Archive for October, 2008

E= Marvelously Crystal Clear (Vitamin E, that is!)

October 31, 2008 · Filed under Makeup, Uncategorized · Tagged , , , ,

Einstein wasn’t thinking about lips when he wrote his formula, but I’m going to co-opt it for the purposes of beauty. I love a glossy lip. That’s not to say I don’t adore a nice matte red, or even a moist looking rose lip, but a glossy lip is a FRESH lip. I’m a huge proponent of anything that can make a woman look less tired and more happy. And glossy lips make us look like shiny, happy people.

I’ve given this phenomenon a lot of thought, and I think I’ve finally figured it out: Some of our happiest, most alive and sparkling moments are when we’re eating. (It’s alway about the food with me, isn’t it?) See, when we eat celebratory cold treats (ice cream, popsicles, bon bons), our lips are shiny– and we’re happy. When we eat comforting, hot fried foods (Chinese takeout, French fries, buttery pancakes with syrup), our lips are shiny, and we’re happy. When we wear lipgloss, whether or not we actually feel it, we LOOK happy. And looking happy is the easiest way to look better, every day.

A recap:

1. Wearing undereye concealer makes us look happy. (see the concealer blog)

2. Wearing a sheer, bright blush makes us look happy. (see the blush blog)

3. Wearing lipgloss makes us look happy!


Lipgloss, as a cosmetic “go to” product has a few great things going for it: It makes your lips shiny–shine reflects light, which makes your lips look bigger. (this is why shiny pants are a terrible idea)

Lipgloss also makes your lips look healthier–all that shine reflects light away from cracks or lines or peeling on your lips.

Added bonus: lipgloss can nourish, soothe, and actually HEAL your lips, IF you use the right lipgloss.

*Do NOT use lipgloss that contains mineral oil, parabens, chemical preservatives, or plasticisers. THROW OUT every lipgloss you own that contains ANY ingredient you wouldn’t take internally. Why? Because if it’s on your lips, YOU ARE EATING IT, ALL DAY, EVERY TIME YOU WEAR IT. You know this is true. Don’t act surprised. There are sooooo many natural glosses on the market right now that are 100 percent clean and healthy that for you to continue to use that DISGUSTING gloss in your purse is simply inexcusable, gross negligence.

Tough love, girls– some of you need it!

My new favorite lipgloss is a very simple idea. It’s vitamin e oil. Brilliant! If you’ve got some of these capsules laying around in your medicine cabinet, (or your mother’s), you’re in business. When you’re getting ready in the morning, poke a capsule with a clean pin, and schmear across your lips. If you’re going for high glamour, put the e oil over your favorite lipstick (a sexy look, but not long lasting). If you’re more of a “natural” type, just put the oil on by itself. Your lips will look instantly full, lively, and HAPPY!

I’d love it if a cosmetic company came out with a rollerball wand of thick vitamin e oil (and yes, there are varying thicknesses of vitamin e oil….called IUs) My favorite vitamin e oil is Jason’s 32,000 IU Vitamin E Beauty Oil. The company offers several vitamin e oils, some of which are organic and some which are mixed with other healing (and edible) oils such as macadamia oil, avocado oil, and borage oil. I like the small glass bottle of pure, super thick vitamin e because it makes my lips look incredibly gorgeous, and it stays on for about an hour.

Downside? There’s no way I’m going to carry the glass jar in my purse for touch ups…so here’s my plan: I’ll finish using one of my tinted wand glosses from another company, then REUSE the container, filling it with vitamin e oil. Having that wand will be handy.

Here’s another idea; Mix a small amount of your favorite clean lipstick or a mineral pigment that you love with the vitamin e oil, and CREATE YOUR OWN FABULOUS GLOSS!!! You can even add a drop of food grade essential oil (cinnamon or peppermint are traditional). If you can eat it, you can add it.

Now, in the time it takes you to pop a vitamin, you will look fresh, sexy, and happy!

Top photos courtesy of Flickr’s: MoniChan, and MaryHeather

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At Long Lash: A Wearable, Green Mascara

October 24, 2008 · Filed under Makeup, New Products, Shopping · Tagged , , , , , , ,

I’ve talked about compromise before. When a bride says she wants green makeup, I talk to her about what works, and what doesn’t. Green mascara (up til now) has largely been a failure. The very ingredients which make mascara stick to our lashes and not smudge are the same ingredients that we’re trying to avoid, namely pthalates, petrochemicals, and even coal tar.

