Every woman has a little secret ... above is a photo from my own inner angel transformation last month.  

In just a few weeks, on Dec 10, the  2013 Victoria Secret Runway Show that just taped a few days ago will air on CBS. I always look forward to watching because it motivates me to stand taller, wear heels, eat better and try harder with my own beauty regime. 

Here is a little sneak peek video to watch of this year's show:

Don't be too hard on yourself ... these girls have advantages beyond good genes to looking this wonderful: stylists, professional makeup artists,  extra hair, and perfect lighting! There's a reason their call time is 9am for an 8pm show! It takes alot of effort to look that good! 

Here's a few of their tricks: 

HAIR

What you might not realize is that most of the Victoria Secret models are wearing hair extensions. Models' hair is typically damaged from the constant products and styling required for multiple photo shoots and appearances. Watch this video to see how they are matching up extensions for one of the models, at minute 7:08 to 7:30. Most of us don't have stylist to help us every day so read on to learn about a new design hair extension that anyone can put on themselves in less than 30 seconds.

The best human hair in extensions to buy is REMY hair, it is 100% real and cuticle correct meaning the cuticles all lay in the same direction which makes it soft, silky and less apt to tangle. Because it's REAL hair, so you can color it for a perfect match to your own, but a word of advice - because this hair is already processed you do not want to lighten, only deposit color. Lowlights, toner or all over color. Unless you can find a perfect match I suggest taking it to your stylist to color for you.

Real hair is also measured by weight. For my own hair which is long, somewhat fine but lots of it, I find that 120 grams is the right amount to add fullness and body.

If you take care of your hair with mild, sulphate free shampoos and avoid blow dryers, your hair should last from 4 months to a year at least.

Clip in extensions are great, but they can damage your own hair sometimes and the tracks can be hard to hide so people might notice.

My favorite hair extension design is called a halo and it is literally a whole set of extensions on a transparent wire which requires no glue, no clips and gives no damage to your own hair. It literally takes less than a minute to put on and you just pull your own hair over top to hold it in. You can shake your head up and down - side to side, and it doesn't come off!

Here I am getting glammed up with my Halo Hair Crown prior to my own Victoria Secret-esque shoot. Order yours {HERE}

BRONZED SKIN

Victoria Secret runway girls and women in athletic competitions always get a tan on before competing. A tan will automatically make you look a bit thinner

Of course nothing can replace regular workouts at the gym and a healthy diet, but you can fake more muscle tone by applying tanner or bronzer strategically in areas that you want to define.

The trick is doing it in 2 steps. First an all over color and then a second layer or contour bronzer. For the second step you will want to add deeper color to the sides of your stomach - this is to make the love handles disappear. (Use this same concept for slimmer thighs) Then flex your muscles and make a line down the center of your abs and finish with horizontal lines to define your muscle tone.

My favorite self tanners are St Tropez and Phenomenal by Vita Liberata (the world's first 2-3 week tan!), for bronzer use Lorac's Tantalizer - especially wonderful to add some shine down the front of your shins.

PERFECT LIGHT
We don't always have control over this, but one thing that makeup artists always make sure to do is add highlights to our face with light reflecting products, often using 2 different colors of foundation to contour the face. Check out my post {HERE} about how to do this expertly. 

To perfect a  fuller pouty lip, draw a line straight across your cupid's bow in a pinky tone just a tad darker than your own lip color before adding your favorite lipstick - finish with a dab of gloss in the center. I have no idea why, but this trick gives an optical illusion of bigger more kissable lips!

DE-BLOAT

Strictly limit sodium. and drink lots of water to flush out toxins. 
Eating can be as simple as fruits and vegetables as long as you stay clear from gassy veggies like broccoli, brussel sprouts and cauliflower. And avoid dairy and starches. Read a few more in depth tips on how to de-bloat {HERE}

SKIP the GYM 

One thing every one of these Victoria Secrets girls' will tell you is that they work out every. single. day. But models don't hit it hard core, many do Pilates, yoga and jogging. They tone, and watch what they eat so their weight doesn't fluctuate. 

If you're headed to the beach in your bikini and want your thighs to look their thinnest, skip the heavy weights the day before. Hitting the iron too hard can make lactic acid build up and make your muscles temporarily swell. 

As a model there are a few things you pick up walking in show after show. Each designer's goal is to make their clothing stand out so models are sent down the runway looking somewhat the same, with usually these three things kept constant:

HAIRSTYLE

MAKEUP

SHOES 

So it makes sense then that you could use this strategy in reverse, to stand out. In other words, regardless of whatever clothing designer you are wearing, lose the model uniformity by developing your own personal style as simply as changing your hair, makeup and shoes! 

