Multi-year Texan Beauty Winner Joins Studio Direct

The simple words “Pleajanetsed” and “Proud” don’t even begin to  express our feelings in announcing the addition of Ms. Janet Blum-Randolph to the Studio Direct family. Well-established in the entertainment industry via her long and storied success in talent and beauty pageant competition, Janet stands out as a truly flawless diamond among other, still-beautiful gems.

Inarguably stunning in her physical characteristics, Janet comes to Studio Direct also possessed of an enviable educational and professional resume comprised of a

  • B.S. in Physical Therapy
  •  President, Freshman Honor Society, Alpha Lambda Delta
  •  Member, English Honor Society, Omega Rho Alpha
  •  Member, Top 20% Nations Graduates, Gamma Beta Phi
  • Member, National Dean’s List, 1985-1986
  •  4-year member, TWU Deans List

composing a 24-year long career creating and coordinating physical therapy programs for those in sports medicine, in-patient and home healthcare, wound care and other assistive settings.

As for family, Janet is today a Texas mother raising Quentin 21, Jacob 18, Drake 16 and Isabella 15; a rewarding experience she chose in place of her runway career to which she returned “after the heavy-lifting was done at home” in 2011 only to pick up right where she left off winning

  • Mrs. United States and Fitness Winner, 2013
  • Mrs. Texas United States and Fitness Winner, 2013
  • Mrs. Texas  America Second Runner up and Interview Winner, 2012
  • Ms. Texas United States 2011
  • Third Runner Up and Photogenic Winner, Ms. United States 2011

and before that she held the titles of

  • Second Runner Up Mrs. Texas America, 2005
  • First Runner up Mrs. Texas America and Swimsuit Winner, 2001
  • Third Runner up Miss SE Texas USA and swimsuit finalist 1991

Wholly understanding that an outward appearance is due not only to a cosmetic cover but to also meeting the nutritional and physical  needs of the body within, she and the contestants who have trusted her advice for many years have used Studio Direct Cosmetics to conceal whatever physical blemishes remain and highlight their natural appearance.

With an evidenced and proven commitment to helping others, Janet came to Studio Direct not seeking employment but as a proven professional business woman and multiple-winner in an extremely wide and competitive environment. A long-standing member of a truly unique club in competitive arenas (competitors who also help fellow competitors bring out the best in themselves) she was asking if there was some way to conjoin her professional experience and success with our proven product, which she was already using on herself and other contestants, to help this new generation of Miss and Mrs state and national beauty contestants be all that they can be. And, given the individual accomplishments of both, Studio Direct is elated to have such a talented and accomplished young lady join our woman-owned and operated health and beauty company. We invite you wholeheartedly to learn more about her on her own website, we thank her for her long-standing confidence in our product, we congratulate her on her personal, professional and educational triumphs and we enthusiastically welcome her with open arms into the Studio Direct family.

It is our hope, that as the Studio Direct line grows well-beyond the bounds of the entertainment industry via our new Studio Direct website 2.0, you’ll avail yourselves of the wealth of information we plan to publish, all authored by well-experienced and educated professionals like Janet, designed to explain the differences in and benefits of today’s available cosmetics such that you can make an intelligent and informed decision when it comes to enhancing your own appearance.

Studio Direct 2.0

More than 13 years ago, Studio Direct left the safety and security of the exclusive provisioning of cosmetics to the studio industry and opened our doors to the public by adding a new website to our business. Then, just three short years ago, we added a blog and, despite not really knowing what we were doing in the internet space, we’ve seen our internet customer number rise to more than 15,000 during that time. Is it because we place such a high premium on customer service or is it because there REALLY IS A MARKED  DIFFERENCE between the mass-produced and marketed products that line the store shelves today and our formulations that the entertainment industry has preferred for more than a decade? We really don’t know but we rather think it’s a combination of both. What we do know though is that over the past 13-years, while our way of doing business…always putting the customer first… and product quality have remained  unchanged, the Internet has not.

Now, if it was just that the look and feel of today’s websites are light years ahead of ours, that’d probably be OK; we’ve never placed a premium on merely “looking the part”. But the fact of the matter is that today’s websites provide customers with a degree of speed, accuracy and convenience that our aging, HTML-based site just can’t match and that’s NOT OK WITH US.

For almost a decade and a half, while leading the entertainment industry in product purchase and use, Studio Direct has gone head-to-head with the multi-million dollar cosmetic companies that own the public space and have truly held our own. More than 15,000 people have found and continue to find the products and service they love right here at Studio Direct. And while in comparison to MAC, NYX and the other marketing machines in the public space whose retail numbers are in the many-millions, the 15,000 personal “friends” we’ve come to have is a number we can always live with. And we owe it to them, as well as the coming generation who know and can feel and appreciate the difference between mass-produced cosmetics and Studio Directs custom formulations, to provide them with the level of speed and accuracy made possible only by today’s advanced internet technology.

Studio Direct Cosmetics is truly fortunate to service the very same entertainment industry whose technologists have created the science behind today’s modern websites and, thanks to 3 of the industries most experienced CGI and graphic effects professionals, Ron Yates, Casey Spillman and Carol Ettinger, Studio Direct’s virtual presence is well on its way to providing our customers with a level of computerized service that matches that of our personal commitment.

Studio Direct has always distinguished itself by producing only the finest of cosmetic products and enabling their shipping on either the same day upon which the customer orders them or, for orders places after 3pm PST, next-day shipping. And, working 363-days a year (except for Christmas and Chanukah), we continue to lead the industry in this fee-free service. Now, by enabling Studio Direct 2.0 in our on-line presence, we look forward to providing you with the same high level of speed, accuracy and convenience in your online shopping experience.

Tired of Underperforming Powder?

