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I admit that I have a major crush on Charlize Theron.  She’s an Oscar winner with through-the-roof talent, a worthy face of Dior fragrances with knockout red carpet appearances, and possessing of a glowing, Old Hollywood kind of beauty that exudes class, grace and … well … Grace.  I also must mention that Charlize has the kind of sophisticated, impeccable off-duty style that makes me respect her for knowing how to dress without a Rachel Zoe breathing down her neck.

What I also love about Charlize is her consistently beautiful presentation of hair and makeup.  I know it can’t hurt to be a Dior representative when it comes to this stuff, but I have to applaud Ms. Theron’s hairstylist Enzo Angileri for this gorgeous braided creation for the star’s appearance at the 2012 Critic’s Choice Awards.

Enzo allegedly took inspiration from the Latin flamenco feel of Charlize’s Azzedine Alaia dress for this hairstyle.  Paired with light makeup and a simply designed black frock, I love that the hair is able to steal the show.  Now, I’m really not sure if this is all her hair or if there’s some kind of extension stuck in there, but it looks elegant and understated nevertheless (which frequently is not the case with extensions).  This is the kind of style that’s perfect to use for bridal inspiration or as a bridesmaid, or equally perfect for any of your upcoming fancy-schmancy Christmas parties (weee!).  I found a great how-to article (if you dare) and have placed it here for your convenience.  And now if you’ll excuse me, I have to keep practicing a basic French braid on myself because I still … can’t … do it.  xo, MR

the Makeup stuff., the Me stuff., the Skin stuff.

Waking up is hard to do. Waking up and getting pretty is even harder.

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I am currently working as a high school substitute teacher.  As you may know from earlier posts, I’m also undertaking the composition of my Master’s thesis, I’m very involved in my husband’s ministry, and I’ve got another part-time job on the side.  Although nothing I do these days is particularly cumbersome or overwhelming in and of itself (and everything is, in fact, pretty fun), I am undeniably busy and my schedule is kind of all over the place.  Because I’m not guaranteed a subbing job everyday, I frequently go to bed uncertain as to what time I’ll be getting up the next day.  I may not receive any call to sub and not get up until later, or I may receive a call at 5AM and not be able to fall back asleep.  I also may be up late working at my other job (at a coffee shop) and then come home with enough energy to clean my place for an hour, or I may be up late hanging out with the college students that my husband works with.  I might even already know that I have a subbing job the next day, and I may choose to go to sleep early enough or I may be dumb as usual and choose to stay up until 1AM watching I Love Lucy.  Sometimes I stay up until 1AM watching I Love Lucy and get real lucky with a surprise 5AM-er.  Those mornings are just peachy.

Any way you slice it, no week seems to turn out the same as the last, and I allow myself no time to get ready in the mornings.  My sleep is inconsistent, I have the terrible habit of eating salty snacks late at night, it takes me forever to fall asleep no matter the circumstances, and I’m extremely bad at that thing called waking up.  I am one of those alarm-goes-off-six-times-before-getting-up people.  And until I have a baby or land a full-time job, I believe my personal routines will remain somewhat irregular.  I know babies don’t always have strong routines either, but at least their irregular schedule will become my regular schedule.  I know I’ll find a way to squeeze my lazy, inconsistent butt into a full routine somehow once a career or kid puts the pressure on me and I’m forced to conform, but for now, I continue to float along as I can.  I’ve gotten pretty good at laying things out for the morning before I go to bed, because these days I either already have a sub job lined up for the next day or I may very well get one from the automated subbing call system at dawn’s crack.

So, what does a makeup routine look like with this kind of schedule?  Well, there isn’t really a routine.  I don’t wake up every morning and stand in front of the mirror and put on makeup.  Somehow, my current bathroom space just isn’t conducive to a refreshing, early morning makeup application.  I really need a zen-like environment when I go for the whole schtick, and I don’t have that set-up yet.  And like I said … I’m pretty bad at getting my butt out of bed in the first place.  Like, there have been days where I’ve given myself maybe five minutes to transform from something looking like a “Tazmanian devil” to “acceptable civilian” status, and then jam out the door and on to the freeway.  So, some days I go teach without a single stitch of makeup on, not a lick, without even getting to groom my eyebrows.  Other days, once I’ve arrived at the school, I somehow manage to accrue the time and energy to get on a full face before the kids come in the classroom, but I have to pack my goods first before taking off for the school.  So, what do I pack when I’ve got thirty seconds to grab whatever I can to cover all the bases?

