adorned with Grace Minerals: Defining true beauty

See you in 2012!

2011-09-08T05:45:00.000-05:00

So we are now officially closed in preparation for the move! This means that we will have very limited Internet access the next month or two due to the amount of work we have to do packing and traveling so if we are slow to answer, it is not that we are ignoring you, but that we just are unable to.

If there are any problems with orders, please understand that we will have everything packed up and cannot ship any items until the move is complete. We would like to remind those that place International orders, we cannot do anything about it anyway unless you purchased Shipping Insurance. For those that did purchase it and have an issue, again it will be at least 1-2 months before we can do anything anyway as we ask you to wait about 60 days from the time your order ships out before we can do anything.

As of right now, we are still processing orders but we expect them all to be shipped out by early next week. We are actually pleasantly overwhelmed with the amount of orders that came in and has actually put a halt on some of our packing so we are rather behind on getting these out in our normal 24-48 hour timeline. Because the Customs number on International orders does not help you track it outside of the US, you will simply get a Shipping Notice; U.S. orders will be sent the Tracking number along with the Shipping Notice.

Other than that, I believe that is all for now. We will try to blog to give updates on where we are at just in case we run into "snags" and detours in trying to restart the business in our new city. Thank you everyone for being so supportive and your wishes of good luck during our move! We are excited and think this will be a wonderful thing for adorned with Grace as well! :)

Coupon Code

2011-09-05T15:26:00.000-05:00

The coupon code for orders $15 or more is:

MOVING30

You will get 30% off your total order (not including Shipping/Shipping Insurance). This will be good until September 7, Wednesday and then our store will be temporarily closed until we finish moving. Thanks everyone!

Less than a week before closing!

2011-09-02T18:24:00.000-05:00

Just reminding everyone that our store will be temporarily closing this Thursday, Sept. 8 with the last day to shop on Sept. 7. We have added some new Clearance items such as Grab Bags of the discontinued both sample and full-size of Blush & Eyecolors as well as Blush & Eyecolor bundles. Most of these items are going fast so if you would like to get them act soon!

However, you may also risk it and wait to save more as we are going to be issuing a discount code either Sept. 4 or 5, so definitely check back here then. As with our other coupon codes, though, because it is a rather large percentage (more so than any other time we've issued them) this will only be for orders $15 or more, so go ahead and order if yours is less than $15 not including shipping.

Our powders and foundations and some of the Clearance items are going pretty fast out of stock though so if you don't want to risk running out of inventory, definitely order soon! We want the last couple days to move fast since we need to pack up the remainder of whatever we do not sell.

As we noted in the previous entry, please allow for increased shipping time since we are in the midst of some very hectic packing (as well as traveling this and next weekend!) but trust that your orders should ship out no later than Sept. 12-13. We refuse to move unless we finish processing all orders!

In other clarification since we are getting a few emails asking, if there is an item that has gone Out of Stock, assuming it is a regular item, not something in our Clearance section, it will be Out of Stock until we reopen in early 2012. We have packed up our blending equipment and cannot make anything else, nor have reordered brushes/accessories. There will be a handful of foundation colors that may not make a return but that is all to be determined during the hiatus.

Remember, we will likely be increasing our prices (not a whole lot but a fair percentage to make a difference over the last two years we have been open to account for our increasing rates for the raw materials we use) and our shipping rates as well due to the constant rising of prices every year/six months. Although this is more of a hobby business, it is still a business and may be hard to maintain its quality if our rates continue as they are.

Again, we'll be back with a very short but quick blog giving you all the awesome coupon code for orders $15 or more either on Sunday or Monday!

Explanation: Where did the sets go???

2011-08-29T14:56:00.000-05:00

Because we are trying to keep track of the inventory so that you know for sure whether or not the item is in stock, we did readjust the way we have listed our products on the site. Instead of using the drop down menus or simply writing in your choices, you just go to the single listing for a full size item and add the product as many times as you need. There will be adjustments made in price according to how many you buy and if there is a difference within the products (e.g. regular eyecolors vs. premium eyecolors).

We did this for the foundation and powders, the eyecolors, the blushes, as well as the Ingenue/Premium Eyeshadow brush sets. Unfortunately, we could not keep up the single listing that had a specific description/photo for each item because the inventory check does not work that way. Basically, this is really set up for prior customers to adorned with Grace and we are assuming most of you know exactly what items you need. I think this would really only pose a problem for the brushes, but luckily, the brushes will take up less room in the move so whatever does not get sold will be easy to transport.

Hope that makes sense to you all! :)

Not the end...

2011-08-29T13:31:00.000-05:00

So if you have stopped by the home page of our website at www.adornedwithgrace.com, you may have read the note at top that says we will be...MOVING! In fact, it may be happening rather quickly here and for that reason, we will have to close awG temporarily on September 8 to give us time to move and get settled in.

As of this time, we have no idea exactly when this will be. I want to caution everyone that it may not be until January 2012 before we get things rolling again, depending on how well the move will go and the kind of place we will be living in. Since we will be trying to whittle down our inventory so that there will be less to move, it may take a while to make up more products to have ready for sale, especially foundations/powders/popular blush & eye colors that we may run out of before we shut it down.

We also would like time to be able to revise our website and how the products are listed as well as make needed changes such as pricing (products and shipping). In addition, we will also be looking at simplifying our line even more which means discontinuing unpopular products (some foundation colors literally sit on the shelves!) and other possible additions/subtractions in our process.

This change may seem to come rather too quickly--I know, it most definitely is for me and I do apologize if it causes any inconvenience to anyone. We were not sure of our move until about one and a half weeks ago, and all we could do was prepare for a possible change, which was VERY difficult to do!

The store has now been reopened until September 8 (September 7 will be the last day of shopping). I would recommend that if you are low on your favorite foundation/powder/blush/eyecolor, you may need to order before then to guarantee you will receive the product assuming we have that item in stock. Since we will be having to pack up our things these next two weeks, it will be impossible to mix up more colors.

Then whatever items we do not sell by September 4, we will be issuing a coupon code here at definingtruebeauty.com to ensure a quick sale as we want to move as little items as possible. We are still attempting to add more Clearance items before the week is over so make sure you stay tuned to that as well!

One last thing, because it will be very hectic here the next few weeks, do allow for an increased shipping time *possibly* should we fall behind. You all know we try to get these orders out ASAP, but give us grace should it take 3-6 days longer than usual.

Thank you all again for your support of awG and pray for us that this move goes smoothly so we can get awG back up and running once again!

Upcoming Vacation & Explanations

2011-08-09T09:03:00.000-05:00

So sorry for the very quiet absence everyone but this has been one full and very busy summer! And we believe our schedule is about to get busier...

From August 16-28, we will be going out of town and temporarily closing the store; the first part is an Out-of-Town trip for my Birthday (Yipee!) and then the last part is for a VERY special Wedding...my mother-in-law's! Rather than fall behind as we usually do when we keep our store open, we are going to close it down.

You may have noticed that the Samples & Foundation/Powder sets have been removed from our site? Right now, there are several factors (which we chose not to disclose at this time) that are preventing us from manufacturing more products so we are trying to keep a closer check of our Inventory. Because of that, we have to sell what items we do have and because it is difficult to track inventory for the sets/samples (our website is not equipped to track inventory when purchased in sets, unfortunately).

However, you can still purchase at discounted prices as we added an automatic percentage off with multifple purchases of Foundation/Powder. Just play with the cart and you'll see there will still be at least 15% off when buying more than two foundations/powders, and a little bit more when buying three or more (either 20-25%). The pricing will be somewhat similar to what the previous sets offered.

But in case you all were wondering, the issues are NOT due to any legal issues or government regulations. We wish we could disclose more but for now this is all we can say. We have gotten emails from many of you asking about the Samples, but if you just stay tuned to our Blog, we'll let you know as soon as we can about the status.

Also, we did change our Shipping Insurance rates. Sadly, it seems International mail has not been quite as careful lately, and especially with our very low prices and current shipping rate, we are losing money. :( Rather than quit shipping to International countries altogether, we decided to increase the rate. See new choices here: Shipping Insurance

Please also remember, that we ask you to wait exactly eight weeks or more from when we shipped your order before contacting us. As stated in our terms in the Product Description, we will not address emails if they are sent sooner. Obviously, if you do not purchase Shipping Insurance, we cannot resend/refund your order; you can email us, but there will be nothing we can do. :(

Lastly, the single eyecolors and blushes that are in the Clearance section? What does not sell by August 15 (before the temporary closing) will be placed in "Grab Bag" sets when we return--so if there is a color that you wanted specifically, make sure to get it before then, or you can risk it and hope it ends up in one of our Grab Bag sets. We would PLEASE like to ask you NOT to email us and ask us to try to include certain colors or set aside specific ones; we will not reply to any emails regarding these Clearance colors.

Understand that the Grab Bags are priced very inexpensively and that is part of the reason why--also, that is excitement of Grab Bag sets...you are surprised at what you get!

So, that is it for now! Thanks for your patience everyone!

Discontinued colors, Clearance items

2011-06-04T20:06:00.000-05:00

We are officially back online! We got most of the stock back up; however, we actually have quite a few more out of town trips this Summer that might get us behind again, but we'll deal with that when it actually happens.

You'll also notice we have discontinued quite a few eye colors & blushes/Shimmer blushes as well; many of the colors included pigments our supplier no longer carries so we are unable to make up more of them. There will be a few we can try to recreate; however, we are very limited on time these days and not sure how quickly that will be able to happen.

Also note the Clearance coupon on the Clearance page; it will be good until June 12 and is only for items that are on Clearance. So...you can buy $40 of total items (non-Clearance/Clearance) but it will only take the percentage off on the Clearance items.

Thanks for your patience everyone!

More Clearance & Reminder Date of our Temporary Closing

2011-05-10T17:35:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to let you all know that the remainder of the Clearance items are finally up! Check them out here on our Clearance page. These are all our past Limited Editions/Clearance and new "Oops" items so hope you all can find something you like. Many of them are being offered basically at cost (including shipping) and some even at a loss to us, but we'd rather pass these on to people who can use them than throw them away!

Judging from the speed of current orders vs. my speed of getting restocked on foundation/powder, it looks like I will need to TEMPORARILY close my store down to give me time to catch up. In addition, we will be going out of town for a few of those days which will likely put us further behind.

You see, when I am low or "out of stock" (meaning not a gram of product left, although I usually have the raw materials to make it), it takes much longer for me to fill out orders since I have to stop and make the batches, jar/bag them, & make labels (if I am low on that particular label which has been happening more often). It can take me up to 3-5 hours extra if I am Out of Stock even on 2-3 colors!

The last few months I have kept my store open since I could handle the extra workload but I am starting to feel it in my elbow again---and I'd rather not re-injure it since rest & recovery was a huge part of getting it better. It's not so bad that I am back in constant pain, but I know the warning signals and would prefer to do preventative that curative measures!

Here are the dates for our Temporary Closing:

Monday, May 23 to Friday, June 3.

So if you do need to order any items, please do that BEFORE May 22 to ensure that you will get it. We will still answer emails as they come with questions or issues, but our Website will likely have a "Temporarily Down for Maintenance" message or we'll disable the shopping cart.

For you wonderful Bloggers/Video Bloggers, PLEASE make sure your subscribers know of these dates before referring them to our site. We really hate to close the site down as we know we may lose revenue but to get back to our previous efficiency, we will need to do this. As many of you know, we are a hobby business, so we won't run it quite like the larger companies who can afford to pay others to help catch them up, lol...

Thank you all ahead of time for understanding! Have a great rest of the week!

The beginning of some changes....

2011-05-05T18:11:00.000-05:00

As you all know, we love to stay simple at adorned with Grace! So in an effort to keep things basic so that it is easier for me to run the company, we are making quite a few changes in the very near future with three things happening as of today:

1. Because we have been getting too many lost orders, we are implementing Shipping Insurance that you can purchase. Before, we would reship orders one time but it is getting too costly for us now to do that. If you chose NOT to purchase this whether you are a US or International Customer, we can no longer reship for free your lost order. Please read the Terms on this page to understand how it works. If it needs further clarification, let us know via email @ adorned_with_grace@yahoo.com.

2. After many months of debating with myself, I have decided to discontinue selling the Ingenue Dual Fibers, including the Large, Sleek, & Petite. We love our Premium Small Dual Fiber for its high quality (100% vegan, minimal/zero shedding & bleeding) and would prefer to sell Dual Fibers of that same high quality.

We hope to have a Premium Large Dual Fiber maybe by 2012 if the demand for them is still there. For now, they are still priced the same but in the Clearance section. However, there are discounts added in for multiple orders of each item.

3. Discontinuing other items: 30 for $19.99 Sample Set, Flocked Sponges, & Reclosable Sifters. We will also likely be discontinuing the Spray Bottles, Pencil Sharpener, & Mascara Guard but haven't adjusted this on our site.

It has not been implemented yet, but we will most likely be increasing prices in the next few months. As most of my American Customers have noticed, USPS has kept increasing our Shipping prices (as well as my supplier's rates for the raw materials/jars/shipping supplies that you all may not be as aware of!) while awG's Shipping AND Merchandise price has not changed in the last two years. It won't be significant (maybe nor more than $1 or less each item), but we'll figure out a fair percentage.

Again, all these things are to keep things simple; keeping so much Inventory has gotten to be very overwhelming, especially with Storage & keeping up with stock, and the less stress there is, the most likely we'll be around for a long time! Hope you all understand and know that we did thing very long and hard on these changes! Thanks all!

Clearance items/Coupon code up & a Dilemmas!

2011-04-27T17:30:00.000-05:00

I've just put up some Clearance items on this page. There is also a special Coupon Code to use for ONLY Clearance items. If you order $20 or more, you will get 10% off those Clearance items. Remember, this will only be on Clearance items; if you put other regular priced items in your cart, there will be no discount off of that. We will run this coupon code until May 7.

Use: CLEARANCE10

I do apologize for the lack of photos on these new items. Most of the eyecolors do have a swatch photo from our Blog so you will at least be familiar with the general color. I recently switched to a Mac computer last year as our HP kept crashing on us despite being less than a year and a half old but my photo editing program that I usually use is not available on my Mac (???) and I think my HP finally crashed for good a few weeks ago.

In addition to that, the label maker for our jars was also on that HP computer and the new one for Mac in not as readily customizable for our round labels. I do have Mac Parallels (will run Windows on a Mac) on my current computer, but for some reason, I cannot get the printer to talk to it!

I am in active search for a solution but, in preparation, I believe I will need to close my store down to revamp my packaging along with the restocking/mixing up the foundation/powders I mentioned I was behind on a blog post ago.

Also, upon examining my current stock of basic supplies of colored oxides/micas, I have been dismayed to learn many of my colorants have been discontinued by my suppliers as I made a list for my shopping list--many of these for popular awG blush/eyecolors colors, too!

So in the next few weeks, be expecting some changes: I will have to start transferring colors to the Clearance page and redoing the Color Comparison charts and possibly redoing how I sell samples/full size sets. Also, if I run out of my current labels for my jars, I may just have to let the product run "Out of Stock" until I can get the label dilemma resolved.

In hopes this will give you enough time, be expecting the store to close around May 20 for the revamping of our line; this would mean if you think you may run out of foundation or a powder around or after then, go ahead and order since it may take us up to a month to implement the changes.

I thought about just letting the store continue to be open for business as I did this but am afraid the turnaround time to ship orders may put me behind, and I personally would work best focusing on one task at a time. If you have noticed, I am around 36-48 hours later than previous years getting orders out since I am budgeting my time a little more conservatively due to other commitments in personal & non-awG related issues, so it might put us a even more behind, which I don't like to do!

Don't forget, I also need this extra time since it does involve a lot of computer work; I am still trying to rest my tendinitis arm like I should--don't want to end up with pain again after working so hard (rather not working, lol) to get rid of it! I am hoping it will not take more than a month to do it, but if it does, don't be surprised. It is way too much fun having adorned with Grace in my life, and to only be working on the technical aspects is not the most fun thing for me. I look forward to coming up with more Limited Edition colors each season as I was in the past and be back to blogging regularly--but most of all, serving my sweet and loyal customers!

Thanks for your patience everyone!

Sorry for disappearing!

2011-04-12T14:52:00.000-05:00

I know this is way overdue!

I believe I have some of the sweetest customers around as I have started getting emails the last few weeks asking if everything is okay since I haven't blogged very much or done many sales. If anything, things are actually pretty great! So great especially at awG that the pile of Clearance items I have yet to place on my website have been placed on the back burner so I could mix up more stock (specifically foundation and powder) and fill orders as they come in.

It just seemed that every time I would get a free moment thinking I would have time to blog or get the Clearance stuff up, either a large block of orders needed to be filled or I would have something going on with my non-business life that would take up my time considerably that I could not attend to awG. In handling awG, I always want to make sure orders are filled first above anything else so that is actually what is taking up my time.

So just let me take this time to thank you all for continuing to support adorned with Grace--so much so that I suspect there are quite of few of you that are blogging about us and keeping us on our toes!

I do want to note that I am still behind on mixing up some of my stock so if I ever fall way too far behind, I *might* have to close the store down for a little while (hopefully not more than 2-4 weeks) to get caught up sometime this summer so if you are a regular customer who orders products from us, make sure to get your order in by mid-May 2011 just to make sure you have what you need should we have to temporarily close down early this summer.

As far as my own health, my arm is actually (dare I say or jinx it, lol) better and what I believe to be 100% now! The other thing that has kept me busy is taking full charge of my health which has included switching over to a 90% raw vegan diet, getting my cardio in for optimal circulation along with adding back in my strength training as my arm has healed, and attempting to REST more--the best recovery remedy of all!!!--that I think I am in even better health than when I left for Christmas! If things slow down in the near future, I may blog about this at my Graceful Coach Blog. I haven't been active there much either, but I do post to Twitter every other/couple days when I remember to since I am forced to keep it short and sweet over there, lol.

So that is what has been up with adorned with Grace! Hope all is well for every one of you!!!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-03T11:14:00.000-06:00

Yes, folks, it's been a while since my last post. Not only has the Holidays tied me up this past month but several non-awG projects, family illness, and some minor health issues (BAD flare up of my carpal tunnel and now what I think is "mouse elbow" if it is not tennis elbow) have kept me from being as active for awG and have been getting on the Internet only when I absolutely have to, like processing orders and answering emails.

Unfortunately, I will still have to take it easy as my elbow is even hurting as I type this right now, even with a bit of modification and frequent stretch breaks. Remember, I am an Occupational Therapist and I deal with people like me much of the time and what I always tell them is "rest, rest, rest!" How bad would I be if I did not follow my own advice, LOL!

Because it is hard to even mix new stock, I have fallen a little bit behind on keeping my inventory levels where I want them although I do have all the products in stock right now. So any orders placed should still be okay with no major delays. The only issue I have had is I realized that one of my colors "Esoteric" requires a mica/oxide that is no longer available at my supplier. So sad as it was one of my favorite colors! I now realize why some companies have had to unwillingly discontinue colors.

I am hoping my arm will get better soon and I can get back to trying to see if I can replicate this color without the mica, but until then, I have taken it off the website. Also, as I monitor the progress of my arm, I may or may not simplify my product inventory, meaning I will likely discontinue selling less popular items (mainly from the Accessories/Ingenue brushes page & Blush/Eyecolors) so that I have less colors to mix/restock sincewe have over 100 colors/formulas. To be honest, I also need the extra storage space and would prefer to stock with items that are more popular.

But should anyone be wondering if I have plans to close awG, the answer is "no" unless I should move to a state that may have severe restrictions or high fees/taxes on selling makeup or fall into some really serious health issues. But for about 90% of my regulars, it will be "as usual" as most of my sales come from the foundation/powders/Premium Brushes, all of which I know are staples and will continue to be sold.

So for those of you who emailed me recently about any upcoming sales? Likely, there won't be any sales where you get a percentage off your whole order. I may run another Blog Special on some of the brushes, and I am pretty sure that if I do decide to discontinue some products, I will have a slew of Clearance products up--but that will likely not be until the end of the month at the earliest when I'll be sure as it is all dependent on my arm.

So any apologies to you all out there who have been waiting patiently (especially those waiting for an email answer)--I'm feeling pretty impatient to with my arm, lol! Just hoping that it will get to feeling better soon and I can get back to business as usual!

Thanks everyone--Happy 2011 to all!

Notice: Shipping Delays for December

2010-12-07T18:50:00.000-06:00

Due to the holidays, please expect a minor delay (like 24-48 hours longer) processing time of most orders. For example, if you made an order today, it will likely not go out until Thursday/Friday this week. We wish we could work faster but it seems nearly impossible at this time of the year without killing ourselves, LOL!

Also, make sure to place your orders by December 16 to guarantee they will ship out before we leave for the Holidays. Orders placed between December 17-27 will not ship out until December 28 at the VERY earliest, but expect they will likely ship out before the end of the year.

Thanks everyone! Hope your holiday season is going well! Can't believe Christmas is almost here already. It still feels like early November to me!

Cyber Monday Special: Bringing back a favorite coupon code: PREMIUMFACE25

2010-11-29T07:46:00.000-06:00

Yep, we had the 25% off Premium Face Brushes a few weeks ago and due to it's HUGE popularity, we will be bringing it back for Cyber Monday!

Use: PREMIUMFACE25

You'll be thrilled to know that we did add the Premium Trio Eyeshadow Kit this time (sorry, not the a la cart eyeshadow brushes) but you do have to spend $15 or more (shipping/taxes not included) to make the coupon code even better!

