When my friend Jessie stopped by my house recently, I couldn’t resist asking if I could dress up her lips with some colors of the season. I knew she would look gorgeous in Burt’s Bees all-natural semi-matte lip crayon, ‘Napa Vineyard‘, and boy oh boy, did she ever. I topped it with just a bit of Burt’s Bees tinted lip balm in ‘Rose‘ to keep her lips feeling perfectly moisturized.

Later in the evening when we were getting ready to go out, I had a thought: we should add a few coats of Burt’s Bees all-natural lip gloss in my favorite deep, rich purple-tone, called ‘Starry Night’, and see what happens.

The result was so super pretty. A very different, but still deep, richly pigmented, multi-dimensional color, just perfect for falling temperatures, snuggly sweaters… and a hat.

If you’d like help finding the shade I think will look best on you, click here and here to explore the Burt’s Bees Lip Shade Finder and Lip Tip Library.

Thanks for showing off the lip colors so well, beautiful Jessie! xxx

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Burt’s Bees. The opinions and text are all mine.

For each of the next three weekends, one of you will receive all of what you see above (except for the teeny picture of me!).  At the risk of sounding like an infomercial, that’s TWELVE fantastic lip products, and all you have to do is enter to win via my Facebook page.  You’ll have 24 hours each weekend to submit your entry, and I’ll announce the winner at the end of the weekend.

In three different color families, you’ll get a tinted lip balm, a light reflective, color-packed lip shimmer, an intensely pigmented lip gloss that’s the perfect level of shine and never sticky, and a deliciously scented and lightly flavored gorgeous lip shine in an easy to apply squeeze tube.

I’ve put together these three unique packages of lip color  because I think that a lip wardrobe is something every woman should have, but I know how daunting it can be to pick out for yourselves. Each giveaway contains:

•  Red bundle consists of Red Dahlia Tinted Lip Balm, Pucker Lip Shine, Raisin Lip Shimmer and Ruby Moon Lip Gloss.
•  Pink bundle consists of Hibiscus Tinted Lip Balm, Blush Lip Shine, Rhubarb Lip Shimmer and Spring Splendor Lip Gloss.
•  Neutral bundle consists of Caramel Daisy Tinted Lip Balm, Whisper Lip Shine, Peony Lip Shimmer and Fall Foliage Lip Gloss.

Finding just the right lip color for yourself -no matter which color family you’re looking at – can be difficult, and I’m not suggesting that each of these bundles will be perfect on all women. However, one thing in which I have complete confidence is that you can create your perfect shade of lip color by mixing and matching and making your own blend of colors that makes your eyes pop, your teeth look their whitest, and your cheeks rosy. That’s what the magic of the right lip color can do for each of us.  Click here to watch some videos of lip color suggestions I’ve made to help other women find their perfect shade with Burt’s Bees!

You can check out the Lip Shade Finder that I created with Burt’s Bees to find out more about which colors will best suit you, based on your skin tone, eye, and hair color, here.

Have fun with it!

Have you seen ‘Masters of Sex’ on Showtime?  This beautiful woman stars in the groundbreaking series, and although it didn’t win a Golden Globe this year, I’m quite sure it will in years to come.  Lizzy Caplan is all around awesome, and WOAH – that face! I’ve wanted to paint on her since Bridesmaids, and I was lucky enough to have the honor to get her red carpet ready for yesterday’s Golden Globes awards show.  I’ve learned that in cases like this, when my client is just as gorgeous as can be with a naked face, my job is to keep her makeup as simple as possible.  Hear that? It’s not about the makeup, and I’m okay with it! Particularly when the dress has such a high wow-factor; a gold beaded gown from Pucci does not need to compete with my desire to give everyone a dark smokey eye and magenta lip.

So here’s the rundown on how I accomplished this beautiful minimalist look:

• I started by prepping Lizzy’s skin with a few sprays of RL Linden & Co. Thousand Petal Beautifying Mist (YUM!), and pressing Lina Hanson’s Global Face Serum into her skin.
• On her incredible eyes I used three shades from Kjaer Weiss: Charmed was the base for her entire lid and under eye, Magnetic, a luminous cocoa mink was swept along her lid to add more dimension, and I pressed a slight shading of Earthy Calm into the crease to add depth. I lined the top lid with a bit of Laura Mercier liner in Black Gold, and finished with a ton of Alima Pure mascara in Black, slicked on thoroughly curled lashes.
• I evened out her skin tone with a combo of Kjaer Weis foundation and Vapour Organic Beauty liquid foundation.

