Phenomena Palette

As we are starting to shift into the holiday party season, I wanted to focus on how to do the fourth & final Authentic Beauty signature fall look-Phenomena. This is a fun and frisky look that goes great with any party dress. Phenomena is/are (help me out here) also an awesome date night look for anytime of the year.

The focus of the look is the mossy green or sage green lid. This bright, but not neon green flatters any eye color, yet especially brown. We rim the lower lashline with purple liner to enhance the shades of green. Remember to use a light hand on the purple because if you apply both colors too heavily, it will overwhelm and look messy. And as with any other look, we advise to load up on the black mascara to add drama and length to lashes.

With the eyes being the central focus of this look, we keep the cheeks and the lips neutral. Create a flawless canvas by buffing skin with an exfoliating scrub, dabbing on foundation and concealer to even skin tone and sweep a peach blush on your cheeks. Add a swipe of matte nude lipstick to complete this look. I like the nude rosy beige lipstick by Pro Faces. It’s called Nudity, appropriately. There is always the option of adding a clear gloss here as well, however the lip looks good with or without shine. So it’s up to you. Pair your look with a sassy dress or mini, and you’re good to go!

Gravity Palette

The third Authentic Beauty signature look for fall is the Gravity Palette. The look is a very neutral and natural, which really is in line with this fall’s fashion trends. You can wear this look everyday to work & deepen a few of the elements to translate it seamlessly into a date night look.

The main color used on the lips, eyes and cheeks is terracotta. The terracotta look is softly blended and has an almost watercolor-like feel. When we say terracotta, we are referring to a color that is the shade of a clay pot. This color really has an earthy feel to it. We suggest putting terracotta eyeshadow on the lid and lining the top & bottom with a gray pencil or powder eyeliner. This really enhances the eye and makes it pop. Of course, don’t forget to load up on the mascara; either black or brown works with this palette.

For the lipcolor in this look, we advise leaning toward a more matte lip, so stay away from the gloss ladies!  Try a nutmeg, espresso, or dark clay shade, but use a sand colored lip liner rather than a liner that exactly matches this darker lip. The light shade will create a boundary around the lip to prevent this dramatic color from bleeding.

Skin should be flawless and a light foundation or concealer where you need it, can be applied with a slightly damp sponge to even skin out. Use terracotta shade of blush, which is not too pink and not too bronzy, but just the right amount of flush.

And remember this neutral look is very important as you can wear it into other seasons as well. To get more info on this, check out Jezebel’s Sept. issue (even though we are now almost into Nov.). You may have seen this look on the runways of New York if you saw any of the coverage of Fashion Week. But Authentic Beauty’s interpretation of Gravity is a more wearable version of those deeper clay shades featured.

The Fire Palette

The fire palette is another Authentic Beauty signature fall 2009 look. We wanted it to look ethereal yet polished. According to Authentic Beauty’s Creative Director, Leslie Hines, the fire look is the one with the deep berry lip and a simple eye with light neutral shimmers. A thin liquid line is drawn above the lashes and we suggest putting on LOTS of mascara add drama. The drama of this look is perfect for night and can be worn with a sultry top or dress in any color.

The skin should look fresh and flawless with a gently flushed cheek. It’s important to note that there will be no bronzer applied, just a hint of blush to warm up the face. In order to achieve flawless skin, blend a thin layer of foundation with a sponge over the face, then cover up all blemishes with a light touch of concealer.

When doing the dramatic berry lip, it is important to incorporate a wine colored lip pencil. It layers the color and sharpens the edges of the lips. You can achieve variations of this look with almost any texture lipstick depending on your personal taste of how dramatic you want to go. Top the lipstick with a shiny gloss to add polish. While we said, this look works well for night, it can also be worn during the day, yet if that is the case, just use a lighter hand when applying each cosmetic. And if you’re planning on wearing the Fire palette for day, be sure to don a sweater or something a little less sexy.

So throw that bronzer and self tanner to the side and embrace your natural skin with the chillier weather approaching! We love fall here at Authentic Beauty!

We’re the Best!

Obviously we think we’re the best make-up & brow gals around & hopefully, if you’re reading this blog, you agree! But just wanted to toot Authentic Beauty’s own horn for a little bit & throw it out there that lots of Atlanta media outlets love us too! First & foremost, the fabulous Jessica Dauler of Q-100’s Jessica Shops touted me as the Brow Guru of Atlanta & my eyebrow shaping techniques were voted the best in town. I felt incredibly honored to be named this & to this day work on Jessica’s brows. I thank her so much for giving me that title! As I mentioned in my last blog, we shared Tova Gelfond’s birthday with her. Tova is the editor of Blush Magazine and former assistant editor at Atlanta’s premiere publication-Jezebel Magazine. And speaking of Jez, we are in the middle of doing everyone’s make-up for the Most Beautiful issue and we did a spread on the Urban Forest fall looks in the Sept. issue. Additionally, we were also voted the “best of what’s new” in the February or March 2009 issue (I don’t remember which. Sorry guys). The Sunday Paper also voted us as the Best of Health & Beauty last week. Kirsten Pallidino, we want you to come see us and thanks for the shout out!

