Except that I realize I am essentially eating the stuff.

So from time to time, I remind myself of that fact and vow to only put on my lips what I would actually not mind knowing that I had ingested pounds of over the course of my lippy-wearing lifetime. The trouble is, a lot of the products made with honorable ingredients kind of stink. Burt’s Bees is lovely but wears off in about ten minutes. Kiss My Face is waxy and hard to apply. Alba tastes funny.

Giving my effort one more try, I discovered Crazy Rumors lip balm at the health food store check-out the other day. Thinking guiltily about how often I have swabbed my lips with Bubble Gum Lip Smackers of late (I keep one in my desk drawer at all times), I read the label and purchased it. This stuff is great. It’s made in Boca Raton, FL and contains ingredients like jojoba oil, shea butter, olive oil, and peppermint oil. I applied some two hours ago and it’s still on my lips and doing its job even though I have been drinking and eating snacks. Since I wear drying long-lasting lip color formulas during the work week, I like to give my lips at least one day off and just slather them with balm throughout the day. This is going to be my new fave.

I mean, I LOVE Rosebud Salve but I’m pretty sure that’s straight petroleum.

Hey dudes, your lips get really dry and flaky, too. Just sayin’. Because they have a flavor I think you’ll really like!! COFFEE!! Yum!

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I appeal to you for guidance.

I have been approached by a high-end skin care line representative who wants to know if I would like to do a giveaway of one of their products on this blog. She is also happy to send me products to review, so it doesn’t sound like she expects me to endorse any products that I haven’t personally tried.

First of all, I would never endorse a product I didn’t like for any reason.
Secondly, it’s hard to tell if a product works from just a sample, but you can at least make some preliminary assessments by doing so.

PeaceBang gets no money, discounts or “favors” in return for promoting websites, products or artists. Ever. (Even when she thinks it would be nice to get something as a thank you for providing free advertising!!). Her only recompense for the work of this blog is when readers choose to send gifts or make contributions through PayPal, which, believe me, have never amounted to more than it costs to host this website.

So I’m not sure if this “giveaway” thing starts to cross the line from Totally Non-Commercial into fuzzier territory. Lord knows that I collect samples like a fiend whenever I’m able, but this is the first time a major skin care line has contacted me to do so (by the way, I do like and respect their line but they’re generally way above my price point).

What do you think? Should I do a giveaway and get some samples from this swanky skin care line?

Kiss of peace, PB

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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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Look at these fab boots (now under $60):

And these vegan Oxfords for dudes!

My favorite source for vegan bags is, as ever, Matt and Nat. LOVE their stuff. Can’t afford them in general (I have one briefcase/messenger bag from them that I love), but I get pleasure just looking at their designs. And they do have good sales where they discount their products way down.

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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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If we brush our teeth in the morning (and I hope you’re flossing, too — did you know that dental plaque can wind up going straight to your arteries? Flossing is actually a matter of good heart health as well as oral hygiene!), and then we spend the day talking, drinking coffee, eating food and never doing anything else to clean our mouths of bacteria (say, chewing gum), by evening we will have developed a coating on our tongue and mouth that creates the dreaded Dragon Breath.

Do the people you meet with of an evening a favor. Brush your tooth (as my late father used to say). Brush the tongue, spend a good minute or two at the job, and rinse well. If you can’t get home to brush, pack a toothbrush in your bag and at least brush with water.

Alternating coffee with water throughout the day will not only help keep you hydrated (and your entire body needs that — but as a professional speaker, your vocal chords cannot do without it!) will also help the nasty bitter breath from developing.

Chewing parsley is great, too. The chlorophyll is an added bonus. Speaking of which, I have been taking straight chlorophyll in liquid form (an alfalfa base) just to add a straight shot of plant-based nutrients to my winter diet, a product which also claims to act as an internal deodorizer. It makes me feel great in general, but if I get fresher breath from it, double bonus! Remember the “I’ll have a shot of wheat grass” craze of the 90’s? It’s like that, except for I’m allergic to wheat grass. Same sense of natural high, though.

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It’s a shirtwaist dress with a clergy collar attached. Is this for the office? For services? What?
Weird.
As a day dress, it’s ugly as sin and skimpy-looking. I mean, belted shirtwaist dresses can be very cute with the proper accessories and in a fun color on the right figure (not mine, kids, not mine), but black with 3/4 length sleeves?? No.

