Hazy Shades of Winter

Darling readers, I owe you a tremendous apology for my recent absence from blogging.  Life seemed to get ahead of me, but fret not, I have returned and have much to discuss with you.

Winter is upon us, and Virginia is seeing more snow than it has in decades.  As a New Yorker, I’m pleased to see it as well, because to me, winter is not winter without a hearty dose of school-closing snow.

Let’s discuss colors.  Autumn conjures images of earthtones and muted palettes of gold and brown, but winter can be a time for sparkle all on its own.  Colors that match the weather and low lights of glitter can be just the thing for the winter wonderland.  Winter is an especially excellent time for cheeks, since cold weather can create a naturally rosy blush and the right cheek tint can just enhance that.

Here are my tips for a beautiful wintery glow:

*Dark skin doesn’t exactly look its best during winter.  Actually, no skin does.  It’s drier, its sun starved, the pores are smaller so the skin looks tighter, and there’s a real tendency to look ashen and almost sickly.  Blemishes always appear more obvious when skin is looking this way, so my very first tip is to take care of your skin.   Moisturizing is KEY during winter, and before applying make up, a primer is a really good idea.

*Use a wet foundation: Mineral foundations or powder foundations are really excellent, but a dewy look from a wet foundation can give your skin a boost of moisture to make it look healthier and full of life.  Go easy with it, of course, I’d suggest even a few drops and rubbing in with your finger tips.  If you really need to stick to your powder foundation, then please do use a primer to give it a bit of juice.

*Eyes can be a blast to play with in winter, and there’s no shame in going theatrical.  Silver shadows, bright black liners, and long, dramatic lashes are an excellent combo for a chilly night out.  Sheer shadows with glitter are also good, particularly on the upper lid along the brow bone, to create a subtle highlight.  Try Bare Escentuals Glimmer Kit, an excellent stocking stuffer for winter eyes.  Not a glitter gal?  No sweat. Blue is a badass color for the holiday season, and brown skin can look really beautiful with peacock blue or plum over the lids.  Try Illamasqua’s Powder Eye in Fatal.

*Cheeks! I’m very into cheeks this winter.  Your standard summer color is not going to fly, because the bronzed look is not going to take on ashen brown skin.  I’d recommend going lighter than usual, something peachy, and keep it subtle. Even in the dead of winter, a brown girl can blush, and we should let our bodies do the hard work and let our make up do the easy work.  Check out Flirt cheek color, available at Ko

Dark skin can totally rock out with dark lips in winter

hl’s department stores.  They’ve got an excellent range of winter cheek colors for darker skin.  My line? Flirt’s # 15 in “Oh Please!”.

*Lips: Oh baby.  Winter lips are delicious.  This is a great time for those candy apple reds or deep plums that you’re scared to wear.  The contrastagainst the lighter tones of your skin will be splendiforous.  Go for a moisturizing lipstick or wear a chapstick underneath it.  We all know how lips get in the winter and they deserve a lot of TLC from us if we want them to look good on those special days.  If you’re not feeling bold, there are plenty of subtler lip colors that will still look very sexy.  I’d stay away from nudes because we don’t want that washed out look, but again, a peachish or pinkish tint can be excellent in the winter.  Just be sure and moisturize moisturize moisturize!  Apply chapstick or lip balm nightly before bed to protect your delicate lip skin.  Even the best lipsticks cannot save you from horrible chapping.

Do you have some favorite winter colors?  How about tips to combat icky winter skin ashiness and chapped lips?  I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Happy painting

 

Prime Time: Lashes and Lips

So you’ve seen my rants on lid and face primers, but did you know that primers exist for lashes and lips as well?  Think about it–primer helps make up to stay put and stay fresh, and lipstick can easily run the risk of kissing off, smearing, sticking to your teeth, and just fading away.  Eyelashes are vulnerable as well; if you happen to have made yourself up for an evening on the couch with Steel Magnolias, you dont want your mascara sliding off your face under the weight of your tears.  More realistically, if you rub your eyes, or get them wet in any way, you don’t want the mascara to smudge and run and look funky.

Lip Primers: Ideally, you want something light and moisturizing, that evens out lip texture.  As always, particularly for brown girls, you want a colorless primer so that it doesn’t alter the shade of lipstick you use.  Be aware, though, that when using primer, you’re altering the canvas before you paint it.  When you do apply your lipstick, the color will appear more matte than glossy and may not look exactly as it does on unprimed lips.  However, it will look more even and will last longer.

