Classic Archives - The Beauty Gypsy

Garlic for Nails: The Dominican Beauty Secret

May 17, 2013 By anubha 7 Comments

Of all the worries that one can have in this crazy world, I now have to stress about my nails – which my manicurist says are very weak and fragile. So, my nails now need some serious attention. My nails! Seriously!

Anyway, what needs to be done, has to be done! I was telling my dilemma to a friend from the Dominican Republic and she spilt the beans about this traditional beauty treatment that all her countrywomen swear by to make nails stronger: Add a little bit of fresh, chopped garlic to a bottle of clear nail polish and let sit for a week; then polish your nails with this concoction.

She actually had a bottle on hand and insisted on applying it for me, despite my phobia of chasing people away with the garlicky smell. Know what? The smell actually disappeared in just 10 minutes. And my nails haven’t chipped once since I applied this “polish” 5 days ago – which is truly a rarity! I now have a pod of garlic marinating in OPI’s Natural Nail Base Coat. Will report back on the long term results soon.

In the meantime, tell me what’s your go-to nail remedy? And how often do you actually give your nails some serious love and care?

Filed Under: Beauty, Classic, Nails Tagged With: Beauty, beauty secrets, benefits of garlic, Dominican Republic, Garlic, garlic beauty recipe, garlic for nails, garlic nail recipe, garlic recipe, Hands, how to make nails stronger, Manicure, Nail Care, Nail Polish, Nails, repair nail, uses of garlic

Is Your Makeup Ageing You?

May 8, 2013 By anubha 5 Comments

If there is one thing I have learnt during my days in beauty, it’s to re-evaluate makeup with every birthday. And no! I am not talking about dumb rules such as that women should not wear bright colors after a certain age. It’s more to do with the way our skin and facial structure changes with passing years. Here is a cheat sheet to keep you looking your best, forever.

Don’t stop wearing bright colors – just adjust the texture

In our mid-20s, skin is blessed with optimal water, fat and oil to keep us looking youthfully radiant. However, by the late 20s, all these start declining and the complexion gets drier. This makes lines, wrinkles and other imperfections more prominent. So, start by keeping your skin well hydrated and choose moisturising foundation and lipsticks over matte ones to create a glow-y effect.

You need foundation to tackle the redness, brown spots and uneven skin tone that are all part of growing older. However, opt for a dewy formulation and use a light hand: when makeup artists have to age stars for the screen, they literally spackle on ultra-heavy foundation! And skimp on powder – it settles into fine lines and can make the complexion appear dry and pasty.

With time, our faces get longer and more sallow, so apply blush onto the apples of the cheeks, rather than underneath the cheek bone. Choose a healthy looking, natural shade – a blush that’s too dark or too bright will wash you out.

Approach shimmer with caution. Formulas with shiny particles act like mammoth spotlights, throwing into focus every line, wrinkle and wayward pore.

As we age, our lips get drier and thinner. Keep them moist with creamy lipsticks and plumping glosses. Topping lipstick with gloss will also make your lips appear fuller because of the latter’s light reflecting properties.

As we age, our lashes get thinner. To counter, befriend the eyelash curler and mascara. Curling your lashes raises them up and away from the eyelids, making eyes look bigger and more lifted.

Filed Under: Beauty, Blush, Classic, Eyes, Foundation, Lips, Makeup, Mascara, Powder Tagged With: age, ageing, aging, Beauty, curl lashes, how to look younger, look younger, Make-up, Makeup, makeup according to age, makeup and age, where to apply blush

Pretty Prints: Chanel No. 5 (All Under $50!)

May 6, 2013 By anubha Leave a Comment

Chanel No. 5 is not just the most iconic perfume in the world, it’s also the one that has been most sketched, inked or painted in the history of fragrances. So, what better way to celebrate the cult classic’s 92nd birthday (it was first introduced to select clientele in Chanel’s Rue Cambon boutique on May 5, 1921) than with a selection of the most gorgeous Chanel No. 5 illustrations? And they are all priced at under US$50, which means they are affordable for us mere mortals. Will you be dressing your walls with one of these pretty prints?

http://www.etsy.com/shop/sookimstudio

http://www.meganhess.com

From Nina Garcia’s The One Hundred – illustration by Ruben Toledo – www.amazon.com

http://www.etsy.com/people/emmakisstina

http://www.etsy.com/shop/ParisDarling

http://www.designsponge.com/author/max

http://www.etsy.com/people/SubjectArt

http://www.etsy.com/people/cecelybloom

1921 illustration by Georges Goursat Sem – www.amazon.com

Painting by Andy Warhol – www.amazon.com

Filed Under: Beauty, Brand Icon, Brands, Classic, Perfumes Tagged With: chanel 5, chanel no 5 art, chanel no 5 drawing, chanel no 5 illustration, chanel no 5 launch, chanel no 5 painting, Chanel No. 5, chanel perfume, chanel perfume 5, chanel perfumes, channel no. 5, channel perfume, coco chanel perfume, drawing, illustration, launch, painting, perfume

