It Sucks When You Don’t Have “Your Stuff”

Today I had the pleasure of having to shower in an unfamiliar shower and get ready where I didn’t have all my beauty stuff at my fingertips and it drove me nuts.  It’s amazing how you can get so used to having everything exactly as you like it, where you know it’s going to be, and it’s there when you need it.  And then when you pack to get ready somewhere else and go through your whole getting ready routine, you feel lost without something or other, it’s inevtiable.

Today I had to shower at the gym where I work because we’ve been out of power for three days at our house due to high winds and widespread power outages.  I thought I had packed all my necessities for my hair and my face, but lo and behold I did forget something important for my hair.  While I remembered all the right makeup, I forgot to bring my round brush for blowing out my hair, and boy could you tell when I blew my hair out!

I also wasn’t happy because I had to set my whole bag with my makeup in it on a bench in the same room that I took a shower in, separated only by a flimsy curtain, and my makeup pad got moist just from being exposed to that little bit of steam from my hot shower.  Oh and the hot water ran out on me at one point too, and I dropped my expensive Sedu hair dryer and thought I broke it but I didn’t.  Our power’s back on and I couldn’t be happier.  I’m going to take a bath in our new bathtub and soak – ah, the luxuries of getting back the necessities! 

Beauty Finds at TJ Maxx

Today I was at one of my favorite bargain hunting stores, TJ Maxx, and as usual, I had to check out their cosmetics, body care and fragrance section since you never know what kind of beauty stuff you’ll find their at deep discounts. This time I found quite a bit of stuff, although I limited myself to buy only one of them (yes, I’m very proud:)

Happy Feet

I have ugly feet. I waited tables for years in college and afterwards and it really shows – they are misshapen and plain old worn out!  Well, a lot of shoes now are made for people who are always on their feet, so not only can you have comfort, but you can have pretty feet, worthy of that $40 pedicure that you want to go get once in while!Many of us work on our feet all day long with only a lunch time to sit down and give our feet a break for a half an hour or so.  When it comes to what shoes we select, we look at, first and foremost,  comfort for our poor tired feet.
When I’m shopping for shoes, I look for extra wide sizing, try them on and walk around a little bit in them in the store.  If the shoes are not as comfortable as bedroom slippers right away without having to break them in, I’ll put them back and try to find another pair.  I almost always find a pair of shoes that’s comfortable, but often have to give up a fashionable, stylish look.
 The good news is the traditional company lines for comfort shoes are now focusing in on making their shoes still with ease of wear in mind but more stylish than they were in the past.  The brands Naturalizer, Easy Spirit and Aerosoles are tailoring the shoes they are marketing now to successfully blend both comfort and style.  They are responding to this demand on the market today.
 Many of us women will give up comfort so we can look stylish.  I, personally, have always put comfort first, because if your feet hurt, all the rest of you hurts too.  I was glad to read about this trend of more style to the traditional comfort shoes.  Now, I can’t wait to go shoe shopping and find a newer foot image that will still keep my feet happy. 
 

When You Don’t Get Your Beauty Sleep..

Beauty sleep is not only a cliche phrase that makes us think of our mother’s and grandmother’s well-meant beauty advice, it’s actually a true fact that if we don’t get a lot of rest, we don’t look, well, so beautfiful! 

I know for me personally, I can tell the next day after I haven’t gotten enough rest, because my skin tends to have less healthy color to it, and I tend to get puffiness a lot around my eyes and even in my cheeks.  I also tend to break out more when I am not getting enough sleep, perhaps related to the stressors on my body and mind that result when my sleep has been compromised. 

So what can you do if for some reason you’re experiencing bouts of insomnia, or if you’re stressed out and feel anxious, and the sleep you’re getting is not of the highest, most quality caliber.  Some people just generally experience frequent of infrequent insomnia (I occasionally experience insomnia personally), and some people suffer from something call sleep apnea, which is a physical condition where one actually stops breathing momentarily during the night. 

Not only can this be disruptive to one’s REM sleep cycle, but it can also be life threatening in extreme cases.  In a sleep disorder center, they generally can run a sleep study on an individual who feels they may have some sort of sleeping abnormality, like sleep apnea, sleep walking or other conditions that interrupt their sleep cycles or which can physically affect them by affecting their quality of sleep or their sleeping cycles. 

Interruption of sleep cycles, or even a decrease in the quality of actual sleep you get per night can result in fatigue, lack of focus and concentration, general irritability, and more interestingly, lately there have been a lot of studies showing that lack of sleep, or sleep deprivation can actually depress the immune system and make you get sick more easily and more often. 

