Know a girl who can tell the difference between a kabuki and a stippling brush or owns a whole makeup store at home? Well we’ve rounded up five items that are bound to be on her wish list this season. To save one lucky reader from a trip to the mall, I’ve got a giveaway for one of the most favored beauty brands: MAC! See below for the great prize pack you can win and how to enter.

Benefit Countdown To Love advent calendar, $68

Enjoy the thrill of opening up a little cardboard door to find a surprise. While you’re 7-year-old self may have enjoyed the small piece of chocolate, this limited edition calender is filled with must-have beauty goodies. Containing Benefit’s bestsellers including BADgal lash mascara and ultra plush lipgloss, everyday will be an exciting one. The calendar includes 24 mini beauty products and also a charm necklace, bracelet and barrette. It’s available at benefit or sephora stores.

Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment, $22.50

For lips that are ready for kissing under the mistletoe, this Sugar Lip Treatment from Fresh is a best-seller known for its nourishing and protective benefits that glides on easily and stay on. This isn’t your regular drugstore chapstick, and it’s a rewarding investment that keeps lips moisturized for up to 6 weeks. A personal favorite of mine, it also comes in different tints to add some subtle color to your lips!

Marc Jacobs Beauty Showstopper 7-Piece Holiday Set, $107

This is the first Christmas you’ll be able to give Marc Jacobs Beauty as a gift, the line having only been released earlier this year in August. This special holiday set gives you the best bang for your buck and the opportunity to get a taste of the different products. It’s a $261 value that comes with mascara, lipgloss, eyeliner, eyeshadow and the super chic Makeup bag. Good quality makeup for a great price!

Nicole by OPI Gumdrops nail lacquer, $7

I’m not one for textured nail polish but these are beautiful. They are easy to apply and leave your nails looking dazzling. These give you the perfect chance to stray away from your usual colors and sparkle is perfect for the holiday season!

Vera Wang Pink Princess Eau de Parfum, $60

I’ve always been a fan of Vera Wang fragrances, but it’s Pink Princess that has won my heart with its girly smells that combines the scents of raspberry sorbet, pink hibiscus and fluffy marshmallow. Perfumes are always a great gift to give during the holidays and it’s a safe bet they receiver will love it.

GIVEAWAY: MAC Beauty Trio

Add a pop of color this holiday season with this MAC eye shadow, lip pencil and metallic pigment set!
Contest is open worldwide and no purchase is necessary. Enter below:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

The post Christmas Countdown: Beauty Gift Guide appeared first on Confessions of a Twenties Girl.

Each look was judged by a panel of professionals including celebrity stylist and make-up artist Paul Venoit, fashion industry expert Gail McInnes, Degrassi star Jessica Tyler, fashion designer Cara Cheung, fashion expert Annie-Claude Touzin and Faze superstylist Carolee Custus.

While the fashion show was a sight to see, singers and musicians including Vita Chambers, Tyler Shaw and Max Rivers gave performances that were amazing to hear.

You may enter a Faze event empty handed but that’s definitely not how you leave. With so many amazing on-stage prizes ($400 Sennheiser headphones, hello!) every girl is bound to feel like it’s Christmas already. Upon leaving, attendees were also handed amazing swag bags with some of the hottest products.

Luckily for you readers, I’m giving away a SUPER swag bag, valued at over $75 that consists of not only Faze swag from this event but events that passed.

