How many times have you dropped an eye shadow, powder or blush only to watch it shatter into a thousand pieces?  And what’s the next step, you throw it away and sweep up the mess right?

Well not any more.  Here’s a little trick the pros use.  If you break a shadow or any other form of makeup that is in pressed powder form, you can save it for another day.  All you need is 90% Isopropyl Alcohol and a flat knife.

First, put the powder pieces, as many as you can salvage back into the pan.

Second, douse with the Alcohol until the powder is wet clean through and it turns into a paste.

Third, take the knife and smooth the shadow etc down into the pan until it is smooth.

Fourth, let completely dry.

You’ve now saved your shadow and the pretty penny it would have cost to replace it.

Hope this helps!

Method Makeup Academy, Sacramento’s Makeup School

I’m sure by now you’ve heard about Oil Pulling.  If not, give it some time you will.  I had heard about it, but didn’t pay any attention until my sister Abi brought it up.  Abi is a massage therapist and a professed Dr Oz addict. She is very knowledgeable about health and healthy living.  (Maybe I should clarify a little more.  Even though she loves Dr Oz she verifies what he says on his show by doing research from other sources before making any changes to diet, lifestyle etc.)  Now, because of this when she suggests something I usually listen to her, baby sister and all, because I know she has done her homework.

A month or so ago we went to lunch together and after we said hi, she showed me her teeth and demanded to know if they looked whiter.  Well, they did, but then she has always had beautiful, white teeth.  After the teeth staring she told me she had started doing Oil Pulling.  Sounded bizarre to me.  I mean how’re your teeth supposed to get cleaner and whiter by swishing oil around your mouth?  She was adamant that it made a difference and explained how many healthy benefits came from doing it.  I listened to her, but I was skeptical.  Still the next time I went shopping I picked up a jar of Organic Coconut Oil.  You can do oil pulling with olive oil too, but I prefer the taste of Coconut Oil and it’s supposed to be healthy for skin, hair, nails, digestion, tooth enamel, etc, etc…

Anyway I started oil pulling a few weeks ago.  I do it once, sometimes twice a day.  1 teaspoon of Coconut Oil in the morning while I am making breakfast, walking the dog, etc and gently swirl it around my mouth.  Now you have to do this for 20mins so you don’t want to swish it around like crazy and hurt your jaw.  Just gently swirling around and pushing between your teeth for 20mins.  DO NOT SWALLOW IT when you are done.  It’s full of bacteria from your mouth and teeth, so when the 20mins are up, SPIT.  Once you spit it out the weirdest thing happens, your teeth feel CLEAN.  Not just clean but CLEAN!!!  It’s freakin’ oil but your teeth and mouth feel like you just came from your yearly cleaning at the dentist!  Ok, so here’s the run down of benefits for spending 20mins each morning swishing oil through your teeth (I guarantee once you read this you’ll be doing Oil Pulling yourself in no time!):

• Brighten and whiten teeth – No lie, my yellow teeth are looking pretty damned white!
• Strengthen and repair tooth enamel – WHAT?!?!?!  Seriously folks, it can repair thin enamel areas, thus PREVENTING Cavities!!!
• Reduce allergies – Yes you Sacramento Valley Allergy Sufferers it can reduce allergy symptoms!
• Healthy Gums – it pulls the bacteria out of your mouth and from between your teeth which will make your gums healthier
• Save you money at the Dentist – Hello, healthy gums, strengthened enamel, and brighter teeth!
• Fresher smelling breath – it’s the bacteria that build up in our mouth that leads to bad breath, so eliminating those makes your breath smell nice and fresh, and like Coconut!

I am sure there are more benefits, but do you really need more?  I am completely hooked.  I do it every morning and I have seen a difference in the appearance of my teeth and gums.  My allergies have seemed to be lessening as well, so keeping my fingers crossed.

Method Makeup Academy, Sacramento’s Makeup School

Help is here!

No longer do you need to walk through the world with pencil thin brows or a look of perpetual surprise on your face.   Here are a few friendly bits of advice I like to give to all my clients.

First don’t go tweezer happy.  Don’t sit in front of a magnifying mirror for hours on end removing those hairs.  You do that and you just might find you don’t have any eyebrows left! In fact just throw away that damn magnifier!!  You’ll thank me, I promise.

