RSSA Magazine, A Mascara, and Good Hair Goop
May 1, 2010
I allow planned days off from school gladly. Friends are amazed that I am teaching them to hide from their problems and be lazy. I don’t want them to live in a world of time clocks, me vs. The Boss, of their achievement schedule being decided by someone other than them. If their work is done at the end of the week, let them be innovative and self-determined about where and how. If they can achieve in their sleep, or on an island, they’ve won.
Read moreGifts from Real People 2
November 28, 2009
Ours in not a family that can give $250 watches as gifts, though the magazines tell us that we’re supposed to give them and expect to receive them.
For those of us, which includes most of us, who shop at our local malls and box stores, how about these?
Makeup Model : Cool Winter
July 15, 2009
The more you work the particular strengths of your season, the more together your look will be. Winter is a season of stark clarity and respecting that will work the feeling best. If Spring bubbles, Summer flows, and Autumn glows. Winter gleams like platinum. This is not a season for fussy details. The colors are a little hard and the look is dramatic. There is no need to be shy with color intensity. The stronger the color, the healthier the season looks.
Read moreMakeup Model : Clear Spring
June 28, 2009
This is the yellow undertone of Spring moving closer to the neutral line till it flips to its sister season of Clear Winter. Sometimes, the hair is so dark with very brown eyes that the person is mistakenly classifyied with the high contrast of Winters. Clear Spring is the only season outside of Winter that can pull off black clothing.
Read moreMakeup Model : Clear Winter
June 16, 2009
I get a lot of emails from women who know they’re Winter but don’t know which one. Good on them to know that there are 3 versions of each season. The Clear Winter (Sci\ART’s Bright Winter) is the bridge to Spring. That means that it still respects the deep, clear, dark colors of all Winters, and is predominantly cool, but it is just slightly warmed by yellow.
Read moreMakeup Model : Warm Spring
June 5, 2009
Edit June 23/10 – Just a note to be sure everyone knows that this Makeup Model series of articles was posted before I became a Color Analyst. The articles have been very popular, so I leave them up, but the makeup recommendations are not necessarily those I’d make today. For anyone interested in more accurate Season and color advice, do look at 12blueprints.com or join the 12 Blueprints Fan Club on Facebook.
We can’t shop for clothes without wondering “Is this my color?” At the makeup counter, we’re at the mercy of the taste of the salesperson or we just stick to the safe rut we’re in, resulting in 5 of the same shade of lip color rattling around the bottom of our purse. Not only are we not objective about ourselves in any way, but we don’t know what to look for.
The truth is that nobody knows their innate colors. Nobody. Famous and rich people get it wrong all the time. Until they’ve been analyzed, nobody knows their colors. Personal color analysts (PCAs) can’t guess their own seasons till they get draped or see themselves in many different colors (often many shades of the same color, red being particularly telling).
How controlled the lighting and background have to be depends on the analyst, as does the importance of hair and eye color. As with anything, there are many ways of arriving at the answer. With anesthesia, it’s not so much which drug you’re using as how well you know that drug. There is no right or wrong, no best or worst. There is an analogy here in that it’s not so much which color system you choose as how well the PCA knows that system.
Women might say “I wear a lot of white and navy.” Whatever. Navy and white might be better in your kitchen than on your body. Nobody can experiment with sure success till they’ve been color coded. Nobody knows their undertones. They might know their overtones but that’s not really helpful for making buying decisions. So if you don’t know your colors, don’t feel bad. 99% of the world doesn’t either.
Climbing down off my soapbox. I’ve just been at the Clinique counter and I look at the money women put down. As you know, I like MAC and Clinique. They don’t have everything but the price is manageable, the color selection is 6.5 out of 10, the application is 7 out of 10 (Clinique) and 8.8 (MAC) and most women can find these lines.
“Warm Spring” is a Color Me Beautiful label which allows for a flowing of any given season towards another, in this case Spring towards Autumn. This season doesn’t exist in all the color systems. Nonetheless, the 3 Spring seasons’ colors in any system are warmed by yellow and are clear. When I chose the colors below, I was working with Sci\Art’s True Spring swatch book.
