Permanently Beautiful

Hot, steamy, summer nights can make straight fine hair go limp and curly hair frizz.  What to do when it’s time to step out for a special summer evening?  Just think, what would Audrey do?

Of course, we’re referring to the one and only Audrey Hepburn. And of course, she’d wear an updo as she did in her classic film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”  Here’s how to get the look.

Get the look:
•    Step one: Blow hair out straight. Add body by setting it in big rollers for 10 minutes.
•    Step two: Pull hair back and twist it up into a loose twist. Clip into place. Pin up any short pieces in the back.
•    Step three: Pull out a section in the front so that it frames your face, which is what makes this style fluid. Spritz in a volume-building finishing mist for hold.

Wear it with..
•    Clip in a bow barrette to take this style from day to night.
•    Add at least one piece of glitzy jewelry
•    Complete the Audrey glam look with permanent eyeliner and permanent eyebrow makeup.  You don’t need a Hollywood makeup artist when you’ve got permanent makeup. And maybe a pair of long over-the-elbow black gloves?

Finding a humidity-proof hairdo for a summer wedding can be a challenge. Get inspired by the gorgeous red-carpet styles of stars like Becki Newton and Eva Longoria Parker and find a ‘do that will keep you looking picture perfect from the walk down the aisle through the reception send-off.

A lot of time and detail went into choosing your dress, ring, flowers, and even your hairstyle. Don’t let your makeup take a backseat. Take the time to go through magazines and pull out makeup styles that you really like, even tear out the ones you really hate.  It could be how a certain feature is played up, or that great lipstick color, or how the skin glows, or even how they used way too much eyeliner. All this is easy to say and show with pictures. It helps tremendously to show you what you like with pictures rather than endlessly describing it. This gives anyone helping you, whether it’s a make-up artist or your best friend or a salesperson at department store counter, the best way to see what you like and don’t like. Remember, two people’s ideas of pink lipstick could be completely different. There is a lot of truth in the adage that says “a picture is worth a thousand words.” It really gives a lot more information with a visual sense.

With all the variables, getting permanent makeup will relieve you of some of the nerve-wracking guesswork. Permanent eyeliner, lip liner and eyebrows can go a long way toward making the big day really picture perfect.

Here’s a list of people I never want to see in a wedding flick again: Julia Roberts, Jennifer Lopez, Kate Hudson, Matthew McConaughey, Cameron Diaz – and Anne Hathaway’s getting close.

But we’re halfway through June, so we can safely assume Hollywood has no more wedding movies up its digital sleeve. However, out here in the real world there are still plenty of June weddings to go.

If one of them is yours, congratulations. Now do yourself a favor and get some permanent makeup. You’ll be stressed out enough. Do you really need to worry about eye makeup and lipstick? With permanent makeup, that’s all taken care of.

Here are several more reasons why it’s a great idea to face your wedding day with a face made gorgeous with permanent makeup:

No makeup to drip black rivulets onto your white gown if you get teary-eyed at the altar.

Wedding photos

Wedding night. I repeat, wedding night.

Honeymoon – especially if the honeymoon involves snorkeling or otherwise plunging into large quantities of water, salty or chlorinated.

On that special wedding day, every bride wants to look her very best and be at her most beautiful, but presenting your best face can be a little daunting.  How do you make sure your wedding makeup stays on all day, looking flawless in your wedding photos, and manage to make you feel like a model, but still look like you?

Easy. Permanent makeup. Trust me, later when you’re putting together your wedding and honeymoon scrapbook and pleased with how terrific you look in all the photos, you’ll be very glad you did.<-->

In the 1950s and 1960s, tattoos signified rebellion against middle-class conformity, according to historian Jonathan Zimmerman. They were associated them with street gangs, motorcycle clubs, ex-cons and drunks. In 1959, the National Education Association advised schools that “potential juvenile delinquents” could be identified as “those with male kin who are tattooed.”

And it was mostly males who got inked, not females. In a culture of straight-laced Organization Men, tattoos came to embody a kind of rough-hewn, frontier-style masculinity. That’s why Philip Morris USA Inc. decided to adorn its Marlboro Man – the epitome of 1950s machismo – with a small piece of body art on his hand. “We wished to show a man who, during some moment – some loose moment – got himself tattooed,” an advertising executive explained.

