Fabulously Cheeky

I’m always on a quest for a good mascara. Is that really so much to ask? Obviously, it is. Because my eyes are a bit deep set, I think my eyelashes actually touch my cheeks when I blink, so everything smudges before the day is over. Even waterproof makeup ends up on my cheeks in little specs. At the moment, I don’t even care what chemicals they contain – as long as they just stay on my lashes!!! After scouring the web for the magic answer to my mascara quest, I found this list of reviews about the best mascaras on the market.
Looks like I’ll be trying Maybelline’s Great Lash next (rated at a 6 at the cosmeticsdatabase…)
I’d love to hear from anyone out there what your favorite waterproof mascara is. Is there anything you would recommend? I’d like something that doesn’t smudge, smear or flake, preferably natural, but I know, that might be asking too much…

Tags: best mascara

I have been golden blonde (my natural color), and now I am reddish brown, and I’m not sure if I like either. The golden blonde seems to wash me out, and the reddish brown, although it looks good with my blue eyes, seem to be a bit harsh with my pale skin. Maybe I’m just too picky, or maybe I’m becoming obsessed about finding a new hair color. Maybe I need therapy, rather than dying my hair, I don’t know, but I’m not quite ready to leave the issue behind yet…
The other day, I was thinking about how to figure out whether my skin has warm undertone or cool. I do know that my veins are definitely greenish, but, in the past, when I bought eye makeup for warm skin tone, it really doesn’t look good. I remember buying a browny goldish kit that made me look like I was ready for Mardi Gras. I also bought some rust/browny red/coppery type colors which made me look like I had been crying for a week straight!
When I was young and crazy, I tried both blue and purple/lavender shadow, too – NOT!!! Makes me look like someone has given me a fist on each eye…
There is really only one alternative – a totally neutral kit, like Cover Girl’s “Desert sand.” This is just chocolate brown, neutral tan and a light pinkish highlight. Gorgeous.
I also remember buying two sweaters from Victoria’s Secret once. They were both the same style, one was neutral chocolate brown, and one was warm rust. The chocolate brown looked great, the rust brown I never used. It sat in my closet until I threw it out one day.
And, the same applies to lip stick, too. Forget about anything too pink, too red or too coral. The only thing worth looking at is the brownish nudes, as neutral as possible!
So, maybe, just maybe, I’m neither cool nor warm? Maybe, because I’m so pale, I actually have a really neutral skin color? I know I look better in warmish colors, so it must be a little on the warm side, but anything too warm makes me look scary pale.
So, here is what I’m going to do next: I’m going to try a neutral medium blonde hair color and see what happens. Maybe the key to picking the right hair color is about getting the shade and the undertone just right, and if the skin is pale enough, neutral might be the best way to go? I’ll let you know what happens…

Tags: hair color

Hair color can make a huge difference when it comes to how old you look, as well as confidence level. Here is some advice I found from hairstyle.com:
How do I pick a color that will look natural on me?
When choosing a hair color, your skin tone and natural hair color are the two most important factors. Whether you’re going lighter or darker, stay within two or three shades of your natural hair color. Here is a guideline for selecting a compatible hair color for your skin tone:

Dark/olive skin: Stay with darker hair colors.
Yellow skin: Dark, rich colors like deep auburn.
Pale skin: Almost any color.
Pink skin: Neutral tones like sandy or beige blonde or chocolate brown are best. Avoid reds or golden tones.
If you know what clothing colors suit you, you can also use that to help in choosing hair color:

If you look good in warm shades like red, orange, golden yellow, cinnamon brown, olive green, and rust, then warm hair tones like golden blonde, golden brown, strawberry blonde, and auburn will suit you best.
Cool color favorites like bluish red, fuschia, black, royal blue, and pine green indicate that cool hair tones are best for you: platinum, ash blonde, ash brown, burgundy, and jet black.
If you look good in true red, purple, charcoal grey, periwinkle, and teal, then neutral tones like sandy or beige blonde, chocolate brown or mahogany will suit you.
To read the whole article, CLICK HERE!

Tags: hair color

Perfume is one of the most toxic substances you can put on your body. A perfume can contain up to 400 different ingredients, and they don’t even have to list it because it is considered a “trade secret.” But, the fact remains, perfume, no matter how good it smells, is a very toxic thing to put on your skin. But, never fear. I have just found a company of artists who make their very own, completely natural perfume called “Nothing Perfume.” It is available in a lovely body spritz, and also in a more concentrated handmade perfume bottle. Yes, even the bottles are handmade and look like pieces of art!

