What does Oprah’s make up artist use to create a “perfect” face?

Products:

Bare Escentuals
www.bareescentuals.com
Mineral Veil
Full Coverage Kabuki Brush

Beyond Skin Science
www.beyondskinscience.com
Cleanser
All-Day Moisturizer
Face Radiance Mist
Night Cream Sets

Bobbi Brown
www.bobbibrown.com
Creamy Concealer Kit

Caboodles Company
www.caboodles.com
Lucite Molded Makeup Tray Organizers

CoverGirl
www.covergirl.com
Outlast Smoothwear Lipliner
Smoothers Lipliner

Estée Lauder
www.esteelauder.com
Tender Blush

Haute Face Cosmetics
www.hauteface.com
( 818 ) 913-4475
Color disc

Iman Beauty
www.imanbeauty.com
Lip gloss

Lancóme
www.lancome-usa.com
Artliner Eyeliner

L’Oreal
www.lorealparis.com
Paris Wear Infinite Eyeshadow Quads

MAC Cosmetics
www.maccosmetics.com
Select Moisturecover Concealer
Studio Fix Powder Plus Foundation
MAC Wipes

Maybelline
www.maybelline.com
Great Lash Mascara
Expert Eyes Twin Brow & Eye Pencil

Model in a Bottle
www.modelinabottle.com
( 888 ) 444-5044
Face Setting Spray

Shu Uemura
www.shuuemura-usa.com
Available at Neiman Marcus
( 888 ) 748-5678
14-Karat Gold Eyelash Curler
Eyelashes

Smashbox
www.smashbox.com
Studio Seamless Liquid Foundation
Foundation Brush #13
Photo Finish Foundation Primer

Trish McEvoy
www.trishmcevoy.com
Brush Sets

If you have about 30 minutes you can do your own facials at home. [once a week or once a month.]

Get started:

Boil 4-6 cups of water in a large pot [dutch oven will work.] or if you have a facial steamer use that. Boil the water for several minutes, then reduce the heat and let it sit a few minutes. [No longer than 10 minutes.]

You can add a few tea bags [2-6] or essential oils to the water as it heats. Try different herbs or combinations of herbs and oils for the most benefit depending on your skin type. [NOTE: do not add oils directly to the water in your home steamer as this may cause clogs and break your machine. You can add the oil to a towel or cotton pad and hold it near your face.]

• for combination to oily skin: lavender oil, rosemary leaves, basil leaves and witch hazel bark can be used to clear the skin of harmful bacteria and impurities.
• for dry skin: rosewater, chamomile tea and jasmine will help sooth and not irritate the skin.
• for sensitive skin: distilled water, rose petals or rosewater will not irritate the skin usually.

Wash your face as usual.

Exfoliate your skin using an exfoliating pad, an electric toothbrush, a cleansers with microbeads, or a face towel or sponge.

Move the pot [or turn your steamer off] to the location where you want to do the steaming. Lean over the pot with a towel over your head to preserve the steam. [If it hurts or stings, it's too hot, wait 2 more minutes and try again.]

Steam for about 15 minutes, no longer.

Your pores are open; this is the best time to take care of pimples and blackheads.

• for whiteheads, take a sterilized needle and pop it and press gently with a cotton ball to ease the pus out. stop pressing when blood or clear fluid appears. use toner or hydrogen peroxide to clean the area.
• if the pimple is on the verge of popping, you can squeeze it, but not with your bare hands. take two clean q-tips and press on either side of the zit gently until it pops. then use hydrogen peroxide to clean it out. if it doesn’t pop right away, leave it alone. and apply benzoyl peroxide each day until it dries out. sometime it can dry out in a day or two.
• if the pimple is deep and red and cystic, leave it alone or go see a dermatologist who can inject cortisone to dry it out.
• for black heads, you can use a pore strips to move the dirt out of the pore.
• you can apply retin-a or alpha hydroxy to the blackhead to speed up cell turnover.
• never squeeze your blackheads. if it’s a really bad problem, go see a dermatologist.

