Visions don’t have to just pop up in your head like some Basquiat explosion of schizophrenic creative genius. They can come to be in a process of self-discovery. When I worked in an office the proper attire came so unnaturally to me that I had to rip out fashion-forward ‘career girl’ pictures from magazines and tape them to my closet wall. I just don’t do business wear, so I’d end up looking like a sales associate at Victoria’s Secret. Borrowing a vision is better than no vision to get through a rough start.

Another trick is the uniform trick. Get one vibe down perfectly and sport it every day with minor variations. There is such thing as too much vision.

Lastly, complete the vision. Details have more importance than they sometimes get cred for.  The wrong makeup, shoes and bags, and even undies can throw a vision off. Be aware and have intention with what you choose. Don’t stress yourself out or anything, just be aware.

Not from The Onion, I swear. Supposedly reading an opposite point of view from yours helps work out your brain synapses in the same way as a crossword puzzle. So for the sake of fending off early dementia, I read through some posts. I scoff at the author’s, PeaceBang’s, criticism of a younger minister who she thinks dresses too sexy so therefore is insecure (cough, jealous!), as well as her dislike for a male’s facial hair to look like something out of a production of Fiddler On The Roof (If I were a Jewish Al Sharpton I’d totally call anti-semite on this one).  ‘Stupid Bible Thumpers,’ I’m thinking. ‘Always got their panties in a bunch over something stupid.’

Then, I see something. A photograph from a convention. I click the picture to full-size, and sure enough. The woman in the picture is wearing a massive chalice necklace. I look for confirmation and find it. This is a Unitarian Universalist Minister’s site! I was raised a UU and my mom’s family takes a lot of pride in their association with the church. My brother was president of his, my step dad was treasurer or something of his, and my mother is more than willing to drum up picket signs for a good equal rights march any day of the week. She’s even willing to travel to march.

Well, shit. It’s not as fun to make fun of your own. My pedestal is completely knocked out from under my ass. I was caught on the ugly, but luckily it’s morning so I don’t have to spend the whole day looking that bad. I’ve been reminded: Let People (And Their God) Be.

Although I still stand by my opinion that someone’s fashion choices are a ridiculous thing to harp on.

Rhiannon: Goddess of Horses by Julietee Frette

]]> http://www.makefacebeauty.com/getting-gorgeous-let-people-and-their-god-be/feed/ 0 http://www.makefacebeauty.com/getting-gorgeous-pretty-making-music/ http://www.makefacebeauty.com/getting-gorgeous-pretty-making-music/#comments Fri, 04 Jun 2010 13:30:58 +0000 Sally http://www.makefacebeauty.com/?p=558 Music makes life better. Music is momentum for every action and peace for every thought.  But, most importantly, music makes you prettier!

Something about certain tunes cause the lips to pucker, the shoulders to square into place, and the hair to fall poetically about the face. These tunes are different for everyone, and new ones are constantly popping up out of nowhere when you least expect them.

My current list of pretty-making music includes (but is not limited to!):

-She and Him

-Modest Mouse (Evidenced by the fact that I just pulled the album off the shelf to find a row of false eyelashes stuck to it.)

-Flaming Lips (Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots)

-Citizen Cope

-New Order + The Cure + Radiohead (I put these all together because for me the combo is a pretty-making musical eight ball, while each one on it’s own might cause me to journal about long-lost opportunities and a possibly salty future)

-Piano solos of every kind- Jazz, Classical, Pop, Rock, and all shades of pink

-Bat For Lashes

What gets your lashes batting?

But, while scientist speculate we may one day lose the pinky toe, nothing is said about dropping the fat storage. I suppose we’ll have to give up that hope and continue to ‘work’ on the fatty fatness.

You know how a lot of people can work from home now? Or how you can be both a mom and a career girl if you want? Or sext a guy for kicks but not actually hook up? Well, working on fat is like all of these concepts in that it’s not all or nothing. Dieting is dumb. Forget dieting because it is always always always temporary.

Think of it like booze. You may keep a bag of chips at your desk or a jar of candy, but you wouldn’t (although it would be fun) keep Southern Comfort and lime wedges laid out for passer-by. You may, however, hit up the Happy Hour on Friday and not consider yourself an alcoholic, right?

Same goes for exercise. Just move that ass throughout the day; it doesn’t have to be two hours with a personal trainer followed by a boiled chicken breast. The closest parking space, for example, is such a ridiculous concept when you think about it. Walk 40 feet more for crimmony’s sake and leave the close spots for the elderly/disabled. Stuff like that.

