Keeping track of what works

I love to keep track of outfits that work. Here is a page I've been playing with to print out and make my own little notebook. More to come!

Indie Makeup Companies - Made in the USA

Indie makeup companies are started by people like you and me, who love makeup so much they want to create exactly what they would like themselves. I have found 3 companies which all have their own unique features, and the small-company feel makes them a pleasure to deal with.

Marlena, creator of MakeupGeekTV Youtube videos, has a giant selection of eye shadows at her MakeupGeek website. They are smooth and creamy, made in the USA, and a total bargain.

And if you're looking for a MAC dupe, she shamelessly lists them here. Her line is expanding quickly, she recently came out with some beautiful pigments I'm dying to try!

Susie Wang's creation is 100% Pure. Walking into her Santana Row store in San Jose, California, feels a bit like entering a brilliantly lit laboratory which happens to smell like heaven. Her products are addicting, and all formulated with pure, safe ingredients.

I've tried a golden cream eye shadow which I quite like, and next time I intend to try more color cosmetics. But the lovelies I really crave are the skincare products. I can't start the day without my Eucalyptus Butter Soap, the lotions all smell incredible, and even the Organic Coffee Bean Eye Cream smells good. I am obsessed.

The company I've known about the longest is Silk Naturals, created in New York by Karen Stark. I found them because I noticed bismuth oxychloride, an ingredient in most shimmery powder makeup,  makes my skin wrinkle up a bit and look dry and crepey. Not exactly the "beauty" look I'm going for! I've been very happy with all their pigment eye shadows, face powders and blushes. The colors are intense and exactly as described, and the ingredients are very natural. Probably the only reason I don't use them every day is the loose powder format, I do love the convenience of a pressed powder. All the products are quite reasonable in price and the customer service is great.

Three Bloggers for Real Women, Wearing Real Clothes

Audrey is a cutie from San Diego with lots of tips at Putting Me Together for putting together outfits. I love the way she breaks down the items she combines in each look. Totally wearable, California casual style.

Jessica Quirk from Bloomingdale, Indiana blogs at What I Wore and authored a spinoff book showing four seasons of daily wear. Love her color combos, and her fresh, Midwestern vibe.

Stylist and fashion blogger Angie Cox at You Look Fab has a sophisticated, international feel. She puts together simple pieces to come up with stylish, work appropriate looks.

Green Sunscreen

After reading labels on many, many tubes of sunscreen, I found one by Badger that looked pretty good. We've had 100 degree weather here, so I'll have plenty of chances to try it out!

It's pretty rare to see any kind of skin product at all that doesn't have sketchy detergents and preservatives listed on the back. I haven't completely made up my mind about how dangerous these ingredients are, but why is it so incredibly hard to avoid them, even among products sold in health food stores?

I am also intrigued by the 100% Pure sunscreen here. I've tried some lotions by them, and their ingredient list really is impressively pure. All their products smell totally yummy.

Green Beauty

After reading The Green Beauty Guide, I have started rethinking my beauty product choices. I've been busy researching products and ingredients.

I want to be more careful about what I slather all over my skin.

Do you ever worry about the safety of beauty products?

As a woman, can I just say . . .

I don't care if it's expected, I refuse to chop off my hair at 30 . . . 40 . . . 50 . . .

From my Moleskine

I've been fooling around with some sketching. My daughter and I took an online class together from Suzi Blu.

Purple and Gold

Today's contrasting colors are in the eyes. Purple Flash in the crease, bronze Smog all over the lid and under the eye, and sparkly pinky beige Chopper under the inner corner of the eye and a tiny bit on the brow bone.

Blush is Mac's Breath of Plum, a muted purple, with lilac eyeshadow on the cheekbones. (My quick and dirty dupe for Mac's Briar Rose, which I was unable to get my hands on!)

Lipstick is a purple from Covergirl with a hot pink NYC gloss over the top. So, it's mostly purple today!

(Smog, Flash and Chopper from the Urban Decay Summer of Love palette.)

My birthday shoes

Hubby Don bought me these shoes for my birthday. Yes, he really did pick these out! It's hard to see in the picture, but the trim in the front is purple and the heels are bright orange. Love them! ;-)

Mismatching colors for fun

I love to try new colors for makeup, like purple lipstick or blush. I used to make the mistake of thinking I had to match all the colors on my face, for instance, pink blush with purple lipstick, and maybe even purple eyeshadow too! But I've found I like mixing up the colors much better. Here I am wearing peachy coral blush with purple lipstick. Just the antidote I need for a cool, dreary day.

Purple Explosion

Feelin' like a purple look today! 

Purple Pearl by NYX is amazing, it's a pretty lilac with gold sparkles. I put that on the lid, with Wildflower by Ulta in the crease. Wildflower is a bit sparkly, but the sparkles blend out with a brush, which is perfect since I like a matte finish in the crease.

Eva's Violets by L'Oreal has a beautiful pale lilac perfect for a highlighter under the brow, and a medium lavender which was perfect as a transition color between the darker lavender in the crease and the highlight color.

There's a purple Wet 'n Wild palette with some great Mac dupes (Yogurt, Fig and Beauty Marked) which I used on the inner corner of my eye and as eyeliner.

As you can see by the picture, it isn't as crazy looking as it sounds with all that purple.

Don't call them hooded eyes, Part 3

Sophie Marceau

Matte eyeshadows are a beauty tool you can't do without if you have this beautiful eye shape. (French actress Sophie Marceau is another gorgeous example of this.) 

