Beauty Fix: The trick to undoing too many sprays of perfume and other answers to your beauty questions
Every week we take on your questions about makeup, skincare, hair and more and provide all the answers. This week, Beauty Fix is focused on making it last—or not. Some things, like a great makeup application, a brightly-coloured lip or an ombré hair dye are worth preserving and we have the tips to help you do so. On the flip side, we also have a foolproof method for curing one of the most common beauty errors. If you’ve ever sprayed too much perfume, read on! In need of a beauty fix yourself? Email us at [email protected].
I like the concept of lip stains, but I find the colours to be a bit heavy. Are there brighter options that still pack a punch?
Lip stains are the marathoners of the lip product world, and we admire them accordingly! They have remarkable staying power and there are a plethora of formulas available, so it’s just a matter of finding one that your lips can get along with. I do know what you mean when you say that lip stain shades can lean towards the aggressive side of the colour range. If you’re looking for something that’s more J.Crew-bright as opposed to a vampy merlot, look no further than Beauté Liqui-gel stain in “Flouron” ($29, beaute-cosmetics.com). This formula is a liquid gel that appears orange in the tube, but swatches as a bright pink and is highly buildable to achieve the desired effect. Bonus: it can be used on cheeks as well!
My cuticles are so dry. What’s the solution to this never-ending problem?
Our hands are put through a lot of obstacles on a daily basis. Just think about the environmental elements, the amount of hand washing/hand sanitizer applications (and do you stop and moisturize after each squirt of sanitizer, honestly!?), cleaning, kitchen tasks… it doesn’t end! If your cuticles are dry, you may have noticed that your nails aren’t growing as much. Your overall nail health quite literally stems from the health of your cuticles. The cuticle protects the area where new, soft keratin emerges onto the nail, where it then hardens as a part of your nail bed. If the cuticle area is dried out, this prevents nails from normal growth. The best defense against dry cuticles is to apply a nail-specific moisturizer, such as CND SolarOil ($14, cnd.com), throughout the day. Maintenance is key with nursing cuticles back to health, so keep the SolarOil by your bedside and incorporate it into your nightly routine.
I did one too many spritzes when applying perfume this morning and the overpowering scent is making me queasy. Is there any way to tone down the smell?
This can happen so easily, especially since we tend to become slightly immune to scents that we wear frequently, becoming used to them over time. Feeling like you’ve gone overboard is a cause for concern, especially when you become self-conscious about it at work or on public transit. No one wants to be the person wearing the scent that has such potential to be aromatic if it wasn’t so cloying. Simple solution: take a cotton ball, dip it in rubbing alcohol and dab it on your skin wherever the fragrance was applied. Or if you’re already at your desk and overwhelmed by your scent, a now-common office supply can help: just rub some hand sanitizer (obviously high in alcohol content!) where fragrance was applied. Both methods will help the scent evaporate, and you can go back to smelling lovely instead of feeling nauseated!
I have a big event coming up this weekend. Is there anything I can do to ensure that the makeup on my face stays bright and smudge-free all day long?
It’s always a bit distracting to wonder if you’ll catch your reflection in a mirror mid-day to discover half your makeup is long gone. Not the ideal scenario, by any stretch. If you’re interested in making your makeup last throughout the day, consider incorporating a face primer meant for your skin type into your makeup routine. The purpose of face primer is exactly as it sounds—it’s meant to prime your face for makeup by smoothing surface imperfections and creating an ideal canvas for the rest of your makeup, often bonding with the makeup to make your finished face last longer. There are different formulas for different skin types that tout various benefits. Two to explore: Nars Pro-Prime Pore Refining primer ($38, sephora.com) is best suited to oily to combination skin, focusing on minimizing pores, regulating shine and mattifying skin. For normal to dry skin, Hourglass No. 28 primer serum ($75, sephora.com) is a treatment serum-primer hybrid that contains 14 essential oils, 10 lipid-rich plant oils, and four vitamins (hence the “28” in the product name!), which all translates to a wonderfully moisturized surface for makeup application.
I have an ombré dye job and love it except for one problem: I can’t stand how dry the ends of my hair feels in comparison to where no dye has ever touched. How can I fix this?
