Showing posts with label blush. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blush. Show all posts

September 8, 2009

FOTD: A Few of My Favorite Things!!

Hey Beauties!

I hope everyone had a restful holiday weekend!

I was rummaging through my makeup drawer and decided to do a blog about my favorite products. These aren't current favorites (those can change daily!!), they are more like all time favs. They aren't in any particular order, so let's take a look!

Urban Decay Eye Shadow Primer Potion - This stuff is worth it's weight in gold! A swipe on each eyelid, spread around with a fingertip, apply your shadow and it won't budge for the whole day (and night if you don't wash it off!). It comes in two versions, the original, sort of a transparent off white that pretty much disappears on your lid, and the newest version, Sin, a shimmery pale gold-beige (same as eyeshadow with same name) to use as a base color. The cute little genie bottle has been accused of making it difficult to get the stuff out after a while...here's a hint: when it seems like it is almost gone, take out the swiping stopper thingy. There is A LOT more in there!! Wouldn't do my eyes without this stuff! The price is right for making eye makeup stay on...$17 at Sephora.

Burt's Bees Beeswax Lip Balm - Best lip balm I've ever used. Period. It goes on smoother than ChapStick and smells like peppermint. In the winter, when my lips get so dried out, this is the only thing that will heal them. I wear it to bed every night and use it under lip gloss, lipstick, etc. and on its own. I love that it has coconut oil, peppermint oil and vitamin E and costs about $3 at drugstores and discount stores.

MAC Eye Shadows - Yes, all of them. They are very highly pigmented resulting in excellent color payoff. The range of colors and finishes is just amazing for $14.50 at MAC stores and counters or maccosmetics.com. I have more MAC shadows than all the others put together...probably because they were the first ones I started to collect!

Bobbi Brown Corrector and Concealer - I have the darkest most permanent circles under and around my eyes, due only to heredity...mom, dad and sis all have them too. I feel like I have tried every concealer out there (not true, but I have a drawerful that might appear so), so when I took the plunge and tried the BB Corrector, recommended for really dark circles, with the Concealer, I found my Holy Grail concealers. Granted they are expensive by my standards at $22 for each one at bobbibrowncosmetics.com, but I tried others when my first containers ran out, and probably spent 3 times that on concealers that didn't even come close. So I caved and got the best. Never. Going. Back.

Bare Escentuals Brow Color - My eyebrows aren't that bad...maybe a little sparse, but I've spent the last couple of years getting them to the shape I want. I use different brow products here and there, but my every day go-to product is this brow powder. It is fast, fills in and still manages to look natural. AND, it is very reasonably priced at $11 at Sephora.

NARS Blush - It sounds like such a cliche, but really, this is the best blush!! It isn't all flyaway powdery, and it goes on like silk. It lasts forever, and has such awesome colors, like the iconic Orgasm. My personal fave is Deep Throat. Time to empty the piggy bank to shell out the $25 for it at Sephora!!

Smashbox Artificial Light Luminizing Lotion - My skin used to be all peaches and cream when I was growing up (yeah, I was one of those). But after 40, it started looking dull and kinda dead. That's where this luminizing lotion makes a difference. Sometimes I like to mix it with my primer and put the foundation on top, but I've also mixed it into my liquid foundation for nighttime looks. I've found it works to put it on before mineral powder foundations too. So if you are in that 40-something or older group and your skin is looking tired...try this stuff: $24 at Sephora.



These are really the only things I could come up with that I hadn't changed in a long time! I love trying new products, so if you have any suggestions, add your comments below!

Until next time, Stay Beautiful!!

Suz

August 24, 2009

MAC Fall 2009 Collection

I had the opportunity this weekend to have my makeup done by a makeup artist at our local MAC counter using the new Fall '09 collection, MAC Makeup Art Cosmetics (maccosmetics.com). It was such fun! I really like all of the makeup artists at our counter. We had fun rocking to the Black Eyed Peas while Jen did my face.

