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? :)

bad gal lash...how do i love thee?

I've probably sung the praises of Bad Gal Lash by Benefit Cosmetics once or twice on this site, but I recently got a gift card to use at Amazon.com and since I usually can't afford Bad Gal (it's $19 a tube!!!), I indulged myself and got a tube of Bad Gal and I also picked up a Shu Uemura eyelash curler (also $19), lucky lucky me. Both of these products are on the higher end of what I'm willing to spend to not look like a gargoyle when I leave the house every day, but sometimes it's really worth the splurge. Bad Gal really is the BEST mascara I've ever found, and my $19 eyelash curler finds lashes that I didn't even know I had. So, even if you can't afford to go high-end all the time (and really, who the heck can??), consider picking up one or two crucial products (mascara, good foundation or cover up, or a really nice powder brush), because sometimes that $19 mascara REALLY DOES make all the difference in the world!

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!!!

Combating Shine

I don't know about you, but it's getting a lot warmer where I live. That means that first of all, I don't need as much foundation as I do in the fall and winter months (this applies to you, too!). It's been so warm lately that I've been able to get away with light cover-up/concealer and tinted moisturizer, which I love. But on the downside, with the warmer weather comes the dreaded perspiration, which I can tell you all about since I bike to and from work now that it's not 27 degrees outside anymore. By the time I get to work, my face is as shiny as a disco ball. And, since I don't want to clog up my pores by putting powder on top of all of that, I've been using oil blotting sheets a lot lately. You can find them at any drugstore (I just use the CVS brand and they work just fine), but if you want to go high end, most makeup counters sell their own brand, like Clinique and Shiseido. Some of them even promise "pore minimizing" effects, but seriously, unless that is a huge concern for you, it's probably not worth the money. The sheets are pretty small, but just blot one on your nose, forehead and cheeks to absorb some of those oils and give you a more matte look. Trust me, putting powder on top of makeup and sweat is a recipe for bad skin. I know this. I am old.

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.