Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Beauty Tips That Won't Break the Bank

Beauty Tips That Won't Break the Bank

 

When it comes to looking your best, upkeep costs like make-up, hair care, skin care and spa treatments can cost a pretty penny. American women spend an average of $7 billion a year on cosmetics and services each year, according to a 2008 study by the YWCA. Luckily, the price of beauty can be trimmed when you replace salon treatments for do-it-yourself solutions that cost less than $10.
No matter how chic your outfit is, bad nails or hair will ruin it all.
— Emily Clark, personal shopper and stylist at Alberta Ferretti

Radiant Skin

Household items are a great option for cost-effective skin care, said Lauren Luke, a self-taught makeup artist who rose to fame with YouTube beauty tutorials.
"You can use honey with sugar and salt crystals for a great smelling home face mask. You can also make a yogurt face mask from fresh yogurt, which is great for the skin. Top it off with some cucumber sliced for each eye to soothe," said Luke, who recently released her line of cosmetics.
Most people spend their money on anti-aging creams, but Luke said they're not necessary. "As long as you keep up the daily moisturizing and wash make up off before bed properly, then you don't need to splurge too much on expensive creams," she said.
Avoid exposure to the sun to maintain healthy, young looking skin. Wear moisturizers and foundations with sun protection. They don't have to be expensive to be good, but they do have to be safe to keep skin looking young, she said.
A final skin tip: Drink plenty of water. It keeps toxins at bay, leading to clearer looking skin, Luke said.
Price:
Honey face mask $5
Yogurt face mask and cucumber $3


Read more: Beauty Tips That Won't Break the Bank | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/feature_6787135_beauty-tips-won_t-break-bank.html#ixzz167bgtvLt

Best beauty gadgets: Clarisonic, Silk’n, Chi, T3 and more

Best beauty gadgets: Clarisonic, Silk’n, Chi, T3 and more

Last year—inspired by Hadley Freeman’s brilliant book The Meaning of Sunglasses: And a Guide to Almost All Things Fashionable—I wrote about Beauty Therapist Judgement. You know: it’s the well-meaning but mildly insulting evaluation of your skin, feet, nails, hair or whatever body part your beauty professional is treating—usually accompanied by some stupidly obvious advice about what you SHOULD be doing, such as drinking more water or using foot cream.
If you hate this kind of thing, as I do—and yet still require some high-tech beauty maintenance—then you’re probably a good candidate for one (or more) at-home beauty gadgets. Inspired by the devices used by dermatologists, hairdressers and other pros, you can now treat all kinds of beauty issues in the privacy of your own home, whether it’s removing unwanted hair, smoothing out your locks or giving yourself an anti-aging light therapy treatment. Sure, it might take a bit longer to get the results you would from a professional visit, but they’re definitely more affordable. Plus, you can maintain results yourself.
I’ve also gotta say: out of all the beauty swag I’ve tried and tested over the years, I freakin’ LOVE my beauty gadgets. They’ve changed my life and I’m really not kidding. Here’s the lowdown on which ones I recommend investing in—and then a few honourable mentions to consider.

Hair Removal Tips and Advice

Hair Removal Tips and Advice

Shaving Tips: Stop Knicks and Bleeding on Your Legs, Underarms,
and Bikini Area Will the Right Razor


How To Get A Close Shave

Whether you’re learning to shave for the first time as a young lady or you’ve been shaving for years, chances are you’re legs aren’t as smooth as you’d like them to be. There aren’t any incredibly secret or hidden tricks when it comes to attaining a close shave. It’s not difficult! All you must do is follow these simple safety hints and hair removal advice and before you know it you’ll learn how to get smooth and sexy legs, every time you shave.

Selecting the Perfect Razors for You

The first step you should take, before shaving your underarms, legs or bikini area is choosing a razor. It may sound like an easy task, but finding a razor that’s best for your body and skin can be a challenge. Some people prefer to use an electric razor while others like a ceramic or double edge straight razor. The best way to find out what works best for you is to experiment. Try each type of razor and see which one you feel most comfortable using. If you’re looking for a close shave, steer clear of disposable razors, unless you’re traveling. Whether you go with Venus or Gillette has less consequence than what type of razor you choose.



--Editors Tip ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Tired of Shaving Every Single Day?

Shaving every single day to keep away unwanted body hair takes time and effort.  And, even when you put in that time and effort, often your legs, underarms, and bikini area are still not as smooth as you’d like.  Professional laser hair removal treatments can be extremely costly, more than most people can afford.  What if there was a way to decrease the amount of unwanted hair, not only allowing you to shave more infrequently but also have smoother skin?  Thermal hair removal devices send a signal of heat to the hair, basically removing the hair and delaying regrowth.  Regular use of thermal hair removal will result in thinner, less coarse hair, ultimately requiring less shaving and maintenance.  And, by avoiding the irritation of shaving, you’ll have fewer ingrown hairs, pimples, or rashes to worry about.

