Beauty Bus

Posted on January 26, 2012 by david

The other day I was reminiscing about my first days as a makeup artist.  I was so excited to be freelancing for a respected makeup line like MAC, and I loved all the interesting people that I got to meet.  That day, I was working at the Christopher Street location in New York City (the very first MAC store ever!), when a woman in her 30′s walked through the door.  It was very quiet in the store, and I asked if she wanted a free makeup aplication by me.  Her eyes lit up, and she immediately said yes.  She sat down in my makeup chair, and we chatted as I applied a rich moisturizer to her dry skin.

“I’m Lisa.  I need a makeover so badly, thank you”, she said gratefully.

“Why, what’s going on?” I replied as I smoothed some lip balm on her lips.

“I just finished chemotherapy and have not had much time for myself lately.”  She pulled off her hat to reveal her bald head underneath.  “I just want to feel pretty today.”

I immediately hit it off with Lisa and we enjoyed playing with the makeup colors I had chosen.  There was something so healing about this experience, I just loved pampering Lisa and wanted to make her feel like a queen.  I used cream blush to give her cheeks a rosy sheen, and a tinted lip balm for a pop of color.  When I was done, I held up the mirror to show how healthy and beautiful she looked.  She was delighted and gave me a big hug, then glowed as she walked out of the store.  This experience sums up everything that I love about makeup, and it is why I am so excited to get involved with Beauty Bus.

Beauty Bus is an amazing charity organization that provides beauty treatments to people with debilitating illnesses such as cancer.  They also extend these treatments to the caregivers, because they know how taxing that can be for loved ones who are helping out.  Part of my goals for the new year is to volunteer with groups that inspire me, and Beauty Bus is a perfect fit.  I went through my training over the weekend, and I’m so excited to connect with my first Beauty Bus client!

 

 

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Happy New Year!

Posted on January 5, 2012 by david

 

 

I am so excited that it is 2012, and I have a really good feeling about it.  Dougall and I had a wonderful staycation during our holiday experiment; I feel completely rested and ready for the new year.  I even made some resolutions that I plan to keep!  The first one is to get fit (I know, original right?), and so far we’ve been doing really well with it.  We joined a new gym and have taken a bunch of spin classes.  I’m proud of myself, and I have even managed to avoid wishing harm upon the instructors (although it’s still early).

I feel really happy and grateful nowadays, so I want to make sure that this continues to be a regular part of my life.  That’s where my second resolution comes in; I plan to blog much more regularly.  My main reason for this is so that I can stay connected with you!  I have gotten such nice feedback from readers, and I want to keep that good energy going.  In truth though, I want to do this for myself.  I love writing and this is a great way to express myself creatively.  So keep an eye out for more makeup reviews, more personal blogs, and fun!

With that in mind, I’d like to suggest one of my favorite makeup review websites!  It’s called Makeup Alley, and it is a great place to find unbiased user reviews about every cosmetic product that you can think of.  There are tons of reviews from people just like you, as well as reviews from professional makeup artists who have tested products on many clients.

This is where I first learned about my latest makeup obsession, Revlon Colorburst Lip Butters.  I am officially obsessed, they are like a cross between a lip balm and a lip stick, with the shine of a gloss.  These don’t have great lasting power, but they are super moisturizing and feel really good on your lips.  This is the lip product to try if you are new to makeup or shy away from bright colors.  The beauty of these is that you can swipe your lips once for a sheer hint of color, or keep swiping to build the intensity.  I think color is such an enjoyable part of life, and these lip butters will make you feel like a kid again with all the gorgeous shades available.  Definitely check out Berry Smoothie (a perfect sheer plum) and Peach Parfait (more of a pink than peach).

 

 

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Bobbi Brown’s All Over Bronzing Gel

Posted on November 15, 2011 by david

Hi guys, I hope that you’re having a beautiful November! I am loving the change of seasons so much. Warm gold, orange, and red leaves seem to be everywhere. I love the smells and sounds of a blazing, crackling fireplace, and a warm soup on the stove. The only thing I don’t love, however, is how pale I start to look when the seasons change. Some people look wonderful with an ivory complexion, but I think I need a little color to look healthy.

With that said, I am always looking for a product that allows me to protect my skin and get some color at the same time. This season, I have been rather obsessed with Bobbi Brown’s All Over Bronzing Gel. My favorite way to use this product is to mix a drop of it in with my morning sunscreen. Blend them together and smooth onto your clean face. What I love is that I get to protect my skin and feel like I’ve spent an hour in the sun at the same time! You can technically use this bronzer straight out of the bottle, but I find that I use it on a daily basis when I blend it with my moisturizer.

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stange beauty inventions

Posted on May 5, 2011 by david

ulta-shower-smoothies-chocolate-milkshake-buttercream-cupcake-cinnamon-roll

Hey guys, here’s a link to a very cute article about strange beauty inventions. My friend Rachel sent it to me and I thought that you might enjoy it. My personal favorite is the toast and jam shower set. I mean c’mon, a toast-shaped shower sponge?

