Flawless Skin

Every skin, at every age can look a lot cleaner and fresher with the right foundation. Since we all spend most of our time at the office and not on the couch we should try and make the best of our beautiful faces!

Let us have a quick look at facial skin care!

Skin care is essential! Thanks to science there are a great many skin care products out there that work well. No matter if you want to apply foundation or not, everyone should clean their face well in the morning and at night. Cleansing is the basis for a healthy looking skin. Besides the normal face wash, a mechanical, light enzyme peeling, or one on acidic base once a week should be used to rinse those pores well. Depending on how "thick" your skin is you will know how many times you can peel! 

Moisturizing facial skin is very important. Many small wrinkles we see around our eyes, or lip area are actually only apparent, due to a lack of enough moisture. Therefore a day cream, that spends moisture and has a low UVA/UVB protection is great. Try picking a cream without mineral oil (petroleum jelly, or petrolatum liquidum) as that ingredient will dry out your skin in the long run, adding more wrinkles to your face. If you choose a very high UVA/UVB protection you also inhibit the production of Vitamin D! Once your skin is well prepared we can take a look at how to pick and apply the right foundation!

When deciding on the foundation it does not matter what you are going to wear to the office. From business suit, to shift dress, to pencil skirt suit, the right complexion is merely the basis of any flawless look. Choosing the right daytime foundation is important, as you will be wearing it in full daylight, make sure the colour is a perfect match. There is nothing worse than the wrong colour foundation.

Steps to flawless skin

1)   Clean your hands and your face.

2)   Apply moisturizer and/or a make up foundation primer. Only then the make up can be applied evenly and smooth. Dry skin will soak up the make up and look flaky.

3)    Tip: When you are not sure how to find the right foundation colour for you, you can try the foundation on your chin. If there is no colour difference along your neckline you are safe!

4)   Apply the foundation.  The best way is to put a little foundation on the back of your left hand (if you are right handed) and spread it out a little. Like that you ensure not using too much at once. You can use a sponge or a foundation brush. The benefit of the brush is that it lasts much longer, and it doesn’t soak in the foundation like a sponge, therefore it is more economical. Also a brush you can simply rinse out once a week, whereas sponges always have to be displaced, as they start crumbling after a few rinses.

5)    Tip: If you have a few wrinkles you want to use a foundation that provides even more moisture.

6)   Use a transparent fixing powder for a matte finish, and long last.

7)   Apply blusher to your cheeks. You best do this using a blusher brush starting at your cheekbone, moving the brush up along your cheekbone. When you are using a blusher colour for the first time it is best to shake it out of the brush first and then apply it to your cheeks. Like that you see how intense the pigmentation of it is. If you want more colour, you can always reapply.

Here are a few celebrity nude Looks that show how much foundation can increase a healthy vibrant skin.

With the flawless skin look you can wear anything you want really. We suggest a few colourful outfits to match the sunny season:

There will be many aspects to consider if you are doing business internationally. Firstly if you’re travelling overseas on business regularly, you’ll have to get used to adjusting your body clock constantly and in certain countries, the likes of Spain being the most obvious example, you’ll soon become familiar with the concept of ‘siesta’ when many businesses shut down between around 1pm and 4pm in the afternoon and public holidays will be different to those which we have in the UK too. However, there will be many more complex issues to have to take into account which will be predominantly connected to local culture, customs, traditions and law.

Preparation

The best way to conduct business in any part of the world is to find out about the place you’re travelling to before you go. In addition to doing your research about the company you’re visiting, you should take some time to get to know a bit more about the cultural, economic and political background of the place you’re visiting. In having more of an understanding about these areas, you’re less likely to commit any faux pas when you’re there. Chances are that you may have colleagues who have been there before you so if you can, ask them about things such as how to greet people, how to behave accordingly, how to dress and, perhaps most importantly, try to find out about things that might offend local people that you might not have been aware of. Here are some of the main considerations you should be thinking about.

Use of Language

No foreign businessperson is going to expect you to learn their language overnight but it’s useful to get yourself a basic phrase book so that you’re able to show courtesy to your host. Even just learning how to say the likes of ‘please’ ‘thank you’, hello’, ‘goodbye’ and a few other simple phrases will always go a long way in determining a person’s perspective of you. Also, be aware of your own use of English. Speak more slowly than normal if your host hasn’t got a great grasp of English and don’t use slang expressions or industry/business acronyms or jargon which they might not understand. Don’t be too ambitious in trying to say too much in their language either. Literal translations can often come out very differently unless you know what you’re talking about and you could be entirely interpreted in a totally different way than how you intended so keep it simple.

Be Businesslike

You’ll want to establish trust with your host so act businesslike. Make sure you turn up for any scheduled meetings on time (in fact, better to get there a little early) and be dressed appropriately and make sure that you know the exact location of the meeting and that this has been verified by your host. It may well turn out that they might have a casual approach to timekeeping and turn up late, but better not to take any chances yourself. Also, find out any local customs with regard to how they conduct business lunches in case you’re invited to one.

