Shine (13 page)

Eye makeup comes next. I blend my own
Star Jones
colors (or I use
MAC
) on my eyelids, and I use potted black kohl along the eye line. I must say, I love to experiment with color, often combining five shades on my lids—blended well; a streak of blue, then a streak of gold is pretty tacky. After the eyelid color, I put on my fake eyelashes because my own lashes are very thin. They attach with a special glue, but I always use mascara on the top and the bottom eye line to really connect those lashes with the eye rim. I can put my lashes on in the back of a fast-moving car.

By the way, it’s pretty impossible to wear false eyelashes made of mink and not have everyone notice. Jennifer Lopez somehow managed this at the 2001 Academy Awards with her see-through dress.

Then, I apply a powder blusher in soft brush puffs of a rosy or amber tone along the cheekbone. I still suck in my cheeks and then go above that “suck line” to find the right place—then blend, blend, blend. Good blending is the secret to all wonderful makeup.

Lips next. I use a lip liner that’s just a shade darker than the lipstick I plan to wear—less is more when it comes to lip liner—and after applying the lipstick, I blend the liner into the color with a small brush. You don’t want a Bozo the Clown lip liner—that’s so 1980s. A little
MAC
lip gloss finishes off the mouth.

Brows: I use something called Brow Fix from
MAC.
It comes in a brush applicator in many colors, almost like mascara for eyebrows. It lifts and smoothes my brows (which I’ve already had waxed or tweezed by my makeup artist, in a “brow lift.”)

At the end of the day, I remove my eyeliner and mascara with a all-one
makeup remover (usually MAC). I tend to have sensitive eyes, and I get a buildup of old products if I don’t cleanse my face well. I then remove the makeup with an all-in-one makeup remover and clean my face with Noxzema, La Mer, or Dove cleanser.

Get this: I never use soap. Before I go to sleep, I clean my face with
Huggies
Baby Wipes (I like the ones with aloe and vitamin E). I figure if it’s good enough for a baby’s butt, it’s good enough for my face. My latest find is
Noxzema
Wet Cleansing Cloths, and they’re also terrific (Vivica A. Fox turned me on to these). The cloths actually have Noxzema (you know, that old standby cream in the blue jar that worked for your momma and mine) in wipe form, packed and ready for travel.

Do I do this religiously? No, ma’am. I’d be lying if I told you I did it every single night of my life. Sometimes, if my makeup looks really good (like when the great makeup artist Jay Manuel from “America’s Next Top Model” does it for a photo shoot or a walk on the red carpet), I want to save it for the next day, so I do without the night-before process. It hasn’t killed me yet. Even though Al says on those nights I look like a cadaver painted with lashes and all, sleeping like a baby.

And that’s it, from my perspective. Now, what about you?

Tips from a Master

We’ve all got different complexions, needs and preferences in makeup, and rather than suggest generic advice on specific problems which you can find in any good book devoted exclusively to makeup (there are tons on the shelves), I want to offer some general suggestions from one of the most astute icons in the beauty business—the late Estée Lauder herself. My friend journalist Sherry Suib Cohen interviewed Mrs. Lauder before her death, and the tips she offered are worth their weight in gold. Estée felt from the bottom of her heart that pride in one’s appearance was as important as pride in one’s intelligence. Here are some Lauderisms:

• Lips are to kiss. Look at yours closely; they aren’t only one shade of color, right? For the most kissable lips, use two shades which add
  more texture, depth, and lusciousness than just one. A tender mouth, for example, could have coral as an underlying shade with a soft red or pink over it. Then, a subtle gloss in a natural or even copper shade,
  just on the lower lip,
  makes those lips irresistibly kissable. The one shade a mouth should never be is dark brown; nothing is more aging.
  
• Color is important at the corners and edges of the mouth: don’t let your lipstick fade away. As women age, their mouths seem less distinct: make yours young and defined.
  
• Buy foundation in a shade that’s slightly
  lighter
  than your natural skin color. A darker shade will stain imperfections and make them more visible.
  
• If you have tiny wrinkles or creases on your eyelids, frosted anything will draw attention to them.
  
