Paint a Pretty Mouth

1950's was the golden age of lipstick, it was as much part of a lady’s attire than a fresh pair gloves and a nice handbag. Although times have changes and gloves have all but disappeared (to my chagrin) I still believe that lipstick sets the women apart from the girls. Anybody can wear lip gloss but beautifully painted lips take dedication, time and confidence. Lip gloss is the lazy girl’s option and for most grown women lipstick is usually far more becoming.

A few years ago I ran a little experiment to see what happens when you wear red lipstick every day for a month. The findings were interesting to say the least. Pillar-box red lips make you stand out in the crowd, give you an air of confidence (even when you are not feeling it), make people notice you in a positive way (I have never received so many compliments) and weirdly even gets you a seat in a jam packed rush hour tube – where on an average day able bodied young men step on short people and push pregnant ladies out of the way to bag the last seat.


So yes, I love lipstick and so believe in its confidence boosting abilities that I put some on before making an important phone call, crazy but it works for me, and if you give it a chance I bet it will work for you too.

If you are a new to the magical world of lipstick and want to practice before venturing out in public with your perfect pout, Mrs Colby recommends pressing a lipsticked mouth on the back of your hand and then filling the outline with a brush, well I suppose back in those days girls practised kissing on the backs of their hands so go ahead, give it a go.

Once you have a steady hand with the brush it's time to figure out if your mouth balances with the rest of your face with the knitting needle test:
Looking straight ahead hold tip of knitting needle at centre of eye making straight line to chin. Now smile. If corners of mouth just touch it, you are properly proportioned. If they go beyond, brush colour inside the natural lip margin. If they fall short widen your smile. And then match your mouth to the shape of your face:

Oval
Follow the natural lines on top, curve lower lip in at corners

Round
Avoid the little rosebud pinched cupid's bow, widen your mouth and your bow in a pair of generous winglike curves

Pear
Rouge this mouth to sufficient width to carry full lower jaw, don't make curves too full

Square
Don’t let the mouth get too squared at corners or bow, keep the outlines softly curved

Oblong
Let this mouth have full warm width and curve to soften and balannce long lines of face

Heart
Don't go wide or heavy, paint a full centre, delicate sides. if too large play down your colour

Diamond
As heart

Marquis
Rouge out to corners but not too heavy, keep a full wide bow and lower lip for greater appeal


And finally some do's and don'ts:

Do’s (by me)

1. Choose the right colour: lipstick should suit your skin tone and not clash with the colour of your outfit either. Hence when you wear black of white it’s easy, colourful clothes can be trickier but with the ample choice of shades available, by no means impossible. When in doubt, choose a lippy that flatters your skin tone and is just a shade or so darker than the natural colour of you lips.

2. I often hear women complaining that they cannot wear lipstick because their lips are so dry; in fact wearing lipstick every day protects the delicate skin and keeps lips in great condition.

3. To avoid getting lipstick on your teeth (=a very bad look and so easily avoided) pucker your lips like you were about to kiss, stick a finger in your mouth and pull it out, all the excess colour from inside your lips will stick on you finger. (Avoid doing this in front of men as they will get the wrong idea, unless of course that’s the idea you wish to give..)

4. To avoid unsightly lipstick marks on coffee cups and wine glasses, quickly (and discreetly) lick the rim of the glass before your lips touch it.

5. To make lipstick last, take a clean tissue, pull taut against lips and bite on it after you have brushed on the first layer of colour. Brush on a thin layer of powder and then apply another layer of colour. This works on most lipstick, however dry long lasting ones might end up caked.

6. Always apply lipstick on dry lips, lip balm underneath will just make it slide, run and disappear.

7. Lining the lips is optional, but if you do, use a lip pencil that matches your lipstick or if not available take a pointed brush and draw the outline with the lipstick you are usin. Darker lipliner is a definite no no!

8. Always use a mirror when (re-)applying lipstick.

9. If you hae thing lips dab a little bit of gloss to the plumpest partof the lips to give and illusion of a fuller mouth.

10. If you want to have a secret snog, make sure you are not wearing any lipstick or be prepared to get caught....


Don'ts (by Mrs C)

1. Don't let your mouth droop at the corners, it makes you look discontent

2. Don’t fold your mouth into a thin lipped tight line; it makes you look bossy and displeased

3. Don't pinch your mouth into a pursy prissy schoolmarm pucker, it makes you look supercritical and will quickly form wrinkles

4, Don’t gnaw the sides of your mouth, you'll look nervous and if you keep it up long enough you'll end up with a crooked mouth

5, Don't paint a baby-doll Cupid's bow - instead paint an open, softer, more generous bow

6. Don't paint on a thick, grotesque minstrel's mouth - it's passé, Do keep inside your lip edge

7. Don’t let a thin mouth age your face, it looks ungiving and disagreeable, Curve both upper and lower lip just a little more than your own plus dab a little bit of gloss in the fullest part of your lips to enhance the plumpness.