If you’re Warm Spring, you have noticeable gold, orange, copper, or strawberry tones in your hair but your skin is still warmed by yellow. You are too fair to move into the golder, hardier-looking skin of an Autumn. Think of Nicole Kidman (notice how dark her eyebrows always are? they are seldom bleached to match her hair; may be deeper coloring than Spring going on here). Delicate skin, almost fragile looking. It’s skin that looks like it’s trying to have freckles but often doesn’t because it’s just so fair.
Your colors are moving towards the browner tones of Autumn. Blush and lip colors are coral and apricot, so stronger than peach and with some brown in them but still bright and lively. Warm Spring can take a lot of color.
Lips: All Springs should know about MAC Lustreglass in Instant Gold to warm and reduce the strength of many lip colors, and add a light yellow-gold shimmer; MAC Prolongwear in Clingpeach if you like this type of product.
Clinique Lipsticks in Golden Brandy, Peach Pop, Poppy Love, and Ripe Raisin.
Blush: NARS Luster or Gilda; NARS makes fantastic blush but demands a light application to look normal. Estee Lauder Pink Kiss might work.
Bobbi Brown PotRouge in Calypso Coral.
Eyeliner: Clinique Roast Coffee.
MAC Industry might work as a slightly warmed grey. Clinique Slate is too sharply grey as is MAC Grey Utility.
Eyeshadow: Clinique Butter Pecan and Copper Canyon. In the singles, Champagne was good. In the creams, Sable Shimmer Touch Tint is nice but awfully shiny.
MAC Camel which they no longer make, darn them, it was a superb color … MAC, bring back Camel!!!!
Eye hilite : Paula’s Choice Cream or Chiffon.
Mascara : Black-Brown.
Bronzer: MAC Golden, a truly good product.
-->We can’t shop for clothes without wondering “Is this my color?” At the makeup counter, we’re at the mercy of the taste of the salesperson.
The truth is that nobody knows their innate colors. Nobody. Famous and rich people get it wrong all the time. Until they’ve been analyzed, nobody knows their colors.
And undertones?? Are you kidding?
Makeup Model : Light Spring
May 16, 2009
Edit June 23/10 – Just a note to be sure everyone knows that this Makeup Model series of articles was posted before I became a Color Analyst. The articles have been very popular, so I leave them up, but the makeup recommendations are not necessarily those I’d make today. For anyone interested in more accurate Season and color advice, do look at 12blueprints.com or join the 12 Blueprints Fan Club on Facebook.
This is a big range of women. You’re Ellen and Kate Hudson (or at least, Kate looks like Light Spring. Have you seen Ellen’s pic from high school? Reddish hair. Although the blond hair she wears is beautifully done, sometimes I think it makes her eyes look bloodshot. Ellen, you need to don the gray showercap and draping cape of truth and uncover who you really are). You can be the fairest softest coloring and you can be the blond beach ideal.
In general, Spring looks better in peach than pink. If you think you like both, what you might be liking is the lightness of the two shades. The basis of color analysis is understanding what the colors that flatter you best have in common. So, we’ll have to push the extremes to decide if you’re Light Spring or Light Summer. Take the peach all the way to coral in clothing or makeup – only the Spring will pull it off, while the Summer will be more beautiful in a cooler rose pink color.
Or try the ultimately Springs Only color of yellow-green. Summer would probably refuse to even put the item on and negotiate hard for cool, light turquoise. Spring would be sneaking the yellow-green into her purse.
Light Spring represents that type of coloring that is most prominently Spring (warmed by clear yellow) but has some cool carryover from Summer. Your colors follow suit, with pink-peach instead of pure peach or yellow colors, and tan-brown instead of golden brown in your eyeshadow.
Colors to sample
Lips: Clinique Colour Surge Butter Shine in Pink-a-boo; look at Poppy Love while you’re there. I love these lipsticks, so wearable and comfortable.
Eyeliner: Estee Lauder Softsmudge Brown.
Eyes: MAC BrownDown, Kid, Wedge; Stila Champara, Tolima.
Eye hilite : MAC Wisp, BlancType; Stila Chinois.
I am loving the blog The Next Best Thing To Going Shopping Yourself (TNBTTGSY) for the swatch posts. Follow the link to see the MAC eyeshadows. On the site, you’ll also find all the Stila eyeshadows swatched in a different post. Shop at home thanks to the wonderful woman who does all this work.
