RSSFaster Better Makeup 1 : Glow Without Frost
March 29, 2010
A glow is nice but doing it with shimmer, especially in several places, looks real and flattering if you’re under 40 or Bobbi Brown is your permanent house guest.
Read moreMakeup 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 : Deep Autumn
April 6, 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.
If Autumn is the season of sunset colors, this group is scorched earth and ripe fruit. Deep Autumn makes those colors so warm that they glow, making them seem almost metallic, like copper and bronze and gold. By making use of the right colors, this season can look astounding. Winter does look vivid, but it’s cool drama where this is hot and exciting.
I’m not fond of dark lips or very colorful lips. Colors that already appear in the face are what work in makeup . They have to be comfortable and believable, especially on women who wear little or no makeup. For Deep Autumn, the colors already in the body’s color design are quite deep. Pale washed out lips just flatten the whole affect. A natural mouth on Julia Roberts would be the only thing you would see on Heather Locklear.
I’m also not big on frost on any mature face – but sometimes shimmer is your friend. Autumn needs intensity in makeup to match intensity in coloring. If you don’t use “color intensity” then use “finish intensity” with metallic lipsticks. Nobody has brown lips but a bronzed orange lip color will work well on this season, and go nicely with the allover toasted luminous warmth. Where Spring is sunlit and bright, Autumn is has a brown gleam that metallic meshes with well.
Lora at Pretty Your World writes the best site online to figure out your own colors. Not everyone will be able to do it, only because some people are complicated. If it were easy, why would there be color analysts? At PYW, you’ll see that this season is the Autumn/Winter hybrid. Some Deep Autumns can pull off “warm black” quite well because of that.
Color Ideas
Lips: Revlon Sheer Colorstay Bronze; MAC Honey Flower but while you’re at the MAC counter, try on Coconutty, Strength, Shag, and Touch. The makeup artists are good at choosing the best on you. So are your kids. They might not know why but they know what looks good ; Clinique Bronze Star, one of my favorites.
Find brown alone too flat? In lipstick and in blush, you’re looking for a brown-red-orange blend. Warm Autumn is looking for brown-orange. Soft Autumn is looking for brown-peach. Some Deep Autumn women have quite fair skin though the overall amount of color spice is intense. JLo wears deeper foundation than Julia Roberts but the overall depth and intensity of the color package is less, making JLo a Warm Autumn. Because we’re now moving towards Winter, we’re starting to lose the orange in favor of cooler browns and reds.
Try mixing in Mocha or Jist. Have fun looking at the choices at MAC’s beautiful (and much improved) site and notice that you can choose the finish you like in the boxes above the color checkerboard.
Blush: NARS Lovejoy, Madly, Taos. A good color swatch page is here at NARS, though the colors are stronger IRL (in real life) than on my monitor.
“The Next Best Thing To Going Shopping Yourself” and my new favorite blog is by Karlasugar. NARS themselves don’t do as good a job as she does of showing their products. The professionalism and quality of the job she did in her NARS Blush Recap is a-m-a-z-i-n-g.
MAC Mineralize Duo in Intenso might be good too, but be critical of the amount of shine.
Eyeliner: black/brown, there are many. It needs to still be obviously browner than blacker.
Eyes: Cargo Dark Neutral palette. KarlaSugar yet again, has done an outstanding job of showing the 3 Cargo Neutral palettes. For comparison and learning, this is the best you could ask for.
All Autumns should know that MAC Woodwinked eyeshadow is a perfect antique gold accent for eyes. Because it’s very shiny, you wouldn’t cover your whole eyelid, but a spot of it right above the upper lashline, over the center of the iris, followed by your usual neutrals, adds some great dimension. It also does the very cool trick of picking up the amber colors in your eye. It’s often sold out but a beauty if you can get it.
Eye hilite : MAC Shroom or Brule. Although I avoid animal-test companies, I have to say that Elizabeth Arden Sungold eyeshadow is a gorgeous hilite for Warm Autumn and Deep Autumn. It doesn’t go on too yellow or too shiny but lights up Autumn eyes and skin perfectly.
