ColumnWhether you buy it outright or make your own, tinted moisturizer is your cold weather must-have.

The one makeup product you need to make it through the dry seasons of fall and winter is tinted moisturizer. Skin becomes particularly parched as the air dries it out and indoor heating systems only exacerbate the problem. Hydrated skin makes us look fresh, younger and more vibrant and who doesn’t want that? Having a makeup product that can add needed moisture and even out skin tone is essential for every skin type. Yep, even you oily skin gals, listen up! There’s tips for you too.

One option is to buy a tinted moisturizer or a lightweight hydrating foundation. The other is to make your own with what you have on hand. The advantages of ready-made products are they save a little bit of time and mess while ensuring the ratio of foundation to moisturizer is just right.

A few of my eco favorites include:

Dr. Hauschka Translucent Make-up

Lavera Tinted Moisturizing Cream

Physician’s Formula Organic Wear Tinted Moisturizer

Making your own blend can save money while letting you receive the benefits of your favorite cream and getting the exact shade of foundation right, especially if a pre-made line just doesn’t seem to have the right one for you.

What you’ll need to make a custom tinted moisturizer:

A liquid foundation or mineral powder that matches your skin tone.

A hydrating moisturizer for the daytime that works well for your skin type.

You will have to experiment a bit to find the exact ratio that works to achieve the coverage you desire. The best ratio to begin with is a dime size amount of moisturizer and a nickel size dab of foundation.  On the palm of a clean hand mix them together. You’ll see there if you need more foundation or moisturizer, then you can add accordingly. If you are using a lightweight foundation already or want a heavier coverage out of your base, decrease the amount of moisturizer.

Using mineral powder with a face cream to create a tinted moisturizer works especially well for those concerned about shiny, oily skin. The ratio for using mineral powder mixed in with moisturizer in this case is much smaller. A very tiny bit of powder goes a long way with a lightweight cream. The combination will dry quite matte, so keep that in mind before you start mixing up a giant batch. I’ve done it successfully but it took a few tries to get it not looking like a gummy mess. Once I had the ratio down, then I had a shine-free face, that didn’t feel dry and lasted with coverage all day.

Now let’s hear about your experiments and favorite products for tinted moisturizers this season, and leave your comments below.

Editor’s note: Got a celebrity look you’d like to copy or a trend you’d like to see incorporating healthy, non-toxic makeup? Send your questions to High Definition columnist Kristen Arnett at beauty@ecosalon.com

New York City based Kristen Arnett is an internationally renowned makeup artist and founder of the Green Beauty Team, styling high profile celebrities and runway models as well as a sought after beauty expert, educator and teacher for other makeup artists.

Image: Aimaness  photography

The latest trends in eye makeup start with eco-friendly products.

Delicious, creamery eggnog in a frosted glass. Pumpkin pies baked from scratch. Spiced rum cakes served next to a crackling fire. Oh, those holidays will soon be upon us. For many of us, this means a whirlwind of feted parties spent in stacked heels and vintage cocktail dresses. And what will be splashed across our faces this holiday season? The latest trends in eye makeup with lots of drama and shimmer.

The key to a spectacular eye can be an excellent eyeliner. Accordingly, we’ve picked three of our favorite eye enhancers to help us all through the holiday season.

Alima Pure Luminous Eye Shimmer ($11.00)
This rich, intense eyeliner brings a smoky shimmer to your lids and lashes. From husky blue to oceanic gray to simmering purple, it’s a mineral-based makeup which invokes some of the most romantic Earth hues around. Also available in matte colors, this eyeliner easily fills in for a shadow if you’re so inclined.

Alima Pure offers a BDIH-certified product, which means it has been deemed safe and natural by the rigorous European standard of beauty care. Cruelty-free, Alima Pure donate 1% of all profits for the planet and offsets 100% of corporate carbon emissions through Carbonfund.org. Skin Deep gives it a highly-coveted rating of 2.

Living Nature Eye Pencil ($20.00)
Want to get the job done with an old-school pencil? Living Nature offers this vegetable wax based product to provide a smooth line in smoldering hues. The pencil-like application allows for a sharp line or a broader smudge if desired.

Living Nature offers up the native botanicals of New Zealand. They are free of parabens, phthalates, and any genetically-modified ingredients. This product receives an excellent rating of 1 from Skin Deep.

Jane Iredale Mystikol Eyeliners ($20.00)
These innovative eyeliners can easily become the star performer in your makeup bag. On one side, we have powdered eyeliner ending in a pointed wand. On the other, a powdered highlighter doing the same. What this means for us, the users without the steadiest of hands, is that we can easily outline our lash lines or lids with professional-looking end results. From bright blues and dusky purples to deep greens, these eyeliners enhance your eyes under holiday lights.

Offered up by mineral makeup guru Jane Iredale, this product scores an excellent rating of 1 from the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database.

Want more information on great, green eyeliners? Check out some of our past picks.

Image: liquene

FTC Compliance

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month, we give you seven ingredients to self-police out of your life year-round.

We’ve already established that breast cancer awareness month perhaps may be a wee bit commercialized with tainted pink product. And by “wee bit,” we really mean as commercialized as a Kardashian wedding set in Vegas directed by Michael Bay. And that this over-commercialization, in fact, takes away from the message that being aware of breast cancer is a good and noble thing.

What’s more, as a writer who covers green beauty, nothing steams my kale more than the giant beauty companies getting in on the “pinkwashing” game. Yes, I’m talking about the companies who promote breast cancer awareness via area run/walks and plaster their product with pink ribbons while doing very little to actually take cancer-causing ingredients out of their lipsticks, mascaras and more.

Green beauty expert Stacy Malkan addresses this in her call-to-arms “Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry.” Calling out Revlon, Estee Lauder, and Avon, she writes, “When new knowledge comes to you that your product contains problematic ingredients, if you were authentic in your support for breast cancer, you would be vigilant in addressing that.” She further points out that the “pink-ribbon companies” defend their use of bad ingredients and actively work to keep their industry unregulated and self-policed.

Where does this leave us? The easiest way to ensure you are purchasing a safe product is to become a vigilant reader of labels. How best to do it without the chemistry degree it seems to require deciphering such labels? Here are seven ingredients to avoid that will be plainly listed on your product.

Fragrance
Of all the ingredients, fragrance is perhaps the sneakiest. The beauty industry has enacted so-called “trade-secret laws” allowing manufacturers to create synthetic chemical mixtures to contain as many as five hundred chemicals at a time. And what do they call these chemicals? Fragrance. In other words, you’re not just getting a delightful whiff of pleasant smell; you’re also likely getting a ton of masked, potentially-dangerous chemicals. And these chemicals may expose you to allergens, neurotoxins, hormone disruptors and more.

Listed as fragrance, perfume or parfume, they are in (yes) perfume, makeup, deodorant, body lotions, shampoo, soap and basically any beauty product that has a scent. Fragrance can also stand in for natural essential oils, which can be irritating to the skin. Basically, you just don’t know what you’re getting unless it is from a reputable brand or you run it through the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database. (More on that later.)

Nanoparticles
These tiny particles are 80 times thinner than a human hair. Nonetheless, they are big in the beauty industry just now because they can deliver a product’s benefits in an effective manner. Unfortunately, this means that they can also deliver the product’s dangerous chemicals straight through protective layers of your body, such as the ones surrounding your brain and your womb. This could potentially cause cell damage.

Until there are more studies done on nanoparticles, sideline them from your makeup and sunscreens.

Phthalates
Phthalates as perhaps one of the best known criminals on the ingredients label, if only because no one seems to know how to properly pronounce them. (Some speculate that it is thall-lates.) Popular in just about everything, including makeup, hair spray, perfume, nail polish and more, they are suspected carcinogens and known hormone disruptors.

Parabens
Like their phthalate cousins, parabens are also extremely common in beauty ingredients. These are the preservatives that keep your makeup, conditioner, shampoos, and lotions “fresh” on the shelves. Known hormone disruptors, they also may be a carcinogenic. They can prematurely age your skin. One study shows that they can contribute to a higher rate of wrinkling and sun spots on skin when exposed to the sun.