Urban Decay’s Lip Primer Potion is a good place to start.  Feels like chapstick, works like primer should.

A similar product comes from DuWop, whose Prime Venom acts as a primer, chapstick and plumper, meaning you can wear alone or under lip color.

Go a little easier on the wallet with Sephora Brand Lip Primer, or hit up your local Target for NP set Lip Primer.

Now, on to lashes: You want a waterproof primer that wont add gunk or clump to your lashes.  Often times mascara primers will be sold along with a specific mascara, but don’t worry, you don’t need to use it that way.

My personal favorite is Origin’s Underwear for Lashes.  Many big name make up brands offer mascara primers, but there’s no need to break the bank on a good one.  Try Clinique’s Lash Building Primer or Revlon’s Lash Fantasy Total Mascara and Primer.

While make up artists often swear by mascara primer, many casual make up users will complain that the white base clumps in their lashes or doesn’t actually do anything.  If your lashes are loath to curl and don’t get the length and lift you want, a primer can be a good accessory.  Sometimes, though, it’s just a matter of the right mascara.  Finding the right make up is all about experimentation, but that’s part of fun

Happy priming!

 

You are what you eat!

Happy Thanksgiving, lovely readers!  I hope you all ate, drank and made merry to your heart’s content–I know I did.  I thought this would be an excellent time to discuss the impact of food on our skin.  The holidays are ripe for gluttony, and we all deserve to push the limits and suspend the diet once and again.  Let’s talk about what that means for our beautiful brown faces.

Okay, here’s the straight dope: you can use all of the right beauty products, but if you take lousy care of your physical health and diet, your skin will never look as good as it could be.  You know the deal, eat fruits and veggies and all that, but it’s hard to really stick to that around the holidays.  Below are a few of my general tips to keep in mind about the relationship between food and skin health.

1) Combat dehydration: This doesn’t just mean drink water, but also be mindful of foods that tend to dehydrate such as chocolate, coffee, soda and liquor.  Wine is always flowing around the holidays and its easy to go nuts, just know that particularly in winter when the weather is cooler and drier, keeping a well hydrated internal environment is going to help maintain skin health and suppleness.

2) Reduce oily buildup: Certain foods that are high in glucose such as potatoes (mashed, fried, baked, whatever), sugar (duh, sugar is high in glucose) and baked goods made with white flour (like cupcakes or home made bread) can all increase oily buildup and facilitate the growth of pimples.  During the holidays you’ll be bombarded with sweets and treats, so try to go easy if you’re prone to acne.

3) Git’ yer fiber: Fiber helps to promote healthy digestion and excretion, which is a way of removing toxins from the body.  Stay regular kids, because its a good way to clean your system and prevent internal bacteria from manifesting externally.  You can get fiber from bananas, wheat and bran bread, and yogurt.

4) Be pro-protein: Protein is required to repair body tissue and maintain muscle strength.  Protein deficiencies often result in drab, washed up looking skin because your body has been unable to combat damage from the elements.  Typically, protein comes in the form of meats, but vegetarians can easily derive proteins from beans, soy, sprouts, cheese and milk.

5) Be wary of bad food combos: Different foods require different digestive enzymes to break them down.  Eating weird combinations of foods that require too much enzymatic activity can lead to indigestion, which in turn facilitates toxin and bacterial build up that can affect skin healthy.  If you’re eating some really spicy food, don’t pair it with Blood Marys or highly acidic wines.  Think about what you’re eating and try to balance out the flavors so you don’t send your stomach through the ringer.

Got tips of your own to share?  Thoughts?  Comment away!

 

Via

 

Prime Time: Eyes

Recently I discussed facial primers and reviewed some of my favorites.  However, one thing I didn’t mention is that primer is not only for the face–it can be for the eyes, lashes and lips as well.  Today I’m writing about eye primers, and in later posts I’ll discuss lashes and lips.  As always, your feedback is welcome!

The eyelid is a unique site for make up application.  The skin is thinner, softer and more sensitive, and it protects one of the most important organs of your body.  It also is often the recipient of a whole lot of make up, from foundation and powder to eyeshadow and eyeliner, this tiny inch of skin above your eye has to tolerate a great deal of product.  Eye primer smooths out soft eyelid skin and helps to increase the brightness and longevity of your shadow and liner.  It’s a must for any eye make up aficionado.

