Since my creative juices seemed  to have dried up today, I think it’s perfectly appropriate that I do a mash up of my personal Fierce Friday Favorites. And here they are in no particular order…

1.  Get Banged

Naomi Campbell

Get your mind out of the gutter. I’m talking hair. I’m talking about rocking ferocious bangs.  It’s Friday so change it up.  Get fierce.  Rock some bangs. While I’m not one to follow trends (I pride myself on doing my own chic thing) I happen to love bangs.  As a matter of fact, I have worn various versions of bangs over the years, with my favorite being blunt cut bangs that graze the eyebrows.  Now that’s hot.  (Say it with a little Paris Hilton in your voice)  But, being in that phase of my life when personal summers may attack at any given moment, my bangs most often give way to a fringe of frizz.  Not cute.

Read more…

2.  Go Nude

Eva Marcille

Want all eyes on you?  Go nude. Eva does it.  Beyonce’ does it.  Rihanna does it. Monica Lewinsky made it hot!  I’m talking nude lips. Shiny, glossy nude lips will have all eyes on your tonight.

I kicked and screamed when the nude lip came into fashion.  I hated it.  Particularly for women who had small lips, the nude lip just made them look like they had all face — no lips.  Not at all pretty.  Plus most of the original nude lip colors were matte, and they were way too beige and just plain ugly.

When makeup artist Denise Markey gave Monica Lewinsky those shimmery nude lips, Club Monaco lip gloss sales skyrocketed.  Women from 8 to 80 were trying to get those hot lips.  Or maybe they were fantasizing about Bill…

Read more…

3.  Be a Top Heavy Girl

Jennifer Hudson

I think every woman yearns for that perfect chest, but I’m not talking DDD’s here, I’m talking about makeup. Specifically, eye makeup that puts all the emphasis on the top of the eye.  I haven’t heard this term in years, so I thought I’d bring it back. With eyes in focus, your face is lifted immensely and you look just sexy cool.

To achieve this look, you have to say goodbye to lining under your eyes, and opt for lots of liner and lots of lash on top only.  Brows are also important for looking “top heavy”.  Proper under eye concealing is also a necessity — consider it your lift, your underwire!

Read more…

It’s Friday! Get Fierce!

Get your mind out of the gutter. I’m talking hair. I’m talking about rocking ferocious bangs.  It’s Friday so change it up.  Get fierce.  Rock some bangs. While I’m not one to follow trends (I pride myself on doing my own chic thing) I happen to love bangs.  As a matter of fact, I have worn various versions of bangs over the years, with my favorite being blunt cut bangs that graze the eyebrows.  Now that’s hot.  (Say it with a little Paris Hilton in your voice)  But, being in that phase of my life when personal summers may attack at any given moment, my bangs most often give way to a fringe of frizz.  Not cute.

What I love about bangs is that all focus is on the eyes. So whoever is checking you out can’t help but look you dead in the peepers.  Be sure that your eye makeup is perfect.  Emphasize your lashes – go faux or wear plenty of mascara. Accent cheekbones with a shimmery blush and gloss up lips and you are good to go!

So check everyone who is wearing the eyebrow fringe right now!

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Jennifer Hudson

I think every woman yearns for that perfect chest, but I’m not talking DDD’s here, I’m talking about makeup. Specifically, eye makeup that puts all the emphasis on the top of the eye.  I haven’t heard this term in years, so I thought I’d bring it back. With eyes in focus, your face is lifted immensely and you look just sexy cool.  To achieve this look, you have to say goodbye to lining under your eyes, and opt for lots of liner and lots of lash on top only.  Brows are also important for looking “top heavy”.  Proper under eye concealing is also a necessity — consider it your lift, your underwire!

I love Kerry Washington’s makeup style, and here she does the top heavy look on a modest scale. Notice her brows are groomed and that the rest of her makeup takes second place.  And Eva Marcille is gorgeous from any angle.  Her top heavy style is more about the faux lashes.  Love it!

Check out these steps to get your get your top heavy look!