• I pressed Ilia’s lovely highlighter in Cosmic Dancer mixed with rms Living Luminizer along the highlights of her face (cheekbones, bridge of nose, cupid’s bow) to make her glow even more.  We discussed keeping her cheeks very light on color, so I used just the lightest swirl of  Kjaer weis cream cheek color in Desired Glow.
• On her lips, which I first had her scrub with a Burt’s Bees brand new Cucumber & Sage Facial Cleansing Towelette to ensure they were completely smooth and ready for lip color, I painted Peony Lip Shimmer and topped it with a super hydrating coating of Caramel Daisy Tinted Lip Balm, also from Burt’s Bees.

This is a little behind the scenes shot of my makeup set up (Lizzy’s freshly painted nails typing away in the upper right corner) just prior to starting getting her ready:

Back in March I spent the afternoon with Shiva Rose in her spectacular Venice Beach home. Shiva has a really fun, informative, and aesthetically beautiful blog called The Local Rose, where she writes about living her best green life, and others living theirs.

I love Shiva’s vibe.  In her backyard there were the most vibrantly colored chickens (or were they hens or roosters? Why don’t I know the difference?) running around, and her house was that perfect blend of styles: relaxed bohemian, mid-century modern, rustic, and multi-cultured. (I immediately started daydreaming about moving in and throwing parties to show it off).

Shiva’s beautiful and talented daughter shot a little video of us as I gave Shiva a face oil massage with a delicious oil from La Bella Figura, taught her how to use her eyelash curler to its fullest potential, an then gave her a little makeover using products from an all –green makeup line called W3LL People.

Thanks again, Shiva. When can we film episode two (or at least just hang out again?) I’m back in LA!

Every year the iconic designer, Diane Von Furstenberg, throws an awards event to provide recipients with the exposure and resources needed to extend their critical efforts on behalf of women’s causes. Four individuals are honored who have displayed leadership, strength, and courage in their commitment to their causes, and this year, the beautiful Olivia Wilde was a presenter. I’m always happy to get clients ready for a red carpet event, but when it’s for a cause that’s so near and dear to my heart, it makes it all the better for me.

When I got to Olivia’s apartment about two hours before she had to leave for the event, she showed me the gorgeous black pants suit she and her stylists had chosen, and said: “I don’t know, I was thinking we should play up my eyes”.  On my way to her place I’d been looking at photos of her from previous red carpet events -which I do before meeting with every client – to see which looks I liked her in the most. Olivia usually goes for a dramatic black liquid cat-eye or a rounded, very intense dark smokey eye, and in the moment she said “let’s play up my eyes”, what felt like 500 images of fun things I could do flooded my head. As her hairstylist began running mousse through her hair, I stood staring at the shadows and liners I’d laid out on her dining room table, trying to decide which colors to swirl around her eyes, and in what shape.

I knew I needed a minute to come to a decision, so I did what I usually do, and started with a face oil massage to get her circulation going, and to zone out on her face while she had her eyes closed. Within seconds it came to me, and I saw the completed look in my head, even before the oil had time to absorb.

The glowing skin is ultimately courtesy of Olivia’s genes, of course, but I also always give a lot of credit to the base layer of hydration I lay down before I draw and paint on the skin, and in this case, Lina Hanson Global Face Serum made for a truly glowing-from-within look. Plus, the aromatherapy this oil provides to my clients (and to me) during the face massage has made it a mainstay in my kit (and my medicine chest). The scent is incredible, and the viscosity is perfect.

As for her beautiful eyes: I used three simple products:

1. a pale, sheer shimmery slate gray,
2. a medium dark matte smokey graphite gray, and
3. a black creamy eyeliner.

First I mapped out the overall shape I wanted using the pale gray. On top of that I precisely placed the medium/dark matte gray along the crease and outward, extending slightly up from the outer corner of her eye, and then I blended the hell out of it so there would be no apparent edge between the two shades. Then I went in with a black liner and thoroughly applied it on the inner rim of top and bottom lid, as well as dotted in between lashes. To complete the look I smudged it into the lash line on both bottom and top lid using a smudge brush.

I really love how this look turned out… and it’s just like I saw it in my head during the face oil massage!

One final note: since everyone always wants to know the answers to these two questions about my clients,  I will tell you: Olivia is incredibly nice, and super beautiful in person without a lick of makeup.

photos: Tim Bell

I count this multi-lingual, timeless beauty, model, attorney, farm and restaurant owner,  daily blogger, and columnist for HELLO! magazine  (how does she find the time??!) – Eugenia Silva – among my favorite faces to paint on, and wonderful friends. We’ve shared a lot over the years we’ve known each other, including a love for the best products. Luckily for me, she’s as excited by the green beauty industry as I am.

When she asked if I wanted to do a blog post together, I jumped at the chance. With plenty to pick from, Eugenia and I dug through my huge bag of non-toxic lip colors. Our oooh’s and ahhh’s were particularly loud when we came across each of these three colors pictured here. It helps that with her coloring, she can wear most shades.  Side note: she did her hair changes in two seconds between shots. This chica is a serious model! After the long day of shooting advertising, Eugenia still looked wonderful, so we grabbed the fantastic photographer, Tim Bell, and within 30 minutes, our photoshoot was complete (and stunning!).

Look #1:  Ilia Beauty in Ink Pot – has a silky, satin finish with just enough emollience.

Look #2: Bite Beauty in Apricot -doesn’t look like any apricot I’ve ever seen! it’s a richly pigmented orange-y red – not shiny nor matte, but the perfect blend of creamy.

Look #3: Dr. Hauschka in #13 – a very lustrous richly pigmented PINK with a modest amount of reflective particles to really make your lips shine without being glossy.

With colors so intensely pigmented, bright, and moist, application technique is important, particularly if you don’t want to have constant touch-up worries. There are lots of techniques that will help your lip color to stay strong all night, but one of my favorites (and it doesn’t necessitate finding the perfect lip liner to coordinate) is as follows:

1. Begin with moisturized lips. Now blot them with a tissue to remove any wax or oil sitting on your lip skin.

2. Using a lip brush, begin building up product by swiping both sides of the brush against the lipstick.

3. Begin by tracing the outer edge of the bottom lip with your lip brush, depositing color densely and evenly.

4. Trace the cupid’s bow (center of top lip, directly underneath the nose) with the lip brush. Stand back from the mirror and see if your top lip would benefit from being traced just slightly above the actual lip line. If you’ve never done this before, give it a try and see if you like how it looks (many of us start to lose a little fullness in our top lip in our late 20’s), and wipe it off immediately if it makes you look clownish. Finish tracing the edge of the top lip, whether inside your natural line, or just outside. Stand back from the mirror again and make sure what you’ve drawn is symmetrical, and if it’s not, try and get it as close as possible.

5. Reload your lip brush with lipstick and begin pressing the color  – not dragging it – evenly into your lip. Press your lips together – don’t rub them, though. The goal is to press the pigment into your skin, which will stain it = making the color last longer.

6. Repeat step 5

7.  Place a single sheet of tissue between the lips and press them together to blot – again, do not rub, only press.

8.  Using a translucent loose powder, gently tap some into your palm or onto a tissue, and using your ring finger, press a very light coat onto your lips. Press your lips together one more time to bind the powder to the lipstick.

9. Finish with one more application of your lipstick. This can be done with your lip brush, with your finger – by touching the lipstick with your ring finger, and pressing it into your lips – or by tapping directly from the tube onto your lips. The point of this final step is to ensure that the intensity of color is there, and that the finish is emollient and even.

I know it sounds like a lot of steps, but I’m telling you, when you don’t want to think about retouching for hours, this is the way to go. Regardless – don’t forget to pack your lippie in your handbag. You never know what activity you might find yourself in that will smear your perfect pout. Wink wink!

Gracias, Eugenia!!!

Fall: It’s that sweet spot between end of the summer and the start of the holiday season. It’s time for you to break out those gorgeous fall lip colors and see how fun they are to wear. Choose from a barely there sheer wash of color, super pigmented mattes, and glossy payoffs.

