Permanently Beautiful

According to Siren Magazine, whose article “Why Vanity Keeps Us Poor” shocked readers everywhere, the American woman spends an average of $12,000 annually on beauty products and grooming.  That’s $1,000 every month!  When you start tallying up all the necessary expenditures such as nail care, which can cost anywhere from $20-$100 per month, hair care and maintenance, which can cost even a “low maintenance” woman hundreds of dollars monthly, and, last but not least, makeup, which most women use daily and sometimes buy just as often, $1000 per month becomes very believable!

Perhaps these numbers don’t shock you at all because you’ve summed it all up before.  Of the few women that do know exactly what they spend on beauty products each month, many wince in brief dismay only to turn a blind eye from the financial damage feeling that there isn’t any other way.  “This is just part of being a socially acceptable woman,” you may have found yourself rationalizing, but the truth is, there is another way.  Having permanent makeup applied by a talented NYC permanent makeup expert can greatly reduce what you’ll need to spend on beauty yearly.

Many women spend at least $50 per month or $600 yearly on eye makeup, but for about $1500, the cost of just one quality bag and a pair of shoes, you can have correct brows and eyeliner applied for life, potentially saving you around $30,000 over the course of 50 years!  How’s that for a gift that keeps on giving?

Although American women are often thought of as “more casual,” when it comes to their appearance, a recent study shows otherwise.  A survey conducted by IPSOS recently revealed that appearance is in reality a real source of stress in the daily life of American women and that aging is less well accepted in America than by European and Japanese counterparts.  In addition, the ideal of a “mixed race” beauty is merely becoming the new American standard of beauty.  Experts say that the neutral styles of crisis have finally given way to “the great comeback of hyper-femininity” including sophisticated make-up, flawless complexions, and highlighted and more colorful eyes and lips, with a more seductive state of mind.

Will the newly forming American standards of beauty spill over into Eastern culture and elsewhere throughout the world?  More research is needed to say, but for now, we do know that beauty companies in the US will be stepping up to meet the needs of American women, who have a new, stricter, standard of beauty.

The “hyper feminine” look not only requires a woman to have youthful, beautiful, complexion, but also youthful, beautiful breasts as well.  Breasts have always bee an ultimate symbol of femininity and beauty.  Fortunately, through the use of permanent cosmetics and by breast perfecting procedures such as areola pigmentation, women can permanently get the hyper feminine breasts and facial features needed to feel self confident in today’s American society.

Daniel S Hamermesh, a professor of economics at the University of Texas in Austin, has created an all new kind of economics according to a recent Huffington Post article.  The new field, Pulchrinomics, studies the advantages that beauty brings in all aspects of life.  It also measures the disadvantages facing those who are viewed as being ugly. 

Professor Hamermesh’s findings show that those viewed as good-looking earn about $230,000 more than those with below-average looks during their careers.  They also show that better looking professors receive better ratings from students and that good looking politicians often win over those viewed as ugly. 

In an exclusive interview, Professor Hamermesh notes that the earnings and success disparities have been shown to exist in those living outside the US as well.  Studies done in Canada, Germany, Britain, China and others mirror Professor Hamermesh’s results, finding that more beautiful people fare better financially. 

Should men and women stuck in a beauty rut fret over these findings?  Professor Hamermesh notes that he doesn’t think so, but more so that he would just like people to be aware of them.  This awareness helps people make informed decisions. 

Fortunately through permanent cosmetics, many men and women have become more beautiful!  The downtime-free permanent makeup procedures offered by The Whitney Center for Permanent Cosmetics not only help you feel more confident, but according to recent findings, can have a great impact on your career.

Take an opinion survey about whether or not it’s wrong to makeup in public and you’re bound to get some heated responses.  Many men and women become very offended when spotting a woman “putting on her face” on the train, in a subway car, on a public beach, or even in the super market line.

Many argue that the practice defeats the very purpose of wearing makeup – the feminine mystique.  Others argue that the activity is irritating to witness, dangerous to public safety (in the case of applying makeup while walking or driving, and even unsanitary.

Although some men and women state that they have no problem with a woman applying makeup in public, the vast majority of people who have
weighed in on this issue, seem to consider the practice ill mannered and rude.  Many women deny the fact that they’d ever apply any makeup in public, and others note the fact that the line should be drawn at a simple lip gloss reapplication.

Regardless of your stance on this issue, the fact remains that women are often pressed for time in the morning and decide to save time by applying mascara, eye line, foundation, and lipstick while en route.  The good news is that permanent makeup or permanent cosmetics provides women with another time saving option.

Most of us have been told since our pre-teen days that it simply “isn’t healthy to wear makeup to bed.”  We are reminded time and time again to thoroughly wash our faces before hit the pillow, but still most women slip up and sleep with all of their makeup on occasionally.  Here are four reasons to ditch the habit!

1.  It takes just two minutes to slather on and tissue off a facial cleanser before bedtime.  No matter how tired you are or how late it is, committing to staying awake these two extra minutes will be something your skin (and pillowcase) will thank you for!

2.  Washing your makeup off before bed helps to prevent breakouts.  Leaving makeup on while pressing your face against a pillow can clog pores, encouraging breakouts, and irritating any that you may already have. 

3.  Removing makeup can help to reduce wrinkling while you sleep.  Much of our makeup, including eyeliner, certain foundations, and powders dry out the skin.  Dry skin makes wrinkles appear sooner and more noticeably, while fresh, moisturized skin can reduce the look of wrinkles. 