Don’t buy what you can’t try.
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If Autumn is the season of sunset colors, this group is scorched earth and ripe fruit. Deep Autumn makes those colors so warm that they glow, making them seem almost metallic, like copper and bronze and gold. By making use of the right colors, this season can look astounding. Winter does look vivid, but it’s cool drama rather than hot and exciting.
Read moreMakeup Model : Warm Autumn
March 4, 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.
Can a Season share makeup?
I started looking at women and decided that women within the same season in the 12 Season scheme can wear the same makeup. (What is a 12 Season scheme? Read more in Sites To Know : Pretty Your World). The overall color palette and degree of contrast are similar enough to produce makeup palettes customized to your coloring.
If you’re a Light Spring, the makeup that suits you will suit all Light Springs. There may be some that are deeper or lighter than you, so the makeup may look a little different but overall, you will look great in the same shades.
Can you have intensity and light lips?
I don’t like dark lips on anybody. Just a personal thing. They make us look older no matter how perfectly shaped the lips are.
But Warm Autumn needs intensity in makeup to balance strong golden undertones in the skin and the rich clothing colors that suit us so well. I continue to make the mistake of wearing lip colors that are too coral, trying to get a light lip but with color.
Brown alone can look flat and dead… but Autumn does better with brown than anybody. Shimmer is the only way I know to get some intensity and add life to brown, without adding darkness or orange-ness. Brown and toasty/metallic work naturally to become gold and copper and bronze and everything in between. This is what Autumn is all about.
I make the mistake of too much orange in blush too. Candy colors don’t work on this season’s makeup. They have to be natural (meaning warmth added to brown). The strength of this coloring (actually the large amount of warmth in the skin) can cope with metallics in small doses better than the more delicately colored seasons.
Think about Julianne Moore. Her skin isn’t dark but there is enough golden-beige in it that the whole color picture is fairly intense. Dressing her in watered down colors wouldn’t have nearly the kick that deeper warmer colors would have.
You’d put a shimmery copper on her and have it disappear into the face long before it would on Gwyneth Paltrow. Why? Because that is already one of the colors nature put in her overall color design. The sign of a great color for you is that it just gets absorbed into the coloring your face already has. With that kind of color, you can load it on and look real. You can color a little outside your natural lip line and look believable instead of dorky.
Here’s your makeup
Lips: MAC Honey Flower (too brown, dark, and orange alone on me) mixed with MAC Ramblin Rose (more warm coral) or MAC Jubilee (more neutral). MAC Plastique is a fabulous peachy brown metallic, too light on its own though (light and frosty is the formula for ash-colored lips, so it has to be mixed). With those 4 MAC lipsticks, you can create many many good shades. If you like more red color, start mixing in MAC Mocha.
From L, all MAC, Plastique, Jubilee, HoneyFlower, Ramblin Rose.
All this mixing, what a pain, ay? No, no, no ! This is how you learn to customize your colors and how a mixture of 2 colors always always always looks better than a single color alone. Just load a Quo Retractable Lip Brush with your color(s) of the day when you’re doing your AM makeup and you’re set. You can get enough on the brush for 3-4 touchups. Lipstick applied with a brush looks better and lasts way longer, no doubt about it.
Blush: Dior Sunkissed Cinnamon. The price of this stuff is deadly but I like the sheerness and softness of the color. It might look a little pink on you, depending on your skin, more true to its brown-pink name. My skin turns pink to peach, brown to peach, and peach to orange.
Since the color is soft, you can’t see the edges of the blush. What does that mean? Go see the movie Confessions of a Shopaholic and see if you can pick out where Isla Fisher’s blush begins and ends. Also, as a soft color, it looks fresher and younger than a darker or browner color.
The photo is linked to the product at StrawberryNET, which holy cow, if you don’t know it, is worth a look around for the freebies, discounts, sales, selection, and that’s before we talk about Free Shipping Worldwide.
