Kate B for Allure Russia

It's exciting to see so much red for spring!

Pastels are so predictable at this time of year, so a bold, in your face red wakes everything up and makes it new.

Other makeup trends include bold eyes and huge lashes.

Check out this fabulous makeup story in this month's issue of Allure Russia.

Model  Kate Bogucharskaia explores some of the new trends, courtesy of makeup artist Kaoru Okubo.

Photographed by Jason Kim

Midweek Wisdom #8

Do you ever wake up and have no idea where you are, or even what time zone you are in??
I just got back from a few days traveling.
And when I woke up this morning I thought I was in Europe. 
But unfortunately I wasn't.

When you're not sure which way is up, there's nothing like a little midweek wisdom to get you back on track. 
When I look at Paul McCartney I wonder if he ever had self doubt? or did he just trust the path he was on??
Scroll down for today's quote.

Paul McCartney in Stockholm airport 1963

What you think,

you become.

What you feel,

you attract.

What you imagine,

you create.

~ Buddha

Destination Honeymoon ~ Which Beauty Products You Should Pack

Last September I shot a story for 

Phoenix Bride and Groom Magazine 

about which beauty items you should pack 

to take on your honeymoon. 

If you are getting married this year, or if you are traveling, this is a great guide for you.

Here is the Phoenix Bride and Groom Magazine article, reposted.

Bon Voyage!

Corinna Cooke on an Easy Honeymoon Beauty Routine

“I’m always getting on a plane to somewhere! Whether it’s a shoot across the country or across the world, I always follow these four beauty travel tips. They work perfectly for your honeymoon too!” 
Corinna Cooke

1

Travel Bags. I like my beauty products to go in my cabin baggage, so they arrive at the same destination as I do, when I do! I use see-through cosmetic travel bags from Stephanie Johnson. They are beautiful and chic, are easy to take through airport security and are sturdy enough to protect all my beauty products. I also take them to the beach – one with sunscreens and a separate one for any post-beach hair and makeup goodies. I don’t want sandy bottles of tanning products mixed in with my hair and lip products, and I like being able to see what’s in each bag. Remember all your liquid products have to be 3 fluid ounces or less to go in your carry on baggage.

2

The Skin Care Equation. Think about the climate you are traveling to before you pack. If you live somewhere dry, like Phoenix, and are going somewhere humid, such as a beach honeymoon, you will need to change to lighter skin care products. I travel with Verso skin care products (thoughtfully sized at 3 fluid ounces or less). I add a broad spectrum sunblock with the highest SPF I can find (a sunburned face isn’t exactly honeymoon glam), an eye-makeup remover to dissolve waterproof mascara, and a soothing face mask like luxurious Tatcha Luminous Deep Hydration Lifting Mask to keep skin looking lovely.

3

The Makeup Story. 

The key to travel makeup is to keep it simple. You don’t want to spend your honeymoon in front of a makeup mirror and you don’t want to weigh your bags down with more cosmetics than necessary. Opt for a fresh-faced look with a BB Cream instead of a heavy foundation, pack a little something for your brows, a bronzer to keep you looking beachy, and a soft blush to add a little color. Take one color story for your eyes. I like a soft goldy/bronzy look as it goes with everything, always looks gorgeous and you can dress it up or down. Waterproof mascara and a great eyeliner in espresso brown or a deep plummy-grape complete the perfect travel eye makeup story. Lastly pack two lip options: a soft, kissable glossy lip in a gentle tone and one bold color for a va-va-voom lip to knock ‘em dead on a dressy night out.

4

The Hair Story. A climate change can make for a really bad hair day, so you want to have some rescue options with you. A little hair decadence feels divine, so I travel with Oribe products. I pack the Oribe single-use travel shampoo and conditioner packs because they are fabulous, smell divine and take up absolutely no space at all. Oribe’s travel-sized Anti Humidity Spray tames any flyaways or crazy humidity hair, Dry Texturizing Spray is fantastic if you need a little post-hat-hair lift, and Apres Beach Spray gives you great beachy-looking waves when you don’t actually have any. I also love the Oribe Gold Lust Nourishing Oil both to make hair glossy and shiny, and also to protect color and keep the ends from getting destroyed by sun, surf and wind.

Travel sized Oribe Hair Products

All photography by Jessica Savidge www.SavidgePhotography.com

Here I am behind the scenes laying out the items for the shoot

Beauty Tip Of The Week #7 Go Easy On Powder

We use powder to set foundation. 
Most foundations will slip and slide away if they are not set with a powder. 
But if you over powder a face the complexion will look dusty, dried out, heavy and sometimes even opaque.

