Lyn and I have been missing for awhile now. Our grandmother received a cancer diagnosis early last year, and after a hard, painful fight, died at home over the summer. We were physically exhausted , and were deeply grieved by the loss of the woman who was like a third parent to us growing up. For several months after that, writing about makeup, skincare, and how to get the glossiest hair on the planet seemed, well, silly.

But at some point in struck us – our grandmother was the most elegant and dignified woman we have ever known. For her, makeup or having her hair just so wasn’t silly, it was a way of showing the world that she had the confidence to display her quiet elegance. It wasn’t vanity, it was an expression of herself – an inner fortitude. Nothing about that is silly.

So we’re back. In the past couple of months a lot of things have been happening for us workwise, so we won’t be posting several times a day until things calm down a bit. But we’ll be around, for certain.

And we want to express a big thank you for all of you who have been e-mailing to ask if we’re okay. Thank you for your concern, and thank you for your loyalty to Style Chicks!

Lyn and I have been taking a short break from StyleChicks to figure out where we want the site to go in the future. We’re pretty excited about what we’ve come up with.

We’ve always thought of ourselves as a product recommendation blog, not a review blog. True, part of the recommendation is a review of a product. But we’re now thinking that what we’d like to do with the site now is more good product curation. Basically, we will be discussing products that definitely belong in your beauty routine, the ones we see ourselves purchasing time and again.

What does this mean for you, the reader? Not much. The site will continue to look basically the same, and you get our honest and usually extremely excited opinions of the products we feature. But recommendations will be more of the products we can’t live without, rather than, “yeah, this is a good product.” We will also be developing pages devoted to individual brands we love, especially if we have used several products within the same line.

So stay tuned for good things…

We just noticed that our traffic has bumped to about 3000-4000 people a day in the past week and a half, and we just wanted to thank all of our loyal Style Chicks readers for your support and enthusiasm. And we love when we get e-mails from you talking about how great you think a product that you first saw on StyleChicks is!

Thanks again – and we look forward to sharing more great reviews and news with you in the upcoming weeks to our 4th anniversary of StyleChicks.com!

– Courtney, Lyn, and the rest of the StyleChicks.com Team

So if things look a little weird for a bit, sorry about that – but when the new design goes up, it will be a better, pinker Style Chicks experience!

ELF has some great products that find a happy home in my regular makeup bag, and their Mineral Eyeshadow Primer is one of them. The formula is incredibly light, but packs a decent coverage and brightening punch, and keeps shadow in check. For everyday, I put it on after concealer (sometimes I use thin coats both before and after concealer if my eyes are puffy), and then just add highlighter (Benefit’s Georgia Peach) on my browbone, about half an inch from my eyebrow. It really gives a natural look that doesn’t crease or crinkle during the day, and it really doesn’t feel heavy or sticky.

It comes in one color, Sheer, which is ideal for me, but as you know, I’m quite pale. I don’t know how it would work on other skin tones, though when the other Style Chicks tried it out, it still looked natural on a more olive-toned fair skin. I think it would serve as a decent brightener on darker skin tones as well – don’t let the color in the tube scare you off, since it goes on so lightly.

It’s not just a great primer, either – it contains Vitamins A, C, and E – so you get some skincare action as well! Try applying it with a sponge or synthetic brush – the wand is a bit too small to blend with. And definitely make sure to blend it all the way into the inner V of your eye – it brightens and opens the area right up without looking fake. You just look…what do they call that…well rested.

There are some great eyeshadow primers on the market right now, and ELF Mineral Eyeshadow Primer is amongst them. For everyday use, it’s a great value at $3.00 and the tube lasts surprisingly long. In fact, I still had about 1/8th of my old tube left (which I got about a year ago and have been using 2-3 days a week) when I ordered my new tube recently.

Find ELF Mineral Eyeshadow Primer at EyesLipsFace.com.