Crystal Kung Minkoff’s Green Sequin Confessional Dress

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Season 11 Fashion

While joining the cast of RHOBH can be quite intimidating due to their “loud” sense of style, newbie Crystal Kung Minkoff appears to be getting the hang of things. Case in point: her green sequin confessional dress, which with it’s futuristic shoulder design definitely pumps up the volume to just the right level.

Fashionably,

Faryn

Click Here to Shop Her Aggi Dress

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Click Here to Shop it in White

Originally posted at: Crystal Kung Minkoff’s Green Sequin Confessional Dress

It all started in the aisles of Parisian pharmacies, with low-key French girls snapping up bottles of liquid facial cleanser that required little more than a sweep across the face to remove makeup. As the rest of the world caught on to the soft power of the best micellar water, few could resist its ease of use. It employs balls of oil, or micelles, to sweep dirt and makeup away without scrubbing, stinging the eyes or stripping the skin’s natural oils.

Now, scoring our own bottles of Bioderma Sensibio H2O Micellar Water (a French pharmacy original that finally launched in the US in 2015), has become as easy as making a drugstore run. What’s more, just about every beauty brand has gotten in on the action. But can a no-rinse, no-foam cleansing solution really clean pores to a dermatologist’s standards?

Kind of, sort of, says Dr. Joshua Zeichner, a New York-based dermatologist and director of cosmetic and clinical research in dermatology at Mount Sinai Hospital. To start, micellar water pulls off a pretty cool trick: Inside the liquid solution are balls of oil, or micelles, which act as magnets to attract and pull away dirt and soil when it comes in contact with the skin. Better yet, these micelles are selective in how they cleanse, making for a more skin-nurturing experience.

“Because micelles are surfactant molecules, they really only target surface impurities such as makeup and dirt,” notes Dr. Catherine Chang, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon based in Beverly Hills. “It’s gentle and not strong enough to strip away the skin’s natural oils.”

That means, unlike cleansers that employ stronger surfactants (such as foaming agents), micellar water’s gentle approach isn’t designed to rob the skin barrier of its natural moisture or cause irritation. It’s an effect that particularly benefits dry and sensitive skin types (including those with rosacea), but as Dr. Zeichner points out, micellar’s ability to baby the skin barrier is considered a win for just about anyone.

“The goal of cleansing is to remove dirt from the skin without compromising the integrity of the skin barrier,” he says. “Harsh cleansers can disrupt the outer skin layer, leading to irritation and inflammation. While all cleansers, including micellar water, may remove natural oils from the skin to some degree, the micellar water technology is so mild, that it doesn’t have a significant impact on the outer skin layer—yet it’s still strong enough to remove makeup in a non-irritating way.”

What’s more, many micellar water products contain the same types of hydrating ingredients found in traditional moisturizers—like glycerin and aloe vera—to further aid skin barrier health.

But before you go tossing your traditional cleansing gels, oils and foams, know this: micellar water’s cleaning power has its limits. “Despite claims that it is enough to be used solo to dissolve makeup, I think most people will find that the micellar water is good as a first step followed by a gentle facial cleanser,” says Dr. Chang. Those who wear sunscreens (which should be all of us, really) and/or full-beat makeup will likely need to take several passes over the skin with micellar water to remove these products. Plus, as Dr. Zeichner notes, “many people with oily skin may not find them to be powerful enough to fully remove excess sebum from the skin.”

To this end, Dr. Chang suggests users, regardless of skin type, rinse micellar water products with water (even if it’s designed to be a no-rinse product), then follow its use with a typical facial cleanser to sufficiently cleanse the skin.

While micellar water isn’t the swipe-and-go, total cleansing solution we may have envisioned in our effortless French girl fantasies, the method does prove a Godsend for cleansing skin without obliterating the skin barrier or irritating eyes. Ahead, find 10 ways to remove makeup and dirt—without the burn.

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Nordstrom.

Odacité Blue Aura Cleansing Water

This formula uses plant-based micelles (made from castor oil) in aloe vera juice to cleanse while simultaneously delivering vitamins and antioxidants to the skin thanks to a host of Ayurvedic herbs inside. But what makes this cleanser worth the splurge is its ability to address oily skin with the help of grapefruit zest and salicylic acid.

Garnier.

Garnier SkinActive Micellar Cleansing Water with Rose Water

Proof you don’t have to spend a gob of money to get a gentle micellar water that erases makeup in a heartbeat? This vegan formula that’s free of alcohol and added fragrance. After holding a cotton pad saturated with this formula over no-budge mascara and eyeliner designed for 36-hour wear, one swipe erased nearly all our makeup with zero eye irritation whatsoever.

