Practical Beauty Tips

Hi everyone! Got plans for the weekend? If you don't, relax and treat yourself to a good massage or facial, or just catch up on sleep!

Here are some practical tips I hope you guys will find useful.

Make Up Tips
1. Less is more. Don’t conceal your natural beauty under miles of makeup piled up on your face. Make up is meant to enhance or accentuate your strong features, not to make you like you’re wearing a mask. Besides, your skin will thank you for letting it breathe.
2. Work with your skin and features, not against them. Choose makeup that suits your skin tone, and not something that would turn you into a laughing stock. Also, knowing your face and features well will help you identify the right products and techniques to use. For example, if your lips are already full on their own, you may want to go easy on glosses as such could make you look like a clown with oversized puckers.
3. Quality doesn’t always come with price. There are a lot of inexpensive brands that function just as good (some even better) than their expensive department store counterparts. Besides, with how the economy is going at present, you surely wouldn’t want to go beyond your CC limit and be in debt. If you’re not sure what to purchase, google reviews on the internet. It surely will help you save.
4. Experiment. Be adventurous. Go out of your comfort zone and learn new techniques of applying makeup and play with colors. You don’t have to be stuck with the same look you’ve worn in the last 10years.
5. Apply your make up after styling your hair especially if you use heat-generating products. The heat will make you perspire and will cause your make up to smudge.
6. If you’re a working girl like me, add a pop of color to your neutral eyes by using subtle shades of blue, purple, green, pink, etc. Also, if you have plans of going out after work, just darken the crease and outer V for some definition (and drama!) and add some shimmery eyeshadow in the center of your lid (right where your eyeball is).
7. Can’t afford an eye shadow primer? Use a cream concealer (that’s not too oily), dust it with a little bit of finishing powder and apply your eye makeup. This should make your eye shadow look more vibrant and somehow help keep your eye makeup stay a little bit longer. (if you’ve got extremely oily lids, stick to smudge-proof white eyeliners or cream eye shadows)
8. During the hot summer months, invest in a good foundation primer (monistat will do) to avoid makeup meltdown.
9. Apply concealer after you do your eye makeup. Doing so gets rid of fallouts and makes your eyes standout even more.
10. To achieve a fanned out look when applying mascaras: coat the outer lashes first and point them outward; coat the inner lashes and center them; lastly, coat the inner lashes (the itsy teeny weeny ones) and point them inward.

Skin Care Tips
1. Do the 3step skin care regimen: Cleanse, Tone, Moisturize. Nothing can ever beat this.
2. Drink lots of water. Water does not only help cleanse your system by flushing out toxins; it also hydrates your skin and makes it look healthier.
3. Moisturize! Even oily-skinned gals need moisturizer. (if you’ve got oily or combination skin, it would be better to use water based moisturizers)
4. Shield your skin from the harsh UVA and UVB rays by using sunscreen, hats and/or umbrellas. I’m sure nobody wants skin cancer or a face full of wrinkles and age spots.
5. Stick to products that work for your skin. I know how exciting it is to try new stuff and give our 2cents on our blogs for everyone to see; however, trying different products every so often can cause damage to your skin.
6. Never prick pimples no matter how tempting it is (unless you know the proper way to do it. But even then, I don’t encourage you do it on your own). Should there be a huge zit anywhere on your face, leave it for 2weeks. It will heal on its own. But if you need to zap that annoying zit, you can use products with tea tree oil, benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid to help speed up the healing process. If there’s pus, have your dermatologist pop it for you.
7. Exfoliate, but not too much. Too much scrubbing damages the top most layer of our skin. While exfoliating sloughs off dead skin cells that make our skin look dull and yellowish, too much scrubbing scratches of the skin’s surface and may cause some skin problems (this is based on experience, on research and on my dermatologist’s advice).
8. Treat your skin to a refreshing facial treatment every week, and you don’t have to go far to find products that don’t work as they promised. Your kitchen is the best source of these skin and budget-friendly recipes. The best part? They’re inexpensive, effective and they’re all natural!
9. Try not to sleep on one side of your face all the time. All the dust and dirt from our hair (and others) are passed on to our pillows and can cause breakouts.
10. Face a steamer for about 5-10minutes before cleansing or scrubbing. This will open your pores and will allow cleansing products to deeply penetrate and cleanse your skin.