The bride’s reaction is typical, “I want waterproof, smudgeproof, mascara. I plan to cry.”

I totally understand. I carry waterproof mascara (DiorShow Waterproof is most famous, though, really, all waterproof mascara is the same…nothing’s going to lengthen, thicken or curl, once it’s waterproof. I’ve tried at least 15 major brands…waterproofing ingredients make the formula precise, across the board.

Well, I try NOT to cry on a daily basis, but I still don’t want my mascara to smudge left and right, up and down on my face. I keep trying green mascara formulas that claim “smudge resistant”, and I ultimately look like a heroin addict by noon.

If you have shorter lashes, this isn’t going to be a problem for you. So go out already, and buy yourself some clean mascara. Of all places on your face, what goes on your lips and eyes should be as squeaky clean as possible. We’re talking orifices, here, ladies. Keep them happy, keep them green.

If your lashes are longer, however, you’re going to have trouble finding clean mascara that works for you simply because those “sticky” ingredients aren’t there; and every time you close your eyes you are undoubtedly transferring product under your eyes.

A couple tips:

1. After you apply under-eye concealer– you ARE using concealer, aren’t you– the under-eye will be slightly moist, which I prefer to overpowdered, BUT that moisture can make your mascara smudge when you blink. Roll just a touch of face powder under each eye, and THEN apply mascara.

2. Do NOT apply mascara to your bottom lashes. You just don’t need it. It closes up the eye, smudges, and and invariably looks “done”. If you MUST define your bottom lashes (although I can’t imagine why you’d want to, they don’t contribute to sexy eyes at all), then save it for evening, when the smudging will take on a charming, tipsy allure.

3. Apply mascara to the tops of your top lashes first, then fan the lashes upward from the bottom. You get more curled lashes this way, and you also get the look of two coats of mascara without the clumping.

Finally, EXPERIMENT with mascara formulas. What works for me may not work for you, and vice versa.

Here’s a new product that works for me right now: Tarte’s Health Couture Lash Hugger eco-friendly mascara in black. (Sephora carries it). I’ve been wearing this mascara regularly for three weeks, during which I’ve cried (at least three times–what? Who doesn’t cry at least once a week?), I’ve sweated, and I’ve had something in my eye which made me rub it. These are my results: Lash Hugger doesn’t smudge/run unless your face is wet, or you rub your eyes. And that’s totally fine with me. I EXPECT mascara to smudge if I’m crying. I EXPECT it to smudge if I rub my eyes. And I fully EXPECT it to stay put if I’m just minding my own business. This one does.

Lash Hugger Natural Mascara:
Water, Alcohol, Oryza Sativa (Rice) Bran Wax, Cera Carnauba, Hydrogenated Stearyl Olive Esters, Stearic Acid, Cyclopentasiloxane, Glycerin, Shellac, Triethanolamine, Candelilla Cera, Acacia Senegal Gum, Aminomethyl Propanediol, Phenoxyethanol, Chlorophenesin, Iron Oxides (CI 77499).

Now I am by no means a fan of every above listed ingredient! I DEMAND completely clean products that WORK. And I’m still looking. I told you this was going to be about compromise. Tarte’s mascara tube is post consumer recycled aluminum, and the formula contains no parabens, or other evil fillers. I don’t like Triethanolamine (who would?) and the idea of putting shellac on my lashes is not a happy one, so I’m STILL LOOKING.

The next one I’ll be trying is a mascara made from sugar, by Suncoat. You know my philosophy about being able to eat anything that goes on my face!

The following mascaras did NOT work for me, but they are MUCH cleaner than Lash Hugger, and you may want to give them a go:

Dr. Hauschka Volumizing Mascara & Intermezzo Mascara

100% Pure Mascara (made with blueberries)

With any luck, we’ll all be winking clean in the new year!

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Eyelids: The shutters to your soul

October 3, 2008 · Filed under Makeup, Shopping, Uncategorized · Tagged , , , , ,

This is going to seem like a strange posting to some; so be it. I have a love/hate relationship with eyeshadow. I am convinced that colored eyeshadow is utterly unnecessary, and I’m still debating it’s desirability. If eyes are the windows to the soul, then eyelids are the shutters. And do we really need to paint our shutters regularly? Wouldn’t it better to work on our windows?

