You Ask: Dr Warren Wallo Answers Your Dry Skin and Eczema Qs

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

ask dr wallo

As the Director of Scientific Affairs at beauty mega-corp Johnson & Johnson, it’s a safe bet that Dr Warren Wallo knows a thing or fifty million about skin, so when I heard he’d be in town for the launch of Aveeno’s new Dermexa line, a daily skincare regime suitable for dry skin sufferers and those prone to eczema, I reckoned a few of you might have some pretty specific questions I could put to him.

So this is a targeted post - if you’ve an issue around dry, flaking skin or skin that’s prone to eczema, please do leave a comment. I’ll put the best ones to him and post them up next week. Get going!

Tags: and you shall receive, Ask, eczema, Skincare
Posted in Ask, and you shall receive, Skincare | 23 Comments »

Ask & You Shall Receive: How To Stop Feet Slipping in Heels?

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

Sexy black patent platform high heels stilettos

Cathy was on to me recently with a timely problem, now that we’re well into Autumn. She wanted to know how to keep her feet from slipping in high heels when she’s wearing tights, and hoped that I might have some tips or tricks to share that would ease the transition from bare legs back to opaques.

However, since I recently went flying out of a pair of snazzy new studded numbers while wearing a pair of black tights (and carrying a glass of milk and a mug of tea which went flipping everywhere), I suspect I am not really best placed to help Cathy with her query. My usual strategy is just to walk more slowly and more deliberately than usual, which tends to do the job in terms of keeping my shoes on my betighted feet but has the unfortunate side effect of making me look like I really, really need the loo.

I’ve heard that the likes of Party Feet and Foot Petals and similar products that stick in your shoe underneath where the ball of your foot sits are good for improving grip when wearing tights; you could also try heel grips to do the same job. Other anecdotal solutions include using strips of tit tape across the soles of your tights - or giving both them and the insides of your shoes a blast of hairspray to get rid of the worst of the slippiness.

Well, it’s hardly any madder than using it as a make-up fixative…

Have you ladies any wisdom to impart on this important issue?

Tags: ask & you shall receive, heels, shoes, tights
Posted in Ask, and you shall receive, Hands, Body & Feet, How to? | 14 Comments »

Ken Boylan Reveals The Answers to Your Makeup Dilemmas #2

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

We had part one of Ken’s two-post series dedicated to your beauty blunders and cosmetic crapness late last month, so here’s part two. Has Mr Boylan tackled your query? Read on to find out!

What can one do with ‘deep set’ eyes? I can’t do proper smokey eyes as you can’t see my eyelids at all. Unfortunately I can’t emphasize my lips instead as they are huge already, but eyeshadows just never show on my eyelids.

If you have deep set eyes, apply a block of color on to your eyelid, and then blend with the blending brush all over the eyelid and into the socket. If you blend it well enough it will move slightly above the eye socket and will make your eyes slightly bigger. Also what you can do is to emphasize your bottom lid with shadow once again to open the eye and if you get a very shimmery eye shadow and apply on to the ball of your closed eye and open it, it will give a sort of shinny 3D effect when you blink. This will make the eye look beautiful.

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Tags: and you shall receive, Ask, How to?, ken boylan, tips
Posted in Ask, and you shall receive, How to? | 14 Comments »

Twitterific: Blogging Your Beauty Qs in 140 Characters (or less!)

Friday, July 31st, 2009

Via Twitter, I solved some of your most pressing beauty dilemmas in 140 characters - or less - recently, and here’s round two. If for no other reason than the invention of this most efficient way of answering cosmetic conundrums, I would have to say that Twitter is a VG Development Now Altogether. You can join us - please do! - and with no further ado, here are a few more snappy solutions:

MontyC Powder over a tinted moisturiser - good idea or bad idea?

Not necessarily but use loose translucent so as not to add colour - negating the purpose of tinted moisturiser! - and go very lightly

kaosullivan broke my leg pretty badly and now have 12” scar from the op on my shin. How should I cover it up? Tried Sally Hanson to no avail.

You could check out Estee Lauder’s Maximum Coverage for Face and Body - brand new, and full coverage

nicnestor little spots few days after waxing top lip?? advice please!!

Wax with clean hands, and follow with a wipe-over of something soothing like Tweezerman After Tweeze or aloe gel + avoid touching much

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Tags: and you shall receive, Ask, How to?, twitter
Posted in Ask, and you shall receive | 7 Comments »

Beautie.nomics: Scrub Up On The Cheap!

