Friday, December 28, 2012

Tarte Lips, Anyone?

Now that the rush of the holidays is nearly over, it's time to Talk Turkey about lips again, ladies!  I guess it's pretty obvious that lip cosmetics are my favorites, and in purchasing stocking stuffers for my four beautiful girls this year, I stumbled across a new favorite:  Maracuja Divine Shine Lipgloss from Tarte.   Yep, I confess, I buy things for other people and then want to keep them for myself.......but I didn't do it this time!  All of my girls received a lovely little tube of this gloss in their stockings.....can I help it if they came in a set of five and one of the shades would not have looked good on any of them?


This product comes in pretty packaging, as usual, but it's what's inside that is the real treat.  In the photo above (apologies for the blurred bottom tube - guess my camera has ADHD and has trouble focusing), the shade Curious is on top, and Ethereal is on the bottom.  Both shades are warm-toned, and lovely for me.  Cool skintones might not be quite as enamoured of the shades I own, but I promise, most of the color choices available are geared towards you, rather than those of us who are warm-toned.  I did not want to gross you out with photos of the product with the lid off, as this is one of those brush-topped glosses that don't look particularly pretty once they are used!  LOL  This is not my favorite type of delivery system, but it works just fine, so we will leave it at that.  However, Maureen Kelly (founder of Tarte), if you are reading this (as if!), could you consider going to a clickless, doe-foot applicator?  :)

These glosses have the trademark minty-fresh scent and taste that the Tarte Lipsurgence sticks have, and, once again, if you don't like mint, you can stop reading now.  However, if you love minty lip products the way I love minty lip products, you will not be disappointed with these.  :)  A word of warning: when you first use this product, you have to click the devil out of the little button on the bottom (which is to the left in my photo above).  Truly, I lost count when I reached 100.  So don't give up and think that the product is broken - just keep clicking and you will be rewarded with a lovely, glossy product that, when applied, actually makes older lips look young and fresh again!  Honest!  And this product contains Tarte's famous maracuja oil (derived from the Amazonian Passion Flower), which makes this a treatment product as well.  Okay, so far I have not noticed that my lips are suddenly the lips of a twentysomething, but, hey, a girl can dream, can't she?

As those of you who've read my previous posts might recall, I have a horrible problem with lip products traveling where they are unauthorized to travel on my face, namely: into the canyons above and below my lips, with which the good Lord has seen fit to gift me in my older age.  Therefore, many glosses really do not work well for me.  However, this particular product is of thicker consistency than others, and stays put very well, especially when used in conjunction with my handy-dandy Urban Decay lipliner pencil.  Thank you, Maureen Kelly!!!!  It's exciting to be able to use a gloss on older lips, because there is just something about gloss that creates a younger look.  Not TOO young, but just-right-young. :)

So if you are in the market for a new lipgloss (and who is NOT in the market for a new lipgloss, ladies?), give the Tarte Maracuja Divine Shine Lipgloss a try.  (But make sure you go to the QVC website and order it in a set, or see if Sephora still has any of the holiday packaging available, because purchased individually, they are a bit on the expensive side at $24.00........)


Thursday, November 29, 2012

Maybelline Super Stay 14 Hour Lipstick!

It's been a while, girls, but what can I say?  Life's a bitch sometimes, and beauty has to (horrors) take a back seat.....today I'm back with a review of Maybelline Super Stay 14 Hour lipstick.  I was recently watching a wonderful Lisa Eldridge You Tube video, and she recommended this brand, so I thought if it's good enough for Lisa Eldridge, it's certainly good enough for ME. :)  And it is!  Unfortunately, my camera seems to be set to 'blurry' today, but here are a few shots of the product anyway. Just squint, or take off the reading glasses and pretend that's the problem.  :)


So here is the lovely tube itself - I like the fact that you can actually SEE the color, since, being Maybelline, there are no testers available at WalMart (where I found mine at a great price which I cannot remember now, but, trust me, it was in the seven/eight dollar range, which is not bad for a lipstick these days), or Walgreens, or any of the other spots you will find Maybelline products.  Guess there is a trade-off for getting a bargain.  (Cheaper price = no testers to make sure the color looks good on you!)  I'm not actually sure it's worth it, though, since you are more likely to come home with a product which is not the right color for your skintone, but I guess that's another issue altogether, isn't it?  (And, no, it's not nice to rip the little plastic protectors off the product when no one's looking to be able to slide the cap off and see the actual product, ladies! But I might have done it once.  Or twice.  When no one was looking.  Or not.)

And here is the product with the cap removed:


Dang, you are going to have to REEEAAALLY ignore the blurries on that shot - so sorry.  As you might not be able to see from the picture, the tip of the product is slanted, which I personally like, as that is the shape my lipstick normally takes......(have any of you ever taken that quiz that tells you all about your personality by what shape your application method makes your lipstick?  It's kind of silly, but if you ever have a spare moment, it's entertaining.  I'll trust you all to have the computer skills to find it yourself.)  The lipstick itself has a raspberry/candy type of scent which does translate into a bit of the same flavor on your lips, but it's not overpowering.  If you hate raspberries, though, just skip this product, as you will NOT like the scent/taste.  There is also a little bit of glitter in this lipstick, or perhaps it was just in the color I chose, #055 "Keep Me Coral".  (One thing I hate about the product is that the name is written in extremely small letters on the bottom, reminding me of my Old Broad status....in fact, even with my magnifying glass, I first thought that I was wearing the MUCH more fun "Kiss Me Coral"......Why, oh why can't these companies make the names of these products larger so that when we want to recommend the color to a friend we are not forced to go looking for magnifying glasses????  Don't they know they are losing sales because of this?)  Getting back to my glitter comment, though, don't let that stop you from trying one of these lipsticks...it's very subtle, I promise.  Think of it as shimmer on steriods, and you'll be fine.

Finally, a SWATCH of this lipstick, taken indoors with no flash, as with the flash totally wiped out the picture - guess the flash doesn't work all that well when it's two inches from the object?  I need to consult with my photographer daughter on that one......


One negative about this product is that it doesn't appear to come in all that many shades (or maybe I'm just exceptionally greedy and need more than only one or two shades of a product that I think are right for me?), and most of them are more on the bright side. Of course, I personally feel that most of us Older Beauties are flattered by a brighter color on the lips (NOT a slash of purple-red, ladies, just a brighter pop, please!)  I know that some of you would be frightened by the thought of a brighter shade on your lips, but, honestly, I don't think I've ever seen anything less attractive than a brownish/nude/nothing shade of lipstick on ANYONE's mouth.  I don't care how young you are, some of the lipstick shades out there should NEVER be worn.  They are just not pretty.  Or flattering.  Or worth the price you paid for them.  Phooey!

