Cute Boy babies have a special place in my heart.  It is great to see an innocent, beautiful face before it has been marred by skepticism and machinations.    No, I don’t hate men, but I’m sure you all know what I mean.  As a mother, I know that my son is beautiful.  I am convinced that he is beautiful to everyone else and others have confirmed it.  However, let’s be real.  Some babies are only cute to their parents.  How do you know then, that your child is really cute?  There are 5 ways you can tell that you do indeed have a cute boy baby.

People seem genuinely delighted to see your pictures.

When you walk around the office showing off your pictures, people eyes don’t glaze over.  You don’t see any hastily-covered frowns.  What you do want to see are genuine smiles, followed by envious looks.  We all know that envious look. It is an exclamation of delight followed by a frozen smile.   We have all done it. 

Your Cute Boy Baby Draws Sighs of awe as you take a stroll

If someone asks to take a picture of your smile, then that’s good.  You may decide to decline because we all know the world is full of stalkers and other unsavory folk.  However, that is a good sign that your child has a pleasing appearance.

Your toddler is cute even when he throws a tantrum

Of course kids are cute when they smile and giggle.  They are not so cute when they are throwing themselves on the ground, mimicking hitting you or saying that dreaded word “no.”  If your boy causes you to mask a laugh by covering your mouth, your child is absolutely adorable.

When you take your child to the park, you get envious glares

People are not very good at faking emotions are they? When you take your cute baby boy to the park mothers are not that friendly.  They watch their children play with your children and can barely keep the frown off their faces.  Is your child doing something wrong? No.   Your child is just too precious. 

Other children are dying to be friends with your child

It may not be fair but people gravitate towards the beautiful people.  Even though you will find jealous children here and there, for the most part, kids will be fighting to be friends with your cute baby boy.  The little girls will give him candy and ask him to play. 

If you can empathize with at least three of the items above, then you probably have a very cute baby boy.  Your job is to raise him to not be narcissistic and to help him recognize that beauty is only skin deep and should come from within.  You have a beautiful child and a lot of responsibility in the years to come.

Think your baby’s beauty is worthy of notice? Why not enter his photo into a contest like the Cute Kid Photo Contest.

Maybelline introduces its new Define a Lash Mascara and Maybelline wants you to try it for free.

So how is this mascara different from its predecesors? Maybelline markets this mascara as

“zero clump volumizing mascara creates voluptuous volume with clean definition.”

I’m not sure how this is different from any of its other mascaras, but I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

If they are offering it for free, I am buying it for free.

You do need to look at some free offers from magazines and such, but at the end, you end up to a trial magazine or other goody and of course, the free mascara.

Get Your Free Mascara

Now why would I be giving tips on making the lips thinner? You mean not all of us want Angelina Jolie lips? Apparently not. Some of us see our lips as nothing else but bulbous protrusions extending from our otherwise normal faces. Some of us don’t like the fact that our lips are our one outstanding feature. We want to look more normal, less like sirens.

It’s a good thing that women throughout the millennia have faced the same seemingly superficial issue. The wisdom I am about to impart has been passed down from generation to generation and you will be able to pass it on too. Through the illusion of makeup, we can exaggerate or de-emphasize our features. In this case, we can make our lips look thinner.

Tip 1:

Don’t use lip liner on the outside of the lips. If the lines are drawn on the lower and bottom parts of the lips, it actually increases the length, thereby making your lips look bigger.

Tip 2

Do not use lip gloss. You don’t want to draw attention to your lips, silly!

Tip 3

Use Matte lipstick. Matte may be boring, depending on whether it is trendy or not, but you don’t care about trend, do you? You just want to make your lips look thinner than they are.

Apply foundation or a light concealer to the lip and then apply a liner inside the lips lines. Cover with a somewhat darker lipstick. By applying the liner inside the natural lips line, you decrease the lip canvas, so to speak and your lips appear smaller.

By using these tips, your lips will have a smaller appearance. Only you and the universe will know that you used makeup to make your lips look thinner.

Have any more tips? Please share.

Walk in Beauty.

