Beauty Tips for Ministers

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

Share This

Hide Sites

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.

Share This

Hide Sites

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.

Share This

Hide Sites

Eye Cream With SPF & Glowy Face

Hooray, hooray!! ROC, which makes a very affordable and effective eye cream with retinol, has released a new day cream with SPF!! Some of you may recall PeaceBang’s dismay when Kiehl’s discontinued their gel-based SPF eye cream and her subsequent difficulties in finding a replacement product. Well, this is it! At around $18 for 1 oz., it’s a major bargain compared to the fancy brands, and ROC has an excellent reputation for actually working to decrease fine lines. A 1 oz. tube can last you at least six months even if you use it daily. You only use the tiniest grain of rice dab for each eye and pat it on. I use Philosophy Hope In A Tube eye cream at night without retinol, and I would recommend that you limit retinol to either day or night eye cream, not both.

It’s called ROC Extra Magical PeaceBang Special Eye-Line Reducing Anti-Aging SPF Supercalafragalisticexpealidocious Cream Just For Clergy and I found it at Target. Ha ha! Just kidding! It’s just that, as time goes by, my brain cells get used up with actual information and I have less of an ability to remember these products’ ridiculously long names, especially when they spell perfectly ordinary words like “correction” as “correxion.” Is that British, or what?

Both men and women, if there’s one skin-care product, aside from SPF moisturizer, that you should be using EVERY day, it’s eye cream. Some people age beautifully and continue to look vibrant even as their skin wrinkles and dries out. Honestly, is that you? The people I know who do manage it exercise daily, are in fantastic shape, and/or just happen to have an internal radiant beauty or plain good genes. Looking around at clergy gatherings, I must say that they are a rarity, while most of us just look wan or even haggard. I continue to despair that clergy of all ages go forth in public leadership without any attention to their photographability or visual “stage” presence in the pulpit. Young ones with bare, too-casual faces and whispy fly-away hair and older ones with sagging bags around their eyes and blotchy, oily or dried-out skin (and no, a suntan does NOT count as “make-up” — in fact, it often makes matters worse by highlighting sun damage and further drying things out) when just some simple attention would help so much. Augh! It pains me, it really does. All that money and fuss about vestments and pretty clothes, when the face is drab, drab, drab. And believe me, a “done” face can help so much when you’re having a Bad Hair Day.

You communicate so much with your face. ESPECIALLY if you eschew cosmetic enhancement, you should at least devote yourself to some skin care regimen.

Benefit High Beam is a wonderful product that PeaceBang calls her “glowy-rested face in a bottle.” I sweep a line of it across each upper cheekbone, blend up into the hairline, dot a tiny amount on the upper eyelid and it catches the light and makes me look dewy and rested even if I’ve had three hours of sleep (which I do very infrequently, since I think that being a Sleep Martyr is a very bad idea for any clergyperson, but maybe that deserves its own column). It costs $24 but lasts and lasts – I’ve had my little bottle for over a year and it still has plenty left.

A LITTLE BLUSH WOULDN’T KILL YOU, EITHER.

Kiss of peace, PB

Share This

Hide Sites

Interesting Factoid

In the Completely Irrelevant But Somewhat Interesting Category:

A few weeks ago I blogged about buying one of those lip plumping lipsticks. I said that it made my mouth feel like it was being attacked by red ants. Alert Reader Sarahb wrote a comment that confused me; something about how if the lipstick stings, that means you’re dehydrated. I didn’t understand what she meant.

Experiment: When I went on vacation, I was generally relaxed and drinking a lot of water. After a few days I found that the lip plumping lipstick no longer stung when I applied it. I conclude, therefore, that the commenter was correct: the lip plumping formulas may not be painful if the wearer is properly hydrated.

You may return to the important work you were doing now. Thank you for your attention.

Share This

Hide Sites

Red Ants Attack My Face: PeaceBang Reviews Maybelline XL Plumping Lipcolor

PeaceBang was just EVER so curious about the supposedly lip plumping lipsticks on the market, so she caved and bought one.

The color is pretty.
The formula is pretty long-lasting and not too drying.
The price was reasonable.

I suppose if you don’t mind the sensations of red ants marching all over your mouth, the “plumping” claims have some merit to them, although I’m not sure if it was so much that my lips got plumper as they just started to sting. Also, don’t kiss anyone you really like until the stinging wears off, because the taste is truly poisonous.

I am wearing Maybelline’s Volume XL Seduction Plumping Lipcolor in “Born With It.” And yes, I am kidding with that expression.

Share This

Hide Sites