Look very attentively at the iris of your eye. Is there a soft yellow in it? Many Spring eyes have a yellow light in their eyes to correspond with the yellow light that their entire body coloring emanates. If you see that color there, emphasize it with a yellowish hilite. Have you looked at Paula’s Choice Chiffon? It is fantastically colored, fantastically matte, and fantastically priced.
Mascara : Dark Brown – be sure it’s darker than your eyeliner or the liner can look too harsh.
Bronzer : This is light skin. It can handle warmer tones but in a gentle dose. MAC Select Sheer Pressed powder goes on well and some of the lighter shades have some peachiness that could work as bronzer for this group. Go easy with the application so you don’t end up with an overly colorful face. That’s just practice.
-->In general, Spring looks better in peach than pink. If you think you like both, what you might be liking is the lightness of the two shades. The basis of color analysis is understanding what the colors that flatter you best have in common.
Read moreGreat Budge-proof Mascara by Estee Lauder
May 9, 2009
I’ll begin by getting the poor review out of the way because I did try it.
Product Review : Revlon 3D Extreme Mascara
Dry and sticky is the first impression. The stickiness makes it easy to push the lashes upwards and they stay there, like they’ve been hairsprayed. You can really work that aspect with more coats. It is very controllable.
The brush is tiny. I prefer that to gigantic for ease of handling but this one is also rather flat, like a little wee spatula. Actually, the bristles are short and unless you clean off all the extra product, not much of the bristle sticks out. Still, it works better than I expected it to. I had to press the product off on the sides of the tube to get the picture.
You expect clumps to form but they don’t. The lashes don’t separate so well either. In fact, they stick together fast! It’s like those hair products that dry and stiffen within 4 seconds from some very volatile chemical or other so you have no time to work with the hair before the product sets (that would be Redken Rough Paste).
It wears moderately well but I still had a few smudges if I put too much on the bottom lashes.
Wash? Terrible. Black smears, with or without makeup remover. Just as bad the next morning. I didn’t do so well with this product.
Never support animal cruelty
I’d love to try Elizabeth Arden’s Ceramide Lash Extending Treatment Mascara because it’s said to leave lashes feeling soft but there’s no freakin’ way. There is too much animal suffering as it is. What kind of pathetic excuses for human beings are we when we support animal testing in an industry where it is not only unnecessary, but also in the minority.
From Vogue Australia Forums, a very comprehensive list of cosmetic companies with info about who tests and who doesn’t. For A to H, for I to Q, and for P to Z. Bookmark those pages, they’re hard to find again.
It was back to Clinique High Impact. It might not be perfection but it’s pretty darn good. I should know better by now than to vex the gods by veering away from it. I want to believe that great cruelty-free mascara can be bought at the drugstore but I can’t find it.
I decide to take my chance with the gods yet again.
Product Review : Estee Lauder Zero-Smudge Lengthening Mascara
I don’t try $25 mascara without a good reason. I read about this one in the Best Beauty Products Of 2008 Report from Paula Begoun and her group. I was attracted by the ease of removal comment.
Mascara is one of the few products where I don’t rely on MUA (Makeup Alley). I have the filters set to show reviews from worst to best and it’s the same for every single mascara. Even the repurchase rate hovers around 60% for every product.
Here are the reasons I love this one:
1. It doesn’t smudge. Doesn’t move, fade, or change over the day. I like to add moisturizer to soften the lines under my eyes during the day and now I can, without black smudges. It really is zero-smudge. I moisturize to my heart’s content and there are NO smears.
2. Doesn’t clump, easy to work with, separate , and add. The job gets done fast.
3. It DOES come off with water. Easily!! Even High Impact didn’t do that!! I don’t even use a separate eye makeup remover. Hallelujah for that alone!!! There may be the odd black fleck the next morning but it removes easily, unlike the tarry smears that take some work. You just splash water on your eyes and rub gently and the stuff comes right off. You might need an eye makeup remover for your shadow or liner but not your mascara. Big selling point here.
4. The brush is grand. It’s long and skinny and straight. The product doesn’t goop all over it. The corner lashes can be coated without smearing it on the skin. The maneuverability of this brush is terrific, maybe because it goes back to the brushes we all learned with 30 years ago. The big bottle-brush style and the curved designs, never could get used to them.
