Fifties Makeup Coming Back?

I’ve seen a lot of throwback photos recently of young starlets in heavy black, winged eye makeup, a throwback to the fifties and sixties mod look that used to adorn the likes of Twiggy (the skinny supermodel), Goldie Hawn, Bridget Bardot and Barbara Streisand.

The “cat eyes” look was all the rage back then, and still is used in throwback photo shoots today to sex-kitten up the women and make them look like the epitome of the femme fatale character.

I’m starting to see more of this type of makeup, and I think that the deep blues, pinks and purples of the fifties and sixties are making quite the comeback. I couldn’t be more pleased, since these are the colors that most complement my features!

They are actually quite universal in their complementary nature though. Blues, purples and the cooler colors on the eye makeup spectrum. It’s the warmer colors that you have to be careful for, because the warmer browns, bronzes, yellows and golds only really look good on people with a warmer, darker skin tone.

There are a lot of smoke-eye kits out there right now that help you achieve the fifties and sixties mod cat eye look. It’s almost one in the same, the smoke look and the cat eye mod look, because a lot of the same cooler tones are used.

The most recent photo spread I saw that threw back to this time period and look was the W magazine Kristen Stewart spread. She wears the big, gorgeous hair with lots of body and texture, and bold, deep dark eye makeup. Very different for her, and it brought out her beautiful eyes really well.

The only thing that isn’t making a comeback yet, since it already did in the eighties, is the light pink shimmery lipstick. That was all the rage in the eighties, with bright pastels being in for the eyes. Now, the nudes and reds are really in for the lips. I wish that I had fuller lips so I could wear reds without it drawing attention to my thin lips

Just because you have lips that are on the thinner side, doens’t mean you can’t wear some version of red. You just should go with a more muted tone, with a little bit of a purple shade to it. Purples help to make the lips look larger and more well shaped – at least that’s what I’ve found for my lips.

Fishing Lures as a Hair Accessory?

Whether your hair is short or long, there’s nothing more fun than purchasing a new hair accessory to give you a boost.  Throughout history, women have been adorning their hair with a wide variety of clips, barrettes, headbands and ribbons.

So, it’s no wonder that the latest craze in fashion hair accessories is in a most unlikely, yet original, area.  The latest fashion trend in hair accessories for women is fly -tie feathers that are usually used for fishing lures.

Fly shop owners and managers have been caught off-guard with the sudden high demand from hair stylists looking for fly-tie feathers.  It’s an unexpected challenge to try to keep up with the unprecedented increased need for these suddenly fashionable items.

The fad was started by vocalist, Steven Tyler, of Aerosmith, who began wearing the fly-tie feathers in his long locks.  So, this fad can be for men or women.

The fishing lures so suddenly stylish are called hackles and they are long skinny rooster feathers.  And, as business and economic facts go, when the demand is high and the supply is low, the price goes up.

The feathers are being sold online and getting much higher prices than usual.  The feathers are not that easy to come by is the first place since they come from roosters that are specially bred for their unique plumage.

When the feathers are used in hair extensions, they can be either brushed, blown dry or curled.  In beauty salons, the feather strands are usually sold for about $5.00 or $10.00 per piece and that is subject to change as the supply lessens.

As to how most fly fishing stores are handling this latest fashion craze, they are favoring their regular customers and some managers are not selling them for hairstyling uses.  The wholesale suppliers to these stores are favoring their regular customers too.  Their philosophy is looking at the long-run of their businesses.

As with any fashion fad, the demand will die down and the suppliers and shops will have to rely on the true anglers and fishermen to keep them in business. This trend has caused some husbands and boyfriends to be possessive of their fishing lure stock telling their wives and girlfriends to stay out of it.

It may be a difficult time for women to buy fishing lures as shop owners may assume they are buying them for hairstyling uses and not want to sell them the feathers.  The cost increase really is remarkable with a typical package of rooster feathers that used to be about $60.00 now selling for anywhere from $200.00 to $400.00.

Eyelash Accelerators a Huge Market Now

One huge beauty trend that you have probably noticed becoming larger than life over the past few years are eyelash growth accelerators.  These eyelash enhancing products propose to enhance the thickness and length of your lashes – something often coveted by women since it can really enhance the eyes and make them pop.

They can come in a variety of ways as well. Some are a gel that you simply put along the lash line, and some are just like mascara, using a wand to apply the serum or gel to the eyelashes directly. The one that you need a prescription for, Latisse, is one that is applied along the lash line. 

Other eyelash growth accelerators also claim to help darken the lashes, reducing the need for so much mascara. For me, I actually have decently long lashes, but they are not very dark, especially as I age, so I really need that hint of black in my mascara to really make them stand out from my eyes.

