I love fashion and all the theatrics that come with it during Fashion Week, and I was inspired to write this post after seeing the flawless, airbrushed look of the models on the runway. I believe this is the first time I’m mentioning makeup, but I get a lot of requests for natural makeup and concealing imperfections, so I figured this would be a helpful post for getting flawless skin.

Here are my 8 steps to get you looking gorgeous in the morning (if you’re a guy, feel free to skip the makeup part, even though it’s not weird if you want to use concealer).

1. Streeeeetch. Stretching, yoga, and short cardio circuit training are an excellent way to keep your skin glowing. The reason why is because circulation is super important to keeping our skin nourished, healthy, and vibrant. Do a few minutes stretching or yoga right after waking up to get the blood moving in your whole body. It feels great, it’s good for your skin, and it energizes you for the day.

2. Eat well and hydrate. Diet plays a huge role in how healthy your body and skin will be. Choose organic produce over conventional produce as much as possible to avoid ingesting pesticides that will burden your liver and potentially cause hormone imbalances. Choose organic and/or grass-fed meats, and organic dairy (or cut out cow dairy altogether). It’s a huge topic, and I suggest reading my other articles or my guide book for exact details on good food options and what foods to eat/avoid for flawless skin.

In the morning, drink a glass or two of filtered water (I always talk about the importance of filtered water). Follow that up with a juicy fruit like a peach, pear, apple, or berries (avoid citrus for now if you are prone to breakouts). If you have a blender or juicer, maybe try making a green juice or a green smoothie. You will notice a huge difference in your skin after drinking green juices and green smoothies — it is the “secret weapon” to flawless, glowing skin.

Pressed for time? If you want to have a green juice, make it the night before and put a little fresh squeezed lemon juice in there to prevent it from oxidizing. Green smoothies take less than 5 minutes to make, so you can make that in the morning. You can also try a few other breakfast options like a juicy fruit with oatmeal (not the instant oats) and a bit of cinnamon and raw honey.

3. Begin with clean skin. Rinse your face and neck with lukewarm water, or wash with a natural, gentle cleanser. My all-time favorite is 100% Pure Organic Lavender Honey Facial Cleansing Foam. If you’re going to be applying makeup, or if you feel like your skin needs a little pick-me-up, use a gentle scrub like Skin Apothke Ubtan Scrub (my holy grail). Remember that when washing your face and neck, use lukewarm (not hot) water, and finish with a few splashes of cool water. This brings fresh blood to your face, enhancing circulation and giving you a glow.

4. Moisturize. Use a quality natural moisturizer or light serum oil to hydrate your skin from the outside and protect it from the elements. If you do not have any active breakouts, do a quick, light Tanaka-style massage with your moisturizer to enhance absorption. I like to do a few sweeps down the sides of my face/neck and a light up-and-down massage on my forehead to encourage lymph drainage and circulation. Do not do a massage if you have active acne breakouts, since this can make it worse and aggravate the blemishes.

If you want to go with a bare, dewy look, simply stop here. Whether you are a guy or a girl and if you have a few spots you want to cover, keep reading.

5. Cover up wisely. You can always tell when someone has a face full of foundation, can’t you? Slathering on foundation and powder won’t make you look flawless, it will only look fake and cakey. Instead, choose a cream, mousse, or liquid tinted moisturizer or light foundation from a company like Living Nature, 100% Pure, All Natural Face, or another natural brand. Apply the formula to the center of your face in areas that tend to get pink or blotchy, like around your mouth, chin, nose, and sides of the nose. Blend it in well. This method will keep the natural hues and dewy appearance of your skin, without looking fake at all.

Do you need a primer? Not really. With this technique, a primer is not necessary unless you feel like you have very uneven skin texture (which exfoliating will help with, see #3) or large pores. In this case, try a natural primer from 100% Pure or do a search on Esty for natural primer. You can also use pure aloe vera gel. Simply squeeze a little gel from the plant and apply to the areas you plan on putting tinted moisturizer/foundation on. Let the gel dry and apply your makeup.

