Category: Advice

The Style Page discovers six (non-food!) uses for coconut oil

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In my post Seven fave skin care products, I teased:

In a subsequent post, I’ll reveal a product that adds sheen to the skin and protects the skin from the elements. It also adds shine to the hair and smooths flyaways. And it’s 100% natural, food-grade, vegan, and organic! Interested??!!

The suspense is over. The miracle product is: coconut oil!

I don’t mean to push Barlean’s over other brands, as I have no basis for comparison, but this is the brand that the staff in the personal care department of Whole Foods recommended and I bought.  The difference is that she uses it for cooking purposes (including popping corn!) and I use it on my skin and hair.

Barlean’s is solid in the jar at room temperature, but liquefies when rubbed in the hands.

Six uses for coconut oil:

  1. Use as a makeup remover.
  2. Apply coconut oil on dry patches over your regular serum or moisturizer.  Coconut oil provides a barrier to the elements: good to know in colder weather.
  3. Apply to add shine to the legs.  Coconut oil is water-resistant and lasts through more than one bath.
  4. Apply a layer of coconut oil on the legs before shaving. It provides “slip.” You don’t need a body wash or shaving cream or gel.
  5. Coconut oil is a hair care staple for women in the tropics.  Apply it to the hair for shine.  Until I “discovered” coconut oil, I bemoaned the lack of shine in my hair.  
  6. Use coconut oil to tame flyaways.
  7. Use coconut oil as a substitute for those highly fragranced hot oil pre-shampoo treatments.  I comb coconut oil through my hair and cover my hair with a disposable shower cap and a terry turban over the shower cap to let the oil penetrate.

Barlean’s costs $16 for a 16 oz. tub, whereas rms beauty charges $18 for a 2.5 oz. jar of its raw coconut cream.  I find Barlean’s perfectly serviceable, and see no reason why I should be paying more for less.

How to wear bright eyeshadow

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Who doesn’t like makeovers and before and afters? Here’s a step-by-step tutorial on how to wear bright eyeshadow:

TotalBeauty.com
Real-Woman Tutorial: How to Wear Bright Eyeshadow

Yes, you can wear teal shadow without looking garish — just follow these steps

Real-Woman Tutorial: How to Wear Bright Eyeshadow

This tutorial is designed to show you step-by-step how to wear bright colored eyeshadow (which is doable even if you have small or Asian eyes). Brightly colored eyes can dress up a look when paired with a neutral or nude face, or accessorize an entire outfit. Just make sure you know how to wear it before rocking it in the office.

See how-to

For my part, I think that Asians and women with deeper skintones wear bright eyeshadows better than their lighter complexioned sisters.

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TotalBeauty.com
Get Your Best Lashes and Lips

Readers and Bloggers share their favorite tricks for playing up our flirtiest features

Get Your Best Lashes and Lips

Oh, those eyes! Those lips! Keep all eyes fixed on your gorgeous face with these alluring tips and tricks from TotalBeauty.com’s glam-savvy readers and bloggers.

See tricks

TotalBeauty bloggers provide tips on lips and eyes in conjunction with “sneak peak” reviews of MAX Factor Vivid Impact Lipcolor and MAX Factor 2000 Calorie Extreme Lash Plumper Mascara.

Temptalia shows you how to create the cat eye

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TotalBeauty.com
Real-Woman Tutorial: Perfect Eyeliner

Quick and easy tips for a perfect cat eye, liquid liner and more – brought to you by fellow blogger Temptalia

Real-Woman Tutorial: Perfect Eyeliner

This tutorial is designed to show you step-by-step how to line your upper lash line and wing out the liner subtly, which is typically called a cat-eye. Check out these tips and you’ll be on your way to perfectly-lined eyes in no time.

See how-to

Caring for your makeup brushes

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Here’s advice from Shalini Vadhera of Global Goddess Beauty in her e-newsletter that got my attention.

She provides the conventional wisdom about when to discard makeup:

Concealer: Up to 12 months
Powder: 2 years
Cream & gel cleansers: 1 year

Pencil eye liner: 3 years
Eyeshadow: 3 years
Foundation: 1 year
Lip liner: 3 years
Lipstick: 2 years, but if it starts to smell, replace it
Mascara: the fastest of these cosmetics to expire, will last no more than 3 months!

We know that cosmetics last longer than what she quoted: in fact, industry insiders have admitted that cosmetics are good to use five years after purchase.

Shalini then writes,

Here’s a trick to keep your cosmetics lasting as long as possible. Use clean brushes, not fingers, for a healthy application. Brushes should be washed every 2-3 months in a mild detergent and laid flat to dry. If they begin to fray or split, replace them in order to ensure the smoothest application.

I was surprised that she recommended 2-3 months between washings. Usually, pros recommend washing brushes every month. This is especially important for eye makeup brushes for hygienic reasons.

Here’s what I’ve learned about caring for makeup brushes:

* It takes about a day for eye makeup brushes to dry after washing.
* For face makeup brushes, it can take up to 2 days to dry after washing.
* Be judicious about using spray-on, tissue-off brush cleaners. These cleaners are a great convenience, but many contain alcohol or other ingredients that strip oils from natural hair bristles.
* If you develop an eye infection, it’s essential to wash your brushes. You might want to avoid eye makeup altogether until the eye infection is gone.
* If you use loose mineral powders, clean your brushes often so that color applies true.
* Shampoo is essentially detergent, so you can use shampoo to wash your brushes.

