My Makeup Favorites!!

I know a lot of times bloggers and You Tubers will make lists of their favorite things for a certain month or whatever but I thought, since I've never done one before and don't intend on doing one every month, that I'd make a list of my favorite makeup items!

Face Primer:  I really don't have a favorite for this one.  I use Monistat Anti-Chafing Gel (which is not made to be a face primer but it's basically the same thing as Smashbox Photo Finish primer, they both have that silicone feeling) because it's inexpensive for the amount of product you get and it does a good job of making my skin look smoother.

Foundation:  Revlon Colorstay for Oily/Combination skin (I use a mixture of the colors Buff and Sand Beige).  A long time ago, before I really got into doing my makeup, I had bought Revlon Colorstay and I HATED it.  It applied so heavily and looked so cakey that I could not understand why people liked it so I gave mine to a friend.  But after seeing even more people rave about it, I decided to buy it again.  Now I apply it by smoothing it all over my skin in small circles starting at my chin and working up.  Then, in areas where I need more coverage, I dab my 3 middle fingers in the foundation and stipple it over those areas (this works really well around my nose area where my pores are bigger, it seems to help the foundation to not settle there as much).

Concealer:  Well, it would have been Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Double Face Perfector but since they discontinued it, I'm going to have to say the Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Dark Circle Eraser for my under eye area and Maybelline Super Stay concealer for my redness and blemishes.

Powder: Umm... I don't have a favorite.  I just use the cheap loose powder from Covergirl right now.

Blush:  I guess I'd have to say NYX's "Peach" blush.  I keep buying it and I use it every day so that would have to make it a favorite, right?  I like the price and the amount of product you get.  And I really do like matte blushes because I like being able to control where the shimmer is on my face.

Bronzer:  That would be my ELF bronzer from the blush/bronzer duo.

Cheek Highlighter:  This is kind of a tricky one.  I don't always use products that are labeled as cheek highlighters.  More often than not, I'll just use a light, shimmery eyeshadow like Ingot 393 or 395 P or my MAC Vanilla pigment.

Eye Primer:  Too Faced Shadow Insurance.  I love this stuff.  I have no complaints about it.  Not even the price because even though it is $18 or whatever, a tube lasts me over a year so I think it's well worth it.

Eyeshadow:  Now, I was wondering about how to do this one.  So I'm going to break this into sections:

Favorite eyeshadow brand:  

Inglot.  Hands down.  Especially their mattes.

Favorite eyeshadow colors:  

Highlight colors:

Inglot 393 P

Inglot 395 P

Kat Von D "Peanut"

MAC "Vanilla" pigment

Bright colors: 

MUFE 92

Inglot 372 M

Inglot 371 M

Ben Nye "Chartreuse" pigment

Ben Nye "Cosmic Blue" pigment

Dark Colors:

Kat Von D "Redemption"

Kat Von D "Dagger" from the Metal Orchestra palette

Inglot 450 P

Neutrals:

Urban Decay "Twice Baked"

NYX "Black"

Inglot 363 M

Inglot 407 P

Inglot 419 P

I'm going to include this one here too Inglot 361 M

Eyeliner:  At the moment, it's Bobbi Brown Gel liner but I don't think I'm that particular, I like gel/cream liners.  I'm almost out of my Bobbi Brown gel liner so I bought a MAC "blacktrack" fluidline to use once it's gone.  I used L'oreal HIP cream liner before and that was good, but I figured it doesn't make sense to buy that if it costs more than the MAC fluidline does at the Cosmetic's Company Outlet.

Mascara:  L'oreal Extra Volume Collagen "Blackest Black."  

Lipstick:  Ok, I'm not the girl who says, "MAC is the best.  I can only use MAC" blah blah blah but I have to say that I LOVE their lip products.  I have 4 lipsticks from them and I wear those more than I wear any of my other lipsticks.  I just love the way they feel on my lips and their pigmentation.  They do cost $14.50, which is kind of a lot for a lipstick, but I love them so much that I'm willing to pay that.  My favorite lipstick that I have from them is "Myth."  I use it under just about everything to dull down my natural lip color.

Lipgloss:  Here I go again!  I love my MAC cremesheen lipglosses.  Yup.  I do.  More than any other glosses I've owned.  I was all about my NYX Megashine glosses until I got a cremesheen gloss.  I'd only had "Right Image" but I just bought "Boy Bait" the other day so I have something a little less pink to use as well.  I love them.  If you haven't tried them, you should.  I just checked the MAC website and they're $18.50 there.  Wow.  I paid $13 for mine at the Cosmetic's Company Outlet (so if you have one nearby, definitely go check it out!!).

And I think that is about it!  If there's anything I forgot, feel free to ask.  And if you read through all of this, you're a champ haha!  Thanks guys!

