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Winter time also means less sunlight, shorter days, grey skies, cold and humid temperatures, lack of sunshine exposure (which in turns means a decrease in vit. D intake ladies! Don't forget to take your supplements!) and richer hues in our make-up palettes. No wonder our complexion looks a little dull this time of year.

Are you ready to embrace colour? Take a bite out of winter with a vibrant purple lip!

Image source: pinterest.com

1. BBrighten up your complexion

Mix a little bit of Golden Glow BB Cream into your moisturizer and apply on your face to make your skin glow; or use it as a face illuminator to highlight certain areas of your face (top of cheekbones, brigde of your nose, temples and cupid's bow), after applying your BB Cream Anti-Aging SPF 20 or daily moisturizer. Note: the BB Cream not only evens out your skin tone, it also minimizes the appearance of pores and fine lines and adds radiance to your skin. Three more reasons to jump on the BB Cream beauty train!

2. Open up those eyes

Even out your lids with the help of a tinted primer, such as the Marcelle Velvety Eye Shadow + Primer, before applying your eye make-up.  Then, using a cool toned neutral shade (such as a taupe), apply to the entire eyelid and blend the colour upward toward your crease.  Don't forget to tend to your brows. The eyebrows, if properly shaped, can take years off your face!  Using an eyebrow pencil held vertically, define and correct the shape of your eyebrows. As an added bonus, filling in your brows can also hide an overplucking incident! Rule of thumb: use the right shade!  And don't forget mascara! Using your Marcelle Twist Push-Up Mascara, apply a first coat using the wand at the regular/straight bristle position for amazing lash definition. Then, for added volume, turn the top of the cap to twist the bristles closer together and then apply a second coat.

3. Pamper those lips

To make your lips baby soft and give them a youthful look, exfoliate them with a homemade lip exfoliant. To complete your lip pampering treatment, follow the exfoliation with a lip balm. Psst! Don't have a lip balm on hand.  When you're in a pinch, plain old moisturizer works wonders!

4. Add a splash of colour...lip colour that is

Add a splash of colour to your lips using an hydrating purple lipstick, such as the Rouge Xpression in the shade Cleopatra (and I can vouch for it, you DO feel like a queen when wearing it!). A punchy shade, a velvety texture and hydrating properties; can you say happy lips?! Don't forget to pat off any excess product with a tissue, and reapply a second coat to ensure a long lasting lip colour. Another neat beauty trick:  to increase the wear of your lip colour even more, apply a thin layer of BB Cream to your lips before the lipstick. The BB (Beauty Balm) will act as a primer. It's magic! If you don't own a tube of BB Cream, no worries. Filling in your lips with a lipliner first, then applying your lipstick on top, will have the same effect (but, trust me, you should really consider treating your skin to a tube of BB Cream. Just a little friendly advice!).

To finish off the look, outline your lips using concealer and a thin brush. This will help seal in the color and define the shape of your lips.

In a nutshell, opting for vibrant shades during the cold months = instant winter pick-me-up! I can't speak for you ladies, but here this is a beauty prescription I am more than happy to comply with!  The big question is: will you dare?

Have you ever stopped to consider the pure magic that makeup is? It can make you look healthy when you are sick as a dog, it can give you cheekbones where none existed before, it can make you look vampy, trampy, angelic or just plain hot! It can even get rid of things that nature "blessed" you with that you would rather see gone! One of the easiest fixes involves a brush, some bronzer and a quick goodbye to your unwanted double chin!

My talented friend Ariel will now take you through the steps to saying sayonara to that unwanted hitchhiker!

Misunderstood, and too often neglected, the eyebrows consistently do not get the attention they deserve. First and foremost, grooming our eyebrows appears to be a time consuming and often painful procedure; is it worth all the tweezing and plucking? The quick answer is ‘yes’, absolutely! If done correctly and often, taking care of our eyebrows can be relatively quick and painless!

The eyebrows play an important part in the over-all appearance of our face. They add definition to the eyes, a frame that can make our eyes appear more open, bigger as well as larger. The shape of our eyebrows also adds personality to our overall image; you can achieve a natural yet sophisticated look to a look of disdain (too thin, too arched) or (shudder) an unkempt, bushy, wild look! So, I’m guessing most of you would like to go with a natural yet sophisticated look that really enhances both the eyes and the face. Make-up artists call this the ‘ideal’ eyebrow shape.

Here’s how it works. The eyebrow is made up of three distinct parts:
A- The Inclination
B- Apex
C- Tail

Photo credit : tomboythatwearsmakeup.com/bombay-bombshell

As you can see from the illustration above, it shows you where the beginning (A- inclination), middle (B- apex) and end (C- tail) of your eyebrow should be.

The inclination is the thickest part of the brow and should start at the tear duct. The apex is the highest point of the arch and should be about two thirds outwards from your starting point (align it with the outer edge of your iris) and the tail is the slope down to the outer corners of your eyes.

Now, before you begin getting your eyebrows in shape – here are the three essential tools you will need: tweezers, manicure scissors and an eyebrow comb/brush.

There are 3 different kinds of tweezers:
1) Pointed tip: for short or ingrown hairs
2) Slanted tip: this is my first choice when using tweezers as it has the best grip and control.
3) Square tip: for coarse hair, it pulls out many hairs at once.

First using your eyebrow brush, sweep half the eyebrow hair upwards (the inclination) and the other half (the tail) downwards, trim the excess that goes beyond the natural hair line using your manicure scissors. This alone makes your eyebrows look clean and neat.

Always remember to err on the side of caution; you never want to take off too much hair in case it creates gaps when you brush the hair back down.

Second, start plucking! Pull the skin tight as this will lessen any discomfort. Always pull starting at the root, and in the direction of the hair growth.

A couple of pointers: