Pretty Pretty Pretty

Pretty pretty people: Karyl from Mary Kay August 20, 2008

I was raving about the Mary Kay hand treatment we tried out at the last couple of PPP parties. Turns out my friend knows Wellington’s senior sales director of Mary Kay, Karyl Anderson. So my friend jacked up a meeting between me and Jo and the lovely Karyl. Turns out Karyl has led an interesting life and career. She’s such an inspirational lady, we are stoked she responded to our PPP questions…

Karyl’s been with Mary Kay for 19 years and joined when teaching nursing and raising a three year old. She also found Pilates 6 years ago and loved it so much decided to train as an Instructor. Karyl teaches Pilates at Hearts & Bones Pilates Studio, Ghuznee Street in Wellington.

What made you get into Mary Kay?

Mary Kay Ash founded the company way back in 1963 & did so because she wanted to empower women. Her philosophies are what sets us apart as a company and that’s what ‘sold’ me on joining. She had taken early retirement because she was fed up with the way women were treated as second best compared to men in sales positions (we’re talking Mad Men times). Started writing down how she would run a company and then decided to do exactly that. She and her mother had used products developed by a hide tanner, for over 10 years and Mary Kay bought the formulations from his grand-daughter.  Our business plan allows women to be as successful as they’re prepared to work for.

What motivates you to stay in the “industry”?

I have a team of 80 independent Beauty Consultants and I love working with, inspiring and teaching them. Mary Kay Cosmetics is committed to enriching the lives of women, we still make our own products, remain a family owned business and are continually improving our product range. The company offer a 90 day, 100% satisfaction guarantee – Mary Kay Ash couldn’t stand the way women would take a product home, realize it didn’t suit, yet couldn’t return it!! I love being my own boss, love the flexibility of being self-employed, love the rewards and sister hood. We have a very special ‘deal’ at the moment – you can join Mary Kay for ONLY $99 instead of $229. Available until the end of August.

What are the constant best sellers?

·         TimeWise our quick & easy 3:1 Cleanser (cleanses, exfoliates & tones) and Age-Fighting Moisturiser. 

·         Our amazing Oil-free Eye Make-up Remover. It’s only $25 & it’s amazing. My favourite!!

·         Mineral Powder Foundation (recently released)

·         TimeWise Day & Night Solution

·         Satin Hands Pampering Set – prettyprettypretty knows how good that is!

·         Microdermabrasion Set

What do you wear/do to make yourself feel good?

I use my skin care twice a day (religiously). I wear make-up every day because I love the way my skin feels & looks. I buff my body in the shower every couple of days because I love smooth, soft skin. I love soaking in the bath and was given some Crabtree& Evelyn La Source Bath Tablets for my birthday last year which I ADORE!  

How would you define pretty?

Pretty’s about feeling feminine or sassy in your own skin: looking after and taking care of yourself.

I’d love to offer your prettyprettypretty ‘readers’ a free beauty appointment with Mary Kay. They can have that one-on-one or with a small group (4-5) of friends. No obligation. My numbers (04) 383-8393 027 4344-566 or e-mail me karylanderson@xtra.co.nz

Review: Beauty tubes August 17, 2008

Beauty tube, wtf??? Well beauty tubes were first developed by Kevyn Aucoin, writer of the Making Faces make-up books- that is if you believe the lady at Mecca Cosmetica who told me so. And since being developed, the idea has spread to many cosmetics brands. And here I’ll review L’oreal’s version.

But first, ‘tubes’ in the world of mascara refers to the effect this new range of products has on each lash - it surrounds each lash with a latex-like substance, which thickens, lengthens, and awesome-ifies lashes. The tubes are apparent when you remove your mascara, at which time the tubes slide off the lashes using only water!

Check out the advertising and product claims here.

The above photo shows the L’oreal mascara (on the right) benchmarked against one of my favourite mascaras - YSL’s Everlong (on the left).

Good points about the L’oreal beauty tubes:

• It really does lengthen and fatten lashes.
• Leaves a ‘false eyelash look’, great for going out.
• Washes out in water cleanly, leaving no smudgey black panda-ing (if you are under the shower).
• Reasonable price (approx. $NZ30).

Bad points:

• It’s really heavy, and does clump lashes together.
• Not a natural look - I wouldn’t wear it for ‘everyday’.
• It takes 30 secs to remove if you’re using a cotton pad - that’s a long time. In fact it is quite difficult to remove using a cotton pad, and blobs of black remain all around the eyes. BUT if you shower to wash it off, it removes entirely.

Verdict: On balance, I still prefer my YSL for most mascara wear. The L’oreal is great for going out, when you can spend the extra time to apply (you need to apply primer & black) and to remove. But it is fussy to apply - I recommend having a lash brush handy to brush out the clumps. And it looks a bit ott for everyday.

For more info on new mascaras see this herald article about mascara.

How to: contour your cleavage August 8, 2008

Tired of guys not leering at your chest? Sick of having to say ‘hey buddy, my breasts are down here’? Well, do I have a post for you…

And I know it’s not exactly boob-tube weather in New Zealand at the mo, but I guess any time is a good time to show a little (or a lot) of cleavage. Here’s how to do it in style with Enkore from pursebuzz.com

Mecca Welly update August 7, 2008

Oh my gosh oh my gosh, I’ve just been into the new Mecca Cosmetica area of Kirk’s. I’m thoroughly excited. Here’s why:

• They have a really good range of cosmetics and hair and beauty products.
• The assistant was super knowledgeable about all the brands (and competitor brands) their products and could answer all my questions. And encouraged me to play with the products.
• They have flipcharts at each brand counter with a price list, so you can look at prices before you fall in love with the product.
• They have free make-overs (you can book or pop in).
• They have the Bumble and bumble hair range with the cool dry shampoo product.
• NARS eyeshadows were awesome - the assistant recommended them because I asked for highly pigmented eye colour, and boy were they highly pigmented!!