Want to find out how to shave less and still have less unwanted body hair?

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Using a Lubricator

One of the vital components needed in attaining a shave free of knicks is lubrication. Many people are mistaken and think soap is a good way to prepare your legs for the shaving process. The truth is that soap can often dry out your skin, making you more prone to knicks, bleeding, ingrown hairs and bumps. Shaving cream or gel is often the easiest way to prepare your legs for the process and avoid a rash, unwanted stubble or missed hair growth.

After Shaving

Remember this warning; never leave the bathroom after shaving without moisturizing. It is vital you moisturize your legs after shaving them. After getting out of the shower or bath, be sure to grab some unscented body lotion and give your legs a good drink. Use unscented varieties because they’re easier on your open pores and won’t likely break you out in a razor rash. If you’re extremely sensitive, be sure to skip the lotion and go straight for a little baby oil. It will provide the moisture, without leaving you with red bumps. With oil, a little goes a long way!






Shaving Tips

The key to getting a good shave is following a good routine. Here are some other shaving tips that can help you get the close shave you desire.
  • Wait until the end of your bath or shower to shave. It’s when the skin is most supple and the hairs are softer.

  • Shave in the morning for a guarantee of smooth legs throughout the day.

  • Don’t shave before hitting the beach or pool. If you need to shave for these events, do so the night before.

  • Shaving your bikini line every day will help you avoid razor rash in that area.

  • If you run out of shaving cream or gel, grab your hair conditioner instead. It works great as a lubricant for shaving and will leave your legs conditioned and smelling great.

Applying Bridal Makeup

Applying Bridal Makeup and Choosing a Stylist for Day or Night Weddings for Professional Looking Results

 

Choosing a Make-up and Hair Stylist for Your Wedding Day

Hiring a makeup artist to first conceptualize your wedding look and then applyyour makeup on the day of the wedding is a smart move. If you can afford thetime and money, having the entire bridal party done by a professional will makeyour bridesmaids and your mom look their best for the photos, too. TraditionalIndian weddings involve painting the hands and feet with henna as well asapplying cosmetics and dressing the bride in her wedding sari: in the past, thewomen in the family readied the bride for her wedding, but with more familiesliving far apart, brides are opting to bring in experts to help the wedding gosmoothly.

Plan ahead to get the right professional bridal make-up artist

Choosing a stylist is a little tricky and shouldn't be done at the last moment.If you don't already have a favorite stylist, don't just pick the first one youmeet unless you have an instant rapport. Shop around: ask to see theirportfolios, talk with them about your ideas and the styles you are planning toevoke at your wedding. Look for someone who has similar taste and who wants tosupport your dreams on your wedding day. Equally important is reliability: askfor references and call the stylists' old clients to ask a few questions. Didthe stylist show up on time? Was he or she prepared, having brought the toolsneeded to get the job done? And was the bride comfortable with stating herwishes and getting what she wanted from the stylist?



Have a mock-up or trial run with the professional stylist before making a final decision

Once you've narrowed your choices down to two or three (having already made surethey aren't booked on the date of your wedding), visit the stylist and have atrial run of the makeup you want to wear for your wedding. Talk about thelighting where the ceremony and reception will be held, and the look you wantfor your photos, which should influence the cosmetics you use. Are you lookingfor a dramatic look or something natural and fresh? Will your hair be up ordown, and what sort of hair accessories or veil will you be using? Coordinateyour makeup with your hair style, jewelry and gown.

Consider the time of day and wedding setting: Night, Day, or Weddings Outdoors

If your wedding is during the day and outside and the reception in the eveningand indoors, you may want to schedule a second makeup session between theceremony and the reception. You may need makeup that's lighter for daytimeportraits, but for evening revelries you may want to go a little heavier on theeye makeup. Darker eye shadow, deeper blusher and shimmery lip color may beperfect for nighttime, but in the daylight you may need more natural eye shadowcolors and a matte lipstick. Work out the details with your stylist so all yourportraits come out showing you at your very best.

DIY Bridal Makeup Still Requires a Little Advice from a Professional

If you decide to do your own makeup or have a friend do it for you, it's stillworthwhile to get tips from an expert and then practice your makeup before thebig day. Then, prepare as a professional would with towels to wrap around theneck (and over that gorgeous gown), brushes for applying makeup so your handsdon't get stained (or worse, stain your clothes) and a bottle of spot removerstanding by. Don't let a wayward mascara brush wreck your ivory lace veil!

