Tag Archives: beauty

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

On how I once kind of resembled a drag queen.

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I have a confession to make.  For a few who (perhaps) read this, they will already know this strange secret of mine and it will be no confession.  It’s not that I’ve tried to keep it a secret, really.  It’s just that this all took place in such a weird, encapsulated period of my life and it’s like some strange time warp thinking about it.  So, here goes …

I used to wear glitter.

No big deal, right?  I mean, glitter’s back with a vengeance these days anyway.  No, no.  Do not be mistaken, please.  Let me reassure you- I. Used. To. Wear. Gliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiteeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrr.

Ok, ok.  Take yourself back to 2001 with me for a minute here.  You know, N’Sync and butterfly clips and boob tube tops underneath overalls?  You get the picture.  As you remember, glitter was a pretty common thing at that point (and I’m just going to mention *True Colors* and hope that rings a shimmery, shiny bell for some of you).  But just so you know, I am not talking, like, a little glitter in the lip gloss as was the thing back then.  I am not even talking a little strawberry-scented roll-on glitter on the cheeks as was so very common.  I am talking … well … let me put it in anecdotal form:  Every morning, from about seventh through eighth grade and then some, I’d cover my eyelids in glitter.  Thick, hexagonal glitter.  It might be blue.  It might be red.  It might be God-knows-what color, but whatever it was, it was slap-you-silly-with-a-ray-of-sunshine BRIGHT.  And it would frequently go all the way up to my eyebrows.  And then came the hair.  I had glitter gel.  Yes, repeat that- glitter. gel.  And I’d slick that stuff in my hair like it was 1985.  Did they use glitter gel in 1985?  Anyways, the final touch- I’d drag my mom out on to our driveway and I’d have her spray me down with the spray glitter used at dance and cheer competitions.  From top to bottom.  I’d throw on a sequined shirt with my glitter-coated jeans and I was good to GO.  Now, was I going to a cheer competition?  Nope.  Dance competition?  Nope.  I was going to middle school to pick my nose and learn things.  But I definitely looked like a walking galactic nebula while doing it.

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This all stopped freshmen year when I realized that I’d pretty much alienated all my loved ones because my glitter addiction gave off that certain stench of weird.  I normaled up, and now I’m me!

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What’s extra funny about this whole thing, though, is the fact that there is literally no primary documentation of these happenings.  None whatsoever.  There are no pictures that I can locate that properly do justice, and I even threw away all the glitter (and you wouldn’t believe how much there was … there are still traces of it in my bedroom and bathroom a decade later).  It’s sad, I haven’t got a single snapshot to show you what it was like to be somewhat of a drag queen in junior high.  So you’ll just have to believe me.

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But we come to today, and as you can see I still have a rather soft spot for glitter.  There were a good couple years where I detested the stuff, but I’ve realized that my glitter phase was the true beginning of my love for all that is makeup.  I even did a presentation on my love for makeup in eighth grade language arts (complete with torn-out magazine pages of makeup looks I’d liked … boy was that telling), and I’ll always remember my teacher complimenting me on how comfortable and knowledgeable I was with the subject.  It’s truly one of my first loves.  So here we have my present-day nails, painted not but a few hours ago, in The Living Daylights from OPI’s latest fabulous collection inspired by the James Bond films.  I know it’s a manicure quite fit for the ushering-in of December, but I have to say that I don’t think I’ve ever stared at my nails with so much love as I have these past few hours.  It takes me back and hits me right in the sparkly feels.  xo, MR

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

Ooh dang, she look fine! … or, my celebrity beauty crushes.

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Everyone’s got a favorite celebrity when it comes to fashion. We follow their style, pin all their outfits on Pinterest, and are most excited to see them on the red carpet. Sometimes, we even like a somewhat questionable outfit on them because, well, it’s on them. But have you ever thought of who your favorite celebrities are when it comes to beauty? You always love their hair, or you know they use great products, or their makeup is always different and fun in every photo. Perhaps they aren’t your favorites for style (or vice versa: you love what they wear but their makeup is always the same), but from they neck up, they always seem to get it right. Here are my three that I’m always ecstatic to see a close-up shot of:

1. Diane Kruger

Diane’s hair and makeup change dramatically with nearly every appearance. The German beauty is reminiscent of Grace Kelly and is never easily predicted, and she’ll take risks that’ll keep you on your toes. Pin curls, fishtail braids, easy topknots, bright red lips, dramatic winged eyeliner- you never know what she’ll do. And the coolest thing is that Diane’s known for frequently doing her hair and makeup herself!

2. Olivia Wilde

It probably doesn’t hurt that she’s a Revlon spokesmodel, but Olivia always looks so chic in the beauty department. She had an incredible cut with bangs and beautiful ombre color for a while that I loved, but her new cut for 2012 (pictured above) served as one of the most inspirational looks for this year’s ever-popular long bob cut. Her stunning blue eyes are so easy to play up with colorful shadow, too.

3. Jessica Biel

I’m mostly into Miss Biel for her locks. This exact picture served as inspiration for my hair leading up to my wedding, and I continue to obsess over every style and color Jessica tries with her crowning glory. Her mane just seems so healthy, and the health of my hair has taken priority over its everyday appearance partly in thanks to seeing incredible locks like Jessica’s. She’s commonly known as one of the most fit celebrities that maintains a stellar diet and exercise regimen, and dedication like that tends to manifest itself everywhere in your body, including your skin and hair.

