Essential holiday make-up

As the holiday season approaches, so too comes the ‘holiday shopping’ and all too often unnecessary purchases, excess baggage allowance and frustration of ‘no liquids over 100ml’ through security for your hand luggage.

All is not lost!

Firstly, your make-up bag doesn’t have to be as large as you might think.  Unless you particularly think you need to carry your full selection to the other side of the world, a minimal kit will suffice and still have you enhancing every outfit you take with you, or indeed purchase while you’re away.

The 5 essentials:

1. Foundation -  on holiday, I find it helps me look more awake than I might feel after a night out, always a good step towards feeling better!  A heavily tanned person may require a stronger shade than normal, although in my experience, this is rare.  Finding the right colour foundation to match your skin tone is better when done in natural light.  The colour needs to sit on your face (not your neck) and the colour needs to blend naturally with your neck colour, if you see a line and feel the need to blend it, your foundation is probably not the right colour.   Foundatoin provides an element of protection to your skin and there are different types to suit all lifestyles:  

Liquid foundation – provides a full and professional looking finish, a great look when you are going out for an evening. 

Dual-Foundation – wet and dry mineral foundation also comes in a handy compact; easily applied with a Kabuki brush it can be used to touch up after a long day (on holiday, at a wedding, on business) and used in combination with a liquid foundation or BB cream depending on your requirement.

BB-creams – a versatile product combining serum, moisturiser, primer and foundation in one.  Perfect for a natural look, providing skin protection and can be combined with translucent powder or dual-foundation for additional coverage.  Take advantage of our special offer on BB creams (June 2014) and get yourself set up for the summer.

 

2. Blusher – pick up and enhance the natural pink tones in your skin draws the attention out to your cheek bones and makes your face appear more defined and less pinched.  You’ll probably find you only need one colour to take you through the whole year because it’s your underlying natural pinks which are enhanced.

3. Lipstick – THE handbag essential!  Lipstick provides definition to the mouth and face and works it’s magic by making your eyes shine when you're wearing the right colour.  At HOC, we recommend 3 as a minimum, enabling you to have something to suit every possible outfit from your colour spectrum.  Of course, you are not limited to only three, but choosing 1 red, 1 pink, 1 plum, rust or coral, depending on your season, will provide maximum flexibility.

4. Eyeliner – using eyeliner (liquid or pencil) on the outside edge of your eyes makes them appear more defined and larger.  For holiday, you may choose a neutral eyeliner (black, grey, navy) or you may wish to include a bit more choice (green, plum, blue) – after all, eyeliners aren’t bulky!

5. Mascara – Mascara appears to lengthen the eyelashes, providing further definition for the eyes, a girl’s best friend!   While I have two colours (navy and brown) in my make-up kit, I find that most days I migrate to one colour – navy, as a summer, for my travel kit! 

And one for luck:

6. Eye-shadow - while not essential, limiting yourself to 1 or 2 highlighting shades for the eyelid and 2-3 accent colours (navy/grey/purple for cool or olive/brown for warm) can provide more elegance to your look when you go out to dinner in the evening and for the space of about 5 small eye shadows, you may prefer to invest in an eye shadow palette to provide everything you need for an easy time away.



For the activity holidaymakers, or the really light traveller, where there is less time or space for make-up, these 5(6) things can be limited to 3; Foundation, Blusher and Lipstick.  

....after all, you may well be wearing sunglasses most of the time!

Cool

Warm



Death and Public Speaking

 

 

It is often acknowledged that the two things people are most afraid of are death and public speaking. 

Most people can acknowledge that these are variations on Fear – of the unknown and being vulnerable.  Preston Ni has an interesting perspective, suggesting that these two fears are related by the fact that the fear of public speaking is the fear of emotional death!

 

 

Although it might not be so extreme, at House of Colour we’ve experienced people feeling intimidated by the thought of meeting an Image Consultant; they suddenly become self-conscious about their appearance, invest additional energy (compared to their normal levels) in thinking about what they’re wearing and apologise for various elements of their attire which they don’t have complete confidence in.  Otherwise confident people are reduced to varying degrees of nervousness. 

At the very least, this is something that needs to be acknowledged at the meeting introductions, and then put to one side, so that we can get on with the business of the meeting.  But what would it be like if you could remove most of the fear, releasing the energy for more productive use?

At our annual conference last year, we heard Mo Harford speaking about how our brains and thinking get in the way of our performance and producing great results.  In effect it is often only our beliefs which support (positive) or hinder (negative) us in our performance.