This amazing swag bag worth over $75 contains:
-Your choice of a copy of Faze Magazine (choose from Shay Mitchell, Ed Sheeran, Cody Simpson, Marianas Trench, Austin Mahone, Olly Murs and Shawn Desman)
-Covergirl flamed out mascara, shadow pot eyeshadow and smoochies lip balm
-New York Color curling mascara, duo eyeliner, liquid lipshine, city proof lipgloss, IndividualEyes eyeshadow, Sun n’Bronze bronzing powder, Smooth Skin perfecting primer and Color Wheel mosaic face powder
-2 imPRESS press-on manicure sets
-BCBGeneration key chain
-Goody clip-in hair chain
-2 So…? body fragrances in Kiss Me and Fab
-Bath and Body Works Japanese Cherry Blossom body lotion
-Almay intense i-color shadow stick
-Forever 21 earrings
-Charlotte Russe necklace
-Mod de Dim tights
-Broadway real life nails
-Fashion Diva nail kit

Entering is easy and takes two simple steps. Contest open worldwide. No purchase necessary.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

For more pictures from Faze’s Be Extraordinary event be sure to check out their website faze.ca.

The post Faze Magazine’s Be Extraordinary Event + Giveaway appeared first on Confessions of a Twenties Girl.

I spoke to the super sweet and super talented North Carolina native last year for a Faze Magazine article, so please keep in mind that this interview is from 2012, being not the most up to date answers. Nonetheless, Aly serves as an inspiring role model to youngsters everywhere.

How did you describe the journey of how you got to where you are now?
Aly Silverio: Basically when I was 15 I started a jewelry company, basically because I didn’t want a real job because I was lazy so I started this jewelry company where I made necklaces out of clay and looking back on it, they were really really terrible quality but people liked it so I went on with that for like three years and just improved on my jewelry techniques. And I always wanted to do a jewelry company but it costed a lot of money and as jawbreaking jewlry started to expand, I started to use that money towards the clothing company that I always wanted to do. And once that started it kind of just took off and now im at where I’m at today because of that jewelry company.

So how do you think the jewelry company started to expand, what was it that really broadened that?
AS: When I started doing it I just started giving necklaces to random people, like people that had followings like bands and stuff. I honestly don’t know why they wore them because personally looking back I don’t really like what I did, but it got to where I am today so I appreciate that I was out there when I was 15. It just stemmed into this whole clothing company.

Do you have any hopes or plans to get back into jewelry?
AS: I don’t think I’ll get into the jewelry I was doing because it was clay and it’s so time consuming. But we’ve been thinking of re-releasing and collaborating with another jewelry designer, or making some exclusive metal pieces not clay. It’s so time consuming so we don’t wanna get back into that again. But hopefully doing some jewelry that’s not clay in the future.

When you first started the brand where did you expect it to go? What were your goals?
AS: I definitely had a lot of goals which I definitely accomplished and I didn’t think I was going to accomplish in such a short amount of time, like getting into stores, I didn’t think that was going to happen at all this year. But it did you know, and you just have to work hard for it. And just believe that you can do it and that’s what I did and I definitely succeeded in a lot of my goals that were on my bucket list.

How important do you think it is for teens who have dreams like this to set goals for themselves?
AS: So important, if you don’t have goals then you don’t know where you’re going with it. So for me I put my goals on my ceiling and I wrote them up and I look at it literally everyday and I’m like “yup, that’s what I wanna do.” And it reminds you of what you need to accomplish if you get far in life.

Where did the name “jawbreaking” come from?
AS: It’s really not an interesting story but when I was 15, I honestly didn’t think I was going to be saying jawbreaking every five seconds of my life, I didn’t think it was going to stick, I didn’t think it was going to become this big—but when I was 15 I was with one of my best friends Alexa and we just wanted to make it roll off the tongue and since I was doing jewelry I wanted it to start with a J and we were just thinking of different names and stuff that started with a J and I came across the words jawbreaker and jawdropping, and I thought “oh I’m going to combine the words cuz that sounds cool!” and that was 15 year old Aly’s mind and I just kind of came up with that and it stuck and now everyone is kind of used to it. So when I started the clothing company I kinda just dropped the jewelry and it just stayed jawbreaking.

