Fabulously Cheeky

I must admit it – I love spagetti strap tops, especially the ones with a little bit of lace at the top. Maybe it is because it reminds me of the leotards I used when I went to ballet classes in my early twenties, or maybe it is because they look so good under a jacket. I don’t know. I just know that I’m not ready to let go of spagetti strap tops yet.

However, I absolutely hate the contraption that most of them have inside – the dreaded “bra top”! These things are obviously made for teenagers with tiny little breasts that don’t even need a bra. There is no support in this extra fabric and elastic, it just makes the shirt tight and uncomfortable and difficult to put on. And, the worst thing about this straight jacket device is that if you can actually manage to get into it, it has a tendency to pull itself down and push your breasts up over the top, so you keep having to yank on it at regular intervals to prevent your bra from showing. Annoying to say at the least!!!

Recently, I just had enough! I was determined to do major surgery on the lot, and went looking for my scissors! I turned the shirt inside out and cut through the elastic all the way up to the edge, and then I carefully followed the edge all the way around. And wow! A comfortable spagetti strap shirt that actually stays put!!! And, such a simple solution to put an end to my suffering! I was thrilled!

I am so happy I didn’t have to throw them all away! And the best thing about getting rid of the inner workings of the shirt was that it no longer squishes me flat!

A word of caution, though, about how long you can allow yourself to show cleavage: If the cleavage ends up in vertical wrinkles at the top, you are unfortunately better off with a less revealing style. If, however, your cleavage is still wrinkle free, go for it girl!!! Just get rid of the inner teenage modifications, and it will fit just fine…

Tags: fashion tips

In our menopausal process of becoming goddesses, curves are needed, and our old wardrobe may not look right any more. Therefore, the clothing has to change as the body changes. Say goodbye to skimpy tops and belly showing. Say goodbye to miniskirts and fish net tights. But, this doesn’t mean that we can’t dress nicely. We just have to look for different types of clothes.

If your body starts looking like an hourglass, don’t try to hide it behind baggy, unshapely clothing. Think of your new curves as an assett, something that it is worth accentuating! So, how do you accentuate an hourglass figure?

Think fitted! Tailored jackets, figure skimming pencil skirts and fitted t-shirts, blouses or sweaters. This works much better than covering your body from the tip of your breasts to the sides of your hips with a long, baggy, boxy t-shirt. It looks much better if you dress in fitted clothing that follows your curves.

And, one more essential – a belt at the smallest part of the hourglass! This is important! It will flatter your figure more than anything.

If your smallest part is under your bust, choose empire or babydoll styles which accentuates this part. If your smallest part is at the waist, try a skinny belt with a beautiful buckle. If you are long wasted, a wider belt is nice.

I love the way it looks when you wear a longish fitted t-shirt with a belt at the waste! So don’t hide your curves – find new ways to show them off!

Tags: hourglass figure

Don’t you love Christmas? Staying up too late, watching movies too much, eating and drinking too much, hanging out with friends – it is like living in neverland where there is no tomorrow! However, this kind of gluttony does take its toll, especially on your waistline! So, when deciding what to wear, keep your increasing curves in mind.

Increasing curves doesn’t mean boxy, unshapely clothing – that will only make you look boxy and unshapely. No, it is better to enhance the curves you have got. If you don’t have a small waist line, chances are that the area under your bust still has some definition (at least if you use a good, supportive bra). If that is the case, empire waist and babydoll styles in the right colors can be very flattering. This style accentuates your smallest part and also shows off curvy breasts without drawing attention to a curvy waist as well.

Another style that is excellent at hiding a few bulges is ruched tops, especially if the ruching is on a diagonal, or if it goes across the belly.
Also, think longer tunic tops, very soft, loose sweaters that drape without clinging, and check out chicos and travelknits on ebay. These two companies make clothing out of material that doesn’t cling or wrinkle, and this type of clothing can easily hide a few extra pounds caused by Christmas indulgence in too many goodies.

Also, make sure the fabrics are correct for winter. Think Merino wool, silk and cashmere, velvet and velour. Stay warm, eat, drink and be merry. Celebrate the return of the sun, and whatever else you feel like celebrating. Happy holidays!

