Month: July 2013

Mineral Madness: Loose Eyeshadow Application Tips

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Hello everyone! The first week of Mineral Madness has come to a close. From reading the comments, I’ve gathered that a lot of you had been interested in mineral makeup, but kind of apprehensive about the messiness of it all. I don’t blame you. Mineral makeup is not for the clumsy or rush-out-the-door types. It really requires most people to sit down and take their time. Here’s a quick post on how to use and apply mineral eyeshadow, if you want to venture out into that world anyway. 1. Use a primer or a sticky base. For my Mineral Madness looks posts, I mainly used Benefit Lemon Aid, which I am trying to use up. Similar things you can use are tacky bases like cream shadows or cream pencils, or even primer. Make sure to pick something that is somewhat sticky or tacky, or just “wet.” This helps the loose pigments and shadows to stick to your lid. L-R: Benefit Lemon Aid, NARS Pro Prime Smudgeproof Base, NYX Jumbo Pencil in Milk, Urban Decay Primer …

Mineral Madness Day 7: Hope for Taupe under the Coconut Palms

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For the last day of Mineral Madness, I have a super simple eye look using a pink, sparkly eyeshadow from bareMinerals called Hope. I learned a trick from Patricia Lee of shu uemura for using pink eyeshadow. When you balance it with browns, you lessen the risk of looking like you are sickly or have pink eye. For this look, I put Hope on the inner half of the lid, the other half of which I patted on Coconut Palms. On the crease, I blended in Velvet Taupe, which was from A Vision in Velvet. Hope you enjoyed this series! Watch out for my “tips & tricks” later today. Stay tuned for another round of Mineral Madness in the future. 🙂

Makeup No-Buy Update: Two Month Mark

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Hello, and welcome to the two-month mark of my makeup no-buy! I very nearly bought a lot of items, but I resisted. Mostly. It’s not that hard if you don’t look at makeup on the regular and window-shop, online or offline. While I still do read blogs and watch beauty videos, there aren’t a lot of items that I feel like I need to have now, omg, so it’s not so hard anymore. Some lessons I learned, though: — Do not go to a beauty event if you can’t really buy anything. — Do not go into beauty counters “just to look” That’s pretty much it. I went to a shu uemura event, which was apparently a launch for their 30th anniversary collection and I had like a mother. When the Karl Lagerfeld Collection came out, I bought so many items that I earned myself a loyalty card upon check-out. I was very, very tempted, but then I swatched some of the eyeshadows and the ones I was able to check out were powdery as …

Softly Special: Matte Matters

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Since I posted about the NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencils yesterday, I thought about posting some of my favorite matte products. LIPS Clockwise from the top: NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Dolce Vita, NARS Pure Matte Lipstick in Montego Bay, MAC Lipstick in Mehr, Revlon Matte Lipstick in Fabulous Fig, MAC Matte Lipstick in Russian Red, and Chanel Rouge Allure Velvet in La Favorite. Here they are, swatched in the same order. EYESHADOW An obvious recommendation for a matte palette is the Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette, which consists of five matte shades, out of the palette’s six. It’s a great companion to all the eyeshadows you have right now, and you can definitely use it by itself. Here are a few of my other favorite matte eyeshadows, from a variety of eyeshadow palettes: L-R: Urban Decay Naked Palette (Buck), Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette (Tease), Laura Mercier Artist’s Palette for Eyes (Plum Smoke, Café Au Lait, Coffee Ground) L-R: Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette (Blackout), Laura Mercier Artist’s Palette for Eyes (Deep Night), …

Quickie: Charm Retractable Kabuki Brush

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Here’s an old brush that I never think I featured on here, for whatever reason. It’s not because the Charm Retractable Kabuki Brush is bad. I think it’s because I don’t really use it that often because I stowed it away, in a place I didn’t regularly interact with. Speaking of which, I’ve reassembled my makeup and now everything is pretty much within reach, so all is well. Anyway. This is pretty awesome. A kabuki brush is something you use for all-over face product application. It’s a dense brush that is often very soft but not bendy. They usually come with short, stubby handles that you can use to prop them up on your desk. Kabuki brushes are used to buff in all sorts of foundation with the aim of a flawless base. I’ve tried this with a pressed compact: Loose, setting powder: and Guerlain Météorites: I’ve also tried this with loose, mineral foundation, but have no pictures. I’m happy to report that it works really well for all of them. I don’t know how …

Mineral Madness Day 6: Charcoal TARDIS on the Nude Beach

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Welcome to Day 6 of Mineral Madness, and today, I have dared to venture into the world of bright blue eyeshadow! If you want to see a true blue swatch, check my haul post. As far as this look goes, however, I decided to take a more toned down route, as usual. I started by patting on a Shiro Cosmetics shade, TARDIS, on the outer 2/3 of the lid. With bareMinerals’ Nude Beach, I blended out the blue edge towards the inner corner. On the crease, I applied Velvet Charcoal from bareMinerals’ A Vision in Velvet holiday set. And that’s pretty much it! 🙂 Easy peasy. I used goat hair brushes for this look which throws away the theory I had that synthetic bristles applied mineral eyeshadow better. On my cheeks, I have Shiseido’s Luminizing Satin Face Color in RS 302, I think. On my lips, I have a NYX Round Lipstick in Peony. Then I just did my brows, business as usual; on my face I have a layer of bareMinerals’ Mineral Veil. That’s …

Drugstore Finds: KATE Matte Black Gel Liner

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Here’s a little gem I dismissed when I first got it, as ‘nothing special.’ The KATE Matte Black Gel Eyeliner is one of the things I got from my Japanese drugstore explorations, because of many wonderful reviews online. I tried it and didn’t really care much for it, until I tried it with another brush. The line it draws is very black and opaque. It’s rather creamy, though it’s not especially creamy, if that makes sense. It’s a little hard to glide it onto your eyelids, so I usually either pack my brush with a lot of product, or double-dip (lol) after doing half the length of the eye. The great thing about it, though, is that it stays put pretty well. This is after I smudged it off with a makeup remover wipe. Impressive, yes? I think this would be particularly awesome for humid climates like the Philippines! While it comes with a brush, similar to the Maybelline gel liner and the MAC 211, I find that I had the easiest time and best …