Tag Archives: beauty

Product Reviews, Uncategorized

A More A What? Omorovicza!

Ladies and gentleman, it’s official! I am in love.

If you haven’t tried Omorovicza Thermal Cleansing Balm, you are missing out.  The cleanser is creamy, smooth, smells of orange blossoms (my favorite), and removed every stitch of makeup I was wearing.  …and I was wearing quite a bit.  Best of all, it left my skin soft, supple, and completely residue free.

The line is based on mineral rich Hungarian thermal waters, renowned for centuries for their healing properties.  The brand’s founders Margaret and Stephen de Heinrich de Omorovicza worked with a Nobel Prize winning Hungarian laboratory of dermatology to develop a new delivery system that allows for mineral absorption into the deeper layers of the skin.  The line is absolutely replete with minerals like calcium, magnesium, copper and gold, a variety of botanicals, and good for you oils like sweet almond, jojoba and calendula.

Happily, I am as thrilled about what Omorovicza doesn’t contain as what it does.  The line is paraben, petrochemical, polyethylene glycol (PEG), silicone, sodium laurel sulfate, synthetic color and synthetic fragrance FREE!  Can I get an amen?!

Quality ingredients come at a price; be warned the line is not inexpensive.  If you have the means however and are accustomed to the cost of high end skincare, you won’t be shocked.  You can purchase Omorovicza on the company’s website, at Neiman Marcus and Sephora.  If you’re in the Chicago area I highly recommend you stop by the Neiman Marcus Northbrook counter.  Speak to Jan Robinson for expert guidance or give her a call at 847.564.0300 ext. 2107 to book a complimentary facial with the purchase of two Omorovicza products.

I tested a few other products from the line last night and am equally pleased, but will withhold comment until I’ve used them for a bit longer.  Stay tuned, I’ll keep you posted!

Stacy

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Product Reviews, Uncategorized

From Clari-meh to Clarisonic Mia

I am old enough to remember the first time Clarisonic type facial cleansing brushes were launched on the American public.  My grandmother bought one for us to use in the 70’s.  It turned out to be a gimmicky thing that didn’t do much for our skin and within a month or two it took up residency under the bathroom sink.

So, when the Clarisonic became popular I was skeptical at best.  Eventually, I bowed to considerable peer pressure, and bought one.  The promises of clearer, brighter and more even skin were just too much to resist.

I used the Mia (I bought the least expensive version, just in case) daily for six weeks, hoping against hope to see SOME change in my skin.  …nothing.  Disappointed again.  Worse, I felt duped.

Solely because of the $150 I paid for the thing, I continued to use it anyway.  Still no real change, but whatever, it did feel good when I let it circulate over my third eye.   ;)

About a month ago, I broke down and bought a new more intense brush head for my Mia, promising “deep pore cleansing”.  Surprise, surprise, the new head did the trick.  Happily, I have noticed better exfoliation, improved texture and a more even skin tone.

Prices have dropped since I bought mine.  A new Mia can be had at Clarisonic.com for $119.  It’s still not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but should make your skincare products work better, and help increase time between visits to the facialist.

Tips and Techniques, Tutorials, Uncategorized

Hello 1984!

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Yes, I had electric blue tights with the alphabet spray painted all over them in black.  I also had granny boots, pencil skirts that laced up the back, and many, many a shoulder pad.  I also had, stolen from my mother, a Dior four color eyeshadow palette, with a fab bright blue, orange, green and yellow.  Man I loved that palette…

Anyway I’ve been seeing a lot of these “rainbow” eyes lately and was just in the mood.  Nowadays I’d probably wear this with a nude lip, back in the day, however, shocking pink, purple or bright orange would have suited me better.

1.  Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion all over.

2. L’Oreal HIP Striking Duo (the yellow side) all over the lower lid, around the inner eye, and line 1/4 the way across lower lashes.

3.  L’Oreal HIP Perky Duo (the green side) outer 2/3 of lower lid.

4.  Elf Mineral Eye Shadow in Sweet patted in middle of lower lid, not blended at all.

5.  Urban Decay Mildew in outer corner and crease, getting softer toward inner crease.  Use to line under lower lashes from outer corner to about 1/2 way in.

6. L’Oreal HIP Perky Duo (green side) blended under lower lashes out of Mildew toward yellow.

7.  L’Oreal HIP Perky Duo (gray side) very softly above outer corner of upper lashes, and outer corner of lower lashes, like a “V”.