1,4-dioxane
1,4-dioxane is not listed on labels; rather, it refers to a process called ethoxylation which occurs in the body from certain ingredients. These include PEG, polyethylene glycol, polyethylene, and polyoxyethylene, which have been used to reduce the risk of skin irritation for petroleum-based products. 1,4-dioxane is a known carcinogenic. Further, it was found in up to 48% of personal care products tested by the Environmental Working Group in 2008.

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate and Sodium Laureth Sulfate
These are surfactants used in our shampoo, soaps, toothpaste and more to make them suds up. However, they are possible hormone disruptors. And the worst thing? Our old enemy 1,4-dioxane may be found in sodium laureth sulfate. So sacrifice a little suds for a lot a health. Luckily, the conventional beauty industry is starting to catch on with this ingredient as more and more brands are sporting the “SLS-free” label. And that’s a great thing.

Triclosan
This anti-bacterial agent and preservative is popular in body products from deodorant to soap to toothpaste and more. It’s a known skin irritant and does not have a conclusive positive effect on every day use. (Meaning, outside of a hospital where it is tackling a super bug.) Further, it may disrupt hormones and could be helping along a bacteria that is resistant to antibiotics. Instead, wash your hands with soap and water, and look for products that contain thyme, a natural and effective anti-bacterial agent.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed? You can always ease into green beauty by just pulling one or two ingredients from your products. Work your way up the list. Plus, there are several fantastic green beauty brands you can trust, as well as excellent purveyors of such product. Here’s one of our vintage pieces listing some great eco-beauty boutiques.

If you want to learn more about green beauty, be sure to consult the EWG’s Skin Deep database. You can run many beauty products and individual ingredients through this database for a safety ranking. For your nightstand reading, check out Stacy Malkan’s “Not Just a Pretty Face” and Siobhan O’Conner and Alexandra Spunt’s “No More Dirty Looks.”

And take heart – the first leap into healthy beauty products may seem daunting, but it gets easier with each positive step forward.

ALSO CHECK OUT

Top 10 Best Organic Beauty Blogs

Best Organic Shampoos

Tips For Buying Natural and Organic Makeup

Images: xshamethestrongx/Flickr  adforce1/Flickr  vikingzippy/Flickr

ColumnFall makeup trends are all about featuring one part of the face and letting the rest play supporting roles.

Leaves are changing colors all around us, which is a signal to start changing our own makeup too. Fall 2011 brings with it some rather bold statements where one feature gets center stage and the rest of the face acts quietly in the background.

I’ve picked out five of the most wearable makeup trends from the Fall 2011 runway collections that offer something fun for everyone.

Petal Pink Cheeks  (above)

The softest and most natural of this season’s trends is a rounded wash of pink blush on the cheeks.  In order to pull this off, you must make sure any areas of redness in the nose, forehead and chin are already properly concealed, or it could just look like you have a sunburn.  Once you have an even canvas use a big, fluffy brush to sweep on a petal pink shade over the apples of the cheeks rounding the edges towards the eye and a touch into the hollows of the cheekbones.

Mesmerizing Metallics

We women are usually hypnotized by anything sparkly, and thankfully fall 2011 doesn’t disappoint. Metallics are always in, but there was a definite reemergence of silver, which has typically been trumped by gold sparkles in many of the past seasons. Silver is a pretty harsh look for most people to pull off because of its cool grey undertones, so stick with this one for nighttime activities like parties and clubs.

Graphic Eyes

No new purchases necessary for this stand-alone statement.  All you need is thickening mascara, some black eyeliner and a steady hand and to create a heavy, angular stripe that marks this season’s graphic, yet simply elegant punctuation. Thickly coat both upper and lower lashes with black mascara and don’t bother separating them. The drama for this fall trend comes from their spikey look.

Bold Brows 

Bushy brows have been going strong for sometime now in fashion and over plucking is way out. So if you haven’t already, start letting those furry friends grow in. If you are in the growing back stages or naturally have sparse brows, this trend is still achievable with a bit of attention.