If you like more noticeable color, look at Dior SugarNSpice.
Eyeliner: Dark Brown; there’s thousands of them.
Eyes: MAC Brule, Cork, Soba.
This is a palette of those same colors on a white background. They look dark on the white. I just threw in the gloss for fun. It’s a Chanel Glossimer, color name long worn off.
Fight with Photoshop though I do, every single day, this is the closest I could digitally match the lip colors (Honey Flower is not here). They’re close but not exact.
Look at what happens to those exact same colors on the golden beige skin of a Warm Autumn. Only the background layer’s color has been changed. Suddenly, they’re much closer to what they look like when a Warm Autumn puts them on her face.
Try this out next time you’re shopping and let me know. Convince me I’m wrong.
-->My good friend and sister-in-law, Holly is a Warm Autumn, just as I am. Over the years, I’ve noticed that we can wear exactly the same makeup colors even though her hair and eyes are not the same color as mine.
I started looking at women and have decided this holds true for all women within the same season in the 12 Season scheme.
If you’re a Light Spring, the makeup that suits you will suit all Light Springs. There may be some that are deeper or lighter than you, so the makeup may look a little different but overall, you will look great in the same shades.
4 Ways To Lighten Your Makeup As You Get Older 3
January 23, 2009
The third of 3 parts on applying makeup that’s beautiful on an older face.
1. A little bit of bronzer every day. Just go around the outsides of your face, under your jaw, under your cheekbone, at your temples. I have a wide nose so I put it down the sides of my nose.
The bronzer and the contour are the same product. Choose the lightest color you could wear, more gold than peach or bronze, with no shimmer at all. Don’t spend a lot of time looking for this item. It’s near impossible to find in a shade that’s believable in winter, especially if your complexion is light.
Instead, make your life easier by choosing a pressed powder in a color 2 shades darker than your own color. There’s so much to choose from in this arena and it works really well.
I use AboutFace powder in Tawny that you read about 2 Beautiful Bronzers For Early Summer.
If I were shopping, I’d look at Estee Lauder’s AeroMatte because it’s:
- pressed ; loose powder will not be controlled enough
- sheer, which is more believable in winter and means a lighter color deposit
- matte, because sparkly bronzer or contour just looks idiotic, especially in winter or at the office
Follow with blush in a rosy or peachy color. Choose something light and fresh in your color family. Dark blush makes skin look dull and lifeless. Nobody has brown cheeks. For some women of intense coloring, a deeper rosy-plum is fresh and believable. For others, spicy peaches and terracottas are very real colors. Stick with your color family and don’t go too dark. Bought your Color Swatches yet? Choosing makeup colors is a snap, a done deal, a cakewalk once you have your swatches.
Put the blush high on the cheek, under the outside of the iris, right above the contour, a little higher than the nostril. Think of putting it on the highest part of the round part when you smile.
Blend your blush better than you ever have. Two spots of bright or dark blush are too stereotypically old-lady. Use products that blend with absolutely no hard edges.
2. Avoid foundation with heavy coverage. Look for sheerer products. Try a foundation that is more transparent or if you love the one you wear, mix it with a little or your day cream ( the one with SPF, you know?) . It looks so much more like real skin. It is fast to apply, gives you some sun protection, is easy to blend into the neck, and can do wonders for how smooth your skin looks. Some powder on the shiny areas, the sides of the nose and center of the face, and that might be all you need to make a huge difference.
Some choose to go heavier with pigments and coverage as they age, but the skin is less forgiving and can’t carry this off attractively. In Christopher Hopkins’ great book, Staging Your Comeback, A Complete Beauty Revival For Women Over 45, he explains his preference for more opaque coverage in foundation in a matte finish. He feels it hides uneven coloration better, which he believes that people notice more than wrinkles. I don’t know about that – it may be true from a distance, maybe even a social distance of 2ft. or so. I think people do notice wrinkles.
(The BUY link only works on Christopher’s site but the book picture is linked to it.)