6. Spot treat. Use an opaque concealer from Living Nature, Dr. Hauschka, Jane Iredale, or another natural brand, to cover up small spots like leftover acne marks or dark circles. A good technique for covering dark under eye circles is to use a concealer brush (I use one from Sigma) and blend in upward strokes. (P.S. To diminish or even eliminate your dark circles without makeup, read my article on how to get rid of dark under eye circles.)

7. Keep the glow going. While the first 4 steps will keep your skin healthy and glowing long-term, adding a little highlighter for extra oomph will help to bring out what is already there. I like to use a little olive oil (literally only 1 or 2 drops) and gently rub it into my cheekbones and brow bones for a little extra glow if I’m going out. For those who want more “bang,” use a highlighter. For fair/pale skin, use a white or pink toned highlighter. For medium/dark skin, use an off-white or gold toned highlighter. For oily skin, try a powder highlighter, and for dry skin, use a liquid or cream highlighter. Companies like Jane Iredale, Organic Glam, RMS Beauty, and All Natural Face make powder and cream highlighters. Apply it to your cheekbones, brow bones, inner corners of your eyes, the bridge of your nose, cupid’s bow, and middle of the chin (the crease of your chin, not in the cleft). Make sure you don’t highlight the tip of your nose or the center of your forehead, or you could end up looking greasy. If you are wearing a low cut top or a revealing outfit, put highlighter on your collarbone, tops of your shoulders, and down the center of your legs.

8. Finishing touches! If you have oily skin, you may want to powder your T-zone with a light, natural finishing powder from a brand like Alima Pure, All Natural Face, Orglamix, Jane Iredale, or Living Nature. Only keep the powder to your T-zone and under your eyes though, because if you powder your whole face it won’t look natural or dewy. For dry skin, skip the powder entirely, and if you find that you feel dry later in the day, bring a flower water/hydrosol with you and spray it on your face to help re-moisturize your skin.

I hope you enjoyed! This was definitely a new type of post for me, and I hope it was helpful for those of you who are interested in natural makeup.
~Steph  x

Hey everyone!

I came across a post from Sesame at VivaWoman back in December, where she talked about a popular Japanese face contouring massage by Yukuko Tanaka. I was fascinated with this because 1. I love the Japanese culture, food, history, and complexions , and 2. I love massages.

The massage is credited for reducing and preventing wrinkles, improving sagging skin, minimizing pore size, eliminating puffy eyes and under-eye bags, and improving skin tone and skin texture.

I researched for several days hoping to find English translations of the videos to share with you, but there were none at all, only bits and pieces of English transcripts with some pictures.

So I had the videos translated for you guys (a wonderful man named Szu did an incredible job, and refused any payment for his translation work, I’m extremely grateful to him), and I worked until 4 am this morning to do the English subtitles and English voiceovers. And voila! I have posted them on my YouTube channel today so you can start doing this 3-minute anti-aging massage!

Enjoy!
~Stephanie

This is the third and final step of my guide to getting rid of dark circles: how to hide your circles while they’re disappearing from your lovely face!

So hopefully you have already read the first part of the guide. If not, I highly suggest you read Dark Circles – Gone for Good! Part I first, as it will explain how to get rid of circles without having to disguise them everyday.

PICKING A QUALITY CONCEALER

This really depends on your preferences. I like cream concealers because they’re easy to apply and they just glide nicely over the delicate skin of the under eye area. I have also just started using mineral powder to conceal the area and I actually like it just as well. Lately, if I’ve skimped on proper sleep or green veggies and need a little coverage for my bluish-purple circles, I’ll use Alima Pure Satin Matte Foundation mineral makeup in Neutral 01 ($1.50 for a generous sample, $20 full-size) and follow it up with a light dusting of their Satin Finishing Powder in Yuki ($1 for a sample size, $15 full-size). I’ve also tried using 100% Pure’s Fruit Pigmented Concealers in Creme and White Peach ($20 and $21) underneath the mineral powders, and that works well — I found that I get less creasing that way (I tend to smile a lot, and I’m not going to stop just so I get less concealer creases haha).

I recommend you look up some quality, natural concealers from 100% Pure, Alima, nveyECO, Dr. Hauschka, Living Nature, Suki, or The All Natural Face (I can’t wait to try some her of stuff). That’s the first step, because getting a concealer that will conceal effectively and not dump a bunch of junk chemicals into your blood is very important. When selecting a color, go for the best match to your skin tone, or one shade lighter (I like to go right with my skin tone, since my experience is that the lighter colors always make it obvious you’re wearing make-up…it can even look like a reverse racoon).

