My life before and after Tata Harper

Like I mentioned before, my friend/model Jenny Lopez (her awesome blog is www.lopezjennylopez.com) recommended these creams to me, stating that they were good and made with natural ingredients.

Well, I started to do a little research and I found that her friend is another sucessful Colombian girl in the USA. God only knows how much I like those stories...She is living in Vermont on a farm, raising her kids and discovering the most amazing aromas and ingredients to make anti-aging products. I started following her on facebook and I saw that one day she was on the west coast in a spa showing her line, the next day she was in the Hamptons, and the next day she was on Good Morning America... Good story, amazing products.

I started buying the little packages just to test them and possibly to take with me on my summer vacation. The little bottles come in a green pouch that once opened, my life changed:

- oh, how cute!
- look how many little bottles come in this bag.
- mmmmm, smells good.
- a cleanser, wow! smells good.
- hydrating floral essence : 'I never heard of that before?!' while I was spraying it on my face
- a mask ?! oh wow! nice...
- serum... smells good!
- restorative eye cream...oh yes...oh yes..oh yes..
- moisturizer ... smells awesome!
- a replenishing nutrient complex... say what?? i need to replenish my whole body!!!

My husband looked at the green pouch and asked: What is that? I yanked it from his side of the bathroom before he touched it.

After 2 weeks of trying it every day and night, the products were gone, and I immediately re-ordered the Deluxe Package and the oil. Amazing customer service and fast shipping. I am hooked.

Meanwhile, I shoved all my other products towards my husband's sink...

Strawberry mask! Mascara facial de fresas!

FRUIT FACE
I read about the benefits of fruit face masks and I was waiting for the guys in my family to be busy so I could take 10 minutes to do "my thing"... Of course, they caught me, they laughed, it made me laugh, all the strawberries starting falling and we ended up having a good time! Nevertheless, I recommend only attempting this during a televised sporting event when you are certain the boys will be busy...

Strawberries contain salicylic acid that rids the skin of dead cells, makes your skin pores smaller and your face look brighter and shinier. They gently refresh and exfoliate the skin, remove impurities, and reduce redness and swelling, which is wonderful for a cleansing and skin softening facial mask.

In addition, the antioxidants in the fruit help to repair skin damage and counteract aging effects. Your skin produces millions of new cells every day, and regenerates itself completely every 30 to 40 days. But after the age of 30, this natural rejuvenating process slows considerably. At this time, the skin can benefit from a strawberry facial mask.
Further benefits of a strawberry facial mask are:

• reinforce your skin's resisting capability to environmental stress
• provide excellent allergy soothing, appeasing, preventing and relieving functions
• strengthen skin immune capability
• whiten skin

Lei en una revista sobre los beneficios de las mascaras para la cara. Yo estaba esperando que los varones de la casa se ocuparan un ratico para yo hacer lo mio... porsupuesto que apenas me puse mis fresas me cacharon y se rieron, me hicieron reir hasta que yo sentia que las fresas se me caian de la cara. La verdad fue una experiencia muy divertida. Claro que estas supuesta a relajarte pero en mi caso... no sucedio. De todas maneras les aconsejo que se aseguren que los hombres de la casa esten viendo un partido en television o que esten ocupados de verdad.

Las fresas contienen acido salicylico que quita las celulas muertas de la piel, hace que se cierren los poros y hace que la piel luzca blanca y brillante. Hacen una exfoliacion suave a la piel, limpia impurezas y reduce la inflamacion.

Linda Rodin... Her beauty oils and her personal style.

You guys know how curious I can be. I am always looking for good products and the story behind them.

Well... I found this fabulous oil called Oil Lusso - there is one for the face and another for hair (yes, HAIR!). Being the nerd that I am I wanted to know who made it. Well, I discovered both oils are made by Linda Rodin. What a gorgeous woman, and she has a dog ;) yeah...

She is a fashion stylist, of course, and now a beauty entrepeneur. She has lived in New York for 60 years, she has worked for Victoria Secret, many celebrities and  numerous fashion magazines.

From the New York Times:

Creator: Linda Rodin, a stylist and beauty entrepreneur.
What: Olio Lusso, Rodin's fragrant skin elixir contains 11 essential botanical oils, and is a cult favorite among makeup artists, models and celebrities.
Why: "A few drops of this non-greasy oil made my skin glow, and I mean, glow. Which was no mean feat after four nights out in a row."
Where: You can order it on the Web site and it will be available at Fred Segal this spring.
How much: $130 for 1 fluid ounce

I ordered my oils and for the first time I know what a style crush is... 

Another amazing thing is that on some pictures she looks like my beautiful mother .

Pictures from: ontheinside.info

day 1

Hi, my name is Melanie…Truthfully, I never thought I’d be doing something like this…what for?

Recently, though, I realized something was missing…not in my life per se, but rather in my inability to connect with others like me. Of course, I find like minds in fashion blogs where boots, bags, jackets, dresses and jeans are discussed…and I connect with others who do make-up ‘how-to’s’, and with still others who offer their insights regarding hairstyles and the latest products…Yet there remained something missing…

Ultimately, I found myself drawn not merely to the fashion, make-up and hair blogs, but to the few women who in the process of explaining ‘how-to’ also managed to inject a sense of humor, share a little about themselves and/or expose their own insecurities – In other words, my interest in them was based more on identifying with them as women…and less as a like-minded consumer of beauty products and the latest in the fashion world. Women like………..and particularly Donna.

Nevertheless, I remained only partially satisfied. As wonderful as these women were, I still had not found what I was looking for…

And then it hit me. I had been watching American women – English speaking women. Where were my fellow ex-patriots? Where were the hundreds and thousands of Central and South American women who had fled their homeland for a better life? Where were the American Latinas?