Why Pale Skin is SO In.

I've got a lot of Mediterranean genes in me, so growing up I'd start my summers pale white and end them impossibly dark. As I grew into my late teenage years, I grew to love my end-of-the summer tan, because my olive-tinged skin is impossible to find light foundation for. I worked at a pool, yet the hours I wasn't spending in my guard suit were spent tanning in my back yard. I'd get dozens of compliments on my tan, and sometimes the lines would stick around year-round. It made me look fit, unique, and healthy.

So, why am I pale as a ghost now? The simple answer is that I've spent the last four years ferociously avoiding any sort of sun exposure. I work at the pool and now I wear long sleeves and 50 SPF instead of 15. I began doing so reluctantly-- the antibiotics I was taking for my acne made my once burn-proof skin as sensitive as a baby's. After doing a lot of research--and becoming a biochemistry major--I came to completely and totally reject my old tanning ways and realized that pale is in.

Why Pale Is In: Let's Get Real.
Here's the bottom line: a tan is an absolute indicator that you have obtained skin cell damage. Yes, a TAN, not a sunburn. Tanning is your body's mechanism for defense against UV radiation. I mean, did you think it was an evolutionary development to make you look super cute in this season's hot color? To attract a mate, maybe? No, I didn't think so. So why do so many girls keep insisting on ravaging their long-term looks and their health just for a few months of glow?

Tanning Beds: This Way to Skin Cancer
We all know the obvious cosmetic reason to avoid tanning beds: no matter what your skin tone, you will always come out with an unnatural orange tinge. Let's face it: you know which girls have a real tan and which have a fake. But did you know, really know, the cold hard facts about why tanning beds are not for us educated beauties?

Picture by Adem Kaya

According to The Skin Cancer Foundation, people who tan indoors are 74% more likely to develop melanoma than those who have never stepped in a booth. And do you think tanning before vacation is worth your while to avoid a sunburn? I know I once did, you you might want to check this out.

Yes, skin cancer can affect anyone, but why disrespect your body and yourself by drastically increasing those chances? People comment on my pale skin and, occasionally, it makes me feel self-conscious. But why should it? I'm protecting my body and preventing accelerated aging to an enormous extent.

BloggerPR Kickoff Giveaway Hop

Welcome to the BloggerPR Kickoff Giveaway Hop! We are celebrating the launch of BloggerPR, which is a brand new support and media group for bloggers. Over FIFTY blogs are giving away some amazing prizes valued over $25! This even will run from May 21-27, 2012. Join us as we kick off a brand new and exciting venture for our members!

We're giving away Lip Trio Lip Gloss & Plumper from Makeover Essentials, a $32.99 value! We totally love the day-to-night color concept, and the plumper is absolutely wonderful!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: We are not responsible for the content of linked blogs, your liking of the product given away, or the products offered by other giveaways. We adhere to the terms and conditions of the BloggerPR event and Rafflecopter. We have not been compensated for this giveaway and therefore can offer no exchanges for the prize. What you see is what you'll get. One winner only and open only to US residents.

A Clarification on the BeautySage Freebie

We're just slightly annoyed with our sources. Remember our post about this? I think a lot of bloggers are steaming after this email from BeautySage:

In the past day or so, you signed up at BeautySage for a sample box offer. As we care deeply about our customers, we wanted take a moment to clarify the offer.
You are currently signed up to receive a coupon code via email after we launch, which can be redeemed for a free sample box (a $10 value) with your first purchase of $30 or more. As BeautySage currently ships solely in the United States, only U.S. mailing addresses will be eligible.
To be clear moving forward, we have updated our landing page and email confirmation to provide absolute clarity on this offer.
Of course, there is no obligation to participate in this offer, and you can always unsubscribe from our mailing list by clicking the unsubscribe link below or on any future email. With that said, if you would like us to remove you from this offer and our mailing list, please respond to this email and we will do so immediately. If you have any other concerns, we welcome your feedback.
We sincerely apologize for any confusion or inconvenience.
Thank you,The BeautySage team

We apologize if you are not interested... we don't know if we'll still be checking out the site after this. We just wanted to give you clarification as soon as we got it. Boo, it seemed like such a good deal, too.

