Makeup Supplies- Eyeliner, the struggle is real

The good news is, I learned a helpful technique for applying eyeliner (I keep my eye half opened and tilt my head up, so that my eye does not get all watery). That bad new is, it seems that only some eyeliners work on me. Oddly, I could not get any of the 3 different pencil eye liners to work on my eyes. I can swatch them easily on my skin, but as soon as I try to use them on my eyes, nothing happens! It wont draw a line on my eye skin or my waterline! 

I figured I'd try a nice gel liner. I found a highly rated one online and so far I've had a good time with it. I can make the line thin or thick pretty easily, and it doesn't tug on my skin like the pencils do. The only downside to this liner is that if I use it on my waterline, as I blink it all disappears. Sometimes it gets pushed to the corner of my eye and then smudges just outside of the corners. Maybe I need a better pencil for my waterline? I've also heard some people burn the tip of the pencil too, so I might try that in the future. 

Online I see a lot of people who do a flick on the corners, but this doesn't work so well on me. I think it's because of the shape of my eyes. The videos I watch online are people with almond shaped eyes, but I have round eyes. It might just not be a good style for me, or I may need to look at doing it a different way for people with round eyes. But I'll put this experiment off until I have a working pencil liner.

Right now I'm just avoiding my waterline all together, but I do use a little mascara. With the gel liner on top and the mascara on my top and bottom lashes I get a simple, clean look that I'm happy with for now :)

Makeup Supplies- My Little Red Kit

Since I threw out all of my previous makeup I decided that it would be best to get one of those little kits that come with blush, eye shadow, eye liner, mascara, lipstick and gloss. I like the one I bought but so far I mostly use the blush, for a number of reasons. The blush colors are great and it even comes with some bronzer for me to play with in the future.

I've only used the eyeshadow once so far, when I was playing with my girls. I learned very quickly that I suck at eyeshadow! I will need to watch more videos or invite someone over, because videos might not be enough for how bad I am at it. 

As for the lips sticks and gloss, the only reason I don't really use the ones in the kit is because I had previously purchased a few, and I would rather use these for now. I worked hard at finding a nice tinted lip balm (because I tend to let my lips get dry if I'm not careful) and Burt's Bees really hit the mark for me. I also bought a set of their lip gloss which are pretty and subtle, just add a little pop, which is nice on days when I don't feel like doing my whole face. Since I'm so happy with the ones I'm currently using I think it would be a waste to get germs on the ones in the set. It will take me a while to work my way through the ones I'm using now, so the ones in the set can remain covered until I have burned through some of my current supply. 

While I like the kit to experiment with at home, I must admit that when I am going out dolled up, it is not very convenient. I can easily pack my concealer and lipstick in my bag, but I can't bring the huge tray that holds all the blush. I plan on buying one compact blush so I can put that in my purse for my travel bag. Of course, since I don't go out all that much this is not a huge problem for me :)  

Makeup Supplies - Foundational Problems :)

OK, just to make it clear how little I use make-up, when I looked at the makeup I still owned, I realized that I had bought most of it back before the turn of the millennium! I realized I had to throw it all away. I had to buy new items little by little so I wouldn't hurt the family budget.

The hardest thing for me was foundation. I tried going one of those make-up counters but I hated all of them. It made me feel like I was wearing a huge mask. Even though I'm aging now, my skin isn't horrible, so I decided to skip the foundation for now and just work on finding a decent concealer. I currently own 3.

At first I didn't like how they looked, it still looked very mask like. Then I learned how to use a bit less and the all powerful "blending" process. This really helped me feel better about it. I bought a little concealer brush which I find is the most helpful for me to blend with. For some reason the sponge just doesn't have the same ease. I think it might soak up too much as I'm trying to blend.

The skin under my eyes is usually dry. I did buy special eye cream which is fine, but I find that the concealer sometimes adds to the dryness. I still haven't had a chance to buy translucent powered, and I worry that it will add to the dry issue, but I still am curious to see how it will look. I also want to look into BB cream, which is tinted and may provide moisture, though I'm not sure if I can use it as a concealer. Again, since funds are limited I can only do a little at a time. One step at a time.

Nails

I actually liked taking care of my nails. Keeping them trimmed and cleaned was already something I was accustomed to for practical reasons. Soaking them was simple enough, and since I didn't have cuticle cutters I just pushed them back and they seemed fine for the nail polish.

A few weeks later I was taken out for a rare treat of getting my nails done professionally (something I haven't done in over a decade). I was happy to find out that the lovely woman who was doing my nails, who had 15 years of experience, told me that my cuticles were fine, and that I didn't have much to clip off anyway. She showed me how to just cut the the tiny jagged parts on the edges. She also explained that many women try snipping off all their cuticles and only wind up causing infections which look worse.

I was shocked by all the layers it took, and admittedly I smudged one of them before they were dry. I When I painted them at home I only had a few types of nail polish to play with, but I noticed that each one was very different. I didn't even own top coat or base coat so I typically just painted two layers with the polish I was using. It seemed that my better nail polish lasted almost as long as the work done by the professional, though it wasn't as shiny and fancy looking. The professional work has a certain finesse that I still don't fully understand how to accomplish.

After my experiments, I haven't really kept painting my nails. I try to do it for a special occasion if I can remember to get it done the night before, which is a cardinal rule I've learned when I do them myself. I'm much more likely to smudge if I do it the same day. Also the little imperfections that get on the sides of my fingers are usually gone by the next day, so if I don't remember to do it the night before, I don't bother doing it the same day.

My girls love when I do their nails. Right now their nails are so small that it can be tough for me to paint them without getting some on their fingers. Also, especially for the little one, I have to use the fast drying one or else she will smudge everything. I'm sure as they get older this will become more fun and easier for all of us.

Healthy Skin = less sick me

One very important thing I've noticed is that keeping my skin properly moisturized really does help keep me healthy. Here is the cycle I've noticed:

-As my skin gets drier and drier, paper-cuts plague me like an evil curse, then once my skin gets nicked I catch any cold or flu that is floating around

-When I keep lotion on hand and keep my skin hydrated, NO paper-cuts, and I don't even catch the cold/flu that my kids or husband bring home!

This is especially true for my hands, which makes sense since my hands are probably exposed to the most germs, and get dried out more from all the hand washing as well.  

Keeping my hands moisturized also seem to help my cuticles, but more on that when I cover nails ;)

The Journey Continues...

It's been so long since I last wrote about my journey, but my travels into the girly realm continue...

As it turns out, my second daughter also shows strong girly inclinations, so I believe I made the right choice when I started these studies. Over the past several years I've continued to learn between crazy working hours, one and a half Master's degrees, health issues and squeezing in family fun time.

I have plenty to write about, and still plenty more to learn.

Part 4: Uncovering the Skin

It was a good thing that the first book I read on this subject was written by a dermatologist. Instead of being bombarded by marketing myths I was able to approach the skin as a vital organ of the body and see skin care as an extension of health and nutrition, instead of in the light of glamour and illusions. Here are some of the key  elements I learned:



1. All Skin is Unique
The first thing I learned is skin care is very personalized, what works for one person doesn't work for everyone. So getting to know your own skin is key. My skin is not too bad. It tends to be a little on the sensitive side, but a little moisturizing helps that. I also learned that I needed a little gentle exfoliating. Nothing fancy, I just use a clean washcloth and gently rub my skin in the shower once a week now. It helps exfoliate and it also helps with circulation which is an added bonus.

2. Moisturizing After a Shower
I learned that it's best to apply moisturizer right after taking a shower, apparently water drying on your skin actually dries out your skin. This way the lotion seals in the moisture. One of the books I read mentioned that you should not do this because the water on your skin will dilute the lotion you use, but I that doesn't sound very logical to me. I mean if your lotion is good that small amount of water should not make that much difference and you could always use more lotion if you feel you need it. If you wait until your skin has completely dried out you would probably need to use even more lotion anyway right.

3. The One Thing We Should ALL use: Sunscreen
While there are tons of products that promise younger looking skin, the key word in that phrase is "looking". The fact is that all those products don't actually make your skin younger, it's just an illusion. Sunscreen is the only product that actually protects your skin from aging and other dangers that are possible from sun damage. No matter what kind of skin a person has we are all vulnerable to damage from the sun since the rays actually penetrate the skin. This causes signs of aging and can even lead to skin cancers.


Once my current lotion runs out I am planning to look for a lotion that works well with my skin and has sunscreen in it already, which is a good way to get both moisture and protection at once.

I saved some reference material for the future because over time the skin changes. I'm sure as I get older my skin needs will change and my daughters will each have their own unique needs. I did learn a lot of other neat things but I didn't want to make this entry too long. I also feel like I learned new ways to help and protect my family's health from this part of my journey so I'm really glad about that :)

The next part of this saga is where things get scary for me.... make-up... this one might get rough.



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