The Globes Are Coming!!

I'm so excited!
My favorite season is here.
Award Show Season!

That means all the fabulous fun of the red carpet.
This year I'm not in Hollywood working on the shows,
but I will be watching every moment,
checking out every dress,
every accessory,
and all the makeup and hair.

This weekend I am excited to see what Penelope Cruz will be wearing.
She has been rocking the red carpet at the Nine premieres (and everything else she goes to)

Here she is at the LA Premiere


London, freeeezing in Dec!
yet oh so beautiful



I hope she gets best supporting actress.
I also want Marion Cotillard to win
Rob Marshall
Jeff Bridges
Robert Downey Jr

Oh!

I. Can't. Wait.

9 Essential Pieces For Your Makeup Wardrobe

New year, new decade. We've been cleaning out all the old, icky makeup that we have no more use for...
So now its time to make a list of the basic products a girls needs to build her makeup wardrobe from the ground up. Most of you wont need all new products. Use this list as a guide to fill in the missing links.

Look at building your makeup wardrobe the same way as you build a really fabulous clothing wardrobe.
Select great quality, well made products that will serve you well for a long time, not just a season.
A few key pieces can take you beautifully through any event.
The following list makes up the staples for your collection. Think of them as the LBD and black high heels of makeup...

1) Primer.
This is going to give you a pre-makeup base for your foundation to adhere to, to help it stay even, keep it matte, and in general will make your makeup look beautiful, longer.

2) Concealer.
I'm loving Makeup Forever's HD concealers and Julie Hewett's Omit concealers.
I wear one of these two brands every day.
Make sure the concealer you buy can be applied super sheer, so you don't have creasy, gooey or crepey looking concealer showing through your makeup.
Not a good look.

3) Foundation.
Buy the best that you can afford. If you can do a flawless base your makeup will always look great. Try to buy quality.



I normally have a slightly fuller coverage foundation for going out at night, and a lovely sheer, fresh base for day to day.
Be aware too that most of us are a different color during the winter than we are mid summer, so be prepared to have a couple of different shades as well as formulations in your makeup arsenal.

4) Powder.
You need two powders, one loose to set your foundation, and one pressed to do touch ups with.
Ideally get a powder that is colorless and translucent.
When buying powder one of the most significant factors is how finely milled it is.
The smaller the particles, the less you will see on the surface of the skin.
A good powder will be colorless and very finely milled, and will disappear into the skin when applied.

5) Highlighter.
Somewhere along the line its nice to add a highlighter to your product list.
Create a little sheen to the upper cheekbone, keep the skin looking dewey and healthy.


6) Blush.
Invest in a beautiful, soft blush.
This year we will be seeing a lot of soft, beautiful cheeks, so look for gentle hues rather than intense colors that deliver a more angular, defined cheek.

7) Brows.
The look for brows right now is soft, natural and unstructured.
Put brow pencils aside and move into a soft shadow for your brows.

8) Mascara.
I'm not a fan of drug store mascaras.
You dont have to spend a lot of money on mascara, but do get a quality one.
MAC has several that are inexpensive and good.
If you're not going to be swimming or crying, avoid waterproof.


9) Lip Balm.
Every night, every morning, keep your lips luscious.



Eyeshadows and lip colors are more seasonal, so I'll be showing you different products as they come along, but this list should get you started on building a makeup wardrobe that will take you through any season, to any event, or just day to day wear.

Lip Lock Love

Do you ever find that the gorgeous lipstick you absolutely have to have
changes color when you put it on?

Or maybe
the new look is a very pale gloss,
and the full bodied color of your natural lip color keeps
showing through?

Some lips have a blue undertone to them,
othertimes our natural pH just goes ahead and changes the lip color we've applied.
Hmmm.

Well, not to worry.
Gotcha covered.
MAC has a fabulous product called Lip Erase.
Its not a new product, but with all the pale lips heading our way its one you should know about.




Lip Erase is a flesh toned balm that neutralizes and erases natural lip color.
Its shine free and texture free, so you can even use it under a very pale gloss
and not see built up product on the lip.

It comes in two shades for use on pale and medium skin tones.

Fabulous fab-u-lips.






xo

C

Skincare 101 Keeping It Moist

So lets move forward with our new year's skin care regime.

