"Add a Little Southwest Flair to Your Life"

A new you begins on the inside. First of all with the decision to move forward. This decision happens in the heart and mind and sprit. The mind forming ideas of what you would like to accomplish. The heart providing the desire to do so, and the spirit providing the determination and will to follow through.

It is much easier to instigate inner change if you begin a simple yoga routine or are already practicing one. We have provided a link to a basic routine to get you started. In addition to the inner changes your new yoga routine will bring about, the physical benefits will also set you forth on the path to a new, healthier, fresher and more energetic you. Conscious, extended breath into the body carries oxygen further into the cells, propelling the cells to more quickly eliminate toxins and healing action as well as regeneration. Yoga is also a practice that massages the inner organs which is something that is vital to a healthy toxin-free body and cannot be achieved any other way.

Diet is important to the new you and affects your body head to toe. Review your current eating practices. Look for bad habits, overeating, processed foods, fast foods and junk foods. Identify all of your problem areas then proceed to correcting them. Replace addictive behaviors with positive behavior, use your yoga! Meditate rather than binge on chocolate, or take a walk when the urge hits. Replace processed foods with as many whole foods as possible.

Eat the orange rather than have the sugary concentrated juice. Prepare oatmeal or other breakfast grains using the whole grain instead of micro-waving a small instant packet. Fresh vegetables and salads are always wonderful. Invest in a vegetable steamer and it will become your best kitchen friend offering quick easy meal solutions to fast processed foods.

Now that you are on the road to a new inner you, begin to look at the outer. What is your age? What condition is your skin in? Do you live in the southwest with continual exposure to our harsh, drying elements? What type of bath and personal care products do you use? Are they harmful to your skin and body? Have they been safely tested, how many additives do they contain and what are they? Personal care and hygiene is the foundation upon which we build and enhance. Without a good foundation to start, then we are piling problems upon problems, or just covering them up.

Good personal care begins in the tub. Hair care is an individual need based on your hair type and should include a good shampoo for your individual hair care rather than a generic "family" bottle offering no specific benefits for your needs. If you are unsure of your needs, consult with your hair stylist for suggestions. Once you understand what your needs are, then look for the best product to cover those needs. Moisturizing for dry, brittle hair; or a system for oily hair; frizz-control for thick frizzy hair, volumizing for thin or limp hair, color protection and so on. Include a conditioner that will not create oiliness and depending on your hair type, it may or may not be necessary to condition daily. A weekly deep-conditioning treatment may also serve well if you have damaged hair.

After bath hair products such as jells, mousse, sprays, anti-frizz spritzes, are available and can become overwhelming there are so many to choose from. These are products that again may best by being discussed with your hair stylist, not so much for brand name but for the type of product that works best for your needs. Some depend on the look you are after such as mousse or jell.

Once your hair care needs are satisfied, cleansing and exfoliation provide the body base. A good shower or bath gel that is mild and good for your body for cleansing is the first starting point. Add a body scrub twice weekly to exfoliate. Soaps can be drying to skin. After bath, to add a bit of luxury, a scented powder and deodorant in your favorite fragrance will serve to keep the scent through layering, offering a subtle, softer, stay-with-you, rather than over-powering fragrance that evaporates an hour later causing you to need to re-apply.

Then a good non-greasy moisturizing body lotion or cream, again in your favorite fragrance, to soften and moisten the skin for the day.

Moving on then from personal care to skin care. A good skin care regimen is a must for healthy, glowing skin with as few wrinkles as possible. A good diet and yoga will contribute much to your skin’s health and you can assist further by taking good care of it, again, especially here in our harsh southwest climate.

Three steps will get you started, cleanse, tone and moisturize. You will want to select your products for your skin care as you did for hair care, depending upon your individual skin and age. Most people have one of three skin types: dry, oily or combination. You must know your skin type to proceed in selecting the best regimen for you.

Dry, flaky skin will require moisturizing products, oily skin will want products that are not oil-based, and combination skin needs products that will treat both. With combination skin, it is usually the T-zone that becomes oily after a while. Depending on your age, you may want to add anti-aging skin care products to your regimen. There are many wonderful products available. Some even available for use at home in a similar formula to those used by dermatologists in correcting aging and wrinkles. These can be expensive however so look for systems you can sample as well as a satisfaction guarantee. Perform your regimen morning and night with products suited for each time of the day. Nighttime products may sometimes be heavier for overnight deep work whereas daytime products are formulated lighter for comfort and use beneath cosmetics.

Now that your body, mind and hair are well cared for, enhancing your most attractive features and playing down any less attractive features is your next step. The icing on the cake. This will depend on your lifestyle. If you are an outdoor woman, you may need higher protection and less glamour, so opt for a good foundation with a high SPF for sun protection, a little mascara and protective lip gloss or balm, and you’re set. If you are not exposed to the elements all day and prefer more glamour, you probably already have a full cosmetic supply.

Now is the time to review these products, their uses and applications, in comparison to your needs and the effects you wish to achieve. For starters, at least with foundation, it is important to use a product that works in line with your skin care products. If you are investing in a good skin care program, you do not want to push on the brakes with a foundation that does not perform at an equivalent level. In other words if you are using a high end skin care system and a drug-store foundation, you may be sabotaging your own efforts. This is not so much true with other beauty products but is so with foundation. Not only with respect to skin care (causing breakouts? Drying? Causing oiliness, clogging pores?) but also to application, wear and the final effect (proper color for your skin tone, a "make-up line", orange-i-ness, blotchiness vs a smooth finish). There are some beauty products you can skimp on but foundation is not one of them.

Secondly, shade is most important so select the shade most closely matched to your skin tone. Do not do this on your arm or hand, they are not the same color as your face. Do this on your face. To test, place a smear of foundation from the cheekbone down to jawbone then smooth in. If the color blends in and disappears, it is the right shade for you; if not, if color is visible, keep looking, it is not the right shade. Foundation, in addition to providing a protective base, is just what it says, "foundation." The foundation for creating the look of perfect, natural beauty and an oval shaped face.

To create the look of an oval shaped face, you will want to contour prior to applying foundation. Identify problem areas and your facial type: already oval, square, round, heart-shaped, triangular, are the most common. If you already have an oval shaped face you will need little to no contouring. Now look into the mirror, using the end of a make-up brush, trace an oval around your face. The areas that do not fit in are the areas traced are where you will need to contour.

Contour with a light colored to white cream (high-lighters or cream foundations in various shades work best if you do not want to bother with professional contouring products) on areas that you want to bring out, contour with dark browns in various shades for areas that you want to recede. Harken back to Art 101, light reflects and highlights, darks recede. Example, chin too long to fit an oval? A dab of dark brown contouring along the longest part of the chin, cutting it off so to speak where the oval shape would be. Nose too long? Same thing. Cheekbones not high enough? Contour just below with dark to create the illusion of higher set cheekbones with a light contour just above the dark. Forehead to wide or too long? Narrow or shorten with a dark contour. It is the same principle as using an under-eye concealer which you have probably done. Under-eye concealer is used to diminishes dark circles beneath the eye. A lighter concealer is applied on them so that the light brings out the recessive dark circle, bringing about a balancing effect. Choose a concelaer in your skin tone as well, you may go lighter for heavy circles and darkness but stay in your color family. Color families are lights, light to medium, medium,, and darks. If you’re a light medium, don’t use a light concealer, etc.

Once you have completed any desired contouring, apply your base in a gentle, upward motion, preferably using a cosmetic sponge for a smoother finish. Again, make sure your foundation is of a good quality so that it will not cause any skin problems and will wear with a smooth, even finish. You must also select your foundation according to your skin type. Liquids for oily to combination skin; creams for dry skin. The new loose mineral foundations are easy to use and offer a lighter finish but if you have dry skin, be sure to moisturize first (as you should have anyway) or they will not stay on, they will simply fall off your face. So also ask yourself what type of coverage you want and need? Heavier or lighter? As we age too, our needs can change and should change. If you are still applying your make up the same way since you were twenty, and that was twenty or thirty years ago, it is time to re-evaluate. Thinner skin, wrinkles, crow’s feet, laugh lines, aging, may have all set in and your needs are different now. Contrary to what we may think, lighter coverage with age may be better than heavier. Heavier can actually emphasize those nasty lines and wrinkles, making them even more prominent. Address these issues beneath through your skin care regimen rather than trying to correct them externally by applying heavier coverage. Products tend to "hang" in the lines causing an obvious build-up.

Drop just below the jaw line to blend. Using the sponge, blend into the hairline as well. Don’t forget the eyelids. For one, it will serve to hold your shadow, and two, if you do not wear shadow, you must have the same shade. If you plan to apply lip color later, a good go over the lips, well blended, will also hold the lip color longer. Set with a dust of translucent powder.

