Favorite Things!

As professionals in the beauty industry and ever since starting this blog, IMPO receives a ton of email asking us to let our readers know what skincare, makeup and personal care items are really in our bathrooms! What do the Pros personally use daily? What are our “go to” products?

So, we decided to channel our inner Oprah and comprise a list of “The Pro’s Favorite Things." Unfortunately, the “plugs” we will be providing to many beauty manufacturers out there will not reap the benefit of a swag (stuff we all get) bag for our readers! Sorry folks!

Hey, maybe someday IMPO will be as big as Oprah and our Fans, Followers and Readers could receive care packages like Oprah audience members do during the taping of her “Favorite Things” segments…a blog’s gotta dream y’all!

Now, putting together this post was not easy and it made the Pros really think about which products we “must have” daily and can’t live without ever, the kind of products that you have to take with you when you travel because you just can’t feel confident without them.

If you read IMPO regularly you are aware of the cosmetics and skincare lines that the makeup Pro uses professionally on her clients, but our readers ask, “do you also use those products on yourself?” and, “do professional products really cross the line over into everyday wear?”

The answer to those questions is a very simple…yes. Some products make the leap and others are manufactured specifically for television, film and photography.

To recap…here is a partial list of cosmetic products inside the makeup Pro’s kit: Nars, Dior, Eve Pearl, Smashbox, M.A.C., Tricia Sawyer Beauty, Three Custom Color, The Lipstick Queen, Bobbi Brown, Jan Marini and La Mer, all of which are consumer friendly beauty products found at major department stores and retailers or online. They work just as well “on” camera as “off” camera for her clients.

The makeup Pro’s kit also contains products found at industry specialty retailers such as Cinema Secrets, Naimes, Frends and Alcone, which work in both the professional makeup industry and for everyday wear. Please check the IMPO blog archive or use the “search” button at the top if you are curious about a particular product line.

It is also important to make clear to our readers that the Pros of IMPO do not “rep” or sell any particular beauty line. We do receive products to test personally and professionally and some we review and others we do not! Just like Bobby Brown: that’s our prerogative!

But, what you really want to know is which beauty care and makeup lines are in our shower, makeup bag and medicine cabinets and it may surprise you to read that as Pros in the beauty industry (and sisters in real life), we have different styles when it comes to our personal routines, so without further ado…

SKINCARE:

The makeup Pro is a firm believer in the Jan Marini Skincare line of products. With 42 creeping up on her door step, she felt it was time to start fighting back the signs of aging skin and the Jan Marini line came to her rescue! Starting with the BioGlycoloic Facial Cleanser both morning and night to cleanse and to remove makeup and bacteria. C-ESTA Serum, Age Intervention Peptide Extreme, Age Intervention Enlighten, Age Intervention Face Cream and Eye Cream. Twice a week she also uses Age Intervention Regeneration Facial Mask. Also used daily is the Jan Marini AntiOxidant Daily Face Protectant sunscreen.

The makeup Pro recently discovered the Talika skincare treatment line and has been using the Eye Dream product at night (on day 15 of the 28 day treatment) in conjunction with Jan Marini products, which has helped rejuvenate her over traveled, delicate skin around her eye area.

The marketing Pro is using Jurlique Balancing Foaming Cleanser once a day (in the shower!) followed by a spritz of Jurlique Rosewater Balancing Mist and Jurlique Sun Lotion with SPF30+. In the evening, she uses M.A.C. Wipes to remove all her makeup and a touch of Kiehl’s Creamy Eye Treatment with Avocado around the eye area.

HAIR CARE:

The makeup Pro changes up this product most often because she loves to discover and use different hair care lines almost as much as makeup. Currently, she is in love with the Ever Pure line from L’Oreal. Not only does it keep her color treated hair in tip top shape, it is full of more natural ingredients, which is better for the environment and our body!

