On Your Toes

What’s on your toes this year? This friend of mine reminded me last year about an OPI color that I had loved several years ago, but forgot all about….Cajun Shrimp. A perfect corally red that just screams summer. So, last year I ordered it off Ebay and got myself a new bottle.

And now I’m ready for summer. How about you?

I’ll never be a foot model. :) But, they do look cute in my Yellow Box flip flops and a fresh coat of Cajun Shrimp.

What’s your favorite color for summer? Do tell.

Book Review: The Hair Color Mix Book

By Celebrity colorist and Author: Lorri Goddard-Clark

Do you color your hair?

Now I know this is a subject that is near and dear to our hearts...hair color! Hair can just make or break us. We all have good hair days and bad ones and most of us have either gone to the salon or colored at home at one time or the other. Me...it probably won't surprise you to know that I'm a color at home girl and have been for many years, since going to college with a stylist who taught us all how to mix our own highlights. I've done salon color several times and end up always going back to DIY, since I didn't think there was that much difference in how the color turned out and I can save so much money by doing it myself. For many years, I've just been doing home highlights, but for about the past 5 years, I'm doing the double process method: coloring all over and then adding highlights.

So, if you are a salon person who has always wanted to try coloring at home, here is a great book that I found at the library and it has step by step instructions on how to achieve that perfect color at home, using drugstore hair products. She has full color photos of celebrities and has given each of them a color name that you can emulate with her fabulous recipes and instructions.
From Lorri's website: The Hair Color Mix Book begins with the most crucial step for a successful result: identifying your natural hair color. To help every woman select a target hair color that closely matches her natural shade and complements her eyes and skin tone, Lorri presents an eleven-color chart, a streamlined version of the tab system professional colorists have trusted for decades. With clear and true color photographs, step-by-step instructions, and lots of insider advice to guide them, at-home colorists everywhere will learn how to....


She goes on to describe all the things you'll learn in the book. I found it to be very informative and I think a novice hair colorist could pick up this book and walk away with the knowlege of how to color at home. It's very much what I've already been doing at home for many years, so I didn't learn a lot about changing up my color all that much, but it does go into great detail in how to achieve great color and highlights. She gives a lot of name brand recognition as well as step-by-step details. Once you pinpoint your natural color in the color chart that is in the book, then you can go on and choose the color you'd like to achieve referring to a number that matches up with your natural hair color, so you know just which one to look at and what products to buy. She gives detailed instructions for each of the colors, as well as a list of all the tools you'll need, so you can't go wrong. This is plain and simple drugstore boxed hair color that she is talking about. I already buy my products at Sally's and get the individual color tint and developer and I'm pretty lucky in that I don't have to color but about every 3-4 months (or I sometimes stretch it longer). I'm actually lighter than I use to be since my gray is white/platinum and my natural color was a dark strawberry blonde. Now, I use a permanent color to color my hair an overall medium to dark blonde shade & then go back and add a few highlights.
Here's my tools that I keep around for mixing highlights. You get a big bottle of developer and that's to mix your overall permanent hair tint AND highlights. This big bottle saves a lot of money in place of using the smaller drugstore kits with the added developer. It lasts a long time! Feria color from Sally's, along with a highlight packet of powder. I experiment a lot with the base color I use (sometimes Feria, sometimes Loreal Preference) and I just did mine again recently (it had been since January). I think next time, I'll use something with less of a gold base. I was surprised that this book just recommended off the shelf products. I really thought there was more of a difference in salon products, but apparently there isn't. Now some of you who are reading this might be hair stylists and could totally disagree with what this book says, but the lady seems to know her stuff AND she has all the celebrity clients to prove it. I know that color is the way most stylists make the most money, but I'm all for saving when I can. I don't think mine looks quite as good as her pics do, but I'm happy with it.
Highlights mixed and ready to apply. I usually use a cap to do my highlights. She describes in detail how to do threads and ribbons of highlights which seems more complicated to me, but the tools she uses are just a toothbrush and another dental hygiene tool that you can buy at the store. She uses some foil techniques, but unless you have help that would be hard to accomplish. Sometimes I take a shortcut and just paint it on, but I get better results if I use one of those plastic highlight caps to even it out. All my products cost about $10, with the bottle of developer around $6 or so and that lasts a long time. You can see how much moolah you can save. Need I say more?