As a vestment, I’m just baffled by what this communicates. It’s sort of Donna Reed-Meets-Father Frank. All she needs is a crinoline and she could be like, “OH! I was just baking cookies at home when I realized I was late for church! Good thing I happned to be wearing my cross-dressing Priest/Mommy Clergy Dress at the time so I could run from the kitchen to the chancel!”

This reads like clergy drag to me.
We are women. We wear dresses sometimes. Shirtwaist dresses are fine (although decidedly frumpy on wide-hipped gals, I’m sorry to say); we wear those, too. When we are wearing vestments, we wear vestments. They do not attempt to resemble day dresses, for they have a different function. Finally, one does NOT wear clericals with a shirtwaist dress. It’s frumpy and awkward and not professional.

So, WomanSpirit, thanks for trying to give us another option but I’m calling this one a fail. With some adjustments it would make a nifty contemporary habit for an order of nuns.

Thanks to Caroline Divine for the link.

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Cosmetics hounds, you can thank me later. Look at that selection!!!!

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I like the ads for the new spring make-up lines (“THE SAME EXACT COLORS WE PUT OUT EVERY SPRING, ONLY WITH NEW NAMES!”) – they make me happy, like the big bunch of blazing pink tulips I have in front of me as I type. Spring is coming. Hallelujah for Maybelline Shine Sensation Lip Gloss. The girl in the ad looks like she’s wearing ten pounds of petroleum on her mouth and I just think that’s fun (don’t try that at home, though, kittens!).

Features on “The Bachelor” and on style at the Grammys give us an opportunity to look at the ways clothing reflects personality. The make-up on all the featured celebs is fascinating and helpful: look at how fresh and pretty Penelope Cruz, Estelle and Katy Perry look on page 78, and how hard and dried out Molly Sims looks on the same page. Eva Longoria Parker rocks a work-appropriate outfit on the very next page, and I took great pleasure in studying the fashion evolution of the adorable Rachel McAdams on page 86. See how color and hairdo and hair color can radically change you? And that girl knows her way around a hemline.

We learn that snakeskin is IN (and I fall in love with a pair of $925 boots, boohya!) on page 95, and on page 97 there’s a truly helpful tutorial about PANTS! We all wear pants! The stylist has done a fantastic job putting together awesome outfits that I would recommend to anyone who says, “I have no idea what fashion is, where do I start to learn?” Right here, my pretty. This is fashion for normal people — looks that you can create with your own, affordable, normal items in the closet. As in all fashion spreads, don’t take anything too literally (not many of us wear 4″ strappy sandals to work) but do heed the proportions, the play of colors and textures, the current trends in accessories, the creative spirit of the times. Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous stuff.

Hilariously, the editors seem to think that buying 4 1/2″ platorm heels will make heels “comfortable” for women, to which PeaceBang says, “If you’re 22 and weigh 105 lbs., maybe.” It is true, however, that a platform heel can get you comfortably into a much higher heel than you thought you could wear (by decreasing the relative heel height and pressure on the ball of the foot), but PeaceBang recommends a 3″ platform with a 2″ actual heel. Still, good tip.

The article “Play Up Your Assets” is also extremely well-done although the clothing a bit too high-style for our clergy cohort. Good points about fit there.

Great skin care article about anti-aging for different skin tones, with the added benefit of including black women (In Style, where are your black and brown-skinned models?).

On page 146 there is a really fascinating page on the actress Ginnifer Goodwin’s make-up and hair changes from 2002 to today. If you have ever doubted that you could radically alter your image and persona through make-up, take a gander at this. Goodwin hasn’t had any plastic surgery that I can detect — all the changes are made with false eyelashes, lip color, and other make-up changes. Study. Learn. Experiment. Remember, it all washes off!

There is a huge shoe feature that highlights shoes as art that I enjoyed purely for aesthetic and architectural reasons (who could walk in those insane Versace platform pumps?).

Finally, Keri Hilson’s make-up on pages 169 and 170 is perfection. Jordin Sparks looks similarly fresh, fabulous and deliciously unique (touches like dark fingernails, bold jewelry and dramatic lipgloss really express her diva side) on page 173.

Christie Brinkley gets a feature on page 187 and looks silly in overdone boop-de-boop curls, a dizzying overabundance of contrasting patterns between her couch, cushions and frock, and a puffy dog at her feet. I don’t like her home decor at all, but I’m sure that won’t ruin her day.

There are lots of other fun little articles in there, making this issue of “In Style” eminently worth your $4 investment. If they keep this up, I may have to subscribe!

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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.

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