Author: Cold Cream 'n' Roses

#beauty #cosmetics #makeup #skincare #fashion An eclectic collection of #music posted on #Mondays

September 11, 2001

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Today is the 8th anniversary of 9/11. Our memories of that terrible day are fading. Memorials have yet to be built, and designs are in dispute. The President signed an order earlier this year declaring September 11 a “day of service.”

September 11 should be declared a day of mourning and remembrance and a day to honor firefighters and other emergency responders. Any day can be a “day of service.” At various gatherings around the country, bells toll at the time that the planes crashed into the WTC, the Pentagon, and the field in Shanksburg, Pennsylvania. I would like to see alerts become a practice in our offices and schools and on the TV, radio, and Internet so that people would pause and reflect on September 11, 2001.

My humble commeration of 9/11 is to post the candle of remembrance on the sidebar. There it will stay until the end of the month.

UPDATE Michele Catalano reminds us to remember the survivors.

Review of Too Faced Natural Eye Neutral Eye Shadow Collection

Cold Cream 'n' Roses

Too Faced is too gimmicky and glitzy for this blogger’s rather conservative tastes. I’m making an exception, however, for the Too Faced Natural Eye Neutral Eye Shadow Collection.

Too Face Natural Eye Neutral Eye Shadow Collection 

The kit consists of Day (matte), Classic (shimmer), and Fashion (even more shimmer, almost frosted) eye shadows.

Too Faced couldn’t avoid clever, even salacious, names for its shadows:

Day
Heaven (matte ivory)
Velvet Revolver (matte taupe)
Sexspresso (matte deep brown)

Classic
Silk Teddy (peach champagne shimmer)
Push-Up (light bronze shimmer)
Erotica (soft charcoal shimmer)

Fashion
Nude Beach (champagne shimmer with gold glitter)
Honey Pot (gold shimmer)
Cocoa Puff (warm chocolate brown shimmer)

The kit comes in a cardboard box with a magnetic snap closure. It also features a pull-out compartment for a dual-ended brush/sponge wand. Three “how-to” cards provide instructions on creating the looks.

My advice:

– Heaven may be used to create a “canvas” for applying subsequent eye shadows.

– Don’t feel confined to using only the eye shadows for a particular look (Day, Classic, or Fashion). Mix it up! After I discovered how highlighters, as applied to the lid, can brighten the eyes, I use Silk Teddy on my lid.

– Can “women of a certain age” wear shimmer? It has less to do with your age, and more to do with the smoothness of your eyelid. I avoid highlighting shimmer on the inner third of the eyelid, because of the creases, and confine it to the middle third. I use a darker shimmer on the outer corner. Applying shimmer with your ring finger provides for a light touch.

There is also the Too Faced Smoky Eye Palette. The smoky eye is a perennial, but this season, I’m seeing even more attention paid to it.

You may shop Too Faced at its website, Beauty.com, Sephora stores, Sephora.com.

Beauty products that have stood the test of time

Cold Cream 'n' Roses

TotalBeauty.com
8 Classic Beauty Products You Still Worship

TotalBeauty.com readers prove you can never go wrong with these timeless makeup, hairstyle and skin care buys
8 Classic Beauty Products You Still Worship

Whether it was your first grown-up purchase or a secret passed down through generations, some classic beauty formulas just can’t be beat. Read on to see which oldies but goodies fans continue to adore. Did your favorite make the list?

See products

My makeup routine while on travel

Cold Cream 'n' Roses

When it came to makeup overseas, I didn’t fare so well. The capillaries are near the surface of my skin: consequently, my skin is very sensitive to heat and wind. Any products that I used to cover redness just didn’t work. The PR rep for Orlane Paris told me that Orlane’s foundation was the best product she’s found to cover redness, but I wonder if it would stand up to the 96 deg F heat and humidity of Calcutta!

My husband said that I looked “weathered.” Nice guy. I would have wandered about all day feeling self-conscious, but he said that there was little I could do to help my appearance in the heat and humidity. On reflection, I indeed was “weathered” by the heat and the humidity. I just wish my husband weren’t so blunt.

CARGO Essential Eyeshadow Palette
All purpose eye makeup!