I’m tired of paying loads of money for makeup with such low pigmentation and shoddy formulation. I’d rather mix my own cosmetics, but I can’t seem to find pure 100% cosmetic pigments.” Great idea! Unfortunately, like everything, it’s easier said than done.The FDA or Federal Drug Administration regulates much of the cosmetics industry and they’re fairly hard on “adulterated” mixtures or ones that don’t meet their pre-approved formulations. (Funny how they worry about face powder but not lipstick lead!) That, and the fact that it really isn’t all about the base color when it comes to the opacity of a cosmetic but more about the effects of the other ingredients AND color pigment in the formulation of the end product powder that makes this person, and millions of other, tired of underperformed powders.

Everything interacts with everything else in the world of science which is why cosmetic formulations are such well-guarded secrets; not unlike Coca Cola or Pepsi. The cost of a cosmetic powder that really performs, like Studio Direct or MAC for example, is due to the research and development behind it. Smart people are expensive and even using the brightest minds in the world, formulations are the results of the trial-and-error process. Now trial-and-error doesn’t mean throwing a dart at a dartboard hanging on a black wall in a dark room. It’s “predictive” which means simply that scientists combine what they’ve learned in college-level to PhD academics with their subsequent real-world experience and make “educated guesses” to begin a trial-and-error quest for the perfect formulation; this is in a scientific world where adding an amount of something that weighs half that of a human hair (.50mg or a few dust particles) can completely change the color of a product.

So, with the exception of getting back some of the “markup” cost (difference between a company’s cost to produce a cosmetic and the price you pay on the sticker) of your under-performing cosmetic by making it perform when it should have in the first place, there’s very little benefit to adding your own color and, in fact, you may change the color all-together. There’s a reason powders like Studio Direct and MAC are used extensively in the entertainment industry and that’s because the cost of failure is so great. The more complete the color is, the fewer times it needs to be re-applied to the performer and the fewer times you hear, “Hold for makeup” on the set. The fewer times you hear that on-set, the less the production cost is.

Coenzyme Q10, your Wallet and Your Skin

It seems the battle has raged for the past 30-years as to whether Coenzyme Q10 or “CoQ10″ as it’s called really works cosmetically.  You can see it or it’s derivatives Ubiquinol and Ubiquinone listed all the time on labels and in it’s oxidized form but what is it and could it possibly stop or slow the aging of skin? Well, to answer that question, a short explanation is in order; the Cliffs Notes version of course.

Up into our late 20s, our bodies naturally produce CoQ10 in the form of Ubiquinone which helps the cells produce energy and collagen and elastin; keeping the balloons inflated and firm so to speak. But the body also metabolizes Ubiquinone into Ubiquinol which works to fight free-radicals; those renegade oxygen molecules that destroy collagen and elastin and other things that make our skin appear thin, saggy and wrinkly. It’s a physiological process but the simple truth is that both Ubiquinol and Ubiquinone both benefit the skin and body. The issue is, how to keep the creation of Ubiquinone and its metabolizing into Ubiquinol going.

You see, after about 30, our body slows the creation of Ubiquinone and and it’s  metabolization into Ubiquinol thus slowing the cellular support of collagen and elastin AND the fight against free-radicals. So the search has always been for a way to create and then physically introduce synthesized or “man-made” CoQ10 in the form of Ubiquinol into the body for cellular uptake. The problem was that both forms of CoQ10 are “hydrophobic” which means they don’t dissolve in water. And because nutrients are absorbed through the small intestine, this makes it hard to get the powdery, synthesized Ubiquinol into the bloodstream and then into the cell walls where it works to fight free-radicals and thus stop or at least slow the aging process all skin goes through.  So, what to do.

BioAvailability – Well, it turns out the answer was fairy simple when you look back on it. Instead of water, why not use oil capsules like Vitamin E comes in because both forms of CoQ10 dissolved easily in oil. That way, the gelatin coating that surrounded the oil and dissolved Ubiquinol could dissolve in the small intestine and be absorbed it the blood stream and taken to the cells to fight those wrinkle-causing, skin-degenerating free-radicals. And it worked. The down side was that the process of making those gelatin capsules was extremely high making the capsules expensive. Thankfully, science has allowed the development of what is known as BioQ10SA; a process which lowers the manufacturing cost of Ubiquinol capsules while still getting the compound through the intestinal walls and into the blood stream and cell walls to fight free-radicals.

So, rather than go on with a lay person’s view of just why, for Studio Direct clients anyway, we believe in the importance of CoQ10, physician and nutritionist Dr. Joseph Mercoloa explains the benefits and the cautions that accompany CoQ10 internally in this video.

Let’s Talk Beauty


Advertisers in general bear a large part of the responsibility for creating the deep feelings of inadequacy that drive women to the cosmetics counter.  ~Max Factor, 1964

There’s a reason why Studio Direct Cosmetics can count a dozen or more production companies and more than 10,000 people world-wide as customers with only 11 “neutral” or “dis-satisfied” comments left in that time on our eBay site (you can’t please all the people all the time). Most of our customers have been returning for over 10-years and it’s because of 3-things; performance, customer service and scientifically-based product formulations. With information traveling at the speed of light, the world, and especially our customers, are becoming smarter, faster, demanding that anyone making claims be able to back them up as to the “why” & “how” behind their products .

This Blog is dedicated providing a forum for people to discuss the why and how of Studio Direct cosmetics with our scientists and others responsible for creating our award-winning products; professionals who revel in being able to reduce the complex to the simple in explaining what you should be looking for in a cosmetic whether it’s a Studio Direct product or not. So with that, let me kick off the Blog by directing you over to our Inside Beauty forum for a discussion on the facts and fabrications of today’s “wonder-vitamin”, the cosmetic additive, Coenzyme Q10.