There's no need to swear off shimmer completely, but a calculated use of matte shadows in the crease is really helpful. If you usually start off with eye primer, try a matte one. Or if your primer has shimmer, like the classic Urban Decay (original formula), just put it on the lid and stop just short of the crease. Then take a light neutral matte shadow or even face powder, and dust it all over your crease and above, all the way to the brow. This lays down a friendly base to make it easier to blend everything else. It will also help prevent over emphasizing the large space beneath your brow. If you want a light eye, throw on any light color you like on the lid, add mascara, and you are done.

To make your eye shape look more conventionally molded, take a slightly darker neutral matte shadow, like a light to medium brown, and sweep it in your crease and just above. You can play with your eye shape by either making a rounded shape across your eye, or elongate your eyes by drawing it straight across and just past the outer corners of your eyes.

Add some liquid liner and you have a classic retro/pinup eye. Or if you like to play with color, there are lots of ways to add in some color. I'll post about that next time!

Scandinavian/Asian Eyes

(Please see my last post for an explanation of why I don't say hooded eyes!)

 

If you have Scandinavian/Asian eyes (like Blake Lively), there are makeup advantages and disadvantages. So, we can use techniques to make the most of your eye shape.

 

Your eyelids are mostly hidden much of the time. Because your lids are shaded, the skin there will hold up a bit better as you age, allowing you to continue to use shimmer when many women your age are starting to feel they need to drop the shimmer.

 

On the other hand, your crease is a bit trickier. You have more skin showing where most people have a crease, and the space above your crease is bigger. So, even if you are young with perfect skin, you might not want to emphasize that part of your eye. And as time goes by, you might also find shimmery eyeshadow showing imperfections in your skin there. But it's easy to fix if you have some nice, smooth matte shadows to help you out there.

 

It can be a bit frustrating to have so much of your color and handiwork hidden on your lid after you apply makeup. And when you smile or laugh, forget about it! Then it really disappears, LOL. 

 

The fun side of this is you can boldly apply brilliant green to your eyelid and you will still look work appropriate, because it only shows in little flashes. If you want the green (or purple or yellow or blue . . .) to show a bit, just run the color under your lower lashes. You can also bring it up above the crease if you want it to show more, but switch to a matte version of the color you are using. It's also very effective to use color on the lid and switch to brown or a neutral color in the crease.

 

Because your space beneath the brow is large due to your eye shape, you can play more with color in this area than ladies with a more conventional eye shape. You can use a shadow just above the crease (see picture -- XXXXXXX) in a slightly playful color with a bit of sheen, like Mac's patina (peachy tan). Leave a bit of space just under the brow (BBBBBBBB) for a cream or pale beige matte shadow. The pale color just under the brow sharpens up your brow definition without making the upper lid look too prominent.

 

I'll be back in a few days with another eye look to try!

Let's not call them hooded eyes!

Is it just me, or does the label "hooded eyes" sound like an old-lady problem? When we speak of facial features or eye makeup, let's not say that anymore. Let's call them Scandinavian/Asian eyes, since you see them a lot in those populations. Or we could call them Blake Lively eyes, since she has them. And she's not exactly an old lady!

Blake Lively eyes make for all kinds of interesting challenges with eye makeup, but first we have to appreciate the beauty of this kind of eye. It's not a problem to solve, it's just a unique canvas for playing with makeup. And if your eyes started getting this way later in life, you have lots of company, both young and old.

Coming soon, some examples of eye makeup techniques to try!

Hair Twins

Is it just me, or do Babydoll and Brigitte Bardot have the same hair? 

I wasn't completely in love with Sucker Punch as a story, but Emily Browning's hair was adorable.

New Blog / New Things

I have a new blog!

http://beckylovesthelight.wordpress.com/

The new blog will be more like this one has been, with posts about art, gardening, recipes, and my faith as a follower of Christ.

This blog will be more focused on beauty and fashion, which I love love love, but feel it's not entirely compatible with the kinds of topics that go deeper. I just didn't want anyone to be confused about the sudden shift. So if you have been following my articles on the other topics, please see my new blog!

From my Bible study notes . . .

Headache remedy

I love growing herbs that smell wonderful, like lemon verbena, which always looks like it died over winter and then magically springs up 6 feet in late spring.

But the herb which has made my life better is feverfew.

If I take 2 capsules every day, along with a certain vitamin and mineral, I don't get migraines. I thank God for herbs!

My recipe to prevent headaches is:

350 mg feverfew
100 mg vitamin B2
500 mg magnesium

I take it twice a day, morning and evening. It isn't like a painkiller, it's a preventative, although if I start to get a headache it doesn't hurt to take my next dose right then (because that's when I usually realize I forgot to take it).

The Upside Down Rule of Christ

Have you ever noticed Jesus does a lot of things backwards? Here he is, the Son of God, the King of Kings, and yet when he talked to people he was always calling himself the Son of Man, which basically means “The Human Being.” He totally downplayed his greatness.

And he was always telling the disciples all his secrets; how to do all the great stuff he did. He didn’t keep anything just for himself. In fact, he told them they would do even greater works themselves.

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” John 14:12 14 NKJ.

And just in case any of us were going to wonder later whether we qualify as his disciple, able to do all these great things, he explains that too, a few sentences later:

“ . . . you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” John 14:20-23.

In other words, anyone who becomes his follower is truly his disciple. Don’t forget, his disciples healed people, even raising some from the dead. And we can be his disciples too. He withheld no important work from them, and he withholds no important work from us either. He didn’t save any special job for himself, except for the redemption of all mankind. That one he did himself!

There’s one final important way disciples must be like Jesus. I think we often forget:

But Jesus called them [his disciples] to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:25-28.

Backwards and upside down!

2 of my favorite things

Summer's almost here, it must be time for my cherry shoes!