The makeup Pro also uses the following styling products on her naturally curly hair: John Freida Frizz-Ease Original Serum, Straight Fixation and Dream Curls Curl Perfecting Spray. L’Oreal Vive Pro Glossy Style Non-Aerosol Hairspray, which provides great hold and shape!

The marketing Pro colors her brunette locks and to maintain that healthy chocolate color, she uses Pantene Pro-V Brunette Expressions shampoo and conditioner. When she wants to blow-dry the curl out of her hair, she uses the best blow dryer ever, the Revlon 1875 Ionic Ceramic Blow Dryer and Redken Satinwear 02 blow-dry lotion. When the hairstyle demands hairspray, her fave is a tried and true brand: AquaNet Extra Super Hold (flash back to the 80’s – she’s with the band man!).

PERSONAL CARE:

The makeup Pro likes to keep it simple when it comes to body lotions because she doesn’t like heavy fragrances competing with her favorite perfumes. Johnson and Johnson Baby Lotion (the one in the pink bottle) is wonderful and keeps this Pro’s skin feeling soft and smooth! Neutrogena Body Wash and Gentle Exfoliating Cream work wonders on dry skin and invigorates her senses after a long day on set! LAVANILA Laboratories, The Healthy Deodorant, in Vanilla Coconut (also because it doesn’t compete with the makeup Pro’s fragrance) is a natural choice to traditional anitperspirants and it works!

The marketing Pro, unlike the makeup Pro, doesn’t mind a light scent in her body lotion and she loves Jaqua’s Pina Colada Body Butter. A must have for the shower is Skintimate Shave Gel for legs and bikini area.

MAKEUP:

The makeup Pro is opening up her personal makeup drawer to our readers! There are staples in her collection that never change (foundation, face powder, eye shadow palettes, mascara) however, frequently she will replace and try new products such as lipgloss, blusher, bronzer, eye liner and lip pencils. Here is a list of the current products that she uses daily:

Primer: M.A.C., Prep & Prime Foundation: Eve Pearl High Definition Dual Foundation/Medium & Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer in Sand and Nude (she mixes these colors together to achieve the perfect skintone match) Concealer: Eve Pearl Salmon Concealer/Medium Brow: tarte comsetic’s emphasEYES/Taupe & Medium Brown Face Powder: Purely Cosmetics Diamond Powder Palettes: Tricia Sawyer Beauty's Essential Palette & Essential Pretty Palette, Eve Pearl The Eye Palette in Ultimate & Natural Blusher: Eve Pearl Blush Trio in Sassy Bronzer: CoverFX Bronzer in Gold Eye Liner: M.A.,C., Liquidlast Liner in Coco Bar Mascara: CoverGirl Lash Blast Mascara in Black Noir, Diorshow Mascara in Black Lips: La Mer Lip Balm, tarte comsetic’s Vitamin-Infused Lipgloss in Liquid Sunshine & OM, Laura Mercier Lipgloss in Bare Beige and Blush, The Eve Pearl Lip Pencil in Caramel, Dior Addict Ultra Gloss Reflect in Rose Satin 657 and Linen Beige 317 Remover: M.A.C Wipes.

The marketing Pro’s collection; Primer: LORAC aquaPRIME™ Primer Foundation: combination of CoverFX M30 & C30 foundation with 30SPF Concealer: Georgio Armani High Precision Retouch 3.5 Face Powder: SmashBox Halo Hydrating Perfecting Powder in Light Brow: Laura Mercier eye brow pencil in Soft Brunette Palettes: Eve Pearl Au Natural Eye Palette, M.A.C. custom palette for eye in various colors, Smashbox Cream Eyeliner Palette in Backstage Eye Liner: Eve Pearl Black Pearl Smudgeproof Liquid Eyeliner Mascara: tarte mascara and for those lower lashes, Bottoms Up™ Blusher: NARS Orgasm Tint: CoverFX SkinTintFX with sunblock in E Light and tarte tipsy cheek stain Lips: NARS glosses in Orgasm & Bad Education, Sally Hansen’s Lip Inflation in Sheer Mocha, Laura Mercier Natural Lips lip pencil.

