Make-up, Beauty, Hairstyle Tips & more

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Colour Analysis Make-up Tips

Make-up and skin tone tips part one | part two | part three

Top ten make-up tips

1. Make sure the colour of your foundation exactly matches your skin tone
2. Put concealer on top of your foundation. Using a brush will cut down on leaving grease stains from your fingers.
3. Avoid using too much black eye liner and mascara. There are plenty of black/brown combinations available or go for brown instead
4. Avoid too much blusher and only put in places where you blush!
5. Lipstick and cheek colours must blend! Pink blusher with a bronze lipstick looks awful!
6. Check teeth for stray lipstick smears
7. Don't wear make-up colours that don't suit you, even if they are in fashion. Find out which ones complement your skin tone and your personality
8. Be discreet with your perfume. Please don't reapply it at every opportunity throughout the day - you may not be able to smell it, but we can!
9. Don't rub your eyes if you have eye make-up on. You'll end up looking like a panda!
10. Take all your make-up off before you go to bed - no matter how late

Lead in lipstick causing cancer - HOAX!
Q. " I have recently read that many lipsticks contain lead and this can cause cancer - is this true?"

A1. From Cancer Research UK:

"This question has come up because an email circulates from time to time saying that lipsticks contain lead and therefore cause cancer.  This isn't true.  The email appears to be one of the many hoax emails claiming that a variety of everyday products can cause cancer.  We've had deodorant, shampoo, washing up liquid and now lipstick.  None of these claims are true and just spread alarm unnecessarily.

This particular email says that a number of well known brands of lipstick contain lead.  It claims that the longer your lipstick stays on, the more lead it contains.  The email goes on to tell you how to test if the lipsticks you wear contain lead.  It suggests that you put some lipstick on your hand, scrape a gold ring across it and, if the lipstick stripe turns black, then it has lead in it.  None of this is true.

Will scratching lipstick with a gold ring show you how much lead is in it?  Basically no!  No such test could give you this information.  This seems to be based on some ancient alchemy myth but has become rather garbled.

The UK has strict laws about the production of cosmetic products.  Manufacturers cannot sell a new product to the public before it has been safety tested."

Read the full article on the Cancer Research UK website
Read the bogus email

A2. My own research

I never take anything at face value (far too sceptical, by far) and I always take steps to check such claims out.

I checked the Medical Center site mentioned in the bogus email and could find no mention of lipstick causing cancer, so that encouraged me to look further afield. I came across these websites, which you may like to check for yourself:

http://www.cancerhelp.org.uk/help/?page=6338 http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_lead_in_lipstick.htm
http://cancer.about.com/od/cancercausesfaq/a/lipstickcancer.htm
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/lead-lipstick.html

From an internet website security point of view, I was also interested to see this item being covered on the Sophos website: http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2006/03/lipstick.html

This is clearly a hoax, and we all need to be on our guard against spurious emails. Seems that some poor folk have nothing better to do than whip up nasty ideas about some of the big companies out there (jealousy, perhaps?) - what a waste of their talents!

Earn more money by wearing make-up - FACT!

Statistics show that women who wear make-up earn, on average, 25% more than those who don't. Even if you don't like wearing make-up, this fact alone should spur you on to discover a subtle, natural make-up which can be applied in about 6 minutes. Once you know the right colours to wear for your skin tone, all you have to do is to learn where to put it!

Wearing make-up shows others that you take care over your appearance. People then assume that you will take care in your work. If this is the assumption that people make, then play the game - and reap the benefits!

Make-up tips for when you go grey

"Hi, I was just wondering if you could give me a bit of advice? I am Autumn, and in fact bought your Autumn colour swatch fan. Over the last couple of years, I've let my hair go grey. It is now completely grey at the front, with my original hair colour (light auburn) just remaining at the back. It's come through as a sort of champagne-grey - I like it, but I'm a bit concerned about lipstick and eye shadow to go with my now 'cooler' hair. My skin tone hasn't changed and is and still very warm, but I don't think my terracotta lipsticks suit my hair anymore. I've tried pink and nude shades but they look awful. I'm in a bit of a quandry, as it all looks a bit odd. Please can you help? (My age is 54)." RB, UK (Nov 06)

I can understand your feelings at the moment. Autumns, it has to be said, do not grey easily. You have warm, honey tones to your skin, hair and eyes and then nasty old grey comes along to mess up what has been working so well for quite some time. If you just look at a grey next to camel or honey brown, you'll see that they don't meld so easily.

As your hair is going champagne grey, then you will acquire a cooler look overall. Could you help the process along by adding some champagne highlights to the rest of your hair? You'd only need to do this for the short period while your hair sorts itself out to become this lovely colour all over.

As for make-up, I think you're right to look at cooler colours, and it might help to change all your make-up to reflect this. If you wear foundation, blusher, powder, eyeshadow, etc. it will be worth looking at products with a blue or rose tone to them and then a pinker lipstick will blend more easily.

One of the problems in trying a new lipstick is (for every woman on the planet, in my experience) that it is new; something that they've never seen themselves in and that, in itself, is the major stumbling block. Once you have the whole lot complementing each other, it will be less obtrusive but you must give yourself chance in a new lipstick - make a vow that you will keep it on for at least five minutes whilst looking at yourself in the mirror. At this point, your British-ness will take over, and you will want to curl up in a heap - how could you possibly look at yourself in a mirror, never mind for an incredibly long five minutes? Try hard. And you will overcome! It's only a case of getting used to seeing yourself in something new. And lipstick is the most outrageous colour that a woman will ever try on, because it's so in the middle of your face, isn't it? Unless it's really gross, no-one else will notice your lipstick; it's your eyes that they will be focusing on, because your eyes are the windows to your soul. And the purpose of lipstick is to make your eyes sparkle. Now, can you look at yourself in the mirror - this time, seeing what difference the new lipstick makes to your eyes?

I would love to suggest that you book in for a make-up session with one of the cosmetic houses in a department store, like Boots or Debenhams, but the staff are not trained in colour so would probably not understand what you're looking for. It might be worth a try, though, as YOU now know what you're looking for. Get them to make you up using cooler tones only, and then go for a walk before you part with any money for their products. Check yourself in mirrors here and there (including ones in the open air!), and make sure you give yourself chance to get used to this new look.

One of the lipsticks from the Moritz range of cosmetics might help during the transition process - Wild Berry. It suits both warm and cool skin tones, and is probably about the same depth of colour as your terracotta. If you are looking for a lighter colour to try, then Nude will definitely work for you - in my opinion, the world and his mother can wear it, whether you've got warm, cool or neutral skin tones. Once you're used to wearing that, you could add a touch of a pink lipstick on top so that you introduce pinker shades slowly into your overall look.

Take a look at the colour chart.

Have you seen the Make-up tips pages on this website? The names of the products are pretty much generic so you could use them when shopping. Veer towards the cooler Summer colours now as you suit softer, more muted shades as the Winter look could be a bit too dramatic for you.

Hope this helps!
Regards, Kim.

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Make-up, Beauty, Hairstyle Tips & more

Skin care tips | Make-up tips | Hair & Hairstyle tips | Lingerie tips | Health tips Learn the rules and play the game | Style tips | Size charts | Quotes Colour capers | Snippets to brighten your day | Top tips home Colourful tops - all year round

Colour Analysis Make-up Tips

Make-up and skin tone tips part one | part two | part three