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Beauty routine Q&A
Jan. 10th, 2011 07:41 pmSwiped from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
txanne and marydell, who are competing to be The World's Most Tomboyish (or at least low-maintenance) Femme. I'll cop to "femme," but given my answers, I'm not sure I'm in the running with them. Anybody who wants to come up with a categorization for me, do try, I'd love to hear it.
My Foundation: Nothing, most of the time. When I go out dancing, or if I'm in Serious Evening Clothes, I've got a couple containers of the stuff -- one is a L'Oreal Age Defying cream formula, the other is some liquid in a jar I couldn't even tell you what, but a drugstore brand -- I bought it when I'd misplaced the pot of L'Oreal. Whatever I wear has to be THE LIGHTEST cool-toned shade they have, and is often too dark for my skin at that, and, dammit, I'm out of theatrical cream white to lighten the wrong ones, which is a trick I've used in the past. I'm sufficiently pale to be reflective in certain situations (or is that just the titanium dioxide in my foundation reacting to camera flash? You tell me).
My Mascara: When I wear it, Maybelline Great Lash -- I am old school, I've never found anything I like better than that pink tube with the green cap. Mascara is one of the two cosmetics I'll wear if I bother to wear anything during the day.
My Blush: Goth sensibilities mean my mild tendency towards rosacea is all the blush I need or want.
My Moisturizer: Olay Regenerist Serum as underlayer during the day and alone at night, in the morning I also add Lush Skin Drink.
My Lipstick: There are essentially three colors of lipstick I wear: RED, dark plum, and black. Sometimes combined, like a red glitter gloss over a matte black, or a sheer black gloss over a 12-hour formula red... you get the idea. I have these three colors in about a million different formulas and brands. No, I can't possibly just stick to one each, even though I wear them so seldom. And, oh, if I have to look daytime-professional, I either wear a sheer red gloss, or this one pinky-brown neutral that actually looks okay with my coloring. It's made by Avon and it's called Twig. NOTHING ELSE WORKS. I also have two of those new, ridiculously Twilight-themed Revlon Just Bitten lipstains. The concept (sheer color with a neutral Chapstick-like balm over it) sounded good, and then when I discovered that the red-red was called Gothic, well, I cracked up and I bought it. Then I decided that red in that method looked a little harsh on me, and found a medium plum color they were calling Beloved. That's the one in my jacket pocket now. I also like the Burt's Bees tinted lip balms, both the shiny red gloss, and the stick balm called Merlot. A lot of the time, I don't wear lipstick, or I just use the Burt's Bees balm. But I do like how I look with a little color, and that's why the Beloved lipstain went in my jacket pocket -- feels like wearing Chapstick, looks a little dressier.
My Shampoo: My hair has looked much better since I gave up shampoo, as Curly Girl instructs. If I needed to, it'd be Lush's Curly Wurly, which is practically conditioner anyway, and also has the disadvantage of leaving a million coconut shreds in the shower drain.
My Conditioner: Aussie Moist. In the big pump bottle. I use this like shampoo. If I need deep conditioning, a big cheap tub of "olive oil cholesterol" stuff that I get from the aisle that has the products for African-American hair, and works brilliantly, but has an unfortunate side effect: small blobs that rinse out look like boogers stuck to the tub, so I have to be very sure to wipe up or it grosses everyone out.
My Hair: Wash with conditioner every couple of days, using a comb in the shower, towel dry with the special microfiber turban towel, brush with paddle brush, apply small amount of silicone-free clear gel for curls (another product from the African-American aisle, it's in a clear tub with a black lid and has a picture of an aloe plant on it and says Clear Shine, I could go upstairs and check the label, the brand is not immediately obvious) to the ends, work through, smooth gel-coated hands over the top of my head, air dry. Every so often, stick fingers into roots as it dries to give a little lift, but mostly, ignore the hell out of it. If working in kitchen that day, pull hair into doubled ponytail and wear hat or bandanna.