4.  Removing makeup before bedtime helps prevent eye irritation and pink eye or conjunctivitis.  Some dermatologists cite sleeping with day old eyeliner and crusted mascara as a reason for eye irritation that can eventually lead to infection.  Remember, you can have permanent eyeliner applied and cosmetic tatoo lash enhancement done, to help avoid ever having to wear daily eye makeup, and therefore you can avoid ever being tempted to sleep in it.

A recent study gives new meaning to the  phrase Femme Fatale. Apparently, looks can kill! At least if the look is from a beautiful woman and the target of her gaze is your typical male! 

In a study conducted by University of Valencia researchers, men’s cortisol levels increased markedly when they were left alone with a beautiful woman. Cortisol is a stress hormone produced when an individual is under physical or psychological stress. High levels of cortisol have been linked to heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and impotency. Tests showed that the more beautiful the woman, the higher a man’s cortisol level rose.

The study involved 84 men. Two men and an attractive woman were placed in a room. One man left the room, leaving the other man alone with the woman. In each instance, the man’s cortisol levels rose. Researchers linked the stress hormone increase to the man’s perceived courtship opportunity. In other words, as he thought about hitting on the woman, his stress levels went up. Stress seemed to be directly proportional to the man’s confidence in his potential success. Women that a man considered to be out of his league produced the most stress.

Permanent makeup can help you keep your man on his toes. When you look gorgeous 24/7, imagine what you’re doing to his stress levels? Does this mean men will give up beautiful women to protect their health? Something tells me they’ll chance it!

In a recent interview, Oscar winning actress Meryl Streep confessed “I sit at home and wait for the phone to ring.” It seems an odd statement from a woman who has reigned at the top of Hollywood royalty for decades. But that’s just the point, confides the 59-year-old star of the just-released movie Doubt. Fewer roles are coming her way. After 40, Hollywood considers its no-longer-youthful stars “washed up.”

One glance at Streep is enough to confirm that this beautiful woman — the confident star of Mama Mia! and The Devil Wears Prada – is far from washed up. Her beauty seems to come as much from her regal presence and strong sense of self as from any physical feature. Streep recounts a story from her Yale Drama School days in which students were asked how to play a king. Rejecting student suggestions to speak in a deep voice and act assertive, her teacher said, “The way to be king is to have everybody in the room quiet when you come in. The atmosphere changes. It’s all up to everybody else to make you king.” It was a powerful message that has guided Streep throughout her career as the recognized Queen of Hollywood.

Permanent makeup has much the same effect. By knowing that you present to the world your most luminous self every hour of every day, you exude a powerful sense of self confidence that turns heads. People may not exactly know what it is about you that attracts their attention, but Meryl Streep would know. It’s that same regal inner poise that she achieves whenever she walks into a room.

The popularization and affordability of plastic surgery has made the body “the new attire, a mutable status symbol subject to trends in proportion, silhouette, technology and disposable income,” Natasha Singer wrote in a recent New York Times article. Plastic surgery has medicalized attractiveness, she says. “Appearance technology” allows people to mix-and-match body parts to recreate themselves in an attempt to achieve “perfect” beauty.

Popularized by Extreme Makeover, Dr. 90210 and other reality television shows, plastic surgery is no longer viewed as risky. Media saturation has normalized public perception of what is, in fact, a delicate surgical procedure requiring skill and experience. Unfortunately, the desired results are not always the results achieved. It can be impossible to create from ordinary human flesh the idealistic beauty some people seek. “There comes a point when you are putting too much time and money into your vanity,” says Peri Basel a marketing consultant to the plastic surgery industry. “For me, the vanity issue is: Where does it stop? If you are going for buttock implants, do you really need that?”

The economic slowdown may be cooling the public’s ardor for plastic surgery. In a recent survey by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 62% of doctors reported a decrease in business. In what Singer terms Botox backlash, some prominent Hollywood stars are eschewing cosmetic surgery to embrace a more natural look. Permanent makeup is one way to maintain control over your appearance without resulting to expensive, invasive plastic surgery. A softer, gentler, more affordable approach to enhancing your beauty than plastic surgery, permanent makeup artistically emphasizes your natural beauty, eliminates embarrassing flaws, and ensures that you always look your most beautiful.

Those who say beauty is only skin deep don’t really understand the full concept of beauty. Webster’s defines beauty as “qualities that give pleasure to the senses or exalt the mind.” Each of us has our own personal sense of beauty. We realize that we cannot all be an Olga Kurylenko and a Heidi Klum, but in our own unique way, each of us is beautiful. We may have been blessed with long, lush eyelashes or full, pouty lips or our features may seem quite ordinary. Beauty is much more than the perfection of individual features. True beauty comes from within. It stems from an acceptance and appreciation of who we are and generates the self-confidence and inner poise that kindles the light within each of us. Even the most ordinary of features appears extraordinary when bathed in that inner glow. Perhaps that is why we feel un-beautiful when we believe one of our features is lacking. Our self-confidence stumbles in the face of a perceived flaw and that precious inner light dims.

Permanent makeup can correct those little flaws that nibble at our self-confidence and diminish our inner sense of beauty. Pale, thin or non-existent eyebrows can be artfully arched. Thin lips can be made full and rosy. An irregular lip line can be beautifully defined. Dull eyes can be made dramatic with permanent eyeliner, eye lashes and eye shadow. Sallow cheeks can be made high and rosy. Whatever individual feature diminishes your personal sense of beauty, it can be artfully corrected with permanent makeup, restoring your self-confidence in your appearance and rekindling your inner glow.

This holiday, give yourself the gift of beauty. Don’t allow a minor imperfection to diminish your sense of self. Make an appointment for a permanent makeup consultation and allow the renowned skill and artistry of permanent makeup expert Melany Whitney to restore your aura of personal beauty.