Shopping for Makeup in Santee Alley

HM Hormiguitas is a long-time favorite of Santee Alley shoppers and this blog. Along with its sister store, Iyalorde, it's the biggest makeup and beauty supply store in the area open to both the public and wholesale shoppers. We stopped by recently to see what was in stock and found they're makeup selection has grown since the last time we visited. And you thought it couldn't get any better! Scroll below to see some of our favorites and check them out on Instagram @hmhormiguitas.

HM Hormiguitas

315-B E 11th St.

213-536-5448

• Makeup/Cosmetics
• Eyelashes
• Beauty Tools & Supplies
• Hair Extensions
• Hair Tools
• Makeup Cases

• Contour and conceal palettes
• Makeup brush sets
• Eyeshadow palettes
• Blush palettes

• Lipstick and lip glosses
• Maskcara
• Blush
• Concealers
• Foundations
• Eyeliner

• Hair straighteners and curlers
• Hair wands
• Hair products 

Brands:

• Jordana
• City Color
• L.A. Girl
• J.Cat Beauty
• Proliss
• NYX Cosmetics
• + many more!

Makeup cases come in a variety of sizes and colors.  Please contact the store directly for pricing information.

Makeup and Beauty Supply Store Expands Santee Alley Location + a GIVEAWAY!

Makeup and beauty supply store, HM Hormiguitas has expanded its location at 315-B E 11th St, inside Santee Alley. Remember last year when we announced the store had expanded? It's now twice the size! Their makeup and beauty supply selection has also doubled including hair tools, beauty tools, and hair extensions. HM Hormiguitas is officially the largest makeup and beauty supply store in the Fashion District. It is a wholesale and retail vendor of makeup brands like  NYX Cosmetics, L.A. Girl, City Coulour, J. Cat Beauty, Beauty Treets, and Klean Color.

HM Hormiguitas also offers beauty supplies. Popular times include makeup brushes and makeup brush sets, as well as makeup sponge applicators and blenders. The J.Cat Pro Make-Up Brushes pictured below are best sellers.

In addition to beauty and makeup, you'll find an amazing selection hair wands, straighteners/flat irons, curling irons, and crimpers, even hair care products. Brands include BeBella, HerStyler, Hollywood Stars, ISO Professional, LUV, Proliss, and Iyalorde.

Lipstick, lip liner, lip gloss, lip paint...  you name it, they got it!

We love the contour and eyeshadow palettes. There's so many to choose from!

In celebration of their recent expansion, HM Hormiguitas provided us with their best-selling products to give away to one of our readers! The lucky winner will get a KleanColor Pom Pom Rainbow Baked Makeup Kit, Make-Up For You Makeup Brush Set, Beauty Treats Concealer Palette, Beauty Treats Matte Blush Palette, City Color All-Set Setting Spray with Silica, City Color Photo Chic Primer, L.A. Girl Glazed lip paint in "whisper" and "babydoll", and J.Cat Beauty Wonder Lip Paint in "2nd Impossible Thing" and "Pishslaver".

You can enter the giveaway through the Rafflecopter widget below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Check out the HM Hormiguitas Instagram for new products and current inventory. For pricing and additional information, please contact the store directly or shop their website.

HM Hormiguitas

315-B E 11th St

www.qbsm.net

323-200-8124 - Spanish

213-536-5448 - English

hmario2011@hotmail.com

Valentine's Day Shopping Guide: For the Beauty Lover

With Valentine's Day only two weeks away, it's time to start shopping for your significant other. Not sure what to get him/her? Over the next few days, we'll be sharing some of the most popular items in Santee Alley as part of our Valentine's Day Shopping Guide series.

For the beauty lover in your life, Santee Alley has make-up artist favorites from cosmetics to beauty tools. Here you'll find makeup, makeup brushes, nail polish, fake eyelashes, straighteners, hair curlers, hair extensions, and more. Most stores carry popular brands like NYX Cosmetics and L.A. Girl.

Why are Santee Alley prices so much lower than retail and department stores? Most of the makeup stores in the alley are owned by distributors. This means they sell much larger quantities than your average beauty store, which in turn allows them to sell products for less. The stores featured in this post are licensed distributors.

• HM Hormiguitas, 315 E 11th St. #315-B inside Santee Alley, 323-200-8124
• Iyalorde, 1006-F Santee St. inside Santee Alley

For the product junkie that already has it all, we recommend Nature Republic. Nature Republic is a Korean beauty and skincare line that opened recently in the alley. The Santee Alley location is the only one on the West Coast! In addition to makeup, they also offer face masks, moisturizes, hand lotions, face wash, and body scrubs all inspired by nature.

