fruitybeauty

Make An Effort Monday

Ponytails, unless styled properly, are not classified as a hairstyle.

That means you, who combs your hair back and shoves into an elastic.
That means you, who ties in a loose bun and then fluffs some boof out around the front so it looks done-undone.
That means you, who slicks your hair back with water and does a mid-head pony, with no chic part or nanosecond's worth of styling at the back.
That means me, when I've been swimming-or-gymming and can't be assed styling my hair.

But I'm not having a go at you.
I just think that for a few extra minutes, you can make your hair look Rather Adorable.

Add a headband, (the double-banded Grecian number seems to be the go with the kids these days) and a low neat bun.
Do some braids across your forehead, and snake them 'round. (See here)
Do a severe side part, ala Bond Girl.
Master the quiff.
Wrap a scarf around your bun like one of those posh people who sail.
Put in a Marc Jacobs-esque hair ornament, or some slides.
Spray in some dry shampoo and give up the pony altogether for Out Hair.

Alternatively, here's a slick-as little do any fool with a brush, hairspray and some bobby pins can master:

Do a high pony, leaving a smallish section out underneath, and a section in the fringe crown section for a mini-quiff.

At the back, wrap the left-out section around the where the elastic is, and secure it with a bobby pin under the pony.

At the front, backcomb and spray gently the left-out section and then pin back, moulding it until it looks right, and pinning and tucking in bits as you go.

Spray the sides and brush back towards the pony with a paddle brush so it's stupidly slick and neat.

Smile cause you look 56% better than all the other ladies in your office today.

My minx of a friend, Marie, was the inspiration for this post - she whipped her mop up in just this manner Saturday night:

Gosh, what a cutie.

 

Because hormonal breakouts are DULL.

Why acid is so very good for you.

If you get:

A. Ingrown hairs
B: Bumps on the back of your arms and thighs
C. Dry, scaly dragon skin
D. The internet

You may want to read this question from a very agitated little fruit, Sarah:

"I have a question for you that was burning in my mind all through the summer holiday period. I suffer from ingrown hairs on my legs when I shave. I also suffer from itchy legs if I don’t moisturise nightly after shaving. I use such products as Tend skin and Skin Doctors ingrown-go to zap the ingrown problem. But what to do about the itchy? Do I use tend skin and then moisturise? Or do they negate each other? Do I alternate nights? Oh the craziness!"


And the answer? MD Formulations, my dried little fruit, MD Formulations.

Most people "in the beauty biz" (slang for "in the beauty business") know how amazing this gear is, but as it's quite targeted and problem-specific, not a lot of the GP (General Public or Grape Population; your choice) know about it.

Here's the Rub (pun completely intended):

Before you shower, rub MD Formulations Face & Body scrub all over (the troublesome area) in circular motions. This must be done on DRY SKIN. This means you need to be a nudie in the shower with no water to be seen (or felt) as you apply it.




Why this is clever: As it contains glycolic acid, it will very gently slough off dead skin cells (which are the naughty things giving you ingrowns) and allow the gorgeous, fresh new skin cells to come through. (You'll be able to recognise them by their flashy cars and brand new mobile phones.)

Now rub/rinse it off in the shower. Sing while you do this if you like - you'll be ingrown-free and soft-skinned soon so why not. I'd go with Supertramp, probably.

Okay, now get out. There's a drought, dammit. Dry off and apply MD's face Hand & Body creme all over.

Clever because: You're putting on more glycolic acid, which further (gently) exfoliates your skin so all is left is smoothness and silkiness and joy for all. And it really, truly doesn't dry your skin, promise.



Gosh, I'm exhausted.
Miss? May I go home now?

Fruitjam.

You guys are the best.

Not only do you stick comments onto the bottom of my posts with the kind of enthusiasm usually reserved for a six-year-old with a pack of glow in the dark stickers and a bedroom ceiling, but you shuffle lots of beauty questions into my inbox, too. LOTS OF THEM.