8. Don't leave a one sided mouth one sided - Do carry colour higher on lop-side and even out things

9. Don’t let a pouting lower lip give you a bulldog expression - rouge above the line of the upper lip and get more balance

10. Don't let a protruding upper lip give you a rabbity look - fill out lower lip, especially at corners

The Girl Who Never Finishes Anything...

This is shameful, my last posting is from July and it's now January! Mrs Colby would not approve.

I love the beginning of things. There's nothing more energising than kicking off a new project but then the enthusiasm fades, newer and brighter ideas take hold, I start procrastinating and very rarely follow anything through.

Last week I had an eye opening conversation with a fabulous woman whose opinion I value greatly. She suggested that the reason for my slack attitude could be a paralysing fear of failure. You see as long as I don't finish anything, I can't fail. For how can you fail something you never did in the first place?

I think she may have hit the nail in the head.

My only resolution for 2011 is to follow things through, to pick up unfinished business and tick things off the list, one by one. Although the list is really really really looooong and some of the stuff is no longer relevant... my 6th form French teacher has probably given up on my essay on Les Miserables by now.

This blog is part of that list, so stay tuned in case you are still there reading and checking for new posts. If you are, I thank you for your patience and promise you something new to read every week from now on.

In the next few posts I'll be discussing the importance of lipstick, the art of seduction the old fashioned way and also try to figure out whether flat shoes can ever be chic?

Here's to 2011 being a year of achievements!

Rouge and Illusion

How to apply Rouge -where and why?

I must say I agree with Mrs Colby, rouge, or blusher as we so unglamourously call it nowadays, is underrated.

A lot of ladies shy away from it because they probably had some mini disaster when they were teenagers and ended up going to the school disco looking like a clown instead of a glamorous lady. So now they fear they will look like a cartoon character or an over made-up doll if they so much as pick up a blusher brush.

But the right blusher in the right place does wonders for your complexion. It freshens the face, gives healthy glow, enhances your features and just overall brightens your look. I can go out without eye make up (almost never happens) without lipstick (rare occasion also) but I never leave the house without blusher.

Which Rouge is right for you?

There are three types of rouges, cream, fluid and dry (that's powder to you and me). Mrs Colby prefers the cream version and I agree, it gives a lovely dewy and natural look. Fluid can be quite difficult and messy to apply and there aren't many around. Powders are by far the easiest to use, so good if you are only discovering the joys of blusher.

So be brave and go shopping. Nars does a fantastic cream blusher, YSL powders are delicious and MAC's cream blusher is fabulous once you learn how to use it.
I find that pinks and reds suit most people, browns can easily make the face look dirty and dull and are best left for contouring the face.

How to apply?

For cream and fluid use your fingers and apply after foundation, before powdering your face. Dot the area indicates for your face type (see below) and blend in the shape you are following, working upward and outward gently until you have a natural effect.

Powder blusher requires a layer of powder on top of the foundation as if applied on foundation it will end up looking blotchy and will be impossible to blend. Use a large flat(tish) brush. Take some colour with the brush, run it over the back of your hand to remove any excess and apply on face in light circular movements.

In an emergency if there's no rouge available, you can substitute with lipstick used like a cream blusher.

Whichever type you use, always start with a tiny amount and build the colour up from there as it is really hard to remove without ruining the rest of your make up.

Now that you know how to put it on, pull out your face chart from yesterday and follow the instructions for your face shape. (These instructions are exactly as per Mrs Colby)

Oval
Rouge from centre of cheek toward temples, lightly up under the eye.

Round
Put your rouge on the outer portion of cheek, blending it up toward temple and down to darker foundation on jaw.

Pear
Rouge in flattened triangle, down from temple, under outer edge of eye, down to darkened jaw.

Square
Place your rouge in circle under eye, blend it up toward temple, down toward darkened jaw.

Oblong
Blend area in centre of cheeks in a softened circle.

Heart
Put rouge on highest point of cheekbone, shading out to temple and down very lightly.

Diamond
Use a broadened circle on wide cheekbone, not low on cheek.

Marquis
Use a full circle that blends back toward ear, shades down toward jaw.

Whilst we are talking about camouflaging our flaws and enhancing the good bits, here' s more top Hollywood tricks from 1952.