8.  Smashbox Eye Shadow in Oyster under brow bone.

9.  Maybelline Great Lash Mascara Blackest Black.

10. Laura Mercier Blonde brow pencil.

No one said it was going to be simple.  :)

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Tips and Techniques

Eye Makeup Application for Glasses Wearers

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When I was 9 years old, my grandmother called me in to her room and asked me to put her eye makeup on for her.  She couldn’t see what she was doing without her glasses and said she was “making a mess.”  I had no idea how to begin and followed her instructions closely.  Ultimately I’m not sure if my first attempt was any better than what she could have done, but she was happy.  Eventually I got better at it for her.

Today I saw a post from a young woman who wears glasses and wants to wear eye makeup but is unable to see well enough to do her eye makeup without them in place.  So far she’s been able to put on a little mascara, but has yet to venture further.  This got me thinking about the best way around the problem; my brain landed on cream shadows and smudged eye pencil.

The creams are easily applied with fingertips, and the pencil line doesn’t have to be perfectly straight.  This is the eye I did for the young woman in the posting.  I hope she likes it.

Eye for glasses wearers

 

I kept it pretty natural so mistakes won’t matter as much, and because it’s her first real foray into eye shadow.

1.  Laura Mercier Platinum Creme Eye Colour all over, applied with finger tips.

2.  Laura Mercier Alloy Creme Eye Colour from the lash line blended up to the crease with finger tips.  Rose Gold from L.M. would work beautifully here for daytime as well.  Any deep tone cream color would be great in place of the Alloy for a more dramatic evening look.  Just make sure to use a darker colored liner (step 3) that’s  compatible.

3.  Urban Decay Glide on Pencil in Bourbon across top of the lashes.  Then smudged with either a smudge brush or finger tips.

4.  Maybelline Great Lash mascara in Blackest Black.

5.  Laura Mercier Blonde brow pencil.

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Tips and Techniques, Tutorials, Uncategorized

Cat Eye in Neutral Tones

Brown Cat EyeThis is one of my all time favorite looks.  It’s simple yet dramatic, clean, and looks good on everyone.  Furthermore, it can be worn with any lip color.

These are the steps I took and the products which were used to create this eye for you.

1.  Laura Mercier Linen Eye Basics, eyeshadow base all over.

2.  Smashbox Oyster eyeshadow, pressed on with a flat, not fluffy, eyeshadow brush,  just under the eyebrow to highlight the bone.

3.  Studio Gear Barely There matte eyeshadow from lash line to crease.

4.  Laura Mercier Cafe Au Lait eyeshadow very softly applied to the crease.  Please refer to my post “The Salt Analogy” here.  Less is more and the brush you use matters.  I used my Bobbi Brown eye blender brush,  because I just wanted a soft shading in the crease.  Sort of an enhancement of the natural shadow created by her brow bone.  The darker color in the outer color is not Cafe Au Lait, it’s step 6.

5.  Laura Mercier Black Ebony cake eye liner applied with a pointed eye liner brush.  I started at the outer corner of her eye and did the little wing bit first, by pulling the line up slightly.  I didn’t want an extreme cat eye; I was going for something that would elongate the eye when opened and look relatively natural.  From there I picked up my brush and began a new line, extremely tight to the lashes, about 1/4 of the way out from her inner corner.  I pulled the line out to meet the furthest tip of the wing, gradually allowing the line to get thicker as I reached the outer corner.

6.  Laura Mercier Coffee Ground eyeshadow applied carefully and gently to the outer corner of the eye.  I used this deep tone to give depth to the look.

7.  Laura Mercier Brunette brow pencil.

8.  Maybelline Great Lash Mascara in Black applied only to the outer upper lashes.  This application furthers the effect of the “cat eye”.

I apologize for for the quality of the photos today, but was working with a very unruly model.  …ahem…

Happy painting!  Let me know how it goes!  S

 

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Tips and Techniques, Tutorials, Uncategorized

Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Green?

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Plum and green might not sound like the most natural of combinations, but they are.  Red and green enhance each other, they’re opposites on the color wheel…suffice it to say, one makes the other pop.  So, if you have even the slightest hint of olive in your beautiful brown eyes, any eyeshadow with a little red in it (think plum, reddish brown, copper, etc.) will enhance the green in your eyes.

If your eyes are already green, or blue for that matter, colors with a red undertone should be a staple in your eyeshadow collection.  I added a bit of green to this look to further the effect of bringing out the green in her eyes, and also because I just think the colors are really lovely together.

Regardless of your eye color, this is a look that works well on pretty much anyone.

