Makeup tips for real women
April 21st, 2008
Do you ever get that feeling that you have “outgrown” your make-up? It’s sort of like outgrowing your pants. You realize the look that worked in your 20s all of a sudden seems to not work anymore when you hit your 30s. Or when you become a mom and stop getting any sleep.
I look at photos from when my son was born back in September to what I look like now…and it seems like the 7 months of lousy sleep has put 5 years on my face. The bags under my eyes have bags large enough to be charged an extra $25 if they were going to fly US Air anytime soon. And the cover-up that used to hide the circles isn’t enough anymore.
But what’s a mom to do without a lot of time or cash in the budget for beauty products? When it seems like all of the info on beauty products out there promises to get rid of wrinkles and “aging signs” that don’t go away…and all of the women advertising this stuff are either 25, 25 and airbrushed, or 35, botoxed and airbrushed. Or had really great lighting. (Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could walk around with people carrying studio lighting for us all day so we could all look dewy and stunning?)
For a long time, I have been following the work of Paula Begoun. She is a former make-up artist turned consumer advocate and publisher of Don’t Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me (currently in its 8th edition), a book that puts in real people-speak exactly what the cosmetics companies are selling and if it works or not. However, the book is huge, so going to the website and accessing all of her reviews there (www.beautypedia.com) is worth the $25/year subscription. You can search just about any cosmetics and skincare line available in the US as a whole or product-by-product! And to save you time and money, she has her list of Paula’s Picks, so you don’t have to try to figure out what is good and what isn’t. She even has a free cosmetics dictionary for nerds like me who like to look up exactly what is in my face cream.
And guess what–you’ll find that there are plenty of products at the drugstore that are good to even better than what the department stores carry. For a lot less. (What a relief for those of us who like paying 99 cents for a lipstick!) So it was back to consult Paula again, to find out what to do with this ol’ face of mine. More on that next week.
But in the meantime…have you found any drug store products that have worked better than the department stores?
Copyright 2008-2009 Kristin Delfau, author of Turbo-Mom's Guide to Saving Money Without Wasting Time a womens' personal finance book, and Aji Publishing.
Tags: advertising, beauty, make-up, skin care
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