Choose a powder or pencil one shade lighter than your current hair color, but make sure to match the tone.  So if your hair is redder, find a color that has a touch of red in it to look as natural as possible. Using a pencil or a small angled brush with a dab of powder, fill in any “naked areas”; keeping the shape smooth and slightly squared at the front, tapering thinner towards the end. Always finish by blending with a brow brush so it doesn’t look too harsh.

Pucker Up Reds

Almost any color of red goes for fall 2011, from Bordeaux to cherry. Red is a statement in and of itself, so keep the rest of the face very neutral. Since I already wrote an article for EcoSalon called Red Lips For All, dedicated to choosing and using the right shade of red, I encourage you to revisit the information there and experiment with those suggestions as your guides.

Editor’s note: Got a celebrity look you’d like to copy or a trend you’d like to see incorporating healthy, non-toxic makeup? Send your questions to High Definition columnist Kristen Arnett at beauty@ecosalon.com

New York City based Kristen Arnett is an internationally renowned makeup artist and founder of the Green Beauty Team, styling high profile celebrities and runway models as well as a sought after beauty expert, educator and teacher for other makeup artists.

ColumnWhen it comes to makeup, figure out what the difference is between want and need.

During economic depressions and recessions, the one thing that doesn’t slow in sales very much is lipstick. It’s an easy purchase; a luxury item that is relatively cheap and can brighten your mood quick. If you are spending $8-$28 dollars every time you want to feel better on a shade that is similar to one you already have, maybe it’s time to rethink the purchase pattern.

I mean, have you ever asked yourself, “what am I doing with six of the same shades of lipstick?” In general, women like buying something new, but we fear too much change and often end up with variations on a theme in our makeup bag.

Every time I do a makeup bag review for someone I come across this habit of multiples which tends to be about the same for every woman, no matter what age. In the confusion of her makeup bag there’s a few eye shadows in a variety of browns, some color she’s barely touched like sparkly green, a shimmery white and sparkly gold. Then a few eye pencils in black and brown, maybe one outlandish color she never wears. Several lip glosses and lip colors ranging from pale rose to deep wine with some bronzers and blush to fill out the rest of the bag. All of these products come in various states of wear and tear, with the safest colors being the most worn and others just standing by because they never really looked good but their owner can’t seem to justify throwing them away.

My advice?

First, start by editing your makeup bag, box or cabinet the way you would your wardrobe. Find your classic staples, a few good accessory colors for fun and toss out anything that is ancient or never looked good in the first place.

Second, start asking yourself what you need vs. what you want.

We tend to buy makeup from these two mindsets and often get derailed in the “want” department. Beauty counter associates and marketing ploys are great at doing just that. The beauty industry is built on creating buzz around newness. They want you to get excited and feel the urge to buy.

I would be lying if I said I didn’t start unconsciously gravitating towards pretty packaging every time I enter a Sephora. So there’s nothing bad about this, but having been on the marketing side of cosmetics, I can tell you that it’s a very direct and intentional methodology to get you to buy out of want and perceived need.

The best way to not make double purchases is to go with your makeup to the store and swatch test the colors on your hand to make sure what you are buying is truly different. Then try the new color on your face, wear it around for a couple of hours and if it still sings sweetly to you, then buy it.

I would be remiss as the eco makeup expert if I said, “just go out and buy anything.” Instead, I have hopes that each of you will take the time to find more natural and organic makeup to put on your face. If you need some suggestions and motivation for swapping out your traditional products, watch this short video where I replaced common makeup items with “green” substitutes and gave startling statistics about the amount of chemicals women are exposing themselves to daily.

Editor’s note: Got a celebrity look you’d like to copy or a trend you’d like to see incorporating healthy, non-toxic makeup? Send your questions to High Definition columnist Kristen Arnett at beauty@ecosalon.com

New York City based Kristen Arnett is an internationally renowned makeup artist and founder of the Green Beauty Team, styling high profile celebrities and runway models as well as a sought after beauty expert, educator and teacher for other makeup artists.

Image: Flickr: Viviana_Love

6 iconic lipstick colors, now with a touch of green.

Meet Nancy Wake, the “White Mouse” of World War II. Described as “one of the most effective and cunning British agents working in German-occupied France during World War II,” Wake hid Allied servicemen in her home, parachuted into enemy territory, and knew how to wield a machine gun. Also, she traveled nowhere without her Chanel lipstick.

