I Feel Pretty: The Beauty Thread

[ophy]

That drives me nuts!

My MIL uses HEAD AND FREAKING SHOULDERS to wash my kids' hair when they spend the night at her house. I have begged her to stop. Of course, I can't get her to stop sneaking Sprite to them either. She thinks any soda that isn't 'brown' must actually be 'healthy' soda.

[jennchum]

That is totes the older Southern generation, too. My aunt put diet coke in my daughter's BOTTLE. I lost my shit so hard. "But its diet. No sugar!"

RAGE.

[isadora]

You guys would DIE over what my family let the kids eat/use/do.

My niece only eats carbs, preferably fried. When she came to visit us? She ate French Fries for every meal except b'fast, which was pancakes. At Thanksgiving she eats peanut butter crackers. My friend brought her two-year-old on a long road trip and stayed over night with us and he was fussy and exhausted from being in the car all day and she handed him her Coke to calm him down. NOT "diet"--Mr. Is could not hold his tongue and was like: WHY ARE YOU GIVING THE FUSSY/CRABBY BABY SUGAR AND CAFFEINE?

[isadora]

AND ANOTHER THING:
How do we (ophy) feel about oil pulling to clean your mouth?

[ophy]

Uh . . . it sounds really gross?

(I've not looked into it before.)

[LaaLaa]

I don't believe the miracle cure aspect, but I'm willing to try it if it whitens my teeth and doesn't hurt like a mofo. Whitestrips make me go fetal.

But you're supposed to swish it around for 20 mins or something! Gag.

[IssieCol]

pale skin with a glow

This is my makeup goal also except in my head, I called it the Alexis Bledel. I've never been a fan of tanning and I've always thought that after 30 or so, tans make you look older.

my bathroom drawer is like a graveyard of discontinued makeup

I rarely throw makeup away because of how old it is. Some of the shadows I have from Target are like 8-9 years old and I use a highlighter from Nars that's at least 5 years old. I use it almost every day and I'm secretly convinced that it's self-regenerating because I haven't even hit the bottom yet.

[LaaLaa]

Yes! It's not gross if you swipe an alcohol pad over the top of the shadow...right?

I don't look right unless I'm brown - I get this weird, greenish, fluorescent glow - but now I'm paranoid about cancer, so I slather on self-tanning lotion that simply offers a different cancer.

[ophy]

Wait . . . haven't we talked about oil pulling in here a long time ago? gah, my memory sucks ass.

Snopes debunks it: http://www.snopes.com/medical/homecure/oilpulling.asp

"Oil pulling" is the somewhat unusual term for the practice of swishing a type of unrefined plant oil (e.g., coconut, sesame, sunflower, olive) around in one's mouth. This activity is touted, when practiced thoroughly (be sure to coat your teeth and gums!) and regularly as having a variety of oral hygiene benefits, such as whitening teeth, strengthening gums, and eliminating plaque. It is also claimed to have other medical benefits, such as pain relief, the prevention (or even the lessening) of ailments such as cancer and heart disease, and the purging of toxins from the body. (The term "oil pulling" refers to the notion that the activity "pulls" toxins from one's system and/or "pulls" them out through the teeth or mouth when the practitioner spits out the oil solution.)

There's certainly no real evidence that oil pulling can prevent or ameliorate the effects of various diseases, "correct hormone imbalances," "reduce inflammation of arthritis," "support normal kidney function," "help reduce insomnia" or produce any of the other variety of beneficial medical effects claimed of it, nor is there even any sensible scientific explantion for how simply swishing oil around in one's mouth could accomplish any of those things.

Moreover, the endless stream of products and therapies touting detoxification benefits have been the bane of real medical science for many years. In any reasonably healthy person, the liver and kidneys already perform an efficient job of filtering out and excreting wastes and other substances potentially harmful to the body — herbal colon cleanses, foot pads, cupping therapy and the like don't improve on that or serve any function other than parting the gullible from their money.

That said, there's no real harm to oil pulling: Its benefits may be unproven, and it may perform no better a job of promoting oral hygiene than ordinary dental rinse or mouthwash will, but it also doesn't produce any known detrimental effects, so all one really risks in undertaking it is the cost of the oil.