Hurry though as this deal ends at 12:00 midnight tonight!

Blog Special on Premium FACE Brushes & new items!

2010-11-10T05:28:00.000-06:00

So today's Blog Special is specifically on our Premium Face brushes (sorry, this means no eyeshadow brushes nor the sets) for 25% off! We have NEVER marked them down this low! The only catch is you do have to spend a minimum of $15 total (not counting shipping for you International folks) because we would otherwise be at a profit loss due to our low markup and free/inexpensive shipping. You can simply add about four $1 makeup samples or maybe some accessories you are eyeing--but this coupon code is mainly for you all who are wanting our very popular Flat Top or buying multiple brushes.

Use code: PREMIUMFACE25
Code will expire November 14 (Sunday).

Then we have added some new Clearance items that were mentioned in last week's blog which you can find here on our Clearance page. Don't forget, these are not the 5 gram jars, but the 10 gram like our Blushes & Color Correctors!

But our favorite new item is our closable sifters!

We are not adding them to our actual jars, but making them available in sets of three so you can add them to what you are using now. The larger one will fit most 30 & 20 gram standard mineral foundation jars & the smaller one most 10 gram jars.

But in addition, for those of you that spend $20 or more, we will be including one of our Luscious Lip Balms, just in time to help you moisturize those lips for this upcoming cold season. No coupon code needed BUT you will have to type us a note in our comments sections when you checkout that you would like one.

Happy shopping!

P.S. Don't forget, our current LE will be gone by this weekend also, so if you wanted any of them, order before then!

Sneak peak for next week!

2010-11-05T14:52:00.000-05:00

So we've been working like crazy to try to get our new Clearance colors out and instead of Foundation & Blush as we've had this past year, we've decided to put out some Eyecolors! And not just in our regular 5 gram jars, but 10 gram jars!!! Because these are Clearance colors you likely won't ever see them again so we made sure to give you enough to last. ;)

Below is a swatch I did on my hands of the colors. You will be able to purchase them in duo set (not singly) in the following combinations:

Astute & Intellectual
Austere & Ascetic
Bountiful & Selfless
Brooding & Pensive
Fortunate & Serendipitous
Shrewd & Cunning
Soothing & Comforting
Timeless & Everlasting

We've got a few more small details to finish before we put these on sale but be expecting these up early next week along with a couple new accessories.

Just an FYI, our current LE's last day on the site will be Sunday, November 13. We've accidentally extended the time on them but luckily there was a few of you that were still ordering/wanting them. :) Also expect a Blog Special on our Premium FACE brushes next week at the same time so hold off on buying any of our those if you want to save some money.

Thanks for your patience!

What's up with awG!

2010-10-21T05:43:00.000-05:00

Though we have been rather silent via Blogging & Facebook posts, don't think we've forgotten all about you all! On the contrary, we have been busy getting some of the new items together such as some Clearance eye colors and photographing/editing some new accessory items (which we'll leave as a surprise since we like to do that, lol). In addition, we are running a low stock on certain shades of foundation, powder, eye colors/blushes that we are busily making/jarring/labeling so that there are no delays when processing your order.

We are running behind schedule due to our out-of-town trips and other unexpected personal detours that have come up. In addition, we discovered non-makeup items out of stock upon our return and needed time to reorder from our suppliers. So when we are behind, we'd prefer to hold off on any Blog Specials to have plenty of time to get caught up.

However, we *hope* we'll be caught up by the middle of next week so if you have a suggestion for a Blog Special, especially an original one (like a Custom brush and/or makeup kit) let us know and we may just implement it! Either email us at adorned_with_grace@yahoo.com or post on our Facebook pages to let us know!

Well, let us get back to work and hope you all have a great weekend! :)

Notice: Shipping Delays Oct. 1-12 & BLOG SPECIAL!!!

2010-09-22T10:02:00.000-05:00

Bad news first: I will be in a Leadership Conference in Atlanta in the first part of October and since it is still a "one woman" company, there will be no one available for me (who could do the job as perfect as I want it anyway, lol!) to take care of Orders and Shipping so if you find you are running low on some of your awG favorites, please order by Sept. 30 or your order may not ship out until Wednesday, Oct. 13.

To clarify further, expect that if you place an order between Oct. 1 - 12, your order will likely not ship until Wednesday, Oct. 13 at the earliest! So even if you don't place an order and you happen to be talking to someone in a forum about how they haven't gotten a Shipping Notice from awG yet, then let them know as not everyone follows our Blog.

On that note, EVERYONE should follow our Blog! And "Why?" you may ask...because of our Blog Sales! In fact, we do have one more Blog Special before I go out of town. In an effort to make room for a slew of new items, we are trying to clear out an almost empty stash of Clearance & Limited Editions!

So for orders $33 and over, you will get 15% off on any item you see on the Clearance & Limited Edition pages from our website. You just use the code "CLEARANCE" in the Coupon Code box when you checkout. You don't have to buy ONLY Clearance/LE items. If fact, you can buy $30 worth of brushes and only $3 worth of Clearance/LE and get 15% of the $3 you spend. Of course, it is a better deal if you get $33 worth of Clearance/LE but we may not have enough inventory left at the end of the sale for you to do that so we thought it would be more fair this way.

This Coupon Code for this Blog Special will run until Wednesday, Sept. 29.

P.S. We hope to have the new items, along with some new accessories mid-late October for you...

FAQ: What's your makeup routine like? Do you use a lot of awG?

2010-09-13T12:10:00.019-05:00

This will be a fun question to answer as I'll have to stop and analyze myself as it has become so "auto-pilot" I don't think I can just quickly type this out, lol...

Well, the first thing I like to do is moisturize my face. I have some old lotions I am still using up but my preferred moisturizer is a mix I made for myself using shea & cocoa butter, then also coconut oil (my favorite) with a little bit of Edelweiss extract. I need literally a teeny smudge of it as it can get very greasy but find that it softens my skin so well and naturally. After testing it for a little longer, I may consider tweaking the recipe and selling it at awG, more than likely as an LE during the winter months since I am concerned about it melting during shipment in the warmer months. I'll also apply some of my Vegan Lipbalm because my lips tend to chap and this helps significantly with that and provides a smoother base to my lip liner.

After that, I go straight to the eyes. Since using my own loose eyeshadows, I got tired of applying that after my foundation and having to fix some fallout underneath my eyes so I've learned that doing my eyes first is more efficient. I will use an eyeshadow base like UDPP (Urban Decay Primer Potion) if I need an all day look (like more than eight hours) but if I am just going out for nothing special, like the grocery store, I leave that off and just apply a base shadow with my favorite all purpose brush, the Ingenue Large Chisel Fluff. My favorite eyeshadow base colors I use from my line are Honesty, Natural, & Trustworthy from the Regular line and then Phenomenal from my Premium colors. Then I like to finish off my eyes with a (non-awG) gel liner, usually a dark brown (daytime) or soft black (evening) using my Ingenue Fine Liner since it seems foolproof in getting a perfect thin line since I'm usually in a hurry as I get ready. Then I find a loose eyeshadow to soften the line such as Devoted, Genuine, Noble, Exquisite, Tenacious, Ingenious, Romantic, Intuitive (Regular) or Marvelous, Introspective, or Admirable (Premium); my brush of choice for that job is the Premium Smudger. Then I apply my favorite mascara, Maybelline's Full and Soft Waterproof.

From here, I apply my under eye concealer, Merciful Color Corrector in Yellow Tint, assuming the area under my eye is clean and there is no need to wipe off any extra loose eyeshadow. Then I apply either my Celestial Silkening or Supreme Smoothing Powder in Golden Tint with a powder puff as a base to make sure my foundation has a smooth surface (good-bye fine lines!!!).

With my Premium Small Pointed Face Brush, I apply my Foundation (Grace 4.0). It make take a hair more time that a kabuki or larger powder brush but I really like how I can easily apply foundation to areas around my nose, eyes, and mouth evenly. It reminds me of a foundation brush but is thicker and has the pointed head. If I have any blemishes (like I was bad and had too much sugar, lol!) I will spot conceal with the foundation using either the Ingenue Oval Camouflage or Premium Pointed Sculptor.

From here I line my lips and either apply a lip gloss or use a clear gloss and mix in the blush I wear that day for extra color. Occasionally, I will wear a (non-awG) lipstick but I like a more transparent, natural look. Another FYI, awG does not have any current colored lip products--still in testing and development. I mainly use e.l.f. lip glosses that I bought in bulk a few years ago.

Then, finally, I add a blush to the apples of my cheeks with my Premium Small Dual Fiber. My most favorite to wear are Felicity, Gentleness, Curious blushes and then Sensational, Lovely, Glamorous Shimmer blushes. But my "go-to" color is Gentleness since it is very soft and natural on my skin and seems to go with everything!

And the finisher: either Heavenly Rice Powder or Supreme Smoothing applied to my face, again with the powder puff rather liberally but this time I carefully "press" it on my T-zone area where I sometimes get shine later in the day (esp. in the MS heat!) and wait about five minutes and then whisk it off lightly with either the Ingenue Large Dual fiber or Premium Large Rounded Face.

So there you have it! I basically depend on other companies right now for mascara and colored lip products but lean heavily on my own line for everything else--I don't even want to think about if I was not able to make my own makeup anymore; I would not only lose my creative outlet but be out my favorite colors, lol! It really is a blessing and an enjoyable one at that, to have adorned with Grace in my life. Hope you all have had as much fun with my makeup and brushes as I have!

As a Blog Only Special, if you order $7 or more of any of the items** mentioned in this blog, you will get 7% off! Just enter MYFAVES when you checkout.

**If you get a Brush, Eyeshadow, or Blush kit (sorry, offer not extended to Foundation or Powder) that happens to include ALL the colors, like the "2 for $13.49" Blush Set with Gentleness and Glamorous, we can give you 7% off for that. However, we will have to do it as a refund after you have placed your order, likely within 24-48 hours from your order. Just make sure to note this and remind us in the Notes/Comments section that this is due to the Blog Special. We will not give the 7% off unless you have either the code "MYFAVES" in the Notes/Comments box or used as a Coupon Code. This Coupon Code will be good until Sunday, Sept. 19.

Extending Blog Special Sale!

2010-09-07T13:41:00.003-05:00

Since I know many of you are still waiting on payday OR distracted by the Labor Day holiday due to family or other sales OR you just simply did not know about our Blog Special, we are extending it until next Sunday, Sept. 12! So click HERE and get to shopping at our secret sale!

Blog Special & Clearance Foundies & Shimmer!!!

2010-09-01T13:20:00.008-05:00

Today's Blog Special

Then, we also have more Clearance items up! Mostly Oops Foundation and some all purpose shimmers. The all purpose shimmers are made from a basic base similar to our foundation ingredients that we tweaked to make into popular colors you can use for glows/blushes, eyelid washes, or body shimmer (like mix in with your lotion or sunscreen for an extra special glow!) They aren't quite Limited Edition as we did not make them intentionally (as we have creatively planned our other LE Collections) but made colors with extras of what we had and suspected we weren't going to use up anytime soon and a couple were Oops Shimmer Blushes. (Reserved was an Oops for Tenderness Shimmer Blush which is why it isn't quite as sparkly as the rest of them).

As with the previous Oops foundies, they will come in a baggie with about 8 grams of product. The Shimmers (not Shimmer Blush because they are made to really use as "all purpose") will be full sizes in our 10 gram jars with about 2 grams of product in them. There are a limited number of these in the pre-selected sets and singly. We also have some in samples ALTHOUGH they are only in sets of six (not individually) and do not include Pleasant, a color we did NOT make sample sizes of. The cool thing about the samples is they each contain about 3x more product that our usual sample sizes so you are getting more!

As a Bonus, you have the option to add our extremely popular Premium Small Dual Fiber brush if you happen to purchase any one of these Shimmers whether singly, in a set, or even a sample for $13.99! It is the ideal brush to apply such bright shimmer!

Here is an arm swatch of the Shimmers:

And just for fun, I thought I post up a picture I did not realize I'd have but thought you'd like to see anyway. Well, I did a workout yesterday afternoon and forgot to wash off the swatches I did before my workout. For anyone familiar with TurboFire by Chalene Johnson of Beachbody fame, it was the Fire 45 workout which is one of the major calorie burners and, most importantly, a *SUPER* sweat inducer, LOL. (You know the kind where you are literally snorting up your sweat and drowning...sorry, tmi!) I have a heart rate monitor and it stayes in the 78-85% range sometimes peaking at 93-95% during the Fire Drills.

I was amazed to find that despite my sweating profusely and toweling off everywhere, this was still left:

Darling, Reserved, Classic were meant to be more "clear" Shimmers with just a hint of color which is why you can see they blended right into my skin especially, since they are lighter shades anyway. However, you can't see this quite as well, but the shimmer was still pretty noticeable though not quite as "disco ball-y" as before. Even when I took a shower, it was still hard to get rid of the pigment and sparkles until I got out my now discontinued Microfiber washcloth out to rub the rest off...

So maybe a little extra info in case you are looking for something with color or just shine!

So the Blog Special will be on until Sept. 6, Labor Day, but the Clearance items will be there until they are gone. So happy shopping all!

Update on our Internet Issues & upcoming Blog Special

2010-08-29T20:58:00.005-05:00

So it looks like our Internet issues are resolved!

Our service was actually performing back to normal about Wednesday last week and we were very close to putting up a Blog Special but then we got notification that our website builder was upgrading our website this weekend and that our site might be unavailable for 10-30 minutes.

Because a different website builder has said the same thing and actually taken 24 hours (why I am not with them now!), I decided not to take the chance and make sure the upgrades went well. After all, you never know how smoothly these things go and didn't want to find my website all in a jumble in the midst of a sale where there is usually an increase in order volume!

Well, the good news is it truly is even more awesome than ever! More of it is on my end but one of the benefits for you all, my prized customers, is it is now Mobile friendly! So if you have an iPod, iPhone, iPad, Palm Pre, or Android based device, you'll get a screen like you see on the left side that will make ordering much easier if you are "on the go!" So cool!!!

You can still switch to the Standard view, FYI, you just scroll to the bottom and click on "Standard View" if that is what you prefer

Thanks everyone for being patient with your Internet issues last week. We are crossing our fingers that we can get up our Clearance items up before the weekend is here; we are working as hard as possible to get them done and up on the site. At the very least, we'll get up a Blog Special (hint: brushes) by the middle of this week. :)

BLOG ONLY Birthday Special!!!!

2010-08-17T17:58:00.014-05:00

Until Sunday, August 22 (or while supplies last), awG is running a Birthday BLOG ONLY special kit of Franchesca's favorites!

Why, you may ask??? Well, today (the 18th) is her birthday! And like the Oil of Olay commercials say, she'd like to "grow old Gracefully" by offering you a special price on some of her top favorites. This is what she makes sure is packed before leaving on any overnight trip:

Premium Small Dual Fiber brush ($16.99 value) - For the best blush/glow application!
Premium Flat Top brush ($9.49 value) - For a super smooth foundation application!
Ingenue Round Contour ($4.27 value) - For applying color to the crease with ease!
Ingenue Fine Liner ($4.11 value) - The best brush for eyeliners, esp. if you love the "cat-eye" look!
Ingenue Oval Shadow ($4.63 value) - For the best all over eye application!
Blush/Shimmer Blush of your choice (7.99 value) - For all day color with the most natural colors!
Premium Eyecolor of your choice ($5.49 value) - The most velvety eye shadows ever!
Foundation of your choice ($13.49 value) - The ultimate base!
Luscious Lip Balm ($3.49 value) - To keep your lips hydrated throughout the day!

Get all the items listed above for: $41.97 (40% off Regular Prices)!!!

CLICK HERE to see BLOG ONLY Custom Birthday Kit.

Slight shipping delays this weekend and early next week!

2010-08-11T21:35:00.007-05:00

Just a heads up that if you are getting low on any of your awG items, make sure to make your order by this Thursday night to guarantee that it will ship out before this weekend. We'll be unavailable to ship until Wednesday at the earliest, which is really not that long to wait BUT we just had to let you know if you were needing your order in a hurry or were expecting our usual super-fast turnaround.

Tentatively,we *might* also be unavailable for the same days the week after, but we'll let you know ASAP when we know for sure. (If we don't post anything between now and then, assume all is "as usual," fyi.) Summertime seems like such a busy month for many of us and awG in not excluded in that!

We are currently working on some more Clearance items to put up for sale so make sure to look out for those. If we work really hard, we're hoping to have those on the site for sale around the middle or later part of the week of August 22.

Thanks all!

P.S. Graceful Coach (a subcompany of awG related to Beachbody of P90x/Insanity fame) is now on Twitter! You all are welcome to follow to share in my fitness journey! If you are interested, click HERE to follow.

Naturally beautiful skin

2010-08-08T19:09:00.021-05:00

Perfect skin.

It seems like that is one of those coveted things I've noticed many ladies want and one of the reasons the search for the perfect foundation continues for many. I'm so glad that many of you have found and love using adorned with Grace's mineral foundation to help achieve your goal of smooth and clear-looking skin.

However, wouldn't it be great to just not wear makeup at all? To wake up in the morning and be like, "Wow, my skin sure glows! I think I could just skip the foundie and blush this morning!" when you look in the mirror? Well, there are a few things that I've found from personal experience and in my own search for perfect skin that I know definitely help.

Here is my list:

1. Water: Surely you all knew that would be my first! Hydration is very important and they say to figure out your needed amount, take what you weigh (let's say its 150 pounds) and divide that in half (so 75) and to drink that amount in ounces. So seventy-five ounces would be equivalent to about 9-10 cups of water and that would be your minimum to drink for the day.

An easy way to see how hydrated you are is to do the Pinch Test. Take the skin on your hand and literally pinch it and see how quickly it springs back. If it doesn't spring back *immediately* you need some water! I've done this test on patients before and I've had some that did not spring back for as long as 7-8 seconds--which is a long time if you see it--and they were definitely needing more water!

2. Eating right: Sadly, this is one that is hard for me as one of my weaknesses is sugar especially from yummy temptations such as cookies (call me the Cookie Monster!), or ANY processed/refined sweets and candies. I notice that when I eat highly sugary treats, my breakouts seem to increase.

I know for a fact that when you have sugar, especially refined white sugar, it wrecks havoc on your immune system. Did you know that an average soda will have about 6-12 teaspoons of sugar! And I believe that if you have about twenty-four teaspoons of sugar in a 24 hour period, you have killed all your white blood cells. And since some breakouts are bacteria related (why many ladies do not like powder with cornstarch as they believe it can "feed" the bacteria), I imagine that is why I seem to break out more often when I indulge in the sugar too much.

Of course, some ladies may be lucky in this and not notice anything at all since we have different chemistries but its worth the experiment if you aren't one of them to see if it might be the culprit.

So what should you feed your skin? I bet most of you already know the answer to this: more fruits, vegetables, and nuts! This is because they just contain most of the healthiest minerals and vitamins that our skin needs to be its best.

Here is a basic list of some of the most important nutrients, what it helps with, and foods you can find it in:

Vitamin A: (Skin repair/acne control) Low-fat diary products, spinach, carrots, apricots, pumpkin, cantaloupe, and yellow fruits and veggies.

Vitamin C: (Collagen production/Counteract sun damage) Greens/dark leafy vegetables, citrus fruits, strawberries, kiwis, pineapples, and tomatoes

Vitamin E: (Wrinkle prevention/Counteract sun damage) Greens/dark leafy vegetables, avocadoes, nuts, seeds, olives, and wheat germ

Selenium: (Antioxidant/Cancer prevention) Garlic, whole wheat bread, Brazil nuts, wheat germ, eggs, and brown rice

Biotin: (Hair, nail, & skin production) Eggs, nuts, wheat germ, oatmeal, and rice bran

Zinc: (Controls oil production/acne control) Eggs, whole grains, and legumes

Essential Fatty Acids: (Skin lubricant & protection) Walnuts, flaxseed oil, and extra virgin olive oil

Sounds like you could make some fresh salads, smoothies, or creative sandwiches with some of those ingredients! So let's get to cooking and see if we can eat our way to beautiful skin!

3. Cleansing, Exfoliating, & Moisturizing: Again, this may not be everyone's solution, but my previously oily, acne-prone skin--now normal!-- has done *awesome* with the Oil Cleansing Method (Click on this link for more info). As with the makeup I make for adorned with Grace, I like to use the most basic, natural ingredients as possible on my face. I actually only use my beloved Extra Virgin Coconut Oil to take off makeup and cleanse my face and my skin has never looked better. I use so much for beauty and cooking I buy in bulk at Nutiva.com so check it out there if you are interested.

Exfoliating is my mother's beauty secret that she passed on to me. Sadly, my supplier did discontinue my extremely popular facial microfiber washcloths but if you look on eBay or other online shops if you do a Google search, you might find some that are comparable. (Here is one at drugstore.com.) But getting rid of dull, old skin cells gently will expose the brighter, smoother layer of skin and you'll find your makeup applies even more smoothly. Fine lines also seem to be erased as well as old blemish scars fading faster! I speak this from experience not as a promo; obviously, I no longer have a product at awG to promote nor another product anywhere that I am getting compensated for, lol...

***

In the meantime, in conjunction with this blog post, how about we run a Blog Coupon Code on two very popular products from awG that can give your skin a quick "pick-me up" since it does take a while for the nutrition to kick in, lol...

Use Coupon Code "HEALTHYSKIN" to get 7% off until next Tuesday, August 17 for our Smoothing Powder (any tint) and Blushes/Blush Sets**. You MUST use this Coupon Code to qualify for the discount and cannot honor any orders made without the discount code.

We've also added back per request our Entire Collection of Shimmer Blushes + a FREE Premium Small Dual Fiber brush that qualifies for the 7% off discount!!! But it's only under this special BLOG ONLY LINK.

**LE Shimmer Blushes not included in discount code. Sorry!

Starting a separate Health & Fitness Blog!

2010-08-04T16:50:00.009-05:00

When I first started this Blog, I was wanting it to be an adjunct to my online store for announcements regarding our products/sales/etc. but also a place where I could write beauty and health-related articles to go with our theme of "defining true beauty" and that we see it from a holistic aspect.

Sorry to say that I have not written as much as I would like but I've recently rediscovered my passion and determination to share what I know especially in regards to fitness/health so I have a new Blog that will focus on that HERE that I am calling Graceful Coach as I have recently signed up to become a Beachbody Coach of P90x & Insanity Workout DVDs fame. I would have just kept it all in one Blog but for those of you who follow and are Subscribers that only have awG in your interest, I did not want to Spam you with any fitness related posts should that not be your thing and vice-versa.

I guess since hitting my mid-thirties, I've become rather focused on living at my optimal fitness level and been really getting serious about being the best I can be physically, mentally, & spiritually! So this is going to be a bit of a public journal/diary of reviews and experience with things I've tried (not just Beachbody products) that I want to share that I think some might find informative and beneficial. But I also hope to get more "on the ball" about writing more beauty related articles here at the awG Blog as I've promised since the start of my online minerals store.

**As an FYI, my Beachbody online store is done in my name only--I actually do not handle the Customer Service in regards to Orders/Status of Orders AND International orders are not accepted there at this time, unfortunately.

However, I still extend the invitation to ALL to be your source of advice for any fitness needs without any financial charge as I love to help people get healthy! Any questions you have on programs and where to start. I've done P90x, Insanity, and currently doing TurboFire & ChaLean Extreme from Beachbody, but also have done non-Beachbody DVDs like TaeBo, Cathe Friedrich, Windsor Pilates, Jillian Michaels--she's my favorite, actually!--and then my own workouts I do with the general population at my job as an Occupational Therapist.

Even if you just need an accountability partner to check in on you to make sure you are keeping up with your workouts or advice on eating (I am currently a vegetarian!), I'd love to help with that too. You are welcome to direct any questions directly to my email adorned_with_grace@yahoo.com.

And for those of you wondering, this will not take away from my time from awG. If anything, I think it will help me focus more and be able to Blog more often--and not just about Sales (although I know many of you love those posts the most, LOL!). This is really just an extension of what awG wants to do for you--keeping you naturally beautiful!

Thanks for reading! If you'd like to follow our new Fitness blog check it out HERE. We don't have many posts right now since it is so new but it will change in the future!!!

Summer LE, Clearance, & Blog Special Brush Duo Set

2010-08-02T06:29:00.004-05:00

New Limited Edition is up!

Also, a few new Clearance items are up! And a Blog Only Brush special. Click HERE to see details!

A Sneak Peak at the Summer 2010 LE

2010-07-29T20:49:00.008-05:00

We are still not quite done getting the new Summer 2010 LE out, but we thought you'd like to get a sneak peak of what's coming!

In formulating these colors, I was yearning for the beach so you could say I had the "sea and the sand" as my inspiration for these colors, lol. Yeah, not too original for a Summer theme, but I really did want to add some more blues (especially FUN blues!) and I can never seem to get enough gold-toned eye shadows for myself!

Flamboyant: A bright teal/sea blue that reminds me a an oasis paradise. My favorite blue of the three and MUCH prettier in person!
Munificent: A light robin egg blue/sea foam green. Funny, they were just talking on the Today show this week about Beyonce's Robin Egg Blue Nail Polish being a makeup trend right now--you could mix this color in with some clear and possibly get something similar--maybe???
Emotive: A deep blue with light blue highlights. Similar to Inspiring, but more blue highlights than purple.
Forthright: A rich orangey gold with golden sparkle. Definitely for you bolder ladies, but would also work great with those who have darker golden-bronzed skin as an all over lid or blush color.
Candid: A creamy lemon yellow with tiny flecks of gold. More shimmer that past LE yellow shades like Optimistic or Enthusiastic.
Outstanding: My everyday, wearable shade! It is a golden brown with brassy hints and looks great on olive tones.

Then, I wanted to add more Shimmer Blushes as many ladies, like myself, don't like to wear a lot of deeply pigmented blushes and find that glows/light shimmer seems to show off a tan better anyway.

Spellbinding: Made for the fair neutral/cool-toned. A very light pink with bright silver sparkle. Best used as a highlight.
Avid: A well-pigmented peach that turns rosy. I've worn this almost everyday since making it, so its safe to say its my favorite as it complements my skin tone but gives a healthy glow to my face. (FYI, I wear Grace 4.0/4.2.)
Astounding: A light neutral apricot that would look good on most skin tones as a glow.

These should be up on the site early next week so make sure to watch out for them!

New Premium Brush: Refillable Powder!

2010-07-14T13:31:00.004-05:00

Per request of our customers, we have brought in a new Premium Brush that works great for "on-the-go!" It is our new Premium Refillable Powder Dispensing Brush:

As with our other Premium Brushes, this is 100% synthetic and made with the same super soft velvety bristles from the collection. But that is not the only reason to love this brush--it also has an adjustable dial so you can control the amount of powder flow. You may want to set it on 1 (I) for a lighter dusting light a touch up powder (our Heavenly Rice Powder?) or on 3 (III) to offer more product dispensing for foundations.

The brush head is a medium density; nothing like a kabuki so don't expect to apply foundations that you prefer heavy coverage, but it is ideal for face powders, luminous all over face colors, and light foundation touch-ups. It is no doubt the softest refillable brush we've come across--and we've tried quite a few on the market! And with our coupon code ("IMBACK") that will be good until July 25, 2010 you can grab one of these for $15.29. (This brush is usually priced at $16.99; don't forget, US & Canadian customers this includes your shipping!)

So check out the newest member of our Premium Brush family!

Coupon Code!!!

2010-07-14T13:08:00.003-05:00

For those of you that follow our Blog & Facebook page and have been patiently waiting on us to return from our out-of town trip, here is the coupon code:

IMBACK

This coupon code is good for 10% off any purchases $10 or more and the last day you can use it will be Sunday, July 25. This coupon is good on in-stock items only but you may use it as many times as you like and are welcome to post it on your own blog or preferred social media.

This will be a great time to stock up on our minerals but especially our brushes like our MAC 188 dupe, Premium Small Dual Fiber or our very brand new brush, the Premium Refillable Powder Dispensing Brush. (See upcoming post for more info.)

As a side note, we are sad to note that our very popular Microfiber washcloths are being discontinued by our supplier and we have searched and searched for a suitable replacement, but cannot seem to find one even remotely similar. We will continue to keep our eyes open for it but for now, it will no longer be sold at adorned with Grace. Sorry all! :(

Thanks again for choosing adorned with Grace!

Back to normal!!!

2010-07-08T09:49:00.003-05:00

Wow, I cannot believe it has been over two weeks since I had to go on vacation from awG (though my trip was not a vacation exactly, but a conference I was hard at work at!) and I must say that I very much missed my time at work and getting to interact with all you wonderful customers!

I've spent the last day and half catching up on rest (I think I slept 4-5 hours each night--a far cry from my usual and much healthier 7-8 hours) as well as catching up on the orders while I was gone and answering the emails I could not get to the latter part of my trip. I am thrilled to say I am caught up with both! All I have to do is update the tracking info (maybe later this p.m.) and get to any orders that were placed this morning.

As promised, I will be putting up a new sale next week, likely Tuesday/Wednesday so check back either here or Facebook for updates on that! I hope to introduce a new brush (a 100% synthetic refillable dispensing brush) around then as well that many of you have been requesting.

Again, so glad to be back! I missed you all! :)

Don't forget!!!!!

2010-06-17T06:33:00.007-05:00

Since we will be out of town from June 19-July 6, all orders received then will be taken, but not shipped until July 7 at the earliest. So if you want to make sure to get your order in before we leave please do it by Friday morning, June 18. (Central Standard time)

If you happen to post a lot on a forum and notice anyone asking about turnaround time for shipping, do let them know our situation for those dates--we are known for our rather quick shipping times but this will be the exception as we do not have anyone to help us manage our store (at least the way I like it, LOL!) while we are gone.

Also note that we may not have a lot of Internet access/time to answer any questions that come in so please also be aware of that as well. You know your questions and issues that arise our very important to us and try to get back with you as soon as we are able.

Until then, enjoy the remainder of the time left on this Blog Special (over tomorrow, June 18) and when I come back we'll have another sort of Sale as a "Thanks" to everyone's patience for waiting on us for two weeks, the longest we've ever been gone. FYI, I do not run sales very often as we already have free/inexpensive shipping as well a a low profit margin our most of our items--so start stocking up your Wishlists while we're gone as it will likely be a while before the next one!

Thanks all!

Blog Special for 6-10 (Thurs) to 6-18 (Fri)

2010-06-10T07:49:00.007-05:00

Check out our new Blog Specials at this link: Blog Special for 6-10 (Thurs) to 6-18 (Fri)

You'll find some deeply discounted full-sized set deals with brushes. However, if you are NOT interested in any of those and plan on buying $30 or more AND want some Brushes/Accessories, use our Blog-only announced discount code "BLOGBRUSH15" and get 15% off all Brushes/Accessories.

With this discount code, you will get 15% of any Brush/Accessory BUT you *must* spend $30 or more per order. Your $30 total does not have to come from just the Brushes/Accessories (so you can spend $25 on minerals and just $5 on a Brush) but it will ONLY discount Brushes/Accessories, not any makeup items or other products.

Also, make sure to use the code at Checkout--otherwise, you will not get the discount!

This will be our last Blog Special before we leave for our two week trip**. Keep that in mind when placing an order--but also know that we will hopefully have some new items (definitely more Clearance items) and another little sale the second or third week in July after we get back and settled for our wonderfully patient customers!

**See Blog Entry HERE regarding our leave of absence and how it will affect shipping/turnaround time.

Reminder & some other news...

2010-06-04T06:30:00.006-05:00

First off: just a reminder that the 10% Grand Opening Sale will be ending this weekend. June 6 (Sunday) will be the last day to place an order using the code "GRAND." Remember, you *MUST* use the code at checkout to be get the discount!

But if you happen to forget, no worries. Our company will be gone at the end of June/early July (June 19-July 6) and orders will be taken, but not shipped until July 7 at the earliest. However, we WILL have another great Sale then and will be taking requests on our Facebook pages to see what items you all would like to see on Sale! Click here to add your request!

What we put on sale will depend on what we have on stock at the time but the sooner you let us know what you like, we can beef up our Inventory before that time! We'll try to honor the most popular requests as well as ones we notice from the trends on our website.

We also hope to post some new items (maybe some new & old LE's) as well as more Clearance Items that second week of July. But until then, we will be running some great Blog Specials the next two weeks before we leave so definitely tune in for that!

One last thing: our current LE Collection will also be taken off the site before we leave for our trip--so make sure to grab those while they are still in stock! The full size set and maybe even singles of the eyeshadows may be gone by the time you read this!

Everyone have a great and fun weekend!

Grand Opening Sale - 10% off Entire Store from May 24-June 6!

2010-05-24T06:45:00.007-05:00

To officially kick off our new website (thank you for all the rave reviews by the way!) we have started our 10% off sale, which is rather rare for awG since we do already offer very low prices and free/inexpensive shipping. This sale will run from May 24 (today) to June 6 (Sunday) All you do is type in the word "GRAND" when you checkout and the discount will apply to your order. Please make sure to use the Coupon Code above or we will not apply the discount to your order.

Make sure to spread the word as one of the reasons we have switched to a new website is our hopes to grow even more! One of the awesome features of our new site is that if you look closely at each product, (note our screen shot below) there is a link there where you can link an specific product to post to your favorite social media such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc. It's sharing made much easier!

There will be no Blog Special while this sale is running but we'll likely be back to posting one up the week of June 7. Thanks all!

Blog Special & Exclusive opportunity to try our new Premium Small Dual Fiber!

2010-05-19T09:43:00.004-05:00

Click to get to the secret link of our new Blog Special:

Blog Special for May 19 (Wednesday) to May 23 (Sunday)

One of the specials we told you about is a chance to exclusively* try out our new Premium Small Dual Fiber. It's kind of a mix of our Petite & Sleek. The bristles are more like the Petite BUT 100% Synthetic but has a longer handle like the Sleek and matches our other Premium brushes.

This brush does cost more than our Ingenue line but as with our other Premium brushes, this is of the best quality and you will find that there is very minimal shedding/bleeding and with proper care, could last you lifetimes! You'll find it worth the price! We are offering it for $14.77 as an introductory price and will increase it to $16.99 when it debuts on our store next week. The manufacturer's recommended price is between $19-$25 and if you compare with brushes like the MAC 188 (which is about $32-34 and NOT 100% Synthetic) it is still a good deal!

Thanks all and happy shopping! If nothing peaks your interest with this week's Blog Special, tune in next week sometime for our Grand Opening Sale!

*This brush is currently not sold on our website publicly. This is only for our Blog subscribers and FB Fans/Friends!

New Shipping Policies

2010-05-18T13:00:00.017-05:00

We have made a couple changes in our Shipping Policy since we had a chance to redo our website and they are as follows:

1. We will no longer accept orders that have different Billing and Shipping Addresses UNLESS you are a Customer who has made at least one purchase before using your Billing Address.

Unfortunately, we’ve had some very dishonest people take advantage of our previous policy in the last several months and cannot afford to do that anymore since they were fraudulent orders. PayPal normally has safeguard checks when you pay but for some reason, these crooks got past them! Should we get an order with varying addresses, we will cancel the order immediately, but also notify you via email AND by a written letter via your Billing Address the reason why.

2. Also, our International Shipping charges have changed:

$15 or less: $1.50 USD
$15.01-$35.00: $2.50 USD
$35.01-$55.00: $3.50 USD
$55.01-$100.00 or more: $4.50 USD
***All orders $100.01 or more will be charged $5.25

Overall, we believe most of you will spend less on Shipping but we did need to make adjustments. In comparison with other companies, however, you’ll still find our rates very reasonable especially since we have not raised any of our rates in two years we have been open and there have been about three postage increases since then.

(FYI, No change, on US & Canadian Shipping--you all will still get Free Shipping since rates only go up about 10-25 cents an ounce whereas shipping for International packages goes up at least $1-2 per added ounce!)

About our New Website!

2010-05-18T12:49:00.006-05:00

It has taken about a month of hard work to get this together but I think the majority of you will be very happy with the changes! Here’s a run-down on the ones I am most excited about…

1. Account Log-In: My other website required you to do that but it was simply to ease checkout. It did not allow you to check on orders and its status. It also keeps record of things like Wish Lists, previously viewed items, past orders, etc.

2. Customer Testimonials: You can now submit your Testimonials for the products you love (or maybe not so love, lol) and rate them to help others in their shopping experience.

Just know that we will monitor them and won’t publish Testimonials that are super short (e.g. “Hated this product!” or “Would never buy again!”) because if you write something less than flattering, the Customers reading them would like to know exactly why (wrong for your skin, too bright, bad texture, etc.)—it is only fair. ;)

3. Compare feature: You can compare up to four items on one page and decide which you like best. Very helpful for deciding on the color of minerals you want.

4. Added Shopping helps: Shop By Price, Top Sellers list, New Products list for those that need those features to help enhance your shopping experience.

5. Organization: This may be our opinion only, but since we are able to adjust the menus with a subcategory, you can get to products much easier than on the old website.

We also prefer our Shop By Color feature as it is MUCH easier to add New or Limited Edition colors than the old way (we had to make a Table and add the item, make hyperlinks, etc. which was a rather complex process so you can see we did not always have time to update the old one) and some colors actually fit in more than one category (like LE Furtive is both a gray and purple tone).

6. Gift Certificates: We did not really have these on our other site as we did not like how the previous company had it set up: you could basically only use it one time and it did not appear you could keep a balance—which I thought was not fair. But this will allow you to use the GC and if you have a remaining balance you can still get to it and even check on it in case you ever forget the exact amount through your Account.

So feel free to go ahead and shop but do note that we will have a Grand Opening Sale starting next week (the week of May 24) but we’ll also post a Blog Special with some great deals for you all sometime tomorrow.

Have fun with the new site!

Changes...

2010-05-13T06:44:00.003-05:00

adorned with Grace is in the process of making some changes in the next few days to a week so there is the chance the site may be down this weekend (May 15-17) and *maybe* a few days after that. Just be aware of this in case you needed to place a much needed order or were making a YouTube video as the links you post may not work.

As soon as we are finished with the changes, we will post here first to give you an overview of what we've done! We'll likely also post up a good Blog Special and/or Sale just for your patience!

P.S. I just have to let one cat out of the bag: In around 2-3 weeks, we hope to have a 100% Synthetic Long Handled version of our beloved Ingenue Petite Dual Fiber for sale on the site. We'll be offering a special Introductory price the first week of its sale, so you'll want to stay tuned for that!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Spring Inspired Eyeshadow Sale!

2010-05-03T11:41:00.006-05:00

With the air of Springtime and the beautiful colors popping up all around, we were inspired today to put our Eyeshadows on Sale for 10% off!
This means all Single eyeshadows (Regular and Premium formulas) and Sets are marked down. Please note that this does NOT including our Limited Edition, however; also, it does not include our single Sample sizes. If you put one of the LE colors in the boxes that require you to write in the name of the eyecolor, it may delay your order as we'll have to email you and ask that you request a different color.

This Eyeshadow Sale will run until Sunday, May 9th.

P.S. For my subscribers and FB followers, in case you were wondering, there will be no Blog Special this week.

Blog Special: 4/28 to 5/02

2010-04-28T07:34:00.010-05:00

New special up for my loyal following! As always, this will be up while supplies last or until May 2, whichever comes first! Please make sure to read the Terms and if there are any questions, let us know at adorned_with_grace@yahoo.com.

BLOG SPECIAL APRIL 28-MAY 2.

FREE ITEMS WITH PURCHASE OF $15 OR MORE
(Shipping NOT Included)

A little Blog Special and some Clearance Items added!

2010-04-21T15:47:00.010-05:00

Our Blog Special this week is just a little one in honor of Earth Day, April 22. Check it out HERE. These were so popular last year (and we are still getting tons of hits for it at our old Ecrater store!) we thought we'd bring them back for this special occasion.

As indicated in the listing, you must spend $15 or more (NOT including Shipping & Handling for my International Customers) to qualify and, of course, go to the "secret link" above to add to your cart.

Also, FYI, we have added some "Oops" foundations; as we made up more batches the last couple of months, not every batch passes our comparison swatch test and/or we occasionally read the recipe wrong or reach for the wrong ingredient; but instead of throwing away the mistaken batches (which would be totally wasteful and NOT in the spirit of Earth Day, lol!) we thought we'd make these available to you for a very inexpensive price.

If you have already sampled our foundations, you might also find these "Oops" batches might be somewhat similar as minerals can be pretty forgiving; they just don't meet our specifications (either too neutral or peachy or golden to our eye) and cannot sell them as the original color.

F2: Most similar to Grace 4.0-4.2 & possibly Kindness. (Medium-Medium Tan Golden Olive tones)
F3: Most similar to Faith 4.2 (Golden Peachy tones)
F4: Most similar to Hope 3.0 (Yellow Olive, more neutral than the original)
F5: Most similar to Peace 3.5 (Neutral Olive, more neutral than the original)

Again, please note the "most similar" description noted above. We cannot guarantee (and cannot take returns) these colors will work for you if you already wear those; they just fall in close to the same family.

If you find you might need to correct them, you can use our Color Correctors/Concealers (scroll down to see the different listings) to improve the looks although it may lighten them depending how much you use. As a general rule:

Use...
...Pink if you need more of a cool tone...
...Apricot if you need more peachy, or disguising bluish discolorations, like bruises or some under eye circles...
...Yellow if you need more golden, or disguising more purplish discolorations such as under eye circles. Some also recommend to use with blemishes or areas of redness...
...Green if you need to neutralize a cooler, pink tone whether it be foundation or red areas like rosacea...
...Blue if you need to neutralize an overly peachy/orangey foundation. Especially helpful worn underneath base for foundations that seem to turn orange during the day...
...Lavender if you need to tone down an overly golden/sallow skintone or foundation...

Hope that helps out! Thank you all!

Blog Special: 4/12 to 4/18 & New LE Eyecolors!

2010-04-11T20:14:00.009-05:00

Yes, we have a new Blog Special for you all this week! Check out our "secret link" HERE. Remember, to qualify for these items, you must use the listings on this page and this sale will last until next Sunday, April 18 OR while supplies last as we might sell out sooner.

Also, we have some new LE eyecolors for you all! Find them here on our Limited Edition page. For those that love violet-tinged neutrals, you'll love this set of colors. I have to be honest in saying that the pictures, even the swatches below, do not capture the beauty of the colors--we just apologize for not being more talented with our photography!

