Fabulously Cheeky

Here is my second tip on how to give yourself a natural face lift. Besides under eye bags, the thing that really shows your age more than anything else, is an under chin waddle – that loosening of the skin that we all dread!

There is actually an exercise you can do to tighten it up – I’ll mention it, even though I actually hate doing it. If you are motivated enough to get rid of the lose skin, here is what you do:

Lie on your bed on your back. Scoot yourself towards the edge of the bed until your head hangs over the edge. Lift your head until your neck is horizontal. Count to 45 (45 seconds). Put your head back and rest for 15 seconds. Then again, this time hold it for 30 seconds. Rest 15 seconds again. Then one more time, 15 seconds this time.

The first time you try this, you may not think you can do it, because it is really hard. It is amazing how heavy a head feels when you hold it horizontally!!! But if you keep it up, it will get easier daily. You can also expect to be very sore after the first time. But, hey, who cares, if it tightens up that turkey thing under your chin!

For the rest of us, who hates this exercise with a passion, there is still hope. Do you often sit at a table or computer? Do you sometimes support your head/chin in your left hand while doing stuff, or drinking your tea? If so, you can transform your supporting to exercizing instead, and nobody will know the difference except you!

Here is what you do:
Support your chin in your hand, like you normally do, only this time, tighten your neck muscles and push them against your hand. If you can do this without making weird faces, nobody will know that you are actually exercising your neck muscles, and this will also tighten your neck almost as much as the dreaded bed exercize.

Just think about it – by supporting your head and pressing against your hand, you can actually avoid having plastic neck surgery done, and still look good. It is all about enhancing your natural beauty with secret little tips and tricks that nobody else will notice. Have fun!

Visit my website for natural cosmetics products

Tags: face lift tip

Spring is here! It is time to peel of some of the layers of clothes – you may even get a peak of how pale your skin has gotten over the winter. The first day it is warm enough to eat your lunch outside, and you pull your skirt or pants up enough that you can get some sun on your legs, I’m always amazed how pale you can get in such a short time. It always reminds me what “winter white” really looks like!!!

But, don’t despair! There is still hope. A little bit of sun daily will dissipate most of the blinding whiteness and replace it with a slight hint of tint.

The other scary bit is how the darkish hairs on your legs really stand out when the skin is pale! Arghhh… Now, where did I put that shaver?
I think it is time for a bit of preening! Off goes the hairs and on goes my favorite vanilla lotion. That’s better!!

But, the toenails still look like they could use some loving care. First a quick cut, then clean the sock dust away and apply some light and fresh looking nail polish in a peachy pink tone. Don’t even think about using a dark color, if your legs look ghostly white! It will only make you look like a gothic vampire! No, until your legs have a nicely baked sun tone, you must stick with light shades of nail polish.

Now, that’s much better! Don’t you love being a girl? We get to do all the fun stuff! I’m grateful…

Tags: spring

I have decided to have long hair. What is so extraordinary about that? I’m 52, and I don’t feel like cutting my hair shorter just because I’m getting older.

I have read all those beauty books where they always cut the hair chin short because they are convinced that if you wear your hair any longer, it drags your face down. But, have you noticed that the people they show pictures of in those books always have the wrong hair cut to begin with? Either the hair is all one length and hangs like curtains around the face, or they have no bangs, or a part in the middle, or the hair is bushy, unruly and unstyled, or it is simply too thin to be long.

If the hair is thinning, it definitely needs to be short, there is no question about it, but what if the hair is still thick and beautiful? Yes, it has to be cut professionally, preferably with whispy layers that gives it life and volume, and nicely framed around the face. And, bangs are also the mature woman’s friend, for two reasons:

Bangs hide wrinkles on the forehead and helps to frame the face, and this makes you look younger instantly. If you were able to get away with long hair parted in the middle in your twenties, it just doesn’t look quite the same when you hit fifty. Bangs will work better, either straight, curved or whispy, or at least, have some face framing layers cut in around the face.

Anyway, long hair can be beautiful if you style it nicely. You can find lots of videos on youtube about how to curl or wave your hair with your flat iron, or even about how to create a tousled look by scrunching it while it is drying. It only takes about 5 minutes from flat to gorgeous, then add a little bit of styling cream and a spritz of hair spray to hold everything in place and you are good to go.