• Nature Republic, 1152 S Santee St. inside Santee Alley

Instagram Giveaway!

We've teamed up with Iyalorde to give away this 5-piece, digital hair curler. To enter the giveaway make sure to follow our Instagram @thesanteealley and tag a friend on this Instagram post. You will automatically be entered to win. The giveaway will close on Friday, November 21.

The 5-in-1 hair curler has five interchangeable barrels made of tourmaline and ceramic to achieve long lasting curls with a shiny, silky finish. The digital temperature control and LCD display allow for custom temperature settings. Barrel sizes are 25mm, 19mm, 25-18mm, 19-09mm, and 32mm. The curler heats up to 430 degrees Fahrenheit.

There is no purchase necessary to enter this giveaway. The giveaway is only open to those with a U.S. mailing address. Questions? Tweet us at @ShopSanteeAlley.

Where to Buy Makeup & Beauty Supplies in Santee Alley + A Giveaway! - Now Closed

The hottest trend in Santee Alley right now? Makeup! Just a year ago makeup was something you purchased from small booths throughout the alley as you walked in and out of clothing stores, but the makeup market has exploded. Not only are more stores starting to carry makeup and beauty supplies, we've seen new stores open dedicated entirely to makeup and beauty products: HM Hormiguitas, Nature Republic, Bella al Natural, and now Iyalorde.

Iyalorde is a makeup and hair tools distributor who sells to be public at wholesale prices. In addition to makeup, you'll find makeup brushes, beauty tools, eyelashes, hair straighteners and curlers, and even hair products. They carry popular brands like NYX, L.A. Girl, City Color, LUV, and HerStyler, as well as their own line of hair tools, "Iyalorde".

Iyalorde

1006-F S Santee St. inside Santee Alley
*Please note the address for this store has been updated

The Ilorde curler set comes with five different hair wand attachments allowing you to create mulitple sized curls with one wand. This set is sold exclusively at Ilorde. Because you are buying direct the cost is significantly lower than similar products at your local beauty supply store.

In celebration of their grand opening, we've teamed up with Iyalorde to giveaway a LUV hair straightener! You can enter the giveaway via the Rafflecopter widget below. Please note you must "like" the Santee Alley Facebook page or already be a follower in order for your entry to be valid. You can also follow us on Twitter >> @ShopSanteeAlley or leave a comment below for additional entries!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Like this store? You'll love HM Hormiguitas.

Disclaimer: You must have a US mailing address to enter the giveaway. 

UPDATE: The giveaway is now closed. We will be announcing the winner shortly. Thanks to everyone who participated :)

Bella al Natural: All-Natural Vitamins and Supplements at Wholesale Prices

If you've visited Santee Alley before you know there's much more than fashion here. The Santee Alley has everything: makeup and cosmetics, hair extensions and wigs, and as of recently natural skincare products and supplements. Bella al Natural is the newest all-natural health and beauty store to open in the area, specializing in weight-loss aids, detox supplements, and hair loss remedies.

Bella al Natural is a family-owned business based out of Anaheim, California. All of their products are 100% natural and manufactured locally, which means you can cut out middle man costs and save BIG. Detox packages that normally retail for up to $200 can purchased here for only $38. (That's equivalent to wholesale pricing!)

Pictured Above: $38 detox package, all-natural stress control pill, hair-loss prevention

Bella al Natural carries a wide assortment of teas, including the popular weight loss aid Te de Piña and Piñalim. Other products include Garcina Campoga, Linaza, Nopalina, "Almendra Quema Grasa", and various soaps and ointments.

Bella al Natural

304 E 11th St.

Los Angeles, CA

559-813-0193

Korean Beauty and Skincare Line Nature Republic Now Open in Santee Alley

Korean cosmetics and skincare favorite, Nature Republic opened its first West Coast location in Santee Alley last Sunday. Nature Republic offers nature inspired beauty products and makeup at affordable prices. The average moisturizer costs about $10 and their most popular product, the Soothing Moisture Aloe Vera 92% Soothing Gel, is only $5.50 or 4 for $16.50. Great price, no? Among the products that caught our eye was a snail mucus inspired face moisturizer meant to mimic the enzymes in real snail mucus for maximum hydration. There's also a snake venom inspired product that mimics the peptides in snake venom to produce an effect similar to botox.