With today’s fast paced lives and nonstop mentality, it’s no wonder that sleep studies have garnered a lot of attention and demand from those who are looking for answers to their sleep disorders that are long lasting and will work.  

So, not only do sleep disorders like sleep apnea and insomnia interfere with our beauty and the continued youthfulness, tone and clarity of our skin, but they can have serious health implications if left unchecked and untreated!   

Tis the Season for Painted Toes

There’s nothing more that complements a cute pair of sandals than a nicely trimmed, manicured and painted set of toes.  So, you can either fork out the cash to go and get a professional pedicure, or you can give yourself a pedicure in your own home.  Although I will say, the results I’ve gotten from professionals looks much better and lasts forever! 

The trick to getting the nail polish to last forever though is something that not a lot of us folks at home take the time to do ourselves when we’re painting our toenails.  If you’re anything like me, you just rush a swipe of polish on with no base coat and no top coat and hope for the best!  But, if you really want your nail color to last a long time, you will need to get a base coat polish, and you’ll also need to get a top coat that’s tough as nails (no pun intended) so that it will prevent splitting, cracking, peeling and fading.

If you want to really pamper yourself, you can even give yourself a foot soak with some essential oils in the warm water, to soften your feet, and also rub down the bottoms of your feet with a pumice stone to get them smooth and soft.  Mary Kay cosmetics actually has an excellent foot and hand care system that costs 75 bucks, but it gives you a fell spectrum pedicure or manicure in your own home.  Not sure if it’s worth that much money, but I enjoyed my set while I had it.

A cuticle stick is a must also, because after you’re done soaking your poor, tired feet, you will want to shape and push back your cuticles so that they are not visible and don’t get in the way of the polish when you begin to polish you toes.  I prefer darker polishes on my feet, but this is just a personal preference.  I think it looks a bit more sophisticated than the lighter colors, plus it tends to complement more women’s feet than the lighter colors.  Do you have a preference or any tips on how to get sandal-perfect toes for the summer months?

Smokin’ New Years Eve Eyes

This New Year’s Eve, if you wanna really impress your date, or your significant other, most men are big fans of the sex kittenish smoky eye look.  A great way to achieve the smoky eye is by getting the right eyeliner.  I like gunmetal or dark greys instead of black, because black can often times look a little too harsh when trying to pull off the smoky eye look. 

Another tool needed to get the smoky eye party look is a good smudger.  I use a separate smudger, as the ones that are sometimes included with the eye pencil itself do not work right, and really just take it off rather than smudge it. 

Lining the eye underneath, you want to make sure you make the line a little thicker than you normally would for your daytime makeup application.  This means that you will probably think it looks a bit severe, but don’t forget, you’ll be smudging the heck out of it.  I usually do not use any liner on the top lid, as I rely on a hefty coat of mascara on the upper lashes to balance out the eye when creating a smoky eye.

When you’ve created your thick line, go back with your smudger and gently push the line across the bottom of the eye by blending it, and carry this line to the edge of the eye for a gently “winged” look which adds to the sexy drawn out look of the eye.  If you have smaller eyes, you can even try lining the very inside of the lower lid with a bright white pencil (Benefit makes a good one).  Eyeshadow is totally up to you, but I prefer a smoky grey color, you can also use deep greens, violets and other rich colors too.  Voila, there’s your smoky eye.

Preparation H for Bags Under the Eyes?

Believe it or not, this was a fairly popular and cheap home remedy to bags under the eyes before companies started coming out with all the high tech skin care products dubbed “cosmeceuticals” starting from the year 2000 and on. Preparation H, the popular hemorrhoid cream that is used to soothe hemorrhoids are used primarily on hemorrhoids as an anti-inflammatory and swelling agent, so that hemorrhoids are not as painful and do not “get in the way” as much.

If you think about it, it does make sense that Preparation H can help with bags under the eyes, since it is an anti swelling agent for hemorrhoids. But, should you really be using something that is meant for your hind quarters on your precious facial skin?

Well, unfortunately Preparation H may not be all that great of an option for under eye bags and maybe even do a little good as an anti-wrinkle measure, as attention was drawn to this home remedy when other harsh ingredients were explored in the formula which could be potentially damaging to the delicate tissue under the eyes.

