well spent!

Voila!!

(Note: My Primer Potion is the Sin Primer and it does come in a different bottle than the original PP so it is possible that this container is made from a different plastic. I have heard that the original bottle may be tougher to cut into!)

One final note, I noticed on Urban Decays website, they mention that the Primer Potion now comes with a new wand. Here's what it looks like.

Hopefully this new wand will be of some help getting the primer potion out of the sides but it would have to also be longer to prevent all the waste at the bottom. I guess we'll find out once we run out of our stash and have to buy a new one.

~LilSis

Posted under Beauty and Skin Care

With our SPCA Bake Sale looming on the calendar, I've been busy planning and test-driving a couple of new recipes.  The last thing I need during the baking frenzy is a recipe that doesn't work!  I have a bunch of tried-and-true favorites that I'm making, but still wandered through my cookbook collection in search of some new goodies to try.  I flipped through Carole Walter's “Great Cookies”, and found a dark chocolaty recipe called Triple Chocolate Peppermint Bars that sounded crazy good.

You make a dark chocolate shortbread base and then top it with a dark chocolate brownie filling that has peppermint schnapps in it.  Then you cover the whole thing with a thin chocolate ganache that has even more schnapps in it.  How bad could that possibly be!  It certainly deserved a test-drive!

I didn't have schnapps so I used peppermint extract instead, and left the ganache layer off since I thought it might be too smeary and messy once it's packaged in a cute little treat bag.  The top got a sprinkle of crushed candy canes instead.

Can I just say YUMMY??  Oh, mommy, these have an incredible chocolate flavor!  Maybe I loved them so much because I adore chocolate shortbread and brownies and peppermint.

Only one little problem…my bars didn't come out looking anything like the photo.  I expected the bars to be kind of chunky and thick, but mine came out very thin; only about 1/2″.  Phooey.  I can't figure out what I might have done wrong, if anything, but I guess it doesn't matter.  I think the bars are too thin and fragile to work well for the bake sale, which is a bummer, but this recipe is a keeper!  If I make them again and don't need to package them, I'll definitely add the ganache layer!

~BigSis

Posted under Food

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself without one crumb of eye cream.  No Replenix, no Relastin, nothing.  Not even a random sample, or a dried up drop of an old cream I don't like any more.  How did it happen?  I don't know how, but I know it was bad!  Bad, bad, bad!  I wanted to try something new, but I didn't know what so I just went without any eye cream at all for several days!  Horrors!

Instead of reordering Relastin, I finally decided I wanted to try an affordable drugstore brand or two to see if there were any good ones out there.  Do you have to spend a lot of money to get an eye cream that works?  Maybe you do, but I want to know, so I'm making it my mission to investigate!

I drug my wrinkly, puffy, dark-circled self up to CVS and wandered around, hoping no one would see how scary I looked.  When I walked in the front door, there was a big ad for a new Olay Regenerist Anti-Aging Eye Roller.  Maybe it was a sign!

LilSis and I tried a similar product by Garnier last year, and it worked for her but not for me.  I generally like the Regenerist line so I thought this roller was worth a try.  I also picked up the Olay Regenerist Anti-Aging Eye Lifting Serum.  They were each around $20.

I first tried the Anti-Aging Eye Roller.  It is supposed to diminish eye puffiness, lines and wrinkles, according to Olay's web site.

To test the roller, I used it on one eye and left the other one alone.  You just click the pen-style applicator until you see a dab of product start to peek up around the metal roller balls.  Then you just roll the balls gently under the eye for about 30 seconds.

The product went on a bit creamy, but I was shocked at how quickly it soaked into the skin.  After a few minutes, it appeared to me that the treated eye looked less puffy than the untreated eye.

The next test…would my concealer go on smoothly over this product?  Yep, no problems.  So far, so good.  I liked the roller and thought it was effective.  It definitely seems to be a morning product, so I still needed something more moisturizing for nighttime use.  Maybe it would be the eye serum!

The Eye Lifting Serum is supposed to be an “all-around eye firming, smoothing, brightening amino-peptide + B3 complex”.  Sounds good, but did I see those results?

Mmm, not really.  The serum got good reviews at the Olay web site, but it initially didn't seem to provide enough moisture to me.  I would have given it a little more time to do its' thing, but there was a deal killer.

My concealer hated the serum.  It caked up into a big goopy mess.  Back to the store you go, Anti-Aging Eye Lifting Serum.  Eye cream is essential, and concealer is essential, so you have to play nicely together.  If one of you acts up, you're out.