I skip the face makeup because, I don’t know, I just don’t need it everyday.  My skin doesn’t need it, and I mean that in the sense that it’s not good for it.  It’s one less thing I have to take with me too (and powder can get messy) and I can consequently leave behind my biggest makeup brush as well.  I do throw in moisturizer with SPF 15 and an eye cream that de-puffs and helps clear up dark circles.  I can usually get that all on during the car ride to school, at red lights.  I use NARS bronzer in Laguna everyday to warm up my face a little (with a travel kabuki brush), and I use a NARS cream blush in Lokoum on the apples of my cheeks.  No brush necessary for cream blush … just fingers!  I’ll pat on a little undereye concealer after my eye cream dries (before touching the cream blush, of course), and then comes the part that takes the longest- as many coats of mascara as I can get on before the bell rings.  I sometimes pack three different kinds of mascara and I put them all on in multiple coats.  It’s an issue I have, and no, I’m not dealing with it.  And here’s the final touch that only happens if I’ve arrived early enough and have gone over all the lesson plans in advance- I take out my angled eyeliner brush and my Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner in Black Ink that I’ve packed, and I draw a slow, careful line just across each of my top lids.  Lightly sketch in the gaps in my eyebrows with an eyebrow pencil, put on some Burt’s Bees beeswax lip balm (although that’s usually what I do first before even brushing my teeth at home), and I’m done.  I don’t bother with lip gloss because once it’s worn off I forget to ever reapply it, and before I step out the door I’ll maybe do two spritzes of a light perfume but never any more than that.  I’ll throw in a couple Almay Makeup Eraser Sticks too for undereye smudges that occur throughout the day (because you know how those high school kids make me cry).

Anything more than this is too ambitious.  And I hate rushing a makeup job anyhow.  This whole routine, without getting any steps done in the car, takes me about seven minutes while seated calmly at a desk.  Sometimes if I can just manage to get the bronzer, blush, concealer, and eyebrows taken care of, I’m satisfied without the mascara or eyeliner.  The point is to just look awake.  And with some calls coming in at 5AM, that’s as much as I’m going to ask of myself at this point.  xo, MR

the Hair stuff., the Magazine stuff.

Give me liberty or give me … a liberty roll!

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I am not particularly talented when it comes to intricate hairstyles.  Trust me.  I can’t French braid (yet), and I’ve found that it’s more difficult for me to manipulate others’ hair into something pretty as opposed to my own.  I don’t know, I’m just more comfortable with my hair’s own texture, weight, and versatility.  But I know I need to get over that.

What helps me improve, however, are well-written how-to articles that provide steps and visuals for tackling difficult hairstyles.  I’ve mentioned such articles before, and I’ve been keeping one from the September 2012 issue of InStyle that I’ve just now put to use.  It took a little patience to work out, but I think I actually managed some success!

These here are what we call “liberty rolls”.  In American history, we saw them popularized during the 1940s as “victory rolls” on women during World War II, and they’ve continued to evoke old-fashioned flair ever since.  I actually believe they may have had even earlier roots as a hairstyle worn by fighting proletariat women during the French Revolution, but I can’t find enough scholarly research to back up my hunch.  But I like that they’re a little medieval, a little punk rock, a little French proletariat, a little Andrews Sisters … a little everything in history.  And as as girl who loves her some history from almost any time and place on this Earth, I’m totally down.

I’m not lying, this style looked intimidating.  What made this tutorial difficult is the fact that you weren’t given a picture of what it could look like from the back, so I kind of had to just make that up on my own (and I forgot to take a picture of the back when I finished … sorry!).  The article also suggests blowing out your hair and then immediately going into styling it, but I always feel that such styles form much easier on second day hair so I’d suggest waiting to try this the day after you wash.

I used the Wella Flowing Form Smoothing Balm that they suggested, and it works well at giving the hair flexibility with frizz control.  Pretty good stuff too at thirteen bucks!  I coaxed my hair into a deep side part and brushed the hair tightly away from the side I parted on.  I then combed on some Wet Look Gel from the TIGI Catwalk Session Series line to give the combed-over side a sleek look (and to secure it in place).  I pinned all the hair on that side back, just to temporarily keep it out of the way.  For the rest of (and the majority of) the hair, I then began just kind of twisting it upward into a roll.  Starting at the front of my head, I twisted back, back, and back.  There was little method to my madness; I kind of just kept twisting and coaxing until it looked something like the pictures.  I’d occasionally stick a bobby pin into the roll to secure it in place against my scalp.  Once I’d rolled all the way to the back, I had to decide what to do to finish it all off.  That’s where I used the Goody Spin Pins.  I just kind of joined the two sides of hair together in the back, twisted them into a small knot, and “spin pinned” them in place to create a neat little low-set bun.  A couple extra pins to nail down strays, top with some hairspray, and I’m satisfied.