An easy, universal Halloween look

Let's be honest, unless someone is really into makeup or special effects, or really artsy stuff, for Halloween  most women will be a "sexy" something or other.  And to quote Mean Girls, "Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it." Haha I love that movie.

So I decided to do a look that you could wear with any outfit if you're going for the sexy look.  It has a very cat-eye quality to it. For the actual day of Halloween, I would just add some false lashes and maybe a rhinestone on the inner corner.  So here's what I did.  Haha I had to tone it down a little and not go completely crazy because I knew I had to go to Target after this.

I edit my pictures in Picnik and at the moment, they have an edit where you can make yourself have Vampire eyes, so I did that.  I think it looks cool

Also, if you have a look that's something that's supposed to be "bad" like a witch, a pirate, a vampire, something along those lines, I'd add red lips and not go as heavy on the cheek makeup.

For this look I used : Inglot AMC 61,

which is a blackened blue with navy blue sparkles (not a favorite of mine at all) but I wanted to use this color since I never do.  It basically just looks black but if you blend it out enough, you can see the blue.  I also used a dark tan color from my 88 palette, and my highlight is Inglot 395 P.  The liner is Bobbi Brown "Black Ink" gel liner.  And if I had lash glue I definitely would have added false lashes because I think, especially for Halloween, this look needs them.

To make the shape, the first thing I did was take a smudge brush and drag the dark blue from the corner of my eye to make the wing at the angle I wanted it and then I filled my lid with the color.  I blended it up from there making sure not the lose the wing shape I'd made.  Then I made the inner corner of my eye come to a point with my liner to make the shape a little more dramatic.

I hope this helps someone out there!

Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser Review

The one product I use that I completely swear by is the Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Double Face Perfector. I have said before if I was only allowed to choose one makeup product to ever have, that it would have been that.  However, Maybelline decided to discontinue making this product.  What a bummer for me.  So I had to find something else to use.  I decided to grab this, the Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser Dark Circles Treatment Concealer.  Here's what it looks like

It would have been more helpful if I had showed you the side that's in English, right?  Whoops haha.

 Just a forewarning, you will have to twist this little bugger for days for the product to start coming out.

It has a little sponge applicator

I do not have crazy dark circles.  I just have a little bit of darkness under my eyes that needs some brightening.  I also have little creases under my eyes that I've always had (my daughter has them too) and I've never liked the feeling of a creamy concealer under my eyes, it's always felt too heavy and showed off my little creases too much.  That's why I loved the Double Ended Face Perfector:

One side is a concealer (for blemishes, redness, etc.) and the other side is a highlighter to use under your eyes

This is the highlighting end.  You can see it has a little brush to apply the highlighter with.

This is the concealer end.  This concealer is AWESOME for covering blemishes!  I swear!  Now I'm using Maybelline's Super Stay concealer and that works well too.  Definitely try it if you're having a hard time getting a natural coverage of your blemishes or redness!

Now, this new Dark Circle Eraser works really well too.  The formula is still really light and it doesn't feel heavy or cakey.  I don't know if they just took the highlight formula from the Double Ended guy and put in here?  But whatever, it works for me.  I think I did prefer the brush applicator as opposed to the sponge but it doesn't really matter because I just apply it with the sponge and dab it around with my fingers anyways.  It does a great job for me and it's really all I need to cover my darkness.

Here's my with no product under my eyes

Here's where I apply the eraser treatment.  Pretty, huh?  Haha

And after it's blended in (not set with powder yet though).  I like to blend it out in an upside down triangle shape under my eyes.  I learned it from Kandee Johnson. 

And a close up side by side so you can see the difference

As you can see, my before isn't awful but I definitely need some brightening and this does the trick.  I'm not sure how this would work for someone with really dark circles, the coverage might not be full enough.  This will be my new staple for my under eye concealer.  I think I paid around $7 for this at WalMart.  Hopefully they won't discontinue this product on me!  I'd recommend at least trying this product, it's quite inexpensive and if you hate it, most drugstores will take it back no questions asked (with a receipt)!

Fallen Angel kinda look

I saw the latest challenge on Makeup Geek is to do a look using black and orange, it said to be inspired by a picture (?) so I googled "orange and black pictures" and I saw this

And I thought it was super cool and I could definitely do a look inspired by this.

So I got started and I started playing with my liner on the outer corner of my eyes and I stepped back, took a look, and felt like this looked like a "Fallen Angel" type look so I went with that and tried to make it a little darker and more evil looking, hence the crazy contouring on my cheeks haha.  So here is the look I came up with!

Sorry about the insane amount of pictures, it was raining outside so I didn't have good lighting so I tried to take some pictures outside, which wasn't working out super well so I took some more in my bathroom.  However, bathroom pictures aren't as nice as outside pictures so I was getting a little frustrated because I wanted it to look good but my lighting wasn't working with me haha.  Oh well.  I really tried on this look and I hope you guys like it!  

