Archive for January, 2009
Use beauty supplies the right way and yours could well be the face that launched a thousand ships! Growing old may be mandatory, but looking it certainly isn’t. It’s just that one has to do it right. But that’s exactly what’s difficult. The mind boggles with the onslaught of unending types of beauty supplies, countless makeup and enticing brands. Am I using the right beauty supplies? Am I doing it correctly? What about side effects? Thankfully, makeup tips are not very difficult to find.
Trust the beauty supply expert.
Generally, you can always trust a beauty supply expert. And thankfully, one is almost always available without much trouble. The media abounds with beauty supply tips. And then there are brands that you can trust your skin with. Or use exotic mineral beauty supplies that are a great alternative to chemical beauty supplies. They use natural ingredients and causes less damage to the skin. Over a period of time, the presence of wrinkled skin could make that vital difference between skin that used regular beauty supplies and skin that used natural beauty supplies.
Beauty supplies today not only means enhancing beauty that is skin-deep, it also means preservation of skin nutrition. After all, our skin is the largest organ of our body and needs adequate nutrition like any other organ. Consistent, healthy skin care is the best way to avoid wrinkles, sunspots and premature aging. It will pay off in the end. We spend our hard-earned cash on beauty and skincare. Lets make sure that its main beneficiary is our skin, not skin care product manufacturers.
So many beauty products, which to buy? Each of us is different so our suggestions may not work for all but they are a good place to start. We’ve had 20 staff members test each product and then compiled their opinions to give you our 25 best beauty buys.
1. Sue Devitt Pencil Liner is nice and creamy with a velvety texture and is available in 10 shades
2. Mac Eye Shadow has a wide selection of colors. If the color is available from mother nature than Mac has it. Rich texture and blends easily
3. Revlon Eye Shadow is expensive and has a huge selection of shades. The colors are up todate and apply easily
4. Maybelline Great Lash Waterproof Mascara is dependable and affordable. Comes with a nice fine brush that grabs every eyelash and the formula is nice and rich and doesn’t flake
5. Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Filler has a great color selection and applies easily with a brush
6. Stila Convertible Color Blush creates natural looking rosy cheeks. Creamy formula blends well producing a very natural look.
7. Revlon Skinlights Bronzer is inexpensive. It’s rich and smooth texture is easy to apply and it is enriched with vitamins A, C, and E. Available in 6 shades and has a SPF15.
8. Tarte Cheek Stain is an oil free push up blush available in 5 natural tones.
Since real beauty comes from within, it’s important that your beauty products bring out your best natural qualities. Natural beauty product reviews can help you choose which products are best suited to your own individual needs.
One popular type of natural beauty product is stretch mark removal cream. Since stretch marks are pretty common–their causes range from pregnancy to body building–a lot of people can be helped by a natural, effective treatment for them. While reading natural beauty product reviews, I noticed that the best stretch mark remedies contain high amounts of Emu Oil, Aloe Vera Gel, Collagen, Elastin and Vitamin E. When these key ingredients are combined in a highly concentrated cream, they can not only help reduce stretch marks you already have, but actually help prevent new ones from forming!
One of the most helpful things about natural beauty product reviews is that they tell you about the ingredients in the best beauty products out there. Whenever you’re looking for skin treatments–whether it’s cellulite cream, spider vein therapy, sunless tanning or stretch mark removal–you want to make sure that the ingredients are safe and actually make your skin look better, not worse. Read the rest of this entry »
As we become more aware of our environment and more aware of the products that we are putting into and onto our bodies, natural and homeopathic products are taking the cosmetic industry by storm.
It’s likely you’ve noticed new skincare and cosmetic companies popping up with “all natural” and “organic” products. Of course, just because they say they are, doesn’t necessarily make it true. That is where consumer education comes in, and why it is so important.
The title of this article is “Mineral Makeup”. After learning what mineral makeup is, what products go into it, and what its benefits are, you can decide if this is the right choice for you.
What Is Mineral Makeup?
Mineral makeup is designed from all naturally occurring products. It is often recommended by dermatologists to women with sensitive skin, rosacea, post operative, laser and other procedures because of its intrinsic skin soothing and anti-inflammatory properties. It is a powder makeup of finely milled minerals. It can provide very sheer or very opaque coverage, depending on the formulation and application. However, it still allows natural skin radiance to show through, so you don’t get the dreaded “mask” look. It is typically free of fragrance and preservatives. Minerals cannot feed bacteria, so there is no danger of spoilage, thus it needs no preservatives. It does not go bad. It is very good for oily skin because it has several oil- absorbing components.
It is usually applied with a brush, and is typically shown to be “buffed” into the skin. This technique forces the makeup into your pores, which is never a good thing. A technique that works with better quality mineral makeup (which we’ll discuss later) is to “dust” the makeup on, instead of “buffing” it. If a brush irritates your skin, you can also use a non-latex or flocked sponge. Application can be done either wet or dry.
What Are The Ingredients?
This is the most important part. Learning what is in your makeup will give you the ability to choose what will meet your needs best. These are the ingredients you will most likely come across.
· Titanium Dioxide- A white natural sunscreen and anti-inflammatory agent. It is highly reflect, with only a diamond being higher, and thus minimizes fine lines and some skin discolorations.
· Zinc Oxide- A natural sunscreen providing broad spectrum UVA/UVB protection.
· Sericite- A colorless mica that can be used to cut the opacity of Titanium Dioxide and also works as an oil absorber.