Beautiful, long eyelashes can really enhance your overall appearance. They can bring out your eyes, and they are a great finisher to your completed look along with eyeshadow and eyeliner. Mascara further brings them out, but if you don’t have a lot of lashes, or not very long lashes to start with, then you won’t be able to make them really stand out.

It’s funny, we used to buy up false eyelashes to make this happen, but now you can actually help your own natural eyelashes to grow out into what you want them to be, without worryign about your falsies falling off, or looking too fake. Although I will say, falsies can really create a great illusion if you have the patience to apply them.

You really have to know what you’re doing though. The majority of the models that are shown in magazines and on television need to have falsies applied just so that their eyes will stand out enough in the picture and not disappear into the rest of their face.

One Minute Facelift by Former Model Jane Hitchcock

I received this information and thought it very interesting, about a former model (gorgeous at that), who has come out with a new ebook called the one minute facelift. The model’s name is Jane Hitchcock. I’ve put a recent photo of her below, you can see she still looks radiant, lifted and youthful, and she claims she has not had any surgery but instead has relied on a natural method of keeping her face young looking.  Facial exercises can be quite effective as an anti aging weapon.

Super Model  Jane Hitchcock at 57 Unveils Her E-Book…

Super Model Jane Hitchcock One Minute Facelift

‘The One Minute Facelift’  A remarkable program teaching how she maintains her face’s youthful contours.

READ ABOUT AND BUY ‘ The One Minute Facelift’ e-Book here ** replacing link once their new site is opened.

Jane has not tried fillers, plumpers or Botox. ”I’m happy with the results I’m getting keeping it natural, exercising your face is as effective as exercising your body”.

Being concerned that things can go wrong with surgery  and the long-term health effects of injecting chemicals, Jane has chosen another route. She claims “Other benefits to facial exercising are increased blood flow, cell detoxification and rejuvenated skin”.

A World of Experience in Looking Good

PR Jane_Hitchcock_1970_Feb_Vogue_ItalyPR L Officiele copybazaar 1970

Jane has worked and lived in capitals like New York, LA, London, Paris, Rome and Milan being photographed by world renowned photographers such as Steven
Meisel, Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton, Guy Bourdin, David Bailey, Barry Lategan, Bert Stern, Neal Barr, Sarah Moon, Irving Penn and Hiro.

Walking the runway for Calvin Klein, Jean Muir and Jasper Conran and appearing on multiple magazine covers, I think she may know a thing or two about aging gracefully. I have tried some facial exercises myself, and have found that they work well for me personally. I’ve gotten away from them a bit, but now I think this has inspired me to get back on the wagon and start working my facial muscles again.

I refuse to undergo surgery, get Botox, or alter my face in any way. But if there is a natural way I can lift my face and keep it youthful looking, you’d better bet I’ll try it!

Bristol Palin : Plastic Surgery?

The tongues were wagging when a noticeably different looking (and slimmer looking) Bristol Palin emerged in a public appearance only a few days ago.  I saw the pictures, and I’ll admit, she looked much different than the pictures that were taken of her just a few months ago, and when she was on the Dancing with the Stars reality show.

A girl, especially a young, more impressionable girl, can really feel the heat and the pressure of looking good when in the spotlight, especially in the Hollywood circuit. Of course, she had her critics about her weight, which isn’t cool, because she’s really just a healthy, normal size by most other standards.

But the newer pictures of Bristol had some wondering if she actually had plastic surgery on her face, because it did look so radically different. A person’s face can change pretty dramatically when they lose weight, but this almost looked like the structure of her face changed as well.

Today though, Bristol has come forward and said she had reconstructive jaw surgery. What is that? At least that’s what I asked myself, as I didn’t know this type of surgery was done unless you had some sort of major accident.

Bristol has said that the surgery she had, which basically narrowed the bottom region of her face, and makes her look more mature, albeit more attractive and more defined, was not plastic surgery, but rather it was to make her jaw bones align.  Hmm, a little suspicious, but she’s a cute girl and we’ll let her get away with the explanation!

There are actually also facial exercises that can help you tone and tighten your face and lift the sagginess that often comes with aging, which I think can help people like Bristol who may have been self conscious about having a bit of a double chin and more fat on their faces, or ill defined structure.

I have started doing some on myself, and I like the results, especially when it comes to my “waddle” area, which is just under the chin, where the skin tends to hang a bit as we age, and becomes a little bit of a double chin. It can work tremendously, and it’s all natural and free, you just have to be disciplined enough to actually do them several times a week. 

Facial exercises work great in confunction with a good anti aging skin care routine, since the products you use can greatly enhance the elasticity of the skin, the brightness, and the general appearance of the skin tone.  They complement eachother very well as an overall anti aging strategy.

Tattoo Removal

People get tattoos for a variety of reasons, usually acquiring them in their youth.  While tattoos can be a fashion statement for some, often tattoos received at a young age are done impulsively without the realization that it may be regretted 10 or 20 years down the line.

