Tag Archives: Lisamarie

In my opinion the key to a happy marriage/relationship is seperate bathrooms. One of the reasons I've always thought this is because if we did share, I know that my husband would end up using my stuff - moisturizer, shampoo, cleanser - whatever - and I buy expensive stuff so that would bug me to no end and would soon have us headed for divorce!

Now I understand that not everyone has the luxury of seperate bathrooms and sometimes the spouse isn't the problem but rather your teenage daughter or roommate who likes nothing better then using your obviously far superior products. The perfect solution of course is a quality product at a reasonable price preferably in an economy size format (or selling your teen to gypsies but that's kind of frowned on)!

Ta da! Marcelle feels your pain and as of this week, is releasing a special-edition super sized Essentials 3 in 1 Cleanser! With 400 mL of cleansing, toning and make-up removing goodness in one pump bottle you are sure to appreciate it's non-greasy, non-drying, no-rinse, oil, soap, perfume and paraben free formula which leaves your skin soft and refreshed! Even if you both like different removal methods, no worries - you can take this one off dry with a cotton pad or wet with a washcloth, it really is a multi-tasker!

If you are sharing it with a husband or other male friend who doesn't wear make-up it's still a great and very gentle cleanser for him! Of course I still advocate no sharing - buy the big one for just yourself and enjoy the fact that it will just last you twice as long! And at $17.50, it's a total steal (no, I'm not saying steal it, buy it for heaven's sake)!

Lipstick or lipgloss - the popularity of each one seems to change from season to season but I have noticed something interesting, women tend to gravitate towards one or the other and psychologists would like us to believe it is a subconscious choice.

I recently read an article that claimed that women tend to wear the opposite product of what their mother does.  If your mom is a lipstick person you are more likely to be a gloss girl and vice versa. It's an interesting idea and in my own case it's actually true, my mom has always worn lipstick and I tend to prefer gloss.  Not to say I don't own four zillion lipsticks, but I do wear more gloss than lipstick so I am obviously subconsciously rebelling! I don't have any kids but it would be interesting to know if I did have a daughter if she would lean towards lipstick...

There are pros and cons to both formulations: lipsticks tend to be longer lasting, well pigmented and less messy while glosses are super shiny and can be applied very precisely.

Whichever one you like - application is the key - The Joker and Robert Smith from the Cure are the only ones who can get away with lipstick smeared all over their face, the rest of us should try to stay inside the lines!  Here are a few tips for perfect lipstick/gloss application:

1) Start with a smooth surface - gloss is a little more forgiving but nothing looks worse than lipstick on top of chapped lips!  There are several ways to get rid of the dead skin: buy a pre-made lipscrub, make your own with sugar and olive oil, or use a soft toothbrush/facecloth.

2) If you want to use a lipliner go for it but please make it the same colour as the product you will be wearing - the late 90's with that dark lipliner, light lipstick trend were dark times my friends - history is something to be learned from! I have personally become a fan of reverse lipliner which basically is a clear wax that you draw around the outside of your lips, this prevents the lipstick or gloss from bleeding outside of your lips!

3) The darker/brighter the colour you are using is, the more precise your application needs to be. If you can't be bothered messing around with this step than use a lighter colour as it's then less obvious that your application isn't perfect!

4) Have fun with it - it's makeup! Don't let anyone tell you that women over 30 can't wear gloss or redheads can't wear pink - I break both of these "rules" all the time!

Now what do you suppose those pychologists would say about women who like to layer gloss over lipstick?

The person who coined the phrase "beauty comes from within" was obviously someone without a well stocked make-up bag! Be that as it may,there are days when I'm nearing my 25th birthday (again) that I fear there might be some truth to the saying and figure my clogged arteries and jiggly arm fat probably aren't doing a whole lot for my outer beauty.  The outcome of this is the promise to get some use out of my gym membership and after blowing the dust and cobwebs off my gym bag, off I go full of healthy resolve!

Such was the case a couple of days ago after seeing an unfortunate picture of myself (note to self, stop standing next to skinny people in pictures) and vowing once again to become a gym rat - or at least make it to the gym a couple of times a week so the people that work there will stop giving me the welcome speech on the rare occasion I do show up. 

