Holiday Beauty Favorites

Who doesn’t want their stocking stuff with a few things that will make them look pretty for the new year?  Heck, if I could get mine stuffed with something that would take off the inevitable 5-10 pounds I put on before the New Year, I’d love that! But since that isn’t going to happen, let me share with you some of the best gifts to give the lady in your life who may be cosmetic and beauty savvy.

1.)  What woman couldn’t do with a little plump to her pout?  Even those of us with fuller lips enjoy having the look of poutier, sexier lips from time to time. Thankfully, lip plumpers have come a long way, and they can really make your lips look fuller in an instant.  Lip plumpers are a great “fashion accessory” that every women would love to have in her purse from time to time.

2.)  Self tanners. Everyone loves the look of a healthy summer glow. But in the winter, especially in the colder, sunless northeast climes out here, it’s nearly impossible to get any sunkissed color the natural way. So a great self tanner, like Fake Bake, or Sheer Tan or Xen-Tan is a great stocking stuffer for women who like to apply these self tanners from time to time to give themselves that etherial glow.

3.)  How about some nice natural soaps or hand lotions – the kind without all the nasty chemicals in them?  Women are becoming increasingly aware that the lotions, cleansers, soaps and creams that they apply to their skin eventually can lead to problems within the body. Parabens, phthalates, petroleum and other potentially hormone disrupting and cancer causing chemicals have no place in body care!

4.)  A new eyeshadow pallette.  Every woman loves to experiment a little with color if they like eyeshadow.  A huge pallette is not only easy to do this time of year since so many gifts sets are usually out, but you can also get a ton of limited edition awesome colors this time of year that you won’t find anywhere after the holiday season is over. For example, Sephora has specific holiday pallettes with really cool sparkly, vibrant colors this time of year.

5.)  Hair care packages. There are lots of top notch salon quality hair products that come in reasonably priced multi packs or sample packs this time of year. I’ve gotten these for family members before, and believe me,  they smile a mile wide when they realize they won’t have to pay for their hair products for a while!

Finding the Right Foundation Sponge

It took me FOREVER to find the right sponge to apply my liquid foundation that I like to wear in the winter time when my skin is paler and I usually need more coverage on my face for blemishes and imperfections.  I like to wear Revlon Colorstay foundation in Buff, and it requires a really flexible and absorbent foundation sponge to apply.

I’ve tried applying foundation with my fingers, and it really just doesn’t give you the same airy, even coverage that a good sponge will give you.  You can also use a foundation brush, but these I’ve found are difficult to keep pliable and clean, whereas a sponge is a little more versatile, flexible, and easier to keep clean.

Plus, you don’t have to spend a ton of money on a sponge, you just keep it for a couple weeks and toss it, whereas you probably are making a fairly significant purchase when you buy a foundation brush – as much as $30 to $40 for a really good one.

A sponge also tends to get better with age. You can still use them and clean them over and over until they start to shred. Because they soak up so much of the foundation (and mine soaks up a bit of water too, read on), they become so saturated that they get just the right amount of foundation on the sponge going forward, giving you the best coverage without a lot of caking or too much of a layered look.

I like the sponges that are part latex because they are much more flexible and absorbent than the cheaper ones that the foundation just “sits on top of”. Think of seasoning a sponge like you season a pan. You have to use it a few times and really soak it for it to start working well and blending well.

I like to put a little bit of cold water on my sponge before I dip it in to my foundation and sheer moisturizer, like Revlon Skinlights luminizing lotion.  This way, it tends to go on more shearly and you avoid that caked on appearance.

You may end up paying a little more for the flexible, higher quality makeup sponges, but you will be paid back in spades with the excellent results you get in the application of your foundation.

Quaternium-15 and Why It’s Bad

You’ve probably seen the scandal that has been occurring lately regarding a long-held trusted brand of baby shampoo and the raging outcry coming from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics to take certain cancer causing and irritating chemicals out of their baby shampoo here in the states.

The crazy part is that they already sell a safer option overseas, so no expensive reformulation would be necessary.  The company has responded by saying that it will phase the chemicals in question, one being quaternium-15, the subject of this post within the next two years.  And that was only under intense scrutiny and scolding from consumer rights groups.

