Recently in Brows Category

Throw out every single brow pencil, brow powder, brow gel and any other products you depend on for a full set of brows.  All you need is Brow Master Cees Pennings.  I first featured him two years ago when he did my brows. Yup, I'm coming out of the brow closet-- permanent make up has such a negative stigma to it (created mostly by un-trained technicians who has left a trail of blue brows behind them) that I've been reluctant to talk about it.  But so many of my friends have commented on my brows that I decided to share my little secret and they are now addicted to Cees!  Heidi looked like she had a brow lift after he did hers as did another friend who looked instantly younger as he filled in her overplucked brows.  He is an artist and will look at your face shape and age and treat you accordingly.

As I told you before, Cees was the man whom cosmetic companies such as Shiseido and Dior depended on-- as one of the top photo re-touchers in the world-- to arch the brows, sharpen the noses, chisel the cheekbones, and curve the lips of models to make them picture perfect.  That is, until digital re-touching took over his industry. (Jump for more)

One of my all time favorite celebs is Jennifer Aniston. She has amazing skin and a body to die for (if you must know, I always tell my trainer Lara to "Make my body rock like Jennifer Aniston!). Jen works hard for that body (with a mix of yoga, pilates and running) and despite turmoil in her personal life, she's always carried herself with grace and dignity. She's Vogue's cover girl this month and we found the products that Gucci Westman used on her for that carefree California girl glow.  Have to say I am not crazy about the photo they chose for the cover (red dress upper right).  I prefer the more casual one below right (in shorts sitting with knee up- tres sexy!).  To get Jen's beach chic look:
 

Brows- L'Oréal Brow Stylist 3-in-1 in medium dark brown, $12.99 ($9.99 at drugstore.com)

Eyes- Physicians Formula Organic Wear Origin Eyeshadow Duo in Brown Eyes, $7.95
 
Face- L'Oréal Glam Bronze bronzing powder in Seductive Sunset, $12.99 and Dior Bronze Matte Sunshine SPF 20 Honey Matte 002, $40
 
Lips- L'Oréal HiP Jelly Balm in Luscious, $9

Images via Vogue.com

When iconic desig house Ungaro collaborates with iconic cosmetic house MAC, the result is nothing short of spectacular.   Live from backstage at the Fall 2008 Collections, It-Boy designer, Esteban Cortazar, and M·A·C have come together to create a special colour collection as dreamy, refined, and, well, Parisienne as anything this side of the Avenue Georges V, exclusively ours! A limited edition for lips, eye and cheeks chez Ungaro.... only for MAC. At Maccosmetics.com on October 9th. (Jump to see entire line!)

When I was on TV, I learned many tricks from my make up artist, all of which I still use today!  One of my favorite tricks is highlighting my brows both under the browbone, and above the brows.  This gives depth to the brows and makes you look youthful and we can all use a hefty dose of looking younger can't we?  I usually use a shadow to highlight those areas but discovered Anastasia's Brow highlighter pen, which is so much easier to use and control!  Shadows inevitably end up on my brows which is annoying but this pencil allows me to highlight without a mess!  Even better that you can also use it as eyeliner or anywhere you want to highlight on your face!  I keep this in my make up bag for instant pick me up when I'm feeling haggardly.  $21 at Anastasia's boutique in Beverly Hills or order it online!  

I always hoped I’d grow up to be so confident and careless that I’d leave my house with nothing on my face besides a natural sun-kissed glow 8-) While that dream hasn’t exactly panned out, I’ve discovered you can go low-maintenance with your makeup and still look great using some key products. For a list of product suggestions to show off your natural glow a la the beautiful Christina Applegate, see below!

For the Base: Smashbox Compact Anti-Shine ($28) this is great for oil control. It absorbs shine leaving your face with a natural, clean look. It also contains tea tree oil, aloe, and vitamin E to fight acne and sooth your skin, if however you’re getting ready for a truly special occasion get an airbrush tan! I tried it for the first time last week when I went to Sundara ($78, full body; $30 face only) and it’s long lasting (about a week), even, and natural looking. They customize a color palette specific to your skin tone/what you’re looking for and can even highlight/shade certain areas to make you appear trimmer– just make sure you don’t sweat/shower within the first 8 hours or you’ll get a little streaky (I learned the hard way…eech!).
For your Cheeks: To bring out your natural glow NARS Blushes ($25) come in an range of translucent, natural shades, each with a subtle amount of pink to highlight your complexion…irresistible:)
More after the jump!

I have no brows. When I was 19, my mom forced me to get permanent brows tattooed in because she thought it was bad luck to have such little brows. So now I am left with faded blueish hued brows because I have such little hair there. This is my biggest challenge when I do my make up. I don't have ends so I have to add them in with powder but the problem is, it's obvious that that part was added in because there is no hair. I also have no definition to my brows so I don't even know where to begin to shape them. Last week, I met my brow savior, Eugenia Weston, owner and founder of Senna Cosmetics. She is the FIRST brow guru in Hollywood! Her clients include

Amongst other things, I am obsessed with my brows and have every tool available to make them full, natural and gorgeous. I recently got the complete Anastasia Seven piece brow kit and am obsessed with it! Known as the "one stop" brow shop, it really has everything you need to make your brows perfect! Hollywood Stars have trusted Anastasia with their brows for years, but if you can't make it to her boutique in Beverly Hills, you must get this set! There is the Brow Powder, Brow Gel, After Tweeze Cream, Eye Lights Matte Pencil (I don't leave the house without this!), Brush (Angled Cut / Spooley), Precision Tweezers, and Stencils (so handy if you have sparse brows!). Anastasia also offers a disc with instructions if you are clueless but if you are a seasoned pro at tweezing and shaping, you will know what to do and will love playing with this set! At Anastasia- $85

“form follows function.”