The website looks very exotic, mostly black, but don’t let that scare you! The perfumes are so awesome that it is difficult to choose (so you might have to buy more than one!), and each scent has a story to go with it! They even have a list of personality types to help you choose your very own special perfume!

My local healthfood store carries some of these perfumes, and after sniffing a bunch, and then reading about each scent and who it was made for, I must say, their descriptions are very accurate.

So, if you love perfume, but don’t want anything toxic to put on your skin, definitely check this site out! CLICK HERE to visit!

There is a delusion out there that blonde hair will make you look younger. Not so! From my own experience, blonde doesn’t always make you look younger; some times, it will simply make you look washed out!
So, who can go blonde and get away with it?
If you have cool skin tone and blue eyes, like Cameron Diaz, you can get away with any kind of light, sandy, beachy, ashy blonde and look faulous. Me, however, with my pale, warm skin, would look like I was wearing a wig if I dyed my hair in any of those colors! The other type of skin that looks good in blonde hair is tan skin. Think California beach girls. The golder and lighter, the better. Blonde hair looks really great on tan skin, especially if you have kind of darkish eye brows and lashes. But, the rest of us pale faces have to look to different colors.

Another skin type that can get away with some kind of blondish hair is the pale, cool, reddish skin tones. This skin is often a bit sensitive or irritable with naturally rosy cheeks. This kind of rosiness can be toned down with the right kind of blonde – not too ashy, not too light, better to use a honey/caramel kind of rich blonde. Honey blonde is yellow enough to tone down the pink, as long as it isn’t too light.

A friend of mine has gray hair. She used to have very dark brown hair and dark eye brows, and cool skin. Because she has so much contrast between her eyebrows and her skin tone, she doesn’t look washed out even with white and gray hair. She can use bright purples and jewel tones in her clothing and look fantastic because the contrast makes it unnessesary to warm up her skin tone. So, she can actually just allow her hair to go white, and as long as she darkens her eyebrows, she’ll look fantastic!

Another friend of mine, who also has gray hair, looks very pale and washed out with it. Her skin is so cool, almost pinky/blue, and her eyebrows not as dark as my other friend’s eyebrows. She could benefit from either darkening her eyebrows, or warming up her skin tone by dying her hair. Naturally, I think she was a medium brown, and I bet she would look gorgeous with medium golden brown hair that would contrast with, and warm up, her skin tone. It would probably take years off her face! So, when it comes to whether to keep your hair gray, or not, it really comes down to how much contrast there is between your skin and your eyebrows. The less contrast, the more you need to adjust your hair color.

Then, there is the people with warm skin tone, like me. I’m pale, warm and freckled with blue eyes. (If you wonder what your undertone is, just look in your wardrobe. Do you have more blue/green stuff, or more red/orange stuff? There you go, your closet always tells the truth…)
I finally figured out why my naturally blonde hair stopped working for me when I got to menopause – it became darker, and ashier, with basically sucked the warmth out of my face and made it look sickly and yellow drab. I just couldn’t figure it out, until I understood that my hair had lost all its warmth, and that is why it no longer complemented my skin color. I needed warmth, and I needed contrast, so I went for a warm chestnut brown. And, oh, what a difference!!!

Yesterday, I went shopping and found that I could wear muted colors, pastels and darks. The only thing I still have to stay away from is bright colors and yellow/gold, which instantly sucks the color out of my face again. I could even wear peach, without looking washed out!!! I haven’t been able to wear that color since I was a teenager!!!

So, basically, if you look good in very few clothing colors, your hair color is wrong. With the right hair color, you can wear a much wider range of colors, because you no longer get washed out so easily.

Spring time is all about getting rid of the old and bringing in the new, so make it a new beginning for yourself this spring. Get a new haircut, a more complementary hair color, or some nice, new makeup, and have fun with change…

Tags: hair color

When menopause hits, everything changes, not just the figure, but skin color, hair color and even hair texture. The makeup colors you used to be able to get away with, no longer work. The colors of your wardrobe no longer work and even the hair, that may have been your pride and joy, is looking drab and dull. Sigh!
The combination of skin and hair both looking dull, can easily add years to your face in almost no time. When it comes to skin tone, you have only two options – cover it up with a thick layer of makeup, or better, use a tinted moisturizer to even out the skin color and then add some light color to the cheeks to brighten up the face. If your skin tone is warm, use a peachy or light brownish blush on the cheeks. If you skin tone is cool or ruddy, you can get away with a more pinkish blush.

