I have a friend who started making her own soy candles and I absolutely love them!  I know it’s a little off-topic for this blog, and yes, I’m a guy telling you that I love soy candles, but to be honest - I love candles!

Every girl I meet always tells me how much they enjoy the candles I have at my place.  I’ve become the un-authority on various types of candles to get - and I’m manly enough to say, “I’m OK with that!”

What types of candles do you enjoy?

Eyebrows are an essential quality in the contours of the face. Marlene Deitrich’s high brow punctuation, Brooke Shields’ drama and Angelina Jolie’s sweeping elegance are key factors to their memorable beauty. So, Before you apply any makeup, use your tweezers to shape and clean up your eyebrows.
When tweezing your eyebrows, have a toner available to pat the areas of exfoliation to close the pore and reduce any redness.
For regular every day wear you may just choose to brush your brows, if you are happy with how they look naturally. If you feel they need a little extra definition, use an eyebrow powder to softly fill in any sparsely foliated areas. It is important to maintain the natural appeal of your eyebrows. Marlene’s exotic high brow of yesterday would be today’s overdone.
Perfectly groomed brows really are a must. The shape and definition of yours deserve Chanel Perfect Brows, Anastasia Brow Ex-Press or Ariane Poole London Brow Kit.
If you are like Brooke Shields and you only need to be tamed, try Origins Just Browsing. Your natural beauty is unique and the subtle enhancement of your natural gifts lends you the indescribable grace, elegance, and exotic quality radiant in the most revered women in the world.

M.A.C.’s Lip Glass product descriptions read like Lip Gloss meets Sex in the City. With colors named “Explicit” “Oh Baby”, “Entice”, “Nymphette” and “Full on Lust”, you might as well be sitting on the set in New York, listening to Sarah Jessica Parker and the girls comparing sexploits.

There are a few shades like Pink Lemonade, Pink Poodle, and Chai for the less seasoned and adventurous, but the “Lust, “Underage”, “Spite” and “Oyster Girl” entourage somewhat outweigh the “Pop Mode” flavors.

Bonne Belle created the first lip smackers, lip salve with flavor. With reports questioning the healthful effects of lip gloss, they have done a very smart thing. They have posted the ingredients of Lip Smackers. It is very interesting to note the natural quality of the ingredients: 

Castor oil - A natural oil obtained from the seeds of Ricinus Communis to add emolliency and gloss.

Beeswax - A natural purified wax from the honeycomb of the bee, Apis Mellifera to give structure and rigidity.

Cetyl Acetate - Gives emollience and gloss to the lips and acts as a conditioner.

Lip gloss, lip smackers, lip glass, are all ways of describing the ultimate sexy sheen that slides across the lips of millions of women. Since 1973 Bonne Bell has been exciting lips to enthrall not just the original outdoorsy health conscious mouth but the young, fresh, and eager feminine market as well.

To be different, Bonne Bell named after the owner’s daughter, created flavors beginning with strawberry. Well, that took the market by storm. Lip gloss was seen as an innocent, young and disarming manner in which to enhance your mouth, without seeming too daring. And why not make it taste good?

The final beautification step our Diva role models like Halle Barre, Liv Tyler, and Nicole Kidman use for presenting the perfect complexion to the public is reducing the shine prevalent in the T-Zone of your face. Your forehead, nose and chin create a T that under the cameras, the glare of the movie set, and the ugly office lights could gleam due to excess oil that neither the foundation nor the concealer can mask.
This is simple to transform. Take a makeup sponge, dab it into either loose powder or a matting product and lightly pat your t-zone and around your eyes to control the shine and set the concealer. Use a sponge because it gives a finer and more controlled application than a powder puff.
This technique is especially beneficial for mature skin. By using a sponge, you help prevent the powder from settling into fine facial lines which create a wrinkled, aging effect. The  goal is to decrease the attention to these lines.
There are also some excellent anti-shine products on the market now. Clinique’s Stay Matte Oil-Blotting Sheets and Chanel’s Blotting Paper are both excellent. There is definitely something to be said for removing the situation rather than adding to it.