A good number of you have asked me for a lip color round-up to introduce you to some of the shades we see this time of year on the runways and red carpets:  deep, rich plums lipsticks, purple-y red glosses, satin-finished blackberries, and sheer merlot stains. It’s not always easy, though, to gauge just how this type of color is going to look on the lips.

The finished product not only depends on the way in which you apply:

1. directly from the tube, with a heavy hand, in a smeared, back-and-forth motion;

2. from the tube, but only lightly dabbing the stick onto your lips;

3. with a lip brush to make a precise edge;

4. by tapping your finger from the tube to your lip, adding layers of pigment until you reach the desired intensity level,

but it also depends heavily on what your natural lip color is before you start applying.  Those with a lot of pink or red in your lips are going to find that the deep purple wine stains can take on a completely different hue, and those of you with a really deep brown color to your lips may find that some of these shades disappear completely on you, or never show up with enough intensity, no matter what you do.

All of that said, it’s really difficult for someone like me (or a makeup company, for that matter) to definitively advise you on what to buy based on how you look sans lip color.  I can however, suggest shades to play with, and tell you my favorite ways to apply them. What should ultimately influence your decision when you’re standing at a makeup counter, or staring at lipstick swatches on the screen of your computer, wondering: when was the last time my  laptop’s color temperature was calibrated? [NEVER?!] are variables like: your eye color, your hair color,  your skin tone, your clothing color palette, your mood…

In no particular order (really, just the order in which I pulled them out of my big ol’ bag of lipsticks), here are some of my favorites. Those of you who follow this blog based on our shared love for ‘green’ beauty options, please take note that there are a handful of lip colors that don’t fall into that category, however, they’re such rich and dense shades – shades which are not readily available (or at least not that I know of!) in the all-natural world of lip color – that I often use them on photo shoots when I need that intensity. I did just check Jane Iredale’s webiste and found that she has a few deep purple shades that I have not yet tried.

HOW TO GET: NOT TOO HEAVY, NOT TOO LIGHT: THE PERFECT APPLICATION OF COLOR

When you’re new to wearing these shades, it can be overwhelming to see yourself with a thick application of. let’s say, Ilia’s ‘Ink Pot‘, or Mac’s ‘Rebel’ (which are very similar in color).  Instead, try tapping the lipstick onto your lightly lip-balmed lips, or use your ring finger to tap a good amount of product from the tube, and then press the pigment into your lips. This is how I generally apply all lipstick, even on myself. It helps to ensure less caking along the corners of your mouth as the hours pass, and through the act of pressing the product into your lips, you’ll find it sticks around longer than if you simply swipe the tube across your pout once or twice.

HOW TO GET: SHEER COLOR WITH A DEWEY FINISH

There are a multitude of great sheer options on the market that are easy to apply, and the more swipes across your lip, the deeper the shade becomes. My top favorites include: Burt’s Bees Lip Shimmer in’Prune’ and Kjaer Weiss’ ‘Sensuous Plum’.

HOW TO GET: SHEER GLOSSY LIPS

Trying out a lipstain, like ‘Quickstep or ‘Foxtrot’ [Foxtrot not pictured below]’ from Josie Maran is another great way to become acquainted with these shades. To start, color the marker onto UNMOISTURIZED lips (this is important to ensure the color will adhere), and then try following up with a gloss, like the gorgeous blackberry one from Vapour Organic Beauty in ‘Bitten‘, or their more chocolate shade ‘Risque‘. This makes for a luscious and easy to wear fall shade.

HOW TO GET: INTENSELY COLORED, MATTE OR SATIN FINISH LIPS

If you’re going for a much more dramatic look, make sure that your lips have been moisturized, but then blot them with a tissue, to ensure that your deep lipstick of choice adheres evenly, and depending on the look you’re going for, you might want to lightly outline your lips in a similar shade lipliner to ensure the color doesn’t bleed.  I wouldn’t advise that a dramatically deep, highly pigmented purple or merlot shade (like the one pictured on the model in the photo on the right) EVER be  highly glossy (i.e. adding gloss on top of the lipstick) in real life (a photo shoot is a different story). It’s guaranteed to slide off your lips, appear blotchy, and get on your teeth. This means that a super deep shade should be in a matte, satin, or have a super light dewey finish. It’s a great idea to lightly touch a tissue onto a closed mouth to ever so slightly remove excess product. My picks to accomplish this kind of look: NARS, ‘Train Bleu’ matte lip pencil, Chanel ‘Rouge Noir’ Lipstick, MAC Smoked ‘Purple Matte’ Lipstick, and Vapour Organic Beauty ‘Siren Bold’ Lipstick.