Here are some of the After photos for you to make up your own mind. He has incredible vision and beautiful, classy taste but I’d feel too made-up, and I already wear the stuff every day. Could be I’m not putting it on right.
Sheer coverage can do a shocking amount to even skin tone, even if a few discolorations come through. With Christopher’s suggestions of an opaque foundation and the powder under the eyes (which can be brushed away later), your face would have very little pliability, the coverage would look like a shield, and the wrinkles would almost blink.
I will concede that once we’re over 40, we have to be careful with dewy and glowy, just as he says. Unless you have 30 yr old skin, and perfect at that, take care with shine. You can always add it back in in a controlled way with a shimmer cream (see 6 Makeup Shimmer Do’s). Do we know this instinctively? The older we get, the less shine will work. That’s good. It keeps us in the realm of that watercolor diffusion which is the best makeup anyhow.
You’re brilliant, Christopher. I’d even let you at my hair. I don’t doubt I’d look much better than I do but I’m not with you on the foundation for an everyday look busy women can fit into their lives. You said “I know you can see [foundation] but others can’t.” I think they can. More about Christopher’s book in another post.
3. Eyeshadow that lifts. Women don’t require or desire a 4-eyeshadow blueprint. You put your light concealer under the eyebrow and that’s that done. You put a light neutral color on your eyelid. Where you put it on your eyes is what a makeup artist will tell you, but usually you’d go from the lash line to halfway between crease and eyebrow.
Our foreheads/eyebrows/eyelids are falling down with gravity and time. Instead of putting the darker neutral eyeshadow in the crease, apply it above the crease on the skin that falls down over the crease. If you raise your eyebrows, you won’t see where that is so relax your face and see what part of the lid is lying on top of the crease. See how the push pins are pointing to a fold of skin that falls down over the crease in the eyelid? Make it recede with darker shadow. Thanks to Jenepher Reynolds for this eye-opener.
4. Eyeliner. There is no way around it. You will look asleep without it. Our eyes, like our lips, lose definition with time. Our coloring softens and makes everything blend together more. Draw a line around something and it’s more noticeable. Our eyes are the part of our face that should be most noticed because they’re our expression and our vitality.
The color depends on your coloring, remembering that neutral makeup will always look more real. It will be some shade of gray, brown, or black. These colors are not hard to find. They range from soft grey to charcoal. You’ll find soft brown, milk chocolate, black coffee, grey-browns, lots of choice. Clinique’s Quickliner is but one of many good choices for application, staying ability, and color selection.
Buy from a company where you can test the colors. The sealed ones vary too much from the color on the packaging.
-->Today’s 4 suggestions for improved makeup on mature faces consider bronzer, foundation, eyeshadow, and eyeliner.
Read moreGift Ideas For The Real World 5
December 10, 2008
How do I love shopping? I cannot count the ways.
1. A Flip MinoHD. A sleek pocket-size camcorder that creates high quality movies that can be downloaded into a computer. For quality, ease of use, and size of movies, these are hard to beat. Pricier than most of my gift suggestions, but you wouldn’t regret this. The High Def (HD) version costs more but is probably worth it. At The Flip Store, called MinoHD Camcorder.
You simply must go to this page to experience the design and pattern generators. Ships for free, in the US at least, for now at least.
2. Crème de Cassis. This is a blackcurrant liqueur. Drop a splash in the bottom of a glass of champagne, or wonderful sparkling white wine like Henkell Troken. Extreme elegance.
3. Laura Mercier Tinted Illuminating Moisturizer SPF 20
Feel like your skin looks flat by mid-winter? A little bronzer helps, but not enough. This product gives a real-looking glow but not a speck of glisten. You know the sheen on the dull side of foil ? It’s more like that. There’s no sparkle. Too much could certainly make you look like an ornament, but a light touch just looks polished, like the skin’s been buffed. A perfect amount of light reflection occurs and define the angles of the face.
I bought Natural Radiance (for light to medium skin tones, a medium beige).
