Tag: Beauty

Primp Tip: Get Iced

Published on by Lee1 Comment

These hot days of summer might be coming to an end, but I recently read about a pretty cool beauty tip that I wanted to share with you… The idea is to give yourself an “ice cube facial massage.”

It may not sound that particularly pleasant, but running an ice cube over your face has a lot of benefits for your skin. Besides giving your face a dewy, glowing look, the frosty cubes will help to smooth your complexion by combatting fat cells, ease wrinkles, fight acne, and promote blood circulation that will help heal blemishes.

By simply massaging your face with ice cubes for a minute or two before bed, you will essentially be giving yourself a mini facial. (Just be sure to wrap the cubes in a paper towel, or a baggie because applying them directly to your skin can cause delicate blood vessels to break.) For an added “ahh” to this spa-inspired treatment, try freezing your cubes with watermelon, lemon, or rose. Getting iced never sounded so good…

Are you going to give this cool trick a try?

If you have an out of the ordinary beauty trick that you love, share it in the comments below. I’ll feature my favorite idea in an upcoming blog post!

XO Lee

P.S. If you have any beauty questions, leave your request in the comments below…you might just see it in an upcoming blog post too!

Beauty Note: What Is Strobing?

Published on by Lee5 Comments

Attention all beauty gurus. Contouring is out and a new makeup trick is in… and it’s called strobing. While I’m not entirely ready to throw out my contouring routine, I’ve been curious about this growing trend. So, what is strobing? Strobing is all about creating a dewy, natural looking glow. Products are used to brighten the higher features of your face instead of carving them out like you do with contouring. Think of it as a way to keep your summer glow all year round without the bronzer.

In this post, I’ll be breaking down the basics when it comes to strobing and how you can achieve a fresh glow without going overboard…

Time To Shine

The idea behind strobing is to create a polished makeup look that emanates a natural radiance. That being said, your finished product should be sans glitter and all glow. Avoid products with noticeably large flakes of glitter and opt for products that ‘illuminate’ and have a touch of ‘shimmer.’

Choosing A Highlighter

Like any other makeup product, you should keep your skin tone in mind when choosing a highlighter. While some highlighters come in a white, pearlescent shade, consider a colored highlighter. For fair skin, consider choosing a pinker highlight. For medium and dark skin, try choosing highlighters with coral or gold tones. If you have oily skin, try using a powdered highlighter. For drier skin types, try applying a cream highlighter.

Where To Apply

It’s best to apply highlighter to the high points of your face where sunshine naturally hits. There are seven facial features you ultimately want to be highlighting: down the bridge of your nose, the center of your forehead, your brow bones, the inner corners of your eyes, your cheekbones, the tip of your chin, and your cupid’s bow (above your upper lip).

A Little Goes A Long Way

Less is more when it comes to strobing and applying highlighter. You want to give your skin luminescence without looking overly shiny or oily. If you’re nervous, start by applying a little bit at a time, gradually leading up to your desired highlight. 

59db6bf62b94125a996254945df42d92--new-makeup-trends-new-trends (2) 

 Will you be trying this new technique? 

 Let me know in the comments!

 XO Lee

Primp Tip: How to Find Your Perfect Brow Shape

Published on by Lee1 Comment

Eyebrows have been a hot topic of conversation for a while now. Similar to fashion, it seems as if brow trends come and go with the seasons. When I was in high school thin, over-tweezed brows were everywhere. But now, it’s time to give the tweezers a rest! Full brows are dominating the beauty scene. And while bold is on trend, not every woman has been blessed in this department. Rather than force an unnatural shape, this post is all about learning how to enhance your natural eyebrows with minimal tools (and less plucking!). Let’s get to it…

Locating The Start And Endpoints

Begin by lining up your tweezers along the side of your nose. By doing this you should be able to see that the front of your brows should align with the upper bridge of your nose. After you do this, very minimal tweezing between your brows should be done to prevent your eyebrows from looking too far apart. My advice is to just get rid of stray hairs and nothing more.