So, what to do about the hair? I always used to have blonde hair, and it looked fine until I got to menopause, but all of a sudden the hair started becoming darker and duller, almost as if it was getting ready to go gray. This definitely didn’t do anything for my skin tone. I looked pale, I felt pale and I knew something had to change. But, the question was, should I go lighter or darker?

I pulled my hair back and got my son to take a picture that I uploaded to ivillage.com. Then I picked a haircut I liked, and just went through all the hair colors. And, the shocking bit was that the blonder the hair, the more washed out I looked. So much for the myth that blonder looks better on older women, and the idea that if you are born blonde, blonde is your best color. I actually have an odd coloring that always gives me a hassle when trying to pick makeup as well. My eyes are blue, my hair naturally blonde, but my skintone is pale, warm (yellow undertone) with freckles.
When I was younger and had less freckles, blonde looked fine, but now, it just washes me out. Medium brown looked better than blonde against my pale skin, and chestnut reddish brown was probably my best option. So, I took the jump. I bought some natural henna (Logona Chestnut), and for the first time in my life, everyone I met started commenting on my hair color. Hm… I must be on to something.

So, if your hair looks bla, don’t just assume that blonde will be a fix-all solution. I know a brunette who recently went golden blonde, and it looks awful. Not only does the color look fake, it really washes her out, too.

Here is a link to a hair coloring expert showing you some solutions based on skin tone. CLICK HERE to see.

Tags: hair color

I love Carmindy’s concept that she introduces in her book “Get Positively Beautiful,” that everyone of us are beautiful in our own ways. We have this little negative voice inside our heads that start yapping every time we look in the mirror. “Look at those lines, look at those dark circles, oh, you just got a new spot, and I wish my nose was smaller and my chin was tighter, bla, bla, bladibla…”
She says, “When was the last time you looked in the mirror and said “Hi gorgeous!” or “You’re hot!”? For some strange reason, we always listen more to the negative voice in our heads, than to anyone’s compliments, and this attitude has to change.
Instead of focusing on everything we don’t like about ourselves, we must shift the focus to what we actually do like, and enhance this.
I say “enhance,” not “cover up.” Unfortunately, many makeup gurus believe that the older we get, the more we should just cover ourselves under a thick, mask like layer of makeup. Not so. We must make our natural beauty shine by enhancing our best assets with subtle, sheer makeup colors that makes it look like we are just naturally radiant. I much prefer this look, where people can see the effect of your makeup without being able to tell how much makeup you are really wearing, than the halloween like cover up of heavy makeup. It is definitely an art – to subtly enhance without piling it on with a spacle knife.
Anyway, if you want to know what your best assets are, stand in front of a mirror with your eyes closed. Open your eyes quickly and close them again. What was the first thing that caught your attention? Was it your eyes? Your cheeks? Your lips?
Whatever it was, that is the part that you must always be enhanced with some kind of subtle makeup. Do you have beautiful round cheeks, deep mysterious eyes or lushious lips? Bring it out more! This is your own unique beauty. Like they said in the Cover Girl Declaration, we must “Stand up for our beauty.” Just remember, there is a million ways to be beautiful – just being yourself is enough!

Tags: Beauty

Cover Girl just sent me an email. For some reason, I opened it, instead of just trashing it, and it had a declaration about beauty in there that was really cool. It was all about how we are all beautiful in our own ways, regardless of dress size, age and dark circles. They are even having a contest where you can make a 1 minute video clip to show how you stand up for your own beauty (and you can win $50,000.00…)
I thought I’d share the link with you, in case you want your voices heard. All you have to do is read the declaration and sign it, to protest the fake beauty ideals that we all suffer from.
CLICK HERE to learn more.

I just came across an awesome article today about how hair can age us. CLICK HERE to read the article.

Personally, I think that chemical hair dye is the worst thing you can do for your hair. Not only does it dry out your hair and make it straggly and straw like, but I believe that it actually causes hair loss as well, even though I don’t have any proof of that.

So, is there an alternative to chemical hair dye? Absolutely! Anyone who has ever been to India knows that Indians have the most incredibly healthy, shiny hair, even though it is both long, and exposed to intense UV. So, what is their secret? The secret is a plant called Henna.

Well, you might say, you can’t really go wrong with henna on black hair, but what about henna on other colors of hair, possibly mixed with a bit of gray? There is a company that creates their own henna based natural hair colors that actually do work for gray hair as well. It is called Logona, and you can get it from a company called http://www.bewellstaywell.com

Just make sure you wait at least 6 weeks since you last died your hair chemically before you try the Logona henna products.
Tomorrow: How to apply Henna