Not only that – but two years? Why the long wait when apparently they have already been selling a safer product oversease?  Well, the answers aren’t really there for that part of it. I think the company feels they’ve done JUST ENOUGH to appease consumer rights advocates, and they will stop there if not pushed further most likely.

So, what’s the big deal about this chemical called quaternium-15?  Well, the big deal is that it is a chemical that releases formaldehyde, a very serious chemical that has been linked to cancer of all kinds, into the shampoo over a period of time.

These products you see on store shelves need a loooooong shelf life, and often times in order to sustain this long shelf life, there are tons of chemicals dumped in that are supposed to kill bacteria and potential spoiling agents over potential years on the shelf.

Quaternium-15 is a preservative, and it is also a skin irritant. These are both reasons for the call to remove the chemical from Johnson and Johnson baby shampoo, but it is the formaldehyde component that is even more pressing and disturbing.

Fresh, Sexy Makeup

One of my favorite things to do that really adds a fresh, sexy look is to use a good foundation primer or a shimmery, dewy look glow lotion. This means either one that you buy yourself, or one that you can actually mix yourself fairly easily.  Of course, it’s not going to be the exact same results as some of the ritzier, more professional formulas out there, but it’s close enough.

If you want to add that glow to your face without glomming on the makeup, then make a do it yourself “glotion”.  Start with a tiny amount of foundation and perhaps some reflective particles of blush or a powder with a skin tone.  Mix these with about a dime size of regular facial moisturizing lotion .

The moisturizing effect of the lotion along with the light refracting effect of the blush or powder particles (usually a dusty mineral) will help the face appear dewy and healthy, with a bit of a glowy look to it – without looking overly made up. To add an even more sheer look, try wetting down your makeup sponge/applicator a bit with water before applying.

Another way to get that fresh, sexy look in your makeup is to use light colors and browns for your eyes. Greys, blues and purples tend to make the face look a bit more austere and cool while browns work for just about any complexion and warm things up.

I like to take my palette of brown eyeshadow and dip my eyelining sponge into it and line the tops of my eyelids as well as the bottom. This way, it’s not too drawn on, and it has a more warm, smudged and natural look to it, creating a more ethereal look that is a bit harder to pinpoint as straight up makeup.

I also like to take a light pink blush and apply it to the apples of my cheeks, my chin, and forehead to make my skin appear more flushed. Remember, color is always appealing and beautiful, so if you haven’t seen the sun for 6 months, fake it with makeup.

I stay away from lipstick and stick to sheer colored lip balms. I don’t have a whole lot of lips to work with, and I tend to look ridiculous with lipstick on because it just draws attention to the thinness of my lips too much. So instead I use a sheerly pink or purplish tinted balm.

This creates a bit of sheen as well as a bit of color and make my lips show up instead of washing out against my skin.  Flushed cheeks and lips are the two keys to looking alive and sexy.  If you choose only two things to do, those are probably the best.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING BEAUTY READERS!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO EVERYONE!!!!

Have a happy and safe day today and try not to over do it. If you do, take a nice long brisk walk and you’ll feel alive again.

Baby Boomers Spent a Ton on Health and Beauty?

I just read some very interesting statistics on the baby boomer generation. The baby boomer generation is one where the oldest of the generation are now turning about 65 years old.

This generation was responsible for things ranging from a booming economy thanks to tons of baby suddenly in the US after the war, to a boom in vehicle sales as the first baby boomers were just getting old enough to leave the nest and get jobs.

They have, in short, been responsible for keeping America afloat and keeping the economy going for several years now, on and off. Well, one of the things that baby boomers have reportedly been spending a lot of their disposable income on has been health and beauty products.

Everything from natural beauty products, to wrinkle creams, to plastic surgery to look younger, to other products that can enhance their health such as supplements and other things designed to help enhance beauty and health.  They propped up the health and beauty industry to a large degree over the several years where they were hitting ages where they wanted to start improving these things in their life.

A lot of younger people, particularly twenty, thirty and forty something women, also are increasingly turning to health and beauty improvement products, so this industry has enjoyed quite the boom for a long time now with the combination of young and old investing in it.