• Blusher should be brushed onto the places where you naturally blush (chin and forehead), not just on the suck-in spot of your cheekbones.
  
• Broken blood vessels, blemishes, prominent veins, and anything else you want to hide can be muted by dabbing some concealing cream on the area and blending it in,
  before
  applying your foundation. Remember—experience and time may bring more lines, but they also bestow more vitality and depth on a face. Concealer can make tired-looking undereye puffs less visible; apply the cream in dots under the puff (never on it), and blend gently with fingertips. And those puffs can magically decrease if you lie down for a few moments with some cheap, wet teabags (the cheap ones have more tannic acid, which reduces puffiness) on and under your closed eyes.
  
• Drink, drink, drink water, especially on an airplane—one glassful for every hour of flying because the skin aspirates so much moisture. Ignore the wine; alcohol is a vasodilator (it relaxes and widens blood vessels, making them visible), so one drink at 30,000 feet is like three drinks—crummy for skin.
  
• Contour (color that adds interest to your face by digging out cheekbones, even where there are none) goes
  under
  the cheekbone, not on top of it; feel your face and pay attention to the hollow under the
  cheekbone. Brush on (with a great sable brush) the rusty brownish powder in the hollow and out from the middle of the cheek hollow to the hairline in a slanting direction. You can also lightly brush some contour down the sides of a wide nose to “narrow” it or on the underside of a chin to “paint out” chin sag or double chins. Blend, blend, blend over any place you’ve applied contour with translucent powder for a professionally finished look.
  
• If you’re a blonde, you need more makeup at night than your darker sister. “Blondes fade out at night,” Estée Lauder used to say. “More glow” was her advice.
  
• Save the killer makeup (the dramatic, sometimes glittery but never gloppy stuff), almost always the evening makeup, for when you go to see the queen, have a date to meet a fabulous new guy, are on your way to the beautiful-people cocktail party, or are hosting your own stylish dinner at home. Killer makeup should be savored like a fine wine and never worn on the tennis court.
  
• How to make your makeup last:
  
  • Powder your lid with translucent powder before you put on your eye color.
    
  • Brush a bit of translucent powder on your eyelashes before applying mascara.
    
  • Coat your lips with foundation first, then lightly brush with translucent powder; then apply lipstick, blot, apply more powder, then more color—then, the final coat of gloss.
    
  • Powder blushers last longer than cream ones.
    
• Finish
  your look before you walk into the room where your lover or the whole party awaits you. Don’t finish on the way in by pulling on your hair or wiping away the oil on your nose. One great way to be sure you’re finished is to check your daytime makeup in the daylight; keep a mirror by the window so you can see what everyone else will see. The
  six-feet test
  is another good way to tell if you’re finished. Stand six feet away from your mirror and slowly walk toward it. Are lips, eyes,
  cheeks—
  anything
  —jumping out, preceding your entrance? You’re not finished. A great makeup is having everything on your face but looking as though you were born that way. A great makeup is
  soft.
  

The Budget-Beautiful Face

“Spend all you have for loveliness, / Buy it and never count the cost,” wrote poet Sara Teasdale, and millions of women all over the world who can little afford it buy into this philosophy. Auntie Star’s here to tell you that you can still have the most beautifully made-up face in the world, but instead of spending a fortune on it, you can have the same face on a budget.

You never need to spend a fortune on beauty products for the fabulous face that will help make an impression on Mr. Wonderful. Of course the pricey fabulous products are usually great, and you can find (and try on) your favorites at most top department stores. But I, for one, will almost always go for the very best lower-priced products, which usually can be found at any large drugstore or cosmetics outlet store.

Paula Begoun, author of
Don’t Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without me
(Beginning Press, Seattle, WA, and available in bookstores and at Amazon.com) has been a guest on
The View
several times. Her philosophy (and mine) is that looking beautiful doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Here are some of her (and my) suggestions for the best budget products from the drugstore and my favorite mass beauty stores like Sephora and MAC.

Drugstore Fabulous for the Face

Fabulous but More Pricey