Grammy Girls Look the Best!!

Wow....what a great Grammy show tonight.  Sorry I didn't get to post much this week, but I have to say for the first time I thought the Grammy artists came to the show looking way better in their gowns than the other Award Shows so far for the most part...not all, and there were some great dresses at the other shows, but this one really was beautiful & still suited the young artists wearing them so well!  Here's a photo of my Lady Gaga look on one of my beautiful clients for Halloween.  I have another great shot I have to download for you.  Of course, this is extreme smoky eyes and lashes, and I used the L'Oreal HIP colors with their black & silver duo to do someof this look.  Suprisingly, L'Oreal posted a video showing their black liner inside the eye in answer to the question from Carrie about how the line never really stays inside the eyelid even with waterproof pencil, to which I responded about the tear ducts needing to keep water flowing and your eyes moist, so that's a difficult spot to have liner stay all day and/or night without reapplication.  It's okay if it smears some, cause it just adds to the smoky look, makes it more sooty, and it really doesn't have to be perfect.

Have a great week, I wrote my mission statement today, and the part that my friends loved the most was that I so enjoy writing to you all and want you to really see the face in the mirror as gorgeous and step out each day with confidence.  Seeing your beauty isn't at all difficult for me, and it shouldn't be difficult for you either.  Again, have fun and see your beauty the way other people see it!

Bliss for the week! 

These are a few of my favorite things!!

Happy morning to you all! This is the time of the day when you have to decide what can I do to enhance my beauty that will last me pretty much all day....here are a few of my favorite things, and you need to pick and choose amongst them according to your budget, cause there are always great recessionista products in the drugstores, as I believe I mentioned previously, and there are mid to higher end products that will work for you.

Assuming you have all cleansed your face, and added moisturizer and SPF (important for every single day of your life, as the damaging rays get thru even when cloudy, even when driving, as many of you know because you might have more pigment on one side of your face than the other...)here are some of my favorite cleansers and moisturizers: I love gentle, so Dermalogica Special Cleansing Gel is fabulous & you need about a dime size to cleanse your whole face after moistening your face with warm (not hot, not cold) water. Another one I really like, especially for those nights you may be tired, or mornings, is CVS' own brand of cleansing & makeup remover towelettes which are texturized to deep clean and remove impurities. I like the ones that come in the blue & white packaging, $4.99 for 30!! These have chamomile, which is calming, as well as Vitamin E & Triple Teas for antioxidants. It feels good and you are exfoliating somewhat at the same time, and being good to yourself, because there is no way you should go to sleep with makeup on your skin....Also in CVS, there is a line called Dr. Dover and I have tried his Cell 2 Cell moisturizers & eye cream, and they work very nicely. There is one for day with SPF and one for night to prevent wrinkles, which I really liked ($19.99). More on the moisture front: I have been using as of late Kiehl's Abyssine Lotion with SPF 15, which has amazing ingredients from the magma of the ocean floor and is very gentle. They also have a moisturizer without SPF that is organically gathered and 100% Natural Origin from the ACAI Berry from the Amazon, and you can look on the Kiehl's website and see the various products in the two lines, i.e. serums, and the exact prices, which are not high, and they have a wonderful video about how the Acai Moisturizer is made. Study your ingredients. I know most of you are probably very conscious of what you are putting on your skin. These two moisturizers cost about $44 each, which is not bad at all, and you need about 3-4 drops/pumps to do your face & neck.

Okay, now say you are a new Mom and barely have two minutes to yourself, or can't even look in a mirror or splash your face with warm water!! While you watch the baby, sit down for a moment, use one of those towlettes, you don't need to rinse unless you are irritated somehow without rinsing it off, and apply (only if you are in a warm climate or have really oily skin) a tinted moisturizer like Laura Mercier's, which comes in Oil free and in moisturized & has SPF 20. If your skin is a little to the drier side, I would add a teeny bit of eye cream under your eye (don't go right near your lashline...could be too irritating) & you can use the eye cream on your top lip area, as those areas have thinner skin than the rest of our faces (favorite eye cream...La Mer Eye Concentrate, gentle and great!! worth the money!). So one minute or less and you have cleansed, and take a little bit of your tinted moisturizer (another good one is from LORAC with SPF 30...great!!) & spread it gently on forehead, cheeks & chin and even under eyes, and you have evened out your skin. You may or may not need a clean little disposable sponge to even out edges and pat under your eyes and by brows, as you don't want it going in your brow hairs, etc., but that should have taken a minute or two. This will work for any busy woman, and we all know who we are!! All of us! I am attaching a few links for you to see me talk about some recessionista products that I acually used on models for Stylecaster.com, one of which is a Revlon Antiaging foundation with SPF 18, I believe, that has it's own brush and comes in about 8-10 colors, and is wonderful also, and only about $14.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR8cd3okxhI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uY1ZWKvf5w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vneL3F9D4Jk

Also shown are two other videos showing other fabulous Revlon products amongst others, like Korres Lip Butter ($9) and the gorgeous Crystalline Laura Mercier loose powder I have mentioned in other posts, which I use for highlighting areas on the eyes and cheekbones....