Tags: Christmas

How can you tell what your skin tone is? First, look in the mirror. Do you have naturally rosy cheeks? If so, your skin tone is pink based. Yellow or blue undertone is harder to tell. If the veins on your arm are green, you have yellow undertone. If they are blue, you have blue undertone. If you can’t tell if they are green or blue, just look in your closet to see what colors you gravitate towards. If you have mostly cool colors, you are most likely cool, and if you have mostly warm colors, you are most likely warm.

For some reason, we usually gravitate towards the same types of clothing colors as our skin tone. While this often creates a harmonious look, it does nothing to balance out the underlying skin tone. In the summer, when we have a little bit of a fresh skin color, it doesn’t really matter, but in the winter when the skin turns scary pale, and the sunlight against the snow is extremely harsh, we may need to balance out the underlying skin tone a bit.

Foundation is the easiest bit. It should have the same undertone as your skin – so warm to neutral foundation for warm skin, and cool to neutral for cool skin or pink skin. This is because foundation is only meant to even out your skin tone, and not to give you more color. Extra color should be added with blush and lipstick. But, how do your choose the right color?

If you pick a lipstick or liptint with the same undertone as your skin tone, it will look ok, but it won’t “boost” your skintone or balance your undertone. To do that, we have to use the color wheel and pick a color on the opposite side of the wheel. I’ll give you some examples.

One of my friends has very cool coloring. She has pale skin, almost white hair and loves to wear navy blue and icy pink lipstick with frosting. While this looks quite lovely, it magnifies her coolness and makes her look a bit like the snow queen. If we look at the other side of the color wheel, the opposite of blue is orange. What this means is that if you add a little bit of color with orange undertone, it will balance cool skin nicely. One day, I got her to try some peachy pink liptint instead of her icy cool pink, and it warmed up her whole face and gave her a very healthy glow. So, it doesn’t take much to make a difference.

Another cool colored friend of mine with golden blonde hair, loves to wear baby blue clothes, and a bright bluish red lipstick. This makes her look very cold and rigid, since the bluish red lipstick narrows her lips because the color is quite dark. A much better lip color for her would have been a more muted brick red, which would balance the blueness of her skin. I also saw her wearing an orange fleece one day, that someone had given her as a gift, and she looked gorgeous. She could also warm up her hair color with a slight tint of strawberry blonde, and it would really warm up her skin.

Personally, I have yellow based skin that looks very pale and sickly in the winter. Even though I feel attracted to yellow, mustard, olive and orange, it doesn’t really make me feel less pale in the winter. It looks harmonious, but not great. Brown, rust, brick and black looks much better on me, since it contains less yellow. But, if we look at the color chart, the opposite of yellow is purple, and since I am very pale and need a bit of warmth to my skin, a reddish purple would be more flattering than a bluish purple.

This explains why I look better in plum, brick and brown liptints, than in pink, coral or red. Pink is too blue for my skintone, and makes me look even more pale. Coral or bright red brings out the yellow in my skin more, while plum, balances out the yellow nicely and makes me look healthy despite being really pale. This also explains why I had to get rid of my golden blonde hair. It looked ok when I was younger, but when I hit menopause, the golden hair and the yellow based skin were magnifying a general “yellowness” that didn’t flatter in any way. It wasn’t until I changed it to a medium brown with strong red undertones, that it gave my pale skin a boost of warmness that I needed.

When it comes to eyemakeup, I tried the orange range that is supposed to be so very great for blue eyes, and I looked like I hadn’t slept for a week. It wasn’t until I switched to rich neutral browns, plums and burgundies that my blue eyes really “popped” – probably because it balanced the sickly looking yellow undertone of the skin. So, don’t pick eyemakeup based on your eyecolor – pick it based on your skintone instead. Balance out your skintone, and your eyes will “pop”!

What this means is orangey warm eyemakeup for blue skintone, purply eyemakeup for yellow skintone and blue/gray makeup for ruddy/pink skin. Try it, and you’ll be surprised how well it works!