Second, eyebrows are sisters not twins!  They aren’t going to be identical to each other, no matter how much time you spend on them.  Each side of your face is different.  The hairs grow differently, you hold them differently.  The muscles are developed differently.  So don’t expect them to be the same. You can make them look balanced, but NOT identical, so give yourself some slack. And THROW AWAY the magnifying mirror!

Third, start your brows just over your tear ducts.  Lining them up from this position should keep them from being too narrow or too wide set for your face. But, use your best judgment.  If you feel your eyes are a little wide set, start a little to the inside to be safe.

Fourth, a brow should gradually be arched so that the highest point is just to the outside of our iris. About 45 degrees from your pupil, not directly above your pupil.

Fifth (Yes there are five tips!), fill in your brows people!  This doesn’t mean you need to draw on heavy dark man brows, but using a little powder or pencil, one shade lighter than the hair on your head will finish off your brows.  Even those with a thicker brow can benefit from a light application of color to finish out the underneath of the brow, or enhance the tails.

Follow these simple steps and you’ll have brows you can not only live with, but brows that you’ll love!

Method Makeup Academy, Sacramento’s Makeup School

You ever know that one person who apparently knows all the answers even when you don’t want them to be right?  Yeah, that person for me is my little sister.  She’s always freaking right!!!  Ok, don’t get me wrong, I love and adore her, and she’s right about the best things, but damn it, she’s my baby sister!  She’s not supposed to tell me what to do!  I’m supposed to tell her what to do!  But, once again she is right!

Ok, so I have always been borderline anemic, but it got a lot worse when I went vegetarian eleven years ago.  Then in 2012 I started donating platelets every two weeks with the occasional whole blood donation throughout.  Because of this my iron levels were always in jeopardy.  Seems like whenever I ate, it was a quest to find enough protein and iron.  I was doing pretty good to, or so I thought, with supplements.

When you don’t have enough iron in your blood you’ll find you have some really annoying side effects, not the least of which is lethargy and exhaustion.  You can also experience shortness of breath, dizziness, irritability and unexpected weigh loss (though I highly doubt we’d complain about the weight loss!).  Iron is not made in your body; you have to get it through what you eat.  So if you aren’t eating iron rich foods your in big trouble!  You need iron for Proper immune function and it’s and essential element for blood production, especially hemoglobin which gets the oxygen from your lungs through your body.

I had this whole routine to keep my iron high enough so I could donate and still be healthy.  I took 1-2 iron supplements a day, plus calcium, vitamin C, a multi and a bunch of other vitamins.  This combined with my quest for protein seemed to do pretty good.  Well, that was until I had a talk with lil’ sis.  She said that I should switch over to a cast iron skillet.  She said with that alone I would get all the iron I need and not have to struggle so much trying to keep my iron up.

I poo, poo’d her suggestion, not believing something that simple would actually do anything.  Besides, cast iron skillets are hard to use, everything sticks, they get really hot so you burn yourself and they are EXPENSIVE!!!  But she just shook her head and said, you really should.  So I decided what they hell and decided to keep an eye open for a cast iron skillet next time I went to Goodwill.  Hopefully I would find one there without spending too much.  I love thrifting so it would be a win-win.

Well, I found one.  Rather I found a set of 4 really awesome cast iron skillets.  Right about the time I went in for a round of Platelet donations.  At that appointment I barely squeezed by at a 13.2 iron level when the minimum is 12.6 and this is with taking iron supplements every day.  I started cooking with the skillets.  Yes, it was a little bit of a chore getting used to how they worked, but all in all I began to really like them.  Two weeks passed, I ran out of iron supplement pills somewhere right at the beginning so I didn’t have iron pills for quite some time before my bi-monthly platelet appointment arrived.  I was very worried that I wouldn’t have high enough iron since I was in the middle of my monthly ‘visit’ which does drop your iron reserves.

You could have knocked me over with a feather when my count came back as 14.2!!  14.2 when I hadn’t been taking anything?  Could Abi be right?  I verified by checking out a few sites and I’ll be damned but she was right.  According to UC Davis medical, using Cast Iron Skillets to cook with can add 80 percent MORE iron to your diet.  80 percent!!!  I know, I was blown away.  But I had to give my sis her props.  She was right and yes she smiled a very ‘I told you so’ smile.  But she had a right to.  So if you’re struggling to keep your iron levels high, do what I did (without being told by your little sister!) buy a cast iron skillet at Goodwill.  You’ll be surprised.