On a similar note, I’ve been recently obsessed with this 3-in-1 shower gel from Ulta. The name of the scent is Chocolate Milkshake, and it smells like, you guessed it. As a chocolate lover, I really love this stuff and use it every day without worrying about calories. They have other tempting scents, but I do think that the Apple-tini one sounds a little weird. Who wants to smell like a cocktail? Although I’m one to talk, I like smelling like a milkshake…

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The Dougall Fraser Radio Show!

Posted on February 15, 2011 by david

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Hi guys,
I am so excited about the premiere of Dougall’s new radio show! We have been working on this for awhile, and I really think that you are going to love it. Dougall has been a guest on many radio shows over the years, and his favorite part about it is taking calls from listeners. People love to call in and ask a psychic questions, and Dougall is great at giving advice along with mini-readings. We both agreed that there was never enough time for callers, which is how this show came to be! It is a full hour of humor, pop culture and good advice. Please click here to listen to the commercial!
You can also hear the show online at www.transformationtalkradio.com. Just look for the “listen now” button on the homepage. If you have trouble with that button, click the button underneath that says “open alternate stream”.
See you every Tuesday at 10:00am Pacific time!

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Basic Makeup Class

Posted on November 12, 2010 by david

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I taught such a fun class this past weekend! It was a basic makeup class designed for a group of high school girls that I know. Most of the girls in the class are also in a painting class that I take. My friend Marilyn teaches the painting class, and we get together monthly to paint in different mediums. It’s a great creative outlet, and many elements of painting remind me of doing makeup. We thought it might be fun for me to teach a makeup class to the group, and it was!

The main thing that I try to impart as a makeup artist is that a little makeup goes a long way, so don’t overdo it! You want people to notice how pretty you look, not your makeup. If someone notices your makeup, you probably have too much on. When I first started out as a makeup artist, I thought that I needed to use 30 different products on a client to impress them. I would use 5 different eyeshadows to recreate something I had seen in a fashion magazine. This is unnecessarily complicated, and usually intimidates people into thinking that they could never redo the look on their own. Over time I learned that the most beautiful makeup is often the most simple. Find one or two neutral shadows that look good on you, and just use those for awhile. Get really comfortable using them, this will make you more confident at doing your makeup. (Two shadows that I recommended for the girls are Shroom by MAC, a shimmery ivory-beige shadow, and Naked Lunch by MAC, a soft beige-pink. These look great as an inner-eye highlight, an allover lid color, or an under-the-brow highlight.

I also feel that an important component of good makeup is good skincare. It’s critical to have a moisturizer and an spf that you love. I often use moisturizer to sheer out concealer & foundation, and to add a dewy glow to the cheeks. Buy a lip balm that feels and smells great, and use it! Lipstick and glosses will all look better on your lips if they are already moisturized. Try to wash your face every night before bed, and keep some makeup wipes handy in case you are tired.
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Makeup does not need to be expensive! Many of the high-end brands you see at a department store also own inexpensive brands at drugstores as well. For example, did you know that Lancome is owned by L’Oreal? This means that if you love Lancome Definicils mascara, you can find an inexpensive version of this at the drugstore (I like L’Oreal Voluminous mascara). The downside to shopping at a drugstore, however, is that you can’t test the products before you buy them. This is why I suggest shopping at CVS for beauty products. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee, which means that you can return any beauty product if you get it home and don’t like it.

The most important tip that I can give, however, is to love the person that you see in the mirror. I have done makeup on celebrities, models, and tv personalities. They are all just as insecure as the next person, and are as self-critical as any of us. The main reason that I think people love getting their makeup professionally done is because they want to feel good and to be told how beautiful they are. Try to do this for yourself, and you will be beautiful. The next time you look in the mirror, pick something about yourself that you love and focus on that. I promise, this is just as effective as putting on the perfect lipstick.

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Searching for a good Sunscreen…

Posted on November 9, 2010 by david

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Hi makeup guys and gals,
So I’ve been testing out a couple of natural sunscreens and have come to a few realizations:

    a.Sunscreen with a super-high SPF can make you look like a pasty, white ghost.
    b.It’s almost impossible to wear an organic sunscreen without looking like a shiny/oily greaseball.
    c.I’m kind of practical (read:cheap) and prefer not to spend a lot of money on sunscreen if I can find a more affordable alternative.

