Buzzillions Blogs

Tech Closeup recently caught the Buzzillions team on camera doing what we do best.  Look closely & you can see our CEO’s (in)famous swagger. You heard it here first: read reviews, don’t get screwed!

Our friends at Jira (a.k.a. Atlassian) are having their first ever user conference this week.  Luckily for us, they chose to host it in San Francisco, Buzzillions’ hometown.  Jira is the management software we use to organize the development of Buzzillions’ new features, bug fixes & upgrades.  We can’t wait to mingle with other users, learn more about Atlassian & generally get our geek on at the three day summit.  They’ve even invited our own Jim Morris (head honcho of Buzzillions) to speak!  He’ll be talking about how Jira’s Greenhopper plug-in helps our whole team create order from chaos.   Follow Jim on Twitter for the inside scoop!

The Buzzillions Team

Like President Obama and millions more, we here at Buzzillions aren’t immune to March Madness fever.  Thank goodness for live streaming video and the Boss button (or so I’ve heard!).  Who knows if I’ll be sick again this Thursday at 4:07pm?  Yours truly is currently sitting middle of the pack in the hotly contested Buzzillions tournament pick-em game with everlasting fame and glory on the line…

In the spirit of the greatest sporting event on the calendar (sorry Super Bowl, World Cup, and Olympics – summer and winter), we’ve put together a list of NCAA team apparel reviewed by consumers (like you!) on Buzzillions.  So without further ado, here’s our special Buzzillions Sweet 16 for all you die-hard basketball fans and bracketologists:

Danny’s Buzzillion Dollar Picks

I read an article today that seems to confirm what I’ve known all along: when times are tough, women buy cosmetics.  While I’ve significantly scaled back my shoe shopping, I see nothing wrong with purchasing yet another lip gloss.  I’ve already lost thousands in the stock market, and that did nothing for my appearance, why not shell out $10 for a bit of makeup?  There seems to be some evidence to support the fact that I’m not alone in my rationalizations.   The New York Times reported in their article, “Hard Times but your Lips Look Great,” that Estee Lauder noticed a significant uptick in lipstick sales following September 11th.   Panic in the streets, threats of war, an economy in a death spiral…no match for lipstick. More alarming still, is UK Popsugar’s article “You Have to Suffer to Be Beautiful During Credit Crunch” which claims: “Nearly one in three women, which is the equivalent to eight million nationwide, would prefer to eat less than curtail their spending on what we all seem to see as must-have essential beauty items.”  That’s right, some of us would rather starve than be ugly.  So why is lipstick seemingly buoyed by an economic slide?  Probably because in times of great economic stress, women cut back on the big ticket items and with it go things like apparel, shoes, jewelry and electronics.  But makeup…lipstick to be specific, is (relative to the car you’d been planning to buy pre-economy meltdown) practically free – a luxury you can actually afford. That said, lipstick purchases add up, especially if you buy them the way I do – blindly and with plenty of false hope.  With that in mind, I give you our Top 10 list in this category, as well picks from my fellow lipstick/lip gloss/lip balm wearers here at Buzzillions.  All these products have great reviews and none cost as much as a new pair of shoes (well, maybe the Nars, but it’s a cheap pair).

Buzzillions Top 10 Lipsticks and Glosses

And a very unscientific poll of what we like here at Buzzillions:

1. Elf Cosmetics Luscious Liquid Lipstick:  Lots of colors, and I mean come on, it’s a dollar.
2. Burt’s Bees Lip Balm: An old standby, tried and true. Lots of good stuff, no scary ingredients.
3. Bonne Bell Lip Smacker Lip Gloss, Dr. Pepper: Who doesn’t want Dr. Pepper on their lips all day?
4. Vincent Longo Baby Balm Lipstick, SPF 12: Also loved by Allure magazine in their annual Best of Beauty list.
5. Bonne Bell Lip Lites Lip Gloss in Cappucino:  A neutral gloss that compliments most skin tones, and smells yummy too.
6. L’Oreal Colour Juice Sheer Lip Gloss, Watermelon: Easy to apply, not too sticky and smells like candy.
7. Nars Frost Lipstick in Klute:  Yes, it’s $24, but there’s a reason it’s a beauty editors fave.
8. LipFusion Color Shine Collagen Lip Plump: Not a lot of reviews but one of our employees swears by it..
9. Carmex Lip Balm: A favorite for the guys too, and still comes in that familiar yellow pot.
10. Smashbox Lip Gloss Sheer Color in Illume: Another winner in Allure Magazine’s Best of Beauty Editor’s Choice Award for best lip gloss.

Months of planning and talking big have paid off: the Buzzillions Burrito Bomber is ready to take San Francisco by storm in this weekend’s Red Bull Soapbox Derby.

“Big Taco” Mark and Terra the “Mean Sombrero” are our fearless driving/breaking team. They will be flanked by a crew of Yury the “Big Chill,” Angela “Boogie” Burrito, and a “Very Hungry” Eraj.

The bomber will be flying down the Dolores Street (starting line is at 21^st street and the route goes down along the park). I know this hill well from my morning runs – it’s a three block chore to run up it and I can only imagine what it’ll be like to roll down in a cardboard taco truck. In fact, I ran by early this morning and it was already a scene. I got to chat with a few other teams and check out the course. I’m telling you – this is not to be missed.

Check out the sketches of our craft and read about our team and stay tuned for photos and video of the race!