Everyone Else is Doing It!

Oh it is time. I am just about to regale you with a tale from my "good old days" in college. Are you ready? Just wait. You will be telling your own stories just like this one day. I promise.

My first dorm in college was all-girls. After spending 5 years at an all-girls private school, I was less than thrilled about this. But it was a good experience and I made some good friends and I even managed to study once in a while. HOWEVER. What I remember most about this dorm is a poster that hung in the lobby, right next to the elevators. The poster (which I found online and posted above) was a wrinkled and gnarled looking woman, smoking a cigarette, and below her was the phrase, "Smoking is very glamorous." I passed that poster every day and I remember thinking, EW, I will never end up looking like that. Because I won't lie, I did smoke in college, and I don't like to admit it now, but my boyfriend smoked, a lot of my friends smoked, and so, in an effort to be all cool and college-like, I smoked, too. I quit a long time ago but I still worry that one day I'll end up looking like the lady in the poster.

Smoking, like sun exposure, is one of those things that has long-term affects that, since you don't see right away, you rarely think about. EVERYONE knows that you shouldn't smoke because of the risks of lung cancer. But not all of us think about what smoking will eventually do to your skin. When you are 12, 13, 14, I know it's practically impossible to think 20, 30, or 40 years down the road... but as much of a downer as it is to say, you won't be young forever (well, maybe in your heart you will be), so take good care of yourself and your skin now and the older version of you will thank you for it.

All joking aside, smoking is the single worst thing you can do for your skin (besides run around on the equator without sunscreen on). Keep that in mind when you and/or your friends start getting curious about cigarettes. Just take a look at my lady friend and remember that smoking is very glamorous.

Quest for the Best

I used to have this unbreakable habit of buying a new lip gloss every time I was in the drugstore. And, considering the amount of times per week I run into CVS, you can imagine what my makeup case looked like after years of doing this. I have managed to chill out (a little) on the lipgloss, but they say when you kick one habit, you pick up another, so I've really just replaced the gloss with mascara. First of all, there is a commerical for a new mascara pretty much every 3 minutes. I know. I watch a lot of TV. And, since I believe just about anything advertisers tell me to, this means that in the last 6 months I have purchased quite a lot of drugstore mascara in my quest to find the best (under $10) tube out there. Last night I picked up Rimmel's The Max Volume Flash (really, I love the names they come up with just to get me to buy a tube of black goop to put on my eyelashes), and although I wasn't totally astounded, I was impressed. My lashes were pretty full following 2 coats, and the applicator was easy to use. AND, the tube it comes in is hot pink. I've also recently picked up Revlon's Double Twist Mascara which sadly was a BIG dissappointment. The applicator is SO BIG (it's a combo of the traditional bristle wand plus the "new" rubber wand that separates lashes) it's hard to get in and out of the tube, not to mention it's almost too big to put anywhere near your eye. Maybelline's Great Lash is a big seller and favorite of many makeup artists, and they recently came out with Great Lash BIG, which (surprise) I got suckered into purchasing because the picture showed the brush was half green and half pink. Sadly, the brush is covered in mascara (duh!), so there was no sign of the pink and green I was promised, but the mascara did its job well enough and I'd probably buy it again.

I haven't tried the new L'Oreal Telescopic Explosion Mascara(again, what an AMAZING name, because I totally DO want my eyelashes to be telescopic!!!), but I have seen the wand and it looks like this is next on my list. It's small and spherical (that is round for those of you not paying attention in geometry) and I MUST know how that equals telescopic lashes.

And so. The quest continues!

AMAZING (if not perhaps a little bit of overkill...)

So, I am a big fan of So You Think You Can Dance (or, as we in the "industry" like to call it, SYTYCD). I was totally into it last season, but I feel like season 6 followed season 5 waaaay too closely, so I haven't really been following. So I am sitting at home trying to motivate myself off the couch (not having much luck), and I'm watching SYTYCD for the first time this season. I think the musical guest is a new thing, but 5 minutes ago, this girl took to the stage with her guitar and her song and I didn't notice any of it over the insane amount of glitter on her eyes. Now, I will admit, this look is WAAAAAY too much for day time (or really even nighttime, unless you are a drag queen or a rock star), but I am IN LOVE with how it makes her eyes pop. To achieve a more subtle version of this look (aka one that your mom will let you leave the house with!), use a color like MAC's Beauty Marked as your contour color on the outside corner of your eyes and stick with a matte all over shadow. Glitter on the entire lid can look a bit too circus-y, but if you keep it confined (and really, is it even possible to confine glitter??) you can get the look right.