We, in the sophisticated US have other options right? We have those easy and sterile home based whitening systems that we can use at night to naturally whiten teeth. Hold on. Before running to the nearest drug store to buy these whitening trays, have we given any thought to teeth-whitening safety?

Tray Based Teeth Whitening Systems

Tray-based whitening systems usually use a 10% carbamide peroxide solution. Carbamide peroxide solution is similar to the hydrogen peroxide solutions we have sitting in the bathroom. (In fact, hydrogen peroxide is rumored to whiten teeth too.). So then why don’t we just use hydrogen peroxide in those whitening trays? Well, we can. However, hydrogen peroxide is less stable than Carbamide peroxide, Carbamide peroxide is made of hydrogen peroxide and urea. In the presence of water, it becomes hydrogen peroxide.

What are some of the side effects of teeth whitening?

Gum irritation- level of peroxide use, bleaching tray
Tooth sensitivity- may be due to the tooth nerve tissue becoming inflamed. It is usually transitory and occurs during the teeth whitening process. Bleaching trays can put pressure on teeth and gums.

Is teeth whitening worth the side effects? What say you?

Eyelashes were not created to make us beautiful. They actually have a function. That function is to blink away the debris that assault the delicate area around out eyes. The hairs trap dust and other objects and actually let us know that there is something near the eye.

As we age, our hair thins. Although the loss of eyelash hair is not something that is at the forefront of most people’s minds, maybe it should be. If you find that your eyelashes are thinning, never fear, there are some things you can do to make them thicker.

- Castor oil: Castor oil is said to grow eyelashes and eyebrows. I haven’t been able to find any studies that boost that claim, but then again, there are a lot of natural remedies that scientists don’t have conclusive evidence for, but some swear by them. Simply apply them over your eyelashes at night. If you wear mascara, make sure you use a suitable oil-free eye make-up remover.

– Avoid Mascara or at least a conditioning mascara: If you are trying to grow your eyelashes, avoid mascara for a while or use mascara that does not clump or make the eyelashes really stiff, like waterproof mascara does. Waterproof mascara tends to make the hair follicles dry out.

– Put Vaseline on your eyelashes at night, of course after removing makeup. Try putting vaseline on your eyelashes, using a clean mascara brush. You might be surprised at the results. For some people, the results is not that far from using mascara. At the same time, your eyelashes stay lubricated.

Have any of you tried any of the above methods to grow your eyelashes? Let me know.

Helen of troy had the face that “launched a thousand ships.” Who knows if the most prominent feature of her face was not her eyes?

We are not all born with big, gorgeous eyes, but with a little bit of embellishment, big, beautiful eyes are but 5 minutes away.

Eye Popping Tips
• – Your three best friends are eyeshadow, mascara and eyeliner.
• Eye Shadow
• – You want to apply a neutral color — not too dark and not too light to the upper lid.
• – Apply a lighter color just beneath the brow bone. Beige-white tones work well on lighter skin while gold tones enhance darker skin.
• – For a more dramatic look, apply a brighter color to the lower eyelid. This is your time to experiment with bold colors like olive green, purple, navy blue etc. Start in the middle of the lower lid and apply towards the corners of the eyes. To use the wedge technique, after applying the bold color on the lower lid, apply the eyeshadow in the wedge where the upper and lower eyes meet. Keep applying towards the midpoint of the eyelid. Blend well so there is no obvious line where the shades meet. On to eyeliner!
• Eyeliner

– Start with the upper lash area. For a more natural look suitable for work, start applying the eyeliner at the outer corners of the lid towards the inner corners of the eye. If you have fair skin, use a natural brown or gray shade. Darker skins can use dark browns or blacks. To set the eyebrow pencil so that it doesn’t smear, you can also apply a comparable eyeshadow right on the eyelash.

• – Lower lash area. One technique that goes in and out of style but remains effective is to line the lower lash area with white pencil. The light color opens up the yes. You should apply the eyeliner as close to the lash as possible. Darker skin tones can use gold or other metallic color.
• Mascara
• – Apply the mascara to the upper lash. Start more towards the middle and apply towards the outer lashes. Concentrate on the outer lashes as longer outer lashes open up the eye.