5. Lashes are not too stiff or crunchy. I really don’t like that at all.
6. I’m wearing mascara on my lower lashes again. I like to wear a little more makeup on the center of my eye because a rounder eye looks a little younger and it draws attention away from the outer corner where not-so-good things are happening. I can use all I like, wherever I like. It will not move.
Clinique High Impact, does apply better. Thicker, smoother, creamier, softer. But it will leave little smears under your eyes.
This formula seems a little stickier, a little drier, than what you may be accustomed to but it gets the job done fine. They sell it as an extraordinarily lengthening mascara. In that respect, it’s fine but not astounding. Estee Lauder also claims that “the lash you see in the morning is the lash you keep all day”. That is true.
Who in the world can look at our lashes and know what mascara we used? Nobody. You never really notice other women’s eyelashes unless they’re at an extreme of underdone, overdone, or oversmeared. Mascara is all about application and removal.
Clinique Lash Power gets similar reviews for ease of removal and it will be a little cheaper, so it’s next up.
Note that this is not for you if you’re after major volume or length. It gives real-looking lashes and that’s all I really want in this world - makeup that looks real.
-->6 reasons why I’m really loving this mascara. Length is not one of them.
Perfect? No. If there were perfect, we’d all be using it. Universal formulas don’t exist.
In several important ways, it is very impressive.
Makeup Model : Cool Summer
March 7, 2009
Edit June 23/10 – Just a note to be sure everyone knows that this Makeup Model series of articles was posted before I became a Color Analyst. The articles have been very popular, so I leave them up, but the makeup recommendations are not necessarily those I’d make today. For anyone interested in more accurate Season and color advice, do look at 12blueprints.com or join the 12 Blueprints Fan Club on Facebook.
Your coloring is very cool. Once you resist the temptation to follow the crowd with golden hair, and allow your hair to have its natural silvery-gray-blond color, you will never look better. These women seem few and far between in the real world, maybe because so many are choosing the wrong, warm hair color.
You look horrible in golden brown, but nobody can carry off a muted fuchsia better than you can. You look terrific in blues and soft blue-purple colors.
Your lip and cheek colors comes from the dusty pink-purple colors found in lilacs.
You’re not particularly pale. Your coloring is of a medium intensity in hair and eye color and the two blend together. This is a gorgeous season, with pink veering to blue, and greys that are almost silver. Your most flattering eye makeup is mushroom brown and blue-type greys.
Look at how much better Farrah Fawcett looks in grey-blond (ash) hair. The very yellow hair doesn’t bring out the flush in her skin and lips nearly as well.
Linda Evans looks great in grey-blond hair and will look great in silvery grey hair, as Paul Newman did.
The makeup reminds me of these shades,
Denise Richards cannot pull off yellow hair
but Paris Hilton, a Light Spring, was made for it.
Looks at this makeup next time you’re shopping.
Lipstick: Clinique Glosswear Stellar Plum.
Blush: Bobbi Brown Soft Pink; NARS Outlaw.
Eyeliner: Clinique Quickliner Smoky Taupe; Estee Lauder Automatic Eye Pencil Duo Plum Grey.
Eyes: Bobbi Brown Slate and Heather ; MAC Scene.
Eye hilite : Bobbi Brown Shell.
Mascara: Dark Charcoal.
Here’s another Cool Summer. The grayer the hair gets, the better the skin looks.
For those of you uncertain about what Cool Summer means, you can learn more about Color Analysis and figure out your own season at Pretty Your World.
Your coloring is very cool. Once you resist the temptation to follow the crowd with golden hair, and allow your hair to have its natural silvery-gray-blond color, you will never look better. These women seem few and far between in the real world, maybe because so many are choosing the wrong, warm hair color.
Read moreGift Ideas For The Real World 4
December 3, 2008
The last 10 suggestions:
1. A blender and a Smoothie recipe book. More Smoothies For Life:Satisfy, Energize, and Heal Your Body by Daniella Chace looks fabulous.
2. A Lighthouse print by Tony Diodati. These are prints of PEI, a place that really is as beautiful and relaxing as everything you’ve heard about it.
Tony’s paintings are interesting because they have unusual dimensions, often long and thin in one direction or another. I find them surprising and interesting in hallways or entryways where the effect is that of looking out a window. They are whimsical and peaceful over a buffet, with truly beautiful colors to decorate a room around.
