Manolo for the Beauty

The lovely and beautiful Miriam writes:

I would love to wear more lipstick, but for some reason it always ends up on my teeth. Must be the way my mouth is shaped. I’ve tried the sucking on my finger trick, the putting it on 30 minutes before I leave, but alas, I always end up looking like a 13 year old experimenting with her mother’s make-up. Any suggestions?

Ack!  The dreaded lipstick-to-teeth migration!  I think at one point or another, Miriam, we have all had this happen to us.

Here are some tips that will hopefully help.  Use one, or use them all!  Whatever gets you back in lipstick, my friend!

-Make sure your lips are well-hydrated.  It might be worth it to lightly exfoliate them a bit, as well.

– Line lip with lip pencil before applying lip color.

-Apply color with a lip brush instead of directly from the tube.

-Blot your lipcolor with a some blotting paper or tissue.

-Models and beauty pageant contestants apply Vaseline to their teeth to keep the color from adhering to teeth.

And finally, if none of these work, I would personally advise using a lip stain instead of a lipstick.  It will still give you color, but hopefully none of it on your teeth.  You could try this one from The Balm, or this one from Tarte, both of which are rated highly as non-drying stains that don’t necessarily need a coat of gloss over them.

Ladies, do you have any other tips that worked for you?

This ad, for Rimmel’s 1-2-3 Mascara has been banned in Britain from both television and print. The Advertising Standards Authority believes that even though there is a small disclaimer a the bottom of the ad that states false lashes were used for the photos, Rimmel did not go far enough to warn women that their eyelashes may not quite look like the ones in the  photo.

Rimmel claims that they had to use false eyelashes because, you know, it’s a picture.  And pictures, they aren’t very clear.  The only way for them to effectively show the three possible looks was to enhance the model’s eyelashes.

That, says Glinda, is a load of bollocks.

Pictures these days tend to be very clear indeed, and if the product does what they claim it does, there should have been no need for “enhancement.”

Seriously, though, does anyone really believe advertising any more?  With the advent of Photoshop, I am dubious of any and all makeup claims.  Even if Rimmel hadn’t admitted to the false eyelashes, I still would have looked at the picture and said, “yeah, right.” I also would have said, “why in the world does the model keep progressively opening her mouth?

I’m a deep thinker like that.

via

It seems like women fall into two camps.

The first camp is very aware of their eyebrows, and spend quite a bit of time on their care and maintenance.  This would include waxing/plucking/threading (which I’ve always wanted to try) along with possible use of eyebrow pencils, powders, and brow-taming gels.

The other camp doesn’t think about them very much at all.

I’m going to put myself in the latter camp.  Oh sure, I pluck them once in a while to keep the shape, but for the most part, that’s it.  I have been genetically blessed with well-shaped brows which are not sparse, but are not too bushy either.   Trust me, there are plenty of other things I obsess about, but my brows aren’t one of them.

For my sister’s wedding almost eleven years ago, I did suddenly put a laser-like focus on my brows (because hello, wedding pictures are forever!) and wound up over-plucking them and looking slightly like the Joker’s younger sister.  Comic book version, that is.  That’s a mistake I made once.  Because I am actually staring at one of those very pictures from the wedding right now, and it never fails to serve as a reminder to go easy on the plucking.  Damn wedding pictures, why must you taunt me?

I do happen to think that well-groomed brows in the right shape for your face are almost like an instant facelift.  It can “bring up” your whole face, and help to make your eyes look larger.  If I didn’t pluck my eyebrows, I don’t think I would look as polished.  Trends in eyebrows do change, though, and for a while a fairly thin brow that was highly shaped was favored.  Now, though, things are coming back around to a stronger, bushier brow that looks a bit more natural.

For those that take their brows as a part-time job, I know that Anastasia has a reliable set of products that many women swear by.  A friend of mine even splurged and went to her salon for the initial shaping, and then faithfully replicated that shape for years at home.  She considered it money well spent.

What about you?  Do you spend a lot of time on your brows, or are they pretty much an afterthought?

Just be sure this isn’t the reaction you get while getting ready to go out this weekend!

I am thankful for a superfantastic boss who allowed me to start this little blog.  I am also thankful for the wonderful readers, such as yourself, who make this blog even possible!

Happy Thanksgiving!

And a belated Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends!

Lovely commenter klee requested a HowTo for false eyelashes, and her wish is my command!  Don’t you wish everything in life came this easily?

All right, so you want to do false eyelashes, eh?  It’s much easier than you would think, just don’t try it for the first time anywhere other than the comfort of home.  It probably will take a few tries, but soon you’ll be putting them on like a pro.

However, there are a few things to do before you actually begin putting on the lashes:

Buy some good false eyelashes. Illamasqua has some excellent ones.  You can buy full sets, or smaller clusters with only a few lashes per strip.  The full sets are easier to apply, though.