On to the 'stay' aspect of this lipstick.......I'm not going to flat out call the Maybelline people liars, but I WILL say that on ME, this lipstick is not wearing for 14 hours.  (Heck, when am I even wearing makeup for fourteen hours?  You?)  Maybe 14 MINUS 10.  You do the math.  I tried this lipstick because Lisa Eldridge said that it was not as drying as most long-wear lipsticks, and I do agree with her on that, although the texture is a tad on the dry side.  However, that is a PLUS for us Older Broads.....uhm....Beauties, because guess what, girls?  That means it's not gonna bleed into the lines around our Lovely Kissers.  Yippee!!!!  For that alone, I recommend this product.  It's getting pretty hard these days for me to find a lipstick or gloss that is not going to make a beeline for the hills, so to speak, and that is sad, because a lot of pretty colors are off-limits to me due to Crevasse Lips.  And I am a sucker for color.  If you find the formula a bit dryer than you like, add a dab of gloss to the center of your bottom lip.  It will give a totally different look/feel to the product.

So get out there and see if one of these Maybelline Super Stay 14 Hour Lipstick colors could be right for you!  You might be pleasantly surprised.  Oh, and just FYI, the Lisa Eldridge video I was watching was her suggestions for a red lip for a variety of skintones.  I did not purchase the shade she recommended, as my Feeble Old Brain could not RECALL what shade she had specified in her video. Maybe next time. :)

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Sephora Brand - Great Products, Even Better Prices

I'm back today with a quick little blurb highlighting one of the products you can find at your local Sephora - their own brand of color cosmetics.  Yesterday I was out and about and, of course, was drawn into the Sephora in my local JC Penney.  While this shop does not have nearly the selection of a stand-alone Sephora, it's good for a quick makeup fix, and does have the benefit of carrying the Sephora brand products - brushes, eyeshadows, lipsticks, and, thank heavens, LIP LINER!  

As some of you may know, I have been heartbroken since the Aveda line stopped making lipliner, as I had been using their brand for years and years, and found nothing to compare with the color, minty (yep, there's that minty taste again!) flavor, and longevity on the lips of this product.  Some of the brands I'd tried include Bare Minerals (and, alas, THEY, too have stopped featuring lip liners in their line); Lancome (very expensive and no good color selection for me); Makeup Forever (too-bright colors); Hourglass (bleeds!!!!!!); Cargo (sorry, that reverse lipliner doesn't work); MAC (might be good if I could find the right shade); and Clinique (not a bad formula, but that line doesn't have the perfect color for me yet).



Here is a small sampling of my lipliners.  As you can see, the Sephora purchases are in the front.  The texture is wonderful, and the two colors I purchased (for a mere five dollar bill) are good for the colors of lipstick I wear on a daily basis.  However, look at the SIZE of these babies!  What's up with that?  These are brand-new, and are basically half the size of any other lipliner I've ever purchased.  But then again, they're half the price, too, so I guess when you need a new one, just get two at once and you'll be good to go!

There was a very decent color selection - I did not actually count them, but from memory, I'd say that you could choose from about ten or twelve shades.  The colors range from red to pink to brown, so I'm sure that there is a shade that would be just grand for any lipcolor you are wanting to match.  Minus the mintiness.  (A blessing for some, others not so much.)

Next time, I'll tell you about the neat Sephora brand eyeliner I brought home. :)

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Josie Maran's Argan Oil Products!

I don't know how many of you have heard of Josie Maran, as she's perhaps not exactly a household name, but she is a lovely young thirty-something model and mother of two little girls who started her own line of Argan Oil products roughly a year and a half ago.  I first became aware of her products (where else?) on QVC about a year ago.  These products are pretty decent, and, while they will NOT suddenly make your fifty/sixty/or seventy+-something face transform into the sweet young thing you were in your twenties (yes, dearie, of course we were ALL once sweet young things), they WILL give you some bang for your buck, and even bring a little smile to your face when you use them.  Maybe.  If color makes you smile the way it makes me smile. :)

A 1.7 oz. size of Argan Oil was Josie's first product in the line, and I confess that my lovely bottle of the stuff is nearly ALL GONE!!!  This, in itself, is pretty impressive, because Makeup Ho that I am, I RARELY finish a product.  (The exceptions being mascara, lipsticks, and the occasional lipgloss.  And my bottle of Lauren, the Ralph Lauren classic fragrance that is my all time favorite scent.  Evah.  Yum.)  Here is the bottle of Argan Oil:


I like to use it on the Crow's Feet (on me they might be more like Buzzard's Feet) at the corners of the eyes, the lovely Crypt-Keeper lines above my less-than-lush lips, my elbows, the tops of my hands, and on my cuticles.  It's very light and absorbs pretty quickly.  If you are very diligent and use it daily (as I do not, because I just am not that good about any beauty routine except for applying makeup....LOL), it really does have a softening effect on the lines and wrinkles.  I believe I have been using my bottle for about a year now, and there's probably half an inch left in the bottom of the container.  It hasn't gone rancid yet, which is quite decent, as I've had other products that don't last nearly as long.  It's not terribly inexpensive, as I believe this bottle was in the vicinity of $48.00, but if you shop on the Q, you can probably get it in combination with another product, such as the Argan Color Stick I am going to talk about next, which makes it a much more palatable price. :)  Josie Maran Argan Oil is 100% Moroccan  argan oil, with no fillers or additives.

Which brings me to the other Josie Maran product that I really like, the Argan Color Stick.  This is a product that reminds me of the Nars Multiple, but in my book, this product beats the Multiple hands down, as the Multiple costs quite a bit more at $39.00 (The Argan Color Stick is a mere $22.00), and does not last nearly as long on the lips as the Argan Color Stick does.  Plus, Josie's product has a fab minty feel on the lips, and is infused with the softening properties of - you guessed it - ARGAN OIL!  :)


My Argan Color Stick is the Petal Pink shade, and it's a beautiful, warm pink, with a touch of shimmer.  I believe that there are several other different shade choices available.  Check them out at www.josiemarancosmetics.com.  You can also stop by your local Sephora (OMG, don't tell me you don't HAVE a local Sephora - I would die a thousand deaths if I couldn't pop by that Cosmetics Mecca weekly to drool over the latest goodies on display, but that's just me) to check out the beautiful Josie Maran offerings there....

You can use this product on your cheeks and lips, and it gives a lovely sheen of color on the cheeks - dewey, ladies - just what we are looking for to make our old, crepey cheeks appear YOUNGER, right?  Just dot a little of the product on the apples of your cheeks and blend outward and upward.  And when you're done with your cheeks, apply some to your lips.  I wore it today, and the lipcolor lasted a good three to four hours for me, and it didn't sink into the vertical lines now permanently making their home above and below my mouth!  For that alone, it deserves applause.  And a big KISS! 



I highly recommend these products.  Josie's "Magic Marker Lip and Cheek Stain", not so much.  I tried it.  And then I ran screaming out of the bathroom.  That product was not even REMOTELY wearable for this old broad, and, believe me I bought SEVERAL in the hope that one of the shades would work.  Total waste of my cash.

However, I recently sampled another of Josie's products at - you guessed it - Sephora - and now I have something that I can put on my Wish List for Christmas.  It's the Whipped Argan Oil Body Butter in Vanilla & Apricot, although there is a Citrus version as well that I have not gotten to sniff personally.  This product make my skin feel nothing short of divine, and the scent was absolutely delicious.  The Argan Balm is also really nice, and I loved the way that made my skin feel as well.

So, what are you waiting for, girls?  Get yourselves over to Sephora, or shop online on the Q or Josie's own website, and get one of these little beauties home.  You'll thank me, I just know it!  

Till next time, my Beauties.  

Monday, September 10, 2012

Let's Talk Nails

Today I'd like to share a fun nail discovery with you all.  About six weeks ago or so, my oldest daughter, Aimee, hosted a Jamberry Nails party, and it was nothing like I had imagined it would be.  Well, let's be honest here, I had not the foggiest clue as to what a "Jamberry" nail WAS, so what sort of preconceived notion of the party could I have had?  In any event, I learned about a great new product, and I am finally getting around to sharing it with you, my Fabulous Readers. :)  (You ARE out there, aren't you?)

Jamberry Nails (www.jamberrynails.com) is a very cool concept that I was not aware of.  I'm not really 'up' on nail stuff, though, so some of you Sophisticated Nail Mavens probably already know about products like these.  Jamberry products are something called nail shields, and they are a very easy way to give your nails (finger OR toe) a hip, happening new look, and we Old Broads can generally use a little help, can't we?

So, Jamberry Nails is a company rather like Mary Kay, where the products are sold at home parties.  To find a consultant in your area, you need to check out the aforementioned website.  I handily was just invited to a party, so there was no searching for a consultant for me. :)  At the party, you are given a short demo on how to apply the nail shield, and then you get to try a few on your own.  I only applied one, since, as usual, I was yakking away with the other attendees, and stuffing my face with the yummy treats Aimee had provided for all of us.  There might have even been a glass or two of sangria involved.........

 
Above is the picure I took approximately three weeks after attending the nail party.  Of course, I should have taken the picture right away, when the Nail Shield was freshly applied, but I didn't, and so you can clearly see where my nail has grown out, BUT this picture also demonstrates just how well these little suckers stay on, doesn't it? :)  They defintely stay on until you decide to take them off, if applied properly in the first place. 

Application is pretty easy.  It consists of choosing a shield that fits your nail bed width, cutting it to the general length of your nail but slightly longer, warming the shield for about ten seconds with a blowdryer (you hold onto the shield with tweezers so that you don't burn yourself), applying the shield to your nail, pressing firmly, and, finally, filing off the bit remaining that extends over the tip of your nail with a downward motion of your nail file. 

Removing the shields is also easy.  I used nail polish, but if the shields are in place for less than ten days, you can simply heat the shields with your blowdryer and break the seal at the edge of the nail by pushing up with a nail file.  They peel off quite nicely.

Below are pictures of some of the various patterns and colors that are available:







The last picture is the 'french manicure' version, which I have not yet tried out, but am looking forward to applying.  The look of a french manicure without all of the hassle.  The pictures are a very, very tiny sample of what is available.  There are shields that represent your favorite sports, shields with flowers, shields in geometric patterns, and shields that will get you noticed when you walk into a room. :)  If you like that sort of thing.

Below is a picture of my daughter Aimee's feet, which I took the other day when she was not looking.  hahahaha  She'd dolled up her toes for the trip she and two of her sisters took to Vegas recently, and I wanted you all to see how cool this product looks on toes as well.  (You can also see that the nail shields stay looking perfect long after nail polish starts to, ahem, wear....Aim, you need a fresh pedi, Dear!)  Often women will apply one shield to a ring finger nail, or a big toe nail, as my daughter has below, and then paint the rest of the nails in a coordinating color.  This stretches the product further than when you would apply shields to ALL of your nails, and is a fun accent look.


Nails are something that usually don't show your age, and we Older Beauties can follow trends for nails with little adaptation, although I confess sometimes I am shocked when I see a woman in my age category sporting Poison Green talons....er, I mean fingernails. :)  Just don't forget your handcream......with sunscreen......because our nails are surrounded by skin, and we all know what that biotch Mother Nature likes to do with our skin when we've been around the block a few times!

Monday, August 13, 2012

Jo Malone Fragrance

Hi All!

Another lag between posting times....oh, dear, the summer has just gotten away from me - I did make a quick trip to Boston to visit my daughter and her family for a week, and I've  managed to fly through a number of books in the last six weeks......hmmmm.....then there was all that knitting....... but still!  Six weeks without beauty chat is five and a half weeks too long, don't you think?

Today I want to talk about fragrance.  Fragrance is not, strictly speaking, 'makeup', but it's certainly part of the whole cosmetic mystique, and it definitely deserves a mention now and then.  I first fell in love with fragrance in sixth grade - guess that would make me eleven years old.  (Let's not do the math here and figure out exactly how many years ago that was, okay?  I'll just admit that it was more than forty years and let it go at that.......)  My mom always had a few bottles of cologne on her dresser, and one of my very favorites of hers was called Christmas in July.  She also owned Shalimar and Je Reviens.  I don't believe that Christmas in July is around anymore, but Shalimar and Je Reviens certainly are.  Some fragrances are timeless, and if the company that produces them stays in business, well, all the better. :)  Actually, come to think of it, most of the famous fragrance houses ARE still in business.....fragrance might just be the one thing in our beauty lives that remains constant....when I think about many of the fragrances that I wore in my youth, I realize that most of them are still available today.  Wow!  So if you want to go back and re-visit a bit of your youth, YOU CAN! :)

I started babysitting around sixth grade, and therefore had some disposable income of my own, which I promptly spent on makeup and fragrance......I started young.......one of my first fragrance experiences was with the 'splash' Jean Nate, which was billed as a refreshing citrus scent.  To this day, some of my favorite scents are strongly citrus, and Grapefruit might just be my very favorite scent of all time.  But don't make that stop you from reading on.  LOL  I could reminisce here for quite a while, talking about all of the wonderful fragrance memories I have, but I won't bore you with my past.  You can talk a walk down your own Memory Lane of Fragrance in the privacy of your own home.....it might make your heart beat a little faster to remember what fragrance you wore when you had your first kiss........I've read that fragrance is a very strong memory trigger, and that if you smell a particularly memorable scent, it takes you back to the moment you were when you smelled it.  So spritz on a little Jontue and let the memories begin!  LOL

But back to the subject at hand.  I recently discovered Jo Malone fragrance.  Well, that's not entirely true.  I first sniffed Jo Malone at Nieman Marcus several years back, and, frankly, I was NOT impressed.  This was supposed to be such an amazing brand of fragrance from London, but the first few times I tried the stuff, I could not (try to) wash it off quickly enough.  I say 'try' because, for me, once a fragrance has been applied to the skin, it's NOT coming off till it WANTS to come off, which is usually inversely proportional to how much you like it - when you love it, it seems to wear off in a matter of minutes, and when you hate it, it lasts for ten hours, and you could scrub your arm till it bleeds and the stuff will not come off!


However, I decided to try it again, and this time, I have fallen in love.  Specifically, I have fallen in love with Nectarine Blossom & Honey; Lime Basil & Mandarin; Verbena of Provence; and White Jasmine & Mint.  (Pictured above, from L to R are:  Bath Oil, Body Creme, and a small spray Cologne.)  Now, Jo Malone products are not inexpensive (Aaah, I admit it, pretty much NOTHING I love is inexpensive...does that make me 'high maintenance'?), but it lasts a good long time.  The Bath Oil on the left in the picture above was purchased about four weeks ago, I daub a small amount on my wrist nearly every day, and, as you can see, the bottle is basically still full....yes, I use Bath Oil as fragrance and not as actual Bath Oil - I don't think I've taken a bath since the 1970's.  I hate being naked to begin with, and naked sitting in the bathtub is just too much to take. 

But, I digress.  Back to Jo Malone.  The helpful sales associate at the Jo Malone counter at my local Nordstrom's (well, not entirely local - it's about a forty five minute drive - for those of you in the greater Chicago area, I'm naming the Woodfield store) was amazing.  She freely gives samples of all of the products, which is why I now can carry my four favorite Jo Malone fragrances in my handbag.  I hope that all of the Jo Malone counters operate on the same principle, but I suppose that you might come across a less-than-helpful salesperson when you shop for these products.  In any event, this wonderful woman suggested a lovely combination of Jo Malone products and fragrances for me when I told her my preferences.  Did you know that you can rub on a bit of Nectarine Blossom & Honey Bath Oil and top it with some Lime Basil & Mandarin Body Creme and have a gorgeous fragrance that will last all day?  Now you do!  And if you want, you can spritz on a little Verbena of Provence on top, and off you go, trailing a cloud of yumminess behind you.

I really recommend stopping by the nearest Jo Malone counter you can find and experimenting a little.  Fragrance speaks to each of us very differently, of course, and what one person loves, another gets a headache from.......so please, make that only ONE spritz of your favorite scent, and not fifteen.  You never want your fragrance to arrive before you do.  People should have to be in your personal space before they can experience your fragrance.  It's not an across-the-room kind of product.  At least, it SHOULDN'T be. :)

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Hello, Again!

Well, I see it's been a while since I last pontificated about beauty, so here goes another round...........My husband and I took a trip to New Mexico in early June, which is a beautiful state - I highly recommend a visit there if you've never been - and I wanted to write about something that inspired me while we were there.  (Besides the jewelry and the fabulous artwork!)

We stayed for nearly a week in Santa Fe, and while we were there, I saw more older beauties walking around with their natural (and by that, of course, I mean GREY and SILVER) haircolor than I have ever seen in one place before!  It was amazing.  Perhaps it was all because of the type of energy Santa Fe seems to generate, but it seemed to me that hardly any of the women I saw there who were in my 'older' age range colored their hair.  I saw so many beautiful, natural heads of hair!  It was quite inspirational.

Let's face it, usually by the time we are fifty, many of us have lost some (if not all) of our original haircolor.  It might have been chestnut when we were in our youth, but now it's chestnut mixed with silver, or entirely silver.  Or you might have (like my mom) had glorious auburn locks, which are now not-quite-auburn-but-not-quite-silver.  Sometimes our hair stops producing whatever it was that it had when we were young, but that doesn't mean that we automatically look like our eighty-nine year old grandma.....(oh, wait, at our age, that would be our mom and not our grandma, but, in any event, you get the picture)......the women I saw striding down the streets of Santa Fe were all very vibrant, powerful, and youthful looking, in spite of their grayed/silvered heads!  It was really neat to see, and I encourage you all to re-think whether or not you really need to apply that Miss Clairol or have your hairdresser use that Goldwell next month at the salon.  Grey/silver is quite lovely, and sometimes it's not our haircolor that makes us look old, but the STYLE that our hair is in, or even the style of our clothing that makes us look (here come the dreaded words!) dowdy or frumpy. 

But that's a topic for another post. :)

Friday, May 11, 2012

The Truth About Lipgloss

Let's face it, ladies, once we have reached a certain age, lipgloss is not really our friend......oh, sure, lipgloss seduces us with its gorgeous shimmer and shades, and the promise of fuller, lusher, younger, jucier lips.  Then:  WHAM!  The romance is over and reality sets in:  Crypt Keeper Effect.  You know what I'm talking about.  You apply the gloss in the morning, and your lips look pretty good - fresh, dewey, enticing.......then you check your look an hour or two later (using that all-important Magnifying Mirror), only to find that the gloss has traveled Where No Gloss Should Go - into the canyons and crevasses above and below your not-so-lush-looking lips!  Oh, the indignity of it all!!!  Why can't the stuff just stay where you put it?  Believe me, I have tried. And tried.  And foolishly tried again.  Short of building the Great Wall of China around your lips, that gloss just ain't gonna stay where it belongs on lips that have passed a certain expiration date.  If yours are not there yet, consider yourself extremely blessed, but be forewarned - at some point, you will have to kiss the gloss goodbye and resort to other products to achieve that dewey look.

Luckily, there ARE products out there that can help those of us no longer in the Bloom of Youth create a pretty pout, and one of my very favorite of those is Tarte Lipsurgence Natural Lip Stain.  These wonderful lipcolors are clinically proven to increase lip moisture content by a lot (they say 6000%, but that seems insane to me), they have a delicious peppermint infusion, and they feel absolutely divine on your lips.  Of course, they claim to give your lips a plumper appearance, but, again, it's time to turn and face the sad truth:  If you have not been blessed with a plump pout, no product in the world is gonna give you one, so just save your money if you think that your pancake lips are magically going to be transformed into trout lips by applying a product you found at Sephora.  (I'm talking to You, LipFusion!)  What Tarte Lipsurgence Natural Lip Stain WILL give you, though, is a yummy color, with an equally yummy flavor, and the color will last a pretty decent amount of time and will not travel to unauthorized places.  Not bad for a $24.00 product, huh?

Yes, I did say that each one of these puppies is going to set you back twenty four dollars, however, I don't think that I have ever purchased one all by itself, and you will usually find a great kit from Tarte that includes one of these products for a much lower per-item cost.  Last Christmas there was a great set of four or five of them for a mind-blowingly good price - can't exactly recall what the price was, but I distinctly remember that it was a great bargain.  Aaah, the joys of Old and a Bit Forgetful Minds!  :)

Back to the product:  Tarte has expanded their color offerings in the Lipsurgence line, and there is truly a color for every single skintone available.  I have a few favorites, which are great for my fair, warm skintone, and they are:  Achiote (until recently this was only available at QVC, but now is offered by Sephora),  Dazzled, Delighted, and Perky.  These all run to the coral/red hues, but there are lots of pink/mauves to pick from as well, such as Amused, Charmed, and Enchanted.  There are also several different effects you can receive from these products - there are the the Stains ("regular"), the Mattes (which give, well, a "matte" effect), and the Lusters (for a more shimmery, "flushed" look).  I personally am not really fond of the Mattes, but perhaps that is because there is not a good shade in that grouping for my skintone - they seem to be more for the darker skintones that are flattered by berry shades.  In general, though, since we are trying for a shimmery, glossy effect, matte, by definition, is probably not your best choice to achieve that effect!

Here are a few pics and swatches: 


With lids, fresh from the store!

Lidless, and well used - from L to R:  Achiote, Dazzled, Delighted, and Perky

Swatched, top to bottom:  Achiote, Dazzled, Delighted, and Perky
You can see the lovely shimmer in this shot.  Also my arm hair.  Now I understand why some women choose to remove the hair from their arms......sigh.



Swatched indoors, top to bottom:  Achiote, Dazzled, Delighted, and Perky


Of course, on Old Lips, even these lovely products need a little bit of special attention in their application.  I personally could never wear them without first applying lipliner, but maybe some of you (I hate you!) can just apply them and go merrily on your way. :)  Okay, I don't really hate you.  I'm just jealous.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Nail Stuff

Hi ho, Beauties!

Today I would like to talk about nail polish.  I really love nail polish for the same reason I love jewelry - it doesn't really matter how old, how not slim, or how under the weather you might be feeling - your nails will, under most circumstances, NEVER give you away! :)  Isn't that wonderful?  So nail polish should be your friend, and you should avail yourselves of the pretty colors out there on a regular basis - you can always look down and see that pretty color you chose - just ignore the age spots and crepey look and you'll be In Like Flynn.  (It's an OLD saying, girls.  If you were born after about 1962 you won't ever have heard it before.  But then again, if you're born after 1962 you probably won't be reading this, will you? )

So, on to the pretty stuff.  Most of us oldies have probably had the luxury of having had a professional manicure at least once, but if you haven't, no reason to despair.  I think that I can safely say that most of us can do a pretty decent job of making our nails look nice.  The toes, that's another story, but we're not going to go there today. :)  In any event, though, I think we all know the basics of a nice manicure:  remove old polish; soak in some sort of warm, soapy liquid for a while; push back the cuticles; trim and shape the nail; apply a base coat; apply two coats of color; apply top coat; let dry for a good, long time; enjoy the lovely effect for as long as it lasts, which may or may NOT be quite as long as you had hoped.

I've been sucked in by Butter London, same as many of you might have been.  I read about it, I saw it in the stores, and, sure enough, I bought a few bottles of it.  This stuff is a tad expensive.  At least, I, for one, consider fourteen dollars for ONE BOTTLE of nail polish to be a LOT of money!!!  It makes OPI's  eight or (for the 'designer series') nine dollars a bottle to seem pretty reasonable.  And, let's face it, even eight dollars for a bottle of nail polish might be pushing it, so I think it's fair to say that Butter London's fourteen dollars is truly over the top.  And it might even be worth it if it lasted, say, three days without chipping.  But, guess what, ladies?  IT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE IT 24 HOURS without chipping.  At least, it didn't last for me, and I'm not working as a cleaning lady these days......I'm kind of living a life of leisure now, what with having only one teen child left at home and the rest out on their own, cleaning their own houses, cooking their own meals, and washing their OWN dishes!  In theory, my nail polish should last quite some time and still look good.  In theory.  Real life always kinds of trumps theory, though, doesn't it?

Above you can see a selection of some colors I tried out recently:  from L to R, we have OPI's UhOh Roll Down theWindow (horrors!!!! my aged eyesight did not realize the name of this color until just now with my readers on!!!); Butter London's Wallis; Butter London's Fash Pack; and A Taupe the Space Needle from OPI.  Ladies, I really am not sure that we Older Beauties are meant to wear colors like these.....or, well, maybe we can WEAR them, but it might take us a while to get USED to seeing them on our hands.  I don't know about you, but having grown up in the fifties, sixties, and early seventies, I was kind of brainwashed into believing that our nails were meant to wear pinks, purples, mauves, and reds.  Greens, blues, blacks, and browns are kind of Goth, and most of us are at the age where Goth doesn't read very well...hell, it doesn't even read well on the young'uns, so how could it possibly fare well with US?  :)  I know that I've seen Joan Rivers on the Q wearing blue or green nail polish, and gawd knows, she's even older than most of us, but it is still kind of shocking to me to see anything other than the colors of my youth on nails.  Give me a Peach-A-Boo any day! 



No matter what color you choose to wear, though, please remember to add that all-important Top Coat!  I have been using Seche Vite, and like it very much - it seems to add an extra dollop of shine that really makes the color you are wearing look wonderful.  

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Foundation or No Foundation?

Today I am going to really go out there on a limb and talk about my Foundation Aversion.  Having started wearing makeup in the late sixties/early seventies, my original choice of foundation was between Cover Girl liquid (which kind of smelled like Noxema facial cleanser) and some sort of Bonnie Bell glop in a tube, picked up from the local 'dimestore'.  Sound familiar?  Of course, in those days, there were usually a few zits to cover up, and I recall spending time each morning trying to make sure that no one could see the little Clusters of Delight that I had woken up with on that particular morning. First I daubed a bit of the liquid foundation on, and then I powdered it over with some Cover Girl pressed powder.  I am pretty sure that I fooled no one, but lots of the girls were in the same boat back then, and we all just kind of looked the other way and hoped that OUR skin didn't look as bad as HER skin (but it probably did), and that was that.

Well, since those days, I have discovered something:  unless you absolutely need foundation to cover up a real disfigurement on your skin, you are probably better off without it.  Yes.  Really.  With very few exceptions, I have come to believe that wearing a foundation all over your face adds years to your 'look', and I'm pretty sure that if you are already an Old Broad, you do NOT want years added to your 'look'!  My opinion on this subject was firmly cemented several years back, when my oldest daughter (then in her late twenties) came over one day wearing a full face of foundation.  OMG, it made HER look older, and, believe me, this girl (now in her early thirties and mama of two) can usually pass for at least ten years younger than she really is.  No lie.  She herself came to the very same conclusion as I did:  Ix-Nay on the Oundation-Fay if you want to slash a few years from your countenance. 

Foundation likes nothing better than to seek out each and every line on your face, hunker down, and scream out, "Look at ME!  Look what I found!"  And, while you might want SOME parts of your face to be screaming, "Look at ME!", your fine lines and wrinkles are NOT those parts. (Hint:  lips and eyes are good!)

I am not saying that you don't need to cover a few little things (like dark circles and minor blemishes/red spots), but I AM saying that you don't need to cover your entire face with foundation.  Many makeup artists have been a fan of this particular approach for years now, and it has served me quite well, too.  Here is what you can do:

Using a brush or your ring finger, take your favorite concealer (my current one is Mally Cancellation Concealer, which can be found on the QVC website - www.qvc.com) and pat it gently where you see darkness under your eye.  I start at the inner corner of my eye and go up as well as down, because I have darkness above the inner corner.  I also do not apply undereye concealer further than the middle of my undereye.  Most people do not have darkness under the entire eye.  It is concentrated at the inner corners.  When you go totally under the eye, from inner corner to outer corner, you are calling more attention to the crows-feet that are most likely lurking at the outer corners, and we are trying to avoid calling attention to lines, remember?  :)



I love my Smashbox Precision Concealer Brush for initial application of the concealer, and I stand looking at my bathroom mirror to apply it.  I find that I can't do a really great job of applying makeup without the use of TWO mirrors - the large, 'regular' bathroom mirror over the sink, and my lit, 10x magnifying mirror.  The large mirror is good to check your look from a 'distance', and the magnifying mirror helps with the blending and close work.  After I have applied the initial amount of concealer (using the brush and looking into the large mirror while applying it), I put down the brush and peer into the 10x magnifying mirror, and use my ring finger to gently press (or mush) the concealer into the skin to blend.  Blending is VERY important.  We don't want telltale lines anywhere, and using a finger to blend lets the warmth of your body work the concealer into the skin well.  Stand up and look in the large mirror again.  Just applying undereye concealer should brighten up your face considerably.  Well, at least that's what it does for me!  LOL

Next, we move on to any small imperfections/spots.  I have a few of those, and to cover them up, I use my Bare Escentuals Well Rested.  If you are a warm skintone, you might like this very much - it's very 'yellow' and matches my skintone perfectly.  If you are a cool skintone, you would do better with one of the Bisque Multi-tasking Face products - there is the original Bisque, Summer Bisque, Honey Bisque, Dark Bisque, and Deep Bisque, so you should be able to find one that matches your skintone well.  I use my Bare Escentuals Precision Concealer brush, a handy dandy little thing, and press a small bit of my Well Rested right onto the spot I want to hide, and then I press again with my finger to blend well.  If you have matched your skintone, these powders will melt right into your own skin and look very natural.  They have pretty decent staying power, and I rarely touch up my face during the day, except for the lips. 


Even though you may have skipped covering your entire face with foundation, you might still like to try a Primer.  (Probably should have started with this, since you apply the primer after your moisturizer but before any makeup, but, oh, well, that's the way Old Brains seem to work these days!)  Primers kind of soften your look, and your skin feels amazingly smooth when you apply them.  I have tried a sampling of various primers out there, including Mally's Perfect Prep Primer Glow, Laura Geller's Face Spackle (in the original formula), Prime Time by Bare Escentuals (in several different formulations, including Original, Neutralizing, and Brightening), and the Smashbox offering (not pictured below).

The Bare Escentuals products are nice, and even my twentysomething youngest daughter likes the Neutralizing formula.  Mally's product gives you a smattering of sparklies, and I know that many of you are not fond of sparklies, so hers might not be for you, although I think that hers might make my skin feel the absolute smoothest when I apply it.  There are so many primers out there now, I suggest that you get over to your local Ulta or Sephora and try a few on your hand to see what you think.

Skin looks best when the natural luminosity can shine through, and foundation covers this up.  Take a deep breath, leave the foundation in the drawer, and see what happens.  You might be surprised!

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Newest Lip Finds

I visited my local Sephora the other day and landed in Tangerine Heaven!  Some of you may know that Pantone has declared that 2012's color of the year is Tangerine, or "Tangerine Tango", as they call it.  (Pantone, founded in 1963, is "a wholly owned subsidiary of X-Rite, is the world-renowned authority on color and provider of color systems and leading technology for the selection and accurate communication of color across a variety of industries.")

Sephora has teamed up with Pantone to create a line of cosmetics that feature the 'It" color of the year.  These items were displayed front and center when I walked into Sephora the other day, where you cannot miss the array of lipglosses, blushes, eyeshadows, brushes, and nailpolishes.  I've been reading about this Limited Edition collection from other beauty bloggers, and was excited to see it in person.  Makeup 'Ho that I am, I left a small chunk of change behind, and in, turn, gleefully left the store with a bulging bag of goodies. :)

As a fair, Warm-Skintoned Old Broad, I am actually flattered by this new Color of the Year. (And so will the rest of you Warm-Skintoned beauties out there, young, old, or in-between.)  However, I need to state right here that Tangerine Tango is not a color for everyone, and certainly not a color for a Cool-Skintoned Old Broad! If you were ever color analyzed and were told that you are a Winter or a Summer, do not even attempt to wear Tangerine Tango.  Most of you would not want to anyway, instinctively knowing it is not right for you, but I am certain that a few of you will be tempted.  Save your pennies for colors that are more flattering to your cool skintones, like lovely cool pinks and mauves that make us Warm-Skintoned Old Broads look one step closer to the Great Beyond than we already are. For those of you who might have been told years ago that you are a Spring or an Autumn, these colors are for you!

