Author Archives: McKennaRishmawy

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

Drugstore Cowgirl

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Familiar sight?

Yes, I do frequently find myself perusing aimlessly through my local drugstore. In fact, I frequently find myself perusing aimlessly through the not-so-local ones as well. CVS, Rite-Aid, Walgreen’s, and whatever others there may be … I’ve wandered them all, near and far. However, I should add that it is especially awkward with the local stores because the check-out attendants see my face quite a bit. But that’s not really what makes it awkward, when I think about it … it’s the fact that nine times out of ten, I walk out of the store without buying anything. I literally … just … wander. And then I leave.

I’ll wander down the hair care aisle and open up maybe five bottles of shampoo or conditioner, smell them, and then shut them, put them back, and leave. Or I’ll stare at the L’Oreal eyeshadows, pick one up, walk around with it, and then put it back and leave. Or I’ll be staring at the skin care products and I’ll pick up the package of pre-moistened face towelettes and kind of squish them in their package, and then put them back and leave. Or sometimes … I just stare. And then leave.

Don’t ask me why I do any of this, or what it does for me when I do it. Believe me, I’m aware of how I may look as I engage in these behaviors. Shoplifter? Social disorder? Obsessive compulsions? Incurable boredom? Yeah, it could look like it (and trust me, I’m not kidding when I say that the cashier attendants know who I am … they give me the look every time).

Wandering through the drugstore beauty aisles will probably remain one of my favorite ways to kill time, though. Maybe it’s just the idea of being around the products of an industry I enjoy. But seriously- there’s enough to look at, there’s usually something new, I’m not too tempted to buy anything there because most of the products ain’t that great for your skin or hair (and if I do buy anything I probably won’t be spending too much). So if you see me creepin’ at Rite-Aid next week and sniffing a deep conditioner without any intent of purchasing, just keep your side-eye to yourself. You know you do it too, honey boo boo. xo, MR

the Magazine stuff., the Me stuff.

Holy September fatness.

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It may be the middle of August, and you may still be wiping that sweat off your sunburned brow, and you may still be pretending that it’s summer, but in reality … well, in fashion publication reality … we have officially turned the corner into FALL 2012. Where’s my evidence for this? Come Friday, all newsstands will have these lovelies happily perched on them, and they are the September issues.

These babies are the fattiest and most important issues of the year. People are frequently baffled as to why September issues are so ridiculously large. Your briefest answer lies in the fact that September ushers in the new season of fall fashion. We transition into a completely different way of dressing in the autumn, and designers often have had a lot of new and exciting ideas to showcase for it during the previous fashion week. Everyone is excited to show off the season’s best trends, all while coming together to see what’s lined up for the next spring. Spring brings a seasonal transition as well, but it’s never met with the same hype. Additionally, designers often take somewhat of a break over the summer, and so September is highly anticipated as a sort of ‘Back to Work! Let’s kick it into high gear!’ time. I like to think of it as the true ‘new year’ in the fashion and fashion publication world. In fact, you’ll notice that January issues are usually the slimmest of the year.

Folks working for any fashion publication will tell you that their goal is to always increase in page numbers from year to year, up from the page count of that same month during the previous year. In other words, Vogue (or any fashion pub.) always hopes that this year’s September issue is bigger than last year’s September issue, and because the September issue is always the biggest of the year anyhow, the ultimate goal is … for your September issue to be your very biggest yet. So in summary, fashion publications are graded based on the turnout of their September issues. If they’re bigger than the year prior, you’re right on the mark.

Here’s a picture of the fatty fat McFatterson September issue of Vogue for this year. I picked up the thing this afternoon and let me tell ya, it’s a beast. It is no joke. My arm shook as I held the thing up to take the stupid picture (and that’s silly Cosmo there placed on top just to give you a small reference for size). Lady Gaga is on the cover, which is a relatively safe choice considering she’s been on the cover of Vogue before and it was the year’s best-seller. No risks there.