While the photo above makes the colors look very plain and neutral, what you don't see is the beautiful violet highlights with most of the colors. I actually made these over a month ago when I found out a very old friend from college had passed away and creating colors was one of my ways to heal so these colors are almost an interpretation of what I was feeling then: subdued and melancholy , yet filled with hope for tomorrow, if that makes any sense. . .

Hope you all like them!

P.S. Our LE Wedding colors will be available only until Friday, April 16 unless they sell out sooner. Make sure to grab them now if you want them as they will not be available in the future!

No foolin'!!!

2010-04-01T11:21:00.004-05:00

...with an exception of the $22/$44/$66/$88 Blog Special deal, we've decided to continue with the other Blog Special sales until Sunday, April 4! These are some of the most popular listings yet and we'd like to give those who did not get a chance to order them another several days to do so. The only exception would be if we run out of stock on our brushes, but the Premium Mini Eye Buki would be the only one that would apply to as that one is going very fast!

If you aren't interested in the current sale, stayed tuned the next week or two where we hope to put up a new set of Blog Special deals in conjunction with our new April Limited Edition Eyecolors!

Website fixed AND Blog Specials!!!

2010-03-25T13:18:00.005-05:00

First off, the Error is finally fixed! PayPal had to rewrite some codes and they have it finally working okay for everyone! (I was not the only site that was having issues yesterday!) Sorry again to anyone that may have been inconvenienced by this.

Okay, guys, this has been a long time coming! We've been so busy restocking our samples and full-sized jars that we haven't even had a chance to think up a great Blog Special! So at the promptings of a few of our customers, we've come up with this one:

Just CLICK HERE to get to the "secret link" on our Website

To give you a hint, if you buy our 10 for $29.99 Eyecolors set, one Blush/Shimmer Blush, our Premium Retractable Kabuki or buy a certain amount of items (from $22, $44, $66, or $88) you'll get specific free (and very popular) products!

Check it out at the link above and Happy Shopping! This Blog Special will last until March 31 or while supplies last. Please forward any questions to adorned_with_grace@yahoo.com should there be any issues.

Thanks everyone on your patience on the website glitch and the long wait on a Blog Special!

Website issue

2010-03-24T09:23:00.003-05:00

Sorry all, but instead of the Blog Special I had all ready to post up for this morning, I need to warn you all that there is an Error Message that shows up when you Checkout and does not email either you, me, or my website the actual Order so while we receive your Payment, we have no idea what you ordered!

I have contacted my Website Builder in regards to this extremely inconvenient matter and hoping the situation will be fixed ASAP. As soon as the matter is resolved, I will post up our Blog Special as I know many of you have been waiting for one!

If there was something you needed to order ASAP, let me know and I may just have to send you a manual invoice OR you can order through the my website, but before you Submit your Order, do a "Cut & Paste" of your Order, with your Shipping Address, and email that to me at adorned_with_grace@yahoo.com.

The main issue is just that our Shipping Department has no idea what to send you since we need that Order Confirmation page to know WHAT you ordered and WHERE to send it.

So so sorry for the inconvenience! Will post ASAP the matter is resolved!

Seeing green...

2010-03-17T06:52:00.002-05:00

Just a quickie post to let you know that our green eyecolors (Benevolent, Enduring, Tranquility, & Glorious) as well as a single jar of our Merciful Green Color corrector are specially discounted for this St. Patrick's Day just for the next 24 hours from this post!

We're back and caught up!

2010-02-25T13:37:00.004-06:00

Just a quick note to let you all know that we had a wonderful time at my sister's wedding and were able to get back into the swing of things and have mailed out all the orders made while we were gone.

FYI, there are some of you that may have trouble getting out notices (Order Confirmation & Shipping Notices) especially those with a Yahoo email account (they have strangely strict privacy settings) so if you believe you placed an order from Feb. 9 - 23, and have not received ANY notices, you are welcome to email us to check. We apologize for that but some email servers don't always recognize our Automatic Response emails from out website.

We had quite a few orders--much more than expected and even pleasantly overwhelming!--but we worked hard to make sure you all didn't have to wait too long as we like to follow the Golden Rule in that matter! ;) We had so many sample orders we are busily making more products to replace our stock as well as reordering other items (brushes, shipping supplies, etc.) so once we get all those in order,we'll be back to our usual posting on the blog with our unique blog specials.

Thanks to all of you who have continued to spread the word about adorned with Grace Minerals! This is especially for those of you who have bought products from us and were kind enough to spread the word via blog, YouTube, or just verbally telling a friend or two; to keep our costs down, we rely solely on word of mouth for our advertising so the more of you out there sharing about us, the most likely we are to stick around (especially in this economy) and also have the money to get a broader range of products!

Well, back to work for us!

A special Wedding Collection!

2010-02-03T12:15:00.005-06:00

If you have been to our site in the last few days you may have seen the Notice at the bottom of our website right above the footer: We'll be unavailable to ship orders received from Feb. 9 - Feb. 21 because we will be out of town and that orders will likely not be shipped until Feb. 23 at the earliest.

Why is this you may ask? Well, we have a very important wedding to go to in Florida and will be out of town and unable to take care of things as usual. My little sister is getting married (Congrats, Sis!) and being the maid of honor, we just could not miss such a special occasion! Since we are a small company, we do not have additional staff that can help with the processing while we are gone so we just hope you will either submit your order before the 9th or after the 21st or be willing to wait a little longer that our usual shipping time.

However, in honor of her special day, we have a special Wedding LE Collection; there are two eye colors, Incomparable & Exceptional and then two Blushes/All Over Face Colors, Resplendent & Effervescent.

You'll find them here on our Limited Edition page.

Please note that you'll be able to get samples of these if you get the 15 or 30 Sample Set but due to the very limited number, we can only sell them a la carte or in the special Wedding Eyecolor or Blush Duo Sets. They will NOT be available in the 3 or 10 Eyecolor and/or 2 or 4 Blush Sets.

Also available on this page is a rainbow selection of Color Correctors! This is something that was requested by a few customers, especially the Yellow & Apricot concealer. If any of these prove to be popular, we can make them a permanent addition to our line!

We've also added a new synthetic Ingenue foundation brush, Clearance Items, & a special duo brush set. Make sure to check these out! But again, try to get your order in before Feb. 9 or it likely will not be shipped for another week and a half!

Last Day of Sale

2010-01-18T19:42:00.004-06:00

Actually, I should say this is the last night of our current sale, lol...

We just wanted to remind you all that the current prices we have on our brushes and makeup sets will be tonight, January 18. We may leave up the Limited Edition sets as those have continued to be very popular and we still have plenty in stock. But this is just a reminder in case you have forgotten and you should have until tomorrow afternoon/early morning to get any last minute deals.

FYI, we were not able to ship out any orders today since this is a U.S. Postal Holiday (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day) so many of the orders we received Friday late afternoon and early evening will not ship out until tomorrow (Tuesday) January 19. Also due to the higher volume of orders this weekend (many last minute customers taking advantage of the last weekend of our sale!) there may be a 1-2 day delay in our usual shipping times. For example, if you ordered today, it may not ship out until Wednesday.

But we do thank you all so VERY much for continuing to support awG and telling others about us. It is the only way little companies like me can grow and we are so honored to have you all as our customers!

Stayed tuned in the next week or two for some new LE items---always check back here for new info! Good night all--back to work getting your orders processed and answering emails!

New Year's Sale!

2010-01-04T15:44:00.008-06:00

As noted from our last blog entry, we have continued our Christmas Sale as a New Year's Sale! We have the same select makeup & brush sets on sale for those of you that missed or may not have had the money to get the items last time. This sale will run until January 18 OR when items goes Out of Stock.

The only exception is our Powders; these are probably our #1 best selling product and these went FAST during the Christmas Sale. We still have all the powders in stock right now (but just a few jars of certain ones) and we also have more ingredients coming, but due to the holiday rush were unable to get those ordered and back fully stocked in time to have them ready by today's Sale. So rather than delay the Sale another day, we just want to forewarn you that if you happen to order a Powder/Makeup set that includes a powder that might have gone out of stock, it might delay shipment of your items by a week.

Also, we have just a handful left of our Fall 2009 LE Eyecolors and January 11 will be the last day to get them if you are interest in them! So check them out here on our Limited Edition page along with some other great LE sets!

Continuing with the Sale next week!

2010-01-01T16:47:00.004-06:00

Just a quick note to let you all know that we will put up the continuation of our Christmas/New Year sale the week of January 4 (most likely be up around Jan. 4/5). We would have liked to have put that up this week but due to the surprising amount of orders we got while we were out of town (Thank you everyone! Esp. to my paying customers who I suspected Blogged and/or YouTubed about us!) we have been a tad behind and we do need to catch up on updating Inventory before putting more items up for sale. :)

FYI, if you placed an order before Dec. 29, your order should have already shipped out but if you did not get a Shipping Notice, you most likely might have had the issues as noted in our last Blog entry, esp. if you have a Yahoo account. We made sure we got caught up with our shipping as we know the joy of getting items shipped quickly! And of course, no orders were shipped out today (Jan. 1) since this is considered a holiday for the U.S. Postal service but we will resume sending them out Monday!

Thanks again, and keep tuned into our Blog or our Facebook page for notification of our upcoming sale!

A Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to All!

2009-12-21T14:19:00.006-06:00

Before adorned with Grace takes a break for a little over a week, we just wanted to take the time to wish you all a very blessed Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year! We'd also like to thank those of you who ordered these last couple weeks during our Sale and hope you all love your products!

As noted on our Website, we will resume the Sale when we return, around Dec. 30 or Jan. 1 by popular demand! So make sure to check back us then if you missed out on this last sale or simply want more, lol!

I also wanted to make sure you all knew that we will likely (about 98% sure) not be able to reply to any emails between tonight (Dec. 21) and next Monday (Dec. 27) as our Internet access will be extremely limited. So please make sure you all know we are not ignoring you! We try to get back with our Customers as fast as our schedule allows us to.

On that note, I seem to be having trouble, especially with those of you that have a Yahoo email account, with my emails (specifically Shipping Notices) getting to you? I know that with my current email, Notices from my own website are diverted and I never receive them as Yahoo appears to have a semi-strict SPAM filter that does not allow let me get messages that appear to be from mass emailers and/or companies. (I say "semi-strict" because I still get those awful phishing ones, lol!)

The only solution I have that might work is if you make sure to add "adorned_with_grace@yahoo.com" to your Contacts list so that it is not diverted away completely or to a SPAM/Junk Folder. I've had one customer who I have emailed three times but apparently my emails are not getting to her as she thinks we have simply not bothered to reply, but as most of you know, we get back with most of our customers no less than 3-4 days, even during a Sale, and try to reply to Customers as quickly as we would like to be responded to!

The only time we are unable to respond to an email is to those asking for "freebies for review" as we get soooooo many requests (sometimes more than orders!!!) we simply do not have time to respond to them all, in addition to our regular mail and processing orders and making up new products. In addition, I believe there is a new law now that if you receive freebies from any company and review them on your blog, you do have to disclose that info. I believe so much in my product I know that I will get more than enough good reviews from paying customers who will spread the good word about awG! :)

Other than sending out a few more Shipping Notices and making adjustments to our website, adorned with Grace is officially off on Christmas vacation! Again, everyone have a wonderful holiday and looking forward to this New Year!

Back from Thanksgiving with a Sale!

2009-12-01T10:12:00.016-06:00

We are finally back after a great Thanksgiving weekend! I appreciate those of you who still ordered and thank you sincerely for your patience as the shipping turnaround time was a little longer than usual since we were not in town to take care of orders and our Internet time was extremely limited in regards to answering emails.

But now we are back with a Sale to help you get started on your Christmas shopping! We have taken 10% all makeup sets (NOT the a la carte eyeshadow, blush, foundation, & powder), all Face Premium Brushes and other select brush sets, and a few Limited Edition sets that were popular Customer Request Choices (see on Limited Edition page).

Please also make sure to check out our Clearance page as we have added some new items, mostly from our past Summer 2009 LE Eyecolors. Make sure to read the listings CAREFULLY as not all are full sized items!

Per request of some of my customers last year, we are offering a Limited Edition set of our Christmas Eyesparklers which is eye-safe cosmetic glitter in the typical holiday colors of gold, silver, white, red, and green! You'll love these used by themselves (with a good cream base for optimal adhesion) or mixed in with your other cosmetics to add a festive sparkle.

However, these are ONLY available in full-sized sets (one of each color) and once we sell out, they will no longer be available! We also do NOT have sample sizes, nor will they be available in full-sized singles.

FYI, there will be no Blog Specials for the month of December. Also, we will be running this sale until December 19. As with this past holiday, we will leave the online store "open" but orders received from December 20-28 will likely not ship until December 29-30 at the earliest. Depending on what stock we have available, we may continue the sale (meaning we'll mark the items down again) December 29 as an After Christmas sale!

Because of the nature of this sale, please do expect that there might be a 1-3 day delay in our usual shipping time so don't panic if we don't mail your order out the same day or within 24 hours of placing an order. We are known for our quick turnaround time but this is one of those times of the year it is more difficult to maintain that so continue to have some patience with us!

Thank you all!

Store updates...

2009-11-16T16:01:00.008-06:00

Hey, all! Since our staff will be going out of town this weekend and will be gone for a little over a week and there is much to be prepared for that, we have decided not to have a Blog Special this week. We have left up the one from last week as there is ONE set left for sale before we get more in stock, which will be hopefully sometime next week. So good luck to the one quick enough to snag this last Custom Brush set. :)

On that note, our Online store will still be open but if you place an order between 12:00 p.m. CST this November 20 (Friday) to November 30 (Monday), it will likely NOT be shipped until Dec. 2 (Wednesday) at the earliest.

But on a better note...there will be a month long sale starting in about two weeks (early December) on select Makeup and Brush sets just in time for the holidays! Just check back with us then!

Blog Only Offer

2009-11-10T11:13:00.003-06:00

We recently had one of our wonderful customers (Cristine of CristineRose86 on YouTube) request a brush set that she thought would make a wonderful Beginners set. There will only be a few sets of this available this week, but if this proves to be a popular set (and we are sure it will!), we will restock them by late November (likely after Thanksgiving weekend).

This is a Blog ONLY offer as we like to pass great savings to our loyal customers! We'll offer up the current stock we have until we run out OR this Sunday, Nov. 15.

Click HERE to see the Blog ONLY sale.

Thanks all!

Blog Only Special Offer!

2009-11-03T12:23:00.009-06:00

This is a special sale that is good ONLY for those that follow us here at Defining True Beauty or our Facebook page:

Check out a special offer on a brush that we are promoting. (As it is one of our top favorites!) Even if you only need one for yourself, it will be a great time to stock up as Christmas is coming and they'll make wonderful stocking stuffers. Or you could be like me, and just like to have a few back ups just in case! ;)

Blog Special

This will only be good while supplies last or November 8 (Sunday), whichever comes first. As noted in the listing, no substitutions allowed please. :)

Also, you MUST use the link above (or here: BLOG SPECIAL) to get your third brush. If you do not use this link and simply add tw0-three Sleeks to your cart, we cannot offer you the special deal. This is so we know who are loyal followers are!

Extending Premium Brush Sale!

2009-10-27T11:28:00.004-05:00

Yes, you read correctly...due to popular demand, we will be extending the sale we have on our Premium Brushes until November 19! Remember, all brushes (except the Premium Eyebrushes under $6) are 10% off right now!

No Blog Special for this week but all orders over $15 will get a free Eye/Lip Pencil Sharpener. (Remember, this does not include taxes or shipping so do your math carefully!) There will be no need to add anything to your cart, it will be automatically included. :) HOWEVER, this will **ONLY** be for orders that we receive by Oct. 31. If you place your order in November, we will not be able to honor the deal.

Some new stuff, a Blog Special, and a Sale!

2009-10-18T17:23:00.016-05:00

If you stalk our website, you might have noticed that we put up a new Premium brush yesterday as well as a new accessory!

Our first new offering is our Premium Mini Eye Buki. (We took a picture of it next to our full sized eyeshadow--that is about the size of a quarter--so you could get an idea of how adorable it was!)

Because of popularity of our other mini brush (Mini Dual Ended), we thought you all would also enjoy this one! What I like about it, besides its travel-friendly size, is that it has a nice fluffy bristle head that allows for great all over application or blending colors. As with our other Premium brushes, this one is 100% synthetic and assembled in the USA.

Then we also have our new Dual Eye/Lip Pencil Sharpener with Cover. It's a tool I know many of you all use if you still wear traditional eye or lip liners (I admit to still using Wet 'n' Wild 666 Lipliner, a Makeup Alley fave!) and a good pencil sharpener is a must!

This week's Blog Special is for our Blushes. Just click HERE to see this week's special deal! This offer will be good until Friday, Oct. 23.

Then, our sale for the entire week is for the winner from our recent poll: Premium brushes! With an exception of the Eyeshadow brushes that are under $5.99, they are 10% off for this week until next Sunday, Oct. 25. *Pleaes note that Sale prices are for the current stock only. Once they go out of stock, when they will return, it will be at their regular price.

Happy shopping all!

New Fall LE Eyecolors are here!

2009-10-18T16:55:00.010-05:00

They are finally here! This was actually a good week to release these; the weather has finally turned cooler here in the normally hot and humid state of Mississippi. I think it was actually 48 degrees early this morning, lol! It was a welcome change though. ;)

You'll find them here at our Limited Edition page. As with our other collections, make sure to act fast as there are very limited quantities of these (especially of the full-size complete set) and will no longer be stocked once they are gone!

A brief rundown on all the colors:

Enchanting - A grayed plum with colorful highlights; Inspiring's purple sister.
Endearing - A stone colored beige; great for those with more neutral skintones as a highlighter.
Enigmatic - An intense blue-grey; similar to Placid but more mysterious!
Enthralling - A bright mustard gold; not for the color shy. ;)
Enthusiastic - A bright and shimmery light golden yellow; great highlight or base color.
Enticing - A rich shimmer purple; complements well with Enthralling for a bold look.
Feisty - A shimmery dark taupe; reminds me a lot of an old tester color I called Shimmery Dark Taupe.
Mesmerizing - A milk chocolate shimmer; natural and goes well with anything!
Remarkable - A soft silvery light green; made to go with Enigmatic.

So which ones are my personal favorites and what I would wear everyday? I adore Enthusiastic, Enchanting, Mesmerizing and Feisty--these are very natural colors I could wear to the office, and I suspect if any sell out first, these would be it!

Word of caution to those that try Enthralling however--I'd say this is one **bright** Fall color; it definitely has the golden tones you would recognize with this season and you don't have to worry about this one not showing up on you!

But we hope you like these colors and enjoy wearing them this season! They'll be available until they sell out or mid-December, whichever comes first.

Columbus Day, About Fall LE, & Vote in Poll!

2009-10-09T18:04:00.004-05:00

Before I close up for the weekend, I do want to give you all a heads up that it will be a "long weekend" for awG in that any orders that we receive from now (about 6 p.m. Central Time Friday, Oct.9 to Tuesday, Oct 13) will likely not be shipped until Thursday, Oct 14. Partly because Monday, Oct. 12 is a Postal Holiday and there will be no mail that day, but also since we will be going out of town and not be back to do anything with orders until Wednesday afternoon. So just be aware of that as you know I like to send orders out super fast, but it just won't happen this weekend, lol...

Also, I have decided I won't release my LE Fall Colors until the week of Oct. 19. Mostly because I want to release them the same time as my next Blog Special, and there will not be one until that week since next week will be out. Also, it still feels like Summer weather here in the state of Mississippi as today was 80 degrees and it's so hard to get in the mood for Fall, LOL! I'll also have a few small new eye accessories to add along with the new LE eyecolors. :)

Finally, I'd love for everyone to vote in the poll to your right about what items you would like to see next on Sale. Just trying to see what direction I should go in with my next sale/Blog Special!

Have a great weekend everyone!

No Blog Special this week!

2009-09-29T15:14:00.002-05:00

Because we are still catching our breath from last week's very successful sale AND are trying to finish up our Fall 2009 Limited Edition Eyecolors we are going to be holding off on any Blog Specials until we can catch up on that. We are hoping to have them done in the next week or two and the new LE Fall colors will likely be up for sale the second or third week of October.

Until then, what is left of our Summer LE Collection will stay up until they sell out (some colors are VERY close!) so if there is one you've been keeping your eye on, make sure to grab them in case they sell out.

Thanks to all of you who placed an order last week! Support from loyal customers such as you help keep our online doors open! Make sure to help us advertise via word of mouth (especially if there is a particular product you liked) as that is how small companies like adorned with Grace Minerals grow!!!

Blog Special: September 22-25

2009-09-22T10:11:00.014-05:00

CLICK HERE for this week's Blog Special. Make sure to read the important requirement required for the Blog Special carefully!

As with our other Blog Special, don't forget that this will end this Friday, Sept. 25.

The new brush we have added is a 100% Synthetic (Vegan) Retractable Kabuki! I have to shamelessly rave about this kabuki and say that it is simply the Ultimate! It is super soft and has just the right amount of density (in our opinion) and you'll definitely want to check these out ASAP because we are offering it at an Introductory Price of $17.99; once we sell out of the current stock we have, the price will go up to $20.49.

***FYI, we wanted to warn you that we may not be able to ship with the "lightning fast speed" that we usually do for those orders specifically placed between this Tuesday and Wednesday morning as our Shipping Department may not be available during then.

Thanks ahead of time for understanding!