If you think short hair is easier, think again! This is the part that those beauty books never tell you – short hair actually needs MORE styling than long hair to stay nice. Do you think those nicely styled hair styles are going to keep looking like that after those people go home? Do you think that you can just cut the hair off and never worry about style again? If you do, you are delusional!

Short hair that is towel dried and just left to dry, will either look flat or frizzy in most cases. And, when you sleep on short hair, it also gets flat, or even worse, kinky in the wrong places! The truth is, for short hair to look good, it MUST be styled, even more so than long hair!

Therefore, from 50 and up, you must be prepared to STYLE your hair, no matter what the length is. Frizzy, straggly, flat hanging hair is no longer an option – but the good thing is, YOU can choose the length! I believe that beautifully styled hair can look good at any length no matter what your age is. Just because we round the corner of 50, doesn’t mean that we have to sacrifice our femininity and chop our locks off. We just have to be willing to put in a few more minutes daily to style the tresses, and make sure we let our favorite hair dresser give us a face flattering cut.

Basically, if you have had the same hair style since you were 20, you MUST consider other options. When your face changes, your hair must, too, but don’t be afraid to keep it long if your hair is still nice, thick and shiny.

Tags: Long hair

We are a strange culture of unhappy individuals. Black people are too black, white people are too white. We are supposed to have a nice tan, but not too much tan…

Why do we do this? Why do we have such a narrow window of tolerance for what is beautiful? And why does the label of beauty only apply to the tiniest margin of our species? Something is really out of balance! Today, I even found an article on MSN about how teens go to tanning salons to make sure they will measure up for prom, even though it has been found that tanning salons can actually cause melanoma, one of the deadliest forms of skin cancer which can spread to the inner organs! Are we dying to be beautiful? If so, we probably need our heads examined by someone with lots of qualifications!

Why is it that we have such a hard time just celebrating each person’s individuality? Keeping up a fake facade isn’t going to last very long anyway, so I have never seen a point in that!

When I was young, I used to do the exact opposite. I used to spend a lot of time in a disco club that played very good music, and often times, men would be interested. But, instead of trying to impress them and make them like me, I tried to be as outrageous and cheeky as possible. If they still liked me, in spite of me being outrageously me, then I knew that there was potential for a relationship. And, I had to smile when they later commented about how they were actually pleasantly surprised to find that I was actually nicer than they expected!

I would much rather do it that way, than having to pretend for the rest of my life, that my skin was tan, and that my eyelashes were naturally 1/2″ long. How long can you possibly keep up that kind of charade? Why not just find someone who doesn’t mind the fact that your skin is pale, with freckles, if that is how you happen to look naturally? It may be harder to find a mate, but when you do, at least it will be real…

We must start rebelling about all this superficial nonsense – if we don’t, more and more people are going to get sick and die. If you are pale, BE pale! If you are black, BE black! There is nothing wrong in diversity – in fact, diversity is what makes the human race interesting…

Tags: Beauty

I love to watch makeovers! Seeing someone who looks plain and old who get totally transformed to the point where she is basically unrecognizable, just with a new hair color and a different cut!
This is one of the most amazing makeovers I have ever seen! Make sure you watch both movies, and it will blow your socks off!!!
I love this Cinderella makeover!

and

Tags: makeover

Oh, the troubles we women have to face!!! Eternal quests for the perfect mascara, the perfect lip color, the perfect hair color, and last but not least, the perfect hair cut!

As we get older, we look in the mirror, only to find that the hair style that we have felt so happy with for the last 25 years, no longer flatters our features. Now what? How do we know what works and what doesn’t?

One of the things that happens with age is that our colors and features change. Everything gets softer. The skin gets paler, the hair color gets less vibrant and even the body (parts) get softer. The natural reaction is to buy brighter and brighter clothes to counteract what is happening, and to add a dash of bright red lipstick. This NEVER works. Only young girls can get away with that kind of madness. No, what we have to do is get a softer look, so that the clothes, hair and makeup is harmonious with our new and changed self.

