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Rounding Things Out: MAKE Colour New Medieval Palette

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Just an interlude from the Wes posts (I’ll just be posting two more): an actual review! You know when you’re “not collecting” things, but you have one or two things missing from your “non-collection” and it just seems wrong not to get the last one? Well… That’s what happened here.

MAKE Colour, a New York based brand that I am pretty much in love with, currently has four palettes, three of which I already had… which left the New Medieval Palette. This was what I originally wanted when I discovered MAKE (though this was the only one they had out at the time, if I remember correctly), so I kind of had my heart set on it already anyway.

Sidenote

Check out my other reviews for the Aether Palette*, Post-Impressionism Palette, Celeste e Verde Palette*.

True to the direction of their other collections, this MAKE palette, created by Faye Toogood in collaboration with Ayami Nishimura, draws inspiration from specific sources, in this case the “Romantic landscapes” of J.M.W. Turner and John Constable. This is probably the only palette whose inspiration I can’t quite see translated perfectly and whose direction I’m not quite sure I can discern. Read More

Welcome to Wes Anderson Week

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I’ve been toying around with this idea for a while, but I just couldn’t push through with it for some reason… Until I finally decided to just do it. I think I had a hard time thinking of features that would actually work—there were a lot of potentially fun ones—but sometimes, there are things that you think about too much that you end up not doing them. And I didn’t want that to be the case for this particular series, so here we are. Wes Anderson. I’m sure you all know him by now, or at least, the movies he’s made. Half the population went as Sam and Suzy from Moonrise Kingdom for Halloween not so long ago, after all. But for the uninitiated, Wes Anderson is an American director, and he made my favorite movie, Rushmore. He has a very strong sense of aesthetics and I just think that his work is such a fun thing to kind of merge with makeup, just because it is already so visually strong and distinct. For Wes Anderson week, I just have a few looks based on different aspects of his films, as well as other features, which you will obviously see later this week. For the past few weeks, I’ve been trying on looks based on some of his theatrical posters:

Rushmore

Rushmore (1998)

This is, perhaps, the first Wes Anderson film I watched. I think I might be the only person I know who can relate with—and I mean, the real kind of empathy, deep-in-my-heart relatability—the pain-in-the-ass protagonist, Max “I WROTE A HIT PLAY!” Fischer. I made my Philosophy professor watch this movie, and he said that he wished Max Fischer was real, so that he could “punch him in the face.”

I was hoping I’d get away with a sky blue, navy, red look based on the general appearance of Mr. Fischer over here, but the poster has copious amounts of yellow. So I rolled with it, but made it gold.

Wes Week - Rushmore - Face

Makeup Used: MAKE Soft Focus Foundation (Cool #4), MAKE New Medieval Palette (Woad, Ultramarine, Rust used), Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder Palette (all shades used), K-Palette 1 Day Magic Liquid Liner*, Kjaer Weis Cream Blush (Abundance), K-Palette 24H Real Lasting Eyebrow Liner*

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Nosy Beauty Vol. 38: Liz

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For today’s Nosy Beauty, I managed to get someone I admire very much from the beauty blogging community to agree to be a part of this series (38th post, can you believe it?!)—Liz Lanuzo from Project Vanity! Project Vanity is one of the biggest beauty blogs in the Philippines, and I quite luckily managed to befriend Liz over the last few years. 🙂 Aren’t you excited that we’re about to pick her brain about beauty?

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September Favorites

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And it’s time for another round of beauty and skin care favorites! I usually am at a loss when I write this feature (30 days is a long time for the mind to rewind back to, it seems…) but since I’ve been on the road for most of September, it was easy to find things in my small-ish stash that I enjoyed immensely. Here are some of them:

SeptFaves

One Love Organics Skin Savior Waterless Beauty Balm — this is a makeup remover, cleanser, and moisturizer all in one. It is AMAZING and helped my skin out a lot in NYC where it was breaking out a lot. My sister’s been enjoying using it, too!

Indie Lee Squalene Oil — I bought this at Space.NK and wanted to try an olive-based squalene facial oil, because it’s known to be great for the skin. I can attest to these claims. This oil is fantastic and I usually use it on my skin during the day, before I put on my sunscreen/moisturizer.

MAKE Colour Soft Focus Foundation — This has been amazing for dry-skin days. I don’t usually like having to put on base makeup everyday, but I notice a big difference in my skin texture whenever I use this. Turns out that this is formulated with squalene, too!

ILIA Beauty Lipstick in Funnel of Love — This is an amazing nude shade that doesn’t wash me out and is easy to wear. Apart from the ease of wear, it’s also a pretty shade that I actually look forward to wearing, as opposed to wearing it due to just not having any other option.

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder Palette — This adds subtle dimension to the face and helps set any concealer I put on.

BITE Beauty Agave Lip Mask — Again, an amazing find that helped out a lot with the drastic change in weather! I don’t even wear balm during the day anymore, since putting this on at night is all the prep and moisture I end up needing for my lips.

Kjaer Weis Cream Blush in Abundance — I love this shade so much. I almost wish this is the only blush I brought long. It is a dark neutral blush that leans a bit mauve.

Le Métier de Beauté Peau Vierge Corrector in Medium — I’m glad I brought this along (it was just OK for me) because I’ve been liking it much more than I initially did. I like how I don’t need to set this, and how ultra-pigmented it is that I don’t even need to use a lot of it!

