“The key to beauty is learning something new and then applying it to your life.”
Kathleen O’Keefe-Kanavos/author and cancer survivor
So, you have a hot date for St. Valentine’s Day. Great! Now, how do you face the overwhelming challenge of applying your old makeup techniques to your new treatment-face while in therapy? The beauty strategies you previously used went down the drain with your hair.
Now what?
How do you play up eyes that lack eyelashes for mascara, accentuate the arches of eyebrows which no longer exist, or find that dewy glow your skin lost during your last therapy? How can you accept a date looking like “death warmed over?” Well, if you are reading this Death did not land, so keep going. Can you look beautiful during treatment? Yes you can!
Here are 7 tried-and-true make-up tips.
They will help you enjoy an unforgettable Valentine’s Day by rising above the challenge of beauty during treatment and looking down on the big picture of life despite treatment. These tips are easy and quick enough to use for your date after a long day of therapy, every day during treatment, and beyond. You may never look exactly the same because you will look better.
Make-up can be a challenge during many therapies, but especially cancer treatment.
No eyelashes or eyebrows to hold beauty products in place can make you want to give up before you start. But as a three time breast cancer survivor, I learned a trick or two about beauty during treatment. These beauty tips will help you glow while you heal.
These seven techniques can be used with any products including organic ones available in most natural and health food stores and marketplaces.
- Your face is already dry from medications, long hours in over air-conditioned hospitals, and dehydrating treatment so you may choose to avoid face powder. It has a tendency to settle into cracks and, yes, crevices; the result of skin cell moisture loss.
- Use brown eyeliner to define your eyes and a lighter taupe eye shadow, applied with a small brush, to create eye brows. Large crayon eyeliner pencils are more moisturizing than powder, and easier to handle if your fingers are swollen, numb or tingling from neuropathy, a temporary condition from some chemotherapies. If power is still your tool of choice, wet the brush with water, dip it into the powder and then apply it to the eye area. It will keep less powder from irritating your eye’s dehydrate mucus membranes, and “set it”— hold your make-up in place.
- Keep your cosmetics to a bare minimum and use tons of moisturizer. A drop of liquid make-up mixed with moisturizer creates a healthy glow. A drop of moisturizer mixed with cream blush, and applied to the apples of your cheeks will make you the apple of his eye. It will give you just the right amount of color to make you look naturally healthy. A fail-safe way to apply blush is to smile and your “apples” will stand out.
- Pink stick or gel blush on your cheeks, forehead and chin can give you a sun-kissed glow no matter what skin tone you have. Use colors that are close to your own natural skin tones.
- Spray your face with an atomizer of water to set your make-up. Small cans of Evian spray are available in department stores, or make your own “spritzer” by filling a spray bottle with purified water. Use it throughout the day to feel refreshed and to maintain that youthful dewy-glow.
- Lipstick or clear gloss finishes a healthy look, and moisturizes your lips. There are many long lasting lipsticks on the market from which to choose. Once applied, you won’t need a touch-up, even after eating. That little bit of color on your face can make such a difference.
- Smile! There is no make-up that can brighten your face like a smile. Beauty is only skin deep but your smile comes from the soul. Practiced smiling in the mirror for ‘muscle memory’ and used it whenever you feel like a wet noodle. It will change more than your looks. It will change the vibration around you by pulling it into a higher healing frequency.
Don’t be surprised if your laughter attracts attention.
A nurse may bring someone just starting their journey of healing over to you with the words, “Look at her, she’s glowing. See, it’s not so bad.” Your glow is a beacon of light to others still searching in the darkness of crisis. Share your tips with them.
Increase your healing light by giving it away.
This will make you even more beautiful—from the inside out. It is also a great way to do two powerful things at once; pay it forward to those still in need, and give back to the universe.
Sharing joy is universally empowering.
Laughter and smiles go together like peanut and butter, and are contagious. They are something you want to catch and give to patients who have a lowered resistance during treatment. Laughter raises all vibrational levels within ear-shot, and gives you an inner-glow that shines through to the world with the message, “I’m still here. I’m more than a survivor. I’m a Thriver!” So give someone a smile, and laugh ‘till it heals with confidence, while you are on your Valentine’s Day date. And remember, Cupid is watching.
This information is from Kathleen’s book SURVIVING CANERLAND: Intuitive Aspects of Healing
Kathleen O’Keefe-Kanavos- Intuitive Life Coach, survived three breast cancers missed by doctors but diagnosed by dreams & penned SURVIVING CANCERLAND: Intuitive Aspects of Healing. Kat is represented by Steve Allen Media. She’s a contributing author to many books including Kelly Sullivan Walden’s It’s All in Your Dreams, and Chcken Soup for the Soul. She’s a phone counselor for the R.A. BLOCH Cancer Foundation, Q&A Cancer Columnist for CapeWomenOnlineMagazine, “Dream Queen” for Wellness Woman 40 and Beyond, and Breast Cancer Authority, Radio Show Host, Inspirational Keynote Speaker, PATHEOS & BreastCancerYoga Blogger & OM Times Magazine Contributor. Follow her on her social media sites from her websites@ www.AccessYourInnerGuide.com
(All photos are owned by the author)