I recently sat down with All Parenting writer Molly Smith to share these ideas in depth and the simple ways to develop a signature style from a model mom's perspective.You can read the entire interview and all my tips {HERE}

My best advice ... always, always, always,"Dress for the part you want to have and never get lazy with this!"

Working out is an important part of my daily routine but it's important not to get so comfortable in workout clothes that you end up sitting in spandex at lunch with your girlfriends. This is NOT a style. Go home and throw on jeans, boots and a sweater ... you'll feel better about yourself, and that will show ---- on or off the runway!

As promised on Arizona Midday today, you can enter here to win one of these great holiday beauty sets! In case you missed it here's the video segment:

To enter leave a comment below on this blog post

&

Like our Facebook page {HERE} so we can get in touch with you if you are the winner! Plus if you "share" this from our Facebook page onto your wall we will enter your name twice in the giveaway!

Winner's names will be posted here at 5pm November 22!

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Just when you thought you've seen it all from Disney - including a twerking Hannah Montana, in walks the bearded princesses!

You moust-Ache yourself the same question Moustacherella is thinking here .... Should I shave it for later or find a way to deal with facial hair?


Princesses and ALL women around the world have fines hairs or peach fuzz on their faces. Like Cinderella looking in the mirror, you might be just as frighted or maybe overwhelmed, with the concept of shaving your face - but check out the biggest secret that Japanese women, not to mention models, this one included: I have been doing it for years ... I just never knew anyone else was!

 Read about it {HERE} Women's Facial Shaving - Deffuzing the Myth of the Female Mustache.

Check out all the bearded beauties @ Buzzfeed.com

Because you can't always walk into a room with Photoshop, there are many things you can do to make sure you always look picture perfect! Sculpting your face without surgery, is simple to do if you understand how and what products to use. You literally can transform your face with this magical illusion.

Until recently this maneuver was reserved for A listers who could afford celebrity makeup artists who have long understood the purpose of doing so, but there's no reason that the rest of us need be kept in the dark. I wrote about how to DIY in my book by using your face shape as a guide with a specific tutorial. If you want to fine tune your skills as per your face shape check out Chapter 6 of Face This: Real Advice from Real Models available for only $7.99 {HERE}, not to mention all the  great photo and posing tricks you will learn.

But basically the concept is simple. An oval face shape is what you are trying to emulate, so you want to contour areas outside of a centered oval. Contouring will make areas recede. So, if you have a square jaw you will want to contour your jaw line more, if you have a high forehead you will want to contour the top of your hairline more.

You don't need to go out and buy any special product to highlight, anything that is 1-2 shades lighter than your foundation will work, for example Loreal's true match makeup works and concealer is great too which you usually buy lighter than your foundation, but my favorite product is YSL's Touche Eclat. Anything that is light, sheer and shimmery will do the job! 

For contouring, anything darker than your normal skin tone is perfect whether it be a bronzing powder or cream/liquid. But for contour be sure it is not shimmery - you are trying to create shadows here and not draw attract the light. The biggest secret to getting it right - BLEND, BLEND, BLEND!

For your nose: If you have a wide nose, contour the sides. Highlight down the center of your nose - the slimmer the line the more narrow your nose will look. If it's long, contour the tip. 

For cheeks: Apply your blush beginning at the apple of your cheek and sweep upward toward your temples. Highlight above and contour below in the hollow - underneath your cheek bone. Make the fish face to know exactly where this is.

Highlighting the center of your face brings out that ideal oval shape . 

Always contour your neck. This will give you a stronger jaw line, which becomes more critical as you age because skin sags here first. 

My favorite place to highlight that most people forget is the clavicle! The product I find easiest to use here is the same one I use on top of my cheekbones to brighten underneath my eyes:  Smashbox Photo-op.  Makeup artists use this to bring life to model's eyes when the call time is 5am! 

You've gotten older and so have your makeup techniques. Time to re-evaluate and update your bag of tricks.

Foundation & Powder : Do not go darker with your foundation so you feel tan. This is why God invented bronzer - use it on areas that are naturally kissed by the sun. Don't pale out; this too looks unnatural. The secret to looking younger while you're getting older is to embrace the skin you're born with and enhance it -  not cover it up! 

      P.S. Smoky eye or bold lip - never both.

Brow Highlighter : Avoid using a brow highlighter that's too light or white. This is so 80's, and will definitely add 10 years to your look! Especially if you have any hooding to your eyelid ... it will immediately draw attention to it (See for yourself in the photo above). A soft pink matte eye shadow on the brow bone will be your ticket to an eye lift naturally.

Eyeliner : Yes on top - it will make your lashes look fuller, and lift. No to bottom lashes - it will make your eyes look smaller, droopy and can draw attention to bags or lines underneath.