No Blog Special for this week :(

2009-09-16T07:50:00.004-05:00

Just letting you all know there won't be a Blog Special this week as we've decided to hold it off until next Monday or Tuesday (Sept. 21-22). We hope to post up a good one then! I'll have an introductory price on this new brush I have been waiting for so stayed tuned for that as I'll only have limited quantities of this!

Blog Special: 9/09 to 9/11

2009-09-08T20:40:00.009-05:00

***EDIT*** Blog Special is now over!

We just have a very simple Blog Special this week. If you happen to be eyeing our 4 for $16.49 Premium Eyecolor Set this is your lucky week! For every "4 for" set, you will get our very popular Mini Dual Ended Eyeshadow Brush.

To get this blog special, simply click on the "4 for $16.49 Premium Eyecolor Set" and add to your cart. Then in the box where you are supposed to put your 4th color choice, type in "BLOG SPECIAL" so that we know you read it here. If you DON'T type that in the noted box, we won't send the brush, so don't forget!!!

As with our other Blog Specials, be aware that this is limited to our current stock but if we run out, we'll make sure to notify you as well as post on the listing. AND this Blog Special will only last until Friday, Sept. 11. Any requests we get after that, we won't be able honor. :(

Also wanted to note that we aren't sure if we'll have a Blog Special next week. We are waiting on a set of brushes that will come in early next week and if they come on time, we'll have one--if not, we'll save it for week after. But we'll have something posted by next Wednesday if we do!

Thanks all!

Blog Special: 9/02 to 9/04

2009-09-01T21:16:00.003-05:00

It's all about the Premium line!

This weeks Blog Special is one free Premium Eyecolor for each Premium FACE Brush (or the Premium Trio Eyeshadow Brush Set) you buy. CLICK HERE for the listing and more details.

As with our other Blog Specials, this will end Friday, September 4. So it will be off the site by September 5! If you have any questions about the terms of our Blog Special, feel free to email us at adorned_with_grace@yahoo.com. (But please, no Phishing emails, LOL, we report those! I only say that because it seems after we post our email up publicly, I am showered with those Nigerian scam emails for at least a week afterward asking for our Bank Account number...)

Also, a reminder that Monday, September 7 is Labor Day so any orders that we get Friday night through Monday will NOT ship out until Tuesday, Sept 8 as the US Post Offices are closed that day.

August Sale & Blog Special

2009-08-19T15:45:00.006-05:00

Finally, our August mini-sale is up! We have taken about 10% off of our single, full-sized mineral products as well as discounted some of our face brushes in both the Ingenue & Premium Line. Also added is a LE Mini Custom Kit where you get to choose a Full-Sized Foundation with your choice of either one powder, one blush, or two eyecolors!

We do apologize as we cannot include the LE Summer 2009 Eyecolors in the LE Mini Custom Kit or in our August sale since our inventory is actually running low and may sell out of certain colors very soon. It has been one of our best selling collections and are still in pretty high demand!

Our sale will run through the entire month of August. HOWEVER, the sale on the Ingenue & Premium brushes is limited to In-Stock Brushes. If we happen to sell out of the brushes during the sale, when they are restocked, it will be at regular price.

In addition, we are running a Blog Special where you *may* qualify for a discount code on your NEXT order if your order is exactly $50 or more. **For International's this DOES NOT include your shipping charge, so please plan accordingly. To clarify, if you spend $49.99 or less, and you add the Blog Special listing to your order, will will not be able to include a Discount Code with your order.

So if you spend exactly $50 or more, you'll get a 10% Discount Code to use for your NEXT order. If you end up spending up to $100, you will get a 20% Discount Code--so the more you spend this time, the more you'll save next time! Just CLICK HERE to take advantage of the Blog Special which will run a little longer than our usual Blog Special, from today, August 19 to next Friday, August 28.

Oh, and don't forget, we still have a few CLEARANCE items left in stock so make sure to stock by there to catch some more great deals! Happy shopping!

We are now on Facebook!

2009-08-10T11:46:00.003-05:00

Yes, some of you already found us over the last few months--I had opened an account but just haven't had the time to get the Info and other stuff up until late last week. So sorry--we weren't ignoring you!

adorned with Grace Minerals Facebook page
(User name is Adornedwith Grace)

We'll post our Blog sales and probably more reminders and such over there and now that I have a photo album over there, I would love to see photos you wonderful customers wearing our products! You can send them over to me with a message and I'll put them up!

Closing down early this week

2009-08-10T11:36:00.004-05:00

I just wanted to let you all know that there will be no Blog Special this week and we will also be closing down early since we will be out of town from Friday, August 14 to Monday, August 17. So if you happen to order anything this week, as long as we receive it by Thursday evening, August 13 it should ship out the following day. Otherwise, the earliest it will ship would be the Tuesday, and most likely the Wednesday following.

But to give you a little incentive to wait until next week to order, we do plan on having a mini-sale, mostly on single items (not sets) and some LE Customs sets that we haven't decided on yet.

This sale will likely last about one week so make sure to tune back in (or subscribe to ensure you get our announcement) in about 7-9 days to see what goodies we'll have marked down for you!

Blog Special: 8/3-8/7

2009-08-03T12:09:00.009-05:00

This weeks Blog Special combines Janice's Choice Brush Set & the Microfiber Waschcloth (set of three) set for $27.77. (But this has a value of $42.28 even at the sale prices!) But to sweeten the deal, you are also allowed to get ten free baggies samples of your choice!

Before you click and purchase this Blog Special, please keep in mind a few things:

1. This is good until August 7, 2009 (Friday) BUT there are only a limited number of these available for sale, so if you click on the listing below and it is not there anymore, then they are gone for good! So if this ends up being a popular set, it might even be gone by the end of the day. (I doubt it, but you never know, lol!)

2. You can pick any ten samples, but only one sample of each color. This Blog Special is intended for those that may have not tried any awG products yet or have tried them but want to sample more. If you have two or more samples of the same color, expect your order to be delayed as we will need the extra time to email you to ask for additional choices.

3. Normally, we just have a one cent listing where you can add the Blog Special to your cart after you have placed the other items from the other pages. This listing is different from previous Blog Specials and you MUST use the link to the listing below to get the special deal and the free ten samples.

Please do not go to their listings in the Accessories and LE page and expect to be refunded the difference and email us with your list of colors. If you purchase them that way, you will be charged their regular, more expensive price AND you won't get the freebie samples.

So click HERE for this week's Blog Special!

I think that is it! If there is any confusion like last time, I will make sure to include an Addendum to clarify.

About Coconut Oil & the Microfiber Washcloth

2009-07-29T11:36:00.017-05:00

About two weeks ago, I posted a Top Ten of my favorite things. One of the items, the Microfiber Washcloth, seemed to generate some questions especially in regards to keratosis pilaris. Unfortunately, I did not remember to take "before and after" pics but I can say in my experience that it has done wonderfully for smoothing my arms.

I have been using the Microfiber washcloth for about five-six months now pretty regularly and it kind of helped smooth it out but it was not until I started using the coconut oil (and the Microfiber cloth) about a month ago that I started to notice the bumps slowly smooth down significantly and the redness go away. All I notice now is bump or two and some light brown spots where the old bumps were and I am hoping that those will heal and disappear in a matter of time as well!

So my method? All I do is make sure to exfoliate daily (without cleanser on it) on the backs of my arms with firm pressure in a circular massage motion. I try not to do it for too long (like more than a minute) as you can literally rub your skin raw! I also make sure to use a more natural soap like Dr. Bronner's afterward for cleansing as I heard that some more processed soaps have dimethicones and other ingredients that can irritate those trouble areas. When I get out of the shower, I apply the coconut oil and maybe reapply a couple more times during the day. Be careful though and don't use too much! It can get quite greasy!

So why does this work? From what I understand about keratosis pilaris is that it is a genetic trait in which your skin produces excess keratin, a natural protein in your skin, and causes hard plugs around hair follicles in the area. With exfoliation, I believe it can help prevent excess buildup and smooth the skin out better.

But why is it the coconut oil helps even more? I can only scratch the surface here as there is TONS of info out there about its health & beauty benefits so I'll only bring up a few key points. Coconut oil is excellent and healing and repairing. It is considered a medium chain fatty acid and because of this composition, it is able to penetrate into the skin much better than other oils or lotions and can literally get under your skin and help with healing and smoothing the skin. If you'd like to read a more thorough article o this check this link out:

Virgin Coconut Oil & Your Skin.

I can definitely vouch for it being an excellent moisturizer; I don't limit this to just my arms but apply it everywhere else: arms, legs, torso, back, and even my face. Proceed with caution, though, on your face as I have read some conflicting reports on using it on your face as some rate it as highly comedegenic, but I have not noticed this in my experience and have also seen lots of articles promoting coconut oil to get rid of acne. Most noticeable is my knees and elbows which were normally hard and scaly feeling--but since using, they are smoother and softer than when I was a kid!

You can get coconut oil (it is best to get the Organic Extra Virgin from everything I have read) at your local health food store, Whole Foods or Trader Joes, GNC, and of course online, just do a Google Shopping search. I got my first 16 ounce jar at drugstore.com (since I got free shiping for my order that was $49 or more) but if you think you'll want more, I strongly recommend Nutiva.com as they have excellent prices right now on the large one gallon tubs (about eight pounds) and it is free shipping with orders $30 or more. Just let them know I sent you in the comments section! I've actually stocked up on it as I am using it for cooking as well, giving it to my dog for his health, and of course my beauty routine from head to toe! I hope to be blogging a few more articles on my experience with coconut oil in the near future. From everything I have read, it sounds like the tree of life!

As a special sale to go along with this blog post, I am putting the Set of Three Microfiber Cloths on sale for $8.29 should you want to test this out yourself. Don't forget, this is free shipping for my US & Canadian customers and the sale will only last until current stock is sold out or by next Friday (August 7) whichever comes first.

And for those of you that missed it, I will extend Janice's Choice Brush set until then as well (or until we sell out of those brushes too) as it has been a popular set that I am sure more of you would like a chance to purchase!

**Disclaimer: I am not an expert on this subject but am simply sharing my good experience with this method--your mileage may vary!

Blog Special: 7/20-7/24

2009-07-19T22:01:00.010-05:00

Hey, all! I'm back with a Blog Special for this week!

But before I share the links I need to explain that I'm going to be adding a new Limited Edition listing that I'll have "as needed" when good ideas arise: a Customer Request Set! I had a customer ask about having a special brush set that she wanted to give to a family member as a gift and she was hoping for some basic face brushes, specifically the ones listed in this set. Just go to our Limited Edition page and scroll down to the bottom to find it or simply click HERE to see the listing.

These brushes are actually mentioned on my very last "Favorite Things" post as they are dupes of the MAC 187, 188, & 138. The price on these three brushes (plus the Blog Special) doesn't even cover the cost of one MAC brush!

The sale on the LE Customer Request set will be over either when we run out of our current stock of brushes or July 29, whichever comes first. However, I *think* I will have enough for everyone that will want one so hopefully, no worries there. :)

But along with that **IF** you purchase this set, as this week's Blog Special, you will also get your choice of a free full-sized blush or powder of your choice! So to take advantage of this deal, click HERE to get your free face product. It will only be available from today until Friday, July 24 until about 2:00 p.m. Central Standard Time.

EDIT: I don't know if I just did not make it clear here on the Blog Post as well as the actual product listing HERE in RED but the Blog Special is ONLY for those that purchase the current Customer Request Set. Also, you can get more than one Blog Special but ONLY for as many Customer Requests sets you buy. For example if you get four Customer Request Sets, you can get four Blog Specials.

The reason I have to clarify is that I just got an order that did not purchase any of the Customer Request Set but added about forty Blog Specials to her order (so forty full-sized products for 40 cents)--so I am afraid something was not made clear??? I WISH I could just give stuff away like that, LOL, but Bare Minerals or Sheer Cover I am not in terms of profits....

Maybe one day I'll be one of the "big girls" but until then, you all will just keep needing to spread the word about awG word of mouth--that's when I get my best advertising!!! By the way, many thanks to all my paying customers who YouTube and/or blog about my company. I appreciate your willingness to buy my products and kind words you say in your videos/posts!

Thanks everyone! Hope that clears it up!

My favorite things!

2009-07-08T11:50:00.027-05:00

Before I take off for the weekend I thought I'd leave you all this post; I've been getting lots of emails from my customers asking me what brush or makeup product I like using best & would recommend (from my adorned with GraceTM store) so I thought it might be fun and perhaps informative to give you a Top Ten list of the things *I* love and can't live without. I did a Top Ten list of products my first month of blogging, but that was what is popular with my customers --these are my own personal loves!

1. Supreme Smoothing Powder: I use this as a primer underneath my foundation all over my face and then I go over it lightly around my more visible pores or areas I feel like need an extra smoothing. Gives a "Photoshopped" look to my face, lol! See a blog post here that I did about it:

Supreme Smoothing Powder: Does it work?

2. Metal Eyelash Comb: I get asked a LOT about this item---like does it really work better than the regular brow brushes? Well, let me tell you...I used to think clumps were just a regular part of wearing mascara; I used to use the plastic combs and those things never did ANY good! Because metal lash combs have such sharp teeth, these cut through the clumps easily. Just make sure to be careful as they can hurt you if you poke yourself in the eye (so no combing while driving/in a car, lol!) and keep the combs clean! I actually use dental floss to get in between and then wipe the rest away with a piece of a paper towel with a dab of rubbing alcohol.

See...the teeth are fine and sharp, unlike plastic brow brushes.

3. Shimmer Blushes: Although I like my pigmented blushes, I love the natural look and sheerness of my Shimmer Blushes! They give such a great youthful glow to my skin without accentuating fine lines or pores. My favorite Shimmer Blush colors? Hmmm...that is hard for me to say, but I guess if I *had* to choose, I'd say Fascinating (for a golden glow), Audacious (for a "perk me up" look), Dainty (for a feminine touch), & Tenderness (for a radiant, innocent sheen).

4. Small Pointed Face Brush: I didn't think much of this brush when I first saw it in my Supplier's Catalog and actually did not carry it immediately. However, I added it and after one of my faithful customers bought it and told me she realized that it was similar to the MAC 138, a $52 brush, I gave it a try and fell in love myself!

What is so great about it is it's shape. (In fact, if you look it up, it is the MAC 138 that is used with MAC's"Sculpt and Shape Powder!") You can apply color with the point for precision or use the sides where it angles for adding contours/highlight just where you need them! If you'd like to see it in action, one of my customers who is a popular YouTube guru, Julieg713 uses it in one of her looks *HERE*. You can fast forward it to the end (around 9:25) if you'd like to see a good visual on how to use it.

5. Microfiber washcloth: I have to be honest. I started carrying these not because of Customer request but because I just adore them and wanted to get a whole bunch of them for myself ha ha! I was using some I got from a DollarTree/General Dollar really cheap but I guess you get what you pay for as I found the cloth too thin and flimsy and it didn't seem to feel as comfortable to use as these do.

I use mine very gently on my face; I don't like to scrub too hard as you can rub your face raw if you overdo it. But my favorite is for using it on the backs of my arms as I have those unsightly bumps (Keratosis Pilaris I think is what they call it) because it does an excellent job of exfoliating. As a side note, I've recently been applying Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil as a lotion to my arms after I exfoliate with the washcloth, and I've noticed a big improvement! I'll continue to experiment with my EVCO and have a Health & Beauty post on how well it is working for me as I am using it for other beauty remedies. So look for that in the next few months!

6. Premium Eyecolors: Ahhh...my favorite eyeshadows ever! Besides the fact that these are all wearable colors, I love the texture of this formula--like creamy velvet! They blend well, wear long, & have just the right amount of sheen--not too matte they look chalky, but not too shimmery it looks like Tinkerbell exploded on your eyelids...

If I had to choose my faves, I would say: Phenomenal (a great eyeshadow base & highlight); Amazing & Dauntless (crease/lid colors); and Marvelous (for contouring/eyelining).

7. Ingenue Synthetic Flat Top Brush: I love all my brushes, especially from my Premium Line, but this is my "best all around" brush! It's not quite as dense as the Premium Flat Top or Buffer but is super soft and for an inexpensive brush, I have not noticed this one shed. I also LOVE the size of it for both everyday use and travel. It is very similar to Everyday Minerals Flat Top in size & shape that I know is very popular in MMU-land.

Such a cute yet super-soft brush!

8. Foundation: The whole reason adorned with GraceTM even exists! It's really awesome to me that I actually have foundation that is my perfect match! I also like my formula in that it isn't too heavy and chalky, giving medium to medium-heavy coverage (with applying in sheer layers and/or dabbing on problem areas first), yet has an almost skin finish (for me anyway) as I've tried other brands where I felt like I looked too chalky and ghostlike.

9. Ingenue Dual Fiber Set: Okay, I am cheating with this one as it is actually two products, but I'm running out of slots in my Top Ten and really wanted to get both of these brushes in.

First off, I love the Ingenue Sleek! It's almost identical in shape to my Ingenue Petite, but has a sleeker and prettier handle; I also think that the head is a little bit denser so if you wanted to use it for stippling foundation in those hard to stipple areas like around your nose and eyes, I think this one would do a better job. My favorite daily use for it though is for blush application, especial #3, my Shimmer Blushes--and it is about $26 cheaper than the MAC 188!

And then its "big sis" the Ingenue Large! If you can believe it, I actually had a tester sample of this from one of my suppliers that I bought about a year before I started carrying it and had just forgotten about it; I was too busy testing out some others from other suppliers and comparing it to the much loved MAC 187. Well, after I had given up and thought there wasn't one similar enough, I found my bag of tester brushes and realized this one was a winner! (I have a post *HERE* comparing the two.) As mentioned in that post, this one and the sleek will note some initial shedding--but nowhere near the "fallout" of the other brushes I have owned/tested that were supposed to be good dupes. In fact, there were some that were so bad I had to thrown them out as they were coming out in clumps! These have shedding but it is on the minimal side.

Now, in all honestly, it probably does not compare to the MAC 187 "just cuz" but with the MAC 187 costing $42, I am paranoid about bringing it with me on trips and losing it as I do travel out of town a lot; this applies similar enough with good quality, it is a good backup for that or when my MAC 187 is needing to be washed. I imagine for those of you that are on a very limited budget, this one would satisfy your need for a 187 until you can save up for the real thing.

10. Luscious Lipbalm: LOL, I love this one so much I keep 1-2 in almost every room I frequent during the day at work (my "day job" as an OT), at home, and in my car! I actually collected lip balms prior to starting adorned with Grace and had enough of the store-bought variety to last me the next ten years--but after I started carrying this one, I just can't bring myself to use the other ones (well, except maybe my Tiramisu or Reese's Cup flavored one, but that was more for taste!) as they just don't seem to work on my lips which are very prone to chapping since I am bad about licking my lips. I gave some of these to my coworkers last year and they all agreed that these just seemed to "sink in" and actually moisturize whereas the store-bought variety just sits on the top of your lips.

So that completes my list! I really should have made this a Top Twenty, but this post is already long enough so maybe I'll do a continuation next week! Hope that was helpful to some of you!

P.S. Heads up, I have about 1/3 left of my CLEARANCE stock so I imagine if they are selling as fast as they have this week, they might be gone by the middle or end of next week? Also, I don't think I will be having a Blog Special next week--I thought about offering a discounted kit of the Top Ten Products above, but wasn't sure if that was a good idea. If you think you might want to buy one, email me at adorned_with_grace@yahoo.com and let me know! If I get a pretty good response, I might just do that...

A Clearance Sale!!!

2009-07-05T17:11:00.011-05:00

I know some of you love the "Oops" Grab Bag Sample sets so I have got a bunch of those for you this round! I have one set that is devoted completely to colors that are best for cheek/lip colors; one of mostly neutrals; one that has a little bit more color (greens, grays, plum/purples); and then just a couple of a "Mixed Bag" set that has a little bit of each.

Most of these grab baggies have at least 20 samples and most of the samples have about 1/2 teaspoon in them and a select few have 1/4. Some of them will also include some discontinued LE sample sized colors (my usual 1/8 teaspoon) and there might be a couple colors from the last Grab Bag set that may be in there as extras.

I also have some "Oops" Foundation; I accidentally made an error in my measurement when making Grace 4.0 and it didn't *quite* match the previous batch but I think it might be forgiving enough that if you wear Grace, Faith, or Kindness 4.0, you might match this. One idea you can do is to purchase this with my Foundation Mixing Set so if you need it lighter, you have the tools to do it with!

New to my Clearance sale is Duo & Trio sets of discontinued LE colors from Fall 2008-Spring 2009. I had fun trying to pair colors from different collections together and some were inspired by duos/trios I have seen in makeup catalogs/online stores. They have a varying range of prices because it does mix my Regular and Premium formulas.

One thing I will ask politely is don't email me and ask if you can switch out colors as I won't be able to do that for you. :( I'm very concerned about Inventory control and don't want to have to email someone back to say I don't have the items available. They are priced just a few cents or a couple of dollars over the cost of one of my eyecolors so they can go fast, AND I have also pre-wrapped these (my bubble wrap & signature tissue paper) so I can ship these out ASAP.

In addition, I also have put up a new listing on the Accessories page: Empty five gram jars. You can get five at a time or ten at a time. The prices will run the "Sale" price until I run out of the Grab Bag Samples--I know some of you prefer to apply out of a jar so this new listing is for you!

You can click here at Clearance or you can go to my Limited Edition page and find the Clearance link there as well.