While pores are still open, apply your facial mask. whatever kind you want. I use mask made specifically for oily skin as I have a problem with blackheads and acne.

Leave the mask on for 3-15 minutes. If it’s homemade mask, you can leave it on longer than the store bought masks.

To reduce puffiness: You can use cold cucumber slices, cooled chamomile tea bags, a cool gel eye mask, or a refrigerated damp cloth to place over your eyes.

Rinse your face with lukewarm to cool water.

Pat dry face and then apply toner or witch hazel to your face, jaw, and neck.

Massage in your moisturizer [really massage it in, don't just sit it on top of your face or it will do nothing.] let it sit in your face at least 10 minutes before applying make up.

Merry Christmas!

Grinch greens [*the youtube video is up for this one. [just a series of pictures telling what products i used.]*

7tTips for perfect manicure from Nail Aid.

Press a cosmetic cotton pad saturated with nail polish remover onto the nail, wait for 10 seconds, then draw the pad to the nail tip with a 1-way stroke. Rubbing back and forth will leave stains on skin & cuticles.

2. How to create nicely shaped nails.

After filing your nails straight with a regular file, use a low grit buffing block to smooth out uneven edges to give your nails a finished look. Buffing the edges seals the open layers of filed nails to prevent breakage or chips. Use the buffing block just like the way you use your file.

3. How to remove dry, ragged cuticles quickly.

Once a week, apply a cuticle remover at the cuticle line and wait for 5 minutes. Use a cuticle wood stick and scrape back & forth at the cuticle line to remove dead cuticles- dry skin bits that cling to the base of the nail. Rinse nails with a soap gel. Use a nipper and nip - don’t pull – cuticle bits that stick up and hangnails. If your live cuticles are too thick and you want to have them trimmed, have a manicurist trim them once in a while. Frequent trimming will make them harder and thicker. Avoid trimming your own live cuticles. Use cuticle oil daily. Fast absorbing Cuticle Cure softens hard cuticles and ragged, dry cuticles and makes nails stronger and flexible, which helps reduce nail breakage. Keep Cuticle Cure in your purse or at your desk to keep cuticles looking moist after washing your hands each time.

4. Washed and dry nails.

Apply nail products, whether nail color or nail treatments, to nails that are washed and dry, free of any oil or lotion. Nail products will peel or chip when applied to dirty nails. Dead cuticles have to be removed first. If a nail product is applied over dead cuticles, it’s going to lift.

5. How to build hard, strong nails.

Always use nail care and nail treatment products that are free of toxic chemicals. Besides harming your health, formaldehyde, toluene & dibutyl phthalate cause nails to dry, yellow, and become brittle. Even if you don’t wear nail color, wearing just a nail treatment alone will prevent your nails from breakage and protect them from the drying effects of water and harsh cleaning products. Always apply a nail treatment base coat before applying nail color. When applying a nail treatment, cover the sides and the corners of the nail. These areas are where the breaks start. For fast nail growth use Grow Tougher for thin nails & slow growth nails and Nail Recovery for repair of ripped nails & peeling nails, after the removal of artificial nails. As a nail hardener and nail thickener, Brush on Wrap for splitting nails is uniquely formulated to provide an instant manicure for its sheer white tint will give your nails a clean, polished look.

6. How to have a long-lasting manicure.

After cleaning and drying your nails, apply your base coat. Applying a nail treatment base coat first helps grip nail color to the nail. Always allow one coat of nail treatment to dry to the touch before applying another coat. Besides nourishing your nails, a treatment base coat will help prevent nail color stains on your nails. Apply Fast Dry Top Coat every 3 days for protection from nail color chipping and nail color peeling and to provide a high gloss shine. When applying a nail treatment or color, wipe the brush inside the bottle to remove excess. Then, put a little stroke near the cuticle line to remove a little more product before placing the brush as close as possible to the cuticle line. This method will give you thin coatings for long wear.

7. Some final do’s and don’ts.

This info is obsolete, I no longer do this routine.