PS- This girl's name is Orianthi or something like that. I do not know who she is, nor did I really care for the song she sang. But I do worship her makeup artist.

De-mystifying the Fan Brush

As I've mentioned earlier, it's holiday time. That means you'll probably get lots of gifts you don't want or like or know what to do with. As a teenage girl, I always loved getting makeup sets or kits as a gift, and they never failed to have this one crazy looking brush that I had no CLUE what to do with: the fan brush. For a while, I just had like 3 or 4 of these brushes sitting in my bathroom, collecting dust, because, surely, if they came in this makeup kit, they must serve some purpose related to makeup...right? Now I'm down to just one, since it's not one of the brushes I use every time I put my face on, but there are a few good uses for this mystical brush that I thought I would share with you.

1. Use a fan brush to lightly apply loose powder to your eyelashes before putting on your mascara. This fattens up your lashes a bit and acts as a base for your mascara, which also helps your lashes look longer and fuller. You don't need or want much powder on the brush, though, so just dust the brush in loose powder (pressed compacts really don't work here, in case you don't have loose powder already), close the eye you're applying the powder to (duh) and give the lashes one good swipe with the brush flat against the lashes. Voila! Mascara primer. Who knew?

2. Often when I apply my shadows, some of the pigments fall from the brush to below my eye and end up just above my cheek. I have tried to swipe this shadow snow away with my hand and it only leads to a big smear of color across my face, and unless it's Halloween or you're auditioning to be a backup dancer for Lady Gaga, that is probably not the look you want to achieve. Use your fan brush to gently brush off the excess powder without making a mess.

3. I am a girl. Therefore, I love glitter. I want to put glitter all over myself, at all times. This is not always appropriate. The fan brush comes in handy when I want to stealthily add some shimmer to my hair without looking like I fell in a vat of glitter (omg, how amazing would THAT be??). Use a shimmer shadow or loose glitter and very lightly dust your fan brush in it - then apply to the hair around your face (this is NOT the time to wear your heavy hands, though...chances are your mom will just make you get in the shower and wash it off if you go overboard. I speak from experience!). Proof that subtle CAN = pretty!!

holidaaaaaay, celebrate!

i know. i know, i know, i know. i have TOTALLY been slacking on my posts. shame, shame, shame, i know my name (do people even say that anymore?). the fact is, i have been super busy with my 9-5 job and have hardly even had time to do my OWN makeup (gasp!!!), let alone talk about it on a blog. i mean, halloween is over and i didn't even do a post about how to do your makeup like lady gaga!!! at least with the passing of halloween means that the holidays are quickly approaching. i do not know about you, but i am in LOVE with christmas. not because of all the gift giving (not that i DISLIKE that part!), but i just love the feeling of christmas and every year i wait on pins and needles for halloween and even thanksgiving to pass just so that the radio will start playing christmas music 24/7. but i also love the bright red lips and the shimmery shadows that are always totally acceptable around the holidays. normally i wouldn't wear red lips to the office because it's kind of a bold statement to make in a government office, but once the holidays roll around, i feel totally justified in putting on my shimmery red glosses (i use a nude lip liner to tone it down a little) because, HELLO, i am trying to look like a christmas tree! i am baking cookies from scratch as i write this, even though the first batch came out looking like fried eggs, because it gets me in the mood even more. now is the time, though, to stock up on supplies. christmas is gift set CENTRAL. brushes, shadow palattes, glosses, you name it, it will be packaged up with a precious bow and waiting anxiously for you to take it home. i will be the first to admit that i STILL ask for makeup every single year for christmas. EVERY YEAR. i bought one of those $14.99 sets last year from cvs just because the travel bag it all came in was so flippin cute. so. i say, treat yourself to that gift set you really want. you don't even have to wait for santa to bring it.