There’s Bare Radiance (light beige, for fair to light)
and Warm Radiance (medium peach beige for medium skin with pink tones- that’s from Sephora, I’m not sure just what color it describes).
Is it just me or is the lighting in all Sephora stores very misleading? I tried Bare which looked chalky. I bought Natural which looked just right in the store but is quite a deep beige at home in daylight. Given the cost, this might not be one to buy without testing.
I used it on its own. Very sheer but there was no twinkling skin. It wasn’t even unbelievably ridiculously shiny, just very sheer. With a little concealer, it was great for a weekend. For work, mixed with my usual foundation at 50:50, it only warms and deepens it a bit because it blends out very sheer, and it looks AWESOME (if I say so myself).
This is a beeeyootiful tinted moisturizer. Your skin will look better, I promise. I am so impressed that I’m going to buy the Bare Radiance so I can create the perfect shade. I really love it.
4. Joy Tea by Tazo Tea at Starbucks. Their seasonal offering and it is lovely. There are no weird holiday flavor shots, no Jack-in-the-box that nobody likes. It’s just an unusual but nice mix of black teas. From the Starbucks site : “Tazo Joy is a delicate yet full cup, created with some of the finest varietal teas available. Rare Darjeelings and Formosa Oolongs are paired with light-bodied, fragrant Nuwara Eliya teas from Ceylon. Yunnan teas from the high plateaus of Southern China and Southern India Nilgiris add texture and complexity.”
5. L’Occitane en Provence Cherry Blossom Eau de Toilette. This is a gorgeous scent. You’ll recognize cherry but it’s not Lip Smackers. A light floral, yes, but miles from anything fussy and complicated. This scent is fresh and different. It is sweetish but galaxies away from the cloyingly horrid lily-of-the-valley. If I were buying a scent for someone whose taste I didn’t know, this would be it.
From Sephora, about L’Occitane Cherry Blossom:
?Cherry Blossom ?This feminine, floral fragrance pleasantly perfumes the skin with the fresh, soft fragrance of cherry blossom with cherry extract from the Luberon in Provence.
Notes:?Cherry, Freesia, Black Currant, Cherry Blossom, Lily of the Valley, Rosewood, Amber, Musk.?Style:?Fresh. Feminine. Unique.
L’Occitane is one of Leaping Bunny’s truly cruelty-free companies and they make nice stuff. I gladly support these companies.
6. L’Occitane Hand Indulgences : an ultimate hostess gift.
7. Tarte Purse your Lips Lip Gloss Clutch. Normally $106, on for $39, and the clutch is cute. If I don’t get this, I’m buying it for myself. Look at these colors! Be aware that the tubes are smaller than the full-size gloss. Too bad. Knowing the mark-up on cosmetics as we all do, what would it have cost them to be remarkable and make them full size? Hardly anything.
8. Ten Thousand Villages. Fair trade. In support of women becoming stronger. So many gorgeous items, so inexpensive.
The SO-cutest garland.
Lovely wall hangings. this is an embroidered Tree Of Life.
You could buy a whole pile of the stuffed trees and stars for last minute gifts. And this sweetest nativity ornament,
9. Bold Bean Coffees. Thanks to Kathryn for sending this great site. Artful blends, single origin, and organic choices. Fair trade and Rainforetst alliances (see the Tri-Pak page), and supporting some fine organizations and causes.
Are you Mellow Morning Half-Caf or Manic Morning Espresso for the upcoming day at the mall?
10. Planet Chocolate. The best shopping bag. Fill it with the best stuff. From Eve Chocolatier – where great chocolate (and fantastic spiced cocoa) can be found.
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The list of gift suggestions that real-life women can afford to give (and many that we’d like to receive) continues.
Read more4 More Makeup Tricks For Mature Faces 2
October 27, 2008
Back in September, I posted an article about eye makeup for older women in The First 4 Ways To Modify Makeup For Age.
Aging faces develop sharper angles because the layer of fat under the skin becomes thinner with time. Applying makeup with sharp lines and edges, be it poorly blended blush or a sharp edge of eyeliner, only emphasizes this feature of aging. Soft blurred edges that dissolve into one another flatter a mature face. This look is more softly rounded which imparts a youthfulness.