That’s some iconic color.

Today, sans machine guns, we’re privy to the classic colors of old. Be it nude, coral pink, or classic red, the green beauty industry offers up a bevy of iconic colors. Here are our favorite picks for archetypal lips.

Classic Red by Lavera ($19.00)
Think Marilyn Monroe, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck and other classic stars of the silver screen. Made with certified organic ingredients, Lavera’s “Red Berry Charm” provides a vivid, intense color with almond oil and Shea butter. The company commits to offering up natural cosmetics which are certified natural by BDIH of Germany.

Nude by Ilia ($24.95)
First encouraged by flower power in the 1960s, a natural sheer nude now suits any occasion. Ilia offers up “Nobody’s Baby,” a color made with 85% certified organic ingredients. It’s so silky that you don’t even need a gloss for sheen: in fact, it’s designed to act as a lip balm at first swipe. Free of synthetic preservatives, fillers and petro-chemicals, it also comes in a recycled aluminum case. Ilia is also cruelty-free.

Foxy Brown by Living Nature ($26.00)
1970s screen legend Pam Grier inspires us with this classic warm tone. Today, Living Nature continues the trend with all-natural ingredients. Offering up an iridescent sheer color with “Warm Rocks,” this hydrating lipstick is cruelty-free. Made with natural botanicals of New Zealand, the company provides a comprehensive guide to their ingredients.

Coral Pink by Jane Iredale ($20.00)
Bright, coral pink made a splash in the 1980s when preppy handbooks deemed pink and green the hottest color combination. Jane Iredale takes this festive hue into the 21st century with “Erin,” an iconic coral at home in Newport, Rhode Island or California. This silky, conditioning color is also free of dyes and synthetic preservatives.

Punk Purple by Afterglow ($24.00)
Debbie Harry, Joan Jett, and Pat Benatar made girl rockers cool in the 1980s. Today, we’re paying homage to these power players with a deep purple pucker. Afterglow offers up “Merlot” for some organic lip love. Made with 100% natural ingredients, Afterglow promises that their product is made with no parabens, nanos, bismuth oxychloride, gluten or talc.

Gold Shimmer by Primitive ($17.50)
Want to add a 1970s glam disco sheen to your lips? Check out “Taj Mahal” from Primitive, a vegan and versatile gold shimmer that’s perfect for layers or to stand alone. Primitive offers up clean and pure ingredients, providing a silky color made with Shea butter and jojoba oils. This lipstick is also cruelty-free.

Image: cerromijares

ColumnSometimes your skin needs a break from the weight of cosmetics.

Inevitably whenever we’ve asked EcoSalon readers what they most want to hear about in this column, someone pipes up with “how we don’t need to wear any.” Ok, ok, I get it. So while this column is focused on makeup, I admit, even though I’m using natural products on my face, I still give my skin breaks from makeup.

Fashion Week in New York is just ended, but it’s the beginning of a month long, intensive series of the most important fashion weeks in the world. Virtually the same group of models, makeup artists, hair stylists and backstage photographers travel to London, Milan and Paris over a grueling four weeks. Right now I’m in Milan recovering from an eight hour plane ride and a six hour time difference and I haven’t put a stitch of makeup on in 48 hours. It feels good.

You think models have a “model” life but by the time New York fashion week is over, they cringe and begin to complain about getting their makeup done and some even hide from us! Taking into consideration we makeup artists coat every part of their skin that is showing once they are dressed, you understand why.  Last year I worked on a model who complained that her eyelashes hurt from all the makeup that was constantly put on and taken off during fashion month.

This season is the spring/summer 2012 runway collections, which translates into a lot of skin showing and therefore a lot of body makeup. Maybe you don’t feel the need to wear full body makeup in your swimwear, but there is makeup for that and women do buy it and it’s not a far cry from needing to wear makeup in a variety of situations where it’s best left undone.