Hair Care Tips
1. Minimize the use of styling products like hair sprays, mousses, etc. The chemicals contained in these bottles damage your hair.
2. Minimize the use of heated styling products like blow driers, curlers, flat irons, etc. Can’t leave the house with your hair wet? Stand in front of a fan or airconditioner and let your hair air dry. If you curl your hair every single day, alternate the use of flat or curling irons and the use of traditional rollers. Better yet, try the paper bag method (check out Michelle Phan’s video tutorial on this).
3. Do not brush your hair when it’s wet. Instead, use a wide tooth comb to untangle your hair. Your hair is at its weakest when it’s wet and brushing it makes it more prone to damage.
4. If it can be avoided, do not color your hair. Should you want to do so, make sure to use treatment products to keep your hair healthy and shiny
5. Try organic products for your hair. They, too, can do wonders. All the phthalates and sulphates in your favorite commercial hair products are hazardous to our health.
6. Trim the ends of your hair every month or every other month. This eliminates the appearance of split ends.
7. Massage your scalp with your fingers (not your nails!) while in the shower to improve blood circulation. Doing so not only relaxes you, it also makes your hair healthier.
8. Transform your dry, frizzy and limp hair to shiny, lustrous and bouncy healthy locks by using beer as your conditioner.

Nail Care Tips
1. Always use a base coat before applying nail polish. This protects your nails from the chemicals in the nail polishes.
2. File your nails in one direction. Filing your nails back and forth makes your nails brittle and more prone to breakage.
3. Give your nails a break every once in a while. Let them breathe for a week or so before you paint them again. Changing your nail polish every so often weakens and discolors your nails.
4. Buffing helps in blood circulation. So go ahead and buff! Just don’t overdo it.
5. Don’t trim your cuticles! Just push it. (FYI: our cuticles act as protection against bacteria, infection, etc.)
6. Do you love French manicure but can’t seem to do it nicely? Skip the nail polish and use a white color pencil instead and color the inside of your tips.

Beauty Tips (in general)
1. Smile. The most sparkling diamonds and gold in the world cannot make you look like a million dollars; but your smile can.
2. Confidence is the key to everything. Clothes worth thousands of dollars (or pesos or whatever your currency is) will look like rags if you don’t have the confidence to go with them.
3. Get enough rest and sleep. A face with full-on makeup will still look worn out without enough rest and sleep. So go ahead and get the beauty sleep you need and deserve!
4. Eat right. Not eating the right food affects your skin. Avoid fatty and salty foods and stick to vegetables and fruits. You know how these organic products make your skin glow with health.
5. Have a positive disposition in life. Where you are in your life reflects through you.
6. Love yourself. Be thankful for how you were created and your beauty will shine through. Remember that no amount of makeup can make you look or feel beautiful if you don't think you are and if you don't love yourself.

That's just about it. If you guys have any questions about any of these tips, feel free to drop me a line. I'll answer your queries as fast as I can.

Thin Is In --- NOT!

*repost from http://adajet.blogspot.com*

"Thin is in!" is the slogan one food product is screaming out to the public. The commercial degrades people who are unfortunately, "not thin" and highly esteems those that are of course, "thin." This product's disturbing advertisement communicates a very unhealthy message to its audience, the teenagers especially, to replicate a matchstick. It is given that no one would admit to this fact though perhaps some of us are already blindly soaking up the idea that "Thin is (indeed) in." Perhaps some of us ladies have began dumping our chocolate bags, nearly half-empty ice cream tubs, chips, and all high calorie and fattening foods into the garbage hoping to start a diet that is not necessarily healthy, but would incredibly help rid off our excess baggage. You may tell yourself that you haven't done that, but I guarantee you that there was that small voice inside you that told you to do the same. Do I see eyes rolling now? I know, and I should know. I am myself a young lady who just got past her teenage years. I've been there, though I did not do the aforementioned. What I did is perhaps the most stupid and the most unhealthy diet one could ever think of --- "starvation diet" --- I deprived myself of one of man's most basic necessities. Why, you ask? Because just like you, I wanted to look like the next top model. I wanted to be like the airbrushed women I see on those glossy pages. I wanted to be more beautiful than I was because the world worships "waifthin" beauties (think Kate Moss and Nicole Richie). Tell me, who wouldn't want to have a body that is to die for? Who wouldn't want to have a body that guys dream of? Who wouldn't want to have a body that would make guys' heads make a 180 degree turn? Who wouldn't want to have a body that would make guys salivate? If you answered "no" to any of these questions, then you are liar.

Everyone wants to look good, and that "everyone" includes you and me, regardless of gender. Who said guys don't diet? Dudes also go on a strict diet and work out in the gym to develop those "bunlike muscles" on their biceps, triceps and all that "ceps." The equation for men is: diet + steroids/whey protein + gym = perfect body. For women, it is: diet/pills/gym or diet + gym = perfect body. Although liposuction has already become an alternative, I would most certainly go for the second equation for women, as exercise keeps one healthy and fit. Exercising daily will not only help shed off the extra pounds, it will also keep our heart and lungs in tip top condition and strengthen our legs and leg muscles. Results may not come quickly and it may not be that easy to run a few blocks everyday, but exercise plus the right diet will certainly give anyone the body they've always wanted with an added healthy glow.

Now remember, you don't have to be "thin" or "skinny" to be beautiful or to look good. You are beautiful the way you are with a little meat in you. Skinny people are not beautiful, they're freakishly frightening! So don't envy them. Just keep a healthy diet and remember to be active --- exercise your way to fitness and beauty!

50lbs More Beautiful

*repost from http://adajet.blogspot.com*

While surfing the net for some photos of Yoanna House, the only America's Next Top Model contestant I know, I chanced on a photo of a beautiful full-figured blonde with the name "Whitney Thompson" below the photo. Curious who this young lady is, I searched the web for ANTM's winners from cycle1 up to the last. Unfortunately, the last winner I saw was from ANTM's 9th cycle, Saleisha Stowers. With no chance of finding who that full-figured model was, I keyed in the name Whitney Thompson on google and voila! I got 5,130,000 results! And so I read on and found articles after another about the first ever full-figured model to win the top rating model search on TV in the US. I don't know who she is and I've never watched an episode of ANTM, but I must say Congratulations to her for telling the world that healthy people, especially ladies, are beautiful beyond doubt. I hope people will start recognizing that women with some meat in them are beautiful in every inch, just as the "bony goddesses" they worship.

I have nothing against these skinny models since I am quite skinny myself (not as skinny as they are though). But these size-zero (or less) women flaunt and strut their stuff everywhere poisoning the minds of every teenage girl into thinking that beautiful girls are anorexic girls. They brainwash these gullible teenagers into being size-zero themselves, causing them to result to anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or both, to get that figure they dream of having. I do not put the blame on these women with pin-thin arms and 20inch waistlines since some of them are blessed with a very-cooperative metabolism, but rather on the people who create a bony and almost paper-thin image of women that is to be worshipped by men and women alike; thus creating a cancer in the society. The teenagers' desire to look like their favorite photoshoped model or celebrity, is one of the deadliest and fastest spreading diseases our society is currently facing with the growing number of larger than life billboards, magazines, commercials and TV shows --- all of which feature paperweight women that can be lifted with a finger.

And so, to wrap up this post, I say "cheers" to Whitney Thompson and to all the voluptuous women out there!

(Photo Source: http://www.megansminute.com/images/2008/05/19/whitneythompsonfirstplussizeameri_2.jpg)

I've Learned

I’ve learned that the natural way is still the best way to go.

I’ve learned that quality does not come with the price tag.

I’ve learned that pricking zits never helps in the healing process.

I’ve learned that less is more when it comes to make-up.

I’ve learned that drinking at least 8glasses of water a day is the best way to keep the skin hydrated.

I’ve learned that sleep is essential to having beautiful skin.

I’ve learned that sunscreen is my closest friend during the hot summer months.

I’ve learned that no matter how pricey and beautiful my clothes are, if I don’t have confidence and poise, I still will look ordinary.

I’ve learned that make-ups are meant to enhance my beauty, not to conceal it under a mask.

I’ve that learned I am more beautiful without make-up.

-Tish-