1. Laura Geller Eye Spackle Primer

2. Laura Mercier Platinum Metallic Creme Colour all over.

3. Laura Mercier African Violet lash line to crease.

4. Laura Mercier Black Caviar Liner blended into upper lashes.

5. Urban Decay Mildew Eyeshadow smudged into Caviar liner and around entire eye.

6. Laura Mercier Black Turquoise Kohl Eye Pencil on the water line (inside lower lashes).

7. Laura Mercier Brow Pencil in Brunette.

8. Maybelline Great Lash Marcara in Black.

 

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Product Reviews, Uncategorized

Loving Too Faced Perfect Eyes Liner!


I have found true happiness in an eyeliner. There are a million liners that work just fine for lining the outside of the eye, and many that work well on the inside, but this one, bless it, actually stays put…for eight hours no less.

Gone are the constant trips to the bathroom to re-line the inside of your eyes. Be fearless! Go for the drama, and rest assured you’ll spend the evening looking more vamp and less vampire. Paint it up!

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Product Reviews, Tips and Techniques

The “Natural” Look

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Our idea of looking natural, isn’t really all that natural.  Unless of course we mean to say we want to look as we really are.  In which case we don’t need makeup do we?  When a client tells me she wants to look “natural” what she really means to say is, “I want to look perfect AND like I’m not wearing any makeup.  I hear you sister, so do I.

Here are a few tips to help you achieve that “natural” look.

1.  Take care of your skin. The better shape your skin is in, the less face makeup you’ll need.  Please remember, no amount of makeup can cover dry or peeling skin.  In fact, makeup usually makes it look worse.  I have recently fallen in love with several products from the Mario Badescu line, specifically: Enzyme Cleansing Gel, Glycolic Foaming Cleanser, Glycolic Eye Cream, and most of all the Facial Spray with Aloe, Herbs, and Rosewater…it’s delightful, refreshing and soothing.  You’ll be pleased to know that the most expensive item on that list is $20.00 the others range from $12.00 to $7.00.  You can thank me later.  oxox

2.  Select a foundation or tinted moisturizer that is the same color as you are. Do not try to “correct” your skin tone with your foundation.  You’ll wind up looking like your head belongs on a different body.  Go to the cosmetic counter with no makeup on…I know, I know, but trust me on this one.  Select three foundations that are within the realm of possibilities and make a stripe of each one running down the side of your face (mid cheek to mid neck).  The one you have a tough time seeing, is your color.

In the nineties we had a huge backlash against pink foundations, and with good reason, many, if not most of us are far from the pink color they were pushing.  Unfortunately we over compensated and suddenly everyone was yellow.  The truth is, we are neither completely yellow, pink, brown or red any more than we are black or white.  In real life we know this, don’t lose sight of that fact in the cosmetic department.

3.  Use foundation to even out your complexion. Foundation and tinted moisturizer, are simply meant to even out your skin tone.  In my humble opinion, a sponge gives you the best, most even, and sheerest application.  Do not try to use foundation as concealer or cover up, a thickly applied layer of foundation looks like, well, a thickly applied layer of foundation, not the “natural” look we’re going for here.  If you have dark circles under your eyes don’t bring your foundation all the way up under the eye, we’ll use a concealer for that. The fewer layers of makeup, the better.  If you don’t have particularly dark circles under the eye, go ahead and take the foundation all the way up to the lash line.

4.  Camouflage and concealer have specific purposes, use them. If your skin is perfect, you can skip this step.  The rest of us however, will want to pay close attention.  Ahem.  Concealer is meant for the under eye area.  It should be relatively creamy so that it goes on easily, without pulling the delicate skin around the eye.  Camouflage, or cover up, is a different animal altogether, it’s meant for the face.  It needs to be a bit thicker and drier than concealer so that it will stay in place, and not cause nor worsen blemishes.

Apply your concealer only to the areas under your eyes where you need it.  Pay attention to detail here.  There is no need to cover the entire under eye area if you’re only dark in the inner and outer corners for example.  After you’ve applied the concealer to your darker areas, use your finger to pat it into place.  The patting motion blends the concealer without removing it altogether.

Use camouflage, with a synthetic bristled brush, as an eraser.  Lightly paint over what you’re seeing through the foundation that you’d rather not see.  Use the light tapping motion again here to blend.  Remember, do NOT rub.  It will remove the product you just applied.

