beauty FOOL

Pick of the Week: Josie Maran Cosmetics Tinted Moisturizer SPF 30

Renee — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:59:21 +0000

Who? Josie Maran Cosmetics

Huh? Tinted Moisturizer SPF 30

Say what? A protective and preventative lightweight moisturizer, sheer foundation, and sunscreen in one, it protects against both UVA and UVB rays. The slight tint provides the perfect level of sheer coverage for a flawless, natural complexion.
The formula features Josie’s signature ingredient—100% pure organic Argan Oil—to replenish and repair skin cells while softening and easing fine, dry lines. An antioxidant that acts as a free radical scavenger, Argan Oil protects the skin from even the most aggressive effects of the environment.

Why? I’ve been curious about Josie Maran’s organic cosmetic line and I definitely prefer tinted moistirizer than foundation. I also like how it’s healthy for the skin since it’s organic and has a high SPF. (In my review of Laura Mercier’s tinted moisturizer, I mentioned how I’d like to look for a healthier, organic alternative).

Why not? The only thing I’m weary about is the argan oil – I don’t like the sound of oil on my face! And plus, I recently read this post by Beautiful with Brains that said argan oil can clog pores and therefore cause breakouts. What do you think?

What are Toxic Friends and How Do I Get Rid of Them?

Renee — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:11:24 +0000

Since my post on BF’s first anniversary, I have been pretty sick. I mentioned in that post that I had an ‘inner ear virus’ that caused me to get dizzy, feel nauseous, and basically have this sick feeling that I am constantly moving.

To put a long story short, it never really went away after 3 different rounds of medication. During that time, more symptoms cropped up, which lead me to hospital for some tests and me deciding to make some major changes in my life. During this ordeal, I have realized who my true friends are. They say you can really tell who your true friends are in times of trouble. My doctor also said that one of the reasons why this illness isn’t going away is because of stress, so she asked me what’s up and we had a little chat about what was on my mind, which were my dissappointment in a few of my friends. She gave me some great advice as well as her own stories and I’m happy to report I am over it and ready to start anew!

It was also so weird how I randomly came across a great site, On Simplicity, and scrolled down to find her recent post, Toxic Friends and How to Dump Them. It has inspired me to write my own post and perhaps help other readers who may be dealing with them.

By the way – I know this isn’t exactly about makeup, but as I wrote on my about page, there is really no use looking so glamorous if you don’t feel it on the inside! And I think toxic friends are a source of stress and unnecessary drama (at least I can say that for myself) that can affect your happiness, which I believe is the root of true beauty – inside and out.

Identifying the Toxic Friend

Florence Isaacs, author of Toxic Friends/True Friends explained to WebMD.com:

“Friendships are important everywhere, and they have positive things to contribute to all areas of your life. But that means they can also be toxic in any of these areas as well.”

Isaacs explains that a toxic friendship is unsupportive, draining, unrewarding, stifling, unsatisfying, and often unequal. “Toxic friends stress you out, use you, are unreliable, are overly demanding, and don’t give anything back.”

Friendships permeate our lives, having an impact on our careers, marriages, families, children, health, and even our retirement.

These are some of the many ‘types’ and characteristics a of toxic friend could have:

The Gossiper. She thrives on gossip, scandal and drama. You have probably met a lot of these people in high school!
The Wet Blanket/Victim. She only calls you when there is something wrong in her life. In fact, her life motto is ‘Woe is me.’ When it’s all good, you never hear from her. This friend takes you for granted and has appointed you as their personal therapist. You could be having a wonderful day and a phone call from her can bring you down and completely wear you out.
The Envious One. Let’s be very honest – girls are very catty, and most of it steams from insecurity. This is the friend that very subtly criticizes you, makes everything a competition, and even sounds happy when you are having a bad day.
The User. A person who has identified that you have/know something that they want. Whether it is for them to further their career, or as simple as you have a hot brother and she wants to get with him! Either way, this person is just using you for their own benefit and provide absolutely nothing to your life.

Obviously there are many more but I wrote these ones as these are the friends I have been dealing with! Basically, to identify a toxic friend, it is how you feel about them. Here are a few ideas:

You just don’t feel comfortable with this person.
You feel ‘down’ about yourself after talking or seeing this person. Either because they insult you, make you feel inferior, question you, or because they are just give off a negative vibe.
You feel anxious and afraid when you see an e-mail or a text message from them, anticipating what they might say/demand from you.
You just have this nagging feeling that this person wants something from you and is not genuine. Your gut instinct is always right!
You feel tired, drained, exhausted, defeated, stressed out and generally bad about yourself with this person.
Still undecided? These questions will help figure out if your friend is doing more harm than good.

Dealing with the Toxic Friend

Got a few people in mind? Now how exactly do you get rid of them?

I never want to have enemies or cause conflict with people, so trying to ‘end it’ with them has been the hardest for me. How do you politely rid someone out of your life anyway? Some people find it very easy – in fact when I asked a friend about this, he said I should just send him a text saying “Please f*** off. Bye.” Haha! Men. Easy for him to say, huh?!

Here are a few ideas you can consider:

Set boundaries.

When you are helping a friend but they are hurting you in the process, nobody is feeling good and nothing productive is happening. You can simply learn to start saying ‘no’. No to 20 phone calls a day about her stupid ex boyfriend. No to insulting anyone in your family. No to calling you last minute and expecting you to drop everything to see her. It is hard, because at the same time you want to help a friend but you have to set boundaries or it will eat you alive.

My doctor said something very eye-opening to me. I told her that even though they treat me like dirt, I can’t just ignore someone in trouble because I feel bad and I have to help somehow. She replied, ’You can’t be everyone’s savior, Renee.’ … And she’s right. For these friends of mine, their issues have been going on for years, yet they are not doing anything about it. At the end of the day, you cannot help someone who doesn’t want to help themselves. You will just end up drowning with them. You can help a friend out but you must set boundaries and stick to it – it’s for your own good, and could teach them something in the process.

Speak to them.

This is probably the hardest. If you would like to give this friendship another go, there is no other way to change it then to honestly speak to them about how you are feeling. Stand up for yourself and tell them you won’t take their BS anymore. In middle school, this girl used to slap her friends – including me. She used to slap people if a joke was funny, if she was angry – for example, hey, that was my pen – slap! – for any reason, really. Goodness me. I eventually got one my friends and we both told her off, and she stopped.

If, once again, they are defensive, blame it on you, become very angry, abusive etc, then I think it’s best to cut this friendship off. At least you can say you tried.

In some cases though, you may not want to sort it out and just end the friendship completely. In this case, it is best to say as little as possible. A sentence like ‘I do not wish to be your friend anymore’ is pretty to-the-point. It is quite blunt and I find it cruel, but honestly sometimes this is the best way. I’ve had countless ‘breakups’ with friends through this method and it has all been a clean, amiable ’splits’. Some people are just simply not meant to get along.

Or, never speak to them again.

This is the coward approach, but none the less, makes its point. I fully get the message that if a friend used to call me everynight to never hearing from her in 3 months, it means the friendship is over. Stop answering calls, block them from all IM programs, and basically vanish into thin air. They will get the message one way or the other.

Don’t be a toxic friend yourself!

We all do it sometimes. I definitely am guilty of pouring out my sorrows to a friend a little too often and I am the worse at replying calls, especially text messages. It has made me realize that the friendships I were persuing were with the wrong people and the friendships I left alone are the real friends. Life is a learning process though, so try to be a good friend yourself and have friendships with people who you feel are honest, right, and who you’re happy knowing. When you do meet these special people, cherish them and surround yourself with ‘only the good stuff’!

So what do you think, do you have toxic friends in your life? How do you deal with them? I’d love to hear your stories, so feel free to share them! You are anonymous here.

Image: Glenn Harper

No related posts.