HOW TO AVOID:  THE DREADED LIPSTICK ON YOUR TEETH LOOK!

My grandmother showed me the best way to ensure that this embarrassing faux pas doesn’t happen:

1. after applying your lip color, open your lips into an ‘O’ shape.

2. grasp a cotton swab by the middle between your pointer finger and thumb, placing one end of the swab into your mouth, keeping your fingers on the handle, just outside of your mouth with the other cotton bud end pointing straight out, parallel to    the floor.

3. Pucker your lips like you’re  blowing a kiss around the handle of the swab, and gently pull the swab out of your mouth, making sure the inside of your lips comes in contact with the cotton as it leaves your mouth.

4. Repeat with the other side of the swab.

Voila – all of the excess color that would’ve ended up on your teeth has been swept away! Packing a few q-tips in your purse is always a good idea, to use for this trick, or to clean up fallen mascara.

The final two shades on the bottom right of the photo below are soon to be released, are part of the ‘green’ family of beauty products, are super affordable, and super beautiful. Once they hit the market I promise to tell you who makes them!

Happy leaves-changing, sweater-wearing, chilly hands, feet, and noses, FALL WEATHER everyone!

Today marks the start of a beautiful partnership.  Spirit Demerson, founder and owner of Spiritbeautylounge.com, the wonder woman who introduced me to so many fantastic green lines of makeup and skin care, and I, are teaming up to bring you ‘get the look’ blog posts.

I do the makeup while on a photo shoot, take the model’s picture at lunchtime, and send it off to Spirit to pair it with images of the products I used. Hallelujah!  This will make it so easy for you to quickly ‘get the look’, because you’ll be able to see the exact products I used, read how I used them, and click on the link to Spirit’s site to buy them. Couldn’t be easier.

To kick things off, please allow me to present the lovely Canadian model, Marla Boehr.

I prepped her skin by massaging in a few drops of Ila Rose Oil to combat the in-flight dryness I saw around her eyes, nose, cheeks, and mouth (She’d just flown in from Canada).

On her skin:
On her t-zone I sparingly pressed liquid foundation from Vapour Organic Beauty in number 125 and to make the finish look like bare skin, I lightly pressed it in with a slightly dampened beauty blender sponge.

On her eyes:

1. All over the eye area I pressed Kjaer Weis’s charmed shadow in a very sheer application with a medium domed brush. I blended it from the lid up all the way to her brow, sheering it out the further away from her lid I got. I swept some underneath her bottom lashes from edge to edge, as well.

In the crease of her eye I pressed a more tightly-domed shadow brush topped with  Kjaer’s shadow, Wisdom, and used a fluffier domed shadow brush to really blend it into the crease. I took what was left of the shadow on the tightly-domed brush and concentrated the placement of it under the iris, while using a cotton swab to barely blend it towards the edges.

In the inner corner of her eyes I pressed Kjaer’s shadow, Cloud Nine, which really made her eyes pop.

On her cheeks:

2. Onto a soft-tipped fluffy, but not densely packed brush, I blended together Ilia’s ‘All Of Me’ and ‘I Put a Spell on You’ and swirled it onto the apples of her cheeks. I used the same sponge I used on her t-zone to gently blend out the edges.

On her lips:

3. & 4. I used a combination of Ilia’s ‘Femme Fatale’ and Vapour Organic Beauty’s ‘Siren Ravish’ lipstick.  I first pressed Siren Ravish into her lips, and had her mash her lips together to really stain them. Then I applied Femme Fatale with a brush over top of the deeper shade, Ravish, and had her press her lips together a few times to really combine the colors.  I finished the application by gently tapping the pads of my fingers over her lips to soften the texture. Combining the two shades on the lips in this way creates a real depth to the mouth and wears wonderfully.

Finally, these are not products that Spirit has in her online boutique, as they’re not ‘green’, but I really like how they look and haven’t found an alternative that I like quite as much.

On her brows:

I used Laura Mercier Brunette Brow Pencil and Paula Dorf Brow Powder in Neutral

On her lashes

I used Covergirl Lash Blast in very black – very sparingly on top and bottom.