I agree with Lauren Hutton that sheer colors are more attractive that a heavy color deposit. When I say “a soft look”, I don’t mean dusty or watery colors. In most cases, unless you’re a Summer, dilute colors add no liveliness to the face at all. “Soft” here means a light hand in putting on the product and using products that don’t put down a heavy layer of pigment. The colors are pure and vibrant but the consistency is diaphanous, or sheer.
Today’s four are about the mouth.
1. Easy on the lipstick. Steer clear of too much or too dark. This is a very difficult look to pull off unless you really know how to balance the rest of the face. Watch out for “old lady” cliché colors like frosty coral, flat pink, and the nondescript burgundy-dusty rose blend.
Since I don’t have time to reapply lip products ever few minutes, but I find a soft, natural color becoming, I look for long-lasting glosses that work (Clinique Glosswear, L’Oreal Color Juice, and L’Oreal Infallible being among of the best in the affordable category) and use lipliner on the whole lip first.
Gloss is often marketed to younger women, so the colors tend to be fresher. The tradeoff is that it’s very difficult to find gloss without frost or sparkle. The cosmetics industry is producing makeup for 25 year olds. Hey, anyone want to put together a makeup line for us? I’m in.
Stick with colors in your season. Once you know which color type you belong to, you can choose colors that are very true (but sheer! they’re not the same, right?) and look great.
A Summer might look at L’Oreal Color Juice in Watermelon Crush. Summer is the group where frost doesn’t add anything. Their coloring is so soft that anything harsh is jarring.
A Spring is looking for a peachy pink. A light gold shimmer is nice on a Spring. Look at MAC Lustreglass in Instant Gold.
An Autumn does better with some metallic than any other because the whole look is toasty, like this.
Metallic goes overboard all too easily in today’s shimmer swamp. Subtle shimmer is always better.
Look at Almay Ideal Gloss in Bronze Shimmer or Lise Watier Plumpissimo Gloss in Bronze. Warm orange-red looks good too, especially for darker Autumns who need more color in makeup to coordinate with the extra intensity in their natural coloring.
It could be this, but even more red.
A Winter wears icy pink, like the lightest shades here, in her clothing. It looks gorgeous. As lipstick, it’s too faded. For any season, mouth color that is lighter than skin color is hard to do well. A makeup artist could probably balance this look with a stronger eye, but that’s not you and me for every day.
A bright clear blue-pink is also good.
L’Oreal Colour Juice in Raspberry Smash and Tutti Frutti are worth looking at.
If your lip color bleeds easily, gloss won’t work well. The colors stay the same, but you need to look for more tenacious formulas. Revlon’s Color Stay and Color Stay Sheers will get you there. And of course, there’s every imaginable texture in between.
2. Place light concealer at the corners of the mouth and along the outer edges of the lower lip. There are entire articles in this site on the Light Concealer’s ability to create a face lift effect. You still have to work with your own face. For instance, if the nose is thin, don’t put a stripe of light concealer, or shimmer either, down the center or your nose will look even thinner.
Some application spots apply to all of us, some more than others of course, and are easy to forget. Remember to blend light concealer at the corner of the mouth and continue it under the outer edges of the lower lip. The corners of the mouth often turn down a little with time and it can look severe. This technique is anti-aging because it lifts the corners up a little, brings some light, and makes the lower lip look fuller and more supported.
3. Discover a very effective anti-bleed lip liner. Choose a shade in the same color as the lips or a colorless product, to offset lip color’s tendency to move into cracks. Don’t spend a lot of money on this product. The best ones are often the cheaper ones. Search MUA and Beautypedia to find the lipliners that really work to prevent lipstick from bleeding into lines around the mouth. With a clear product, you could even apply it a little outside your natural lip line. Who would know?
The easiest place to buy a great clear one is from Paula’s Choice – works great, feels great, no sharpening, really does last, good price point. This is one of those you can buy several of the first time out.