I would probably steer clear of this home remedy, since our under eye skin is one of the most important areas of our face. Looking young and fresh in this area can literally take years off of our face, and we don’t want to screw that up simply to get rid of some bags!

A better home remedy might be putting cucumber slices under the eyes, or ice cubes for a short time, just to naturally relieve the under eye swelling. At least these are all natural and soothing, and you do not risk the possibility of damaging this precious area of skin!

Fuller Eyebrows Back In?

Remember the days of serious eyebrow plucking and shaping?  While is not even arguable that a well defined and arched brow will always be the classical look and always frame your face better, the actual thickness and thinness of the brows has gone up and down over the years. 

When I first started plucking my eyebrows and shaping them, very thin was in.  Think a very young Pam Anderson in Baywatch type of thin.  They were no more than an eighth of an inch wide even in the widest areas. 

Now though, it appears that fuller eyebrows are making their way back.  Now, all you see on runway models are fuller, more generous looking eyebrows, without the super thin look that used to prevail.  They’re almost going back to a Brooke Shields look now, perhaps a bit thinner, where the thickest part is about 1/4 inch and the thinner parts do not taper so quickly at the end of the eye.

This is good news, since a lot of women (and men) really do look better with a more generous brow, since thicker brows do tend to be more flattering to more facial types because they are more versatile and can be shaped a lot of different ways, making it easier to taylor them to your specific face whether you have an oval face or a round or long face.

Also, if you overpluck, you can always just pencil in your brows where you have over plucked.  I pluck my own eyebrows, and I usually tend to over pluck where my eyebrow ends at the end of my eye, so this is where I usually have to use the pencil.  Be sure not to get a pencil that is too dark though.  This usually looks very obvious, and unnatural.

Makeup Application : Reader Question

I received this question about specific makeup application techniques from a reader recently, and wanted to share it with all of you, as I think it’s probably something a lot of women want to know more about.  Enjoy!

Question : Hello, I’m a teacher of English in Russia.Now i’m writing a
student’s book in English for specialists in decorative cosmetic.And
I’m interested in your application technics and what about mascara and
lipstick make up tips?  Thanks!
Answer : Here are some general answers : Cosmetic Application Techniques .

As far as for mascara and lipstick, here are some helpful hints as well :

Lipstick hints : When applying lipstick, it is a good idea to use a “lip filler” or lip plumper, and let it set in before applying the actual colored lipstick.  Before applying anything though, take a tissue or rough napkin and wipe the lips.  THis removes any debris or skin flakes, so you have a clean palette to work with. 

I personally like Lip Fusion as a lip plumper, but if this is too expensive or not an option, use another lip filler, there are some by Cover Girl and Max Factor.  Believe it or not, an excellent lip filler is Cherry Chapstick also.  Now that you’ve got a clean set of lips, gently dab the lipstick onto the lips.  I personally do not like to just glide it on, as it gives a dramatic appearance too quickly. 

Dabbing it on gives you more control over how it looks.  Keep dabbing until the desired color appears.  A matching lip liner is optional.  Just line the lips at their natural line – do not ever try to go outside the lines as you’ll end up with a mess after your lipstick has worn off.   To keep the color on longer, you can use a lipstick sealer, which is available in many different brands. 

Mascara : My first tip for mascara is to always use black.  Not any other black like charcoal black, but just plain black.  The colored ones tend to make lashes look transucent, so I’ve always stuck with black, no matter what colors I’m using on the rest of my face.  

A good trick that many models use is to clean off the application wand before dipping it back in the tube.  This reduces room for “spider lashes” by taking all the gunk that causes this effect off the wand from the beginning.  It also allows more clean, fresh mascara to cling more freely to the lashes.

Before applying mascara, it is completely up to you whether you use a lash curler first.  Do not ever use it after mascara application, as your lashes may come right off on the lash curler.  Once the lashes are curled, use small, half movements, moving the mascara wand up the lashes from the bottom, wiping the wand off in between if necessary to prevent clumping.  I personally do not apply mascara on the bottom lashes, as it tends to look unnatural,  but that is up to the individual.

Hope this helps!

Thanks 

Tipping for Salon Services

I received this question from a woman who is about to get the somewhat expensive hair treatment thermal reconditioning done.  She wondered what the appropriate tip would be for this service.  Here is her question and my response. 

Keep in mind, salon service tipping is largely personally discretionary, but there is a standard in place, and depending on where you go and how good of a job they do on your hair or whatever other service they give, you can use your discretion to go higher or lower.

Readers Question :