It's been a couple of weeks now, and I'm still using the roller and liking it.  I picked up another inexpensive eye cream at SuperTarget last weekend, so I'll let you know how that trial's going soon!

~BigSis

Posted under Beauty and Skin Care

Even though I have almost 5000 songs on my iPod, I've become completely bored with the songs that I have in my cardio playlist. I bet that I've listened to the same songs thousands of times since I created this playlist a few years ago. This past week, I made it a priority to sit down and take a little time to work on it.

I deleted quite a few that I just can't bear to listen to one more time but I also added some fun new songs to help me boost my workout.  I've become so dependent on my iPod that it's almost impossible for me to workout without it.

Here are a few of my favorites that I've been listening to this week.

“Yeah” by Usher

“Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga

“Even Flow” by Pearl Jam

“All the Single Ladies” by Beyonce

And I absolutely adore these next two songs. Neither are upbeat enough for my cardio playlist, but I can listen to them over and over and over again.

“Just Breath” by Pearl Jam

“Hunger Strike” by Temple of the Dog

I'm trying to be more open-minded when it comes to listening to music that's outside my “norm”.  I could easily get stuck in a 70s, 80s, 90s rut if I let myself, but luckily, having a 16 year old in the house that loves different genres has opened my eyes to some new stuff.

Thanks to BigSis and HayHay for downloading some new tunes for me!

I would LOVE to hear from you if you have some favorite songs that you LOVE to listen to while working out! Just leave a comment or send me a quick email to lilsis at bigsislilsis dot com. 🙂

Have a GREAT WEEKEND!

~LilSis

Posted under This & That

What a time we had at BlogWorld!  We won't bore you with all of the blow-by-blow details, but we'd be crummy selfish friends if we didn't share the highlights of the conference with you!  You can go to our flickr photostream to see more photos.

• It was incredible to be involved with the new Guinness World Record for the most social mentions in 24 hours.  The goal was to raise money for cancer.  For every tweet, facebook update or blog post mentioning #beatcancer, 1¢ was donated by ebay/paypal and Miller/Coors.  Over $70,000 was raised.  That's over 7 million mentions in just 1 day!

Jermaine Dupri at BlogWorld

• The keynote panel on “New Celebrity” was moderated by Brian Solis and featured Robin from the Pussycat Dolls (?), producer and Grammy winner Jermaine Dupri, singer Matt Goss, Don Lemon from CNN and Anthony Edwards.  Quite a diverse group, wouldn't you say?  That diversity ended up with a bunch of sparks flying around that we could have done without.  On the positive side though, Anthony was totally likable, and spoke sincerely and passionately about his cause Shoe4Africa.  Very smart of him to make friends with a bunch of big-mouths like us bloggers!

Anthony Edwards at BlogWorld

• We were really impressed with what Chris Brogan had to say.  Just wisdom from this expert; no BS!  We need to read his New York Times Bestseller “Trust Agents“.

• The final keynote session was moderated by Guy Kawasaki with Jenny the Bloggess, Kevin Pollack, and Chad Vader.  It was pretty funny, although I'd say a few too many f-bombs for my taste.  But Jenny was hilarious and totally held her own as the only woman on the panel!  Check out her stories on the alien apocalypse and William Shatner.  Go Jenny!

• We had a chance to chat with Lou Mongello from wdwradio, and got some great input on wherever the heck it is that BigSisLilSis are going.  Thanks for your thoughts, Lou!  All the best to you with wdwradio.com.

• And lastly, we had the awesome opportunity to meet Darren Rowse.  Yes, THE ProBlogger!  In person.  😀   Woo hoo!  Seriously, we didn't want to leave BlogWorld without meeting Darren because of the enormous respect we have for him, his expertise, and the way he conducts his business…with total integrity.  So we send a HUGE thank you to Darren for kindly tolerating our gushing, and giving us some extremely valuable input that we're going to be acting on asap!  THANK YOU!

Oh, and the big surprise that we mentioned yesterday?  It's a direct result of the ideas and encouragement from Lou and Darren.  Whatever could it be?  😀

~BigSis

Posted under Travel

Almost 2 years ago, I showed you how to make painted marble magnets with crosses. Remember these?

I've been making them for years, and I especially like to make them for Easter gifts and Christmas stocking stuffers. There's another holiday coming up that lends itself perfectly to these little gifties though. Its Valentine's Day, and that of course means we draw hearts!

The method is the same as I showed you for crosses. With the hearts though, I just freehand it instead of using a guide behind the marble. I'm not sure why I forego a guide with hearts. Maybe it's a deep-seated psychological ideal that matters of the heart should be allowed to be free to become what they will, rather than following a template.