We all know that the ends of hair are the oldest part of the hair shaft, and after colour-treating hair (which inevitably involves bleach with regards to an ombré dye job) and throwing in heat styling here and there, you are looking at mangled ends that are in desperate need of some attention. Ideally, look into scheduling a trim and taking off a couple centimeters, which really shouldn’t throw the ratio of your ombré off and will give you a fairly fresh start. Whether or not you’re really committed to keeping your current length, reach for a product like Kérastase Grand Cru Elixir Ultime for Damaged Hair ($52, at salons), which is a serum-oil containing immortel moringa (rich in calcium, iron and magnesium), vitamin A and vitamin C. Run a pump of the light fluid through the lengths of your hair and you’ll instantly feel the brittle ends soften upon contact without weighing hair down!
. This formula is a liquid gel that appears orange in the tube, but swatches as a bright pink and is highly buildable to achieve the desired effect. Bonus: it can be used on cheeks as well!
My cuticles are so dry. What’s the solution to this never-ending problem?
Our hands are put through a lot of obstacles on a daily basis. Just think about the environmental elements, the amount of hand washing/hand sanitizer applications (and do you stop and moisturize after each squirt of sanitizer, honestly!?), cleaning, kitchen tasks... it doesn’t end! If your cuticles are dry, you may have noticed that your nails aren’t growing as much. Your overall nail health quite literally stems from the health of your cuticles. The cuticle protects the area where new, soft keratin emerges onto the nail, where it then hardens as a part of your nail bed. If the cuticle area is dried out, this prevents nails from normal growth. The best defense against dry cuticles is to apply a nail-specific moisturizer, such as CND SolarOil ($14, cnd.com), throughout the day. Maintenance is key with nursing cuticles back to health, so keep the SolarOil by your bedside and incorporate it into your nightly routine.
I did one too many spritzes when applying perfume this morning and the overpowering scent is making me queasy. Is there any way to tone down the smell?
This can happen so easily, especially since we tend to become slightly immune to scents that we wear frequently, becoming used to them over time. Feeling like you’ve gone overboard is a cause for concern, especially when you become self-conscious about it at work or on public transit. No one wants to be the person wearing the scent that has such potential to be aromatic if it wasn’t so cloying. Simple solution: take a cotton ball, dip it in rubbing alcohol and dab it on your skin wherever the fragrance was applied. Or if you're already at your desk and overwhelmed by your scent, a now-common office supply can help: just rub some hand sanitizer (obviously high in alcohol content!) where fragrance was applied. Both methods will help the scent evaporate, and you can go back to smelling lovely instead of feeling nauseated!
I have a big event coming up this weekend. Is there anything I can do to ensure that the makeup on my face stays bright and smudge-free all day long?
It’s always a bit distracting to wonder if you’ll catch your reflection in a mirror mid-day to discover half your makeup is long gone. Not the ideal scenario, by any stretch. If you’re interested in making your makeup last throughout the day, consider incorporating a face primer meant for your skin type into your makeup routine. The purpose of face primer is exactly as it sounds---it’s meant to prime your face for makeup by smoothing surface imperfections and creating an ideal canvas for the rest of your makeup, often bonding with the makeup to make your finished face last longer. There are different formulas for different skin types that tout various benefits. Two to explore: Nars Pro-Prime Pore Refining primer ($38, sephora.com) is best suited to oily to combination skin, focusing on minimizing pores, regulating shine and mattifying skin. For normal to dry skin, Hourglass No. 28 primer serum ($75, sephora.com) is a treatment serum-primer hybrid that contains 14 essential oils, 10 lipid-rich plant oils, and four vitamins (hence the “28” in the product name!), which all translates to a wonderfully moisturized surface for makeup application.
I have an ombré dye job and love it except for one problem: I can't stand how dry the ends of my hair feels in comparison to where no dye has ever touched. How can I fix this?
We all know that the ends of hair are the oldest part of the hair shaft, and after colour-treating hair (which inevitably involves bleach with regards to an ombré dye job) and throwing in heat styling here and there, you are looking at mangled ends that are in desperate need of some attention. Ideally, look into scheduling a trim and taking off a couple centimeters, which really shouldn’t throw the ratio of your ombré off and will give you a fairly fresh start. Whether or not you’re really committed to keeping your current length, reach for a product like Kérastase Grand Cru Elixir Ultime for Damaged Hair ($52, at salons), which is a serum-oil containing immortel moringa (rich in calcium, iron and magnesium), vitamin A and vitamin C. Run a pump of the light fluid through the lengths of your hair and you’ll instantly feel the brittle ends soften upon contact without weighing hair down!
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