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 Moschino I developed a huge crush on color orange couple of years ago. It’s such a happy color! So I decorated the house with splashes of orange here and there, you know, pillows and such. Next step was buying an orange purse. That’s where I had to draw the line to avoid falling into orange craze. What was left unexplored though – bright orange lips to match my purse. Nah, just kidding. I don’t wear them together, but I find myself reaching for my coral-orange lipstick quite often. It makes me feel happy.
Always an attention grabber, orange lipstick burst into our lives a while ago and looks like it’s here to stay. Matte, glossy or shimmery, orange lips brighten any complexion and attract attention. That’s why the application is key with the bold color like orange – you want it to stay put without any bleeding or feathering around your lips.
So start with smooth lips and a lip pencil. You’ll need to fill in your lips with the matching pencil completely before adding orange lipstick. You can either apply lipstick straight from the tube or with a lip brush if you wish to control the intensity of the pigment. If your skin is light, peach or light coral shades will work beautifully for you. For medium or olive complexions bolder and brighter orange is a good match. As for dark skin tones, deep red-orange will flatter the best.
For the rest of the makeup you may want to consider adding major lashes and a swipe of bronzer to balance out those juicy lips. Bronzer will warm up your complexion and prevent it from looking washed out. Your makeup should be simple and subtle to avoid an overdone runway look. I wouldn’t go further than some light eye shadow and couple of coats of black mascara on the eyes. And the most important tip – don’t overthink it or be too scared to try the shade, experiment and have fun with it.
Oscar Blandi ‘Pronto’ Texture & Volume Spray ($25)
Oscar Blandi ‘Pronto’ Texture & Volume Spray is one of those products that make you wonder how have you managed to survive thus far in this world without having a slightest idea about their existence. It saves you a lot of time and energy by making your hair styling process easy and breezy. ‘Pronto’ can be used on freshly washed and dried hair or on the second-day hair with the same ‘wow’ results. All you need to do is spray it all over your hair, from ends to roots, and you’ll end up with effortless, tousled, full strands that will keep you happy for the whole day.
Suitable for all hair types, ‘Pronto’ Spray’s dry weightless formula gives crazy volume and flexible hold without stickiness or stiffness. To me this spray is better than dry shampoo because it’s easier to use, it works on contact, and you can spray it on your hair any time, anywhere.
Key ingredients:
- Natural Volcanic Mineral Zeolite (prevents hair from falling flat by giving it voluminous texture and removing toxins)
- Hydrolyzed Wheat and Keratin Proteins (nourish and strengthen hair)
- Humectants & UV absorbers (preserve strength and hair color)
The formula is also free of parabens, sulfates, phthalates, triclosan, synthetic dyes and petrochemicals.
‘Pronto’ spray comes in a pretty big bottle that lasts for a long time, as it usually takes only a few spritzes to create both needed texture and volume. My only turn off is a funky smell, but I learned to be patient and wait until it conveniently disappears without a trace in a few minutes. Other than that, I have no complaints.
La Prairie Extrait of Skin Caviar Firming Complex ($150)
According to the company’s description, La Prairie Extrait of Skin Caviar Firming Complex is a “lightweight emulsion, which contains precious Caviar Extract” known for its “instant firming and toning action. Concentrated firming agents restore healthy vitality and elasticity to your skin. It helps renew youthful radiance and effectively smoothes out fine lines and wrinkles, leaving a silky veil on your skin’s surface. The perfect preparation for flawless makeup application, it also makes your makeup last longer”. Protects skin against free radical and UVB damage, and anti-fatigue factor energizes tired-looking skin. Sounds good, right? But what’s even better is that after trying this on moi for a while I can testify that La Prairie’s description of all benefits is pretty accurate.
First of all, I always appreciate a no-mess pump on a product. It’s more convenient to use and travel with, and it also keeps germs away.
Performance-wise La Prairie Firming Complex simply delivers: it awakens dull complexion, smoothes out the skin, produces even skin tone, makes it look luminous and radiant, and serves as a great canvas for makeup application. I noticed that I can use less foundation and skip the primer after I started regularly using it. Its texture is a bit thicker than a serum, but lighter than a lotion. It melts into skin upon application and feels silky-soft and luxurious. It also doesn’t clash with any brands or products – you can safely apply Firming Complex before any moisturizer or after, on its own, or right before makeup application. The recommended usage is once a day, in the morning, to wake up and re-energize skin. So far so good.
Givenchy Rouge Interdit Satin Lipstick ($30)
Creamy and luxurious Givenchy Rouge Interdit Satin Lipstick feels like a nourishing, moisturizing balm on your lips. It’s silky texture is soft and easily spreadable. It stays put for about 4 hours without feathering or smudging. Lips feel soft and never dry. I can’t stop wearing it, it feels comfortably lightweight on the lips while brightening up the whole complexion with deep, juicy color. Rouge Interdit shapes lips nicely, making them appear full, plump, and silky smooth. The shades are neither shiny nor shimmery, but packed with light-reflecting particles that create a barely-there subtle sheen that looks beautiful in any light.
My favorite color 07 Mystic Pink (shown), rich rose wine shade, can be intensified by applying lipstick straight from the tube or played down by spreading it with a brush or a finger. It wears off evenly, leaving you with nicely stained lips that you can cover with a clear gloss or balm and continue to look great. I’m contemplating a purchase of another one in Tempting Coral for spring. It’s far from cheap, but its high quality overshadows the damage to your wallet.
Wrinkle-fighters, skin firmers, lifters, anti-agers, fine line reducers, face-lifts in a bottle – we are bombarded by products that promise to give us our youths back. Despite the fact that we all know that there’s nothing wrong with natural aging process, let’s be honest, it would’ve been wonderful if we were able to get rid of all our wrinkles just by slathering the beloved moisturizer couple of times a day. But unfortunately we all learned by now that neither creams nor serums are able to get our skin back to smooth baby-bottom condition. But (another ‘but’, although I like it more than the previous one), if we adjust our expectations to the fact that miracles in a jar don’t exist, we may find ourselves satisfied with benefits that these creams can provide us with. Simply put, it’s all about the ingredients.
Provided that we’ve already established that we are going to get wrinklier no matter what (rolling eyes), there are ways to make our skin look better and relatively firmer. I’m not going to preach healthy diets and lifestyle here. All of it matters of course, but we are concentrating on our beauty regiments at the moment. So, if we stick to proper active ingredients in our creams, most likely we’ll be satisfied with results they produce, as anti-aging creams work only if we have right expectations about them.
Ingredients to look for:
Retinol – a vitamin A compound that neutralizes free radicals that break down skin cells and cause wrinkles.
Coenzyme Q-10 – a nutrient that regulates production of energy in skin cells. Also may help protect us against sun damage.
Peptides – proteins that stimulate new cell growth, hydrate skin and help it heal.
AHAs (alpha-hydroxy acids) – exfoliate skin, allowing for faster cell turnover.
Antioxidants - fight cell damage from free radicals and inflammation.
Kinetin - a plant growth factor that helps skin retain moisture, stimulates production of collagen and evens out skin tone.
Green Tea Extract – has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
If you are already busy slathering a cream with all those good-for-your-skin components from head to toe, here’s good and bad news for you summed up in the same short sentence: That’s all you can do. Unless, of course, you have an appointment with a plastic surgeon. Oh, and also use sunscreen every day on your wrinkles, at least it’ll save you from cancer.
Just a few months ago, when we learned about the existence of a CC cream, we were making jokes about the possibility of seeing next in line DD cream in the near future. Looks like joke is on us now, because DD is a real thing. And the race down the alphabet continues.
DD (stands for daily defense) is a heavy-duty dry skin fighter and self-tanner that targets hands, feet, and body instead of the face. It promises to hydrate the skin, reduce the appearance of stretch marks, fight blemishes, heal cracked heels and soften rough skin.
Originally from Asia, DD cream was recently launched in the UK, which means that it’s getting closer to our shores. I guess we’ll just have to sit and wait patiently here for the information about its cost and whether it’s worth spending out dollars on. No rush, there are still plenty of letters in the alphabet left if we happen to miss this one.
It looks like 2013 is going to be a year of glitz and glamour. Shimmery metallics are ‘in’ now in all possibles colors and shade variations. Copper, bronze, silver, gold – pick the ones you like and wear them separately or mixed together, anything goes this year. From now on metallic eye shadows are not supposed to be reserved only for evenings or special occasions, they shifted to day-time category of neutral colors that go with everything. This year’s makeup rules are – there are no rules.
 Versace It’s unfortunate that one of my favorite colors – bronze – doesn’t flatter my complexion. But I love it on others, especially in combination with glossy black lashes. You can either add or skip black liner, depending on your preferences, but you still need tons of mascara for this look. I like how naturally flushed cheeks and rosy lips complement warm eye makeup hues. I think it looks very pretty and nowhere near boring.
 Gianfranco Ferre The thought of using silver and gold eye shadows together seems strange, but remember the ‘no rules’ rule? Yea, so go for it. It may be a good idea to keep the hue that complements your eye color the most (either silver or gold) closer to your lash lines, applying the other one higher up on the lids. Another tip, if you are still hesitant about both shades, line your eyes with black eyeliner first, then swipe the shadows on top, starting with one color closer to the inner corners of the eyes, and finishing with the other at the outer corners. Then blend the borders to make them unnoticeable. And use lots of mascara for better definition. Ta-da!
Happy 2013 everybody! Hope you all had your share of fun during the holidays. While we were busy eating, drinking, parting and celebrating Christmas and New Years, fashion world was working extra hard designing new beauty looks for us to try. Here’s the preview of what awaits us in the upcoming glamorous spring season:
 Chloe Chloe updated the beloved cat-eye by extending its winged shape slightly past the outer corners of the eyes and covering the lid halfway up with an eye shadow. The combination of black eyeliner on the lash line and copper shimmery eye shadow elevates this look to new and modern.
 Fendi Fendi models were wearing glued pieces of colorful neoprene along their lash lines. Three different fabrics were used under their eyes in black, green, and orange. Translation to the real world: we may see 3-4 different colors integrated into one eyeliner at the same time.
 Gucci Gucci demonstrated how to do glamorous dark eyes with bold, strong lashes without wearing too much makeup. Dark brown liner was applied on both upper and lower lash lines first, then the same color shadow was blended on the lids. A few coats of black mascara finished the eye makeup. Shimmery highlighter was used all over the face for smoldering, pretty glow.
 Louis Vuitton Louis Vuitton went for shiny wet effect with peach shadow on the eyes. A touch of thin black liner around lash lines and tons of mascara help eye shadow take center stage.
 Stella McCartney Bright metallic teal liner combined with barely there overall makeup is impossible not to notice. The focus is obviously on the eyes, but at the same time it’s hard to ignore model’s fresh, healthy looking skin achieved by adding a touch of light-reflecting powder and peachy pink blush on the cheeks.
 Valentino Pretty, glowy cheeks at Valentino were achieved by mixing 3 shades of pink blushes together: rosy pink, poppy pink, and baby pink. Foundation, concealer, powder and highlighter were applied afterward to accomplish an elegant lid-from-within effect. Beige eye shadow on the lids and a swipe of pink gloss added to the overall breeziness of the look.
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