Best Beauty Always

Wedding Day Makeup

Sorry for the really late posting. I had a few of the girls from the neighborhood over for lunch. As you can imagine, the conversation covered a lot of ground and it was great fun. That is truly living beautifully! Now, as promised, here is some great advice for wedding day beauty.

Cathy Wagner is a French makeup artist and trainer working in London and Paris, and is the founder of L'ÉVEIL AU MAQUILLAGE in Paris, where she holds make-up training workshops for beauty companies, individuals and makeup schools. I asked her to share some thoughts and tips for achieving beautiful, long-lasting wedding day makeup, whether you’re sending a son or daughter down the aisle or you’re walking down the aisle yourself. Here is her reply:

“What is the most important after 50? The look of your skin and the softness and transparency of your makeup! Your face should be illuminated and hydrated. To have a beautiful look (on a wedding day or not) it is essential to start with a frozen mask or chamomile ice cubes to reduce under-eye bags, then spray rose water all over. Apply a smoothing cream for the lips and eye contours, followed by your usual hydrating face and décolleté cream. Avoid shiny creams with sparkles, which enhance wrinkles. For long-wearing makeup, follow these instructions:

“Apply in transparent layers a light concealer, then a foundation. Choose the same color as your neck to avoid traces and differences in color. After 50, use a hydrating foundation for a healthy look, then apply a rosewood, pinkish or rose-tea colored cream (blusher) on the tops of your cheeks. Smile while doing so and (work it) up towards the temple. If your face is square or round, place it vertically; if it's thin and long, place it horizontally and follow the cheekbone. Add a cloud of natural powder on the T, then lift and redesign your eyebrows. Softly does it! If you draw a hard line, it might look vulgar. The color should be close to the color of your hair at the roots. For your eyelids, apply a base, use long-wear cream shadows (with this you can even cry!) in soft skin tones under your eyebrows and golden brown to look natural and sophisticated! Finish with long-wearing gel eyeliner, mascara, and a heated curler for your eyelashes. It really gives you a younger look and opens your eyes!

“For your mouth, my technique for enlarging thin lips is to draw a light color around the lips and then balance the right and left sides, upper and lower lips. Then I form the shape with a cool rosewood-colored pen. The drawing should be like a caress, a breath, invisible! Apply powder to fix. Apply a first coat of lipstick, absorb the excess, and put on a second coat, then use a gloss to re-plump. This makeup should stay all day long with a retouch on your lips after eating or kissing!”

Many thanks to Cathy Wagner for sharing her thoughts. She's a pro and this sounds like great advice. Let me know if you try her suggestions. I’m going to try her technique for long-lasting lipstick right away.

Try Makeup Colors with Phone App

Have you tried the iPhone? If you haven’t had a chance to play with one of these amazing devices, you have to check it out. I carried a Blackberry for years and liked being able to access my email when I traveled. I gave up the Blackberry recently and was anxious to get my hands on an iPhone, which lets me do that and so much more.

One of the many fabulous things about the iPhone is the wide variety of applications you can download to use with it. There are applications that let you plan travel, find recipes, even locate public restrooms – how handy does that sound! Last week I heard about an application that let’s you see how you would look in different makeup colors applied at different levels of intensity. Well, I had to try it.

The application, called MakeUp, was created by a company called ModiFace, which makes a variety of online visualization applications that let people see how they would look with less weight, a different hairstyle, a change in makeup or maybe a little plastic surgery. They are in use on a number of Web sites.

A company representative told me that the iPhone app, MakeUp, instantly simulates on a user photo the desired amount of eye definition, blush and lipstick with hundreds of colors to choose from, easily, with no calibration. All I had to do was download a photo and get started.

I selected the same photo of me that you see on this blog. I then chose the desired color for upper and lower blush, and lips, and selected the intensity I thought I should wear. I clicked Show Me! And there I was wearing the makeup colors I had selected. Pretty neat. You can go back and forth, editing to show different lip and cheek colors and intensities, until you have something you like. It’s all about letting you try different looks to see what you  like and without committing to expensive new makeup products without knowing how they’ll look on you.

The first thing I learned is that I could really benefit from greater definition around my eyes, an area I admit I usually just give a quick coat of mascara and go. I’m going to try some eyeliner and eyeshadow!

Using the MakeUp app isn’t the same as sitting down at the makeup counter with an artist and trying on some new products and colors, of course, but it does give you ideas about how you can change your look with different shades and different intensities of makeup. And it’s fun!

MakeUp, the application, can be downloaded from the App Store via the iPhone. I understand there are similar applications coming from different vendors. I’ll keep you posted.

Coming Thursday to Best Beauty Always: French makeup artist Cathy Wagner shares great tips on creating beautiful and lasting wedding day makeup.

Long Hair on Older Women

A regular Best Beauty Always reader wonders why the general thinking still seems to be that older women should not have long hair. It’s a great question because there is quite a bit of debate on the subject. What I don’t understand is why? How a woman wears her hair should be a matter of personal taste and lifestyle considerations, not a question for general discussion.

That said, it pays to remember that women’s hair has been the subject of much discussion throughout history. Hair has been imbued with mystery and power, and has been a theme or focus in many great literary works. There’s a lot of backstory to consider when wondering why hair remains such a hot topic.

Not so long ago, culture seemed to demand that a woman past the age of twenty-five or thirty set aside her youthful flowing locks in favor of a more mature look, one that said she was ready to take on whatever life had in store. The cultural seismic shift called the ‘60s pushed aside a lot of old thinking on hair and many other topics, and hasn’t given an inch in the decades since. Long hair is an option for you if that’s what you want. It has worked for Stevie Nicks, who is 61 and still wears her hair long and straight.

Check out a fabulous photo of singer Emmylou Harris, 62, and more photos at her official Web site. Flip through the photo galleries there to find a photo that includes Emmylou, rocker Patti Scialfa, 56, and actress Susan Sarandon, 63, all three with long hair, looking fabulous.  They can carry off the long hair so well because they are not defined by it. They are all so much more than just their hairstyles, and that’s something for all of us to keep in mind.

So you’re not a rock star or entertainer? So what? If long hair is part of who you are, then work it. Just keep in mind that long hair at any age demands a commitment to keeping it looking fantastic. A good cut on a regular basis keeps hair healthy. A great cut will work with your hair type, your features and your lifestyle.

Find a stylist who will take the time to give you a cut that works for you. Talk with your stylist about changes you’re experiencing, in hair thickness or texture, in the shape of your face as you age, as well as changes in work, exercise and travel demands. A good stylist will be able to suggest modifications to your long cut that will work for you now. For photos of some great cuts, long and short, check out this piece at More magazine’s Web site.

The debate certainly won’t end here.  What’s your opinion?

Mother Nature's New Beauty Regimen

Mother Nature has us all beat when it comes to years on this earth, and it seems that lately the world is coming together to at least think about a new beauty regimen for the old dear. While thinking is good, acting is even better and I know you are doing what you can to reduce, reuse and recycle. I bought a couple of fabric shopping bags at a favorite market and the other day I took them with me to another store. To their credit, the checker and bagger laughed along with me at my little faux pas, and even cheerfully filled the bags emblazoned with the other guy’s logo. I went home and put a plain canvas bag into the trunk of my car.

For its part, the beauty industry is thinking about our planet, too, with many companies implementing packaging initiatives and sustainability programs. Efforts range from using more recycled material content in bottles and boxes to offering refillable eye, cheek and lip color compacts.

It always bothers me when disposing of a shampoo or lotion bottle that I can toss the bottle itself into the recycling bin but have to put the cap into the garbage because the material used to make it is not on my city’s recycling program. Now Aveda, with its long history of earth awareness, has announced a program to accept rigid polypropylene plastic caps for recycling by its vendors into new caps and bottles. Aveda Caps Recycling kicked off during Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2009, and the company hopes to be using the recycled plastic in bottles later this year.

Cargo Cosmetics started a bit of a revolution a couple of years ago by being the first to use corn-based plastic in its lipstick tubes, making them compostable. The company also packages the tubes in boxes made with cardboard incorporating wildflower seeds to be planted in your garden. Other beauty companies are taking up the use of corn-based plastics as well as recycled and recyclable box materials.

