Bat Those Lashes, Ladies!

! I just put falsies on two of my customers, and they looked GOOD!!++
(falsies AND my ladies!) First time I've ever put them on someone else! WOOHOO!!! I had the best time, it was so much fun to play with someone else's face. My ladies looked gorgeous and they loved them!

We used Ardell Clusters, medium and short lengths. Totally naturally flirty on both gals - one in her 50s, the other 73. They were beautiful women when they walked in, and now they are sexy flirty eyelash batting coquettes! Hubba Hubba!

So, maximize your eyes! What's stopping you? It's super easy, really.

No pics - I'm not that organized, but here are some tricks to using cluster lashes like these




First, start with clean bare lashes.

Find a pair of round tip tweezers for gripping and maneuvering the little clusters - Tweezerman makes great ones, and the round nose is both safer AND easier to work with, as it keeps the little cluster pointing straight rather than going off at an angle.

Gather your tray of lash clusters and your individual lash glue (I like clear best).

Make sure you have good light and a magnifying mirror. You might also want to have a little orange stick with which to coax your lashes into place, but that's not necessary.

Most importantly - take your time, don't drink too much coffee, and don't do this in the middle of a round of low blood sugar! Eat something first!

Now, take the tray of lash clusters out of the blister packaging to get it ready. Open the glue and place a little dollop of it on the blister packaging, or on a bit of tissue. This will become your working palette, essentially.

With the tweezers, grab the lash cluster in the center of the hairs, as close to the bulb as you can get. gently peel the cluster from the tray.

Dip the bulb into the adhesive - I dip the tip, then sort of swirl it a little bit to make sure there is a little dollop of glue encircling the bulb of the cluster.

With head tilted back so that lids close, but you can still see out from underneath your lashes, place the bulb of the lash at the outer corner of your eye - maybe 2-3 eyelash hairs in from the very edge of the corner. The clusters will lay on top of your own lashes, so you want there to be a nice foundation for them. Push and coax the cluster in toward your lashline until the bulb is resting up against your lid, right at the root of your natural lashes. you can lift your eyelid from the brow bone with your non-dominant hand and sort of make a little crevice into which the bulb of the cluster will snuggle. Keeps the clusters nice and tight for up to 4 days, if you are gentle with the washing off at night!

Repeat as desired - small to medium eyes generally look great with 3-4 lash clusters applied about 1/16th to 1/8th of an inch apart, from the outer corner until right over the center of the pupil. Larger eyes can take as many as 6-7, and can generally carry the lashes further in toward the nose, as well.

The neat thing about using clusters instead of strip lashes is that they are just about invisible on your lashes - you don't need to hide an edge with liner of any sort. The glue dries invisibly, so the lashes are not visible even seen up close, with eyes open OR closed. Clusters are the way to go if you want flirty, dramatic fringe without a heavy look.

Once all the lashes are in place, let them set and dry for a few minutes. You can do some other part of your face. Then apply your eye make as usual. Gently curl your lashes with a curler, if you do that sort of thing, then carefully and gently apply a NON WATERPROOF mascara to blend the real lashes with the falsies.

TADA! Gorgeous flirt-worthy feathery fringes!

if you are careful in the washing at night, and if you avoid oil based cleansers and eye makeup removers, your lash clusters will hang around for days!

Pretty cool, huh?

How to Wear Red Lipstick

Spring is sprung, the grass is 'riz, I wonder where the bright lipstick is!

Oh, gosh - it's just been "nude, beige, natural, concealed past the point of recognition" lips for far too long. I am SO past it - even the nude lip icon, Jennifer Lopez, looks fresher and brighter with a dash of color on her lips:







See what a difference a bit of fresh, healthy COLOR makes to even the most gorgeous face? And seriously - how many of us actually look as beautiful as J-Lo anyway? So if a look is unflattering on HER, well....you get my meaning.

So, in honor of a change of seasons, let's all do a change of face. uh, I mean lips.

Go pink, peachy, rose, mauve, coral, orange, violet - so many shades from which to choose!

But go BIG or go home!
















For right now, let's talk about RED lipstick. It's perhaps the most womanly or ladylike color there is - classic, used across cultures and across decades - heck, across centuries! There has been tons written already about the whys and wherefores of red lipstick. But what really matters is the HOW of red lipstick.

But first, some inspiration.


With red, you have to let your eye adjust a little bit, especially if you're used to nude/gloss looks.

Start by applying your foundation/concealer/powder if you usually use them.

Then put on red lipstick. Try a gentle stain first - apply with fingertip, then blot.

Look in your mirror.

WOW. That's BRIGHT!!!

Leave it alone - DO NOT wipe it of. You heard me! NO TOUCHING THE LIPS!!!

Go do something else for a little while, then look again.

Man, you are ALL lips. For better or worse. If you are blessed with full pouty lips, you probably feel like you've got a child's inflatable pool toy resting smack dab in the center of your face. You do not. In actuality, you have full, pouty, sensuous lips that are now tinted a super sexy shade of red. If your lips are smaller or more delicate (as I like to describe my own), you might be feeling that the intense color is somehow shrinking your lips to tinyness. It isn't. Just seems that way. Give it time.