The lip color has to be softened from a bright red to more of a soft nude color, the hair has to go from very dark or very blond, to a softer color that is not so extreme. The clothes must be more muted, and the hair needs to follow as well.

Take a look in the mirror – does your hair style make you look like you are wearing a helmet? Or does it make you look like you have puppy dog ears on each side of your head? Do you have a mid part, with hair cut straight across at shoulder length? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you seriously need a new look!

One of the easiest ways to make your hair style look softer is to add whispy layers throughout the hair. Layers are awesome. They frame the face and add life to your hair. They make you look loose and easy going instead of stern and severe. And, what about some light bangs? Bangs, whether they hang down, or you sweep them to the side, makes you look years younger, and the best thing is, they cover up any wrinkle you have on your forehead.

If you still aren’t sure what will look good on you, you can always upload a picture of your head with hair pulled back to something like ivillage.com and try on different hair styles and colors, before you actually see your hair dresser. When you find something that you like, just print off the picture and take it with you to the next hair cutting appointment.

Change is good! After you allow yourself to change, you feel so good. Remember, life is supposed to be an adventure. It is better to make a mistake, than to be stuck with something that isn’t working anyway. So, take a deep breath, and just go for it!

Tags: hair style

When you wear bangs and they touch your forehead, they often get oily before the day is over. What they need is a bit of a lift. I have tried to put hairspray on the roots and the dry them over a round brush, but they usually fall down again before long.
The other day, I came across a root lift spray by a company called Giovanni, and it works brilliantly. All you need is just a little spritz on the roots of your bangs, style over a round brush, and your bangs are lifted until the next time you wash your hair! I’m very happy with this product and can highly recommend it.
Giovanni also has a very good leave in conditioner that basically brought my hair back to life again, after I fried it recently with the wrong kind of hair dye. So, there you have it – two great products for your hair.

Tags: Hair products

If you are like me, you eat more in the winter. I like to think I do this to stay warm. But now, I have this cozy coushion on my belly that looks less than attractive in a swim suit. Hmm…
I don’t know about you, but I hate getting down on the floor to do sit ups. I was wondering if there was another way, and today I found this video that you might want to check out. Does it work? I have no idea. But I’m willing to try it – it sounds easy enough.
CLICK HERE to see the video.

Tags: bikini workout

It’s official – I have ruined my hair!!!
After reading numerous feedbacks about a company called Naturtint, I decided to try their products. The box claimed to contain organic and natural ingredients, and be ammonia free, resorcinol free, paraben free and gentle on the hair. I didn’t find anyone leaving bad feedback, so I decided to take the plunge.
After studying my own coloring and deciding that I had neutral coloring, I bought a neutral medium blonde color – wheat germ blonde. There was a beautiful picture on the box of a girl with a lovely hair color, and I could see myself looking great with that same color hair.

After reading the instructions and watching youtube videos about how to color your own hair, I jumped in, applied the dye and put a plastic bag on my head. (I actually did a strand test first, and it didn’t look like it did anything at all, so I figured it wouldn’t show up as too much color).

But, it did. Oh, boy, did it!
The first thing I saw after taking the bag off was an odd, strawberry blonde color. Oh, no…
I jumped in the shower and started rinsing. The hair felt horrible, even in the shower. It felt stiff and rough, and kept tangling around my fingers. After using henna so much in the past, I am used to the silky, shiny, bounciness that henna adds to your hair, but this was a different experience! My hair felt fried!!!

I got out of the shower and looked in the mirror, and the color looks so fake it looks like I’m wearing a wig! I dried my hair carefully and added a good amount of leave in conditioner, but it still felt like straw and had no luster left. I walked down stairs, and my husband took one look and said: “Aweful!!!”

I searched through the net, looking for answers, and yesterday, after I washed the hair, I used a mixture of apple cider vinegar and water for a rinse. This made the cuticles go back down, and even though the color is still horrible, at least the hair looks a bit shinier again.

Now, I’m waiting for more henna, so I can undo the damage.

My question now is, why in the world would anyone dye their hair with this kind of dye? Why is this company still in business? And why is there no bad feedback out there? I’m very upset, and I shall be wearing a hat until my new henna shows up.

Any ideas? Any advice? I could use some, right now…

Tags: hair color