And that’s it! 🙂 I’ve been really enjoying my Urban Decay Naked 3 as well, I don’t know why I didn’t put it here… HAH. Let me know what you’ve been loving lately!

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MAKE Colour Soft Focus Foundation: An Impulse Buy that Worked Out for the Best

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Yeah, yeah, another base product… I really didn’t mean to buy, but ended up trying and liking the MAKE Colour Soft Focus Foundation (I was matched to Cool #4) and impulsively buying it BUT! It turned out to be for the best and I shall tell you why.

MAKE Soft Focus Foundation - Bottle

In an attempt to be supah efficient at makeup-packing, I ended up panicking and overstuffing my makeup bag with makeup. All of which I’ve used and loved having around, mind you, but still—unnecessary. I brought a mineral powder foundation, underestimating just how DRY THE AIR IS IN THE EAST COAST. Man alive, I had so much trouble with my skin for about two weeks… I ended up slathering my face with several moisturizers and oils, and towards the end of the second week of skin hell, I wore this foundation and found that it super suited my situation. Read More

Lazy Girl Makeup: One Shadow Shadows

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Slicking on one eyeshadow on your lid isn’t an entirely new concept for the lazy girl. In fact, before you (we) went off the deep end of the makeup world, that’s what you (we) probably did. So, I’m here to show you some of my favorite singles to put all over my lid when I’m feeling particularly rushed or stumped.

Before I begin, here is Liz’s take and here is Bea’s. Here are just a few… by which I mean, most eyeshadows will work for this purpose anyway. I love the type of shades that actually have dimension, though, and these ones are quite effortless to wear.

LGM - One Shadow Shadows
Swatched, L-R: MAC Groundwork, MAC Constructivist, Oslo Vela, shu uemura ME medium brown 885, Rouge Bunny Rouge Abyssinian Catbird, Le Métier de Beauté Alexandrite, & Other Stories Percaline Khaki, Addiction by Ayako Fudge

  • MAC Groundwork – my favorite colored eyeshadow base that, fortuitously, can be worn alone, too. It’s definitely a go-to eye color, both as a base and as a shade itself.
  • MAC Constructivist – darker than Groundwork, but just as useful, especially if you’re in a more dramatic mood.
  • Oslo Vela – lovely, effortless beauty of a shade. If you pack it on quite thickly, you’ll get this beautiful duochrome. Otherwise, you get a pretty hazy brown look.
  • shu uemura ME medium brown 885 – my absolute favorite eyeshadow of all time. It doesn’t look like much but it feels luxurious to the touch, blends really well, and goes with everything.
  • Rouge Bunny Rouge Abyssinian Catbird – any medium or dark RBR shade, actually. These are smooth as butter and quite complex shades.
  • Le Métier de Beauté Alexandrite – I used this to do a one-shadow smoky eye back in the day. This is a beautiful, deep violet shade.
  • & Other Stories Percaline Khaki – Gorgeous olive-y green. This is just absolutely beautiful and easy to work with.
  • Addiction by Ayako Fudge – another metallic brown, but more golden, lighter, and warmer. This is gorgeous.

Here are a few single-shadow looks I’ve done over the years:
5PF - 5 - Face 2
Using Oslo Vela

Smoky Eye - Le Metier de Beaute - Alexandrite
Using Le Métier de Beauté Alexandrite

shu uemura eyeshadow ME medium brown 885 - face
Using shu uemura ME medium brown 885

So there you have it! Just a few of my favorite one-shadow shadows. Let me know some of yours? 🙂

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Cataloging

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Hi

Hello from windy Chicago! We left New York and New Jersey (with a sprinkling of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania)… and now we’re hitting SF, LA and Las Vegas in the next few weeks, so if you wanna tag along, here be my Instagram (hint: it’s @presidents!).

I intended on cataloging the looks I wear on vacation, but it turns out that that’s much harder to do than I thought, so there are quite a bit of gaps here. I’ll post information as I remember them, and I’ll try looking through my folks’ and siblings’ cameras for possible look photos I can put on the days that I didn’t take a photo (which is most days).

SEPTEMBER 15: Urban Decay Naked 3, Happy Skin Gel Liner (Brown), Physician’s Formula Organic Wear Fake Out! Mascara (pink tube), ILIA Beauty Multi-Stick (All of Me), ILIA Beauty Tinted Lip Conditioner (Shell Shock)
FOTD-Sept15

SEPTEMBER 16: I DON’T REMEMBER ANYTHING EXCEPT FOR NARS Pure Matte Lipstick (Mascate)
FOTD-Sept16

SEPTEMBER 17: Urban Decay Naked 3, MAKE Eyeshadow (Khaki)*, Happy Skin Gel Liner (Brown), Physician’s Formula Organic Wear Fake Out! Mascara (pink tube), Kjaer Weis Cream Blush (Abundance), ILIA Beauty Lipstick (Funnel of Love)
FOTD-Sept17

SEPTEMBER 23: MAKE Soft Focus Foundation (Cool #4), Urban Decay Naked 3, ILIA Multi-Stick (All of Me), Happy Skin Gel Liner (Brown), NARS Pure Matte Lipstick (Tonkin)
FOTD-Sept24

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