What you may ask has Liv Tyler or Halle Barre to conceal? That is the point. Their flawless complexions are natural. But they can also withstand the rigors of High Candle Production lights and lurid camera glares because their make up artists have taught them to work miracles with concealers.
When choosing a concealer, look for a cream that can be applied with a brush. Many cream concealers come with a brush. Even so, to make sure that your application is always flawless, us a professional quality sable brush. Club Monaco carries an excellent one.
Get into the habit of having extra brushes and other beauty tools on hand. Concealer can only hide or blend if the tool applying it is clean and capable. Walmart may be open 24 hours 7 but are you going to find what you need?
Apply the concealer under the eye and on the eyelid. Blend it in well by using a tapping motion with your finger tips. Now apply it only to the areas that need it. Because you have applied the foundation first, concealer can be targeted exactly for the places that need it most. This way, you use less and create a smoother appearance.

The first step in creating a look that emulates the natural beauty and assets of women like J Lo, Liv Tyler, Angelina Jolie, and Nicole Kidman is to prime your skin. Then, either apply foundation first and dab concealer on, or dab concealer on first and dab foundation on. The idea is that if your skin is good, you can skip the foundation.
For our role model beauties, foundation is a base because they use very high quality, light weight products such as Laura Mercier Foundation, Origins Nude & Improved Bare Face Make-up, Bare Escuentuals Mineral Foundation or Stila Illuminating Liquid Foundation. They first apply the foundation to even out any imperfections. When under intense scrutiny, it is important to even out your imperfections and conceal any redness. 
To apply the foundation, use your fingers and a tapping motion to blend the liquid evenly over your face and neck. There is nothing more mortifying than a two-toned face one or two shades darker or lighter than your neck. Remember, a featherweight foundation can act as protection and the ultimate blender that allows concealer to be a subtle tool of miracle complexion perfection. And always, the rule of thumb is to thine own skin be true!

Today, the key term in makeup is BLENDING. Exotic eyes are created by using a dramatic application of soft, smokey, and shimmering eye shadow colors. Brushes are key tools for achieving the blended look.
Start with pale, shimmering colors for the upper lid. Try a pale shimmering yellow, or ivory brushed over the entire lid, from lash to brow and into the crease. Bobbi Brown Bone, Lorac Beige Eye Shadow, or Laura Mercier Butter Cream create a delicious lustrous quality.
Next comes some of the subtle blending which creates the sultry drama. Blend over the entire upper lid, a taupeish neutral color such as Stila Wheat, Bobbi Brown Fawn or Nars Bali.
This next step is how to achieve the sultry doe-like look. Empahsize the outer corners of your eyes with a charcoal/brown/black shadow. If you are using a yellow tint on your upper lids, use a smokey grey hue for the corners. Bobbi Brown Smoke, Smashbox Smashing Smoke or Lancome Color Design Couture are excellent eye shadows.
Sweep the smokey color onto the outer corners of the eyes and along base of the lower lashes. Extend this deep shade to slightly beyond the corners to accentuate the almond shape.

Some women like Live Tyler, Nicole Kidman, and Angelina Jolie use make up sparingly because they have gorgeous skin. I decided I would investigate how the average woman could achieve the same results. Never fear, your skin can have the same opalescence and shimmering radiance by applying similar techniques and products, and a healthy dose of self-appreciation.
Concealer, foundation, and professional techniques achieve miracles and instill confidence which is the greatest beauty miracle of all.
First, prepare, freshen, and prime your skin. Stimulating the blood vessels and shrinking your pores returns your skin to it’s baby-like soft purity. Various products are available from ozonated water to rosemary water, and witch hazel on the natural herb side of the counter to Laura Mercier Foundation Primer or Clarins Beauty Flash Balm on the commercial cosmetic side.
Eating lots of fresh unrefined food low on sugars and fats accomplishes half the miracle. My Grandmother’s Grandmother had the soft, firm and radiant complexion of a twenty-year old when she was ninety. She only used cold water and corn meal and completed her ablutions with a splash of her rosemary water.
Makeup always looks better when starting with fresh, firm, and radiant skin.