Try Urban Decay’s Eyeshadow Primer Potion in nude.  Apply with the lash wand and use your finger tips to rub it in until the color runs sheer.  The primer is colorless and will not interfere with your shadow color choices.

Another excellent eye primer is made by Bare Escentuals, whose light and silky primer is designed to work specifically with mineral make up.  It is dye, paraben and fragrance free, meaning it glides on to your eyelid like cream and vanishes to reveal a smooth and primed eyelid.  I’d even recommend this for sensitive skin.

Too Faced also makes a cute little number called Shadow Insurance, an ultra concentrated eye primer that increases eye make up’s longevity with just a tiny little drop.

Everybody’s favorite make up store, Sephora, also makes their own primer.  This is a bit more cost effective than the previous options and still comes from a reputable brand.  Lastly, if the only place to get make up where you live is the drug store, don’t fret, because Nordic cosmetics brand Lumene carries a lovely eyeshadow primer, available at a CVS near you.

Tips on eye priming: as always, make sure the area is clean and moisturized.  Do not apply your regular facial primer to your eyelid–instead, use the eyelid primer.  Your facial primer is for everywhere but your eye area.  And of course, as brown girls, remember not to fall into the trap of getting a tinted primer.  You want something sheer that will be invisible against your skin, not something with a light apricot tint which will affect the look of your eyeshadow.

Stay tuned for posts about lash priming and lip priming soon.  Until then, happy painting

 

What the Fique?

As of late, I’ve been seeing commercials and advertisements for a “youth activating concentrate” developed by Lancome that promises to deliver younger looking skin in just seven days of use.  Genefique is apparently able to boost the activity of your genes, thereby causing changes to your skin on a basic molecular level, rather than a purely cosmetic one.  One little ounce of this miraculous potion runs seventy eight greenbacks.  Naturally, I’m skeptical.

Recall my recent post about the advent of cosmeceuticals and the importance of consumer skepticism when purchasing a product that should probably be sold be a dermatologist, not a beauty advisor.  I am neither a dermatologist nor a scientist,  and I do not dispute Lancome’s claim that skin health is highly impacted by genetics.  However, the idea that a cosmetic product can actually alter genetic activity seems so revolutionary that I’m surprised this product is not getting more buzz.  This could be an incredible discovery in many dermatological conditions–shouldn’t we be looking into applying this technology towards that?  Given humanity’s lifelong desire to drink from the fountain of youth, maybe it’s just par for the course that groundbreaking scientific research is applied to cosmetics rather than medicine.

Or…there’s the other possibility.  It’s a bunch of B.S.  Perhaps Genefique, like so many age minimizing creams, are creating the illusion of youth without actually doing much to your skin.  I don’t know, but I’m curious to know what you all think.  Do we all want to look young so badly that we’re willing to believe in lotions and potions that promise miracles?  Or are we just suckers for good advertising?  What do you guys think of so called age-reversing products?

Would love to hear your thoughts

 

Global Goddess

If you’re looking for a red carpet line for women like us, you may want to check out Global Goddess. The brainchild of desi make up artist  Shalini Vadhera, Global Goddess is a line of skincare and beauty products designed to celebrate the exotic in all of us, with colors inspired by all corners of the world.

From pressed powders and foundations to eyeshadows and lipsticks, Vadhera seems to make no bones about playing up the exotic angle with product packaging reminiscent of a Persian rug and titles such as “Nefertiti Eye Liner” , “Chai Cheek  Color” or mascara with Indian mowrah butter.  Make no mistake, this make up is geared towards women who want to feel exotic, sensual and glamorous.

Although the advertising and marketing are painfully deliberate, the products themselves can still cut the mustard.  The website transparently reveals its use of Asian and African inspired botanicals such as ginseng and safflower seed oil to create a product that will not only look attractive but will also nourish your skin.