The colors I used were NYX shadow in "black," Inglot shadows 366 M (a matte reddish orange), 407 P (a beautiful golden orange), 393 P (as a highlight), 2 oranges from my 88 palette. The liner is a mix of NYX studio liquid liner "extreme black" and Revlon Colorstay black liquid liner. I used Inglot 366 and NYX "Black" shadows to do my cheeks as well.

Thanks so much for checking this out guys!! 

Ease yourself into color

I know a lot of people like the look of colored eyeshadow, they just feel like they can't pull it off.  Well I'm here to tell you that you're wrong.  Everyone can wear color on your eyes, you just need to ease into it and feel comfortable with the color you're wearing.  I think purple is a really good starter color because it can read as a shade of brown sometimes.  So here's a look I did as an example of a way to wear color that's not overwhelmingly colorful.

I used Inglot shadows:

407 P on lid (I stinkin love this color!)

AMC 72 to define outer v area

392 M to blend up

And of course my highlight is 393 p (I almost always use this or 395 p because they're VERY similar)

The liner I used on my lid is Revlon Colorstay Black liquid liner.  On my waterline, it's Bobbi Brown's "Black Ink" gel liner.  I have on L'oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara.  And on my lips, I have MAC "Creme Cup" lipstick under Buxom lipgloss is "Debbie."

I think this is a super easy way to wear color without being over the top!  I hope this is helpful to someone out there who wants to try color but isn't sure how!  Thank you guys so much!

Quick post about contouring!

I don't know if you guys are into contouring your faces but I most definitely am.  I have a face that is lacking in bone structure.  I don't have very well defined cheekbones, a kinda wide nose, and I have a relatively large forehead.  Luckily, there is contouring which helps me to look like I have nicer cheekbones, a nice nose, and a smaller forehead.  So here is what I look like before and after my contouring.

Obviously, besides just adding more color to my face, you can see how much more narrow my forehead looks.  And my nose.  And my cheeks look way more defined (still not how I'd like them to look but hey, it's what I've got haha).  

So here are the tools I use to do this:

There's my ELF blush/bronzer duo which I use every single day.  

Obviously I use the bronzer more than the blush haha.  

Then there's NYX's "taupe" blush.  Which I use sparingly as it makes my skin

 look grey if I use too much.

Then I have a Revlon Colorstay highlighter.  But any light shimmery color will do.

And I have my Sonia Kashuk stippling brush (for the highlighter) and everything else is done with my angled blush brush.  I really like the angled brush because it helps me get up under my cheekbones nicely.  

Whoops, I also use a large fluffy eyeshadow brush because I contoured my eye socket too with the taupe blush.

I think if you haven't ever given contouring a try, you should.  Even if you don't have anything weird on your face like I do (hello nose!), there's no shame in playing up what you've got!  If you have awesome cheekbones, show those suckers off!  

Meredith Jessica from Pigments and Palettes actually shows how she contours in this video:

She starts the contouring around 5:00 but you should still watch the whole thing!

It's a rainbow eyes kinda day

I'm not really sure why but I wanted to do something fun today.  So I went for rainbow eyes.  When my husband saw me, he was like, "are you feeling artistic today?" haha.  I told him I felt like a bird of paradise, thinking he knew what that was.  Then we were talking and he said something about going to the store and I said, "If you lose me, you can just ask if anyone has seen the girl with the rainbow on her eyelids" and he said, "yeah, or the girl who looks like one of the birds from paradise."  Haha turns out he had no idea a bird of paradise was a flower, he thought I literally meant a bird you'd see in paradise.  So that made me laugh.

So here's my rainbow/bird of paradise look.

Sometimes my camera does this cool contrast thing by accident where it makes my skin look super light and the background really dark, but I like how it shows my eyeshadow.

I used a lot of colors for this look haha.  I used NYX JEP in "Milk" as a base.  Then I used Inglot colors: AMC 60 (yellow), 366 M (red orange), 407 P (golden orange), 384 M (green), 372 M (robin's egg blue), 371 M (bright blue), 351 M (light skin toned color).  Then I used Ben Nye pigments in Cherry Red and Sun Yellow, NYX ultra pearl mania in "lime," and then I also used a bunch of colors from my 88 palette (which I can't remember because I just dabbed in whatever color I thought I needed haha).

I think this is a fun look, it definitely gets people's attention.  I saw people looking at me (which I'm not a huge fan of haha, I always get all self concious when I see someone look at me for more than a second).  I didn't realize we were going anywhere when I started doing this.

I'll throw in a picture of a bird of paradise flower just in case you don't know what they look like

I think they're really cool flowers.  

That's my look for today!  Hooray for two posts in two days!