PRO TIPS AND TRICKS:

To save money, the Pro’s recommend shopping for personal care, hair care and some cosmetic products, like mascara and lip gloss, at your local drug store, but when it comes to skin care and makeup such as foundation, concealer or powder, splurge on high-end manufacturers to insure that your skin is receiving the best quality plus those product lines tend to last longer throughout the day!

STAY TUNED:

Up next on IMPO: Hitting the spa with our Marketing Pro! IMPO was invited to try a facial featuring the Clarisonic! Discover how this technology has made a difference in the cleansing of the skin!

facebook rant

Joshlos and Hautepocket ranted about Facebook recently and now I'm piping in.

A bunch of people recently found me on Facebook but I rejected their requests because I didn't remember them. I made a funny comment about this but one new friend wrote, "Well I don't remember you but your name sounded familiar." I was all, "well, why did you friend me then?" But I didn't say it. She was sweet in high school so whatever. And also, I friended some peeps that may not have remembered me so I'm guilty of this too.

But it got me thinking. Here are my rules/requests for Facebook:

1. Please do not friend me if you don't know me. Don't use me just to beef up your friend list. Only friend me if you actually like me.

2. If you've ever tried to kick my ass, we probably were not great friends. If you fall under this category and I accepted your friend request anyway, it's only because I want to see what kind of trailer you're living in now. (Special exception: if you apologized for trying to kick my ass and we can now laugh about it.)

Note: Finding me on the internet only to call me a dork does NOT make us friends.

3. Enough with the quizzes! I don't care what kind of vampire you'd be, which insomniac lizard you'd make or what your chinese astrology profile was for one of your past lives. Quizzes are stupid*. Well maybe they're fun to fill out and even sometimes read -- I'm not a complete facebook quiz/game nazi -- but moderation is key, folks! (*exception: if I'm crazy about you, because then I love reading it all.)

-->Facebook request: can't you let me pick what kinds of info I want to receive??

4. Don't post every 7 minutes. Y'all are drowning out other peeps. I don't have time to login every day or scroll through several pages to read updates.

-->Facebook, can't you bring back the "see more/less about this person" feature??

5. Current friend management sucks. I actually got so overwhelmed by my news feed that I went online and researched how to manage it, which makes me a super double ultra nerd.

Anyway, I found strategies in a discussion forum (this is actually a hot topic -- I'm not the only dweeb trying to do this) and someone wrote that they create 3 lists: "we're friends," "we're friendly," and "we're acquaintances." You can customize who sees what.

So I started to do this. I got 3 people deep into my list before I tossed the whole idea. I'll just have to outsource this to my database manager, it's not worth the time.

6. Please don't be boring.

What's boring? Here's boring:

"They lost the game in 14 innings! Visitors scored 4 runs in the top of the 14th."

Why is this boring? Well, I hate sports. But really it's because I want to hear about YOU.

The actual update I borrowed this from wasn't so bad because it did actually include what they were doing, but I needed a good example for my blog so I edited it. (Sorry, friend, to throw you under the bus, but my blog stats are at stake!)

Yes, I am demanding with my Facebook rules, all of which I have violated myself sometime or another. But if we're friends, you already know this and like me anyway. :)

new couch! Pictures, and what I learned from Craigslist

Yesterday we rented a trailer and drove 5 hours to & from Phoenix to get furniture. The main aim was a couch -- if you've been following my couch saga, you know how hard it's been for me to find one in Flagstaff. So I somehow thought this was necessary.

I will NEVER do this again.

But it was worth it, just this once.

Originally I picked out what looked like an awesome couch on Craigslist.

Warning sign #1 should have been how many times it was rejected by others. Did I realize this? NO. I thought, wow, lucky us! It's still available!

Instead, said couch was barely fit to be moved to the dumpster. Both arms had fallen off and were attached only by strings of fabric.

