Emitations Jewelry

Go Glam Week continues here at The Sweet Jelly Bean with the introduction of an online jewelry shop I’ve had my eye on for a while. I possess neither the money nor the desire (aka I am lazy) to try and imitate celebrity style very often. However, every now and then I’ll run across a pair of earrings a movie star is wearing that make me want to say, “Hey, I want those!”

Enter Emitations Jewelry, a place for cubic zirconia and sterling silver jewelry for those of us who haven’t quite made our first $10M just yet. This shop boasts affordable versions of the latest celebrity and movie trends along with rings, earrings, necklaces, and men’s jewelry in just about any color or style! Some of my favorites:

Star Necklace, $34.95 (inspired by The Hills) - I can’t say I ever have watched this show, but I love this little starfish!

Mother of Pearl Ring, $99.00 (inspired by Alice on Twilight) – I try to keep my mostly-in-the-past Twilight obsession to myself, but this ring sure brings back the memories!

Dogwood Flower Earrings, $54.95 (inspired by Hayden Panettiere, Kate Winslet, and Penelope Cruz) – Adorable yet elegant little studs would perk up any outfit!

Emitations is featuring a couple of deals to help your wallet out. Get $0.99 shipping on any order through 12pm on Thursday, April 2, by entering coupon code M991.

Not ready to buy just yet? Join Emitations’ email list and get $5 off your first order (to do so, scroll down to the bottom of their website home page and jot down your email address).

Happy shopping! We are all movie stars at heart, right? :-)

SwitchFlops Review and Giveaway

THIS GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED. THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING. 

Back when I first started this blog in January, I’d mentioned a cool new concept in footwear I’d recently stumbled across called SwitchFlops. As the name applies, SwitchFlops have the style and build of a typical pair of flip-flops, but features a piece of Velcro along the strap. When you’re ready to change your style, whether its from polka dots to skulls or a solid color to preppy stripes, just peel off the current fabric strips you’re sporting and replace them with a totally different design!

The 411
Shoe Styles and Colors:
LuLu Flat ($32): available in black, tan, brown, navy, pink, and white
Taylor Wedge ($36): available in black, brown, white
Lilly Kitten Heel ($48): cork and black

SwitchFlops straps are undeniably stylish and affordably priced! At only $12 per strap set, you can create an endless shoe wardrobe with over 70 strap choices from six different collections!

My Review
I was fortunate enough to be able to try these lovelies out for myself! I have a pair of the LuLu flats in brown and 3 sets of straps. My take on these:

Pros
Comfort – I was worried that the Velcro would rub against my feet and blister, but they did not! Also, I was afraid that the sole itself wouldn’t be as cushy as the Reef flipflops I consider my staple, but they were just as comfortable – if not more!

Ease – The straps are very easy to change – it took me a total of about 2 minutes (probably less) to change both of the straps out, and only that long because I couldn’t decide which design I wanted to try out next!

Price – For $12, you can get a new set of straps to add to your collection and it really does look like a totally different shoe!

Variety – With over 70 straps to choose from, I bet you can’t find some that you love! My next purchase will be the Kitten heels, which I think will be perfect with pants or capris for work!

Cons
Seriously, I can’t think of any at this point. Maybe availability? Currently most of the straps and shoe styles are available through the SwitchFlops website and a few select boutiques across the United States. For their store locator, click here.

The Giveaway
SwitchFlops has generously offered to give away one pair of their flops to a lucky reader! To enter: Visit the SwitchFlops website and pick our your favorite style of straps. Return to The Bean and leave a comment on this entry telling me which strap is your favorite. If you do not do this, your entries will not count!

For more entries:
1 EXTRA ENTRY: Begin following this blog. Let me know if you already do so!

2 EXTRA ENTRIES: Mention this giveaway on your own blog and link baack to this post. Please let me know if you do so!

3 EXTRA ENTRIES: Make a purchase from SwitchFlops during this giveaway and let me know about it. I’ll ask you to forward me your order confirmation!

This giveaway ends Monday, April 6, 2009, at 9pm PST. All eligible entries will be thrown into a bowl and a winner will be drawn. The winner will be announced here and contacted following the close of the contest. Be sure to check out info on The Bean’s upcoming giveaways - look over to the right hand column near the top of the page and you'll see links to them. Good luck everyone!

Free haircut

I’ve decided to try something a little different for the next month of so: themed weeks. This week’s theme will be “Go Glam,” and will feature a daily post on something to do with beauty, jewelry, clothes, or anything else girly I happen across. To begin Go Glam Week, I’d like to share something that we can all use in this current economic climate: a free haircut.

What could you save by getting a free haircut? $30? $40? $50+? If this sounds like something you might be interested in doing, pop on over to your local Craiglist and search for “free hair cut” or “free haircut” under Services to see what’s available in your area. Search terms like these will pull up a hodge-podge of listings ranging from truly free cuts to deeply discounted services from new salons or established places looking for new clients.

A lot of salons may have junior stylists who have completed school and just want a little more experience to hone their skills. A new stylist will probably do the cut while being supervised by a senior stylist, so there is little risk that you’ll come out looking like a poodle. Some may want to take a photo of the completed work when finished, but most are just looking for someone to practice on. Nervous about what salon you’ll be going to? Google the salon’s name for reviews, or check out what people have said about them on Yelp.com. After all, what is there to lose (aside from dead ends)?

Not sure about plucking a mystery salon out of online ether? Trying searching for local cosmetology schools. Many offer haircuts (or other services such as manicures) for $10 or less!

Spa treatment recipes

Recently I featured a few ideas for thrifty DIY spa-at-home treatments that I thought you might like to try out. Since then I've found a list of spa treatment recipes at Spa Index for face, body, lips, hair, hands and feet. Choices include everything from a Chocolate Facial Mask (I think I might try to eat this) to Champagne Bubble Bath to a Bay Rum Aftershave for men. There are 100 recipes on here, so there's bound to be one that suits your needs and that you can make using normal everyday ingredients you probably already have in your household.


Last night I found that I had all of the ingredients to make the Honey Oatmeal Facial, which includes buttermilk, ground oatmeal, and honey. I decided to make 1/2 of the recipe and then followed the instructions and found that I had made a paste that resembled...well, oatmeal. Yet I bravely smeared the mixture across my face and neck, thereby earning the name "Oatmeal Face" from Mr. Bean. I left it on for 15 minutes, then rinsed it off using a warm washcloth. The results? Nothing spectacular so far. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be moisturizing or help your skin look brighter, etc. but it was kind of fun to do something at home using things I already keep around. Let me know if any of you decide to try any of these recipes. I'd really like to try the Bath Cookies recipe sometime soon!

Shop It to Me - "Better than Sample Sales!"

So many times I have fallen in love with an item in an online store only to forget to return later to snatch it up when it goes on sale. Shop It to Me is a new service that can help remedy this by giving you a heads up when your favorite brands goes on sale in your size!

You can think of Shop It To Me as your free personal online shopper. Select your favorite apparel brands (such as Theory, Prada, Armani, Ella Moss, Juicy Couture, Seven Jeans, DKNY, or BCBG) and sizes. We'll scour the websites of leading retailers like Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdales, Banana Republic, Gap, Zappos and Bluefly and send you a Salemail™ - a daily or weekly email summary of which new items go on sale in your size.

Shop It To Me has partnered with dozens of leading retailers to make sure it will always be a free service. Sign up and recruit 10 friends and you get a $10 gift card! Would you like to sign up to thank me for telling you this great service? Sign up and mention tori correll at gmail dot com as your referrer!

The Perfumed Court

If you're like me and your nose can't make up it's mind on which scent it likes the most, head over to The Perfumed Court, an online store that offers perfume samples and decants of practically any fragrance you can think of. Whether it's the latest from Vera Wang or a vintage you're after, they have it! They even carry discontinued fragrances and those not available in the United States. If you're not sure what you're looking for, you can also search for fragrances by notes or try out one of their themed sample sets (the Day at the Beach and Best Lavender sampler packs piqued my interest). Samples start at $3 and shipping is a flat $5.95, so stop by today!

Where did all the hats go?

Question of the day: Why did women stop wearing hats? I’ve always been told that men stopped after JFK’s inauguration (he came sans hat), but then Jackie was always so well known forher pill box hats, so what the heck happened? When did it stop being in vogue to wear hats? Call me hopelessly romantic and old fashioned, but I think that hats can be really beautiful. I practically claw at the screen when I see Rachel McAdams in her adorable hats on “The Notebook.”

So why is it now just either baseball caps or beanies? Why do most women today think Blossom (and hot pink lipstick, shoulder pads, blue eyeshadow, hair bands, etc.) when they think of hats rather than of realizing they could be so stylish? At least a flower up in there or something?!

Additional benefits of hats I’ve come up with (some more original than others):
1. They keep your head warm.
2. They protect you from bird poo.
3. They counteract all variations on “bad hair day.”
4. They probably make you look taller.
5. You can keep mace and other weapons in them.

I found lots of hats at mainstream online stores, so I can’t be too off base, can I? Check out these stores for some great hats:
Bluefly
Urban Outfitters
Hats in the Belfry (the name itself deserves a mention!)

Sally Hansen Nail Art Pens

I was trudging my way through my weekly gym workout this morning when I saw an ad in Glamour magazine for Sally Hansen's new Nail Art Pens. Obviously if it's being advertised in magazines, this product is not something that I'm the first to discover, but I thought it was cool enough to mention here. These Art Pens have a firm tip which makes them more like markers and less messy when creating designs on your fingers and toes. They come in 8 shades and work over any nail color. If you make a mistake, just wipe off and start over - they're water-based and seal with a topcoat.

That's about all the information that the ad had in it. I went to the Sally Hansen website to see if I could find out more, and the product is so new that they haven't added it to their products there. I checked a couple of local drugstores: Long's Drugs didn't have them, but Walgreen's did. Now all I have to do is decide if I want to try the pink or red pen first!