Which I love, even if reading them gives me a tremendous case of Fraud Complex, because I don't know all of the answers off the top of my head, or even the bottom of it.

My point is this: I am trying to get to all of your curious little e-bombs, but while there are celebrities with bad hair, and silly catwalk trends, and flash new gear standing proudly on cosmetic counters to talk about, your questions may be put aside for a little time.

Think, put-down-your-apple-to-finish-hanging-out-the-washing, little time, not it's-May-and-the-fan-should-really-be-put-back-in-the-garage-now time, which as we all know can escalate to months and even years in households featuring recalcitrant teenage boys who never do their chores.

Also, keep in mind, the more simple the question, the more likely you are to get an answer.

For example, in the battle of:

"Which do you feel is the best blemish-fighting face wash?"

Vs

"How does lipstick get its shimmer, and what is the chemical makeup of the shimmer-inducing component? Is it a volatile ingredient, and if not, would it be safe to assume an ingredient of similar stable activity would also be used in eye shadows and face illuminators?"

We all know which will be answered first.

That's right, the lipstick one.

*By the law of fruit you must ignore the fact I have wasted a whole past saying this and not answering your question about texturising hair products.

Mascara for the lash-loaded.

"What's a good day (brown) and night (black) mascara for those of us who already have long lashes but would like a little colour and style. " asks Kel.

Colour and style! I love the idea of lashes being able to have style. And elbows having finesse, too.

There was this girl at school, Tracey Fitzgerald.  (Last names, always last names with school people.) And she had the most incredibly... clown-ish lashes.

I loved them: They were long and full and feathery and slightly ridiculous to be honest, but just so feminine and Daisy Duck-y.

She did not love them. Their fierce length meant she could never wear mascara, and every high school girl wants to wear mascara. And sleazy little skirts. Maybe that was just me. No, no, thinking back, it was most of us.

Kel, I fear you are in Tracey's pool of genetic freakishness. You have lashes every girl envies, but when you go to 'style' them with some ink, they splutter all over your eyelids, and your entire eye area become cartoonesque and at the end of all of this theatre, you come out looking like  Za Za Gabor or some form or demonic drag queen.

And we can't have that.

The key is to steer clear of volume boosting mascaras at all costs. They contain fibres to boost the fatness of the lashes and plump them up. This gives stumpylashed girls a chance, but will be nothing short of horrific for your eye curtains.

Also probably avoid the new lash-defining mascaras, the ones like Max Factor Masterpiece and Chanel Inimitable and CoverGirl Lash Exact. These all have the kooky little rubber/silicon brush wands, which are BRILLIANT for the lash-deprived and the lash-hungry, but as they exist to bring out every single lash on your eye , when you have billions of lashlets, you don't want that.

My advice is to go for simple, simple, simple.

You don't want technological mastery. You just want some colour.

Think Maybelline NY Great Lash or  Clinique's Naturally Glossy mascara. Anything that offers 'natural looking lashes.'

Please note I've ignored the part of the question about brown and black, as once you find A Superb Mascara, you can buy both shades  from the same range, ay.

Of course, a nice idea is to get your lashes tinted instead. (Or try the clever Jemma Kidd's semi-permanent lash tint, which if you're a minger like me, you will wear for a couple of days at a time.)

Finally: As I'm a crazed volume-boosting mascara fool, if any fruits know of a lightweight mascara I've missed, please comment and send Kel off to mascara magnificence. Which is where giraffes kick back when they're bored of being stared at on Big 5 Safari Tours.

Eight-hour... Italians?

Majka, who has a cool name fused with some hard-to-get-right spelling, asks this:

Hi Bella! I need your help!!! What can you tell me about the Elizabeth Arden 8 hour cream? I just bought it because I was curious...but I don't really know what to do with it!:) Thanks!

Emoticons aside (I am allergic to them), I like her email.

She's buying things cause she's curious (Definitely Excellent in my books) she's adorable and polite and she's Italian, and golly gosh I love Italy as well as the people and shoes and food they house there.