Healthy weight is a state of being, not a number, size, or diet plan. Eat shitty food* in moderation and move a little every day. Be confident that you can eat a slice of cake once a week and not be ‘off the wagon’, but know that if you eat one every day you’re not treating yourself well.

If you’re unable to eat/move in moderation, that will mean more fat. So it goes-totally not the end of success, sex or happiness. Just remember it isn’t the fault of the society, the fashion industry, or the opposite sex. Own it-don’t be a hater. Although, like everything else, you can probably pin it on your parents if you’re in desperate need of a fall guy.

*Shitty food products are high in calories, salt, and sugar while offering little nutritional content. Here’s a more in depth description.

Someone recently told me about having been called out on breaking a friend’s pal policies. She basically said she didn’t sign on the dotted line for said policies and the person sighting the grievances would have to deal. I’m biased because I haven’t been a big player in the BFF game since the teen days, but I think having ‘rules’ your friends must abide by in order to qualify as top-tier individuals totally makes you uglier.

I could see those kinds of conditions flying in the age of Anne of Green Gables or Little House on the Prairie, but not today. Tight-knit friend communities are…. Well kind of don’t exist anymore. Friend networks are much larger, spanning worldwide geographic locations, relating to particular situations like work or church and all stay connected through technology.

Peoples got stuff to do. That doesn’t mean anyone likes you any less. So chill out, and think about what you want to do instead of wasting your life feeling negative about someone else. You and your pal will catch up in a few, whether that’s days or months, and it’ll be a blast.

Necklace by In God We Trust

One time during the college years my roommate and friend told me, “You’re really harsh sometimes. But it’s cool, I know it’s just you and you don’t mean it like that.” I honestly kind of took it as a compliment that we were so tight like that. But, in retrospect it should have been a solid heads-up.

I pretty much figure people don’t like me until they give me some indication that they do. Part of being oddly shy I guess. Anyway, I don’t think that helps with being perceived as a bitch either.

After almost loosing a very old friend last year I really got to thinking about learning to be nice. We were in a cycle of feeling insecure and defensive about our differences. At some point along the line we kind-of forgot how to be nice.

The learning process is not always easy, but the lightness it offers is seriously beautifying. A few key steps:

-Apologies! You’ll have more pride after for having done the harder thing.

-The little things. The ‘can’t wait to see you’ and ‘you’re awesome’ type comments are super duper. Throw it out there, most people like it.

-Smile. I worked this at dinner with new people the other night and I’m pretty sure they thought I was nice.

You’re probably like…. Sally, you are the last to know. This is like normal. But I feel like while I may be an exaggerated case, most people could stand to be a little nicer. And being nicer will make the burden lighter, the spirit higher, and the glow more gorgeous.

Not only are the recipes complex, the Neanderthals were also apparently smart enough for this kind of symbolic thinking. The professor who led the study, Joao Zilhao, seems very excited that this finding is the ‘smoking gun’ that will finally ‘bury this view of Neanderthals as half-wits.’

So dames and wrenches, if you’re ever feeling your winged eyeliner or pink frost gloss is too vain or dumb, think again. It’s actually brilliant.

So Complex, A Caveman Can Do It

]]> http://www.makefacebeauty.com/getting-gorgeous-using-makeup-makes-you-smart/feed/ 0 http://www.makefacebeauty.com/getting-gorgeous-a-loving-heart/ http://www.makefacebeauty.com/getting-gorgeous-a-loving-heart/#comments Thu, 17 Dec 2009 03:28:43 +0000 Sally http://www.makefacebeauty.com/?p=325 I know, the title made me throw up a little in my mouth too. But, I swallowed it back down and managed to write this.

A few years ago I visited family in rural Oklahoma. I mean like for real rural. My grandmother once had chickens in a cage and potatoes in the ground. That was before KFC and Walmart came to town though. As a child I ran feverishly from my grandparent’s 1930’s prefab home to my Uncle’s trailer, plotted on their land, for fear of wild Coyotes you could hear howling all around. As a preteen I made the drastic mistake of seeing Pet Sematary there with my cousins and haven’t been the same since. I’m still convinced the house rests on Indian burial ground.

On this occasion my Aunt, who had been ill throughout my life but always seemed o.k. to me, handed me a plaster square adorned with vines and a heart inside which read ‘A loving heart is the truest wisdom- Charles Dickens’. Not exactly my decorator taste, but it was sweet. What I didn’t know was what she meant was ‘I’m dying and I want you to have this’.

