Beauty Tips for Ministers

Jan Laurie Clergy Stoles

Fabric artist Jan Laurie wrote to me today to ask if I would promote her work here, and I am most happy to do so. Her website is here, and I think her stoles are beautiful!!

I must be honest and say that I think there are a lot of really ugly stoles out there, stoles that try to do too much, stoles that are so much about the “journey” of the wearer or the creativity of the artist that I think of them as “Therapy Stoles” and fail to see any the connection between them and the Church. I see too many stoles that just look messy and like a child’s art project, and too many that look seriously out of place in beautiful, formal sanctuaries. Jan Laurie’s work is simple, elegant, Christian, liturgical. Halo of praise.

If you want to get me one, I’d LOVE the white/ecru one for weddings and Easter! I’m 5′3″, in case you were wondering.

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Tonight on the LIFETIME Channel, A Heartwarming Story of One’s Woman’s Triumph Over Cosmetophobia

She was Afraid of Lipstick, Dear Readers.
She was.
She wanted to wear some lipstick, but she ventured into the cosmetics section of her local pharmacy and hyperventilated when she saw the array of bewildering choices. It’s a good thing she didn’t venture into a Sephora or she may have required emergency medical care.

But she was brave.
She prevailed.
And look how lovely and polished she looks:

Here is the letter that she wrote to Yours Truly, after several other e-mail exchanges.

Well, look at me! I am proud to say that I bought my Very First
Lipstick! (If you can open the attachment, have a look–just ignore the
hair)

This has been a great learning experience for me. I got by for years on
great skin and a simple approach to everything, including makeup–I had
concealer for blemishes and mascara for fancy dress up. But at 40, I
started to notice other women my age without makeup and they all looked
so…tired. Sadly, it was really hard to just jump into cosmetics when I
had no idea what I was doing. You know I tried just heading off to the
drug store with some Peacebang advice in my head–but being faced with
the myriad of choices was intimidating and I left empty handed, feeling
absolutely pathetic. Your email response to me was so encouraging (thank you!), and it inspired me to phone a friend. Thankfully, she took pity on me. We spent an evening together not only going and picking out lipstick together, but with me getting lessons on eyeshadow, eyeliner and face powder, too. Having her with me meant that I didn’t feel like an idiot in the cosmetics department, and we laughed a ton in front of the mirror. I now feel great, and have had lots of compliments on looking good. Next up: new hair, new glasses, and new clothes. I might need more friends!

Thank you for your help on my journey. And please keep writing–I can’t
tell you how many people I have directed to your blog because it is so
SO wonderful.

Peace,
K.

*wiping away tears*
She REACHED OUT! She CONQUERED her fears!
Now what I want to know is, what color is that, because it’s SUPER cute!

Lippily yours,
PB

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Almay Bright Eyes Base + Concealer: A PeaceBang Review

Darlings,

We were just discussing the problem of eyeshadow making our lids itchy, and PB wants to share her success with a cheapie little drugstore product called Almay Bright Eyes Base + Concealer.

This doesn’t come in a wide variety of colors and it doesn’t work well as an actual brightener or concealer for the undereye area (if you have real circles to conceal), but I found that it totally solved the problem of itchy eyelids, so I’m happy. I used it for two days and wore lots of shadow to see if it would help it stay through the day and keep my lids from irritating. It succeeded on both counts.

If you buy it, be VERY light with your squeezing; the product comes out very quickly and you only need a little dab per eyelid. The brush it comes with is useless, so just use the finger God gave you to blend the product on the lid.

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SJP in HDTV: PB Dishes The Oscars

Well, pigeons, I thought I was uninterersted in the Oscars this year. I hadn’t seen any of the big nominated films (I did see “Up” and I saw one hour of “Avatar in 3-D” before developing a splitting headache and terrible nausea that caused me to tumble out of the packed theatre like a pachyderm with morning sickness) and I just thought I could skip it. But then my beau suggested that he cook dinner and make popcorn and watch the Oscars with me, which was such a lovely and generous thing to offer that I HAD to take him up on it (the analogy would be me acting like I understand football in order to spend Superbowl evening with him).

And then it was like a drug that went straight into my bloodstream. I was immediately sucked in by the Barbara Walters Special and then sat glued to the red carpet, obsessively commenting on every gown and outfit. And the make-up! WHO MAY WE BLAME for the prevalence of screaming tomato red lipstick on this year’s female nominees? Good Lord, the glorious Sandra Bullock was upstaged by HER OWN MOUTH.