I went, I worked out hard and was a very self-satisfied sweaty mess and ready for a shower so I could get back to the office. Uh oh, problem - no towel.  Now I don't belong to one of those fancy gyms where they have a towel service, I was even willing to kill a tree and use a whole bunch of paper towels but as I discovered, no paper towels, they have air dryers for heavens sakes!  So my choices became: a)  no shower and go back to work a big stinky mess; b) shower and run around the change room naked to air dry; c) shower and stand around naked in the bathroom using the hand dryer to dry myself; or d) none of the above because I would rather jam a hot poker in my eye than be naked in public! Luckily there was an option E - I had a package of Marcelle Cleansing Cloths in my bag and here's something they're going to want to add to the packaging, not only do they remove makeup, they remove sweat and gym dirt very nicely!

I'd like to say that's the only strange thing I've ever done with a cleansing cloth but they are actually handy little buggers!  I've used one to clean off my keyboard after they let another employee with questionable hygiene use it for the day when I was out of the office. I've used one to get rid of a really awful perfume after one of those kamikaze perfume spritzer ladies attacked me at a department store. And I've used one to even out a wobbly table leg!  Oh, and I use them to take off makeup - duh!

The moral of this story is - keep a packet of Marcelle Essentials Cleansing Cloths in your purse (or your gymbag) you never know when you might have a cleasing cloth emergency! Should I ever have to live in my car, I know what I'm buying a case of!

Essentials Cleansing Cloths

And of course right now you can save yourself from life's embarrasing moments and promote girl power!

Because I Am A Girl Cleansing Cloths

It's summertime and like the song says, the living is easy! That’s not to say that there aren’t a million vitally important beauty decisions to be made – for example, to bronze or not to bronze?  For those of us who lack a decent amount of natural pigmentation, that’s an easy one, bronzer is a big YES please! Beyond that it becomes a little less clear as there is a multitude of choices out there.  Then you need to decide on colour, matte or shimmer – what’s a girl to do?!

Fret not my pretties, as one of the palest people on earth (it’s true, there is even a tour bus that drives by my house and announces that at 6pm every day), I have the dubious distinction of having tried every bronzer on the face of the earth in my search for the holy grail of bronzers and in the process have made every mistake and picked up every trick in the book and of course I am happy to share my knowledge with you!

Colour AKA: how to avoid pumpkinitis! When it comes right down to it you can buy the most expensive bronzer on earth but if the colour is wrong, it’s just going to look bad, bad, bad! Natural looking bronzer should be no more than two shades darker than your natural skin colour, should be in the same shade family as you would naturally tan and should never, never be orange! If you are testing them, don’t test on your inside wrist as you might with other products – the skin there is much lighter so you could end up buying a bronzer that just won’t show up when applied to the darker skin on your face.

Shimmer Baby (or not)! Things to keep in mind if you are going to go with a shimmery bronzer, and don’t get me wrong, I LOVE shimmer with a fiery passion, but it is an illuminator.  Is there anything on your face you don’t want to be drawing attention to? Just remember that lines, wrinkles, blemishes or scars will all be put in a spotlight with the addition of anything shiny on top of them!  For most people who lack perfect skin, a matte bronzer is a much more flattering alternative and actually has the opposite effect of shimmer by helping to conceal flaws on your face!

I actually recommend using both a matte and shimmer bronzer together, here’s how I do it:  I apply my matte bronzer with a large fluffy blush (If you want to amp up the colour, use a bronzer brush with a flat top instead) on any part of my face the sun would naturally hit: cheeks, nose chin and forehead and then I use the shimmer bronzer at the tops of my cheekbones to add highlight and if I’m wearing something strappy I’ll add a bit to my shoulders and clavicle bones – I don’t know anyone with ugly shoulders so go crazy with this one!

If you want to look healthier in seconds, bronzer is a great and necessary addition to your summer makeup routine!

Bronzing Pressed Powder - Tropical Bronze

Multi-Colour Bronzing Pressed Powder - Bronze Celebration