Chic Secrets
Lets face it. Women love reading magazines for the latest scoop on fashion, celebrity gossip and, of course, beauty products and/or techniques. However, 99.999 percent of women reading these zines cannot afford the beauty-related items recommended (because, honestly, who is willing to spend $100 on a tube of facial cream? With the obvious exception of JLo).
What the regular woman needs, therefore, is beauty advice from someone just like her. And we, the women of Cincy Chic, are here to help! We hereby present (for your beauty enjoyment) tips and products recommended by the members of our altogether lovely staff that will keep you looking beautiful without reaching celebrity cost proportions.
Color Me Up
We had writers looking across the makeup divide at one another some recommended a loved makeup product, while others thought showing a natural face was best. Go with what works for you!
Media Maven Jan James Stetter is on the pro-makeup side, recommending using eyeliner to accentuate, define and energize your eyes and lipstick to make sure youll always be ready for your close-up (and that your lips never get chapped.)
Chrisy OConnor, of Personal NEWtrition, LLC, is a freelancer, whose beauty secret (passed down from her mother) is to always cleanse the face morning and night, being sure to apply a heavy moisturizer before bed. It makes a difference in your skins overall look and feel, she says.
Our Business Administration Editor, Veronica Rolfes, swears by Maybellines Full N Soft mascara. I have found that its great for catching all the lashes without clumping, and it feels so light, she says. I have very light eyelashes, but they are long and you just can't see the length this stuff works, people ask me all the time what I use on my lashes.
I somewhat disagree, however. Im Regan Coomer, the Management Intern. My personal mascara favorite, also by Maybelline, is its classic Great Lash mascara. At $3, this is the best the beauty savvy woman can buy. A sort of makeup voyeur, I have tried many different brands (from Clinique and Estée Lauder to Wet n Wild and Cover Girl) with prices ranging across the board, and this one, without question, was the best. I have short lashes, and Great Lash works as promised: making my small lashes great.
Another Freelance writer, Joanie Gruber, rarely wears makeup, but does slather on the moisturizer. She comes from a family of dermatologists who always warned her about the adverse affects of wearing makeup. But, as our Fashionista Missy Scalia put it: It (Bobbie Brown Foundation Stick) makes me look like a new woman!
Its a Hair Affair!
Its October, which means there is ample opportunity for hair raising scares, so what to do with your frightening mane? We have the answers!
Its best for your hair if you dont wash it every day, which is fine, but my hair is the type that, after a day or so, looks good at the bottom, but gets nasty and oily at the roots. I remedy this with a tip given me by my best friend: baby powder. Dust some of that white stuff on your roots, work it in and watch the oil disappear! The particles soak up your oil and then fall out of your hair, leaving only a pleasant scent behind.
Got gunk in your coif from all of those styling products? Cincy Chic Event Planner and Freelancer Julie Seta has the solution with a beauty tip from her hairdresser. Use apple cider vinegar. Wet your hair, apply vinegar, massage into your scalp, rinse, and then wash with your regular shampoo. Do this once or twice a month for a hair full of body.
Sheri Shanks, a Freelance writer for us, loves V05 Hairdressing for its incredible shine, the results of which are the best of any product shes used for that purpose. Its also great for taming static, she says, and a little bit goes a long way!
Skin and Bear It
Our Online Editor and Freelancer, Maureen Jacob (and her sister) love baby wipes. They are great for removing makeup, deodorant stains and more obviously, used for personal hygiene. They are so versatile, inexpensive and come in many scents and sensitivities, such as for sensitive skin, hypo-allergenic and non-scented, she said. Her personal favorite brand? The lavendar-scented variety made by Pampers.
Scalia lives by her Oil of Olay astringent. I use it at night after I wash my face and in the morning instead of washing my face (with a cotton pad), she says. I swear it cleared up my face, my acne disappeared. I told a couple friends about it they love it as well.
Editor-in-Chief and Publisher Amy Storer keeps Smudgees in her house and on her person. Smudgees are basically prepackaged Q-tips with eye makeup remover on it, she says. They keep you from tugging at the delicate muscles around your eyes when trying to take off eye makeup. Im sure my 50-year-old-self will thank me in the future, she says.
Hit the Nail…
Weve all had the peeling problem with our fingernails not to mention dealing with easy breakage. Seta uses Sally Hansens Maximum Growth Plus Nourishing nail color for beautiful fingertips. Apply two coats the first day over bare nails, then apply one coat every day after that. She noticed results in a week.
OPIs Nail Envy is Storers beauty necessities. Before Nail Envy, Storers nails were brittle, short and would sometimes peel off. A nail tech at Uniquely Senise in Florence, Ky., told Amy about his wonder product. The first day, you put on two coats, and for the six days after that you put one more coat on. Each week, you just take off the polish and start all over again. My nails are strong and they don't peel anymore. They're still not really long, but they at least they no longer look like I had a nervous breakdown and decided to knaw on my fingers for a few hours, she says.
Clothes Call
Our two top editors at Cincy Chic have got the interests of the girls at heart, as we shall see from these beauty favorites.
Storer loves fashion tape, which is little pieces of double-sided tap that fit perfectly between buttons on those button-down shirts that can gap and inadvertently show off your assets. The tape holds those revealing gaps together. Fashion tape is also useful for those plunging necklines on tops and dresses. You can tape the material to your skin to make sure it stays in place. It doesnt break out the sensitive-skinned Amy and stays on for several hours. No more peep shows! I have fashion tape! she says. Pick up yours at http://www.hollywoodfashiontape.com/.
Rolfes goes for the more traditional option of safety pins to solve the same problem. She carries a travel size container of assorted-sized pins in her purse and keeps a dish on her dresser for easy access. Veronica loves wrap tops, but hates how the crossover effect can show bra. A pin or two on the underside of the shirt hides the bra and pulls the top together, she says. You can also place a safety pin in between buttons so you can open up the top of a blouse, she says. This is good when one too many buttons looks too tucked in, but one undone earns you beads at Mardi Gras.
