Na­dine John­son

In gen­er­al, the New Year is al­ways a time of re­flec­tion and a time to take a look at the year gone by and make plans for the com­ing year. It may be the one time of year that we al­so tend to dig deep with­in our­selves to pon­der the things that we would have learnt and the ways we would have grown but yet be hon­est enough with our­selves to see the gaps and ac­tu­al­ly make res­o­lu­tions. But last­ing change goes be­yond mak­ing mere res­o­lu­tions. A res­o­lu­tion is a de­ci­sion but the on­ly way you will change is by ac­tu­al­ly be­ing re­solved, i.e., do­ing the work to change. As for me, I am re­solved to make changes and I am putting things in place to see that these changes take ef­fect. Change is not easy but it usu­al­ly is for the good. So for 2012 I hope my words will echo in your head when it comes to beau­ty and your­self. As with any­thing, I hope your changes are from with­in and not just cos­met­ic (no pun in­tend­ed). And so, I would love to help you with your beau­ty and make­up res­o­lu­tions for 2012.

• Be re­solved to take time for your­self when it comes to beau­ty and mak­ing your­self feel good. But it will take a lit­tle time and ef­fort on your part. But you have to think that you are worth it. It's a nat­ur­al pro­gres­sion. When you feel beau­ti­ful, you ac­tu­al­ly feel more con­fi­dent and when you feel con­fi­dent you act con­fi­dent­ly. So this year, take time for your­self in the beau­ty de­part­ment. No ex­cus­es. Make time. You are im­por­tant. I es­pe­cial­ly would like to en­cour­age the moth­ers. Re­mem­ber you are the beau­ty role mod­els for your chil­dren, es­pe­cial­ly your girls. So con­sid­er what ex­am­ple you are set­ting for them. You have to teach them self- worth from young.

• Be re­solved to get a beau­ty and make­up rou­tine. Pay at­ten­tion to your skin. Pam­per it and treat it well when you are young so that it will not back­fire on you when you are old­er. When it comes to your make­up reg­i­men – take it up a notch. If you do noth­ing at all, then start do­ing some­thing like putting on pow­der, wear­ing a gloss or a lip­stick. A lit­tle will go a long way. If you are al­ready do­ing some­thing, keep it up. Just ex­per­i­ment a lit­tle and change your col­ors, etc. Every year I pick a col­or palette and I work it for a year, for ex­am­ple, 2011 was my pur­ple year, 2010 was my light pink year, etc. Have fun with your make­up and your looks! It ac­tu­al­ly is a lot of fun when you get in­to it.

• Be re­solved to go out­side your beau­ty com­fort zone. Again, ex­per­i­ment with new col­ors, new prod­ucts, and new for­mu­la­tions. Make­up tech­nol­o­gy is like any oth­er tech­nol­o­gy and the cos­met­ic com­pa­nies ac­tu­al­ly do come out with prod­ucts that are bet­ter, stronger and faster than the last ones they had be­fore. So it is good for you to try new prod­ucts and col­ors (as your bud­get per­mits). If your bud­get is low, the eas­i­est way to ex­per­i­ment is by try­ing new lip col­ors, eye col­ors and mas­caras. If you are a lit­tle bet­ter off, try new foun­da­tion for­mu­las and pow­ders.

• Be re­solved to clean out your make­up bag fre­quent­ly in 2012. This will en­sure that the prod­ucts you keep and use are as fresh as pos­si­ble and that you get the best pos­si­ble re­sults. Clean and wash your brush­es and re­place sponges and puffs of­ten as well. So here's to be­ing re­solved to mak­ing beau­ty changes and here's to a bright and pros­per­ous New Year filled with the most beau­ti­ful you, in­side and out!