These simple tips can go a long way in making your eyes pop.

Check out Mary Kay’s New Selection of Eye Colors

Happy Popping!

In fact, she had been having quite a bit of bad luck. The first bit of bad luck occured when she scratched her nose while sleeping on Thursday night. It left a scar. Fortunately, for her, the scar peeled and lifted and by Sunday, it was gone.

But the cold sore. Oh the cold sore.

We tried everything from garlic, to toothpaste and the cold sore was still there. Did I mention that she gets the ugliest of cold sores?

In some brilliant moment of clarity, I remembered that I had tea tree oil in the bathroom cabinet. Tea tree oil is one of those panaceas that seem to work for just about everything.

Sunday afternoon I poured some tea tree oil on her scary cold sore. By Sunday evening, it actually looked as it if had deflated somewhat. We were encouraged and continued to drench the cold sore with tea tree oil periodically.

By this afternoon, she went to her graduation with a cold sore that was only slightly unattractive, as opposed to scary.

So what makes tea tree oil so wonderful for cold sores?

Tea tree oil rocks. The reason it is a panacea is because it is an antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal. It is also a natural analgesic (pain killer). What else can you ask for?

A couple of drops of tea tree oil on the herpes simplex 1 virus which causes the cold sore soothes and heals the sore in half the time it would take otherwise.

So now my daughter will go to her prom with an almost-healed cold sore.

I’m having problems uploading pictures from my camera right now (Thanks Vista Home!), but as soon as I upload them, I will add some before and after pictures. If you are the least bit squeamish, be forewarned!

Walk in Beauty.

She looks young not only because of genetics but because she truly takes care of her face.

That means washing her face before she goes to sleep and nourishing it even while she sleeps.

Is anyone guilty of going to bed without washing your face? I know I am. Especially when I’m tired.

Normally, I love the ritual of preparing my face for bed.

What’s my regimen?

–I use Mary Kay’s Timewise cleasing bar
–I then put on Mary Kay’s Timewise Night Solution
–Then I put on Mary Kay’s Timewise moisturizer and I’m all set for bed.

In the morning, I go through the same process except I put on Mary Kay’s Timewise Day Solution and mineral powder.

The cleansing bar, night solution, day solution and moisturizer come in a set called the “Miracle Set”.

Since I’ve started using this set, my skin feels great!

Buy the Mary Kay Miracle Set.

Buy a Miracle Set or anything on my website and get 10% off. Offer ends June 30, 2008.

Need a little miracle in your life?

Walk in Beauty……

“a multiplier of the length of time you can spend in the sun without burning.” Therefore, if you could be out for ten minutes at noon in August before you start to turn pink, then putting on SPF4 would allow you to stay out for 40 minutes.”

Hmm. Let’s chew on that for a minute.

Apparently, we not only have one type of ultraviolet ray to be wary of, but two: UVA rays and UVB rays. UVB rays are more intense, but both can cause cell damage. It’s important to choose a sunscreen like Mary Kay’s SPF 30 sunscreen which has both UVB and UVA protection.

There are to ways to block these Uutraviolet rays. There are chemical sunscreens which actually penetrate the skin and absorb some of the rays. There are also physical sunscreens like zinc oxide and titanium dioxide which create a barrier by sitting and blocking the rays.

More on SPF to come!

I love browsing forums and blogs and I love teaching myself computer code and markup.

All those hours spent in front of my laptop can only have one result: Dark circles under the eyes.

In fact, I am convinced that the reason that I have dark circles is because of about 10 years spent on the internet, four of them spent in AOL chatrooms. Yes, yes, I do have skeletons in my closet.

Anyway, I’ve found a solution that really works and that’s the Mary Kay Timewise Targeted Action Eye Revitalizer. You’d better believe if I’m going to sell Mary Kay products, I’m going to try all of them.

I love this product! I’ve been using it for about 3 weeks and I see a lightening of the area under my eyes. I use it in conjunction with the Firming Eye Cream.

I know that soon — very soon– those dark circles will be gone!