Glam Girl's Open Salon Blog

Being Beautiful, It Isn't Cheap

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 18:08:44 -0400

Recently in the news, supermodel Linda Evangelista asked for $46, 000 A MONTH in child support payments from her ex-husband, Francois Henri-Pinault. Most of the money is being spent on their 4-year old son but some of it is, apparently, going to spent on Evangelista herself. After the money spent on the round-the-clock nanny, two armed bodyguards, extracurricular activities, and schooling for the boy it's been reported that Evangelista will also spend the money to maintain herself. Granted, she needs to do alot more upkeep than we "normal" people do, but she certainly has enough money herself without having to spend any of her ex-husband's. After all, this is one of the supermodels who wouldn't get out of bed if she was making less than $10, 000 that day.

When one thinks about all the different beauty treatments out there, as well as their price tag, it makes sense, actually. Think about it, a supermodel has a trainer, get her hair, nails, and feet done. She also has facials and uses luxurious skin products on a day-to-day basis. One bottle of moisturizer can cost over $100. That may be nothing to someone like, say Jennifer Aniston who reputedly spends over $10, 000 a month on beauty treatments, but the rest of us mere mortals can't spend nearly that amount. Even rich people are having to cut back. I remember a trip to California one year where I was sitting in a restaurant and overhearing a woman talking about how she could no longer afford her weekly beauty appointments, and she looked as rich as rich can be.

It is true that some of the more effective beauty treatments, like microdermabrasion and glycolic acid peels, do cost more than an at-home mud mask, but they are supposedly very effective. That being said, there are some truly outrageous beauty treatments out there. One can now have a facial that includes a mask of 24-karat gold, get a massage using real diamonds, and even have one's hair washed using a truffle based shampoo followed by a caviar hair treatment.

You have to wonder where it will all end. While it's great that Evangelista, Aniston and others who make the kind of money they do can now afford these treatments (after all, they probably started using drugstore or department store products like most of us do) it certainly isn't necessary. I doubt very much that Evangelista could always afford all the beauty treatments she now uses and yet she was still discovered and went on to become one of the biggest models ever. As for Aniston, we all know that when she was discovered her nose does not look as it does now, not to mention all the other actresses, models, and musicians who have gone under the knife once they made it big. If any of you recall the original Beverly Hills, 90210 or Melrose Place, you probably noticed at one point that most of the actresses got breast augmentation at one point. Lets not forget about face lifts and wrinkle fillers. Wrinkle fillers, particularly, are so common among Hollywood actresses that they can no longer display emotion on their face like their counterparts from the pre-Botox era.

Such practices set a standard that most women will never be able to achieve unless they have that kind of cash. But do we want to? If I decided to get Angelina Jolie's lips, Jennifer Lopez's butt, Scarlett Johansson's breasts, and Natalie Portman's cheekbones on I would no longer look like myself (and I wouldn't be able to stand up straight anymore). As for beauty treatments, you wouldn't believe how much money you can save by doing your own facial, manicure, and pedicure using products bought at drugstores and department stores. Beauty supply stores are great too as they often carry high priced brands at a fraction of the cost.

In closing, I leave you with this thought for the week: Women are encouraged to grow old gracefully. Okay, then why is it that even by evolutionary standards younger women are considered more desirable? We cover those first greys and fret over those first lines and wrinkles in order to appear more youthful because society seems to favour younger women. Of course once we hit a certain age trying to appear younger than we are makes us appear older, and makes us look ridiculous. I have seen 50-year old women with blonde extensions, talons so long and fake they could double as weapons, dressed as teenagers, all botoxed, with big fake boobs and lips,. It's not a pretty sight, and for all I know they were in their 40s but looked so bad it made them look older than they were. Perhaps what we women should do is try to maintain our looks using proper nutrition, getting exercise, and taking care of ourselves without going to extremes. Helen Mirren is a perfect example of someone who is growing old gracefully and was even voted recently as having the best celebrity body. Of course, I don't know if she's had any work done either....

In Praise Of Real Women

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 17:08:04 -0400

After reading about the controversy over the L'Oréal ads featuring Julia Roberts and Christy Turlington it would be difficult for me not to mention it here. To sum up, the ads featuring these two celebrities were banned because they were so airbrushed and digitally retouched. Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson has been raging a long-running campaign against overly perfected ads, such as these. The ads feature products that could not realistically be achieved by women. Swinson lodged a complaint against these ads with the Advertising Standards Authority who then ruled that the ads breached the advertising standards code for being misleading and exaggerated. The ads were then banned from future publication.

On the flipside, Jacob, who has hired Canadian model Coco Rocha, doesn't airbrush their ads at all. Any blemishes on the model can only be covered by make-up. And while make-up, particularly when applied by a professional, can cover alot, it can't take away wrinkles or lines entirely. If only more ads were like this instead going to extremes to make the people in their ads look like something the rest of us cannot achieve.

While beauty products can do much for us, they can't do everything. We can do things to improve the way we look but only to a certain degree. Eating well can also improve our skin dramatically, but not change it entirely. So many things can be done to change how a person looks in a picture it is unbelievable. Even taping a model's hair back at the hairline to pull her skin and eyes back. Wrinkles, scars, blemishes can all be erased. They can also be made to look thinner through the use of computers. And of course, no one has cellulite, especially people promoting cellulite cream...

While all these practices have been put in place for decades now, maybe we should ask ourselves who we are trying to change ourselves for. Are we women trying to look more desirable for men? Are we trying to look better for ourselves? Are these ads telling us we don't look good enough, and each and everyone of them picking away at our self-esteem day by day? Why do we believe these ads when we are smart enough to realize they don't deliver on their promises? Sure, they might say the product takes x amount of time for us to see results but do we ever end up seeing them? I think we should try to be the best possible version of ourselves and not to believe the hype from all the ads that give us false hope. So lets change what we can and not stress about what we can't and in the meantime tell ourselves, and each other, that we look great.

What Is Beauty?

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 16:08:24 -0400

How do you define beauty? Some define beauty by the perfect placement of features, by their symmetry. In fact, there is something called the Fibonacci Sequence that says just this. If you've heard of the Fibonacci Sequence you are probably either a) very interested in numbers and most likely a mathematician or b) you've (like me) read or watched The Davinci Code. I don't want to talk about it too much but it has been used throughout history in such works as the David and the Mona Lisa. Essentially, people prefer symmetrical faces, even babies do. This is subconscious and there isn't anything that can be done about that.

To some people, beauty is defined by by perfect looking features. Typically on a woman's face, these so-called perfect features are high cheekbones, full lips, big, wide set eyes, clear skin, long eyelashes, and shiny hair. Some of these things we can more or less achieve naturally with proper nutrition, proper treatment of our skin, getting enough sleep, and exercise. The rest of these things we either got or we didn't and the only one to achieve them (or look like it) is by using make-up or getting plastic surgery.

Other people will decide some people are beautiful while other people might say those same people aren't beautiful. I remember listening to a radio program on the CBC and after talking about a perfect scientific example of a man who is beautiful I had to laugh. Why? Because the example this person gave was Will Smith. Now some of you reading this might argue that he is very attractive but when I think of him I think of that skinny guy from when I used to watch The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Any one agree with me there?

There is a point to all of this. I personally believe that everyone has at least one beautiful feature that they can play up to their full advantage. You might have one of those lovely features I mentioned earlier. You might even be a certain type such as exotic (Sophia Loren), gamine (Audrey Hepburn), bombshell (Marilyn Monroe). The list goes on and on. The important thing is to find out what makes you unique and play it up. Have fun. Be creative. Don't be content to just blend in and be "okay". Try to find something, anything about the way you look that you love and show it off.

How to Have Young Looking Skin

Tue, 9 Aug 2011 16:08:50 -0400

So many women are concerned with having young looking skin. Of course that is completely understandable. Who wants to look older (except for teenagers looking to get into bars) than their chronological age? The unfortunate thing though is most women start to worry about it once it's too late. That's not to say there isn't anything you can't do to help your skin once those lines and wrinkles have appeared. However, it is better, and easier, to prevent the damage from occurring than dealing with it once it's happened.

The two things that age our skin the most is smoking and the sun. I'm going to repeat that one more time so that it sinks in. The two things that age our skin the most is smoking and the sun. These two factors are relatively easy to deal with too. Lets look at these facts individually.

I'm no medical doctor so I won't go into the medical consequences of smoking or the vicious cycle of people trying to quit and getting stressed out. What I will say is that the constant pursing of the lips causes permanent lines on and around the lips and gives the skin a nasty yellowish cast and makes dark circles quite noticeable. These are all these that makes one look much older than they are.

Here's a confession: I used to LOVE going outside and getting a tan. Usually, I would have a friend over and we would lie outside in our bathing suits in my backyard. We would normally lie on our backs and then roll over and lie on our stomachs. I would be so proud of my deep, dark tan. Well no more. See, different rays damage the skin in different ways. The long UVA rays destroy the skin's collagen and elastin, while the short UVB rays are the ones that cause cancer.

Naturally, the easiest ways to protect yourself from these two factors are to not start or quit smoking and to always wear sunscreen that protects yourself from all types of rays, even if your outside for a short amount of time. I personally like moisturizers that have SPF in them for day and a different one at night. Make sure you always use one that's right for your skin type. I have oily skin so if I were to use one that wasn't oil free my skin would be quite greasy and I might break out. Conversely, if you're drier, an oil-free moisturizer won't be rich enough for your skin.

Other things that you can do also help your overall health. This would be getting a diet with plenty of vitamins and minerals, drinking enough water, exercising, dealing with the stress that comes your way, and getting enough sleep. Certain foods have actually been proven to help with wrinkles, including salmon, green tea, pomegranates, tomatoes, and other foods rich in colour. (In case you're wondering, too much sugar can cause your skin to sag so it's best not to have too much.) Drinking water helps by flushing out toxins, moisturizing your skin, and keeping it plump. Foods with a high water content, such as cucumbers, are good too. Watch out that you don't have too much water though. 7 to 8 glasses of water a day is generally recommended. Exercise is great because it helps deal with stress, helps us sleep better at night, and improves our bodies. Face it, when you're stressed out you look older. You probably have dark circles and/or bags under your eyes, aren't eating properly, and don't have the energy to exercise. All this makes you not only look older, but seem older.

So there you have it - lay off the ciggies, slather on the sunscreen, drink enough water, eat the right foods, avoid the wrong foods, exercise, and get enough sleep.