She’s gone now, and I have the plaque leaning against the wall by my bathtub, along with with a few of my toy friends. It’s where I go to chill. So far I have not had an altercation, confusion, sadness, joy, or hope that the quote does not, in it’s simplicity, apply.

For this Hanukkah week and upcoming Christmas, I wish everyone the very beautifying truth that…….

Daul worked for major fashion houses including Chanel, Dries Van Noten and Alexander McQueen. She makes the second model suicide in Paris this year, the first being Lucy Gordon in May.

Models, those lucky bitches, must surely have eating disorders, treat others like shit, make loads of money, and love to snort blow off each other’s asses when not on set…. Right? Which is well enough since they’re sluts without enough brains to get a ‘real’ job anyway.

Poor girls. It’s a sad situation to feel your value and identity is in your appearance and to be constantly prayed upon as an object of desire. To work so hard while having so much judged constantly is not all fabulous parties and shopping sprees. Disposable within the industry, perhaps they are a bit like ghosts behind their trusty portfolio books. And yet there is no pity for someone who chooses to enter into a material line of work.

We eat it up, watching all the fashion and modeling reality shows and buying the magazines and products.  I think it would be kind of nice if we didn’t always consider the material so separate from the substantive. Wait, isn’t that what art is? Maybe it’s ok to buy the magazine and accept that you’re attracted to the pretty pictures and that maybe they’re trying to be a little bit of art and not reality. You’re still great, they’re still great, everyone is still great. A consumer’s attitude adjustment certainly isn’t going to help an individual’s battle with depression, but I’d like to think that the sentiment of greater compassion for others even when you’re tempted to be a hater is a good one.

This is me in Paris 2001 with my stuffed B.F.F. Chubbs. He was a popular friend to the lonely. My beautiful Israeli roommate once offered, “Sallyyy, if I make you dinner, maybe I sleep with Chubbs tonight?”

Here is a list of films that I feel provoke that feeling, maybe in a vessel of melancholy or humor, but after some thought with the end result that of purity. You know I love to get philosophical, so I’ll define that kind of purity as beauty. Each interpretation is my own and without consulting anyone else’s, so let me know if you think something different.

In no particular order, here are the relatively recent films I believe inspire individual beauty. I also find the colors and presentation in all these movies to be arrestingly pretty.

There are so many from past to present so I’m just sticking to the last few years and indies so there’s more likelihood of them not having been seen.

-Lars and the Real Girl: What is more beautiful than a community collectively appreciating what it is to be a flawed human? The comical relief is essential to the digestible nature of a film otherwise very easily seen as weird ….. And yet to feel for Lars is so natural. His plight become’s everyone’s plight and weird becomes normal, acceptable and even endearing.

-Little Miss Sunshine: This movie already got a ton of press, awards, etc but I wanted to include it because I really love it. This movie is about dreams. It’s about those dreams meeting reality and in that intersection there is family. There are those who have your back and are the makers or supporters of those dreams, wherever they may go and whether they want to or not.

-Amelie: This film changed my life. I thought it to be filled with such beauty, that I could hardly believe it. Must be my favorite of all time. I feel it’s about finding your passion, or enjoying your passions, whether it be coin collecting, polka dancing or cat petting. It’s about finding that unique passion in others and maybe contributing a little where you can to help bring happiness. It’s about the little things that conspire to beauty.

-Stranger Than Fiction: This movie is about goodness. That’s it. That’s what it’s about. I keep writing more, and then deleting it, so I’m just going to leave it at that.

-Juno: I got to see this with my nieces, which I value to be a special theater-going experience. It’s so amusingly poignant on the issues of love, life, and sacrifice. And how all are the same thing really. And how to embrace that. I cried. My nieces cried. But we laughed too ….. we laughed and cried together and even my husband and brother thought it was pretty good.

-The Station Agent: I’d like to say this is about tolerance, but not in the racial, religious etc. way. More in the learning to be patient way, with ourselves and with other each other, and being open to what we might find, for better or worse.

-Buffalo 66: Sometimes all you need it someone who believes in you. I have a John Lennon song ringing in my head ….. like an Old Navy ad at Christmas time which is very aggravating. Anyway,  the characters in this film are very quirky and flawed. But I love the message, it’s pretty powerful in it’s simplicity. This is the ‘darkest’ of the choices so if you’re sensitive to that it may not be the best. 

I think all these movies make you feel better about the possibilities in yourself and others, and generally make for a pretty good-looking life.  Take yourself home for a date on the couch and see what results you get; it is cheaper than a facial.