Makeup Transformations with MOTD!

We're so pumped to announce that we've teamed up with MOTD, a makeup brush company that any novice (like us) can use. 

"(We) wanted to develop a collection of essential makeup brushes that speaks to you in a universal language that everyone will understand. No numbers, no makeup artist lingo, just a straight forward and clever reminder to keep you from guessing on which brush does what. We also wanted to give you a brand that is cruelty free, great quality, and affordable for every makeup enthusiast. Our Rose Gold Collection features your eight essential everyday brushes that will help you create any look you want."

In honor of one of our favorite holidays coming up (halloween, duh. The best snacks have always been, and always will be trick-or-treat loot) we decided to see how makeup could help us transform into our look-a-like vintage babes, Sophia Loren and Brigette Bardot. Using our new MOTD brushes and one of our favorite makeup artists, Dorit Nizzani, we took on the challenge. 

Eden as Sophia Loren

Jill as Brigette Bardot 

What do you think? We had so much fun doing this and honestly couldn't believe how easy it was to use these super-soft brushes. They work like a charm AND they're vegan/cruelty-free. Win-win. And here's the best news: when you buy them, enter code "halloween" for 15% off the order. You're welcome.

The ROSEGOLD collection. Available at motdcosmetics.com

Marc Summer(s) Lovin'!

Lookin good, Summers.

If there’s anyone who we thought could help us find a flag up our nose when we were kids we would’ve put our allowance money on Marc Summers.

This is a true renaissance man. Marc is a magician, stand up comic, producer and host of some of the most successful game shows on television (Double Dare and Unwrapped). To top it all off, he’s a five year cancer survivor. He’s currently preparing for a one-man stand up show about his life and dealing with his OCD.

Marc on "Unwrapped"

This week we learned all about his show biz hacks, how he lost a ton of weight (despite being on Unwrapped!), and of course, his favorite snacks!​

We hope Marc Summers will revive Double Dare soon!

Marc as the host of Double Dare on Nickelodeon 

(we’d be first in line to compete!)

Until next time, stay hungry and curious!

xoxo

J&E

Project Runway Star: Melissa Fleis

Imagine having 48 hours to design and sew a garment made entirely of candy for Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum. Oh yes, and it’s all on camera for national television!

Outfit made completely of black licorice!

Designer and all-around awesome gal, Melissa Fleis did just that!

Melissa designs chic and contemporary looks that look great for everyday and fancy shmancy events. Her newest upcoming collection, Flux, is set to come out soon! If it’s anything like her precious collections (http://melissafleis.com/defiant/), we expect structured bold collars, excellent use of black and leather, and clean, sharp designs.

Melissa recently relocated to LA after building a little fashion empire in San Francisco and we were lucky to have her on the podcast and talk about her new line, designing clothes for the everyday woman and her favorite snacks. We even exchanged some cool iron and steaming hacks (cause hey, we gotta keep our clothes looking sharp!). Our favorite hack that Melissa shared had to do with quitting smoking, and we could hardly believe her unconventional method. Tune in to the podcast to hear the complete story!

Until next time, stay hungry and curious!

xoxo

E&J

An honest hour with Ethan Embry

If you grew up in the 90’s, chances are your most beloved cinematic characters included “Rusty Griswald” from Vegas Vacation and “Preston” (aka "that guy with hair who likes to wear t-shirts sometimes”) from Can’t Hardy Wait. All these characters were brilliantly portrayed by Ethan Embry. Since the 90’s cult classics like Empire Records and That Thing You Do!, Embry has starred in numerous TV and film productions including Brotherhood and Once Upon A Time.

Fast forward to today: Embry co-stars with legends like Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in the hit Netflix original comedy series Grace and Frankie.

We caught up with Ethan about what it was like being a teenage actor in the age before hashtags and Instagrams, being a parent to his own teenager, and what it was like to work with comedy legends. We also learned the once rough-around-the-edges Ethan is a egg-eating, sober, tells-it-like-it-is vegetarian (sorry vegans, he loves cheese too much!). Hence, we exchange some egg-cooking hacks to coincide with this week’s theme ingredient, EGGS!

Want to learn the best way to cook eggs while you’re out camping?

We dished all about that and more, so don’t forget to download this week’s episode and tune in for one of our most honest talks yet.

Remember how awesome this party was? We do. (swoon)

Until next time, stay hungry and curious.

xo

J&E

Rocksbox!!

We're piggy-backing this week's episode with fashion blogger Nicolette Mason with our very own Fashion Hack! 

We just got our first set of Rocksbox jewelry in the mail! We didn't even have to leave the couch.

When we aren’t cooking up bad-ass new snacks (spoiler alert: our upcoming egg-snack recipe is probably our absolute best yet), we like looking nice because we’re a little vain like that. We like jewelry, but we wouldn’t call ourselves jewelry snobs. We'd definitely rather spend money on truffle fries and fancy sandwiches than on expensive jewelry. Plus, just like our palettes demand variety, we sometimes have different style moods when it comes to fashion. Some days we like looking fancy-shmancy, some days we like something subtle, some days we just feel so bloated from going to the bread festival, that we just want something that will fit no matter what we just ate! 

Enter our latest jewelry hack: Rocksbox!

Midi-rings are never safe from ice cream on a hot day.

Instead of spending loads of money on designer jewelry, why not rent it?

For $19 per month, you can become a Rocksbox member and receive a personalized selection of 3 contemporary designer jewelry pieces in your ever-revolving ‘box’ with an average retail price of over $200 per set. They have endless styles to chose from. We personally prefer their selections from their everyday minimalist collections, but we might choose to go with their bigger statement pieces if we have a special occasion coming up.

