Tuesday, January 31, 2012

FOTD- Light Grey Eyes



I am feeling sick today so thought I would post a FOTD (Photo of the Day). I usually do dark colors on my eyes but have been playing around with cooler, lighter shades. My Urban Decay Naked Palette 2 is so awesome for this light look. Products are listed below.





Products:


Face:
Sally Hansen by Carmindy Your Skin Makeup in Creamy Beige
Maybelline Lunar Energy Super-Lasting Liquid Shimmer
Milani Mineral Powder in Nude Buff
Milani Baked Bronzer in Glow

Eyes:
Urban Decay Primer Potion
Naked 2 Palette: Pistol+Foxy above lid, Snakebite on lid, Busted in crease, Bootycall as highlight, Blackout on outer V
Urban Decay24/7 eyeliner in Crash
Milani Color Brilliance eye pencil in green
Rimmel Glam'eyes Lssh and Flirt in Black

Eyebrows:
Benefit Brow Zings in 04

Cheeks:
MAC Brit Wit Blushcreme
Rock and Republic blush in Shameless
Laura Geller Shade N Sculpt as contour
Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick in Copper Diamond as highlighter

Lips:
L'Oreal Colour riche lipstick in shade Kerry's Rosewood

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Foundation Routine

I've been wanting to post a step-by-step photo tutorial on how I do my foundation routine. I really think if you get your foundation routine down it will help create a long-lasting and smooth base for the rest of your makeup. Your foundation routine should stay put even if the rest of your makeup rubs off. It is definitely easier to reapply blush or lipstick than to do your whole face makeup throughout the day. This foundation routine took me approximately 15 minutes to do. Let me know what steps you use to create a flawless foundation base for your face. I would love any new tips. Feel free to post questions or comments. (Click on photo to enlarge)



Here are the products I use to prep my face: (from left to right)


MAC studio fix: two spritz on the each side of face to help lock in moisture on my super dry skin


Eye cream- small dab under each eye


Moisturizer


Renewal cream from TimeBalm that helps to exfoliate dead skin cells


Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream Sun Defense for face in spf 50


Make Up For Ever High Definition Primer in #7 to smooth face and fix any discoloration.


Lipbalm

My naked face is really a beautiful sunkissed look from all that California farming and sun I got growing up. I have tons of brown spots- this is also genetics because my mom has lots of brown freckles and brown patches too. I have some redness on my cheeks and forehead as well and lots of yucky undereye bag. My foundation routine is meant to even out my skintone and not necessarily to cover every spot on my face- I happen to love my freckles.

Foundation brush and foundation.

I've been using my new Sally Hansen foundation for a while now and I love it. It comes with a pump dispenser which is super sanitary. I pump two full pumps on the back of my hand and use a foundation brush to pat the foundation all over my face. Since my face is very dry, I try not to swipe the brush because it streaks. I pat then use a wet sponge (see next pic) to pat the foundation into my skin. The wet sponge helps to keep the foundation dewy looking and helps to keep foundation stay put on my face.

Pat, pat, pat. I don't try to smooth out foundation at this point because the sponge will do this later. I am simply just trying to get foundation on my face. Plus a foundation brush will tend to streak and soak up too much foundation if I used it on it's own to blend my foundation. I think if you have more normal or oily skin, you can rely just on the foundation brush to blend your makeup.


I love this sponge from Sonia Kashuk. I have heard the Beauty Blender works even better but it is more expensive and I just can't shell out $20 bucks for a sponge right now. I wet the sponge fully under faucet first, squeeze out any excess water then dab it on the excess foundation on the back of my hand and use it to pat the foundation on my face.

I next use my Lorac concealer to conceal bags under my eye. I have problems with my under eye area being too dry so that when I apply concealer, it leaves dry flakes. I've begun applying a little primer on top of my eye cream before I apply the concealer and this has helped tremendously to avoid the dry flaky skin.


I like to use a fluffy brush to blend the concealer under my eye. I feel this makes it more smooth.

I next use my Coty powder to set my foundation. Using a big fluffy brush, I simply sweep powder lightly over my face- avoiding too much on my cheeks since I will be using cream blushes.


I like to use a more fine setting powder like Mac's prep and prime to lightly set the concealer under my eye. This helps to keep the concealer in place throughout the day.


AFTER photo. Notice the makeup has just balanced out my skin tone so now when I apply the rest of my makeup, everything will look even. This is not a super high coverage look since high coverage tends to look too cakey on my dry skin. If I wanted more coverage, I would have probably used a more pigmented foundation and set my powder using the powder fluff method. For every day wear, this foundation routine serves the perfect base for the rest of my makeup. My foundation is also a lot lighter than my neck so when I do my makeup, I will be doing lots of bronzing and contouring. I do pull down some foundation along my jawline. Unlike what other makeup artists may suggest, I don't like to use too much foundation on my neck as the foundation could come off on my clothes.

BEFORE photo. Lots of freckles and redness!

Final photo with all my makeup applied. I always apply bronzer first to even out the face and neck area. Then comes cheeks, eyes, eyebrows, and mascara.


Hope you liked this photo tutorial. Happy make-uping!

Monday, January 9, 2012

Great upcoming sale! Beautyticket.com


Beautyticket.com is seriously one of my favorite websites. They are having an awesome sale starting February 1st at midnight where you can purchase any 5 Prestige beauty items for $10. Items include, color cosmetics and premium skin care products ND Includes brands like Urban Decay, MOR, Bliss, Bourjois, MAC and more. Limit 3 per order. Here's what I would buy if I should be lucky enough to have these items still available when the sale starts:

Urban Decay Brow Box in "Gingersnap"
Urban Decay Liquid Eyeliner in Radium
NARS Cream Blush in "Gold Member"
NARS Night Series Single Eye Shadow in "Night Clubbing"
Tom Ford for Estee Lauder Cheek Glow in "Soiree"
Bourjois Lovely Base Redness Correcting Base #28

Happy shopping! Let me know if you plan on getting anythang!