Winter Lips

Winter is officially upon us and it's time for holiday parties! With so many events happening, we know it is hard to take much time to get ready... so we would like to suggest using LIPSTICK as a fabulous tool to help you look festive in the blink of an eye!

Here are some tips and lipstick ideas to help you out. 

We prepped our lips with fresh - Sugar Lip Polish to help get dead skin off and moisturize our lips. It's made with sugar so it's tasty too :)

If you are going for a more glam look.....

Use an Estée Lauder pencil in Plum Writer (discontinued) to outline your lips.  This is a burgundy hue so any nice red/purple will do.  

Fill in lips completely with the liner.

Using MAC - Viva Glam II lipstick... (a gorgeous tan color... perfect for winter and holidays!)

Apply all over the lips, covering the liner.  The purple mixed with the tan creates a stunning look, dramatic but not harsh.

To finish off the look, Angela used MAC Dazzleglass in Phiff! It's part of their holiday Nocturnals Lip Gloss: Nude box set.

And here you have a beautiful Mauve Holiday lip... We can guarantee that you won't see this one much, so try it out!

If you are going for a more poppy look....

Outline your lips with MAC - Magenta lip liner

Don't completely fill in the lips... Just shad the corners and blend.

Marianne chose her favorite color right now MAC - Candy Yum-Yum

Apply the lipstick all over

Then go back with the lip pencil and define the edges to give it a solid line.  This helps prevent the lip color from bleeding.

She likes to pull her lips in to make sure the peaks are even and symmetrical.

It's a fun bold lip wearable for any occasion!

We hope you got some good ideas from this!  Go outside the typical Holiday red's and try these fun, different colors for the holidays!

Let us know how it goes!

Angela & Marianne

Halloween: Día de los Muertos

We know this is a little bit late, but we had so much fun creating this Halloween look, we had to share!

 For our family Halloween party we didn't have costumes but we definitely have make up so we decided to go for a more makup-intense look. Unfortunately we didn't take step by step photos (because we didn't know how it would turn out lol) but we got some close ups so hopefully they help. 

The beginning is pretty simple. Start by drawing two black circles around your eyes. Make sure to go all the way around your eyebrows. On Angela, we didn't do this and it looked a little weird so we went back and filled in all the way on top of her brow. We used MAC Blacktrack eyeliner but any liner will do.

We then filled in our noses with different shapes to give the look personality. Just try to keep it symmetrical. 

For the ruffles around the eyes, we each chose a color, Marianne = turquoise and Angela = red and then took Sephora black liquid liner and did small half circles. We only did the lower half of our eye but you can go all around. 

The rest of the face is free-hand time! We did swirls and angles to resemble a skeleton (cheek bones) and added our accent color throughout.

For the lips, we used a white eye liner pencil (NYC from Walmart) to line and fill them in. 

Using the Blacktrack liner and a fine brush, we did lines vertically down the lips (extending onto the skin) to give the illusion of teeth. We then took the brush from the corners of our mouth and dragged the liner out into any kind of shape! It's all about art here! 

For the chin, we each chose a shape and, again, free-handed and colored in designs.  We added some sparkle throughout with liquid liner and just like that we were señoritas from death! 

Use your own creativity and just have fun with it! 

Fall braided hairstyle

Here is a great hair look inspired by the Fall/Winter 2013 Rodarte show (left). We recreated this on Angela and was surprised by how easy it is (right).

1) Curl hair by wrapping sections around iron keeping it random to create an undone texture.


2) Braid two sections from part back. Connect them with a clear elastic in the center back of head.


3) Loosely braid tail and wrap it in a circular motion to create the rosette. Pin as you wrap to hold in place.


4) Take a section of hair from under the rosette and braid down. Secure at bottom with a clear elastic.

5) Curl any hair that needs to be touched up and finish with hairspray. 

Hope you enjoy!

Falsies! False Lash Application (Singles)

How many of you have ever had eyelash extensions?  We used to get them and absolutely loved them, but realized it was quite an expensive habit and we didn't need them all of the time.  We have discovered a way to get the look of eyelash extensions, but only for a few days and at about 1/10 of the cost! 

Today we are going to show you how to apply false lashes.  However, we are not using the typical falsies where you know they are fake because the corners are peeling off mid sentence!  We are going to show you how to use singles.  This makes for a much more natural look, and you can CHOOSE the lash intensity.

So, here we go! You can apply the false lashes before or after you do your makeup. We like to apply them after, beacuse when you put on your eyeshadow, it can fall onto your lashes and then they lose the clean look that you want.  Angela started with all of her makeup done except mascara.  She put a light nude eyeshadow on and a thin black liner on top, creating a very simple look (as we want the lashes to be the main attraction!).

Prep lashes by curling them and brushing one coat of mascara on top lashes.  Get the mascara as close to the roots as possible so the glue has something to bond with.

 

*The brand of lashes we used is Ardell Professional Individuals and the glue is Andrea Perma-Lash Eyelash Adhesive, both purchased at Sally's. We used the medium length lash on the outer half and the short length on the inner half. When we go out we usually use the long, medium, and short to get a really dramatic look! :)

Using whichever length your prefer, pick up lash with tweezers and dip end into glue.  Be careful not to get too much glue, just on the end and the tip. If you do get a lot, the bond to your lash will be too strong and pull your real lashes out! OUCH!! This did happen to us last time and it was not fun haha!  You can use black or clear glue, but I suggest you use the clear, it is a cleaner look.

 

 Let the glue sit on lash for about 5 seconds and blow on it a little to make the glue sticky. It's pretty runny and doesn't seem like glue but this is what makes it a clean application.

 

 Apply the lash to the outside corner, at the root of your real lashes.  Set it on the lash, watching the angle so it looks natural, and then gently push it in place with the point of your tweezers. This will make it look very natural and beautiful! If, when applying, the glue feels wet or stings your eye, try to make sure the lash is in the right position and then fan your eye while it is closed or have someone blow on it for you. The sting will go away.

  We applied about 5 medium length clusters to the outer half placing them with just a little space inbetween. If you want the lashes to be thick, place the clusters closer together. It will be different for everyone so just experiment and play around with the look you want. We kept Angela's pretty natural looking.

 

When reaching halfway, you can stop here and do a pretty "cat eye", going for a '60's mod look (Mar's personal fave!!) or continue to the inner corner, as we did on Angela.

 

Once we got halfway we started to use the short length clusters. Naturally our lashes thin out closer to the inner corner, so you'll have to open your eye and see where you want the lash to be placed, because you still want it to look natural, but not have these amazing outter lashes and no inner lashes. So just try to make it a uniform look, pointing the lash at an angle at which it would naturally grow.

The glue may make your eyes a bit red (Angela has extremely sensitive eyes) but just fan them and after a few minutes the redness will go away. 

I had Angela open her eyes a lot between applications because I wanted to make sure I was getting them placed right and it was looking good.  If you keep your eye closed the entire time, you may see mistakes when you open them at the end, but then it is too late to fix because the glue has already set!  So you will feel some burning and stinging if you are opening during, but it's okay, pain is beauty, right?!

The finished product turned out really great!!!  As I said before, if I were going out on the town, I would put long lashes on the outter corner.  But for today's look we kept it NATURRALLLL! 

 Compare this to the picture at the beginning.  Lashes make such a difference!  This took us a total of about 20 minutes and they will last 3 days because of the amount of glue we used.

Here are a few more pictures so you can see the angles and lengths.

We finished the look by putting a blue liner on Angela's waterline, and a natural lip color.  We also got a highlighting eyeshadow (any light shimmer will do) and put it in the tear duct, brow bone, and right under the outter edge of her eye.  Yay for lashes!  Let us know how this works for you!

--Marianne & Angela

Winter Skin Protector- Vitamin E Oil

Is anyone else seeing their skin's overall wellness take a drastic hit this season? 

I have noticed a serious difference in the dryness, texture and appearance of my face since October, and not a good one.  My skin has literally been peeling and flaking off, the texture feels like sandpaper, and I'm pretty sure the black bags under my eyes have gotten blacker and those darn wrinkles have gotten deeper (not kidding).  And to make things worse, last week Marianne told me my pores were looking bigger.  I cried a little inside! She told me I should probably start using a face serum.

A WHAT???  My skin is extremely sensitive when it comes to the products I use, so I have never been one to regularly put night cream or even lotion on my face.  And now I should start putting a serum on my face?  That sounded like a breakout waiting to happen.  I decided to do a little experimenting.  In our bathroom cupboard, we have a "skin" shelf and I knew there were some bottles in the back that I had never tried.  I took a good look at all of them, but could not bring myself to intentionally slather unknown chemicals all over my face.  I saw rashes, breakouts and disaster in my future.

SO.... I had a thought.  Why not take what I already use, and just use it in a different way? 

In 2009, Marianne and I were at Smith's, and saw liquid vitamin E oil.  We had both heard of "vitamin E" but had never really paid much attention to it.  We were at the age, though, where we knew we should probably start taking better care of our skin, so we picked this bottle up for about $8 and haven't looked back.  

 So, folks, meet my favorite skin protector- VITAMIN E OIL

How I use:  Squeeze a dime size amount into hand and rub between palms. Lightly apply all over face, focusing under the eyes and on cheeks.  Also around mouth and on lips.

  

 

For the last 3 years I have been using the oil on my face, but only when I get out of the shower.  That is when my skin seems to be the driest, and I felt like if I used it any other time (after my skin got its moisture back) it would just make it too oily and cause a breakout.  But last week, I decided to try something new with the oil. 

After I took my makeup off, I looked in the mirror (somewhat horrified) and could not deal with the flaky skin around my mouth, the weathered skin on my cheeks, and the terrible wrinkles screaming at me from under my eyes any longer.  That was it.  I took a dime size of vitamin E oil, rubbed it all over my face and went to bed.  To be honest, I was terrified imagining what I may wake up to the next morning!  I was just waiting for pools of oil on my forehead or a breakout around my mouth.  

But, to my very pleasant surprise, when I woke up, my skin was smooth and the dry, flaky texture had disappeared.  I could have cried (this time from happiness, of course)!  I could not believe I hadn't broken out!  So I kept this up for the next few nights, and added an under eye serum to assist in the wrinkle department, and I have to say, just after a week of this little regimen, my skin is a different animal.  My face is looking brighter and healthier, noticeably CLEARER, Marianne told me my pores are looking smaller, and I can actually put on powder without pieces of my face flaking off.  

As I thought about this experiment, I tried to figure out what the scary skin change was from.  Age?  Climate?  Was I not giving enough attention to my skin?  I hadn't changed anything in my routine, and then I realized, that was precisely the problem.  As we get older, we change and therefore we must change our habits and routines to adapt to these natural changes.  As I said before, ever since I was a teen I had just been keeping my skin as dry as possible in order to prevent breakouts.  

Dry skin is NOT the answer.  I guess I thought that if I could continue to dry my skin out (the climate was definitely helping me out with that one), then I would be good to go the rest of my life.  That was not the case.  Skin needs moisture to be able to look its best.

Here are a few benefits of Vitamin E oil I thought were interesting:

• A wonderful benefit of vitamin E oil is that it can be used to treat scars, acne, and wrinkles because it speeds up cell regeneration. This creates an anti-aging effect, which makes the skin look younger. Vitamin E oil benefits the skin by helping it retain its natural moisture content. Vitamin E oil makes dull-looking, dry skin look healthier and fresher.  (More info here)

• Vitamin E oil provides the skin with necessary moisture as well as antioxidants for intense healing.  An intense vitamin E oil bedtime therapy is ideal for concentrated skin healing and preservation.  (More info here)

• Topical application of Vitamin E oil promotes production of two important protein components namely, collagen and elastin that improves skin elasticity. This in turn reduces the appearances of the visible age spots, fine lines or wrinkles and gives you a younger looking skin. Its antioxidant properties further fight off damaging effects of free radicals and minimizes the chances of appearances of new wrinkles.  (More info here)
  
  Remember, try to get vitamin E through your diet as well.  Avocados and nuts are a great source.  Try this out and let me know how it goes!  Thanks for reading!
  
  --Angela
  
  

Double Front Braid

We are totally loving braids this season!  It is a great way to add personality to your hair and SO easy.  Today we are going to show you how to do a "double front braid" perfect for long and short hair. Angela will be the model for today so don't mind her dark roots, it just adds dimension, right?! ;) 

Prep your hair to your likings, i.e. straight, curl, natural, etc. We parted Angela's hair over a little further than usual because we like that look with braids and it just gives you more space to show off your braid :)

Take a section of hair on the back half of the part (about 1x1 inch) and separate into three to start the braid. I did about 3 or 4 inside braids before actually picking up hair to create the french look.

 

Continue that pattern till about 2 inches above the ear.  This will make the braid less uniform and thin because you're not picking up as much hair. This was the look we wanted so if you want a more clean and uniform look go ahead and pick up hair every time you cross!

Once you stop the french, finish the braid off and secure. You can use a small elastic or I just used a bobby pin because it will only be temporary.

Begin second braid (just like the first) leaving you bangs or the section of hair closest to the hair line out. This will give you more of a soft look. If you want your hair out of your face, you can braid it all.

Again adding hair to the braid about every 3 or 4 patterns. I am getting the hair from underneath the braids rather picking it up from the sides. We can do this because we aren't picking up hair every time and this will allow the braids to be closer together.

Stopping the french pattern about 1 inch above the ear for the front braid and continuing the braid down to the end.

Section off the back hair, middle hair (hair between the braids), and front hair.

Pin the back braid so it is secure against the head and low enough to be covered by the loose hair.

I like to use two bobby pins and cross them like an "X" so they wont slip and will be secure.

Using the same technique pin the front braid down just above/behind ear in an "X" so it will be tight and hidden. You will want to keep the middle section of loose hair out because that is what will cover and hide your bobby pins.

Adjust lose hair over the bobby pins and it should fall naturally over the bobby pins. If not pull the braid back and under the hair a little more.

Finish with a little tease at the crown and spray to hold.

You can see that the braided sections of hair are not clean and distinct. I think it looks better this way. We've tried it before using clean parted sections and an outside braid but it looked like "corn rows" and that was not the look we were going for!

 It looks great pulled back into a pony as well, so play with it and have fun!

Thanks for visiting!

~ Angela and Marianne