Summer Beauty: Makeup by the Pool or Beach

Renee — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 07:58:41 +0000

This post is part of my Summer Beauty Tips Series, a collection of posts for the summer season. You can read the rest of the series here.

There is probably nothing worse than seeing a woman trying so hard to touch up her makeup by the pool or beach! Thanks to the humidity, the sun, the water, and your sweat, makeup can just slide off and make a big mess on your face.

The very best thing while swimming or hanging by the beach is probably to just skip it all except sunscreen, but for those who want to do up certain parts of your face, here’s what I recommend:

Face

Keep it simple. Apply sunscreen, and if you must, a tinted moisturizer (I like this one). Skip the foundation completely, as it can just be a mess with the hot, humid sun and the water. Foundation can end up running, caking, peeling – not very nice. The very best is to try to avoid anything on your face at all.

Cheeks

Although, once again, I would recommend probably not putting anything on your cheeks at all. However, if you feel you must, skip the contouring techniques and opt for a soft, natural color. Oh, and mineral or organic powder blushes are probably the best, as it won’t clog the pores in that hot sun!

Eyes

I personally cannot live without eyeliner, so it’s my must. Must! However, you should probably only put it along the top lash line to keep it from looking too over done and keeping smudging to a minimal, and a waterproof formula is the best. (M.A.C. Liquidlast should do the trick.) I cannot stress how bad it looks having black mascara running down your face after a quick dip in the pool, so try to skip mascara altogether. For eyeshadow, try light, shimmery shades.

Brows

Try a clear brow gel to keep any hairs in place. Or, if your brows need more definition, try out other brow products. Just be careful that in the humidity, it will tend to melt off, so powder is probably the best option.

Lips

Lipbalm with at least SPF 15 is a must. The skin on your lips are much thinner and need extra protection! If you want color on your lips, make sure the lipbalm with the sunscreen is underneath any lip stick or lip gloss, and reapply that sunscreen every hour at the latest! I would recommend trying to find a tinted lip balm with SPF, so you get it all in one – Lip stick tends to flake even faster thanks to the hot weather, and lipgloss can look “greasy” very fast.

I hope some of my tips have helped! What do you normally wear at the pool or beach? Also, how good does that beach look?! I need a holiday.

Image: adpowers

What Are Some of Your Past Beauty Mistakes?

Renee — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:12:19 +0000

Oh Pam. I think you’re beautiful but this makeup is just wrong!

—

I was reading a post at Beauty Savvy called Makeup Sins and it reminded me of a post I wanted to write ages ago.

Instead I’ve written a little of my horror stories on relating posts but I think it would be great to post not only all my makeup sins, but beauty sins in general.

Here are some of my tragic beauty mishaps I’ve done in the past:

Curled my lips inwards when I smiled for pictures until I was about 10 because I was painfully shy. All my pictures during that time looked weird and like I had no mouth (and I have a big one, apparently). Gotten over that, thank goodness! Spoiled a lot of nice pictures, though. Look at that, it’s already on my blog – you can kinda see what I mean here.
When I was 9 I decided I wanted to have a boy cut and went to the salon and they cut all my hair off – it was 1 inch long! After that, I trimmed my own hair and bangs ’til I was about 13 or 14. There are no words, my hair was hideous.
Ah, high school – the best time of my life. Not. Beauty insaneness included heavily rimmed black eyeliner in high school, especially the waterline. I don’t have big eyes, so this made my eyes look even more smaller. Paired with bright red eyeshadow because I was in a “punk” phase and thought it was so “cool”. Hair wise, I had it all: bright orange, jet black, light brown, red, gold – all at home hair color mistakes in high school. (Can you tell I was weird in high school?) I’m happy to report I stopped all that nonsense once I left.

Probably my biggest beauty ‘regret’: my teeth. My dentist told me since I was 6 that I had “Class A” teeth and that I can should do toothpaste commercials! My teeth modeling dreams all went out the window when I started biting my nails at 13. For 5 years I constantly had my fingers in my mouth, causing a little dent to my two front teeth and the three on the bottom. I have stopped, but the damage is done.