Places it’s actually better for your skin to be sans makeup:

The Gym

Sweat plus makeup equals pimples, clogged pores and possibly irritation. If you are trying to meet that special someone at the gym, remember most people say they prefer seeing a woman look natural. It’s not cute to see makeup start to slide off creating raccoon eyes or cracking the surface of foundation. If you are desperate for something, just use a little concealer under the eyes, a tinted lip balm and curl your lashes.

Long Airplane Rides

Pay close attention to the skin of older flight attendants. It’s almost always very dehydrated looking without a dewy glow.  That’s because being inside a plane for so long is very drying to the skin.  If you plan on sleeping, mascara is just bound to end up in places you didn’t want it and will just make you look worse than had you gone without it.

When traveling, opt for lots of moisturizer and bring some extra to keep reapplying during the flight. A natural skin mist (not toner) can help rehydrate the skin before putting on moisture.

Water Sports

Unless you are a synchronized swimmer, you really don’t need to be in heavy waterproof makeup while you frolic around in the water. Put on a safe sunblock and let your smile be your standout feature.

A Quick Supermarket Run

Getting to know yourself without makeup is important.  Being comfortable going to the grocery store with just a glowy, naked face can be liberating for some and terrifying for others.

If this sounds terrifying to you, I suggest spending less time looking in the mirror. When you do get in front of a mirror, don’t get close up and stare at whatever imperfections you see. Look at yourself square in the eyes and say, “I am beautiful.” If something inside of you starts to yell about that not being true, repeat the phrase for 5 minutes while looking right into your eyes. It’s a very powerful exercise so be ready for it – accepting our own beauty is often harder than most people realize.

Image: CNBC

ColumnEcoSalon Beauty Columnist Kristen Arnett gets actress Katie O’Grady ready for her red carpet close-up.

Check out the Rid of Me trailer:

For her red carpet premiere in New York City, Katie wanted someone she could trust and she tracked me down through Katherine Ross, a mutual friend, makeup artist and a woman I considered to be my mentor in Portland, where I began my career.

The Lower East Side apartment Katie and James had rented out for the week was teeming with various friends and cast members with an energy of nervous anticipation and preparation. Katie was bustling around, hair and face freshly washed, while James was lying on the bed in almost a monk like state of what may have been meditation, or him just trying not to throw up.

We cleared off a small desk to lay out the makeup and utilized a window sill to hold the curling iron. I began to reassure Katie about the wonderful quality of natural products I would use on her. Like every woman I’ve encountered before her big moment in the spotlight, she seemed to not care if I used tar as long as she looked good when it was done. Shutting up about the whole thing, I wielded brushes, lashes, a curling iron and a lot of hair spray transforming her into a modern, sexy screen siren ready for her film’s premiere. We wondered if anyone would know she was the same plain-Jane woman from her movie.

Katie O’Grady in the movie, Rid Of Me.

One of the biggest thrills of my job is to see how makeup and hair can completely transform the presence of a woman.  I asked Katie how she felt about its importance in her work and life as an actress and producer.

“Makeup plays a huge role in any actor’s life. For Rid Of Me, it was important to keep my character, Meris, fresh and natural. She is a woman who believes that organic matters, that family matters, and that life is better when things come from the earth. When I shaped her look, it was from the outside in, because physically we look opposite from one another,” says O’Grady.

“It was so much fun to incorporate Meris’ same belief in an all-natural approach with my joy of dressing up for the red carpet, and that certainly included my makeup! We feel our best when we are honest with ourselves, our truth, and what goes in and on our body that is most connected to the earth. Staying grounded is a daily battle; it all begins with a fresh face,” she said.

Katie O’Grady shines thanks to Kristen Arnett’s experienced touch.

Since she asked and I’m sure you want to know, here’s a list of some the main products I used for Katie O’Grady’s red carpet look:

Youngblood Mineral Primer

Alima Pure Foundation

100% Pure Blush in Healthy

Youngblood Eyeshadow Quad in Starlet (appropriately  named!)

Image of Katie O’Grady at Tribeca Film Festival: Zimbio

Makeup: Kristen Arnett

ColumnNothing’s steamier than an eco sex writer channeling Brigitte Bardot’s makeup.

