It's The Beach Bag, Baby!

The holiday weekend is here, and I know most of you are heading to the beach/lake/river/poolside for some aquatic fun in the sun. I can't help but notice that I'm not in the Greek Islands at the moment, or somewhere delicious along the Amalfi Coast!

But after blogging about the after work beauty repair tools, I started thinking about what to put in the beach bag for the holiday weekend. Even though I'm not in the Aegean, the products essentially remain the same.

After the super- hydrate, super- moisturize in the morning, once all the lotions and potions have well and truly soaked into my skin, I like a super-liberal slathering of La Roche Posay Athelios SPF60 (at least). If not Athelios, then Neutrogena Helioplex SPF7o or above. Either will give you extra good sun protection, and wont leave you with a greasy coconut smelling face.




I cant tell you enough how fanatical I am about protecting face, throat and chest from the sun! A gorgeous healthy tan today will leave you looking like a wrinkled old boot tomorrow. So not worth it! And melanoma has no glamour value whatsoever. You really must invest in a really good facial SPF product.

Ideally you want to really give your SPF some quality time to do its magic before you apply anything over top. I'm not into a completely naked beach face (well, not on me anyway) and a face full of make up looks silly at the beach, but these products let you cheat it a little.

I love Julie Hewett Shimmy products.
A little dab here and there on the upper cheek bones, I use it on eyelids just to add a tiny bit of dimension and some shimmying love.
I'll blend it with a little Cheekie cream blush, just enough to give a hint of color and break up the endless beige that the face can become.
Now it should be noted that I am talking about dryer climates. If you are in a humid place you may want to keep your skin a little more bare. Don't try and fight the humidity though - it will always win. Add a little shimmy high on your cheekbones and go for a dewy, fresh faced look.




The only time I advocate waterproof mascara is when we're by the water. And why not use the mac-daddy of them all? I love Diorshow Blackout Waterproof. Build up some serious clump free lashes. Give it several coats, as this is going to be the main attraction on our pared down face.


I avoid anything much else around the eyes. If I know with 100% certainty that I'm not going in the water I may use a little smudged out liner, but really you want to avoid makeup-face.
That being said, my eyebrows are always on, groomed and fabulous!

Often ladies forget about their lips. You must wear something with SPF protection. I have tons of MAC SPF15 tinted lip conditioners. I like a hint of color and moisturized, protected lips.




Your hair and hair color need sun protection too. I love Phyto's Protective Beach Spray. It keeps your hair supple and shiny, and has UV filters.





You should always have a nice, big, sexy hat on to protect your scalp (melanoma often goes undetected in the scalp) and to shade your ears, face and neck. This year I am loving these hats by Juicy!





You will never catch me out there in the sun without huge glasses on. I like a nice wide arm on my glasses to protect the outer corners of the eye area.







Last but not least, a good book! I am re-reading the fabulous Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I've got the eating part down, now for some praying and some loving.....

What's in your beach bag this summer?

5 Ways To Manage Stress

image by Kelly Cappelli

It's been a week since the election - how stressed out are you?

Everywhere I go it seems that people are majorly stressed out. Trump fans are mad that the haters be hating, Trump haters are stressed out that he even got elected let alone that he is going to take office.

The world is stressed out that God only knows what will happen, and today I even heard Trump voters stressing out that he is putting Steve Bannon, the white supremacist in the White House.

I have been super stressed out that this has happened to my adopted country, meanwhile a massive earthquake hit my home country, which has me beyond stressed out.

Add to the mix working the past 44 days straight, AND having a major flood in my home and frankly it has been a stressful few weeks.

The thing about stress though is that it doesn't achieve anything. Well, nothing positive anyway. The trick is to find ways to manage your stress so that it doesn't manage you.

 5 Ways To Manage Stress

1. Do Yoga

Even if you just do a few sun salutations each day, yoga is a fantastic way to manage stress. The focus on your breath, the stretching, the flow from position to position make yoga the ultimate stress buster.

If you can't get to class just roll out your yoga mat and do some sun salutations with a you tube yoga guru.

Don't have a yoga mat? Check out Manduka.com for all kinds of yoga wear and yoga supplies. I'm ordering a new 5mm Eko mat and a new bolster to replace those that got lost in the flood.

2. Take a walk outdoors.

Fresh air and nature are wonderful stress relievers. A long walk with no distractions, just you and Mother Nature, is food for the soul.

3. Sit and reflect by water.

Looking out over the ocean or watching the waves are instant stress busters.

Watch, breathe, repeat.

4. Meditate.

If you can still your mind meditation is an amazing stress-buster. It calms you, helps you focus, helps you sleep better. Most of the super successful people that I work with in my real life (makeup artist) meditate for 10 to 20 minutes per day. I figure I can find 10 minutes somewhere each day so I just downloaded an app called Headspace that offers 10 minute meditations, but there are plenty of meditations available on You Tube.

5. Get off social media

Social media can be fun, but it can also be a huge source of anxiety. Whether that anxiety comes from comparing your life to others and feeling inadequate (remember no-one's life is as good as it seems on Facebook!) or whether its people being contentious and going all attack-dog over issues (hello Trump) the dark side of social media can be very dark.

Give yourself a two or three day total break from all social media, and then when you go back don't look at any social media in the first 30 minutes after you wake up or the last hour before you go to sleep