Just quietly…

• Category:
• Just Quietly

... After bitching out on Miss JESSICA SIMPSON yesterday about her under eye concealer work, I remembered this definitely excellent under eye illuminator trick I learned from a makeup artist whose name escapes me a few years back. Now, the first thing to note here is that an under eye brightener, such as YSL Touche Eclat IS NOT CONCEALER. It is an illuminator, and is to be applied after you have applied your undereye concealer to brighten up the area. So, many, women, have bought Touche Cclat or similar (I actually think the Revlon Age Defying Spa one is brilliant for the value conscious) and then been pissed off with the results because they were expecting it to cover up all flaws as well as make the whole area luminous. But guess what. Doesn’t, won’t and was never intended to.

Anyway. The trick: Apply the illuminator in an upside down triangle under the eye, and don’t be stingy with application, this is a more is more scenario. (Don’t fill in the triangle, just do the outline.) Now pat it in until it has completely sunk into the skin. The triangle shape is perfect, because it perfectly fills in the entire lower half of the eye socket. Drawing a line under the lashline or dotting on a few dots is only taking care of half the job. Try it and you’ll see. I guarantee. No more rhymes from me. Seriously.

... As a girl who smiles for Australia and has the lines to show for it, I am a big fan of using fancy spac filler on my laughter lines under my makeup. There aren’t too many on the market, but so you know what they look like should you come across one, they’re generally little pots of thick, satiny white gel with a powdery finish, and you apply a small amount to your smile lines and crow’s feet and marionette lines to fill them in and what happens is you get this lovely, perfectly smooth canvas that means you look line-free and plump when you put your foundation on. These cosmetic line-fillers are obviously not going to do the job of collagen injections, but they do work, and sure it’s only for a few hours, but they definitely do work. Clarins released one a few years back, called Instant Smooth Perfecting Touch, and now L’Oreal Paris have launched one as part of their Studio Secrets range, (developed with the help of one James Kaliardos, makeup artist genius) which is their first ‘pro’ range and has just shuffled into Priceline. (We watched Rae Morris demonstrate this new range a few months ago, and man, is she good. I walked out of the launch thinking I should probably chuck my entire makeup bag out the back window of my F100 and only use this stuff.) It’s called the Smoothing Resurfacing Primer, and I find it to do wonderful things when I pat some into my laugh lines and maybe you will do.

.... I had THE SEXIEST, most coolest, bedhead, paid-girl-in-a-fashion-shoot hair the other day, and whenever that accidentally happens, I bolt into my bathroom and record precisely what I used that time, because, yknow, I am prone to switch things around, try new stuff and so on. But it was actually very, very simple, and both the magic products were even the same brand. Imagine that! That brand is O&M, who I was first introduced to via the splendid Jose (the CEO of O&M) and her husband Alan, who run Atlantis hair in Paddington, Sydney. They started off doing ammonia-free hair colour (Clean Colour Technology) but now do some delicious hair care and styling products, all which are sulfate, parabens, MIT, Proplene Glycol, Phthalates and Triclosan free. Like the two I used the other day.

The first product was O&M Atonic Thickening Spritz, $27.95, which you spray all over your mop when it’s wet and it not only protects it from heat styling but it seriously fattens up your hair and gives it this incredibly soft texture, none of that beachy-gritty effect, just soft body and a LOT of speed and ease when you blow dry. The second was Rootalicious, $29.95, which I swear only sounds a little bit inappropriate when you say it out loud. This is a foam spray, which you blast all over your scalp then comb through, and even if you only do the quickest dry off with your hair dryer, will give your roots lift that lasts for days. Each product work independently, but together, ZOMG. And don’t forget: it’s ridiculous to try and get volume and movement at the final styling stages, you need to apply volume and root lift products when the hair is wet and apply heat to get them going.

... Would the two madams who won the Textbook Romance competition kindly email their addresses? Your books are all anxious and starting to get abandonment issues. Email us at info@primped.com.au. Many thanks and hey, well done you.

... The fragrance that has got me off my Michael Kors drip at the moment is Gold. No, literally. It’s one of the three new Life Threads fragrances from La Prairie (there is also a Silver and a Platinum, sadly Copper didn’t get a start) and oh, is it delicious. You can even win one (and look at some of the webisodes La Prairie created to visually describe the emotions of each scent, or rather the lady who might wear it) here. The silver and platinum are lovely enough, but the gold smacked me in the olfactory system and demanded I take it’s warm, floral goodness away with me. It’s spicy and it’s sexy and it might be worth sniffing out (oh, comedybot… lift your game) if you are partial to big white florals with a veil of exotic spice and a touch of oriental (florientals?) And look, when it comes down to it, it earns me compliments, and we all know that means the juice stays.

... Despite the fact this eight-year old looks 28 with all that smoky hijacking her eye, all that pops into my head when I see the still of this YouTube is: “You’re so pretty, can I try some?”

• Get this blog daily!
• save to favourites
• Email
• Print
• (17) Comments
• Add a Comment