The Primer Suspect

I get a LOT of emails from women who use mineral makeup.  The letters fall into two camps:  the women who love it, and the women who hate it.   I often feel as though I’m standing in the neutral territory (a Switzerland of makeup) between two warring factions of females who are either singing praises or screaming invectives.  As you can imagine, I enjoy chatting with the happy ones, but I feel more ethically bound to investigate the people making so much cranky noise.

That said, I feel as though I can offer at least ONE tip that may turn the tide for those women who hate the effects of bismuth oxychloride (an irritant which is present in many popular mineral products), and those dry skinned women who hate looking like the desert floor an hour after grinding minerals into their visage.

It’s called PRIMER. To understand why primer is necessary, imagine painting a blank bedroom wall.  If your wall is porous, it’s going to absorb more paint than other walls.  Not only will it take more paint to get the even look you desire, but that paint is going to penetrate the very surface of the wall, clogging it.  Making your wall prone to breaking out.  Imagine now that your bedroom wall is full of hairline cracks.  The more paint you slather on it, the more apparent those cracks become.  As the paint sets in, the cracks seem to widen and flake, making your wall look old and decrepit.

What do we do with the bedroom wall, then?  We use a coat of PRIMER, people!!  Primer is exactly what is sounds like:  It primes the surface of the area that we are preparing to paint. For porous skin, primer acts as a barrier, preventing makeup from clogging your pores.  For dry/mature skin, a primer seals the cracks so the makeup will lie smoothly on the surface of the skin.

The question is, can you find a primer that is good for your skin?  Why bother using mineral makeup for it’s natural benefits if you’re just going to use a disgusting, chemical-laden primer?  It would akin to using an eco-paint on your wall, but putting a fresh coat of gasoline on it first!  So, if you’re a mineral user, and ready to try primer, read the ingredients first.  Don’t use parabens, petrochemicals, benzenes, phthalates or ureas on your skin.  Ever.  Period.

If you have trouble finding a clean primer, use ALOE VERA. You’ll find a million different uses for aloe vera, including hair gel, burn salve, and even internal cleansing.  That’s right, people eat it.  And you know my rule:  If it can go in your belly, it can go on your face! You can find pure aloe vera gel (in various concentrates) in your natural food store.  You can find it in the drug store, too–just make sure they haven’t added anything unsavory).

Aloe Vera makes a splendid primer; it’s a lightweight gel that dries down quickly.  Apply it allover the face, give it 30 seconds to dry, then apply your mineral foundation.  If you’d like an “Official Primer”, with added benefits, here’s the cleanest I’ve found on the market:

Mod.skin Face Sculpt Serum Excalibur with DMAE & Blue Green Algae: water, aloe juice, DMAE (a really cool amino acid), vegetable glycerin, blue green algae extract, vitamin e, rosemary, carbomer, phenoxyethanol (a preservative–not my favorite, but better than most)

So, all you unhappy Mineral-ites out there, before you chuck a week’s pay into the trash, buy a bottle of aloe vera for 99 cents, and give it a go!

Betty Davis Eyes: Classic Eyeliner = Modern Beauty

Is there anything sexier than a pair of smoldering eyes, half-veiled by a gorgeous set of dark, full lashes? The “come hither” lashline and accompanying eyeliner have been used to charm the opposite sex with great success since ancient times, and the look of brazen wontoness is coming back in full force this fall. We’re being teased by models with two inches of black liner smeared around the circumference of their eyes as they saunter down the catwalks in Edwardian menswear. It’s adorably gaunt, and while I adore a smoky eye as much as the next girl, what I really long for is a return of the more confidently sexy eye…that clean, classic, dark sweep of black that so neatly frames the upper lashline. It’s a look that is less raw sex, and more ….gourmet sensuality.

On that note, let’s talk about a classic formula: The liquid liner. I’ve gotta sing about a new favorite–It’s a liquid eyeliner which goes on wet, dries down quickly, and stays put. It’s also blacker than black which is great for a classic (top only) lashline, and is drop dead gorgeous when paired with a set of false lashes. (100% human hair, of course)

Zuzu Raven liquid eyeliner is vegan, cruelty free, fragrance free, and WATER RESISTANT!! Here’s where I get excited–It does not contain parabens or petrochemicals. In fact, the ingredients of Zuzu liquid eyeliner (while not organic) are as clean as I’ve EVER seen in a water resistant version of ANYTHING. Here they are: Aqua, Sorbitol, Cetyl Alcohol, Iron Oxides, Mica, Jojoba Seed Oil, Bentonite, Bisabolol, Tocopherol, Xanthan Gum, Lecithin, Eyebright, Titanium Dioxide, Cellulose Gum, Hectorite, and Potassium Sorbate.

For those shy gals who are wary of liquid eyeliners, I know, I know—the application can be iffy, even for a woman with the steady hands of a surgeon. The problem with liquid liners has always been two fold; first, the brush is difficult to control and you wind up with an uneven line and second, the fluid dries so quickly that by the time you realize your mistake, you’ve got a permanent map of Indonesia scrawled across your eyelid.

So here’s a trick: Use your OWN eyeliner brush.

You simply need a short, fine, SYNTHETIC brush with which to create your most perfect lashline. Dip it directly into the Zuzu pot, wipe the side of the brush against the lip of the pot to remove excess ink, and make small dashes along the lashline. DON’T attempt to draw a perfectly straight line–YOUR EYE IS NOT A STRAIGHT LINE!! Make little dashes at the base of the lashline (where lashes meet skin) starting from the outside of the eye and allow the dashes to become finer and finer as you reach the inner corner of your eye. Make a mistake? Keep a wet q-tip on hand for quickie fixes.

Remember, it’s not a race. You’ve got plenty of time. Black eyeliner will never look fabulous at 9 o’clock on a Monday morning when you’re running late for work. So save it for 5 o’clock on a Thursday evening, when you’re running late for cocktails. If you’ve done a good job, you shouldn’t get compliments on your eyeliner. You should get compliments on your eyes.