Cosmetics Galore

It’s the eve of the big V-Day.  For all of you who have a special someone, I thought it would be fun to talk about some cute looks and naturally pretty makeup hints to give you that extra edge if you’re going somewhere with your main squeeze and want to look hot, cute or sexy.

Pinks are one of the best ways to look feminine.  You may not like pinks per se, but pink, peach and light blush or mineral makeup colors are one of the most universally flattering colors on every woman. It doesn’t necessarily matter what your complexion, bone structure, skin or hair color is – there is usually a pink or peach tone that will suit you.

For people like me, who have naturally cooler skin tones, pinks that are more on the mauve or purple end of the spectrum are more flattering. For those that have deeper or warmer skin undertones, a warmer peach or yellow undertoned pink would do the trick.

One of my favorite ways to add an instant hint of pretty color and a flushed look of femininity is to use a lightly colored lip balm (preferably a chemical free lip balm) with a hint of stain in it.  This is my favorite way to make my lips stand out. I don’t have the fullest lips. They’re rather on the thin side, so I don’t like bright, garrish colors that just bring even more attention to this.

A great way to enliven your face is to take a blush – with the same coloring rules you would use for any other pinks or peach tones, and swipe just a little across your forehead, the bridge of your nose, and the apples of your cheeks, which is the area where your cheek is at its highest by the eye.

This adds some color and life to your skin and makes you appear much flirtier and “ready to mingle”.  Remember, go light on pink and that’s the way it looks best.  Guys usually don’t like a ton of makeup – just a hint in all the right places will make you look naturally sexy and appealing.  Save the sex kitten look for his birthday

We are a nation of lip balm addicts.  I myself shamelessly swipe the emollient stick of stuff over my lips at least once every hour to once every half hour. That boils down to about twenty times a day, at least!  But I can be a bit of an extremist with things -  I also swig water constantly throughout the day. I guess I just like staying hydrated, both inside and out, and I require a lot of lip-enhancing moisture!

While some natural lip balms contain nothing but the good, natural soothing stuff, there are others that contain chemicals and petroleums that are suspected carcinogens or suspiciously “fake” ingredients that really have no business going on your lips, where it is very likely you will ingest a bit of the stuff into your body on top of already absorbing it via the skin.

There are also artificial flavors and colors in a lot of typical commercial lip balms that you may want to look at. Many scents, flavors and colors are of a proprietary nature, which means the company that makes the product doesn’t necessarily have to disclose the potential myriad of chemicals that go into that flavor or scent.

What I would suggest, and what I actually use, is all natural lip balm that is formulated with only natural sweeteners, natural flavored essential oils, bees wax and other oils like grapeseed, jojoba, coconut, or even something like hempseed oil or avocado oil.

Since I use argan oil on my skin at night, I’ve even used argan oil on my lips as I’m putting it on the rest of my face to add lip moisture – what the heck, it’s all natural, and my lips are “skin” too.  All of these are not only all natural, but they also are superior, long lasting and therapeutic moisturizers.

They add emollience, moisture and shine to the lips which helps to make the lips look larger naturally without adding all the other questionable stuff that can go into those commercial brands you see so often at the stores. Of course, there are some all natural brands available at stores, but not too many since “all natural” tends to not have long shelf lives where they can afford to sit on store shelves and warehouse shelves for months or years before being purchased.

I’ve been using natural hair color for a while now. I have read too many deeply disturbing things about all the harsh chemicals that are found in most commercial haircolors.  Ammonia, peroxide, parabens, resorcinol, and a variety of other cancer-causing toxic chemicals are just a few of the reasons to avoid many haircolors.

Not only that, I noticed that these typical hair dyes were really starting to burn my scalp, and started to affect the health of both my hair and my scalp. My head was often itchy and dry, and my hair seemed like a dry haystack after coloring my hair with these chemical-loaded colors that I was buying off the shelves.

My first foray into the natural hair color world was a disaster.  I tried a henna hair color and ended up with hair that looked almost grey.  I decided never again was I even going to attempt a henna hair color. It left my hair looking worse.  Not that henna is a bad thing – it is contained in some natural hair dyes today, but I tried using just straight powdered henna and it was awful.

I also tried a couple other brands of “natural hair color” only to find that they burned my scalp and dried my hair just as badly as the other stuff.  This was because they still had several harsh chemicals in them.

I finally found Nature Tints hair colors online about a year and a half ago, and I’ve never looked back – it was one of my favorite hair care products of all time. I’ve actually tried several of their colors and landed on the medium brown as my favorite because it matches my natural color best and gives the best finish.

While the formula does have a pungent smell, it does not burn my head when I apply it. Nor does my hair look dry, dull and lifeless after I use it.  It actually looks healthy, bouncy and shiny, and it never did with the L’Oreals, the Revlons and the Garniers that dominate the store shelves.

I’ve never found Nature Tints on store shelves, I’ve always purchased mine online at Amazon, where I’ve found the most competitive price for this product.

I think that just about every woman I know has a little mini crush/admiration for Jennifer Aniston. I think it’s because not only does she have great, easy taste when it comes to fashion and manages to make a plain black dress look downright adorable yet sexy at the same time, but she seems like she’s the woman who you could have a conversation with. She’s “obtainable” that way, even though she is a huge mega star and has had her life repeatedly invaded by the paparazzi and her love life scrutinized, written about and speculated on for over a decade.

Let’s talk first about her fabulous hair. She has always had really beautiful hair, one of the most admired heads of celebrity hair there is. It always seems to lay right, and she wears it in the most gorgeous yet simple updos and side swept looks.  She can wear it wavy or pin straight and look really pretty doing it.

Her makeup is simple.  That’s why she looks somewhat like the girl next door – even though she’d be the girl next door that every guy wants to date.  She uses simple nudes, what looks like a small amount of natural foundation and shades of brown a lot and pink, which fits her naturally tan, fit look best.  She wouldn’t look good with caked on makeup, and she seems to know that and chooses the most elegant and simple, casual looks for her makeup, yet manages to look young, fresh and vibrant every time.

She has a look of “fun” about her. Like she’s the girl that every man and woman wants to be friends with. And that my friend, is probably more attractive than anything else – hair, makeup, clothes or any other physical attribute.  And she looks to have no cellulite in those photos of her in bikinis, which makes her the envy of most women.

I’m kind of liking her hair when she doens’t flat iron it.  It looks so pretty with the multiple layers of highlights that seem darn natural if they aren’t.  The waviness and texture really looks fantastic with her chocie of clothes and makeup too.