Manolo for the Beauty

So you’ve got an especially well-endowed set of lips?  Most women would be panting with jealousy, as there are bajillions (seriously, bajillions) of products designed to make your lips appear larger than they really are.

However, let’s say that you aren’t comfortable with your lip size, and possibly for certain occasions, would like to minimize their appearance rather than highlight them.

Glinda is here for you.

I’ve done a bit of research for you so that you don’t have to wade through articles that tell you to commit to an exercise routine for your lips so that you can get rid of their extra fat.  Yes, someone actually DID write that.

Anyhoo, for those times when you would rather your lips not take so much of the spotlight, here are some tips:

1) Use matte colors, no shine.

2) Try applying foundation on your lips before lip color application.  This can help reduce their outline a little bit.

3) Soft neutral colors rather than dark or intense ones.

5) Highlight another part of your face to draw some attention away from the lips, but don’t overdo it.  It’s a fine line, to be sure.

There seems to be some disagreement about the use of a lip liner, and I myself am torn.  Usually a lip liner is used to make lips larger, but I could see that it could help define a smaller lip when using the foundation trick.

Good luck!

A little while ago I read a beauty tip that caused me to pull a Homer Simpson.

Forgive me for forgetting the source, but the article suggested that if you have a fancy schmancy facial cleanser that contains fancy schmancy ingredients, that you should leave it on your skin for a minimum of thirty seconds.

Because of course you want your skin to have the maximum exposure time to those special ingredients, and if you just apply it and quickly wash it off, then you aren’t really giving the product a chance to work in the way it was intended.

I tried it out while using my glycolic acid cleanser, and by golly, I did see a difference in the performance of the cleanser.

Should have been a no brainer, right?

Teenagers would be buying these in droves.  Which I don’t think they are.  Heck, I would be buying it in droves.   Hitting forty did nothing to stop blemishes, which is not how I imagined forty to be.

Some say the Tanda Zap works, others say it doesn’t.  Is it worth fifty bucks to find out?

Although as someone who grew up with some acne problems (not, thankfully, the cystic type) and a mother indifferent to the state of my skin, I have taken a vow to do whatever it takes to ensure that neither of my children have to endure unnecessary skin problems.

Hopefully they have inherited their dad’s skin, which is pretty much breakout-free.  And to think, he doesn’t even really wash his face!

I’m always afraid to try new skin products because sometimes my face totally freaks out.  I never know when it’s going to happen, and since I have a horrible track record about returning things, I’m hesitant to make a big purchase.

However.

One Nighty Nite Tonic Facial Masks are eco-friendly, travel-friendly, and most importantly, have an extremely budget-friendly price.

Sold only online at Target.

Based on some communications with Accidental Tangoiste and the lovely Gamma, today’s post is about video makeup tutorials.  For the visual leanrners amongst us, there is nothing quite like actually seeing how the makeup is applied, rather than reading about it.  I must admit, it can be very helpful to see the application techniques the pros use.

However, there are literally millions of makeup tutorials on YouTube.  It would take someone days and days to go through them all, just to figure out if they were even any good or not.

I do not have that kind of time.

I’m sure you don’t either.

So what is my fail-proof method for finding great tutorials on teh interwebs?

I search for beauty brands that I like or stores that I like (hello Sephora!) and find out if they have their own YouTube channel.  Most of the time, they do.

Like this smokey eye tutorial from Sephora:

Or this one from Temptalia:

How about this from makeup guru Lisa Eldridge?  I particularly like this one because homegirl knows her stuff, has a lovely accent, and has lots of extra tips!

This isn’t to say that the “amatuer” video tutorials aren’t worth anything, (some of them have millions of views!) it’s just that if I’m looking to minimize my search time, I’m going to start off with a well-known brand, store, or makeup artist.

I’m also going to add that I think for makeup newbies or someone who isn’t that into makeup, having the right tools is half the battle!

Sigh, imagine if Kevyn Aucoin was still around and had his own YouTube channel! Swoon!

The captivating Accidental Tangoiste emailed moi with the following:

I’m beginning to seriously wonder what I’m doing wrong in my use of eyeliner. I got home after an evening out last night to find that once again the liner on my lower lids had settled into every crease, despite the primer I’d used and what I think is a relatively light application.

I generally use a brown pencil–Maybelline, I think–to slightly dramatize the simple brown shadow that I like to use to bring out my baby blues, for evenings. My nights out mainly involve dancing, and I do tend to end up perspiring in a most unladylike manner, so I don’t know, maybe there’s nothing I can do but keep periodically checking it in the restroom.