Get some good adhesive.  Duo is generally acknowledged to be the best.  Eyelash adhesive comes in either clear or black, and it’s basically a personal choice.  Generally if you’re a newbie, clear is probably your best bet.  However, black has some advantages, one being that you probably won’t need to use eyeliner to conceal the point of adhesion. Black adhesive is also stickier, which will work better if you plan on wearing your eyelashes for more than one day.

Look to see if you need to trim the lashes first, you’ll need a small sharp pair of scissors.  There are all sorts of different kinds with different effects, so hold them up to your natural lashes, and decide if trimming them would help them to look the way you want them to.  Straight out of the box may be too dramatic, or too long for your eye shape.  Be sure to mimic the arc of your natural lashes, with the longest on the outer edge, and trimming them to slightly different lengths will acheive a more natural look.  Start the trimming from the outer edge first.

Next, get your supplies together.  Some things you might need are toothpicks and Q-tips, while you will definitely need a clean, hard surface or some paper, and some tweezers.  Now we’re ready!

• Be sure that you clean your eyelids thoroughly! Oil, makeup, and whatever other residue is on there will cause the glue to not stay as well. 

• If you are applying individual clusters, squeeze some glue onto that clean, hard surface or paper and allow it to sit for a little bit.  It needs to become tacky. Use your tweezers to dip the lashes in the glue, or apply the glue with a toothpick.

• If you’ve got a full set going, apply a thin strip of adhesive along the base.  You might want to apply a little extra on the outer corners. Allow it to dry a bit to become tacky.

• Remember that you never want the adhesive to go directly onto your eyelid, it should always be put on the false eyelashes first.

• For the individual clusters, use the tweezers to apply them as close as possible to the root of your lashes.  Start at the outer corner and work your way in, leaving spaces in between.  Try to avoid applying any to the inner part of your eyelid.  Keep the clusters to five lashes or smaller, and you should only use a few.

• If you’ve got a full set, you can either use tweezers or your fingers to apply them as closely to the base of your lashes as you can, starting at the inside corner.  It’s up to you how comfortable you are with tweezers, or if you think your hands are small enough to really get in there and close to the base.

• Use a Q-tip or your fingers to press the lashes into your eyelid. Hold and let the glue dry.

• An eyelash curler is optional, some use it before the application on their natural lashes and others use it after the false eyelashes have been applied.  In my opinion, it’s a personal preference.

• If you’ve used a clear adhesive, now is the time to apply liquid eyeliner along the base of your eyelashes to unify the lashes. You can also do a line of dark eyeshadow instead.

• Mascara is also optional, for some the extra lashes are all that is needed, while others prefer more drama.  It’s all about the look you are going for.

And that’s it!  Not too hard, and false eyelashes are a fantastic way to amp up your look.

I would be remiss if I didn’t also let you know that you should never just try and rip the eyelashes off to remove them, you should always use some makeup remover.  Dab a cotton ball full of remover on your lash line, beginning at the outer corner and allow it to soak in for a bit.  This should loosen the adhesive enough so that you can gently pull them off.

Gorgeous women. Bad, bad, photos.

All right, even trying to disregard the badly placed and colored V, WTF? Jane recently admitted to having plastic surgery, and they really did do a good job because she still looks pretty natural and well, like Jane Fonda.  However, why do they have her hands placed on the side of her head as if she was trying to pull up her face? Or holding up her hair. And why is her hair sticking straight up off of her head? Everybody hated when Ke$ha did it, it doesn’t look any better on Jane.  Isn’t the open mouth photo the one we are always yelling at people not to take of us, as we are ready to take a bite of something?  “Don’t take a picture of me with my mouth open, for god’s sake!” But here’s Jane, right on the cover with the very same look.  So many questions, so little answers.

Next up we’ve got the stunning Sigourney Weaver, who has somehow defaulted to the “I’m having a bad hair day” soccer mom hairdo. A baseball cap? If they are trying to evoke youthful playfulness, it’s not working. This is  freaking Ripley people, not some poor schmuck who’s running late to carpool.  I take strong issue with the fact that we have what basically amounts to an upshot of her nose.  Well, at least the V frames her face nicely, and that’s all the good I have to say about this one.

Oh lord, forgive them, for they know not what they do. The wig Susan Sarandon is so gamely sporting looks like it came out of a moth-eaten trunk from the wardrobe of a small-town, low-budget production of Lady Macbeth.  If you look past the egregious hair, she definitely looks the best of the bunch.  Which isn’t saying a whole lot.

If that’s the best they can do with the wonderful subjects they had to photograph, no wonder everyone is afraid of aging.

