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Skin care for dads, stylish baby bags, and a fix for stained nails.
By Kelly Reising |
March 14, 2007
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Read more: mother magnetism, beauty advice, beauty tips, makeup, cosmetics, baby bags, stained nails
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My husband’s skin is a mess; dry and dull, but he won’t use any fancy, girly skincare products. Are there any good “manly man” skincare lines that won’t make him feel too metrosexual?
 Major skin care brands are starting to notice that they are missing out on half of the population, so there are some great lines out there that specifically target men. Plus, men don’t really need much. I know most men will wash their face with a bar of Dial soap that’s lying around the shower. You want to start him off easy with just two products- a facial wash (especially one that comes with a pump because it’s easy to use), and a daytime moisturizer with an SPF of at least 15. Men get wrinkles from sun damage, too. It’s just that their wrinkles look distinguished and sexy as they age. Lucky them. But melanoma is not sexy, so you do want to protect his skin as well.
One of my favorite skincare lines, Kiehl’s, makes a men’s line called “Facial Fuel”. That’s manly sounding, right? Fuel should remind him a car and men love cars right? My husband does anyway, and I just don’t get it. But have him try the Facial Fuel Energizing Face Wash ($17.50). It’s for all skin types and it will remove all the dirt, surface oil, and impurities that are dulling his complexion. As a bonus, it also helps to prepare the skin for a closer shave. Then, have him slather on the Facial Fuel SPF 15 moisturizer ($24.50). It’s non-oily and will absorb quickly but will help improve the feel of his skin, so that it doesn’t feel like dried out leather. Both of the packages for these products are navy and definitely not girly. Have him start out with these two and he will get hooked! Then you can introduce him to some other skincare products like eye cream and a scrub. You better watch out though, his skin is going to feel so much better that before you know it, he might be more inclined to swipe your skincare products. You can find Kiehl’s Men’s products at Kiehls.com or Nordstrom.com under the Men’s Grooming Guide Section.
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I received a cute baby bag at my baby shower, but it’s not really my style. Do I have to carry a pink bag with baby pandas on it just because I’m now a mom?
When you become a mother, you slowly, if not immediately, kick your style to the curb as you walk out of the hospital with your Similac formula freebie diaper bag. You know, the one that you proceed to carry around for the next six months as your diaper/handbag simply because you’re too busy caring for a newborn to go out and buy anything else more stylish or fashionable? If you’re lucky, someone at your baby shower bought you a cute diaper bag at Babies “R” Us that didn’t have a giraffe motif on it. In your case though, no such luck I guess! Pandas? Yuck!
By the time I had my second child, I decided that I had enough. I needed a better and more chic diaper bag. One that didn’t have animals or the alphabet embroidered on it. No, this bag needed to be hip, cool and definitely not look like your traditional diaper bag. And not just any bag would do. Not even one of those Kate Spade baby bags. Too boring. I needed something that would hide the fact that I was a mom. Maybe even fool people into thinking that I was, quite possibly, just a normal woman with a great handbag. Never mind that it had to carry diapers, wipes, sippy cups and crayons at all times. I looked and I looked. Nothing seemed right.
Until one day I found it. The one. The bag of all bags. The handbag that would bring me out of the dull, style-less doldrums of motherhood! A Juicy bag. And it was on sale at Saks. The only way I could fathom spending that much money was because it was on sale, and it was fabulous. Oh, the details, the embellishments, the gold hardware, the black leather. Perfect. Sexy. Dangerous. But it was practical, too. It has three compartments; a huge zippered one in the middle and two smaller ones on each side. Plus, a place for my cell phone and one for my lip gloss with the word “Smile” printed inside; a necessary reminder when carting two cranky kids through the mall. Plus, there were the letters “JC” on the gold-plated studs. Those letters just happen to be the first letters of each of my girl’s names. It was destiny! It was fate! It had to be mine! That Juicy Couture bag had my girl’s names on it… uh, practically. Somehow though, slinging this cool bag, this cult bag, over my spit-up-stained shoulder made me remember that I was more than just a mother. I could see me again! So the short answer to your question is “no.” Get whatever kind of baby bag you want.
I have been sporting some dark nails lately. I took your advice with the black nails and even wore a bright geisha red. But now my nails are stained kind of yellowish! How do I fix my not-so-pretty nails?
So your nails are the color of marigolds and you want them more like lilies, right? First of all, step away from the dark colored nail polishes! They will stain your nails yellow after even one application. Lucky for you there are two easy ways to get rid of the discoloration. Grab a cup and soak your nails in 3 capfuls of hydrogen peroxide and ¼ cup water. Sit for two minutes per hand. Then, grab an old toothbrush and dip it into the solution and scrub those stains off your nails. The other way to get rid of stains is to try going to a beauty supply store and getting one of those buffing four-sided nail files. Gently buff away the stains, but don’t overdo the buffing because it will weaken your nails and lead to breakage. Oh, there is one more way to get rid of stains – wait. Yes, just wait and in three to six months they will have completely grown out and will be pristine again. But who wants to wait around with yellow nails? Yuck! Do the first two and remember to apply a base coat before you paint the town red next time.
Have a question for Kelly? Send it to magnet@imperfectparent.com!
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 Kelly Reising is the Beauty Editor of Mode, a lifestyle magazine geared towards women in the direct sales industry. Her monthly column for HotMomsClub.com is called “The Beauty Bite” and you can seek out even more of her advice at Lifetips.com where she is an Expert Guru Author in Makeup. Her first book, Lifetips 101 Makeup Tips will be available on Amazon.com and at Barnes&Noble.com This former makeup artist and mother of two girls knows that while her day may not be perfect, at least her lip gloss will be. |
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