Permanently Beautiful

Red Lips on the Red Carpet

Naturally, the gowns were gorgeous, but what really stood out at Sunday’s Academy Awards telecast were the lush red lips many stars wore almost as an accessory. Best Actress winner Sandra Bullock gleamed almost as brightly as her Oscar statue in a stunning, form-fitting silver Marchesa gown with a beautifully embroidered bodice. With just a touch of jewelry at her ears and wrist, it was Sandra’s bright red lips that stole the show. Vera Farmiga matched her stunning lip color to the brilliant magenta silk crepe pleats that cascaded in lush curves down her strapless Marchesa column gown. Charlize Theron garnered a lot of attention with a unique deep amethyst Dior gown that featured hug pink satin rosettes placed directly over her breasts. Her beautiful deep red lip color did bring attention back to her face, but only briefly.

Deep, bright red lip color calls attention to your face and is the hot new look for spring and summer. Unfortunately, deep lip shades can be out of place in the workplace. Women who wear permanent makeup can enjoy the best of both worlds. They can have their lips colored the perfect shade of neutral pink or beige to match their skin tone for everyday wear and enhance their lips with a deeper shade of lip color for evening affairs. Permanent lip color doesn’t exclude you from wearing lipstick when you feel like a change. Simply apply lipstick or gloss directly over your permanent lip color.

The dress took center stage at the Golden Globe Awards last weekend. Fabulous body-hugging sheaths bedecked with ruffled trains and cotton candy poufs of chiffon sent the message: Feminine is back! Pink and red were the hot red carpet colors this year with dreamy, creamy lips to match highlighted with a wisp of shine. The vampire craze may have waned. Smudged Twilight eyes were left to smolder in the shadows while stars paraded a return to a more traditional eye makeup style into the spotlight. Eyes were lined with black, highlighted with well blended natural shadow colors — beiges, pale roses and grays — and shellacked with glistening coats of mascara. (This is Hollywood, after all. Unless you’re strutting the red carpet, you’ll want to dial back the mascara to a few swipes.)

Also noticeable was the absence of flashy, gem-studded jewelry. In deference to the economic situation, stars choose elegant earrings and a jangle of bracelets instead of flaunting a neckline full of diamonds. Why annoy cash-strapped fans? Obviously, this year actresses put their money in the dress.

The emphasis on natural makeup was welcome. The stars looked gorgeous but somehow more approachable. That’s the goal of permanent cosmetics, to enhance your natural beauty, emphasize your best features and “repair” any annoying little flaws. Hollywood actresses do it with professional makeup artists and hours in the makeup chair. Permanent cosmetics can give you the same beautifully finished appearance without all the fuss and bother.

Did you see Taylor Swift’s grand slam at the CMA awards last night? Barely 19 and she wins Entertainer of the Year, the youngest country music star to do so. Taylor also took home Female Vocalist of the Year, Music Video of the Year for Love Story and Album of the Year with Fearless. Absolutely gorgeous and adoringly humble, Taylor called her whole band up on stage with her.

Did you notice how natural and understated Taylor’s makeup was? It enhanced her beauty without detracting by overemphasizing a single feature. And what about Carrie Underwood’s barely there lip color. It focused attention on her beautiful eyes and those unbelievably hot sequined hot pants! Leann Rimes should have spent less time in front of the makeup mirror. Her eyes were a horror queen disaster. Adding dark shadow under the brows to smudged smoky eyes made her face unattractively top heavy. For smoky eyes stick with natural, light shadows. And what about country diva Naomi Judd? Her stretched and shiny face was shades lighter than the rest of her skin. Too much plastic surgery or a poor makeup job? Maybe both. Check out makeup and gowns from country’s biggest night on Socialite Life.

Natural-looking makeup that balances your face and enhances your personal beauty requires an expert touch. Permanent cosmetic expert Melany Whitney combines artistic talent with expert technique to create permanent makeup that is permanently beautiful and natural looking.

When you’re standing in the checkout line at the grocery, who doesn’t love to sneak a peek at the less than glamorous pics of Hollywood’s elite on the pages of Star or the Globe? It’s fun to catch the rich and famous with their hair down and their makeup off; kind of levels the field. One celeb the paparazzi will never catch in a less than photog-ready moment is singer-songwriter and business mogul Dolly Parton. Despite the admonishments of cosmeticians to strip off your makeup at night to give your pores a rest, the Nashville legend with the giggly laugh goes to bed with her makeup intact, particularly when she’s visiting LA or NYC where her Tony Award-nominated Broadway show 9 to 5: The Musical will close on Labor Day.

Dolly isn’t about to let the paparazzi catch her in a Nick Nolte moment. “I think I’m not going to wash my face until morning, and then I’ll clean it off and I’ll put it on in case I have to get up in the middle of the night,” she told CNN. “If I go out in public, people expect me to look a certain way. And if you say, ‘There’s Dolly’ … you expect to see them in the way that … you know them.”

What Dolly needs is permanent makeup. With natural-looking permanent eyeliner and permanent lip color, you look picture perfect day and night.

Angelina Jolie and her perfectly-plump lips have women everywhere longing to have ones just like hers. A permanent cosmetic professional can help you determine the perfect permanent lip liner look for your face. Saving yourself time and money for the future, permanent makeup for your lips is a means of emphasizing your lips to look perfect every day with no effort. The permanent lip liner procedure also helps to minimize the look of wrinkles and give lips a finished lips, no matter the time of day.

Choosing the type of look you are going for is simple. A professional cosmetic technician will discuss your options of natural or a more dramatic look. This decision is determined by your personal style, and your daily work environment. If however, you are undecided on the permanent lip liner procedure, here are a few tips of achieving the Angelina lips you desire:

• Prep with a lip plumper on your lips. This lip product moistens the lips and gives a bee stung look. One particular lip gloss is Lip Venom.
• Next, line your lips with a brown lip liner (whether nude or a darker shade of brown). It’s important to match your skin tone as closely as possible for a natural look.
• Apply a matte lipstick that nearly matches the shade of your lip.

As you can see, achieving a natural, yet full lip-lined look is simple. Your lips will look like Angelina Jolie’s in no time!

Utter the magic word “Chanel” and what do you think of? Hot haute couture fashions flaunted by supermodels like Carmen Kass and Claudia Schiffer. Or you may think of Chanel’s signature quilted purses, emblematic Chanel No. 5 perfume and signature little knit suits.  

But there really was a Chanel who started it all. Her name was Coco Chanel. We have a lot to thank her for. She’s the one who put women in pants and knee length skirts. And her classy comfortable suits. Just imagine. Before Coco Chanel, all women went around dressed like extras from the cast of Mary Poppins! 

Rumor has it that because Chanel, the child of a prostitute, was sent to Catholic boarding school, clerics’ garb was the creative child’s inspiration for the famous black and white women’s suits she designed. And the little black dress.

But there is one Chanel innovation that we’d all be a lot better off without today - the chic suntan. There really is no such thing. When Chanel started hanging out on the French Riviera with the jet set, she decided that a deep tan was just the ticket to set off her white summer wear.  

What Chanel could not have known is that a tan is really your skin’s response to an injury caused by ultra-violet radiation. That means the rays of the sun. Even if you don’t look burned, the damage is done. And the damage is cumulative. It builds up. So someday you are going to be wrinkled. Seriously wrinkled. 

Tanning beds also are bad news. As bad for you as the a direct hit from the sun itself. Go instead with a self-tanning cream or brush-on bronzer. And give your face some extra pop with permanent make-up.  You’ll look fabulous even when you’re in the water!