Pink skin looks lovely and fresh on a young girl, but the older we get, the more the pinkness turns into ruddiness instead. If we look at the color chart, the opposite of red is green. Therefore, clothing in blues and greens will balance ruddy skin nicely (better to avoid pinks and berries!). People with pink/red skin actually look good in eyemakeup shades of gray/blue/green because it cools down the redness in their skin. Blush color should be icy cool pink with no orange in it, and lip color should also be icy cool in some kind of pink or berry color. Stay away from corals, browns and warm pinks or bright reds.

There is actually one more skintone, olive, which is basically yellowbased skin with a tan. It has a bit of an olive (green) tinge to it. As we already know, the opposite of green is red, so if you have olive skin, you can easily wear bright red, especially if it has a slight bluish undertone. People with olive skin can even get away with wearing bright red lipstick in the daytime without looking overdone! Eyemakeup colors should be brown, gold and olive, since they already have a tan and don’t need to boost their color. Blush can be plum, brown or quite red and still look good.
This should give you a good idea how to look really gorgeous for Christmas!

Tags: Makeup, skintone

Why is it that my son looks great with carrot colored hair that would have made anyone else look like a clown? Why can my daughter wear green and blue clothes without looking washed out? Why do I look terrible with blonde hair?

I finally figured it out – it all has to do with skin tone. Imagine a color wheel with yellow at the bottom, red in the left corner and blue in the right corner. These are the three major skin undertones.

When picking foundation, you have to stay within your skintone. If your skin has pink undertone, choose a warm foundation, if it has blue undertone, choose a cool foundation, and if it has yellow undertone, choose a neutral or yellow based foundation.

Foundation, or tinted facial moisturizer, should never be used to give color to your face. It is only meant to even out your skintone, so you have to use a foundation that has the same natural undertone as your face. If your face needs a color boost, use blush, lip tint, eye shadow, hair color or clothes color to flatter your skin tone.

Once you know what your underlying skintone is, you are ready to play! But first, we must talk a little bit of color theory.

When it comes to flattering colors, it is all about balancing your skin color. It is about finding a color that COMPLEMENTS your natural skintone. So, let’s go back to the color circle. To find what complements and balances yellow, look to the opposite side of the color circle. It falls between red and blue, so basically, shades of purple will balance yellow skin.

To balance pink/ruddy skin, the opposite of red is between yellow and blue, so shades of green leaning towards blue will balance ruddy/pink skin nicely because it cools down the reddish color.

To balance blue undertone, the opposite of blue is between red and yellow. Therefore, shades of orange will balance cool skin.

My son has bluish skin tone, and he looked absolutely fabulous once when he dyed his very blonde hair carrot orange!

My daughter has pinkish skin, and she looks awesome in blues and greens.

I have yellowish skin, and I look terrible in both reds and blues. However, shades of purple, plum and burgundy works really well, as long as the purple isn’t too bluish. I also look good in neutral tones, such as earth tones, brown, olive and black. Any colors that are not too warm or too cool. Murky, muddy colors are basically my best palette. Stay tuned – more info is coming…

Tags: skin color

I know it isn’t winter, yet, but fall is the best time to buy for winter on ebay. I’m looking to buy myself a down coat, but oh, there are so many decisions to make! Long, medium or short? Down, feathers or polyester?

As far as I know, down is still the best. It is the lightest and the warmest. The higher the percentage of down is, the better the quality and the warmer the coat. If the down percentage is below 75%, it is a lesser quality coat, and unless you live in Florida or Southern California, you’ll suffer when the cold hits.

Then, the question is, how long should I buy it? I already have a short snazzy down jacket that is fine for fall, but as soon as it really gets cold, my butt suffers and my lower back gets stiff from the cold.

I have always wanted a long coat, and luckily, I’m tall enough that I can get away with it. The shorter you are, the more overwhelming a long coat will be. But, now I am becoming indecisive. A long coat is great for walking around in when the temperature dips, but can I easily get into the car with it? Is there a reason why they call 3/4 length coats “car coats?” Maybe anything longer just gets into your way and makes you feel like you are wearing a sleeping bag instead of a coat. It has to be warm, yes, but it must also be practical. So, maybe I’ll settle for a 3/4 length coat…