Dan carefully turned the couch over to survey damage and (when he stopped coughing from all the hair, dirt, mites, crayons and children that fell out) could see the wooden frame broken to bits inside. "Hmmm," he said. "I don't think we'd even be able to carry this out without it falling apart."

With indignant desperation, they replied, "Well, we've moved it 3 times this year alone!"

Yes, lady. That's why it's broken.

So, not everyone's honest when they're desperate. I've learned some other things about furniture shopping on Craigslist:

1. The number of exclamation points used in the ad does not translate into buyer enthusiasm:

"This ones [sic] a real beauty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

This does not make me say, "OMG I'm leaving now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll pay you double!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Triple!!!!!!!!!"

2. Your ad should be literate. I want to feel like I can do a monetary exchange with someone who has basic skills and can give me proper change.

im selling my couch bc were moving and i need right away to sale!

Well, I need to buy a couch from someone who is literate.

3. All capital letters are a turn off. They're hard to read and make you desperate and annoying.

ALL FURNITURE NEEDS TO GO THIS WEEKENED!!!!! WERE MOVING OUT OF STATE!!!! DESK, LAMP, COUCH, PICTURES, BED, EVERYTHING AND OMG I CAN'T STOP SCREAMING!!!!

These ads also usually appear with violations 1 & 2.

4. Saying "It's a STEAL!!!!" does not make it so. The most hideous couches were almost always preceded with "gorgeous sofa!!!!"

5. If you have to repost your ad ten times, there's something wrong with it. Probably that you're asking too much for the item -- even the most hideous couches will disappear if reasonably-priced. You can get rid of anything at the right price.

I responded to an ad for a couch set someone was trying to sell for a month. In Craigslist time, that's like a year.

Growing up both with a family in the moving & storage industry AND having worked as a classified sales rep placing ads for used furniture all day, I have a feel for used goods. These people were asking $1750. I offered them the going rate ($500) and they were appalled. "But we're asking HALF of what we paid for it!! We're not even using it, it's sitting in storage!"

Fine, then keep paying your storage fees on it. And I'm sorry to inform you that you got ripped off. Your items NEW are barely worth $1750, and I don't even want all of them. Couches are like computers. What you paid does not dictate market rate. DEMAND dictates market rate.

6. Pictures! Please please post photos of your items!

I spent 2 hours Friday going to see someone's couch because it sounded nice. They neglected to mention the couches were discolored pink from the sun. Not just one shade of pink either, which may have worked, but 16 different shades of pink. When you say your couch is "brown," I don't care what color it was when you bought it 15 years ago. What color is it NOW?

. . .

Anyway so we found a couch. Here are some updated pix:

The couch comes off the trailer.

Getting ready to haul it up the steps.
Something tells me we'll be posting a
similar ad to this when we move out:
"Free couch, if you can bend time and/or space."

A queen couch bed for our guests!

The couch in place.
Next we have to find desks. As long as I'm
using a fold-out table, I'm going to
feel like I'm at a convention.

Kitchen with our "new" little table to the right.

Happy 4th!

Scenes around Flagstaff, Arizona

A short post for a long holiday weekend: scenes around Flagstaff.

Someone cruised over to the supermarket
and left their pet goat in the car waiting.

Yes, I said GOAT.

This place is lousy with hikers. Here's a guy
who looks like he has his entire dorm room
on his back. And he makes it look effortless!

From one of Lowell Observatory's historical telescopes. The punching mitt is about forehead height. I have to think it wasn't there in 1896 when the rest of the structure was erected but hey, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure...!

This last one is from when we were apartment shopping. Look past the wall. Do you see the slightest hint of a white porcelain structure peeking through? It's hard to see in this photo, but where I am standing in the doorway is about where a bed would be. But there is NO DOOR. No door to the closet and no door to the bathroom right next to it.

I noticed this immediately in the model and asked, "so, the *actual* apartment would have a door here, right?" (motioning at the frame). The saleslady followed my gesture from the bed to the toilet. "Um, no, actually, there is not."

