How to do a Quick Smokey Eye with Anne Fritz

I recently sat down for a coffee with my good friend Anne Fritz of the JetSetGirls.com to dish about happenings in the beauty biz, as we are neighbors (yay!), and I found out that she does a killer 6-minute smokey eye. Now who wouldn't want to learn how to do that? It's perfect for when you're in a pinch and need to look super dressed up for any occasion for the evening. I was totally impressed, and had to have her share her skills for all of us to see and have fun with.

Hope you enjoy the video and please let me know what you think! And thank you to the fabulous Anne!

Here's Anne's Smokey Eye in Completion:

In just 6-minutes, Anne did this excellent, smokey eye look!

Anne Fritz's Quickest Smokey Eye Products:

1) Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion ($20)

2) Urban Decay Black Eyeshadow Palette ($36)

3) Sonia Kashuk Limited Edition 3-Piece Brush Starter Set, ($25)

--N.C.

Lessons in Life and Eyeliner with the Little One: Part 2 of 2

I do enjoy my eyeliner. Before my daughter A was born, sketching lines on my eyelids was pure pleasure. I'd do fancy cat-eyes with colored liquid eyeliners, and sometimes I'd even paint fake lashes with a tiny brush. I always put my eyeliner through a lot as an active person. Now, as mom to a sprightly almost two-year-old, my eye make-up confronts a shopping list of new elements. Before child (B.C.), I had the luxury of time where I could reapply entire looks at will. If my capricious child throws bubble solution at me, splatters cranberry juice, or reaches for my face with cream-sauce hands, and my make-up is,`redesigned,' I'm lucky if I have a few minutes to dab off what I can. So my eyeliner needs to be able to defy the mighty messes that come with the Little One.

Applying eyeliner, particularly when using the liquid genre, involves a bit of attention, which adds precious time to your beauty regime. Most days I skip it, saving it for the days I really want to pump up my eyes or have those extra five minutes. But the easiest and quickest method of lining your eyes is to simply line the upper half of eyelid along the lash-line, from the middle of the eye to slightly past the outer corners.

For symmetry and even lines,  you can take a q-tip, a sponge wedge or your finger, and gently clean the tops and edges of the line while you're drawing and after. When correcting liquid eyeliner, you may need to moisten your tool with cleanser or moisturizer to help the removal process. With eyeliner you shouldn't see a clear start and end point. The lines shouldn't look like road/traffic lines but like the tips of blades of grass, so blend, blend, blend, as needed. And a thinner line will help you achieve smoother results.

As a busy mama, waterproof liquid eyeliner is probably your longest lasting option, because once it sets, it really can withstand some tough business. If you're not comfortable with liquid liner, I would recommend you stick with a smudge-proof and/or waterproof eye pencil. Liquid liner takes practice and there are ways to do it stress-free, but if the clock's ticking and liquid liner isn't second nature to you, save it for another day.

Everlasting Eyeliner 1-2-3:

In my quest to find an eyeliner that could withstand my daily life and adventures with a 21-month-old, I put various products, and samples that had been sent to me to the test. For a week, I put on a different eyeliners on in the morning. I took the eye make-up off at the end of my on average 16- to 17-hour days so that I could fully assess the longevity of the eyeliner. Here are my two winners, which I suggest you try in black. Black eyeliner is a classic, like the little black dress. You just can't go wrong with it, and it matches everything.

1) This cost-effective eyeliner, Rimmel London Exaggerate Waterproof Eye Definer ($5) did a surprisingly good job on my eyelids. There was some minor movement of the line, but I had no major smudging. I have small, oily lids, in which make-up tends to move around easily and readily. So the fact that this eye pencil (liquid liner is usually my best option), did so well on me for a big part of the day makes it a great drugstore find in my book. Gently dusting some translucent loose powder on top of your eyelids after your eye make-up is in place will boost staying power.

2) The tokidoki Perfetto Eyeliner ($16), changed my mind about pen-tip (rather than brush-tip) liquid eyeliners, which I had previously felt weren't ever pigmented enough. I had also avoided them because most times they're only smudge-proof and tend to run. However, this one is waterproof and has richly colored ink, which is how it survived a 16-hour day with me -- with the line staying intact.

3) If you want to go for the liquid eyeliner, here's a trick: use the method I mentioned earlier of only lining half your upper eyelid along the lash line. And instead of trying to draw the line in one stroke, starting from the middle of your eye and going out towards your temples, try jotting tiny dashes with the liner first. You can then go back and fill in the line afterward. Remember to let your liquid eyeliner set for at least 10 seconds. A good "set" will ensure a long-lasting line.


-N.C.

Disclaimer: Nuy Cho has no affiliation to any of the beauty companies mentioned on www.nuybeauty.com.

Eye Want Color!

Spring is all about change -- the scent of the air, the warmth, the empowering sunlight. And as the season's scenery changes, you can't help but have a sunnier outlook. New York City has been ripe with the bounty of brighter months ahead as winter's cold and shivering tail zigzagged and disappeared into a street corner. A and I celebrated this week, by going on a picnic with our dear friends, drawing our names and faces in our favorite park with chalk, and donning floral frocks and denim minis. To top off the cheerier weather, I also rolled out my eyeshadow palettes for some play. The thing about colored eye shadows is that if you don't overdo them, and keep it minimal, they're actually not as hard to pull off as you might think!

All it really takes is a few strokes, literally. Try a new color! Play around with eye shadows you may already have lying around, untouched in your vanity. Don't be afraid to try out that army green or navy blue from the beauty counter gift-bag.  Don't ever assume that a color doesn't work for you without trying it on first. You may be pleasantly surprised.