Wedding & Bridal Beauty Tips

Wedding & Bridal Beauty Tips

Always Avoid White

While there are many things you can certainly wear to a wedding, the easiest place to begin might be what you should never wear to a day or nighttime wedding. Most importantly, never wear white to a wedding. Proper wedding etiquette states only the bride should be in white on her wedding day. Of course, if the bride arranges for her groom to wear a white tie and tuxedo there is no fashion taboo being committed. While this may be a cultural fashion rule with a rich tradition and history there’s always at least one guest who pushes the limits and shows up in white or a similar color like ivory. Take our advice and don’t be that guest!

 

Black Is An Easy Choice

If the invite isn’t clear about the dress code for the nighttime wedding clothing expectations, you can always play it safe with a Little Black Dress. While it may seem like a boring choice, it’s extremely easy to make a black dress work in casual or formal situations. Add formal jewelry to your dress in case the attire is formal that can easily be removed and slipped into your purse if you arrive to see others wearing much less formal attire. Pair a black dress with a pair of simple black heels and no matter what the dress code may be, you’ll look as if you fit in perfectly.



Think About The Season

When dressing for a nighttime wedding it’s also important to think about the weather. While you may long to wear your strapless black dress, if the weather is chilly you’ll need to remember to bring a wrap along. After all, chances are a nighttime wedding’s temperatures will be cooler than a day wedding. This is true for any time of year.



Pant Suits Are A Possibility

Many women don’t feel comfortable wearing skirts or dresses to any event, regardless of whether it’s a wedding or not. While most pant suits are too casual for a nighttime wedding, some wedding attire designers are finally creating beautiful pant suits suitable for wedding wear. Be sure you aren’t reaching in the closet for your favorite office pant suit, however. Look for a pant suit with sequins or beading around the top jacket to help you fit in whether the event is casual or more formal. Nighttime wedding clothing options might not be limitless but there are many options to think about. From your Little Black Dress to a dressy pant suit, you definitely have choices to make. Think about using accessories to help you quickly dress up or dress down an outfit, even after you’ve arrived to the wedding ceremony. Of course, if you want to quickly figure out what the bride would love to see her guests wearing you can always make a quick phone call and ask her yourself!

Easy Makeup Tips

Easy Makeup Tips


Simple eye make up tips to shape up your eyes in the way you want them to look. Eyes are the most prominent and delicate feature of our face. Applying glamorous eye makeup will enhance the body and definition of your eyes, but correct makeup application is bit tricky to do. Eye shadow is considered as the most beloved and attractive part of makeup which can do magic with your looks. The choice of eye shadows should be made according to the shape and color of eyes.

The appropriate strokes of eye makeup can do wonders with your eyes by visually changing their shape in seconds. Eye shaping is the fiddliest thing to do in eye makeup, but once you will follow our easy eye makeup tips for eye shaping, this will no more be problematic for you.

Eye Shaping for Close-Set Eyes



For the close-set eyes, eye makeup is used to make eyes look further apart. To enhance the width between the eyes, the outer corners of the eyes should be more highlighted with the intense color eye shadow, with thicker eyeliner stroke and with the mascara thickening coat. You can widen the space between your eyebrows by plucking and extending the brows with brow pencil at the ends.

Eye Shaping for Wide-Set eyes



For wide-set eyes, eye makeup is used to reduce the space between both eyes. The inner corner of eyes should be emphasized to make eyes closer together by using darker colors. The eyebrows should be made little closer to nose with the help of eye pencil and thin line of eyeliner should be applied.

Eye Shaping for Almond Eyes



Almond eyes are considered as an ideal shape for experimenting different eye makeup looks. The easiest eye makeup tips for almond eyes are to apply light/neutral eye shadow on the lid, followed by dark color on outer corner. Blend the shades properly and if you want your almond eyes to give a round look, stop eyeliner before the outer corner of the eye. Define more volume by using mascara on upper lashes on outer corners.

Eye Shaping for Small eyes



Women with small eyes always look out for eye makeup that enriches the look of their eyes and make them more prominent. To attain a look of larger eyes, the eye makeup tip is to apply pastel/light shadow on the eyelids, followed by medium-toned color in the creases. To make the eyes prominent, apply highlighting shade under the brow.

To enhance the visual appearance of eyes, line upper and lower lids with soft-colored eyeliner. Enhance eyebrows and apply black mascara on upper and lower lashes.

With our easy eye makeup tips you can effortlessly add glamour to your eyes by using simple eye makeup products and techniques for eye shaping.

