Girlfriends Guide to Gaming

I am not really into video games. I pretty much suck at them. I grew up with a little brother who dominated every single game he touched even when he was 5 years old. I always tried to play with him and ended up losing and then would beat him up because he never let me win. It's true! Ask my brother and he'll tell you how he had to hide from me because I would hit him every time I lost. Sore loser? maybe... :)

Fast forward to me in my mid-twenties and traveling every month to Europe for my job. I had to find something to keep me busy on those long airplane rides besides work and in comes the Nintendo DS Lite. My brother introduced it to me and I played a few games on his and loved it. I've always been a sucker for "brain" or "mind" games than games where you actually "played". Am I making any sense? Anyway, I got one of my own and stocked up on Brain Age, Big Brain Academy and Tetris. I was pretty much hooked on this little machine. The games were super fun and really helped pass the time when I was traveling. Admittedly, it rarely came out when I wasn't traveling as I rarely have free time as it is but on those long plane rides, it was a savior.

About a month ago, I got an email from Justine at Brand About Town inquiring if I'd like to be a Brand Enthusiast for Nintendo. I would still have to be involved in the selection process but if they chose me, the first thing they would do is to throw a party for me and all my friends so that we could play with the Nintendo DSi, which is the latest version of the Nintento DS. Cool right? Since I was already in love with my DS lite, I was pretty much sold so I told her immediately that I was in! A few weeks later, Justine flew to Seattle and met me at Starbucks and we talked about the program and the party. I was bursting with excitement but didn't want to tell anyone the news because I was still in the selection process. When she finally got back to me to tell me that I had been chosen I did a little dance and then sent an email to my best friends so that somebody else would be as excited as I. Once a few friends knew about it, word spread and more and more friends wanted to come until I had over 40 girls on the invite list. I never expected my circle of friends who are so not gamers, we are much more girly girl, shopping types, would be so into it but everyone was so excited! I loved getting emails from my friends on the days coming to the party telling me how much they were looking forward to it.

The party was last weekend and I have to say, it was a huge success! They rented out a loft here in downtown Seattle and decorated it totally cute.

Everyone had a blast playing the games and I loved looking around the room and seeing all the girls so into the DSi's. They set up 5 stations, 4 stations were to play different games and one station to just play with the DSi.

see all the concentration going on? :)

The most popular thing at that station was the camera on the DSi. Everyone had so much fun just taking pictures with it!

gotta love that the DSi takes arm length pictures!
They even printed out the pictures for us to take home!

I didn't play as I was too busy talking to everyone and making sure everyone was having a great time. I did manage to drink 4 glasses of champagne though! Oh right, I forgot to mention that they provided food and drinks for us too!

See how in every single picture of me I am holding a glass of champagne?

I had so much fun and was so happy to see all my friends there. Oh and of course being me, I put it out there to take advantage of the party and get dressed up! All my girls looked awesome and I loved that we got an excuse to put on our cutest dresses and heels.

At the end of the night each of my friends got a DSi of their own! I am definitely going to set up another DSi night for all of us.

Look at those happy faces!

The entire group (minus a few that snuck out before we took the picture)

THANK YOU so so much to Brand About Town and Nintendo. At the end of the night everyone was asking me if I could just throw parties like this all the time. I wish! I'm so glad to have been given this opportunity and will be a Nintendo fan for life! :)

All pictures were provided by Brand About Town. If you are interested in seeing more you can see the rest of the flickr set!

SmartFood is genius!

Contest is closed, thank you all for your great comments on how you have a girls night out! The winner is Angela who said "My girls night in consisted of a girly movie (or sometimes a scary one, depending on the mood), some snacks, and of course some drinks!" Congratulations Angela!

This is a compensated review from BlogHer and SmartFood

Smartfood is the snack for women who want to indulge without feeling guilty.

