I’ve had a running list in the back of my head of products I’ve never tried but want to. Here they are.
Dry shampoo. I have very fine straight long hair that gets limp and stringy looking quickly. I dye it so, I don’t like to wash it every day to prevent the blue/black from fading too fast. Every summer the dry shampoos get reviewed and Klorane usually comes out on top. They offer a smaller, less expensive can that I may have to try out.
Tapered curling irons. By twisting your hair along the cone, as opposed to clamping and rolling on a straight barrel, you’re supposed to get more natural looking waves without dented hair and curly ends that give you triangle head. I’ve found two on the market right now.
Conair Infinity You Curl – $40 at Target
R Session Tools Runway Series tapered curling iron – msrp $50 – this product was mentioned in InStyle’s September issue and of course, it’s nowhere to be found. It has a slightly larger barrel, detachable guide, traditional clamp style if you want it, and it gets 50 degrees hotter than the Conair one (better for coarse hair).
Lip Stain. I really need some recommendations since I’m at at total loss. I’m looking for something that has a bit of coverage but not too dark. Just a nice enhancement of my natural lip color that I can put some lip balm over. It also needs to be easy to apply and have staying power. I may give the Maybelline Color Sensational stuff a try.
And something I wanted to try and finally did:
StriVectin skin products. They’re mostly known for their amazing stretch mark potions and thanks to fun Sephora samples, I got a deluxe trial size of StriVectin Sculpting Cream. In a few days, my mom has already told me how great my skin is looking. She used the word “taut” and mentioned my defined cheek bones. I’m going to milk this sample for all it’s worth.
What are you curious to try out?
The Fall magazines have been pushing intense multi-color eyes. When I was younger, I used to play with my eye shadows a lot more than I do now. The raver days were especially nuts and I still hold a special place in my heart for red shadow. It took forever for me to find this Ana Sui shade.
(new packaging)
I have so many colorful eye shadows I never use but I just can’t get rid of it. Who knows when a Halloween costume will call for orange shadow!?
Keiko Lynn just did a colorful eye tutorial you should check out.
It takes way too much time to scan images so, I just photographed the actual magazine pages. You get the gist. Will you be trying any of these looks for a special occasion?
Out of all of these, ^this^ is more of what I do on a semi-regular basis. Just a plain old black smokey eye, with some plum added in, and not so much on the bottom lash line.
Forever devoted to liquid liner, I finally got some gel eyeliner you apply with a brush and I love it. I had a killer coupon for L’Oreal products so I tried the HIP stuff in Eggplant. It doesn’t budge. The brush provided is really stiff though. Just adding a tiny bit of color around your lash line is an easy way to switch things up and it’s a sneaky way to blend in liquid liner mishaps.
I barely follow models these days. They just don’t compare and they have all started to look the same to me when I check out runway photos – uninteresting clothes hangers. I have never been a Kate Moss fan. She really bores me. Of course, I loved all the “supermodels” of our time. Okay as far as newer models go, I love token redhead Karen Elson. That’s about it.
Growing up looking at fashion magazines in the 80s and 90s, I had a few favorite models: Kristen McMennamy, Stella Tennant, Kristy Hume (they have been making a major comeback lately), Nadja Auerman, and Meghan Douglas (all mentioned here). Douglas often gets overlooked for the buxom powerhouse she is. So, here are a few pics to get you feeling nostalgic.
(I tried to cite as many as I could so if you have any credits, please send them my way!)
Meghan Douglas – Vogue Dec 1991 – ahhh, the end of the 80s!
I had this picture on my bedroom wall.
Pretty Women - Vogue UK February 1995 Photo – Mario Testino
Harper’s Bazaar
W April 1995 Photo – Michael Thompson
with Kristen McMennamy – Harper’s Bazaar Feb 1993 Photo: Patrick Demarchelier
in Vivienne Westwood Photo – Andrew MacPherson
Did you have any favorite models growing up? Jen, you’re going to say Stephanie Seymour, right? :)
I used to keep a journal full of cut out pictures of things I saw in magazines and I’ve shared a ton with you in the past. So, what does a grown woman do on a Wednesday night? Well this grown ass woman sat with her September issues spread out, a pair of scissors, a glue stick, paper and a pen. In all the magazines, I honestly didn’t see too many things that I fell in love with. I enjoyed concepts and styling ideas but not many individual items, except for these.
