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i loved this tip featured in domino magazine on how to create your own lipstick palette from all your almost gone, barely there lipstick tubes. not only will this make you feel like a backstage pro, but it will spring clean your drawers and all that clutter in your bag, and you might be surprised at how much product you can still use when the tube is ready to hit the trash. simply scoop out the remaining amount and microwave each individual color in a small creamer or pitcher (easy for pouring) until just melted. then pour into a palette compartment, arrange in colors to suit your style. add a lipstick brush and you’re all set!
watch the video tutorial presented by domino beauty editor sophie schulte-hillen right here. pretty blank palettes can be bought at naimies, or you could repurpose a medicine pill box, bead organizer, or an inexpensive watercolor box found at art supply stores (just be sure that the lid is air tight!)
at your request, i’ll keep this series of beauty tips rolling from time to time, you can read them all by selecting the “health & beauty” category in my sidebar —>, enjoy!
the best of the inexpensive beauty products i love to use
wet n wild nail color in blazed why: i can’t believe how beautiful and flattering this color is! all the fashion spreads in buenos aires featured this melon luscious coral hue on models and i had the hardest time finding it until we moved back home. in a way, it reminds me of the 1950s, just a few coats on my toes and i’m deborah kerr in an affair to remember. and hey, less than a dollar.
dr. teal’s epsom salts with lavender
heaven must bathe their inhabitants in this every evening. soaking in this stuff is so good, it draws out toxins from your body and soothes skin…especially after a hard workout, and it is just so relaxing! (my husband loves to use it too.) i like the premixed bag, but lavender essential oil could easily be added to plain epsom salts and stored in your own container.
suave professionals humectant shampoo/conditioner
why: hair is truly silky soft mmm mmm. everytime i use it people want to know what perfume i’m wearing. plus, bathing with the faint smell of coconut in the winter takes me back to rio. not bad for less than three dollars, right?
cetaphil gentle skin cleanser
why: i wasn’t a believer of this stuff for a long time because i used to think that in order for a product to be effective, it had to tingle, burn, zap or sting. wrong! this is so gentle, which is especially important for troubled and sensitive skin. (harsh cleanser = dries out skin = more oil production = more acne and dry spots = more harsh cleanser, ugh & etc.) it also doubles as a really nice makeup remover too.
hope you are enjoying these, have you tried any out yet? and what are your favorites? share at least one with us…
okay lovelies, this may possibly the ONLY beauty tip that you’ll ever need. actually, it’s more like a secret weapon.
think of how many times you’ve bought a new lipstick only to find out it’s the wrong shade and you have to chuck it into the garbage, along with your money. (even if we’re talking drugstore quality, how many times has that happened? it really adds up!) the beauty industry knows that we women are willing to pay any amount to find that one product that will do the trick, and they know that we won’t stop at anything but perfection. and so we buy, buy, buy, trying to find that one magic lotion or potion. and can you blame a girl? the lure of glossy advertisements and oh so pretty packaging is hard to resist!
enter the cosmetics cop, otherwise known as paula begoun. she can navigate you through the endless parade of claims and misinformation that every company doesn’t want you to know. every bit of advice i’ve taken from her expert reviews has proven to be golden. she won’t just tell you she liked a product, but give in-depth, well researched, specific explanations rooted in science. she’ll call the company, check with chemists, and give her two cents. she can cut right through all the ridiculous hype and exaggerated claims that so easily seduce a beauty junkie. check out her sensible skin care facts, and her cosmetic ingredient dictionary. ***read her latest report on mineral makeup, you might be surprised!***
i don’t buy anything before searching her beautypedia, a valuable resource indeed – considering we just moved dangerously close to a sephora and let me tell you, once i pass through those doors it’s like a time warp. hours flash by in a blink and i’m still blissfully trying on lipsticks and perfume. with stars in my eyes. all the pretty colors… just like a painter’s palette. just thinking about it right now gets me all excited…
just like the previous beauty tip, this one is so inexpensive and surprisingly effective!