The store itself is beautiful and unlike anything else in the alley. The tile you see on the walls in the photo above is actually volcanic tile imported from Korea. It's a stunning s pace. We're very excited to have them in the alley!

The customer service at Nature Republic is superb. The friendly staff is very knowledgeable and can offer product recommendations based on skin type.

There's a a huge display of nail polishes in the middle of the store with every color you could ever want for $1.40!

Makeup products include eye shadows, mascaras, eye liner, BB creams, concealers, lip gloss to name a few. Not pictured but also available: makeup brushes, sponges, and various beauty tools.

Along with skincare lines for all skin types, Nature Republic also has sun care products, face "packs" (face masks), and a range of scented body lotions, cleansers, and body care products.

Nature Republic is open 7 days a week, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. It is located at 1152 S Santee St. inside Santee Alley.

Makeup and Beauty Supplies at Wholesale Prices + Giveaway! (Closed)

Ladies there's a whole new reason to visit the alley... We've long been known as the place to score $1 falsies, but HM Hormiguitas is changing the beauty ball game with their newly expanded location at 315 E 11th St. (inside Santee Alley). Officially the largest beauty and cosmetics store in the alley, they offer everything from foundation and eyeshadow palettes to hair extensions, straighteners and curling irons. HM also carries professional makeup cases in various sizes.

HM Hormiguitas Fashion & Beauty Supply
315 E 11th St. #315-B inside Santee Alley
323-200-8124
323-445-3010
hmario2011@hotmail.com

HM Hormiguitas is a distributor and wholesale vendor of makeup, including NYX products, beauty tools, hair tools, and hair extensions. Their brands include but are not limited to BeBella, Beyond the Beauty, LUV, Proliss, Iso, Herstyler, and Makeup For You. All their products are sold at wholesale prices. That's right, you can buy your beauty supplies direct from the source here too!

Their hair styling tools are top quality, comparable to what you would find at your local salon. Their top-selling hair styler brand, BeBella is one of the top-selling brands in Central and South America. HM has graciously provided us with a BeBella professional hair straightener (pictured below)  for one of our lucky readers! We'll be raffling it off this week. You can enter to win via the raffle widget below.

Enter the raffle to win this straightener!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


In addition to hair tools, you'll also find hair extensions. The colors available are the ones shown below. A couple of other things you'll find at HM that you won't find anywhere else in the alley: huge selection of false eyelashes and Latin American bath and beauty products.

The store will have a new sign in the next couple of weeks, but for the time being look for the hot pink
HM Hormiguitas banner. Happy shopping!

*Please note the contact information has been updated for this post

Santee Alley Halloween Costume Shopping Guide

The Santee Alley has everything you need for your Halloween costume. We had costumes for adults and children as well as accessories, makeup, wigs, and everything in between. For those of you that are leaving costume shopping to the last minute (Halloween is in exactly one week!), we've put together this handy guide to costume shopping in the alley...

Adult Costumes

Spice Intimates

Costumes, hosiery, tutus, lingerie and accessories
1143 Santee Alley and 1144 1/2 Santee St.
213-741-1112

K & M Lingerie

Costumes, tutus, lingerie, hosiery, contacts, masks, and accessories

312 E. 12th St. inside the alley

213-746-8005

Jasmin Lingerie

Costumes, lingerie, hosiery, and accessories

1138-A Santee Alley and  320 E. 12th St. 

213-748-7505

Pop-up Halloween Booth
Costumes for men and women, masks, and accessories

12th Street between Santee Street and Maple Avenue

Kids Costumes

Dulce
Princess dresses, Minnie Mouse outfits, and tutus for girls

1117-C Santee Alley
213-742-6915

Only for Kids
Princess dresses, Minnie Mouse costumes, and tutus for girls
1150-C Santee Alley

213-748-7558

Three's For Me
Princess dresses and Minnie Mouse costumes

1055 Maple Ave. and 1023 Maple Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90015
213-748-7811

Wigs, Makeup, & Accessories

Gloria Accessories
Wigs & Hair Extensions

1013 Santee Alley
323-273-7704

Hollywood Hair Extension
Wigs, hair extensions, & beauty supplies
1120-C Santee St.
213-765-9088

Nail Art Supplies
Eyelashes, nail polish, makeup, & beauty supplies
1055 Santee Alley
310-956-8783

Wigs & Accessories
Wigs, costume jewelry, & accessories
1118-D Santee Alley