Oh, in case you are wondering, this Clearance sale has taken the place of our Blog Special this week! But I'm sure it will still be just as fun to shop! :)

Earlier than usual...

2009-06-29T08:55:00.006-05:00

Thought I'd get an early start this week on the Blog Special!

From June 29 (Monday) to July 3, 12.00 p.m (Friday) ONLY we will have the following Blog Special:

For EVERY Ingenue and/or Premium Custom Trio set you buy, you get four free baggie samples!!!

So for example...

If you buy one Ingenue Custom Trio Eyeshadow Brush set, you'll get four samples of your choice---

If you buy two Ingenue Custom Trio Eyeshadow Brush sets, you'll get eight samples of your choice---

If you buy two Ingenue Custom Trio Eyeshadow Brush sets and one Premium Trio Eyeshadow Brush set, you'll get twelve samples of your choice! (You get the picture!!!)

Make sure to type in your color choices in the box near the "Add to Cart" button so we know what samples to send you. **As with our other sampling rule, no more than two of the same sample eyecolor allowed per customer.

CLICK HERE to get to the hidden listing. :)

Oh, and as an FYI, I may *not* have a Blog Special next week. If all goes well, my plan is to put up some of my inexpensive "'Grab Bag' Baggies Samples" and also some pre-selected full-sized LE eyeshadow trios/duos of colors that have been discontinued for a Clearance price--so that will actually be the special of the week if the other thing I have ordered to complement that gets here in time.

Just wanted to let you all know in case you were one of the unlucky ones that always seem to miss the "Grab Bag" sales as they usually go fast. I think last time, I sold out in about 1-2 days? So stay on alert for those either next week or the week after next!

Hope you all had a blessed weekend!

Blog Special: June 23-26

2009-06-22T21:21:00.006-05:00

From June 23 (Tuesday) to June 26, 12:30 p.m (Friday) we will have the following Blog Special:

Orders $17.00 or more: Get one mini Spritzer bottle. This is perfect for applying your favorite hydrating facial spray, especially for traveling due to its petite size. You can also put body spray, cleansers, or whatever you can think of!

Orders $33.00 or more: The Spritzer and your choice of one eyecolor (you'll choose in the drop down menu) WITH vegan lip balm OR a single Microfiber washcloth.

Orders $50 or more: The above deals and a 10% off Coupon on your next order! We'll send you a postcard with your very own discount code (non-transferable) in your order.

Just make sure to click HERE to add the Blog Special to your cart. Choose in the drop-down menu which eyecolor you want OR if you want the Microfiber washcloth.

As a reminder for International customers, your Order total to qualify for the Blog Special does NOT include your shipping charges so please keep that in mind.

***

Also, don't forget to check out our new Summer '09 LE Eyecolors on our Limited Edition page along with our LE Custom Brush & Makeup Sets!

Have fun shopping!

Sneak Peak: Summer 2009 LE

2009-06-18T20:30:00.008-05:00

Before I close up for the weekend, I wanted to leave you all with a quick pic of swatches I did of the upcoming Summer LE! These colors will likely be on the website for sale by Tuesday afternoon (along with a Blog Special!) unless I have Internet issues or similar emergencies.

**Of course, these are much prettier in person--you see more of the "glow"
which my pathetic camera just does not seem to capture. :P

Descriptions:

Auspicious: A rich metallic brownish red. A striking eyeliner and made to pair with Conscientious.
Chivalrous: A neutral beige highlight or base color.
Classy: A sheer neutral golden tan shimmer.
Clever: A plummy taupe similar to our color Romantic but less pink and has more of a wet-sheen.
Confident: Optimistic's shimmery sister--has lots pretty golden highlights!
Conscientious: A beautiful metallic pink.
Heroic: A shimmery copper brown.
Intriguing: MY FAVORITE! It's like looking a a dark chocolate fudge with mint sparkles. I love wearing with over black eyeliner. I'm sure it would look stunning as a crease/contour look if you want a rich color. The picture above does not do it justice, as with all the others, but this one in particular.
Invincible: Inspired by my favorite MAC Fluidline, Blitz and Glitz. It is a soft black with light golden shimmer. A good switch from your typical "very black" eyeliner shades for the summer since it will look much softer; it may take on a more intense look though if wet-lined.
Perceptive: A color for a sun goddess! A bronzey terracotta made to pair with Sympathetic.
Sagacious: An antiqued deep golden brown. Another favorite of mine.
Sensible: A baby doll pink with golden undertones.
Sympathetic: A peachy pink with golden undertones.

FYI, I crafted these colors around my own makeup habits for the summer. I tend to wear a little less makeup partly because I do tend to have more color (the sun is strong here in Mississippi!) and I like colors that are more of a complement--hence all the bronzey, sultry, and golden-tinged shades-- than anything noticeably colorful as you saw with my Spring LE. You'll find these colors can be multi-purpose and use them for eyes, cheeks, and lips (with an exception of Chivalrous with has trace amounts of Ultramarines which the FDA requires us to label a product as "Not Lip Safe").

Unlike my other collections, this is actually two sets--one set is from my regular formula (Classy, Clever, Intriguing, Perceptive, Sensible, & Sympathetic) and the other is made with my Premium formula (Auspicious, Chivalrous, Confident, Conscientious, Heroic, Inspiring, & Sagacious). Some colors turned out better with a certain formula and what can I say--I just got carried away formulating these as I did NOT mean to make this many ha ha!!! So there will be a price difference a la carte (i.e. if you buy only one) but if you get my famous duo sets or the whole collections sets, it will still be a pretty good savings.

**So don't forget, check these out June 23/24 and if you want anymore of the Spring 2009 LE colors, grab them this weekend as I will take them off the site around the time I put up the Summer LEs! Some of these colors will be gone for GOOD as we'll be unable to replicate them!

Have a good weekend everyone! And don't forget this is Father's Day weekend; make sure to shower the special man in your life with lots of love and attention!!!

No Blog Special, BUT...a Special Article!

2009-06-15T12:00:00.013-05:00

Believe It or Not: Words & Their Effect

When I was a child, there was a show that my family and I loved to watch called, “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” where it showcased scientific marvels, interesting facts in history, and, sometimes, just fun, outrageous stories to excite and amaze its viewers. Well, I recently read an article that I thought would have fit right in with this show called, “Miraculous Messages from Water: How Water Reflects Our Consciousness.” It’s about an experiment conducted by a Japanese scientist where he tested to see the effect of words/thoughts on water. Sounding crazy already, lol? Well, read on as it gets even more interesting as he’s got pictures to prove it…

To give a VERY general overview of his experiment (*Click here to see the entire article), he has done experiments on the effect of spoken AND written words on water as well as music. I’m just going to share with you some of the pictures of what I found most interesting of the resulting images of the water crystals formed from this exposure to both negative and positive stimuli.

Before I go any further, please know that I am NOT here to debate the validity or go into the full scientific and spiritual nature of this experiment so don’t worry about sending any emails to tell me I’m wrong/nuts, lol! Although I would love for the data in this experiment to be wholly true, I would have to see the experiment in person myself to really be a believer. I just think this is interesting "food for thought" and something we can all ponder and take with us the positive message that I hope it conveys.

In this first picture, the words spoke to the water were
“You make me sick, I’m going to kill you.”

Hmmm…I think that would be a picture of how I would feel on the inside if someone were to tell me that!

The next picture had “Thank You” written on a card placed onto the bottle containing the water:

A fluke you may say? Well here is one that I found most interesting; this is a picture of water crystals before it was prayed over:

Here is the picture of the same water crystals AFTER it was prayed over:

Pretty fascinating, huh? Those are only a few photos from his experiment. (Again, click on the article above to see more and to get more of the scientific explanation as it is quite a lot of info and I’m trying to keep the info here as succinct as possible.)

So how does this relate to our Defining True Beauty blog? Well, for you customers who have shopped our products before, you know that all the eyeshadows, blushes, and foundations are named a positive trait that helps to remind us of that inner beauty we possess.

But…WOW…what if it can also have a physical effect on us and truly transform us into something more harmonious and attractive like the ice crystals above? After all, our bodies are 90% water, right? It also makes you think twice about putting on a color with a less than positive or risqué name—unless that is the attitude you are going for, lol!

I know for me, the main moral of this story is just the importance of positive and beautiful thoughts and prayers, especially those of love and gratitude (which Dr. Marumo said has the most significant effect on water). Even if all this turns out to be some scientific scam or an overly biased research project, I don’t think anyone can argue the effects on our own hearts and minds when we hear or feel things that are encouraging and optimistic. For me, I love that our foundation names are virtues like Grace or Peace; if your face is literally covered in one of those virtues, it makes a good reminder to stop yourself from saying something rash before you get angry with someone. I know for me, just naming my company “adorned with Grace” reminds me every time to extend that same blessed grace to my own customers and to treat you all with as much love and fairness as possible.

Although this isn't the usual "Blog Special" I usually post here around this time (the Blog Special will be back next week, we're taking a break from them this week) I hope you all still found it "special" and enjoyed my thoughts for the day! I hope to follow it up with more interesting and informative articles I the future!

June 9-12 Blog Special

2009-06-08T22:24:00.010-05:00

Sorry, this is up a little later than I wanted but I'm trying to finish up my Summer LE that will be available this June 22! I'd tell you more about them but I'd prefer to keep you all in suspense...

First off, I wanted this week's special to be pretty good since I will NOT be having a special for the week of June 15 (next week). As with my special from last week, you will need to click HERE to get to it!

So from June 9 (Tuesday) to 12:30 p.m. June 12 (Friday):

Orders $14 or more get: ONE FREE Regular Eyecolor
Orders $22 or more get: TWO Free Regular Eyecolors
Orders $30 or more get: THREE Free Regular Eyec0lors

Sorry, this is only for Regular Eyecolors, not any of our Premium Colors or LE's. (We are on the verge of going Out of Stock with a couple of the LE colors so that is one of the reasons we are holding off on those.)

You must use this listing and "Add to Cart" to get the Special! You can always email us later *if* you forgot (as long as the order is within our time frame from the 9th to the 12th) BUT you must do it quickly BEFORE your order ships out or we will not be able to send them out since we do have a fairly quick turnaround shipping time. Sorry, I told you all I can be OCD when it comes to shipping out orders ! I guess that is not too bad of a trait to have as an online company though, lol.

In addition, I wanted to promote my new Ingénue Synthetic Flat Top. It is my replacement for the Kabuki I was carrying as I know most of you prefer something with a handle. On that note, I know the Premium brushes, like the Jumbo Buffer & Flat Top, may be too bulky for travel and carrying around in your purse so I really wanted to carry a short-handled flat top brush for you all. The head is a little bit smaller than our Premium Flat top and not quite as dense, but is still luxuriously soft and velvety. I've been using this brush the last three weeks and still love it!

So this will be a part of the Blog Special! For everyone that buys this brush (from June 9-12 only) you get to choose ANY three baggie samples of your choice! You just type in the three choices in the box on the same page as the Ingénue Synthetic Flat Top (I added that box specifically for this Blog Special!) So once the "Notes" box is gone so will the special!

The cool thing is if you get two Flat Tops, you'll get six samples! The only problem we might encounter is if I run Out of Stock on these brushes and it will be at least two months before I can restock. However, I ordered plenty so I will be rather shocked if that happens this week. I may run out of the LE Baggie samples (actually Honorable is now Out of Stock in the sample size), so if the Spring LEs happen to be one of your choices, list a back-up color.

Have fun all!

This week's Blog Special

2009-06-01T09:34:00.017-05:00

As I mentioned before, the new website has all sorts of new features that I didn't have on Ecrater but it is missing the "Notes" section when you checkout so you all don't have a place to write in "Blog Special" and/or colors of products when applicable.

However, I did come up with something that I *think* will work: I added a Secret Listing entitled Blog Special where you simply "Add to Cart." The only downside is I had to add a one cent charge to it since it does not allow me to add items with a FREE price tag but I'm thinking one cent is still a pretty good deal? What is good about it is if you are borderline--like where you have $16.99 or $33.99, this penny will count toward your Blog Special total so you don't have to worry about adding a $1 item just to meet the requirements.

So our Blog Special this week is:

For orders $17.00 or more you get: One full-sized regular Blush/Shimmer Blush of your choice.
For orders $34.00 or more you get: The above blush deal AND one Microfiber Washcloth.

**As always, your Shipping Charges do NOT count toward your total.

I decided on these items as my site tells me what items are getting a lot of "hits" so I'm trying to choose those items that seemed rather popular over the weekend. This won't ALWAYS be the case so don't try to sway my vote for future Blog Specials (LOL!!!) by continuously clicking on a certain item, since I usually go with my intuition but hopefully this will be a good special for some of you!

As a little advertisement for the Microfiber Washcloth, I did not start carrying this item due to customer request--it just happens to be one of those products I absolutely LOVE and wanted to pass on to my customers. I mainly wash my face using the OCM (Oil Cleansing Method) but like to use the Microfiber for extra exfoliation to help with fine lines and blemishes. I have bought other brands but this particular one has been my favorite!

This Blog Special listing will be up from June 1 (Monday) to June 4 (Thursday) and once the listing is gone so will the special. The only way you can get to it is by clicking HERE! I'm doing this specifically as a special treat to those that follow my blog--since you all are very special to me! (FYI, I do hope to post more health and inner beauty articles in the near future for you all to read and hopefully benefit from, but I've had so much on my plate with the new site it's hard to sit down and write one and have it edited and perfect for me to post.)

Have a great Monday everyone! Enjoy the special...

New website!

2009-05-25T12:20:00.005-05:00

Before you get click happy and rush over to the new site, I do want to give you the "heads up" that this is not anything super fancy or loaded with all sorts of high-tech features, so forgive me ahead of time if it is not what you're hoping for. ;) I am not a professional by any means!I used a website builder and a basic template although I pretty much had to organize everything myself and figure out the tables (like in the "Shop By Color" page).

Yes, the colors are a bit tame (maybe even plain & boring, LOL!) and the layout is super basic but I had to create a website that reflected my love for simplicity and that understated elegance that I think adorned with Grace stands for.

I am also limited in what kind of features I can have. For example, I can't add Customer Reviews to each product OR more than three drop down menus per item OR have a "Notes" section at the end of checkout much like Erater had so this will kind of affect my Blog Special method. I'll think of something so don't anyone worry about the Blog Special issue, we'll still have them every 1-2 weeks!

BUT, the things I am excited about is the drop down menus I do have so for some of the smaller Custom Kits there will be a lot less typing! The checkout is always much less confusing in that you see exactly where to input your information for credit card orders. I can't tell you how many people emailed me, some angry, asking why I didn't take credit cards! (Although I do, you just have to do it through Pay Pal, but I am not allowed to add Text with directions on that; I just have to trust you read my FAQ section.)

Overall, I am glad that I can finally organize the site like I want it! I have the colors alphabetically and the brushes more in order of price (from least expensive to most). I can add tutorials and articles to help answer questions a little better. It is just more organized and easy to deal with, at least I think so!

I did stock the brushes fairly well BUT I never know how fast they will go especially when I am blogged or YT'd about so just bear with me in case I do run out of stock. You'll see old favorites like the Premium & Ingenue brushes BUT with a handful of ones not available before like the Large Pointed Face Brush & Multitasking which will be on sale until this current set goes out of stock.

I've also added the blog brushes and a new short-handled Synthetic Flat Top that is also on sale. I have what I think is a lot of the new Flat Top but once it sells out, it may not be available again for another 6-8 weeks, FYI. If you found our Premium Buffer and/or Flat Top nice but its handle too bulky and price too expensive, you might just LOVE this one! The head is about 2/3 the size of the Premium Flat top, fyi, but just as velvety soft!

So as far as Blog Special? Well, I won't have anything *too* spectacular, lol, since this is the first week and I want to make sure I have a handle on the system before I process loads of orders. But I will include my Eco friendly Interchangeable Eyeshadow Brush feature in my Earth Day special with each order of my 3 for $12.49 Eyecolor Set. Just type in Blog Special in the box that says "Special Notes" underneath the three drop down menus on that same page and I'll be sure to include it. I was going to add it to the site, but thought it would be much easier giving it away again, Lol! It really is more of a giveaway brush than a "buying" brush. This is good, though, only until supplies last so once that empty box disappears, it will be gone for good.

Well, you can now click on www.adornedwithgrace.com and go see! Be sure if you are pretty new to adorned with Grace to read out FAQ & Shipping/Terms sections so you know what to expect!

Thanks all!

About the upcoming website switch

2009-05-22T17:29:00.003-05:00

Hey, all! As I have mentioned, this Monday, May 25 (Memorial Day) I will be posting the link to my new website here! I really cannot wait as it will be much more functional and I think will be less confusing as far as Checkout AND there will be quite a few new brushes and accessories to choose from!

I plan on redirecting it sometime this weekend so if you type in the www.adornedwithgrace.com link, it may take you there earlier (like on Sunday) if it does not take as long as I think it will. (Last time I did this it took about 2-3 days to transfer.)

I've take a few orders there but I'm not 100% sure if *every* bug has been taken care of; hopefully, the changeover will be smooth. As mentioned, I will be closing the Erater site next Friday, May 29 because it will be too much work trying to keep up with inventory (as those brushes fly fast at times!) and managing all the different items. Even with the few orders I am processing from the new site, I find myself getting confused, LOL! Remember, I like to keep things as simple as possible!

I do need to correct myself by saying that I will actually be putting the Ecrater site "On Hold" so you'll still see the store--you just won't be able to order as the "Buy Now" buttons will be inactive-- and on ultra-popular items like the Ingenue Petite Dual Fiber and a couple of the other brushes, I'll post the new link in the product text so people can still find it. I also want to keep it *just in case* my new site has issues and I can use it as a backup website.

Oh, and I do feel like to need to also comment that these last two weeks have been fairly busy since the reappearance of the beloved Ingenue Dual Fiber, and when things are busy, I get a lot of "dummy orders" meaning orders that register but don't have a payment confirmation? When things are a slower pace, I usually have time to email the person to ask if they want it; about 90% of the time they do not respond, but I like to check for those 10% that do as it is usually due to their computer freezing up OR thinking they cannot pay with a credit card (you can but this confusion is one of the reasons I have to get off of Ecrater!) OR did it accidentally in hopes to see what the shipping cost is.

However, I have not had time to email the customers with unpaid orders as there are MORE than I can handle to email everyone individually so if you hear of anyone complaining that they ordered but have not received any communication from me, that is why. I haven't had time to even delete them from the system, lol!

Just had to comment on that though as it is something that is a concern for me because, except on weekends, I am a bit OCD on getting out orders out whose payments have posted shipped out within 24-48 hours and I almost feel like I'm giving bad CS not getting back on the dummy orders although I imagine that same 90% didn't want it in the first place.

Well, everyone have a great weekend! Next time you "see" me, it will be at the unveiling of the new site! So just remember if you want to advertise for our company, make sure you post it as www.adornedwithgrace.com.

All about the Blush

2009-05-19T16:47:00.009-05:00

Okay, now that I have sold a ton of these dual fiber brushes, you all need something to try them out with, lol! So I catered these specials this week for Blushes!

My main Blog Special this week is:

Get two full-sized Blushes or Shimmer Blushes and GET ONE FREE! When you type in your two choices in the "Notes" section, just add on your third choice. So if you get our "2 for $13.49 Set" you'll get one extra or if you get our "4 for $22.99 Set" you'll get TWO FREE!

Now this next one is a "While Supplies Last" deal:

For orders $10 or more (remember this does NOT include your Shipping Charges!!!), you will get sample-sized baggies of these three Test Blushes:

*Colors are more pigmented in person. Much more beautiful in person!

Although I do have quite a collection of blushes already, I found myself "craving" some bright, vibrant, rosy shimmery blushes to wear for this coming Summer. I totally love these colors especially with my own golden olive skintone, but I just want to makes sure these aren't too crazy or unnatural looking to release as part of my permanent collection so I am letting you all try these out to test and give me feedback (adorned_with_grace@yahoo.com) if you like them. If they aren't too popular but some of you decide you want full sizes, I can release them as LE Blushes.

FYI, Test Blush #1 is like a pearly, cool fuschia tone--imagine a love child of Zealous & Sassy! Test Blush #2 is a vibrant peachy shimmer. It is kind of similar to Passionate but I think this is a little brighter with not quite as much of a brown undertone. Since it is so close to Passionate (one of my faves), this might be more of an LE Blush. Test Blush #3 is my favorite of the three. It is kind of like Affectionate & Radiant but much brighter and pinker. I think all these will be winners for this summer when most of us darken up a little and are looking for something to complement your tan.

For both Blog Specials, simply type in "BLOG SPECIAL" in the notes section--and of course your third blush choice along with your two other blushes. I will try to post here when I've run out of the Test Blush samples but sometimes things go Out of Stock while I am away from the Internet and/or sleeping so if you put in a $10 order just to get the free samples, you can also write me a note to Refund the order should they run Out of Stock.

The "3 for 2 Blush Blog Special" runs out this Friday, May 22 at exactly 12:00 p.m. Central Standard Time and the Test Blush Blog Special runs out this Sunday, May 24 OR when they go Out of Stock, whichever comes first.

Further notes: My new website link will be posted here this Monday, May 25 unless there is some unforeseen problem that comes up. You may notice that some of the brushes and accessories my go "Out of Stock" on my Ecrater site but they will be available again on my new site May 25. I'm just trying to organize my inventory and stay ahead of the game.