Many times when an individual is in the corporate world or their lifestyle has changed from their younger years, they have a strong desire to”erase” the tattoo.  Whatever the reason for the change of heart regarding the tattoo, they have to look into what is involved in removing the tattoo. 

Tattoo removal is still an involved process today but it is much improved from the procedures done years earlier.  Before the 1990′s, tattoo removal was done by a process of abrading or slicing it off, which meant pain and oozing followed by a scar. 

Fortunately, since some time in the early 1990′s, the process has become improved through the use of lasers. The kind of laser that is cosidered the gold standard for tattoo removal is the quality-switched or Q-switched laser. 

The Q-switched laser is effective at tattoo removal via the use of short, high powered pulses that break the ink into particles.  The ink particles are eliminated by the patient’s immune system.  When removing a tattoo, certain colors of ink are more difficult to remove than others. The deeper they have to go, the more painful it may be in the removal process.

Black ink is less difficult since lasers work well on dark colors but the brighter colors such as yellows are harder to eliminate.  There is a different wavelength of the laser required in tattoo removal for different colors.

While tattoo removal techniques have improved, it is still not an easy process. Today, scarring is generally not an issue, but the laser process is uncomfortable and sometimes painful.

The laser treatments are done in sessions with the cost averaging $150.00 per session.  The process can’t be hurried as usually you will have a session, wait a month and go back for another session.  The reason for waiting a month in between laser treatments is to minimize the risk of scarring.  Usually, it takes a minimum of 3 sessions for even a small tattoo. 

A large tattoo can take up to 12 or more sessions since oly small portions can be done at a time.  So, even though tattoo removal can be done, it still is costly and very time consuming.  Before you get a tattoo, consider how you may feel about it later in life and avoid impulsiveness in the decision.

L’Oreal Ever Sleek Humidity Defying Leave in Cream

So I went to an Ulta store for the first time during my recent visit to Pittsburgh PA, and boy was I blown away by the size and selection in that store!  That’s for a whole ‘nother topic of discussion, but I really liked it. It was different than what I had expected.

What I’m here to talk about today is the L’Oreal brand line of Ever Pure hair care products, which spawned this “Ever Sleek” leave in humidity defying creme that I bought at Ulta. It cost about eight bucks, which wasn’t bad, although it’s a little pricier than their products usually are.

It comes in a pump bottle, which I really like. Tubes tend to be a pain to use.  It is six ounce of product.  This cream is a very light, viscous cream, which is not what I was expecting since it is “humidity resistant”.  However, the white, milky cream has really proven to be a quite a nice hair cream and leave in conditioning agent.

I really didn’t have high hopes for the product since I have tried some of their other Ever Pure product line which boasts that it has no sulfates in it, yet still has a laundry list of other drying ingredients in it (that is just my opinion). I didn’t hate them, but they also didn’t leave my hair as silky as I thought they might.

This cream is the exception though. I like it as much as I like the Universal Styling cream by Aveda. I might even like it more, because it not only tames my hair like the Universal styling cream, but it also isn’t as thick as the styling cream is, so you don’t feel like you’lll look like a big greaseball if you put a little too much in your hair.

The Ever Sleek Humidity Defying cream says that it controls frizz for 48 hours, and I do believe that is true. Most products cannot control frizz and style for longer than that, because product does evaporate off of the hair, and the dirt that accumulates pretty much nulls out the effects of most products after this period of time.

I believe that this product is going to be a hair care staple at my house this summer. I’ll let you know how it controls frizz in the summer time. That’s the real test of a good frizz taming product!

L’Oreal Future-e Day Time Lotion Review

As I talked about in my last update, I got hooked on the Revlon liquid liner, when I had been using L’Oreal’s liquid liner for a long time. I recently decided to try yet another one of L’Oreal’s facial care products, this time a day time cream called Future-e (it contains vitamin E, a powerful antioxidant for the skin) with SPF 15.

It looked like the perfect light day time lotion for me, and I was also looking for something with an SPF in it as well to protect my skin from the daytime sunlight and ward off premature aging sun rays.

It came in a very generous 4 oz. bottle size. Most creams for the face come in 1-2 ounces, so I felt I was getting a good deal on this Future-e cream for around $12. I use a TON of day time moisturizer on my skin so that my skin doesn’t dry out during the day and show wrinkles and imperfections more.

I am a firm believer that intense and constant hydration of the skin is one of the biggest ways to fight off the signs of aging like wrinkles and sun damage.  So, I knew that although this was a 4 oz. bottle, I would do some pretty good damage to it in a fairly short amount of time.