This is one of the more versatile collections I've seen in a while. The collection is in three parts, each with it's own artwork by a separate artist (check out the website above to view the videos of each artist and how they interpreted their part of the collection).

The first artist (and my personal fav!) is Richard Phillips. Here are the products in his group:

Notoriety: Skintone 1-Light White Pink, Skintone 2-Dirty gold, Notoriety-Dirty Brown with Gold Pearl, Rich and Earthy-Rich Coral Bronze (bought this one!) Notoriety looks almost matte in this picture, but it is definitely not...it has a nice gold pearl in it. This whole quad is pretty sparkly. I probably won't wear them all together, but mixed in with some matte textures. The Rich and Earthy color goes really well with Beauty Burst from the MAC Loves Barbie collection a few years ago.
Photo Realism: Photo Realism-Gold Shimmer with Gold Pearl, Fresh Approach-Cool Mint Green, Image Maker-Dirty Grey Green, Grey Range-Deep Blue Green (bought this one too!) I totally love this quad. I don't even wear much green, but these colors are so soothing and beautiful together that I just had to try them. This is the quad used in my makeover. Stunning.

My eyes done with this quad:





In the Gallery: Lightfall-Pale Pink, Look at the Eyes-Light Violet, In the Gallery-Dirty Blue Pink, Private Viewing-Deep Brown Plum. These colors are very pretty and I love purples because they make my eyes look really green, but I didn't buy it because the cool palette I got from last Christmas's collection is all pinks and purples too and I thought I had enough of those!(for now)


Lipglass: Young Thing, New Spirit, On Display, Personal Taste. Didn't buy any of these, but they are all simply gorgeous and have that yummy vanilla scent!


Lipsticks: Front Lit, Full Body, High Strung (bought this too!) , Hold the Pose, Lovin It. I don't usually go for light, frosty lipsticks, but when I use High Strung with a pale pink lip liner underneath, it is wonderful and goes so well with the smokey green eyes from the makeover!

Powder Blush: The Perfect Cheek (It is! Of course I bought it too!), Notable. MAC blushes are just luscious. This one, The Perfect Cheek, is a matte and goes on like silk. And it creates the perfect cheek!



Mascara: Plush Lash

The second artist is Maira Kalman. I didn't try any of these because I wasn't in the market for the bright colors...but the yellow (Crest the Wave) eyeshadow did catch my eye! The products this group are bright clear colors:

Eye Shadows: Crest the Wave, Maira's Mood, Violet Trance, Purple Shower, Off the Page, Haunting. These colors are so pretty! Of course you wouldn't wear them all at the same time (geez I hope not!) but they would be very nice as an accent color or a sheer wash of color. I have the Haunting color from the Alexander McQueen collection from last year.


Technakohl Liners: Artistic License, Graphblack, Full of Fuchsia, Obviously Orange, Colour Matters. I love Technakohl liners, but I've never really gotten into bright colored liners (maybe I should try it!). I think these would create some fun faces for Halloween maybe?



The third artist is Marilyn Minter. I do like pigments and have several, including the Cocomotion in this group. You know how I feel about glitter! 'Nuff said! The pigments and glitters in this group are:

Pigments: Brash & Bold, Push the Edge, Cocomotion, Heritage Rouge

Glitters: Gold, Reflects Copper, Reflects Rust, Fuchsia


Clear Gloss: I think the artist used this with the glitters in this group, but this stuff is great by itself!


My new picture is me with the Photo Realism quad, The Perfect Cheek blush, Blacktrack Fluidline, Very Black Cover Girl Lash Blast mascara (that's a review for another day) and a mauve lip liner with High Strung on top, all of it done by me. When my mom saw me after I had my makeup done, she said, "They didn't do it any better than you do!" Thanks Mom!!

Coming up next week: Arbonne cosmetics! I love their products but have never tried the makeup. I'm going to try their powder mineral makeup!