I am personally looking forward to trying to pry the obese monster that is InStyle September 2012 out of my mailbox tomorrow, with Jennifer Lopez on the cover. It’s their biggest issue ever (fashion publication achievement unlocked). Seriously, anyone got a monkey wrench? My mailbox may choke to death; there’s no room for Jenny-from-the-block’s big booty in that mailbox!

the Fragrance stuff., the Me stuff., the Review stuff., the Skin stuff.

I smell so good all the time. And no, I’m not wearing ‘Justin Bieber’s Girlfriend’.

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I have used a lot of fragrances in my lifetime. Those folks that have their “signature scent” and can stick to just one fragrance … yeah, I don’t get them. I wish I could do that, but I’m a smell-aholic. Or a smell-ophrenic. Or whatever.

I remember Roxy’s Hula being the scent of ‘hot female’ in middle school. Seriously, girl walks by on campus and you smell the Hula on her … you got jealous. The guys thought she was a babe and she’d probably blazed passed all us other girls in the puberty department. In other words, she was a true woman, tube top and all. I tried wearing Hula in middle school … it just didn’t work the same. I just couldn’t understand why no one wanted me as I stood there covered in my butterfly clips and wearing my Osh-Kosh holdovers from fourth grade (yes, things fit me for a very long time) on the black-top. As I picked my nose.

And then came high school, and I don’t quite remember what scents I wore then because all I can remember as far as the olfactory sensations go is a haze of fruit. That’s when you discovered Bath and Body Works and boy, did we all go to town. We were all trying to discover our inner sexiness, and apparently ‘sexy’ in high school smells like being shoved head-first into a can of fruit cocktail laced with sugar, marinaded in sugar, and paired with … hmm, brown sugar and Fruit Loops? Heck, my senior year I even started wearing a perfume called Pink Sugar. Man, that was the stuff. That’s the first scent I remember wearing and feeling like it was mine. I wore it strictly throughout my senior year, and was thus able to associate it with all the memories that came with those days. Even when I get a whiff of that stuff these days, Aquolina Pink Sugar is a potent memory-trigger.

Throughout college and up until today, I’ve had a hard time nailing down a favorite fragrance. I can’t pick just one. If I go to Sephora, I smell twenty and I like them all. I like the weird ones, the overly-saccharine ones, the musky, masculine ones, and the lighter, clean ones. I’m just as happy to smell like a forest as I am to smell like a Funfetti cake. And so, I’ve acquired a few over the years.

The Givenchy one (pronounced zhe-von-SHEE, to the best of my description) on the right is one I fell for as a result of … shocker … advertising. Uma Thurman was the model used for the Ange ou Demon Le Secret ads, and I smelled it in a magazine and couldn’t get over it. I’d never appreciated a scent that was more founded in tea notes rather than fruit notes, as this one is. I think of a blush wine mixed with white tea; it’s unique. The gold bottle, Gucci Guilty, I can’t say I really love. It’s a floral-oriental but it’s a bit too “rich, daring, powerful woman’ for me … and I am a poor, cautious, hesitant woman.

The D&G L’Imperatrice is a friend-favorite. It’s inspired some purchasing among my acquaintances (more on that in a minute), and I will say that it is pretty delicious. It’s lighter because it’s an eau de toilette (not an eau de parfum), but it still has plenty of fruity notes such as watermelon and kiwi accord. Giorgio Armani Acqua di Gioia is my newest, and it reminds me of the water. It’s a scent that makes me fantasize about places I’ve never been, places that are misty, cool, and clean. Rather than the beach, which one may usually think of with such a zesty fragrance, I think of the fjords in Norway. No joke. Calgon take me away!!!!!!

And here, we find the fragrances I carry with me when I’m teaching at high schools. Victoria’s Secret Bombshell keeps me feeling like a sophisticated woman in an arena so devastatingly dominated by Justin Bieber Someday, and Bath and Body Works’ Secret Wonderland so I can fit in with the sixteen-year-olds just a little bit (and it makes me think of Christmas!).