Nose:

-thin line of light foundations along bridge of nose elongates, straightens it into a more classic effect

-smuding some dark foundation under the tip shortens it, lightening the bridge and darkening the sides makes a wide flat nose seem higher and narrower

Chin:
-light brings it forward

-dark on the tip of a long chin cuts it down

-dark under double chin, straight along jaw to earlobe cuts it down

Eyes:

-light under eyes and in the inner corners, hides dark shadows

-light under brow corrects eyes that are too close together

-light in the corner from tear duct to brow brings out sunken eyes

-light in the deep crevice of bottom of eye bag or dark puffy bag itself diminishes this menace


Study and work on your own face right now, perhaps just a dab of light or dark foundation, skillfully blended in will make a great deal of difference in your illusion of beauty. don't let lack of experience rob you of added loveliness

What Shape is Your Beautiful Face?

To understand what make-up and hairstyles best suit you and how to make most of your features, it is crucial to understand the shape of your face.

The make-up guys in 1950's Hollywood used to scrape back the starlet's hair, go over the face poking and squeezing like a housewife picking a cantaloupe and measuring the the face with a tape measure.

So to follow their footsteps, pull out your ruler, visualise your head as a block and take the following five measurements from outside edge to outside edge:

Centre of forehead width:
under eyes to cheek edges:
Under nose to cheek edges:
Under lips to jaw edges:
Overall length, hairline to chin:

Now take pencil and paper and with your ruler draw a vertical line, the length of you face, then draw bi-secting lines at the proper places corresponding to all your cross measurements.
Connect the outside ends of the lines and... here's your face!

Keep this drawing so you can later mark the right places for make up on it.

Despite Mrs Colby continuously emphasising the fact that we should all proudly be what we are, enhance our best features and not try to look like somebody else, she also says here that the perfect face shape is oval and those among us not blessed with the ideal shape, need to learn how to use foundation create an illusion.

I measured my face and drew the outline on an A4 sheet waiting impatiently to unveil the shape, which I've always believed to be heart or square, but.... Ta-dah! My face is shaped like an upside down guitar. Wide, long forehead, wide, high cheekbones and finally a rather wide jaw narrowing down to a tiny pointy chin.

But enough about me and my odd shape head. Here's a guide to the different face shapes, illustrated with Hollywood examples and also a brief explanation on how to use lighter and darker foundations to correct the contours to a more pefect oval. Personally I prefer using powder, blusher or bronzer, but basically anything slightly darker/lighter than your usual foundation will work, just make sure it's matte.

The principle is simple, use lighter foundation/powder to emphasise and darker to minimise.

Contour your face with the darker shade and then try giving light to your face by brushing lighter colour on your cheekbones, chin, bridge of your nose and the centre of your forehead. Blend, blend and blend once more, then make sure you don't leave your house without checking your reflection in the daylight first, tidemarks don't look particularly attractive.
Experiment and practice, this is actually a really quick and easy trick and I promise it won't look out of place in 2010 as long as you pick and blend your colours carefully.

The Oval
Joan Fontaine, Joan Caulfield

Egg shaped, dominating cheekbones, chin smaller than forehead... If this is you, congratulations! The oval girl needs only basic foundation so you can stop reading and come back tomorrow when we talk about blusher.

The Round
Shirley Temple, Betty Grable

Nearly circular, rounded forehead, full cheeks, round jaw and chin.
Make-up tip: Darken the jawline from underneath the chin to the sides of your face reaching the highest part of your cheekbones, blend upwards.

The Pear
Ann Sheridan, Dorothy Lamourr

Narrow forehead, wide jaw and full chin.
Make-up tip: Darken the "peary" bit of your lower face, the tip of the chin and the lowest part of the jaws.

The Square
Greer Garson, Bette Davis

Squared off forehead and jaw line approximately as wide as cheekbones.
Make-up tip: Darken the sharp edges of your jawline

The Oblong
Marlene Dietrich, Katherine Hepburn, Loretta Young High prominent forehead, hollowed long cheeks, slightly squared jaw
Make-up tip: Darken the jaw and chin, blending upwards


The Heart
Jennifer Jones, Ida Lupino
Wide forehead and cheeks, short, narrow pointed chin.
Make-up tip: Lighten chin with lighter foundation, if you have longish forehead darken the hairline with darker foundation

The Diamond
Claudette Colbert

Narrow forehead, broad cheeks and jaw, short pointed chin.
Make-up tip: Lighten the tip of chin with lighter foundation

The Marquis
Ava Gardner, Lauren Bacall

This is a lengthened version of the diamond, long narrow forehead, high cheekbones, narrow jaw, long chin.
Make-up tip: Darken end of chin and if you have a long face, forehead too.