The price point is closer to heavy hitters like Makeup For Ever, but the shade options are much more appropriate for women of darker skin tones.  Personally, I like the no frills modernity of the Thevi products.  Understated advertising, affordable prices and quality products.  However, for red carpet extravagance, I may want something a little more.  And I like to keep my lovely readers informed of what’s out there so you can come to your own conclusions.  The fact is, we need chicks like Shalini and Thevaki to fight the good fight and get ethnic cosmetics into mainstream marketing.  Ladies, I salute you

 

The Quick and Dirty Drug Store Make up Tour

Make up savvy brown girls like us have figured out by now that there ARE products available for women with our skin tones.  You just have to look a little harder, mix and match and be willing to experiment.  For many of us, however, high quality make up is not easily accessible.  Maybe you live somewhere where the nearest Sephora or other cosmetics megastore is a plane ride away, and you don’t quite trust the crochety old white women at the Macys counter.  More practically speaking, hey, Mac, MakeUpForEver and other brown-friendly brands are not exactly cheap.  Some of us just can’t drop a Ben Franklin on beauty products, so are there any options at good old CVS or Wal Mart worth trying?

YES, there are!  Come with me, my pretties, on a drug store make up odyssey…

We begin with Iman.  This maverick covergirl brought chocolate beauty to an otherwise vanilla catwalk and attracted the affections of pop icon David Bowie, a trailblazer in his own right.  She then went on to develop her own cosmetics line for women of color at an affordable price.  Start with Iman’s Second to None Luminous Foundation, available in a wide range of shades for women like us.  Follow up with a matching Luxury Pressed Powder and you’re ready to go.

Our next step is to Milani, who pride themselves on offering “color with impact”, and this brown girl agrees.  Milani’s Mineral Blush in Sunset Beach offers a subtle apricot shimmer just rouge enough for darker skin tones.  Looking for something more dramatic?  Go for Milani’s Glimmer Stripes in Berry Glimmer to get a sparkly pinkish hue.

Now follow me, my lovelies, to Cover Girl’s Queen Collection. This line of products was developed for Covergirl and endorsed by Queen Latifah as makeup that’s intended to match your “natural hue”.  Personally, I am not a huge fan of the shade options for foundtion and pressed powder, which is why I’d recommend Iman over this.  However, the queen collection does have some beautiful eyeshadows in bold, vivid colors for darker ladies.  Check out Eye Enhancers Eyeshadow Quads in Lionqueen for a metallic to golden range.  Or, try their One Kit Shadows in colors ranging from a light apricot to a deep midnight blue.

So we’ve got face, eyes and cheeks, and you all know what left, right? LLIIPPSSS.

I should first state that the aforementioned brands all carry lipsticks in a range of colors and shades, but if I’m buying lipstick at the drug store, I’m putting my faith and trust in good old Revlon.  While not specifically designed for women of color, Revlon lipsticks are moisturizing and pigment rich, and come in so many formulas and shades that I’m sure you can find one that suits you.  My line? Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Sultry Sable.

Well that’s it ladies, the quick and dirty drug store make up tour.  Thoughts?  Comments?  Suggestions?  Send them my way!

And a special publicity note for my favorite ethnic make up brand, ***THEVI FREE SHIPPING STARTS TODAY***.  If you’ve ever been curious about their products, this is a great time to try!

Until  next time, happy painting

 

NEW Giveaway Winner!

Hi my darling readers!  Unfortunately, I never heard from Heather S., but her loss is your gain.  Heather, I’m sorry we were not able to connect in time!

The new winner is N.C., who posted for the giveaway saying she has not yet tried any Thevi products but would love to try the eyeshadows.

Well N.C., here is your chance to try their blush AND their eyeshadow! N.C., please contact me within 72 hrs to claim your prize.  Email me at brwngrrrl@gmail.com so that I can get your information to Thevi Cosmetics and we can get you your FREE blush!

For the rest of you lovely ladies, thanks again for participating and stop by tomorrow for an update on more brown friendly make up!

 

And the winner is….

Heather S.!  Congratulations Heather!  You had commented that you were interested in trying the liquid powder mineral foundation.  Well, now is the perfect time to buy one because you can wear under neath you new Thevi Matte Blush in Whisper Apricot!

Heather, please email me at brwngrrrl@gmail.com within 72 hours, meaning, by 4 pm EST on Monday,  to claim your prize.  If I do not hear from Heather, I will select another winner instead, so please contact me!

For everybody who participated–thank you SO much for supporting the blog and my efforts to bring ethnic cosmetics to a wider market.  Please continue to spread the word about Thevi and my blog!

Stay tuned for more brown girl make up and beauty tips soon

 

Last Day to Enter Thevi Cosmetics Giveaway!

Hey guys-just giving you a heads up that you can still enter the giveaway before 4 pm EST today.  I will select the winner at random and post about it by the end of the day.  Thanks to everybody who has been participating and good luck my lovely readers.  You guys rock