This week's beauty tip is to only use powder where you need it.
I like to set the eye area, and if I am using a powder blush, the cheek area. Otherwise I let the skin be until I am finished makeup, then just lightly powder they shiny areas.
That way skin can still glow and look radiant.

Coveted. Louis Vuitton Chain Bag

This is the bag I am craving.

I love it to death.

Louis Vuitton white crocodile chain bag.

Coss body or over shoulder -

either way it is fabulous.

It is also a statement bag in the Epi Twist Denim, as seen here and below on Miranda Kerr.

But I really love the white.

International Travel With Bitcoin

Are you wondering how to handle your money 

when you travel internationally?

I get asked about it all the time.

I also get asked about how to handle pickpockets stealing your cash or credit cards. Touch wood, so far I've been safe.

When I first started travelling internationally the entire money equation was a headache. You had to use International Travelers Cheques, which you would purchase in the currency/currencies of the country/countries you were traveling to, which was often a complete nuisance. 

You needed to wear a money belt under your clothes and keep your travelers cheques, passport and extra cash in it for safe keeping. 
You had to keep meticulous details on your travelers cheques - which you had cashed, and where you cashed them, in case your cheques were stolen.
If you had American Express travelers cheques you were OK because they would replace them within a day or two, but other companies were terrible, and you could be stuck out there in the world with no money for days on end.
You also paid a fee to get your travelers cheques, and then at the money changing places you would pay another fee to cash them.

Now we travel with plastic, but not all cards are created equal, and 
you have to be very careful which cards you travel with.

Currencies fluctuate from day to day and throughout the day, but you seldom get the actual official exchange rate when you swipe your card. 
Banks get really liberal with the numbers and are generally substantially different from the official rate. My bank is generally at least 6% higher than the official exchange rate, so I lose at best 6 cents on every dollar I exchange.
So in general, I don't use them.
When you charge something to a credit card you will pay multiple fees - sometimes from the local merchant, your bank will always charge you for using the card overseas, an exchange rate that is nowhere near the actual rate for the day, and a conversion fee. So if you are using a credit card, only use it for the big expenses. Also, unless using American Express you may find your credit card protection against faulty purchases, items broken in shipping, or shipped items that don't arrive, is either sketchy or non existant when dealing with a foreign purchase.

Ceramics purchased in Sicily arrived broken, Visa wouldn't help.

Last year I shipped ceramics from Sicily, some of which arrived broken. The merchant suddenly didn't speak english anymore, and Visa wouldn't reverse the payment, or help me at all.
(I wrote about it HERE) I specifically used a Visa card because I wanted a layer of protection.
But in the end I paid all those excessive credit card fees for nothing.

Debit cards are ideal, but also come with their share of headaches.

Firstly you have to find out what your bank charges you for walking up to a foreign ATM - there will be a fee and it is often a steep one. Also you may get charged by the local bank for using their ATM. You do however get the best exchange rate.
I use a credit union debit card as it has really low rates.


One thing I am looking into for international travel is Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is a crypto currency that is used digitally, and not affiliated with any bank, or any single currency.
I am looking at Xapo.com for bitcoin as they not only let you utilize a bitcoin wallet  (click link for information) but they also have a Xapo debit card, which you can use anywhere that accepts cards. Many major cities have bitcoin ATMs too.

One of the benefits of traveling with bitcoin is that lack of bank fees. Bitcoins instantly convert to the currency of the country you are spending them in, so all you pay for is the items you are purchasing. 
Another benefit is that with credit cards, merchants can wittingly or unwittingly share your payment credentials, exposing you to fraud. Plenty of travelers have had thousands charged to their cards or had access to their cards shut down while traveling due to fraud. Xapo.com is the leader in Bitcoin security, so you have that extra peace of mind when you are making purchases.

If you are relying solely on credit and debit cards when you are traveling you can find yourself in a world of trouble if your cards get lost or stolen. If you are in a major city such as Paris or Madrid, your bank can take days to replace your lost card, but it will probably get one to you. 
If you are anywhere remote, such as a small town or worse still on honeymoon in Bora Bora, there is absolutely no guarantee a replacement card will get to you prior to your trip ending.

Having a bitcoin account as a backup is a brilliant idea - if your cards are stolen you can still access money. And if you make purchases with your bitcoins you avoid all the credit card fees.

