Makeup 4: Makeup Shotgun Edition

[Xray the Enforcer]

I'm surprised you have to ask; I cannot live without lipstick, and the brighter the better most days. :D.

I didn't want to assume. ;)

Anyway, I would have suggested just what you're doing. Which is pretty much what I do anyway, except for the sheer tint. I am just too goddamned lazy to manage more than a light dusting of powder. Oh, and the eyebrows (see "lazy"). And most times the eyeliner.

[Tears of Lys]

I'm surprised you have to ask; I cannot live without lipstick, and the brighter the better most days. :D.

I played around today and did some of what Robin mentions. I did the eyebrows, left the rest of the face bare except for a sheer tint with SPF, a little eyeliner on the top lid to make the mascara pop. That's it other than a really nice cherry red lip. It's polished, but I don't look clownish.

I've been doing mascara and lipstick only and it's just not enough. I need some brows and evening out the skin tone.

This middle age crap is for the birds.

Ha! Just wait, my pretty....

Yeah, I've gotta do my brows now where I never had to before (or at least I didn't **think** so.)

If I'm just running errands, I'll put on a bit of brow color, some eyeshadow, some lipstick, and I'm good to go.

If I'm actually **going** somewhere, it's the whole paint booth. The walls are draped in plastic and ventilators are used.

:P

[Sis Who Swears]

When wearing dark or red lipstick in the past, I did this whole rigamarole

1) exfoliate lips with toothbrush and hot water and vaseline

2) apply vaseline or blistex

3) liner

4) paint on lipstick with lip brush

5) blot with one ply tissue and powder

6) brush it on again

7) blot with tissue and powder AGAIN

EIGHT) (you are not gonna get me fucking sunglasses smiley) one last swipe with actual lipstick

9) suck on finger while pulling it out of mouth to prevent it from getting on my teeth

Whew, quite a PITA process. But it works. Really well.

However! I have recently discovered this awesome magic lip liner pencil which lets me eliminate steps 3-7!

I love this thing! :love:

[Tears of Lys]

I admit I use the wand-style lip stains. I've gotta have lipstick that lasts a long time - no reapply every half-hour for me.

My problem is I'll find a color I really like, and then the manufacturer discontinues it. Goddamn it.

If my hand doesn't shake, I don't really need a lip liner. Problem is, my hand shakes sometimes. :(

[Sis Who Swears]

Aww that sucks. :(

I only used that whole shebang with MAJOUR colour. Normally it's exfoliate and gloss. Or Lip Venom.

[Tears of Lys]

You should see me trying to put on eyeliner. :lol:

The shaking hand started up a few years ago. It turns out I have an inherited condition called "essential tremor." There's pills for it, but they're not always effective.

[Sis Who Swears]

My hands shake too sometimes, from medication. I can still rock the eyeliner though. A thin wet brush through whatever eyeshadow colour you want has always been way easier than a pencil or as I like to call them, 'Sharpie Markers.' :lol:

[Elder Sister]

I had an experience today and want your opinions.

I went to my stylist today for an appt. for a cut only. For the past 12 years, I've gone to her for cut and color. I'm letting my hair go natural and am opting not to color anymore.

I like her. She's always been a bit flaky, but I put up with it because she gave good hair. Today, she fussed at me from the time I got there until I left, along with another couple of stylists. They told me that I would be plain, that no one would look at me...this went on for 40 minutes.

I made numerous statements like "I just want to try this," and "it's just easier." I finally stated firmly, "I think there's some confusion of ownership. It's not your hair."

I'm seriously considering changing salons over this, and that's painful. I have very coarse, crazy hair, and she's the first person I've found who's good with it.

This week has been such a bitch. I cannot wait to put this one to bed. :(

ETA: I forgot to mention that my arm was heavily bandaged due to the freaking lymphedema that I'm dealing with, and she went after me like lightening on a June bug.

[Tears of Lys]

Damn. :grouphug: She had no right to do you that way.

