life is peachy

I'm noticing a trend for the spring/summer that I actually really like - peachy/orangey shades of lipstick/glosses. I love the way it looks on just about every skin tone, and you can tone it up or down depending on how sheer the color is. Hillary here has really nailed this look, and even accented her cheeks with a peach-toned blush, which really works on her. Milani makes a great shimmery gloss in an orangey shade called Stylish that you can pick up at a CVS or Walgreens, or if you're into ordering online (like I am), E.L.F. makes a great shade called Cool Coral that is really inexpensive (and who doesn't love that?).

The trick here is to be careful that you aren't going too overboard on orange or you could easily end up looking like an Oompa Loompa. Stick with something sheer and shimmery and keep the eye makeup light to complement the look. Now...orange you glad I told you about that? :)

Taylor Momsen: Pick Up the Phone, Girl...We Need to Talk!

Taylor. Precious little Taylor. I need to have a word with you. That word is "NO." I think it's cute you wanted to dress like a raccoon for Halloween, but sweetie pie, that is about 6 months away and unless you are on your way to an audition to be the angel of death in some crazy new vampire movie, allow me to repeat myself: NO. NO. NO. And may I add: THIS IS NOT OK.

Remember how cute you were in the Grinch movie? With your sweet innocent little face and all?? ME NEITHER. Please, Taylor, please, I IMPLORE you, stop doing this to yourself. THIS DOES NOT LOOK SEXY. It's not attractive or pretty or going to lure any hot rich men in your direction. You look like a 38 year old chain smoking tramp who got beat up by her boyfriend for not remembering to buy his favorite cereal at the Stop-n-Shop. I do not care if you are a rock star, or some fashion forward celebrity that everyone fawns over. YOU LOOK TERRIBLE. I mean, thanks for sticking with the "heavy eyes/nude lips" rule, but...your eyes are SO HEAVY, you'd pretty much have to remove the lips off your face to balance that look out. And maybe even your nose, too.

You want my advice? Good. I'm giving it to you, anyway. Fire your makeup artist and quit trying to act like such a punk. You were Cindy Lou Who for the love of Pete!! And you are so much prettier than this mess that you are calling your face right now. You do know you are a teenager, right? You are therefore allowed to wear a little pink blush and Bonnie Bell lipsmackers, just like I did when I was your age. Of course, when I was your age, I wasn't on the cover of Teen Vogue, but that is still no reason for leaving the house looking this way. HEED MY WORDS!!!

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.

Using Color Creatively

It’s no secret that I’m a big advocate of wearing makeup that is not only age-appropriate, but situation-appropriate as well – meaning toning down the glitter or the thick liner for school, work, family events, etc. This does not mean, however, that “appropriate” means “boring.” Personally, I cannot seem to get myself to stay away from color, no matter if I’m going to work or doing freelance makeup work, or even just hanging out with my family or friends on the weekends (yes, I hang out with my family. They are cool people. You will understand how cool your family is when you are older, I promise). Granted, I don’t wear as much as I would if I were going out with my girlfriends or having dinner with my boyfriend (ok, he’s my husband, but I want to sound cool and hip here!), but you’d be surprised at how you can still work a pop of color into your everyday makeup routine to ramp up your look without crossing over into “inappropriate” territory. I am going to pretend like the girl on the left is not Stefani Pratt cause I could seriously care less about her, her brother, her brother’s wife, or any of those crazy idiots on the Hills or whatever show that is about all those rich kids who are famous for doing nothing. HOWEVER. The addition of a swipe of blue eyeliner to the bottom water line really makes the blue of her eyes stand out, and it’s an unexpected addition of color that also adds interest. In Ashanti’s case, the blue looks beautiful against her darker skin tone and adds definition to the shape of her eye that you may not notice if her liner were just black or brown. A little color in the outside corner of the eyes is always fun, or I also like to take a thin angled brush and swipe some color under my bottom lash line – purples, blues, greens…just don’t apply too heavily. Eyeliner is not meant to be black or brown all the time! I know I’ve advised you to keep a neutral color palatte for school/work, and you should, BUT…a little punch of color never hurt anyone. That I know of.

Why You Gotta Be So Mean?

I don't know what Perez Hilton has done to my mind, but he has worked his Jedi mind tricks on me and made me dislike Vanessa Hudgens for no real reason. For one thing, I think she is beautiful. I love her olive toned skin, her dark hair (how long you think it'll be before she, too, goes Hollywood blonde??), and the shape of her eyes. If you don't tell anyone, I'll admit I saw High School Musical, but failed to see the second or third and have no plans to see her new movie about being in a band or something ridiculous like that that I would never believe about her (see what I mean? Perez has MIND POWERS!!!). Anyway, none of this has any real point, but I just think she looks amazing in this photo, she's not overloaded with makeup, she looks like a teenager, and it's nice to see a teenager looking like a teenager and being happy about being a teenager. Maybe she's smiling because her boyfriend is Link Larkin (oops, I just admitted to seeing Hairspray, didn't I??), maybe it's because she's 18 and has like 4 million dollars. I don't know. Whatever the case, I do wish to let everybody know that you really are never fully dressed without a smile. :) Trust me. You don't have to make grown up sexy face all the time. You'll get wrinkles from all that pouting, anyway. And while I'm at it, don't believe everything you read, either...I love me some juicy celebrity gossip, but that stuff eats at your mind after long enough!

Um...yeah

I know this whole "rocker chick" look is hot right now, and I can certainly appreciate that because I will not lie, I used to wear dark eye makeup back in my own teen years. I just wish someone (other than my mom) had told me how to wear it without looking like I just hadn't washed any of my makeup off in about a week. Taylor Momsen actually is in a rock band, so she KIND OF has an excuse for this raccoon eye look, but unless you are about to step on stage, this is really a little too much drama around the eyes - and in all honesty, it makes you look more like you haven't slept in a while than a rock star when you load it on like this. So. Let's talk about how to fix it. For starters, I would do away with the under eye shadow - it's a really heavy liner for her, and because she is so blonde and so fair-skinned, she really just ends up looking like a set of eyes and nothing else. If I could take a cotton pad loaded up with makeup remover to the bottom of her eyes, I would. Instant improvement. I would also probably tell her that gossip girl is my favorite show ever (which is a big fat lie, I've never even seen it) just so she would smile and wipe that ridiculous pouty look off her face. If you insist, a light line could be applied to the lower water line (which is that sort of ridge just above your lower lashes that butts right up against your eyeball - so that means be careful with that sharp pencil you're about to stick in your eye), and take it to about the center of your eye. But the heavy ring of shadow under her eyes? Not needed. She's a cute girl, and I feel like she's using her makeup to hide her eyes, rather than show off how pretty they are. And since her bangs are so heavy, I really can't even see what's going on on her eyelids, but something tells me we could tone that down, too. Dark shadows are great for creating sultry evening looks, but in this case, there IS too much of a good thing. Anyway, she's what, like 16 years old? She has plenty of time to be sultry after she is of a legal age! But believe me, I used to do the same thing, heavy heavy eyes and very light everything else. Lighten the eye makeup and add a touch of color to the cheeks and on the lips, and we'd be in business. I'm not sure what kind of business, but one that would at least require wearing heels to work, for sure.

Crazy Beautiful

I am about to say something that might shock you. I have never seen any of the Harry Potter movies. I do not care to read any of the books, and despite my overwhelming crush on Alan Rickman, I flat out refuse to watch a movie about wizards and flying around on broomsticks. That said, I flippin LOVE Emma Watson. I seethe with envy over her shiny hair and I am in love with her style...she's always looking very classy, feminine, elegant, and sort of retro. I also think she is a great role model and I love that she's going to real college and living in a dorm and not partying it up all hours of the night like some crazy Hollywood types (are you listening, Lindsay??). So, anyway, this is from the premiere of the latest crazy wizard movie she's in and I think she deserves a standing ovation for looking so amazing. Her makeup is FLAWLESS! I love love love her brows - they are on the thicker side but they totally frame her face perfectly and make her eyes stand out even more. I'm also thrilled that she doesn't have tons of makeup piled on, because she really has beautiful skin and features and knows how to play them up without overwhelming her face.

