Today is Halloween and you know what this means, right? (No, not an all access pass to mini boxes of Milk Duds.)

This means that tomorrow when you go to the department store or drug store or even the grocery store, the HALLS! THEY WILL BE DECKED!

And if you think we’re joking about this, just try us. Some stores around here already have their holiday stuff on the shelves and a neighbor on our street even has a lighted Christmas tree sitting on her porch! (She is a little crazy, but STILL.)

So, to honor the fact that we are officially in full-swing-holiday-mode, we are offering our very first gift idea for the season.

Yay! Celebrate!

It is no secret that we are addicted to L’Occitane Shea Butter Hand Cream. We buy the mini tubes by the armload and keep them in our purse, in the car and in our desk at work. This perfect hand cream keeps our hands nicely moisturized without being greasy, and it smells divine.

We also like the Lavender Hand Cream and the Verbena Hand Cream and think that this limited edition L’Occitane Mini Hand Cream Trio would make the perfect gift this holiday season (set includes 1 oz tubes of each hand cream.)

L’Occitane Mini Hand Cream Trio, $24

Grand Opera, an exclusive Shu Uemura Collection for the 2006 holiday season was inspired by the glamour and opulence of the Opera. This collection features dramatic contrasts between light and shadows and offers warm, vibrant shades with the softness of velvet and satin.

The Pressed Eyeshadow Palette in Soft Satin looks incredible with an iridescent plum and an iridescent gunmetal brown. Also in this palette is a pearl-rose pink and a pearl terra cotta.

In the Rich Velvet Pressed Eyeshadow Palette there’s a pearl mandarin-orange, a deep pearl plum, an iridescent silver (pretty!) and an iridescent canary yellow.

Our must-have item from this collection is the Precise Volume Mascara in Mauve Cascades, a deep plum-mauve.

While we’ve never been too keen on colored mascaras, this one seems subtle enough to give our holiday eyes that exra special touch without being too out there.

Shu Uemura Grand Opera Collection, Holiday 2006

Any lipcolor that smells like vanilla gets extra points in our book.

L’Oréal HIP (High Intensity Pigments) Intensely Moisturizing Lipcolor not only has a delicious vanilla scent, but maintains full coverage color while moisturizing with jojoba oil.

This lipstick comes in 16 different shades with names like Fearless, Charming and Fierce.

Our favorite is a berry shade called Vivacious (pictured here.)

Because that’s what we want on our lips when we’re getting ready for work and feeling rather sluggish and wishing it wasn’t Monday morning. (Also knowing that Halloween is looming and we’re STILL NOT READY!)

L’Oréal HIP Intensely Moisturizing Lipcolor, $10

Dealing with our hormones and the havoc they wreak on our skin once a month is enough to make a girl go nuts.

Recently, we found that Olay Total Effects Anti-Aging Anti-Blemish Cleanser is gentle yet strong enough to make our skin happy. Armed with salicylic acid, this non-comedogenic cleanser won’t clog pores and rinses clean for blemish-free skin.

If only it could cure our craving for chocolate, we’d be all set.

Every weekend we are on the go. (We have kids, people! LOTS of them.)

Sometimes we only have minutes to get ourself ready and out the door in time for an exciting day of running around, so we like to make every one of them count.

After washing our face and applying sunscreen, we like to use a tinted moisturizer because TWO BIRDS! ONE STONE! Our favorites these days are Stila Illuminating Moisturizer and Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer.

If we want a more polished look, we’ll use MAC Studio Fix instead of the tinted moisturizer. In this case, we like to add a little Emulsion de la Mer before the sunscreen.

Our favorite quick and pretty blush of the moment is Lancôme Magique Blush in Pink Parfait. This goes on over our tinted moisturizer, or under our MAC Studio Fix (it’s never good to add cream blush over powder.)

Next we fill in our brows, add a little mascara and some tinted lip balm (either MAC Tinted Lip Conditioner SPF 15 or Clinique SuperBalm Tinted Lip Treatment) and we’re ready for our day.

If we have an extra minute or two, we’ll add some eyeshadow for more definition. Also, once we are out and about, adding a lip gloss from the selection at the bottom of our purse will always make us feel prettier.

And there you have our 5 minute weekend beauty routine.

Now we’re off to watch a cheerleading competition, entertain our weekend guests, and finish the enormous task of securing halloween costumes. Whew!

Our sister is the B.E.S.T.

Do you want to know why?!

We’ll give you two hints. BLACK. SATIN.

Today she got the call from her local Nordstrom in Dallas, TX to come and pick up her exclusive bottle. At our urging, she had put her name on the list several weeks ago and was fortunate enough to make the cut (they only received 20 bottles.)

Because she’s the best sister in the whole world, she got in her car and drove over to Nordstrom immediately where the Chanel representative had each bottle individually wrapped and labeled with customers names.

And if that doesn’t convince you of her wonderfulness, how about this? She then drove over to Fedex and shipped the little piece of heaven to us.

Smooches to you, sister. XOXO.

Thankfully, we have never had to deal with dark undereye circles.

However, undereye puffiness, freckles, and the ability to gain five pounds by just looking at a Krispy Kreme are the gifts we were destined to have. Thanks genes!

Our husband on the other hand (who is very hot, by the way, even with dark circles,) being half portuguese, has dealt with his dark circles his entire life. (Not that he has ever cared, or even noticed them.) (That is what he has a wife for!)

Several years ago we tried Neutrogena Radiance Boost Eye Cream to see if it would help our undereye puffiness, which it totally did, but ended up urging our husband to use it for his dark circles. (For the record, and in case any of his buddies are reading this website, he wants us to make it clear that we forced this eye cream upon him. Got that? He was FORCED.)

Within a week of using this, his dark circles were noticeably lighter, and while they never completely go away, the powerful anti-oxidants in this product keep them at bay.

If you are one of the lucky ones that was destined for dark circles and have not yet tried Neutrogena Radiance Boost Eye Cream, you MUST!

We’ve seen a few reviews on LORAC’s Snake Charmer palette, but didn’t see it in person until yesterday.

Surprisingly it wasn’t the flashy snakeskin compact that caught our eye, it was the gorgeous shadows beneath, gleaming up at us as they sat on display.

Of the four eyeshadows featured, it was the Mystical Gold and Charming Copper that won our heart. These colors are a perfect complement to our fall wardrobe.

Add the blush in Hypnotically Peach and we’ve got ourself a party going on.

LORAC Snakecharmer Face Palette, $35