 

Hmmm, yes, dancing and perspiring (ladylike manner or not) is always tough on eyeliner.

Here are my top tips for helping your eyeliner stay put:

1) Choose a gel or liquid eyeliner over a pencil.  This is probably the best choice to ensure no eyeliner slippage occurs.

2) Make sure your eyeliner is described as “smudge proof” or similar adjectives.

3) If you must use a pencil liner, try freezing it for about ten minutes before application.

4) Then, apply a similarly colored eyeshadow with an angled brush over the eyeliner to help keep it in place.

Anyone else have any tried and true methods that worked for you? Do tell!

And next week, the best smoky eye tutorials on teh internets!

INTO a pot, to be exact.

You see, I am one of those people who tends to leave a lipstick in the car at all times so that I may have one on hand whenever needed.  Because sometimes I take my big purse, sometimes I take my small purse, and sometimes I take no purse at all.  So, I just like to have one there in case of an emergency.

Uh, yeah, being lipstick-less DOES qualify, thankyouverymuch.

Anyhoo, wouldn’t you think I would remember some silly fact like it is summer and the car gets superhot?  As in, melting-my-lipstick hot?

Well, I didn’t remember and now one of my Dior Addicts is all mooshy and I hate mooshy lipstick. I also have a Benefit one that somehow got broken, probably because I forgot to take it out of my pocket and it went into the washing machine. I do that a lot, too.

Enter the helpful ladies of this forum discussion at Spektra.

It seems you can melt your mooshy/broken lipsticks into an empty lip balm container and as long as you don’t mind using a lip brush, you are good to go.  In case you don’t read all the way down, it is possible to put the whole thing in a microwave instead of melting above an open flame.

Now, why didn’t I think of that?

My, that is such a service-y type of title isn’t it?

I figured that since it is mid-June, it is probably time to start discussing the ways in which we change our beauty routines when the hot and sometimes humid weather kicks in.

I am fortunate to live in a fairly temperate climate.  Sure, we’ll get hot here, but humidity is rarely a huge factor.  Not that I’m far from the ocean, but for some reason the days in which the heat and humidity are positively unbearable are few.

So, my beauty tips for hot weather, limited as they are, are as follows:

-Figure out a flattering way to wear your hair up and get your hair off your neck.  You’ll be at least five degrees cooler, I promise.  Or, if you are the type that doesn’t mind, get a short haircut and fugeddaboudit.

– Powder is your friend.

– As are blotting papers.  And in a pinch, did you know that the ubiquitous toilet seat covers found in public restrooms make fantastic blotters?  Uh, straight from the dispenser, which goes without saying.

– Sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen.  We all know this, but it bears repeating.   Be even smarter than you already are and combine powder and sunscreen together. My very fair-skinned sister uses this handy portable powder sunscreen and swears by it.

– And even with sunscreen, I’ve lately become very fond of hats in hot weather.

– Even though it also sounds obvious, go for light washes of color rather than dramatic statements.   Well, dramatic statements can be saved for nighttime, anyway.

– Fake some color with a great bronzer.

All right ladies, step up and share your best hot weather beauty tips!  We are dying to know!

Pros: Great shine, easy to hold, inexpensive, easy to use, lasts a long time.

Cons: None I can think of.

Verdict: If you don’t polish your nails, this is a fantastic alternative.

I remember when the Biore Deep Cleansing Pore Strips first came out. It had the commercial with the model ripping one of the strips off of her nose and then wrinkling it in disgust and saying “Ewwwwww!”  as she saw the gunk that was formerly in her nose appear on the strip.

A neat idea, actually.

I admit to being someone who really hates blackheads.  I seem to be very prone to them, even though I do my darndest to keep them at bay.

I have in the past used the Biore strips and indeed copied almost the exact expression of the actress in the commercial. 

But for some reason, I stopped using them.  Not because they didn’t work, they worked quite well.

However, I think it just got really depressing that no matter how often I used the strips, probably once or twice a week, nothing was getting better.  It became a Sisyphean task that was quite draining on my wallet, as those suckers are not all that cheap. 

I am also prone to broken capillaries on my nose (Glinda was not first in line when they were handing out the good skin) and it seemed this product caused more problems than it solved.  Because really, they don’t solve anything.

Instead, I use a cleansing product with glycolic acid and lotions that help to minimize the look of my pores.

Am I the only one who is obsessed with this?

My large pores and I will just slink away now.