Muguets for May Day… Courtesy Guerlain

April 29, 2013 By anubha 1 Comment

Amongst the many, many enchanting things about France (anyone who knows me, knows that I am an obsessive Francophile!) is the tradition of giving beautiful muguet (lily of the valley) bouquets to loved ones on the first day of May. The tradition began on May 1st, 1561, when King Charles IX of France was presented with muguet flowers as a good luck charm. History does not remember who gave this perfumed gift but the king loved the idea so much that he started presenting muguet bouquets to the ladies of his court on May 1st every year.

And that’s not all: another ancient European tradition of ”bals de muguet” dances allowed a rare chance for young boys and girls to mingle without having to get parents’ permission (which could be an arduous task in those days). At these dances, the girls would dress in pure virginal white, while the boys would wear a sprig of muguet in their buttonhole.

By the 1900s, it became traditional for French men to present muguet flowers to their sweethearts. Hence, the day came to be affectionately nicknamed La Fête du Muguet (Lily of the Valley Day) even though the official moniker is La Fête du Travail (Labor Day).

Nowadays muguet flowers are not just about romance – they are also given as good luck charms or tokens of appreciation between close friends and family members. And if you want to make this day truly special for someone, Guerlain has the perfect answer: a very limited Muguet 2013 perfume, bottled in a quadrilobé bottle whose design dates from 1908.

The gorgeous flacon is embellished with a delicately embossed paper image created by Créanog, a creative studio specialising in paper sculptures. A spring green thread encircles the bottle, which is further embellished with a golden Guerlain seal. The fragrance itself contains the ‘bright green notes’ of lily of the valley, with added heart notes of rose, jasmine and lilac.

The cost? $575 / £355 for 60ml.

The exclusivity factor? Guerlain Muguet 2013 is a limited edition of only 1,349 numbered pieces worldwide.

Now, I might not actually be French but my birthday falls just two days after May Day. So, just in case anyone is wondering what to get me for a gift…

Filed Under: Beauty, Classic, Flowers, Perfumes, Trivia Tagged With: bals de muguet, Beauty, Flower, fragrance, France, Gift, Guerlain, guerlain muguet, guerlain muguet 2013 edition perfume, La Fête du Muguet, La Fête du Travail, Labor Day, le muguet, Lily of the Valley, Lily of the Valley Day, May 1st, May Day, Muguet, news, perfume, thierry washer, upcoming releases

On a Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn

April 21, 2013 By anubha Leave a Comment

By now you know that I have a fairly obsessive crush on Audrey Hepburn. And that I borrow (or at least try to borrow) all my style cues from her. If possible, I would like nothing better than to float around the cobblestoned streets of Rome and the glittering aisles of Tiffany’s, wearing pretty Givenchy dresses and ballerina flats, carrying a straw basket, kerchief tied under my chin, with the most gamine cat’s eye, winged brows and forehead-skimming bangs. So, you can imaging my delight at the release of Luca Dotti’s brand new coffee table book called Audrey in Rome, which contains more than 200 rare and unseen photographs of the legendary actress, fashion icon and humanitarian. After all, who better than Luca – Audrey’s own son – to document this behind-the-scenes love affair of ‘Ann’ with Rome, her adopted city?

Rome, after all, was not just the place that gave Audrey her first big hit. And her second husband, the psychiatrist Andrea Dotti. It was also the city that embraced her and held her in its protective cocoon. It was the place where she walked her children to school and strolled for miles with her dogs, without the accompanying cacophony of press photographers and gawking fans. In Rome, the girl who once wanted to become a ballerina and who, at 16, survived by eating turnips and boiled tulip bulbs in Nazi-occupied Holland, could finally come out to play.

And in return, Audrey became Rome. In Luca’s own words, “… an icon of the city, an icon of a different, free-and-easy Roman spirit that was symbolized by a girl who traveled the world on a Vespa.” Audrey was Rome. And Rome was Audrey. And here are a few rare vignettes from that charmed life – all courtesy Luca Dotti. Which one is your favorite?

Audrey Hepburn and Mr. Famous leave the Hotel Hassler, on the Piazza Trinità dei Monti, 1960

Playing cards with Gregory Peck in a scene from Roman Holiday, 1953

Hepburn takes a break on the set of War and Peace with Swedish actress Anita Ekberg and producer Dino De Laurentiis (far left), 1955

At a café in the Piazza Navona with her signature basket purse, 1955

In Roman Holiday, 1953

Audrey Hepburn on the terrace of the Hotel Hassler, in Rome, with the telegram announcing her best-actress award, for The Nun’s Story, from the New York Film Critics Circle, 1960