Five Ways To Jump-Start Your Journey Back To Fabulous

There is a whole generation of women who want to look great and don’t know where to start. Some need an update, some a total revamp and some just need a few tips and inspiration.
Where do you turn? Who can you trust when everyone wants to sell you their products. Women are tired of buying hope, they want results. Well I’m here to help! I‘ve got the facts on how you can look beautiful everyday when you look in the mirror.
Keeping in mind that there are always exceptions to every rule. Here are a few basic facts that, like them or not, may help you to get started thinking about changes to consider.

1. Grey or silver hair looks great on certain women, but there is no question that it adds 10-15 years to your perceived age.

2. Miniskirts, belly shirts, and super low-rise pants are no-no’s after 40, even if you are in great shape. Why? Because they make you look like you are trying too hard to be 25 again. Wear great fitting clothes that are age-appropriate, stylish, flattering—and won’t send the wrong message.

3. Mousey hair with no style doesn’t look good on any woman. Consider getting a great cut that’s easy for you to style so you will look great everyday.

4. Being overweight makes you look older than you are. If you combine a getting-in-shape program with changes in your hair, makeup, and wardrobe, you will maximize the results of both efforts. You will also amaze yourself, as well as everyone around you, with your new, revitalized look.

5. Shoes are very important both to how you feel and to your overall look. You don’t have to wear frumpy shoes to be comfortable!

Eyebrow Shapes

Evil women throughout history have always been portrayed with severe and often highly arched eyebrows. Just look at the 3 top women nominated for the Oscar this year. They all played vicious or unlikable characters whose temperament and attitude was partly created by their eyebrow shape. Eyebrows are odd. For little groupings of hair above our eyes they sure do evoke a lot of assumptions. Mean, angry, surprised or sad, and relaxed. These are just some of the feelings that are evoked when we see the oh so expressive eyebrows.
What do your eyebrows tell the world about you?

Pedicure Tip

I heard on the radio today that you are not supposed to have your cuticles pushed back on your toes when you get a pedicure. Evidently the skin on the toenails keeps bacteria from invading the skin around the toe. This dark moist area is prone to fungus and inflammation. Great…One more thing to worry about. My pedicurist argued with me when I asked her not to push back the cuticles. I explained, with a smile, that she could clean, scrub, shape, buff and polish, but absolutely no pushing those cuticles around. I feel empowered now that I have been an advocate for my happy feet!

Getting Rid of Stray Hairs

Please get a magnifying mirror! Today on the set, a 50ish client who was about to go on national television, sat down in my chair to have her makeup done. She was attractive and polished and needed very little makeup but she had this long black hair growing out of her chin! I didn’t want to embarrass her but I couldn’t let her go on TV with that hair. I asked her if she used a magnifying mirror and good light to apply her makeup each morning. Her answer was obviously, “No”. I held up a mirror and showed her the hair. Much to my surprise she said, “Well just what do I do about that?”
This was her first “wild- woman hair” and she wanted to know if she should wax it, pluck it, laser it, or shave it.
Answer: If you have just a few and you have bright light AND a magnifying mirror, just pluck it. But if you can’t change your lighting and don’t plan on buying a magnifying mirror, you should march right in to have those babies lasered. It usually takes a few visits to get permanent results but you will never be caught in public with the horror of THE HAIR making you look like a fool.

Fashion Trends

Fashion trends from the runways of Paris and Milan scream at me to take a peek. Even the Wall street Journal can’t resist commenting. I scan the designs wondering what the trickle down will be. I am dismayed at the thought of thirty something men dictating what I will be wearing. “Corsets and Skinny pants are not going on this body” I think as I take another look. Just where do all these people wear all their silk and cashmere? Can practicality ever be part of haute couture?

Makeover Show Exploits Fear of Aging

Considering how I make my living, I am shocked that I got totally fascinated watching “Extreme Makeover!”
After all, transformations are what I do everyday. I have spent more than 25 years standing 8 or more hours a day in front of a mirror. Not to look at myself (although I do occasionally take a peek), but to help my clients find their absolute best “look” while they are being seen by millions of viewers. As a television stylist my job is to make people look capable, smart, trustworthy and healthy, and sometimes thinner, younger and more attractive.

Lets face it, (no pun intended) no matter how you feel about taking extreme measures to improve your appearance, it is painfully clear that some people got a set of genes that make it diffficult for them to feel comfortable with their appearance in this society which is obsessed with youth, slenderness and beauty.

Being in the beauty industry is sometimes difficult for me. I have a strong sense of what defines a persons value and this has little to do with appearance, yet ironically, I am sure my “life’s purpose” is to help people find joy in what they see every day when they look in the mirror. I have learned, however, that if you aren’t happy with who you are on the inside, you will never like who you see staring back at you in the mirror. (Hence the multiple rounds of plastic surgery some people go through never finding the satisfaction they seek.)

Since our society has bought into the notion that only youthful women are highly prized, women are flocking in droves to maintain a youthful appearance at all costs.
Where are the voices of reason? Where is the voice of moderation? Where is the message to our culture that what kind of person your are and what your values are is what determines your value to society?

No one wants to speak out against the status quo lest they be shunned by Madison Avenue, which has turned preying on the hopes and fears of women over 40 into an art. No one wants to speak up against this insanity because everyone wants to cash in on all the aging boomers who are desperate to stay young at any cost.
We all know there is no fountain of youth: yet otherwise intelligent women will buy the most expensive face creams they can afford…just in case it may do something to minimize the effects of aging. Crazy as it seems, they are not buying results. Billions of dollars are spent every year to purchase hope. One would think that most important issue to women must be “to be desired.” Why else do we want so desperately to erase all signs of the aging and hold on to youth? Is “old” synonymous with “worthless?”
What has caused this disdain of growing older? Whatever happened to growing older with dignity and grace? I firmly believe that how a person looks has the power to make or break careers, goals and dreams. But, I also believe it's time for us all to challenge the assumption that old equals unattractive and beauty requires youth.

10 Ways to Update Your Style

1. Ditch the liner under the eye. As you age you don’t want to draw attention to the area under the eye (besides, a noticeable line under the eye is a very dated 80’s look) If you really need a little definition, use a brown powder with a brush to apply a very soft line at the base of the lashes with as slant brush.

2. Wear pants that are 1 – 3 inches below the navel (no low riders). Nothing says
“granny pants” more than pants that are too high in the waist area.

3. Re-evaluate your glasses. Are they THE most flattering frames for YOUR face? Go for the ones you love in spite of the costs. Remember, this is your face, the one part of you that everyone sees. Definitely get the non-glare coating. NO tint to the lenses–it just make the under eye area look darker. Consider taking a friend with you to try on frames, it is almost impossible to be objective with yourself.