Fast-forward to earlier this year, when toymaker Mattel Inc. released its Totally Stylin’ Tattoos Barbie doll. It comes with a set of tattoo stickers that can be placed anywhere on her body, plus a tattoo gun that allows children to ink the doll – or themselves.

That tells you all you need to know about the changed cultural meaning of the American tattoo. It has become just as common among women as among men. Most of all, it has gone 100 percent mainstream. If even Barbie is getting inked, and it’s totally stylin’, we can be sure that there’s nothing remotely rebellious about it.

That could be the best news of all, if you’re still debating about yourself and tattoos. If you get inked, you won’t be defying social propriety. As tattoos become more accepted, indeed, it will be unusual to find someone who doesn’t have one.

That’s why the heavily tattooed ex-rocker and reality-show star Ozzy Osbourne warned his own daughter against body ink. “To be unique, don’t get a tattoo,” Osbourne urged. “Because everybody else has got tattoos.” Of course, his daughter got one anyway.

A subtle and gorgeous way to get inked is with permanent make-up. You can flaunt it or keep it hushed as your beauty secret.

We read that at the recent Roberto Cavalli fashion show a dark smoky cat eye with a 60s style mane of hair was the new hot runway look in beauty.

 Both hairstylist Guido Palau and makeup artist Pat McGrath cited Brigitte Bardot as their inspiration for this super-sexy look. Jennifer Lopez  comes to mind as another icon of this look. To achieve the dramatic eye, McGrath applied dark liner around the entire eye, as well as in the crease and inside the lower lash line, blending slightly for definition. The liner was then topped with eye shadow in a black hue and lashes were coated with major mascara.

It’s power-house glam with a lot of drama. Perfect for a special night when you want to amp up your volume. Why not get a head-start by having a base coat of permanent eye-liner all ready applied to both your upper and lower eye-lids?  You’ll save precious time when you’re in prep mode for getting ready.  Plus there’ll be less margin for error when you’ve all ready got a permanent eye-liner guideline to follow.  Just trace it over and build it up.

 Then when you want to dial it back down, you’re all ready there!  And if you’re having a special sleepover, you can go ahead and take it off – your evening eye make-up that is – assured that when morning comes, you’ll look fresh and gorgeous. No caked smudges or black flakes of make-up around your eyes. And you won’t look like your face is missing in action either.  

There is an assumption that men who opt for permanent makeup, such as permanent eyeliner, are in professions that put them in the spotlight. While it is true that actors, singers, entertainers, newscasters and public speakers are more likely to go for permanent cosmetics, they are not the only men to do so. Really, any man who steps outside of his house is in the spotlight.  And if you want to look your best without having to spend time on certain aspects of your look on a daily basis, then permanent makeup may be right for you.

In addition to being cosmetic, permanent makeup procedures can also be used to alter one’s appearance if some facial features are less than ideal. For example, if your eyes are somehow asymmetrical or slightly out of proportion, permanent makeup can be used to change how this appears. This is why although permanent makeup is a kind of tattoo, you do not want to go to a tattoo parlor to get it done. You want to go to a skilled permanent makeup technician. An artist, like our highly skilled Board Certified and nationally recognized expert, Melany Whitney can look at your facial symmetry and see the best way to enhance it. If you want permanent makeup to correct a facial asymmetry then you need to go to a technician who has studied facial morphology. These procedures are not one-size-fits-all; they must be tailored to the individual.

Although we have been talking about celebrities who may have permanent makeup, you should know that permanent makeup is not just for celebrities.

The other day, I was on one of those local website that provides reviews and tips for service providers (restaurants, hair salons, etc.) and I stumbled across a message board where someone who had moved was looking for a permanent makeup artist.

The woman wrote that she has permanent eyebrows done years ago and that she got many compliments on them and that most people do not realized that her great eyebrows were actually a tattoo. She wanted to get more makeup done. Other people on the site were not shy. Another woman wrote in to say that she has permanent eyebrows and permanent eyeliner done and offered the name of a permanent makeup artist. 

Well, this really got the ball rolling, the message board lit up and there was quite an interesting discussion during which a number of people readily confessed to having gone for permanent makeup.

