MY FAVORITE THINGS

Exfoliated bodies and lightly made up complexions
Bright Glowing faces and the Vogue beauty sections
Brown rimmed eyes with lip colors that sing
These are a few of my Favorite Things

Bright Colored blushes and foundations that blend
Q-tips and primers and mascara that bend
Smokey Yves Rocher eyes that sparkle like diamond rings
These are a few of my Favorite Things

Women in short dresses with legs like smooth satin sashes
Lightly powdered noses and fabulous false eyelashes
A Silver white eye you can wear into Spring
These are a few of my Favorite things

When the cold bites
When the wind stings
When I'm feeling sad
I simply reach for my favorite beauty things
And then I don't feel so bad.


Glycolic acids that give you great skin
Botanical Beauty that glows from within
Vaseline Cocoa Butter that makes my skin feel like a King
These are a few of my Favorite Things

Dove Real Beauty Bar so soft to the caress
A deodorant that leaves no marks on the little black dress
These are the reasons I blog and walk with a Spring
I am giving away some of my Favorite Things!

When you're over the endless Holiday cheer
When your Visa statement fills you with fear
When you're feeling sad
It's time to win a beauty basket worth lots of bling
The Power of Pretty 'gifts' you some Favorite Things
And then you will feel so Glad*





I have a Beauty basket to give away exclusively to listeners of Proud FM's Shaun Proulx Show and readers of his blog HIMBO. Entering to win is simple- Just become a follower of my Blog on the right hand side-

http://thepowerofpretty.blogspot.com- by clicking on the follow this blog/subscribe button on the right hand side. Simple as that. I will pick a winner out of all the entries and tell you how to contact me.

I also have another Beauty basket to giveaway and that is for the person who sends me the highest number of people who become followers/subscribers. Just tell them to add a comment and tell me they were sent by you. individual items may vary but it will be a good Win! A really good WIN. A empty out the tickle trunk kind of win.
Painless and Pretty- My favorite kind of Beauty Duty!

*Apologies to Julie Andrews, Rogers and Hammerstein and anyone else traipsing around the Alps.

As the Crowfeet Fly

One of my new favorite things in my arsenal of pretty weaponry, is this handy little guy from Canadian skin care innovator Dermaglow. This brand has been around since 2000, is sold internationally and is constantly developing exciting skin care products that work.
Well the Triple Action Eye Lift is now part of my gym bag 'beauty duty' baby! I may not be able to lift my arms right now- damn you deltoid machine- but this product is loverley. Easy to use, designed to slip into your pocket or purse, it has a roll on applicator to deliver instant hydration and lift in one simple stroke with no mess to worry about- how you ask? - Well it it has an active ingredient called escin, which is an extract derived from the horse chestnut tree and promotes increased circulation in the skin and enhanced collagen production. Collagen is what gives your skin fullness and plumps it up. We love our collagen boosters!

Another ingredient is sodium hyaluronate which holds and retains moisture and has small particles which easily penetrate into the skin. Going into the dreaded W word- winter - the season when the temperature drops and all that horrible radiant heat/central air kicks in and starts to suck the moisture out of your face like a bad Bram Stoker adaption starring Keanu Reeves, a quick little roll of this guy is like giving your undereye and crow's feet a big gulping glass of moisture. The consistency is pretty ideal, absorbing quickly and doesn't make you look all disco shiny, like so many other anti- aging products on the shelves. It also reduces under eye puffiness and the appearance of dark circles. I'm not saying give up the late nights, I'm just saying lessen the tell tale look of them. My favorite part is Dermaglow stands behind their products completely, so customer satisfaction is key to their success and if you're not happy bring it back. it is also fragrance free and has no parabens*. I hate lots of smelly products on my face and have been known to toss out new moisturizers just cause of the questionable overload of scent sensation.

Dermaglow's Triple Action Eye Lift retails all over in major drug stores like my favorite personal beauty emporium addiction Shoppers Drug Mart for just less then $35. Now if I could only figure out how to hold mine between my knees, lean in and apply until my shoulders stop screaming, my eye area would be hydrated and happy.


*Note: The case is still out on parabens, which are synthetically made chemical preservatives, as to if they actually are carcinogenic. I am no scientist, mad but not a scientist, but when it's going into my skin, especially my face, I'd rather err on the side of caution.- At one time smoking and sitting outside in the sun slathered in a concoction of iodine and baby oil supposedly didn't cause cancer either -not judging... just saying... ok maybe judging a little.

Ode to Tweezerman- a Beauty Duty!

As a self proclaimed eyebrow obsessive, the kind of guy that sits on the subway mentally, meticulously, reshaping the bushy brows and anemic arches of transits' teaming masses, I would be lost without one of my favorite makeup artist go to tools. I have had in my career bought so many I should own stock in the company, using them to work my eyebrow magic on everyone from supermodels to super moms. And as far as addictions go there is no need yet for tweezer rehab.

The Tweezerman Slant Tweezer is an absolute makeup kit necessity for superior brow shaping. I love how the perfectly aligned, hand-filed tips are seamlessly slanted on an angle to get every one of those hairs, even the tiny ones just poking through the skin, and do so effortlessly without pinching skin. There is a reason Tweezerman's tweezer is a beauty award winner including being chosen by magazine's like InStyle, and Allure. The editorial team for Allure, the beauty bible, have chosen Tweezerman's for eight consecutive years in their round up of 'Best of Beauty'. They are even the tweezer used to perfect Michelle Obama's first lady arches for the US inauguration  of her beau Barack and Madonna's makeup artist tames her fiercely bushy Italian ancestry with a divalicious pair. 

You can find them at the beauty counter in your local Shoppers Drug Mart for around $20 or so in stainless steel and other various colored enamel shades, like the red seen here. My new favorite is the camouflage pair I received in a gift bag. I'd post a pic but they're camouflaged. They also come with a lifetime warranty if they start to dull down. I myself have never bothered to send them back, as I usually have 3 pairs on the go in various kits, but the company will re-sharpen or send you a brand new pair, if yours starts to fail in their pulling power. You no longer have to take on the world brow beaten, but like Madonna and Obama's Missus, with an artful tweeze you can give great face!

TIPs and TRICKS: Make sure when you tweeze, you go slowly and take only one hair at a time. If possible get a professional to give you great brows- like me- so you can follow their line and maintain what they have created. I always tell my clients if they are going to an estheticians to be shaped, look very carefully at her eyebrows and like what you see, because yours will be very similar when she is done. If you can, open up the pores first with a hot shower or a warm towel. This lessens the pain and makes the hair slide out easier. Put down the tweezers during your period as the nerves in your skin are more sensitive and the hurt can increase exponentially. You're just removing some hair not having invasive surgery and giving away your kidney.