My Soap: um, whatever. There are Softsoap pumps by the bathroom and kitchen sink for handwashing. I think the bar soap in the shower right now is a hotel soap. I like Lush Sexy Peel when I'm treating myself. I sometimes buy shower gels based on sniff test -- I like citrus, and coconut, and vanilla, although not all together, and some brands are terrible. Pretty much... whatever.
My Favorite beauty store: Lush for bath treats and moisturizers, MAC for color cosmetics. The salespeople at the Harvard Square Lush and the Westfarms MAC store are super nice. More realistically, CVS. Also, Sally Beauty for haircolor.
My Favorite Budget brand: Burt's Bees?
My Favorite Premium brand: Lush and/or MAC
My Essential Beauty Product: CONDITIONER
My Favorite Makeup Product: MAC lipstick. Red, Cyber, and does anyone have any more of that special edition matte black? The semisheer black had paraffin in it and I'm allergic so I gave it to the kid.
My Perfume: I rarely wear it. It's not a good idea when you work with food. This does not keep me from amassing BPAL imps that friends give me, but they are toys more than beauty products. I might make some homemade bath bombs with them, and I DID make a tub of homemade Phantom Calliope bath salts. When I DO wear perfume, it's Karl Lagerfeld Sun Moon Stars, which still seems to smell good even though I bought that bottle as a splurge BEFORE THE KID WAS BORN. Its most noticeable notes are vanilla and amber. I will pretty predictably go for vanilla/amber mixtures. I love the scent of myrrh but it goes HORRIBLE on me.
My Nails: I keep them short and never wear polish. See: works with food.
My Feet: Oh, $DEITY, I should do something about my feet, the Scholl's file barely made a dent this morning. Off to CVS for some Pretty Feet & Hands. And then probably the random pot of Vitamin E cream the kid bought under the misguided notion it would soothe what turned out to be an allergic reaction.
My Hands: Lush Helping Hands. Or whatever's around. There's this lotioneternaleponine's mother keeps sending (from some natural-products buying club she's in) which smells EXACTLY the way that Vaseline Intensive Care did in the '70s. eternaleponine won't touch it because it's scented. We've got like three bottles of it. So that's the one I toted with me to a dishwashing job, and it's the one I use on my legs when I've shaved them, and sometimes I use it on my hands. Whatever. It smells okay to me.
What Five beauty products could you not live without?
1. Conditioner
2. Moisturizer
3. TWEEZERS
4. Hair Gel
5. A goddamn razor
What’s the worst beauty mistake you’ve made? I think I'm going to say the emergency leg-shaving when I was 15 that I did with a vintage Gillette safety razor whose blade was on the dull side, and would up taking a dime-size chunk out of my shin.
What does your daily skincare regime consist of?
Morning: Get out of shower. Pat face dry. Spritz with alcohol-free rosewater witch hazel. Apply Regenerist Serum to corners of eyes, corners of mouth, forehead, and neck (one pump does this) -- smooth out to rest of face from there. Dab fingers into Skin Drink, smooth over face and neck.
Evening: if I have worn cosmetics, remove with baby wipe. If not, don't. Spritz face and apply serum as morning, skip Skin Drink (have acquired hippie notion that face should breathe at night).
What does your daily cosmetics regime consist of? Realize mouth feels dry, put on tinted lip balm. Very occasionally, if being social during day or if job interview for non-cooking job scheduled, apply mascara and a more conventional lipcolor.
Favorite Beauty treat? Lush bath bombs! I especially like Avobath, the honey one, Supernova... oh, hell, I like most of them. But my top three are Avobath, Butterball, and the honey one. And The Sicilian (a lemony one, duh) which is a Retro one that they only re-release every once in a while.
What’s your “every girl must own one” item? Seriously? Everyone's bodies and lives are so different. I have friends who don't do anything with their body hair or shape their eyebrows, and they rock that, so they don't need My Best Friend The Tweezers; I myself prefer absorbent bathrobes, whether terry or waffle weave, to traditional bath towels; and until last year I barely gave moisturizers a thought. I think I'm going to say lip balm. Whether you live in a warm climate or a cold one, chapped lips are no fun, so find a lip balm you like and keep it handy. Buy one for each purse and each jacket so you never lose it. Lip balm!