Nude lips : Yes, it's a trend but like all trends, not always a good one. Careful ... just 2 shades too light will make you look dead and that's never flattering. Choose a stain or pencil just a bit darker than your skin tone for a natural look and finish it with a pink lip gloss on top.

I partnered with Cover Girl in the video below for more tips on how to avoid common makeup mistakes. 

Have you ever wondered if it really matters if you go to bed with your makeup on? Well, this is a photo of a woman who slept in her makeup, not washing it off for an entire month.With Halloween right around the corner, this itself is pretty scary for the beauty obsessed! 

photo via the Drs.

You can see that she looks about 10 years older, and the quality of her skin has definitely changed. Inflammation and clogged pores which appear larger because bacteria that causes acne has become trapped. 

We've all been guilty of skipping this important skin care step after a night out with the girls, and damage is likely not permanent, but it will take longer for your skin to bounce back.

Not washing your face can also speed up the aging process because of free radical damage. It's important to wash away pollutants that stick to makeup and contaminate our skin, attacking healthy skin that can result in a decrease in the production of collagen, which means premature wrinkles.

Moral of the story - you know it already, wash off your makeup every night! To help, buy some cleansing or baby wipes and leave them on your nightstand. This way you'll have no excuses and it's better for your skin than skipping it entirely. 

I partnered with Cover Girl in the video below to bring you some more helpful tips regarding some things you might be doing that  are actually aging your skin. 

For example, did you know that you should wash your face after you shower? Sometimes the products you use to wash your hair and body can get trapped in your pores and make them appear larger. Watch below for some more helpful tips.

Halo Couture vs Halo Hair™ Crown vs Halo Hair Extensions (UK)

In a world of sinners, the Gods of locks, have given us the answer to all of our hairy prayers ... the Halo. The easiest extension ever to use, taking less than a minute to put on without any clips to hide, messy glue or damage to your own hair. To see how easy it is check out my post about Kelly Ripa's Halo hair {Here}

But the question remains - which Halo is most awe inspiring of all? To find out I ordered all three and here's what I found. 

THE PRICE

Halo Couture is by far the most expensive starting at $350 for their 16 inch extension which is sold primarily only through salons. Halo Hair™ Crown, in comparison is less than half the cost at $175. And the Halo Hair Extensions from the UK are £89.99 (roughly $144) but it ships from England.

Difference in width

THE HAIR

All three have equally great hair, similar texture, silky and luxurious. 

As far as the amount of hair, Halo Hair™ Crown wins weighing in at 120 grams, which is 20 % more hair than either Halo Couture or the UK Halo.

The Halo Couture and Halo Hair™ Crown are both equal in width across, about 13 inches of hair that goes ear to ear. The Halo Hair Extension from the UK is only 10 inches across. I prefer the wider halo because is gives me volume like a whole set of extensions, not just in the back of my head.

Here are some before and after shots of me wearing the 16 inch Halo Hair™ Crown, that I had cut and styled to add volume to my own hair:

As the old beauty queen within me would say,

"Love your hair, hope you win!"

If you look at the photo above taken on my 49th birthday last week,  you are probably saying to yourself ...

"Well, I already have that skinny arm on the hip trick mastered, is that all you got?"

However, as obvious as this one seems, many women are still not using this pose to their advantage!

I am often asked by magazines for quotes about the tips and tricks of posing for better photos, and there's a lot that goes into getting a perfect photo, the lighting, the makeup, the styling. I'll be doing more televised segments about all these, but yesterday I got the chance to talk about the importance of posing for Arizona Midday - take a look here:

The skinny arm on the hip trick is completely overused on the red carpet because it does incredible things for women ... smaller waist, longer legs and creates curves. It's best if you choose the arm closet to the lens of the camera for this trick and remember to lower your shoulder. However, if you don't want to look like a teapot in all your photos, you can get the same effect if you understand why this pose works.

The basic cheat being used here isn't the hand on the hip, it's the bent elbow and separation of the body and arm, that makes this work. If must have light between or the width of your arms next to your body will make you look bigger than you actually are! You don't have to over-exaggerate it every time to get the benefit of this trick. Simply put a slight bend to your elbow and pull your arms away from your body. Or hold on to something, a purse, a drink, a  pocket .... It will make a massive difference in your pictures.

Placement of the hands is key. A model rarely shows the back of her hands. The reason? They aren't pretty and they look big. The sides are much prettier and dainty. Secondly, never clump your fingers together, instead let fingers relax and be apart.

One of the biggest mistakes women do is place their hands lower than they should when working this pose. If you do, the part of your body you will draw attention to is your hips, the widest area of your body. Instead cheat the hands up a little higher on your waist and this will give you the illusion of longer legs ... Nothing wrong with that!