My mom had heard from a client -who heard from a friend, that the guru of all things eyebrows, -Zoey, from the infamous Anastasia Salon- had up and started her own salon in lovely Pasadena, California (less than 30 minutes from downtown LA) on March 25 of this year. While I was unconvinced that spending $10 more than what I usually pay would be worth a few (more or less) hairs- my mother argued otherwise. So I gave in, and once again...mom was right.

......Click the link below for Before and After pics!

Makeup on the Go! By Beauty Snob Tyler As a mom of an exuberant toddler, with many activities, like playgroups and preschool, I often don’t have time for a long beauty regimen. But I’ve found with just a few products that I already have, I can look pretty and polished, in under 10 minutes, with just 5 simple steps!

1. Prep and protect your skin
Even if you’re in a hurry, it’s still important to apply a facial cream with SPF and an undereye cream. This will help to protect your skin as well as providing a great base for makeup. Daily Moisturizer with SPF from the L’Oreal Skin Genesis line is a good lotion with SPF and anti-aging properties.
Oil of Olay Definity Eye Illuminator is an amazing undereye cream that helps to diminish dark circles and illuminate the eye area.

Another great time-saver is tinted moisturizers. Stila Illuminating Tinted Moisturizer with SPF 15 , will give you a beautiful, luminous finish.

Holy beauty heaven!! Looks like Santa has done his market research and created the most awesome beauty set the world has ever seen! I mean, who wouldn't want a luxurious pink leather trunk filled with everything you could possibly want from Bobbi Brown? It's like going to the Bobbi Brown counter and taking home their entire display (but brand new and unused of course). If someone bought this for me for Christmas, I would be a very very happy wife (hint hint). I feel like a little kid in a toy store looking at this, it makes me all anxious with giddiness and desire. I would go home and play with it for hours and get really mad if someone even remotely look at it much less touch it. There is a total of 60 items, including foundation, brushes, eyeshadows, blushes, bronzers, lip glosses, lash curler, mascara, make up remover, moisturizer, eye cream, the list goes on. Exclusively for Neiman Marcus, you can get this whole thing for $2000.

The entire list of contents in this make up trunk is after the jump.

I am currently obsessed with the Skin Deep Website, a safety guide to cosmetics and personal care products from researchers at the Environmental Working Group. I have been on it all weekend looking up every brand in my bathroom, it was shocking how many items in my bathroom are rated "high toxicity" and that may cause cancer, render me infertile amongst many other scary hazards! Go through the site and search for your favorite products to see what you come up with. I could not find my favorite luxury brands such as La Prarie, Natura Bisse, Sisley or La Mer on the site, hopefully it is because their products are tested extensively to avoid causing hazard? (or maybe they were too expensive for the scientists to buy and test?).

There seems to be a pattern of beauty companies across the board with body lotions being listed as highly toxic even if their other products are of low or no risk (For example, Skinceuticals C&E ferulic is safe but the Skin Firming Body Cream is a high hazard- I am throwing mine in the trash tonight!). In fact, I am so freaked out that I have decided to use my son's baby products from California Baby (rated 0- low hazard) on my body until further notice. I am not one to scare easily and often ignore the urban legends of lipstick accumulating in the stomach etc but this really got my attention! Of course I will do more sleuthing with doctors in order to validate the site's claims, let me know what you beauties come up with.

Here's a thought, perhaps the reason Aveda products tested so high for toxicity is because they do not do any testing on lab rats....

I always have so much fun browsing my own beauty stash. I find things still packed in the box all the time, it's like getting to shop all over again without having to pay again! The reason I forget to use so many things is because I have lost 50% of my brain cells since giving birth (am concerned with the next one, I may not remember my own name!) and because I am always busy working (I am! I swear!). Anyway, I put my son to bed at 8pm tonight and started poking around my bathroom for stuff to give away (I give away A LOT of beauty products, how else am I going to keep buying more?) and I happened upon a tube of Brow Extender from Talika.

First of all, I don't even recall buying this let alone using it so I took it out of the box and started playing around with it. It's shaped like a marker with a twist on one end and a plastic brush on the other that pumps out a brow gel filled with tiny hair like fibers. I brushed some on my brows, it was kind of gooey but within a minute it dried and it looked like I had the brows I had back in high school! Thick and full! Not only that, it also extended my brows by at least a quarter inch (which I sadly need, my brows are dark and full but unfortunately short). There were a few tiny little fibers left around the brow area that wiped off easily with a Q tip but other than that, it was totally mess free! You can throw out your eyebrow pencils, brushes and whatnots my beauties! You have no idea how excited I was to discover this amazing product right in my own bathroom! You would have thought I found a million dollars or something, I was dancing around and called all my girlfriends to share which irritated my husband to no end cuz I am supposed to pay attention to him when he comes home or something like that (see, I can't even remember my wifely duties). $33 at Spa Look (Get a Get a free Talika Mini Eyelash Curler & cosmetic bag with your next $30 Talika purchase!
). See lush brows from Gucci Westman of Lancome on the runway after the jump!