Tightlining.
It sounds painful, right? Don’t worry, it’s not. Tightlining is a style of lining your eyes with eyeliner that gives the eyes mega definition as well as the appearance of thicker eyelashes. Essentially, what you do when you tightline is apply eyeliner precisely along the eyelash line: between and directly on top of your eyelashes. When tightlining, no liner is deposited above or below the eyelashes. Tightlining is easily done with super soft eyeliners, be they kohl, kajal, gel or powder. Eyes that are only tightlined don’t look as though they have visible eyeliner applied. Tightlined eyes don’t have that distinctive line just above or below the lashes, but look more as if you have just had your lashes tinted. Tightlining is a fabulous makeup effect that is worth keeping up your sleeve for those occasions when you’re after a less obvious, but mega effective way to thicken the appearance of your eyelashes. Tightlining + volumizing mascara on curled lashes = va Va VA Voom! Bombshell Beauty! Our favourite!
What In The Heck?
I am sure I didn’t reach for that colour blush this morning? I mean, why would I wear pinky red blush with peach coloured lipstick? Have I lost the plot, again? I’m sure it’s pink that I am wearing now. *cue the Twilight Zone music* I wasn’t drinking at 6:30 this morning when I applied my makeup or even on a bender the night before. What in the ham fat is going on here? Who would wear that blush with this lipstick… on purpose?!
*fade freaky music*
What has happened, quite possibly, is that you’ve fallen pray to the call of nature and your naturally flushed cheeks have transcended your makeup and reclaimed your look. This happens to so many of us. So despite your best efforts, your rosey cheeks stand their ground and demand to be noticed. Fair enough. But what if you don’t want them to remain the dominant force? You actually want to wear a gorgeous peachy orange lip and coordinate your overall look to perfection with a suitable cheek. Think of your naturally flushed cheeks as a blessing. A blessing that can be made more or less prominent to suit the look your after. To make your flushed cheeks less noticeable, pair them with a yellow based blush (peach, orange, bronze, coppers and golds). The yellow tones in the blush will hopefully counteract the excessive redness naturally occurring on you cheeks. If that’s not quite able to harness your natural flush, try a tiny smidgen of yellow based concealer on your cheeks first, lightly powder to set and then apply your chosen blush colour. If that’s not enough, add yet one more step to the equation and use a creme blush that is set with a powdered blush. Not only will your chosen cheek colour last longer, but will add just another layer of colour correcting magic for your natural flush to push through. This additional step usually shows your flush who’s boss. After all, there aren’t too many flushed cheeks that can overcome that multilayered approach. See how how go. Good Luck!
Go Hard or Go Home.
Yep. Today, I’ve had to pull out the big guns. After having, for what seems like an eternity, a flu that just won’t quit, I now find myself needing to play hardball with the dreaded post lurgy pallor. Yes, that’s the one. That dusky gray caste that just screams lackluster. No point trying to alter it by reaching for a darker foundation colour than you usually wear, because that only adds insult to injury, by leaving you looking just…well…wrong. No point in going the full on faux tan because you don’t have time to wait for your colour to develop and your colouring is bound to right itself eventually but eventually is a bit longer than you have at the time. I know you can relate. So today, I’ve gone the Glamazon! Glamazon, by Benefit Cosmetics, is just the ticket in situations like these. Glamazon liquid bronzing tint gives just the perfect natural, rosy and ever so alluring, barely sun-kissed tan just when and to where you need it. Glamazon works best when applied soon after moisturizing for the smoothest application. I just brushed Glamazon onto my face only where the sun would catch me naturally, blended, and viola! Natural colour that lasts the day. Glamazon can be layered on if desired, if you really need to kick it up a notch. Thank goodness, I no longer look as green around the gills as I still feel. I was starting to get concerned that I may be frightening small children.
What Should You Do?
I must say, I am a complete sucker for those survival shows and books that paint a worse-case scenario and then illustrate a meltdown of a small handful of solutions to run-of-the-mill pickles like: what should you do if you fall through ice, need to jump from roof top to roof top, pass a bribe or foil a UFO abduction or the like? I love them. I just can’t help watching, reading and taking copious mental notes along the way, because you just never know now, do you? I mean, I think I’m cool with how to control a runaway camel, escape from the trunk of a car, or even how to cross a piranha-infested river… but for the life of me, I can still get myself in a tizzy when it comes to a weekend away and deciding what toiletries to pack. Sigh. How does that work?