Buy: Cleansing Water with Rose Water $6.49

Mary Kay.

Mary Kay Micellar Water

This no-nonsense micellar water elegantly sweeps makeup and debris away without dehydrating skin, thanks to a dose of glycerin inside. Your skin has never felt softer.

Payot Paris.

Payot Crème N°2 Eau Lactée Micellaire

This milky take on micellar, created with microbiome-balancing probiotics by a heritage French brand, makes face cleansing quintessentially French experience (as in, practically effortless). It’s all thanks to a no-mess pump dispenser and fragrance-free formula that amazingly picked up undetectable traces of dirt that lingered on our neck and decolletage after a sweaty hike.

Buy: Eau Lactée Micellaire $26

Náu.

Náu Age Control Micellar Water

More cleanser than makeup remover (this formula is not intended for use around the eyes), this liquid managed to lift mineral SPF from our skin and kick out a refreshing cherry scent as well, thanks to sour cherry seed oil inside.

Buy: Age Control Micellar Water $20

It Cosmetics.

IT Cosmetics Miracle Water Micellar Cleanser

Part micellar water, part essence, part skin brightener, this multitasking liquid is the ultimate lazy person product. It contains a laundry list of power ingredients usually reserved for serums and essences, including peptides, hydrolyzed collagen, licorice root, vitamin C, diamond powder and a cocktail of fermented ingredients. Despite being pumped with so many actives, the formula proved non-irritating on our skin and managed to pick up trace amounts of makeup we thought had long worn off.

Drunk Elephant.

Drunk Elephant E-Rase Milki Micellar Water

With ceramides, fatty acids, vitamin E, and a host of plant-derived oils, the ingredient list of this micellar water reads more like that of a rich moisturizer than a cleanser. The result: a milky, lotion-like cleanser that sweeps away eye makeup and mineral sunscreen, but also leaves skin feeling plump and hydrated.

Bioderma.

Bioderma Sensibio H2O

The French pharmacy staple is still one of the best because it sweeps away makeup without irritating skin—or breaking the bank.

Buy: Sensibio H2O $14.99

Almay.

Almay Biodegradable Oil Free Micellar Eye Makeup Remover Pads

Mild surfactants join aloe leaf, camellia and cucumber extracts in a travel-friendly wipe that erased mascara, eyeliner and eyeshadow without irritating our eyes. (Though those with a sensitivity to isopropyl alcohol may want to opt for another formulation.)

Youngblood.

Youngblood Micellar Water with Colloidal Silver

This micellar water contains common players (aloe, glycerin and a plant-derived emulsifier) plus a hydrating fatty alcohol for cleansing, as well as colloidal silver for its anti-inflammatory properties.

Many of us don’t realize how many options we have when it comes to healthcare. As you near retirement, you probably assume that you’ll get Original Medicare and nothing else. While you can do this, there are many other options out there.

This begs a few questions. First and foremost, what options are available to qualifying adults? What should you consider before making a decision? Finally, when can you make changes to your existing Medicare plan? We will answer all of these questions and more in the following guide. Let’s take a look at a few different methods to effectively shop for the right Medicare plan(s) for you.

Review Your Healthcare Needs

Everyone’s body and mind are unique. What works for you may not work for someone else. As a result, you shouldn’t assume that there is a one-size-fits-all Medicare option. Instead, you and your doctor will need to evaluate your individual healthcare needs to help you choose the best plan for you.

Based on your medical history, preexisting conditions, and family health history, you may need a plan that offers better coverage for certain conditions. For example, some people opt for a Medicare Advantage plan to get additional coverage like vision, dental, and hearing.

Evaluate Your Budget

Generally, Medicare is the most affordable health insurance option for older adults. However, some Medicare plans are more expensive than others. For example, many people don’t have to pay a premium for Part A, but the deductible is relatively high.

Alternatively, Part B has a higher monthly premium with a very low deductible. There are also Medicare Supplement plans to help with some of these costs. Thus, you’ll need to evaluate your budget to see how much you can reasonably spend on healthcare each month, quarter, and year.

Know the Medicare Open Enrollment Timeline

It’s pointless to prepare for Medicare shopping if you don’t know when to obtain a new Medicare plan. Fortunately, there are several months before the 2021 Medicare Open Enrollment (MOE) period starts. This period lasts from October 15 until December 7.

If you want to switch to a different Medicare plan and have it go into effect on January 1, 2022, you’ll need to make the change before December 7. Otherwise, you might need to wait a full year to make any changes.