Eva Marcille at the 40th NAACP Image Awards (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images for NAACP)

1.  Conceal, conceal, conceal.

This is the time to bring out the big guns.  I’m talking major coverage.  Moisturize under eye area.  After applying foundation (if you wear it) apply your concealer.   Starting with your inner eye, near the bridge, apply your concealer.  Use a concealer brush and extend the coverage under your eye to the outside corner of your eye.  Feather out toward the temple.  Blend, blend, blend, but do not rub your concealer away.

Try Christopher Drummond Concealer – my new love or Make Up For Ever Full Coverage Concealer

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I love looking at lips.  Maybe it’s the makeup artist in me.  Or maybe I just have a thing for lips, I don’t know.  You know those silly little quizzes that pop up on various internet sites — “Guess the celebrity lips/smile”?  Well, I ace those every time.  So don’t screw with me, I can pick you out in a line-up by looking at your lips.

Anyway, before I start rambling, I was checking out some photos the other day, and realized that I have some definite likes and dislikes when it comes to lips.  Some women look great in lipstick, for others are best in gloss.  It’s also a travesty all the women who look freaky deaky because they have had botch jobs on their lips.  Just love your lips and enhance them temporarily I say.  Maybe if I had two slits for lips, I would be all over the collagen and hyalauronic acid fillers myself.

At any rate, these are the  top 5 celebrity lips on my list  and some tips on how you can get the look.

1.  Kerry Washington

aka K-Wash

I love Kerry’s perfectly pursed lips.  They are adorable.  At first I thought she did that little pursing action deliberately for the camera, but then I noticed a pattern — that’s just her trademark lip look.  And notice how her lips are fuller in the center and perfectly full on both top and bottom.  Love it!

 Kerry also looks best in nude or pale glosses — part of her signature lip look.

 One instance Kerry’s makeup artist did her wrong — the red lips.  They just didn’t work.  The lipstick aged her and she looks quite matronly.  I’m thinking a sheer red lipstick or gloss may have made the cut.

 Get Kerry’s look — try a pale lipgloss like Fresh Sugar lipgloss in Sugar Baby, a shimmering nude peach.

2.  Jennifer Hudson

aka J-Hud

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Jennifer Hudson -- Naturally Lovely Lips

I’m a BROWN GIRL.  As such I have big hips, big lips and a natural tan. Those qualities are  intrinsically mine and ubuquitous to a whole lot of other women of color I know.  What gets my goat is that when it comes to moving up the ladder in the “Beauty” industry of Corporate America, I have been categorically denied passage to the next  rung because of my physicality.  Yet, those traits that identify me as a brown girl, is the stuff that is generating gazillions of dollars for those same companies.  And that whole scenario just kind of makes me mad.

Let me break it down for you.

1.  Big Lips

Du Wop Lip Venom -- The "original" plumper

I remember shopping for a red lipstick many years ago, and the perky girl behind the counter told me my lips were too big for red. That had me seeing red.  I picked out the boldest, brightest red she had and bought a few.  So what, now big lips are en vogue because of Angelina Jolie?  Every magazine editor is waxing poetic over “bee stung lips.’  What?  Bee stung lips are not cute.  What about Angie Stone, Jennifer Hudson, and other women with naturally plump lips?  Since when did a fair skin woman win in the category of best lips?  Gimme a break.

One of the best selling cosmetic products is lip plumper. Yup.  The stuff stings like the dickens and it only work temporarily.  But every cosmetic line has a lip plumper of some sort — lip gloss, lipstick, serum.  And what about the plastic surgery?  You can always tell fake lips — the upper lip curls out from inside.  It looks so weird and unnatural.  Check out Lisa Rinna.  EWWWWWWW. (more EWWWWWWW here.  I mean really ewwwwww)

2.  Big Hips

I have had big hips all my life.  For years I had to buy jeans too big in the waist to accommodate my hips.  Except for Gloria Vanderbilt jeans back in the day….I did everything to get rid of these hips.  But then I had children and I was thanking God for those child bearing hips.  I had minimal labor; as a matter of fact I barely made it to the hospital before I spit my last one out.  J Lo made a splash with her gluteous maximus, so did Beyonce’, but this latest chick, Kim Kardashian shows up with her big hips and whooaaaaa, let’s get on the big hip trip.  Gimme a break.  So what makes Kim’s hips better?  The air brushing?  Keep reading and check her out.  You tell me. (more…)