And finally, best beauty tip? Boots first, THEN corset. Or is that a fashion tip?
txanne and marydell, who are competing to be The World's Most Tomboyish (or at least low-maintenance) Femme. I'll cop to "femme," but given my answers, I'm not sure I'm in the running with them. Anybody who wants to come up with a categorization for me, do try, I'd love to hear it.My Foundation: Nothing, most of the time. When I go out dancing, or if I'm in Serious Evening Clothes, I've got a couple containers of the stuff -- one is a L'Oreal Age Defying cream formula, the other is some liquid in a jar I couldn't even tell you what, but a drugstore brand -- I bought it when I'd misplaced the pot of L'Oreal. Whatever I wear has to be THE LIGHTEST cool-toned shade they have, and is often too dark for my skin at that, and, dammit, I'm out of theatrical cream white to lighten the wrong ones, which is a trick I've used in the past. I'm sufficiently pale to be reflective in certain situations (or is that just the titanium dioxide in my foundation reacting to camera flash? You tell me).
My Mascara: When I wear it, Maybelline Great Lash -- I am old school, I've never found anything I like better than that pink tube with the green cap. Mascara is one of the two cosmetics I'll wear if I bother to wear anything during the day.
My Blush: Goth sensibilities mean my mild tendency towards rosacea is all the blush I need or want.
My Moisturizer: Olay Regenerist Serum as underlayer during the day and alone at night, in the morning I also add Lush Skin Drink.
My Lipstick: There are essentially three colors of lipstick I wear: RED, dark plum, and black. Sometimes combined, like a red glitter gloss over a matte black, or a sheer black gloss over a 12-hour formula red... you get the idea. I have these three colors in about a million different formulas and brands. No, I can't possibly just stick to one each, even though I wear them so seldom. And, oh, if I have to look daytime-professional, I either wear a sheer red gloss, or this one pinky-brown neutral that actually looks okay with my coloring. It's made by Avon and it's called Twig. NOTHING ELSE WORKS. I also have two of those new, ridiculously Twilight-themed Revlon Just Bitten lipstains. The concept (sheer color with a neutral Chapstick-like balm over it) sounded good, and then when I discovered that the red-red was called Gothic, well, I cracked up and I bought it. Then I decided that red in that method looked a little harsh on me, and found a medium plum color they were calling Beloved. That's the one in my jacket pocket now. I also like the Burt's Bees tinted lip balms, both the shiny red gloss, and the stick balm called Merlot. A lot of the time, I don't wear lipstick, or I just use the Burt's Bees balm. But I do like how I look with a little color, and that's why the Beloved lipstain went in my jacket pocket -- feels like wearing Chapstick, looks a little dressier.
My Shampoo: My hair has looked much better since I gave up shampoo, as Curly Girl instructs. If I needed to, it'd be Lush's Curly Wurly, which is practically conditioner anyway, and also has the disadvantage of leaving a million coconut shreds in the shower drain.
My Conditioner: Aussie Moist. In the big pump bottle. I use this like shampoo. If I need deep conditioning, a big cheap tub of "olive oil cholesterol" stuff that I get from the aisle that has the products for African-American hair, and works brilliantly, but has an unfortunate side effect: small blobs that rinse out look like boogers stuck to the tub, so I have to be very sure to wipe up or it grosses everyone out.
My Hair: Wash with conditioner every couple of days, using a comb in the shower, towel dry with the special microfiber turban towel, brush with paddle brush, apply small amount of silicone-free clear gel for curls (another product from the African-American aisle, it's in a clear tub with a black lid and has a picture of an aloe plant on it and says Clear Shine, I could go upstairs and check the label, the brand is not immediately obvious) to the ends, work through, smooth gel-coated hands over the top of my head, air dry. Every so often, stick fingers into roots as it dries to give a little lift, but mostly, ignore the hell out of it. If working in kitchen that day, pull hair into doubled ponytail and wear hat or bandanna.
My Soap: um, whatever. There are Softsoap pumps by the bathroom and kitchen sink for handwashing. I think the bar soap in the shower right now is a hotel soap. I like Lush Sexy Peel when I'm treating myself. I sometimes buy shower gels based on sniff test -- I like citrus, and coconut, and vanilla, although not all together, and some brands are terrible. Pretty much... whatever.
