Love My Job

It was another one of those days when I love my job.  Love the schedule, love the flexibility, love the people I work with, love the friends and relationships I have through work.

9:00AM   Meet with a current customer and fellow mom at a coffee shop.  Talk about life as a mother.  Help her choose some fun new eye colors and address skincare questions.

9:45AM   Drive to next appointment, sipping my short-decaf-nonfat-extrahot-mocha (yes, I have a high maintenance drink) listening to Coldplay’s latest.

10:00AM   Chat with next customer and friend about life and transitions.  Help her choose a new foundation. Make plans to get together soon.

10:45AM   Done with work for the day!

11:00AM  Arrive home to play with my daughter.  Grateful to have my MK job so that I can be present for my most important job – being a mom.

Spring/Summer 2009 Color Trends

Last weekend I attended a local Mary Kay training session and one of the highlights was the forecast of this next season’s colors!  Ready?  It is really beautiful!  In fashion we are going to see a focus on the eclectic, artistic, and global beauty, portrayed in ruffles, pleats, draping fabrics, tunics, paisleys, and global prints.  The makeup colors of the season mimic that of an ocean landscape:  Eye colors in blues and greens of the water, paired with the neutral colors in the sand.  For the cheeks, soft shades of pink and berry will be prominent, and for lips soft colors in pink and coral.  

The new Mary Kay LOOK magazine will be arriving middle of March and will be cover to cover in this current trend, so you can be sure to choose the right updated colors for this new season.  If you haven’t received your copy, you can contact me at lauramjackson@marykay.com and I will send one your way!

Another Way to Go Green – Reuse

Do you remember reading the section in Real Simple magazine where they show you alternative uses for every day items?  Well I have one for you!  I was about to recycle my used Mary Kay Mineral Powder Foundation jar the other day, when I realized what a nice jar it was.  We were also in the process of reorganizing our office space and voila!  A cute container to store paperclips in!  I can’t wait to use my next jar up to have another one for rubberbands, or tacks, or pins,etc. The options are endless.  If you come up with a good idea, please do comment and let us know!

Emollient Night Cream

The January 2009 issue of Ladies Home Journal highlighted a few products to heal and prevent dry skin in the winter months.  One of them is Mary Kay’s Emollient Night Cream! This night cream can be purchased individually, but is most well known as one of the products in the popular Satin Hands Set.  I use this cream most every night on my hands, although I know many women with dry skin use it on their faces at night.  It is amazing what it can do overnight to heal my dry chapped hands from the cold air and all the hand washing from changing diapers. 

Mary Kay is presenting this product in a limited edition set of the Emollient Cream in a jar with a travel size tube in a cute gift box.  This is available only until the middle of March.

This product is a great treat for hands, feet, faces in need of some serious TLC.

Soft Winter Color Look

If you are of an ivory skin tone like I am, you may also feel extremely white in the winter.  Especially in Seattle, with the lack of enough days to catch some vitamin D rays, I am looking pale!  Please someone tell me pale can be in!  I’m not about to head to the tanning beds for some color and expensive cancer enhancers.  

I came across this soft and pretty look.  The model’s eyes have Mineral Eye Colors of Precious Pink, Sweet Plum, and Raisin. These colors can do double duty and create bold eyes, but in this case they are applied softly with the Precious Pink, blending them to a glowing look. Cinnamon Stick Blush gives her a rosy glow, along with the Frosted Rose lipstick and Gold Rush gloss to give her a natural and warm tone.  Ivory skin tone is saved from a “death warmed over” to a beautiful winter face!

Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama has created quite the stir among fans, designers, stylists, and the general public for her fashion and style. She is classy, sophisticated, yet simply beautiful.  She seems to gracefully hold the tension between the elegance of a queen that audiences hope for, yet the simplicity of a loving wife, mom, and that of the person you would expect next door.  

The simplicity shows through in her personality and natural beauty.  You get the feeling that she is confident in who she is, and she uses the mediums of fashion and makeup to only enhances and highlight who she is.

One moment I loved this week was at the first Inaugural Ball when Barack said, “Isn’t my wife good-looking?!” and the crowd started clapping and cheering.  Michelle started clapping, smiling and looking at her husband until she realized what he had said and then she laughed and stopped clapping with an “oops” sort of look when she realized everyone was clapping for her!  It was very cute.