Okay, now if you have any extra time in the morning, take your favorite mascara (I love Korres Provitamin B5 & Rice Bran or the Covergirl Lash Blast mascaras, either the original for volume or the new lenthening one, which I haven't yet tried on myself, but given as a gift...) and really wiggle your mascara brush in to your top lashes for one or two coats. This will make you look like your eye color has brightened and popped, and if you wiggled it in well, it will make you look like you even have eyeliner on. Because your pupil is black and the rim of the eye is charcoal to black, a black mascara will totally do the most for the eye on a daily basis. Then you can add some eyeliner, if you have time, some lip butter or gloss (Korres Cherry Oil glosses are gorgeous as well as the lip butters and oh so good for your lips!!) and a little blush. Your blush should look like it is coming from you, and my favorites are Eve Pearl's powder trios (she has great powders as well as cream blush colors) which are so easy to apply with her fan brush...you just go across all three colors with your fan brush, and softly apply on your cheekbones with a slightly angled application from the outside to inside of your cheekbones. Again, I can do this without looking in a mirror if needed, it is that easy. Also, I love cream blush, and Eve has great ones, as well as Kevyn Aucoin's Pink and Peach colored cream blush, which you can do with your fingers, and you need so little, quick, easy, no brush needed!

Well, that's the basics for today....have fun, love yourself every day, play & enhance, and if you have a special event, please feel free to contact me for that special makeup application! Enjoy your day!!

You can do anything!!

I did two makeup applications this weekend, and hope to have some pics up for you soon, but just was so excited to see the first of the award shows, the Golden Globes, and see the trends in makeup, dresses, hair....I thought most everyone looked glowy and beautiful, and women like Meryl Streep looked elegant, as always, as well as glowing! Well, I would be glowing too if I won an award for Acting! or Makeup, for that matter! Sorry I didn't write much this week. I am going to Esthetics School full time for my license as an Esthetician, and then....who knows what path I will skip down?? I surely love enhancing the beauty of my clients, so this will be added fun for them to experience my calming touch in a new light.

Bliss & look yourself in the eye, and tell yourself how much you love you!! You are worth it, no fear, you can do anything!!

Coco

P.S. I needed that myself!!!

The Bridal Eye a la Audrey Hepburn on my beautiful brunette bride in the first two photos

How to do the makeup on the brunette bride at the top....as I mentioned, I always start with the eyes. As I want the makeup to last all day & night, I normally begin with a primer for the lids, and my favorite is Laura Mercier's Eye Essential base in Peach. If you know anything about the color wheel, you will know that peach and blue are complimentary, and therefore, peach will hide blue, so veins on the lids will disappear. A little of this product goes a long way. On this particular bride, I began to line the eyes with a black pencil, preferably with some waterproof or water resistant capacity, as I try and make everything around the eyes as waterproof as possible for brides and their bridal parties in case of any tears of joy! I then take a small pointed smudge brush like Lorac 101(and now starts the importance of having all the right tools; there is no way you are going to do a beautiful makeup artistry on yourself or anyone else if you don't have a proper set of tools. I can, and have collected tons of different types of brushes for all sorts of application techniques. Pick a line and develop your set. Again, I will say that Eve Pearl (http://evepearl.com/) has a great set, and it is not too expensive. She has had some great promotions on it, and you get a black brush case also when you purchase the whole set, or start out collecting one or a few at a time from any line you like. Sephora also carries excellent brushes in their line and you have choices amongst the many artist lines there. Carefully smooth and blend the liner out from a thin to full line, which makes the eye look so Audrey Hepburn-like. I then added a light color on the lid with a medium fluff brush (which you can keep to blend the edges of your whole look, or keep a clean brush just for that purpose, took a medium tone and blended it with a larger smudger brush in the outer V of the eye & in to the crease softly. I then took the smudge brush and kept filling out the outer fullness of the liner until I achieved the Audrey-like proportions that I envisioned on this bride's eyes using a darker shadow, i.e. a smoky black. You must keep blending your colors. This is most important and also why you need the proper tools, and once I achieved that, I added a highlight color to the brow bone, and then to the inner corner of the eye, as I like to add light in that little area where we all seem to have darkness going on. My favorite highlight is Laura Mercier's Crystalline, a loose powder mineral shadow in a pale pink that is gorgeous on the eye or the top of the cheekbone to highlight. I then added individual lashes, and I use a combination of short and medium lengths, especially on my clients that have longer lashes, so it looks really very lush and natural. I haven't seen anyone else do it this way, so if you want to get in touch with me for a lesson, a group lesson for friends, or just have it done sometime with your makeup application, please get in touch with me. After the lashes dry, I blend them together with some mascara (you have read about my faves in prior posts, usually Covergirl's Lash Blast in Very Black) & now line under the eye, or not, depending on the look and the client, as they may love that, or not. You can line with the liquid liner and do all this by going over the line with any shadow colors you like, and under the eye line very thinly and go over/under with a softer highlight color, i.e. gold, or something to bring out the eye color. Don't forget to look for those flecks of color in your eyes. Lastly, before the rest of your makeup, take some moisturizer/primer or gentle eyemakeup remover and wipe away the fallout that will undoubtedly have happened from your shadows and you are ready to apply the remainder of your makeup to that gorgeous clean and primed face!