It’s not as exaggerated as I’d like it to be (like in the Donna Karan picture in the article), but I liked it!  And what an accomplishment for me!  It felt really chic with my new, darker hair color, too.  I like that as elegant and old-fashioned as it looks, it still has this edge to it that feel sassy.  It won’t exactly be my go-to for fast styles (I’d say it took fifteen minutes), but I love that it’s an option I can handle by myself now.  Give it a whirl and let me know how it goes!  xo, MR

the Hair stuff., the Me stuff., the Skin stuff.

How to become a filthy beast.

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So, one of the more peculiar aspects of my beauty routine revolves around my hair-washing habits.  I figured I’d share this because friends of mine often tell me they hate me (out of envy or something) after first hearing about it, and I’m here to say that this habit can be yours, too.

I wash my hair twice per week.  Maybe.

Now, when I tell folks this, the most common response is something along the lines of, “Oh, you’re so lucky.  I can’t do that.  I have to wash it every day.”  Nine times out of ten this is the response, followed by the reason why they believe they have to wash it every day, which is usually oily scalp.  Well, I have something to say to those that believe my my hair routine is the result of sheer luck and “good genes”- Nope.

Let me give you a small dermatology lesson.  When you over-work your skin, your skin over-works itself to compensate for what you’ve taken from it.  Just think about that for a minute.  When you wash your scalp every day, your scalp is stripped of its natural, essential oils.  Yes, some of that oil is good for you.  Such oils keep your hair and scalp balanced and moisturized.  Stop trying to get rid of it!  And so, as a reaction to being stripped of its essential oils, your scalp actually overcompensates by working twice as hard to produce more oil.  Get into the routine of washing your hair once a day (or more), and you’re asking your scalp to work overtime.  Keep this up, and you’re guaranteed to have oily roots every evening.  And of course, this will freak you out, and your impulse will be to “wash out the oil”.  You don’t need to wash your hair everyday because your hair is oily- your hair gets oily because you wash it everyday.  I must add too that what really doesn’t help is the fact that most of the shampoos we use contain harsh detergents that don’t work gently to clean our hair.  If you find the word “sulfate” anywhere on the ingredients list of your shampoo bottle, know that that’s some rough stuff going into your hair.  In fact, I’d say that if you can’t identify or pronounce the majority of the ingredients on your shampoo bottle, I would suggest finding a new kind.

As for my own journey toward not washing my hair more than twice a week, I can tell you that it began with a little something called dry shampoo.  Now, I started using this stuff in 2007, and since then pretty much every drugstore brand has come out with their own version of it.  My advice?  Go for the natural, more expensive stuff. Two brands I can highly recommend from experience are Frederic Fekkai Au Naturale and Klorane.  Both are sold at Sephora.  I remember reading about dry shampoo in a magazine and thinking it sounded like a miracle product.  Extend the life of my blow-out by another day or two?  Are you kidding?!  And what do you know- it was a miracle product.  Slowly but surely, I started going two, three, four days between washes.  I felt filthy for doing such a thing, but my hair was showing no signs of filth!  And if a little oil ever cropped up in my bangs or front layers, just a touch of dry shampoo whisked it away.  I’d even rub a little on the crown of my head (where it can get really oily after four days) just to see if I could go one more day without washing.  Additionally, I began being conscious of how I washed my hair.  I started rubbing shampoo just into my roots and trying my best to keep it off my ends (as in not piling your hair on top of your head and lathering it all up).  I also took care to condition just my ends for the most part, as conditioner can create lots of build-up.  I’d only cover my whole head in conditioner when giving it a deep treatment with oils.

