Beauty and Brains: Essential Makeup and Money Tips

[L to R: Sarah of The Stroller Ballet, Nicole of Momtrends, Yours Truly.
Photo via Momtrends]

Last week, I headed to NYC's Meatpacking District to the salon, blow NY for an event hosted by the Momtrends events team. Along with other Bloggers (some of my fave NYC all-stars) and other media personnel, we enjoyed mini-makeovers and blowouts, as well as chatted about all things make-up and money (or beauty and brains, as I like to call it).

Make-up tips:
In-between makeup touch ups from QVC bareMinerals -- the makeup that is 100% natural and without preservatives -- bareMinerals expert, Jessica Foust shared tips and tricks with the crowd. Here are a few of the take-away points (you know, just in case you missed my tweets about it):

• Less is more. No really! I've said this before, and I'll say it again: most of the time, all you'll need is tinted moisturizer, black mascara, blush, and a lipgloss (or lipstain depending on your preference)
• Get the right brush! You'll need a different brush for your foundation and blush application. And as Nicole says, "When it comes to makeup, you're only as good as your brush." Ditto!
• "Pretty is; beauty does." (Take from that what you will...)

[L to R: Me, Jill, Brianne, Serena, Nicole, and Kerri. Photo via Momtrends.]

Money tips:

After discussing makeup (or the "beauty" portion of the event), we moved on to talking about money (or "brains"). Personal Finance Expert and author of the "My Money Matters" kit, Galia Gichon, shared a load of useful information and I'm excited to share it with you. Here are Galia's three personal finance strategies that every mom needs to know:

Create a Customized Spending Plan

• Calculate your fixed expenses, then "pay yourself" so you'll be able to save for vacation, emergency savings, debt payments, college for the kids, and whatever else comes up
• Use an online budgeting tool such as mint.com

Make Retirement A Priority

• Consolidate your old IRAs or 401Ks into one firm such as Vanguard.com
• Continue saving for your retirement with a ROTH IRA, Spousal IRA, or SEP IRA -- no matter what! 
• And my all time favorite? Start. Saving. Now. I've said this back in January after attending the GoGirl Finance event with Glamamom: If you save $5,000/year in your 20's, by the time you're ready to retire around the ages of 65 or 70, you'll have... err... a lot more money saved up than if you were to start saving in your 40's. 

Make Sure You're Covered

• Be sure to have an updated will (guardian, trustee, living will, and health care proxy).
• Be sure to have enough life insurance -- stick with a term life insurance unless your finances are in excellent order.

Part of being beautiful is making sure that your finances are in order and setting up systems so that you are as financially stable as possible. Then and only then can you feel just as beautiful as you look!

Thanks to Momtrends for hosting such a fun and necessary event!

{Disclaimer: Event attendees received gift bags. All opinions expressed herein are my own.}