Okay, sending much bliss to all my readers, and there will be more to come on smoky eyes, foundations, blush, lips, etc. Hope you all will become my followers, and keep asking questions that you would like to have answered.

Natural looks are always the bomb when it comes to your guy!

Top Ten Makeup Turnoffs for Men: (response to Stylecaster.com article, which you can copy in to your browser to see in full...see bottom of this post)

I agree totally...the natural look is always in, and skin should look like skin even when you are wearing some foundation, bronzer, blush, as all of these beauties are wearing along with eyemakeup, especially mascara and liner, which work together to make your lashes look fuller. Mascara makes you look like you have liner on and liner makes it look like you have fuller lashes, and guys just want to kiss a soft natural lip without feeling like they are going to get a ton of color on them. I have always been told that I am all about the eyes, and men always love the makeup I do, even when the eye is stronger for the evening. But take care of your skin, so you can show that pretty face glowing through a sheer foundation, and you know that all those kisses from your man makes your lips poutier naturally! Enhance that gorgeous face, don't hide behind makeup! It is true that men who love us see us as beauties at our most natural, so just love your face!!

Posted January 6 2010 22:56 by Coco Paladino

Read more: http://www.stylecaster.com/news/6997/beauty-tips-top-10-make-up-turn-offs-for-men-plus-our-favorite-natural-celeb-looks#ixzz0btbWLjav

Stylecaster.com issued an article re splurging/cutting back on your wedding day

See the following response to an article on Stylecaster.com, a site on which I have made up many models... regarding saving on having your bridal look done at the counter, with which I strongly disagree, especially as an artist who loves to enhance my brides: http://www.stylecaster.com/news/6978/wedding-planning-where-to-save-vs.-where-to-splurge

Eyes are the window of the Soul

Happy New Year to all my readers!!  A decade in to the 21st Century, and makeup comes full circle with many looks from the 60's on through to the looks that are considered au courant.  When you watch the movie "NINE", you will see the Bardot style eye on Marion Cotillard, Sophia Loren's famously made up eyes with crease defined and eyeliner as well as lashes.  The actresses all look so very gorgeous, and makeup was, and is, such fun, and there were so many looks to try---those mentioned as well as Twiggy's eyes with three sets of full lashes layered one on top of another, and drawn lashes below or individual lashes glued on the lower lash line.  Don't forget, experimentation allows you to see yourself in other lights, find your best look(s), create new visions of yourself, and it washes off!!  What easier way to reinvent yourself than to try new colors and looks?  This is a subject I will keep expounding upon in following posts, as well as some explanation of the bridal eye seen on my first bride (two photos) that is very Audrey Hepburn-like...see the image below of a very beautiful lined eye balanced with a gorgeous red lip, although we could have made this look much more 60's with a pale lip a la Brigette Bardot.  Either way, it is one of my favorite looks to do.  You must practice lining your eyes with a sharpenend pencil (Revlon has a great waterproof one in their Colorstay line that comes with a tiny sharpener at the end...Eve Pearl has her Black Pearl liquid liner with felt tip that is waterproof and a fantastic base to layer shadow(s) over to change the color of your eyeline, and it is very well priced and flows beautifully (see http://evepearl.com/ ).   Lastly I also love the black liquid liner pen from Le Metier de Beaute, which is priced a bit higher, but also stays on so well, and you can layer over it as well.  Le Metier is sold at Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, Fred Segal's as well as the John Barrett Salon in New York's Bergdorf Goodman store at Fifth Ave. & 57th Street.  So from recessionista priced liners to higher end priced liner, practice makes perfect.  The line should be started by the inner corner of your lash line, graduates thin to fuller and lifts on the outer end with the wing.  You would draw the line in to the inner corner depending upon whether your eyes are wide set or normal distance apart, and the wing should give your eyes a beautiful lift.  Do not forget to buy yourself the cosmetic Q tips with at least one pointy end, which you can dip in some non-oily eyemakeup remover (Klorane is the most gentle, I find) and correct any mistakes.  Your Q tips are an artist's friend!  In the photo below, I also added beautiful individual eyelashes in the inimitable way I like to do them, and they stay on so well, I have clients who wear them for days to a week, sometimes more.  I will post more on the eyes, as clients and other artists always tell me that I am all about the eyes, but that is because they are the window of the soul, take the most time and dictate the rest of the look to me.

I hope this first day of 2010 has been a blissful and peaceful one for you all.