Nah, that's not it.

I think I just like the imperfect nature of these drawn freehand and it kind of reminds me of making Valentines as a kid, back when we weren't so obsessed with everything being perfect. Heart shapes are like pizza to me; even a flawed heart shape is still a happy heart! Bad pizza is still pizza!

If I could give you one piece of advice, however, don't have 3 cups of coffee like I did before you start painting these! Shaky hands and this project don't go very well together. Your hearts might be more imperfect than you expect!

I've tried a lot of different glass paints, and this time I tried a new one. I bought several bottles of Martha Stewart's relatively new line of craft paints that are approved for a variety of surfaces, including glass. It's called Multi-Surface Acrylic Craft Paint, and I chose the pearl finish because I think it's prettier than flat or plain glossy finishes on the marbles. I chose a variety of pinks and lavenders since it's Valentine's Day: Purple Martin, Eclipse, Fruit Punch, Pink Taffeta, and Antique Silk.

Martha also has a new-ish line of glass paint, but it's slightly more expensive and I wanted to see how this multi-surface paint held up. You can air-cure both paints for 21 days, but you can bake the dedicated glass paint if you wish to speed up the process. For these magnets, neither is necessary since we don't need the magnets to be food-safe or dishwasher-safe. I'm just reasonably careful with the marbles until the paint has had a chance to bond with the glass.

Overall, I really like Martha's craft paint. The selection of colors is awesome – as you would expect from Martha. There are also metallic, gloss and glitter finishes in the line too. I would have chosen the glitter variety, but I think it probably would have clogged the tiny painting tips I use.

The coverage was great, and I didn't get many bubbles which is fantastic. If I could change anything, I might wish for the paint to be the tiniest, tiniest bit thinner so that it took slightly less effort to squeeze the paint out of the itty bitty painting tip. On the upside, when I made dots they held their texture and didn't completely flatten out.

So, let's get to it! For more detailed instructions and photos, please refer to my previous post on how to make painted marble magnets with crosses.

The first thing we need to do is gently clean the glass marbles. I like to use straight white vinegar with a water rinse afterwards. Let them dry for a bit, and then dry each one to make sure you don't get spots. Place them on a foil or paper towel lined baking sheet. Be careful not to touch the surface of the marble with your hands, just to make sure no body oils get on your squeaky clean marble. This will help ensure that the paint adheres.

Attach a metal glass painting tip to the nozzle of a plastic paint bottle. You can get the bottles and tips in a kit at many craft stores. Then just draw a heart, and fill it in with paint.

If you see any air bubbles form, try to immediately pop them with the painting tip. Allow the paint to dry, at least 2 hours, depending on how thick your paint is.

Once your first coat is dry, go back and apply a second coat. The second coat will be essential if your paint is somewhat sheer or streaky, but I think a second coat always helps to smooth and even out the first coat.

I added one little twist with the hearts that I didn't do with the crosses. I added a sprinkle of glitter to the marble while the second coat of paint was wet, and I like how it came out…sparkly!

After the second coat of paint is completely dry, I flip the marbles over and apply a thin coat of shimmery white to the back. I think it helps to hide the magnet a little bit, but this is totally optional. My favorite paint for this purpose is PermEnamel in White Pearl. With the crosses, I used a variety of colors for the back of the marbles, just for fun and different effects.

Once that background coat dries, it's time to get dotty. Using a contrasting color of paint, just make dots all over the hearts with the same painting tip. On some hearts I just make an outline, but on others I go dot wild! Here are the finished heart glass marble magnets.

After your dots have dried, you can attach a magnet to the back and then decide how to package these little gems.

This is my favorite way. I think they look like little candy bon bons! I used a tiny paper candy cup tucked inside a clear plastic Wilton box that is often used for wedding favors.

You could also package the marble magnets in small drawstring organza bags with a bit of colored shred, or in a stamped paper mache box like I made for the cross painted magnets. Inside the lid, you could include a scripture that focuses on love, a verse from a favorite poem, or anything else that has meaning for you and the recipient of your gift.

However you choose to package these heart painted glass marble magnets, I'm sure that everyone you give one to will appreciate that you created a personal handmade gift just for them! That to me is the meaning of the holiday. Happy Valentine's Day!

~BigSis

Posted under Holidays

Are you following BigSisLilSis on Facebook?  If not, you've already missed 2 weeks of health and fitness tips to get your New Year off to a great start!  Do you know which cellulite cures work and which don't work?  Do you need some ideas for quick guilt-free lunches?  Are you looking for a new workout?

