Fashion, Style & More

Eyeliner – Is it for you?

Eyeliner is a matter of personal preference:  some women can’t live with it and some can’t live without it.  With my green eyes I find it very beneficial to line my eyes.  For me it just completes my eye makeup, whether soft or bold.   There are a number of ways that you can line and define your beautiful eyes:  with pencil, liquid, cake, crème or powder.  

Over the next few days, I’ll discuss these different forms.  Today we will start with the Pencil.  Pencil eyeliners contain silicone which helps the color glide on smoothly.  Be sure that the pencil you use doesn’t have too much silicone or the color will smudge and smear rather than define the eyes. 

  

Day Application: 

Begin at the outside corner of your eye and draw small, feather-like strokes connecting each one as you move toward the inside of the eye.  Blend with a small brush.  Use the same brush to apply a powder shadow in a similar color over the pencil.  This technique helps to make it look more natural, sets the color and softens the pencil line. 

Night Application:

As you line the upper lash line make sure that the line gradually grows thicker as it extends toward the outer corner of the eyes.  You want the color to be the most intense underneath the eye.  Be sure that the outer corner slowly fades as it reaches the inner corner of the eye. 

For a Natural look:

Take black eyeshadow, sometimes I use a gray shadow, and carefully push it into the base of the lashes using a fine-tipped brush.  This will define the eyes and make the lashes look thicker.  With this technique your eyes won’t appear lined. 

 

FashionStyle Coach’s Tip:  Always keep your pencils sharpened for more precise application.

Smiles!

FashionStyle & Skin Fitness Coach,

Karen

Helping you reach your Skin Fitness Goals in 2009!!

Don’t be shy….share your beauty questions with me at www.askbeautyquestions.com.

Happy 2009!!

It is so exciting that it is a brand New Year!  The great part of a New Year is that we are starting with a brand new slate.  One tradition that many people follow is to start the New Year with New Year’s Resolutions.  After speaking with several friends, I have concluded that many start with a list that typically has the same items from the year before.  Often at the top of our list are our fitness goals for the year.   The word fitness has a lot of definitions.  For example, fitness could mean that you want to lose those last stubborn 10 lbs, or it could mean that you need to do a fitness overhaul and loose a substantial amount of weight, or perhaps it just means that you want to be healthy.   Healthy of course means different things to different people.  For me healthy means that I’m watching my carbs, eating an appropriate amount of protein and vegetables and carefully watching my sugar intake.  For those of you that know me, I have the biggest sweet tooth!  It also means to me that I am active.  Active in the sense that I am doing some type of exercise, i.e. walking, bike riding, and swimming you get the picture.  Then there are all those other goals that you’d like to achieve, carefully placed on your timeline.

This year I hope that you will consider putting another type of Fitness on your list: Skin Fitness.  A good skin care regimen is essential for younger, healthy looking skin.  With all the ads in the marketplace it’s hard to know what direction to take.  Thus, to help you with your Skin Fitness goals, I’d like to direct you to one of the hottest tools to find out How Old You Skin Is and to Customize your Skin Care Regimen – eProfile.

Your skin care regimen should be designed to address your age specific needs.  Now we can determin the exact age of your skin and find your perfect regimen!!  ~ eProfile.

 

As your wrap up your goals take the time to take the Quiz and find out your skin’s age!  Visit my BeautiPage to get started.   It’s quick and you will be on your way to using the right products for your specific needs.  I welcome the opportunity to discuss your results.  Email me ~ I look forward to hearing from you.

Here’s to wishing you a Healthy & Joyous 2009!

  Smiles!

FashionStyleCoach,

Karen

 

Do-It-Yourself Manicure

Nails are critical to your overall appearance.

 

 Here are some tips to a Great Manicure!

Imagine that you are wearing a gorgeous dress with your hair all done up. You stroll in and then look at your hands… AAAhhhhhh!!!! Dirt underneath your nails and jagged edges! Need a do-it-yourself manicure, just follow these steps:

Steps to Follow:

1. File your nails with an emery board; Don’t use a clipper. Nails should be filed straight up at the sides, and not filed inward. The thinner your nail, the finer the emery board should be.
2. Cuticle softener should be applied to the edges of the nail. Massage in gently.
3. Soak your fingers in warm soapy water. If fingers are discolored or dirty, dissolve a tablet of denture cleanser into the water first.
4. Use a cuticle pusher/cutter to push the cuticle back.
5. Massage moisturizer all over your hands.
6. Remove any excess oil with a cotton ball and an astringent (like witch hazel or lemon juice). This is necessary to allow nail polish to go on smoothly without bubbling.
7. Apply a base coat and allow plenty of drying time (at least 30 minutes).
8. Brush on a one-coat polish. 

Smiles!

FashionStyleCoach,

Karen

Comments & Questions can be posted @  www.askbeautyquestions.com or

Click on the Comment tab below.

 

Got Clutter?

Look around….do you see clutter anywhere around you?  Some people are fortunate to be clutter free and orderly, but as I talk with women from all walks of life there are many that are surrounded by clutter.  Clutter can be something as simple as the mail piling up.  We get so much junk mail it’s not even funny.  Yet we feel the need to go through it and sort it. By the end of the week, if you don’t keep up with it, you’ve got clutter.  Other common places for clutter are your closet, your drawers, your purse and I could go on and on.  What does clutter have to do with makeovers?  In the postings Getting Your Closet Ready and How to Clean Your Closet we discuss the importance of keeping an orderly closet.  The goal is to be able to know what you have on hand in a glance so that you can enhance your look on the spot.  The same principles apply to other areas; thus I suggest you take the time to do those pesky makeovers.  It’s easy to think that a makeover is limited to a person, but we’ve already put it into play giving our closets a makeover.  If you haven’t already gone through this process I challenge you to take the time to go through the steps we discussed.  In the end you will have a tidy area which will inspire you to put together some great outfits.  We are deep into fall and soon we will be welcoming winter.  Why not a makeover?  Whether it’s your closet, your purse or yourself, I trust you’ll find that the creative you will slip out and be ready to greet winter.

Smiles!

FashionStyleCoach,

Karen

Comments & Questions can be posted @  www.askbeautyquestions.com or

Click on the Comment tab below.

From Closet Cleaning to Pampering your Skin

With the first day of winter only 7 weeks away, it may be a good idea to start preparing for some of the changes that our skin will be experiencing.  Now don’t get too upset with us Floridians.  While many of you will be preparing for dropping temperatures, sweaters and boots we will most likely still be in our shorts, tank tops and sandals.  Either way we both have to make some minor adjustments for this upcoming season.  Let’s take any undernourished, stressed out and perhaps overheated dermis and get it Beauti ready for any upcoming holidays and celebrations. 

• The first place to start is to Hydrate! Be an H2O Fanatic! Drink at least eight glasses of H2Oa day to insure healthy cleansing, inside and out.  This is critical to maintain skin wellness. 

Water is a Source of Life and Good Health!

• Moisturize as much as possible paying extra attention to elbows, heels and toes.  I’m going to provide you with some good treatments that are very effective!  These are the easiest to neglect since they are not usually on display in the colder months.  Be sure to visit the Must Haves for Summer!!! Category and read my article on the Perfect Summer Pedicure. There are some great tips for taking care of those tappin’ toes.  Eliminating this step can lead to dull, dry and even flaky skin.  Don’t forget that hands and nails are critical to your overall appearance.                                                      

Watch for Manicure tips!                                            

• Take a Vitamin E supplement.  Vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant that helps to protect cells from damaging `free radicals` which cause tissue breakdown and premature aging. Vitamin E has cell-protecting properties to help keep our skin healthy, while slowing the effects of the aging process.  You can use Vitamin E effectively internally and externally.  Watch for some innovative products that are easily obtained and provide you with maximum benefits.
• Keep lips moisturized by sporting a lip balm 24 - 7!  Dry lips are a result from diminished moisture in the skin.  Hydrating & Moisturizing is the key!!!!    .                                                      

Watch for the Beautiful Lip Series!                    

• Want to keep that great tan all year round?  You can build a smooth, even tan in just a few days.  I’m talking about a glowing, radiant, sun-kissed tan without UV rays damage.  A natural tan with all-day moisture for soft, silky skin.  It is essential to do a full-body scrub in order to achieve an even application when using your gradual tanner.  I have some cost effective scrub products, as well as some make yourself recipies.

 

We want to look like we have a Facialist so be sure to follow M+R+P for Total Skin Wellness.  Get your skin in shape!!  Start with a good skin care regimen for beautiful, youthful-looking skin.  Check out Your Daily Skin Care Regimen!  Regimens have been posted by age.  Want to be sure you skin is acting the same as your chronological age. Email me!!  

 

Post your beauty questions at www.askbeautyquestions.com 

 

My BeautiControl Story Continued

We had only been married a few years and I wasn’t in the habit of keeping things from him so this was a hard thing to do.  I wanted to tell him what I had done and better yet, I wanted to tell him how amazing these products were.  Somehow I convenience myself that in this circumstance it was okay to keep this little secret of mine, after all I was being frugal in other areas.  Oh, the webs we weave.  This would be an early “occasion” gift, I told myself.  Anything to rationalize the situation in my mind, but something incredible happened two weeks after I had made this questionable purchase that cemented my decision to use these products for the rest of my life.  Stay with me we will soon reach our destination.  Note I had been using my skin care regime for two full weeks.  I’ll never forget that beautiful chilly fall evening.  I often miss the change of seasons, unlike Virginia; we don't get to experience such in Florrida.  We were having great conversation about family and friends and discussing when our next trip home would be.  I often felt homesick since our closest family was 875 miles away.  When all of a sudden, my incredible husband says to me, “I don’t know what you are doing to your face, but it looks fantastic!  You need to keep doing whatever it is you are doing.”  I will never forget those words.  I was glowing and my husband had just said the most amazing thing to me.  Now I don’t know about the man in your life, but I could probably wear the same outfit for a week and my husband wouldn’t notice.  I was so touched that he had noticed the change in my skin!!!!  I was looking good and my skin was extraordinarily healthy!!!!  That was all the approval I needed.  I suspect that my hubby knew all along what I had done, although all these years he’s never made it known.  This story is among those that we remember with great affection.  At 40 something I am convinced that BeautiContol keeps by skin beautiful and youthful!!!  So I look forward to sharing these products with you so generations of women in your family can wake up to fabulous-looking skin as they are in mine. 

                                                      Smiles!

FashionStyleCoach,

Karen

Sign my guest book at www.fashionstylecoach.com then post your questions at www.askbeautyquestions.com!

My BeautiControl Story

BeautiControl is your skin care solution for a lifetime!  I can say that because of my personal story.  From 1992 to 1995, my husband and I lived in Virginia while he was in graduate school.  I was working as an Account Executive for MetLife and soon many of my clients became friends.  One client in particular and I became really good friends. Donna called me one afternoon to tell me about this new venture she was getting involved in. She was so excited she couldn’t contain herself.  I thought she was going to come through the telephone wires.  I hate to admit this, especially since I love these products so much, but as she was fitting in as much as she could on our call, I thought to myself the proverbial that’s nice…”is she really going to tell me all of this right this minute.”  I wondered, as I was listening to her, how I was going to tell her that I wasn’t interested.  I didn’t even know what I wasn’t interested in; after all, I didn’t even know the company much less anything about the products.  Nonetheless, I wanted to be courteous to one of my best clients and referral sources so I accepted her invitation.  Little did I know it would transform my skin into beautiful, youthful skin!!!  Well I arrived over to her lovely ranch style home under the pretense that she needed to practice before her first show.  I’ve been in sales most of my adult life; can you believe I fell for that?  LOL!!  Anyway, I went to Donna’s that mid afternoon in the fall of 1993 and she shared the product line with me.  I left her home that day with a bag full of goodies.  Okay it was a good size bag which was filled with my appropriate skin care regimen, eye shadow, blush, lip color, foundation and eye and lip pencils.  Remember, I told you that my husband was in graduate school.  I was the only one working and we certainly had not budgeted for such an expense.  As I drove out of her community, I pondered if I had made a wise purchase decision.  Should I tell my hubby that I just made this couple hundred dollars purchase that was not in our budget?  You guessed it…NO GUTS!!!  Over the next week I carefully tucked away my purchase not making my purchase visible to him.  Have you ever been there?

 To be continued……..

Smiles!

FashionStyleCoach,

Karen

 

Hair Care

All hair care products don't always work well on all hair types (normal, fine, dry, oily, permed, colored). Chances are what works for your best friend may not work for you. Products really do help style hair, hold a set longer, give lift and protect your hair. It is important to read labels! Try several brands to determine the product that makes your hair shine and feel great!

Did you know that bangs are in style again? To ensure picture-perfect bangs, try this:

• For large features, have bangs cut wider

• For delicate features, narrow or wide bangs will work

• To style, mist bangs with a volumizing hairspray and blow smooth with a paddle brush.

Here’s a quick conditioning trick that you’re going to love! If your spending any quite time out by the pool then let the sun work in your favor.  Grab your Therma Del Sol Olive Butter Body Balm, slather your hair with it and relax!! Enjoy a good book, catch up with your magazine reading or better yet, write someone special a letter.  This is one of the best deep conditioning treatments.  From our luxury Italian Collection this is just one of the many ways to use this body balm.  

 

Here's something to consider, how about looking for ingredients from your kitchen to cleanse, exfoliate and nourish your hair.  Elaine D'Farley, Self Magazine's Beauty Director calls it the Shiny-Hair Screwdriver.  I was watching one of the episodes of She's Got the Look! on TV Land when I ran to jot the recipe down.  Here are those kitchen ingredients:  Avacado, Vodka and Oranges.  The avacado is filled with vitamins and is nourishing to your hair.  The Vodka will strip buildup and the oranges are a cleansing agent.    "The key to making your hair shine is to get rid of impurities (via cleansing and exfoliating) and then hydrate to bring in fullness and radiance. With this in mind I decided to have the She's Got the Look candidates whip up SELF’s simple recipe."

"Here’s the recipe" for the Shiny-Hair Screwdriver

Peel of 1 navel orange, chopped
1/2 avocado
1 tablespoon vodka
1 teaspoon avocado oil (found at health food stores)

Boil 1 cup water, add orange peel and steep 30 minutes. Puree peel and water in a blender, then add avocado, vodka and oil and blend. Massage into clean, towel-dried hair, working from roots to tips to fully coat strands. Cover with a shower cap 25 minutes; rinse, then lightly shampoo and condition.

--Elaine D’Farley, SELF Beauty Director

Found on http://forums.tvland.com/tvln/

Message Edited by Karen on 9-25-2008 11:35 PM

Summer Pedicure

                

                                            Perfect Summer Pedicure

Most of us wear sandals or some type of open toe shoe in the summer.  Let me guess one of the most popular concerns women face is Rough Feet.  I have three words – SAVE YOUR SOLEÔ!!  Here are a few steps to get you sandal ready in no time.   

Step 1

Remove your polish with non-acetone remover (Acetone dries out your nail and cuticle.) If you have dark polish that has become stubborn, try soaking a cotton ball in remover and holding on top of nail for 20 seconds. Then, gently start rubbing across nail to remove polish.  Cut nails across with a larger nail clipper. File them with a medium grain file into a square shape to avoid ingrown toenails.

Step 2

Apply the Ebb & Flow Foot Softening Foot Spray all over the feet.  This product contains potent enzymes that will eat away the dead skin as your feet are marinating in the spray.  Your feet are going to get warm and turn a little red.  This is normal and is a clear indication that there is some work that needs to be done.  Leave on the skin for a bit (at least 5 minutes or as long as 10).

Step 3

Now dampen the skin and apply the Sea Sand Foot & Leg Scrub.

This self-heating scrub is a treat and works after the enzyme spray to

physically remove the dead skin cells that the enzymes have

dissolved.   Massage into skin then rinse with warm water.  It will

leave you with smooth, polished feet.

Step 4

Afterwards, apply the Rich Sea Salve for Feet.  This is a great product for penetrating even the roughest skin to rehydrate compacted skin.  This product is also great if you have dry knees, ankles, etc.  LOVE IT!

Step 5

To make your pedicure last, wipe each nail with nail polish remover before applying polish. This rids the nail bed of all oil making it easier for your polish to adhere to the nail.

Step 6

Apply a thin layer of a base-coat. Next, brush two thin coats of polish on your nails. Start with one stroke up the left side of the nail, one up the right and then one up the center. Next, apply a layer of a high gloss topcoat. 

Brows

No two arches are the same.  I've always had thick eyebrows that required a lot of maintenace or I could easily be confused with Taz.  When I was younger I wasn't very appreciative of those thick high maintenace brows.  My uncle use to always tell me that I looked like Elizabeth Taylor.  I don't know about that, but certainly my eyebrows resembled her's.  Now,I absolutely love my brows!! Yes, they are still high maintenace, but once I learned "my ideal shape" it was just a matter of maintaining them.  How about I pass some grooming guidelines?  It all starts with the essentials of taking care of your brows to find your ideal shape.  Start by Picking your Method for shaping!

There are several options; tweezing, waxing and threading.  My personal preference is to wax and fine tune my shape with tweezers.  Perhaps it's because no mater how painful waxing can be, I've used this method for so many years.   Waxing is when hot wax is applied and a strip of cloth is applied and then ripped off, taking the hairs with it. You decide which way you want to wax.  You can do it in the privacy of your home by purchasing a home waxing kit from a beauty store or you can go to a salon and have your eyebrows waxed. Waxing can last up to 4 to 6 weeks. A few cautions with waxing:  (1) the wax can be too hot and cause burning or begin to age the skin; (2) the top layer of the hair can be damaged or removed in the process; and (3) over time this can cause wrinkles and fine lines.

Threading is a another method.  I have a girlfriend that swears by it.  If you are not familiar with threading, it is a thin string used to remove a line of hair at a time.  The thread is twisted and rolled along the surface of the skin.  Entwining the hairs in the thread and lifting them out from the follicle.  Threading can last up to 2 to 4 weeks.  The difficulty with threading is finding a professional threader in smaller cities. 

Tweezing can be very painful and may cause ingrown hairs. Tweezers are used to remove one hair at a time.   If you are watching your budget is the way to go.  Tweezing your eyebrows is a great option in between waxing appointments too.  One of the great benefits of tweezing is it creates a natural look and you get great precision! You might be thinking...but it's painful.  Here's a trick my aunt taught me when I first started tweezing, and I still do it today, storeyour tweezers in the freezer so you numb the skin as you pluck.  Make sure you have good lighting so you can see all the hairs  After tweezing, soothe your eyes and reduce redness with a cold cucumber.  We don't eat a lot of cucumbers at our house, thus, I opt for BeautiControls' spa Nourishing Eye Pads.  I keep mine in the refrigerator .  Two of my favorite ingredients in the nourishing eye pads is the Witch Hazel Distilla which invigorates, restores, refreshes and stimulates the skin and I get the benefits of the the cold cucumber I mentioned earlier.  The nourishing eye pads also contain Cucumber Extract thats naturally derived botanical helps balance the skin's PH. Soothes, cools and refreshs the skin.  It's a must have for the eyes!!!
 

 

 

 

 

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