Yesterday had a theme, right from the moment I woke up and that theme was BODY IMAGE.

First off on Facebook I was greeted by another giant album of family photos that my aunt furiously tagged – with every other photo of myself taken during my ridiculously awkward and self perceived ugly phase.

Then on Stumbleupon I found a particularly poignant documentary about Body Dysmorphic Disorder. I was instantly hooked by the title “Too Ugly for Love”.

When I checked my email a photo sent to me of me on a bicycle pulled my scanning eyeballs directly to what seemed to be a pooching tummy and prompted a couple paranoid thoughts to bubble up about my current weight (the heaviest I’ve ever been after years and years of being underweight). They say (more…)

photo credit: najjie

Do you slick on the gloss for a glamorous pout or go for the creamy stick of lipcolor?

Me? On a desert island I totally have lipgloss on hand.

Aside from that…I’m a layer girl and I use both lipstick and lipcolor daily. Why? Well a few beautiful reasons:

Dimensional Color Applying a coat of lipstick, a shimmery lipgloss highlighter, and then full coat of clear or slightly tinted gives lips glamorous dimension. The colors enhance each other and make it more a custom look overall. You can have a lot of fun mixing and matching various lipglosses with lipsticks for different looks too!

Staying Power Pout
Then there’s the fact that you’ve got more than one layer of color making it last longer throughout the day. Just don’t mash your face into a sandwich and those lips will look lush for hours and hours. If you use a lip pencil to start then you can make that color last even longer!

Moisturizing Color
I live in a desert and my skin already has the tendency for dryness so if I want my color to not look scaly after the first half hour the layer of gloss is a must. This could also be the case for you girls in the dry Midwest, or during dry seasons such as winter and summer. I’ve also found lipgloss alone has a tendency to lose it’s own color (if it’s a tint) really quickly so glossing over the thicker color of a lipstick keeps it moist & colorful.

So it’s really not much of a contest if you think about it – Use both and you’ll maximize your beauty!

Got some favorite lip products you can’t live without? Tell me about it :) My current stockpile includes an assortment of Maybelline Lip Polish glosses – cheap, pretty and complimentary. Try them out yourself and let me know what your current favorites are.

Let me take a moment to get a little personal…

I used to be pathetic at doing my makeup.

Absolutely.

Totally,

And stupidly inept at applying cosmetics to my face in a beautiful and pleasing way. (*Here’s an interesting fact: the word “cosmetics” comes from the Greek word for “order”. Which was totally antithetical to my first newbie designs of course :P)

But I still loved playing with it and would do so every chance I got. I blame this fascination with the magic of makeup on my dad. Yes, my dad. No, he didn’t dress in drag nor was he a circus freak. He just loved Halloween…and theatre :) And I loved watching him transform.

Meanwhile my mother just used the standard neutral toned, basic cover up and color of a busy working woman. Concealer, brown brow pencil, that sort of thing. Not particularly imaginative but functional and easy to put on everyday.

My dad’s makeup was “special” so he would put it high up on a shelf in my parents bedroom closet. Meanwhile my mother’s daily beauty products were easily pilfered just by going into the bathroom and rummaging through cupboards. So being the enterprising pre-glamorgoddess girl I was I snatched up her lipstick and pencils and commenced to make a very bad attempt at “drawing” beauty on myself before the living room mirror.

A minute later my dad spotted this cosmetic horror and yelled at me, saying “Little girls aren’t supposed to wear makeup!”

He was right…mostly cause I made a huge mess of my face.

I kept at it though – and even contemplated a career of makeup artistry. Would that I wasn’t also simultaneously obsessed with other things (travel, socializing, fashion, writing, spazzing out) I just might have made that a reality. As it is I’ve made a nice pastime out of fantasy makeup and even made a few lovely tweaks to my daily makeup routine.

What’s my point here? Have fun with your designs – explore color, shapes, lines, etc. Make it a fun ritual for expressing your personality while also enhancing your natural features. With that sense of play and experimentation you will enhance your learning and even get to know your own unique beauty quickly and easily :)

So, what’s your makeup story? Let me know – I’d love to hear it ;)

Review sites and girl networks are another facet of social media that are super helpful – especially for us girls that grew up without sisters and mom’s that were too busy working to show us a thing or two about buying great beauty products. Bellasugar is one of my favorite communities for product reviews and it’s also a wellspring of information. And like my little bubbles in the screen capture photo say it’s incredibly easy to connect with your Facebook account.

Unlike beauty blogs I find these kind of sites a more dynamic place to find expert information as well as great interaction with other girls. *See below…and notice my total n00bness “Member” status next to the super hot chick’s “Platinum” and “Silver”….I’ll work on it.

BTW – there’s also Popsugar, Fabsugar, Tresugar – which have all sorts of info, articles, and goodies about celebrity gossip, fashion & style, and sex & dating! Really an awesome network so get on there and join in on the beautiful conversation!

That’s all for today and ladies sorry for the lateness in posting! Blame it on Twitter ;)