How To Smell Good And Have Nice Skin

It's been a while since I talked about cosmetics and face stuff, so let's talk about cosmetics and face stuff, shall we? First item on the docket is some fantastic eyeliner that does this to my eyes:
Sorry about the mediocre picture quality, I only had my cell phone available. Anyway, when I was 16 I went to Egypt with my Dad and Aunt and we kept seeing women in full burqas where only their eyes were visible. These visible eyes were always stunningly made up and it was a struggle to keep from walking my Western self over to their tables and up to them in markets and asking them to take me away with them for makeup training. I should note that this was a time in my life when I still felt it was acceptable to wear pastel blue eyeshadow more or less up to my eyebrows and body glitter all over creation - sometimes both at once - so I was actually in fairly dire need of said training, but luckily I was able to maintain a certain amount of decorum and relinquish my dream of having fabulous beautiful Egyptian lady eyes. Luckily, a mere 10 years later, I started reading a blog called Apocalypstick Now, which mentioned that Guerlain had started producing old school traditional kohl eyeliner. This is the secret of the Beautiful Egyptian Ladies. Perhaps not the Guerlain product specifically, but kohl liner is it. You put it on with the little plastic stick, right along your waterline, which allows you to get closer to your lash line than I have ever been able to accomplish with pencil. The closest I've gotten is with a small brush and some intensive mirror time and powder shadow.

Guerlain Terracotta Loose Powder Kohl Eyeliner, $34 at Sephora

It's a little pricey but well worth it. I got the "brun" color, which is cosmetic person language (and I believe German person language) for brown. I think it's just enough for everyday wear; the black might be more than I can pull off successfully.

Other things that I like include a variety of products from the Lush. If you have a Lush store near you, I highly recommend that you check it out, since it basically looks and smells like (as Cindy described it) "a bakery for soaps." Lush's products are all natural and made out of the yummiest smelling and feeling ingredients you could possibly want. Celia is way better at the green and organic living than I am (read: I count working at an energy conservation company as reducing my carbon footprint) and makes a real effort at using makeup and other body stuff that's free of chemicals and preservatives. Normally, I take the Bad Person Approach which is to say "the hell with the chemicals, I want my freckles covered up and my lips glossed with lacquer, stat," but Lush makes it so easy, at least in regard to the cleansing part of the endeavor.
The top left item is a soap called Demon in the Dark, which is a mint, clove and apple scented soap. This one doesn't do anything besides smell good and make my skin nice - it is soap, and soap is simple. Moving clockwise, we have the Ocean Salt face scrub, which is an every-couple-of-days scrub that smells like some kind of vodka grapefruit concoction...at the risk of sounding like I have some kind of alcohol problem, I absolutely love the smell, much like the Gin & Tonic perfume from Demeter I used to wear. Ahem. Moving on, we have the Angels on Bare Skin everyday facial scrub, which is lovely and lavendery and makes your skin all smooth and soft and radiant. It's a little bit like magic. Finally, there's the Porridge soap, which is full of oats and mapley goodness and is just the right amount of exfoliation for keeping your skin fresh and even. The other good stuff in the bar moisturizes really well and deals with winter skin efficiently. Check it out, thank me later.