And so, that wraps up the current smelling sauces I’m drenching myself in these days. I should warn you though … I don’t do well with those that wear the same fragrance as myself (which, unfortunately, could eliminate perhaps five of your options at a time). Scent is one of the heaviest identifying factors that I associate with a person, and having anyone else smell like me is a huge pet-peeve of mine. I have a friend who wore Thierry Mugler’s Angel for years, and I refuse to wear it despite the fact that I could funnel that stuff straight down into my nostrils (because it smells that good). Why? Because that’s her scent. I want you to like how I smell, but I don’t want you to buy it. And sure, I may have used five scents within the past year, but, well, that’s just too bad for you. You can’t smell like me. My dad bought my mom my same fragrance one year for Christmas because he’d liked it so much on me. Just … no.

the Magazine stuff., the Me stuff., the Review stuff.

The junk food of fashion magazines … and I’ve been eating it forever.

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I have kept every single issue of People StyleWatch magazine since December of 2006 . I don’t know why I’ve done this, but I have.

This was the first magazine that I gravitated towards when I started taking style seriously. I can’t say I was taking fashion seriously yet, because I didn’t really care about designers, pushing the boundaries of fashion aesthetics, and craftsmanship (this all came later), but I did begin to truly care about style.

This magazine afforded me the opportunity to look at the clothing that celebrities were wearing and to then try and recreate the look for myself. It was certainly a cheaters way to build my own taste, but there’s no need for shame. I had no clue who I was in terms of style six years ago. I had to start somewhere, and you may as well start by finding out that you love how Jessica Biel dresses and then attempting to replicate her looks. It’s a way to initiate and to shop with intention, to begin looking for specific pieces on your shopping trips as opposed to just mindlessly heading for the mall and hoping you run into some random garment that you like. From that point I began to branch off. I began to choose pieces that I felt Jessica Biel may perhaps wear, but that I would definitely wear. And from that point, things have just continued to evolve. I can tell you with all certainty that People StyleWatch magazine changed my life. It may sound cheesy, but it is, without a doubt, true.

Even today, I continue to purchase every issue of this magazine. Admittedly, it’s kind of the junk food of fashion publications, but I don’t care. It’s fun. And it sure does balance out my hefty Harper’s Bazaar reading. The September issue will be on stands at Wal-Mart this Wednesday! Woop! xo, MR

the Hair stuff., the Me stuff.

Concerning my hair, and how much I used to hate it but now do not.

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It’s true. I really, really hated my hair up until perhaps two years ago.

During high school, I wanted long, straight hair. Well, perhaps with a little wave, but I thought the most beautiful hair was blown-out, flat-ironed hair. I remember finally getting a flat-iron for Christmas that had legitimate power (as in, you could fry a piece of bacon with it by just passing it through the plates once) and I was so excited. Finally- no more weird kinks, no more untamed baby hairs at the front of my face, no more frizz.

And so that’s how it was for me for like, six years. When I had the time, I’d blow out and flat-iron my hair until I was satisfied with it’s texture. And because I barely knew how to properly proceed with such a task, it would take me forever. The real problem, however, was the fact that my hair is nowhere near naturally straight. It’s wavy, verging on curly. Add to this the fact that it’s not terribly thick, and you’ve got dry, somewhat delicate hair … not ideal for frequent frying (say that five times fast). On top of that, I’d spend all this time trying to control my hair into what I thought it should be only to have it zap back into its natural state once any ounce of humidity hit. It was a grueling era of fighting against my genetics.

And then in mid-to-late college, I discovered the curling rod. Oh, the curling rod. At that point I’d gone from desiring pin-straight locks to wanting Kim Kardashian’s Disney princess length and perfect waves. I’d even given thought to getting extensions (a thought that doesn’t pass through my mind anymore … perhaps more on that later). And so, again as a result of not knowing what I was doing, I’d wind each section of hair around and around that rod, until my head was covered in brown spring-coils (and it didn’t even look like Kim Kardashian). I thought it looked good, my friends may have thought it looked good … but looking back, it didn’t look that good.