Tags: winter coats

Halloween is coming, and even though it is another 5 weeks until it is actually here, Walmart has already filled the isles with scary outfits.
I know, because yesterday, my daughter and I went shopping. From where I live, the nearest Walmart is 55 miles away, and my daughter didn’t really want to come, but she had to, since I didn’t want her to stay home alone all day.
Anyway, as soon as we got to Walmart, the Halloween section was like a magnet. We spent hours, and hours there, looking at everything, and my daughter insisted on trying everything, too, even though it was packaged and probably wasn’t supposed to be tried in the shop.
Buying a Halloween outfit for myself was the last thing on my mind, but since I ended up spending 5 hours in that section, I couldn’t help but look at grown up outfits while I was there.
There were some really cool gothic outfits with belt buckles everywhere, scary platform boots and nasty looking eye makeup. If I had scary platform boots, I would definitely go for that look, but it just doesn’t have the same effect with leather ballerina flats. So forget it!
Then, there was Cleopatra, supposedly the most beautiful woman who ever lived. The dress looked like a white sheet with a hole for a neckline, with a gaudy belt and a very outdated hair style. NOT! I was actually more attracted to the escaped mummy who had made a dress out of all the rags and put toilet paper in her hair. At least it was creative. But, a toilet papered mummy isn’t really an expression of me…
Then there was little red riding hood in a mini skirt – very silly – and witches with big pointy hats. Really – those pointy hats definitely has an outdated look as well. Magical witches should be able to be more creative than that. And angels – great if you are an angelic type – and devils – the other side of the coin…
The worst one was a cupcake!!! Who in their right mind would want to dress up as a cupcake? Unless, of course, you were planning to have someone eat you… I say no more.
The one I settled on was a gothic vampire – scary, I know, but there was something appealing about that outfit. Except for the dum red collar that was choking me. So, the red collar had to go. Then, I ended up in the Halloween accessory section, and there I found a gothic choker, that choked me less, and looked way better than that red foam collar that made me look like I just came from the vet’s office, and I also found a beautifully modern witchy hat decorated with black feathers and a veil with spiders. Oh, yes! I finally found my true self – a gothic vampire witch!!! (It is all about creating your own style, isn’t it?)
Next, we went and bought scary makeup – blackish nail polish, scary red lipstick and black and red eye makeup.
My daughter also ended up in a scary black dress with spider webs, so we are going to be quite a couple.
If I don’t scare away my husband, I’ll try to get him to take a picture of us when the time comes. Until then, I’d love to hear what outfits you all end up with…

Tags: Halloween

I went through my closet the other day and tried on different tops to see what was worth keeping. All the tops had different sleeve length, so I really got to see the effect of it. At some point, I came across a sweater with 3/4 sleeves. I have always loved 3/4 sleeves, simply because they don’t get into everything you do. They are a bit out of the way, which is nice, but as a fashion statement, does it work?

I took a look in the mirror, and it didn’t look flattering at all. The sleeves stopped at the widest part of my hips and created two horizontal lines which basically added another 8″ to my hip measure.
And, who in their right mind, would want another 8″ added to their hips???

So, I tried another sweater with long sleeves, and what a difference that made. The hips went back to their normal size. Then I pulled the sleeves up to the elbow. That worked, too. It made the hips look slimmer with bare arms next to them. So, 1/2 sleeves work, while 3/4 sleeves don’t.

Then I tried a t-shirt with short sleeves. Short sleeves make horizontal lines right at your bust line. This is good if your bust is small, or your shoulders are narrow, or if your body shape is like a pear. By making your upper body look wider, it will balance out bigger hips. However, if your bust is large, stay away from short sleeves. With a large bust, you are better off with either a tank top, 1/2 sleeves or long sleeves.

So, I decided to get rid of my 3/4 sleeve sweater. Even though I like that length of sleeves, it makes my hips look dumpy unless I pull the sleeves up to my elbow. So, whoever came up with the idea of cropped sleeves, must have gone to the same school as the ones who came up with the idea of cropped pants. Now, I won’t even get started on how I feel about cropped pants. I’ll save it for another post…

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Tags: sleeve lengths

Have you ever wondered what earring shapes that flatters the shape of your face? I just came across another awesome article about this issue. Click the LINK to find out more.

Please visit my website for Green Cosmetics

Tags: earring shape