My brother Levi is about to marry a lovely Italian lass, Babs, and together they made a little human called Marco who I love more than Most Things, not least of which because he can speak Italian and Australian and opts to say 'Bacio' instead of 'Kiss' when I bully him into some overt affection.

Say hi, Marco.

.

But back to 8-hour cream.

My answer is this:

It's a multi-purposer. And despite its name, is less cream, and more of a balm. You can use it on lips, cuticles, skin, flaky nose, pimples, bites, rash - whatever. I like to dab it onto the top of my cheekbones for a nice sheen. And, if you're feeling a little bit makeup artisty, you can mix it with some lipstick and make your own lip gloss or cheek creme.

INCIDENTALLY.

Right now (if you live in 'Straya) is a very good time to buy 8-hour cream as it comes in a sweet little vintage pot (which looks Rather Good on your desk, or dresser or butler's hand).

It'll cost you $34 and ON YOUR MARKS; because while it goes on sale Feb 4, waiting lists are already snaking down Myer, DJ and special pharmacy counters.

Say hi, Vintage pot.

Fade them frecklets.

"Hi, do you have any tips for fading freckles?" Says Jessica A.

Hi Jess. Depends. There are two types of freckles: The skin ones and the chocolate ones. Hang on. I mean, genetic and sun-caused.

You can't fade the genetic ones. (Unless you want to spend billions of dollars on tricky laser treatments. Boooo.) Give up. Learn to love them. They're adorable, anyway. Some of the foxiest catwalk minxes have lots of freckles. It's the new Cindy Crawford Mole. Only less moley.



I'll assume for the purposes of  this post, that you mean those new ones you've just landed from frolicking around in that Brazilian g-string on the beach last weekend.


In which case, you might like to acquaint yourself with the rash of excellent whitening, brightening products out there.

Hold the phone. Won't whitening products, y'know, bleach my skin? Make me look all scary like Nicole Kidman?

No. They won’t suddenly make your skin white. What they WILL do is fade that post-summer pigmentation you've accrued from all those hours on that banana chair. They are designed, you see, to
break down the clusters of melanin that causes freckles and those strange rash-like looking pigmentation brown spots on your face and chest, and grant you again your even skin tone.

They'll also - as a bonus for being nice enough to purchase them - throw in some ingredients that will brighten your skin all over, and tease dull, uneven skin so much that it ups and leaves, taking its ball with it.

FYI: Whitening products go mad in Asia because they understand that beautiful, one-toned skin is Very Pretty, and much better than skin that has prematurely-aged, and freckled and dried-up thanks to that naughty little banana chair. They're onto it. They know.

Most brands have whitening ranges now (most always did, but only the Asian market ever had them) but for my money, I'd go for SK-II, Clinique, Lancome, Kenzo and a little product called Thalgo Unizones for skin-lightening (also good for pill or pregnancy-caused pigmentation).

Hope this helps, but I'm guessing it may not.

Bah, it's 'Straya day. I've got Koalas to cuddle and warm beer to drink.

When makeup inappropriately jumps onto your clothes.

Option 1

You've spilled makeup on your adorable new white shift dress.
It's in the boob area.
It screams.
You want it to shoooosh.
Now.
You need it out.
You have to be Somewhere Important in a matter of minutes.
You dab at it with water.
Screaming.
You upgrade to warm water on a towel.
Screaming.
You panic and boldly move onto soap, water, towel and furious but careful rubbing so as not to ruin the fabric.
Screaming.
You switch to rubbing fabric on fabric in the hope the dress will want the stain out as much as you.
Screaming.
In a last ditch attempt, you hoist your whole chest over the sink and let warm water run over the soapy circle, wetting 1/3 of your entire dress.
And still, there is screaming.
You use a word ill-suited to a lovely blog like this and take off adorable new white shift dress, choosing something far less gorgeous and fun.
The end.