Back to Beauty

Apologies for the long silence. Life, work, summer sales, sunbathing, ice cream eating, shoe shopping and the French highway patrol have come in between me and Mrs Colby recently.

I did an unplanned and rather speedy mini tour of Europe (Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium and Germany) and spent a blissful week chilling out in Provence without internet connection.

But as of today I'm back with the programme and will post the next few installments of Mrs Colby's beauty and charm course later this week.

Too Busy for Beauty?

Shame Mrs Colby doesn't give any advice on time management... I find time to follow the course but blogging about it is another matter.

This week the topics covered manicure, pedicure, how to fend off double chin (I'll post more about that later), how to pick the right foundation and how to be your own masseuse.

Yesterday was dedicated to organising my wardrobe, which, at least in my world, is a never ending job. I don't know what happens but my wardrobe seems to be a black hole for clothes, things disappear never to be seen again or lovely things are replaced with rubbish clothes in wrong colours, sizes and styles.

But many hours, three loads of washing, a huge pile of ironing and some minor mending later it's looking a lot better. A large bag is on it's way to the charity shop, another bag to the dry cleaners and I have listed the key pieces I need so I can look for them in the summer sales. A time consuming but satisfying exercise.

DIY Facial

Day 9 - Facial

Equipment:

Cleansing Cream + Lubricating Cream + Freshener + Mask

Don’t put off your facial just because you don’t have any shop bought masks in the house, you can make your own - mixed fresh anytime you need it.

Mix two tablespoons of cornmeal with one lightly beaten egg white to form a thick paste, spread over face and let dry, then rinse off with cool water

So let’s begin:

Wrap yourself in a big towel, leaving arms and shoulders bare, tie back your hair.

Step 1: Cleanse thoroughly, either with cleansing cream or soap and finish with several warm rinses. Now fall to pieces, drop your head, let its weight fall willy-nillly, let your shoulders sag, your arms fall lifeless. Shake out your hands, rest there a minute

Step 2: Take your palms full of oil or rich cream and work into body massaging and kneading as you work your way up from your feet.

Step 3: Starting at the base of throat with fresh oil or cream and stroke up to chin, alternating hands 10 times, now work on an angle out to jaw hinge 10 times, now pulling with two fingers make 10 strokes from chin to ear.

Step 4: With upwards rotations of first three fingers massage from jaw to top of ear, then upward at an angle from corner of nose to temple, stroke 10 times. Now from below mouth corners, work up the laugh lines rouding over cheek to inner eye corner. Then rapidly alternating hands pat storke up up from chin to lip, repeat this all across forehead, quick little pats , between eyes. Then gently pat (don’t rub) around eyes from nose across cheekbones to outer eye corners.

Step 5: Steam with cloth wrung out of hot water to open pores and make ready for the mask. Cover all of face except eye area, make sure mask is thick enough to cover every pore, pack into wrinkles and crevices. Soak cotton pads with eye lotion lay over eyes and get into Hollywood Slant.
Relax for 15-20 minutes, think nothing except to count your blessings.

Step 6: Saturate a big blob cotton with skin freshener and repeating your stroking patterns wipe off mask, rinse off with cold water. Your skin is smooth as baby’s, your eyes are bright and dewy and your body is fresh and relaxed. Now you’re ready for a lovely make up.


I added exfoliation and extraction between the cleansing and mask, skin feels baby soft and the rest of me rather chilled (like the dry Riesling in my glass...)

Seasonal Beauty

Your face changes through seasons. Winter is cruel and drying, make sure you lubricate, lubricate, lubricate, even if your skin is oily.

Spring is the time to cleanse and lubricate, shed off all the old skin in prepareation for summer. Mild rains and damp weather are good for you, just look at the English roses!

Summer is the time to repair your beauty, you exercise, eat more fresh fruit and vegetables, drink more liquids, breathe more fresh air and get the healing benefits of the sun. But be careful, if you are foolish you can do a lot of damage, salt water, windburn and sunburn can take a horrid toll.
Don’t go out in the sun with perfume on your skin, it attracts bees not boys and the alcohol and sun can burn spots into the skin.


When sunbathing cover your body with oil with a “screen” and oil often, turn constantly as on a spit and come in before you burn . Wear large sunglasses to protect the sensitive eye area.
Even honey tone is ideal, moisturise and cleanse well after sunbathing.

Autumn is another time for deep cleansing.

And remember your body needs care too. If you feel dry and itcy in the winter make like a seal, give your whole body an oil rub once a week. Roll up in some big towels or washable robe and take a nap, then a warm bath, a brisk towel rub and you are a new woman.