Let me be absolutely clear: I don’t want your eyelids to be red, purple or pink, as is their natural proclivity. Because our eyelids are thin skin, they are somewhat translucent. So the capillaries that feed blood to that skin often peek through, lending our lids a tinge of zombie-like zest. And I am by no means in favor of zombie eyes, or eyes that make you look depressed, hungover, or as though you haven’t slept in millenia. (You may already be aware of my penchant for under eye concealer for the same reason)

After “doing” thousands upon thousands of eyes, here’s what I’ve whittled it down to:

The Vermeer:

On a “nude” day, your eyelids should closely resemble your natural skin color, but a shade lighter. That means, if you’re naturally a fair skinned girl, you’re going to reach for a light creme colored eyeshadow, and sweep it across the area from your brow bone to the base of your eyelashes. You want your lids to match your brow bone (the area under the arches of brows), and brow ridge (that area between your eyebrows, above your nose). If you’re a deep, honey brown, your everyday color is going to be a gorgeous golden honey eyeshadow which matches your brow bone and brow ridge. If you’re a beautiful beige, you’ll find yourself a light beige eyeshadow to brighten and even out your royal beigeness. Get it? That’s one color, everyday, to freshen your eyes.

I call this “The Vermeer Look”. Vermeer (think Girl With the Pearl Earring) was this fabulous Dutch painter whose subjects had the most beautiful eyelids in all of art history. The purity of the skin (as emphasized by that fantastic Northern light) was apparent in every portrait, and lent an innocence, a FRESHNESS to his subjects. Of course, Vermeer’s subjects aren’t wearing eyeliner or mascara, either, but you may find that amount of austerity to be too virginal for your taste. Just remember if your lids look pure, the windows of your soul won’t look so dirty.

The Urban Sophisticate:

You’re a lawyer, business woman or corporate slave, and you need to project confident sophistication. You’re a career gal, and you want to be taken seriously! Use your nude color all over, then reach for a deeper warm neutral tone. If you’re beige, it’s probably going to be a “tan” color. Either apply it just in the lid crease, for added dimension, or apply it on the lower lid. Your nude color will act as a kind of base, remember, it goes up to your brows, and the slightly deeper color will add dimension and depth. If you go for this step, you definitely need mascara, and a fine eyeliner is fab.

Dinner With Andre (or Andrea) :

Eyeshadow Disclaimer: I love a nude eye with back eyeliner and black mascara and red lips as a classic look for a little black dress kind of night.

Of course, another sultry option is the ever popular smoky eye……But if it’s not that kind of night…….

Times Square Special:

It’s New Year’s Eve. Or it’s just “Eve”, and you want to party: You’re prepping for a night on the town. THIS is what eyeshadow was invented for!! THIS is the time to have a party in your bathroom all by yourself!!

Play with color and with sparkle (I hate shimmer…it often looks FROSTY, and since it’s not 1986 anymore–thank goodness–frost has no place on your face. One exception: warm, highlighting shimmer on cheekbones). As a general rule, keep the lightest colors on the brow bone or inner eye (be they light aqua, gold, silver, pale purple, etc.). Keep your darkest colors either in the outer crease or on the lid itself. An easy way to do color is to “build it”, starting with the darkest color at the lashline, and getting lighter as you go up.

(I’d use a maximum of three complementary colors if you’re not shooting for Drag Queen Hostess.  Practice playing with your eyes at midnight when you DON’T have a party to go to. Do each eye differently, experiment, have fun, then wash your face and go to bed.)

Less pressure = better results.

More practice = better results.

Less makeup = better results.

~Save the fancy shutters for Mardi Gras, and let your own light shine through the windows to your soul every day.~

(And don’t forget–if you’re going to use eyeshadow, practice safe eyeshadow! Go paraben free, petrochemical free, toxin free. If you prefer your shadows pressed (though in somewhat limited shades), you have good options with Dr. Hauschka, Josie Maran, Eco Nvey, Lagona, Eco Bella, and 100% Pure to name a few. If you want to really go wild, check out the loose and highly pigmented mineral powders available. I love my fun collection of Larenim matte and super sparkly eyeshadows in colors like Cosmos and 24 carat–bonus: I mix them with clear nail polish to make a rainbow of dazzling nail colors!)

photos courtesy of flickr’s powerbooktrance, neverletmego, realnaughtyangel, and vagamundos

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