Beauty Tips

• Don’t do *full frontal!* No, not the nudity kind, LOL! 🙂 Try a 3/4 pose. If you’re standing, turn slightly and rest your weight on one foot. If you’re sitting, angle slightly to one side or the other. Doing so angles the body, tips the shoulders a little and angles the head just a bit. It adds dimension to your pics and looks more interesting and natural than a straight-ahead pose.
• Lean slightly toward the camera. It adds interest, dimension and looks natural, too. Think of having a long neck like a giraffe. Tilt your chin down slightly to hide any double chin/s and to block the camera’s view up your nostrils.
• Learn, like Tyra says, to smile with your eyes. Think coy and demure, like a cougar luring her prey to come closer by acting harmless and innocent. Huge ear-to-ear smiles focus attention on your gums and can make you look like you’re squinting.
• Think BAM! Practice a picture pose trigger. Models are taught to change their state of mind in an instant by developing a trigger. When they’re about to have their picture taken, even if they feel like crap, they fire their trigger and BAM! — great photo. One trigger you hear a lot about is called the rear cheek squeeze.
  
  
  Don’t laugh, but it’s just like it sounds — you squeeze the cheeks of your rear end together and hold them that way for the shot. 🙂 Try it in your next picture.
• Keep looking up! That is, don’t look directly at the lens; look slightly above it. It brightens the eyes in pictures and makes you look more vibrant and alive.
  
  
  
  

For even more tips on how to look your best in pictures…

• Makeup tips to look great in pictures — Videojug
• Clothes and makeup tips to look great in pictures — Howcast

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

In spring I pretty much live in high heels, but my prettiest pairs rarely start out comfy. Some take doctoring up with press-in shoe inserts by brands like Dr. Scholl’s and Foot Petals.

I’ve mentioned Foot Petals before, but your comments about springtime on the Clarins Nature Temptations giveaway post (there’s still time to enter!) got me thinking about strappy spring shoes and sandals.

Foot Petals sells the Stiletto Survival Kit ($50), a seven-piece kit that comes with everything a girl needs to make all her high heels more comfortable.

My favorite spring sandals (these are $20 Aerosoles, circa July 2008. I have the yellow pair!)

The kit isn’t cheap (and there are workable drugstore alternatives), but if you’ve ever tried Foot Petals before, you know how good they feel.

With the kit Foot Petals covers cushions (they’re squishy and adhesive) for the toe, heel and arch areas of your shoes. Also included are a non-slip pad for shoe soles (have you ever had your heels slip on a slick surface? Not fun!) and thin adhesive strips to reduce friction (and the raw skin it causes) between sandal straps and your skin. You even get a cute shoe pouch, to boot.

My love for the line runs deep. Their $12.95 Killer Kushionz full arch inserts got me through my friend Jen’s 10-hour wedding and reception last November.

If you have a few pairs of high heels you’d like to wear more often but don’t because of comfort, the Stiletto Survival Kit might help you breathe some new life into ’em.

What are your favorite spring shoes?

I’m wondering what our favorites have in common. My guess is that most women like their most comfortable sandals, but I don’t know. Do you have a favorite pair of spring shoes or sandals? What makes ’em great?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

In June of 1993, I was a senior in high school. Graduation was just around the corner, and I could already taste the freedom of college life in the fall.

One of my classes that semester was a psychology course taught by an amazing teacher, Mr. Friedman. He had a real gift for connecting with students, and his class was so much fun.

On the last day of school, Mr. Friedman had us do an exercise.

He told us to write something nice about each of our classmates on little slips of paper. At the end of the exercise, each student had 30 slips of paper with 30 positive statements.

The notes were anonymous.

Later that night, I sat at my desk and read through the different notes. “You’re strong willed and smart.” “You’re hard working.” “You’re well behaved.” LOL!

The notes made me feel special, appreciated and loved.

When it came time to leave for college, I put my notes in a box and took them with me.

I’ve kept those slips of paper for 16 years, taking them out to read when I’ve felt blue or faced a big challenge in my life.

The notes have consoled me through many tough times, like those first lonely years of college, when it felt impossible to get my bearings.

I was reading through them last night when it hit me: we should totally write these notes to ourselves!

Get some slips of paper (a good amount, like 20-30), and on each one, write something positive or nice about yourself. 🙂

Keep them in a special box or jar, and set it aside someplace safe. That way, you can take them out whenever you need inspiration or strength.

Yeah, I know it’s a little cheesy, but a little cheese never hurt anyone (Mmm… gouda…).

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen