MAC birthday makeover

For my birthday this year Tuxedo was stuck for ideas – which has to be the first time ever! – and came to me for advice.  I decided I’d like a bit of girliness; some pretty shiny new skin care products and a MAC makeover, including a bunch of products.  Tuxedo was more than happy with  this idea; he figured I needed some pampering and pretty stuff after the previous few months of blah (which continued for a while afterward, but the birthday really cheered me up).

I’m pretty low maintenance in my skin care routine – oh I do all the cleansing and serums and moisturisers and sunscreen – but once I find a set of products I really like I tend to stick with them, and not try others that might be just as good.  This is mostly down to budgetary means; I don’t have the budget / finances to play around, so for my birthday I wanted to get a few “extras” to add into my bag o’ stuff.  Me being me, naturally I did lots of research, much making of lists, culling down of list, more research etc etc (“Hello, my name is Jules, and I’m anal retentive”).

Compliment of the year?

I think I had the best compliment on my looks, precisely one week before my fortieth birthday.

Please note:  I was wearing spectacles, barely any make up, just eye liner and mascara, a bit of powder and a slick of lip gloss.  Hair loose and half way down my back.  Pretty much screamed WYSIWYG basically.

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So there I was at the Chanel counter in David Jones, spraying on Chanel’s “Coco Mademoiselle” with growing certainty that this was the new scent for me.

Make up, she wrote – Part II

Herewith Part II of the post on my absolute favourite can’t-live-without cosmetic products.  Part I was all about the face – concealer, foundations, powder, blush and highlighters.  I continue on with eyes, lips and make up tools.

EYES

Mascara:  Max Factor Masterpiece MAX Mascara  [Black]  [I believe this is called Lash Perfection in the USA]

I’m addicted to thick, curly, blacker-than-black lashes.  As I was blessed at birth with white-blond eyelashes [admittedly long and curly], mascara is a necessity lest I look like the White Rabbit.  I also wear contact lenses and have medium-sensitive eyes, so it’s essential to find products that don’t contain nylon fibres which happily flake into the eyes all day long, a formula that doesn’t glug into the eyes, get absorbed by the lens and result in blurry cloudy eyesight – not to mention the risk of bacteria and infection.  Mmm conjunctivitis.  Maybelline Full & Soft and DIOR Diorshow were my favourite mascaras for ages but they weren’t perfect. 

Make up, she wrote – Part I

It’s hardly a secret here that I love love love make up and skin care, playing with powders and paints and ever-so-pretty colours [am such a kid].   Conversely, I have zero interest in fashion or clothing beyond adequate coverage of my cute self, which is kinda weird.  And as for hair – well, I’m a wash n wear girl, no product overload and flat-ironing or what-have-you for me.  Just the make up and lotions and potions, please and thank you.

I was a late developer in the area of make up as in many others [puberty at 16?] which meant I bypassed some of the less fortunate aspects of the 1980s, heavy stripes of unblended blue and pink eye shadow, white lipstick and goopy cheap lip gloss.  When I was ready to get into make up and skin care, I went straight for the good stuff and learnt how to apply it correctly.

My tastes and preferences have changed over the years, but my basic policy remains the same.  I spend my money carefully regardless of brand name and hype;  I keep my “collection” minimal;  and I am beyond sceptical when it comes to outrageous advertorial claims by cosmetic companies.  I’m loyal to lines that deserve it by being tops in quality.  I don’t mind the spend so long as I get good bang for my buck.  So to speak. 

Product reviews – Skin care – Body

So continuing on in girly vein, here’s a few reviews of my favourite products for skin care – body.  I have a very basic routine and set of products from which I rarely deviate.  I have very sensitive skin [of course I do] that’s inclined to get horridly itchy and dry, due mostly to the large doses of morphine and other delightful prescription medications I have to take.  So even though I occasionally long for all those pretty- pretty bottles full of beautifully scented bath and shower delights [L’Occitane and Origins, I’m looking at you, you bastards, why do you have to use SLSs and parabens and all that gross stuff?] I don’t purchase them because I know too well how unfortunate the results will be, and how long my skin will take to recover.

Product reviews – Skin care – Face Part II

 My next favourite brand for skin care is Clarins.  I’ve had a long, long love affair with Clarins, particularly in my 20s when I had Clarins everything.  I went off it for several years while I played the field a bit, but I’ve returned – to the old faithfuls and a few really great new improved products.