I began to notice after a couple months that my hair wasn’t a total mess after just twenty four hours anymore.  I’d wake up, and it would be manageable and relatively similar to what it had been like the day before.  No more extreme oiliness, no more nastiness.  I just didn’t need to wash my hair that much anymore.  My schedule loved me for it, my scalp loved me for it, and even on the days when a washing seemed much needed but I didn’t have the time or energy, why not just throw it up in a knot or use a headband?  Take advantage of your already-greasy hair and go swimming!  Or work extra hard at the gym!  Your hair does not need to control your time.  It.  Can.  Wait.  And what was even more freeing was when I started air-drying my hair ten times more frequently than blowing it out.  My hair hasn’t been the same ever since, and for all you color-treated ladies, let me tell you that my color lasts forever now.  I just went full brunette thanks to Justin Kamm (as pictured above!  Weeeee!) at Salon 9, and I know it’ll be looking fresh for a looooooong time.

So let me challenge you- tomorrow, don’t wash your hair.  Leave it.  Will it be oily that evening and the next morning?  Yes.  Will it bug you?  Yes.  But stick with it.  Commit to washing it every other day.  Use a little dry shampoo on oily patches that bother you after the long day or after the gym.  But stick with it.  Then, try switching up your shampoo.  Do some research on natural kinds with minimal synthetic ingredients (and not just ones that say “no sulfates”- you can do even better).  Have tough standards and be willing to spend a perhaps five extra bucks (because if you aren’t washing as much, the bottle will last longer anyhow).  You can do it!!  I believe this is the solution for oily scalps and dry scalps.

Please fill me in on your questions, comments, and your own experiences in this area.  I really am curious!  Cheers to filthy habits!  xo, MR

the Hair stuff.

I did not like this.

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We’ll get one thing straight right out of the gate:  Stacey Keibler does not deserve to wear Marchesa.  Simply because you are George Clooney’s flavor of the week does not mean you qualify as a candidate for wearing the garments meant for royalty and the likes of Grace Kelly and those who truly, truly love and care about clothing.

Alright, so now that I’ve said my piece of derp for the week, it’s time to move on to what really bothered me about this look- the hair.  I’ve said this before, but what really can make or break a red carpet look (and any, in fact) is the styling.  You can have an out-of-this-world gown and a superstar with goddess-like features, but I’ve always felt that if the makeup and hair are done in a haphazard way that doesn’t accommodate, the entire thing can go to squat.  Take for instance Miss Keibler’s hairstyle here:

There’s no denying that Stacey is a beautiful woman.  However, I am a make-it-perfect-from-all-angles kind of girl, as in make sure the hair looks great from every perspective.  This just missed it.  I mean, am I actually looking at a giant pair of bobby pins sticking out of her hair from the back view?!  Unless you’re going for some sort of avant-garde presentation, you should not be able to see the pins in your hair.  From the front, it looks alright (although it is a little too much asymmetry, for my taste), but that back view just kills it for me.  Seriously, I could’ve thrown this together within ten minutes.  And that’s not a good thing.  xo, MR

the Makeup stuff., the Me stuff., the Review stuff., the Skin stuff.

Sometimes I’m very unhelpful.

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I recently posted a status on Facebook asking for suggestions on posts for this blog.  Apparently I was have an uninspired moment and felt the need to open up the floodgates, which is odd considering that I always seem to have ideas for posts.  I guess my point though was to see what others were interested in reading about, because sometimes what I’m interested in may not always be … interesting to other people.

I received many more responses than I’d anticipated.  Folks asking about product reviews, “best” lists of what to use for this kind of skin type, tone, and the like, and a few other unique ideas.  What’s funny is how being approached with certain questions makes you come to realize that there are territories of a subject you love that you really haven’t explored.  There are parts of the beauty realm that I really don’t know much about.  Some of these particularities haven’t been explored because I haven’t been interested, and others remain relatively untouched because I just know exactly how I feel about them and haven’t bothered beyond that.  Anyhow, the little flurry of suggestions I received has prompted me to address a couple of them, more or less, with an unknowing or uncertain shrug of the shoulders.  Or, perhaps I will address the topic suggested, but my response will probably be very, very unhelpful.  Cheers to unhelpful-ness!

