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Fashion Tips

Glossy magazines? Air-brushed photos of super-human-super-models? Nah. What you need for your fashion is a mirror! Start with yourself! Learn what you need before you turn to the goodies offered by the fashion world. Let's start from the inside and work out.

Think about who you are and your mission in life. What are your talents? What's your specific area of intelligence? How are you different from the rest of the world? Now, think about how this could be reflected in your fashion. (Remember that fashion is the most communicative non-verbal language in your repertoire!)

Let's start with your face! After all, this is where the BEST fashion leads!

Choose colors which flatter your skin tone and make your eyes shine. Which colors? Grab a friend and try some. In front of a large mirror and in the best lighting possible, go through the colors and decide which ones flatter the most. Then, wear those colors!

Try wearing three of your best colors around your face. (That's top and accessories together.) Peep out a contrasting color from under your top by layering. Choose interesting accessories.

Shop in your closet! Treat it like a store and decide which items should stay around to build your best wardrobe ever. Then, mix and match the items for creative and newer combinations.

Plan out key items to update and improve your wardrobe: a wide belt for those over-sized sweaters? A vest? Shoes?

Practice focused shopping. Stick to your plans, try things on, and save your receipt. When you get home, hang new items with the tags on in case you change your mind on a second thought. Returning is so much easier with a receipt and a tag!

Take the fashion advice of magazines and television shows cautiously. Often the advice is too general and has little to do with you. Other times, the advice is too specific (for someone else!) and has nothing to do with you.

Finally, enjoy fashion as an art form where you are both the artist and the canvas!

Makeup Tips

Great makeup technique begins with great skin care. Pay attention to your skin and treat it as you would any other vital organ: with healthy attention! Click here for the best on skin care from a respected and well-known product reviewer. Click here for information on acne treatment from dermatologists.

Makeup application need not take more than 10 minutes. Follow these simple steps:

1. Ensure that your face is cleansed. Apply a facial sunscreen with at least an spf of 15.

2. Apply an oil-free concealer (tube is easiest) on the red areas you want to conceal.

3. Use your foundation to blend. First, dab your nose, cheeks, forehead and chin. Blend with your finger tips (clean and oil free!) for full coverage. (Your foundation color should match your skin tone perfectly, so you needn't worry about covering your neck.)

4. Apply blush from the "apple" of your cheek up toward your temple. (The apple is the bone under your eye.)

5. Apply eye shadow. Fill the entire eyelid with the lightest color of a trio pack of color. Use the darkest on the crease of the lid. Use the medium color right above the lashes and fading up to the crease.

6. Apply eye liner from a little bit in from the inside corner of your eye and work outward. choose a color that goes along with your hair color. (Dark hair = dark liner; light hair = light liner)

7. Apply mascara. Use black no matter your coloring.

8. Apply lip liner on outline of the lips. Trace an outside line to enlarge the lips. Trace an inside line to lessen the lips. Then, fill in with the same liner.

9. Add a gloss to soften the color of the lips.

10. Voila! You look beautiful!

See makeup trends at Bobbi Brown.

Best Sites:

http://www.aboutparis.info/2/120/paris-haute-couture-houses.aspx shows which fashion houses are currently true Parisian haute couture.

www.zappos.com is an excellent site for shopping for shoes (any size or style) or bags.

http://www.zappos.com/glossary.zhtml is a real gem of a site which features every term you can think of that is associated with fashion accessories.