ModernGear Beauty: Shine on, sister

This is a confusing time of year for women - all the rules! No white after Labor Day. All the sales! But white pants are 50% off! To say nothing of make-up...fall calls for darker hues and more coverage but I just can't carry off bright red or dark burgundy lipstick very convincingly, and I am uncomfortable in layers of blush. So come fall, I end up trying but then feeling, and projecting, that I look like a 10-year-old wearing her mother's lipstick and cheek color.

Summer's sheers and shimmers are much more flattering to my pale complexion, and are infinitely easier to wear. The kids haven't gone back to school, there's still one more long weekend to come, and so these sparkly products shouldn't have to fade away just yet - and that's good because I'm just not ready to let go. The following were my go-to products for Summer '08, that I am still going to (and they can work for you brunettes and reds, too)...

If last summer was the year of Benefit Cosmetics High Beam ($24), a shimmery accent/complexion highlighter (which I still love),
then this is the year of Benefit Cosmetics Posietint ($28), which is pretty much what it says - a posie-coloured tint for cheeks and lips. It imparts a fresh, healthy tone and has been perfect for my lighter complexion, but I've also seen it work nicely on girlfriends with darker features.I've also been enjoying the $22 Smashbox O-Gloss Intuitive Lip Gloss. I bought it on a lark, because I thought the concept of a lip gloss with intuition sounded intriguing. Why decide between colors when it will do all the work for me?! I didn't think it would work or that I would like it - I actually bought it to try to debunk it for my dear readers but what do you know - I actually like the pink it brings out in my lips, very much...but I did decide to stay away from the Intuitive Cheek Color as it seemed to guess that the best color for my cheeks was, "Had Two Too Many Glass of Wine" pink...

I've also enjoyed the results of Prescriptives Illuminating Cream PotionTranslucent, $35.
The marketing information describes this product in pretty glowing terms: "The Magic: Instantly imparts an image of perfection." I don't know that I'd go quite that far, but I did enjoy how it seemed to hide imperfections nicely and even out my skin tone, with an overall brightening effect.

And the last in my arsenal of shine and shimmer products are Cargo EyeLighters.
Cargo EyeLighter White, $17

CARGO EyeLighter Pink, $17
Trust the smart people at Cargo to come up with a great product, and one I'll use for summers to come. You know that little tip of widening and brightening the eyes with white/bright at the corners and along the rims? This beauty - a double-ended highlighting pen - simplifies the process by not making you guess how to do it. One end of the EyeLighter is labeled Inner Corner and features a shimmering shadow , and the other, you guessed it, Outer Corner, with matte shadow. The product is dispensed automatically when you remove the cap from the EyeLighter pen, via a spring-loaded tip. No fuss, no muss.

That's also what I like about these products...use any one of them and people who haven't seen you for a while will notice a pretty, bright complexion and automatically assume think you've been summering in Monaco.