Next Steps

Medicare does not have to be complicated. Shopping for the right Medicare plan just requires a little bit of preparation, as well as an understanding of your health needs and budget. Once you have adequately prepared, you’ll be ready to find the perfect Medicare plan in no time!

Have you looked at all your Medicare options? Has your doctor helped you in figuring out what kind of coverage you will need? Do any medical conditions factor in your choice? How did you shop around? Please share your experience and tips with the community!

A few days ago, when I was preparing for a Zoom makeup consultation with a client, I applied makeup on one side of my face only. This type of makeup application allows me to show the results on one side of my face and then demonstrate on the other side the application techniques to get that look (as in the video above).

As I was looking in the mirror after I finished putting the makeup on one side of my face, I was really struck by how using a few specific makeup techniques can almost totally disguise the look of hooded eyes. I’ll share these techniques with you today as well as an intriguing new product for hooded eyes. And at the end, I’ll also share a great tip I just learned to help lift the lip area.

I actually wrote an article and created a video on hooded eyes a little over a year ago, but at that time my eyes were only slightly hooded. Now, a year later, there is no mistaking it. Because I often lift my brows as I talk, it can look like I don’t have hooded eyes.

I can also look a little less like I have hooded eyes because my eyes are quite deep set. But as you’ll see in the closeup on the video, when my eyes are resting and I’m looking straight ahead, you can definitely see how hooded my eyes are.

I’m going to be sharing seven tips with you, but you certainly don’t have to use all of these tips. I just want to give you as many options as possible from which you can choose.

Give Some Love to Your Eyebrows

Anything we can do to lift our eyes will help negate the hooded look. So an area of our face where we first need to give some love is our eyebrows. In the video I’ve already filled in my eyebrows, but if you’d like some help, check out these two videos: “Tips for Sparse Eyebrows with Demos Using Different Products” and “Eyebrow How-To for Older Women: 1 of the 4 Things We Can Do To Look Our Best.”

Eye Primer Is Our Friend

The next step is to apply a very light coat of eyeshadow primer – one that matches our lid color or is slightly lighter. We want to apply going from the base of our lashes to the eyebrow.

The eyeshadow primer is important because it does three things:

• It brightens our eye area,
• It keeps the oil on our eyelids from breaking through the eyeshadow which causes smudging or creasing of our eyeshadow,  
• It covers up any discoloration on our eyelid area.

And because it brightens our eye area, I also like to bring the primer into the inner corner of my eye area to neutralize the shade we usually see there. In the video I’m using Urban Decay’s Primer Potion in the color “Eden.”

Technique, Color and Placement Are Important

The next five tips focus on the importance of the technique we use, the choice of color and the placement of color.

Using Lighter Color Eyeshadow

To make our eyes look bigger, we want to apply on the entire eyelid area an eyeshadow that is lighter colored than our skin tone.

Why? Because light colors make things come forward and therefore look bigger, and dark matte colors make things look smaller and recede. I’m going to be using a vanilla color from Laura Geller called “French Vanilla,” but you could use a very light version of any color.

Be sure to check out Elise’s YouTube channel which specifically focuses on makeup tips, techniques, and product reviews for those of us 50+. Don’t forget to subscribe!

Technique and Placement

Since many of us with hooded eyes either lose our crease area, because of the skin coming down lower on our eyelid, or the crease area becomes smaller, we’re going to create a brand new crease. To do this, we will use a medium toned color to make the crease area recede. This will create more depth and dimension in our eye area.

To get started, we need to use this mid-tone crease color right under our orbital bone, above the middle of our eye. In the video I demonstrate this technique using my Juvia’s Place Warrior Two palette.

The Most Important Part

Now here’s the most important part: we want to look straight ahead into a mirror without lifting our eyebrows. It’s likely that we won’t be able to see that crease color that we just applied. But, since it’s important that we can see that crease color because we’re creating a brand new crease, we need to bring that color up higher until we can see it.

Then, since we’ve used most of the color that was on our brush, we can bring the brush up higher toward our eyebrow to get a gradual fading of the color as it goes toward our eyebrows.

Color Placement That Lifts Our Eyes

Next, we want to bring that color all the way across our eye area. But instead of following our eye area down as we move toward the temple, we want to go straight across, which will help lift our eye area, and then bring it down to meet the edge of the eye. We’re creating a “backward 7” pattern.

The next step is to use a slightly darker color on the outer area of the crease we’ve created and along the outer lash line and then join those two areas together by patting on or stamping on this darker color.