 

 

By focusing on getting your look ‘right’, i.e. one that you are comfortable in, comfortable with and that makes you look your best, you’re able to confidently step out and take care of the primary business at hand.  In the case of a ‘business’ person, this is getting on with their ‘business’!  

 

Special events can typically take a lot of our energy and attention when looking for the right outfit - often costing a lot of money - but it doesn’t have to.  For women, the problem often stems from a lack of confidence in coordinating items, so the safe option is to invest in a complete outfit which is clearly designed to coordinate and look good.  The problem with this approach is that you may have invested over £500 (clothing, accessories, shoes and in some cases underwear) and ended up with 1 outfit, rather than spending £500 on several items that can be used and adapted to create many more outfits in combination with clothing in your existing wardrobe.   Return on investment is about your cost-per-wear, shifting the focus to cost-per-outfit, an item of clothing or an accessory reveals itself as a good investment or not.

We need to know we look right, we have phrases such as ‘I need to put my face on’, ‘I’m having a bad hair day’, ‘I can’t go out without my lipstick/perfume/necklace (delete as appropriate)’.  All these statements point towards our need to ensure we ‘look the part’.  I particularly enjoyed reading this article on clothing related expressions!

 

Why are they fears? Because we all have a fundamental concern about what people think of us. This blog by Michael Hyatt gets succinctly to the point – take the focus off yourself!  Ironically, by focusing on yourself and your image, this is exactly what we are aiming for - get your physical presentation to such a level that you are able to take the attention off yourself and focus on the job in hand.

Maybe a business friend of mine who is considering a career transition from Business Consultant and Professional Speaker to Undertaker has the ideal solution to help you through your fears!

Beautiful Colouring!

It was almost sad to read that a Yorkshire village used for filming recently could only employ a handful of locals as extras because the tattoos and body piercings weren’t appropriate to the era of the film. 

Last week, while I was in another room, my children were both enjoying a bit of colouring time.  Things apparently aren’t always what they appear; my 4 year old came and stood proudly in front of me with what can only be described as fantasy stage make-up, comprising  polka dots on his eyelids and around his brows, through the centre of his face and covering his tummy, ‘Look Mummy’ it’s beautiful!’  I had to agree - a truly magical moment!  

 

The potential significance of his internal conversation didn’t hit me until a few days later however, when he started colouring his legs in the car on the way home from school.   When we arrived home, he had to stop.  He was so upset because he had only completed one leg, it took a little bit of persuading to find out why, then I heard the words I shall always remember, ‘but Mummy I’m not beautiful if it’s not finished’. 

I gently explained to him that he was gorgeous and a beautiful person, the colouring was pretty but it didn’t make him beautiful – he already was. 

 

I often wonder at the proliferation of tattoos in our society – is it because our self esteem has become so low that we think we need to ‘make ourselves beautiful’ I wonder?

‘Mummy, I don’t want your skin to go wrinkly – I like it the way it is!’  Oh boy, now that did test my response!   ‘They’re smile lines’ I replied and proceeded to show him how, when smiling, they show up more! Like most people in their 40s I’m seeing the early effects of ageing  and while I’m not at the point of surgery or Botox myself, I have an understanding of why some people choose that route -  but it doesn’t solve the problem. 

 

Dismantling these disempowering conversations is akin to dismantling what it is to be human, however they don’t need to be as loud as they are.  When the reflections looking back at us from the mirror or photos of ourselves reflect and honour us as accurately as possible we are able to hear the more empowering conversations about ourselves that have previously been pushed to the background.   This article recently shared on our Face book page highlights a perfect example. 

It is however, all in the perspective and it reminded me of a friend commenting on my ‘crow’s feet’ – up until that point I’d only known them as ‘laughter lines’! 

‘Good is the enemy of Great’…

 'Good is the enemy of Great'.......

…is a well known Jim Collins quote From Good to Great - he states that:

 

‘Get rid of the good to make room for the great in your life’. 

I’ve noticed an ongoing theme this week:

Holidays are useful changes in energy which either cause a spate of activity before the deadline of leaving, or an injection of inspiration and enthusiasm after which a spot of spring cleaning is often initiated.