Nvey Eco, a beauty company producing certified organic products, offers an Eco-exchange program for used primary components including compacts, bottles and lipstick and mascara tubes.

For perfume lovers, New York’s Bond No. 9 now offers a bottle recycling program, inviting customers to bring in any kind of empty perfume bottle in exchange for a free purse spray with the purchase of a Bond No. 9 fragrance.

These are just a few examples of beauty industry efforts to answer consumer desire for products and packaging that consider the value of precious natural resources and the health of our planet, and let us participate in the solution in new ways.

Pick a Fragrance Winner

The Fragrance Foundation is an international resource dedicated to the importance and pleasures of fragrance. The U.S. organization and its affiliates around the world annually recognize winning fragrances in many categories at glamorous, star-studded events. The parties have begun for fragrances launched in 2008, so I thought it would be fun to compare your favorites with the winners, or perhaps get you thinking about new ones you might like to try.  To better understand the fragrance categories, check out the Fragrance Knowledge page at The Fragrance Foundation site.

In France, the winner for selective distribution fragrance for women was Chloe by Parfums Chloe and for limited distribution, Collection Onde by Giorgio Armani. The collection includes Onde Mystere, a musky oriental, Onde Vertige, a floral oriental and Onde Extase, a woody oriental. Chloe is characterized as a floral oriental.

In the U.K., the winner in the category best new prestige fragrance for women was Sensuous, Estée Lauder, and for limited distribution, White Patchouli from Tom Ford Beauty.  Sensuous is characterized as a woody amber fragrance. White Patchouli is a woody floral.

At Germany’s Duftstar Awards, the winner for women’s prestige was Bulgari Jasmin Noir, a woody floral with amber accents, and women’s exclusive was Tom Ford White Patchouli.

The U.S. awards will be presented one week from today in New York. I can tell you that Chloe, Collection Onde and Sensuous are all among the nominees.

Protect Your Hands

Has this ever happened to you? I was outside the other day, in the bright sun, and looked down at my hands. I had the strangest feeling that, in fact, these were not my hands at all! That I had this moment at the golf practice range and my drives that day were unusually straight and long, seemed to prove my fear that my hands had been switched with those of a mature golfer who never remembered to put sunscreen on her hands before hitting the links. No such luck.

Of course they’re my hands and they are simply beginning to look their age.  Harsh weather, hand washing and sun exposure are hastening changes in the look of my hands that come naturally with aging.  Well, it’s time to do something about it.

I think a little hand lotion instantly improves the look and feel of my skin, so I keep some by the sink. I made a mental note to use it more often. Then I picked up a tube of RoC Retinol Correxion Hand Repair that includes UVA/UVB sunscreen ingredients providing SPF 15, to carry with me and use all day, especially when driving and spending time outside. RoC products are available in the skin care department of many drug stores, online and at Ulta. I also have a tube of Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Age Shield Hand Cream with SPF 30. Now I feel well-armed to be more beautiful-handed.

In case you don’t already know, Retinol is a form of Vitamin A that has been shown to stimulate collagen production in the skin and affect skin’s look and feel. You can read more about retinol at CosmeticsInfo.org.

With all the attention paid in recent years to anti-aging products for the face, the hands may have been a little neglected. That seems to be changing, with new products becoming available all the time. If you think your hands need a little more pampering, or maybe even a little medical attention, check out the hand treatments offered by spas, medical spas and dermatologists. Treatments available range from lotions, soaks, scrubs and wraps to hyaluronic acid injection, photo-rejuvenation, laser resurfacing and much more.

The broad range of products and services available make it easier than ever to have the beautiful hands you want, your way.

No Tan Here

I don’t tan. I never could get a tan, but oh, did I try.  Reclining on the chaise longue at noon, when the sun’s rays are strongest, slathering on tanning oil, and baby oil! I just loved the smell of Bain de Soleil – still do - but the Saint Tropez tan has always eluded me. I bought a package for a tanning salon once before a cruise, thinking I could avoid a burn by working ahead on my tan. Nothing. Great souvenir sunburn, though, as the photo from the Captain’s dinner reminds me.