And with our Image Journeys taking place at the studio, we have also been asked by various media outlets to help with their make-overs, or as we like to call them-Image Journeys. Recently in the Oct. issue, Best Self Atlanta Magazine used us in the make-over of Ms. Nancy Hodgson. We shaped her brows, evened out her skin & enhanced her eyes. She came out of the chair looking like a new woman! Next week, we’ll be appearing on CBS Atlanta Better Mornings along with ColorBar Salon, True Glow Mobile Spray Tanning & Taste Boutique to do an Ambush Make-over with CBS anchor, Corinna Allen. We’re so excited to be a part of another woman’s transformation! I’ve also been writing a column in The Piedmont Review for a few months now & love being able to impart my advice on so many readers. Thanks Miles Neiman for allowing me to write the column! This month: Fall Trends. Next month: Holiday Makeup.

On another note, the fall wedding season is about to get in full swing & we are gearing up for that with lots of weddings booked over the next few weeks! As you may recall, we are www.getmarried.com’s official make-up studio & we hope to be getting involved with weddings all over town. And in the midst of all this wedding hoopla, we will also be working with the W Buckhead on a Girl’s Night In. This will be Saturday, Nov. 21 & will include a special room rate, Champagne and Shadows & a grand ol’ time at Whiskey Blue, the W Buckhead’s rooftop bar. Stay tuned for details on that. We hope you’ll be able to join us!

The Fog Palette

             Ok so now fall is in full swing. The crisp and sometimes chilly days are occurring more often & the looks of summer are in one word, over. With the change of the seasons comes a change in your make-up look. And we here at Authentic Beauty have become the go to girls for advice & information on the latest make-up trends of the season, so listen up!

            Authentic Beauty has four signature looks for fall-Fog, Fire, Gravity & Phenomena. I am planning on going over each look in future blogs, but today I want to focus on the Fog Palette. Check out our spread in the Sept. issue of Jezebel to see the look more closely, but Fog is a smoky, romantic eye that really is the main focus of the face. And while it’s smoky, it’s not your typical smoky eye. It really is more of a misty yet shimmery gray that plays up your sex appeal. We like it with lots of mascara. We even suggest a subtle fake lash to up the drama at night, especially if you want to look a little sexy and somewhat mysterious. Try it for a date night or even a night out with the girls.

            To round out the dramatic Fog eye, we advise you stick with neutral black or brown toned clothing and a well groomed brow. Also try a matte pale pink lip; it won’t overwhelm your look, but complement the shimmer in the misty gray eye. The models at the Ucce fashion show at the St. Regis looked fabulous with the Fog palette. So try it out, it will look just as great on you as it did on the models!

Authentic Beauty’s Social Goings On

             We have had a flurry of events lately here at Authentic Beauty & we have just now settled down to take a breath to write about them. First off we attended the fall fashion show at Tootsies that benefitted the Chelko Foundation on Thursday, Sept. 24. We had so much fun & had some fun at Whiskey Blue at W afterwards. Actually, we may have had a little too much fun! Oops.

            The next night, we also made an appearance at Whiskey Blue at the W Buckhead again for Tova Gelfond’s birthday. Tova is one of my favorite people! She was the go-to associate editor at Jezebel and now is working at www.getmarried.com with Stephanie Davis, the former editor of Skirt! Magazine. Tova is also the Editor at Blush Magazine. See: www.blushmag.net. Speaking of www.getmarried.com, Authentic Beauty is proud to announce that we are the exclusive make-up team for the website! We look forward to working with everyone there & can’t wait until Stephanie gets married, and we do her make-up!

            Before we enjoyed Tova’s birthday with her, we hosted another Champagne & Shadows event. It was so much fun & there was such a great showing! Everyone had a great time! Then there was the rain….Ugh. Well let me tell you, I was so sad because my third anniversary with Charlton was during the downpour that hit Atlanta & we were planning on celebrating at Canoe where we got married. As most of you probably know, Canoe flooded & is closed. We were very sad that Canoe was literally underwater.

            But on a brighter note, we also faced the rain head on to go see the preview of Cavalia put on by 360 Media. The equestrian show is best described as Cirque du Soliel on horses. It was so magical & beautiful!  As a matter of fact, one of the co-founders of Cirque du Soliel is the brains behind Cavalia. Check out: www.cavalia.net for more information on the event.