as strange as it sounds, phillip’s milk of magnesia can be used as a facial mask for oily skin. simply paint a thin coating all over your face with some cotton balls, let dry 10-15 minutes and rinse with a warm washcloth. just be sure you buy the original kind with no flavor (which is nothing more than liquid magnesium hydroxide) it works wonders on my skin!
okay guys and gals (are there any guys reading?) this can be used for both of you, the first of my favorite inexpensive beauty tips:
it costs under a dollar, but a box of baking soda has so many uses. one use you may not know about is using it for a facial exfoliator! simply pour a tiny amount onto your fingertips and rub into damp skin in tiny circles. i like to mix it with my cleanser. it’s super fine and completely gentle and if used regularly, your skin will just radiate and glow.
bonus tip: i keep a tiny plastic ikea container of baking soda in my shower so i can add it to my morning routine. unlike most grainy and rough stuff sold on the market, it won’t tear your skin up or dry it out – super gentle and so simple. not to mention easy to maintain even if you move to a different country, grin.
one thing we learned living outside of the country was realizing that people who enjoy pleasure in their lives are a better contribution to those around them because they are at one with themselves.
but what you might not expect is coming home and seeing the things that you don’t want to keep around. like the way you eat, oh man. what you might not know about the region of south america we lived in is that the people are predominantly of italian heritage. pizza, pasta, milanesas dominated the cuisine, and it was tasty. (and so was all that glorious meat, born and bred and eaten as nature intended, sigh!) when i went to italy at the height of summer and felt the rustic flavor of a tuscan bread soup melting sensuously on my tongue, it was like i had popped new taste buds. i really don’t know if words will describe that bowl of soup, but it was unforgettable! made with the ingredients found in a small radius of the villa we stayed at, it’s ingredients were never written down. that same trip, we would come back from painting in the sun all day and we took literally three or four hours to dine. (uruguayans and argentines know this pace as their own.) and during the break between a course, our group strolled outside to watch the sun dip behind the cypress trees…which was our cue to come in by the candlelight and have more. fact: italians = healthy, enviable relationship with their food. no wonder the slow food movement began in italy. they just get it.
i really like the optimism to be found in the “slow food” movement. the ideas seem intuitive and easy to grasp, and once hearing them i just don’t want to let go. so often causes worth fighting for focus so much on other people’s faults and what is wrong with society that negativity clouds whatever good might be trying to float to the top. and that easily turns me off. but how can loving a heirloom tomato be bad? and how did we get to this point anyway? where did food, in it’s natural state, become a new fangled thing? it’s all in our culture, but i don’t want the focus there. i just like the artistry involved, even as a little girl i would ask permission to bake a batch of cookies with the same eagerness one might ask for her first tube of mascara. mmm, always loved cooking. arranging and having a gorgeous presentation of home cooked meals is a labor of love i give to my boys every single day. i’ve always felt that if i didn’t care so much for the fine arts i would have gone to culinary school. (setup: audrey hepburn as sabrina fairchild in paris. 1, 2, 3…crack! new egg!) but i guess the culinary arts, well, that is still an art, huh?
sometimes it’s hard to find people as deeply interested in the arts, maybe it’s always been that way for me. so i find that food is an immediate bridge that quickly joins people who would otherwise have no connections. last week i blogged about how fashion mattered because everyone has to get up in the morning and get dressed…but that doesn’t mean that everyone cares about what they throw on. do you think that the same is true about what everyone puts in their body? everyone eats, and unlike an outfit, that eating occurs a few times in a day, so it would seem that more care and thought would go into such an occurrence.
like anything worth doing, relearning my relationship with food takes time. especially living in the city, where extra efforts will need to be made. there is a lot of undoing to take place, years of modern conveniences and fast-food prove it to be a challenge, but i’m determined that good, pleasurable dining can be simple. i’m one of many in a delicious revolution, and i find it best to refer to books, because inside their covers is usually where i find inspiration. hopefully you may find something wonderful from them too. and if this strikes a chord with you, please mention your sources too. my appetite for this topic is ferocious. and while i suspect this won’t by the last you’ll hear about it, i thought this next week i’d share some of my favorite and inexpensive beauty secrets with you. now onto the list…
10 reasons to buy local, from the cabbage hill farm foundation:
+ freshness: several studies have shown that the average distance food travels from farm to table is 1500 miles. in the delay, sugars turn to starches, plant cells shrink and produce loses its vitality. local food is most likely picked within the past day or two.