Last week when I got a package in the mail full of SmartFood and other goodies, I was so excited I ripped into everything at once! I hadn't tried SmartFood before but it definitely is something right up my alley as I love sweet snacks but I really only like it in small doses.

SmartFood is basically popcorn clusters and it comes in three flavors, Cranberry Almond, Honey Multi-grain and Chocolate Cookie Caramel Pecan. Sounds delish right? They come in individual packets with the perfect amount to snack on. I love caramel popcorn. I think it's one of those things that takes me back to when I was a kid and my mom would take me to the mall and we'd always get a treat of caramel popcorn while we were there. I absolutely love these individual sizes as I put them in my handbag and just snack on them whenever I want. All the flavors are really good, I actually don't have a preference I love them all! The best part is, each of these are 2 grams of fat or less and 120 calories or less per serving. Eating them you wouldn't even know that they aren't that bad for you. I have already given out quite a few to co-workers and girlfriends to try, they are that good! I totally suggest that you try them out too!

I wish I could share my SmartFood with you all but since I can't, a giveaway is a pretty darn good second choice. :) The prize: A $100 Visa gift card! Pretty awesome right?

To enter, leave me a comment below and tell me "How do you celebrate girls' night in?" - or you may leave a link to your post on your own blog in the comments below. The contest will begin at 9:00 a.m. (PST) June 15 and will end 5:00 p.m. (PST) July 15, 2009. Make sure that the e-mail address you leave is correct.

Rules:

* No duplicate comments.
* You may receive an additional entry by linking on twitter and leaving a link in the comments.
* You may receive an additional entry by blogging about this contest and leaving a link in the comments.
*You may receive an additional entry by following my blog - I am Style-ish and letting me know in the comments if you already do.
* This giveaway is open to US residents, 18 years of age or older
* Winners will be selected via random draw, and will notified by e-mail.
* You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.
* Please see the official rules here: Official Rules

Visit the BlogHer Special offers page for 7 more chances to win from other bloggers!

Check out the Women's World Website for more information on SmartFood and other great snacks.

Max Factor Review and Giveaway!

Update: Thank you everyone for participating! Through random draw, the winner of the Max Factor product bag is Hanako66! Congratulations! I will be emailing you shortly to get your information.

This is a compensated review from BlogHer and Max Factor

When Blogher asked me to review the Max Factor Vivid Impact Lip Color and the 2000 Calorie Extreme Lash Plumper Mascara I of course had to do it as I'm never one to turn down makeup!

First of all, I think the packaging for Max Factor is really nice. Compared to other drugstore brands, it's got more of a luxe feel. I'm always one for sleek black packaging and I really like the feel and look of both the lipstick and the mascara packaging.

I am a lipgloss kind of girl as my experience with lipsticks has usually dried out my lips. When I do wear lipstick I always put lipgloss over it. I was pleasantly surprised by the Vivid Impact Lip Color as it went on really smoothly and wasn't drying at all. In the pictures above I am just wearing the lip color, no lip gloss over it. I wore it throughout the day and it had pretty good lasting power, only have to apply after I ate something.

As most of you know, I'm a fan of false lashes however I'm always on the hunt for a good mascara as I don't wear lashes all the time. The biggest pet peeve of mascara are the black streaks that I end up getting on the bottom of my eyes from my mascara rubbing off. This mascara exclaimed to "plump" lashes which is kind of a weird term but I guess it's just trying to say that it will make them look fuller. I'm not so sure about making them fuller as my lashes looked pretty much the same. What I did like about the mascara was that it went on really smoothly with no clumping. I hate clumping! I always try to brush them out and then my lashes look even worse. Thank goodness no clumping with this mascara. I wore it the whole day and didn't get the dark under eye look.

For my eyes, I used the Vivid Impact Eyeshadow Duo in Domino Effect and I LOVE it! The pigment is amazing as is the ability to blend the colors. I will be buying more of the colors!

Overall, I loved the three products that I tried and will be checking out more of their products!

