My Eye-Opening Beauty Secrets...

I am lucky to have been blessed with an abundance of thick hairs growing from my head but my eyelashes have never been anything to write home about. They are short, straight, and very light. The fact that I have very hooded eyes that are just average in size, doesn't do my eyelashes any favors either. I used to hate my hooded eyes but as I grew older, I realized they made my face look different from everybody else's and I grew to like them. But I've also learned a few tricks and tools to define them and enhance what is good about them.




In my late teens, I found what I thought was the best mascara for my eyelash dilemma, in the blackest of black, which added fullness and volume to my lashes, and used it for years. It was in my early days of blogging in one such post where I was positively complaining about my eyelashes that someone recommended a new and improved volumizing mascara, which of course I tried, loved, and have been using it ever since. {I'm not a fan of waterproof options but in some cases it adds even more fullness.}

However, mascara alone cannot awake my sleepy bedroom eyes, so I must use a variety of eyelash curlers prior to mascara application to open them up, fan them out, and help them stand UP rather than STRAIGHT. I first use a standard rounded curler, but it doesn't do much {I have heated it up with my hair dryer, let it cool, then used it and it worked a bit better} but what I absolutely cannot live without is my precision eyelash curler. It's short {only about a half inch} and flat and it allows me to curl my eyelashes in 3 sections, assuring their upright stature.

In addition to mascara and eyelash curlers, I use layered eyeshadows in neutral shades like browns, coppers, and grays, in the crease of my lids and upwards to create the illusion of depth. This along with a great black eyeliner, smudged to smokey-eye perfection, all make my eyes stand out as much as they possibly can and become the focal point of my face. I usually keep my lips light and glossed so as not to compete with my eyes as well as to draw all the attention upwards. Because really, where else do I want anyone looking when I'm speaking to them?



YES, beauty is found within and YES I think that a great big smile is the best beauty secret to live by, but any extra little step that helps enhance its beauty and transform our own opinions of ourselves, is a positive in my book ;)

This post is part of BlogHer's Transformative Beauty editorial series, made possible by Sonia Kashuk at Target.

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