According to this article in the LA Times, it seems that some prestige skincare brands, such as Kinerase, Rodial, and Borba, will be producing lower-priced “capsule collections” in order to expand their customer base.  Hey, in the clothing world it’s worked for Lanvin and Karl Lagerfeld, right?

 Well, some of them won’t carry the brand name into the drugstore, because apparently upon seeing that someone could pick up the same brand at Walgreens, the customer who pays $78 for a small tube of undereye cream would run away screaming for something a bit more elitist.  No, these products will operate under the assumed names of Dr. Lewinn for Kinerase at Walgreens and Wal-Mart, and NIP+FAB for Rodial to be sold at Target.  Borba is keeping the name, but adding the term “Collection” to the products. 

The trick will be for the products to still contain the pricey ingredients, there will just be less quantity of them.  Both in actual amounts and number of different ingredients.  Where the full-priced version might contain eight expensive ingredients, the lower end will have two.

I will admit to being extremely interested in Kinerase products, only to be turned away at the thought of paying that much money for only one tube of something, to which would need to be added at least one other tube, which would result in a bill of a couple hundred bucks.  Maybe I’ll be willing to drop that much into skincare in ten years or so, but not right now.

So I have to admit they’ve probably got a good marketing strategy going.

And, I’m sort of in love with this quote from the founder of Borba,

The innovator also sees potential for more dedicated consumers: “People can buy the entire Borba Collection armada, instead of saying, ‘I can only afford this product this month.'”

The Borba Armada, ready to launch Operation Wrinkle Remove on your face!

As I watch my year old daughter smile and flirt outrageously with herself in the mirror, I can’t help but laugh. She is so cute, I can’t help myself.

But then I wonder, what happens to women to make them stop doing that?

Even the most gorgeous woman I know cannot seem to help finding flaws with what she sees in the mirror. 

Is it advertising? Is it family? Is it society in general?  Or is it all those things wrapped up in a melange of negativity that almost forces us to focus on the very few things that are “wrong” with us instead of the many things that are right?

When I found out I was going to be writing a beauty blog, I didn’t want it to seem as if I was saying that a woman needs to use cosmetics to “fix” herself.  I don’t feel that way at all.  I will spare you the cliched “every woman is beautiful” speech, but just know that I use beauty products to have fun and enhance what the good Lord gave me, not as a means of camoflague.

So this weekend, I have a task for you.

Look at yourself in the mirror and love what you see there.  Find one particular fabulous things about yourself (amongst the many, darlings) and play it up so that the masses can rejoice in your glory.

I’m not kidding. 

Do it.

Girlfriend looks fabulous, does she not?

I would never have thought that someone as fair-skinned as she is could get away with wearing white and not look washed out, but she doesn’t look that way in the least.

She’s got a bit of eyeliner going on the top and bottom, but other than that, she’s really natural looking.  I think I might hate her.

And I don’t know who is doing her hair, but she must never, never let them go.

Compare this to what she looked like a week or so ago:

She’s got a bit of a stronger lip, although that isn’t saying a whole lot. Her hair is still flat-out gorgeous. The biggest difference is her eyeliner, which on the bottom is applied to the inner lining. This use of eyeliner has always squicked me out, I’ve never done it and I am of the camp that thinks it closes in the eye rather than enlarging it. Thoughts?

Mmmm, yeah. I definitely hate her.

My stylist frowned at me and asked,  “Do you sleep on your back?”  At the time I did, and I answered in the affirmative.  She said I had all kinds of broken hair on the back of my head from sleeping that way, and advised me to buy a silk pillowcase, stat.   I never did, because I couldn’t really see them, and at the time, I was really poor.  Then later on, I read that sleeping on a silk pillowcase helped to fend off wrinkles on the face as well.  Now that one is reigniting my interest in silk pillowcases, because I can indeed see my wrinkles.  A little too well, actually.

I decided to do some research on the intertubes as to whether purchasing one would be a good idea, or just money down the drain.

What I found was really interesting.

First, I found this website that examines in a scientific manner the claims made by one particular producer of silk pillowcases.  And scientifically, there was nothing that said they were better than regular old cotton, at least from a skin perspective.  The hair perspective wasn’t really addressed. For some entertainment, go ahead and read some of the comments, almost all of which are shills for silk pillowcase companies expressing outrage over the findings on the site.

Then I went on a few different websites and looked at chat forums and such, all of them asking about the efficacy of silk pillowcases, which often sidetracked onto satin pillowcases and debates about the different merits of the two. 

So what seemed to be the consensus?

That silk/satin pillowcases can be pricey, but really good ones are soft and lovely to sleep on, if nothing else.  Almost everyone said that they noticed a big difference in their hair, but as far as the face goes, the pillowcases only served to prevent sleep creases, not actual wrinkles. 

I’m going to call myth on the wrinkles, and fact on the hair.