Sunday afternoon click-a-thon (with random remarks as a GWP)

Want to smell like me? Or at least, Coach's notion of what a Poppy smells like? (Apparently we're fruity/floral--and hey, who isn't?) Beauty 411 has the 411.

The votes are tallied and the griege shoobooties won, so they are on their way to me from Zappos. Yes, I originally found them on Nordstrom, but the free two-way shipping won me over. After all, I'll probably try them on, wonder what I'd been smoking, and run over to the P.O. to return them.

Once I start thinking about a subject, I see it everywhere. And right now, I'm all about the neutral eyeshadow. So I was awfully pleased to see Jennifer Hudson's Got Milk ad. Check out her eye makeup--it looks fantastic. (Please to ignore the icky milk moustache, though.)

Anyone finding their concealer looking awfully pale these days? For now, I'm blending a dot of Giorgio Armani Fluid Sheer (shade #3, Golden Bronze) with my old faithful (and now discontinued) Maybelline Instant Age Rewind concealer--(and talk about combining high and low!) But what I really need to do is pop for a darker shade. I want to try the new Revlon ones.

I don't see as many ageless looks on The Sartorialist as I'd like. I'm often left feeling bereft. But this lovely brunette in a black top with a white collar has a great Coco Chanel-meets-Pierrot vibe.

In the time lapse between my writing a BlogHer post about serums and it going live, I dug around and found even more serums--like these two from from Phyto-C--that sound intriguing. But Vitamin C degrades when it's exposed to light, so I popped for a serum in a brown bottle. A budget-friendly one, at that. My bottle of nufountain C20 L-Ascorbic Vitamin C Serum arrived yesterday. I'll review it after I've been your guinea pig for a while.

Hey! College Fashion shows 25 summer sandals for any budget.

Finally, if you're fair-skinned, it can be really hard to find a bronzer that adds a little color but looks natural. Physician's Formula consistently comes out with colors that work for pale porcelain princesses like me. Right now I'm loving their Bamboo Wear Bamboo Silk Bronzer in Light.

With my usual high/low outlook, I'm applying my $9.95 bronzer with a $52 Nars bronzer brush. I load the brush with color, tap it off to remove the excess, and apply the bronzer in a sort of circular, rubbing motion over the areas that would get some sun: (that is, if I ever got up from my laptop) cheeks, nose, chin, forehead. It adds just a touch of color and a minimal amount of shimmer, and it's subtle enough to work in partnership with my blusher.

Finally, Une Femme has recommendations for summer weight scarves.

Click, read, enjoy!

Ten Things

Blackbird posted recently about ten things that have been good at the office. I'm coming down with something, so at the moment, my office is my king sized bed--but I have 10 good things to tell you about:

1. On the personal front, in the last two weeks, I've survived: a trip to the dentist, two school concerts, three annual meetings, three non-annual meeting-related ladies' luncheons, a Girl Scout's Cadet's flying up ceremony, an engagement party, and Mother's Day. Internet, that is a LOT of irreproachably ladylike behavior from the somewhat loud, obnoxious, and irreverent likes of me.

2. Jen Lancaster's latest book, My Fair Lazy, came out on May 5, and it's already a best-seller. I appear as a character in this book, which means I'm even more famous than I was a month ago. You'll be glad to hear that fame hasn't made some kind of monster of me. I'm pretty humble about the whole thing. But not so humble that I wouldn't want to make sure that the internet realizes Jen didn't actually make me up.

3. Physician's Formula matte eyeshadow quads are rocking my world. They're dirt cheap and the quality is excellent. They're so soft, subtle, blendable, and fun to play with that I'm doing a full-on three-shades-of-eyeshadow dealio every day--even when the only time I see another human being is when I'm wheeling out the recycling bin.

4. Milani has a retractable lip pencil that has stolen the crown from my previous faves, Chanel Nude and Prestige Angora. It's creamier, more of a my-lips-but-better-shade, and I don't have to sharpen it. Mind you, I don't wear it as a liner. I use it all over my lips as a base for gloss. And at $3.49, it's cheap, cheap, cheap.

5. I snagged this pair of Fly London purple Mary Janes on Amazon for something like $50. They are so comfortable! Who cares if my daughter asked me why I always wear such silly shoes? And anyway, it could have been worse. I could have clicked over to Gravity Pope and bought these:

so really, I don't know what her problem is.

6. The Garnier Nutritioniste moisturizer that I love so much that I'm on my fourth bottle? And was afraid had been discontinued? Has NOT been discontinued. The packaging was re-designed. I snagged five bottles of the old design for $2.49 each. (Although the shipping costs were a heinous $14.50.)

7. Lancome's Divine Lasting Curves curling mascara actually works. It is perfect for keeping in my makeup bag, because who wants to carry around an eyelash curler? (This is a rhetorical question being asked by the woman who found three eyelash curlers in her bag the last time she cleaned it out.)

8. Lancome also has an eyeshadow that I got recently as a GWP and just adore. So should you if you have hazel//green eyes. The shade is  called Designer. It's a olive green shade with lots of shimmer--but it's incredibly subtle. I know I'm a strong advocate of a basic, neutral eye shadow, but this stuff goes on sheer and is much more subtle than it looks.

9. Kari at Fabulous Over Forty has called my attention to a root touch-up product that comes packaged like a marker pen. I can't wait to head to Ulta to try it. This sounds like a perfect product for those EEK MY ROOTS ARE SHOWING days.

10. I've accumulated a bunch of neutral eyeshadow quads to tell you about soon. I promise. (When I'm not lying here on my bed of pain, that is.) And some of them are really nice!

The only eyeshadow shades you need

You know those fabulous blockbuster palettes that everyone comes out with for the holidays? Estee Lauder, Sephora, Walgreen's, you name it. A whole rainbow of colors and so many finishes: matte, satin, frosted, opalescent, glittery. How fun are they?

Great fun. But let's remember eyeshadow's primary purpose. It's not to go all Crayola 64 shades. Eye shadow exists to sculpt, enlarge, and accentuate the eye.

Say hello to the idea of Your Eyes But Better

If you want startling effects, you'll need a range of different colors of eyeshadow. But if you want to do a neutral, pretty makeup job--your eyes but bigger, brighter, more defined and more expressive--you only need three shades of shadow:

1. A light, non-shimmery base color

This shade should be about the color of your brow bone. You'll be applying it all over the eyelid, from lashline to eyebrow. This sets your concealer or primer, mattifies the area, and provides a base for the rest of your eye look.

2. A darker, non-shimmery midtone/contour shade for sculpting

The midtone or contour shade should be two shades darker than your light shade. This is where fair-skinned girls get gypped. The contour shade in the average quad is usually far too dark. You really only want it to be a couple of shades darker than your light shade. Think about the way paint companies show shades on paint strips--the difference in color should be visible, but subtle.

3. A very dark shade for lining and special effects

The dark shade should be somewhere between your contour shade and your eyeliner and/or eyelashes.

To those shades, it's also nice to add

4. A light shimmery highlight color



OK, I realize this comes as news to absolutely no one. I swear, as I type this, I'm picturing my makeup-obsessed internet friends rolling their (perfectly made up) eyes and saying "duh." After all, every eyeshadow manufacturer from Maybelline to Chanel produces a quad with four beige-to-chocolate brown shades.

Except that the companies often act as thought these quads were one size fits all, when they're really not.

Beware of Shimmer

You'll find lots of quads with absolutely gorgeous colors--except the shadows are all shimmery. Shimmery shadows are fine for certain uses, but for this natural, neutral eye, you want to shape and sculpt the lid, browbone, and crease, and you can't do that with sparkly shadows.

Also, once you have even a hint of droopiness, crepey-ness or crows' feet, you have to approach shimmery shadows with extreme caution. (This is because--to revert to my paint metaphor--you don't use high-gloss, light-reflective paint formulas on a cracked surface!)

Work with your complexion

Here's another way in which eyeshadow quads aren't one-size-fits-all: the four shades you select should relate to your complexion shade and tone. I'm not talking about eye color here; this advice holds no matter what color your eyes are.

You're using these shades to contour the area around your eyes, and they need to work with the color of your skin. As a fair-skinned, cool-to-neutral person, I've found many eye quads to be way too dark or too yellow toned. Often the lightest shade is fine, but the midtone or contour shade is the color of Grey Poupon mustard. Nothing against you mustard-colored ladies, but not only is Grey Poupon-colored eyeshadow unattractive, it looks unnatural. On me, at least.

If you're medium-to-dark-toned, you'll have to watch out for the lighter shades. Often the'll be too light, and end up looking ashy and unnatural. And if you're warm-toned, too taupe-y and cool a shade will look muddy.

Ideally all four eyeshadow shades blend together to create a soft, natural, big-eyed look--which is why I call it Your Eyes But Better.

My Recommendations

When you're looking for a set of eye shadows, it's tempting to buy a ready-made quad. But as I've already pointed out, I've never had much luck with that; it's awfully hard to escape shimmer, and the contour shade is too dark and warm a brown.

However, quads can definitely be cost-effective, as opposed to buying four single shades. Bobbi Brown makes amazing shadows, but they're $20 each, so I hesitate to order you to run out and buy four of them. Still, if you click over there to check out the colors, you'll see how soft and subtle they are. That's the look we're aiming for.

There's also the advantage that someone else has coordinated the colors for you, which is helpful if you're a beginner.

Here are my suggestions:

Drugstore Quads

Revlon's Colorstay 12 Hour Eye Shadow Quad in Coffee Bean


Physician's Formula Canyon Classics and Classic Nudes

Department Store

Clinique's Color Surge Eye Shadow Quad in Teddy Bear. Spicy and Choco-Latte are also beautiful, and would work well with people with warmer and darker complexions.



Elizabeth Arden Color Intrigue Eye Shadow Quad in Sueded Browns or Neutral Cashmeres.

Creating the perfect eyeshadow quad

As you can see, sometimes a quad has one or two or even three gorgeous colors, but it doesn't have everything you need. Once you know the shades that work best for you, it's a great convenience to fill a compact with them.

M.A.C. sells empty four- and fifteen-pan compacts. If you get a four-pan, you could fill it with shadow that work perfectly for you. This is something to keep in mind if you've tried one or two ready-made quads and found you only used two or three of the shades. A custom compact is really wonderful for travel, and it really simplifies life to open one compact and find everything you need.

My favorite eye shadow palette? Glad you asked

OK, this is definitely a case of do as I say, not as I do, because my favorite eyeshadow "quad" has nine shades of shadow. It's Too Faced's Natural Eye Neutral Eye Shadow Collection.


It has a perfect base color (top left) and the all-time fabulously wonderfully perfect crease shade for me (top middle). It also has some great shades to use as eye liner, and some shimmery and glittery shades to use for evening, so it's basically one-stop shopping. It retails for $34, but since you get nine shades, I think it's a pretty good deal.

(Confession time: I've also taken the plunge and ordered a M.A.C. 15-pan palette. Of neutral colors. Heh.)

Coming up soon: how and where to apply your eyeshadow.

Elsewhere:

MakeupGeek has two helpful videos that relate to this post, Makeup 101: How to Apply Eye Makeup, and How to Organize Your MAC Neutral Palette

30 Days to 10 years younger--10 minute tips. Tip 17: Be a brownie

You might be wondering why on earth Pamela Anderson is doing in a blog post aimed at beauty and style for women of a certain age. Well, duh, I'm using her as an example of what not to do. And I'm not going after her super-thin eyebrows and super-obvious implants. I'm going after her eyelashes.

Mascara has become like a Model T Ford--you can have any color you want, as long as it's black. Which is OK, as long as you think everyone looks best in black mascara. Unfortunately, I don't.

Black mascara is lovely at night, but for broad daylight, I find it a bit stark and artificial looking. If you're blonde, redhead, or like me, an aging brunette, you'll probably look better in a softer shade of brown/black or brown. In fact, if you're a redhead, you'll probably look best in auburn--if you can find it anywhere.

Unfortunately, most drugstore mascaras only come in black, super-plus-blackest-black, and black/brown. I checked L'Oreal, CoverGirl, Maybelline, and Revlon, and the story was almost always the same.

There are drugstore brands that offer brown mascara, but you have to dig pretty deep. Almay has at least one mascara available in brown.

For years, Max Factor was the only line with a mascara for redheads; unfortunately they're leaving the States. The mascara is still available at Drugstore.com, though. And Revlon's DoubleTwist line includes a shade called Blackened Ruby that looks auburn.

Fortunately, the latest fad in drugstore mascaras appears to be ones that emphasize the color of your eyes. Physician's Formula sells a brown mascara, and in addition, their intensive i-color mascara and intense i-color mascara with light interplay both claim to intensify eye-color. They're available in four shades. CoverGirl sells a similar line.

Department store lines offer a wider variety of mascara shades: Estee Lauder has several formulas that come in brown and and even navy blue; MAC has some browns, and so does Lancôme. (Lancôme also sells specialty mascaras, like gold and silver. But that's not the point of this post.)

Boutique brands like Jane Iredale, BeneFit, and Sephora offer mascaras in a variety of interesting shades. In fact, if you go to the Sephora website and do a search for "brown mascara," you'll discover that there are plenty of options.

The trick is to not go crazy. Colored mascara can be fun, but it's not something to wear if you want to be taken seriously. For proof, remember Princess Diana and her blue eyeliner and matching eyelashes. I'll confess to having developed a certain degree of fascination with colored mascaras, and I'm trying like crazy not to succumb to Yves St. Laurent Fascinating Violet or the Benefit BadGAL in Plum.

I remember the 80s and I don't think the world has yet recovered from my experiments with Princess Di-style cobalt blue.

Or my Two-Faced glitter lashes in the 90s when seriously? I was old enough to know better.

But while I busy myself locking up my credit cards and backing away from the Sephora website, I urge you to think about whether the black mascara you've been wearing for years and years is actually doing you any favors. Or could you, like the women pictured here, benefit from a softer look around the eyes?

Elsewhere:

The Beauty Blog has a great post on mascaras for redheads here.

Did you know that there is a beauty blog devoted to mascara? There is. It's called Clumps of Mascara. Currently on hiatus, but still packed with useful reviews. Click here.