I’m suggesting the lighthouses because I’m partial to them for their solid, quiet mood. They look cool and geometric as a mounted print, and since this time of year is expensive, these prints are a little smaller and less costly.
But DO look at some of the other paintings and prints. I love the pigs (at bottom of page) for a child’s room or bathroom. This scene of French Harbor, near Tony’s PEI studio is colorful and gorgeous. Since I’m truly happiest on a beach, here is my all-time favorite, Penderosa Dunes.
3. www.nhl.com outlet page. Say no more. My strategy is pretty clear now. Go to the good sites, skip all the New Arrivals, and head straight to sale/outlet/clearance.
This might also be a year with an excuse to delay your shopping. Anticipating a bad year, retailers seem like they’re going to pony up with some excellent sales before Christmas.
4. Diorshow mascara. We’ve all heard about it. Seems like those who love it absolutely OMG HOLY GRAIL LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Would we be one? Costs over $30 to find out.
BEFORE you buy, you must look at Beauty Addict’s Encyclopedia of Mascara. So maybe we should make it Lancome Fatale instead?
Wait a minute. This gift is not for everyone and that must include me. Christian Dior appears on too many lists of companies that test products on animals. L’Oreal, which owns Lancome, is not cruelty-free either. I don’t buy their claims about trying to phase it out. Others (Clarins, Clinique, Estee Lauder) have found alternatives and with all L’Oreal’s money, so can they.
There’s some controversy about Lancome, which appears on both Test and Do Not Test lists, but if there’s any doubt, I’ll buy from a company I trust. If you search “animal testing policy” on their site, you will get 0 hits. It’s time the onus were on the company to make their status clear on this issue. The consumer shouldn’t have to go all over the internet looking for this and wondering.
And the consumer doesn’t have to. If you’re buying for me, Estee Lauder Turbolash from Gift Ideas For The Real World 2 would be delightful.
5. Cool rainboots so I don’t have to walk the dog in my Canada Tire special gumboots
These red ones (Womens Zetta Tall, top R of page) at Target are cool and tall and nifty.
6. One very nice T shirt. I avoid clothes with logos as a rule. If they want me to advertise for them , they can pay me. But sometimes, the message, the fit, the color, and the price all come together. Like this one at Patagonia, from the Gifts Under $50 page.
I thought the O Web Belt was handsome too. Simple design, not fussed up, lets the outfit speak for itself, cool elegance.
7. The best boots are at The North Face. Expensive, but look at W Abby II in Moonlight Ivory/Tempest Brown. Fashiony boots are fine, but I’m too old to be frozen just to look good. I can be toasty and look superb all at once.
W Isabel II in Espresso Brown/Cigar Brown is also a doll of a boot.
8. More great slipper shoes. If I had money left after shopping at J. Crew, I’d spend the rest here. The clothes are terrific for active women. I’ve been told that Title Nine makes the best sports bras in existence. The origin of the company name is interesting and worthy. Any company that is against policy and pro-dessert deserves attention.
Look at these slipper/shoes.
This is a nice bag. It folds up to a messenger size or expands to backpack size. $34 on sale!
8. Skin Medica Retinol Complex.
Here’s a story : I was sent an email regarding Seattle dermatologist, Dr. Brandith Irwin’s book, The Surgery-Free Makeover. My favorite topic absolutely.
I looked around on the website, Skin Tour, for 30 minutes at least, almost a month in internet time. I was sitting up pretty straight.
When you look, take the Anti-Aging Tour. It is slick.
I went to Product Recommendations > Product Kits and Regimens, and found my skin type (Mature, Normal/Slight Oily). There are a number of products here that sound fantastic.
I followed up by looking for this product at Beautypedia. When Paula Begoun and Bryan Barron are using words like “ symphony”, I am REALLY paying attention.
Anyone thinking of buying this for me – you really shouldn’t. It is already whisking its way here. And, um, so is the next item. I found it in the same place.
9. Topix Replenix Cream with 90% Polyphenols. Not reviewed at Beautypedia, but I have faith.
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Gift suggestions 31-40 for those of us who cannot give $250 gifts and feel almost embarrassed to receive them.
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