All posts tagged: beauty

Ellis Faas - Identity Revealed

Identity Revealed: a filmed triptych by Ellis Faas

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Earlier this week, I received an email about a new venture by Ellis Faas—a short film. I’ve always been intrigued by her, as she is one of the most successful makeup artists in the industry. Her line is also brilliant, and she began as a photographer. Last Thursday, the former queen of the Netherlands Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrix opened a new exhibition at De Nieuwe Kerk (which is an old church) in Amsterdam: “Magical Africa – Masks and Sculptures from Ivory Coast. The Artists Revealed”. For this exhibition, the curators commissioned a film by makeup artist/photographer/filmmaker Ellis Faas, asking Ellis to draw inspiration from the traditional masks from Ivory Coast. “Since ancient times, humans have been using masks – in order to express power and authority; to feel self-confident; to stand out or to hide behind; to not be recognised and disappear into the masses. Not only by traditional masks, but also by disguising and ornamental elements such as clothing, jewellery, hair and makeup. But can one truly change one’s identity, or is it …

My Picks from BITE Beauty

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BITE was always one of the brands that I had been itching to try out since finding out about them. What sets them apart from all the other lipsticks out there is that they use food-grade ingredients, which means that, technically, these lip products are safe for you to actually ingest. Their tagline is “Lip color that’s good enough to eat.” Sometimes, a range or a brand can be a tad bit overwhelming that you don’t really know where to start, so you don’t even begin the exploration. Luckily, my trip happened, although I am also a little disappointed that I didn’t get to decide on everything I wanted and ended up getting just three things. What I really, really wanted to try was the BITE Agave Lip Mask, which is a lip treatment that is supposedly a godsend. I mentioned it in an earlier haul as well as a favorites post, and truthfully, this stuff is amazing. I’m not a fan of the scent, but that’s not a deal-breaker, as I just need for …

Softly Sometimes just turned 2!

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I don’t really celebrate blog birthdays, mostly because I don’t remember to, but I’ve had this date saved on my calendar for a while now. Softly Sometimes just turned two years old a few days ago (October 21, to be precise). What was a seemingly innocent hobby accidentally turned into quite a big part of me—not to be dramatic~ or anything like that; it’s just the truth. I kind of still feel awkward about this because my interest in makeup and all that comes with it is the purely dorky kind—the kind that cares about textures and nuances in hue and shade, undertones and pigmentation, and the complexity of shimmers. I mean, what? All this talk sounds insane, but I love it. I love all of it. So, thank you for being a part of it, o reader of this post. It has truly been a blast. Now that that sentimental stuff is out of the way, please stay tuned for a giveaway I’m planning—the first on Softly Sometimes! I’m still in the process of …

Cle de Peau Beauté Eye Color Quad in 307 Stellar Gaze

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As far as high-end, truly luxury makeup goes, Cle de Peau has always been off the table for me. I don’t think I can live with myself if I spent $60 on a single sheer lipstick. As it happened… I was at Barneys one day and made heart eyes at the new eye color quad display for Fall 2014. And then, I blacked out and ended up with one of the quads. Or, I guess I should say, one of the refills. Like I said, CdP is very much “up there” when it comes to pricing. After I came to terms with spending $50 (plus tax!!!) on an eyeshadow quad, the lady asked me if I was interested in the $25 case. Ex-squeeze me?? I don’t think so, pushy SA who shall remain nameless. The mechanism of the refill is a “pop in” instead of magnetism. Which means that these aren’t going to stick to your Z-palettes by themselves. So, I’ve been keeping the quad in its plastic shell and box… like someone who has …

Wes Anderson Week: 5 Things Friday x Lazy Girl Makeup

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Although the idea of a Wes Anderson week was fun in my head, it started to dawn on me that I may not have enough material to last the entire week. You see, the makeup on Wes Anderson’s heroines and female misfits kind of… recur. And are simple. So I thought of doing a post with 5 easy makeup looks inspired by Wes’s dames, as a 5 Things Friday and Lazy Girl Makeup cross-over. First, the thick black liner popularized by Gwyneth Paltrow’s character in The Royal Tenenbaums, Margot Tenenbaum. The same look can be seen sported by Anjelica Houston in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.

Quickie: NARS Audacious Lipstick

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Another Wes Week interlude: a quick look at the NARS Audacious Lipstick, of which I got two shades. (The other one pictured here, Janet, is my sister’s!) The ones I got, Dominique and Julie are Barneys exclusives (dunno what that means, as the shades are described as permanent in the range). Janet, Julie, Dominique These new lipsticks are slightly more expensive than the regular NARS lipsticks ($32 compared to $26) but they also have a bit more product (0.14 oz. compared to 0.12 oz.), but I don’t think a lot of us actually compute when we buy makeup… Hehe. When I extended the bullet all the way, I was surprised to see how small the bullet was, so I’m a bit pleased to learn that it actually contains more than the standard NARS lipstick.

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 …