Skin Care Quick Tip:

Use an eye cream with ingredients that target under eye

• Licorice root, bearberry and Waltheria Indica (Uhaloa) may also help lighten [pigment] over time.
• Products containing vitamin C or K can help strengthen the venous walls.
• Treatments for chronic or severe under-eye circles may incorporate laser therapy.
• Massage the eye area daily, circling from the outside in, to stimulate blood flow.

Concealers are the go to product for creating an even skin tone. However, when the objective is to cancel out dark circles, beginning makeup application with a concealer is a novice mistake. Aliesh offers the following makeup and skin care Quick Tips to even the color of skin around the eyes.

Makeup Quick Tip:

• Step 1: Apply foundation.
• Step 2: Use a thin synthetic brush to apply a color correcting concealer in the concave areas and feather out.
• Step 3: Blend concealer in with the ring finger because it has the lightest touch.
• Step 4: Be sure to set foundation and concealer with a loose powder.

These tips first appeared in FIX: Under-Eye & Discoloration Les Nouvelles Esthétiques & Spa (January 2007)

Flash Color in 12-Orange by Makeup Forever

I have used this product for almost 20 years and it has never let me down. I use it over blemishes and for a pop of color on sun kissed cheeks.

Imperfection Corrector (Dark) by Jafra

This is the brown skin alternative to Jafra’s compact for fair skin with correctors in  lavender, yellow and green. I created it so that women with slight hyperpigmentation can apply the orange neutralizer under foundation or layer all three shades to create a skin tone matching shades.

True Concealer by Alison Raffaele

Each of these silicone based concealers has a peachy tone that brightens the eye area.                                                                                                                           Application tip: Apply this concealer to the concave areas under the eyes, at the inner and outer corners, and the brow bone.

Today I received phone calls from two makeup artist friends asking my advice on makeup for African American women. These were my top 3 suggestions.

Top Three Makeup Tips

1. Neutralize hyperpigmentation with an orange color corrector before attempting to conceal.

2.  Dust a warm, matt powder wherever the sun would warm the skin. (i.e. the hairline, temples, chin, and maybe across the nose)                                                       *Note: Don’t dust across the nose if you are attempting to narrow it. Use the powder to contour down the lower outer area instead.

3. Most of the time you can match eyeshadow color to undertone and personality rather than worrying about eye color.

Neutral Look

Smokey Eyes

Red Lips

Aliesh

I am one of the spokespersons for Jafra Cosmetics International. This is one of three tutorials shot in NY  for Vogue Italia’s website vogue.it/belleze-black. Directed by fashion journalist Claire Sulmers. Enjoy!

Ok, so it’s been a really long time since I last posted something new, forgive me. But I always say it’s difficult to be in IT and find time to blog about IT. And that brings me to the topic of this post. IT. As in Vogue.IT, the website belonging to fashion bible Vogue Italia. Two weeks ago they posted an in interview I shot in Milan will promoting the launch of Jafra’s new color collection. I had a lot of fun. Three makeup tutorials will follow. I hope you enjoy watching.

http://www.vogue.it/en/vogue-black/black-beauty/2011/05/aliesh-pierce-

Thanks to Vogue.it editors Beniamino Marini and Rita Balestro in Milan and Claire Sulmers in New York.

I created this survey in an effort to depict a clear picture of the spa-going population. If you have richly pigmented skin and enjoy going to the spa, please take this survey. I am specifically interested in skin tones ranging from those of Japanese to Senegalese decent (and Mediterranean as well). Your participation is greatly appreciated.

Click here.

I am re-posting an article by Harriette Cole originally posted on ebonyjet.com honoring Roxanna’s talent and character. The beauty industry mourns the loss of this gifted artist.

We just lost a great one, Roxanna Floyd, a very special makeup artist whose precision and love sculpted many a brown-skinned face in the world of entertainment. Our company was fortunate enough to have worked with her for the past year and a half as she served as Creative Beauty Director for Fashion Fair Cosmetics. Just a few weeks ago, Ebony magazine had the privilege of enjoying her expert hand when we photographed our March 2010 cover subject, Gabourey Sidibe, the star of Lee Daniels’ movie Precious.

It is with mixed emotion that we celebrate Roxanna’s work so intimately at this moment. A sea of people who knew and loved her have been filling the Internet with memories of working with her, connecting with her, loving her.

Roxanna’s very first national magazine cover was for Ebony magazine that she worked on with Ebony fashion and beauty editor Alfred Fornay.

I had the unique privilege of working with Roxanna more than 20 years ago when I worked for Essence. I met her through photographer Dwight Carter who booked her for a shoot I produced for the contemporary living department of the magazine. She quickly moved from working with me to making up more than 30 Black celebrities for some 60 Essence covers over the years.

Roxanna Floyd worked with some of our greatest celebrities and models: Angela Bassett, Whitney Houston, Cynthia Bailey (most recently for the Fashion Fair Cosmetics campaign), Queen Latifah, Iyanla Van Zant, Halle Berry, Phina, Foxy Brown, L.L.Cool J. Sinbad, and Danny Glover, plus many, many more.

She was a genius with a set of makeup brushes. And she appreciated brown skin so much that she learned how to blend colors perfectly to ensure that a woman of any and every skin tone would be flawless before the camera. Roxanna was a perfectionist. Anyone who knew her will tell you that she was the queen of the eyebrow. She spent as much time as it took to sculpt a brow, so much so that you felt like even if you didn’t have anything but foundation and a brow, you were ready for anything!

As I worked with her over many years and countless projects, including multiple books, and several recent Ebony magazine covers, she would always be on set with a magnifying glass, eyeing her subject from a distance to ensure that every detail would translate appropriately for the image being captured.  And trust, when something wasn’t perfectly right, she would quietly but clearly pause the shoot to make a much-needed tweak before it could resume.

Roxanna took her craft seriously. More, she quietly and fiercely took her clients and her friends seriously. She was a true confidante. Celebrities loved her so, because she would beat a face but not tell! You know how makeup artists and hairdressers often get all the dirt on a person’s life? Well, if Roxie got it, she kept it to herself. A devout Christian, Roxanna Floyd honored the people in her midst. She felt it was her duty to uplift the people with whom she worked, to seek out their best qualities and nurture them. She did not talk about people. Rare for a person in her field.

Roxanna loved fully and consistently. I feel so fortunate that I knew her for most of my professional life. She was an ace in the hole for any creative project. But more, she was my friend. It was she who did my makeup at my wedding 16 years ago, trekking an hour and a half outside of Manhattan to ensure that I would be perfect on my big day. And it was she who has checked in with me again and again over the years to make sure I was fine—even when she was suffering her own private hardships. She was a class act.

She was a generous soul. The many people who knew and loved her are singing her stories right now through pained tears. We all have memories that make our hearts ache today but that likely will soothe us tomorrow.

Roxanna Floyd is survived by her husband, Rick E. Ramos, her mother, Alberta “Bertha”  Floyd, and a world full of beloved friends.

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Harriette Cole is the editor in chief of Ebony magazine. Roxanna Floyd was the makeup artist for her books Jumping the Broom, How to Be, and Choosing Truth.

They also have these great vinyl brow stencils from Sorme. I found an interesting powder pallet for pigmented skin from Phaedra. (the pallet had a bit too much mica though) Last but not least, Nigel’s carries the full line of Kevin Aucoin.

*I also order Visiora CN-102 from Ruth Hiscott in Toronto.

*I loved the old Alcone in NY. I’m glad they brought it back.