Ombre

Its hard to think up new services. There are only so many things that can be done with hair, skin, nails and makeup. But that doesn't mean that everyone out there isn't trying. We would regularly try to brainstorm service ideas when I worked for a hair care manufacturer. The best we could come up with at the time was Baliage, which is french for painted on highlights.

I've been seeing this trend of Ombre for the past six months and I'm kind of lovin' it. http://beautyeditor.ca/2010/08/13/drew-barrymore-and-julia-roberts-demonstrate-ombre-hair-2-0-which-is-way-more-wearable-than-1-0/

See to most people it just looks like crappy grown out roots. Which is a style that I rock all the time since I'm lazy about getting my hair done. It's just so much work. No seriously, I'm usually too antsy to get my hair colored and cut all in one session. And I'm way too impatient to get highlights. I know highlights change a lot of peoples lives, but I've never liked them on my hair. I was relieved once to talk with my hairdresser educator pal Annie who said that you should match your highlights to your texture. I.E. if you have a ton of texture (crazy curly hair) skip the highlights, but if you have pin straight hair, you can use highlights to create the illusion of texture. Since I more often then not where my hair curly, Annie's revelation was such a relief to me.

I experimented with a block of color around my face/bangs last year that I liked but it was ultimately too much  upkeep. I've slowly worked my way back to a solid block of color. Then I started noticed the Ombre thang, which looked like something I could do. Dark roots that gradually get lighter to the ends. Right now I'm kinda rockin' the opposite because I've been experimenting too much with hair color (and my hair tends to pick up a lot of hair color very easily). But next time I go to the salon, I'm going to get a little more bold and lighten up the ends. Its just hair right? And if it looks disastrous I can color it back or cut it off. That's my favorite part about hair color. It's so kinda-but-not-really-permanent!

A French Manicure for the 10s

It's like the chicks over at The Beauty Department read my mind! I love the idea of metallic tips. I'm going to try that for next week's manicure. But have Becky my favorite manicurist ever do it for me since I'm still perfecting the art of the French Manicure.

http://thebeautydepartment.com/2011/08/this-or-that-9/

Right now I'm rockin' blue glitter tips. I'm digging this more than the gold glitter which looked a little cheesy. I tried out a matte pink tip and it just didn't go so well. I'm still struggling with how to get the crispest line for the manicure. I tried the qtip dipped in nail polish and that was a mess.

I googled and found a nail polish blog that had some really good tips on clean up. Number one tip that I'm going to use: brush! I actually have a cheap make-up brush that I think would be perfect to help me in my quest to get some super crisp french tip.
http://www.lacquerized.com/2010/02/clean-up-in-6-easy-steps.html

The best tip is to do the clean up on dry nails. Sometimes it's the simplest things that help a girl out! When I tried the clean up on semi-dry nails, it was a hopeless mess. I'm sure it's going to work a bit better once I let my nails dry a bit.

The other great tip that I found on lacquerized was called  wrapping. It's the process of tapping a little bit of color on the edge of or under your nail. This will help seal the tips and prevent chipping. Which is something I desperately need since the tips of my nails always seem to get chipped within one day of applying my polish!

Here's an article about French Manicures from the founder of Orly. Shout out to my nailanista friend Carina who does Marketing for Orly! Wikipedia says they were popular in the 18/1900s but I'm sure Jeff was the one to make the modern French Manicure popular. I wonder what he thinks of all the different twists (Reverse French Manicure and Black tips are the strangest but who am I to judge with my love of sparkly tips?)
http://www.frenchmanicure.com/fm/

Latisse Week 4

To zap or not to zap

In the quest for easier hair removal, I've toyed with the idea of laser hair removal. It's just so expensive and doesn't get rid of the hair permanently. Just kinda thins it out like waxing does.

Recently I stumbled upon an article talking about Boots IPL hair reduction system. They make bold claims (6-12 weeks! Permanent!) that I'm not sure they can really substantiate. If it only thinned out my hair, I would still be happy.

http://www.boots.com/en/Boots-Smooth-Skin-Intense-Pulsed-Light-hair-reduction-system_117122/

For now, I'm sticking with a combination of waxing and my awesome Emjoi. That sucker really works and it only costs $60.

10 Ways to Age like the French

I love how beautiful European women are. They carry themselves so elegantly. It's like they are all born with some innate beauty knowledge that women on other continents don't know about until they meet their gay best friends. My favorite tips from this article:

• Keep it natural
• No Soap
• Exercise? Why? Go to a spa instead

And this is the best quote ever! French writer Françoise Sagan wrote: “A dress makes no sense unless it inspires men to take it off you.”

Check out more French women beauty tips here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/15/fashion/15Frenchside.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=general

Cosmetically Elegant

Cosmetically Elegant. The first time I heard that term was in a skin care seminar for Skin Medica. They were talking about how many women don't use Retin A from the doctor because the consistency is not that great. So true! Everyone I know has a half-used tube of RetinA that they've tried to use in their product closet. You can't throw it out because it is so expensive! But I never used it because it smelled so bad. RetinA is the Catch22 of beauty products.

SkinMedica and other skin care lines put Retinol (a derivative of Retin A) in lotions that smell pretty and feel good going on. That simple step allows for much greater patient compliance. I know it's true for me. As soon as I got Retinol in a night cream that didn't smell like dirty feet, I used it all up!

Which got me thinking about other things that have to be cosmetically elegant in order for me to use them. Apple products are the first ones that came to my mind. Sure I use a PC all day, and I'm not a snob so if anyone has an extra PC lying around, I'll take it. But I love sitting down and using my Macbook and my (just died last week) iMac. The whole user experience is so smooth. That's why Steve Jobs is an evil genius. He makes products that are significantly nicer to use than other computer manufacturers and then charges a premium for that. Damn him!

Oily Skin Care Tips from Rita

A lot of people with oily skin think that they don't have to moisturize. Not true! Sometimes, if your skin is oily, you might use products that dry up the oil and then over-dry your skin. Then you skin becomes more oily, you use more products and it gets even more dry. It's a vicious downward spiral.

Make sure you find a light, oil-free moisturizer that will give your skin proper hydration and help control oil. One of my favorites is from Dermalogica, Activ Moist. It's oil free and also has lavendar for extra anti-bacterial properties.

Check out more tips on caring for oily skin from my boss Rita:

http://www.hormones-beauty-health.com/skin-care/the-best-moisturizer-for-oily-skin/