Oh, and I totally ordered the DKNY Pure perfume. I rubbed every last microbe of scent on my wrist off that magazine strip and couldn’t stop smelling myself. So cozy and comforting and sexy. The bf loves it. Part of the profit goes to a microfinance program for vanilla farmers in Uganda as well. I haven’t given up on my beloved Kenzo Amour… it just needs a little rest.
PS- I can’t spell Gabbana obviously
Click for the large version:
A year later, here is a new bag post. This is entirely ridiculous but I will say that I usually don’t apply make-up until I get to my folks’ house in the morning. I do it for both my mom and myself at the same time so the cosmetic bag is always with me. (If you didn’t know already, I’m her primary caregiver as she has M.S.)
Since I got this new Deux Lux bag, which only has one large interior pocket, I had to add the Nick & Nora hula girl bag (I got that thing on clearance at Target years ago). Now all the random things are contained and easier to find.
Here’s everything neat and tidy:
Here’s the product explosion:
- the old wallet finally died so here’s my new one
- pewter flower cosmetic case (a freebie from Sephora) – Hard Candy primer, Bare Minerals powder foundation, brush, liquid foundation, concealer, cream blush, tweezers, clear mascara for my brows, lash comb, mascara, liquid eyeliner, 2 eye shadow brushes, 2 shadows (Lancome, Hard Candy quad), 3 lipsticks, 2 glosses (one not shown), lip liner – oh, and since I took this pick, I switched up the eyeshadow – you haven’t seen the cosmetics I have squirreled away!
- Blackberry phone
- cigarettes and lighter (gross, I know)
- keys (in the front door)
- In the hula pouch – mini hairspray, comb, nail file, pen, mechanical pencil (+ lead and erasers – I am obsessed with quality mechanical pencils), skin serum, hair ties and clips, hand lotion, band-aids, ipod, usb stick
- (usually) a to-do or grocery list
- sometimes my camera, sometimes my laptop squeezed in
It’s amazing how much I can downsize when carrying a clutch and I still manage to stay alive!
Is this ridiculous? What’s in your bag?
- I’m seriously thinking about buying a foreclosure home. Not now (maybe in a few years) but I’m researching FHA loans and the entire process. It’s a serious long-term goal I’m setting for myself. It’s too far off for the bf to panic but my parents are being super supportive. Considering my mom was a real estate agent & FHA inspector and my father owns a construction company, I have access to tools, discounted supplies, advice and help. We’re a land investment type of family. I’ve stepped up my game on saving up for a down payment. I’m getting my ducks in a row all Suze Orman style over here! Whether we’d like to live in the home or flip it after some fixing up, this will all be based on situation, location and the state of the property (and the economy) upon purchase. At this point, it’s all about patience, saving up and research. Scary exciting stuff!
- I finally went to the South of the James Farmer’s Market. I am in love with that place and so glad it’s going on until December 4th! I bought grass-fed beef from a local farmer for cheaper than at the grocery store. (It comes frozen and sealed so you can make it back home safely.) We bought beautiful heirloom cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, blackberries, and had tacos and breakfast burritos. I’m getting flowers, bread and more next time! Perfect way to throw together a special weekend dinner and get yourself out of the house on a Saturday morning. Here’s a Flickr pool of Richmond farmer’s market photos.
- This particular comic is wonderful! It compares Orwell and Huxley’s fears for our future. Yeah, we’re screwed.
- For all you suckers out there (I’m one of them), aren’t these lipsticks adorable? Of course, after a few uses, they’ve lost their charm but good grief! So cute! $25 each here. (via and all over the web now because us suckers for cute… we are legion)
- Oh hey! Did you notice I changed the look of my + & – posts? No big deal but I think it’s simple and cute!
