Made Up Like A Grown Up

After a month or so of the new makeup routine, I've concluded there are a few things I really love. Megan from Princess Street totally had it right on a quick out-the-door face.

Where has tinted moisturizer been for the last 15 years of my life? I've been using the porcelain Laura Mercier tinted moisturizer as my only foundation most days and it's fantastic. When I feel I need to be a bit more polished, I break out the MAC, but most days it's not needed.

The Makeup Forever 5 Camouflage Cream Palette No. 1 is magical. I was a little intimidated by this and the idea that this is my concealer. Yet, after a little trial and error, it's better than any stick concealer I've ever used.

The four-color MAC eye shadow palette is amazing and the MAC Viva Glam lipstick #6 is fab. I am totally in love. Finally, the creamy eye liner from MAC also outstanding.

Now I just need to be better about really washing my face before bed. No reason to age this face any faster.

Making It Up

One of the first items that prompted me to consider documents/blogging about a more mindful life were the products I use on a daily basis. Inspired by my friend Sarah, makeup was on my list of items to reevaluate. So for the past year I've been trying to get through my existing product so I could replace them. After a few false starts, I finally reached a point where I realized a few things.

1. I can't completely run out of everything at the same time

2. I really need to start wearing make up like a grown up, you know a "real" professional.

3. I am completely intimidated by make up, skin care and the women who work at stores that sell them, e.g. MAC.

So I started searching for a consultant that wasn't affiliated with a specific brand. I wanted a translator for the vast world of product. This should have been an easy endeavor, but lacking any direct referrals I had reached a dead end. Then I randomly came across the handy Washingtonian Reader Deals, and voilà Princess Street. 

Megan, the brains behind Princess Street, offers a straightforward service. She'll come to your place and evaluate your current products; make a list based on what you're looking for; go shopping with you to pick out the products; and come back to your place to teach you how to use it all. It's fun and idiot proof. Perfect. Flat fee for her expertise and you buy the products selected based on the budget you set out.

So this past Saturday, I spent my afternoon shopping with my new personal makeup expert for a whole new look. The headline? I really have no idea about make up, but M was super friendly and helpful. Most importantly, she answered the questions that elude me. What's worth a splurge, and what can you just pick up at the drugstore?

So armed with the goal of getting more natural, professional make up we headed out. In retrospect, I was ill equipped to really know if the products we finally selected really fall low enough on the Skin Deep scale to be a true improvement, but I'm going to go through the process of typing the products (the ones not in the database yet) to get an overall rating. Another post for another day.

We hit four stores: MAC, Sephora, CVS and Blue Mercury. I'm also heading to Target to pick up a couple things we couldn't find. 

The list of new products (photos later):

• Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer spf 20 (porcelain)
• Make Up Forever Palette 5 Cremes de Camouflage No. 1
• MAC Mineralize Satinfinish spf 15 Foundation (NC20)
• MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural (medium light)
• MAC Powder Blush (Dame)
• MAC Powder Blush (Prism)
• MAC Eyeshadow Four Palette (need to look up the color names) 
• MAC Technakohl Liner Eye-Liner Kajal (earthline)
• MAC VivaGlam 6 Lipstick
• MAC Mystic Satin Lipstick
• Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion (eden)
• Cover Girl Lash Blast Mascara (very black)We also picked up brushes, more later, as well as a few skin care basics. Day two of trying out the new scheme-- referencing the handy face guides M made for about what to use in what order-- I am slowly thinking I might eventually get this down. But, since I'm starting with a steep learning curve, this could take awhile. So not sure if I hit it out of the park on the natural side, but hopefully I've not purchased a make up bag full of toxins and I might look a bit more put together in the weeks ahead. Well, at least from the neck up.

Washing the Toxicity Out of My Hair

Knowing brilliant people makes the task of learning new things infinitely easier. This often means gaining knowledge you had no idea you were missing. This would one of those times. My brilliant friend Sarah pondered aloud on her blog awhile back the fact that hair/body care products could be toxic and the choices she made to replace the products she and her family use.

No it wasn't just her masterful spidey-sense that caused her to evaluate, she pointed to a nifty database. Where you too can go and enter your various products and contemplate the level of chemicals you're cool with ingesting.

Up until that moment, I had  not considered the possibility that my shampoo might be bad for me. This has gnawed at me now for more than two months as I wash my hair with the Tresemme Natural jumbo bottles I bought on sale at Target. It may or may not be bad for me. I've submitted it to the Skin Deep database to receive a rating. Other products by the same brand are between 5-7, moderately hazardous. What? My shampoo is hazardous?

Now, I'm not running down the block fearful that my hair is going to fall out of my head, but does give me pause that more than one-third of personal care products contain at least one product linked to cancer.

The Skin Deep Database provides a list of worrisome ingredients: Placenta, Fragrance, Mercury, Animal Parts, Lead, Hydroquinone Skin Lightener, Nanoparticles, Phthalates and Petroleum Byproducts.

Now sure, I don't actively buy products with these ingredients, but I'm also not checking every single label of everything I buy. We went fragrance free awhile back with our laundry detergent and dryer sheets without any thought of the environmental impact, but now I'm wondering about the other ingredients.

So, I'm slowly working through an inventory of the various products we have and deciding if I would buy them again when they run out based on their toxicity level. Right now I'm thinking a five or below...maybe a four? Is that even possible with readily available, affordable products?

I've also decided that I'm through with my current makeup, Prescriptives. They have not signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics (see signers). Sarah wrote an interesting post on her makeup on this same point as well. Taking each product through the paces of the database. I'm not sure yet what I'll replace it with, but I'm using each of the products until they're gone and then hoping to make a wholesale change. Suggestions welcome.

So it's an evaluation in progress. I'll let you know what I find out along the way.