Last year on the Glam Italia tour one of my clients left her handbag in a taxi in Sorrento. Luckily I was able to retrieve it (after sprinting down the middle of the Corso Italia, looking into every taxi on the street), but had I not been able to get it back she would have gone multiple days on the trip of a lifetime, with no money.

 "Bitcoin perfectly acts as a single cross-border payment token that doesn’t ask hefty commissions or any sort of conversion charges. So selling a coffee on an on-board flight, or paying a restaurant bill in a foreign country becomes instantly easy, without relying on exchanging currencies firsthand."

Xapo.com Bitcoin is really easy to use. You simply download an app to your phone. At any time while you are traveling you can add money to your bitcoin wallet from your laptop. All you need is an internet connection.

Although I don't think that at this point I could exclusively use Bitcoin for international travel, I do think it will become the way of the future. 
I would however love to try taking a trip exclusively with bitcoin and see how well I do - wouldn't that make a fabulous live blog series??

For more information on traveling with Bitcoin, check out this article on the Benefits Of Bitcoin For International Travel

To purchase Bitcoins, or to get more detailed information on the crypto currency, check out www.Xapo.com

If you have traveled with bitcoin, or if you have a bitcoin story to share, please tell us about it in the comment section below.

Midweek Wisdom ~ Gregory Peck

Even all these years later, I would have to say that the days I spent working with Greg Peck were some of the most wonderful days of my career. 
I absolutely adored this man.
We would talk for hours, and he was always endlessly fascinating and completely charming. He was both my client and my friend.

Today's Midweek Wisdom has 2 of his quotes, followed by one other that is also the kind of statement he would make.

I'm not a do-gooder. It embarrassed me to be classified as a humanitarian. I simply take part in activities that I believe in.

Gregory Peck

Gregory Peck withe his wife Veronique in 1958

Tough times don't last, tough people do, remember?

Gregory Peck

You will always be too much of something for someone:

too big, too loud, too soft, too edgy. 

If you round out your edges, you lose your edge.

Apologize for the mistakes. 

Apologize for unintentionally hurting someone - profusely.

But don't apologize for being who you are.

Doutzen Kroes Is Queen Of The Galaxy

I love 60's inspired shoots.
And I love Doutzen Kroes.
So I absolutely adored this shoot in the March 2015 issue of Vogue Netherlands.

Lensed by Nico, Kroes wears designers including Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, Versace, Moschino and Balmain.
Gorgeous makeup by Mo Karadac
Hair by Christiaan Houtenbos

Queen Of The Galaxy

Briday Beauty Tip #7 Go Easy On The Contour

Brides beware!
There is this crazy trend in bridal beauty where brides feel they need to be super contoured like a Kardashian. Brides are often showing me pictures of overblown contour, thinking it's the ultimate in makeup, and telling me thats what they want. Sometimes it can take a lot of explaining to maneuver them back out of what could be a real makeup disaster.

Don't be the victim of a bridal beauty blunder.

Firstly let me say Kim Kardashian invariably looks fabulous.
No question.
But she lives her life in a very different lighting situation to that of 99% of all brides.

I loved this quote from Jezebel: 
Sure, love is a battlefield, but makeup isn't supposed to look like warpaint...

Makeup artists have been contouring forever. It's part of how we create balance in the face, bring out the best in your features, and diminish the things we don't want to draw attention to.
But there is a huge difference between the contouring that a pro makeup artist does on a shoot, and that which we see all over Instagram and You tube.
Contour should be subtle, and only used where needed.
It should blend away seamlessly into the complexion, so that you can't see where it is, you only see a beautiful face.

It looks as though the majority of IG contour has been stolen from the Drag Queen playbook. And don't get me wrong - I love my drag queens. In fact I adore them. 
Drag Queens utilize significant contouring to take their very manly facial features and soften them into female features. They soften their jawlines and foreheads, streamline their noses, create cheekbones to die for. What they do is brilliant. But much of the time it is designed to look stunning with a wig, under bright lights, at night.
Not to be photographed outdoors at 2 o'clock on Saturday afternoon in natural light, with a soft swishy updo and a white gown.

If you step in to kiss a Drag Queen's cheek there is an expectation that she will be wearing a heavy layer of makeup. If you step up to a bride you are expecting her to look radiant and beautiful, not excessively made up with completely overblown contour.

contour gone wrong...

You may think your extreme contour looks okay (ish) in the makeup chair, but when you step outside its an entirely different story.
Sunlight is going to pick up all those white lines in your highlight and flare right off them, literally giving you white stripes and white patches, meanwhile the dark areas are going to grab the light. If they are too dark, or have the wrong undertone, or aren't blended properly your skin will look muddy.
If your contour is not blended to the nth degree you will look like you have stripes on your face.