Next move on to your blusher. Select a blusher according to skin type. Again, powder for oily or combination and cream for dry. Apply to the top of the cheekbone moving backward in a sweeping upward motion to the hairline, blend into the hairline well. Use a good cosmetic brush for powder blushes. Quality brushes will provide a smooth even stroke, inexpensive brushes will lose the powder quickly and not offer a long even stroke. Depending on your contouring beneath or desire for a bronzed, sun-tanned look, you may want to hit the top of the nose, across the forehead and the point of the chin with your blusher as well. Choose a color complimentary to your skin tone. Nothing is worse than the wrong shade of blusher, it can be very obvious.

Set with powder.

Shaping the eyes. Yes shaping, not coloring, is the objective here. An almond shaped eye is considered the goal, the perfect eye. You will want to contour the eye to achieve this effect just the same as you did with your face. Identify the problem areas then correct with light and dark colors. Remember, light highlights, dark recedes. Usually we are after the look of deep-set eyes and this is achieved by applying the darkest shade in the crease. With age however our creases begin to darken naturally and again, if you have not reviewed your application in a while, this is an area to be reviewed and adjusted, perhaps not going as dark in the crease as in previous years.

Do your initial shaping with an eye-liner, preferably a soft pencil with a smudge sponge on the other end. Liquid eye-liners are obvious and out-dated unless you want to look like Cleopatra or a sixties Jane Fonda. And unless you have dark skin, forget the black. Subtle, natural, perfect beauty cannot be achieved with a dark black eye-liner. Perhaps on occasion for an evening event, depending on the event, your coloring, your outfit and the look you are after, then black can be doable on a fairer person.

Create the perfect almond shaped eye with your pencil. Note: lining the entire eye will close rather than open the eye. Only those with already almond shaped eyes or very large eyes can pull this off.. Line the full top of the eye from inner to outer, extending only slightly and upward. Smudge. Repeat if necessary. On the lower lid, line inward just beyond the iris and stop. Smudge. Next apply eye color.

To create the perfect eye, try to work with a trio of colors in the same family in a range of medium, dark and light matching well with your own skin, eye and hair coloring. Medium on the lid, dark in the crease and light just below the brow. The goal is to highlight the brow, not to color it, so just a dab of the lightest shade to blend the darker color and highlight beneath the brow. A good eye-shadow brush works best and whether using a brush or a sponge applicator, always tap off the excess color before applying. Cream eye shadows can offer longer-lasting wear but can be harder to control and blend if you do not work fast because they dry quickly and mistakes are not as easy to correct. Do not extend color beyond the line from the end of the brow down to the eye.

Lastly for the eyes, apply mascara as you know. Again, unless you have dark skin or medium skin, forgo the black, Stick with brown or brownish -black for the most natural look, unless it is evening and black can be acceptable, especially in creating a "smoky-eyed" look on fairer skin.

Curl lashes first with eye-lash curler, hold for five seconds at the base, the re-curl the tips. Apply base coat, careful to even out clumps and blotches of mascara. Re-apply second coat to tips. One technique for an open-eyed look, is to apply brown on the base coat, then tip with black. Waterproof is best, never know when the tears will come or a rain will catch you off guard.

Lastly, the perfect lips. Recently a popular comedian made a joke for ladies to please accept where your lips end. If lip liner is not applied properly, it is too obvious. Remember to smile when applying so the line doesn’t just end abruptly later when you do smile. There are many looks for lips; pouty and full, glossy and kissable, and so on. Select the desired look. If your top or bottom lip is too thin, correct with liner but not obviously. Set liner with powder. For a full pouty bottom lip, line just below the natural lip line.

Fill in with lip color. Set with powder. Highlight bottom lip with a lighter gloss to also achieve a pouty, full look. Less gloss on top.

One last final light dusting of powder all over the face to set your look.

Finish off with a dab of your favorite scent for the final step in your fragrance layering.

Our cover model provides a beautiful example of the open-eye lining technique mentioned above, with her liner stopping on the outer edge of the iris and a frosty light highlight on the bottom lip for a big pouty look and a soft, natural winter glow.

A manicure and a pedicure, softened cuticles, and a clear protective base coat provide a finished look. For a bit more glamour, go for the color matching your skin tones. Tip: do not mix a warm shade of nail color with cool shades of make-up colors or visa versa, stay within the same hues. Cool colors have a blue tone: Warm colors have a red tone. That does not mean there are not warm blues and cool reds, there are. Think of the sun and the moon. The sun is warm, the moon is cool. This applies to choosing clothing with make-up colors as well.

Viola! A new you, from head to toe! Enjoy!

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