- This post from DI$COUNT about what luxury is to them… yes.
- This entry from Postcards from Yo Mamma. Seriously, why? It happens to me all the time.
- The bf went out of town two weekends ago. While he was gone, I picked up a box of his favorite chocolates. He brought me back French tarts from a bakery we love in Maryland. This is why I have my next entry in the minuses…
- I don’t own a scale and judge my weight by my jeans. There’s no denying they’ve been a bit snug lately but the cold hard truth hurts. I went to the doctor 2 weeks ago and got weighed. I’m back to the most I ever weighed, about 2 years ago- 128lbs. Two years ago it was sitting on my ass drinking beer. This time, I barely drink, and it’s from sitting on my ass and bad food choices. This may not be a big deal to some of you but it’s kind of a big deal to me. I like the way I feel and look when I’m around 120. My body does not like this extra weight. My skin changes. I physically feel like yuck. I’m only 5’1″ and it means that if I don’t reign it in, I have to buy new clothes and I am NOT buying a new wardrobe because of laziness and shoving cheese in my face. Things have gotten real around here in the food department. It’s salad time but, I hate the gym. Hate it. I would rather all that sweat and effort have some instant results so, hard labor is more my style. Yard work, psychotic cleaning, etc. It’s on.
- We had a big rainstorm on Thursday and on the sofa, while I was being a dork on my laptop and the bf was being a dork on his Xbox, we heard a loud pop. The bf saw a flash of light and the TV cut off then back on. We sat stunned for a second wtf-ing a lot and then ran to check it out. Water. From the ceiling. Leaking. On the 50″ plasma TV the bf bought himself after his tax refund. His baby. Fuck. It’s still working but of course something has been fried. How crucial? No clue. Thank god for renter’s insurance. I’m gonna make a call on Monday and see what we need to do. Oh, and the landlord needs to fix that leak.
Mischief Champion
Of course we’re not the only culture that’s concerned with body image. Growing up, on documentaries and in your grandpa’s old National Geographic magazines, you saw the women whose necks were stretched with brass coils, the stretched lips and ear lobes, sharpened teeth, the intricately tattooed children. Those practices have been passed down in cultures for centuries. I feel that most of these techniques are rooted much deeper than in the superficial. They are culturally bonding, and are rites of passage and inclusion into adulthood.
In our culture we’ve seen endless plastic surgeries and invasive procedures to preserve our youth. The myriad of simple things we do on a daily basis are to meet up to a certain standard of beauty. My mother taught me how to be a “woman” by showing me how to dress for the occasion, apply makeup, shave my legs… the girlie stuff expected of a lady. I just can’t help but think most of these practices stem more from insecurities and a pressure to measure up than any spiritually bonding ritual (although all that stuff with mom and pedicures with your girlfriends certainly can be a bonding experience).
It wasn’t until I was a teenager and buying those fascinating Japanese fashion magazines, that I saw entirely different types of pressures other women of modern industrialized countries have to endure. I saw that their body issues were a bit different from ours. Where we want flat tummies, they passionately want more narrow ankles and calves. They are also pressured to look Western. This honestly breaks my heart. The thought of wanting to remove the essence of your ethnic identity, to be ashamed of that, hurts. In the backs of those magazines are tons of ads for products promising paler skin, surgeries to remove the essential Asian-ess from their eyes, dental procedures galore, and I just saw this on eBay, which prompted me writing this post in the first place. It is a clip to make wider noses more narrow.
This is ridiculous right? Well, it’s not any more ridiculous than the mess us Westerners put ourselves through physically and emotionally.