• My trusty swimming costume got left on holiday - it saved me finding a plastic bag to carry it in after using it during the day and flying home in the evening!  But this wasn’t the real reason, the Lycra was starting to go (Chlorine is the enemy of Lycra!) and I realised that I bought it when I was about ½ stone heavier, maybe not a lot, but on a 9½ stone frame, that’s 5%.  It didn’t make me feel great.
• As I started to unpack and return everything to their rightful homes, I recognised that at least 8 of my tops, trusty stalwarts, were no longer in regular use - past their best.  They didn’t make me feel great.
• I moved along to my dresses and realised a couple, while fine, never really worked. Each time I would overlook them in favour of another.  While I thought I liked them, they didn’t make me feel great.
• I’ve never quite bought into the handbag graveyard, preferring to have 5-6 covering the main colour/purpose points in my spectrum rather than one in every style or colour possible.  One, well loved and used, was past its best, another too floppy, unstructured, I could never find anything because it either fell to the bottom of the ‘bucket’ style, or the bag flopped over when I put it down and everything fell out.    They didn’t make me feel great.
• And so to shoes.  There comes a time in every shoe’s life when it has earned its retirement but at what point? Sometimes they’re looking past their best before date, other times, past the fashion trend, even though I like the colour or style and they still fit - 2 pairs gone.  They don’t make me feel great.

Are you noticing a theme here?

Working through accessories and jewellery, I removed 20+ items, resulting in a gentle feeling of relief at  the extra ‘breathing space’ in my wardrobe. 

 

By removing a small percentage of energy drainers I’ve freed up myself and the space in my wardrobe.  Even without any more clothes I immediately feel better because the ones left are the ones which make me feel great!

The mantra I’ve passed on to many friends and clients over the years is ‘if you don’t use it or love it, pass it on’.  Regardless of your feelings for 'it', if ‘it’ doesn’t love you, it won’t make you feel great and you deserve more than that! 

Why settle for ‘good’ when ‘great’ is available?

Personal Branding in a domestic world

‘Brand’, a term used to distinguish a product, service or concept in terms of a ‘personality’, is assumed to refer to business, so what place does this have for me if I’m a homemaker? I can hear it now….

 

‘I clean the house, manage schedules, play ‘taxi’ driver, make sure the ‘machine’ of ‘home’ works to support everyone’  but too often people lose their sense of self in serving others in this way. 
 

Enter stage left the ‘young person’ who honestly believes and declares that 'it doesn’t matter what you wear these days, people don’t judge you on  appearance.  It begs the question, do you dress for yourself or dress for others?  Maybe in the past we dressed more for others but the younger people of today dress more for themselves. 

 

 

The heightened focus on the Duchess of Cambridge’s attire, in her many roles, tells us that it’s still important to dress for your audience but more leeway’s given to dressing for comfort and style.  Ultimately, when you dress to flatter yourself, people notice YOU, the person. 

 

 

We need labels and categories to help us make sense of the world but, as individuals, we frequently resist labels (boxes, categories, structure) in favour of the ‘freedom of self expression’ -  it’s the conflict between belonging and needing to express our uniqueness.

  

Early in my career, I distinguished 2 main motivators for people searching out my services:

- Emotional: recognising the connection between how we look and how we feel enables us to take control of the ‘looking’ element to empower and strengthen the ‘feeling’ element, thereby enabling us to improve and enhance our feelings, increasing inner confidence  and self-belief, leading to a sense of inner peace and frequently, greater success in work, social and business life.

 

- Practical/Financial: the dawn of realisation in this group of clients was making the connection between how they look and money.  Whether it was sales attracted through being self-employed or in a sales role, promotions, pay rises or additional sales and, in the case of the self-employed or management, an increase in confidence.  As a result of ‘looking the part’, business increases.

 

Often client gender could predict the motivator but not always.  As a graduate, it was important to make the most of my limited budget so that clothes I bought for work were going to work hard and earn their keep in my wardrobe.   A very practical reason which led to me experiencing an increase in confidence and self-belief.  Within a year I’d experienced a pay rise, new job role, improved training opportunities - one thing led to another in a positive way.

 

 

 

A trigger at the ‘emotional’ stage, caused by a life change, relationship, job, status, moving from full- time employee to full-time mother is a culture shock for many and with plenty to keep yourself occupied, appearance is often the last thing on people’s minds!  Reverse that shift, as the children grow older, and try to return to the workplace with a different figure, body shape, lifestyle, budget and time constraints plus a need to reclaim your sense of identity, the offer of a consultation with House of Colour appears at the right time.

Personal Brand may not appear to sit in this ‘domestic’ world in the same way, but our need to have a clear sense of identity, who we are, our values, strengths and weaknesses, balanced against the need to be unique and that of fitting in, enables us to confidently negotiate the path between dressing how we are ‘supposed’ to look and dressing for ‘ourselves’. 