The negatives:

• They wouldn’t let me take photos for PPP.
• Stila (one of my favourite brands) is expensive there, but I remember it being a cheap brand in the UK and it’s also cheap on strawberrynet.com.
• Not forthcoming with the free samples (I’ll have to push a bit harder next time).

Mecca @ Kirks August 6, 2008

If you’ve wandered past Kirk’s in Welly recently, you may have noticed the curious shop signage and goings-on inside the store - something about new cosmetics and beauty ranges… All will be fully revealed to the public tomorrow when Mecca Cosmetica opens in Kirk’s.

Mecca is an Australian company, already open on Ponsonby Rd Auckland,  that “scout the world for the hottest and most innovative products in colour cosmetics, skin care, hair care, body care, perfumes and home fragrance. We lay out our shops so our customers can touch and play with the products”.

Mecca stock great international brands such as Stila and NARS, and even Kevyn Aucoin (make-up artist and author of some great beauty books). Can’t wait!!

In the news: natural cosmetics July 24, 2008

From the NZ Herald - two articles on natural cosmetics and skincare. We’re lucky in NZ to be able to buy a range of natural brands at reasonable prices (my favourite’s Living Nature, which is uber expensive overseas). And there’s Skinfood, another PPP favourite. And of course our very own Jo has been in the kitchen making lovely, natural scrubs and bathbombs for some time now.

The 9 ways to green your cosmetics

Looking good without the chemicals

How to: Green eyes July 21, 2008

Here’s a little demo vid of how to create a smokey eye look with greens. lots of greens. My video capture is crapola, so sorry for the poor quality. If you would like to see the video with better graphics let me know and I will re-process it better, But I won’t bother if you don’t request it.

I used:

• soft green eye pencil (kohl, by Nutirmetics)
• MAC eye shadow in ricepaper
• EL eyeshadow in like a light green
• Napolean Perdis eye sahdow in avocado
• Green liquid liner by Urban Decay

So cold my lips are turning blue? July 20, 2008

So recently, I’ve had a hankering to have blue lips. Dark, glossy, blue lips. I don’t mean in a gothy kind of way, I just think it would be great to have something really different going on with normal eyeshadow and clothes, to make people do a double-take. The trouble is, blue lip gloss is pretty much impossible to find. So I settled for ordering Lancome Juicy Gelee in Casiss thinking it looked good and dark. I should have gone into Kirk’s and tried it out in real life first though, because in reality, it looks like this:

So you can clearly see how clear that gel is, and how little colour there is in it. But! Next to it you can see the stage makeup that I bought for $3.50 from the Life Pharmacy at the James Smith Corner. It’s a tiny little amount, but I figured I’d try it out first. How well did the trial of mixing the two together go? Judge for yourself. First I put on the blue lipstick:

It was rather difficult to put on, as it went squish, and had a dry, waxy consistency, not unlike crayons. I applied it with my fingers, because I’m not clever and well-stocked with brushes like Amy, and it really dragged. I think in the future, I should cut it half’n half with chapstick, then apply it with a brush. But in this case, putting the lipgloss on top made it feel a little better:

That felt a lot better, but didn’t help keep the blue crayon taste and look off my teeth. I’m very not used to wearing lipstick, obviously, I am all about the gloss.

I put the blue lipstick on with slummy weekend clothes and went to the supermarket. People gave me strange looks. I suspect it would go down a lot better with more makeup (but not over the top eyeshadow), and some fancy clothes somewhere like Mighty Mighty. In fact, I look forward to trying that idea out sometime soon. Now, tell me about some interesting makeup that you’ve done lately, please!

Concealers July 14, 2008

I recently purchased a fabulous concealer from Minifies.co.nz. I haven’t had the time to do a proper comparison of this product with other concealers, but my feeling is this one’s a winner.

I buy concealing products for just one reason - dark circles under the eyes. They are impossible to get rid of, though I’ve spent years trying. And no concealing product will erase them completely, even for a short time. Below is pictured the raft of concealers I currently have for my dark-circles - but over the years I have owned many more.

The minifies’ product is the Ben Nye Blue Corrector (pictured top right, in round pottle). It’s peach-based which counteracts blue-tinged dark circles. It works really well. And I wonder why other cosmetic companies don’t recommend peach for dark circles. The Lancome palette pro compact pictured recommends yellow as a base for dark circles. The YSL touche eclat uses ‘light reflecting technology’. The Estee Lauder cream concealer to the left is a white-mauve recommended by a stranger at the EL counter. And the EL cream concealer on the right is a shade lighter than my skin tone - which is often recommended by cosmetic counter brands.

Here they are on my hand:

From left to right - YSL touche eclat, Ben Nye blue corrector, Estee Lauder in ‘barely-mauve’, Estee Lauder in ‘light’, Lancome yellow base.

The Ben Nye is one of the best concealer of dark circles I’ve used. It’s really hard to say “the best” until I do a proper comparison where I photograph my eyes with all my products. Which is what I’ll do real soon. In the meantime, if you’ve any experience with concealers please comment - maybe there’s a perfect product out there you know of.

How to: Contouring with blusher June 28, 2008

Here’s a little video I made for you lovelies. It shows how to contour cheeks and nose to define and highlight. It only takes a dark blusher (or bronzer or even eyeshadow) and a light one, and brushes to blend.

The thing I love most about contouring is the way it looks in photos - it gives real depth and definition to your face in pics, instead of the washed-out, flat look I often get in photos.

Oh, and by ‘convex’ i meant ‘concave’ - doh!  Anyway, here it is.