A Makeover Story.

Well I shared a while back that I was going on Daytime TV here in Tampa, FL to be made over. We recorded it a week ago (Thursday) and it aired this past Monday morning (I DVR'd it for my family since they can't get it in Indy, Cali, North and South Carolina, etc). But I wanted to show you all a little of my experience.

Here's me before:



They had me wear jeans and a t-shirt, no makeup, hair back. Yikes. I did my first interview on camera this way which I was pretty nervous about but I didn't look half as scary as I expected even with all those lights.

In transition:

And just before returning to the set to reveal myself (so in other words: the after):

Yes, I got to keep the clothes, jewelry, and shoes!


So I'm guessing the next question on your mind is...how'd I do at keeping it up?

Here's a few pictures of me since the makeover having done my own hair and makeup (the first one really shows you the color of my hair - a burgundy):





Sorry for the poor pic quality, oh blackberry how I wish you were an iphone.

Thanks for being part of my makeover story - and for the people who watched it either on TV or on my DVR since.

Love,

B

Picking the Professional's Brain - Makeup.

Well yesterday was makeover day and I took full advantage of having 3 professionals working on me to ask questions! I wanted to share a few tidbits I learned with you from the gal who did my makeup...

I'm fasinated by people who are good at makeup because while I love to dabble and could spent a good hour playing in Sephora, I just don't have the creative genius some people have, especially in the eyeshadow department. I see these cool new trends and think 'I wouldn't know where to start'. Anybody with me here? She taught me how to do a smokey eye, which I've always though were really cool but with a color palette that works for me. Apparently because my eyes are hazel/green (but people assume their brown because I'm THAT bad at doing eye makeup) - I should stick to plums and peaches and never ever use neutrals. Epic fail on my part...guess I'm cleaning out my makeup bag and starting fresh! I mean, I knew from art school that purples pop greens so I do have a few of those but I usually combine them with neutrals which apparently wasn't doing my eyes any favors.

I talked to her a bit about how to keep from being shiney as well. I have oily skin and midday I tend to get shiney which also sometimes makes my makeup gather in dark or orangey looking ...puddles? I hate this. It's made worse by the fact that I'm dark complected and therefore my makeup is dark. Anywho, she recommend a primer that's made to control oil. So I've added that to my 'to buy' list. I know bare essentuals makes one but I'm not a huge fan of their products, so I'm still looking. I've used Makeup Forever's mist and fix and I like that for what it does but it doesn't control my oil factor. I've also tried the photo finish product that magazines rave about but it doesn't control my oil. Blah. She also said to buy buy buy oil blotters and have them everywhere. In the car, in every purse, in the house, in a pocket. Any and everywhere.

Ever wonder who makes the best bronzer? Me too. I swear by bronzer and since my face is always paler than my body, I'd probably look like a freak without it. She didn't really have an opinion but I've tried many and the best for me has been Nars brand bronzers and the 'Pot of Gold' by Sephora. Thought I'd share that anyway.

After my conversations with her I poured over the stack of magazines that had been building up on my coffee table for weeks and came up with a few other things for my new makeup hit list which includes:

- oil reducing primer
- eye lash curler
- oil blotting paper
- concealer stick
- eye liner brush (so you can use eye shadow as liner, which I learned about yesterday as well)
- purple shadows
- deeper lip gloss

I hit Nordstrom Rack on lunch and had much success:

Whew. Still have a few things left to collect but I'm going to hit Ulta soon with a coupon from May's InStyle magazine and take care of the rest.

Love,

B

Unmet expectations.

Currently I am doing a bible study (with a small group of wonderful girls) called Me, Myself, and Lies by Jennifer Rothchild.  This study is about giving yourself a total thought closet makeover.  Now for me this study has had good and bad weeks.  Relatable and irrelevant.  But this weeks concept applies to you whether your 'religious', of faith, or not.  

One thing that can get your thought closet really out of wack is unmet expectations.  Now this may or may not speak to your daily life but it does to mine.  I'm the queen of high expectations.  I put a lot of energy into work, friendships, my relationships with my family members, just about everything I do.  Now that being said, I also EXPECT a lot of the people in my life.  If you know me and you're not instantly agreeing with me (about myself) than that's probably because my ability to express my expectations is sorely lacking.

While I'm quick to hold people to my standards, I'm slow to communicate those standards.  For example, giving gifts is something I love to do.  I love to pick out gifts for someone, write out a long well thought out card, and hope that this makes them feel special on the day they receive it.  One year for my birthday I had high expectations not of getting the perfect gift but of getting a well thought out gift from a particular person.  It could have been from the dollar store but I wanted it to have personal meaning.  What did I get?  A gift card.  

If you're thinking oh boo hoo, tough cookies for me. Well then I'm with you.  Now, in hindsight it seems silly that I took this as a smack in the face of the hard work I'd put into this persons past few gifts.  I actually LOVE gift cards and every year for my birthday I ask for money so I can get exactly what I want (I'm picky).  These reasons are probably exactly why I got that gift card but I wanted a significant piece of jewelry, a spa day with them, a journal with a 'foreword' by this person, something of that nature.  So why didn't I just tell them what I wanted?

What I got for that birthday was unmet expectations.  That's a silly, stupid, girly version of what I really mean.  I place expectations on my career, myself, my friends, my family members and when those expectations go unmet my thought closet throws up.  I get hurt.  I get angry. I get disappointed.  This range of emotions depending on the particular incident.  But what goes on in my head is ugly.

Worse yet?  I FEED those ugly thoughts.  I throw myself a little pity party in my head and remind myself over and over that I deserved better.  That I was wronged!

When you get upset, whichever particular emotion you may have ie: anger, resentment, frustration - how do you react?  I react by isolating myself.  I tune people out and go to this place in my head where I can justify how I feel.  I don't blow up, scream, or usually even cry.  I bottle up my emotions and fan the flames of the chaos in my thought closet.

One thing someone suggested to me was to ask myself, will this matter in a year?  

I haven't had opportunity to try this yet but it makes a world of sense.

This week I'm purposing to keep lies out of my thought closet and express my expectations AND my emotions.  I hope that this little window into my head has been helpful to you in some way.  And hasn't made you afraid to give me a gift card in the future, I promise I really do love them! 

Love,

B