Lifestyle Choices

As with textile fashion, jewelry from most time periods evokes a certain set of images. Often, those images are an exaggeration of a few elements that were popular at that time. We remember the poodle skirts, and it will be hard to forget the belly button rings.

In fact, often when you create jewelry with the feel of a time period, it may seem to capture the essence of an era better than an authentic item from the time period. (more…)

If you’re heavy, that doesn’t banish you from the realm of style and chic. You can still cultivate your good looks by following some key points:

• Look for separates in soft, fluid fabrics—silk, wool challis, rayon that gracefully drape, not hug, your figure. Avoid nubby textures that add bulk, clingy cotton or heavy cable knits, thick tweeds.

• Wear whatever colors suit your hair and skin, but stick to one or two colors at most and select the deepest variation of the shade: deep teal rather than pale seagreen; dusky rose rather than pastel pink. Avoid metallic fabrics, neon shades.

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Never underestimate the statement-making impact of the right shoes; the right pair can really carry your look! Never before have there been so many shapes, styles, materials, and colors from which to choose. Study the list below; how many of these do you own?

• Ballerina flats. Round-toed, flat pumps that are graceful and flattering for all but the very shortest of girls. Have several pair in a variety of colors to meet almost any fashion need, from prom dress to toreador pants.
• D’Orsay pump. A strapless, slip-on shoe with a wedge-shaped heel that widens at top, then tapers to a point.
• Espadrille. A flat shoe with a canvas upper and a flexible, rope or hemp sole. A great summer choice. Try a pair that lace up your ankles teamed with a long, flowing skirt.

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In browsing through stores and reading magazines, you will find that nail polish is available in dozens and dozens of delightful colors, from sultry wines, scarlets, and mahoganies to berry brights, creamy pastels, and shimmering iridescents. How to decide on the colors that are right for you? Read on!

• The Brights.Clear tones of scarlet, rose, pink, coral, tomato, and tangerine. To wear these colors, your nails should be medium length to long, well shaped, strong, and resist chipping and flaking. Brights look well on fair to medium skin tones. These colors are not the best choice, however, if you frequently engage in activities that cause chipping, such as typing or swimming. Also avoid them if your fingers are short or stubby; bold, bright tones will only accentuate the shape.

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Light Draws the Eye

Highlighter is a powerful tool when it is used wisely. When carelessly or wrongly applied, it can make a face look positively absurd. The best highlighters are not white. Bone white is too harsh. Instead choose a pale ivory foundation to use as a lightener on the areas of the face you wish

The Eyes Have it

For most women, one of their best features is the eyes. Perhaps this is because eyes reveal so much of what goes on inside one. Makeup for eyes should emphasize this and show off the eyes‘ beauty and color. It should never be applied gratuitously, as it often is. (more…)

Every good makeup begins with a water-in-oil moisturizer and a sunscreen lavishly applied over clean skin and then given a chance to settle in. It is rather like making a mayonnaise. You can’t rush things. You need to wait for your skin to take to the moisturizer before you put on your foundation; otherwise you will end up with a flawed finish and your makeup will not last. “Taking” time is usually about two minutes.

Many Moisturizers

In addition to the ordinary moisturizers, there are also tinted ones on the market. These products are halfway between moisturizers and foundations. They impart some color and also provide you with some measure of protection from water loss. In France they are often called creme sport, because they can be worn, by women who ordinarily would not want to cover their skin with a foundation, for instance during a tennis match. They give a very light cover but can be a nice way of simply adding a healthy glow to your skin. Some of them also contain sunscreens. (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…)

The brushes you use, the sponges and absorbent cotton, and even your mirror and lighting are all-important in getting good results from your makeup products. You need to acquire a collection of them, keeping your tools immaculately clean and using them every time you put on

your makeup. It is always tempting to put on an eye shadow with your finger or to apply powder with a dirty puff, but the results are never good, and the makeup you put on that way doesn’t last as long as it should. Also, many of the little padded wands and brushes supplied with eye shadows and cheek colors look great in their compacts but won’t really do the job of applying colors properly. And once any applicator wand or brush is dirty, you will never get good, smooth application from it. (more…)

When you use makeup, you are practicing the age-old art of illusion. But the illusions makeup offers you are subtle ones, not complete changes of character, age, and coloring. Try to achieve that, and you carry the use of makeup too far; then, instead of being your friend, it will suddenly become an enemy and make you look foolish, too old, or simply less well than you could look. So the first rule of good makeup is simple: Never try to change your face with it.

After that has been said and after you have come to terms with the fact that whether or not you like it, your jaw is square or your eyes small or your skin a different color from what you ideally would like, then there is a lot you can do with color to make you look better. And that, after all, is what making up your face is all about. Whether you are after a freshly scrubbed, natural look (which incidentally takes a lot more artifice to achieve than you might imagine) or a more elaborate-looking, sophisticated face, the makeup you choose and the way you apply it should make you look more attractive, more interesting, healthier, and simply more yourself. (more…)