Shawls are the timeless accessory that dates back centuries and found in many cultures. The infinite variety of fabrics, colors, textures, styles and multiple ways of wearing a shawl make it one of the longest lasting fashion and functioning accessories in the world.

GRANNY CHIC

From the runway both Oscar de la Renta and Marc Jacobs featured shawls in what is being called “granny chic”. Note the stylized brooch being used to both hold and accent the shawl wrapped off the shoulder.

THE SNOOD

A snood is basically a scarf with a built in hood. It comes with extra fabric that can be draped only around the neck like a regular scarf or pulled over the head. Helmut Lang featured snoods in his fall runway show with several different fabrics layered filmy scarves with leather and lace in genius combinations.

FULL BODY WRAP

Beautiful shawls and scarves are great to decorate, accent and keep your neck warm, but these shawls are incredibly beautiful works of art that also look like a good cuddle. A Mano Studios offers gorgeous one of a kind felted shawls that are made with Australian merino wool.

Oval
• Dimensions: The distance from cheekbone to cheekbone is slightly longer than the distance from jawline to jawline, but it’s softly defined. In addition, the face is longer than it’s wide.
• Complimentary hairstyles: Long, short, blunt or soft cuts, almost anything goes with oval. If your face is long, though, consider cutting long bangs to draw the eye up.

Round
• Dimensions: Similar to oval except that it’s just about as long as it is wide.
• Complimentary hairstyles: Try a side part and face framing, razor cut layers or choppy bangs to help create the illusion of cheekbones.

Heart
• Dimensions: In this shape, the forehead is often wider with the chin narrowing, as in the bottom portion of a heart.
• Complimentary hairstyles: Since the forehead can appear larger, side-swept bangs can help balance the look. Side parts, long layers or short bobs work with a heart-shaped face.

Square
• Dimensions: Like a square, the jaw is often well-defined in this shape, with forehead, cheekbones and jawline equal in width.
• Complimentary hairstyles: Avoid blunt cuts, especially those that hit near your chin. You can do short or long, just have your stylist add graduated layers to soften the angles of your face.

Though many stylists and beauty experts would argue for more shape variations, these are the basic shapes. Your face may be a combination, and it may change with weight gain, hormonal fluctuations and age. In addition, makeup tricks can create the illusion of cheekbones, soften a chin or nose and otherwise slightly alter the overall look of your faceshape. Regardless, you can find many hairstyles to flatter your face.

Bad Haircuts, Quick Fixes

Sometimes, and we’ve all been there, you just get a bad hairstyle. Maybe it ended up too short, or the layers didn’t work, or you’re at the awkward phase of growing it out. A quick fix trick straight from Hollywood is to use micro ring hair extensions. These hair extensions use a small, micro ring to tightly wrap around a small section of your own hair. The ring is crimped with a special tool, and the hair stays in place. What’s great about the micro ring option is that the hair extension can be reused; you can take it out and move it or you can move it up higher toward the root as your hair grows. Micro ring extensions from Hair & Compounds use small strands of premium human hair to fill in volume if your hair is thin. You can also lengthen or add layers to soften your jawline with micro ring hair extensions.

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What Are Hair Extensions?

A powerful beauty tool, hair extensions can be subtle or dramatic, slightly boosting volume or dramatically extending hair length. Made of synthetic or natural human hair, a hair extension is bonded — by weaving with thread, glueing or securing with a ring or clip — close to the root of your own hair. Extensions can be placed anywhere on the head, but are often secured underneath your own hair to make the extension appear more natural. The best choice, preferred by stylists, is human hair extensions. These can be dyed and styled just like your own hair. Your salon can purchase them from premier hair extension companies such as Hair & Compounds.

Pulling Off a Sleek Ponytail

Pulling your hair back into a ponytail is a trendy and easy way to beat a bad hair day or compliment your outfit. Do your ponytails look lumpy or frumpy? Glamour.com has a few tips to make your style smooth, sleek and sexy. You’ll need some pomade, a flat iron, a boar bristle brush, hair elastic, smoothing product and a style-holding hairspray. Using the boar bristle brush, blow dry hair smooth and follow up with a flat iron. Apply a smoothing product and brush back hair into a smooth ponytail. Secure with an elastic and spray hair with hairspray. Take a small section of hair and wrap it around the elastic, securing it with a bobby pin on the underside of the ponytail. Use a light pomade to finish the look.

What About Hair Extensions?

If you need hair extensions to add length or volume to your ponytail style, have your stylist put them in before creating the ponytail. This way, the hair extensions are given the same product and treatment so that all hair looks even and natural. There are also ponytail hair extensions that specifically clip around your own ponytail to create your look. Be sure to match your hair extension color and texture carefully to your own to avoid an unnatural look.

1. When it comes to make-up, brilliant colors around the eyes is burning up the runway and can be copied by women on the go around the globe. Also known as pop coloured, bold streaks of color are applied all around the eye, bottom and top.

Top 10 summer beauty trends – Eyes

2. Hot lips are on fire as well as things heat up outside. Choosing a splash of bold colors in the orange to red spectrum works on those long summer days and women can warm things up even more with deeper shades of red when out on the town at night.

Top 10 summer beauty trends – Lips

3. Make-up that makes a statement is the way to go this summer and that goes for eye liner as well, using dark or bright shades and laying it on thick, stretching past the eye to catch the eyes of many others.

Top summer beauty trends – Eye liner

4. In contrast, some women are choosing the opposite end of the spectrum with a natural look if they choose to wear exotic colors and want attention drawn to their clothes.

Top 10 summer beauty trends – Natural look

5. Contouring is also in hot demand this summer as women make those cheekbones stand out, going for the dramatic in appearance.

Top 10 summer beauty trends – Cheekbones

6. When it comes to nails, bright seems to be the way to go again with neon, adding flair and a finishing touch.

Top 1 summer beauty trends – Nails

7. Pastel shades of polish are posh.

Top 10 summer beauty trends – Nails

8. Fancy prints make those nails pop.

Top 10 summer beauty trends – Nails

9. Jewels on nails will bedazzle.

Top 10 summer beauty trends – Nails

10. For those who tend to downplay their make-up and nails in favor of their outfits, white is also popular.

Top 10 summer beauty trends – Nails

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This season street style fashion is coming back in a big way and there are few different facets that you can focus on in order to give your clothing line a bit of an urban chic.

One of the biggest is prints. These can be as tame as a light plaid or as wild as a tasteful animal or safari print. A print is sure to bring out the wild cat in you in the jungle of the city streets.

From flowers to ethnic and animal prints

Another factor to focus on in order to not only bring vitality but attention to your wardrobe is color. Bright and vibrant colors are very nice to dress in as it helps to reflect the sun and keep you cool, but not only that, they let you express your individuality and help to make you look great in the process.

Stay in red

The brighter the better

Skirt is a summer must-have

Blushing beauties

Keeping clothes short, such as capris or shorts are also a great way to stay cool in the spring and summer weather.

Many people are looking to bring freshness and a sense of fun to their summer ensembles. Some have taken to looking to other cultures for inspiration. There is no better place to look to this summer than street style fashion. Keeping cool and looking great is the name of the game and if you keep your eye on the fashions of those who walk the streets this summer, you’ll be sure to stay in style.

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