Most of the time you will want to keep the weight of your body on your back foot, however if you need to fake some curves you can do what I did in the top photo and keep your weight on your front leg instead or try popping your hip toward the camera.

The other important thing to do when standing for a photo is to angle your body to the camera. We must create the angle, because the lens of the camera will flatten you out to a 2D version of yourself and make you look wider than you are if you don't! So angle yourself to the lens of the camera pointed at you. The worst thing you can do is stand front and center to the lens. This is why people say the camera adds 10 pounds. Face the camera and place your hips and feet at a 2 or 10 o'clock position to it. Then create a smaller waistline by turning your face to the lens, twisting yourself without moving your feet. Ahaha - instantly you have created a slimmer waistline too!

Practice. Practice. Practice. The mirror is your best friend and a perfect tool to teach you how to develop your own signature pose. Like I said in this video, if you try to emulate Taylor Swift's cross legged go to pose without checking yourself first, you may just end up taking a photo that looks more like you have to pee your pants instead of a young goddess with long legs.

Finally, with social media and sites like Instagram and Facebook, it's nearly impossible to get out of taking a group shot now and then, assuming you have a life outside of the world wide web. To get your best group shots just keep in mind that anything closest to the camera will look the biggest. If this happens to be you, just take a step back or hide a part of you behind the person next to you. And never get sandwiched between two people and let your arms flatten next to your body. Just remember the tips above and try to work in a slight angle and to keep some space between your body and arm for great pics on girls night out!

So many pictures, so little time ...  Hope this helps!

XO 

Shelley

Summer is officially over tomorrow. Fashion Week just ended. So it makes perfect sense that we charge forward thinking about what's going to be on trend going forward. And Pantone, the world's renowned authority on color forecasting just announced that the "IT" color for Spring will be DAZZLING BLUE ! 

Looking at the entire palette, there seems to be a shift happening. The bright blue winner is by far one of the strongest colors of the bunch, and it's interesting to see that the others colors are more neutral like Sand and Paloma, with pastel Violet Tulip coming in at second place.

Stay tuned ... Pantone will announce the Color of the Year in December. WIth past winners like Tangerine Tango and Emerald Green, do you think we'll be  singing the blues for awhile longer?

I always love having a chance to visit with you on air at nbc affiliate KPNX in Phoenix. Today I talked about celebrity secrets to looking younger ... Let's face it we'd all like to know the skinny when it comes to beautiful bronzed skin, pouty lips, gorgeous lashes and luscious locks of hair that make the stars appear ageless on the red carpet! Well, it's all about getting the best products and knowing how to use them. 

Watch the video below and see how you can quickly look like you've been drinking at the fountain of youth. By the way, did you notice my hair transformation? You can have fuller, longer hair in less than 30 seconds - I show you how easy it is to put on the Halo Crown hair extension!

Here are the products I featured - Click on the name to go to their website

Vita Liberata Phenomenal Tanning Mouse 

Halo Hair Crown Extensions

Luscious Lips Device

GrandeLash MD Lash serum

There are still a couple weeks left of summer and yesterday I was so happy to guest co-host the Morning Blend here in Southern Arizona and share a little beauty advice about extending that summer look into Fall ... bronzed skin, sexy hair and arosy glow! Watch the video and read more about the products that I featured below.

Obagi C- Clarifying Serum - to help lift all the uneven skin tone from the sun

La Roche Posay ANTHELIOS XL SPF 50+ FLUIDE EXTREME For Face - Super lightweight with a matte finish.

La Roche-Posay Anthelios 50 Daily Anti Aging Primer with SPF 50 Sunscreen - All in one producte with Primer and ON SALE for $25!

VITA LIBERATA pHenomenal 2-3 Week Tan Mousse ($54)- World's longest lasting self tanner!

Rio De Keratin Do It Yourself Cocolada Keratin Treatment ($35) - DIY At home kit for fizz free hair

GlitzFlips.com ($39.99) - Luxury swarovski crystal flip 

Click to Watch the Video

Monday I had the pleasure of visiting Arizona Midday to share some secrets about products that you have at home that you might not realize can offer some beauty benefits in a pinch. Check out my segment and let me know what you think! 

Kitty Litter mud mask - using the same ingredient in expensive spa treatments around the world. For the recipe click {HERE}.

Deodorant for your face to cut the shine.

Hand sanitizer as anti-perspirant.

Cotton t-shirt to cut the frizz.

Milk of Magnesia and Pepto Bismal for oil absorbing masks. Great for oily acne prone skin.

Preparation H avec Bio Dyne - only available in Canada for eye depuffing.