Some foods rich in iron include:

Meat and Poultry

• Lean beef
• Veal
• Pork
• Lamb
• Chicken
• Turkey
• Liver (except fish liver)

Seafood

• Fish
• Mussels
• Shellfish

Vegetables

• Greens, all kinds
• Tofu
• Broccoli
• Sweet Peas
• Brussel Sprouts
• Kale
• Bean Sprouts
• Tomatoes
• Lima Beans
• Potatoes
• Green Beans
• Corn
• Beets
• Cabbage

Some Useful Links:

http://www.ucsfhealth.org/education/hemoglobin_and_functions_of_iron/

http://www.nytimes.com/health/guides/nutrition/iron-in-diet/overview.html

Method Makeup Academy, Sacramento’s Makeup School

Recently one of my brides asked me what eyeshadow she would wear with her blue eyes and brown hair.  In my opinion if your eyeshadow is properly applied any color can be worn on any eye.  But some shadows definitely enhance certain eyes colors and certain features.  Those folks who are blue or green eyed, may find that some colors seem to overpower them, or they want to make those baby blues pop a little bit more.

My advice?  Choose a warm copper.  This color is absolutely amazing.  And I will confess it is one of my favorite go to shadows, mainly because it makes everyone’s eyes and skin color pop very nicely.  It especially will make blue eyes appear warmer and bluer, green eyes absolutely glow and make dark eyes rich and warm.

Applied over the full lid and blended up into a darker brown crease with a dark brown or black liner will make even the lightest blue eyes pop.

For brown eyes I’m still really fond of copper, though bronze and gold are also a great go to.  They will help bright and warm up dark eyes of all shades.

I think every artist has their favorite go to colors and mine is definitely copper.  I hope these tips help you in your makeup adventures!

Method Makeup Academy, Sacramento’s Makeup School

We’ve all done it.  We’ve stood in the cosmetics department of Rite Aid, Walmart, Target, even MAC and Estee Lauder and searched for that right color of foundation.  We’ve even asked for help and still we’ve gotten home to find it’s just not right.

So frustrating, so annoying and so damn expensive!

What is a girl to do? Well, first off, trying to match ourselves in florescent lighting at a Walmart is never easy.  And second most of us are matching the wrong part of our body!

At makeup counters you tend to test foundation colors on your hand.  Big mistake.  Your hands tend to get more exposure to the sun and to the elements than our faces do.  So they are not the same color as our face, or our neck or our décolletage.  So how on earth would the color that matches the back of your hand match your face?  But it’s not like we were ever taught how to really get the right match, right? RIGHT???? (Damn hippy mom who never wore makeup!)

So, then we do the time tested holding it up to our cheek test only to get home and find we have become a floating head.  God I hate floating heads!  Or worse we find that nasty line of demarcation.  That thing will kill the best makeup in a heartbeat.

So the answer?

The best place to match your skin is your collarbone, first because your face, chest and neck all tend to be a little bit different from each other.  2^nd you won’t be comparing color to sun damage that can develop on your chest.  So if you are matching your collarbone and blending your foundation nicely from your hair line, down your neck and feathering to a finish at your collar bone you will end up, most of the time, with perfectly matched foundation.

One more bit of foundation advice:  The color you use in the winter is not going to be the color you use in the summer, so don’t feel bad about having two colors on hand.  You can use the two either by themselves or by combining them to create your own custom color match, no matter what time of the year it is.

Well I hope this helps.  Have fun out there shopping.

Method Makeup Academy, Sacramento’s Makeup School

White Teeth Tips

It’s hard to keep your pearly whites, well, white!  What with soda, coffee and just life.  So here’s a few tips to keep your pearlies shining!

1. Drink a glass of water after drinking your morning coffee, tea or soda.  Doing so will keep those morning drinks from staining your teeth.
2. Eat strawberries.  Yes, it’s true, strawberries will act as a natural teeth whitener.
3. Add lemon to your water.  The natural citric acid in lemon juice when added to your water will help keep your teeth white.  And it adds a nice Vitamin C boost to your diet.
4. Baking Soda.  Brushing your teeth with a paste of water and baking soda will whiten and clean your teeth.  This tried and true method is a quick, cheap and easy way to maintain bright white teeth.
5. Change your Brush.  Replace your tooth brush every six months.  New brushes clean better.  It’s a simple as that.