Option 2

You've spilled makeup on your adorable new white shift dress.
It's in the boob area.
It screams.
You want it to shoooosh.
Now.
You need it out.
You have to be Somewhere Important in a matter of minutes.
You grab a makeup removing face wipe from the super-handy pack you always have on hand, and dab-rub the mark gently. You know this will work because the wipes were made especially to get rid of makeup.
The scream quietens immediately.
You apply some gloss and skip out of the house whistling a Bobby McFerrin song.

Will gloss on a red lip suck? Probably.

Kelly B asked Fruity this, in relation to a fruityrave about Cam D's red lips:

 If you are going to wear red lipstick do you put a gloss over so it doesn’t look so flat and matte?

The answer: First up, not all lipsticks are necessarily matte and flat and dull. Times have changed. Lots of the newer lipsticks have a high-shine factor, giving you colour and a pretty sheen, ultimately making the rest of this post null and void. But, I'm going to run through a few options and you can decide for yourself how you want to go about this. I should have a definitive answer by the end of it. Should.

If you do add gloss, I hope you're unemployed, because you will have just landed a Full Time Job. Red lips are hard work as is, but adding shiny, wet, slippery goo on top? Real difficult. A sloppy red dribble of tinted gloss will be on your chompers and sneaking down to your chin before you can say "Uh-ohhh... Someone looks like a traaaamp."

If you don't, you can use a long-last lipstick - like L'Oreal Kissproof, which won't move for roughly three weeks - and enjoy drinks and kisses and fettucine marinara without so much as a thought to your lubberly led lips. Incidentally, these long-lasts usually include a top coat so that you can blindly re-apply the clear balm and refresh them smackers, and save that arduous trip to the loo every 13 minutes... HA! Bahahahahahahahaaaaa! As IF, sugar. If you've gone for a red lip, you've just locked yourself into a all-night contract with a mirror. Because if you don't check on your lips often, you might get what is known in makeup circles as That Disgusting Red Outline. And that's enough to lose you friends.

Of course, you can always just use a Regular Red Lipstick  - I love Giorgio Armansilk  lipstick in 10 or 12 (creamy with amazing, rich pigment) and Chanel Rouge Allure in 09, Lover (The Perfect Red), as long as you Obey The Rules of Application: Apply on dry, flake-free lips with a lip brush or cotton tip, blot with a tissue, then paint again.

After writing all that I've decided I think the answer is no. Save the gloss for another day.

The sunscreen question I get asked most.

"Do I wear my sunscreen on top of my day/face cream, or underneath it?"

And this is the answer: On top.

And this is the answer with more detail:

Normal day?

Apply your face cream, then your sunscreen, then your makeup. As you won't be in the sun, you don't need to reapply... Which is good, cause reapplying sunscreen over makeup is naystee.

Goes Without Saying But I'm Saying It Anyway: A day cream or foundation with SPF is better than one without. But always use sunscreen as well.

Swimming? Sweating? Yachting? Chasing squirrels around a nature reserve on a hot day?

Do your face cream (try and use one with antioxidants, please) then apply a good layer of sunscreen. Now. You must re-apply every two hours, or AS SOON AS YOU'VE FINISHED your swim; splashing your face with water because goshdarnit, it's HOT out here on this kayak; wiping your face with a towel after having a hit of tennis and a slurp of Pimms, or getting sprayed in the mug with a SuperSoaker.

I didn't mention makeup, because I hoped you might lose the makeup for the day. You're being active - active (sweaty) skin hates makeup, because it's pores get clogged and sad and pimply. Be clever: use a tinted moisturiser with SPF and combine your love of sun protection (because you DO have one) with your love of coverage.

One that is above SPF 20 and is broad spectrum is obviously your best choice.

Ones I like: Megan Gale's tinted Invisible Zinc, Estee Lauder's Daywear Plus (find me someone who doesn't), Shiseido's excellent foundation stick with SPF 30 and Dove's tinted moisturiser.