If you've been following our tips, you'd have those answers, and more!  It's not too late though.  We have 2 more weeks of daily tips for you, so come check us out!  We can always learn something new from each other and we'd love to hear your tips and tricks!

photo credit: petname

~BigSis

Posted under Fitness

Good morning, everyone!  We hope you had a most egg-cellent Easter, as we did!  It seems like it is officially spring now, since Easter is behind us, and kids are on spring break or just finished their break.

There's something about spring and vacation time that makes me want new makeup.  I don't know why, it just does.  Maybe it's that spring is like a fresh start or a new day.  At any rate, it can be really helpful for me to see a visual tutorial of new makeup, rather than just trying to wing it myself, which sometimes ends badly!

I found this cool video tutorial on MAC's sculpted eye on their web site.  There are 4 other tutorial videos you can view, all from MAC Makeup Artists.  There's one on a smoky eye, a perfect red lip, a sculpted lip, and classic eyeliner.  The tutorials are very easy to follow, and they provide a list of the products and tools that you need to recreate the look.

I also found a great tutorial on a spring eye from Miss Chevious. You might remember that we featured some of her videos on fun eye looks a while back.

Check out these videos and get some new spring ideas!

~BigSis

Posted under Beauty and Skin Care

Goodbye 2009. Hello 2010!

I don't know about you, but I'm ready to put 2009 behind us and I'm looking forward to 2010 being a happy, healthy year! I don't want to waste time talking about how stressful 2009 was for us; instead I want to focus on lots of positive energy to kick off this New Year! Being that 2010 is the beginning of a new decade, I think this is the perfect time to make some changes.

We all have good intentions when it comes to making our New Years Resolutions but how many times have you started out super, duper excited yet within a very short period of time, you lose focus? It's happened to me before, but this year I'm feeling really motivated and determined to achieve my goals.

When first read about the Ten in 10 challenge that was started by Lori of The Recipe Girl; I knew right away that I wanted to participate. If you read The Recipe Girl or follow RecipeGirl on Twitter, I'm sure you've already heard about the Ten in 10 challenge. It's got a nice ring to it, doesn't it? Ten in 10! I decided that my overall goal is going to be to lose ten pounds in ten weeks in 2010! 🙂

This challenge was officially kicked off yesterday and you can read the details of the Ten in 10 challenge to find out how you can join. Anyone can participate and there is no deadline to sign up so you can hop on board at any time.

I’m working on a few new ‘work related' projects that are going to require a lot of focus and time. In order to get everything accomplished that I want to get done, I'm going to have to work harder and smarter. I'm going to try to get to bed earlier so I can get up earlier and instead of working in my office for a few hours before my workout, I'll be doing my daily workout first thing in the morning. That way I'll start my day off right and won't get irritated if something comes up that prevents me from exercising. If I don't have that time for myself to relieve some stress, I'm in an entirely different mood for the rest of the day.

Since I’m already on a pretty regular exercise routine and have still managed to hit a plateau that I can’t seem to get past, I know that there are several specific things that I need to do in order to reach my overall goal.

Losing a pound a week doesn't sound like an unrealistic goal, but I know it's not going to be easy. It's time to get serious and crank it up a notch.

Here are my goals:

• Go to bed earlier so I can get up earlier.

• Plan healthier meals for the whole week and do all grocery shopping on Sunday.

• I've never done this before, but I'm going to write down everything I eat.

• Work out first thing every morning, Monday through Saturday.

• Add 30 minutes of weight training two days a week after one hour of cardio.

• Go to Yoga class three days a week. (I feel so much better when I do this.)

• Walk or ride bike for 30 minutes after dinner at least two or three nights a week.

• Restrict “weekday” cocktails.

• Have a piece of fruit for afternoon snack instead of cheese and crackers.

• Weigh in every Friday and track progress on WiiFit.

• Try to squeeze in one of the Jillian Michaels workouts once a week.

• Add 15 minutes or so of WiiFit Hula Hoop a day or two a week. (It's a great workout, but also a lot of fun!)

For me, this challenge isn't just about losing the weight; it's about eating leaner, exercising more, managing stress, and just basically feeling stronger and healthier.

I’m hoping that by participating in this challenge, I'll connect with some of the other participants who have similar goals and we can help each other stay motivated and on track to achieve our goals for 2010. I'm really excited about this and would love to see some of our readers join this challenge.

~LilSis

Posted under Health