Finding Your Best Look by Getting Real

Metaphorical show of hands: how many of us look in the mirror every other day and think "I'm too fat" or "I can't believe how awful I look today!" Yes, you do it, I do it, and almost everyone else you know does it. It's normal, right? It's too normal, really, and we all know what it does to our self-esteem. While whittling your self-image away slowly is bad enough (because even if you're saying those things in passing, that's what you're doing), you're also wasting precious time with the mirror. No, we can't stand in front of it all day, and most of us don't. We all want to look good and none of us have unlimited time to do it... so why don't we use our mirror time constructively instead of insulting ourselves half-heartedly?

I think the truth is that all of us are willing to deprecate ourselves for general, transient things like weight, hair, makeup, or skin. Very few of us are willing to give ourselves the constructive criticism necessary to take our appearance to the next level. This is because it's very hard to realistically assess our imperfections without having anyone around to defend them: for example, I'd often lament about the size of my nose, but only loud enough for my significant other to hear and refute it. I wasn't willing to look in the mirror and accept that it was better to accept my nose was large than to constantly hope my image of it was not what the rest of the world sees. Yes, it takes a lot of self-esteem and love to actually accept and embrace your flaws--it took me over two decades!--but when you do, you have a blueprint to drastically improve your look.

Here's my critical study of myself: my nose is wide and long. The length is fine, the width (often enhanced by allergies) is not fitting for the rest of my face. I know that, without makeup and with sunglasses, my cheeks lead me to be mistaken for an awkward teenage girl. What does this mean? I need to play up my brown eyes to draw attention away from the middle of my face. I may even have to break the eyes-or-lips rule to achieve that goal. And I certainly needed to learn makeup contouring.

While it sounds harsh, it's important to understand that beauty is, obviously, relative. The so-called "imperfections" of today were desired years ago, and today's standard of beauty will inevitably be replaced as society changes. We should be proud of how we look, but willing to conform our appearance to our times-- but only transiently. Beauty is transient, after all.

Review: Wet N Wild Liquid Eyeliner (Black)

In my arsenal of makeup, black eyeliner is my weapon of choice. My eyes are the feature I know I should be playing up: the more striking they look, the less my baby-fat cheeks and big nose get noticed as my primary features. With my dark hair and brown eyes, I am one of those rare people who benefit from the black eyeliner look (I recommend a soft black or deep brown to most people--more on that another time). While pencil liner is easy to apply and easy to remove, nothing is as gorgeous, as striking, or as precise as liquid eyeliner. Yes, liquid eyeliner is my weapon of choice, but it's also most likely to backfire; using tips like Little Miss Makeup's can help draw the perfect shape, but you've still got to find the right product. After all, the wrong liquid eyeliner can fade quickly, smudge easily, and have an awful applicator... and those are the problems you run into within the first five minutes. A liquid eyeliner that avoids fading and smudging all day? There aren't many, and believe me, price is no indicator.

Of course, in my younger days, I thought price was an indicator, which is why I was so hesitant to purchase Wet 'n' Wild Liquid Eyeliner in Black for just $2.99 at CVS at full price. I should note that I had tried the H2O Proof version before and hated it-- it was difficult to apply, had a weird consistency, and hardly lived up to its name. Alas, I had read good things about the regular liner, so I was sucked back into the Wet 'n' Wild drugstore-price vortex. And I am so glad I was.

Never again.

