Corinna B February 22, 2017

Snail Bee Essence – Major New Skincare Product!

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I want to tell you about a new Korean skin care product that I am obsessed with!

Actually it’s not a new product, it’s just new to me. It’s called Snail Bee High Content Essence, and it is a powerhouse product with a serious wow-factor!

I’ve been told that essence is the most important step in Korean skin care and that it is the secret to Korean women’s flawless skin.

Essence treats skin on a cellular level, diving down deep, deep, deep to deliver powerful ingredients that revitalize your skin, hydrate, brighten, and prep your skin to receive and maximize the benefits of your moisturizer. Essence is applied after cleansing, before moisturizing.

The Snail Bee High Content Essence combines snail mucin and bee venom to boost hydration, boost collagen production, increase elasticity and brighten your complexion while rejuvenating and promoting cell renewal. It is very concentrated, a small amount goes a very long way, and it really delivers the goods.

It took me a long time to get on board with using a product called snail mucin on my face! In fact I went out of my way to avoid it, right up until one of my aesthetician friends got some and raved about how amazing it was. Her skin looked better than ever, so I decided to try it out. I started with Scinic’s All In One Snail Ampoule ($22), which was perhaps the most life changing skin care product I have ever used. And costs a mere $22!!! Recently one of my girlfriends told me she had added the Snail Bee High Content Essence into her daily skin care, and her skin has never looked better, so I had to get some too! I’ve been using it for a few weeks now and I love it.

I order both these products from Memebox, which is wear I buy all my Korean skin care products. Memebox is based in Palo Alto California, so each order arrives in 3-5 days. The cost of these products is unbelievable – they are so inexpensive!

Corinna B February 9, 2017

So You Don’t Have A Valentine’s Date? The Single Girl’s Guide To Surviving Valentine’s Day

image by Brad Olson
makeup by Corinna Cooke

Are you dreading Valentine’s Day?

Although it can be deliriously lovely for those who are in perfect relationships, Valentine’s day can be plain awful for single girls, or girls who’s significant other choose not to celebrate it.

You would be surprised how many girls are facing a February 14th spent alone. If you are one of them, don’t go feeling bad – take the day into your own hands and have yourself some fun!

Here are some ideas to help you make this a fabulous and fun Valentine’s day

The Single Girl’s Guide To Surviving Valentine’s Day

Plan A Girls’ Night Out

Chances are some of your friends don’t have Valentine’s dates. Get the gang together and go out somewhere fun! Plan something girl-centric, go to your favorite restaurant or go dancing – just make it fun.

Plan A Girls’ Night In

Host a girl’s-spa night in with wine and appetizers, have a masseuse, a nail person and a makeup artist come over. Turn your home into the most fabulous spa-zone ever!

If everyone else has a date and you are going to be alone, take the time to celebrate yourself.

Get Dressed Up

Even if you don’t have a date get dressed up for yourself. Buy a pretty dress, do your hair and makeup, and celebrate you!

Get a Mani/Pedi

When your fingers and toes look and feel lovely, you feel lovely. So what if you are staying home with Netflix??

Take Yourself To Dinner

Get dressed up, grab a good book and take yourself out for a fabulous dinner. Who needs a dinner companion? read a great book instead.

Buy Yourself Some Roses

Who doesn’t love flowers? Valentine’s is nothing if not the flowers and chocolate holiday, so as kitschy as it may seem, buy yourself an armful of flowers, a box of chocolates and maybe a demi-bouteille of champagne.

Curl Up With A Good Movie

If all else fails, put on some bold red lipstick (the world is more exciting with red lips on!) put your flowers on the coffee table next to your chocolates and some popcorn, and curl up on the couch with Netflix for a romance movie marathon.

Corinna B January 25, 2017

Simplify.

Simplify Your Life

One of my major goals for 2017 is to streamline my life a little more. To simplify.

Last year I read Maria Kondo’s life changing book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing

and prompted by a subsequent flood in my house started massively clearing the clutter, cleaning out closets, donating boxes of stuff that we no longer needed, consigning car loads of clothes.

It’s amazing how peaceful home feels when you have pared everything down!

Part of simplifying my life has been going back to using a regular day planner. I still keep an electronic calendar on my phone, but there is something soothing about opening a calendar book and seeing my week and my month clearly. Sometimes going old school is cool.

I got this day planner at Barnes and Noble.

My favorite minimalists on Instagram have been sporting these Daniel Wellington watches. I normally wear heavier, chunkier sports watches, but was so drawn to the chic simplicity of this watch. I pair it with silver bracelets, and it really looks quite sleek.

My makeup obsession at the moment is super gleaming cheeks, feathered eyebrows, a good coat of mascara, and a power lip. My favorite lipstick is Tarte’s new Lip Paint in Fly. It is the perfect red-crimson a la Miss Sloane. I think it is far more interesting than a plain red, and the undertones fire up the skin and make it look gorgeous.

I still am an avid coffee drinker, but have scaled back to one cup per day. The rest of the day I drink tea from Teavana.

When I first moved to America from London I got terribly homesick. I adored living in sunny LA and had no interest in moving back to dreary, rainy old London, but still I ached for a few things British.

I bought this tea cup in between shoots one day in an antique store on Magnolia in Burbank. It sat idle for a while, but now it serves me Teavana tea all day long. I found some of my Teavana canisters that I had completely forgotten about, and they still had tea in them, which although only a year or so old, I would have thought would have gone stale.

My favorites are Opus Rouge, Citrus lavender sage, and Maharajah Chai Oolong.

I’ve been making the teas in a French press coffee maker, but I think I’m going to invest in the Breville tea maker or maybe the Blomus Modern Hot Tea Maker

Sometimes the simple things in life bring you the most joy.