There’s no ‘best before’ date on style

The lady wore black……. almost unrelieved black.

An electric blue fairy danced gaily on her hat and a scatter of white polka dots, like a starling’s wing, graced the gauzy silk of her scarf. But, apart from that, she was in black; black hat, wide black belt nipping in a slender waist in a black winter coat, black gloves, black riding boots.

And she looked great!

We bonded over a stray shopping trolley which required escorting ‘home’, when she expressed admiration for my sartorial style (I, needless to say as a Spring, was not in black).

Well, right back atcha, sister!

The curls escaping from her hat may have been silver, the mischievous eyes set in a sea of fine wrinkles but this lady clearly showed that you don’t have to give up on looking spectacular just because a certain birthday has passed.

When I told her how fantastic she looked she giggled unashamedly and told me it was all done on a shoestring. The belt had come from Primark, the scarf from a charity shop, the hat from Claire’s Accessories. The dancing fairy had been made for her by her great grand-daughter. The coat and boots she laughed, well they had been in her wardrobe for ever!

Despite obviously being in her eighties, this lovely lady was subtly but exquisitely made up, with a vibrant raspberry coloured lipstick enhancing her bright blue eyes. Black was so obviously right for her, the neat but slightly dramatic style complementing her naughty personality.

I didn’t get her name but she was an inspiration. I think I want to be just like her when I grow up - only not in black - Chocolate or Geranium Red, maybe……..?

The Business of Life!

The business of life is a fascinating subject.  Whether we’re educators, homemakers, charity workers, carers, entrepreneurs, business owners, creative, service or armed forces personnel; employed or self-employed, it’s all business!

 

Leadership and personal development courses, coaches and training resources are plentiful; I’ve attended and benefited from many, without even touching on and enjoying the literary resource from books and audio books.
As a child, it never crossed my mind that ‘normal people’ won Olympic medals, never mind knew that they wanted to.  When my local Rotary Club sponsored me to attend their Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) programme in my 20s, rather than following and trying to make the best of the journey I thought I was on, I realised it was MY journey to plan, direct and steer.

In the early days books like Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, The E-Myth Revisited  and Rich Dad Poor Dad illustrated entrepreneurship and new ways of looking at the business of life.  Audio/visual learners can now also enjoy the experience of watching TED talks. For anyone interested in education of any kind, making time to watch Sir Ken Robinson will be time well spent.  This animated one on changing education paradigms was my introduction to his work and I still love it. 

Recently I had the privilege of meeting Lis Protherough who is passionate about ‘…students everywhere to aim high, be all that they can be and keep on climbing.’  She has established her business around this, writing The Book on Successful Teens and is leading by example with her own sons. 

So, with everything pointing me towards entrepreneurship, it was interesting to come across this article  highlighting some of the pitfalls. 

Robert Kiyosaki laid out a strategic plan for developing his key business skills, leadership, sales, marketing and finance.  Ken Robinson talks about why education is changing and needs to change and Lis talks about the 3 pillars of success in her YSC Training Programme:

1. Personal effectiveness,
2. Practical finance and 
3. Modern entrepreneurship. 

I’m an advocate of collaboration and sharing.  Learning from others to further my goals, sharing my knowledge to support others in achieving theirs and working together to achieve a greater result than would be possible by working alone as well as creating opportunities for young people to start fulfilling their dreams.  I believe this is consistent with seeing the return of apprenticeships in the UK as an alternative segue from education to work.  

Recently I heard a teenager quoted as saying 'but it really doesn't matter how you look Mum, people really don't care anymore!'  While it may not be AS important as it might have been in the past, being empowered, authentic and visible (as your true self) is key to supporting you in achieving your goals.  If you don’t look the part, it will take you a lot longer and you’ll have to work harder to convince people that you know what you’re talking about.  Nothing works alone in this life and while your own expertise is paramount, communication is becoming increasingly more visual (YouTube) and all communication needs to support who you are, whether it’s a still photo, a filmed presentation/conversation or a face to face meeting, the messages need to converge not diverge or worse, conflict. 

As a young graduate, investing in myself with a Colour and Style consultation was one of the best things I did, further developing this to gain clarity on my personal brand has been a key enabler for me in focusing on pursuing what’s important to me while progressing my career.  While it's never one thing alone, I'm clear this is one of my investments that has delivered the greatest ROI (return on Investment).

What were some of your best investments or resources that empowered you to move forward in your life?