Ditto for Cameron Diaz, who almost made it to Grown-Up Movie Star Status in her lovely gown, but who still has the bearing of a surfer girl no matter what she’s wearing.

Meryl. Helen. Divoon.
Mr. Clooney, visit your barber.
Miley Cyrus, stand up straight.
Mo’nique. Own it. LOVE it.
Charlize Theron. How could you let that happen? I took one look at your gown and remembered that line from “Carrie” about “dirty pillows.”
Hilary Swank. You finally figured out how to do glamour, but I liked you better before.

The moment when I died, though, actually totally LOST IT, was when Sarah Jessica Parker appeared in her insane Dracula buns, leathery, lined, overtanned smoker’s face (Garnier should dump her as a spokeswoman for their skin care line, honestly. Don’t they think we know how much she needs to be airbrushed for those ads?) and HIDEOUS fondue-party era frock. I don’t have HDTV in my own home and let me tell you, it is not SJP’s friend. I was dumbfounded.
Her hub, Matthew Broderick, looked pained just standing next to his fashion icon wife, and I don’t think it was just his oily hair causing him to look that embarrassed (nice tribute to John Hughes, though). It wasn’t really the dress that upset me. It was the terrible, terrible skin damage that smoking has caused to this wonderfully talented woman. Please SJP, quit. You have three children. Yes, you might gain a few pounds if you stop smoking. But that would be a GOOD thing. And you wouldn’t have to wear thirty pounds of eyeliner and faux-tanner if you stopped smoking. Your face would come back alive because of that really helpful thing called, you know, oxygen.

I think I love HDTV, though. How else would I ever have known that Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz have crow’s feet?

Overall, I thought the show was a monumental bore that I couldn’t get through. I’m thrilled for “The Hurt Locker,” though, and for my dearly beloved Jeff Bridges. I’ve always liked Sandra Bullock, too, and her speech was darling.

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Eyeshadow Primers

DARLINGS! This is a response to Miss Conduct, who asked for recommendations for good eyeshadow primers awhile back, but it is also a request from me to you for your help.

I usually just wear gel eyeliner and mascara, but I do enjoy wearing eyeshadow at times as well. I own lots of them and they’re fun to play with when I have the time and a special occasion.

I have found of late, however, that all sorts of shadows make my eyelids very itchy and irritated, and that even wearing foundation make-up as a primer doesn’t help. I’ve done some research on primers and have heard that Too Faced Shadow Insurance works great (and it claims to be soothing to the eyelid) and Urban Decay Prime Potion is also excellent. Both have a silicone base, while Mac Paint Pot in “Painterly” gets very high reviews for being a cream shadow that works amazingly well as a base (brown or black-skinned ladies would want to choose a darker shade from the Paint Pot line).

Too Faced Shadow Insurance.

Urban Decay Primer Potion. The applicator weirds me out.

Mac Paint Pot in “Painterly.”

Have you tried any of these products? Others that you’d swear on a stack of Bibles I should try? Any non-itchy-creating shadows that you think are so beautiful, blendable, fabulously pigmented and great enough to bow down and worship like a golden calf?* Let’s get idolatrous and hear about them!! Because eyeshadow is FUN and way less expensive than a new outfit!

*Please, kittens, don’t recommend Clinique, because PeaceBang thinks Clinique shadows are super-duper whimpy. They’re the “Did you really spend $16.50 for that shadow? Because I can’t see a dang thang on yer eye” product.

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Brown Boots, Black Skirt

Thanks to Wendy in England, we have a great example of the brown boots-black skirt combo right here at one of our favorite blogs, Advanced Style. Here’s the close-up:

Now, perhaps you may find the short skirt a bit youthful for this particular woman as I did, but that’s not the point. She is vibrant, stylish, she loves clothes, she’s on a cultural outing in New York City, and she is using her clothes to express the work of art that SHE is. Love the dusty pink coat with the twist of burnt orange at the neck, love it, love it, love the flower, love the independence and sense of flair. Another thing this outfit has that I adore is TEXTURE (as one of the commenters on the blog noted).

Oh, and yes, that’s exactly how you can mix black and brown.

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