The cosmetic modification of our bodies–  I am a bad person to talk to about this.  Why?  Because in so far as it has applied to myself, I have been almost wholly against the cosmetic, physical modification of our bodies as they are.  I am so to an almost extreme, sometimes strange degree.  One might say, “Oh, but you’re ok with the use of retinol creams to combat wrinkles?  Isn’t that a form of modification?”  And I would say, “Ehhhh…”.  Yeah, just “Ehhh …”.  It’s one of those things that’s hard to explain why I feel the way I feel, but I can definitely tell you that I do feel a certain way about it.  Wrinkle creams I’m fine with, but putting out cash for the immediate and irreversible alteration of one’s physical appearance (read: breast augmentation, plastic procedures on the body for purely cosmetic reasons, etc) doesn’t sit well with me at all.  Ever.  And then again, one may say, “Well, coloring your hair is an immediate and irreversible alteration of one’s physical appearance, and you do that”.  And again, I say, “Ehhhh … “.  I just can’t easily explain my feelings on this one; it seems to hinge on the reasoning behind the choice for modification, as well as the severity of the modification.  Sometimes I have weird feelings on body modification in smaller, more trivial forms (or “add-ons” as I call them), too.  An example of this would be how I’ve never considered wearing hair extensions.  I just don’t like the idea of wearing hair that’s not my real hair.  I don’t mind at all when I see others wearing them however (and I’ve got a good lot of friends that do, and they always look good), but for myself, it’s just never been one of the cards on the table.  I don’t know, I think I’ve got some kind of odd purist obsession going on.  I’ll never do acrylic nails, color contacts freak me out, and it took me some time to be okay with the idea of … false lashes *gasp* (I’m now all about those for your wedding, though).  All in all, it’s tough to articulate, and I expect no one to agree with me on the little things.  But in the more severe things like surgery, there’s no question as to where I stand.  And to be honest, I’m not yet exactly sure how I feel about wrinkles creams anyhow … the ingredient typically involved in such products can be a little harsh and out of sync with … I don’t know … nature?  We’ll see on that one, though.

Speaking of wrinkle creams … – I know nothing.  Because I haven’t tried any yet.  I know the magical ingredients to look for are things like retinol or retinoids, rhamnose, various plant extracts from green tea or shitake mushrooms, and other random stuff that Allure writes about in literally every issue.  At this point, I’d simply suggest to continue using natural moisturizer every day with SPF (the greenest you can find for your budget), moisturize at night with a rich, natural night cream after removing makeup, and the big not-so-secret secrets: drink … green … tea … and … DO … NOT … SMOKE.

And speaking of SPF … – Again, I’m not much help.  I just haven’t tried many kinds.  I will say that it’s definitely the number one rule when taking care of your skin.  From birth until death, use it every day.  And I’ll continue to sound like the broken record that I am and advise that you find the most natural kind you can for your skin and within your budget.  That’s really the only advice I have, though.  I’m willing to deal with a somewhat greasy texture if it’s natural and protects from the sun.  Additionally, I always use a daily moisturizer that has SPF in it so that I can knock out two steps in one.  I have loved the Desert Essence Organics line for their facial products for years (at Sprout’s or Whole Foods), and I’ll continue to push for them.  A non-natural kind of facial sunscreen that gets plenty of great reviews is LaRoche-Posay.  Have I used it, though?  Nope.

Minimizing pores– Unfortunately, you can’t actually make your pores shrink, but one particular product works wonders in lending a hand at minimizing their appearance: primer.  The kind that you put on under your makeup, and after your moisturizer, for the purpose of giving your makeup some serious hold and minimizing the appearance of pores and fine lines.  For a higher budget, I like BeneFit The POREfessional, and for a lower budget I like Revlon PhotoReady Perfecting Primer.  I use the former on brides, and it has a great mattifying effect.  I highly recommend it.

Biotin and hair growth supplements- I tried taking biotin for a couple months a few years back.  I saw absolutely no difference, but I do recall getting strange headaches (which, I’m sure, had no relationship with the biotin but it was a little strange nonetheless; I remember hoping that the headaches were from my hair growing so fast out of my head).  I think my nails grew faster, though!  But basically, I couldn’t tell you.  I feel that supplements like biotin vary in effectiveness from person to person.  My thing is, you can’t really grow more hair.  You only have so many hair follicles on your head and you can’t create more.  You can strengthen each strand though, which is wear I think good diet and supplements can help.  I hear a lot of good buzz about Viviscal, a supplement meant to support skin and hair strength and health.  I’d look into that.  I love leaving oils on my hair for an hour or so before washing too, like jojoba and vitamin E oils.  And honestly, good diet can’t be stressed enough.  When I’m putting junk into my body (which I’m pro at), my hair kind of turns into junk.  And my skin, too.  I don’t necessarily get break-outs or lose hair so to speak, but my skin and hair turn dull.  Look into stocking up on things like kefir, salmon, quinoa, kale and green juices in general, strawberries, acai juice when you can get a hold of it, and lobster is the beauty treatment of seafoods.