A special word about pimples: pimples are generally shaped like mini volcanoes.  If you tap on top of the volcano to blend, you are going to remove the camo from the peak while the base of Mt. St. Helens remains unblended.  Why?  Because your finger can’t get to the bottom, it’s being stopped by the apex of the volcano.  Forget your finger when it comes to pimples and just use your brush to blend the outer edges.  Once you’ve camouflaged the top of the pimple, leave it alone.

5.  Set your makeup with translucent powder and a puff. Every step up to this point has involved a liquid, or at the very least a creamy, product.  If you want to keep your makeup on your face you must set it with powder and a puff.  “Why the puff?”, you ask after spending upwards of $60.00 on a powder brush.  A puff presses powder into the makeup on your skin and actually sets it in place, whereas a powder brush lightly dusts powder all over you face (and your bathroom) without setting your makeup.

Setting with a translucent powder is key here for all, from  the darkest complexion to the lightest.  Tinted powder will change the color of your carefully chosen foundation.

6. Your skin is multicolored; use bronzer AND blush to achieve a truly “natural” look. Your skin at this point looks perfect, yet bizarrely monochromatic.  Now is the point where we apply bronzer to bring some of the color obvious in your arms, chest and neck, back to your face.

Please do not paint racing stripes up the sides of your face.  Contour is fine in black and white photographs, but in real life it is rarely done well.  I advocate avoiding it altogether.  Instead, I prefer to apply bronzer softly to the high points of the face; where you’d naturally get a bit more color first.  (Forehead, bridge of nose, tops of cheeks, chin.)

Next, smile.  Apply blush with the flat side of your brush to the apples of your cheeks; where you would naturally blush if you were so inclined.  Consider “The Salt Analogy” repeatedly at this point.

Lastly, blend with a dry sponge.

Welcome to the land of the perfect “natural” people.  What you choose to do with your eyes and lips is entirely up to you.  I’d just comb out my brows, throw on some lip gloss and mascara and call it a day…you know for that truly “natural” look.

Meanwhile, what you’ve just learned will never need to be learned again, even as fashions change.  “Natural” is natural forever, unless we evolve into something else, at which point I promise to revise this post.  oxox  Enjoy!

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Product Reviews

Makeup and Little Girls

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I submit to you that makeup is not for little girls.  Neither is red nail polish, nor short shorts with “volleyball” or whatever written across their backsides.  …in my humble opinion of course.  Having said that, there will come a day when your pre-teen wants to start wearing makeup.  This post will feature a few age appropriate products.  I believe this measured yielding to her powerful girlie will may help you stave off a full on black eye liner driven revolt.

Start her off with skin care.  Mario Badescu has a line of cleansers, toners, treatments and moisturizers that are plant based, effective, and best of all inexpensive.  Sit with your daughter and read through the product descriptions online, the two of you can make an informed purchase together based on her needs.  Having your little princess begin a skin care regimen now sets up a great life long habit and will help her avoid problems in the future.  In addition, she’ll feel a bit more “grown up”, which is really what all this is about, isn’t it?

When it comes to actual makeup, I’d make the trip to the cosmetics department alone.  There are far too many bad decisions to be made and potential arguments just waiting to be had if you make the trip together.  Think of what some of the makeup artists look like and what your daughter may think is “cool”.  Almost certainly NOT age appropriate.  Surprise her with a little goodie bag of your choosing.  If she never saw the sparkly blue eyeshadow and black lipstick, she won’t be disappointed with what you bought.  In fact if she didn’t even know you were going, she’ll be thrilled.

Sephora makes a gloss called “Fresh Gloss”.  It’s perfect for a young girl.  Sheer, shiny, pale and shimmery.  This is a color that will look good on any complexion.


Mascara is honestly something I would try to avoid.  Grown women who can’t help but touch their eyes look like a hot mess at the end of the day.  Imagine your pre-teen, after P.E.  Not exactly the sweet fresh faced look we’re going for here.  Instead, how about a little bit of a soft brown eyeshadow, like Cork from MAC, smudged into her upper lash line?  She’ll be able to see the color and it will enhance her lashes.

I would leave it there on the makeup front.  How much more does she need really?  A couple of other things you might want to throw in her little goodie bag to distract her from the lack of makeup are perfume and nail polish.

My daughter is absolutely in love with Harajuku Lovers Fragrance by Gwen Stefani.  The packaging is fabulous and the fragrances are lovely and varied.

OPI makes a great long wearing nail polish.  For the name alone, Prinesses Rule! is one of my favorite colors for a young girl.

So there you have it!  Put everything in a cute cosmetic bag and hand it over.  She’ll be thrilled and hopefully you’ll have kept her a little girl, for at least a while longer.

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