Since I am all about drugstore products, I don’t spend a lot of money on make up, moisturizers or cleansers. I have in the past used more expensive items like Kiehls and Clinique and it really didn’t do anything for me. In the case of Clinique, my skin became worse, and after about 35 days, I took the stuff back.

I have combination skin. I am oily in my t-zone and dry on my cheeks and jawline. I have large pores around my nose and acne-prone skin in my dry areas. My skin is not sensitive, but I treat it as though it is to prevent breakouts.

When I wear a full face of make up all day, the first thing that I do when i get home is take the face make up off. Here’s my night time routine when i wear foundation, powder, and eye make up.:

• to remove eye make up:
  1. i soak one side of a q-tip in almay oil-free eye make up remover. then i run the q-tip along my top and bottom lash line to remove my waterproof eyeliner. [i skip this step if i am wearing regular pencil.] i use the dry end of the q-tip to clean up the residue.
  2. i then use my almay eye make up remover pads. [i used the regular kind with oil as my eye area doesn't clog easily.] i take one pad and let it sit on my eye for a few seconds to loosen the mascara, then i swipe top and bottom until most of the make up is off. i use a new pad on the other eye.
• to remove foundation:
  1. i use ponds clean sweep wipes. i take one wipe and run it along my face, eyes and neck to get most of the make up off.
  2. i then either wash my face with with a cleanser or i do a few chores and wash my face before bed.
  3. i wash with a mild oil-free soap, face, jaw and neck.
  4. i then use toner on my face and neck.
• the last thing i do is moisturize and spot treat any acne.
• i use a face mask with beta-hydroxy once a week after exfoliating.
• twice a week i use alpha-hydrox 12% aha souffle [i don't use this the same day that i use my face mask.]
• each evening i use a night moisturizer with aha.

To help my skin stay as clear as it can, I make sure that I also wash my brushes at least once a week. I wipe my concealer and foundation brush off after every other use with a wet ones or the ponds clean sweep.

I ordered some mineral foundation samples from My Minerals Bath and Body a little over a week ago, I received my free samples in three days. Unfortunately for me, as is the case with most people with darker brown skin, the colors don’t match. There really is a lack of color for people of color when it comes to alternative make up.

But despite that, I really enjoyed doing business with them so there will be no doubt that I will order their other products. They have a wide variety of eyeshadows and blushes, and as someone who embraces color it’s perfect for me. For around $4 a piece you get a generous amount of product. And I have heard and read from other customers that the color pay-off in collections such as Vegas Glamour makes you feel like you are getting a steal.

I wanted to try minerals because I have combination skin that during certain times of the month turns into a cesspool of oil, which of course is a breeding ground for bacteria, no make up stays on my face. I am constantly having to touch up, and then the pimple party begins! It’s vicious cycle. Mineral make ups are free of the harsh chemicals and allow your skin to be able to breath. And any sebum that the skin produces, the mica in the minerals helps mattify the oilness.

The downside to a lot of the major mineral brands out there is the inclusion of bismuth oxychloride. bismuth oxychloride is an ingredient cosmetic companies use to combat the matte look mineral make ups yield. And it’s also a cheap filler to give the products bulk without sacrificing color. In the most basic sense, it is a microscopic metal ground into the mineral powders to give it a sheen or a shimmery look. This of course defeats the purpose of minerals because it can cause a lot of irritation, break outs and rashes, especially acne-prone people like me. This is why I wanted to try My Minerals first because they do not use bismuth oxychloride.

For the cost of shipping and handling [less that $3,] why not try My Minerals Bath and Body if you haven’t used mineral make up before. You get an eighth of a teaspoon sample which is more enough for a day and a of half wear. With foundation, you get up to five samples. I only picked three and they sent me two more for free. They will let you sample pretty much everything for free [*limited numbers per order*.] If you are a person of color, I woud suggest that no matter what mineral brand you buy, try it in as many hues as possible. Test the color indoors and outdoors under natural light and then under a camera flash. Minerals and mattifying powders can really “challenge” your complexion and make things difficult for you.

I would hate for this to happen to anyone.