Botox, one of the most popular cosmetic improvement services requested, has surged in popularity to an almost ridiculous amount as of late for example. It seems everyone and their sister is getting this done.  There are also a surge of new anti aging and wrinkle products, and do it yourself types of things coming on the market that are servicing the skin-aware market segment.

Case in point – you can now do your own microdermabrasion at home. You can do a chemical peel at home too. You just have to use caution and common sense when doing these things on your own skin.

Shoot, I just bought a little roller device that is supposed to put tiny microscoping punctures in my skin so as to deliver my serums, lotions and creams more effectively down deeper into the skin!  These are exactly the types of products that are fueling a huge industry for baby boomers now too.  And many baby boomers are becoming more savvy on the web, where much of this stuff resides, which helps sales as well.

This has opened up a whole market for the industry of aging and health and beauty to comfortable market to people who were previously thought to be uncomfortable purchasing from the internet.

Micro Needles : Do They Work?

Well, I’ve been suckered in to buying another skin beauty device that I’m hoping pays off in nicer, younger looking skin.  It’s the micro needle skin roller. I had never even heard of it before I happened across it online on Amazon, one of my favorite sites for beauty and everything else.

Have you ever heard of something that you never even thought of buying before because of the “other suggestions” that come up on Amazon? Well, it happens to have suckered me in several times on other things as well, including books, items for the house and cooking, and all kinds of other good stuff.

The micro needle roller that I bought has .5 mm tiny needles. You can go up to 1.5 mm but I figured I’d better start off short since I heard it can be kind of painful.  What is it you ask? You’re probably dying of curiosity by now as I was when I saw the name of the product.

It’s not a torture device if you thought that.  It’s a little roller that has teeny tiny needles on it that are so fine you are not supposed to feel them too much.  However, a lot of reviewers of the micro needle system say that they feel pain or discomfort.

For this reason, they offer a numbing cream that you can use with it. Well, it may not be offered by the same company, but it’s offered in conjunction with it.  The numbing cream helps you to use the micro needle system without as much discomfort.

Why needles? Well, they are supposed to put tiny piercings into the skin, allowing for your skincare creams, lotions and serums to penetrate much more deeply and get to work on the deeper layers of the skin.

So, if you are using wrinkle and fine lines cream, then you should get better results because the product is able to work on the deeper layers of the skin.  Or, if you are using sunspot fading creams, you should notice a significant difference in them because the piercings in the skin help the product to get down deeper and address the problems.

I ordered it yesterday so I should be getting it in the mail soon. I will be providing a review on the micro needle skin roller soon. Mine was just over twenty bucks.

Botox and Actresses : Where are the Expressions?

When it comes to Hollywood, it is increasingly a rarity to find an actress (or nowadays an actor) who hasn’t had some sort of procedure, process or plastic surgery to alter their looks or freeze time and prevent the signs of aging.

In fact, actresses are going under the Botox needle earlier and earlier since actresses are perceived to have such a  short “shelf life” in Hollywood. A sad fact, but these are the ridiculous pressures and double standards that these young women have to live up to. I’m sure it’s gotta be extremely depressing to live in such a an oppressive mini-society.

Botox, as you well know by now, is a botulism toxin that is inserted just below the skin, no deeper than the surface muscles, to help freeze muscle control and expressions to a degree so that you do not emote and show – God forbid – wrinkles. These wrinkles include crows feet (my favorite), laugh lines, forehead creases and more.

These wrinkles though, are signs that you have lived, loved and laughed, and they are also visual cues to show others how you are feeling. As Julia Roberts has said in her effort not to get Botox as she ages – she wants her kids to know when she’s happy or pissed!

What I have been noticing, both in television and movies, is that it seems an increasing amount of actresses are showing signs of frozen face. They cannot properly emote on screen due to Botox, and therefore, their acting takes a hit – it looks disingenuous and actually can really impact how their acting skills are perceived.

Actresses who want to be taken seriously should really lay off the Botox. Look at what happened to Nicole Kidman’s career after she started getting too much surgery and Botox – she’s no longer respected as the raw actress she used to be.