In the steamy, hot month of August I had the pleasure of meeting and working with Stefanie Iris Weiss, the author of Eco-Sex for the filming of a French documentary on American sex. Friends only through our interwoven virtual connections on Facebook, I’d never communicated with her until days before she stepped foot into my apartment to have her face made up in an early 70′s Bardot inspired look she so desperately desired. Stefanie, by the way, is pretty much a sex bomb in the womanliest sense with her full hips, incredible cleavage, and cascading blond hair.

An hour later, sprawled out on a red and white checkered blanket on the grass in Central Park, Stefanie looked perfectly poised and ready for a romantic encounter with a semi-traditional picnic basket containing a bottle of organic wine and of course, some snacks deemed to be aphrodisiacs. Suddenly Stefanie started whipping out condoms, lubricants and vibrators discussing their particular “eco-friendliness,” and me, with an unconscious nodding of my head started taking notes.

Maybe it was when she began extolling the wonders of using coconut oil as a lubricant that I felt a little more in my own groove since I work with the oil in many different ways and it’s not as foreign to me as perhaps vibrator talk. One thing we are on common ground with though is that makeup adds to a woman’s overall sexy factor.

When I asked Stefanie why she thinks makeup enhances a woman’s sexiness, she answered:

“Makeup gives us the ability to enhance our natural beauty and play up our assets, which is the way I like to wear it during the day. It brings confidence, boldness, and reminds you of the kind of power you have. It allows you to walk into any given room like you own it. At the same time, when you have a shoot, an event, or just a hot date, you can wear makeup the way you’d play dress-up as a little girl. It can be a game, a ritual, a way of starting foreplay before you’ve even got anyone else in the room with you. I always say that sex begins with our relationship to our own bodies, the moment we wake up in the morning and look in the mirror. And when you begin to dress your face, the real fun starts.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. So, I will leave it at that.

Products used for the eco-sexy Bardot inspired look:

Jane Iredale Circle Delete Concealer #2

ZuZu Luxe Mineral Bronzer

ZuZu Luxe Brow Pencil in Flax

Couleur Caramel Lip Gloss in #802

Couleur Caramel Eye Shadow in Coppered Brown #52 and Light Taupe Brown #5

Youngblood Eye Liner in Black

Image of Stefanie: Jonathan Alpeyrie
Makeup: Kristen Arnett

What the mall makeup-counter ladies say isn’t always right.

Come closer. We need to share something but we don’t want the Internet to hear. Ready? Okay. Sometimes our makeup looks bad. Okay, really bad. Like, eighth-grade picture bad, when you’re combining braces, big-framed glasses, and hair you haven’t figured out quite how to tame yet.

How does this happen into our adult years? We’re not quite sure. Maybe we’re swayed by catchy magazine layouts that promise the latest trends that don’t translate off-page. (Or they do translate, but they read: clown.) Maybe we’re influenced by a makeup artist who sits us in a department store chair and plies us with powders that look great under fluorescent lighting, but look fluorescent under the light of the sun.

Or maybe, it’s time for all of us to just take a stand and say NO MORE to certain makeup trends and tap into what feels right to us. Regardless, here’s a few combos we advise you steer 100 miles clear of.

Blue eye shadow and red lipstick
Blue was once the glory of all eye shadow. We plied it across our Barbie’s lids, convinced it was the most fabulous accessory short of the silver saddle jauntily sitting across a My Little Pony. Now, blue eye shadow, especially when matched to red lipstick, is like the Sasquatch of makeup. It sounds interesting in theory, but we have yet to see it work in person.

Matchy-match eye shadow and lipstick
Pink and pink? You look like you’ve escaped from your hospital bed and are about to start a zombie plague. Blue and blue? You’ve already started the zombie plague. There’s not a color match on planet Earth that can work on any complexion without completely washing it out. Seriously, Stephen Hawking would back me up on this. It’s a law of physics.

Black eyeliner and nude lips
This is perhaps the most controversial of our bad color combos. Black eyeliner, artfully applied, is the ultimate tool to make eyes pop. But combined with a too-pale lip? Your eyes are popping while the rest of your face looks like it’s given up and gone to bed early with a glass of warm milk.

Image: soundfromwayout, xlordash