And a good review is not complete without a giveaway! We are giving away a Max Factor product bag worth $50!

To enter, leave me a comment below on your favorite beauty tip or beauty product. The contest will end at 06/16/09 5:00 p.m. (PT). Make sure that the e-mail address you leave is correct.

Rules:

* No duplicate comments about your beauty tip/beauty product.
* You may receive an additional entry by linking on twitter and leaving a link in the comments.
* You may receive an additional entry by blogging about this contest and leaving a link in the comments.
*If you are a blog follower on I am Style-ish please let me know in the comments for an additional entry.
* This giveaway is open to US residents, aged 18 and over
* Winners will be selected via random draw, and will notified by e-mail.

And also check out the Blogher Special Offers page for other bloggers reviews on the products. Each reviewer is giving away a goodie bag and Blogher is giving away 10, so go enter with them too!

Such a doll!

I have been looking forward to seeing the New York Fashion Week runway shows and when I found out that Barbie was having a fashion show to celebrate Barbie's 50th Anniversary, I was totally intrigued. I'm one of those girls that has always been super girly and Barbies were the ultimate toy for me. I mean, the outfits, the shoes, the hair! All the possibilities and fun to be had with dressing her up. Between my sister and I we had quite the collection of Barbies and all her accessories. When BlogHer asked me to review all the exciting events going on for Barbie's 50th, how could I say no? She was my first fashion icon!

First off, the runway show. Fun, fun, fun! The clothes and the styling were so fantastic, it was totally Barbie for adults. I loved every part of it!

Here are some of my favorites. All so perfectly Barbie, girly, frilly and pretty!

The white dress on top reminds me of the Bride Barbie that I got that I loved so much that I never even took it out of the box!! I just stared at it, I couldn't stand thinking of ruining her pretty white dress and perfect hair so I was completely happy with keeping her in the box looking perfect as ever.

Check out the shoes! Hot! Can someone hook me up with a pair? ;)

I was also excited to see the Barbie loves Stila collection. As you know, I love makeup, especially Stila and they always have such fun packaging so the two fit together so well.

My pick is the "Jewel Doll" the pink and gold shimmer colors are fun but easy to wear all the time.

The Barbie T3 hairdryer, however, may be the coolest. I already own the pink T3 (which I love, love, love!) so I can't wait to see what the Barbie T3 will be like.

It is amazing to see all the fun stuff come out of Barbie's 50th, especially since they are throwing her a birthday party at a REAL Malibu Dream House. Can you believe they built an actual Malibu Dream House? I didn't have the Malibu house growing up, but we did have a Barbie pool house that was just as awesome so I can only imagine what stepping into the real Malibu house would be like. I'm thinking that I need to find a way to get to this party just so I can take a lookbook picture on the pink carpet!

So, who else was a Barbie girl? I know I'm not the only one! Would love to hear your stories!

More information from Barbie Press Release:

All Doll’d Up with “Barbie™ Loves Stila” Cosmetic Collection & T3 Barbie™ Hair Dryer: As much as Barbie® is known for her fashion, she is almost as famous for her face. This year, Barbie® gets all “dolled up” with Stila, announcing the cosmetics company as its Official Prestige Makeup Partner for 2009. Stila will celebrate all things Barbie®, bringing her signature beauty looks to life with innovative, whimsical beauty products, including a limited edition spring collection of beauty cans and a talking palette, all of which will precede a larger collection and Barbie™ beauty program slated for Fall 2009. (available at Sephora 5th Avenue store, Sephora International stores and Sephora.com beginning late January 2009; Fall collection due in late summer.) The Barbie™ beauty program extends beyond just cosmetics into the world of hair care with prestigious partner T3, coming this fall.