Then we need to do a good job of blending in those colors. I like to use a different clean brush to blend. And many of us – because we may have texture or crepiness in this area – may need to lift our brows and very gently stretch that outer area so we can make sure to get the color on all the skin throughout this whole area.

Several Options for Application of Eyeliner

The next step is the application of eyeliner. I like to apply eyeliner along the lower lash line first. Using a lighter color than you plan to use along the top lash line, apply it only along the outer one third of the bottom lash line. I like to use eyeshadow and a small, firm, angled eyebrow brush to create a softer look.

The reason I like to apply the bottom eyeliner first is so I can create an upward pattern at the end of my eye that can be connected to the eyeliner above my lashes. By following this natural curve at the bottom of the eye up beyond the eye, we’ll be lifting the eye area. But we want to do this very lightly and tap out the upward end of the line with a finger so it looks very natural.

We also want to make sure that there’s not a harsh, obvious start line along the lower lash line where we began to apply the eyeshadow as eyeliner, so it’s important to feather that line out and soften it with a brush or a Q-tip.

Now let’s talk about the eyeliner above the lash line. Most of us with hooded eyes don’t have much space where we can apply eyeliner above the lash line since the hooded area comes down over our eyelid. Our options are as follows:

Option #1

The first option is to tightline. That means applying a waterproof eyeliner along the waterline under the top eyelid. I’m sure some of you are easily able to do this, but for some of us, it’s just not feasible or comfortable to do.

Option #2

A second option is to place eyeliner color right in-between our lashes by coming up toward the eye from below the lashes.

Option #3

A third option is to use eyeliner going in from above the lashes as close as possible to the lash line using an eyeliner pencil or using eyeshadow as eyeliner. For many of us, it’s easier – and far more forgiving – to apply eyeshadow as eyeliner using a small, firm, angled eyebrow brush or a flat top brush.

Using a brush creates a softer look, and we don’t have to do it perfectly since we can use the brush to blend everything together so it looks perfect. With this option, we don’t want to bring the liner all the way to the end of our lashes. We want to stop before the end of the lashes and bring the eyeliner up to create a more lifted look. Then we want to fill in the area between the line we created coming up from the bottom eyeliner and the top eyeliner.

Then we can use a vanilla colored eyeliner pencil along the bottom water line. This helps the whole eye area look larger. I like to use the matte end of Anastasia of Beverly Hills’ Highlighting Duo Pencil in the shade Matte Camille. The other end is a highlighter and I like to use that end around the inner corner of my eyes.

Lastly, curling our lashes and applying mascara definitely makes our eyes look bigger!

A New Product for Hooded Eyes

There’s also an interesting product for hooded eyes that’s been recently developed. I have not personally tried it yet, but I’ve seen some amazing demonstrations and wanted to let you know about it. The product is called Lids by Design and it consists of eyelid correcting strips made from medical grade materials that are hypoallergenic and latex free.

It’s necessary to clean and dry the eyelids first and then carefully place the strip across the area where the eyelid folds. Then you press and hold the strip down for several seconds to insure a complete bond to the skin.

It’s available in six different sizes and is a one-time use product. Each box contains 80 eyelid tapes. Makeup can be worn over the strips if the company’s Colorset All in One Pencil is applied over the strip and eyelid before applying makeup.

A Tip for Lifting Lips

Now for our last tip, which is a great tip for lifting our lips. Due to gravity and loss of skin elasticity, many of us notice that our lip area can become more downturned over time which unfortunately makes it look like we’re frowning much of the time.

I really enjoy researching and learning tips from other makeup artists that I can share with all of you and this is something I saw from a fabulous UK makeup artist by the name of Lisa Eldridge. Here’s the secret.

Use a little concealer to cover up the top outer edges of your bottom lip. Next, apply lip liner but bring it up before reaching the concealer. This creates an upward rather than an outward line to our bottom lips. It also helps to use lip liner along the outer edge of the lip line and use a lipstick with some shine along with a lip gloss.

Were you born with hooded eyes or have your eyes become more hooded as you’ve gotten older? Do you currently use any makeup products or techniques for hooded eyes? If so, please share the products or techniques that you find particularly helpful.

Sutton Stracke’s White Cat Dress in Confessionals

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Season 11 Fashion

While Sutton Stracke’s style is far different than my own she definitely has some major fashion fans out there. And while I’m also more of a dog person, there are also some feline fanatics out there that dying to get their claws on her white cat confessional dress. Unfortunately it’s not available online and Style Stealers were hard to come by, but please don’t be catty about it.

The Realest Housewife,

Big Blonde Hair

Alexis Mabille RTW 2020

Originally posted at: Sutton Stracke’s White Cat Dress