Product reviews – Skin care – Face Part I

I last wrote about my skin care regime and products back in February, and thought it time for an update;  what I’m currently using, how the products have fared and a few reviews of new products too.  I’m afraid the full post is a bit long [understatement!] so I’ve divided it into two parts.  Feel free to just skim-read or skip it entirely if all this girly stuff is not your cuppa tea.

My new favourite skin care line back then was Ultraceuticals [yep possibly worst brand name ever] and I’m still incredibly happy with it.   It’s a great range, and the proof is my skin is looking the best it ever has;  like the skin of a clean living healthy 25 year old, which is kinda nice when one is 39!  It looks and feels really smooth and supple, with a very fine velvety-soft texture.  My skin is dry / sensitive and the products I use have been most effective;  the products for oily / combo skins get equally positive reviews.  It’s quite unusual for one line to treat all skin types equally well. 

As far as wrinkles and lines go, well you all know I’m super sceptical but this stuff has made a visible difference.  Frown lines have reduced, in particular my “pain line” [one line that crosses through an eyebrow and deepens depending how much distress I’m in], and I have hardly any lines around my eyes.  Sure there are laugh lines and I don’t look like an expressionless over-Botoxed freak, hello Nicole Kidman, but in general there has been a major improvement in the past few months. 

Beauty and the beast – Beauty shopping online

Shopping in Perth and surrounds is a bit of a joke.  The clothes shops are all clones of each other, churning out raggy skanky tacky stuff that I have absolutely no wish to buy and in general make me lose my will to live; certainly my will to go clothes shopping.   There is an exception of course;  the Armani et al sections in the David Jones Perth store, which of course are horrifically out of my reach monetarily speaking.  Siiiiigh.  I think it’s time to visit my dressmaker again …

As for shopping for make up and skin care, well that’s just as bad.  Every department store [of which there are two, yes the same two, in the city or suburban malls] has an identical “beauty floor” with the exact same brands – the big names, Estee Lauder, Clinique, Dior, Chanel, Clarins, blah blah blah. 

The smaller, more interesting brands have zero to minimal representation, maybe one counter at one department store, and only in the city.  As evidence, I give you MAC, my beloved make up line – which isn’t exactly a “small” brand – and my favourite skin care brand Ultraceuticals.  Both are available at just the one counter in just the one department store in the city, and this is sometimes problematic.  I can’t always make it into town, or want to make the trek, especially now I need a walking stick / elbow crutch for any distance. 

For me then, it’s obvious that online is the way to go.  In fact I pretty much do all my skin care and make up shopping online now.  Shopping online can be chancy however, and I’m ultra picky about the quality of service, the security of the site, the speed of delivery, the overall cost and so on.   I have come to trust and love only a chosen few – Adore Beauty; MAC Online; Strawberrynet and Smart Poppy.

Beauty and the beast: Hair today gone tomorrow

 … we wish!  [with abject apologies for really AWFUL pun]

Hair and it’s removal is a topic fraught with implications, decisions, terror, and financial burden.  Obviously I’m not referring to the plain old hair on the top of your head – although cuts and colours and treatments and styles can be equally panic-attack-inducing [which is why we females are always, ALWAYS cringingly nice to our hair-dressers/stylists – only imagine the damage they could do if they had a grudge?].

Nope, it’s all that extraneous and culturally unattractive hair elsewhere – underarms, forearms, legs, pubes … even, for some ladies [and blokes, but I’ll get to that in a bit] backs and bums.  Shade, coarseness and density differs for every single individual but we all, at some point, ask the same questions.  How?  Where?  And for bloody fuck’s sake, WHY?

I won’t get into the whole gender-political debate, and the cultural implications of being hair free vs hairy just now [although feel free to go wild in the comments section].  Let’s assume for the sake of this post that the need for hair removal is on your agenda.  Appearance is the main reason for most folks;  comfort is another. 

Appearance:  Satin-smooth legs and arms are sexy, there’s no doubt about that.  Neanderthal uni-brows and lady-’staches are not.

Beauty and the beast: Hair

Hair / Long beautiful hair / Shining, gleaming, steaming, flaxen, waxen … 

Hair can be the bane of a person’s life.  Too much, too little, too straight, too curly, too thick, too fine, too unmanageable.  An enormous industry is built on thousands of products of must-haves to curl, volumise, texturise, smooth, straighten, condition, tame, tousle, gloss, silken. 

Then there’s all the tools – ionic hair dryers with names that sound like James Cameron movies, ceramic hair straighteners and curling irons, I don’t know what else [no, really, I don’t know, have no idea].