Sunday, November 24, 2013
Time Is on My Side
Saturday, November 16, 2013
I was just going to post some pictures of the past few years, but ended up adding some older ones as well.
2009: My husband & I met up with another couple and then with a woman with whom I lived with for nearly a year. I don't think I"m wearing much, if any, makeup. It was probably early/mid-September.
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| Sally, Kris (Me) and Jen 2009 in Summit. |
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| Flapper/Magician Assistant Halloween 2013 |
What I really love here, are the paste-on "gems" that I found at Claire's, the accessory place (mostly for teenagers, but I like going there to browse for bargains). They were so easy to put on. Just close the eyes, and press on. Everyone thought I put each one on individually. Hell, no! They're from Rock Beauty. They also have a lot of fun nail "tattoos." Am I too old for this?
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| Makeup for Rakassah (Belly Dance Festival) - 2010 |
Performance makeup should always be more pronounced since stage lights wash you out and they're hot so you have to cake it on.
Love the forehead "jewel".
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| Krissy with Chrissy - Winter 2011 |
This is Chrissy with me. She's deaf. That doesn't stop her from getting into the thick of things with her co-ferrets. She loved playing with the fuzzy balls at the end of my sweater strings!
Aren't we photogenic? :)
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| Halloween 2011 - Mod girl working it! |
The boots are mine; we didn't wear those in the show!!
Had on glam makeup, and maybe false eyelashes. Wig, of course, and cute cap.
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| Me outside my dad's apartment circa 1975-77 |
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| Donna, Kristin and Kelly at the Beach 2010 |
Wasn't too hot for long pants and a long-sleeved top, and since it was after Memorial Day, it was OK to wear white!
2010: Memorial Day weekend. I've known these ladies since 1992. We went a cruise (see below) together in 1992. As you can see, we keep in touch!
Here we are on the cruise in 1992: (left to right) Kristin, Susan, Kelly and Donna.
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| With Kevin McNichol NYC 2012 |
This is September, the week of Labor Day, so all white clothing is PUT AWAY (except for white shirts that can be worn with suits). Looking sort of fashionista-ish, at least not too under-dressed for a NY party.
2013: Fast-forward a year and this is just before Labor Day 2013. Our friend Jeff, in the back with the old-school addidas shirt on, has a great group of friends that we've become friendly with as well. We had a Labor Day party that included a lot of temporary tattoos. Not a great picture, but we were having fun. I'd lost about 15 pounds about then and now am down about five more.
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| Labor Day 2013 Jeff, Sean (Best) Mary, Kristin Lou; Front: Pete and Margarita Best |
I think my hair had just been through the Brazilian blow-out process in the picture with the hat, or about to get a second process done. The picture on the right, I'd just had my hair done at the salon, but not the Brazillian blow-out. I would love to do it again, but it's a bit expensive an tough on my hair and the person doing it (fumes). Maybe just a keratin treatment.
2012: Halloween 2012...no freak snowstorm, but we were partying in spite of the warnings for Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy. My guy-friend Chuck made up my costume. I had purchased a spider web table runner at HomeGoods and was trying to think of a fun (and inexpensive) costume and he came up with this. then I wore a sports' bra on one shoulder and a black skirt from when we danced to "One" from A Chorus Line. It's great to be able to wear these old costumes, otherwise, I only wear them once!
I bought the wig, and it worked great. Chuck "painted" me with white makeup and then a lot of glitter. I also had several spider tattoos, including some glow-in-the-dark ones, too! This picture was taken by me in Tom's mirror and then I applied a filter to it. I used eyeliner to draw lines/webs around my eyes. It was a great costume for a great price. Goes to show that you never know where inspiration can be found!!
2012:About a month after the Halloween picture (above) was taken, I got my hair cut with bangs. We were going out for a friend's birthday, and guess my make up - or just the picture, didn't work! I was about 20 pounds heavier here (about the same as around Halloween), and it shows up much more here! Not a flattering picture. This also seems to happen whenever I get a "makeover" at the department store makeup counter. However, I don't think it's the makeup, it must be the lighting, but those pictures rarely come out. Not sure what's going on. Too much eye makeup??? I don't know.
1986: This is one of my high school senior portraits. The "angelic" photo, not the "sassy" one. Most of my friends have not seen my hair this dark. It was stick-straight growing up, and my mom would do home perms. Definitely the
'80's with the brushed back bangs....the Farrah look! I waited until after my braces were taken out before having them done so this was not in the year book.
2013: I was visiting a friend and her baby, whose hat this is!! Fits well!
2013: This was the after one of my dance recitals at a friend's son's School of Rock performances. One of my favorite songs by the Grateful Dean is Scarlet Begonias, but my husband says I'm more Sugar Magnolia. Which one am I?
1970: I was 10 and my dad was living in Northern California when I visited him. This is February!
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| Selfie in 2011 |
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| Selfie 2009 |
2012: Halloween 2012...no freak snowstorm, but we were partying in spite of the warnings for Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy. My guy-friend Chuck made up my costume. I had purchased a spider web table runner at HomeGoods and was trying to think of a fun (and inexpensive) costume and he came up with this. then I wore a sports' bra on one shoulder and a black skirt from when we danced to "One" from A Chorus Line. It's great to be able to wear these old costumes, otherwise, I only wear them once!
I bought the wig, and it worked great. Chuck "painted" me with white makeup and then a lot of glitter. I also had several spider tattoos, including some glow-in-the-dark ones, too! This picture was taken by me in Tom's mirror and then I applied a filter to it. I used eyeliner to draw lines/webs around my eyes. It was a great costume for a great price. Goes to show that you never know where inspiration can be found!!
