Permanently Beautiful

One of the fun things about permanent makeup is that you can layer makeup directly over it whenever you want to create a special novelty look like Lady Gaga’s huge anime eyes. But the nicest thing about permanent makeup is that after the party’s over and you strip away all the gunk, you still look model beautiful!

Here’s how to create Lady Gaga’s huge anime eyes:

1. Apply primer around the eye, including lower lashes, using a slightly lighter concealer or foundation than on your face.
2. Fill in your brow with deep brown eye shadow, increasing the arch.
3. Enlarge the white of the eye by lining lower lids with a 1/4 inch curved line of white cream shadow. The line should be very thin at the eye’s inner corner, becoming thicker as you move toward the outer corner.
4. Layer 3 sets of false eyelashes on upper lids and apply a single layer to the skin along the white area under your lower lids.
5. Draw a thin line of charcoal gray liner along the false lash lines. 
6. Use dark pink shadow to create curved contours along the upper lid and under the lower lid, making the outermost end of the curving sweeps slightly thicker.
7. Highlight contours with shimmering silver cream shadow, adding a single dot of silver to inner eye corners and the center of each upper lid to focus admirers’ attention.

Watch out for paparazzi!

Anime Eyes

Those huge doll eyes Lady Gaga showed off in the bathroom scene of her recently released Bad Romance video have struck a chord with teens and twenty-somethings and become this summer’s surprise must-have accessory. Young women are using outsized colored contact lenses imported from Asia to mimic the avant-garde singer’s bigger-than-life anime-style eyes. These specially designed circle contacts create the effect of huge doll eyes by covering part of the whites surrounding the eye’s iris with a huge circle of color. Fans call the new look cute, but the FDA warns that the foreign-made, Internet-sold contacts are illegal and unregulated and pose a risk of eye damage. U.S. ophthamologists warn that wearing improperly prescribed contact lenses can cause serious eye injuries including infections, corneal ulcers and corneal scratches. Blindness can even result from severe eye infections or injuries. 

Of course, Lady Gaga didn’t put her beautiful peepers on the line when she made the video. Computer-generated special effects were used to create her wide-eyed look. You too can have Gaga’s childlike eyes without risking your eyesight. Using special makeup techniques, you can apply makeup directly over your permanent makeup to go “Gaga” for an evening of uninhibited fun. That’s one of the advantages of permanent makeup. Your permanent makeup keeps you looking fresh and gorgeous 24/7 while providing the perfect base for those times when you want to glam it up!

Next time we’ll tell you how to create Lady Gaga’s anime eyes.

Twilight

With Eclipse, the latest edition of the Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga, opening in theaters across the country, Twi-hards are rushing to mimic Bella Swan’s gorgeous look of pensive, brooding innocence. But Bella’s pale face and sensuous features have captured a following well beyond the dark, midnight circles of vampire fans. Kristen Stewart, Bella’s real life alter ego, is a fair-skinned natural beauty worthy of emulation.

Twilight makeup artists capitalized on Kristen’s natural beauty, using neutral shades so the actress would look like she wasn’t wearing makeup on screen. As anyone who has attempted to go sans makeup knows, there’s a big difference between no makeup and artfully applied makeup that only looks like you’re not wearing any cosmetics. It’s the difference you get when you wear permanent cosmetics. Permanent makeup artistically defines and enhances your natural features beautifully. Without apply a drop of makeup, you look like you just left the salon.

What tricks do makeup artists use to create Kristen’s natural on-screen look? Keep shine at bay with a blotting pressed powder in a light shade. Prep eyelids with neutral primer, then apply three neutral eye shadow shades to create depth, using very slightly different neutrals on the lid, crease and under the brow. Line with dark brown eyeliner and finish with a coat of black mascara. Highlight cheekbones with barely colored powdered blush and lips with creamy-finished brownish plum lipstick. All that’s left to do is practice your smoldering gaze.

Drew Barrymore

Have you seen the new commercials for Cover Girl Outlast Lipstain starring the always darling, inimitable Drew Barrymore? Highlighting Drew’s sunny smile, Cover Girl’s latest lip cover looks fresh and carefree, the perfect choice for easy, breezy summer wear. Light and pretty, the new lip stains introduced by Cover Girl, Revlon, Sephora, Candy and others brush your lips with light-weight color that lasts all day. An interesting new lip color product, lip stains feel less heavy on the lip and less “cakey” than traditional lipsticks, yet they provide a more penetrating lip cover than sheer lip glosses. Actually, what they seem to mimic most is permanent lip color.

