Cream Blush Anyone?
Fancy a cream blush, but don’t know how to use it? Can’t get it to hang around past a few hours after it’s applied? If you answered yes, yes, and yes then you’d be in the very same situation as many makeup mavens out there. Cream blush can deliver a gorgeous dewy, youthful cheek but can be a tad tricky to apply and to coax into sticking around. Cream blushes are fantastic for skin that is reasonably blemish free and leans more towards normal to dry. Oilier skins can use cream blush, but it takes a little extra work.
As a makeup artist, my preferred way to apply cream blush is to use my thumbs. On others, I just load up one thumb with product (a few swirls on the blush generally suffices) then rub my two thumbs together. Place your wrists together so that your palms are facing each other, then gently touch both thumbs at the same time to the apples of the cheeks. This delivers the exact amount of blush to both cheeks at exactly the same height on the face. I then lightly blend outwards using my fingers along the cheek towards but not right up to the ears. The amount of blush should be most concentrated at the apples and then seamlessly fade off into the faintest amount of colour in the outer direction stopping about 2-3 finger widths from the ears. I use the same technique when I apply blush to myself as well, but instead of putting my wrist together facing palm-ward, I align my pinky fingers with palms facing upwards. Then I blend, blend, blend. If your feeling a little less dextrous, simply use a synthetic foundation brush. It will do the trick nicely too.
To get your cream blush to hang out a bit longer, simply set it with a light dusting of powder. Powder blush of a similar colour (my fave), translucent powder, blotting powder, or powdered foundation will all work well. Just remember to put liquids, gels and cream based products before powdered. Although not a forgone conclusion entirely, generally moist products applied over dry can tend to cake, bead, or peel, so should be avoided when possible. Lightly powdering over will vastly improve your blush’s colourful existence on your cheek. Admittedly, powdered blush, especially, on top of cream blush seems to amp things up nicely, giving you long lasting colour with extra alluring dimension. Hopefully, these tips will tempt you into trying cream blush as it is certainly one of the more gorgeous, yet under utilized makeup items out there. You’ll be pleased if you show cream blush a bit of love. Do be sure to let us know how you go.
Cuticle Woes Be Gone!
Dry cuticles, hangnails, and lackluster nails are the bane of most hands in winter. Nails that are a little or a lot worse for wear are generally a result of a lack of hydrating moisture due to the onset of chillier weather. Hands that also spend a fair bit of time in and out of water, without a proper bit of moisturizer applied to them in between, can particularly fall prey to dry cuticles and hangnails. Ouch! Talk about sore, unsightly little terrors.
Creative Nail Design SolarBalm is a nourishing pot of moisturizing goodness. SolarBalm is a highly emollient conditioning balm made specifically for nails and skin, which comprises of a blend of jojoba oil, vitamin E, and sweet almond oil. Just the tiniest amount of SolarBalm rubbed onto the nail, cuticle and surrounding skin will instantly hydrate. After a few days of regular use, you will certainly see and feel the difference in your nails and cuticles. Do resist the temptation to bite off or pull at any bits of dry cuticle or skin that are annoying you. Often this will cause them to tear further, to be even more painful, and become a potential source of infection. Use a quality pair of cuticle nips to remove the desiccated cuticle and hangnail only. Tweezerman Stainless 2000 Cuticle Nipper is Beauty Marked!’s tool of choice. This stainless steel, double spring cuticle nip is fantastic for removing that nuisance bit of dry cuticle or hangnail that’s not only unsightly, but catches on what seems like absolutely everything! Talk about adding insult to injury. Ugh! But not to worry, because before long, with regular maintenance, dry cuticles, hangnails, and brittle nails won’t be an issue for you… Right?
Creative Nail Design’s SolarBalm comes in a handy 9 gram tin that fits wonderfully in your handbag, pocket or wherever you store all things precious. Visit Creative Nail Place for your local stockist. Tweezerman Cuticle Nippers supplier info is gladly available from Dateline City.
One Click And Magic Happens.
Yes, I know they are not due to be released until August 2007 in Australia, but these beauties are too good to keep under my hat until then. Maybelline New York has “cast a spell for luscious lips” with new Shine Seduction Glossy Lipcolor. A magical lip gloss wand filled with captivating colour, shine and feel.
Maybelline NY Shine Seduction Glossy Lipcolor comes in 20 super spellbinding, ultra moisturizing, and beyond enchanting colours. A click or two of the base of the wand will release the perfect amount of bewitching potion that will deliver brilliantly alluring colour. No spongy tip applicators either, but a clever new sculpting tip that makes precision application a dream. It gets even better, because the wand clicks back in the opposite direction to ensure that not a skerrick of Maybelline Shine Seduction Glossy Lipcolor droplets made from aqua botanicals (algae and lotus flower extract) and Vitamin E are wasted.