Friday, July 24th, 2009

scrubs

A friend of mine recently asked me for some recommendations for a body scrub. She had been using Clinique’s Sparkle Skin Body Exfoliator and liked it, but thought it was probably a good idea to look for something a bit cheaper. “But please don’t tell me to try olive oil and sea salt or something,” she pleaded, “I’m not looking to make more work for myself!”

So with this brief in mind, off I went to check the shelves of Boots for some worthy and less pricey alternatives. Now just because you’re spending less on it, it doesn’t mean you have to accept an inferior product. There are some lovely products available that won’t break the bank, and will even look good in your bathroom.

Under €10

Bliss founder Marcia Kilgore created the Soap & Glory line with the motto “you shouldn’t have to spend an arm and a leg just to moisturise one” in mind and sure enough, there are a number of lovely scrubs available from the brand’s Original Pink line at this bargain price point. Scrub Actually combines brown sugar, white sugar and apricot kernel oil for a smoothing and moisturising experience, Flake Away Body Scrub leaves your skin beautifully scented with bergamot and mandarin fragrances and softened with grapeseed and almond oils, while Scrub Of Your Life Smoothing Body Buffer is a foaming scrub ideal when you’re in a hurry in the shower.

Under €15

If you can afford to splash out a bit more, Soap & Glory’s Spa line offers the very tempting Sugar Crush. It comes in a generous 450ml tub and contains brown sugar, sweet lime, almond oil and macadamia grains, for a truly mouth-watering scrubbing experience.

Another great option at this price is the Sanctuary Mande Lular Sensuous Body Scrub. Based on an Indonesian bath ritual, this scrub combines exfoliating rice bran wax, skin soothing turmeric and antioxidant vitamin E to help revitalise your skin, leaving it smooth, soft and glowing.

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Tags: beautienomics, body scrubs, Clinique, sanctuary, Soap & Glory
Posted in Ask, and you shall receive, Beaut.ienomics - brilliant budget buys, Hands, Body & Feet | 19 Comments »

Ken Boylan Reveals All (The Answers to Your Questions, That is)

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

A few weeks ago the lovely, talented, handsome Ken Boylan (if I flatter him shamelessly hopefully he’ll consent to answer some more Qs for us again, eh?) offered to cast his expert eye over some of your most confounding beauty dilemmas.

Was yours picked? Read on to find out!

What’s a nice powder to set foundation? I couldn’t be without powder but it usually takes from any nice dewy effect that the foundation may have, and can sometimes make my makeup look very dull and flat. I usually use a loose translucent powder

Loose powders are really good and very economical because you get so much in them, and I also like pressed powders because they fit into your handbag. Really good powder shouldn’t take away from the dewiness of your foundation - but if you apply powder too heavily it will go cakey and chalky on your skin.

My advice is to use a good quality brush to lightly apply powder onto the face. Good pressed powders are L’Oreal True Match and Armani pressed powder, and if you are looking for a loose product, I would recommend Armani lose powder which is very good, as is Smashbox’s. All of these powders have silicone in them to make them slightly dewy.

I don’t know how to blend eyeshadow! I never get it right - I end up spreading it all over my eyelids (not a good look) or else making it disappear. Please help!

When you’re using a powder eye shadow, make sure that your eyelid is completely dry before applying it. If the eyelid is in any way oily and you apply shadow straight on to it, it will stick - and you won’t be able to blend with your brush. Also, make sure that the brush you are using is the right size and shaping for blending: I use what’s known as a ponytail brush for this.

When you’re using your brush keep the blending motion small - avoid big sweeping motions because the shadow will go all over the eye and not just in the desired area. If you blend too much your eye shadow will disappear.

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Tags: and you shall receive, Ask, Boylan & Balfe, How to?, tips
Posted in Ask, and you shall receive, How to? | 13 Comments »

By The Power of Twitter I Solve Your Beauty Dilemmas in 140 Characters (or less)

Friday, July 17th, 2009

Ah, we love a bit of Twitter, so we do. For someone like me who never shuts up and has a similarly rambling writing style, training myself to impart meaning in 140 characters isn’t that easy.

But we’re livin’ in a fast movin, app-tastic, txt is GR8! crazy world, aren’t we? So instead of doing what I usually do and phoning up some poor beauty pro to badger them for quotes and expert opinion to help solve your beauty dilemmas in a wordy fashion, I sent a request out on Twitter.

“attn all,” I burbled, “going to try a post where I solve twittered beauty Qs in 140 characters. Anyone fancy a punt at a dilemma?”