I am wearing Shu Uemura's Pressed Eye Shadow ME600 ($20)

Eye Shadow 1-2-3: 

Start with a clean face / clean lids. It's up to you whether or not you want to first line the eyes with some sort of liner. If it is part of your routine, then go for it. If not, don't worry about it. But, if you do line your eyes, stick with black, as it is the most neutral, and will go with whatever eye shadow color you choose.

1) Take an eyeshadow brush that has shorter, firm bristles, like my 5R Kolinsky by Shu Uemura ($58) or you can try Kashuk Tool's Small Eye Shadow Brush ($10), and dab a little bit of shadow on it. Don't get too much on the brush, and blow off any excess shadow before applying. Apply a very fine and thin layer of color at the lash line. And as you work from the inner to outer area of your lid with your brush in nice, steady, soft, strokes, start to fan out the color to widen slightly like a, narrow, sideways `V' toward your temples.

2) The trick to doing quick, risk-free colored eyeshadow, is to minimize the amount of color applied. You don't need a lot of color to make an impact. Keep the color close to the lash line, and refrain from painting big, crowd-stopping blocks of color between your eyes and brows. A little goes a long way. And by keeping the shadow on the light and slim side, it spares you room for error. Think of it as more like lining your eyes liberally with the shadow, rather than shading. And just stick to the top lid.

3) Finish with some mascara, blush and clear lip gloss.

-N.C.

Disclaimer: Nuy Cho has no affiliation to any of the beauty companies mentioned on www.nuybeauty.com.

Combatting Tired Eyes

You asked, and I got them: Pooped out, puffy eyes! I wanted to know what you (my loyal readers) wanted me to write about next, and the winner was: help with puffy eyes and dark, under-eye circles. Shortly after I declared this, A started having mini-tantrums on the floor -- thrusting her head back while kicking like a champion swimmer. Evidently, her latest experiment with the world hasn't been going so well, because she can't eat raisins all day long, she can't stay up all night, and she can't shred my thesaurus. Of course, my eyes started to swell with these stressful antics, as my 19-month-old diva starting bringing down the house. That is, until I pulled out my bag of tricks.

Puffiness and dark circles under the eyes occur for a number of reasons  -- but for both, stress, caffeine, alcohol and lack of sleep are all aggravators. The first problem is easier to tackle because it's just fluid retention. When we are stressed, we tend to retain more fluids. And first and foremost, in order to flush out what's trapped inside, you need to drink lots and lots of water.

To jump-start the process of de-puffing, try my One-Minute Remedy. First, grab an ice pack from the freezer or fridge (if it's too cold, wrap a kitchen towel around it) and hold it against your eyes for about 15 to 30 seconds. The cold will help counteract the swelling. Then, gently tap the area around your eyes with your fingertips to trigger circulation and promote the fluids to move away. Tap with light, even pressure about 30 times, like you're playing the same chord repeatedly on a keyboard. I was feeling the eye-bulge the other morning so I did this before I ran out the door. When I met up with my good friend A.S., a stylist, she actually, to my great surprise, remarked on how good my eyes looked.

A nice thing of note is that the puffiness you may have woken up to may probably get better on its on throughout the day without any intervention -- as gravity helps to push the excess water out of your body naturally.

As far as dark circles go, because the reasons they occur are more often due to hereditary or pigmentation issues, and/or thinner skin causing the blood vessels to start showing off their colors more, they are a little harder to treat in a quick-fix type of way. Your quickest bet for treating them as a busy mom is to use an eye cream daily, and a concealer.  I found an all-in-one product by Olay, Total Effect Eye Cream + Touch of Concealer ($20), which you can look to as a starting point.

Daily application of eye cream or some sort of moisturizing treatment for the delicate skin around your eyes will help you overall for either issue. Essentially, taking good care of the skin by giving it the moisture and nourishment it needs is the key to radiance -- whether it's around your eyes or anywhere else on your face. As we age, our skin's natural ability to replenish moisture and repair damage diminishes, so we need to help it supplement.

If you don't have an eye cream or can't be bothered to get one, you can actually take a peek in your child's beauty bin. Look for a baby balm or salve that contains one of the following herbs: Arnica Montana, Calendula, or Chamomile, which all have anti-inflammatory properties, and therefore will also help with the puff. The key is to find one without zinc oxide, a common ingredient in diaper creams that also happens to make them powder-white, unless you want to walk around looking like you've got face paint on. I found Bamford's Organic Baby Balm ($40) in A's drawer, which has both Chamomile and Arnica Montana. It's thick, but absorbed rather well. A budget option, that has a cool, fluffy texture is California Baby's Calendula Cream ($11).

Eyes Wide Open 1-2-3:

1) Try storing your eye cream in the fridge. It'll feel great in the morning as you're prepping for the day, and the cold might just help de-swell those puffy eyes.

2) Use a broad spectrum sunscreen, with UVA and UVB protection and an SPF of at least 30, on your entire face everyday. You will be protecting your precious visage from the damaging effects of the sun, which accelerates the development of wrinkles, AND contributes to dark-circles under the eyes. Try California Baby's SPF 30+ Sunscreen ($19), which A and I use.

3) Get lots of zzz's. Easier said than done, but there's no way around it. They didn't coin it Beauty Sleep for nothing!

-N.C.

Disclaimer: Nuy Cho has no affiliation to any of the beauty companies mentioned on www.nuybeauty.com.