When you start shopping on the new site next week, you'll notice that I did have to increase the price on a few of the Ingenue brushes (eyeshadow brushes only, NOT the dual fibers!) for the simple reason that I have been getting a lot of orders (about 50-60% of orders) for only one brush and realized I was actually LOSING money selling them at their previous price since I do free shipping for my US/Canadian customers and fairly cheap shipping for Internationals as I did not count my PayPal fees (.30 per transaction + 3%) nor my packaging/cards when I came up with my prices.

HOWEVER, I will actually have Custom Sets for both the Ingenue and Premium eyeshadow line for those that want more than one brush that I think you all will love and find a great value! Even still, the prices for the Ingenue eyeshadow brushes are will not be over $4.99, fyi.

Thank you all!

Just preparing....

2009-05-13T08:52:00.003-05:00

I am almost finished getting the new brushes stocked (still waiting on one more!) but I still wanted to get a tentative headcount on *how much* I need to be prepared. I know some of you may not have been quick enough to see the two Blog Brushes (BUT really wanted one!), and I just wanted to make sure I kept those well-stocked before I opened up the website officially so no one had to wait around as they did this last time with the Ingenue Petite Dual fiber.

So if you are planning an order for when the new website opens, please do take the time to participate in my most recent poll! Just look over to the right side of the page between "About Me" & "Blog Archive" and place your vote if applicable!

I can't guarantee this will ensure the brushes are well-stocked as one high-profile YouTuber/Blogger can literally wipe out my entire stock with their review (thanks to you all who do that, lol!) but I can at least add on if I have underestimated for the Grand Opening.

Petite Dual Fibers back in stock FINALLY!

2009-05-11T16:58:00.015-05:00

Yes, you heard right! They are finally back in stock so check out their listings for the single for $6.29 & "2 for $11.25" set...

I have also added my Earth Day Eco-friendly travel brush with the interchangeable tips for sale for $3.99. Once I run out of stock on these I don't plan on restocking them since these were bought just for the Earth Day occasion. I'm checking out other ecofriendly brush lines before I decide on a set to add permanently.

The Ingenue Synthetic Kabuki will also not be restocked once I run out so if you've been eying one of these, now may be the time to get one. There is nothing wrong in particular with this brush (on contrary, it is actually one of my favorite kabukis ever as it is super soft and I like the size, although it does have some shedding initially but goes away with a few washes) but I am finding most of my customers prefer a long handled kabuki/buffer so I'll switch to that style once I run out of these.

*EDIT: THE DISCOUNTED $11.59 BLOG BRUSH #2 OFFICIALLY GONE! It will not be back until the Grand Opening of our new website which I'm tentatively setting for Monday, May 25 at its regular price of $13.59. Many, many of you have been asking for this as I know our Ingenue Petite Dual Fiber is really best for precise blush application and maybe stippling areas around the nose or eyes for foundation. I tried out quite a few 187 dupes and this seems to be the closest one. See these pics for reference:

This is a comparison pic between my new dual fiber and a MAC 187. The one on the left is the dupe and the right is the 187. I find that the bristles are comparable in density, size, and softness although I will confess the 187's white hairs are a tad bit softer/finer if I were to be extremely discriminating although I don't think it is a noticeable difference. The black bristles on the dupe are stiff enough to do the famous stippling technique for foundation which was the main reason I "flunked" the other dupes I considered selling.

*Our new 187 dupe is cruelty-free but NOT 100% synthetic for those who were wondering.

You can also see from the photo above that the dupe has a longer handle but the actual brush head is pretty similar. The ferrule is also black but other than that, I think it makes for a pretty decent dupe especially since the MAC is $42 and I plan on selling this one for $13.59 (S/H included for my US & Canadian customers!) once my new website is open to the public.

On that note, because of the less expensive price don't expect a perfect copy of the 187 brush. The dupe does shed a little bit initially but for almost 1/4-1/3 the price, I think it is actually a pretty great deal especially if you have a hard time shelling out over $40 for a MAC brush. But I wanted to offer a brush that was economically priced and of good quality to my customers.***Once again, the discounted BLOG BRUSH #2 is officially gone! It will be back at the Grand Opening of our new website (tentatively Monday, May 25) and will sell for $13.59. (S/H included for Canadian & U.S. Customers)

As far as my Blog Special, you will get both Exuberant & Playful, two LE colors from my Summer 2008 when you order our Spring LE 10 Eyecolor Set for $24.99.

This Blog Special will actually be in effect as long as I have my entire set of Spring 2009 LE colors in stock. So once you see the listing off the website, this Blog Special will be gone as well. These were actually colors I wanted to include with my Spring colors but didn't since I don't like to repeat colors similar to ones I've already made I just left them off.

As with all my other Blog Specials, just type in "BLOG SPECIAL" in the notes section if you want the colors. If you don't put it there, I will assume you don't want them.

Well, I think that is it! Thanks again for your patience everyone on the dual fiber brushes!!!

Still waiting...

2009-05-04T20:09:00.003-05:00

I don't think the Ingenue brushes will be in this week either. :(

I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that they will be in by next week. ***EDIT: I got my Shipping Notice and the brushes should be back on my website by Monday night, May 11 or Tuesday morning, May 12! So in my optimistic hopes of that, I will likely not run a Blog Special again this week as I have a feeling most of you are waiting until the dual fibers are back in as well as the special "Blog Brush" (a different one from last time) and there are a couple other things I'm hoping to add into that mix so I'd like to have all these running at the same time so you all can just order all at once!

The delay with the dual fiber will likely also delay opening my new website since I don't want to leave Ecrater until I get this first big set of brushes out since those who are waiting for them to arrive are waiting for them at my Ecrater site. So maybe late May or even early June, depending on when the dual fibers get shipped, is when I'll have the new site ready for you all to order.

So while we all wait, this will give me more time to write up more beauty-related articles as I've had some topics I've wanted to share that came up last week so maybe in the next few days or so I'll have one for you!

Kinda' bad news.... :(

2009-04-29T14:15:00.004-05:00

I know many of you have been waiting for the Ingenue Petite Dual Fiber to go back in stock this week but I just got off the phone with my supplier and they apparently don't have them ready to ship to me yet until next week, which means it may not be on my site until two weeks or so from today.

(Sigh!)

Yes, I am pretty disappointed as well as I was REALLY hoping to have these ready to go for you all this week along with another "Blog Special" brush that has been highly requested but that will have to be put off until I can get these brushes in hand. So no, there won't be a Blog Special this week...

But to take your mind off the BAD NEWS, let me at least share some good news with you all: I will be moving from Ecrater to my very own website (hopefully--please no more delays, LOL!) in mid to late May! Once I move over there, I will actually be adding a whole slew of new Ingenue & Premium eyeshadow brushes which I can't wait to share with you all!

FYI, this site has been my "little project" I've been working on the last couple of months. I have a basic template, but I've designed & organized the whole thing myself. It is very simple as I am not a professional web designer by any means, lol, but I think it is functional and finally fits with the personality of my company. The only thing I need now is to add the payment processing which I ran into a glitch with PayPal this afternoon so if there are any delays, it will be due to that.

I've loved being on Ecrater but I kind of get the idea awG is not taken quite as seriously there since it's not like having your own site, and I also feel like my company's personality does not reflect well on Ecrater since I am extremely limited in the amount of text/photos I can put on the site. I also find it hard to keep my products organized like I want and this allows me to add features that Ecrater does not let me do such as "Shop By Color" with my blushes and eyecolors.

One favor I would like to ask: Please make sure people are directed to www.adornedwithgrace.com NOT www.adornedwithgrace.ecrater.com when you all are helping me advertise awG in your blogs, forums/forum posts, YouTube videos, etc.

Right now I have www.adornedwithgrace.com directing you to the Ecrater site automatically but after a while, I may be closing down Ecrater after a few weeks of successfully launching the new site since it will be difficult to do inventory control trying to keep up with two sites, so if people are still using the Ecrater address, they might find a "Seller Not Available" message. I will still have www.adornedwithgrace.com but it will be for my real website.

Once I get the payment processing added and get the new Ingenue & Premium brushes in my hands (they aren't set to deliver for another 2-3 weeks as well, more supplier delays---ahhh!) and the website has been tested out successfully by some close friends, I'll be opening this up before May is over.

Anyway, I apologize again for the inconvenience on the wait, but this is one of those things that is out of my control and am at the mercy of what I am told by my supplier. I hope the wait will be worth it though once it is finally here! Thanks all!

Earth Day Blog Special

2009-04-20T17:02:00.021-05:00

I knew the UPS man wouldn't let me down--so here is the special giveaway as promised!

In celebration of Earth Day which is April 22 (and I believe this whole week is Earth Week) I got this freebie giveaway for those of you that spend $15 or more; you will automatically get one of these with your order!

It is the cutest eco-friendly brush with interchangeable tips; the handles are made from bamboo and all the bristles are make of taklon, a synthetic bristle. It probably won't replace your best eyeshadow brushes but it makes a fun travel tool and can be thrown in your purse when you need to touch up colors in a pinch!
I got enough of these that I believe I should have enough for every order that comes in until Friday, April 24--you won't even need to put in the "Notes" section that you want this! This is my little gift to all my customers for this week. If I were to sell it on my website, I would sell it for at least $4.49-$4.99.

However, if you spend at least $22, you can mention in the "Notes" section you would like a FREE Vegan Luscious Lip Balm with your order! And if you spend $29, you get a FREE jar of our Illuminated Blush! I chose Illuminated because we can all make the world shine bright with the care we put into this beautiful world God created for us! No, we may not be quite perfect yet in "going green" in our daily habits but every little thing we can do helps and does make a difference! So think about it not just this Earth Week, but from here on out on what you can do to make our Earth a better place to live!

For my International customers, always remember that the Get With Purchase totals do NOT include your shipping charges, so shop accordingly if you want those freebies. :) EDIT: I also forgot to note that this Blog Special (with the lip balm & blush) will end this Thursday, April 23. So if you place an order on Friday, April 24, you'll be considered too late! :(

**"BLOG BRUSH" OFFICALLY SOLD OUT!!!!
Happy testing to those who were
quick enough to try one!!!**

Last thing, I was cleaning out the pics in my folders on my computer and realized I never posted my arm swatches of the new blush colors that came out a couple of weeks ago---so here they are:

Caring & Enarmored are both a matte finish with no shimmer whatsover. Enamored isn't quite that peachy (remember, I stink at arm swatches, lol) but it's like a rich strawberry peach and great for more golden-toned ladies. Caring is cooler dusty pink that I found myself wearing a lot this last week as I like the brightening effect it has on my warmer complexion and looks very complementary with the brighter Spring 2009 LE eyecolors I just released.

And, Zealous? Do I need explain why I named this color what I did? It is a super bright, nicely pigmented color that you will HAVE to get a dual fiber brush to apply but it sure looks great for creating a bright rosy look! If you put on too much, you will certainly look over-zealous! :)

That's all for now! Have a great rest of your week everyone!

Update before the weekend...

2009-04-17T07:26:00.005-05:00

Hey, all! (Or should I say "y'all" since I've technically a Southern gal, lol?)

Yes, this week has been silent with no Blog Special this week but I have been busy with a "little" project that has kept me occupied so I didn't get a chance to think up a good Blog special and I was rather limited on time anyway--there is usually a pretty good spike in orders when I have those!

I mainly wanted to just give you all a few updates:

*Celestial Powder: I will still be carrying this but I have decided to switch to the 30 gram jar vs. the 25 gram tall profile jar. Part of it is that it is much easier to find the 30 gram jars but also, it's kind of an awkward shape and doesn't package as neatly and organized with the other products like the 30 gram jar does. But having this change will allow me to start putting in those cute little powder puffs with them, so that will be an added plus! You'll STILL get 4 grams and it will still be the same price at $4.99.

*Ingenue Petite Dual Fiber Brush: I am still waiting on this brush as I know many of you all are! I haven't heard any delays as of yet from my supplier, so I am still hoping to have them back in stock at the end of the month. To prevent this from happening in the future, I did put in a rather huge order for them this time around so I'm hoping the long wait time won't happen again. I will be shocked if I run out of this batch very quickly, but you never know!

*I do plan to have a Blog special toward the early/middle of next week for orders over $15. So...just a little heads up in case you were wanting to put one in this weekend. I would go ahead and do the Blog special this weekend, but I actually don't have the items in my possession yet as I bought these specifically for the giveaway. Of course, if something goes wrong and the UPS man accidentally sends it to Alaska or something, there may not be a Blog special, but they haven't let me down yet, lol (knock on wood).

*Just keep in mind the ongoing specials (see posts below or go to the LE section on my website) that will be expiring sometime next week. I'm literally down to a handful on the free brushes with eyecolors so take advantage of that while you can and the blush sets will be gone next week as well. I think I set the date for April 20 for the blush sets, but I may extend it until April 23 so if you want the "Get With Purchase" item(s) I'm giving away next week, you can still get them.

Anyway, hope you all have a great weekend!

Arm swatches on Spring '09 LE Eyecolors

2009-04-09T10:13:00.008-05:00

I know there are a lot of you that usually like to see arm swatches before buying, so this is for you! (You may need to click on the photo to see a larger image, FYI.)

I had trouble fitting them on my arm so sorry for the not so perfect picture taking, but I hope this kind of gives you an idea of what they look like. Thoughtful is probably the sheerest and may not show up on medium/medium tan skin or darker as a *color* but does give eyes that extra sparkle. I actually like to wear Optimistic--which is a rather strange looking pastel yellow swatched, but sure perks up tired eyes!--with Thoughtful applied to the crease and up to the browbone. Then I'll pair it with Resolute worn like a super thick eyeliner on my upper eyelid with one of the brighter colors like Dignified or Dedicated foiled as an thinner eyeliner along rims of my eyes. So that it doesn't looks so "crayola" I do wear a soft black or dark brown eyeliner around just to pull the look together.

Here are some other ideas for each color:

*Sensitive: As a contour/crease with either Beloved or Virtuous as an all over wash for a monochromatic pink look.

*Honorable: As an all over lid color with one our our neutrals like Devoted or Captivating. It's got just enough pink to add a little more color for springtime.

*Thoughtful: You can go with just about anything, use your imagination! My favorite way is the one noted above.

*Optimistic: Again, as noted above or it or even under the eyelid (just use a very small amount though) for those dark areas under your eye or in the corner. Or be bold and pair it with Dignified and Amusing for a striking look!

*Considerate: Would look great with our LE from last Summer, Exuberant if you have it, but would also match well with Carefree and your favorite highlighter (mine would be Amiable or Phenomenal from my Premium Collection).

*Carefree: A very matchable color with any of our Greens or Blues. Use as a color you can blend with Tranquility, Enduring, Loyal, and/or Placid.

*Dedicated: My favorite blue I've ever made! I don't think this color is quite as pigmented as Tranquility or Placid, but this shade describes my favorite shade of blue. I personally never wear blue on my entire lid or even an outer color portion of my lid, but I LOVE to line my eyes with a smokey charcoal eyeliner with the blue peeking out behind it, kind of like a halo effect! Colorful, yet still subtle enough no one thinks or says, "Now that's some BLUE eyeshadow you've got on!"

*Amusing/Dignified: They wear well together and would likely match well with any of our other pinks like Demure or Virtuous, or if you want something more neutral, Simplicity since it has a very slightly pink tone. Dignified makes a great eyeliner when foiled. It reminds me a little bit of Regal but much more subtle and sheer; I feel I could actually wear this on my lid whereas Regal I've only dared to wear as an eyeliner.

*Resolute: I think this color is Fearless' more tame little sister; it is more a shiny silver vs. the glittery charcoal of Fearless. This color has a great metallic sheen but not so over the top I can actually wear it in the daytime hours in small amounts. I also found I can wear this at nighttime as an lid color while I hold back to the outer lid only for Fearless. I like this color so much I might keep it around as a permanent addition to my line, we'll see...

Because they are made with our Premium formula, you might find that these do wear a little bit sheerer than our regular eyecolor formula but as noted in the previous blog post, we intended that since we still want the focus of beauty and color to be YOU, not your makeup!

Hope that offers some inspiration!

New Spring '09 Colors & Sets & new Blushes are here!

2009-04-06T12:53:00.022-05:00

Before I start, many apologies as I think Ecrater, the site that handles my store, was down for maintenance last night but it is back up and running as of this morning! There are still a couple glitches as I'm having trouble adding my new blush collage photos for the Blush sets as well as the Spring '09 LE collages but those will be updated soon hopefully--so feel free to add the new items where they are appropriate. If you are unsure, email me at adorned_with_grace@yahoo.com.

Just a quick glimpse of them!

I've been checking out fashion magazines, clothing stores, some customer requests, and even nature itself for the inspiration for these. Even though I love and usually prefer neutrals, I've found these colors to be quite wearable and pretty. Maybe later this week or next, I can put together some combinations that some of you might find inspiring...

As with the last LE set, I will be keeping the prices the same (meaning no sales) on these the whole time they are available so no one feels bad if they buy the whole set only to find them on deep discount a few weeks later. But I do have my quantity-discounted sets in the LE section you can get if you want to save money.

All single jars are $5.49 each as they are made with our Premium formula which is made with more expensive and ultra-top notch, silky ingredients. You'll find they might run a little sheerer in pigment than our regular colors but for Springtime, it is expected! I imagine this line to be a lot lighter and fresher than the last LE and wearable even for daytime. These will not be bright and "day glo" like the clothes you've been seeing around in the stores but are still colorful and pigmented enough to add some fun to your look. Like I said, great for those who like more subdued looks like I do!

You can get 2 Spring LEs for $8.79, a special set price we came up with for this set and then a "Get all TEN set for $24.99" which is an exceptional deal, almost half price of their a la carte price AND cheaper than our regular "10 for 29.99" Eyecolor set.

As with our other specially priced LE sets is you cannot substitute any other colors, regular or Premium. However, you may use the "4 for $16.49 Premium Eyecolor Set" that is in our regular eyecolor section (or even the one with the free brush *IF* there are any left) if you wanted to get 4 LE colors or a couple of the LE colors along with some of our regular OR the "2 for $8.99 Premium Eyecolor" set which is only twenty cents more expensive than the LE Duo set but you'd be able to choose a non-LE color along with it.

The LE Spring 2009 Collection will be available until they are "Out of Stock" or June 22, 2009--whichever comes first.

Next up are three new blushes: Caring, a matte dusty pink formulated for those with fairer skintones and like cooler tones; another matte, Enamored, a rich peachy strawberry that would look great with medium to dark golden skintones; and Zealous, a pearly-shimmery purple-tone fushcia that is truly bright and eyecatching! They are all permanent additions to our line. I'll be leaving up the 6, 8, & 10 blush sets in the LE Section (just scroll down) for at least two more weeks (until Monday, April 20) so you can add these to your list of choices!

If the matte blushes go over well, I'll hopefully be adding more colors later this Summer or Fall!

As far as Blog special, since I still have a few sets of the "10 for $29.99 sets with free Oval Fluff/Smudger" I'm going to continue with the getting a second brush free until Thursday, April 9 or until supplies last. (See post below for list of brushes you can add as a second brush.)

Don't forget to write in the note your second brush choice or we won't include it! As additional clarification, the second brush is only for the $29.99 set, not for the Premium "4 for $16.49 set with Free Mini Dual Ended brush" which I also still have a handful of sets left of.

I hope to post some arm swatches later this week or weekend so check back here later on for those! Happy shopping--or adding to your "wishlist" lol...

Limited Stock Eyeshadow sets & FREE brushes

2009-03-29T20:11:00.013-05:00

First of all, I am extending the Limited Edition colors until Monday, April 6. I intended on having my new Spring collection out by this week but lets just say I got carried away and ended up with more colors than I intended so I'm still getting those together but should have them ready to sell by next week. But make sure to grab any LE colors this week as they will no longer be available Tuesday, April 7 OR should they become "sold out" this week which is very possible. FYI, I am running really low on the sample baggies of Ambitious so if you plan on listing that as one of your choices, have a back up in case the samples baggies are all gone.

The 6, 8, & 10 piece blush sets are still up so take advantage of those as well. You may also wait as I'll have three new blushes introduced next week--especially if you like matte blushes!

But my favorite special this week is with my 10 piece Eyeshadow set. For a limited time, while supplies last, I'm offering this dual-ended eyeshadow brush free with the purchase of this particular listing for the 10 piece set:

It is a fairly petite ("skinny") size and has one end that is an oval fluff for all around application and the other a smudger--great for "smoking out" your mineral eyeliners and softening sharp edges or for fine detail application of lid colors. I haven't listed this up on my site yet but when I do it will be at least a $4.99 or more value! This will be listed on my site in the Limited Edition page as I did the the "5 for Eyecolor Set with the LH Round Contour" so I can manage inventory because once I'm out of the brushes--they won't be available anymore!

Let me also clarify that ONLY regular eyecolors can be chosen for this set--NO Premium Colors as there is a difference between them (Premium Colors made with more expensive ingredients so I can't allow them to be substituted in this set, sorry!)

But my "Blog Only" special is you will get a SECOND Eyeshadow brush of your choice! You may choose from the following brushes we currently carry:

Ingenue Mini Liner
Ingenue Crescent
Ingenue Oval Shadow
Ingenue Angle Fluff
Ingenue Oval Camoflage
Ingenue Round Contour
Ingenue Deluxe Crease

***We are currently extremely low on our Bent Liner due to its popularity so we cannot offer this as one of the choices. Also, requests for other brushes cannot be taken.