No add mascara and do your brows as you usually do.

Look again. That's better, isn't it? Balance is being restored to your face. Your lips STILL look silly bright. Mayeb you feel like a clown. Or a cheap hooker. However, you do NOT look like either, unless you are wearing a red rubber nose or booty shorts. Heaven help you if you are wearing BOTH a red rubber nose and booty shorts. Either you need to check into rehab, start charing WAY more for, umm, special services, or turn in your Clowns Union membership card.

Now go do something else for a while - check the Aromaleigh Forums.

Look in mirror again. Now those red lips of yours are looking more "normal", huh? Yup.

Your eyes are adjusting to a new bold lipped you.

Add a bit more lipstick, or go deeper, richer, shinier or matter - whatever. Just play a little bit. Find a balance that strikes you. It's your face, after all!

Add eye liner if you usually use that. Look in mirror again.

Ooh - Me Likey!

Now, put on a pretty top and go out - to the grocery store. That's the perfect place because you are on display, but not ON DISPLAY. You have the perfect excuse to linger, or to jet out quickly if you feel uncomfortable.

Chanel your inner Gina Lollabrigida or Sophia Loren, or Bettie Paige, or any other red lip maven you love. Smell the fresh produce, buy yourself some flowers. Make kissy faces in the store windows as you pass.

Reapply your red lipstick in public - make it a caress. Put on a show for anyone who might see. Order up a latte somewhere, and revel in that perfect lip print you place on the rim of the white paper cup. Sexay!

Catch the admiring glances of passers by. Aren't you loving it?

Yup - you are now a red lip girl! GggrrrrrAAAWWWWWWrrrr.

I knew you had it in you!

Repeat as needed for ANY bold, bright new color. Shake it up - if everyone around you is doing red, opt for Schiaparelli shocking pink. Hanging with the Coral Crowd? don a bit of violet for good measure. Heck - grab a bold cobalt blue if you are especially daring. Whatever your choice, just have fun, wear it confidently, own it, rock it. They're your lips, but they're on display for all to see!

What Season Am I? Warm? Cool? What?

WARM OR COOL - HOW TO TELL!!

Note - this is OPPOSITE to the whole MAC thing, so if you figure you are WARM with this, then you'll want a C or NC foundation/powder/etc from MAC, or if COOL here, then look at W and NWs there.

First, look at your wrist veins. Do they look more blue, green or purple/lavender? If blue or purple/lav, you probably have more pink in your skin than yellow. If green/olive, then you have more yellow in your skin than pink.

Now think about what looks better on you. Do you look best in a shirt that is

white or cream?
pink or peach?
red or orange?
fuschia or eggplant?
black or brown?
silver or gold?

If you chose colors from the first ones mentioned, then you prefer cool tones. If you chose colors from the second ones, then you prefer warm colors. Does that match up with what you saw re your veins? If you prefer cool colors to wear, do you also have more pink than yellow in your skintone?

Don't worry if you don't - and DO NOT get balled up about having "yellow" skin and being relegated to wearing warm shades.

Here's why:

On a color wheel, you have the whole spectrum running from red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Usually we see the wheel positioned with red on the left top and violet at the right top, We draw a line down the middle, and red, orange, yellow are on the left (warm) and violet, indigo, blue are on the right (cool). But what I see is that YELLOW should be right up at the center top when thinking about skintone, because yellow is actually a very neutral tone. Here's why:

Melanin, the pigment in skin, is always yellow based. How it reads through your skin is dependent on skin thickness, veining, circulation, and so on.

Think of the old season classifications - color me beautiful and stuff. Spring and Fall are warm seasons. Summer and Winter are cool seasons. Gorgeous olive skinned Mediterranean and Asian women are *usually* categorized as Winters, and look FABUOUS in cool jewel tones with high contrast and intensity.

A Fall might also have yellow undertones, but her's will likely be more golden peach, and that places here in a Warm category.

So, yellow is netural - it can take you into Cool territory if it has a green tone to it (this is subtle - you do NOT look green if you have olivey skin). Or yellow can take you into Warmsville if it moves into orange/peach.

Now that you've got your skintone deciphered, you can REALLY Play with color. If you have a warm skintone and want to look natural and polished, use warm colors (colors found in your own skin, hair and eyes). If you want more drama, choose OPPOSITES - break out those cool purples, pinks and blues. And the inverse - if you have cool toned skin, cool tones in your makeup will be easiest to wear and look natural, polished and pretty. Up the drama by bringing in some warmer colors in moderation.

Lastly, think about your overall contrast level - skin vs hair when seen in a b/w photo. Are the close in value? THen you are lower contrast, and should find it easiest to wear colors that are of similar depth value (again, a more natural and polished look). If skin and hair look very different - ie dark hair and lighter skin, or platinum hair and dark skin, then you'll fare best in higher contrast colors - choose darker, brighter or lighter than your skintone by several degrees.

And yeah - always exceptions, and never rules. But this should get you started!