My Review of Benefit's They're Real Beyond Mascara

I think it is safe to say that no one is looking forward to getting older, Yes?  It wasn't until I was in my 30's that I accept that process and decided that I was going to grow older (not old) in the best way I could, never to look silly, but to look like me always, but better.

Of course, the way to achieve such a thing, is with help from great product.  Even as a make up artist, I almost wear no makeup.  Just because I am an artist doesn't mean I have to be done up everyday, but I do have two staples.

1. Mascara

2. Lip Butter (I use Body Shop, I will have to do a review on that too)

Over the last few years, I have noticed that my eyelashes, which were once naturally full, long, curvy and talk have started to change.  I have tried what seems like every mascara on the market, from low cost to very expensive and I have even done fake lashes, but to be honest, I have not been totally satisfied with how any of those products made my lashes look, until today.

I took a girly trip to Sephora today and I just found the Mother or all mascaras.  I sampled Benefit's |They're Real Beyond Mascara and the moment the wand touched my lashes, they look friggin amazing.  No clumping, no flaking, no looking like I just added tar to my eyes, this product is amazing.  My eyelashes went from non existent to outrageously amazing, I looked like I had gotten 10 hours sleep and my eyes looked about 10 years younger.

There is no smudging, no flaking, and if I touch my eyelashes which were dry almost immediately, my lashes feel soft to the touch, like there is nothing on them.  I cannot say enough good things about this product.

The wand is amazing, and if you use it horizontally it lifts the lash and fills every hair.  Turn it vertically and swipe up, and it curls your lashes and my favorite part, it separates them.

You don't need anything else other then this product for amazing eyelashes, I promise you.  If possible I have just fallen in love with a tube and wand, and quite frankly, I can't stop batting my lashes at this new love.

My review!?  Love Love this product.  Go get it.

Maybelline's Fit Me Foundation Review

I have since the early 90's when I started needing the occassional use of foundation to find just the right one, or at least one that I think works pretty great.  I did find what I thought was the gold of foundation once in a sample in vogue made by lancome (I think) and it was the first time I was introduced to a product that used light to help make it so good, it felt like mouse, so light on the skin you didn't even know it was there.  (note to self, use the internet to now find that foundation again) fast forward 20 years later and this product may no longer dance nicely with my 30 something skin, but in the mean time I have found one that I think is pretty good.

I recently purchased at Walmart a bottle of Maybelline's new Fit me foundation number 210 and I bought it just after I had had my baby and we were about to do a family photo shoot.  The pregnancy had left me face and neck with alot of undesired spots that I needed to cover up. Can I just say this stuff covers, really really well.  Its pretty smooth yet not as light as some whipped up foundations, it does have the consistency of most liquid foundations yet still feels a little lighter but not like cream, it blends into the skin really well either with a brush or your fingers, (I prefer finger application) there is no cakiness in any time lapse after application and I don't feel like I have a mask on.  Now......it doesn't feel as invisible as mineral foundation does, I can feel I have something on my skin but only when actually touch my face, to have it actually on my skin and move my face I don't notice its there.

Click picture to take you to Maybelline.ca

I also liked that it was really easy to pick my shade, their selection process is really easy to use and quick.  Once I picked my foundation it then tells me what powder and blush I should use.  I also like the powder.  Its well pressed in the compact and when you do put your brush to it, it doesn't come off overloaded.  I have found it works great to set foundation and concealer on the eyelid if I choose not to use a primer.  It sets very nice.

As I mentioned earlier, the product is not totally undetected so I wouldn't use it in an  environment where its going to be overly warm and I may perspire,  and that's just my personal preference to not feel like there is anything on my skin when in those environments, that's when I will stick to my mineral products, but for a night out on the town, when my make up application overall is going to be a little heavier anyway, this product is perfect to give you that wonderful clean canvas that make up loves to sit on top of.  For the price, its well worth it.

Nina Dobrev Emmys Makeup

This look is really easy to do because its what I like to call a natural beauty enhancer, its not over done, but just emphasizes what is already beautiful on the face.  The colors are warm, and the palette is very often used by makeup artists for people wearing red.

What you will need:

eyes - a matte rust shadow - like MACs Rule

eyes - a matte dark brown shadow - like MACs Espresso

eyes - a matte black shadow - like MACs Carbon

eyes - a cream type liner  - like MACs Fluidline in Blactrack, anyone can do a cat eye with this

eyes - black pencil liner and white pencil liner

eyes - Black Mascara

eyes - Fake lashes (optional)

brows - a shadow that matches your brow colour

face - Bronzer to be used on temples, cheeks and for the shoulders, collar bone and cleavage
face - pressed powder for highlighting
face - Blush in a peachy coral color - like MACs Stunner or Peaches in powder form
lips - liner and tinted gloss - like MACs Boldy Bare pencil and Lusture Lip in Lishious

What to do:

Prepare the face with moisturizer, foundation and concealer (make sure you apply concealer and powder to the eye lid too if you are not using a primer, this will help the shadow last longer and prevent creasing and helps with blending) but if you can use primer, go for it. Also prepare the eyebrows by filling them in since this look does have a bold eyebrow.

