Tips for buying beauty and skin care products as gifts – Part 1
The best gifts health and beauty gifts will not irritate the skin.
Look for products that help to prevent skin damage and to give a healthy glow to skin.
Skin care should be bought from good quality stores such as department stores, because the quality is better than the skin care from elsewhere. For make-up it, make sure the products are hypo-allergenic and do not have any skin irritants or fragrances. When buying beauty and skin care gifts, the items should be able to work with most people’s skin tones, and skin textures, since people are different. It is much easier to shop for someone whom you know very well, and know their tastes in make-up and beauty. If the person that you are buying for has fair skin, stick to light shades of foundation and lighter shades of blush. For women who are modest with their make-up, choose subtle shades of eye shadow and lipstick. Keep make-up age appropriate so that you are not giving loose glitter eyeshadow to a 50 year old woman, nor are you giving smoky eye make-up to a 13 year old and so forth. Beauty and skin care is not very difficult as most women tend to like receiving these options as gifts. Stick to your knowledge of their tastes and styles and you should have no problem buying them a beauty or skin care gift this season.
Beauty Products Across Time
With all the billions of dollars spent annually worldwide on cosmetics, often we may catch ourselves asking, “How did it get to this point? When did it become the par for me to get up every morning and before I even go outside have to paint my face from completely? Assuredly a female way back in history did not all of a sudden wake up one morning and decide to put on eyelashes, lipstick, eyeliner, foundation, and rouge all at once. As you might have guessed, it was a combination of thousands of years and a lot of learning experiences.
Who remembers the Egyptians? That was over four millenia ago. Good hygeine and looks were very critical to the Egyptians. Egyptians believed the appearance was in direct connection with the well being of the spirit. They attempted to constantly look and smell agreeable. And with a culture who values their appearance, you are assuredly going to have people who are going to try and stand out. But the Egyptians, being the innovative society they were, implemented cosmetics for reasons that were even more practical than just attempting to look great.
A combination of lead ore and copper called Mesdemet was the origin of eye shadow. The dark shades they thought would avert evil eyes from their own. It was also an efficient disinfectant and insect repellent. Kohl was a dark combination that was applied around the eyes in an oval shape. The substance was a mixture of lead, ash, ochre, copper, and burnt almonds. To further boost their appearance, they would put a combination of water and red clay to the cheek area. They would also paint their nails shades of orange and yellow with a substance called henna.
As different groups of people started to interact with each other more often, the practice of make-up was picked up by the Greeks from the Egyptians. Greek women would color themselves a pale color with a foundation that contained lead inside. This ended up being deadly on more than one occasion. As the Romans began to adapt the cosmetics habits, the effort to achieve beauty became less about practicality and turned into much more exotic routes. The Romans would paint their nails with a combination of sheeps blood and heated body fat. An ancient Roman citizen once stated, A woman without paint is like food without salt.
A light skin color was the fashion around the world after the Egyptian civilization faded. Only women who were impoverished and had to work out in the field all day with their husbands had rough, tanned skin. The upper echelon ladies of course did not participate in manual labor like that therefore they were able to stay inside and had light skin.
A light, pale complexion was also a sign of abundance. If people had enough money, then you did not have to work. So it was extremely important for some socialites to have a white complexion. To achieve this look, women (and men also) would use a combination of hydroxide, lead oxide, and carbonate in a powder form to apply to their faces and bodies. Unfortunately, this lead to a sometimes deadly side effect, lead poisoning.To cure this problem, chemists in the nineteenth century finally invented a mixture of zinc oxide that made the skin able to breathe and kept people out of that aggravating lead poisoning sickness. It was so effective that it is still used today by cosmetics makers.
Exttravagant and glamorous parties were hosted by urban ladies with disposable money in the King Edward era of England. As hostesses of the party, it was critical for them to be the most beautiful woman at the gathering, so it was very important for them to look the youngest they possibly could. City and excessive lifestyles with factors like dirty air produced by the cities at that time, poor diets, and very little or no exercise aged the women fast. Anti-aging and facial creams to mask the wrinkles were heavily depended upon by women in this era. They would also go to the beauty salon. It was a bit different back then than it is in the present. Ladies would go into the back of the salons and hide their faces as they entered. One of the most famous of these secret beauty parlors was the House of Cyclax, who would sell foams and blushes to ladies. Mrs. Henning, the owner, sold and invented many products for her frantic customers who did not want anybody to know that they were getting old.
