I am almost always displeased with my eyeliner. I don't have a steady enough hand to do liquid liner, and my pencil lines always strike me as way too thick (or too thin). As ever, I am a woman of extremes.
How about you? Any tricks up your well-starched sleeves?
Paula Begoun says the scaremongering needs to stop. I agree. There are far too many self-appointed "consumer groups" with zero scientific expertise who go around peddling junk science, incorrect assumptions, and totally baseless claims. I hope women always turn a critical eye to any reports like this, be they cosmetic-related or otherwise.
First of all, Face Time Cosmetics has yet another terrible, user-hostile Flash website*. I am going to tear my hair out and eat it if I have to keep writing that about these sites! What's even worse is that it's an e-commerce site where you can actually buy products, but the Flash interface makes it a huge pain in the ass to do so. For instance, I can't even link directly to any of the products - you have to navigate through their ambiguous menu to find them. Either this company doesn't want to make money or they got swindled by their web agency. Either way, HATE. (UPDATE: I have heard from Face Time, only minutes after I posted this, that they are in the process of redoing their website completely. Hallelujah!)
That said, I have ditched my stand-by Stila blush - and my back-up, NARS Orgasm - in favor of Face Time's Embellblush in Palm Beach Pink (full disclosure: I did not pay for it). It is not as dark as pictured in that image (which I had to grab by printing screen into a graphics program and cropping out the rest of the page...sigh), and gives a nice, healthy, subtle glow. It's a keeper.
* I just found out the other day that I live a block away from the branding agency that created the Sparkle Body Sprays site that first prompted my original anti-Flash rant. Now where did I put my Molotov cocktails...
A few weeks ago, I got my first sunburn in years. It was worst on my shoulders and upper arms, but my scalp wasn't spared either. This left me with two questions:
1) Is the only sunburnt scalp prevention to wear a hat?
2) In the event that one's scalp does get burned, what can be done about the truly disgusting peeling stage?
It's all over now, thankfully, and I hope never to suffer it again. But I can't be the only one this has ever happened to.
The European Union recently mandated PAO dates on all products (PAO stands for Period After Opening) to let you know when you should throw it away. Yet there are no studies or standards developed to determine what constitutes an appropriate PAO date. Not to mention that the way a product is used affects its microbial contamination. Clearly, a jar product is more of a problem than a product you can’t touch with your fingers. Leaving a product in your hot car or opened in your steamy, hot bathroom would have an impact, but no one knows what that is, so everyone in the industry is just guessing. If Estee Lauder puts a PAO date of six months on a product and everyone else follows suit, why not? It makes the regulators happy and it fosters more sales. That’s the reality.
What is far more risky than your 12-year-old blush are the tester units at cosmetics counters worldwide. These products are used by hordes of women and who knows whether or not they had infections, diseases, sores, and other gross things I don’t want to think about. There have been studies showing how tester units of cosmetics are teeming with all sorts of bacteria, mold, and the like, but no one is making the cosmetics companies throw those away and the consumer doesn’t seem to mind in the least, in fact I think there would be a female backlash if they took those displays off the counter.
Here's the deal: I have very dark hair, and it grows fast. If I had my way, I'd shave my legs every day. As it is, even doing it every other day still leaves me with legs that burn all day and have tiny red dots all over them.
Yes, I use warm water on my legs first.
Yes, I use shaving gel.
Yes, I moisturize like crazy.
Also, I have a ton of bruises all over my legs, which is annoying, considering all the money I just spent on pretty summer dresses. I'm using arnica on the bruises, but still, is there any way - apart from not being a born klutz - to avoid bruising? Maybe I'm missing a mineral or something? Somebody please, help me.
I really and truly do not know what to make of bath and body newcomer Nature Girl, or her sister site for fragrance, Rich Hippie. I feel that I should have an opinion, and probably a strong one at that. But I am stumped. There seems to be something oxymoronic about a $34 bottle of hippie soap that comes in the same kind of packaging as Dr. Bronner's. Still, I have whined and carped my share about wanting more luxurious choices in the natural product realm. But then again... $34 for hippie soap? $125 for 1/2 oz of a fragrance called Maharishi? What a disappointing aesthetic for a luxury product line.
I am admittedly a bit weary of hippiness, especially the aesthetic--as far as I'm concerned, the best thing about the hippie movement is that they took those hideous clothes off as often as they could. I can get past that, if these products are truly superb. I just don't want to feel like a pathetic sucker standing around Fred Segal in a $300 tie dye t-shirt.
Has anyone tried this stuff? Is it the white truffle oil of natural soaps, or a crunchy come-on?
I spent the weekend dress shopping, and boy did I get some beauties. I have never really been a big dress fan, not until the last year or so, after losing 100+ pounds and feeling a lot more confident about wearing them. This happily coincides with what seems to me to be a renaissance of unspeakably gorgeous dresses. The cuts and the prints are just fabulous. Perhaps I never noticed this before, but it seems a new thing to me.
My big problem, though, is that I walk a LOT, and all of my pretty shoes give me blisters before too long. Straps along the top of my foot and my toes are the worst. I have absolutely no idea how to prevent this.
I spotted Sofsole Soothe in the latest issue of O: The Oprah Magazine, but can't find an online retailer who will be selling it until May 25. Are there any other products out there that can help me? I am desperate. I have a closet stuffed with exquisite dresses, and I want to wear them all summer long. Please help!
I hope you're not all freaked out about the volume of eye closeups on this blog lately. With that said...
I'm a big fan of Tarte Cosmetics, as they're one of the few companies that really give good product and good packaging. Both are important to me.
Creased, smudged eye makeup is the bane of my existence. (Actually, it is one of MANY banes of my existence, along with taking the garbage out and trying to get perfectly smooth legs that last longer than a day.) So when Tarte's PR maven, Candace, emailed me about their new summer collection, I knew I had to try the Lock & Roll Eyeshadow Duo.
Step 1: Brush a sheer wash of the Vitamin E-enriched cream shadow on lids-wait about 10 seconds for it to dry.
Step 2: Tap rollerball to actuate, roll the matching loose shadow directly on top-- the binding agents in the cream shadow will lock with the powder, creating a crease-free, budgeproof finish.
Plus, it's waterproof. This I had to try.
Candace sent me the product in a couple of different shades, but the first I tried was the lovely, pale olive green called Patina. It's a very wearable color, which I can't say for a lot of cream shadows. Better yet, it actually does what it's supposed to do, which is stay put on lids, all day and all night.
Even better, Lock & Roll comes in sets of two, so you get Patina bundled with Bronze, all for $28. Go buy some, and hopefully Tarte will introduce even more colors for this solid product. Thanks, Candace!
Marketing directors, new media directors, and others who are in charge of corporate beauty sites, take note:
We've banged this anti-Flash drum for quite a while now, and told you exactly why it is customer-hostile and translates into online retail that bleeds money at a phenomenal rate, but a picture really is worth a thousand words.
via Adriana