Well, that's a giant FAIL. Just because you can't see my arse on the john doesn't mean that's good enough. Knees need privacy too. (Not to mention the problem of additional sensory violations.) Wow. So you can imagine this apartment was a NO.

Enjoy your 4th, may you have access to plenty of great facilities, and maybe even see a goat!

Spotlight - IMATS Los Angeles

IMATS, the International Makeup Artist Trade Show is one of THE places to be when it comes to your neck of the woods. Started in the 1990s, IMATS is produced by Make-Up Artist Magazine and is considered the premiere gathering for thousands of make-up artists, manufacturers and enthusiasts.

In My Professional Opinion sent two Pro correspondents, Aileen Wrench and Cathi Singh, to the Los Angeles show in June to discover the latest in product, design, and technique. We will, in the coming weeks, share our experiences with some fantastic products we picked up as well as techniques learned in the many classes we attended.

5-Time Emmy Award Winning Celebrity Makeup Artist Eve Pearl, Kevin-James Bennett of Make Up For Ever, 3-Time Oscar Winner Ve Neill, John Stapleton of MAC Cosmetics and Nolan Robert, winner of the Blush television series on LifeTime were just a few of our friends who demonstrated and lectured on techniques and the business of makeup artistry.

The show also featured Dick Smith, world-renown artist and NBC’s first makeup artist. IMPO's Pro attended makeup classes taught by Mr. Smith back in the late 80’s and he helped shape her passion, which would eventually become a 20+ year career! Mr. Smith’s credits include The Exorcist (his most controversial job!), The Godfather, Taxi Driver and Amadeus.

Greg Cannom, the man (and the Oscar winner!) behind the incredible makeup artistry in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was also in attendance and presented a keynote address. His other credits include: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Master and Commander, The Passion of the Christ, Titanic and A Beautiful Mind.

A Panel Discussion with the special effects crew from the movie StarTrek included Barney Burman, Richie Alonzo, Steve Buscaino, Joel Harlow and Neville Page. The movie features extensive special effects makeup which enhances the character development and the panel talked about the importance of working with an incredible team in order to create one of the biggest block buster films in history!

We must also give a shout out to some of our favorite manufacturers who displayed the latest in hot products: Temptu, Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics, Make Up For Ever, Ve's Favorite Brushes and Eve Pearl. Of course, the Pro MUA stores were all in attendance: Cinema Secrets, Naimies, Frends and Alcone, all of which provide essential products for the stellar artist and the novice consumer. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our dear friend, Eve Pearl whose incredible cosmetic line is now being sold through Naimies!

As you can see, the Los Angeles IMATS show attracted impressive talent and we were so lucky to be in attendance. A very big thank you goes to our good friends at Make-Up Artist Magazine for our press passes and VIP experience! It was a weekend we will never forget! Please enjoy the highlight photos below:

photos from the weekend's hike up a volcano

SP crater hike.
I make it look easy, eh?
(A friend of mine wrote, upon seeing this photo,
"Nice views. I hope you were able to enjoy
them on your klutzy waltz to the top." ha!)

So Sunday we hiked up SP crater, about 25 miles from here. (Don't worry mom, it's no longer active! The last time it erupted was 11,000 years ago. :)

It took 2.5 hours to get to the top, 800 feet high, because that baby was STEEP, a 35-45 degree angle. And difficult! You ever climb a sand dune? One step forward, two steps back. You know the feeling you get watching your feet sink into the earth and slide backwards as your hiking companion (and their rescue cell phone) disappears over the horizon? Yeah, it's awesome.

Seriously, it was a blast. Here are some photos from the day:

Walking up.

See the angle? It's pretty steep!

Dan at the top. The mountain ridges
all around are old volcanoes.

I'm really into flowers lately. They're
so striking against the Arizona sky.

There are more flowers than normal
because of the unusual amount of rain
this region has seen.