People have raved about the packaging, but I personally do not give two hoots about packaging.  In fact, I would MUCH rather see less packaging for both environmental and pricing reasons.  Give me the naked tube and charge me less, thankyouverymuch!  But for most lines out there, packaging is part of the, well, package, and you just can't get away from it.  (As an aside, Aveda is a line of products that seems to try to create less packaging waste, and has a very unique way of packaging lipstick to help save the environment, one lipstick tube at a time.)  HOWEVER, I will say that I do love the actual tube of Tangerine Tango Cream lipstick itself.  Refreshingly, it is WHITE, (are you or are you not a tad tired of all of the BLACK tubes out there?) and the cap slips onto a silver-toned base with a nice, magnetic CLICK. 




But, of course, what is really important is the lipstick itself, and Tangerine Tango did not disappoint me.  It is a glorious, rich, deep coral-orange, which applies very smoothly and lasts a decent amount of time, given no unusual uses of the lips......(don't try to eat a salad with an oil-based dressing or bite into a hotdog bun and ever expect your lipstick to stay put - it just ain't gonna happen).....say, four hours or so.  (Can I confess here that I have, on occasion, actually ordered something off the menu for the sole purpose that it was not going to mess with my lipstick?  Egads!)You might even be able to do a bit more than just sit there and look pretty - my lipstick survived the morning cup of tea with very little damage to the finished effect.  Anything more than the dainty sipping from your coffee/tea cup usually requires a bit of touch-up, but this formulation appears to be more of the traditional one that lasts hours, and even when it wears down, a bit of a stain on the lips is left behind.  Don't put this on and then think you're going to take it off anytime soon without some serious scouring efforts, ladies.

I would also strongly recommend not using this lipstick without applying a decent lipliner first.  I don't know about you, but I have found lipliners a necessary part of my makeup routine for a while now - without the aid of My Friend the Lipliner, I would seriously have no upper lip to speak of.  Angelina Jolie has no reason to fear losing the Crown for the Lushest Lips to me, since I think that it would take at least three of my upper lips to equal hers.  And I'm not telling you to create a totally new lipline or to draw too much outside the lines here, ladies.  It's just that defining the lip with a nice, distinct line does wonders for making the most of whatever lips that joke-loving God bestowed upon us......we will have to talk about liplining in another entry, for sure.  Maybe two, even, because liplining is serious stuff.  :)

Here is the lovely lipstick itself - I'm not going to kid you, it is BRIGHT, and if you don't feel comfortable having all heads turn towards your luscious pout, Tangerine Tango might be best left on the shelf.  However, you should also realize that as we age, sometimes the nicest thing we can do for our face is to give our lips a 'pop of color', so to speak.  I know that there are experts out there (and one, in particular, who wrote a book about How Not to.....) who tell you that when you are older, your best look is a soft pink lipstick, no matter what your coloring.  I am sorry, but I must politely disagree, and I am betting that there are others out there who feel the same.  I personally have found that my finished look is much more attractive when my lips look ALIVE, rather than half-dead, and Tangerine Tango is a color that definitely screams "Life!".  Without further ado, I give you Tangerine Tango Cream lipstick from Sephora:


And, just for kicks, here is the set of four lipglosses in the Tangerine Tango line from Sephora/Pantone:


L, to R, they are:  Tangerine Tango Opal, Tangerine Tango Luminous, Tangerine Tango Vivid, and Tangerine Tango Glaze.  The Glaze is the most sheer, and the Vivid is basically a lipstick in a wand.  I actually had to blot Vivid off my lips, as it went on waaaay too thick when applied as you would a regular gloss.  A favorite tip of mine when applying a 'too dark' gloss is to just apply a dot of it to your lower lip.  Then, using the fingertip of your choice, gently move the color out from the center to the edges of your lips.  (Again, having outlined your natural lipline first with a matching liner pencil.  Otherwise the lipgloss might take an unauthorized trip into the twilight zone - you know - those crevasses above and below the lips that us Old Broads seem to develop overnight.....)  Even a color that looks alarming in the tube can often be worn when applied in this manner.  Try it, you'll like it!  :)

In any event, all four glosses must be purchased together in a kit - I would have much preferred being able to pick and choose single glosses, and had I been able to choose, I would have chosen the Opal or the Glaze, but probably would have left the Vivid on the shelf for sure, as the Tangerine Tango Cream lipstick is a very similar color/consistency/product.  Not quite sure why this one was included in the mix. 

I also couldn't resist a beautiful new offering from YSL in the Volupte Sheer Candy line called #10 Mandarine.  The tube is gorgeous, and the color and consistency of this is a much more sheer and wearable offering for those of you who would like to give the Color of the Year a try but find it a bit much. Here is the YSL offering: 

And, finally, for purposes of comparison, here are all of the colors swatched:
From top, we have the Tangerine Tango Cream lipstick, the YSL Mandarine, and then the Tangerine Tango Opal, Luminous, Vivid, and Glaze.

These are all lovely colors for warm skintones, but if you are a cool, again, I highly advise you to leave these alone.  There are lots and lots of colors out there for you, and maybe next time I will swatch some.  :)

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

April Crepe

Hmmm, maybe this poor little blog needs a little more attention.  Or to be altogether abandoned.  Of course, frustrated novelist that I am, I will NOT be abandoning it anytime soon. :)  Therefore, I choose:  MORE ATTENTION!  And maybe today I will actually attempt PICTURES to go along with WORDS.  Yes, much more interesante, no?

Since this is a blog directed towards those of us for whom the first bloom of youth has probably turned tail and run, I would like to address the issue of crepy lids.  If you are reading this and have no clue what crepey lids are, please read on and prepare to be possibly distressed at what the future holds for you.  For those of you to whom crepey lids have already become a fact of life, I would like to tell you that there are definitely ways to work with them.  :)  Perhaps you have already discovered a few tips and tricks of your own.  If not, I hope that a few of these will give you some new tools with which to Fight.

But first I must digress a bit here and go on record with my belief that while we may develop some sags, bags, and wrinkles as we walk this Wonderful Path of Life, with those same sags, bags, and wrinkles come wonderful ((all right, to some of us, but, sadly, not to all)) insights and, hopefully, people, into our life, and therefore should not be looked upon with horror and dismay, but with pride and the knoweldge that we are becoming more and more wise and beautiful inside.  Truly.  Because if we don't look at life that way, we will all go madly and horribly insane!