There are, of course, other ladies that I’m crazy about including Kate Beckinsale, Jennifer Connelly, Thandie Newton, and Mila Kunis. The originally mentioned ones, however, seem to be the most consistent in impressing me both on the red carpet and sometimes off, too. And I love my listed three specifically for what they do with their hair and makeup, not because I simply think they’re the prettiest celebrities. For instance, Miss Connelly’s features are so striking that I enjoy her more for how she naturally looks rather than what’s done with her makeup (though that raven shade of hair is greatly complemented by those rose-colored lips). I appreciate it too when a celebrity’s hair and makeup is translatable and easy to relate to. My counterexample of this would be the 365-days-a-year goddess known as Miss Beckinsale. Kate always seems to look just a tad too perfect. There’s no ease to her beauty; it’s immaculate glamour all the time with no hair (or, ahem, hair extension) out of place. However glorious and coiffed she may always look, such beauty can be hard to relate to.

The three featured in this post are those that I look forward to seeing the most at every awards show, in every magazine, and on every website. Their beauty isn’t so other-worldly that I feel I can’t take inspiration from them, and they each try new ideas that any other girl can try. So tell me, who are your favorites?

the Makeup stuff.

If you add one thing to your Fall 2012 beauty repertoire …

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So, I realize it’s been quite a bit since I’ve posted (and by that I mean maybe a week) but I’m trying to space out my entries a little more. It may have something to do with the fact that I am about to enter into an extremely busy season consisting of the following: incessant research and writing for my Master’s thesis, a destination wedding and a couple makeup opportunities, two jobs with inconsistent schedules, and my husband’s ministry. Fall 2012 is going to be a blur, and it’s going to be over in a minute.

But while we’re at Fall of 2012, might I mention that it is September? August has always been one of my least favorite months for various personal reasons (although this past one was my best yet), and so each year I crave that stretch into September, when everything finally begins to transition ever-so-slowly. Out here in Orange County things really transition slowly (it pretty remains summer out here until mid-October), but I think that’s the reason why I love the transition into fall so much- we get so little of it here that I relish every crisp, chilly bit. I savor every red-orange leaf that I see falling off a tree and every evening I step out and feel the slight need for boots. But of course, what makes this seasonal transition even more delightful is advent of fall fashion and fall beauty.

This particular season’s offerings consist of the usual suspects when it comes to colder weather: red, matte lips, smokey eyes in earthen tones, burgundy nails, and flushed cheeks. But my personal favorite for this go-round of autumn is what I like to call the bold, bordeaux lip. It’s dark and mysterious yet still warm … ugh, just makes me drool for autumn even more. It’s like the perfect companion for a mug of hot tea on a November Saturday morning at some quaint sidewalk cafe … while wearing faux fur.

This is, by far, the season’s easiest beauty trend to try. You can spend six bucks at the drugstore or up to thirty at Nordstrom and come out with the same awesome results. I also love that it’s a small, subtle way to add just a touch of goth to your look. I’ve had this L’Oreal Colour Riche lipstick in Spice for some time and it’ll be yielding itself quite handy. It’s a deep wine shade with some hints of brick-red. I also love Laura Mercier‘s lip stain in Mulberry for a lighter, slightly more pink-infused take on the look. This shade would be better for my fair-skinned friends (because with colors like this, it’s wise to test out various shades on your skin before committing to one). Also, you don’t have to layer on the stuff- you can apply one layer and then blot for a stained effect.

Kate Bosworth’s look seen here from this year’s MET Gala has seemed to provide the most memorable piece of evidence for the trend (photo provided by InStyle magazine). If you aren’t into how this looks, remember that you can always choose a less dramatic shade (and don’t be giving Kate the face … it’s the MET Gala. You’re supposed to go bold or go home). xo, MR

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 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 Skin stuff.

I am a true Neoclassicist work of art.

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Just kidding, I’m not really calling myself a work of art (though sometimes I really do look like this when I wake up). It’s just that I’ve watched that video on museum-inspired makeup I posted a couple days ago probably once every day during the past week, and I had to do my own follow-up on it. I’m always looking for an excuse to try something new and maybe an excuse to find a new product (because you’ve really gotta twist my arm for that). Luckily, the only product I purchased as a result of Emily Weiss’s video was MAC’s powder blush in ‘Buff’.

Here, I’ve recreated the look shown in the video on myself, inspired by the luminous skin seen in paintings from the Neoclassicist and Romantic periods of art.

There is no filter used on this photo! I didn’t Instagram it, nothin’. I just sat in front of an open window facing the light. See how my skin glows? I followed Violette’s instructions exactly from the video. The MAC blush made a huge difference, especially when being careful to start at the ear and brush down into the hollows of the cheek. I always like to have my models pucker and make a fish-face when I apply bronzer or a contouring blush on them, and it worked well for this. Violette’s instructions on how to apply the highlighter (a pearly cream shadow) were right on; all the little spots on your face that catch the light. I barely put anything on my lips, just some balm. And while I tend to put on three or four coats of mascara regularly, I tried to use a little less than usual for this look.

I used the following key products of my own:

MakeupForever HD Foundation in #115

NARS cream blush in Lokoum

NARS cream shadow in Thebes

MakeupForever HD Finish powder

MAC eye kohl in Smolder