Christmas Beauty

What is Christmas beauty?  Of course, in the truest sense, Christmas beauty is all about the season and the joy of the Savior's birth, but for the 'everyday' in all of us, Christmas beauty is all about spiffing up the outside to match the inside.  In the case of those of us who have passed certain milestones (say, the big 5-0, for example), spiffing up takes a bit more effort than those in their dewey, glowey (hold me back before I jump off this cliff) twenties, thirties, and, yes, even forties.  :)  Call out the heavy artillery, please.  Well, maybe not 'heavy', so much as thoughtfully chosen.  Even though we may have a few more miles on us, we can still look polished and perfected.  Isn't that comforting?

Happy Halloween!

Not a beauty post at all, but just a wish for a fun-filled night of goblins and ghosts! :)

Fall Beauty

Fall is here, and it's always a good time to freshen up your beauty look, isn't it?  I'm thinking Ready, the new eyeshadows from Bare Minerals.  Most of you know that BE makeup consists of loose minerals, and some of you don't really enjoy it in that form. Well, now there are 'pressed' eyeshadows to play with.  I picked up the new 'brown' quad, and am really enjoying it.  There is one highlight shade, two lid shades, and one crease shade, all beautiful.....stop by the BE counter in your favorite store and look them over.

The Post You've All Been Waiting For!

Nearly a year in the making, and here is my second beauty post! Kind of fell by the wayside, but now I'm all charged up again to talk about beauty! My new obsession is Tarte. Yes, I know that I have waxed rhapsodical on BE, and I still have a very strong affection for all things BE (especially the new Primer Shadows, but that's a topic for another post), but I have really been loving Tarte these days, especially the Lipsurgence glosses. OMG, heaven on the lips!!! Yet another product with a minty taste/smell, but one that does NOT dry out the lips. Could use a few more Blingmama-friendly colors, but I'm sure that will eventually come. :)  For now, favorites for my warm, fair skintone include Joy, a lovely medium peach; Achiote (an exclusive color to QVC), another slightly deeper peach tone; and Glisten, which is a sheer, gold-flecked peach.   I'm anxious to try out the new colors promised soon - inspired by Trueblood, I believe..........Muahahahaha!  I saw the colors swatched on a favorite beauty blog I read, and they were absolutely stunning.  Reds, of course.  :)

Here I Am

Well, I've been thinking about this for a while, and I decided that I love makeup soooo much (and I BUY makeup sooooooo much), that I just couldn't keep my musings to myself anymore. The world really, really needs to hear my opinions on these things.....maybe I'll save you some money, but maybe I'll enable you into that new lipstick! You never know what you're going to get here.....shades of Tom Hanks, yes?

So many of the makeup blogs are written by younguns, I think that there is a need for the viewpoint of a gracefully aged 'girl' out there, so here I am. :)

Today I'm going to wax poetic about my Buxom Lipglosses. I'm a Bare Escentuals junkie (which is putting it mildly, because I pretty much would sell my soul to get the latest kit offered by Leslie), and one of my favorite BE products is the Buxom Lipgloss- these puppies last a REALLY long time, and they come in an amazing array of shades, from the palest, most delicate pink to the deepest red. Okay, not so many red ones, but there are lots of shades from which to choose - definitely something for everyone, especially when you consider that there are some 'full color' Buxoms as well. Full Color Buxoms are much more dense in color and more heavily pigmented. They are a bit much when applied straight from the tube, but when you dab a small amount on your lower lip and then spread it around the lips with your ring or pinky finger, they are stunning. My favorite is called Roxanne, and it's a lovely "your lips but better" shade.

I have not even yet touched on the wonderful minty burst that your lips are treated to when you apply a Buxom gloss! Heavens! I am spoiled forever, because now I really don't want to wear a product on my lips that does not impart a minty feeling/taste. Some people are actually bothered by this sensation, though, and have reported that their lips actually BURN from Buxom glosses. So sad, but everyone is allergic/sensitive to SOMETHING, and some people are just unlucky enough to be bothered by Buxom glosses. Thankfully, I am not in that camp.

There are also a small collection of Buxom Lipsticks at this point, which are also nice, but somewhat drying to the lips. Boo Hoo. I think that BE needs to work on the formulation a bit more, but the nice minty tingle is there. The original form of the product was called the Quick Stick, and it did not have the minty tingle and was a much more creamy formula, but no minty tingle and no saucy name. I like to put a little Buxom Gloss over the Buxom Lipstick for the best effect, but then, of course, the color wears off much more quickly, that being the nature of glosses. They wear off.