Barbie®’s Birthday Party at Her “Real” Malibu Dream House®: On March 9th (Barbie® doll's actual birthday), event-planner-to-the-stars Colin Cowie will help throw Barbie® an outrageously pink birthday celebration at – where else – but a real Barbie® Malibu Dream House®, styled and decorated by famed “Happy Chic” interior designer Jonathan Adler. The newly designed “real” Dream House® (located on the beach in Malibu, Calif.) will play backdrop to what is sure to be the most talked about “pink-carpet” birthday bash of the year, where Barbie®'s closest famous friends from throughout the years will be invited to peek into the fashionista’s storied closet! (Barbie® Birthday Party on March 9, 2009 – by invitation only).

Barbie's All Doll'd Up blog (http://www.barbie.com/alldolldup) is the place to celebrate fifty years of fun, fashion and friends. Read about everything from the most talked about runway moments, hottest parties, chicest trends and more. Check out exclusive video content, photo galleries and all the latest must-have goodies! Become a Barbie fan on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/barbie) for even more of the hottest buzz surrounding Barbie's 50th - and follow Barbie's tweets at (http://twitter.com/barbiestyle.)

To see what fun Barbie stuff other bloggers are writing about be sure to check out this page on BlogHer!

simply fabulous... always fun!

I have something to confess. I am a candy addict. I will often times substitute my dinner or lunch for candy. Unhealthy, yes, but I just love me some candy. When I was contacted by BlogHer and M&M's to receive free samples and review the new line of M&M's and I was pretty dang excited. I am not a chocolate person but I do love M&M's. J and I buy a Costco pack of peanut M&M's to keep on hand at all times. And then when I found out that these were not just regular M&M's but their M&M's Premium line, well I was intrigued. How could you change something already so tasty?

Well, they did it and they did it fabulously. The tag line is "simply fabulous... always fun". I love it! I try to make everything in life fabulous and fun. My aim for this blog is to talk about the fabulous things I come across and to make it fun as well so it seemed very appropriate that these M&M's would fit into my blog.

Opening the box was quite a surprise as I found instead of the regular M&M's bags that we are used to, were these fun, colorful boxes and the M&M's itself looked like fancy little speckled eggs in vibrant colors. Fabulous for sure! I surveyed my choices: Mocha, Triple Chocoloate, Raspberry Almond, Mint Chocolate and Chocolate Almond and instantly opened the Mocha as I'm a big time coffee lover (I do live in Seattle!). My initial thought was "wait, what happened to the candy shell?" That's what makes M&M's right? It didn't take me long to dig into all the other flavors and by the time I was done testing them all, I decided that I liked it without the candy shell. I think because I was so used to regular M&M's the initial shock of, "wait, this tastes different" is a bit overwhelming but the true chocolate flavor replaces that and you realize how good it really is.

Mocha pretty much tastes like a chocolate covered espresso bean without the bean. So yummy!

Raspberry Almond is the perfect mix of raspberry flavor and chocolate. he almond adds the perfect texture to the combination.

At Christmas time I always pick up a bag of mint M&M's so I was expecting the mint ones to be the same but actually these ones are made of white chocolate. Ugh. Do you know that they are single handedly going to make me gain weight before my wedding?! I LOVE white chocolate. So delish!

Chocolate Almond is pretty much just like the regular almond M&M's but without the candy shell. Nothing too exciting but good nonetheless.

Triple Chocolate is actually layers of white, dark and milk chocolate all in one little M&M. Funny enough, it's a bit too much chocolate for me. I'd probably just stick with plain M&M's. But if you are a chocolate lover, you will probably love these.

Overall these M&M's are more of a grown up kind of candy but still a lot of fun. With all these new pretty colors, I think they would also be great to use for wedding favors or in candy buffets. I think I may be adding the Mocha ones to our guests favor bags for the wedding to add a bit of a Seattle vibe while we are in Jamaica!

Of course I wouldn't leave you without showing you pictures of these pretty little things!

The Mocha M&M's. Aren't they such a pretty golden color?


The pretty packaging

M&M's make me happy!

Go here to see what other bloggers are saying about this new line of M&M's!