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| Halloween 2012 - Creepy |
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| December 2012 |
2012:About a month after the Halloween picture (above) was taken, I got my hair cut with bangs. We were going out for a friend's birthday, and guess my make up - or just the picture, didn't work! I was about 20 pounds heavier here (about the same as around Halloween), and it shows up much more here! Not a flattering picture. This also seems to happen whenever I get a "makeover" at the department store makeup counter. However, I don't think it's the makeup, it must be the lighting, but those pictures rarely come out. Not sure what's going on. Too much eye makeup??? I don't know.
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| 1986 - Senior High School PIcture |
'80's with the brushed back bangs....the Farrah look! I waited until after my braces were taken out before having them done so this was not in the year book.
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| November 2013 |
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| Sugar Magnolia or Scarlet Begonia? |
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| 1978 - 10 Years Old in the Pacific Ocean near San Francisco |
2013: This was the after one of my dance recitals at a friend's son's School of Rock performances. One of my favorite songs by the Grateful Dean is Scarlet Begonias, but my husband says I'm more Sugar Magnolia. Which one am I?
1970: I was 10 and my dad was living in Northern California when I visited him. This is February!
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| 2014 - 46 years old at the "Jersey Shore" Memorial Day Weekend. |
Catching UP
Monday, May 25, 2009
As I'm sitting inside on this gorgeous Memorial Day 2009 (having had a procedure that makes it necessary for me to not do anything too physical (boo hoo), I went to one of my new favorite beauty sites: Totalbeauty.com.
Their main topic for today is what cities are best and worst for skin. I was very surprised at the ratings, especially that NYC wasn't one of the worst. Not even LA!!
What were some of the determining factors?
1. Weather - humidity or lack of humidity, how much weather changes
2. General pollution - how polluted is the city you live in can make a difference
3. Tanning salons per capita - the more tanning salons per person the more likely they're being used
4. Smoking - good old smoking, of course it affects your skin
5. Emotional - emotions such as high stress wreak havoc on skin as much as any other factor
I won't go through every city but there were some that really surprised me on both lists.
Bad
#13 Portland, ME You would think that Maine being mostly rural would be better but it has a lot of tanning salons
#12 Tacoma, WA For a state thought mostly of as rainy there are a lot of tanning booths and apparently there's a lot of stress in Tacoma
# 9 Kansas City, MO Not only is smoking a factor here but high pollution and humidity work together to negative effect
Not really surprised at Phoenix (# 5) but a little surprised it isn't higher. Lack of humidity is a factor in addition to the intense sun. Las Vegas, NV, Pittsburgh, PA, Houston, TX and Bakersfield, CA round out the rest of the top five.
Top 10:
10 Cheyenne, WY
9 San Francisco, CA - few sunny days, fewest smokers, fewer tanning bed (and CA regulates tanning beds as well)
8 Washington, DC - the sun shines only 50% of the time and people drink a lot of wine here
7 San Antonio, TX - only 3.4 tanning beds per 100,000 people
6 NYC - few tanning beds, 58% of days are sunny
5 Billings, MT - clean air, moderate humidity and more likely to use spray-on tanning solutions than tanning beds
4 Flagstaff, AZ - moderate humidity, low pollution, be sure to use sunscreen because it's still pretty sunny and a high elevation
3 Honolulu, HI - little weather change, moderate humidity and low pollution help make Honolulu an OK place for skin, but again, use sunscreen since it's still sunny
2 Bismarck, ND - "healthy skin: clean air, moderate sunshine and humidity and it has very low rates of skin cancer"
1 Anchorage, AK - in spite of the cold, there little year-round sun, humidity or pollution
No matter where you live or what you're doing throughout the year, be sure to use sunscreen and eat food that protect your skin against further harm.
I don't go to spas regularly (unfortunately) so I'm not overly familiar with many in the area even though there are quite a few. A few years ago, I went to a spa in New Providence and it was very nice, but I always like trying new things and places. Sean had given me a gift certificate to the spa at the Hilton at Short Hills and. I went there last year and it was nice but it was too "zha" for me and just wasn't comfortable, but it was wonderful to be able to relax by the pool/hot tub for the day.
I checked out spas in Montclair, but even though it's not far, it's a drive to get there and don't want to go anywhere I have to drive too far and lose any of the calming and relaxing effects of the spa.
My friend Diane suggested the Terra Sky Center that I've been eying to visit for a while - Duh! It's close, only 2 miles. It just so happens that last Sunday they had an open house that Dawn & I went to.
The building is a former silk factory that was rehabilitated into a bank downstairs and the wellness center upstairs. It has a very Zen-like quality: falling water, quiet music and not-overwhelming potpourri scent.
It's a small place, but that's good because it means you can't get lost. They also have Pilates and this other machine called a gyrotonic. It's the coolest thing and would love to try it out sometime. It works every part of the body to loosen joints and tendons and everything else that can get "tight" with age or strain.
I've decided on a Pure Results Facial with an Eye Revitalizer Treatment add-on. For the massage I'm getting the Deep Tissue Therapeutic Massage with Hot Steam Packs. It seems to touch on a few different types of massage and love the idea of the hot steam packs, mmmmmmmm.
After the recital and work being crazy and the recent surgery I really need this.
Restorative, rejunenative and addictive...
Will let you know when it happens and how I liked the overall experience. If their complimentary massage last Sunday was any indication, I'll love it!!
Over the next few weeks, I'll review some of the different makeup and beauty sites I like. Also, want to review all the products found on the sink, bathtub and hair area!
Happy Summer, Makeupista!