To locate the end of your brows, align your tweezers with the outer corner of your eyes. Where your tweezers meet your brow bone is ideally where your eyebrows should end. Remember that everyone’s brows are different! Not all brows will extend to the outer corner of the eye and some will reach past this point. Similar to grooming the start of your brows, you don’t want to over-tweeze the end of your brows either. You just want to clean up stray hairs here and there.

Defining The Arch

The easiest way to define your arch is by using a white eyeliner pencil. Using a white eyeliner pencil will help you locate stray hairs that fall outside of your defined eyebrow shape. Draw a line tracing the bottom of your eyebrow. You should be following the natural arch of your eyebrow for this step, not creating a new one. Once you’ve drawn the line, tweeze whatever stray hairs fall below it.

My last bit of advice for defining your brows is to trim them. To do this, use an eyebrow spooly and comb those brows upwards. Take eyebrow scissors and trim any hairs that are longer than your actual brow shape. This step helps maintain your shape more than just using products alone.

Brow Sculpting 101

Now that you’ve enhanced the natural shape of your brows, it’s time to help them out a bit. If you’re more of a natural girl when it comes to makeup, brow gels are going to be your best friend. Clear gels will help keep your brows sculpted all day long without having to fill them in. If you have sparse brows I recommend trying your hand at brow pencils, powders or colored gels.

While drama isn’t necessarily a bad thing, remember to keep it natural when filling in your brows. Start by filling in the arches, using strokes that mimic the direction of your natural hair growth. Then, follow your arches to fill in the end of your eyebrows. Use longer strokes here but don’t go too far past the ends.

Lastly, use smaller strokes to fill in the starting points of your eyebrows. This area is where you should be filling in your brows the least. Like I mentioned earlier, use strokes that mimic your actual hairs as to avoid any over-filling. As a finishing touch, use a spooly to blend the product into your brows for the most natural effect.

Like anything else in life, practice makes perfect. If you’re still unsure about grooming your brows, here’s how to decide whether to wax, thread or tweeze. I hope this helps any brow debacles that you might be having!

Perfect-Brows

What tips and tricks do you have when it comes to brows? 

I’d love to hear your suggestions in the comments.

XO Lee

Shop This Story…

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

 

 

 

Raising Brows: Wax, Thread, or Tweeze?

Published on by Lee2 Comments

Eyebrows are one of the most important features that you can control on your face. With that being said, proper upkeep is essential. Many people ask me how I maintain my brows and which method I prefer: waxing, threading, or tweezing. All of these are great options and some techniques work better for some and not others. To simplify your life, I’ve put together the following quickie guide to help you decipher which means of brow grooming is best for you…

If you have sensitive skin…

Thread! Threading uses a string to remove hair and is a great option for those of you with delicate skin (or even Rosacea). While waxing tugs at the skin, threading barely has any contact with your skin so it doesn’t lead to irritation. Additionally, threading doesn’t remove the top layer of skin like waxing does so your makeup will stick to your skin properly and it won’t lead to irritation if you’re using a topical prescription cream either.

If you have coarse hair…

Wax! If you have thicker hair that grows back quickly, waxing is definitely the best option for you. Not only do most people see thinner, softer regrowth, they can also go longer in between waxes since the results are fairly long lasting. There are a few drawbacks though: 1. It can be expensive, 2. It can irritate skin (but the irritation typically goes away after a few hours), 3. It can remove tiny (virtually invisible) hairs on your face that help makeup stay in place.

If you don’t want to break the bank…

Tweeze! Not only does tweezing give you a lot more control, it’s also the most inexpensive way to maintain your brows. The most important thing to remember when plucking is to exercise restraint. Yes, you may want to pluck regrowth everyday, but be careful not to take it too far.

At the end of the day, the best recommendation I can make to you is to experiment with all three methods. Everyone’s body reacts differently to things so it’s important to see what works best for you. You may have coarse hair and find that you love the results threading yields. Or you may prefer waxing… Personally, I would love to wax my brows, but when I do I tend to breakout and get red around that area. Plus, the pain is too much for me. My go-to options are tweezing or threading. But like it said, road test a few methods and see what you like best.

Which method do you prefer and why?

XO Lee