So how do you go about creating your designs? Where do you get inspiration and stuff like that?
AS: Basically my life. It’s kind of a vague take, but I’ve come to realize that I think I’m the “taylor swift of creating shirts” because the last line was kind of inspired by boys. Like I have a shirt that says “boys suck” and it was called “I love you to the moon and back” and it was because there was a bunch of celestial things like moons and stars and then also “I love you to the moon and back” because there’s always that one guy that you’re never gunna get over so I kind of based it off that. Which I never thought I’d be able to do, but I somehow did it and I just base it off what’s going on in my life. Not only relationships, but travel and my friends and inside jokes I can make into a shirt. It’s basically my life, it’s a very interesting way of creating shirts.

I’m sure there were many obstacles in the past four years, what’s the biggest one you’d say you came over?
AS: Definitely, the first thing I can think of is just people who think you can’t do it, it’s definitely hard coming from not even like your best friends, but people who are close to you and you think that they’d be there for you, but there are people who are going to try and knock you down and be like “oh that’s impossible, you can’t do that, how are you gunna do that, how are you gunna afford that?” but I just use that has my fuel to my fire. I mean you use that to you’re advantage so you can prove those people wrong. So that’s how I overcame that and unlike you still deal with it even now. My family’s very very supportive and they help me more than you’d even know.
It’s really great to have such a great support system from ym family and my best friends.

What do you think is important for teens when pursuing a dream?
AS: You can’t let people tell you that you can’t do something. Because if you believe that then it’s just going to be embedded in your mind, “wow I really can’t do this.” So you really have to, it sounds cheesy, but you really have to believe in yourself.

Was there a specific moment in your career where you just kind of stopped and thought, “wow I can’t believe this happened” ?
AS: Oh yeah, One Direction! When I first heard about One Direction like a year ago, I honestly had no idea who they were, I never heard of them before in my life. But one of my best friends Emily was like, “you got to listen to this band, they’re british they’re cute, they sing very well.” So I was like “alright I’ll check it out.” I’ve heard so much talk about them on twitter but I never even bothered to check them out. So I was like who are these people? So I checked them out and thus began my obsession with One Direction. And they were doing this tour with big time rush in the US, so my friend was going, and I didn’t even get tickets, I didn’t even try they were sold out in apparently ten minutes. So my local radio stations were doing contests and we were all trying to win it and two of my best friends won it so I didn’t win. But I went anyway because I was like, “you know what, I’m going to get them some shirts” so we went and basically after their radio interview, they’re like walking to their bands and my friend actually handed Zayn one of the shirts and I didn’t think he was going to wear it. I was like “let’s just hope”. There were so many screaming girls and I was yelling, because his van window was down and I was like hey I hope you like that shirt, I designed it!” and that was all I got to say. And I was on tumblr a few days later, just scrolling through, and was like hey that’s One Direction from when they were in North Carolina and was like Zayn’s wearing my shirt!” he had changed into it later that day for the today show interview and that was probably the pivotal moment of my life, in my career and I was like “wow, one direction, which is the biggest boy band in the entire world!” it was just crazy and ever since then they’ve kind of all caught onto it.

Was there a point where your line just “blew up” and had that kind of “big break” or did it happen slowly?
AS: I think it definitely happened slowly if you count from 2008 for sure. But to me when I look at it from the past years it has blown up primarily because of like one direction, word of mouth and everyone just keeps telling others. Word of mouth has been insane in the past year and a half.

You’ve already accomplished so much, but what would you say is your ultimate career goal?
AS: It’s very vague but I just want to be able to do this forever and still be happy doing it and actually be able to make a living off of it so that it is my actually job. So that I don’t have to work for someone else.

Be sure to check out shopjawbreaking.com for tees, crop tops, sweaters and more, and be sure to follow Aly herself on twitter @alysilverio and @shopjawbreaking.

The post Confessions From… Aly Silverio (Jawbreaking) appeared first on Confessions of a Twenties Girl.

Most of the gorgeous jewelry brought in by the stylist was from H&M and Topshop!

While all of the shoes were drool worthy, my favourite pair had to be the black and gold heels from Steve Madden (first row, third from the left) which is no surprise since my weakness lately has been studs! 

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