
Shortcuts To Your Look
By June Kasumi
Some of TGF's prettiest readers have agreed to share with us their favorite style, beauty and "how-to" tips. This week features ideas from June Kasumi, a lovely gal from Hawaii who will be appearing in her own Pictorial here in Spring 1999. You can email her at june_kasumi@hotmail.com
Hi Everyone, my name is June Kasumi and I've been asked to share some beauty tips with the rest of the community. This assignment was actually more difficult than I expected because I don't actually know very much on this topic.
For those of you who know me, you know that I love to cut corners. In beauty as in most other things, "I cheat." : ) I've been on HRT (hormone replacement therapy) since January of this year and the results have been outstanding.
However, HRT is not an option for many of my sisters out there so here are some of my suggestions.
Foundation:
The most frustrating memories I have of my early experiments with makeup come from spending hours of time on my face and having it end up looking "fake".
The problem: Being oriental, I have been cursed with really thick and dark facial hair and it's a "pain in the ass" to conceal. My foundation was either too light (beard still visible), or too thick (Tammy Fay Baker time).
The solution: To address this problem, I've resorted to using 3 different foundations for the different areas of my face and blending them together.
Foundation 1 (the heavy hitter): For my beard area, (chin, under nose, lower cheeks, upper neck) I use Derma blend. Derma blend is a special name brand foundation that is very opaque so it conceals well. Unfortunately when I use it over my whole face I end up looking like a lifeless ghost.
Foundation 2 (the "normal" one): For the rest of my face, (nose, upper cheeks, forehead), I use Covergirl all in one foundation. This is a nice mix of powder and foundation and it gives a more natural look for the rest of my face. When blending, I use the sponge to apply Foundation 2 to the line where I stopped with foundation 1. "there should be a distinct line between F1 and F2". Now I use my finger to blend downward so I'm mixing the more natural looking foundation with the pasty one. I keep blending till I can't tell where one stops and the other starts.
Foundation 3 (the "I need a tan badly" one): (smile) since my body is desperately in need of a tan I need another foundation to cover the distance between "healthy looking" face and "pale" body. For the mid to lower neck area I use an Este Lauder foundation stick. I use the stick to make one thick line at the edge of F1 and use my finger to blend up and down till there is a smooth transition with the rest of my body.
Shaving:
Here are some miscellaneous tips for shaving those areas that most of us don't have much experience with.
Body: When I shave any area on my body I use shaving cream. I have two reasons. 1) It decreases razor burn. 2) It helps me to see where I've already been.
Under arms: When shaving under arms, extreme care must be taken because it's really easy to cut yourself. I'll always shave downward (arm to body) and as lightly as I possibly can. I find that when I put any kind of pressure on the blade I get bad ingrown hair problems.
Legs: When shaving legs, I always shave upwards (from foot to body). I've found that it's easier to shave the knee's when they are extended. Having the knee's bent means there's nothing but skin and bone in that area and I'd get nicks all the time.
Crotch: When shaving the crotch area I always go inwards (from leg to… "well… that thing that shouldn't be there."). If you venture into this area, be prepared for ingrown hair problems. "Even GG's have problems with ingrown hair in this area so it's not just us." BTW (by the way) In case you are interested. This problem has been reduced a lot after being on hormones for a few months. "I guess it's because the hair is thinner."
Well, I guess this wasn't so hard for me after all. I went ahead and used up the length limit. ; )
Till next time,
~ June Kasumi
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