Finding a good stylist who knows how to deal with your hair is important, but it's also important to have someone who can go with the flow, listening to their client and doing their best to make whatever their client wants look GOOD.

Only you can tell how hard it is to find someone in your area who is good with your hair. She had a lot of nerve, though, if you ask me. I've noticed this attitude in hair salons fairly often, unfortunately.


ETA: The other beauticians ganging up on you was really bad. Sounds like you've been too nice to these goddamn people. Time to crack the whip. :whip: :box:

[Gillio]

ES.

I know how you feel, its hard to find someone who can get the best out of your hair. Mine gets very thick, and an unskilled cut makes me look like a mushroom before I get to the car.

When we got the cafe, I could no longer go to my "pet" hairdresser, who worked in the City, and have roamed the salons I could get to, getting various standards of cuts! Anyway, the last time, I was in a hurry to get it done, and booked into a salon in the shopping centre where I work.

They booked me in with Hanna, I thought, "strange, I thought Hanna was an apprentice" - she was, 4 years ago. when i first met her!!!

Hanna is a cutting genius, It is 3 weeks later and my hair is still obedient - unheard of.

Now I know its a bit of a commute for you to come here to get Hanna to do your hair, (though I would LOVE it) but my point is, they keep training new ones, probably quite a few since you stuck to your sylist :) and it Is possible for a fairly newly trained stylist to be excellent at her job.

Ps I think it would take a lot more than undied hair to make you plain!!

[lady narcissa]

Yikes ES, that is frustrating. I guess if I was you, based on your 12 years prior experience with her I'd give her one more chance. I'd give her a call or stop by and speak with her and tell her what she did was really unprofessional and that it made you really uncomfortable and I'd make it clear that if those kind of comments happen again, you are going to find someone else.

I've been going to the same stylist for over 20 years now. He screwed up one time and I talked to him about it and he acknowledged it and its never been an issue again. Its hard to find a good stylist. If you have one who can cut your hair the way you want it I think its worth trying to make it work. But if those comments and ganging up continue, its not worth having to deal with.

[Summah]

It is really hard to find a good stylist, especially if your hair isn't fine-med strand thickness and straight. I'd second giving her another shot if she responds appropriately when you tell her how unprofessional that was. I started trimming my own hair, which actually worked, but sometime I'll need to see a stylist and I don't like arguing with them about relaxing my hair and the natural hair places here seem to specialize in braids, locs and stuff like that.

And an update, so coconut oil is not good on the face if used frequently it clogs pores.

[Xray the Enforcer]

I would also give her another shot. Social conditioning runs very deep, and you probably just confused the shit out of her. That said, if she keeps being nasty about the hair color, then you will probably have to find another stylist. :grouphug:

[Elder Sister]

Okay. You guys have convinced me. I'm going to give her another shot and see how it goes.

I don't get it. It's just hair. :)

[lady narcissa]

Apparently we are just weird females if we don't color or highlight our hair. Who knew! I had no idea how unusual it was until recently when my stylist moved to a new salon and the truth came out. Apparently I am the only female to go there and not get my hair colored or highlighted...ever. I can't wait till I start getting more grey and they are forced to see me leave the salon with it still there!

My stylist is fine with it and never presses it with me. He brought it up all of one time and he has never brought it up again. Its just everyone else who is baffled by my bill and wants to know why I'm not making an appointment to have my colored when I check out.

[Starkess]

I can't remember the number but I read a statistic about the number of women that dye their hair and was truly astounded. I've dyed mine from time to time, but mostly for fun (ooh purple!) or the traditional breakup shake up (black like his heart!). And not permanent. I've been going gray since I was 18, or more accurately silver, and I kinda like it. It's shiny! I've got a nice little cluster going right near my widow's peak that is going to be an awesome skunk stripe someday. I only wish that along with the shiny silver the texture didn't get all weird too. I could see myself dying someday when it gets to be too gray for my tastes. Both my parents went gray quite young so I'm sure that's not too far off. The problem is I am not near diligent enough about my hair to keep my roots covered up, and I hate the way undyed roots look!