Another woman said that permanent eyebrow makeup helped her to stop obsessing over her brow brush, adding that when down correctly, permanent eyebrows look quite natural and that you need to go to the right place. At the Whitney Center for Permanent Cosmetics, we don’t just fill in brows; technicians like Melany look at the shape of your face you give you the best look possible.

According to the philosophy of Bobbi Brown and other top makeup artists, the purpose of make up is to enhance your natural beauty, and not to give you a theatrical or heavily made-up appearance. The idea is to take what you already have and make it stand out a little bit more.

At Permanently Beautiful, we agree with this philosophy. (Although, if you decide that you do want to get makeup that is more dramatic, we are more than happy to oblige.) We only want to bring out and shine a little extra spotlight on the beauty that is already there.

You should know that permanent makeup does not have to include you entire face (at least not all at once, when you see the results, you may be back for more). If you think your eyes are your best feature and you want them to get a little more attention, you can go for permanent eye liner or permanent eyebrow enhancement. If you think your eyes are fine, but want to enhance the natural beauty of your lips, then you can get permanent makeup for your lips.

What matters is that you feel your best and present a confident image to the world. You can make use of the inner glow you already have when you kick it up a notch with permanent face enhancement from Permanently Beautiful.

We’ve all had bad hair days. No matter how long you spend in front of the mirror struggling with brush and mousse and curling iron, you just can’t get your hair to look right. Bad hair can completely ruin your day. The ugliness you perceive in the mirror seems to permeate every thought and act. When you don’t look your best, you don’t feel as confident, as in command, or as sure of yourself. You can tell yourself that this is shallow thinking and that the way you look doesn’t change who you are, but no inner pep talk can change the feeling that, today, you feel ugly!

While permanent makeup won’t solve your morning hair dilemma, it will give you the self-confidence of knowing that your makeup is perfectly and artfully applied every minute of every day. Without checking the mirror, you will know that you look your absolute best at all times. Your brows will be artfully defined, your eyeliner perfectly applied and your lips full and lush. With permanent makeup you wake up looking as gorgeous as you did when you closed your eyes the night before. And all without the tedious, time-consuming skin care regimens required to put on and take off makeup. A simple cleansing and moisturizing morning and night and you’re ready for whatever the day — or night — brings!  

Permanent makeup can be applied to a single feature or a combination of features. A full face enhancement can even add permanent cheek color and eye shadow. Permanent cosmetics can enhance your most striking features and correct imperfections that eat away at your self-esteem. Permanent makeup is like having a perfect hair day every day. Because you know you always look your best, you always feel self-confident and self-assured.

Some women seem to have a certain commanding presence. No matter where they are or what they’re doing, they stand out in a crowd. Your eye just seems to be drawn toward them. It’s not really a matter of beauty, though many are attractive; it’s more that they exude an aura of complete self-confidence. I noticed a woman like this across the gym floor the other day. Like the rest of us, she was working hard, sweat glistening on her face. But unlike the women to either side of her who looked tired and haggard from exertion, this woman looked radiant, her cheeks glowing, her eyes sparkling, her lips curved with pleasure. In a room full of many attractive and many younger women, this particular woman stood out and commanded attention.

If permanent makeup can keep you looking fresh, calm, collected and in control in the middle of a strenuous workout, think what it can do for you during a board room presentation. With permanent cosmetics you know you look your best whether you’re whirling away in spinning class or making a killer presentation to the firm’s top client. You never have to worry about your makeup. When you’ve added permanent cosmetics to your beauty regime, you know your brows are perfect, your eyeliner expert and your lips beautiful every hour of the day. There is no better boost to your self-esteem than knowing that you always look your best.

The Whitney Center for Permanent Cosmetics specializes in the artistic application of permanent cosmetics to enhance your natural beauty. Our expert board-certified permanent cosmetic professional, Melany Whitney, is a nationally recognized expert in permanent makeup. Recently featured on NBC Today, CNN and Entertainment Tonight, Melany Whitney is recognized as the national “Voice of Permanent Makeup.” To find out more about how permanent cosmetics can enhance your natural beauty, please visit the Whitney Center for Permanent Cosmetics website.