The eyeliner is super easy to apply: one dip of the brush is sufficient for seamless lines on both your upper and lower lid. The brush itself is durable and precise, leaving lines about 1-1.5 mm wide depending on the angle and pressure you utilize. After about fifteen seconds, the eyeliner is dry enough for your lids to bat against the skin above your eye without leaving reside behind. (Am I the only one with that problem?) The liquid's smooth application leaves the final product looking both striking and professional. It easily lasts eight hours without smudging... at least for gals with oily skin like me. Of course, it isn't rub-proof, but are there really many eyeliners that are?

So, let's go to the summary, shall we?
Pros: Smooth application, deep color, durable brush, and a little bit goes a long way
Cons: Few color options, H2O liquid liner is awful.
Price: $2.99 at drugstore.com
Bottom line: As an eyeliner aficionado, I truly believe you can't find any better for the price! 

How Not to Do Homemade Beauty: Waxing

One of the big reasons I started blogging was because I spent so much time researching natural and homemade beauty solutions that it only made sense to condense and share it with others. I've tried a lot of things: olive oil on my hair and skin, going shampoo-free, and utilizing baking soda as an OTC skin care solution. These things were easy to do while I was away at school: they require minimum preparation, materials, and clean up (really, most natural beauty solutions do). One thing I was waiting to get home to try is homemade wax for leg hair removal... and while I'm glad I waited to do it until I came home, I'm annoyed with myself for choosing to try it in the first place!

Yes, natural beauty can be messy. So can natural eating. But, usually, it's worth it. I'm a big proponent of that concept of "don't put anything on your body that you wouldn't put into your mouth." While I don't always follow it (makeup and sunscreen are my exceptions) I have made a major effort to try. For hair removal, I cut out shaving cream (tough but worthwhile) and forced my skin to adapt to water and Gillette Razor Blades alone. While it gets the job done, the idea of waxing has always been a seductive one for me; the fact that waxing lasts longer than shaving is especially alluring for ladies with dark body hair. So, with no obligations to fill my day, I decided to attempt a homemade wax using the following recipe that I found here.

I want to stress that I am not insulting the recipe or methods of the authors. The good thing about homemade beauty advice is that bloggers are typically not sharing recipes for personal gain. There are usually pictures and testimonials in the comments section that can help you decide whether or not to do it. Of course, being so excited about the DIY project, I neglected to read that no one in the comments had actually tried it themselves, and that even the author did not testify to doing so. This, obviously, was an enormous mistake.

To make a long story short, I started by slightly burning my finger in the hot wax (my fault), made a mess of my bathroom while fruitlessly trying to spread the wax (price of doing business), and managed to achieve only minimal results despite trying both suggested methods to the best of my ability. Honestly, I lost more of my nail polish as the wax hardened to my fingertips than I lost leg hair. After practically peeling my fingernails off, I got to spend another thirty minutes cleaning the wax out of the container and off the spoon I had attempted to spread the wax with. Yes, it was an unmitigated disaster, but it was also a learning process.

The moral of the story is this: consult multiple blogs that contain testimonials before you try any potentially messy or dangerous homemade beauty products/projects. YouTube videos are best for any marginally complicated processes. Yes, the waxing worked to a certain extent for me, but now I realize that no matter how good I got at it, the results for this particular recipe wouldn't be worth my effort. It's not as if I won't try it again... I'm thinking of using a recipe like this, which includes intricate step-by-step directions vital for success. I'll let you know how it goes, but you should consider looking for a few more reviews before you try it for yourself... trust me.

Giveaways of the Week (5/16)

Here are the BIG giveaways of the week that are sponsored by major companies, not bloggers.

Ford F-150 XLT (and a $100 Instant Win Opportunity!)
Cruise for 2 from Glass Doctor® Cruise Away Sweepstakes
Head & Shoulders P&G Product Bundle and More
Apple iPad 3 from EBONYParent
Crane Animal Humidifier from Lullaby Lane
$500 SpaFinder Gift Card from EBONYParent
Fisher-Price Zen Collection from Lullaby Lane
Dyson Slim Vacuum from Lullaby Lane
Apple 3 iPad from Lullaby Lane