So if I do not get a note for the "Blog Only" special along with your brush choice, you won't get the second brush! Also, please list at least two "backup" choices just in case we do happen to go out of stock of a particular brush.

My other special has to do with the Premium Dual-Ended Eyeshadow brush. I first have to state that I will still continue to carry this brush, but I will be changing the price to $4.99 as I have left it at its Introductory Price much longer than I intended. Remember how I specially priced the Face brushes? I meant to adjust this one but for some reason just kept forgetting to do it with the mini brush. I think it will still be very competitively priced especially since I offer the free shipping to U.S. & Canada and the cheap shipping to my International Customers.

So if you want one at the $3.99 price you may want to grab this brush while you can! I only have a handful left of them as I've taken the other small handful for my other Website Special, 4 Premium Eyecolor Set for $16.49 with a Free Premium Dual Ended Eyeshadow Brush. With this set, you may choose to substitute a non-Premium eyecolor but do the math first to see if you are saving money, FYI...

Again, I've got to reiterate that if the listing is no longer there in the Limited Edition section, the deal is no longer available since I have a very limited stock. Once this brush returns after it has gone Out of Stock, they will be at their regular price of $4.99.

Just as a little bit of trivia, I wanted to come up with a special deal for the eyecolors as I noticed that I was getting a lot of large eyecolor sample orders a few weeks ago, specifically from Japan--so this sale was kind of inspired by you all and it's a "thank you" for giving adorned with Grace a try!

Have a great week everyone!

New Super Sampler kit, Blushes in "Bulk," & Today's Blog Special...

2009-03-23T08:58:00.020-05:00

Today, I've added a PERMANENT addition to my online store for a "super" sampler kit: 30 baggie samples for $19.99! I don't know how popular this set will really be, but I've had a few customers asking for a special sale on samples but since we really don't plan on doing a whole lot of sales, I thought this would be a good permanent addition for those that want to buy in bulk.

Speaking of buying in bulk, I've also had quite a few of you telling me you love ALL of the Shimmer Blushes and how you'd like to collect all ten of them so I have come up with a special price for those that want to purchase all ten. I've also added a six & eight piece Blush set just in case you didn't necessarily want every single one of them. (Of course, it is cheaper per jar the more jars you get.)

**However I'll only have these sets are for a limited time only available until April 6th (Monday). Check them out here at the Limited Edition section. After that, they'll be taken off the site. Oh, and as an added note, this does include both the regular Blushes and Shimmer Blushes so you'll have a total of twenty-seven blush colors to choose from as I know not everyone likes a shimmery finish.

Finally, for my "Blog Only" special this week, until Thursday, March 26 if you buy one full-sized jar foundation, you will get one free eyecolor of your choice. You may choose from the Premium, Regular, or Limited Edition colors. This is for those of you who were wanting a special deal on the single jars of foundation (since you did not need the "2 for" or "3 for" sets). It's not quite a sale but you do get a full-sized freebie which is *always* fun! This is ONLY for the single jars and not the sets.

As with my other "Blog Only" specials, just leave me your eyecolor choice in the "Notes" section when you check out and mention my blog. If you don't write me that note, I won't put the eyecolor in since this is something that is just for those who keep up with us at www.definingtruebeauty.com. Also, if I get the order on or after March 27 (Friday), I won't be able to honor your request.

Happy shopping and stay tuned! I hope to have my first Natural Health & Beauty article sometime this week/weekend where I can blog about something useful to keeping you the healthiest and most beautiful you can be.

My first health & beauty article!

2009-03-22T09:30:00.019-05:00

This has been a long time coming!

When I first started out this blog, I mentioned that besides the sales and updates to my adorned with Grace Minerals store, I wanted to also have articles that helped promote health and healing as I think that is vital to being naturally beautiful so I apologize that its taken me so long to get these out. Well, here it goes...

As some of you have noticed me comment here before, I am cold-natured so I am totally excited about the Springtime and having warmer weather. I especially can't wait to start seeing the flowers bloom and get going on my vegetable garden this year. But along with that comes the pollen that can give me the "snifflies" if I'm not too careful. And with this change in weather--esp. in the state of Mississippi where you never know what temperature its going to be--I can have a tendency to get sick with a cold or sinus infection much easier.

I know I'm not alone in this. In fact, I'm sure many of you suffer from allergies and sinus issues. I mean, how miserable is it to have a head stopped up and have the sneezing/sniffling/coughing and general uncomfortableness that comes with these things? I know I *feel* less than beautiful and don't like to face the world that way. Sure you can take medicine to give you a little bit of relief, but in my experience, it just makes the whole things worse!

Well, I've found that one of the must-haves for those that suffer from allergies or sinus troubles is a Neti pot. Have you all ever heard of it? I actually never even knew they existed until a couple of years ago when I was watching Dr. Oz (from the Oprah show) demonstrate with an audience member how to use one.

So what exactly is a Neti pot? Well, here's a photo so you can get an idea :

Kinda looks like a mini, elephant-shaped teapot--but trust me you won't be drinking from this, lol! Basically, you fill this pot with a saline solution and use it to perform a nasal rinse. "Ew" you may say? Don't worry, that is what I thought too when I saw it demonstrated on TV that day; I found it so strange seeing the water go in this lady's nostril and flow out the other! They said it was excellent for those that had frequent sinus infections and/or cleansing out super-stopped up nasal passages and helping prevent infection so my curiousity was peaked and had to get my hands on one of these to try.

So I ordered this ASAP and when it arrived I had to try it immediately and I could not believe the difference it made! I did not even have a sinus infection or cold at the time but just wanted to try it just to *see.* I remember having to step outside for a minute to let the dog out right after I did it and then realizing how much better I could smell--I could smell "outside smells" like the grass and dirt AND THEN when I came back inside I remember walking into the bedroom and smelling my husband's dirty socks, LOL!

Then during those times I could tell I was starting to get a sinus infection (headache, sore throat, snifflies) I would use my Neti pot and I can honestly say I have not had the issues to the extreme as I did previously where it would just hang on for weeks or where it would get so bad it would trickle down to my throat and I'd get laryngitis--I haven't had that once since I started doing this! Also, one Christmas I did catch a bad cold bug but it did not hang on more than ten days (my other relatives were fighting it for almost six weeks--and even got a bad case of bronchitis!). Now I do have other lifestyle habits that I think contribute to my mostly good health but that is a post for another month...

Not sure if that convinces any of you all to try it--I'm thinking many of you already do this wonderful treatment and swear by it just as I do so feel free to ignore the next few paragraphs. But for those of you that are interested in trying this out, here is a video link so you can get a visual picture of how it works: The Offical Neti Pot Demo Video

If you want to read more about it and see the detailed instructions on how to use it, click on this link: Neti Pot For Sinus Health

As far as where to buy one, I got mine at drugstore.com for $14.99 (+ shipping) for the pot and premeasured saline packets. FYI, I have ordered many times from them before for many of my beauty products like e.l.f. or Jane that aren't available in the stores here in MS (you can also buy from their "sister" store beauty.com where I think they combine your order total and they sell many faves like Urban Decay Primer Potion, Philosophy products, NARS, etc. and you can get free shipping for orders over $25 if you are a new customer, over $49 if you have ordered before.)

I have also found them at my local Walgreen's but notice they stay "Out of Stock" but if you can get your hands on one, they are truly worth it! I recommend it to my patients all the time and one couple I was seeing loved it so much they bought each of their family members one the following week!

Anyway, I hope this has been informative for at least one person out there! I do give a disclaimer and ask to proceed with care as I'm not an expert on any of these things that I write about but I can at least share with you my own experiences and knowledge on the subject in hopes someone can find it useful. Feel free to research more on your own and ask around for other opinions!

Thanks for reading!

Just a Small "Giveaway"....

2009-03-16T17:24:00.010-05:00

After one of the busy weeks I had, I realized I was getting dangerously low my stock of brushes. So late at night I started to take down inventory and leaf through my catalogs and notes to make up a new order to send to the various suppliers I buy from. Well, in my fatigue and haste, I accidentally wrote down the wrong product number on my short-handled Round Contour Brush--and got the long-handled Round Contour instead! And I did not realize this until too late when I opened up my package the day it came.

Since I admit that I am a little bit of a perfectionist and felt this long-handled version seemed out of place with the set I sell now, I thought that instead of selling this alongside my other Ingenue Eyeshadow brushes, I would just offer the small handful I have (about six of them to be exact) with anyone who places an order for my "5 for $19.99 Eyecolor Set" as a FREEBIE giveaway. You just have to be super quick and click on this link: "5 for $19.99 with one Freebie Long Handled Round Contour Brush" and order!

FYI, it is identical to my current Round Contour but is about two inches longer. It's one of my best selling eye brushes and one of my personal top three favorites in my Ingenue line that I literally use everyday so its a great addition to anyone's collection! Here's a pic if you all are wondering what it looks like in comparison to the shorter version:

Just remember that in the regular "5 for $19.99 set" you can't substitute any of the Premium Colors, but you can include any of our Limited Edition Colors. Speaking of, those will be available until April 1, about two more weeks and I don't plan on marking them down anymore. I always feel bad for those "early birds" who end up paying more so I'm keeping the prices the same for these LE colors. I am getting low on the Sample Baggies of these colors so you all may want to grab those while you can if you were just wanting to sample.

Oh, and about the Giveaway, when the brushes are gone, the Listing will hide itself so if you click on that link above or go to the LE section and it is not there, that means they are gone. **DON'T** use the regular listing in the Eyecolor section as that will only get you the eyecolors, but no freebie; this listing will specifically say "with Freebie Round Contour Brush."

But don't feel bad if you miss out on this one; I'm going to plan one for the "10 for $29.99" sometime in the near future with a new Ingenue Eyeshadow brush I'm thinking about adding to the collection--but that's all I'm saying for now! Just tune in next time...

**EDIT: Due to the many emails I am getting, I wanted to say that we are Out of Stock of the Ingenue Petite Dual Fiber brush although I do have some pending orders that if they fall through, I may have a few to put back up for sale later this week. Unfortunately, my next shipment will not be in for another month or more but just keep up with our blog and we'll announce it here first when it's fully stocked once again. Sorry all! I tried to stock up on these myself but they are so popular, I really cannot keep them in stock for long.

Supreme Smoothing Powder: Does it work?

2009-03-09T11:14:00.011-05:00

So this is a question I have gotten from some of you so I thought I'd do a post about it with a photo just so you can see the difference:

If you notice how the "After" picture looks so much smoother and "soft focus" than the Before picture! Because silica is spherical shaped, it fills in those pores and spaces very well and allows your foundation to have a much smoother finish, both to touch and appearance; especially if you find you wear a high coverage foundation that has a lot of titanium dioxide it it, it can "drag" as you buff it on but this will also help to apply it more evenly.

Besides as a primer, you can also use our Smoothing Powder just as a very light finishing powder to kind of blur those pores or fine lines--most notably helpful any time you are getting your picture taken. Of course, it won't hide deep wrinkles or very large pores (it's "supreme" not "magical" lol...) but does diminish them enough so you may be less self-conscious about them.

And the best way to apply? I personally apply it the way I do all my powders:

I first like to press it on gently with a powder puff (which is why all the powders adorned with Grace sells except for Celestial, comes with them) as if I was "spackling" it in; then I take a large fluffy powder brush (maybe like our Large All Over Face brush) and very lightly whisk away the excess. (You definitely don't want to buff it off as you can buff them out of the fine lines they have just filled!)

And for those of you wondering, our Smoothing Powders works best with oily/combination skin but can also work with dry skin if you use in smaller amounts. As with anything, some may find they have a sensitivity to it but you are always welcome to try our samples if you are unsure and maybe do a skin test just to check.

Speaking of samples, for those of you that were going to order something anyway and have been interested in our Smoothing powder and would like to test it out for yourself, here is a "Blog Only" special just for you: Until this Thursday, March 12, when you order $10 worth of products (not including shipping for International Customers and must be $10 or more, not $9.99 or less) get a sample set of all four of our Smoothing Powders so you can see which of the four tints we currently carry looks best on you: Peach, Golden, Neutral, & Untinted. If you don't want any of the Smoothing Powders, feel free to substitute any one of our powders: Divine Oil Control, Celestial Silkening, or Heavenly Rice Powder.

You've got to mention "Blog Only" Powder sample special though in the notes section or we won't remember to add them! Again, you'll get to sample each of the Supreme Smoothing powders (four samples) but you can substitute any of our other powders. No other substitutions allowed with our other products--sorry!

So don't forget, this will only be available until Thursday, March 12--if we get your request on the 13th, we won't be able to honor your request!

Hope this has been helpful!

A St. Patty's Day Eyeshadow Duo set: $7.49: Choose two greens!!!

2009-03-01T19:44:00.020-06:00

To kick off a new month (yes, it is already March!!!) we wanted to start off with a special St. Patrick's "Choose Your Own" Green Eyeshadows Duo set for $7.49. Here in the U.S. we have this funny (and somewhat painful, lol) tradition of pinching those who aren't wearing green on St. Patrick's Day. So to help you all prepare for this occassion, this set will allow you to choose any two of the following green eyecolors: Tranquility, Enduring, Benevolent, or Glorious. Because we still have a handful left in stock, you may also choose the following LE's that are no longer on our site but are bringing back just to give you all more choices for this Duo set: Exuberant, Jovial, and Altruistic. HOWEVER, because we have very few of these colors, please make sure to list your second and third choices should Exuberant, Jovial, & Altruistic become unavailable. *You also cannot choose Wondrous which is a Limited Edition Premium Eyecolor from this Winter collection.

The St. Patricks Duo Eyeshadow set will be available until March 17.

*EDIT: WE HAVE OFFICIALLY SOLD OUT
of the Grab Bag Samples as of March 4. SORRY! *

And, as a treat to those of you who follow, subscribe, or simply check out our blog regularly, we have a special deal just for you until Thursday, March 5. If you happen to buy any TWO eyeshadow brushes (from our Ingenue or Premium line) you get a free full sized (5 gm jar) of eyeshadow! You just need to write in the Notes section when you comment what eyecolor you want.

Now if you happen to get our 8-piece Ingenue set or our 4-piece Premium set, you will get four eyecolors or two eyecolors respectively! Also, we will count the Mascara Guard and Metal Eyelash comb in this too--any of the brushes and accessories made specifically for using with your eyes! If you are unsure, feel free to email us at adorned_with_grace@yahoo.com to inquire.

Now in case we become Out of Stock of the eye brushes you want before March 5, we'll take your name down as a backorder, but you have to either have placed an order or notified us by March 5 to qualify, no exceptions please. So if get an order or hear from you March 6 that you wanted in on this deal, we won't be able to honor your request. Sorry! We just have to draw the line somewhere...

Since this is a "Blog Only" special, you MUST mention this in the Notes section when you checkout. You'll have to list your eyeshadow colors anyway so it will be kind of hard to forget! I won't be mentioning this at my online store so this is truly an exclusive sale! It is just my way of showing my appreciation to those of you who have been wonderful supporters of awG!

Swatch Photos of new February colors

2009-02-18T17:09:00.017-06:00

Per customer request, just some swatches of recently released colors!

First up is the new Shimmer Blushes/Glows, Bemused & Dainty:

I applied these rather "thickly" just so you can see the color; they are, of course, much more flattering when applied with a stipple brush as a glow. Bemused is very brightening to sallow skin although I personally think it would look best on fair neutral tones and for those of you ladies who may be pinker. Dainty is a great all over glow/highlighter and you can see how it complements my Grace 4.0 skintone.

Next up are the Limited Edition Metallics:

This is probably one of the first swatch photos I've taken that I think actually shows what they really look like! Those flecks of deep gold are what make these colors most unique and interesting!

And finally, the Limited Edition Winter 2009 set :

(Click on photo for a larger view)

I'm sad to report that these did wash out the depth of the colors a little as the beauty of all of them (these colors have quite a bit of "twinkle & shine") look much better in real life--especially with Valiant & Steadfast. But you can at least see the depth of color and how they look in relation to each other. There is also more of a color difference between Valiant & Steadfast especially with their finish. (Valiant is my bluer version of Fearless--it's like a cool liquid metal finish.)

Hope those swatches helped! Remember, these (the LE Eyeshadows only, as Dainty & Bemused are here to stay!) will be available until April 1 *OR* until I sell out of them, whichever comes first!

Lots of new stuff: LE e/s, two Shimmer Blushes, Smoothing Powder, & Powder Brushes!

2009-02-15T14:04:00.027-06:00

Where do I even start??? Well...how about the new LE Limited Edition eyeshadows!

I am extremely cold-natured so I was inspired formulating this collection by the cool weather. (LOL, I know some of you are laughing since I live in Mississippi where the weather is NOWHERE near as cold as the Northern states but I somehow freeze all the same!!!) I've gotten to love "smokey eye" looks and since I already have the basic colors in my line to do typical smokey eyes (Fearless, Mysterious, Tenacious, Devoted, etc.) I wanted a few brighter shades that ran a little on the cool-toned side for some more unique looks. I think it was Dao of My Makeup Blog who suggested to me a while back to formulate a blue version of Fearless so I've been to work coming up with that along with some colors to mix and match with them. Check them out here in the LE Section!

Besides the special deal on the entire set like I usually do, I thought it wise to add a pick-your-own "Trio Eyecolor Set" for these LE's. I noticed that most people usually find 3-4 colors out of a large collection that they like versus getting all seven colors. These will be available until they are "Sold Out" OR April 1.

We also have some Limited Edition Premium Metallic eyecolors up; you can buy these singly or get the entire trio. They are slightly more colorful versions (as opposed to being super neutral like my other Metallic shades) and even have a marbleized effect when you remember to "dab" on during application (Capricious). As with the Winter 2009 LE, these will be availabe until they have "Sold Out" or April 1.

Oh, and FYI, these will be the final prices on them! We don't intend on marking them down any further while they are available. I think I sympathize with another MMU company in that I feel bad for those that miss out on a sale and those that get the head start and buy early on sometimes lose out since retailers tend to mark them for Clearance later on down the line! So the main price breaks are if you get these in the Trio Sets. :)

Now, as part of our permanent collection, is some additional Shimmer Blushes/Glows. As some pointed out, it seemed we were lacking in some "cooler tones" so we have added two new colors, Bemused & Dainty. Bemused is an almost-scary looking bright lavender but because it is fairly sheer, it simply adds a face brightening radiance that looks great on those of you who have very fair olive/neutral skintones or those who want to brighten up a yellowed/sallow complexion. Dainty, although it appears to be more of a warm shade, is a delicately soft and feminine pink that was a hit with some of my cooler skintoned testers. As with Bemused, it is a sheer shade and simply excellent for added a luminousity to your complexion without adding a lot of color. Unlike Bemused, though, this would also work well with darker, more warm skintones as a glow or highlighter. (I find that I can use it to add highlight or a dewy finish and I wear Grace 4.0.)

In addition, we have added (per request from some of my Consumer Panel members & a couple customers) we've added a line of powders similar to Makeup Forever's High Definition Powder.
We're calling this our Supreme Smoothing Powder as it helps to blur those dratted fine lines and large pores to give you a smoother finish for that porcelain doll effect. To complement our foundation line, we not only have the untinted version, but in Golden (yellow), Peachy, & Neutral Tints. Simply go to our "Powders" category to see them. Also, you can make them one of your choices when ordering in the Trio or Duo Powder sets. Please see the listing, though, for specifics.

As with all our powders, we include a cute little powder puff because it not only helps keep the powder from flowing out too quickly, but the best application for powder is by dabbing it on first with the puff; letting it sit for about 3-5 minutes to "soak in," and then whisking away the excess with a powder brush.

Which brings us to our last addition! Again, per request of one of our wonderful customers, we have added both the large and small version of the powder brushes of the Premium line.

Here is a comparison pic with the popular Jumbo Buffer
so you can see the relative size of both:

Happy shopping! Oh, and for those who placed an order this weekend or are placing any orders Sunday evening & Monday morning, I also wanted to remind you that Monday, Feb. 16 is a holiday (President's Day) so no orders will be shipped out until Tuesday, Feb. 17 since the U.S. Postal Service is closed.

A Valentine's Day poem & thoughts on true beauty

2009-02-13T16:10:00.002-06:00

In honor of Valentine’s Day and to put us in a romantic mood and to continue in the theme of adorned with Grace Minerals’ “defining true beauty” I’d like to share a poem that seems to describe eloquently one who is truly “adorned with grace”:

She Walks in Beauty by Lord Byron

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair'd the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling place.

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

This poem has always been somewhat familiar to me; I remember hearing it in high school (likely English class) and thinking, “How heart-melting and romantic!” But back then, I thought it was referring solely to her physical beauty. As I got older and came across this poem once more, I noticed that it’s not just referring to the physical but that inner beauty, that lovely glow that seems to exude from her. I think it is best said in the last two lines about having “a mind at peace with all below, a heart whose love is innocent.”

I think most of us know someone who may not necessarily be the “Hollywood Standard” of beauty—but as we got to know them and look into their hearts, they became someone whose beauty seemed to surpass even the most gorgeous movie star you can think of! Kindness, patience, a sense of humor, compassion go such a long way; a sincere, friendly smile is more beautifying that the latest Lipglass from MAC!

So on this Valentine’s Day, find that shining someone (or someones) and make sure you tell them how beautiful they are! And remember to demonstrate those virtuous qualities to others in your actions, words—and your thoughts, as the inner workings of our heart end up reflecting outwardly to others.

Happy Valentine’s Day!