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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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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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

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I CAN report, however, that I found two absolutely amazing mascaras. The first is Define-A-Lash Volume Mascara by Maybelline. I picked it up after reading one of those product display posters that you see in the cosmetics section, that listed all Maybelline’s mascaras on a spectrum with “defining” on one end and “lengthening” on the other. Until seeing that poster, it had never dawned on me that my eyelash length is just fine, thank you, and that definition/volume is where I need the most help. Define-A-Lash was on the “definition” end, and so I tried it. It is fabulous–my lashes look a 1000 times fuller. It’s the first mascara I’ve ever used that I’m able to make look natural on my bottom lashes. For me, it’s way, way better than the Great Lash mascara I swore by for years, and even better than the Estee Lauder More Than Mascara that I used back in my yuppie days.

The other great mascara find was Bare Naturale mascara by Loreal, which was also very defining, but with a more natural feel, as the name implies. I use it when I want a subtler, “you think I’m not wearing makeup although in fact I am” look. I believe it was a bit pricier than the Maybelline, though.

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Lancome Oscillation Powerbooster.
And we still haven’t found a cure for cancer or a decent male birth control method.

Any Mascara Mavens out there care to comment on this phenomenon?

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First of all, raise your hand if you’re a guy who likes to wear eyeliner. Do I see a few hands up? I hope so! PeaceBang actually thinks that boys with smoky eyes are HOT (think Adam Lambert on “American Idol”) and encourages more men to have fun with make-up. No, seriously. But, darlings… on your day off, unless you’re serving a very groovy congregation that won’t freak on your Cover Girl.

When she was in high school, PeaceBang dated drummer Tom Larkin and took him to her senior prom. Tom was a major Duran-Duran fan and wore eyeliner, which young PB thought was so cute! Where is Tom Larkin now, I wonder? He went to Miami University of Ohio (the very name confuses me) and I haven’t seen him since.

ANYWAY, the trick to being a glam boy with eyeliner is to line the insides of the lid (what pros in the make-over biz we call the “water line” — and some of us just learned that term a few days ago) with a smudgy pencil. Do you remember last week when PeaceBang reviewed that powder kohl liner by L’Oreal H.I.P.? And gave it a thumbs up? She must slightly revise that thumbs up for contact lens wearers, because the kohl smudges the lenses and makes them blurry. So sad.
It’s all about the pencil now.

So, in honor of Tom Larkin, may we have a drumroll please as we announce a very big thumbs up for:

RIMMEL
Soft Kohl Kajal Eye Pencil

At a little over $3 per, you can line your eyes with a slew of colors and hardly feel the hit to your wallet.

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You know how awhile back we were all loving the Neutrogena pump moisturizer-with-a-hint-of-color thing?

Well, I am currrently really liking Dream Liquid Mousse make-up by Maybelline for the same reasons: super-blendable, not too heavy coverage (but more than the Neutrogena), lasts and looks good for a long time, gentle on the skin. I’ve been using it for a few weeks and I give it a solid thumbs up.

Another great product, although certainly not one without serious competition from much less-expensive rivals, is Definicils mascara by Lancome. I got a little sample as a free gift when I purchased an eyebrow pencil, and I can tell you that I am sore tempted to buy a full size wand for myself!! Which is, of course, what those samples are supposed to do: make you buy the real, overpriced thing.

Definicils is always winning Best Mascara plaudits in the beauty magazine polls, so I figured it must be good stuff. It is. So I’m putting it on my Amazon.com wish list. Which, if you’re feeling full of love and appreciation for the ‘Bang, is always there for you to send me a treat from! Just click on the “Make a Gift!” tab at the top of the blog.

*smooch!*

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Kind of smudgy, kinda pretty.

But with that insanely red hair, you bet your bippy I was going to stick with pretty classic clothes for my lecture this evening (black twinset, grey pearls, zebra belt, gray pants, black and silver flats):

I’ve been putting myself in the Naughty Corner so much lately, I think I’ll give myself a Halo of Praise. Because geez, if you can’t get yourself out of the doghouse, no one can.

(I think a local theatre company is doing “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” this summer. Titania is a DREAM ROLE.
My teal eyeliner and some beautiful berries in the yard inspired me…)

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I’ve been a faithful reader of your blog for quite some time. Keep up the good work!

A while back, there was a discussion on under-eye concealer. I have recently found my own personal undereye concealer pot of gold. It has singlehandedly amended my charming undereye combination of fair skin and genetic dark circles, so I thought I’d pass it on.

I give you: Rae Concealer (http://www.raecosmetics.com/makeup.php?mineral-makeup=Concealer). I use light neutral. Although I only have the concealer and their mini eyelash curler (great for us small-eyed gals or the lashcurler phobics), I really like Rae’s stuff. They are doing my wedding makeup and I–gasp!–look like myself! Their stuff is made for active lifestyles (ie: sweat).

I’m originally from Austin but now live in NY, and I order online.

Hope this helps! Thanks for your hard work, PB! This Presby. Christian Educator loves your site…

You’re so welcome, Presby Christian Educator! And I love you right back. Thanks for the hot tip! xoxo PB

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There’s no reason to get this crazy with it when a soft wash of color will do.

Keep the rest of your face fairly neutral if you’re going with green eyeshadow. And please, PLEASE don’t match it to your outfit! I mean, don’t wear a lime green dress and match it all exactly to a lime green eyeshadow. And do use a light hand while applying — remember how your grandmother’s eccentric friend Lil had bright green eyeshadow all kind of caked onto her eyelids? You want to apply with a small fluffy brush (a sponge is very difficult to work with in bright colors) and blend, blend, blend. Don’t leave the inner corners all crumbly and do remember to clean up any dusting of green that winds up on your cheek. You don’t want to look like the Lucky Charms spokesgirl. “Magically delicious!”

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