After cleansing many ladies move on to toning.
Not a huge fan.
I often find toners just strip the skin.
So if you really, truly are oily, or need to lift away a little excess from the T zone
or if you like to use a little toner on a mini break out
go for it.

But moisturizer?
Crucial.
Crazy important.
And we break it down to daytime and night-time.
Because they each are equally important, and do very different jobs.


Lets look at your daytime moisturizer.
Firstly it is of course charged with hydrating your skin.
But it also serves several other important functions.
It helps to protect your skin from environmental pollutants.
It helps protect your skin from UVA and UVB rays.
A is for aging, B is for burning.
The twin devils we must avoid.





You can get your daily moisturizer with SPF in it,
or you can add a free standing moisturizer to your regimen.
I do both.




Every morning you must put moisturizer on your clean face.
Every morning.
Leave it on a few minutes before you start your makeup routine, so that it can soak in.
I normally put mine on, then go make my coffee or tea, before I go back and get started on my makeup.

Final word on daytime moisturizer?
Get the best that you can afford and keep using.
Makeup will never look great on dehydrated skin.
Dehydrated skin looks old.
Dehydrated skin ages more speedily.

Be your beautiful best in 2010!

xo

C

Fun Stuff!

Is it still plagarism if you fess up to it???

I really truly wish I had found this one myself, but it came to me via one of my favorite beauty blogs, the entirely lovely
Beauty School Blog.
And frankly it was entirely too genius to pass up.
I was compelled to share it with you.
I hope you get as big of a giggle out of it as I did!

Oh, and Jen at Beauty School Blog - you are truly fabulous!

Makeup Clean Out!

So just as we did with your skin care products, we now need to take an inventory of your makeup products.
Generally a bigger, badder, bolder job...

After a decade of shopping for odds and ends you're bound to have all kinds of goodies tucked away here and there.
But now its a new decade, and you need to sort, store and purge.



Organize your makeup.
Keep the good stuff.
You'll find things you forgot you had.


Rule of thumb: if it
smells weird
looks odd
changed color
has an odd consistency
or an odd texture
has any visible decay or bacteria
toss it.

Mascaras that are drying out or crumbling when you put them on
need to go.

Pencils that have a whitish film
need to go.

No past its prime product is worth the sheer hell of an infection.
Just get rid of them.
I googled pictures of skin reactions to expired products, but they were too yucky to post.

While you're at it, shampoo all your brushes. I'll put a link to the brush care tutorial video
at the end of this blog post.
Get them all super clean for the new year, then decide
which can stay and which must go.

And make sure you click in and read tomorrow's blog.
Its kinda funny.

xo

C

click here for the brush care tutorial...

Eye Love...

Yesterday's post about cleansers was a little on the long side, so today I'll keep it brief.

Today I'm staying on the skin care topic, and moving on to eye make up removers.
Most of the gentle cleansers out there will remove eye make up too, but if you wear waterproof eye make up (not my favorite thing. At. All) you'll often need a separate product to get it off.
Also some of the cheapie mascaras are super tough to remove.
I'm not an advocate of them either.



The skin around the eye area is the most delicate, thin skin on the body, and needs extra care.
It's also the first place we see aging.
So in order to be the fabulous creature that you really are, you must take care of the eye area.

I'd say lose the waterproof mascara unless you'll be swimming or crying, and definitely get rid of the cheapie mascaras...

And when you are dealing with products that wont budge, use an eye make up remover.




Sens Eyes by Make Up Forever is my favorite.
I use it in my make up kit.
Super gentle, even those with ultra sensitive eyes can use it. Its great too because makeup can go straight on top of it too, so if you're doing a quick make up change you'll look flawless.


Shiseido makes a good oneand Lancome Bi-Facil has been around forever. Its pretty good too!

When using an eye make up remover, soak a cotton pad with the product and hold it against the eye, so that it can soak in and start dissolving the make up. Then gentle lift away.
Never rub or scrub.
Never.

Eye make up remover is the best thing to remove a lip stain or super bold lip color, such as high velocity reds or burgundies.
Same thing, soak a cotton pad, press, hold and lift away.

xo

C