Lifestyle Choices

Scent is a passion. For me it is an irresistible one. And like a beautiful painting or a well-written novel, a fine perfume is a work of art. Wearing one can be a vivid expression of a woman’s feeling and intention. For scent is not only a delight to indulge in, it also carries one of the most potent beauty messages you will ever send out. Change the scent you wear and you can change the way you feel, the image you project, the mood you want to set. If I had little money to spend on beauty products, I could do without makeup altogether and would buy only the simplest creams and lotions, but I would never stop buying scent—bottles and sprays of it, sachets to put into drawers and cupboards, oils to drop on pads laid on heated surfaces which waft their perfumes into the air. Scent has always had magic to it. (more…)

The Products

Makeup products offer you two things: coverage, which to some extent will conceal minor flaws and blemishes in your skin, and most important, color. There are literally hundreds of different makeup products on the market. From the amount of advertising that accompanies the launch of each of them—the new wand-lipstick or foam cheek color or moisture- encapsulated powder—you would assume that to do a good job of making up her face a woman needs all of them. You don’t. In fact you need very few.

Neither do colors change a great deal from season to season, in spite of the fact that each cosmetic house brings out new autumn or spring collections. If you gather together a simple range of shades for eyes, cheeks, and lips that you know look good on you, there is no reason to replace half of them with each new season’s arrivals. Yes, there might be the new shade of fuchsia lipstick which you fancy or a new-formula foundation (foundations seem to get better and better each couple of years), but the quality of a makeup product is not dependent on its price, although the package—including the little compacts, mirrors, and applicators—is usually better the more you pay. (more…)