This lady who did it for a couple of months only cites dental benefits (fresher breath, whiter teeth): http://www.designmom.com/2014/01/oil-pulling/

Which is fine and all, but there's nothing so wrong inside my mouth that I am going to sit and swish oil around for 20 mins per day.

Maybe if you're a person whose teeth are rotting out of your head it would be worth a go?

[emmaleigh]

I am also obsessed with this BM collection I got called The Girlfriend Collection (I am not clear if this is meant for date night or a day with gal pals). It included "plum" stick eyeliner (THAT I AM OBSESSED WITH), memoir eyeshadow (a soft brown-ish
color) and charmed eyeshadow (THAT I AM OBSESSED WITH).

So I use those very regularly for everyday use. The combination basically gives me what I call The Snow White: pale skin with a glow, soft pink radiance on my cheeks, and pink/brown/plum (I know it's weird but I dig it) eyes. And!!! People complained about the color combo in reviews because everybody thinks you have to be matchy-matchy with eye color and they discontinued it and I can't find "charmed" anywhere but eBay so that's where my getting my eyeshadow these days!

I've never tried BM makeup! Maybe I should. If you're doing The Snow White, do you not use the bronzer that comes in the BM starter kit, Is? I have to use the bronzer a little bit because I have fair skin, dark brown eyes, and brown hair. If I don't give myself some color, I literally look dead.

My everyday makeup is all stuff found on Top 50 Beauty Product lists because I'm very impressionable and if a beauty editor tells me to buy something and it's not super pricey, I probably will (like when I asked about the Clarisonic here a million years ago and ended up doing OCM because if ophy tells me to do something, I probably will too).

Stila's Kitten is probably similar to Charmed. It's basically a nude shimmer that works on everyone and is very light. Then I have this because it was on clearance online when I was looking for something else. I do Luster over Kitten to cut down some of the shimmer and then line upper eye in Coal or Pacific to soften my other liner. I don't use the other three colors at all. I curl my eyelashes every single day but only put on mascara occasionally.

Still love Benetint for cheeks. I started wearing lipstick regularly about a year ago. It took awhile to get used to but I feel more professional w/ it on. This is my everyday, this if I'm going out, this if I'm feeling invincible and/or DGAF.

I don't like makeup I can feel on my face. Even my most done up is very little compared to the handful of times someone else has done it for me. Mostly because I'm lazy and if I'm going somewhere that requires heavy makeup, there will probably be booze and after a couple drinks, I don't care what my makeup looks like anyway. (Bonus: natural flush).

[ophy]

How's your skin doing now, em? I still feel so bad that the OCM didn't work out for you.

[LaaLaa]

I admire women who can keep lipstick on! I am a nervous child who bites her lips constantly, so I tend to focus on eyes and cheeks, and my lips get this.

BM shadow does stay put better than most, esp. with the foiling technique. I've heard using contact solution instead of water helps staying power even more.

[emmaleigh]

How's your skin doing now, em? I still feel so bad that the OCM didn't work out for you.

Aww don't feel bad, bb. It's back to where it was before OCM I think. Nevah evah leaving my beloved Cetaphil again. I'd like to get facials semi-regularly for deep cleaning but I tried to get one around my birthday and it was SUPER AWFUL AND TRAUMATIZING. On my birthday! I won't belabor it here but meh.

I now want to run to Ulta and try BM shadow and LORAC liquid liner. I also want to see Sarah's Sephora haul!

[isadora]

I use "radiance" in place of bronzer. I always feel like bronzer is too dark and looks weird on me.

If you use the eye primer with the eyeshadow it does last a longer time, IME. I mostly use BM and anything I get outta my Birchbox.

My very top Birchbox items were the Harvey Prince "Hello" perfume and the crazy blinc mascara.

[Sarah]

Hee!

I got dis stuff:

















Then, this is the lipstick (autumn color) I've used every day for years. I don't deviate and everyone always tells me it looks awesome and wants to know what it is. (No one knows because only old ladies wear Estee Lauder stuff!) For evenings if I'm fancy, I'll add some gloss over it for shine. But! Lately, it's been cracking kinda on me? Old lips? Dunno and I am STRESSED about it and thinking maybe I should layer something under it.


The nail polishes were whatever was on sale that had glitter in them. She's happy and I'm grossed out because I hates the nail polishes.