· Cornstarch/ Rice Powder- Cosmetic grade- An oil humectant (draws oil out of the pores). Can make acne worse as it is a source of food for bacteria. Read the rest of this entry »
Beauty Shop tells the story of Gina (Queen Latifah) as she moves to Atlanta so her daughter can go to an exclusive music school. She finds a job as a stylist at a high end salon but after a confrontation with her boss leaves and opens her own beauty shop.
Beauty Shop doesn’t quite rise to the occasion as it repackages and regurgitates characters, themes and plots that we have seen before. It is one thing to tell a story that has previously been done yet bring something new to what may be an overdone but entertaining storyline and it is another to retell a story and not bring anything new to the table at all. Beauty Shop falls into the latter category and suffers greatly for it.
The main problem with Beauty Shop is that it is Barber Shop with women. From the plot twists to the characters inside the shop, it is the exact same movie as Barbershop except with Queen Latifah at the helm instead of Ice Cube. There is the funny, familial and penny pinching boss, Gina (Queen Latifah). There is the misguided, yet full of potential stylist in training, Darnelle (Keshia Knight-Pulliman). There’s the arrogant, know it all stylist who is a pain in everyone’s side, Chanel (Golden Brooks). There’s the novice stylist of a different race that can’t get any business, Lynn (Alicia Silverstone) and finally there’s the opposite sex stylist who is the only one of his kind in the salon, James (Bryce Wilson). You even have the character that hawks their goods at the shop: in Barbershop it was a man selling bootleg CDs and DVDs and in Beauty Shop it is a woman selling catfish and monkey bread. The concept of being original must have never crossed the writer’s minds.
And once again I say, can we dispense with the gay stylists. That is a stereotype that can go to the stereotype graveyard never to be seen or heard of again…ever. Kevin Bacon, an actor I love does an absolutely horrible and I repeat horrible job playing Latifah’s gay and fascist boss. We can also dispense with “metrosexuals” the new overused and unfunny effeminate male stereotype that is going to appear in every movie where men are employed in what are typically considered to be women’s jobs. If so, I say please stop now before you make audiences suffer anymore then we already have at this new, unnecessary caricature. There was one of these characters in “Guess Who”, and one of Beauty Shop’s many subplots is trying to figure out if the only male stylist is gay, straight or a metrosexual which would be a cross between the two.
For positives, there were some laughs and the opportunity to see a shirtless Djimon Hounsou was almost worth my money, but overall Beauty Shop was unoriginal and a bore. Ultimately the question is — do you really want to spend your money on something you’ve already seen before.
The quest for beauty, age defiance and physical enhancement are at an all time high. The beauty industry, comprised of simple salons to mega-corporate giants, pulls in billions of dollars annually. People are obsessed with making themselves beautiful and more attractive for their own personal satisfaction and so others can see them they want to be seen. Not only do people search for ways to enhance themselves, but they also seek beauty and attraction in other things, most notably a dating partner.
Some people might conclude that canvassing the importance of beauty in the dating world is a bit gratuitous. Today’s society places heavy weight on good looks in the work place and in social scenes. Amidst growing liberties, democracy, the abolition of racial and religious oppression and the rising demand for an open mind one would naturally assume that our advanced culture would not treat certain individuals better simply because of advantageous genetic facial features. Doctor Nancy Etcoff, a faculty member of Harvard University and a psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, has beautifully illustrated the ageless hunt for beauty in her book Survival of the Prettiest. I was enthralled with the hundreds of references throughout history Dr. Etcoff found and adapted to the importance of beauty. One of the most interesting ones involved Eleanor Roosevelt. When asked if she had any regrets she remarked that she only wished she had been prettier. As Dr. Etcoff examines this very thought further in her book, I think it would be best if we just accept our idealistic qualities and move on to facing them.
There seems to me to be definite parallels between this era, and the Elizabethan Age, when it comes to women, and their desperate struggle to either halt the natural aging of their appearance, or, to discover a miracle age-reversal method. During the sixteenth century, well-born women were obsessed with achieving, and maintaining, ‘ideal’ beauty, as they perceived it, to the point of what we would call ‘madness’. What was this ideal they so longed to possess? Youthful unlined alabaster skin, overly bright eyes, red cheeks and lips, and the fairest of hair colors. Add to these attributes, a high, arched, pale eyebrow, and high brow line. To achieve the ‘look’ of perfection, these women made use of the period’s highly respected skin care techniques, and the finest cosmetics available to them, at the time.
First, the hairline was plucked back, an inch or more. Next, the eyebrows had to be plucked and arched, and the hair of the head and eyebrows was then bleached out using a variety of the most up-to-date bleaching agents, including urine, and sulfuric acid. Women, who could afford the high cost, purchased the top of the line skin whitener, ‘ceruse’, a mixture of white lead, and vinegar. This was used on the face, neck, bosom, and often the hands and arms as well. This concoction was used in conjunction with the ’skin firmer’ of choice, uncooked egg white. This noxious mess was then spread on the face, neck and bosom, and allowed to dry, to tighten, and hide wrinkles, and give the face a white, unlined, mask-like finish. To imitate a blush and pout of youthful beauty, vermilion (mercuric sulfide) was THE choice for lips and cheeks. Faintly traced veins were then added to the skin surface of the bosom, for that ‘natural’ look. Drops of belladonna were then administered to the eyes, to achieve that desired ’sparkle’, and the eyes were outlined in kohl. To care for their complexions, the ladies made use of what was highly touted as the best cleanser. Mercury mixed with alum, and honey. Of course, a common practice was the ‘facial peel’, and the most widely used, and highly regarded peel agent, was mercury.
