Fabulously Cheeky

How do you apply holiday or evening makeup without looking too done?
Use mostly matte or slightly shimmery – stay away from pearl or glitter which will only accentuate wrinkles. If your eyes are deep set, you can get away with more shimmer than if your eyes are not deep.
Usually, it is good to put a matte midtone (medium brown) on the brow bone and crease. This shadow should be very neutral and close to your natural color. A little bit darker is good.
On the lid, you have to decide on the color based on whether you need the eye to recede or come forward. If your eyes are deep set, you want them to come forward, and for that to happen, use a light shadow. If you want your eyes to look deeper, use a darkish neutral (brown or gray) on the lid itself.
Put highlighter under the eyebrow and in the inner corner of the eye.
For night makeup, use a midtone color on the browbone as well as under the outer corner of the eye. To create more drama, apply a dark color along the upper lashline, thicker towards the outer corner. This color can also be applied to the outer half of the upper lid.

If you choose to use eye liner, make sure you smudge the line so it doesn’t look too harsh.
I also found a nice post on youtube if you want to see an expert at work. Enjoy your NEW YEAR’s Eve party!

Tags: holiday makeup

Christmas is here, and people often invite friends over for a delicious meal. We often spend extra time cooking and creating a nice atmosphere. However, some people are extremely rude. They come late, eat the food, and then leave!!!!
What do you do with people like that? They act as if your place is a restaurant where you come, get served and leave – but this is not what the idea of inviting people over for Christmas is about. It is not just about consuming food – it is also about hanging out with your friends and enjoying each other’s company!
So, what do you say to people like that? Do you say anything, or just stop inviting them? Perhaps it can be as easy as saying “I’d love to spend some more time with you, do you really have to go?”
But, then you have the people who have already scheduled other arrangements before they even arrive! They already have an excuse to eat and run.
Don’t anyone understand what a disappointment this kind of behavior is to the host? I guess not. I have heard from other friends that this is something that happens quite frequently. We could get analytical, I suppose, and speculate that perhaps people are so afraid of intimacy that they can’t allow themselves to settle in and get too cozy anywhere. It is so much easier to just connect on facebook! But facebook is not the real thing. Real people are.
So, enjoy Christmas – WITH your real friends, and don’t be stingy about sharing your energy with people. The company of good friends is worth way more than gifts wrapped in paper.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We have become a culture of bacterio-phobic beings – hand sanitizers, anti bacterial soap, bleach and so on. It’s important, isn’t it? We must keep everything kleen if we want to be healthy, right? Clean, yes, but can all this cleaning be too much of a good thing?

I just found an article on MSN today that talks about the benefit of having a certain amount of bacteria on the skin. Did you know that there is actually a benefit from bacteria? If you don’t, go and check out the MSN article – very interesting reading!!! Evidently, not enough bacteria on the skin will cause immune problems, allergies, eczema and inflammation!

Once you have read this article, I can also add that the use of antibacterial ingredients in consumer products are getting out of hand! Previously, I wrote an article about the use of Triclosan in toothpaste. Triclosan is an antibacterial compound that can make the body oversensitive, or even allergic to potassium. Since bananas contain lots of potassium, you may find that you get a belly ache every time you eat bananas. If this is the case, go and read the label on your toothpaste! And, remember, too, that potassium is what makes your nervous system work properly. So, becoming allergic or oversensitive to potassium can potentially cause serious health problems!

Hand sanitizers also contain triclosan. The cosmetics database group have disclosed recent findings from hospitals which shows triclosan in the bloodstream of hospital workers. But this isn’t the only place you find triclosan.

The last time I went to the supermarket to buy dishwashing liquid, I started reading the labels, and every one of the brands on the shelf contains triclosan. The only one that doesn’t is Clorox’s new brand greenworks – but of course, our local Walmart doesn’t carry it, even though they are supposed to…

What people don’t seem to understand is that it isn’t bacteria that make us sick, it is our susceptibility to the bacteria, or in plain English, our lack of immune response, that allow the bacteria in. If your immune system is strong enough to ward off bacteria, we simply don’t get sick. By wiping out the bacteria in our environments, our immune system doesn’t get to practise its magic, and we’ll get weaker and weaker as a result.

When I was little girl, people were of the opinion that a little dirt never hurt anyone. And, maybe, just maybe, they were right. Maybe a little dirt was just enough to make us strong enough to survive a few bacteria here and there.

Vaccinations and triclosan are certainly NOT the answer. The answer lies in strengthening our immune system naturally, and if a little dirt is needed, we just have to throw away all the products with triclosan in them. Remember, bacteria are natural beings that live on our skin. They are supposed to be there, and if there is a balance between good and bad bacteria we don’t get sick. It is only when we use antibacterial soaps that kill both the good and bad bacteria that the natural balance is upset, and the bad bacteria gets a foothold.

Since everything in life is about maintaining a healthy balance of some kind, forget about antibacterial products. In fact, anything with “anti” in front of it is against life. So, be careful, and read the labels of anything you buy.

When Christmas is getting closer day by day, the question is what to buy for your friends and family. Do you sit there with a blank mind, wondering where help is going to come from? Don’t worry, help is near.

Last year, my husband and I spent weeks looking for great gifts, and when we realized that many people don’t have weeks to spend Christmas gift hunting, we decided to make some Christmas gift websites to make it easier for people to find cool things to buy for that special someone. So, we made two sites, one for last minute christmas gifts, and one for inexpensive christmas gifts under $30.00.

On these sites, we put the coolest, most creative gifts we could find, and they are all put into categories which make it easy to find what you are looking for. Check it out – I hope you’ll enjoy what we put together.

It’s that time of year again – Christmas is coming and it is time to give gifts to the people we love. One of the popular gifts to give women is fragrance, but oh, what a two edged sword that is! Women love fragrance. It makes us smell good, is makes us more attractive and alluring, it is our “signature.” But that’s not all, there is so much more to fragrance…

Because of a loophole in the labeling law, fragrance is exempt from disclosing what is in the scent they are using because it is considered a trade secret. The problem with this is that some of these synthetic fragrances can disrupt the hormone balance, cause birth defects and enter breast milk. The environmental working group EWG recently released a study where they found 232 chemical contaminants in the umbilical cord blood from 10 American babies!

If we don’t use safe cosmetics and natural fragrances, such as essential oils, we can put both ourselves and our children’s health at risk. Is it worth it? No way…

So, think about it – before you send your mate of choice out to buy you something wild and wonderful that you don’t really need for Christmas, think twice. Is it going to be good for you? Is it going to keep you healthy? Without health, life is not much fun! And, if you are in menopause, your hormones can still be affected.

I have always wondered why women get all those hot flashes. Is it the food we eat? The creams we use? The fragrances? All of the above? It could be anything! If the hormones are affected by even the smallest amount of fragrance, such as synthetic musk, why wouldn’t it affect our hot flashes in menopause? The hormone balance is very delicate, and even the slightest imbalance can affect us deeply.

So, it is a fact – my favorite white (synthetic) musk must go, and patchouli, amber, cedar and sandalwood will take its place. This is a very small sacrifice to stay healthy…

Tags: menopause