Thursday, February 09, 2006

One of the Best Beauty Products (Cheap, Too!)

What is one of the beauty products that you cannot afford to be without?
Vaseline!
Petroleum jelly (I guess I shouldn't use the trade name) can be used for many things, for quick fixes and for beauty treatments.
  • Use pj on eyebrows to tame those unruly hairs that stick up and make you look like an old man.
  • See below for using pj to pamper your feet and your hands to make them soft and smooth.
  • Use pj for your lips; keep a small jar on your desk. Everyone can use this; there are no added ingredients that irritate some people's lips. It keeps lips soft and instantly makes them look smooth.
  • To do a good job exfoliating your hands and have them feel soft and silky, coat them with pj first, then cover them with an exfoliating cream and rub. Rinse off and wash your hands with a mild soap and them use hand lotion. Your hands will feel wonderful.
Buy some pj (petroleum jelly); it's especially good to use in cold weather!
Donnachloe

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Wake Up Your Eyes!



Uh, oh, did you stay out too late last night? Did you stay up too late last night? What can you do to help those bloodshot eyes and dark circles?
First, use one of the products, of course, that is supposed to help with bloodshot eyes. If you don't have one of those, you should use some regular eyedrops (you need to have these on hand anyway) to hydrate your eyes. Don't forego your eye make-up. Use a dark blue liner, especially on the lower eyelid; this will make the whites of your eyes look whiter. Use a softer eye shadow colour than you usually use, and it is very important not to use too much.
For those undereye circles, please don't make the mistake of putting a white coloured cream underneath so that you end up having white circles under your eyes instead of dark ones. Instead, use a concealer only one or two shades lighter than your usual foundation, or unless you are very sallow, use a yellow concealer. The yellow concealer works best on most fair skin that is not yellow based (I love it!), and I recommend its use as a daily concealer also.
Take the eyedrops to work with you and use them anytime your eyes start to feel "scratchy."
Try to drink decaf coffee or decaf soft drinks if you regularly drink either, since caffeine dehydrates and you need all the moisture you can get!
Donnachloe

Sunday, February 05, 2006

A Day of Rest?

Tomorrow is Sunday, and for many people (especially women) it's anything but a day of rest! It means getting ready for the rest of the week, and for some women that can be a lengthy and arduous task. However, you will benefit if you do something for yourself.
Take the last hour before bedtime for yourself if at all possible. Wind down by taking a bath, reading, looking through the latest magazine (that has nothing to do with your job), and spend just a little time doing a few pampering treatments.
First, after your bath (take one, even if you shower in the morning), do your nails. This can mean cleaning them, filing them, and buffing them gently, or it can mean that you do a complete manicure with basecoat, colour, and topcoat. If you can stand it, slather on vaseline and pull on some soft white cotton gloves to sleep in; your hands and your cuticles will be wonderfully soft the next morning. (White cotton gloves, you say? Okay, pull a pair of clean white cotton socks over your hands; remember this is not for everyone). If your feet regularly hurt and you stand or walk a lot during the day, you can do the same vaseline treatment for your feet (and sleep in the white cotton socks). Your feet will feel great the next day, a definite lift for many of us.
As for the manicure, having clean tidy nails and hands can go a long way in helping to rid yourself of that frazzled, "I'm not so put-together" feeling. While you don't have to use nail polish, having nice hands and nails will make you feel polished!
Donnachloe

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Cover Your Lips

Lips are in - really in, and the bigger, the better. If you're getting older though, the skin on your lips is getting thinner and thinner - your lips are actually beginning to look thinner too (it's no accident those stars are getting their lips done; it's not just for fashion's sake but to remedy what time is beginning to erase).
So what's a girl, ahem, a woman to do?
First, use your lipstick.
Use a lipliner, but please, please use one that is close to the same colour as your lips if you're going for a more natural look, or one that is the colour of your lipstick if you're trying for something either more sophisticated or vampy. Please don't use dark brown or any colour that makes you look like your lips have been outlined like a person in a child's colouring book. The lipliner will help your lipstick stay in place - and my experience has been that even when my lipstick fades, my lipliner will still be visible - no, not outlined, but visible enough that my lips seem to keep their shape and therefore their fullness.
Line all of your lips; this means the corners also. Don't make clown lips, (this does take some skill) but you must have a line that goes all the way around your lips continuously. This isn't easy to do at first, and it is probably one thing that most women omit doing. But if you line the corners of your lips and then fill them in with your lipstick, your lips are going to look fuller, and more naturally full.
Remember that gloss is supposed to make your lips look bigger, too (but usually you'll have to keep reapplying it throughout the day).
Note: when I travel and know that I can't keep applying lipstick or when I know that I can't even carry one with me, I will actually moisturize my lips while I'm getting ready, then before I leave the house, I will use lipliner instead of lipstick! It lasts, and even in the lights of an airplane bathroom I can still see my lips!

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

The Scent of Beauty

Imagine: Kim Bassinger in a movie talking about her childhood when her mother would put a drop of perfume in a glass of water and tell her,"Drink it, it will make you feel pretty inside."
I love that. Mostly because while you can look like Hudweiler the Hag, for the most part beauty, sexiness, prettiness comes from the inside. And when you do something to make yourself more attractive, something that is noticeable to other people, you are going to be more attractive as long as you remember that you DID something.
So this morning, since it's probably too late to do anything else, put on some perfume. Yes, make sure that it works for your body chemistry, that it isn't overpowering for work (if that's where you're going)and that you don't actually bathe in it. But put some on.
I don't know about you, but I've gone fluttery in the tummy standing next to a man that smelled so good and masculine that every sexual/sensual nerve in my body suddenly started doing somersaults.
It's gotta work the other way, too.Donnachloe