Your Image Matters

Women Have More Opportunities!

2011-11-09T05:28:00.000-08:00

Have you ever noticed how much easier it is for men to get dressed? They don't have as many choices as women. Their haircut options are limited, their shoes are all flats...their formal wear consists of a suit or a tux. Their biggest decisions revolve around the color of their shirt and tie, whether to wear jeans, shorts or slacks. Sounds much easier, doesn't it? Women, on the other hand, have countless choices in clothing, accessories, makeup, jewelry, shoes, hairstyles, hair color, it is ENDLESS. But there is a downside to having that many options; we also have many more opportunities to get it wrong, to be inappropriate, to look ridiculous. We are inundated with clothing and accessories that promise to make us look current, young, sexy, classy...or, if we don't know what we're doing; garish, frumpy, or sleazy...the possibilities are just as endless. It can be a mine field for women who can't see themselves objectively, or who don't have an eye for style. But if you know exactly which styles, colors, textures, shapes and accessories flatter you, it limits your choices and makes it much easier to decide what to wear, buy, keep, or let go of. It almost makes it as easy as being a man, but a lot more fun.

Why Don't All Women Hire an Image Consultant?

2011-10-07T15:43:00.000-07:00

Why don’t all women hire an image consultant? What makes women fail to invest in something as important and their appearance? Why do so many women give up their power by not looking as good as they could?

Here are my theories:

They look fabulous, and they know it! You go Girl!
I think some women don’t believe it is possible for them to look better, MUCH better. They think they are stuck with that body/face/fat/shape, and there is nothing they can do to change it or enhance it.
Most women don’t know how they look; they have no idea they look outdated, frumpy, tacky or stuffy…and even their best friends generally will not tell them the truth.
They don’t think they can afford it and don’t realize that it will save them money. It will not only keep them them from wasting money on clothes don’t flatter them, but it will make them more successful in everything they do.
Some women don’t give themselves permission to treat themselves well, either because they don’t realize how important it is, know how good they will feel, or that it is worth the effort, money, and the time it takes to get it right. And yes, we all deserve it.
Others don’t understand or can’t accept how judgmental people are. They don’t think it is nice to judge others by how they look on the outside, but they do it; we all do it, it is human nature. The reality is that it takes a split second to make an impression. The good news is, we can control the impression we make, it just takes knowing a few things about our body shape, color, psychology, and a little geometry.
Some women are just not ready. They are not ready to change, to make themselves vulnerable, to get an honest opinion, or to take that next step toward empowerment.
They haven’t found someone they trust enough to show them their closet/ their bodies/their flaws/ their beauty. They haven’t found the person who they are comfortable sharing their unique personality with, their insecurities, their aspirations. They haven’t found the right fit.

Hiring an image consultant is a very brave and exciting move. It is a significant act of kindness toward yourself, and a big step toward taking control of your power. It is important that the person you choose makes you comfortable and that you trust them and their opinions. But you have to be ready, you have to understand how important it is, you have to believe that you have potential to improve and you have to find the right consultant for YOU. I applaud every woman who invests in herself, and I appreciate every women who has put that kind of trust in me.

Pink and You

2011-08-18T11:28:00.000-07:00

Chico's newest web ad features a bright pink ruffled sweater, with the tip, "Pink looks great on everyone."
I beg to differ!
Pink, especially bright fuchsia pink, is a great color to demonstrate if you look best in warm or cool colors. If you are warm, bright pink will look absolutely hideous on you. And if you are cool, orange will look just as bad.
It is SO important that you know if you are warm or cool. The colors you wear, and your makeup choices, all depend on whether you are predominantly warm or cool. Almost every color has a warm and a cool version, depending on whether it has yellow undertones (warm) or blue undertones (cool). How can you tell whether you are warm or cool?

One way is to put an orange/peach blush on the inside of one of your wrists, (or any skin that has not been altered by the sun) and pink blush on the other wrist. Look at them and see which one looks the best. If it's the orange one, you are probably warm, if it's the pink one, you are probably cool.
Pay attention to the colors you are drawn to, most people favor colors that look best on them, and they even decorate their houses with those colors!
You can also drape yourself with a warm color (orange is always warm) and then a cool color, (burgundy is always cool) and see what it does to your face. Your best colors will make you look rested and healthy. Make sure you are in natural light, and get another opinion, it is not always so obvious.
Get your colors evaluated by a professional and know exactly which colors make you radiant, so you won't waste your money on anything that doesn't give you a healthy glow.

Being Happy With Your Age

2011-06-20T08:53:00.000-07:00

I teach women to look "younger", but don't misunderstand, I am not convinced we should actually strive to look younger, but do whatever it takes to stay competitive, look current and put together, but mostly, to look GREAT for your age. If you look great, you will feel great, and that kind of confidence is stunning. If that means getting your diet in order, whitening or straightening your teeth, exercising, hiring a makeup artist, maximizing your wardrobe through an image consultant, using great skin care, getting some fillers or even plastic surgery, finding the best haircut for your face shape and the most flattering hair color, wearing clothes you love.. just pick one thing and DO IT. You might find that exercising negates the need for plastic surgery, or that if you dress for your body type and put on some shape wear, you look ten pounds thinner. Definitely try the least invasive first. Feeling bad is like drinking poison, it infects every aspect of our lives. So figure out what is bothering you, and do something to make it better. Look as good as you can for your age, and feel proud that you've survived this long, and that you care enough about yourself to take care of YOU. Go forth and be HAPPY!

Your Best Colors Are On Your Head!

2011-06-04T09:54:00.000-07:00

You don't have to look very far to find your best colors. Although you have many, many colors that make you look radiant, you will always look fabulous in clothing that matches your eyes or your hair. Make sure your best colors are near your face, what you wear on your bottom half is not as important.
A great way to keep an outfit that might not be your most flattering color (anyone else have a closet full of black?) is to find a scarf that is made up of: the color of your outfit/ and one of your best colors. Wear it near your face, and you can keep all that black in your closet! (By the way, if you have darker hair or eyes, black looks great on you!)

Why Bother?

2011-06-04T09:39:00.000-07:00

I've been doing some research on facial recognition and perception, found some interesting studies. It turns out, people pay closer attention to others that they find attractive, go figure, but they also perceive everything around them as more positive. There is something called "priming" that says: If you look at a face that you find attractive, then look at a series of ambiguous words, you will perceive the words as having a more positive meaning after viewing the attractive face! Kids even rated pretty teachers as nicer, more fair, smarter, than teachers who were not attractive, even if their behavior was identical!
So, you already knew that pretty people have a leg up, but did you know that you can give yourself that advantage by spending a little more effort on learning to apply makeup correctly, making sure your hair stylist is GREAT, and that you have a CURRENT hairstyle, and making sure your clothes FIT, and flatter your body shape? All of this is doable, affordable, and can profoundly affect your success. Why bother? Because it matters!