I’ll be testing out using different cameras for these how-to’s. This one was taken with my cracked-screen iPhone, which I think will be going into retirement.  Regardless, Marla rocked this look incredibly well and everyone on set loved it. Note: We were shooting clothes for the Fall, when lip color gets more deep and eyes become a little more intense. Try a purple, a burgundy or a brownish-red this Fall and you’ll be totally on-trend.

I couldn’t be more excited to share this article from Vogue.com:  Makeup Artist Katey Denno’s Guide to Going Green for Spring

I really believe in the brands I recommend in the article, and have actually had the pleasure of getting to know some of the people behind the different product lines, as I always want to know the story-behind-the-story of how they got their start, and what keeps them going.

A HUGE thank you goes to the beautiful and brilliant Catherine Piercy, Beauty Editor at Vogue.

Thanks to photographer Jason Brownrigg for snapping these shots while I was working last week, and to the lovely model McKenzie Raley for sharing the photo with me.

My first introduction to ILIA lipsticks happened last year while poking around ABC’s apothecary section (I think that ABC, in NYC, is one of the most well edited, well curated stores, both in content and aesthetic.) In addition to a ton of beautiful things for the home, they carry the best of the best when it comes to non-toxic hair/face/body products. When you’re in NYC you have to check it out. It’s beautiful, you’ll want to own everything, and you’ll be bummed that so much is so expensive. That said, these well designed, sleek little silvery tubed lipsticks caught my eye, and were reasonably priced compared to other high-end lipstick lines. When I gave one a try on the back of my hand, I was surprised to find how well pigmented the color was, and how smoothly it went on. The only down side was that there were only 6 or 7 different shades available.

I came home and wrote to the ‘info’ email address from the ILIA website and asked some questions. Almost immediately I got really thorough answers back from owner and creator, Sasha Plavsic (who hails from Canada, but now calls LA home). She explained to me that she’s learned  a cosmetic can still be completely non-toxic, even though it contains a very small percentage of synthetic color.  Synthetic doesn’t mean bad for us, just as all-natural isn’t always good for us.  Without allowing for that teeny percentage of synthetic pigment, she explained, there’s no way to achieve the rich intensity of the colors we love in favorite lipsticks from MAC, NARS, and Tom Ford, to name a few. So the base into which she mixes the color is all-natural, organic, super nourishing, healthy for the lips and perfectly healthy for the rest of you – which is important since we all eat and absorb our lipsticks into our bodies every day.

Sasha worked diligently to create a product that would meet the Environmental Working Group’s strict guidelines (if you aren’t familiar with the EWG, please check them out.) They are highly informative and influential as an online encyclopedia for ingredients found in cosmetics and rates their levels of toxicity. I will absolutely write about them in their own post this month, and found a way to offer all the intensity of bold colors like orange, pink, and red, that have been missing thus far from all-natural lines. Then Sasha put them in great-looking containers. I’m a sucker for packaging, and this woman knows what she’s doing, with her strong background in design and marketing within the branding world.

The best news ever is that ILIA just launched a new collection, complete with 14 lip colors – 6 are highly pigmented, and the other 8 are still well pigmented tinted lip conditioners.  I’ve been wearing ‘Nobody’s Baby’  and ‘In My Room’ the past few days, which look like my lips, but better. I also love the hot pink lipstick shade ‘Neon Angel’. In addition Sasha’s also come out with some cheek tints and highlighter creams in a tube that look wonderful. (highlighter creams are for cheekbones, eyelids, bridge of the nose, cupids bow, etc.)  I’ll give them a try over the next few weeks and report back.

Finally, I really love her no-color lip balm. It’s one of my new favorites for sure.

My only request: ILIA, can you work on coming out with a a bright orange-red for your next edition?  I’d proudly wear it every day.

*note about the photo above: this is how much of a beauty product nerd I am – I got the products from ILIA on Friday around 6 and I decided to call off my plans that night so I could stay home and play with them, and play with taking pictures of them for the blog. Don’t they photograph beautifully?  Thanks, ILIA!!!

ILIA is sold at a good number of locations across the country and around the world (GO ILIA, GO!), see here for specifics as well as online at www.spiritbeautylounge.com