1. Apply Rule to the entire lid from lash line to brow
2. Apply Espresso to the lid and into the crease
3. Apply Espresso again to the outter corner of the lid and bring it into about 1/4 of the lid, blend well and follow the shape of the outer eye socket to create a bit of a cat eye, achieve this with blending as opposed to creating a harsh line, you want to create smoke and smoke is created by diffusion of colour.
4. Take the carbon and with little product place it again on the outside corner of the lid, about 1/3 of the lid and blend out and up to darken the smoke, its important to add the black gradually since piling it on will be to harsh, remember diffusion.
5. Take your product like the fluid line and with a small angled lining brush line the upper lash line to the thickness you want keeping in mind how much of your lid is visible. Nina has it pretty thick, I wouldn't do this with the liner but then build up on it with more carbon afterwards so its not so harsh.
6. with an angled brush go over the fluid line with the carbon and create a slight flick for the cat eye.
7. Rim the top water line with black pencil eyeliner, and the bottom with white
8. Using a small eyeshadow brush, rim the lower lash line withe the carbon very close to the lash line and diffusing down.
9. If using fake lashes apply now and then apply mascara to top and bottom lashes

Apply bronzer to the temples and beneath the cheekbone and anywhere else that you need to create shade (jawline)

Apply the blush to the apples of the cheek and up toward the temple hairline
Apply a higlighter such as your pressed poweder in a  C formation on the top of the cheekbone and over the brow.

Line the lips softly using a lip brush to blend the line inward, and then apply the lip colour with a brush.

I have added a link to a video on youtube (not mine) that has a similar look which just so happens to be inspired by Nina, the application is pretty much the same, its just the colours are different, but its the placement that matters. The Makeup Chair

Get Nina's outfit look for much less

Now go paint the town red ;)

How Do I Pick Colour?

Colour isn't always an easy thing to put together, and some people struggle with choosing the right colour to shadow and enhance their eyes.  The cosmetic industry over the last few years have started to provide products that already colour group shadows for you, but I have found that many of these colour groupings are rather boring sticking to colour palettes of brown, green and purple. 

The colour wheel is made up of many colours, shades and even tone, all starting off of the primary colours of Red, Blue and Yellow.  When I was in Makeup School my teacher made an excellent point of saying that realistically all you needed in your kit was these primary colours along with a white, and from these 3 colours and one tone you could create any colour.  Good advice considering the cost you can rack up if you want your makeup bag or kit to provide alot of options, especially as a make up artist.

As complex as understanding colour may seem when looking at the colour wheel, its actually pretty easy.  All you really have to remember is that the colour opposite the one you are trying to match is the best compliment to that colour.  Here is the colour wheel, following the colour wheel is an example of this rule.

Using the colour wheel above, lets say you have blue eyes.  look at the blue area of the wheel and then look at the colours displayed opposite of the blue.  So your colour choice would be reds, oranges including varying shades like pinks and peach.  Brown eyes have it the easiest, although brown eyes can wear any colour and shade, blues, greens and purples work the best to make a brown eye really pop.  Although brown is not part of the colour wheel due to it being a compliment colour, it is a warm colour, therefore if it was going to be on the wheel it would be on the side of orange, yellow and even green, since many times the colour brown is made up of these colours.

No matter what the rules are, rules were made to be broken, and at the end of the day if you feel comfortable in it and love it, you can wear any colour you want, regardless of how they are decorated, eyes are the window to the soul, so whether bare or coloured they are always beautiful.

Fall 2011 Trends

I am a child of the 80's, in Jr. High I was rimming my eyes with shimmery sea foam blue eyeliner on the bottom and kohl black on top, because I was young I leaned more towards the frosty pink lipstick then the deep magenta and fuchsias some older girls use to wear.  Well, guess what?  As a very well known horror movie of my generation use to say, "They're Back!"

Fall 2011 seems to be nodding back to the 80's but with a more contemporary ingredient.  NY Fashion Week had its runways filled with clean, creamy dewey faces with bold lips and eyes matching the current clothing trend  where it seems low key, ethereal. Read "Can you feel it?" for clothing trends.

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Lipstick at Sephora
Eye Shadow by NYX

The palette is cool yet some may thing its warm. the face is clean with little foundation yet creamy, cream blushes are applied with the fingers, so they are worked into the skin giving a subtle glow, lips are coloured from the lightest and palest purple to the deepest wine without any lip liner.  Eyes are smokey again in greys and muted blues, with just a slight tinge of shimmer, yet with the right shade of lipstick the eyes may be shades of burgundy and shades of mustard.  Also gone is eyeliner, its still there, but the intent is to just enhance the eye to stand out without noticing the product. Fake but natural look lashes can replace the heavy look and feel of mascara, but still helps to define the eye and create size.  The best way to be inspired this season, go outside, lie on a patch of grass and look around you, see the leaves changing colours, yet they are still holding onto some of their green.  Look at ripened berries and look at the cool glow of nature, that's what you want.