My father is Serbian and my mom is essentially a WASPy mutt. My entire life, I have been insecure about my nose, which I inherited from my dad. My dark hair, dark eyes and my anything-but-a-button nose are my Serbian parts. I’ve really been put through the ringer over it. Let’s just say that children are cruel and so are adults. It has been difficult to look at myself sometimes when I’m having a body dysmorphic disorder-style ”bad nose day”. This is infuriating and irrational because this has become my reality simply because others have made it so. It’s soooo unfair. If I went to Serbia, Greece, Turkey or Italy, I would blend right in so I know I’m not some anomaly. Part of growing up and fostering your self-esteem is to learn to love yourself, lumps and all, regardless of other’s opinions/ignorance. I will never remove that part of my ethnic identity and I truly wish we all could just start accepting and loving all the things that make us unique. Love what you have inherited. Those Irish freckles, that short torso from your grandma, your dad’s cute stubby toes, those wider set eyes, muscular calves, unruly hair, hips a hawt belly dancer would kill for… I promise that for everything you dislike about yourself, there are a ton of people who admire it and wish they had that quality. I’m still trying to remind myself of this every day.
my profile in its full glory
I recently read this post about the implications of simply saying “I’m so fat”. Check it out. It can apply to a lot of our insecurities.
So, I went tubing down the James River on the 4th of July. What is usually a 3-4 hour trip was over 5 hours because the river was so slow. We didn’t bring enough food or drinks and were dehydrated, starving and exhausted from the sun by the time we got back to the car. (We still had an awesome time though.)
My skin really took a beating, especially my face. So this week I decided it was time to invest in some designated SPF for my face (instead of relying on my make-up to do the trick). I also got some serums. What the hell is a serum? I have no idea but I hear they’re intense and I needed something that could kick some skin ass. Everything starts going to hell after you hit 30.
I have barely worn any make-up this week… very unlike me. I just wanted to give my skin a break and slather on all this new junk I got. It’s been refreshing but it’s caused a roller coaster ride of emotions. I see myself in perfect lighting and feel down right pretty without cat eyes and foundation… then catch myself in a different light and feel I could scare small children. (Like that Seinfeld episode, “The Strike” where the woman was a “two-face” looking both good and terrible at different times.)
I went to CVS to see what I could find. I had a bunch of “extra bucks” and was ready to blow ‘em. The sea of facial products is downright intimidating. I finally settled on The L’Oreal Skin Genesis line. The hyaluronic acid is what sold me. Oh, and the line was also 40% off! Woohoo! My purchase was practically free! (None of the products contain oil or clog your pores.)
I got the Serum Concentrate which I now keep next to my birth control pills in the medicine cabinet, also next to the Neutrogena face sunblock I got. This is my new morning ritual. You put it on before your regular moisturizer but I’m putting the sunblock on afterwards instead. It’s a clear gel and it absorbs quickly. I’m already noticing things starting to tighten up.
I also got the Eye Serum. This stuff is awesome. It’s a light white lotion and my fine lines around my eyes are seriously less noticable. I’ve been dabbing this on a few times a day, whenever I think about it.
The night cream I was using around my eyes is now beside the bed and I’m using that at night… like you’re supposed to.
Good grief I hate getting older sometimes.
I’m half Eastern European and I don’t think I look green but apparently when I used to actually try to get sun, I was told that I have an “olive” complexion. Now I’m just PALE, with dark brown eyes, dyed blue/black hair and freckles. I use the palest foundations/powders available. That whole color analysis thing – choosing what season you are and picking colors accordingly never made sense to me. Technically, I’m “winter” but I wear everything.
I wish I had made red lips my signature a long time ago but now when I try the bold red lip look, I feel silly. For some reason, what doesn’t feel silly and feels a bit more wearable for me is insanely bright fuchsia and crayon orange. Weird huh?
Orange lips bring out warmth and is really suitable for warmer weather. Fuchsia makes me feel more pale and icy.
I have been wearing L’Oreal’s HIP gloss in their orange “Precarious” for a year now and decided to try a real lipstick with more opacity. Yesterday I found Revlon’s Colorburst lipstick in “Coral” and I looooove it! Under certain lighting, it looks red but up close and personal, it’s definitely a bold orange.
For bright purple/pink, I wear a Sephora brand that they no longer make but I think their #s 10 or 11 would do the trick.
It’s a nice departure from the safe neutral glosses I usually wear every day and the traditional reds most women turn to when they want a bold mouth.