A quick google found this article saying 75%.

[Battle Kitten]

I don't color my hair and have never had any issues with any stylist upselling color or highlights. That is such a weird and totally unprofessional situation.

As for makeup, I don't wear lipstick most of the time, but eyes and skin have to be taken care of.

[Isis]

That was highly unprofessional behaviour! I agree about giving one more chance but definitely explain how hurt you were by the comments. A hairdresser should make clients feel good about themselves. :)

My previous hairdresser told me that even if I asked her to, she would never cut my hair very short (it was something I considered occasionally as my ex was mad keen for me to do that) because she thought my long hair was so beautiful and suited me so well. That was unprofessional too.

[Fragile Bird]

I've been meaning to get back to this thread to make some comments about hairdressers. And lipstick. :)

Somewhere along the way ES and I had a discussion about hair (maybe San Antonio? maybe facebook?) and I said I was going to switch to doing temporary colour by myself instead of getting my hair dyed at the salon. A long time ago I started doing "lowlights", not highlights, my hairdresser picking out natural shades in my hair (she said I had a lot of reds in my hair) and using the foil method of adding colour here and there. I was also growing my hair out longer.

Well, I left my hairdresser after more than 10 years (long story there, cost and location mainly) and switched to a local fellow who did a nice job cutting my hair. But he bleached my hair when I wanted to to do lowlights, and then after that I just had solid colour. Now he's left, and I didn't like the job someone else did on my hair colour, so I decided it was time to see exactly how I would look au naturel.

The most recent hairdresser cut my my hair a bit too short. Two months later I'm finally happy with it. But while we were talking about my old hairdresser she was telling me she envied him for going off to do something else, because the hairdressing business sucked. Fewer people are doing fancy stuff with their hair, people are taking longer times between haircuts, more women are dyeing their own hair, etc etc.

So ES, when I read your tale about your hairdresser's reaction the thought that crossed my mind was that perhaps she had lost some steady business (and we all know that those darn roots keep showing up) and when she heard you say that you too were going to stop dyeing your hair, she thought she had to make an all out effort to keep your business. Unprofessional, yes, but a small business person fighting for business.

The second topic is lipstick. Lately I have noticed that some of the models in various magazines are wearing their lipstick differently, and I wanted to know if I was just imagining things or if it's true. And how do you get that effect?

The way I wear my lipstick, I follow the natural shape of my lips with virtually nothing in the corners. My lips look like this: http://blog.benefitcosmetics.com/wp-content/uploads/berryClos.jpg

No, that's not me. :) But I think my lipstick looks like that.

The new style that I'm talking about and have seen in magazines lately was worn by that Hermione cutie pie, Emma Watson, at the Oscars. I can't find the exact picture that originally caught my eye, but the 11th picture in this series shows best what I mean. I think that I have linked the exact picture. http://www.holymoly.com/celebrity/pictures/17-photos-emma-watson-looking-incredible-oscars68661

ETA: Ah, no, it goes to the story - so, it's picture 11.

It gives her a very full mouth with sharply defined and long corners of her mouth, very different from my first picture.

What put me in mind of this was Mya posting a picture of herself with new lipstick, that looks almost exactly like the Emma Watson picture that I can't find. :)

So, is this a trend?

And speaking of trends, as I was searching for pictures I discovered the big lipstick colour for spring is supposed to be orange.

[Tears of Lys]

I sort of follow the natural curve of my lips, which includes a bit of the corners.

Of course, you've got to avoid the dreaded "Joker" effect. :)

On the subject of hairdressers, at one time I'd have a regular appointment for a highlight/lowlight application and cut. It would take a long time and be quite expensive. My hair looked great, IMO. :P But now I find I don't have the patience to put up with it. I can't sit still that long - maybe because I have to sit still so much in my work. Anyway, I let my hairdresser trim my hair around every three months (or more) and color it myself - mostly because I just don't want to have to go through the process.

I wonder if others are that way too.