Stepping outside your beauty comfort zone is an important way to up your confidence and make it through winter with your personality intact. From mud masks to crimson lips, up your game this season and leave those cold-weather cares behind.
Mud mask: warm up with a healing, detoxifying mud mask like Biore’s version with charcoal. The mask is self-heating, giving you that deeply relaxing, at-the-spa feeling… for about $1.25 apiece. This is a one-minute mask, so you can totally do it on the go. Or, you can make it part of a fun spa night — put on some cozy jammies, queue up a great movie, and pour a glass of vino. You can even get the kids in on it by putting a little cream on their faces and letting them take goofy pictures of you in your mask. Bask in the glow of your smooth, unclogged skin afterward. $5.09 for a pack of four masks, Target.
Matte lips: As your bod craves moisture, you might be swaying toward a glossy-only approach. But if you take a few moments in the morning to brush dryness away from your lips with a gently moist toothbrush, followed by a quick slick of balm, you’ll have the absolute perfect base for a matte lipstick. Nothing is sexier than creamy winter skin offset by a bold hue, so reach for cranberry or a deep, dark beige. Can you say “stunning?” Try NARS lipstick in Scarlet Empress, $26, Sephora.
A silver lining: Smoky eyes will never go out of style, but mix things up this season with a stunning allover silver. Dust a soft, white-silver shadow over the entire lid area, concentrating near the lash line. You can punch it out with charcoal liner or just use plenty of black mascara for a softer, super-feminine look. Silver is ever-so-slightly futuristic, but done properly it lands squarely in the now. L’Oreal Paris Infallible Eye Shadow in Silver Sky, at less than $7, is a perfect choice. Drugstore.com.
The perfect arch: For all the lovely browspiration we’ve been envying these past few seasons, how many of us actually own a good brow pencil? And of those, how many use it? Despite being a beauty blogger with sparse brows, I admit I fall off the wagon sometimes. It took my mother’s pre-baby visit to town to convince me it was “time,” and thank goodness she did. Right now I’m loving Dior’s Powder Eyebrow Pencil which comes in four colors and is ridiculously easy to use. Try drawing in short streaks starting at the outer edge of the brow and working in, opposite to how you normally would. This gets more powder to the skin beneath the brow, and helps in creating the perfect blended shape. $29 each. Bloomingdales.
A proper dryer: Okay, okay. I hear you. Who actually has time to blowdry their hair properly? But take it from one who knows — and one with a newborn, by the way. If you take 7 minutes every other (or third) day to dry your hair with the proper tools, you can achieve salon-ish looks that will deceive everyone around you into thinking you’re fancy. A friend recently told me it’s “not fair” that I showed up at lunch with a five-week-old and perfect hair. I swear, it took a squirt of $5 mousse, a paddle brush, and all of six-and-a-half minutes with my little cooing in a vibrating chair to make it happen. The better your dryer, the better your hair. That’s a simple one, no? I’m loving my BabylissPro Nano Titanium Portofino 6600, $129 with free shipping from Folica. Bad hair days, begone! New, daringly gorgeous you? Hello!
About Jenny