Avoid Being too Familiar

You’ll obviously want to make a good impression on your host but it’s important not to become too familiar too soon as what you may perceive as acceptable behaviour may be viewed very differently by your host. For example, American businessmen can show a tendency to be eager to touch people, the old pat on the back or hand on the shoulder type thing and to call people by their first names. However, doing that in somewhere like Asia could make your host feel very uncomfortable indeed so be very careful how you relate to people as many cultures adopt very formal attitudes towards meals, conversation and meetings.

Cultural Considerations

Make sure you understand the basic aspects of the culture of the country you are visiting. You should get familiarised with the different attitudes that might be held in relation to gender, education and religion, in particular.

It can be totally different doing business with people from overseas from doing business with people from your own country so no matter how good you are at your job and how well you relate to people here, don’t leave anything to chance and find out more about a country and its culture and background before you head out there if you want to ensure that you leave only good impressions behind.

And of course Wearittowork gives some Style Inspirations:

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How to Make a Good First Impression

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No matter how much we might think that we are non-judgemental every one of us is ‘guilty’ of making first impressions about people, whether that is in business or in other aspects of our everyday lives and, never more so than in a work environment is this so true. It’s estimated that it can take as little as 3 seconds for us to make an initial first impression about somebody we meet for the very first time and this is whether we do that consciously or sub-consciously. Granted, we’ll have all been in social situations where we can laugh and joke to our friends about our first thoughts about them when we first clapped eyes on them and many of us will be able to relate to the fact that, in many instances, it’s only once we’ve allowed ourselves to get to know a person better that we’re more able to gain a more accurate opinion about them. The difference in the workplace, however, is that whilst we’ll still naturally make a first impression about someone, we may never be in a position to meet with them again. Therefore, first impressions can prove to be everlasting and can make or break a business relationship which can result in the gaining or losing of thousands of pounds worth of business in some cases.

Impressions Before You’ve Even Met

In business, what’s even more challenging is that people will often make a first impression about you even BEFORE you’ve actually met. It’s all based on the subject of perceived status and business hierarchy. Most business people will often know the job title as well as the name of the person they’re going to be meeting, before they’ve even met. As a result, they will likely form an initial impression of a person, simply based around their ‘status’ within a company. For example, if the person you’re meeting is in a higher ranked position to yourself, you’re already likely to be thinking that this is a person worth getting to know as they could be a valuable contact. If they hold the same or similar status to yourself, then you’ll think them worthy of your time. However, if their status is below that of yours, then you’re far more likely to keep them somewhat at a distance or, at best, tolerated. Obviously, this is taking this to the extreme but, nevertheless, it does occur and does demonstrate just how important first impressions are.

So…How Do You Make A Good Impression?

Firstly, it’s important that you both assess and identify your physical appearance, personality, lifestyle and career goals. By doing this, you will be able to create a visual image of the kind of person you wish to be perceived as. This will then be reflected in the way you dress, your grooming, your accoutrements such as the watch and the jewellery you wear and the car you drive and its usually either one or several of these aspects which is likely to form a part of a person’s very first impressions about you. It’s not just designer gear, however, that will determine how you’re perceived.

Body language too will be closely observed. The way you carry yourself, the way you speak, move your eyes, gesture with your arms or hands – all of these will be giving off signals for people to create their own first impressions of you. Even when you speak, whilst this will be a more clearer indication of the qualities you have as a person to do business with and will, to a large extent, enable people to form opinions about your intelligence, knowledge, skills and experience in a particular field, it’s often the WAY you speak that will be remembered more than WHAT you actually say. Having polite manners, showing courtesy, being positive and energetic, coming across as reliable, honest and trustworthy and even smiling all help to give off a positive impression too.

Basically, all the things we’ve spoken about here are a reflection of what you portray as a person to a complete stranger. They are all facets of business etiquette that will combine to enable others to form a quick opinion about you. And, whilst you need to be yourself, it’s often useful to spend a little time observing how other successful business people are able to command the attention of others. Mostly this can be put down to years of practice and refinement when it comes to how they portray themselves because without making a positive and lasting first impression, they might not even get to the stage of discussing business, they’ll simply have left a negative impression on somebody who, when recalling that particular person, will firstly remember that first initial impression that they formed.

Look At Your Corporate Culture

If we take some of the examples shown above, it’s interesting to think that certain elements can be perceived very differently by different people. For example, a Rolex watch or a Ferrari sports car might be seen as aspirational by some, yet some people might think “what a show-off!”. Animated gestures with your arms and hands might demonstrate your enthusiasm to some but may be perceived as ‘over the top’ by others. And, a sales person’s confidence might come across as arrogance to some people.

Basically, there are no fixed rules as such about how you make a good impression. The areas discussed here are simply the main aspects that people tend to look at when forming first impressions so, it’s always a good idea to get a feel of what is and isn’t appropriate etiquette within your own specific corporate environment to gain a better idea of how to create a positive first impression as it will often be this that will ultimately determine your success or failure.