And lastly, this past Sunday we started doing the make-up for each person who was chosen to be the in Jezebel Magazine’s Most Beautiful issue. We are thrilled to be a part of this magazine’s issue which comes out in November or December.

ANSR Acne System

Authentic Beauty just started carrying the ANSR Acne Care System & everyone who has tried it has loved it! Last Friday, we had our Sept. Champagne & Shadows, and we set up a station where everyone could try this nifty little gadget before getting their make-up done. I got so much great feedback!

Now let me back up & explain what ANSR does. ANSR was formulated to treat blemish outbreaks while helping to restore the skin’s balance of natural oils. To facilitate this, use ANSR once or twice daily in the morning and/or evening. Just make sure you have clean skin and then, use your ANSR: BEAM to administer healing blue and red light waves. The blue light kills acne causing bacteria & the red light helps improve skin texture and tone, and reduces fine lines, wrinkles, pore size & redness. Sounds great right? And the lights utilize harmless LED (low-emitting diode) photolight, generating very little heat. Although the BEAM light is intensely bright, it is neither a laser nor UV light, so it won’t burn your skin or eyes. However, as with any flashlight or bright light source, staring into the red and blue LED lights for any length of time is not recommended (duh). The BEAM has been extensively tested by TUV America, a globally recognized testing, inspection, and certification organization, to ensure the safety and construction of our handheld device.

But bottom line, this thing works. There’s no smoke & mirrors. One of my clients who attended Champagne & Shadows was very skeptical of ANSR and if it would work or not. She had some hormonal acne on her chin and around her mouth that was slightly scabby because she had picked at it. This client normally has pretty clear skin, but it was around that time of the month for her. We used ANSR around the affected areas, and by the end of the event that night, she told me she could see an improvement and I could too! I was thrilled because this is someone who uses minimal products on her skin and has had the same skin regimen since she was 13 (she is 27 now). She bought one and right now, we are offering the ANSR for $150 as an introductory special.

Believe me, that is a great deal if you’ve ever had to go to a doctor’s office or spa for clinical lasers, which are much more expensive. And clinical laser treatments are not only expensive, but the high-powered lasers may be overly aggressive, often creating redness and slight pain. Studies have shown that lower-powered, in-home phototherapy light waves used consistently every day are very effective in treating the skin. Consistency, when it comes to phototherapy is more important than intensity. To learn more about the ANSR offered at Authentic Beauty, visit www.ansr.com.

Body, Beauty & Bravery

There’s really nothing like feeling beautiful, is there? When you feel pretty, nothing can get you down. Well, or for a moment you feel like nothing can get you down, even if you are really down & out. That’s why I’m such a big proponent of Make-up Therapy. What is that exactly?

Well Make-Up Therapy came out of my friend Leslie Koerdt’s bad day. She came into the studio just pretty frustrated, settled into a chair to chat with me while I worked on someone else, and Leslie Hines, AB’s Creative Director just started playing around with some looks on Leslie Koerdt (I know they have the same name!). After Leslie Hines was finished experimenting with some looks on Leslie Koerdt, she announced that she felt much better about her day and herself because Leslie Hines had just given her quote unquote make-up therapy! An idea was born!

I thought I’ll bet a lot of women would benefit from make-up therapy & so I am going to offer that service at Authentic Beauty. It’s coming soon people! And speaking of Make-Up Therapy, this past Saturday at the Cure Childhood Cancer Luncheon that my friend Chris Glavine invited me to really sent that message right to my heart! The girls at Authentic Beauty and I were asked to do the make-up of the women who lost their children to cancer and to women whose children were suffering with cancer. These women had not and/or did not have time to even care what they looked like. So when each one sat in our chairs, that time was for them to be pampered. After many of the women had been made up, they literally cried with joy that they looked so good and that someone had actually spent time on them.

Not that looks are everything, but it’s a fact that women feel better about themselves and their situations if they feel beautiful. Again that’s evidenced when I did make-up for  V to the 10th, the 10th year celebration of V-Day and the Vagina Monologues for the women who suffered in Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. They were struggling to salvage the last of their belongings & their families, and were fighting Mother Nature, but they found some strength deep within themselves after one of us from Authentic Beauty had done their make-up. Ultimately, the Body, Beauty & Bravery workshop we offered last night at Authentic Beauty is about everything I have talked about…and more. It’s one thing to feel beautiful & look beautiful, but it’s another to take that to a whole other level. That’s where Project Authentic Beauty comes in.

