How to Save Makeup before Expiration

Looking great with makeup is not just about knowing what are the best products or how to use them ... it's also about knowing when to toss, revive and how to revamp your favorites too!

Because cosmetic companies are not required to add expiration dates on their products it's important to learn the rule of thumb for when it's time to say good-bye to your make up. Certainly if anything changes color, consistency or starts to separate or smell you should get rid of it.

Watch the video {HERE} instead.

FOUNDATION
Expiration date is 12 months. Oil based makeup might last 18 months. Mineral makeup technically has no expiration date because it is made up of inorganic materials - literally ground rock, but if it is combined with other products such as sunscreens then this does not apply. 

Mineral makeup looks great in real life and can be a perfect foundation to use if you have sensitive, oily or acne prone skin, but on a whole it is not great for photography because they tend to be overly sparkly and contain certain micas and other materials that create a lot of sheen and "hot spots" for your face on film.

The SAVE: If you come home with a new foundation only to find it is too dark for your skin tone, combine it with your favorite moisturizer for an instant body bronzer.

MASCARA
This is one of your beauty products with the shortest shelf life, 3 to 6 months. Many times it will dry out before then. To keep it fresh make sure you are twisting, not pumping the wand and keep it tightly closed out of heat and sunlight.

The SAVE: To revive dried out mascara, add a few drops of saline or eye drops and stir it around. Start with just a couple and add as needed. Make sure you only use sterile solutions and not water without preservatives to keep it bacteria free.

Keep your old mascara wands and use them to comb unruly eye brows with a little Vaseline or tame flyaway hair by spraying an old wand with hairspray to smooth them. You can get different effects with the same mascara by using different types of mascara wands. Bigger ones will grab more product and volumize lashes while skinny comb like wands will lengthen.

POWDERS
Eye shadows, compacts and blushes. Keep them for about 2 years. as long as you are cleaning your brushes regularly and not introducing bacteria.

The SAVE: It never fails that we end up dropping our favorite powders and they break into a crumbled mess, spilling into everything in our makeup bag. Instead of tossing it, add a few drops of rubbing alcohol to make it look like new again.

LIPSTICK
If you take very good care of your lipsticks they can last 2 -4 years.
Do what the makeup counter girls do and clean yours with alcohol each time and store them away from sun and humidity.

The SAVE: If you end up with a color that is too bright use it as a cream blush. This is a good tip to remember when you end up going out after work and your face needs a little color, we almost always have a lipstick in our handbag!

PENCILS
Lip and Eye pencils can stay fresh for about 2 years, especially if you are sharpening them regularly to get rid of bacteria. Pencils dry out faster if you aren't storing them with their caps on.

The SAVE: If your pencil doesn't go on smoothly try heating it up with your blowdryer, or if it is too soft harden it up in the refrigerator before sharpening.

BRUSHES
Oil and bacteria can hide in the bristles of your brushes and cross contaminate your makeup so I suggest washing them every 2 weeks. Cleaner can get to be expensive and I find the best products to clean and restore them is something I already have in my kitchen. 

The SAVE: Use an antibacterial dishwash soap to remove and disinfect every single thing that may be on your brushes. So that you don't strip the hairs of natural oils when they dry, add in a little olive oil to recondition the brush. Let them dry upside down so that the water doesn't drip into the handle of the brush and loosen up the glue that's holding the bristle hairs in place. Watch the end of the video for a tutorial on how to so this with  chopsticks and a hair band.


For more secrets and tips on looking your best check out my new book Face This on Amazon {HERE}.

Oxygen Facial - Celebrity Secret Weapon for Flawless Skin

                                                                                                                                                                                    Photo via AP

Star's obsession with finding the fountain of youth are well documented. Who could forget Michael Jackson sleeping in that hyperbaric oxygen chamber to try to slow down the aging process. 

Well, there's a new oxygen machine on the block and Madonna reportedly owns at least 4 - one for every home, J-Lo has 2 ... What is it? A $14,000 Intraceuticals Oxygen machine. This little gem, found now in many dermatologist offices and spas, can give you a super facial unlike any other you've had before. One treatment will leave you with an instant glow and youthful lift.

We all know that hydration is the key to younger looking healthy skin. A single visit instantly hydrates, lifts and tightens the skin appearance. Fine lines and wrinkles appear visibly softened and skin looks elevated from using pure oxygen and hydraulic layering. It is delivered in what looks like a makeup airbrush to deliver oxygen that pushes vitamins with a serum under the skin. It's like bo-tox without botulism or needles ... SCORE!

I was lucky enough to try it out last week before an upcoming photo shoot and can tell you that it really does work ... I left seeing immediate results. The down side? It only lasts about 4 days and will set you back $250. Not working within a celebrity budget, I will probably only schedule it before big events and photoshoots in the future. But it is truly that amazing!

Celebrity A listers are admitting their love affair with this power packed facial too.

Check it out along with my new book Face This : Real Advice from Real Models for more secrets to looking your best! Available on Amazon, iTunes, Kindle and Nook.

Tips for Better Photos - Why these Tricks Work for Prettier Pictures!

How many times have you looked at a picture of yourself and thought, "If I only would have sat up straighter, or turned my head that way, or moved my body here, I could have looked so much better."

It's true that there are some tricks that models just know instinctively about how to look their best in every photo, but for most people taking pictures doesn't seem natural at all. Everyone is obsessed with getting a beautiful photo of themselves, whether it's for a profile pic on Facebook or as the CEO for the corporate brochure. Yep, braniacs included!

Mental Floss, a magazine dedicated to these knowledge junkies who want to know the "why" behind what works, interviewed me for their January 2013 issue on this very subject. 

ENJOY... and check out my book, Face This available on Amazon, Kindle, Nook and iPad, for more advice on how to disguise a long nose, bodacious body and more. 

I will warn you, the cartoon below depicts some of the dramatic changes you might see "after" learning these little tricks ...  so why not celebrate with a glass of bubbles? You got this!