As much as I pared down cosmetics to carry with me, I was surprised by how little eye makeup and how few brushes I really needed to carry. I used Laura Mercier Eye Basics eye shadow base in Linen not only as an eye shadow base, but also as a brightener under my eyes. To further brighten my eyes, I applied the browbone shade from CARGO’s Essential Eyeshadow Palette to my lids with my ring finger. While I carried tinted brow gel and 1 Day Tattoo Real Lasting Eyebrow with me, the lid and crease shades from the CARGO palette, as applied with an angled brow brush, worked well. I used the same brush to line my eyes. For the eyeliner, I used the outer corner from the CARGO palette. To intensify the eyeliner, I applied the shadow wet by dampening it with eye drops, a trick I learned through the InStyle Makeover issue that’s an extended advertisement for Ulta. Then I finished the eye look with mascara. Voilà!

Tips for comfort on travel overseas

Cold Cream 'n' Roses

After my recent long-haul trip, I’d like to share my tips for comfort on overseas trips.

I carry my medications in my carry-on. In addition, I’ve created a “comfort kit” for airline travel. Everyone knows how dry airplane cabins can be. I carry moisturizer, eye drops, saline nasal spray (1½ oz.), hand sanitizer, and Colgate Wispsicon to clean my teeth. Don’t be seduced by overly priced moisturizers advertised as “flight creams” – any moisturizer with humectants to bind water and emollients will do. TSA regulations state that each liquid that you carry shall be no more than 3 oz. and the containers shall be packed in clear 1-quart plastic bags. I also wear compression stockings, such as those by Jobst or Futuroicon, to prevent my feet from swelling during an overseas trip.


My comfort kit – yet another of my crapola photos

For summer in India, I use two products purchased in India to provide for my comfort. Nycil is a prickly heat powder that I apply wherever I might chafe, notably under the breasts or along the bra line. I like the sandal-fragranced powder. As the seal of the container was not tight, I transferred some powder into a small sifter jar, such as those used for mineral makeup powder. To protect against mosquito bites, I use Odomos, a pleasant-scented, gentle cream. There is no ingredient list for Odomos. DEET is the preferred mosquito repellent, but I couldn’t detect DEET in Odomos: otherwise, I’d feel it in my mouth! Nonetheless, Odomos seems to be effective. I also carry cotton handkerchiefs, which I use to protect my nostrils from dust, block out unpleasant odors, and blot perspiration.

I hope that these tips might be helpful to readers planning overseas trips so that they can be comfortable and healthy while on travel.

My absence from blogging

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I came back from a trip to India on September 1. The day my husband and I left, TSA screeners were passing carry-ons through the detectors twice, which significantly delayed the security process. The TSA official told me that I had to wait until my carry-ons had entered the detectors before I was allowed to cross the line to walk through the metal detector. The wait was a long time, given the double screening, and I was getting impatient. I regained my equanimity only when I held out the possibility that the Inspector-General (IG) for TSA might have cited laxity among TSA screeners, which meant that they had to re-double their efforts.

Given TSA screening, maybe it was just as well that I didn’t carry my own laptop. I was dependent on my husband for access to his laptop. While I had scheduled two articles (Robert Jones, Fall’s Color Story) to go live in my absence, I was not able to provide timely stories on the pre-sale of Twilight Beauty or Sears getting back into the beauty business after discontinuing its Circle of Beauty concept several years ago.

Review of 3CC Robert Jones Signature Collection

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Three Custom Color Specialists has launched yet another of its special collections. The Robert Jones Signature Collection consists of three shades of lip gloss and three shades of Crème to Powder blush. Robert Jones is a makeup artist who specializes in classic makeup looks and appropriate makeup for older women. He is the author of two books on makeup application Makeup Makeovers (the subject of a future article) and Looking Younger.


Robert Jones Signature Collection from 3CC
Lip glosses in Just Bitten, Life’s A Beach, and Bare, But …
Crème to Powder blush in Pinch My Cheeks, Morning After, and Kiss My Apricot

I eschewed lip gloss, but 3CC’s lip gloss in the caramelicious Trae’s Favorite was smooth, neither slick nor sticky. From the Robert Jones Signature Collection, I purchased lip gloss in Just Bitten, described as shiny, shimmering mahogany, and Life’s A Beach, a sandy beige. Just Bitten looked a lot like Trae’s Favorite, but with shimmer. It also has more berry, and less brown. As women get older, they need more color: as Trish McEvoy said, go lighter and brighter.