Of course there are others as well, but sometimes you can’t put your finger on it, they just don’t look like they are expressing themselves properly.  Remember, Botox comes with a price – you may not be able to express your personality as much!  But then again, you’ll be staving off those bothersome wrinkles.  I guess if you’re not an actress, it’s less of an issue ?

Young Women Getting Surgery/Botox Prematurely?

There was a great article that I recently read about how the age for “youth enhancing” types of procedures, surgery and things like Botox and peels is being pushed lower and lower. The incredible pressure that we feel as women to maintain a youthful, fresh appearance often weighs so heavily. 

I’ve found myself looking at my ever increasing wrinkles in the mirror, which I’ve largely been able to help reverse or at least keep at a standstill for a couple years by using the best anti aging and wrinkle products.  I often think about what they would look like if I had some radical procedure (NEVER would I get a facelift – EVER).

But of course my mind has gone the way of Botox. I’m still really leery of Botox though. I know that thousands of women and men get Botox every year without incident, and no side effects, it’s just that the long term safety of it is what scares me. I do think it’s a great way to freeze wrinkles where they are, but I have serious questions about the safety of injecting a toxin underneath the skin.

A toxin is a toxin.  Period.  And what kinds of other things are in the shot? No doubt preservatives and other delivery type of chemicals.  I just don’t know what all is being injected. Plus there have been studies that Botulism may migrate to the brain and stay there. What are the long term effects of getting this done a couple times a year, built up over the years?

We really don’t know yet. And Botox isn’t something that you just get done once and then you’re done. You don’t maintain your results if you don’t keep getting the injections 2-4 times per year.

The age for women who are getting Botox often now is starting in the twenties!  This is when your skin still looks its best naturally!  Yet some doctors are recommending it this young so that you can have a sort of “preventive” measure against wrinkles. 

In Hollywood, take the pressure that us normal women feel to look young and beautiful and multiply it by a hundred. Women in the entertainment industry are incredibly pressured to look young forever.  It’s unfair, but the media really crucifies women when they start to look old.

Fox News does a segment that’s particularly cruel where they compare two stars of the same age.  Obviously, one looks older and one looks younger. It’s this type of constant comparing that women need to get away from, and yet we’re faced with it, both self imposed and outside-imposed every day!

Natural Shampoos Get Your Hair Clean, Shiny

Shampoos that don’t contain SLS, or sodium lauryl sulfates (or any sulfates for that matter) have really skyrocketed in popularity over the past few years. This is in large part doe to the negative press that SLS has gotten. SLS is a known skin irritant. It dries the skin and hair, as well as the scalp.

It breaks downt he lipid layers (fatty protective layers) of the skin and hair. Sure, this allows for more conditioner to penetrate, but it also can cause unwanted splitting and fraying of the hair, creating a rough and frizzy look. 

Some are so used to the huge foaming capacity of SLS that they would never think a natural shampoo alternative could get their hair truly clean.  We’ve been conditioned to think that high lather equates to cleanliness, but in reality, it often equates to skin and hair damage as well as dryness.

I’ve tried a natural shampoo base that contains only a very mild lathering agent that is often used in childrens and baby shampoos. It also contained apple cider vinegar, which is a natural hair cleansing agent that helps to naturally cleanse the hair and remove old debris to create a smoother, shinier surface.

It worked nicely, however it took me a while to get it out of my head that it didn’t need to have the exact same lathering action that all those commercial brands I’d previously used had. It lathered, but it was a different kind of lather – sort of clumping all my hair together. It even had a somewhat odd aroma – not like the heavily perfumed ones I was used to.

However, what it did do that other shampoos did not was to provide my hair with cleansing, without stripping it of moisture. I also noticed that it stripped the dirt and oil out of my hair, but allowed my conditioner to penetrate much better – without drying it out.

My scalp also felt much healthier. It didn’t feel dry or anything after that, and it wasn’t itchy at all.  I noticed that my hair was shinier after I used it.  There are lots of natural shampoos out there, some use castille soap, and others use other mild surfactants that are of a much gentler nature than sodium lauryl sulfate.