New Mommy Beauty: Faking Volume

One of the worst beauty issues to hit most women in the fourth trimester is the hair loss. Going from the super thick, lustrous hair of pregnancy to losing handfuls of it a day. And it can last for up to a year. (I am fully admitting here that this is postpartum change that I was dreading the most, I've always had thick hair and a change like this.... hard to cope with.)

Sam Villa, the Education Artistic Director for Redken 5th Avenue and founder of the Sam Villa brand, has a great method for faking the volume that was lost. Time consuming? Yes. I can't imagine doing this on a daily basis, but this could be amazing for a night out.

• Isolate hair in the crown and nape area, pin and set aside.
• Starting 1-2” away from the front hairline, take vertical slice of hair, hold straight out from the head and spray with Redken spray starch 15 versatile ironing spray to protect from heat and hold texture.
• At the base of the slice only, compress hair vertically with Sam Villa’s TEXTURÔ texturizing iron (tip of the iron pointing upwards) to imprint texture. Work vertically around the head until finished.
• Drop crown and nape sections down to hide created texture. The volume at the base will create beautiful natural fullness in fine hair.

Sam Villa

4

New Mommy Tips from Monique

Today's tip is brought to us by my friend Monique, over at Beauty Girl Musings. I'm so honored that she had so many great tips to share with us! Monique truly is amazing. At blogger events I'm usually found near her since I like being with her so much. She's incredibly nice and funny, not to mention she somehow always looks perfect. She lives in Southern California where she blogs and lives with her family (including 2 great kids!). Did I mention that she is a licenced esthetician? And she has a new fitness blog, Fit Girl Musings?


1. Sleep when the baby sleeps. I know this may seem crazy, especially if you're the type of woman who has to "get things done", but believe me, the laundry and messy house will be there when you wake up (or if you have fabulous family and friends, they won't mind helping out a bit)! You'll look better, feel better and you will enjoy every moment that your baby is awake. After a few weeks, you'll probably have more energy to not sleep every single time the baby goes down, but naps will still be important. ;)

2. Plan alone time for yourself at least once a week. Even if it means getting out of the house for an hour to meet a friend for pedis or visiting your favorite department store to buy yourself a new product, time away for yourself is still important.

3. Put on your "face" and get dressed! Being a new mom can feel so tiring and stressful that you may not want to do this, but investing a bit of time to wash your face, apply a swipe of mascara, blush and gloss each morning and also putting on some clean clothes will make such a big difference in how you feel.

Beauty Girl Musings

0

New Mommy Beauty: At Home Hair Tips from Sarah Potempa

I previously shared some amazing (and really specific) hair styling tips from Sarah Potempa for while in the hospital, both in labor and immediately post-partum. She has some great tips for being at home with your newborn!

Sarah Potempa began her styling career at the age of fifteen in Chicago, Illinois. She later graduated from the Aveda Institute and she moved on to study business and creativity at NYU. After graduation she began assisting industry giants Recine, Danilo, and Ward. Her extensive experience as a freelance stylist includes editorial work for renowned magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, Esquire, and W. She has worked with celebrities such as Ali Larter, Rose McGowan, Amy Smart, Julianne Moore, Shalom Harlow, Josh Hartnett, Jake Gyllenhall and Patrick Dempsey as well as advertising campaigns for Converse by John Varvatos, Tommy Hilfiger, Urban Outfitters, FHI Heat and MTV.

Not only is Sarah Aussie's Celebrity Stylist (go check out her must have products and amazing tips on the Aussie web site), but she's also a new mom to a son! I can't think of anyone more qualified to share these tips!

0

New Mommy Beauty: Having a Good Hair Day at the Hospital

Today I have some amazing tips from Aussie's Sarah Potempa all about feeling beautiful and looking great at the hospital. Really, it is possible to have amazing hair while in labor and post-partum at the hospital and I intend to follow all of her tips to the letter! Note that she gave me so much amazing info that I'll have more posts from Sarah sometime soon, so watch for them!

Sarah Potempa began her styling career at the age of fifteen in Chicago, Illinois. She later graduated from the Aveda Institute and she moved on to study business and creativity at NYU. After graduation she began assisting industry giants Recine, Danilo, and Ward. Her extensive experience as a freelance stylist includes editorial work for renowned magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, Esquire, and W. She has worked with celebrities such as Ali Larter, Rose McGowan, Amy Smart, Julianne Moore, Shalom Harlow, Josh Hartnett, Jake Gyllenhall and Patrick Dempsey as well as advertising campaigns for Converse by John Varvatos, Tommy Hilfiger, Urban Outfitters, FHI Heat and MTV.

Not only is Sarah Aussie's Celebrity Stylist (go check out her must have products and amazing tips on the Aussie web site), but she's also a new mom to a son! I can't think of anyone more qualified to share these tips!

4

My Hospital Bag: Packed (Again!)

There are oodles of posts on-line about what to bring with you to the hospital when in labor. The hospital bag is highly debated- do you just rely on what the hospital can provide or go all out pampering for mommy? How much paraphernalia do you bring for being actually in labor? I could go on and on. I found lists that were pages long and included things like bringing in your breast pump.

So, I somewhat approached my bag by seeking a middle ground. I have some stuff for being in labor (a handheld massager from Bath & Body Works, some hard candy to suck on, I'll likely bring my computer for emailing later on but it also has all of my music). My issue really is that I have no idea how long I'll be in the hospital (24 hours after a regular delivery, 3-4 days after a c-section), so I need to plan for that. I'm also very into beauty products and somewhat pampering myself, so I didn't want to skip steps. Somehow I did manage to pare it down. I think I was also able to do this because I was admitted a few weeks ago, my previous version of the hospital bag was somewhat haphazard and had way too much stuff (though in my defense I had mostly packed it while dry heaving from a virus before heading in).

Regardless, here's what a high maintenance beauty blogger brings in her make up kit.

7

New Mommy Beauty: The New Series!

If you read this blog regularly (or even sporadically) you may have noticed my reference to pregnancy, avoiding certain skin care ingredients, etc. Yes, I'm most definitely pregnant (at least I am right now as I'm typing this). I'm due January 19th and we'll see if I make it to that date or things progress a bit more quickly.

Since I'm sure I'll be incredibly tired and preoccupied after my little baby girl arrives, I've been working far in advance to give everyone a little something to still read. Over the next 8-10 weeks you'll find regular posts from me (some of which were written in advance, some of which I'll still be writing throughout the month), some guest posts from fellow beauty bloggers and some beauty tips from both beauty bloggers and beauty experts. You'll notice that some of these posts are geared toward speeding up your morning routine, but some are specifically geared towards new mommies. There will be topics like stretch marks, what to bring to the hospital, etc. If there's a topic you'd like to see covered definitely let me know before my daughter arrives!

As well, keep your eyes open for a second new series coming in the next month or so. A giant series reviewing different concealers! (Who better than a new mom to review concealers?) I'll be featuring brands like Revlon, Cover Girl, Estée Lauder, Make Up For Ever, etc. Let me know if there's something you'd love me to review or make sure I include in each of these reviews.

15