Bear in mind you also want to select a color that will cancel out that of your circles. So, if yours are blue or purple like mine, use a yellow-toned concealer. If your circles are brown or yellow, use a peach-tinted concealer. Your other option is to use a color correcting (also called “color balancing”) powder or cream underneath your regular skin-toned concealer. This works great as well, and many of the companies I listed above offer color correcting cosmetics. (And if you have any product suggestions, leave a comment, I’d love to know about it!)

STEP-BY-STEP CONCEALING FOR YOUR UNDER-EYE CIRCLES

Step 3. The “Triangle Method” for Concealing

Step 1. Apply a quality eye cream with your ring finger or a soft brush (I love 100% Pure and Talulah eye creams, and sometimes I’ll use plain ole’ jojoba oil). Be gentle! Let it sit for 5–10 minutes so it absorbs properly.

Step 2. Using a concealer brush (I use Alima and Sigma brushes), apply your color correcter over your circles. Don’t forget the inside corner of your eye. Skip this step if you’re using a yellow– or peach-tinted concealer.

Step 3. Using a concealer brush, apply your cream or powder concealer, drawing an upside-down triangle under each eye. Fill in the triangle with concealer. Remember to get the inside corner of your eyes as well. See the picture above for clarification on this Triangle Method.

Step 4. Use a wedge sponge or a clean brush to blend out the edges of the concealer. If your coverage gets cakey, put a tiny bit of your eye cream on a cotton swab (q-tip) and dab it onto the cakey part.

Step 5. If your under-eye area has a deeper line (appears sunken in), apply a highlighting powder or fluid over the area to bring in some light.

Step 6. To set your concealer, apply a layer of mineral powder over the top. I use a finishing powder, as I mentioned above.

OPTIONAL STEP. If you like wearing eyeshadow, there are some colors that will further help to keep attention away from your under-eyes. Use a gold, gold-flecked, gold-brown, or rich brown color on your lids if you have blue or purple circles. For yellow and brown circles, go for taupe. As a general rule, use a shimmery shadow on your lid. Use a white eyeshadow, white eyeliner pencil, shimmer powder, or highlighting liquid right on the inside corner of both eyes. If you’re comfortable lining your waterline, do so with a white eyeliner pencil to help further brighten your eyes and draw attention away from any darkness underneath.

And you’re all done!

Mathematics of Beauty (6 Part Series)

What captured my attention was their assertion that beauty — whether human, animal, or plant — is determined by mathematics. A plastic surgeon by the name of Steven Marquardt has developed several “masks” based on mathematical sequences that determine if a face is beautiful or not. And hey, you can even test it on yourself for free!

I thought it would be neat to test this theory out on ourselves, so I downloaded the free printable masks from Dr. Marquardt’s website and posted them below (just click on each small picture — it will pop up onto a new window into the full-size picture for you to save and print off, or Photoshop onto your picture).

I’ll put my mask pictures up soon! In the meantime, I’d love to hear how your own mask experiment went, and if you agree with the idea of mathematical beauty. Personally, I do feel that a majority of our opinion on beauty is influenced by subtle mathematics, but that we all have our personal preferences which can influence what we think is beautiful or not. You can even see a beautiful person on the exterior, get to know them, and find it impossible to see them as beautiful once you experience their personality. And, of course, the opposite is also true about not-so-attractive exteriors blossoming into beauty as you get to know the individual.

Heidi Klum demonstrating Dr. Marquardt’s “Smiling Frontal” Mask application.

Demonstration of Dr. Marquardt’s “Repose Frontal” Mask application.

Demonstration of Dr. Marquardt’s “Repose Lateral” Mask application.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Find out if you’re mathematically beautiful — click on the blank masks below to use on yourself:

**For more information on applying the mask, or on facial symmetry and mathematics in general, visit Dr. Marquardt’s website.**

Smiling Frontal Mask

Repose Frontal Mask

Repose Lateral Mask

Smiling Lateral Mask

Male Face Mask