As I’ve just confessed, I have been known to suffer the occasional dose of Packer’s Anxiety when it comes to those short trips away. I am much better now though, since it has finally dawned on me to use up some of the many billions of sample sachets and miniature jars of all things cosmetic, I have hoarded all my life. These wee tubs of lotions and potions, sachets and swabs of serums, vials of various conditioning concoctions and cleansers are simply perfect. Not only are they perfectly portable, but are fantastic for use for this time period, more than likely, that you are only willing to part with your beloved cosmetic faves of the moment. Of course, our beauty world won’t fall a part (I keep repeating this bit to myself) if we didn’t have the full sizes of our tried and trues, but it sure is comforting to know that we have that small, sample-sized backup to go to just in case.
So dig out those sample sachets and glorious GWP (gift with purchase) sized goodies, pack ‘em and have a great weekend! At the very least, you can be assured that when you surface from the piranha-infested waters, your hair will be perfectly conditioned to withstand your adventures. Not bad, huh?
The Good Oil.
We’re talking jojoba oil, in fact. Jojoba oil (Simmondsis chinensis) is one of the more underrated oils for use in skincare, but amongst the most versatile. Jojoba oil isn’t really an oil in the strictest sense. It’s largely made up of unsaturated wax esters therefore, it’s really a wax. Since jojoba oil is a mostly wax-like, all be told, it can be quite resistant to going rancid. That’s got to be a good thing. It has a reasonable shelf life too and can be used effectively in many skincare preparations and is even highly effective neat. Jojoba oil is an awesome facial oil. A favourite Beauty Marked! way to use jojoba oil is as a facial serum on freshly washed, yet still damp skin. Divine. A drop or two only, gently patted on your face will absorb in no time and leave your skin nourished. Since jojoba oil, most closely of any of the oils, resembles the skin’s natural sebum, there are no worries that the face will become excessively oily.
Jojoba oil is also used effectively to condition the hair too. Many shampoos and conditioners contain this gem. Try a drop or two of jojoba as a styling aid. Hair caressed in the thinest amount of this oil appears so healthy and has the most radiant shine. Native Americans of the Sonora Desert were the first to get hip to jojoba oil and it’s magnificent cosmetic properties. It is certainly worth grabbing a bottle of jojoba oil (especially certified organic if you can) to keep in your beauty arsenal. After all, it might just be that gorgeous little elixir of life you’ve been looking for. Wink.
United We Stand…
Especially when it comes to wearing nail polish on both the fingers and the toes. Although it’s only classed a misdemeanor to wear different coloured polish on our hands and feet at the same time, it’s a beauty offense nonetheless (punishable by 50 lashes with a thread of silk when last we checked). Your overall look is so much more “well put together” when your immaculately applied (of course) nail polish stands in unison to be present and accounted for. So, what happens when you “must” wear those gloriously strappy sandals or peep toe shoes and you know good and darn well that the jig will be up if you go baring both your fingers and your toes? Just remove the polish from either one or the other and reapply the matching colour to the offending limb or remove the polish from your fingers, do a quick shape, buff, and moisturize and away you go. Unpolished toes are often only rocked with polished fingers as a last resort by the way. Needless to say, if the polish is a little worse for wear, lose it. Better to wear nothing and buff than wear mismatched polish or any polish, for that matter, that’s past it’s prime.
It almost goes without saying, that keeping a bottle of nail polish remover on standby is a must. Consider it a beauty staple. What happens when those rare occasions arise when you find yourself caught out without a single drip of remover? Yes, it has been known to happen to the best of us. Simply apply a thick coat of clear polish on top of the polish you want to remove and quickly and firmly wipe it straight off. This aught to remove the polish in a pinch. Keep this little trick up your sleeve for such times when it just may come in handy.
Only because I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to skite about my new favourite polish colours of the minute, have a look at Creative Nail Design’s latest offering: The Look Colour Collection. Utterly gorgeous!
Good Rabbit Pie Day.
I don’t know about in your neck of the woods, but in mine, everything is shut or simply not interested today. After all, it’s Good Friday! What a perfect day for beauty maintenance. I’m thinking more along the lines of facials, manis, pedis, waxing, and eyebrow sorting. You know, those things we often don’t get time to tend to during the week, but wish we had. Yep, that’s exactly what I mean. Since there’s not much else to do, but perhaps get stuck into those house chores that have been niggling away at you…nah, they’ll keep, so why not? Give that nail polish colour a go. Refresh your brow shape. Get those toes a twinkling. Pamper yourself, for no other reason than you deserve it! Enjoy!
Run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run…