So, on to Crepey Lids.  Contrary to what some (and some who are Quite Renowned) have to say about wearing shimmer-free colors on crepey lids, I have found that slight shimmer actually DETRACTS from the crepiness of my lids and makes me look younger and more alive.  Wearing 'flat' colors on MY eyelids definitely accentuates the wrinkles, and I have tossed all of my flat colors, or relegated them to usage in the crease of my eyelid ONLY.  A recent find that works beautifully for me is one of the new quads from the Ready line of Bare Escentuals.  I own The Truth, which consists of four lovely neutral shades:  Serendipitous is a light champagne shimmer; Magnetism is a medium taupe; Fate is my fave, a shimmery chocolate brown; and Apropos is a dark brown that is great for smudgy lining or adding depth to the crease.  (And herein lies a Painful Truth, ladies - us Old Broads should really stick to the Neutral Shades for optimal flattery.  Sorry.  True.)  Oh, dear, the pictures appear to be a tad blurry.  Please forgive the amateur attempt - hopefully I will improve my technique with time.  It probably gives one pause and makes one wonder what kind of advice I am giving when my photos are crap.  Oh, well, have faith.  I might not be the best photographer, but I'm not too bad at makeup application! :)

Here are the eyeshadows - from top, which is quite pale, we see Serendipitous; then Magnetism, Fate, and Apropos.  And, sorry, I guess we also see a freckle and some of my neighbor's backyard.....

In situ in the compact (please forgive the 'well loved' look of the compact):

By the way, I NEVER use the brushes that come in the compact - the poor excuse for brushes here look used because I just employed them to swab my arm with the swatches.  My favorite eyeshadow brushes are the Wet/Dry eyeshadow brushes from Bare Escentuals, although these particular Ready eyeshadows are not meant to be used wet, unlike the Bare Escentual shadows that are loose minerals in the pot.

As far as color application, I have found that applying the lightest shade on the lid IS NOT A GOOD IDEA.  Save the lightest shade for inner corners or browbone highlighting.  Really light shades on the lid CALL ATTENTION TO CREPINESS and should never be used there.  Use the medium or dark shades on the lid and you will be much happier with your look.

Now, regarding lining:  younger women would not understand this, but those of us for whom Mother Nature has given us the Gift of Wisdom will understand:  It is nearly impossible at some point to draw a smooth, straight line in all one swipe across your lashline.  However, it IS possible to give the smooth, straight line LOOK if you draw the line a little bit at a time, and here are some helpful tools to have when you attempt this:



The pen on top is from Tarte, the multiplEYE, which I own in black.  It has an extremely narrow tip and is pretty good for lining crepey lids, although I find the color a tad wimpy and often need to go over the line a few times for real 'oomph'.  (And, BTW, black is not necessarily to be avoided by us Old Broads - used wisely, it can be a wonderful look!)  The pen on the bottom is from Buxom, in dark brown, and it is my current favorite.  The tip is a cunning design that is quite rigid (the Tarte product is more flexible, and, for that reason, more difficult to control) and can be used to make very thin lines, very thick lines, and lines somewhere in-between.  The color goes on very saturated the first time, and all in all, I think this is one of the best 'liquid' eyeliner products I have ever used.  (And for those of you who don't know me, I have a 'slight' makeup addiction and my collection is embarassingly HUGE, so I have mostly likely tried more than the average woman......or maybe three average women.)  Here is a close-up (albeit somewhat blurred) pic of the tips, with the Tarte product on the top and the Buxom product on the bottom:


To apply one of these eyeliners, first start with the color eyeshadow you are going to use, and top with your choice of eyeliner - I do not line my entire eye, but only about the outer two thirds, sometimes only the outer half.  Using your magnifying mirror (YES, ladies, USE ONE - it's the only way to really see what you are doing!), start at the center of your eye and work your way in small strokes to the outer edge.  If necessary, go back and extend the line a bit more toward the inner corner of the eye, but you usually don't want to go the entire way to the corner unless you are working on a very dramatic evening look or you are REALLY adept with the liner and can fade it to nothing at the end.  (Which you are more likely to be able to do with the aid of your magnifying mirror!)  You will see that lining your eyes calls attention to them, but will not make you look like a Kardashian (unless your goal is to look like a Kardashian, and then I would direct you to one of the many YouTube videos of Kim having her makeup applied).  But I digress.  Get as close to your lashline with the liner as humanly possible.  The best way to do this is to almost be aiming for the teeny, tiny spaces in between your lashes.  Yes.  Go there.  You will be very happy you did.  It's close to 'tightlining' without the rigamarole of flipping your eyelid half inside out.  But maybe we can address tightlining another time, as it is a pretty cool tool for Old Broads - NO CREPE ON THE INNER RIMS OF THE EYES......erm, well, at least I can say that as a fiftysomething - who knows what horrors await, say, as a ninetysomething?  Hopefully I can address that when I come to it in thirtysome years.  :)

Finish up with a light coat of mascara.  I used to omit mascara but realized that my eyes just didn't look the way I wanted them to without it.  My current faves are Bare Escentuals Flawless Definition Volumizing mascara and Hello Lashes from It Cosmetics.  The BE mascara is probably the one I reach for most, but Hello Lashes is nice for a change, although the formula is very 'wet' and I feel that it makes my lashes clump together more than I would like.  However, it has an interesting (although not totally unique) brush, with one end being a little ball, with which you are supposed to get 'every single last lash'.  Beware!  This little end is also good for smearing gobs of mascara in places you did not intend it to be, but as long as you have a reasonably steady hand, you're good to go.

An added afterthought:  Bet some of you are wondering about eyeshadow primers.  I have tried a *cough* few of them myself.  I found some of them to make my eyelid crepiness actually - OMG - WORSE - sorry to have to name this one, because I actually love LG herself, but Laura Geller's Eye Spackle was a 'no go' for me.  Some of the rest of you might like it quite a bit, and I really like her Face Spackle, but the only eyelid/shadow primers that seem to work/look good on my fiftysomething lids are - drumroll, please - the Bare Escentuals color eyeshadow primers.  I love the ones in shades of brown/taupe, whereas my twentysomething daughter loves the pink/yellow ones.  Aaah, in the Crepe Against No Crepe battle, the darker shades win out again - stick with Bronzed Twig or Toasted Almond for your best look.  And, honestly, I'm not sure that they smooth the Crepe out too much, but the colors are pretty, and they last all day loooong.  :)

So that this doesn't turn into my very first novel, I will close for today, although I realize that I might have delivered a tad less than I promised........I bet some of you were hoping I was going to share the Secret of Total Obliteration of Crepey Eyelids, and I merely offered a few of my own, stolen-from-other-sources makeup tips.

Next time I think I will address lips.  I love a good pop of color on the lips! :)