So, there you go!  Keep smiling and let the world be dazzled.

Method Makeup Academy, Sacramento’s Makeup School

These are my favorite makeup tips, little tricks I use both daily and professionally. Enjoy!

1. Use waterproof mascara. It won’t smear or run beneath your eyes by the end of the day like most regular, non waterproof mascara will.

2. Red Lipstick with a blue undertone will make your teeth appear whiter. Blue counteracts yellow and will give the illusion of brighter, whiter teeth.

3. Set your foundation with powder. Powder over your foundation will help it stay all day. It will absorb the natural oils and moisture in your skin prolonging the wear of your makeup.

4. Light before dark. Apply your light shadows first, then the dark, as this will keep the light from being muddy.

5. Lift your Brow. When applying your eye liner, lift up your eyebrow to get a flat line. Doing so will tighten up the skin on your lid for smooth application without any “skips”.

6. Clean your brushes. Clean brushes will apply your makeup quicker and smoother. It will also keep your colors bright and true. So wash your brushes at least twice a month.

7. Don’t Powder your eyelids. Leaving your eyelids moist from your liquid foundation or cream concealor will make your eye shadows wear longer. The moisture will “grab” the shadow and make it stay.

8. Use blush. Blush adds healthy color to a face, giving the impression of youth, life and health.

9. Blend. Blend, blend, blend your eye shadows. Un-blended shadows can leave hard lines and make your eye shadow appear unfinished.

10. Do your eyebrows. Even if you have naturally dark brows, adding a little bit of powder or pencil to them will help define and finish off your face.

Method Makeup Academy, Sacramento’s Makeup School

One of the main contributors to healthy winter skin is proper hydration. Not just in what goes onto the skin, but also what goes inside.

In some ways it seems it is easier to stay hydrated during the sweltering heat of summer than it is when things cool down to brrrr. In the summer nothing is better than a nice cold glass of water. but in the winter, it’s just the opposite. We tend to order drinks that will warm us up from the inside, like hot tea, spiced cider, coffee and cocoa. It’s true all of these feel great when the wind is rushing about at a furious pace and sending those leaves skittering down the street. But they tend to leave our bodies sorely lacking in hydration. Yep, big problem.

So what are we supposed to do? You ask.

Well, it’s a scientific fact that the body absorbs water better when it is room temperature than when it is ice cold. However none of us are usually keen on the taste of lukewarm water. So that leaves us with a few options:

1. Carry a reusable water container since there is no need to clutter the landfills just to stay hydrated. Besides, this will save you money in the long run, since a bottle of water can run from $1 to $5.
2. Add a few drops of lemon juice to the water. This will make it much more palatable, even when it isn’t ice cold and will also give you a nice little boost of Vitamin C. A vitamin we could really use more of during the cold and flu season.
3. Avoid Sodas and other drinks that are high in sugar. These only serve to dehydrate you more and add more junk and chemicals to your body that none of us really need.
4. Avoid Caffein. I know, I know. You are screaming, BLASPHEMY! at this point, but just bear with me a moment longer. Ok, caffeine tends to curb your appetite, which is good, but it also curbs your thirst impulses. So if we don’t feel thirsty, why would we want to force ourselves to drink? So, if at all possible, avoid the caffeine.

So raise a glass of crystal clear water and make a toast to beautiful skin, YOUR beautiful skin.

Method Makeup Academy, Sacramento’s Makeup School

Halloween is a day that gets mixed reviews.  Its a day when some believe the spirits roam the earth, a day for fun and frolic and for some, fear.  Whatever your personal belief there is definitely something about this one day of the year that intrigues and inspires the world.

Its true that this day was once celebrated in ancient times, a pagan holiday filled with mystery and fire.  A day that the early Christians feared for its power and the darkness that seemed so close at hand during this time of year when the sun begins to wane.  But today, even so many years later, this holiday has survived, taking on a new and glamorous face, that barely hides its ancient origins.  What is it about Halloween that fascinates and thrills the world?  That thrills young and old alike?  Why do we like Halloween?  Because we get to reinvent ourselves, re-imagine who we are, unleash our alter ego and revisit our childhood.  We get to be whomever we want to be.

So light the fires, break out the paint and be whomever you want to be this year.  For one day, you are free to be…you.

Method Makeup Academy, Sacramento’s Makeup School