But something happened between that point and now. I began to lose the luxury of a little something called time. I was working at a coffee shop (and do I still work there? I’ll never tell …) and teaching high school social science all within the same days, and there were just too many days where I had to just get up and go. Toss my hair up in one of my beloved topknots or just leave it the way it was. I’m not a good waker-upper, and so whatever my hair looked like when I got out of bed … was pretty much how it was going to stay all day. But as I would peruse through one of my fashion publications, I’d be surprised to see how much messy hair was being sent down the runways. Or how much easy hair, I could say. And then, on the beauty blogs I’d read, I’d always see these beautiful French women with clear, luminous skin without makeup, but paired with undone hair. It would look so, “I don’t give a damn but I know I still look fine”. And that’s when my idea of beautiful hair changed.

Beautiful hair has texture, versatility, and health. Beautiful hair is like an art media that can be molded into what you want. You can curl it, straighten it, color it, style it sleek, style it rumpled and messy, or just do nothing with it. You can just leave it be when you want, because beautiful hair doesn’t need to be controlled. It is well taken care of, and left alone when it needs its alone time. Beautiful hair is loved in its natural state.

Sometimes I make some waves in it, but most of the time I let it air-dry. I’ll blow it out every once in a long while, but most of the time I just let it be. I am a deep-conditioner addict (as in I leave it on for twenty minutes or so and I do it every third wash), and I only wash it twice a week. I’d perhaps like there to be a little more of it and maybe a little thicker, but I find myself satisfied with the fact that when a hairstylist gets hold of it, I frequently get compliments on how easy it is to work with. If a stylist is giving me the thumbs-up, that’s all I need. Here, a look at the products that keep my hair at its best-

I’ll give a breakdown on why some of these are my favorites later, but you can probably at least tell that I like to take the more natural route when it comes to my hair. And I prefer the natural look, as well. I’m not looking for overdone, I’m not looking to add to what’s already there, and I’m not looking for Kim- I’ve got me. That’ll do. xo, MR

the Makeup stuff., the Me stuff.

Bridal anti-makeup

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Megan is one of those women that makes you take a good, hard look at yourself and ask ‘How can I give more? How do I need to change? I want to be more like her.’ She has an iron will and a heart of compassion, and, no joke … she teaches underprivileged sixth-graders at a charter school in Watts. I have an education in, well, education, and I can say with all certainty that that is tough. And I’m not even referring to the kids (because they will be a challenge in any classroom anywhere), but the system that teachers are up against these days in California can be brutal and discouraging. I love Megan for her ability to endure and for her uncompromising integrity in the face of adversity.

For her wedding, Megan didn’t have a particular plan for her face because makeup isn’t really one of her things. And not that it mattered- she goes without it pretty much everyday and manages to always look naturally beautiful. You just don’t picture Megan with a lot of makeup on when you think of her, and so her bridesmaids and I concluded that the ‘less is more’ approach would make the most sense for her. And boy did it work out. Using a bronze-y, metallic palette for her green eyes, a little peachy-pink blush combined with bronzer for cheeks, a warm lip color, and my go-to MakeupForever HD foundation and finishing powder, and voila!… it’s all she needed. I like to think of it as an “anti-makeup” approach to bridal makeup … all I was going for was enhancement of Megan’s natural features. Anything too out of the ordinary for her would’ve just been so … not her.

And seriously, who needs makeup with that hair? xo, MR

All photography is credited to Jen Disney Photography. For more of Jen’s work, check out her talents at http://www.jendisney.com .

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

I am the rudest house guest on Earth, but I just can’t help myself!

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Confession- If I use your bathroom and there are any cabinets, drawers or showers located within, I can guarantee you without a shadow of a doubt that I will snoop. I will paw through the drawers and the cupboards below the sink and I will look through the baskets of stuff you’ve got (and I’m always disappointed when it’s just toilet paper or extra towels … boring people). I will move aside the shower door or curtain (and more often than not, step inside) and look at every bottle of whatever-you’ve-got. Oh, and I’ll probably look through your medicine cabinet. Am I looking to dig up dirt on you by finding out what prescriptions you’re on? Nope, and I really couldn’t care less about your anti-diarrheal pills anyhow. However, I may be quite intrigued by what kind of eye cream you perhaps use, and that is what I’m looking for.