Applying Eye Make-up and Shadow

Applying Eye Make-up and Shadow

 

The world of eye shadows available today can be quite overwhelming. From shimmers to matte and brights to neutrals. Eye shadows are available in just about every color under the sun. If you are like most women, you are probably wondering what colors will best accentuate your eye color and which eye shadows to stay away from. Remember that eye shadow should always coordinate with your eye color not your outfit color - this is not a fashion trend, but a beauty basic every woman should know. Take the guess work (and stress) out of choosing the right eye shadow colors by purchasing an eye shadow set that is meant for your specific eye color. See the perfect eye shadow collection for blue eyes, brown eyes and green eyes.
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Other 50's era female TV stars included Barbara Billingsley, who played Beaver's mother June Cleaver. June's makeup was subtle: what you notice is the seeming clarity of her skin and eyes. Again, no shadow was in evidence: as a married housewife, June didn't have the lifestyle for shaded lids.
Makeup in the 60's, like fashion and lots of other things, went wild. If you've seen Love, American Style, or Laugh-In, you've also seen mile-high beehives, minuscule skirts, and piles of bright shadows (often in blue and green), thick mascara and false, furry eyelashes (often worn by the same woman at the same time), and eyebrows that ranged from dense and black to virtually non-existent. The 60's were about the time when mascara started becoming higher in quality. Women wanted gigantic eyes, and makeup that wouldn't run. They were sick of gluing on false lashes which could fall off into the soup when you least expected it. Mascara responded by becoming more user-friendly.
After the 60's, 70's styles seemed downright tame, but looking back from 2004, the 70's still look pretty freakish. Skirts were still tiny, and short-shorts and bikinis made the summertime scene. Polyester made leisure suits a weird part of the masculine wardrobe, and men who weren't even pimps wore gold chains and pinky rings. In makeup, glitter became part of daytime looks, shimmering in slippery lip gloss, sparkling in eye shadows and glimmering up foundations. James Bond movies spanned the 60's and 70's, giving us a timeless look at bizarre fashions and makeup that could be put on with a trowel.
The eighties styles were silk blouses and big shoulder pads, and eye makeup became an important part of the career woman's wardrobe. Maybe because women were trying harder than ever before to smash through the recently-identified glass ceiling, makeup was assertive, almost mask-like. Big jewelry, thick hoop earrings and gold projected the dress-for-success look in the Me-decade. Lined and lipsticked mouths and shadowed, mascaraed eyes competed for attention in faces gessoed smooth with thick foundations. Eyebrows tended to be more real and well-groomed rather than yanked out and drawn on, in keeping with the overall bolder, more "masculine"(natural) look.
Since the nineties, a wide range of looks have become acceptable, perhaps because with the aging of the general population, more women have found the style they'll be staying with for the rest of their lives. Let's face it, at some point, we all choose a look and pretty much stick with it, and women who were in their thirties and forties in the 80's predominate in the population, while younger women experiment with lighter makeup, more casual hairstyles and the smaller trends that wash across the seasons in little waves.
If you look at modern-day stars like Isabella Rossilini, Kate Hudson, Julia Roberts and Julianne Moore, you'll notice that, while makeup enhances their natural looks, it never takes center stage. Lipsticks are a slightly stronger expression of natural lip colors, foundations are muted, and eye makeup draw attention not to itself, but to the eyes. It's not that these women don't wear makeup--they do--it's that the makeup is applied with perfect restraint (and then thoroughly airbrushed, but that’s another story).
If you want to be current with your own eye makeup, spend a lot of time figuring out which colors play up the color and shape of your eyes. Don't fall for trendy colors: you'll just have to buy new ones in a couple of months, and they won't look that great on you anyway. Check out neutral tones in beige, brown and grey, with slightly darker colors for evening. Experiment with mascara, but keep in mind that, contrary to what the ads say, longer and thicker lashes are not necessarily always better-looking. Cows have long, thick lashes too. You want enough lashes to outline your eyes, but not so much that no-one can look away from them.
Eyebrows should be as natural as possible while observing a certain restraint in terms of thickness. If your brows are very pale, you might try a brow pencil, but go gently with it, and get opinions from real and honest friends before taking your new look outside.
As trends have taken us from one extreme to another, finding your own look keeps you from making fashion mistakes that will haunt you in photographs for years to come. With the medical and cosmetics industries coming up with more and more sophisticated formulas, it's a good idea to check out new products that contain sunscreens, hypoallergenic properties and herbal or cosmeceutical ingredients shown to decrease lines, prevent skin cancer or soothe sensitive skin. Obviously, you aren't going to buy into every fashion fairy tale: decades ago, women were using hormones extracted from animals as anti-aging moisturizers. But when you do find something that works for you, you can dance for joy and bless the fashion goddesses for bringing you clearer skin, fewer wrinkles or non-greasy protection from UV rays. With recent advances in skin care, just imagine what the next decade will bring!