+ health: fresh produce loses nutrients quickly. food that is frozen or canned soon after harvest may be more nutritious than some ‘fresh’ produce that has been on the truck or supermarket shelf for a week.
+ no genetic modification: this is among a number of technologies which slow food proponents believe will diminish food safety and present unacceptable threats to public health with irreversible environmental impacts.
+ preservation: the landscape of crop fields, wildflower meadows and picturesque barns will survive only as long as farms are financially viable. when you buy locally grown food, you support the agricultural landscape.
+ supporting farmers: the farmer is a vanishing breed. local farmers who sell direct to consumers cut out the middleman and get full retail value for their products.
+ building community: when you buy from the farmer, you re-establish a time-honored connection between the eater and the grower.
+ preserving genetic diversity: in the modern industrial agricultural system, hybrid varieties are chosen for their ability to ripen simultaneously, withstand harvesting equipment and have a long shelf life. only a handful of hybrid varieties meet these demands. local farms, in contrast, may grow a large number of varieties. many are heirlooms – old varieties containing genetic material from hundreds and even thousands of years of human selection. these heirlooms may some day provide the genes needed to create varieties that will thrive in a changing climate.
+ the future: by supporting local farmers, you help ensure that there will be local farms tomorrow.
“the way we eat represents our most profound engagement with the natural world.” -michael pollan
i’m sure many, if not most of you (?) have already read the omnivore’s dilemma, but if you haven’t read it before, i just want to share that it’s one of the best books i’ve come across in the last few years, truly. and i think i could write an epic post here about why, but i really don’t want to spoil it for you if you haven’t come across it. i was actually in uruguay looking through my husband’s audio book library when i remembered he recommended it to me a while back. and i was feeling the need to hear something in english… soon after reading, i remember going to dine on free roaming, grass fed beef that night, while contemplating his investigations about food. which, i might add, was so refreshing in his journalist’s perspective since most voices in this topic can so easily be so holier-than-thou.
i can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t benefit from reading it either. it’s a broad scope that he delivers to everyone: the environmentalist, the consumer, the foodie, the agriculturalist, the health nut, the scientist, the parent in charge of preparing dinner every night for their family, those hooked on food taboos and fads…. it will even take out any drudgery or anxiety harbored in having to go to the grocery store. it may have you wanting to hunt for truffles and never look at a corn field the same way again, but mostly, it will really give you a sincere appreciation for what is one of life’s greatest pleasures: the gathering, preparing and eating of food.
p.s. has anyone read pollan’s new book, in defense of food? it’s been on my wishlist…
p.p.s. though we lived just next door to the blue star diner, we never once ate there. it was greasy spoon southern fare that i heard stuck to your ribs, but boy did i love that sign.
i want to change my life, and i’m starting with my breakfast. lofty, even silly, but yes, it’s true. i once went through such a transformation and i need it again now more than ever. i want to continue with the excitement i’ve enjoyed this past year: lounging with a wild lioness, hiking in the brazilian rainforest petting toucans, photographing one of the world wonders, witnessing architectural masterpieces, connecting with different cultures, watching the shooting stars run into the rio de la plata … if you’ve been following our adventures, you know the list goes on. but sadly, i’m one of those people who are more prone to serious depression and have unfortunately had to go through it a few times. once you enter such darkness, you begin to fear the possibility of returning to it again and having it overtake your dreams. fun has hardly run out since coming home, but ever with a watchful eye to those times, i can feel the short amount of winter light and blahs allow for a relapse to creep in if i don’t prevent it. but what does that have to do with my breakfast?
in the past i have had issues with food and i don’t think this is uncommon for most americans. we’re a confused bunch, aren’t we? my brief history isn’t really plagued with diets typically intending to lose weight, but rather different selections of “good” and “bad” foods. treats that would make me feel better emotionally. no foods that would make me feel better emotionally. i have been a vegan, two different classifications of vegetarian, whatever slop is at the college cafeteria for lunch, nothing but peanut butter powerbars for breakfast and lunch, growing an all organic garden girl… and i’ve also been a serious sugar addict. okay, who am i kidding? i AM a serious sugar addict.
