Kevyn, Kevyn, he's our man, if he can't do it, no one can!

Kevyn Aucoin changed my life forever. It was winter of 2000 and I was fully obsessed with all things fashion and make up. I wanted to know all there was to know about both subjects so I buried myself in the beauty section of my local Barns and Nobel. It was then that I spotted Kevyn’s books, ‘Making Faces’ and ‘Face Forward’. From the moment my fingers touched the covers I knew I’d found something important; I knew I’d found the bible on make up.

Now, as I’ve shared before, it’s not unusual for me to have a physical reaction to items of clothing, sales, or books that I love and this case was no different for me. I had a rapid heart beat, my mouth had gone dry and I had this overwhelming sense of dread that at any moment, someone was going to find me looking at these holy books, deem me unworthy and remove me from the store immediately. I took my copies and found a place to sit right there in the bookstore and I literally didn’t move until I’d read each book cover to cover. That’s a little over 300 pages of goodness. I remember my eyelids feeling tired when I’d finished reading because I’d kept my eyes WIDE open as to take in all the information at one time. In one fell move, Kevyn had won my heart forever and from then on I have been a devoted follower and promoter of Kevyn’s cause, telling anyone with ears about him and his books.

This past weekend, while in New Jersey, I had the pleasure of spending some time with a teenage cousin of mine who is in full girly mode. She reminded me very much of me in that she has a very healthy passion for all things stylish and she was very teachable when it came to make up. I spent a very lovely morning with her teaching her the make up secrets Guru Kevyn taught me so many years ago; thus the inspiration for this post. My dear cousin had never heard of Kevyn before and as shocking as that was, it was even more troubling to think that many of my readers probably hadn’t yet heard of Kevyn either. (Or if y’all have, maybe you just didn’t appreciate him as much as one should!)

For all those who struggle with make up techniques, who are experts and want to try something new, who are starting out and need a step by step how-to, these are your books. There is a wealth of information on everything one could ever want to know about make up and y’all can bet that there will be up coming posts about Kevyn’s techniques. For now, just go out and do something good for yourself and the world and buy these books.

How to: The Perfect Blowdry Job

View Larger Map


This past Saturday I drove 130 miles from Austin to San Antonio to get my hair done. Crazy you say? Maybe. However, please consider that the last time I went to the Salon, the girl who was cutting my hair knew not what she was doing and hacked mercilessly away at my (then) long locks. And so the reason for my willingness to go great distances (literally) as to get a good cut.

Now, moving on to a slightly unrelated subject: I don't know about you, but blow drying my hair has always been a source of frustration and discomfort; one is expected to juggle a brush, blow dryer and hair with just two hands, that by the way, have been rendered useless because they have gone numb from being held up in the air for excessive amounts of time. This situation leaves any girl sad, in pain and with nappy, wet hair. In an effort to avoid this altogether, I've made it a habit to always ask my stylist to explain to me the techniques of blow drying ones hair. Rarely, if ever, have I gotten a very good explanation and thus I've been forced to resort to the tried, but not always true, practice of turning my head upside down and drying my hair that way.

Well, y'all can appreciate then the sheer joy and relief of finally stumbling onto a step by step video of how to properly dry ones hair! Sometime last month, Eva Scrivo, New York Salon owner and personal stylist to Martha Stewart, happened to be on The Martha Show talking about this seasons make up trends when she mentioned she had a website. Always curious, I checked it out, and lo, what beauteous link did mine eyes happen to glance over but that of 'Eva's Perfect Blowdry Video'?! My heart started to race as it does when I am thrilled and I clicked on it straight away. It lead me to another site with not just one, but FIVE different video's on blow drying and styling tips. Oh the wonder, oh the excitement!

Though Eva's voice can be a tad annoying after five videos, her wisdom is indispensable and she is a master of her art. Click here to go to Eva's homepage. That will lead you to the enchanted place where all may go and learn to have perfectly blowdried hair!

I spy: An unexpected trend

I have a confession to make: I am a celebrity news junkie. It’s true that with every free moment I have for myself, my first thoughts of how I’ll spend it always go to checking the latest news on X17online, or thatotherblog.com. I honestly can’t tell you how this habit developed or why it became such an obsession, but it takes great effort on my part to not check those sites more than a few times a day. I don’t like anyone that I read about (with the except of Reese Witherspoon who is seldom featured),I hate what they do (DUI’s, drug use, ect) and I get annoyed that all the “new” news isn’t really news at all, it’s more just an update on where Britney Spears ate lunch, yet for some reason, I cannot seem to get enough.

All that to say, perhaps one of the only useful things that come from my wasting time on those sites is that it gives me a good idea of what the latest trends are and I appreciate it for that. Thus the subject of this blog: Black Nail Polish (or varnish as it is referred to in Europe).

Now, I don’t know about you, but all the memories I have of black nail polish are from middle school when all those who were sporting it were Goths, Punk’s and Rebel’s; certainly not the fashionable people. (Not to say that Goth’s, Punk’s and Rebel’s cannot be fashionable, they can; it just wasn’t trendy to be that way at the time. In Austin there many a Goth and rebel in its midst and most all have been trendy in my opinion.) Anyway, it’s been a long while since I’ve really seen anyone wearing black nail polish and I was surprised when I first spotted it on a very non-Goth celebrity, Lauren Conrad of MTV’s ‘The Hills’. I was a tad confused by Lauren’s choice in polish color, but then, she did tend to wear a lot of darker colored clothing so I figured she’d just decided to incorporate it into her beauty as well. Very soon after this, I started to see almost all celebrities sporting black on their nails and it was then that I started to first suspect a trend. In fact, as I later found out, black varnish has become such a big deal that the polish Chanel created now has a waiting list and some bottles are being sold for 100 dollars!

Of course, I am aware that black is a very trendy color for fashion right now; pair it with a beautiful jeweled colored piece of clothing or accessory and you’ve got yourself an of-the-now look. It would make sense then that black would become a trend for beauty, it’s just unexpected that black nails would become the beauty trend as opposed to a really dark eye for instances.

I’m actually really thrilled about this latest trend as I think black is a naturally chic color when worn properly. It’s always interesting and exciting when fashion (or beauty in this case) does something unexpected; I feel it pushes me to be more creative and think outside the box. When I was doing research for this post, I Googled black nail polish and found there to be many interesting articles on the subject. I even found that New York Magazine did a timeline of the history of black nail polish; y'all should really check it out.

Maybe, maybe not?

Recently, I ventured into Neiman Marcus and got a makeover from my favorite cosmetics line, Clinique. It was a lot of fun because I found out that I knew the woman who was doing my makeover from church, I learned a lot about makeup and skin care, and well, I just love Clinique so much that even being within 50 feet of the counter makes me happy.
One of the nifty new products I became aware of was the foundation brush. Now for those of you who already knew about this tool long ago, *shush*, everyone learns something new everyday. Anyway, my makeup artist was of course raving about the brush and telling me how she always uses it and how it never fails her. She really convinced me that it was the one key tool missing from my brush collection and that I simply couldn’t go on without one. Now, though I love Clinique with all my heart and would write glowing post after post about it, I cannot afford most of it’s products and am therefore left to seek out cheaper alternatives elsewhere. Where you ask? Why Target of course! Naturally!

So I made a beeline to my faithful Tar-zhay and snatched up this Sonia Kushuk brush for a fraction of the price of Clinique’s. I went home and tried it right away expecting to feel the same warmhearted way I’d felt at Neiman Marcus… but honestly, I was surprised that I was a tad let down by its performance. Now don’t get me wrong, the problem lay not in the quality of the product, I prefer Sonia Kushuk products above most other brushes I’ve used; the problem lay in the actual usefulness of the foundation brush.

Maybe it’s just the foundation I use, or maybe it’s my technique in applying it, but to me, when applied with the brush, my foundation feels heavier and less evenly applied. I feel like I have less control over how much foundation I put on and often my face feels wet and the makeup unblended. I sometimes resort to just using the good ol’ fingers to get the job done and that’s downright disappointing because I really wanted this foundation brush to work! Through all my trials with it though, I have yet to give up on it… I refuse to believe that the worth of such a cute foundation brush is lost because it doesn’t perform well, though it’s looking like it’s going to end up that way.

I’d love to know what you think dear Readers. Is there a technique I missing here, or are our faithful finger friends really the best way?

Buff and Shine

I thought I should write a post about face wash as a follow up to the ‘Be a Queen, a makeup Queen’ because keeping ones face clean is more important to real beauty than any kind of makeup application you could do.

I want to say right now that I am not going to pretend that I have always taken very good care of my face; the truth is that I’ve struggled over the years to maintain a good regimen but have eventually grown into a routine that I like and that works for me. It’s really important to keep in mind that you need to do what’s best for you when you’re thinking about the upkeep of your face; there are so many different skin types and issues out there, that surely there cannot be a one size fits all routine or product. And that’s another thing, there are so many products out there, some expense, some cheap, that it’s hard to say really if spending more money will buy you a better cleanser. However, I’ll share what I use as an example because I think my face wash is a good example of a cleanser that could be used by all. If you’re anything like me, and if you’re really interested in this, then you can go and obsess about it by reading the articles that this link will take you to. There are much more extensive writings and info on this subject than I would ever care to write about here.