With that said, I do think that you can protect your skin from the harmful effects of the sun easily. I started testing natural sunscreens at the end of the summer, after reading that most supermarket sunscreens can actually cause skin cancer. I know, seriously? Anyway, first on my list was the Badger Sunscreen for Face and Body, Unscented SPF 30. I promised myself that I would give this product a fair chance and use it for at least a week to see how it performs. From the get-go, I noticed that this stuff made me look very white and pasty. You know how babies at the beach look after their parents put SPF 100+++ on them? That’s the idea. You might as well slather on some cream cheese, it was so white. However, this is not entirely unusual for a natural sunblock, because titanium dioxide is the main ingredient (it reflects the sun off your skin, and is what makes you look white). I also noticed that it left me feeling super-shiny. To correct this I would just mix it with a drop of foundation to tone down the whiteness, and powder with translucent powder to blot the shine. So overall, I would only recommend this product on a daily basis if you were willing to add those two steps.
The second sunscreen I tried is Kiss My Face sun screen spf 30 with oat protein complex. I actually really liked this product! This had a much more sheer, lotion-y feel to it. I applied it to my face and immediately noticed that my skin was not nearly as shiny as I expected. It had more of a “dewy” effect to it, which you might really like if you have dry skin or live in a colder climate. The “pasty” effect was also much more tolerable, in fact I hardly noticed a change in my skin tone after applying this. Score! The only downside that I did notice was that it started to sweat off easily when I wore it during a bike ride. I also noticed that my sweat was white-ish, which looked really weird.
Overall, I would easily recommend the Kiss My Face as a good daily sunscreen. However, you may want to keep looking if you’re in the market for a “sweatproof” product.

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Prop 8 can suck it!

Posted on August 5, 2010 by david

wedding photo

Prop 8 was deemed “unconstitutional” in California yesterday!!! You have no idea how validating this is for gay and lesbian Americans. For my husband and I, who are one of the 18,000 same-sex couples to legally get married in California in 2008, this is a huge sigh of relief. For those of you who don’t know, Proposition 8 is the constitutional amendment that banned gay marriage in the 2008 election. Voting “Yes on 8″ meant that “Yes, I want to ban gay marriage.” Dougall and I had recently moved from New York, where we’d had a beautiful ceremony and wedding in front of our loved ones. After moving to Los Angeles, we happily drove down to the courthouse and got our marriage license along with many other couples. It was one of the best days of my life! I had been raised in an Orthodox Jewish culture, and I never dreamed that I could ever get married as a gay man.

After the ban was passed, I was in shock. How could this be? Surely there was some misunderstanding. Didn’t voters see that we are no different from them? When I looked at the extensive list of other issues Americans had to deal with (the economy, home foreclosures, national security, runaway Toyotas), was gay marriage really that essential? We had already been legally married and it did not spark the end of the world.

Dougall and I had volunteered for the “No On Prop 8″ campaign, and tried calling random voters to explain our side of the story. I encountered more than one angry voter telling me that they were against gay marriage and that they would pray for me. This was excruciating for me, as I am not a confrontational person and hated how controversial gay marriage was. I just wanted to ignore the issue, but it kept presenting itself to me. When we filed our taxes or applied for a mortgage on our house, it was obvious that we were not recognized as a couple.

This is why it feels so incredible to know that Prop 8 was deemed unconstitutional. I know that this is not the end of the issue, as it can and will be appealed by people who disagree. I have renewed faith, however, that we can all reach a peaceful understanding with eachother. Yes!!!

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Safe Sun for Summer

Posted on July 12, 2010 by david

sunblock
Have you guys heard that your sunblock could cause cancer? When I first read this, I practically fell off my chair. I have religiously practiced “safe sun” for as long as I can remember, applying sunblock every day. Then the other day I read an article stating that some common ingredients in sunscreen (such as vitamin A) can actually contribute to skin cancer. This seems so wrong and backwards, like diet food that actually contributes to weight gain. Oh wait a minute…

I took the photo above in the cosmetics section of my local supermarket. As soon as the news came out, every bad sunscreen on the market seemed to go on sale!

So anyway, I have thrown out all of my old sunscreens and am going to start fresh. My goal is to test as many safe sunscreens as possible and see which ones I love. I read through the list of safe sunscreens on the Environmental Working Group’s website to see my options. The first one I picked up is the Badger Sunscreen For Face and Body, SPF 30.

If you’ve tried some safe sunscreens on this list, let me know!

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Golden Girls

Posted on May 12, 2010 by david

goldengirls.jpgOkay, how amazing was Betty White on SNL? That woman makes me laugh so much! At 88 years old, I find her completely inspiring for her energy and sense of humor.

Seeing her always reminds me of Golden Girls, my all-time favorite TV show. I loved watching Dorothy, Rose, Blanch and Sofia having so much fun as roommates in Miami. Even 30 years later, episodes of this show are still on cable. What is it that people love so much about these women? For me, it is the idea that getting older can be a joy. People stop being so self-conscious and learn to have more fun. What a major lesson this is, as many people waste years being inhibited instead of living in the moment.

Dougall and I recently returned from visiting our families in Florida. My grandmother-in-law lives in Naples, and is the picture of health at 94 years old. She lives in one of those beautiful retirement communities that are all over Florida. I love visiting her there because it reminds me that growing old can be fun. Water aerobics in the pool, card games with friends, and a non-stop buffet at the restaurant; you get the idea. My husband likes to make fun of me by saying that I’m looking forward to getting old, and he may have a point.

Now that we’re back in Los Angeles, I often meet people who are consumed with trying to look young – at any cost. I like to think of the Golden Girls as an example of how much fun getting older can be. So go put on some shoulder pads and tangerine lipstick in honor of the ladies, and celebrate life!

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