True or False: Mineral Oil Clogs Pores.

My skin magazine, Skin Inc. recently had a great feature called "True or False". The first one I want to highlight is about using oil on your skin. Most people are deathly afraid of oil. They must be flashing back to their teen years. In fact oil can be good for your skin, even if it is oily. Like attracts like so you can use oil to attract the oil on your skin. There is something called the oil cleansing method which uses castor and jojoba oil to clean the skin. The point is not to fear oil but embrace it!

What I have learned over the years is that a very little oil goes a long way. So use it sparingly and experiment with what oils work with your skin. I love jojoba oil to remove my eye makeup. I use sweet almond oil for my face and body massages. And I am going to try the oil cleansing method out using 1 part castor oil to 4 parts jojoba. I will let everyone know how it turns out although technically if you see me and my skin looks good you will know!

The Sun and Your Skin

I admit it. I'm obsessed with sun protection. It started when I was a kid and I saw Elizabeth Taylor speak on Oprah. She said that she hasn't gone a day in her life without wearing something on her face (SPF or Makeup with SPF). She looked amazing at the time so I decided to follow Liz Taylor's rule and never walk out the door without at least something on my face.

I'm amazed whenever I still run into someone who doesn't wear SPF regularly or who tans at a tanning salon. For the amount of time we spend worrying about aging and buying anti-aging lotions and potions you would think that everyone had gotten the message. Spray tans aren't that great but maybe we need to start a revolution where pale is in and super cool. It used be back in the day that if you had a tan you were a poor laborer who couldn't afford not to be out in the sun all day long.

Check out an article on the sun and your skin from ASCP:
http://downloads.beautybyilana.com

Me in action!

Me with Becky

Me with Bianca

Special Effects and Character Portfolio Pics

Jamelah on "Cocoa Love" (ash special effects)

Beauty Portfolio Pics

Bridal at Frenchy's (make-up)

Prom at Frenchy's (make-up)

Prom at Frenchy's (make-up)

"The Body Farm" (hair and make-up)

 

Abie from "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant" (make-up)

 Denise from "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant" (hair and make-up)

 

Jamelah from "Cocoa Love" (make-up)

 

Kelly from "Cocoa Love" (hair and make-up)

Portfolio

Beauty - pictures of Bridal, Prom and Naturalistic Beauty Make-up

Special Effects and Characters - pictures of Special Effect and character make-up

Glitter tattoos - pictures of the hottest trend to hit Burbank in years: glitter + tattoos = AWESOME!

Me in action! - me with a brush in my hand doing crazy stuff to people's faces and heads

Product Alert: Olavie

I have to admit that I'm pretty cynical about beauty products. Working for a manufacturer didn't help since I saw all the marketing that went into the development and distribution of these products first hand. There was a lot of science, however there was a lot of marketing too.

That being said, I'm a beauty junkie at heart. What exactly does that mean? I'll buy any product at least once, if it has good packaging, an interesting story and a great smell. Yup those are the things that I care about. What about ingridients? Usually when you flip the bottles over, they have the exact same ingridients. Water is first and then, depending on the product, it's all pretty much the same. Try it, right now. Look at your favorite product and see if water is the first ingridient. 9 times out of 10 it is!!!

My favorite part of school was discovering that my teacher, Ms. Angela, was just as much a cynic as I was. But she said if you were going to be successful in the skin industry you would have to learn to be a label reader. Which is so true. And I'm giving the exact same advice to all of my readers and clients. Read your labels carefully. If it has what you are looking for, buy it. And if it fits your other criteria (mine happen to be smell, look of the packaging and story, in that order) then definitely buy it.

But back to me and my closet filled with products. Yup that's what it means to be a beauty junkie. You have a closet where you store all the products that have given you false hope through their marketing and smell and haven't done diddly in performance. But you hope and you hope and you hope that some day you will be able to figure out how to make the products work. So you keep them in your closet. For that some day. Or for an appropriate re-gifting opportunity.

My closet is looking the best that it's ever looked. Mostly because I don't work for a manufacturer anymore so I don't get free stuff. And also because I've managed to re-gift my product to several friends. Plus let's be honest. I'm not pulling down a steady paycheck just yet so spending on product that I'm not sure about doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

But the whole point of this post is to share a new product that I discovered recently with you. I interviewed at a beautiful Beverly Hills spa called Allure Pilates Spa. They had a great retail section and so I tried out one of the products called Olavie. It's story has something to do with anti-oxidants and wine, although what really sold me was the classy packaging and the delicious smell (sort of white wine meets clean). Check them out, let me know what you think.

http://www.olavie.com/AboutUs.html

Also let me know what is in your product closet. Maybe we can work out a trade?