For starters, there is so info about whether one should wash her face twice a day, just at night, every time she feels dirty, that a girl hardly knows what to do! Personally, I’ve experienced a very dry face if I wash my face more than just once a day, so I stick to washing my face just at night. I know that some people feel really icky when they wake up in the morning, but I’ve never understood that… I don’t sweat a lot at night, nor do I sleep on a dirt floor, so I’ve never felt the need to wash my face first thing. I have done it, but like I said, it dried my face. The best cleanser I’ve ever, ever used is Johnson’s & Johnson’s Purpose. Its soap free and hypoallergenic and it makes my face smooth and super soft. I’ve never seen my face glow like it did after about a week of using this cleaner. I highly, highly recommend it.

I do use moisturizer in the mornings as this is when I feel it’s most needed. Sometimes I’ll put it on at night, but my skin often feels a little irritated when I do this. I’ve heard some people say that they moisturize all that time and all I can say to them is, “More power to ya!” I live in an insanely humid climate (Yes, Texas is humid) and if I were to slather on moisturizer all the day long then I’d be greasier than a stick of butter!! My favorite moisturizer is Neutrogena Healthy Defense with SPF 30. It’s light and I’ve never experienced problems with excess oil or break outs from using it.

There is a lot that one could use in between just these two products, but I kind of feel like its unnecessary. Call me a purist or a cheapskate, but I’m not one to spend oodles, and oodles of money and time on products that may or may not reduce the signs of aging…

If you want to share what routine works for you or tell me about an awesome cleanser or moisturizer you’re using, drop a note. I’d love to hear from you!

Be a Queen, a cosmetics Queen!

This season is all about glam, and oh how that thrills my soul! I love glam, especially 40’s glam. I am also a great lover of classics, and glam my friends, is very classic.

Glam is all about the eyes and I’m all about playing up the eyes. What makes the eyes so special and keeps the rest of ones face from veering dangerously close to “hooker-y” as a dear friend of mine puts it, is to tone it down with the lips and cheeks. In this article, I will post some of my favorite products with which to accomplish this look.

The truth is I’ve been obsessed with makeup since I was 13. That was when I was finally allowed to wear it, though before that I’d snuck to the store and bought my first ever makeup items: A way too dark for me Cover Girl pressed powder, and a tube of sparkle purple lip stick. Oh yes, I was rockin’ the purple lip stick!

Since then, I’ve honed my cosmetic skills a little more and I’ve been careful to not only develop a signature look, (Heidi does love her natural colored lip gloss ever so much) but also to follow the beauty trends within reason; meaning, though hypothetically, lots-o-sparkles may be in next season, I most likely will find a way of making it my own as to avoid looking like a teeny bopper again.

It’s important to change up ones look every few decades (I’m kidding) so that one doesn’t end up looking stale or horrors of all horrors become known as the lady who never changes her makeup look!! This is really what in my opinion makes a well rounded cosmetic Queen; someone who knows when to change it up while maintaining a signature look.

A lovely liquid eyeliner will help to accomplish the 'Glam' look. Apply it very close to the lash in a thin line at first and then you may work to thicken the line from there by going back over it several times. (Or if you're like me, you just push down really hard as you drag the wand across your lash line to create a nice, fat line.) I do not recommend lining your bottom lashes with liquid eyeliner for two reasons: 1.) It's difficult to create a "natural" look under the bottom lashes with liquid eyeliner as liquid can't really be smudged thus leaving you with a harsh line. 2.) 40's glam is all about a thick coating of liner on the top lashes only. It's also known as the doe look. It's attractive on everyone I've seen.

Maybelline has a wonderful line of eye shadows that come in a triple pack like this one. As you can see, the eye shadow is ever so shiny as to really play up the glam. These are three lovely colors, or you can go more classic like me and buy their 'Impeccable Greys' pack. To apply:Always start with the lightest color first and apply that all over the eyelid from lash line to brow line. Then go in with the next darkest shade and working from the corner of your outer eye, create a 'c' with it, smudging the color into crease of your eyelid and going no higher than that. Lastly, and this is an option, you can take the darkest color and lightly draw out a thin line under your bottom eyelashes to define them and create a smoky look.

Great lashes are any woman's best friend whether trying to go glam or not and Rimmel has an awesome mascara that really does make ones lashes look thicker and longer. I believe this mascara also curls ones lashes as well. Apply mascara one layer at a time. As a rule of thumb, I like to apply a layer to one eye first, do the other eye, then go back to the first eye and reapply and then go and do the same for the second eye.

Last, but certainly not least especially for me, is the blush. I simply couldn't live without my blush, and yes, I do use the Cover Girl 'Cheekers' brand. I've used other more expensive brands, but with the exception of Clinique's gel blush (which they've discontinued) I've never noticed a real difference in quality. To apply, start from about the middle of your cheek bone (if you don't know where that is, make a fishy face and they will pop out) and work back up towards your hairline with the brush. Then come down and add blush to the apples of your cheeks and finally brush over all of your blush in a downward stroke as to blend the blush in. I always, always, always apply my blush to my temples, down my nose and under my jawline. The shape of my face literally changes when I do this and I love it!