Women who wear permanent lip color never have to worry about their lipstick being fresh, leaving those unsightly lipstick rings on glasses or smudging some hunky guy’s shirt collar with telltale lipstick smears. Artistically applied permanent cosmetics are used to saturate lips with permanent color that won’t wear off! Permanent lip color is the ultimate long-lasting lip stain, making your lips look fresh and kissably lush 24 hours a day.

Permanent lip color can be applied with or without lip liner. You can choose a shade that enhances your natural lip color or bring in your signature lipstick shade for matching. When applying permanent makeup to lips, nationally known permanent makeup artist Melany Whitney can repair lip line flaws, add fullness to thin lips and add symmetry to problem lips. Permanent makeup gives you lips that are always beautiful.

Nicole Scherzinger

With her sultry smoky eye makeup, gorgeous high cheekbones and beautifully defined full lips, Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger was a dance floor standout from the first day of this season’s Dancing With the Stars. Her sexy smoldering look was a good match for the flirty crowd-pleasing tango she danced with partner Derek Hough to win the mirrorball trophy this week. Nicole’s weekly appearances on the tenth season of the popular dance show have women across the country clamoring to re-create her alluring smoky eye makeup. Far from the overdone shadowing of some smoky eye fans, Nicole’s eye makeup highlights and outlines her eyes, making it impossible to take your eyes off them. Well, maybe not impossible. I’m sure my guy wasn’t the only one checking out those incredible costumes!

To create Nicole’s smoky eyes, first apply a sheer nude color over the entire lid. Then, from the lid to the crease, apply and blend a rich plum or dark brown eye shadow. Blending is the key to creating perfect smoky eyes. Keeping eyeliner as close to lashes as possible, line your entire eye in the same plum or brown shade as your shadow. Use a super thin brush to gently smudge liner up toward your crease and toward the eye’s outer edge. Finish with a double coat of black mascara.

Artistically applied permanent eye liner makes your eyes look sexy 24/7 and creates the perfect foundation for Nicole’s sultry smoky eyes.

On a recent Today Show segment, co-hosts Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotba embraced the natural look, appearing on the show sans makeup. Before revealing their faces to the cameras on “no makeup day,” the women took viewers for a backstage look at the intense daily makeup preparation that goes on before the cameras roll. Ann Curry said, “Sometimes I feel like on the show I wear enough makeup to frost a cake.” While the Today Show women agreed they felt “liberated” without makeup and often went “au naturel” at home, they professed to more than mild nervousness about appearing “naked” in front of their television fans. At 45, Honda said she felt self-conscious without makeup. Kathy Lee confessed, “… it’s the dumbest thing we’ve ever done. I had a classic anxiety dream about it…”

What we noticed in checking out the photos from Today’s ”no makeup day” is that without their makeup these high-powered, attractive women look washed out and older. It looked like a few of them fudged a little, too. Kathie Lee definitely looked like she was wearing mascara and eye liner. Natalie Morales may not have been in full face makeup, but her eyes were definitely made up. Check out the pics on The Huffington Post and see what you think.

Women who wear permanent makeup have the best of both worlds. They enjoy the personal freedom of not wearing makeup with the confidence that comes from knowing they look beautiful every minute of the day.

Makeup artist at work.

Kate Gosselin may have had trouble staying in step on Dancing With The Stars, from which she just got the boot, but the divorced mom and former reality star of Jon & Kate Plus 8 manages to keep step where it counts — at home caring for her famous brood. With a new hairdo and glamorous makeover, Kate looked more like a Hollywood starlet than the busy mom of quintuplets. To help Kate maintain her new look and keep her makeup organized, makeup artist Zena Shteysel sent Kate home with a supply of Z Palettes, special clear vinyl magnetic cases that hold makeup pots so everything is visible and won’t get jumbled about.