Christopher Drummond Beauty

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Veludo Velvet Foundation

Makeup artist Christopher Drummond began his eponymous line with SAÚDE PELE Radiance Booster. SAÚDE PELE (which means “Healthy Skin” in Portuguese) is a soft gold loose powder which can be used to highlight the cheekbones, brighten the inner corners of the eyes (my favorite use), or as an all-over luminizer. Christopher is a purist when it comes to cosmetics, and he formulated SAÚDE PELE with only organic and vegan ingredients.

Christopher has brought that same ethos to his new products Veludo Velvet Foundation and Finale Finishing Powder. He has also introduced a cream concealer. Veludo Velvet Foundation is a loose powder makeup that comes in six skintone true shades, from Luz/Light (lightest) to Marron/Brown (deepest). It is infused with botanicals such as açai and green tea. Finale Finishing Powder comes in two shades: Neutro/Neutral and Amarelo/Yellow. Christopher recommends Neutro/Neutral for Caucasian skin and Amarelo/Yellow for ethnic skin tones, but I see no reason why Caucasian skin shouldn’t use Amarelo/Yellow.

Before writing this review, I tested Veludo/Velvet Foundation in Justo/Fair and Finale Finishing Powder in Neutro/Neutral for a week. I used the kabuki brush from the Bare Escentuals Get Started kit to apply the Veludo Velvet Foundation and the powder brush from the same kit to apply Finale Finishing Powder. I cleaned the brushes thoroughly beforehand to make sure that the shades were true. Here are a few things I’ve learned to make loose powder makeup work:

– Prepped skin is a must! Apply a moisturizer or primer before applying loose powder.

– Powder makeup is usually not enough to cover redness, despite what you see in those fake before-and-afters from Bare Escentuals. I use liquid or cream makup to cover redness on the cheekbone.

– If you use cream or gel blush, apply these before you apply loose powder makeup. Flawless even toned bare skin is a must! Otherwise, apply a pressed or loose powder blush after you apply loose powder makeup. Given the redness in my skin, I use powder blush to take advantage of the light-diffusing characteristics of loose powder foundation.

SAÚDE PELE, Veludo Velvet Foundation, and Finale Finishing Powder are great for a sheer, soft-focused look. I also recommend these products to those who find ingredients such as parabens and bismuth oxychloride (which is used in Bare Escentuals) problematic and want organic and vegan ingredients. Christopher’s products, as a rule, do not contain these ingredients.

Advice that works

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I recently bought the latest edition of Paula Begoun’s Beauty Bible. Her advice to use matte foundation as a base for eyeshadow was terrific. I patted Maybelline’s Dream Matte Mousse Foundation on my eyelids before applying eyeshadow and my eyelids didn’t get that oily appearance, as when I used cream eyeshadow base. Thanks, Paula.

I have dry cheeks and a nose that’s prone to oiliness and pimples. While I use moisturizing makeup on my cheeks, I use the same Dream Matte Mousse Foundation on my nose. It’s better than blotting tissues and pressed powder.

To remove eye makeup, I saturate or even soak cotton pads in eye makeup remover, lie back on the recliner (who says that recliners are for men only?), and place the pads over my eyelids to dissolve the eye makeup. No tugging and pulling – let the eye makeup remover do the work and gently wipe the makeup off afterward. I use Neutrogena’s dual-phase eye remover.

Removing Eye Makeup: More Important than You Think!

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Soon after I publshed a criticism on the fallacy of keeping mascara and eyeliner on overnight, Paula Begoun noted, “a basic remedy for puffy, irritated, crepey skin around the eyes was being sure to remove every last trace of eye makeup before you go to bed” and recommended using an eye makeup remover in addition to a water-soluble cleanser.

iconicon
Artificial tears – a must in your makeup kit

On a related issue, I recently had some inflammation along the lower eyelid. I quit wearing eye makeup on the lower lid, applied artificial tears
icon(not eye drops formulated with steroids) and an eye ointment
icon, and began washing my hands more thoroughly. I use hand sanitizers like Purell
icononly sparingly, as I take seriously the fact that bacteria and microbes will mutate into more resistant strains in response to antiseptics.

Good and bad advice from Allure

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Here are Beauty tips of the month from Allure:

  1. For a little drama, try not washing your mascara and eyeliner off completely—it will be smudgy and sexy the next day, says Charlotte Tilbury.
  2. Try a lipstain instead of gloss—the look is more inviting, say makeup artists. Dab color on the middle of lips, blending outward. It should look as if you’ve polished off a Popsicle.
  3. Work a new version of smoky eyes with bronze colored shadow. Line eyes with a soft chocolate pencil and sweep eye shadow over the lids and a little underneath, blending so there are no hard lines.

Regarding the first tip, going to bed without removing your makeup is a no-no! It will not be sexy in the morning!

Facial cleanser is usually not enough to remove eye makeup, so be sure to use an eye makeup remover (I prefer oil-freeicon or two-phaseicon liquid eye makeup removers that don’t leave an oily residue) and pat clean with a cotton ball or pad. Eye makeup removers formulated with mineral oil causes smearing. Use a second cotton ball or pad to make sure all eye makeup has been removed.

I won’t comment on the second tip – I tried to take advantage of Allure’s giveaway for Laura Mercier‘s Mulberry Lip Stain, but the server for her web site was probably overwhelmed with visitors taking advantage of the same offer.


Isadora Eye Shadow Quartet in Antique Gold

However, the third tip is great – I like the Isadora Eye Shadow Quartet in Antique Gold (I use the darkest shade as a liner), but the Eye Shadow Quartet in Bronzing Plum also looks tempting.