Seems like all my ridiculous-ness had to do a lot with hair and strangely, my mouth?! Oh well – it’s funny to think back and look at those crazy photos! What are some of your past beauty mistakes? I’d love to hear – this should be fun!

No related posts.

WIN! BB Dakota Bella Swan Jacket from Twilight!

Renee — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 16:08:47 +0000

Ladies, don’t say I don’t love you. In fact, I am raging with jealousy as I type this – I have a huge gift for one very lucky winner!

Since the Twilight makeup post was so popular here and pretty much everyone is in love with Edward Cullen, my giveaway is the BB Dakota jacket (appropriately named ‘Bella Jacket‘) that Kristen Stewart wears in the movie.

This giveaway is kindly sponsored by Chickdowntown.com (follow them on Twitter and be a fan on Facebook!) and we love them for it. Contest open to US readers only, sorry about that! Or if you’re not – get a friend from the US to help out! We just need a US post address to enter.

How to enter:

It’s very simple to enter, all you have to do is leave a comment answering this question:

What would your perfect guy (your ‘Edward’) be like?

Here’s my answer: My Edward would have a heart of gold, share my taste in music and give me massages every night!

I’ll choose one great answer and then email the winner! So when you leave your comment, please leave an e-mail address you actually check.

Good luck, girls!

A Beauty Fool Interview on Matt Flies!

Taylor Swift’s Makeup Tips

Renee — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:05:31 +0000

Taylor Swift is so smart. First she sings about her loser ex boyfriends and bash them in interviews, then she gives out beauty advice! I officially love her.

Here are some of the makeup advice she’s been spilling in different mags:

“I love any eye shadow in bright colors. My beauty tip would be to wet down the brush before you put the eye shadow on because it makes the color way more vibrant.” — In Touch Weekly

“If you’re wearing read lips, go for an almost nude eye and vice versa. You don’t want to be that girl who has heavy eye makeup on!” – Girlfriend

“If you have really light eyes like I do, a variety of eyeliners are a must! Just using a simple liner pencil is a quick and easy way to highlight your eyes, and you can play around with crazy colors for a fun look. I like black mascara (her favorite is Chanel Inimitable) because it makes my eyes look more dramatic … just make sure it’s waterproof.” — Seventeen

Do you agree with any of her tips? I sure do! I agree with all of them although I personally don’t like waterproof mascara too much!

Benefit Bad Gal Lash Mascara Review

Renee — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:02:02 +0000

I‘m surprised I haven’t tried this popular mascara earlier, because I love anything black and pink! I’ve heard tons of reviews on this mascara (good and bad – seems to be either loved hated), so I’m glad the day has come!

One of the major features of this mascara is it’s obnoxious brush. I thought Diorshow’s brush was a bit ridiculous but I love that mascara, so I thought nothing of the claims of how big this brush is. Well, let me say that this brush is big; it can probably scrub the corners of your kitchen sink. I was scared I might poke my eye out (or actually not reach my lashes) but surprisingly it didn’t. A little hard to use though, especially if you have smaller eyes like me!

Apart from the brush, the formula seemed easy to apply and went on smoothy. However, I gotta say I’m a bit underwhelmed. I was hoping for massive, insane “BAAD” lashes. It seems like a normal black mascara to me. Normal length, normal volume, normal everything with minimal smudging and no flaking. When you layer on more than 2 coats, then yes; there is a lot of volume but then it gets clumpy. Hmm. Too bad, I really love some of Benefit’s products (especially Boi-ing concealer!).

Has anyone tried Bad Gal? What are your thoughts on it? I’m not saying it’s a terrible mascara – far from it – but for that price I don’t feel it’s worth it. But let me know what you think!

What are BB Creams?

Renee — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 16:07:58 +0000

I am really getting old. When I first read about a ‘BB cream’, for some reason I seriously thought the ‘BB’ meant Best Buddies … goodness! After looking at these BB creams, I still couldn’t figure out what they were. Even after reading about them, I still didn’t really get it. An all-in-one product, really? I decided to go straight to the source and ask Matt of BBCreamQueen.com to help me and all of those who don’t know what BB creams are.