My Favorite beauty store: Lush for bath treats and moisturizers, MAC for color cosmetics. The salespeople at the Harvard Square Lush and the Westfarms MAC store are super nice. More realistically, CVS. Also, Sally Beauty for haircolor.
My Favorite Budget brand: Burt's Bees?
My Favorite Premium brand: Lush and/or MAC
My Essential Beauty Product: CONDITIONER
My Favorite Makeup Product: MAC lipstick. Red, Cyber, and does anyone have any more of that special edition matte black? The semisheer black had paraffin in it and I'm allergic so I gave it to the kid.
My Perfume: I rarely wear it. It's not a good idea when you work with food. This does not keep me from amassing BPAL imps that friends give me, but they are toys more than beauty products. I might make some homemade bath bombs with them, and I DID make a tub of homemade Phantom Calliope bath salts. When I DO wear perfume, it's Karl Lagerfeld Sun Moon Stars, which still seems to smell good even though I bought that bottle as a splurge BEFORE THE KID WAS BORN. Its most noticeable notes are vanilla and amber. I will pretty predictably go for vanilla/amber mixtures. I love the scent of myrrh but it goes HORRIBLE on me.
My Nails: I keep them short and never wear polish. See: works with food.
My Feet: Oh, $DEITY, I should do something about my feet, the Scholl's file barely made a dent this morning. Off to CVS for some Pretty Feet & Hands. And then probably the random pot of Vitamin E cream the kid bought under the misguided notion it would soothe what turned out to be an allergic reaction.
My Hands: Lush Helping Hands. Or whatever's around. There's this lotion
eternaleponine's mother keeps sending (from some natural-products buying club she's in) which smells EXACTLY the way that Vaseline Intensive Care did in the '70s. eternaleponine won't touch it because it's scented. We've got like three bottles of it. So that's the one I toted with me to a dishwashing job, and it's the one I use on my legs when I've shaved them, and sometimes I use it on my hands. Whatever. It smells okay to me.What Five beauty products could you not live without?
1. Conditioner
2. Moisturizer
3. TWEEZERS
4. Hair Gel
5. A goddamn razor
What’s the worst beauty mistake you’ve made? I think I'm going to say the emergency leg-shaving when I was 15 that I did with a vintage Gillette safety razor whose blade was on the dull side, and would up taking a dime-size chunk out of my shin.
What does your daily skincare regime consist of?
Morning: Get out of shower. Pat face dry. Spritz with alcohol-free rosewater witch hazel. Apply Regenerist Serum to corners of eyes, corners of mouth, forehead, and neck (one pump does this) -- smooth out to rest of face from there. Dab fingers into Skin Drink, smooth over face and neck.
Evening: if I have worn cosmetics, remove with baby wipe. If not, don't. Spritz face and apply serum as morning, skip Skin Drink (have acquired hippie notion that face should breathe at night).
What does your daily cosmetics regime consist of? Realize mouth feels dry, put on tinted lip balm. Very occasionally, if being social during day or if job interview for non-cooking job scheduled, apply mascara and a more conventional lipcolor.
Favorite Beauty treat? Lush bath bombs! I especially like Avobath, the honey one, Supernova... oh, hell, I like most of them. But my top three are Avobath, Butterball, and the honey one. And The Sicilian (a lemony one, duh) which is a Retro one that they only re-release every once in a while.
What’s your “every girl must own one” item? Seriously? Everyone's bodies and lives are so different. I have friends who don't do anything with their body hair or shape their eyebrows, and they rock that, so they don't need My Best Friend The Tweezers; I myself prefer absorbent bathrobes, whether terry or waffle weave, to traditional bath towels; and until last year I barely gave moisturizers a thought. I think I'm going to say lip balm. Whether you live in a warm climate or a cold one, chapped lips are no fun, so find a lip balm you like and keep it handy. Buy one for each purse and each jacket so you never lose it. Lip balm!
And finally, best beauty tip? Boots first, THEN corset. Or is that a fashion tip?