What are you doing to shake things up with your cosmetics these days?
It probably only makes sense to me, since it’s pretty much the rule to wear less makeup in the summer but, I end up wearing more. I have combination skin like most women with an oily T-zone. The warm weather gives me red splotches, when I already have a scattering of broken capillaries on my face. I kinda like having an arsenal of oil-absorbing SPF-laden products on my skin when I go out into the heat.
Please don’t lecture me but I’m not huge on SPF. I am already on prescription vitamin D and I welcome the small bit of sun that reaches me. When I was little, I was a brown summertime baby. I’ve even hit tanning beds a few times in my life but now I wouldn’t be caught dead trying to get a tan, and unless I’m floating down the river on an intertube I don’t put designated SPF on my body. Luckily, I’m not the burning type. Of course, I don’t want to look like a well-worn saddle when I get older so, I use products that already have SPF hidden inside them on my face.
After exfoliating and slathering on night cream (I use it for day around my eyes) and any other random fancy pants sample of serums and potions I have lying around, I let it all soak in for a few minutes… maybe pluck my eyebrows or empty the litter box during this time.
I’ve always enjoyed using foundation primers but I’ve only used whatever samples I can get my hands on, namely Smashbox’s Photo Finish. The tricky thing about primer is that a little goes a long way and as soon as you hit the tipping point on the Smashbox primer, it will pill and clump on your skin. When I heard that Hard Candy was changing their entire line and was going to lower their prices and be available at Wal-Mart, I was excited to be able to get fun outrageous colors on the cheap. I checked it out online and saw that their $8 primer was getting really good reviews! No pilling! Just as good as the expensive stuff! It was worth a shot. OMG I am in love! It has the same velvety matte texture and look as pricey primers and after a week of using it, I want to tell the entire world how great it is.
I am terrible about washing my face at night and after fixing my face one morning, I didn’t have to powder my oily nose all day, fell asleep on my face without washing and woke up with my make-up still looking great. No lie. Now, the serious heat of summer hasn’t kicked in yet so we’ll have to see how it stands up to major oil but I have a plan B for that anyhow.
So, here’s my summer skin arsenal:
After letting all the moisturizers set in for a second, I like to let a thin layer of the primer set in as well. Then, with a wedge sponge, I apply a wee bit of True Match liquid foundation (with SPF 17), patting around and pressing into my trouble areas for extra coverage. I used to use their concealer but I got terrible blemishes around my nose that almost warranted surgical intervention. I have no idea what happened with that but it had to go in the trash. L’Oreal’s True Match foundation has been voted top inexpensive liquid foundation year after year in magazines. I have used Dior, MAC, Clinique, you name it and unless you have aging skin in need of extra special ingredients, I really don’t see paying the high price for a liquid foundation.
I will spare no expense for Bare Minerals powder foundation (with a physical SPF 15 barrier) and that’s what I use next. For one, it’s worth the $25 because a container will last you forever. Most importantly, this stuff covers like crazy and just melts into your skin. It’s so good for you, you can sleep in it.
For retouching, I usually use the True Match pressed powder but in the summer I love using oil absorbing sheets. The paper ones don’t do it for me. I really like the Clean & Clear blue plastic sheets. If you’ve never used these before, you’re in for a treat. It’s crazy to see how much oil is just hanging out on your face waiting to pounce. The blotting sheets are great because you’re not reapplying layer after layer of junk on your face. You just blot, the shine is gone, and your makeup is still perfectly intact. If you want to save a buck, CVS makes a great generic version.
So, there goes my summer skin routine. Sometimes I use blush. Never will I use bronzer. The Bare Minerals brand sells sets called the Get Started Kit with 2 powder foundations along with 2 other powders and brushes and a DVD . One powder is suposed bring “warmth” to your face (i.e. bronzer) and the other is their Mineral Veil which is essentially a translucent setting powder. I have the Veil and I think it makes you look a little chalky. It’s just overkill in my opinion but hey, the set may work for you.
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