Kate has the cases packed with plenty of neutral shades for the natural look she prefers. But at Zena’s urging, Kate will be adding some brighter colors to her makeup palette like purple and magenta for a bright look that’s a little more fun when she’s at home and out and about with the kids. Zena also suggested Kate brighten her lips with a rosy tinted lip shade.

While keeping her makeup organized will help whittle a few precious seconds out of Kate’s busy days, permanent makeup could give the harried mom hours of free time every week. Permanent makeup goes on once and keeps you looking gorgeous every second of every day. With permanent makeup Kate would never have to worry about the paparazzi catching her in a bad light. She’d always look fresh and fabulous.

Vanessa Paradis, the face of Chanel Rouge Coco Lipstick

There is nothing sexier or more sensuous than perfectly shaped, perfectly colored red lips. It’s the classic, come-hither look. In an ode to the timeless beauty that is the legacy and legend of Coco Chanel, Chanel has just introduced its new Chanel Rouge Coco Lipstick, a soft, smooth modern take on your mother’s classic creme lip color. To advertise its new dreamy-colored lipstick palette, Chanel has plastered New York with sensuous poster photos of the ethereal Vanessa Paradis, the face of Rouge Coco Lipstick. The charming gap-toothed French singer, model and actress, 38, has been a European star since her early teens. An exquisite beauty with a voice to match, Vanessa’s admiration of another classic beauty, Marilyn Monroe, sparked her early interest in performing. It is Vanessa’s voice you hear singing What a day for a daydream in commercials for the new lipstick. (Click here to watch the YouTube video of the commercial being made. Turn up the volume to hear Vanessa sing.)

You can capture the exquisite classic beauty of perfectly shaped, perfectly colored red lips with permanent makeup. Artfully applied by nationally renowned permanent makeup artist Melany Whitney, permanent lip color can hide natural imperfections and create beautifully symmetrical, sensuously shaped lips in deep lush red or in your own personal signature color. With permanent makeup you never have to apply lipstick. Like Vanessa’s, your lips are always model perfect.

Glam-rock is back and it has put punky, dramatic, kohl-rimmed eyes back in the spotlight. With the opening of the Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning film The Runaways, eye makeup is stepping back in time to revisit the 1960s when Joan Jett and Cherie Currie formed one of rock’s most famous all-girl bands. In keeping with the film’s realistic portrayal of the young teens’ rise to fame, makeup artists were instructed to create a look that was realistic, teen-aged blemishes and all. Without the typical Hollywood flawless skin to wow the camera, makeup artists for The Runaways focused on the eyes.

Pouring over old magazine ads and watching hours of concert footage of the real Runaways performing, makeup artists for the film focused on weird, tiny details to create an authentic look on screen. For instance, Jett and Currie painted only one fingernail red. But it was their dark smoky eyes that created the band’s signature look in the ’60s.

With permanent cosmetics you can create your own permanent signature look. Permanent eyes can rim your lids in thin or thick permanent eyeliner in the color of your choice so you look beautiful day and nice. When you want to glam or punk it up, add a thicker layer right over your permanent cosmetics. Permanent makeup gives you the best of both worlds.

Have you ever wondered if there isn’t something magical in the skin of Olympic athletes? Lindsey Vonn skied a grueling, heart-thumping run to take the gold medal; yet when the cameras zoomed in for a close up seconds after she crossed the finish line, her face looked as fresh and beautiful as if she’d just applied her makeup. Despite hot sun, soaking rains, humid arenas and super-human exertion, you never seem to see an Olympic athlete who doesn’t look beautifully made up and ready for the cameras. The rest of us stop by the gym for a 30-minute cardio workout and in minutes are fighting sweaty foundation rivulets and sweat-smeared mascara.

Asked how she manages to keep her makeup looking fresh even during grueling workouts, skier Lindsay Vonn confided to the LA Times that she keeps her ski really clean, exfoliating every day, and relies on a good medium-weight moisturizing sunscreen. Vonn, who does wear makeup on the slopes, starts with a base coat of moisturizer followed by a light powder foundation and prefers liquid eyeliner for its staying power.

Olympic athletes would be good candidates for permanent makeup. With permanent makeup your face always looks fresh and beautiful whether you’re sweating in the gym or taking charge in the board room. Clean, moisturize and you’re ready for the day — and night. When you wear permanent makeup, you know you always look your best.