I met Allison Cross of Project Authentic Beauty in spin class years ago when I worked in East Cobb. Allison and I hit off and we were fast friends. I told her I was launching my make-up studio, she told me she wanted to work with me in some way. Now Allison was a part-time counselor at Ridgeview and had never done any public speaking, but was speaking at her church and asked me to come. At the church, she spoke of her experiences counseling girls at Ridgeview with severe eating disorders and also spoke of living in East Cobb where there was so much pressure on women and young girls to look good, meaning really thin. Allison saw there was such a disordered image of one’s body through the media. The media has really set unrealistic expectations of how young girls & even grown women should look.

By the end of Allison’s talk, people in the audience were crying, so deeply moved by her experiences. There were also people up in arms about protecting their daughters. The 45-minute talk turned into a two and a half hour talk. The audience literally followed Allison to her car asking how can we help, how can we have you speak at our children’s schools, etc. about the epidemic of disordered body images? Since then, Allison has spoken at many schools to parents & young girls about this issue. She has also spoken to the Georgia School Counselors Association. See: http://www.myimagejourney.com/cms/authentic-beauty/project-authenticbeauty/

This is such a problem today & my mantra & Authentic Beauty’s mantra is that YOU are beautiful! Always remember that!

Events, events & more events!

I am so relaxed from my short vacation to Rosemary Beach, but now I’m ready to get back to it! And that vacation couldn’t have come at a better time because this week and next is jam packed full of events! On Wednesday, Sept. 16, we’re going to be working with my friend Kerry Gelnik on the M. Caruana Premiere fashion show and doing all the make-up, which should be a blast. It will be held at the SieMatic Atlanta Showroom at 3050 Peachtree Road at Two Buckhead Plaza.

Thursday, Sept. 17 will be a full day at the studio as we are doing our annual fall make-up trends class, starting at 7 p.m. We will show you how to apply the four looks of fall’s Urban Forest. The Cure Childhood Cancer Silent Heroes luncheon is on Saturday, Sept. 19 at the Grand Hyatt. We will be making over all of the mothers of children who have cancer at the event. Our dear friend Chris Glavine is involved with this fantastic charity and she asked us to help. I want to thank people like Chris who help make our world a better place! For more information, visit www.cure.org.

The Body, Beauty & Bravery Media Awareness workshop will be on Wednesday, Sept. 23, and we are thrilled to incorporate Project Authentic Beauty’s core message into this. We are also so happy about attending the Tootsies fall runway show benefitting the Chelko Foundation. The Chelko Foundation was established in 2005 to commemorate the life of Paul Chelko’s wife, Debbie, with a mission to empower all women through art, education and partnership to create a better life for themselves & their children. Two of my favorite people are involved with the Chelko Foundation-Jessica Dauler and Richie Arpino. Wrapping up next week, we are having a Champagne & Shadows at the studio on Friday, Sept. 25. More details to come!

The Most Amazing Facial Cleansing Tool

The Magical Clarisonic

There are few things that I can honestly say changed my life. Included in that short list is the Clarisonic. I had a good friend of mine e-mail me that a friend of hers insisted she had to get one. And let me tell you, this is a friend who saw buying $6 Oil of Olay facial cleansing cloths as an investment! A Clarisonic is $195, but believe me, worth every penny.

How you ask? Clarisonic is the sonic technology proven to gently yet effectively loosen dirt and oil to clear your pores. The Clarisonic Skin Care Brush uses a patented sonic frequency of more than 300 movements per second to clean, soften and smooth your skin. In just 60 seconds a day, the Clarisonic micro-massage action cleans more than twice as effectively as manual cleansing. In addition to cleaner skin with the Clarisonic, you’ll notice a reduction in the appearance of pores, improved skin tone (so you use less foundation), a reduction in the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, and improved absorption of serums and moisturizers. It’s a safe, gentle and natural way to cleanse your skin without any harsh abrasion or chemicals. It also increases the circulation in your face making you look more naturally radiant all the time. Ok back to my story.

At that point, I wasn’t convinced the Clarisonic was amazing, even if it was one of Oprah’s favorite things,  so my assistant Stephanie brought one in for me to check out. If this chick who is sooo not a gadget girl had one, there must be some merit in it, I thought. A minute later I was convinced that there was a whole lot of more to this sucker than I originally thought! I washed my face with it & in an instant I knew I had to have one, as well as make them available to all my fabulous clients! My skin felt & looked incredible. I was so thrilled & couldn’t wait to get some in. Of course the rep got me a great deal and I sold 57 of them in the first month alone! My teenage daughter has one & her acne is under control because of this baby. By the way, if you are a good parent, you’ll get your child a Clarisonic. Actually you need to get yourself one too! We have them available at Authentic Beauty & if you mention this blog, you get $10 off.  Visit the Authentic Beauty Website to read more or to order one from our online store.