If you get a chance to pick up this book, do it! And check out Lorri's website. I found it to be very informative, interesting, and inspirational. Here's to home hair color and if you've never tried coloring at home, maybe think about giving it a whirl. Sure saves the bucks!

Tanning Talk!

Do you tan? Fake or real?

Remember those days of being a teenager and baking in the sun, covered with Hawaiian Tropic dark tanning oil or baby oil with iodine (what were we thinking?). No sunscreen in those at all. Sunscreen wasn't even in our vocabulary then. We spent plenty of Saturdays at the beach when I was a teen in college in Florida and I can remember being obsessed with laying out in the sun, just laying there baking and it was SO hot. Oh my, the years I did that are just crazy, but honestly I don't think we knew better at the time. I have since learned the hazards of tanning....

I do not tan at all anymore (on purpose anyway), except when I'm at the beach and put on a lot of sunscreen. I'll sit out a bit in the sun, but do not let myself burn and get minimal sun on myself and I cover my face with a hat and sunscreen all the time when I'm out at the beach. I'm not so good about doing it around my house when I'm outside, but I really need to do it all the time. I've already had skin cancer about 15 years ago and hope that I don't have more, although odds are I will. My fair-skin dad has battled with skin cancer for years and I totally have his coloring. So, it's sunless for me these days. Luckily, the days of Q-T, the orange stuff (remember that?) is long gone and there are many great products out there.

My lily white legs are begging for me to get out the self-tanner right about now and everyone will thank me when I do it. Putting on shorts really calls attention to how white I am and that bit of color really helps a lot. I bought some Loreal Sublime self-tanner last year and liked it for the most part, but I thought I'd see what y'all are using, cause I know most of you probably do the same thing I do...self-tanner all the way! I don't like to spend a ton on self-tanner, so let's share some recommendations on thrifty finds, as well as the more expensive ones, if you like those too. I'm breaking out the self-tanner this week since I'm going to the beach, gotta have some color.

Any tips on keeping the streaking to a minimum? I know what I usually do....exfoliate, slather with lotion, then put on the self-tanner! The knees and ankles are the worst parts to get streak-free for me.

How about it? Are you ready for shorts, got your tan on lately??

Let's Talk Beauty Products!

Here's my makeup box. Can you tell it's a tackle box? My sister started this WAY back when we were young. She bought a tackle box to put all her makeup in and I followed suit. It makes a perfect box for all those little containers. And you can tuck it out of the way in a closet or armoire. I don't use nearly all of this and I've even cleaned it out many times, but can't seem to get rid of all the eye shadow kits and other things I don't always use. My routine for makeup is much more simple these days.