Help, My Skin is Dry, Dry, Dry!

The cold dry winter months can be brutal on your face.  Your face may need a little extra TLC in the moisture department if you are experiencing extra dryness often manifested with flaking, irritated skin, and uncomfortable tightness.  Two products that are worth adding in to your beauty return are Mary Kay’s Intense Moisture Cream or Mary Kay’s Oil-Free Hydrating Gel. 

 

If you have normal to dry skin, this beautiful jar of Intense Moisture Cream delivers its name.  Hydrating your skin for up to 10 hours, it leaves your skin immediately more radiant and oh so soft with the marine extracts, humectants, vitamin E, and essential minerals such as copper, magnesium, and zinc.  Start by using this on top of your regular moisturizer whenever you feel dry, but especially at night when you go to bed.  Add it into your morning routine if you continue to have dryness throughout the day.  

Because of my more combination type skin, I use the Intense Moisture Cream for severe dryness, but I daily use the Oil-Free Hydrating Gel in the winter.  This gel also hydrates the skin for up to 10 hours and restores the skins natural moisture balance.  It’s a silky, non-greasy formula enriched with vitamin E, marine extract, and a green tea extract (good for you!).  It feels great!

Get a free trial size of both when you purchase $40 or more of MK products through March 14.  Click here for more information.

I’m back!

I apologize for the lack of postings lately!  Can I blame 2 months of inaction on the holidays? Well, whatever the case, I am back and will be posting regularly now.

Italy’s Abuse

Today I read a disturbing article on NPR about the status of women in Italy.  The article titled, In Italy Feminism is Out, Women as Sex Symbols In discusses the role of women in Italy, especially since the 80’s, and the growing rate of women’s bodies oversexualized in the media and showgirls as the idealized role model.  Sad.  Very sad.  In fact it made me angry as well.  Especially when I read on about the low percentage of women in leadership roles in the country, “2 percent in top management positions…” and “only 17 percent of members of parliament are women…”  How sad for the women and young girls growing up thinking that the only way to gain respect, to change the world, to lead, to make a difference, is by giving their bodies for the enjoyment of men, especially powerful men.  It makes me angry when I see the powerful abusing others for their own greed and gratification.  They have taken the gift of a woman’s beauty and not used it for good, but have twisted it into something no longer beautiful.

Two Films

When it comes to beauty, our culture places so much importance on a person’s appearance.  Much of what we are fed through various media is that love is for the beautiful, or that it is the beautiful who are loved.  And with regard to sex and intimacy, we think that great sex is only for the young and beautiful.  Why is that?

I recently saw two movies that spurred thoughts on the idea of beauty. The first was the Emmy Award winning mini-series, John Adams, adapted from David McCullough’s book.  There was much that moved me about the movie, but what intrigued me in regards to beauty, was the progression of John and Abigail Adams as they grew older.  Often in films, we see the actress in her current state, and then a quick 30 year jump to her older years.  This movie, however, moved through time, with each period showing the characters growing older.  First a few age spots, then some gray hairs, then some sagging around the face, then some more pronounced wrinkles.  But these were not symbols of beauty lost, but of a greater beauty.  Age symbolized all they had been through and experienced, and all the years they had loved each other.  In one of the final scenes, John is with Abigail as she dies, and it was in this scene that I cried at the tenderness they showed each other in their kisses and embrace.  Love had nothing to do with how beautiful in body each one was, as they were very old and not all that physically attractive.

The other movie I recently viewed was Call and Response, a documentary on modern day slavery. In it, Cornell West, the Princeton professor, spoke of real love occurring when we are able to get in the “funk” of life and be open and real with each other.  He said anyone can go through the motions of assumed love, but for true intimacy to happen, we must be willing to accept the filth, the not-fun, the sadness, the messed-upness – the “funk,” as he called it, of life.  I think when we are safe to be real with others, we allow them to see the messed up part of ourselves, we “let our hair down” as they used to say, when women always wore their hair perfectly pinned up.  If we don’t allow others to see us in all that we are, or if we don’t provide a safe place for others to be real, we will miss out on true relationship and intimacy.