The good news is that I’m finally learning to accept my pale self. I use sunscreen, wear a hat and sunglasses, and choose to sit in the shade. Out of consideration for the people around me, I might use a self-tanner before putting on shorts or a skirt. There are several brands that I like, including Jergens Natural Glow moisturizers. Jergens is working to change bad sun tanning habits through its “Glow in the Dark” Campaign.

I bring all this up now because May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month. The month may be half over but the time is always right to heed warnings about the dangers of unprotected sun exposure. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says that protecting ourselves from the sun at work and play is the best way to prevent skin cancer, not to mention the visible signs of aging attributable to sun exposure. Sun protection products keep improving. I like Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Dry Touch Sunblock for the way it feels on my skin and on my hands when I’m applying it.

The Skin Cancer Foundation offers a lot of good information about skin cancer and the sun, and during May is teaming up with beauty and fashion companies for special offers, with some proceeds going to the cause. Jergens is participating, and Allure magazine and Sephora have limited-time offers to sample a variety of sun protection products.

Our world would be a very different place without the sun, so take advantage of all the smart, fashionable sun protection available today and enjoy it, beautifully.

Beauty and Fashion

A regular Best Beauty Always reader wondered recently why it is that most of the products we see marketed – especially beauty products, clothing and magazines - are aimed at people under 30. Why does it seem as though those of us over 50, a little wrinkled (or a lot!) and not a perfect size two (or even 10), are largely ignored – even though marketers are told pretty regularly that we have plenty of money and are ready to spend it on products that make sense to us?

Happily, I think things are changing, if slowly. More marketers are realizing the changing needs and the buying power of women over 50, and seeing opportunities to develop products that speak to us. The bottom line there is that everyone benefits.

As for clothes, I think we all get a little lift from garments that fit us well and look fashionable, if not trendy. Part of the secret with fashion, I’ve been told, is learning how to adapt current trends to fit your own style. Not sure if you have a style? Check out this post from Ask Allison, The Middle-Aged Woman’s Go To Girl. Sherrie Mathieson, author of Steal This Style and Forever Cool, has some ideas about how to mix in simpler versions of trendy clothes to appear in fashion. I think it sounds like great advice.

I’ve always liked to wear jeans, and I especially like the way the right pair of jeans looks with heeled boots, tee shirt and a well-cut blazer, but trends have not always been on my side. I can’t do skinny jeans. Lately, I’ve been wearing and going on about Not Your Daughter’s Jeans. Let me know if you’ve found others you like.

Still have some Rock ‘n Roll in you? Well, who doesn’t, really. I loved a recent post at Grace is Over 50 about a clothing line designed in London called The Old Ladies Rebellion. I’m not sure about the availability, but I love the story and the clothes are wonderful.

If you answered, “Yes!” to the question about Rock ‘n Roll, you might like to check out the latest fragrance from fashion designer Vera Wang. Even if your answer was, “Not so much…” you’ll enjoy the descriptive press copy that accompanied the launch of Rock Princess:

Each verse is equally important. Vera Wang Rock Princess is a dark, fruity floral with sultry rock star attitude and hip, modern style. Performing on a shadowy, spot lit stage, this dark, fruity, floral scent opens with an exhilarating intro of succulent white peach, lush bittersweet red raspberry and the illuminating flash of vibrant bergamot. The chorus reveals itself in lovely layers of ultra-feminine florals. Hypnotic heliotrope, vintage-inspired rose, night-blooming jasmine, delicate lily and the unexpected riff of sharp, spicy floral notes. And for an unforgettable bridge, Rock Princess is cloaked in the warm and sensual glow of plush cashmere woods, smoldering musk, elegant iris and creamy coconut. Cool.

Beauty Bran

Never before has humble bran been treated so beautifully. Check it out at Glass Petal Smoke.

Smile

Because of your smile, you make life more beautiful. Thich Nhat Hanh

My mother had a thousand-watt smile, and she knew how to use it. She wore it regularly and without hesitation, wrapping her family in its glow and making friends out of strangers everywhere she went. It was more a part of who she was than of any beauty regimen, but some days moisturizer, a little lipstick and her smile were the extent of her routine. I think she got it just right.

Happy Mother’s Day.