The modern day woman is the benefactor of all these years of mistakes with a virtually never ending choice of products for any look they want to accomplish. There are thousands of manufacturers who create products in this now billion dollar yearly industry. Skin Care products sell year round and even in times of depression. Therefore ladies, give thanks to your ancestors and their concern for their own looks for your own that you have today. There were probably mornings when they woke up and didn’t really want to go through the hassle of applying their face either.
My top five beauty products – Part 2
How just a few things can make a big difference. Do you have a make up bag? Some women don’t because of the bulk they might carry. Keep it simple. Why carry things you may never use or rarely use. It’s time for a fresh new look, no bag full of goodies required! First of all, with all the long wear concealer out there, u shouldn’t have one in your bag. Get with the program and if you don’t got one, then go get one! If your just going out to the store try cleansing with COLD water to even out your skin tone. Here’s the “TOOLS TO USE”…
1) TINTED LIP GLOSS. Any brand should do you justice but I prefer something that will last and has not only flavor but super shine. Victoria Secret has a great selection that is so perfect, I almost regret sharing that tip!
2) BLUSH. Double use out of one perfect product! I like Revlon because they have this slight shimmer and seem to give u a radiant glow for cheeks and even eyes.
3) BROWN LINER. Bring out your eyes, brows or lips, depending on your style. Brown is an easy mix or match and goes with most skin tones. NYC brands work fine and the price makes it easier to buy and not feel bad.
4) DARK EYE SHADOW. Just in case your day out turns into a night out, a dark shadow can really add a dramatic and elegant look to most styles. Go with a shimmery Revlon dark shadow to spice up your look.
5) A CHEAP LITTLE BROW RAZOR! Great to have in case you missed a spot shaving, your eyebrows are growing in and you run into someone important or you have a stray hair on an embarrassing place. Little life saver razor, any brand does the job!
Makeup for men: Marketing folly or about time?
I suppose that everyone should be given choice, and in the area of make-up that the choices are there for men to take advantage of as well as women. Society tells us that it’s somehow not acceptable for men to wear make-up, though let’s take a look at some of the things that society see as acceptable in order to try and get the argument into some kind of perspective.
*Women should use make-up to enhance their features.
*Women should dye their hair
*Women should rip their excess body hair out by the roots.
*Women should use anti aging products
So let’s turn this argument the other way and look at how these expectations are compared with expectations we have of men.
*Men should use deodorant
*Men should use aftershave
*Men should shave
*Men should mature naturally
Looks a little out of balance doesn’t it ? Men have society strongly on their side in that a man that looks older has that Mature look, whereas women that look older just look old. To redress the balance, society also accept that make-up and anti aging products are for women because of society’s expectations of them.
Men, on the other hand do use beauty products, though they don’t call them the same kind of names as those which apply to women. Shaving foam is seen as a necessity rather than a cosmetic product. After shave is seen as an enhancement, rather than as a perfume. The image that human beings have of men don’t actually sit very well with the idea that men should wear make-up.
Let’s look at the make-up available in society and it’s uses :
*Lipstick
*Blusher
*Foundation
*Eye liner
*Eye shadow
Lipstick is used to enhance the curve of a woman’s lips. Do we as a society really want men to enhance their look ? I somehow feel that lipstick would actually look silly on a man unless used for filming purposes or unusual circumstances such as in a public performance, and certainly the idea of a man using lipstick is a little abhorrent.
Blusher is used to give the face a little color. Could men use it ? Perhaps, though in the case of men, I would imagine that there are better alternatives that would look better, and certainly a tanned skin would look far better than pink cheeks.
Foundation is used to obliterate those flaws in a woman’s skin. Used wisely and in small proportions, what’s to say that men may not be able to use it to hide flaws ? I am not suggesting that they cover their whole face area, although there would appear to be a market for stop foundation