4. Using concealer instead of lip liner to keep lipstick in place. If you don’t care for lip liner, another way to keep lip color from wandering is to apply a thin layer of concealer all around the lips and blend it out really well.
If you look carefully at lipstick ads, you can almost see it, because it makes the lips come out more, as will any light color. This idea is best reserved for women with a small mouth or thin lips.
A thick concealer will look heavy on lined skin, definitely not helpful. MAC Select Cover-Up comes in great colors, is thin in consistency, and doesn’t move once it’s dry.
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Aging faces develop sharper angles because the layer of fat under the skin becomes thinner with time. Applying makeup with sharp lines and edges, be it poorly blended blush or a sharp edge of eyeliner, only emphasizes this feature of aging. Soft blurred edges that dissolve into one another flatter a mature face. This look is more softly rounded which imparts a youthfulness.
Today’s 4 are about the mouth.
Friday’s Gift Better Be Good
October 17, 2008
Hallelujah!! What kind of women are we?!?
A Happy Dance will not suffice.
Have you checked in with Paula lately?
Hello Joe Mama ! Till the end of October, shipping is $3 on any order large or small, 5% is donated to breast cancer research, and have you checked the 50% off page lately?
Pour a glass of red wine, sit down in front of your computer, and go look.
For $39 total, I bought
1 Sheer Matte Blush in Flawless Nude : $4.98 .( These are gorgeously sheer, great players in building the watercolor diffusion that I think makeup should be. Hover your mouse over each color swatch on the page to read the verbal description of the color. It helps.)
3 Silky Start Sugar Scrub (stocking stuffers, home pedicures, teacher gifts!!) : $5.48 (Anyone buying Fresh Brown Sugar Body Polish? It costs $ WHAT??? $65 a jar.)
Oh, is that all?? Dying here.
Long Lasting Anti-Feather Lip Liner in Toffee (I have high hopes for this one. If it’s wonderful, I’m going to order 10 more, still on $3 shipping till Halloween) : $3.98 . Women with pink undertones should look at Mocha, at least from the color on my monitor. “Mocha” implies that it might be brown, so test it first.
Longevity Base and Top Coat : $3.98. (dibutyl phthalate and toluene – free ; do I know what that means? certainly not, but I’m sure I don’t want them on my hands or in my children’s lungs. Sheer Crystal and Sheer Lilac would be pretty for little girls who like nail polish.) [UPDATE: Nail polish cannot be sent into Canada.]
Soft Matte Eyeshadow in Beige : $4.48. (A perfect classic neutral is worth more than that.)
Sheer Shimmer Illuminating Liquid in Glistening Bronze : $5.48.( I’m on my third tube of this stuff. For warm complexions, fair to medium, it is perfect.)
There’s loads more on sale. Whether you’re a lover of neutrals like me, or you crave brighter shades, you’ll have trouble making choices. I’m already kicking myself for not buying the Sheer Matte Blush in Rose Whisper, but I have 15 days left. If you’re a Spring, take a good look at this one, it’s a lovely soft warm pink. Summers would give some thought to Translucent Rose. Autumns and Winters, look at the Charcoal Brown shadow- a brilliant eyeliner color. Get them while the getting’s good.
I hope you’ll wake up tomorrow and not have anywhere to be, at least till after lunch. May your morning plans consist of nothing more than tea so strong, it’s syrup and so bitter, it’s Aspirin, with toast and honey, and some exercise to top it off.
Enjoy your home this weekend, whatever its shape.
-->A Happy Dance will not suffice.
Have you checked in with Paula lately?
Hello Joe Mama ! Till the end of October, shipping is $3 on any order large or small, 5% is donated to breast cancer research, and have you checked the 50% off page lately?
For a total of $39, I bought these 8 items (and I’ll be going back for more)…
The First 4 Ways To Modify Makeup For Age
September 23, 2008
--> We’d all like the skin we had when we were 20. We’d like the skin we had when we were 5, if it comes right down to it. But that’s not the deal.