Waterproof mascara– I don’t use it.  Sorry.  I’ve got a tube that I use on brides because I know it’s standard, but I’ve actually refrained from using it on myself.  I don’t like how difficult it is to remove, and I haven’t ever found a kind that’s entirely waterproof.  And let me tell you, when you get waterproof mascara in your eyes … it … hurts.  So what do I recommend?  Wear your normal mascara, and bring some Almay Oil-free Makeup Eraser Sticks with you to clean up the mess when you turn into one yourself.

So there you have it.  Sometimes I’m helpful, and sometimes I’m not.  But I’ll continue to welcome the questions as long as an occasional unhelpful answer is welcome too. xo, MR

the Makeup stuff., the Me stuff.

My beautiful bride Michelle … or, my bride that looked like Ariel.

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Michelle (or Meesh, as I’ve known her for a few years now) has probably one of the greatest senses of humor you’ll ever encounter.  I’ve loved and known Meesh since high school, and the first thing I can remember doing around her is laughing.  Trust me- there’s nothing like finding a friend who can belt Duran Duran’s Rio at the top of your lungs together with you in high school, and my relationship with her has remained relatively similar all this time.  Meesh is resourceful and creative as a friend, and cheerful and outgoing in her nature.  It was a blessing to have her stand with me as a witness to my own wedding vows, and it was an honor to be there for hers.  But what concerns me here the most, of course, is the pleasure I had in doing her bridal makeup!

Meesh has some awesome facial features that I was so excited to highlight for her wedding.  She has huge blue eyes, adorable cheeks, and beautiful princess hair.  Meesh requested that we use a very bright blush I own for her day- NARS’ Exhibit A, which actually is the product that served as the inspiration for this blog’s title!  This blush was perfect for complementing Meesh’s beaming expression that she carried with her all day.  For her eyes, I used an ultra-flattering Chanel shadow in Taupe Grise’ and a MAC shadow in Embark for deeper contouring.  I applied some gel liner (Bobbi Brown‘s, of course) to her upper lids and on her inner-lower lids, and then applied some awesome false lashes (which Meesh is a huge fan of on a regular basis).  For lips, we kept it simple and I applied a basic, clear gloss from Chanel in Plaisir.  The right shade of Bare Minerals also perfected her overall complexion- I swear by that stuff for life, there’s no greater product that I’ve found for any skin type or tone.  You can trust it for your wedding day, without a doubt.

 Top it off with some MakeUpForEver HD Finishing powder (as I’ve used on every bride), and we’re good to go!  She looked like Ariel!  Stunning!!

Meesh and Justin’s wedding day was in August, and I’ll always remember it as one of the hottest days in which we’ve had to remain somewhat pretty throughout its entirety.  After dancing, sweating, and running around through all the excitement that weddings bring, I have to say that Meesh held up like a champ!  Her hair, her makeup, everything- it all hung in there, and I was really worried about the stability of  my makeup under such heat.  In fact, I’d say we all did pretty well!

Whitney, my April bride, was a bridesmaid for Meesh as well!  I kind of “coached” her in applying her own makeup so that I could keep my hands free for the bride, and Whit did a beautiful job on her own.  She’s really been picking it up!

I so appreciated Meesh’s thankfulness for my work.  She posted my very first review on weddingwire.com for me, and she made it so clear to me how beautiful she felt on that day.  Nothing could bless me more as an artist, and I could not agree more with how truly, truly beautiful she was and is!  xo, MR

All photography is credited to Amanda Doublin.  For more of her work and a full post on Meesh and Justin’s day, check her out at http://www.amandadoublin.com. 

the Makeup stuff., the Me stuff.

Who gets my vote for best eye makeup EVER?

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So, I kind of forgot to mention one particular muse of mine when I posted about celebrity beauty last time.  I’m not exactly sure how that happened, because she actually is the first one that comes to mind when I think of incredible eye makeup.  Honestly.  One of her looks even served as the inspiration for my own wedding makeup!  I don’t know how I managed to forget her.  Perhaps I had hair on the brain more than makeup that day I posted, but frankly, she deserves a post all her own.