Let’s say for the record, that out of the 20 highly reflective, multidimensional colours released, Beauty Marked! wouldn’t want to be without a single one. Too fabulous to choose!
Heading Home.
As you can imagine, I personally test darn near everything I write about. For those few products I can’t test but do write about, I, at the very least, have someone I trust test the products for me (like in the case with men’s products or products not specifically suited to my skin type or colour). Other than that, it’s all me. So with the major amounts of Guinea Pig-ing I do, my skin occasionally arcs up and freaks out. I have had allergic reactions or my skin has threatened an outbreak of the most catastrophic kind! It ain’t pretty. So what do I do in the event of those rare but dark times? I head straight home. I go back to basics.
[A’kin] Unscented ~ 24 Hour Pure Moisture with Shea Butter, Chamomile & Vitamin B5 is home for me. As with all [A’kin] products, Pure Moisture is 100% nasties-free. Not a paraben or sulphate to be found! Pure Moisture was designed specifically for sensitive, allergy prone, fragile and damaged skin, that’s been in the proverbial “wars”. This ever so nurturing moisturizer is positively packed with natural soothing actives such as vitamin B5, Vitamin E, and Viper Bugloss oil, which is a highly concentrated source of Omega 3, 6, and 9 essential fatty acids. [A’kin] Unscented ~ 24 Hour Pure Moisture gives me all the pure, safe, organic, and healing warm and fuzzies my skin needs at such times of crisis. Before long, my skin is back on the road again fit to merrily experience and test more beauty bits just for you.
The Best Day!
Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mothers and Mothers-to-be out there making a big difference in the world. You rock! Plain and simple. Here’s hoping you are showered with gifts, breakfasts in bed and all the heartfelt praise that you so deserve. Thank you for the beauty and love that you fill our world with. Thank you for YOU. The real gift of all gifts!
The End Is Nigh.
For your beloved skincare items. Now what? I don’t know about you, but to me, it seems such a colossal waste when you have a product or several products in fact, that will not get used before it’s time for them to give up the ghost. I often find myself in this situation, when I have a beauty product that I adore, so I use only the tinciest amount each application so as to prolong its time in my possession. But what I end up doing, without fail, is miscalculating the realistic daily allotment and end up with tons left when the PAO (see Wednesday’s post) and the commencement of regular sniff testing is just around the corner. It’s ridiculous! Even if the products weren’t suited to you for its original intended use, too oily for your liking, or the wrong texture for your face, for example, perhaps they can be used another way. With a little lateral thinking, it may be possible to salvage that moisturizer, scrub, or mask, and then it won’t seem like such a squander when you have to let it go. Simply reinvent its use.
Just a few of my favourite ways to use up skincare items are as follows:
- use facial exfoliants on the decollete, hands, and the tops of feet.
- use gentle gel cleansers without any chemical exfoliants to cleanse makeup brushes.
- use face cleansers with chemical exfoliants (such as AHA, BHA, SA etc.) as body wash.
- use rich night creams as shaving creams (men can get in on the action with this tip too).
- use face masks on the decollete, hands, and back.
- use moisturizing serums (oil based) as hair glosses.
- use untinted lip balms as hair wax for the bitsy look or to slick down rogue strays.
Just Imagine…
Ideally, I’d love to razzle dazzle you with my Photoshopping skills, but as you can see, my ability is sorely lacking. Luckily, there are fabulous essential oil concoctions, lotions, and potions that I can always reach for when I need a boost of confidence and sense of well-being , as I’m not up to the point where I can gather kudos for my groundbreaking image altering talents, just yet. Imagine the My bod® Body Oil pictured gracefully cascading from the svelte neck of the amber bottle into a warm, luxurious bath filling the room with the perfume of nurturing and healing Sandalwood, Rosewood, and Patchouli essential oils. Divine!
(I knew there had to be a reason why I couldn’t get the up right version of that photo to work.)
My silliness aside, I think I might have stumbled onto another of Mother Nature’s finest, bottled to help promote a sense of confidence, well-being and all the while sensational for dry and cracked skin. My bod® Body Oil Sandalwood, Rosewood and Patchouli Blend is outstanding at healing dehydrated skin and soothing the soul, when applied after a shower onto damp skin, sprinkled into a running bath, or used neat as a massage oil. The ingredients of the Australian-made My bod® Body Oil are almond oil, safflower oil, avocado oil, jojoba oil, sandalwood, rosewood, and patchouli essential oils, and vitamin E. My bod® Body Oil Sandalwood, Rosewood and Patchouli Blend is certainly one of those stellar bottles of goodness worth getting a hold of. Visit bod® for your local supplier and learn of all the other beautiful bits of bod® bounty.