Back in my 20's, I was so into makeup and fashion. I still love makeup and fashion, but not nearly like I did then. I loved it all and was a real beauty products snob and always shopped at the department store cosmetics counter. Estee Lauder was my choice of cosmetics for the most part and I ventured out with Clinique, Lancome, and Ultima III. I lived for the free gift with purchase events. That's when I'd stock up on foundation or loose powder or whatever else I needed to get one of those free gifts. Those days, I'm afraid, are over. I think I've gotten a little wiser over the years and realized that just because a beauty product costs a lot of $$, doesn't mean it's the very best OR that I can't find something just as good for less. So, let's talk money-saving beauty tips, shall we? About 3 or 4 years ago, I discovered Bare Minerals (or Bare Essentuals) mineral makeup and I haven't looked back since then. I think it works great with my aging skin and seems to give an overall better glow, rather than the heavier foundations I was using previously. I have tried many liquid foundations over the years, from Estee Lauder, to Lancome, to Revlon and Loreal. All of them were fine for the most part, but as my skin has aged, I felt the need to lighten up on the foundation. Mineral makeup works great for me! It goes on lighter, still covers enough and let's your skin show through without looking cakey or too made up. I have rather oily skin, especially the T-zone and the mineral foundation keeps me from looking like a grease pit at the end of the day. Of course, summer is still the worse for my oily skin, but overall I think mineral makeup is a big find for me. Have you tried it yet? I now purchase mine on Ebay. I've found several sellers on there and you can get some pretty good discounts if you shop around. The good thing is, one container lasts at least 6 mos. for me, so I don't have to buy that often. I use Fairly Light for my rather fair skin. I also use the bronzer called Warmth. It adds just the right amount of blush and if I want more of a bronze look in the summer, just add a bit over my whole face. Bare Minerals is not particular cheap, but I like it so much, it's worth it to me. Back in the 70's and 80's those huge makeup cases were all the rage too. I can't tell you how many Estee Lauder and Ultima III eye shadow kits I bought. There were so many colors in there...wild, beautiful colors, but really how practical are all those colors? Not very. I've narrowed down my best colors to the ones above. These look the best on me with my blue eyes....pinky browns, russet browns, golden yellow, and creamy white for accents. I love these eye shadows from Ulta. We don't have an Ulta store here in Birmingham, but I can always stock up when I go back to Atlanta. These eye shadows are very reasonable too and they often run Buy One, Get One Free promotions. Very practical!
Have you ever heard of Wet & Wild? I've been buying their lip liners for probably 15 years now and my favorite one is #666 (I know, strange), but it's also called Wine. It's a great pinky-brown shade for all of my lipsticks and that's the only one I use now. Best part is, they sell for about $1. I see that Walmart carries them now, as well as Target used to and I just saw this shade touted by a makeup artist from NY in a magazine recently, so I see I'm not the only one who's found it. Also picked up a dark blue eye liner for the same price and it works well too. Now, that's budget makeup! I've also found that when I've picked up Clinique or Estee Lauder lipsticks over the years in those freebies and find a shade I like, I can check Ebay and find lots of the brand new sample sized ones for sale for much less money than going to the department stores. I just put in the name I like and do a search on Ebay. Very cost effective!


I'm all over the board too with skin care products. Right now, I'm using Oil of Olay cleanser with microbeads (for anti-aging), Aveeno moisturizer, and some Boots of London aging serum, which I keep hearing lots about. Have you heard of Boots?? They are a low-cost botanically based skincare line out of the UK. I checked the line out at Target and it looks pretty good, so I think I'll try more when I run out of what I have currently. I got persueded last year to try Arbonne anti-aging skincare products. They were expensive and I really couldn't tell any difference in my skin, so I'll never do that again!
Here's another good hair product that I found at Walmart. Hask Spray-On Illuminator, one of those shine sprays with silicone to give a lot of shine to your hair. This one works well for me and I know there are much more expensive ones out there, but after I tried this one, I'm happy with it.

I'd love to find some good recommendations for hair products. I've gone back and forth over the years buying expensive shampoo and conditioner and cheap ones. Paula Begoun (The Beauty Bible lady) says that cheap shampoos are just as good as the salon products. I think when I was younger, I could get away with the cheaper ones, but now that my hair is getting more gray and coarse, I really need something that will keep it hydrated, soft and shiny and it seems the more expensive ones do that better. I know my hair feels better after I leave the salon! Tell me what you've found for hair products that work for you. I have really thick, coarse hair with lots of natural curl and a tendency towards frizz. I've always said it is just like a horse's mane and that's about the truth. Right now, I'm using a Redken smoothing shampoo for dry hair to keep it softer and tame the frizzies. I also picked up a deep conditioner for colored hair at Sally's by Ferria that works pretty well too, but

I'd love to hear from you about your shampoo and conditioner favorites. If I can find some that are less expensive, but still work great, I'm all for saving money.

Do you use cheap shampoo and conditioner or expensive and why? Can you really tell the difference? I'd love to find some good ones that are maybe in between really cheap and really expensive. We don't have any good places to shop for the salon products over here except at a salon (or at least I haven't found one yet). I used to shop at Ulta all the time in Atlanta, but we don't have them over here.

So, let's hear your recommendations! The girl who cuts my hair (and I'm still going to the Supercuts girl) said we should change up our shampoos and conditioners very often, as hair gets used to the same products and it's better to mix it up. Maybe we'll all get some good ideas! Feel free to offer any other good tips on makeup and skin care products too. What can't you live without?