With brides I find that most of the time a little well placed 
non glittery and non sparkly highlight, blended to perfection into a gorgeous, sheer foundation is all you need to create the illusion of a natural contour. 

Make your focus be a flawless, beautiful complexion (that looks lovely at close range) and your wedding makeup will look absolutely stunning. 

Beauty Tip of The Week # 6 Color Deposit Shampoo

Want a quick and easy way to revitalize your look?
Nothing pretties up your look quite like brightening your hair. 
When your hair looks bright and shiny your skin glows along with it and you look fresh and alive.

When the winter blahs hit you, when summer sun and surf strip your hair or when you are in between color touch ups or when you are just feeling a little flat, brighten up your vibe with a color depositing shampoo.

My new beauty addiction is Pure Blends Hydrating Color Depositing Shampoo. This one is sulphate free, sodium chloride free and actually contains a semi permanent color which deposits life and vibrancy back into your hair. 
It is high lather but super hydrating, and works on fade prevention as well as revitalizing. 
I use Marigold to keep my red hair looking bright and alive, and several of my blonde friends use Lemon Pure Blends to tone their hair.
Below is a color selection chart:

Shade Selector  

  

Violet: Violet base maintains the coolness of white, gray and pale blonde hair, preventing warm tones.  

Lemon: Pale beige base maintains pale to medium blonde hair producing neutral blond tones. Sun: Beige yellow base maintains light, medium and dark blonde hair producing warm sunny tones.  

Marigold: Orange yellow base maintains the brightness of copper, auburn and warm brown tones.  

Red: Red base maintains the brightness of bright red and red brown tones.  

Cherry: Red violet base maintains the coolness of red, red brown, and burgundy tones.  

Chestnut: Orange yellow brown base maintains the richness of warm brown chocolate tones.  

Cocoa: Cool brown base maintains the richness of neutral cool brown tones preventing warmth. Orchid: Blue gray base maintains the depth of dark brown to black hair preventing warmth.  

Pure Blends is made by the same company who make my other absolute beauty addiction, Simply Smooth Magic Potion, which I reviewed here

Find out more about this incredible product line and all their other hair treatment products here or go to www.americanculturehair.com

Get the Spring 2015 Makeup Looks With These 3 Products

Wondering what makeup items you need to buy to keep up with the new spring 2015 makeup trends? Yesterday we looked at 

4 Exciting New Makeup Trends For Spring 2015

Today I've narrowed it down to 3 super fabulous and endlessly versatile products to help you pull off all the best looks for spring 2015. Check them out here:

At Dolce and Gabbana Pat McGrath used Dolce and Gabbana lipsticks in Ultra and Amethyst. Also check out Dolce and Gabbana lipsticks in Lust and Orchid for the perfect Spring 2015 pout.

 Try Chantecaille's amazing gel liner pencil to get that perfect winged eyeliner. This is the first long wearing gel eyeliner to be housed in a pencil. It's also smudgeproof and waterproof.



For both your sexy smokey eye and youe soft brown spring eye choose the endlessly versatile 
Lorac Pro Palette.

4 Exciting New Makeup Trends For Spring 2015

We normally think of spring makeup being about glowy, bronzey skin, soft glossy lips and pastel eyes. 
Not so for spring 2015! This year they are shaking it up with trends not ususally associated with spring. Check out four of my favorites below:

4  New Makeup Trends For Spring 2015

winged eyeliner at Oscar de la Renta

Winged eye liner is in for spring, in all it's modifications from a pretty flick seen here at Oscar de la Renta to heavy liner at Saint Laurent.

Lips strayed from the usual soft pinks to deeply bitten berries at Dolce and Gabbana (check out the quintessential winged liner. It literally does not get better than this!)

exquisite berry lips at Dolce and Gabbana

and bold, flaming orange-reds at Zac Posen.

flaming lips at Zac Posen

Brown eye shadow is in this spring, 

brown eye shadow at Gucci

but rather than heavy, dull browns they were copper and gold based browns that lit up pale eyes.

brown eyeshadow at Paul and Joe

Also unusual for spring, smokey eyes are in. Sexy, sultry, bad girl smokey eyes at Tom Ford

smokey eyes at Tom Ford

and boho chic at Sonia Rykiel

smokey eyes for spring 2015 at Sonia Rykiel