Oh, Keira Knightley.  What can I say about Keira?  I admit that I relate to her brown hair, brown eyes, medium-toned skin and boyish figure, but her red carpet makeup for the past couple years has been out of this world and I’d kill to relate to that.  Her main go-to when it comes to makeup for big appearances is a smokey eye, which happens to be my favorite as well.  What makes her smokey eye looks so special is the beautiful blending of different shades of deep brown and gunmetal shadows, along with pearly shimmer on her inner and outer corner eyelids.  Top it off with some black eyeliner on the inner rims, and then just sit there for two hours applying fifty million coats of mascara.

Add a little flush to the cheeks and a light shade of whatever to the lips, and you’ve got something pretty close to perfection.  I just love how her warm, chestnut hair color complements the dramatic eyes, too.  I know she typically uses Kate Lee for her makeup, and lately I’ve been seeing a lot of Bobbi Brown references when searching for the products used on her.  It’s never a surprise to hear about Chanel products being used on her too, considering Keira’s been the long-time face of Chanel Mademoiselle.  Below is the exact makeup look I used as a reference for my wedding day.  It’s from one of Knightley’s premieres for her 2010 film Never Let Me Go.

The focus is obviously on the lashes here, and the shadow isn’t quite as dark.  There’s more of a mauve, metallic feel to it as opposed to sooty.  My own wedding makeup ended up consisting of a smokey eye using a deep eggplant shade and a rich espresso, along with Keira’s trademark shimmer in the corners of the eyes and on the places where light hits her face.  And of course, I can’t ever resist a full, well-groomed set of eyebrows.

I cannot wait to see how Knightley turns out on the red carpet for her upcoming premieres and press junkets for Anna Karenina.  And if she snags some nods during awards season, my (smokey) eyes will be glued to the telly!  xo, MR

the Makeup stuff., the Review stuff.

Lipstickyyyyy.

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So, picking favorites isn’t easy.  I get all crazy when magazines come out with their “Best in Beauty” issues each year and they list off what they’ve determined to be the best body lotion, best facial exfoliant, best taupe eyeshadow, best bright eyeshadow, best sexy fragrance (as compared to fruity, among others), and so on and so forth.  I guess what makes me go all batty when I read such things is the horrible itch that develops in my brain that says I need … to buy … all of it … now.  Seriously.  I will breach all of my own contracts I’ve made with myself about “Natural only!” and absolutely no parabens or mineral oil in my body products if Allure tells me that that big bottle of deliciously buttermilk-y thick-as-batter body cream that smells like Paula Deen’s house filled with cinnamon and sugar and the laughter of ten thousand happy children (for only $10!!) is uhhhhh-mazing, despite the 100% petrochemically-derived ingredients.  Give it to me.

It takes a lot of effort for me to sort out what my own favorite products really, really are. It’s difficult to sort through all the voices, suggestions, images, and reviews.  But we can start small.  We can start with … lipstick.

Now, I can really hang with all kinds of lip color.  This is only referring to lipstick, a kind of lip color that I probably wear the least.  I picked my favorites of four shades- red, pink, beige/nude, and dark.

MAC Lipstick in Russian Red–  I know their Ruby Woo shade is equally as popular, but it’s just too dry for me.  This gem of a red can be worn everyday with a decent amount of comfort, and it’s flattering on all skintones.  The “flattering” part is kind of big for me too, because I have this weird quirk of getting especially irritated at seeing the wrong shade of red on a girl.

CoverGirl LipPerfection Lipstick in Spellbound–  This is one hot shade of pink, and I love it paired with just black topliner and mascara.  It may seem scary in the tube, but just think of it as a happier alternative to red.  I like to wear it in the fall when it’s less expected, and it’s stunning against an all-black ensemble.

Yves Saint Laurent Volupte’ Sheer Candy in Lush Coconut–  I still haven’t nailed the beige/nude category to satisfaction. I feel that every kind I try is still just a little too pink, and I’m looking for that J.Lo beige that looks incredible on tan and olive skin.  For now, this one is sheer (more like a gloss stick) and smells like mango.  I wear it when I just want to add a little something to my lips besides balm.

L’Oreal Colour Riche Lipstick in Spice–  This stuff is just so … vampy.  I’ve been so inspired by Camilla Belle’s rich, daring lip color at the MET Gala this past year and this seems to get me pretty darn close to the look.  I like a slightly Twenties look with a dark lip, kind of costume-y.  And there’s no better season for color like this than autumn.

So tell me … any favorites of your own?  Brands you swear by?  Recommendations for me?  xo, MR