Makeup that looks fabulous changes with age just as everything else does. Your face is not the same as it was 20 years ago. It’s better. Your character is beginning to shine through. The makeup can take a back seat.
Unrivaled Products 2 : Hydrating Treatment Cream
September 12, 2008
This is one beautiful cream. In the article Unrivaled Products 1: Beta Hydroxy Acid Gel, 3 unrivaled skin care products for alluded to. This article will focus on the second item in the list. It appears among the 3 because of its incredible performance for the price.
As with all products made by Paula’s Choice, you can accept certain things as guaranteed. The formulation is state-of-the-art. The inclusion of high levels of ingredients known today to be of great benefit to the health and appearance of skin is certain. You won’t sweat over the price. No animal testing takes place at any stage of the development of the product.
What you get with Hydrating Treatment Cream is a medium weight moisturizer that glides over the skin. It is so soft and smooth, not too rich, and completely non-greasy. It is the perfect all-purpose moisturizer. I use it every night on face/neck/upper chest/ and arms.
I have used it around my eyes, though I now use the Skin Recovery Moisturizer as an eye cream (take a look at the article The Best Eye Cream), only because I figure “the more emollient, the better; maybe it will keep the lines away longer”. Wishful thinking maybe, but I’ll use any ammunition I can get. Also, because the Skin Recovery is thicker, it doesn’t migrate into my eyes when I’m reading before bed, if I’ve gotten some too close to the edge of the eyelid.
Since Hydrating has been my favorite cream for so many years, I’ve devised a couple other uses for it along the way. Both take advantage of the cream’s ability to form a very thin, weightless film.
Line softener
I never use powder anywhere under my eyes because the drying effect accentuates the wrinkles there. But, really, any product in that area seems to make the skin more prone to creasing, even concealer or foundation.
After your makeup is on, put a tiny bit of this cream, like the size of a sesame seed, on the end of your 2 ring fingers. Smudge it round till it becomes a film, then tap it (with an up and down motion only) on the whole region at the outside of the eye just to the top edge of the cheekbone, and extending a little to the inside corner if the skin is lined there too. Can you see a marvelous, instant line-softening effect?
Be careful to stay at least 1/2″ or so away from the eyelid margin because the cream can wander into your eyes. While not painful, it blurs vision a little and will cause eyeliner and mascara to smudge more than usual.
Placement of Hydrating Treatment Cream
The area looks moist. Light shines off the top of the cheekbone without shimmer or frost, just to accentuate it a little. It still blends perfectly with the rest of the face. The makeup previously applied under the eye does not crease any more easily, or at all. In fact, I will do this process several times a day, especially in winter. It works incredibly well.
Make your own cream eyeshadows
I use very few cream eyeshadows. I’ve never really found one I like enough to buy till very recently, though I do think the gleam is attractive… but it has to be a gleam. If it’s shimmery, unless the skin of your upper lids is very tight, it will only make the looser skin there more obvious. Most cream shadows are either too frosty, don’t blend out without some tugging, or don’t last well.
Here is a way of making a powder shadow have that moist appearance of cream.
So apply your regular eyeshadow. Just as you did above, spread a small amount of Hydrating Treatment Cream between 2 fingers just to create a thin film. Now tap the cream over the eyeshadow. You really want a very, very thin film. The gleam will look very much like a cream eyeshadow application. The makeup doesn’t crease any more easily than before. Isn’t that good?
Less is always more
You wouldn’t do both of these methods on the same day or you could risk looking a little greasy. But, really, both effects are so subtle and real-looking that even together, they would not be overpowering. Both bring light to the eye, soften the skin so it seems to crease less (or less noticeably), and give an appearance of tight glowing skin.
Cool products multi-tasking. Love it.
-->This is one beautiful cream. In the article Unrivaled Products 1: Beta Hydroxy Acid Gel, 3 unrivaled skin care products for alluded to. This article will focus on the second item in the list. It appears among the 3 because of its incredible performance for the price.
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