So, did anyone? Oh you betcha. You feckers bombarded me with some pretty tricky questions, some of which I am going to attempt to solve now, in 140 characters, or less. Eek*

its_ams @beautie lol how do I stop my fake eyelashes falling into my pint?

A) don’t wear any, B) use Duo adhesive (at MAC counters), or failing that, stop holding your pint so close to your eyes!

mummymaps @beautie How to beautify thy feet? i.e. prompted by hilar but true comments by @mcawilliams this am!

Certainly, ma’am. Try a week of Flexitol, a scrub with a Ped Egg and a nice nail varnish

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Tags: and you shall receive, Ask, How to?, twitter
Posted in Ask, and you shall receive | 4 Comments »

Ask Ken! Your Makeup Dilemmas Solved

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

ken boylan

Ah, we do love a bit of Ken Boylan round here: one of Ireland’s star makeup artists, he’s half of makeup artist Boylan and Balfe and he’s the king of the smokey eye - I should know, cos he’s worked his magic on mine.

To celebrate the fact that himself and his equally fab partner in crime, Ellie Balfe, are setting up shop in South William Street’s Salon Zeba from September, he’s going to answer a few of your biggest dilemmas. While I have no doubt that Ken has the lowdown on where to source a crack plumber and how to mend a broken heart, he’s going to be turning his attention to your maquillage mistakes this time round (perhaps we can convince him to become Beaut.ie’s resident agony uncle?)

So, ever wondered just how to get that blended shadow look or confused as to why all your makeup attempts are more coco the clown than Coco Rocha? Ask Ken! He’s got the gen!

Leave your query in the comments and we’ll put the best ones to him for answering edification. Take it away!

Tags: and you shall receive, Ask, expert, ken boylan
Posted in Ask, and you shall receive | 24 Comments »

How To: Peter Mark’s Michael Doyle on YOUR Hair Dilemmas!

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

You lot got a chance to ask Michael Doyle your ’sleb and trend-related hair queries a while ago and the poor fella’s been slaving over a hot laptop ever since. Did he get round to your question? There’s only one way to find out - read on for this hair expert’s pro tips.

I’ve really wanted to get hair extensions for a long time now and recently heard about a technique which involves surgical tape! Have you heard of this method, and would you recommend this or a different variety of hair extensions? I have the clip-in variety but having naturally light blonde hair I cannot find a shade of blonde that correctly matches, so they always look very fake!

Since Cheryl Cole first appeared on X Factor last year, big bouncy hair is all the rage. While her hair is beautiful it is incredibly difficult for most women to achieve this look unless you add hair extensions. I would never recommend permanent or semi permanent hair extensions because they cause such damage to your natural hair which can take years to repair. Clip on hair is a great way to add length and volume to your hair.

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Tags: Bumble & Bumble, Hair & Hair Removal, michael doyle, Peter Mark, ss09
Posted in Ask, and you shall receive, Hair & Hair Removal, How to? | 6 Comments »

John Frieda Senior Stylist Jake Davis Answers Your Questions!

Monday, May 25th, 2009

OK, er, I have a confession to make: when I met Jake Davis, we spent far too much time nattering and so, um, I only got five of your questions answered.

I have medium length curly hair - any idea of an easy to manage style? I am useless at blow drying!

The most important thing, says Jake, is to keep layers long. “Make sure that your hairdresser gives you some definition around the face too,” he adds. Both of those things will be the foundation on which your hair-care programme rests. “Use the Curl Around range,” Jake recommends. It relaxes and prepares hair, and afterwards use a styling product like Spiral Style Curl-Defining Spray Gel before you do a quick blast with the dryer. “Frizz-Ease serum is also perfect for curls,” he advises.

I have straight hair, and I like to keep it long - but the weight of it pulls down so it has no volume around my head. Are there any tips or tricks that could give it some oooomph?

Jake showed me how to do this while he was blow-drying my own gruaig to perfection. Layers can help to start off with because they take some of the weight out of a full head of long, heavy hair - which is a recipe for a volume-less crown. You can read some of my tips for volume on my post on managing frizzy barnets, but Jake’s tip is a blow-drying one. Use a good few squirts of Blow Dry Lotion in wet hair and then when drying, flip your parting the wrong way, blowdry using a round brush, and then flip hair back to its normal parting. Voila! Instant volume!

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Tags: and you shall receive, Ask, Hair & Hair Removal, jake davis, John Frieda
Posted in Ask, and you shall receive, Hair & Hair Removal | 6 Comments »