To get brows like Emma's, you may want to start out at a salon before you do any at-home work. DO NOT do what I did, which was let my sister pluck my eyebrows when I was in the 8th grade and I ended up with eyebrows so thin my mother bust out in tears when she saw me (this was also in the early 90s when super thin brows were the thing). If you have a great brow shape naturally, consider yourself lucky. If your brows are thinner than you'd like, use a powder to fill them in - it looks much more natural than a pencil and blends into your brows much more smoothly. You can get a brow kit anywhere - NYColor (Target) makes a powder/wax combo set, Milani (CVS) also makes a good kit, as does Benefit (department stores). Grab an angled brush to lightly apply the shadow into your brow - if your kit comes with a wax, use that over the shadow to help set and hold the shadow, then don't forget to run a brow brush over the whole thing, to blend the shadow and complete your look.

THIS is what i'm talking about!

Ok, so I felt kinda bad about ragging on Miley's makeup yesterday, so I thought I'd post something nice about her today to balance out my karma. This photo is from the Oscars or the Emmys or some awards show that I didn't know why she was attending (oops, I am supposed to be saying nice things, huh?), and although I questioned her presence at whatever event this was, I do have to say, I love her makeup. She looks totally fresh-faced here, very feminine and yet glamorous, too. The blush is great (this is a difficult skill to master!) and I love that she isn't too heavy on the eye makeup since she's wearing red lips. It's important to remember to keep the drama to one part of your face - like if you are doing dramatic or smokey eyes, you'll want to steer clear of bold, dark lips, or else you run the risk of looking like a clown or a showgirl. Since Miley is doing a bolder lip here, she kept the eye makeup simple and it really works well. She looks her age (yahoooo!!) AND her makeup is totally appropriate for the event she's attending. Love it!!

To get that glowing look she's rocking, pick a more red-toned blush, but apply it VERY LIGHTLY - trust me, a little blush goes a long, LONG way - to the "apple" of your cheek, and brush upwards towards your ears. In case you are wondering, the apple of your cheek is easily found by smiling. Feel that fleshy part where it's most rounded out? That's the apple. But again, go easy on the blush - the idea is to make it look like you're naturally flushed like you got embarassed, NOT to obviously look like you have color painted on your cheeks. I have the best luck with powder blushes, but creme or mousse blushes work just as well, they are just a little tricker to apply. Pick a blush with a little sparkle to it and you'll really get that glow!

Do NOT try this at home

I promise I don't have anything against Miley Cyrus. I really don't. I think she is a beautiful girl and I envy her purse collection, but sometimes she just makes me want to throw my hands up in frustration because why, WHY would such a pretty, young person feel the need to put so much makeup on? Does the photo on the left look like a person who is not even 20 years old to you? If I looked at this picture and just had to take a guess as to this person's age, I would say, 33, 35 maybe. This is what I mean by too much. Obviously, the face she's making is not really what I would call "appropriate," but that's beside the point. The point is, this look is not age appropriate. She's made herself look a lot older than she actually is, and not in a good way. Dark eye makeup doesn't always equal sexy, so think about it before you start piling it on. For the most part, darker shadow colors should be applied to the outside corner of your eyes, with lighter shades in the inner corners and on the majority of the lid. When you put dark colors on your lids, it tends to make the eyes look smaller and less open, which is probably not the look you're going for.

It IS within the realm of possibility to look beautiful while also looking your age. Just don't use Miley here as an example.