It’s like Netflix, for jewelry! (and yes, almost as addictive!)

Want to try Rocksbox? Enter our code: snacksandhacksxoxo and get a month free! It’s a winning hack all around!

You can never go wrong with black and gold.

Betty approves.

XO

Jill + Eden

Nicolette Mason, Body Confidence and Saying I-do!

Nicolette Mason is all about style and body confidence. 

Think you know what fashion is?

Well, Nicolette Mason is redefining it!

This influential style editor, designer, blogger and soon-to-be author is pushing the standard fashion boundaries. She’s helped major designers and clothing brands develop lines for women that aren’t model-thin, helping to create stylish world that is all-inclusive. She’s not shy to advocate body-positivity no matter what your size. Between all her fashion collaborations, her blog, her book and her new home, this superwoman also managed to plan a dream wedding to her partner Ali (who we were very lucky to have share snacks with!).  

Check out her column at Marie Claire!

Some hacks we learned from Nicolette:

Be Real: Nicolette is not shy about admitting she’s very lucky to be where she is. She acknowledges that she was incredibly fortunate to go to one of the best design schools in the country that open lots of doors to her. She doesn’t want to be an example that “anyone can do this!”. There is no clear path to success and she owns up to the fact that she had some doors open to her that may be closed to the average person. However, don’t let your lack of access to these connections deter you. Do what you love, be creative, and put it out there!

Pack Some Fashion Show Snacks: Nicolette let us in that fashion week is a little chaotic. You move quickly from show to show and there’s barely anytime to sit down to a proper meal. If you’re attending fashion week (or any festival, convention, etc), pack some portable snacks with so you want get hangry (hungry+angry).

Getting Married? Get A Planner: We had a lot of fun bonding with Nicolette about the wedding planning process (as our own, Jill Sipkins, ties the knot this September!). Nicolette admits to being busy with her own projects that she avoids becoming bridezilla by enlisting help. Never be ashamed of getting help! Keep doing what you need to do and if you can afford to let someone help you, let the pros handle it (it’s why they’re pros!).

Ali and Nicolette on their wedding day!

Until next time, stay hungry and curious.

xoxo,

J&E

Ant Simpson and Eating Vegemite (When You Just Can’t Stomach Vegemite)

Ant Simpson!

This week we interviewed Australian voice over star Ant Simpson. You’ve probably heard his voice in countless commercials (did anyone suddenly get a craving for Outback Steakhouse?) and tv hosting. Now, you get the chance to hear him on our podcast! 

Ever wonder who's doing those epic voiceovers on movie trailers? It's this guy!

TBT: in 1992, Riggan Thomson makes box office history in BIRDMAN RETURNS. It will be another 4 years before Riggan famously pulls out of BIRDMAN 4 and disappears off the face of the planet until reviving his career on Broadway! Where were you when you first saw BIRDMAN RETURNS? http://BirdmanTheMovie.com/

Ant’s been in the radio scene since 2006 in Melbourne, Australia and his radio show was even named “Best Network Program" at the Australian Commercial Radio Awards two years in a row! Yes, we were also not­-so-­secretly thrilled to have a true “radio­pro” to help us with our own podcasting skills (cut us some slack, we’re still sorta radio virgins!).

In the spirit of his Aussie background, we chatted with Ant about....VEGEMITE! Vegemite is as much a staple in Australian culture as Tim Tams; kids are raised on it. As far as we know, most Americans can’t stand it. We've begun to realize that this is a VERY polarizing food. You either love or loathe it. But hear us out before you start hating.

First off, WTF is it really??

Vegemite is a byproduct of beer­making. It’s the leftover yeast after beer is fermented is concentrated and mixed with salt, some vegetables, wheat, and spices. It is potently nutritional...vegans use yeast extracts to supplement their diet with compounds they would normally only get from meat products.

That said, this week has proven that Vegemite might just have a place in snack-making! Check out this week's EAT section for our Vegemite grilled cheese recipe. It was American appetite-approved. 

We'll leave you with this photo of Ant eating donuts. Because NO ONE DOESN'T LIKE DONUTS. Sorry for the double negative, but we just love donuts so much. (Sorry, Vegemite).

National Donut Day was this week as well, lest we forget. 

Stay hungry and curious,

E & J 

Milana Vayntrub, Coconuts, and Some Happiness Hacks

The face of a coconut expert.

This week we had the pleasure of chatting and chowing with actress and comedian Milana Vayntrub. She’s currently the star of Paul Feig’s original comedy series “Other Space” on Yahoo Screens and also known as “Lily Adams” (the quirky AT&T commercial character).

Fittingly, this week’s featured ingredient was coconut which was perfect since it’s one of Milana’s favorite foods. She even reminisced with us about how she used to work at a smoothie shop and became an expert at “hacking” into coconuts (pun intended!).

You can binge on the whole Other Space season here and check out Milana’s hilarious YouTube Channel, Live Prude Girls, here.

We also got some dirt on serious happiness hacks. One the best things you can do to feel happy is give back. Milana has helped the Greater West Hollywood Food Coalition get a brand new fridge that will feed thousands of people that can’t afford home-cooked meals. One of the most effective anti-depressants is doing some charity work. You can donate and check out more information about the Greater West Hollywood Food Coalition here.

So get a coconut bra, help others, and happiness will ensue!

Until next time, stay hungry and curious!

J&E