Bathrooms are one of my most favorite things on Earth. I love the process of getting clean and getting ready, and so much of that takes place in a bathroom. Combined with my love for beauty, I am in heaven in a great, well-used bath chamber. I love seeing what people use on their hair and faces and body. I love opening up bottles of products I’ve never tried before and smelling them and reading their labels. I love knowing what you look like on a daily basis and then discovering what particular items are responsible for that by going through your stuff. And so, when I find myself in a bathroom I’ve never been in before, it’s a little adventure for the beauty-obsessed part of me.

Beauty-blogger-role-model-of-mine Emily Weiss of intothegloss.com has had the same kind of fascinations with what other people use for their daily routine. On her blog, she ingeniously documents other folks’ ‘top shelves’ by interviewing her acquaintances on their beauty philosophies, habits, and products they love and photographing their own stuff in its natural home habitat. I felt inspired to do my own ‘top shelf’ post and let you snoop around in my bathroom, but for now I won’t include too much commentary on all my stuff … I’ll save that for later posts. So for now, here’s just a look … enjoy! xo, MR

That Weleda SkinFood is an amazing moisturizer; I love mixing it with foundation when I do makeup for friends or brides. And I haven’t tried the Acure night cream yet … I’m not quite finished with my old Korres Yoghurt cream. Oh and my husband uses the Bumble&bumble Texture on his mustache!

Davines’ Momo conditioner is some of the best I’ve ever tried. It’s incredible for my chronically-dry hair that I’m always trying to grow out.

Ever since I switched out most all of my skincare products to more natural ones, my face just hasn’t had any problems. I can no longer do without Desert Essence Thoroughly Clean face wash; it leaves my skin really dry right after washing, but I haven’t dealt with pimples in about three years since using it. You just need to put on moisturizer right afterwards. Sometimes I’ll be naughty and I’ll use one of the cheap drugstores bodywashes that smell so good and make your skin feel all slick (in this case, the cucumber Olay). Most stuff like that is so bad for you; petrolatum is the second-most ingredient in this one! But most of the time I’m using the big ole’ bottle of almond Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap, and I make my husband use that because I’m paranoid.

Oh, and don’t worry my pretties- this comes nowhere close to accounting for all of my stuff. More to come!

the Makeup stuff., the Me stuff.

Here comes my (first) bride!

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Whitney has been a friend of mine since late high school, and one my very closest at that. She was a bridesmaid in my own wedding last year and there was never a question that I’d be a bridesmaid for her. When I think of Whitney, the words ‘loyalty’ and ‘dedication’ immediately come to mind. She’s worked herself to the grindstone the past couple years pursuing (and achieving!) the goal of a nursing career, a journey which brought her to the brink of insanity. But when Whitney sees capability and calling within herself or others, there’s just no stopping her. She’ll work night and day to push herself, and she values the qualities of commitment and hard work in others too.

It’s for these reasons that Whitney’s been the one friend that has pestered me the most to advertise my talents. I’m pretty wishy-washy on things like these, but not long after her engagement, Whitney asked me to do her makeup for her big day. Now, I’d never put myself to the bridal test before (unless you count my own wedding … I did my own makeup for the most part … more on that later), so I was still nervous at the idea. What was so cool, however, was that Whitney just had such complete confidence in me. She made me feel like a professional, and in turn I felt like one. We had a couple practice sessions, and by the bachelorette weekend we’d hit the spot. On the day of, I really couldn’t have been more proud of my work. As a whole picture, I’d never seen her look more beautiful. I was floored.

I honestly felt like a champ after this wedding. I was encouraged, and I felt inspired to try for more. Since then (and this was in April, by the way), I’ve done a couple faces for Prom, some general practice on friends, two more brides (one of which seals the deal this weekend!), and countless applications on myself. I’d also done the makeup for a couple photography sessions earlier in the year. I aim to push myself this next year with the hopes of making just a couple more brides as happy as my Whitney! xo, MR

All photography is credited to Mike Lewis Photography. For more of his work and the full spread on Whitney Norrbom’s wedding, check out his blog at http://www.needpictures.com/blog/