BeautyAbility

If you check out my post from yesterday where I shared an eyeshadow “how-to” tutorial thanks to the awesomeness that is YouTube and FilthyWhore, you’ll see a most excellent video of what I call the “Rainbow Brite” eyeshadow look. It’s seriously glamtastic.

I went ahead and gave it a go myself last night, and here are the results (pictured left). I just love this 5-color eyeshadow look. You know, it seems over the past year that my love of bright, glammy makeup has grown exponentially(!), much to the chagrin of my conservative family members (“Too much eyeliner!” they moan).

But whatever. I don’t care. I may not be able to change the fact that I can’t walk, but I can change how my face looks on a day-to-day basis, and it’s a hellava nice change and very theraputic. And believe me when I say this: Getting used to putting on makeup with paralyzed fingers is NO easy task.

If you can at least move your wrists, you’re golden. I’ve perfected the art of “holding” long handled brushes (MAC highly preferred) between my thumb and first finger. Long handles are a MUST ladies. Other quaddy-quad tips:

– Q-Tips are your best friend. Keep plenty on hand (and nearby) to clean-up any eyeliner, mascara, and eyeshadow mistakes.

– CoverGirl’s Perfect Point Plus Eyeliners go on super easy and with minimal pressure. A great thing if your arms aren’t that strong or stable.

– Ok, this is a “multi-tip” tip (grin). Here are some of my must-have products: Maybelline Great Lash Mascara (just an overall great product and there’s essentially never any clumps after you apply), MAC’s Prep + Prime Skin makeup primer (this goes on before your foundation and makes your foundation look much more natural and less cakey), MAC’s Pigment Eyeshadows (these colors totally pop and the container lasts forever), MAC’s 219 Pencil Brush (this smudger has helped cleaned up many an eyeliner nightmare and can make the crookedest line look spectacular).

I leave you with my most important tip: Don’t be afraid to experient and go, well, a bit crazy. Makeup is seriously fun stuff if you just give it a chance. I liken it to finger-painting for adults :)~

– Tiff

Stop buying worthless skin products girls! I don’t know about you, but on top of my toilet I have this girnormous wicker basket filled to the brim with cleansers, night creams, day creams, masks, and peels…which are rarely, if ever, used. And I’m a poor writer. I can’t keep living with these hits and misses!

Well thank God (I can’t-believe-I’m-saying-this) for Oprah. I recently discovered on her fantastic website, the holy motherload of everything you need to know about how to take care of your skin.

Entitled Four Decades of Beautiful Skin, this “how-to” tell you what you should be doing to your face everyday, no matter your age; whether you’re in your 20s, 30s, 40s, or 50s. And as a 28 year old extremely vain, fair-skinned, sun worshipper, this advice is more than welcome.

Things I learned for 20-something skin:

– I should use a SP 15+ daily lotion everyday on my face AND neck.

– Since my skin is more oily than dry, I should use a gel cleanser, but only at night.

– I should use a Retinol-based, oil-free (essential), night moisturizer. Retinol is basically just highly concentrated Vitamin A, and this vitamin has been proven to erase wrinkles and boost your skin’s collagen levels. Plastic surgeons highly recommend this product. And if you put it up under your eyes, you won’t need to use a separate eye cream.

Neutrogena has a great anti-wrinkle, retinol-based night cream (see above), which after only using a few nights, I can attest to it’s results. Freakin’amazing shit (totally softened my forehead lines), and it only costs $12.00 approx (bought mine at Target). Just use a pea-sized amount each night.

– Tiff

YouTube makeup maven, FilthyWhore, has some of the coolest “how-to” makeup videos I’ve ever seen. Here’s one of my favs.

This Monday’s beauty product recommendation is courtesy of the uber-glam goddess from sunny Florida, Miss Meaghan G.

The Eyecurl II, a heated eyelash curler that requires no finger movement to operate (only wrists), is hands-down the most awesome beauty product I’ve seen in a long ass time (and the underfed Kate Moss apparently agrees).

You can get this nifty curler from various online locales (including Ebay and Ecrater), and I’ve seen it go for as little as $6.99 all the way to $16.99, so don’t be afraid to shop around.

If you’re wondering how this thing actually works, simple: The curved heated wand, when pressed under the upper-lash line and slowly lifted upwards, causes the lash to curl….thanks to the heat. And FYI, you’ll have the best results if you use mascara first. Think of your mascara as a rockin’ glue.

And yes it’s true, curled eyelashes make an immense difference to your face.

Immense!

Curled eyelashes make your eye look exponentially bigger; not Disney-esque, but close :/

– Tiff