I really like the lotion. It has a pleasant, unoffenisve scent to it, and a velvety sort of texture that isn’t greasy and absorbs pretty well. When I put it on, I layer it, so I let the first layer sink in, then I apply a second and a third. My skin looks fresh and dewy when I’m done, and it creates a great surface for my foundation to adhere to.

I like the way the lotion makes my skin feel, but I have a few complaints.  I wish this product did not contain artificial scents and the preservatives that it has in it. I prefer to use natural lotions with SPF that have no parabens, pthalates, sulfates, petrolatum and other potentially toxic chemicals.

However, I was sort of a slave to the grocery store at the time since I couldn’t run to a natural food store and buy something without all the chemicals in it.  This is, however, a good product from L’Oreal, and I’d recommend it to anyone who isn’t concerned about chemicals.  I will use it here and there after my chemical free stuff comes in the mail.  I do like the way it makes my skin feel and look.

Revlon Colorstay Liquid Eyeliner Review

Of the popular over the counter cosmetics that you can buy at any drugstore or department store, I really like L’Oreal the best, and then Revlon the second best. I like L’Oreal because they brought deep pigments to the picture in drugstore brand in their HIP line, and I’ve loved their mascara now for almost two decades.

I used L’Oreal’s liquid eyeliner for a few years, and I like it fine. I thought the felt tip on the applicator could have been a little thinner to give a more precise line if you didn’t want it too thick,  but other than that I liked the way it wore (besides a little smudging here and there), and I like the color options.

The other day, I noticed that I was running so low on the brown liquid liner that it was starting to look diluted in color and was watered down, so I decided to buy a new brown liquid liner.

This time I went with Revlon Colorstay liquid brown eyeliner. It was actually almost two bucks cheaper than the same L’Oreal liner that I had just run out of, so I thought what the heck. Even if I hated it, I wouldn’t be out that much money and if I liked it, I may have found a less expensive liquid liner to use.

So I tried it out yesterday for the first time, and I really really like it!  It has a nice color to it, a darker brown, and it came out exceptionally even and smooth looking. It wore all day long like a champ without running at all. It also gave me a very precise line because of how thin the tip was.

I believe this is a felt tip as well, not a brush, and that’s what I liked about the L’Oreal version too, except I like the Revlon one even better because it gives you more control over the thickness of the line you want to create. Typically, you only use liquid eyeliner on the top of your eyelids, not on the bottom.

I like to use the brown liquid liner for the daytime because I feel like black is a little too dramatic and harsh for the daytime.  This gave me a very nice, casual look. I only lightly line my bottom lash line with a brown pencil liner, and smudge it a bit when I use liquid on the lid, so that the top looks more dramatic and stands out more.

In comparison to the L’Oreal liquid liner, I give Revlon the better review, hands down.

Ban on Indoor Tanning for Teens

Hello everyone. The following is a guest post by mom!  Enjoy!

I remember when I was a teenager, many years ago now, and how I wanted to be tan in the summertime.  The thinking and style of the day was that it made you look healthy and outdoorsy. At that time there were no tanning beds so you had to rely on the scant amount of northeast Ohio’s sunlight that you could soak up in the summertime. 

Even with that limitation, I got countless sunburns working my way into a tan.  Nobody used any sunblock in the 60′s and 70′s.  Now, in my late 50′s, I wonder how many fine lines or wrinkles I could have avoided if I would have stayed out of the sun more. 

Luckily, I haven’t had any incidence of skin cancer but I did not have the option of a tanning bed or a year round tan.  Today’s teenagers are no different, as they are concerned with how cute and tan they look today with no regard to the damage they are doing to their skin later on. 

For teenagers, having the option of tanning beds, is extremely hazardous to their health.  It’s of more concern than just extra fine lines and wrinkles at a younger age.  Dermatologists are seeing a remarkably higher rate of skin cancer occurrence at very early ages,in girls as young as their teens and twenties. 

A high rate of skin cancer used to be primarily a disease of older men and now it’s becoming prevalent in young women.  Because of this trend, the FDA is pushing for tighter restrictions on the use of tanning beds for people under the age of 18 and would like to eventually make that a ban for people under 18 years old. 

A recent report by WHO, the World Health Organization, connected the use of tanning beds to a spike in the incidence of skin cancer.  According to their results, the occurrence of the most deadly form of skin cancer is 75% more likely in individuals that used tanning beds in their teens and early 20′s.  More reason to use a great self tanner.

Some states are starting to require parental consent at the present time for tanners under the age of 18.  The FDA is considering adding bolder warning labels to the tanning beds.

The Indoor Tanning Association has countered with the health benefits of Vitamin D absorption from the sunlamps to which their opponents argued that Vitamin D could be derived from nutritional supplements.

Fair skinned people are more prone to skin cancer as they’re more apt to sunburn before tanning.  Sunburns at an early age are linked to a higher incidence of melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer.