Tip-Full Tuesday: Moving Stress

Tomorrow was supposed to be our moving day! Which means that I have been feeling very stressed and overwhelmed with getting everything packed up (and EVERYTHING is packed up - just waiting to find out when the "real" move day is lol) - so I felt like it was appropriate to post on moving stress and tips on how to avoid it. It may not be blatantly obvious that this is related to beauty, but it is.

Stress effects us all in very different ways and our skin and physical appearance knows it very well. For me, I lose weight like nobody's business (contrary to popular belief, this is NOT a good thing), I get headaches pretty constantly, I'm exhausted all the time,I break out regardless of my skin care routine and I get anxiety over everything.  Other effects of stress include:depression, hair loss, weight gain, ulcers, and many others.


So how do we avoid stress? Well, unfortunately we don't and we can't, but we can do our best to prepare for it.  As we started on this journey, I knew how I'd react towards the end so I started preparing early.

• If you're prone to anxiety or OCD (re)actions, start a list of things to do - this helps with seeing that you are actually accomplishing something on paper
• Start packing early. I started a month in advance and started with all the little things that don't really have a home - this helps with the final packing days and not trying to figure out where a logical place for them to go is. 
• Come up with a plan! I found this blog to be very helpful when we started packing
• Keep your bedroom clean - a nice place to retreat to at the end of the night is relaxing.
• Stay on top of laundry - if you're like me, you will want to wear your comfy clothes and it's a hard thing to do when they're all in the wash. 
• Light candles
• Eat healthy 
• Take a moment for yourself and take deep breaths when you need to. 
• Get out and enjoy the outside if you can 
• Go to bed at a decent time
• Exercise, the endorphins will help.  
• Ask for and accept help

And, when all else fails - make some popcorn, grab some chocolate and enjoy a movie while you regain your sanity. 

I hope that if you're moving, you have as stress-free of a move that you can!

Lipstick & loves

Tip-full Tuesday: Cleaning Makeup Brushes

Happy Tuesday! I was on a photo shoot recently for a new model and she asked me why I had a big bottle of brush cleaner with me. This launched us into a some-what lengthy discussion of the importance of cleaning brushes that are used on clients as well as the ones that are used for personal use. She quickly exclaimed "Oh gosh! I NEVER clean my brushes! Is that why I break out all the time?"

Well, I can't say that it is the sole reason that she has acne break outs, it may very well be a contributing factor. Brushes that don't get washed regularly have a build up of makeup, facial oil, and bacteria in and on them. This can definitely lead to acne breakouts as well as altering the color and effectiveness of the product and causing the brush to feel rough on your skin.

If you look on the internet there are TONS of blogs and websites with information on how to clean brushes, so here's another one.

There are two ways that I clean my brushes.
For my work brushes, I clean them immediately after each client with either, MAC's or Cinema Secret's brush cleanser and sanitizer and once or twice a week (depending on how busy I have been), I deep clean them with a shampoo.
For my personal brushes, I clean them about every other week.


To clean your brushes with MAC's/CS's cleanser:

• Get a towel you don't care for or paper towels & pour out some of the brush cleaner into a small cup
• Carefully dip the bristles of brush into the cleanser - making sure not to get the metal where the bristles meet the handle wet.
• Bring your brush along the towel in a sweeping motion, until it no longer leaves any product on the towel. Add more cleanser as you need

Lots of product build up on my personal brushes

All Clean!

 To clean your brushes with shampoo:

• Fill a cup with warm water
• Carefully dip the bristles of the brush into the cup, being sure not to get the metal where the bristles meet the handle wet. 
• Keep holding it bristles down, take a small amount of shampoo (I use the shampoo I use on my hair - UNITE Eurotherapy) and gently massage it into the bristles. 
• Rinse with water, careful to avoid the handle getting wet
• Lay flat and reshape the bristles to dry - drying time varies - some take a half hour, some take overnight.

 Happy Cleaning!

Tip-Full Tuesday: Gel and Liquid Liners

Hello Lovelies,
Kaity S. e-mailed me this question:

"Hi Sara. I recently bought new a gel and liquid eyeliner to try out. My pencil has felt really waxy lately in the Arizona heat. What is the beat way to apply these kinds of eyeliners? When I try, the libe is never straight.  Thank you for your help, Katie S."

 Thank you Katie for asking this question! I personally love gel and liquid liners - the color is much more dramatic than a pencil.

For gel liners, you want to get either an angled liner brush or a bent liner brush. Put as little of the gel liner on the brush, it's always better to start with less and add more. When applying to your eyelid, get the brush as close to the lash live as you can. Start in the middle of your lash line, and using short strokes work your way to the outer corner of your eye. Next, repeat the small strokes starting at the inner corner and connect it to it the rest of the line.  The reason  for doing the inner corner last is because the brush will have less product on it which is important due to the smaller area you have to work with.

Similarly, when applying liquid liner you want to use shorter strokes, starting at the center and working your way out and then going back to the inner corner and connecting to the rest of the line.

Happy Tuesday,
Sara

Tip-Full Tuesday: Makeup for Monolid Eyes

I love asian eyes - I think they are absolutely beautiful and so much fun to make up, however, I get a lot of girls asking how to apply makeup to asian/monolid eyes. 

So here we go:

• You always want to apply primer to your lids like MAC's Prep & Prime Eye or TooFaced's Shadow Insurance. (Both are phenomenal products)
•  Using a flat stiff brush, sweep a dark shadow over the entire lid, creating a round shape up to the crease (I prefer to use something with a little shimmer to it like MAC's "Smut" or "Twinks")
• Blend out with a champagney or peachy pink color (MACs "Dazzle Light" & "Honey Lust" are favorites as well as Bare Escentuals "Trust") - making an upside down "u" shape...and blend blend blend
• Go back with the darker color and blend
• Highlight the brow bone with a highlighter color - (MAC's Vanilla, Brule, Dazzlelight)
• To "round" the eye, take a lighter shimmery color and apply to the middle of the lid. 
• Using an angled liner brush, smudge black shadow (MAC's Carbon or Tuxedo) along the lash line, blending it out to soften the line.
• Using the angled liner brush, take the dark shadow you used on the lid and smudge on the outer half of the lower lash line - this will open up the eyes. 
•  If you would like, use a lighter shimmery color and apply to the inner half of the lower lash line.

July Newsletter

Hello Beautiful,
I finally e-mailed out this months newsletter (a week late due to craziness) and I the wrong photo uploaded for the product launch section! Agh! I could kick myself. The current photo shows Beth Ditto, but it should be a photo of Carine Roitfeld.

Photo by the amazing Mario Sorrenti

My sincere apologies on that colossal mistake!

 

Newsletter

My sincere apologies, but this month's newsletter will be late. It will hopefully be out by this weekend.

Mother ofbthe Groom: Barbara

On Saturday, I had the pleasure of meeting Barbara and her vacation rental here in the East Valley, as she prepared to welcome a new daughter into her family - her son's soon-to-be wife. Barbara was a lot of fun - very sweet and very happy for her son. I got to hear all the stories of her sob's courtship with her (now) daughter-in-law, the proposal, wedding plans. I always find it to be heart warming to hear the happy stories from parents or in-laws. You can just hear the joy in the voices saying, this is my son and this is what he did with his life after we raised him right OR this is my daughter and she's found a man who loves and respects her...

Barbara's dress was phenomenal; a champagnes-y color who an exquisite copper jacket with just a touch of bling- I wish I had gotten a photo of it. Her hair and makeup accentuated her inner beauty. She was really lovely.


Unfortunately, my phone is holding those photos hostage at the moment, but if I can get them off I will definitely post them.


Congratulations, Barbara, on your son getting married and congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs. Baker. I wish you all the best