it wasn’t till years ago that i was a new bride finding myself in charge of my kitchen that i began to really search. around the same time i had come across a book at the library and i wanting to be in better shape (not lose weight) also debating whether or not to accept a modeling contract (that poor agent, trying so hard to convince that shy side of me…) well, i checked it out. what i thought would just improve my eating habits ended up changing my entire appearance, my moods, my level of concentration, and i’m convinced the very chemical makeup of my brain. i didn’t need to lost weight, but at least ten pounds just melted off my already skinny body in a few weeks all by itself. just by eating foods in their natural state, like human beings are meant to. my skin positively glowed which is a major feat in my gene pool! oh, the way my clothes fit. and waking up in the morning and not needing an alarm clock, just jumping out of bed like a superhero was amazing. i swear, there was a cape in invisible form, fluttering around me in those days. and having energy all the time. no more naps, no more late afternoon slumps! always a night owl, i was absolutely flabbergasted by this new phenomenon of getting up with the sun. and i loved being an early bird, absolutely relished being up before everyone else and doing so much more.
i know. just one of those is motivation enough, right? but i haven’t gotten to the best part – which was realizing that even in my early twenties, there was a tremendous vitality inside of me that had never been illuminated. i felt powerful, even invincible. i had never lived till finding that book, but it was just a good starting point that introduced me to a few simple ideas that manyothersrecommend. i clearly remember being able to express myself better, articulate my desires and suddenly having all this courage to do things. things that i had never thought i was allowed to even think about. yeah. even though the bad events still came, i was far more equipped to deal with those stresses and emotional blows without feeling sadness overwhelm me. my mind opened up without the clouded fog of processed foods and chemicals and the next hit of sugar constantly nagging me like a broken record. all that garbage was replaced with a clarity and tranquility, it was as if another sense had been gifted to me. i was connected to creativity that just freely flowed. it was like i had more time in my days, more space in my head to pursue… well, life! i had to keep a pad of paper near my bed at night to write down all the ideas. they just kept coming. i truly believe that i was open to a power that is waiting around each of us, whispering and nudging us in the right directions if we just alert and listening. i think it’s the same still small voice that has nudged all the great men and women in history to do courageous things beyond their capabilities, and unless we’re prepared for it in body and mind, it’s a dim sound.
so wow, why have i waited so long to live this way if i recall that time so fondly? it’s nothing groundbreaking or expensive or terribly difficult or even new. i’ve just totally forgotten. busy eating empanadas in paradise, i wish i had a better excuse, but it’s been so long. i came across that book again while unpacking at our new place and now i’m revisiting those days. i’m reclaiming that special discernment i had, which loved to carefully curate the products in my kitchen shelf and enjoy eating them as much as i did selecting them. because as strange as it sounds, they weren’t just boxes i tossed in my cart or bunches of vegetables, but unlocked potential of what my life could be like.
this is scary to blog about because that old adage “practice what you preach” must come into play and those who know me offline may be able to call me out if i slip up. but that’s also why it’s exciting. once you put something out there in writing, it all goes into motion. and those who know me and unconditionally care about me will be able to support me. and if you knew a way to completely change your life, wouldn’t you want to put it into effect asap and tell all your friends?
have you met jack? way before his time, “the jack lalanne show,” from the 1950s geared mostly to housewives preached the value of preventive medical practices a half-century before the medical establishment came to agree. quick facts: he hasn’t had dessert since 1929, opened the first health spa/gym in america, and it’s legend that he invented the jumping jack and the superhero stance along with many workout machines… all in his trademark skin tight blue jumpsuit. watching clips from his show is pretty entertaining as well as fascinating, especially with my extreme sugarholic tendencies.
if you’re like me and could use some more discipline for fitness and health when the weather’s not so great and the resolutions are beginning to settle, i’m thinking of ways to reenergize. tomorrow i’ll let you in on another health guru, for now i’m off to the gym! really.
