Meet Gina Scheiber, makeup artist extraordinaire! Gina studied makeup and special FX at Make-Up Designory, and you’ve seen her amazing work on music videos, commercials, TV (like a little show called American Idol) and has collab’d on major motion pictures (like Pirates of the Caribbean!)!

She can do everything from monsters to movie stars!

I am honored to have her on P&P today and excited that she is letting us take a peek in her makeup bag! Here are the things she cannot live without…

 

 

 

 

Gina’s advice? “Know your tools. The better they are, the better your application will be. You’re only as good as the tools you use, so spend a little extra on durable high quality products!”

 

Cheers to Makeup, Movies, and Monsters,

 

 

Today I want you to hear from Jess…no I’m not speaking in the third person…my friend Jess Burden is an amazing makeup artist with over 10 years of experience under her belt! She is a member of Laura Mercier’s Northern California Artistry Team, with additional experience in film, theater, and commercial work.

I think a peek into her makeup bag and her beauty routine might do us some good…

You can only pick one beauty product to use for the rest of your life…what is it?: “One beauty product for the rest of my life? I think I’m cheating with this answer…but…bath products. My current obsessions are:
Lush Bath Bombs, fizzy and delicious. For Strange Women Bath Salts, in Lichen. They smell amazing, and are great for soothing sensitive skin. And Laura Mercier Honey Bath, in a Almond Coconut. Very hydrating, and smells like a beach vacation!” (This is one my [Polish and Pout’s] FAVORITE scents of all time! It really is like vacation!)

Jess says, “It takes me 30 minutes to get ready, but I prefer to take at least an hour. Making time, to take time for yourself, is essential to feeling beautiful.“

Her beauty mantra: ” Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it” ~Confucius~

Five Things in her makeup bag:

• Laura Mercier’s Tinted Moisturizer “I love the light weight feel, and the finish is beautiful.”
• Laura Mercier’s Primer “I wear this even when I don’t wear makeup.”
  
• Wet ‘n’ Wild lipliner in Chestnut “It’s only .99 cents….best contouring pencil ever for nude/ peach/ or deep red lips!”
• For Strange Women Lip embellishments “100% natural, from the ingredients, to the packaging. Great texture, with unique flavors, and completely biodegradable packaging!”
• Shiseido Eyelash Curler “Perfect for all eye shapes, and they sell replacement pads.”

Jess’ thoughts on makeup routines and how to get your best look possible: “Having a beauty routine, is the quickest way to end up bored, and in a rut. Beauty habits, typically end up bad ones. If you are going to do any kind of grooming, makeup application, or just generally put your best face forward, consider calling it a beauty ritual. A ceremonious occasion, that you perform for yourself, to honor your beauty. Look at it as time you take for yourself. Spend time on your skin, and treat it gently. Get up a little earlier. sit down, somewhere with good lighting, to do your makeup. In the bathroom,rushed, standing under florescent lighting, does not feel pretty.“

Final thoughts from Jess, “ A woman’s confidence in her natural beauty, and how she relates that to her makeup application, will ultimately help, or hinder her. As women, we can become so caught up, in what we see, as flawed aspects of ourselves, physically. Unfortunately, this cause us to use cosmetics as a “mask”, which we hide ourselves behind. Looking into a mirror, and seeing what is truly beautiful about one’s self, is key to utilizing cosmetics to flawlessly enhance, not hide, ourselves. “

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Cheers to Confidence, Confucius, and Cosmetics,

Another common bad beauty habit: Not washing your face nightly. Oh my…I don’t even know what to say, not washing your face at the end of the day is pretty much a sin! And I shouldn’t even have to explain why you need to do it…but just in case, here’s a reminder why…
Regularly cleansing your skin is necessary to remove makeup and other things that clog your pores, help facilitate cellular turnover (i.e. wash off your dead skin cells), and to remove just the regular dirt and germs etc. that your face naturally comes in contact with during the day (even if you don’t wear makeup!).

Perhaps you’ve heard people refer to it as washing the day away (Clinique even has a remover called Take The Day Off!)…this can be taken quite literally. Think of all of the pollution our skin encounters during the day, bacteria from our hands or people around us, and the natural oils and sweat we produce too…Are you convinced yet??? This is just waaaaay too important to not be religious about!  

This isn’t the exact product I mentioned above…but I did recently get this travel size bad boy in Clinique’s GWP this Fall at Nordy’s! Right now I am typing this from a lovely beach house in Santa Cruz…this cleanser is my offical travel cleanser now! Really loving it!

Lazy about your skincare? Make it easier on yourself…keep cotton pads and a cleanser that is not water activated, or even better yet, face cleansing wipes! The ones above I purchased at the Dollar Tree…yup, only $1 and great ingredients.  So you cant even use the reason of it not being affordable!  Something is better than nothing…and if you keep your evening routine in your nightstand you’ll have no excuse!

So Cheers once again to Breaking Bad Habits, to Small Changes with Big Results, and to Better Skin,