So Matt, what are BB Creams anyway, and why are they becoming so popular?

BB Creams stand for Blemish Balm Creams, they are in essence a cross between make-up and skincare products. More precisely, they are make-up creams with skincare properties. They can serve as a make-up base or foundation. Not only do they cover blemishes, they also have soothing, healing properties.

I think they are so popular because they are very versatile. They can cut on the amount of products you use during your daily routine as most BB Creams also act as moisturizers and sun block, some others even having other properties on top of that like anti-aging and/or whitening.

How are BB creams different from foundation?

Unlike foundations, BB creams not only cover blemishes but also contribute to the well-being of your skin. Like mentioned earlier, BB creams have various properties that traditional foundations lack. Also, BB creams adapt to the colour of your skin, giving a more natural, fresher look to your face.

What are the benefits of using a BB Cream?

There are various benefits. Instead of applying moisturiser, sun block and then your foundation, you can just use a BB cream, thus cutting down on time and the amount of “layers”, which should always be kept to a minimum. Also BB creams can overtime play a role in the overall well being of your skin, unlike traditional make-up products.

BB creams are also useful on days when you don’t feel like putting heavy make up on but still want your skin to look flawless. Just apply BB cream and you are set. They are great for giving that natural yet fresh and tidy look.

Thanks so much, Matt! … Safe to say I’m convinced. I will be researching, looking and definitely reviewing them in the future.

Check out his site BB Cream Queen – they look really affordable and best of all, the site ships worldwide - so great for all of us!

Has anyone tried any BB creams yet? Do you have a favorite to recommend?

Weekend Links

Renee — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:20:08 +0000

The weekend is finally here … time to relax! Here’s a collection of some of the best beauty posts I’ve seen this week:

Basic Brush Must Haves by Beauty Saavy, such a great post. I learnt a lot!
Are there good and affordable eye makeup primers? by My Women Stuff
Celebrate Bionic Beauty’s 2nd Anniversary – plus, it’s Jami’s very first video, so leave her lots of nice comments; I think she did a great job!
The girl who never ages – she’s 16 but still looks like a 1 year old, amazing!

Hope everyone has a great weekend. If you know any beauty related links for next weekend, e-mail me with the subject line, Weekend Links. Thanks!

To my US readers, Happy 4th of July!

Afternoon Manicures at Pink Parlor

NARS Orgasm Blush Swatches and Review

Renee — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:02:45 +0000

So finally … the famous NARS Orgasm has gotten into my hands. I’m lucky I bought it in London, where there is a different currency and my math is too hopeless to convert; because I’m sure this little thing cost a bomb. Ignorance is bliss, right? Here’s what they say:

NARS Orgasm makes cheeks blush a perfect pinky-peach flush and subtly highlights with accents of golden shimmer. The perennially pleasing, universally flattering shade is again and again a makeup artist and beauty editor favorite.

Anyway, before I start, I would like to give major props to the girls that swatch on every product review. This is hard work! It’s my first time so I didn’t really know what I was doing – if you’re a pro and reading this, please do give me tips on how to make my swatches better, I’d be extremely grateful! And for readers, I hope this satisfies your curiosity on the cult favorite blush. So, let’s begin!

1. Packaging. The packaging is fantastic. It looks classy, sleek and it feels like a very sturdy compact! Love the way it adds to my makeup bag, that’s for sure. I heard that it shouldn’t get too ‘hot’ as it will melt! Point taken – keep it in your makeup bag far away from the sun, ladies.

When you open the compact, it comes with a little mirror – which, to be very honest, I never really use mirrors from compacts. I find them way too small, I like a giant mirror! However, I tried it out and you can definitely see your whole face in it, it’s not one of those crazy magnifying mirrors that you can’t see anything out of! I tried applying with the mirror and it was fine, though personally I like my larger one.

2. The product. The blush itself is very pigmented, so all you need is VERY little product. I thought that the gold sparkles will annoy me, but they are very light and after awhile they seem to disappear. I looked at Super Orgasm and the gold sparkles were very obvious, didn’t really like that to be honest – less is more for me! As you can see, when you apply it straight on, it seems very pink. After awhile it will settle into a nice peachy pink – more on that later!

Here’s another shot, in artificial light. The above photos were all taken in broad daylight, at my balcony because I hope that shows the true color! This is a little hard to see but I wanted to show how it would look like ‘dull’ and how sheer it was compared to my very pale skin! Sorry about the bracelet, tourist thing from Rome! Hehe.

3. The shade. The shade is described as a ‘peachy-pink’ and I would say that is very accurate. It looks very pink here and goes on very pink initially, but becomes a warmer color after awhile.

And here is a complete swatch of it in broad daylight, on the balcony. As you can see, very sheer and light. Gold sparkles just give a nice sheen so it’s not very obvious, in real life, though in the pan it is quite obvious:

4. The peach! So, from the photos above you can see that Orgasm pretty much looks like a pink blush with gold sparkles. To be honest when I first tried it at the store I did not like it, because I am scared of anything pink (tomboy speaking!) and I don’t feel it’s very “me”, honestly.

However, after awhile it settled into a warm peachy pink that I adore – the only reason why I ever wanted to try Orgasm because I wanted something feminine (pinkish) but still not too much (does that even make sense?!). Plus, I love peachy shades, so Orgasm turned out great for me. This photo is the true color of Orgasm when it settles into your skin. It really looks like a natural flush, especially on lighter to medium skin tones. Looked so natural and beautiful:

So here is the ‘true’ color on my arm, and then I thought to put it on white paper so you could really see the color properly – pretty obvious that it changes on the skin, which I really like:

So, to sum up NARS Orgasm; I like it. At first I was weary, and every time I look at it it looks very overwhelming and pink, but it goes on very natural and warmer than expected. I really believe the whole ‘universally flattering’, so far I’ve seen many girls wear it and it looks great on everyone!

This is pretty much my ‘first’ proper blush (only ever used taupe in the past) so I’m definitely still experimenting and I think Orgasm is great for a ‘beginner’ like me. (If you’re a beginner to blush, you might find my post Make up 101: How to Apply Blush helpful!) So, I’ll conclude by summing up everything in this post:

Don’t fret if you, like me, are a bit hesitant to pink blushes. It looks very bright and clownish in the pan, but once it’s on it’s very natural!
Don’t pick up too much color, a little goes a long way. Apply it with a very big fluffy brush and a very light hand.
It looks great on medium and dark skin tones as well. I have a friend who’s medium in skin tone and it looks just as stunning on her.
The gold sparkles are not obvious or overwhelming – doesn’t look like a 12 year old’s glitter makeup at all! Very subtle and sheer.
Try it out at the store first, walk around for 10 minutes, then look in the mirror. The color seems to change once it has settled into your skin. That is why I’ve decided to apply it first when I do my makeup, then by the time I’m finished it looks great!
Pretty expensive; but worth it. I’ve used it 4 times and it still looks brand new. Since I’m using so little at a time, I can honestly say to finish this whole pan, I’ll take 20 years. I mean it! (I don’t wear it everyday, though). I read on another blog that a lady used it for 5 full years every single day before she had to buy a new one. Very worth it, I think!
Definitely see the hype on NARS blushes: beautiful packaging, easy application, very pigmented colors, lasts a long time, tons of color choices … the list goes on.

Basically, I am one satisfied customer! But if you’re not into buying the real thing or it’s unavailable in your country, like me (boo!) My Women Stuff has a great post, Let’s find some NARS Orgasm Dupes!

So ladies, tell me your thoughts on Orgasm, whether you’ve tried it or not. Is it worth the hype, or just too much hype? Are you dying to try it out? Let me know! I also hope my photos were OK, if anyone has suggestions or would like specific images, just tell me!