Through sampling of Bésame Voluptuous Lipstick and Pür Minerals’ Nude Lips look, I was reminded of the benefits of filling in your lips with pencil to leave behind a stain after the lip gloss or lipstick has worn off. The good news is that lip pencils are products that you can save on: pencils from Wet’n’Wild or Jordana work perfectly well. I love pairing Just Bitten with Wet’n’Wild Crème Lip Liner Pencil in Brandy Wine and Life’s a Beach with a nude pencil (maybe go a shade lighter than your natural lip color).

I have built a collection of sheer lipsticks and lip glosses from Three Custom Color Specialists, and the lip glosses from the Robert Jones Signature Collection are yet another beautiful addition to my collection.

You may purchase Three Custom Color Specialists products through its website: however, the website loads so slowly, I get timed out. A few 3CC products are available on QVC.com: 3CC debuted its Creme Concealer Foundation on QVC on August 18. A wider variety of 3CC products is found at dermstore.com.

Fall’s color story

Cold Cream 'n' Roses

SoHo Accessories has a story on Pantone’s Fall 2009 color story. It also links to Pantone’s Fashion Color Report for 2009, which features how famous designers use the colors and provides advice on staying fashionable within budget from experts Simon Doonan (Barneys), Nina Garcia, Tim Gunn (Project Runway), India Hicks, and Clinton Kelly (WNTW).


Cover of Pantone Fashion Color Report fall 2009

Colors are:

American Beauty (balanced red)
Purple Heart
Honey Yellow
Burnt Sienna
Rapture Rose
Warm Olive
Majolica Blue, described as “a deep, mysterious teal blue with more vibrancy than the usual navy.”

Indeed. Navy is one of the flattest shades around. I prefer marine or indigo to navy.

The neutrals are neither warm not cool and bridge the gap between gray and beige or brown. From lightest to deepest, the neutrals are:

Crème Brûlée, a grayed-down beige
Nomad, which bridges the gap between beige and light gray
Iron, which is described as “neither gray nor brown.”

Come to think of it, these trio of neutrals would make a great eye shadow palette, with Crème Brûlée for the lid, Nomad for the crease, and iron for the outer corner or as an eyeliner.

Create your own eye shadow trio! Which existing eye shadows duplicate Crème Brûlée, Nomad, and Iron for a smoky eye?

Skin care advice from Rodan & Fields, Murad, and others

Cold Cream 'n' Roses

TotalBeauty.com
Anti-Aging Secrets of Top Dermatologists

We got the scoop on the supplements they take, the skin care products they slather on and more
Anti-Aging Secrets of Top Dermatologists

Dermatologists have access to all of the latest and greatest lasers, skin care products, fillers, you name it. So when it comes to taking care of their own skin, we wondered what they do to prevent aging, or even better, reverse it. Here’s what they had to say — we recommend you make their habits your own.

See secrets

Review of Perfekt Beauty Skin Perfection Gel

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Perfekt Beauty Skin Perfection Gel

Perfekt Beauty describes its Skin Perfection Gel as:

A skin perfector that instantly per-fekts and enhances the appearance of the skin offering an easy alternative to traditional foundation, primer, color corrector and powder.

I was pleased to receive a sample of Skin Perfection Gel in Luminous. Perfekt Beauty describes Luminous as appropriate for fair complexions. However, Luminous suited my light complexion better than Radiant, which Perfekt Beauty describes as appropriate for light to medium tones.

When I applied Perfekt Beauty Skin Perfection Gel, it was evident that there was a lot of silicone, due to the slip of the product: in that way, Skin Perfection Gel is a 2-in-1 product that can serve as primer and foundation. I hesitate to say that it also functions as a color corrector, as it provides a light tint. It is best for women who don’t have major flaws in their complexion. Women who have something to hide might want to layer more opaque coverage (mineral makeup powder, for example) over Perfekt Beauty Skin Perfektion Gel. Once the product dries down, it has a matte finish that makes powder unnecessary.

The downside of Perfekt Beauty Skin Perfection Gel is that it doesn’t provide sunscreen. I still rely on smashbox Photo Finish Foundation Primer SPF 15 and Dermaxyl, but it has a petroleum smell that’s unpleasant. It would be great if Perfekt Beauty could formulate a Skin Perfection Gel with sunscreen and without the unpleasant smell of smashbox’s product.

Perfekt Beauty is a small line of cosmetics that consists of three products: Skin Perfection Gel, Eye Pefection Gel, and Body Perfection Gel. You may buy Perfekt Beauty at its website, Sephora stores, and Sephora.com.