All posts tagged: ellana minerals

Cleaning Brushes

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Cleaning brushes has definitely turned into one of my most reviled beauty-related activities. What used to be a therapeutic session for me is now something I put off doing until I absolutely cannot take the state of my dirty brushes anymore. I’ve figured out that the reason why it takes me so long to do this is because I wash all of my brushes in one go. Instead of rotating out duplicates and washing my brushes in small, filthy batches, I torture myself and go all or nothing. Anyway, my solution to my groaning and moaning is switching out my brushes for their alternates once they get too dirty to handle, wash them, and replace. And so on. After my most recent round of cleaning my brushes, I resolved to only use and keep out a few of them at a time. I tend to let all of them sit within reach but some of the unused ones (passed over for my preferred and favorite brushes) sit and gather dust, ending up in need of …

Toss or Keep No. 1: Foundations and Bases

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Taking a leaf out of Rae’s sensible tree, I decided to do a “Toss or Keep” as well, rounding up all of my tinted bases to see which ones I could probably do without. Also, to remind myself that I don’t need another foundation, for crying out loud! I have tinted moisturizers and foundations, BB Creams, etc. but I didn’t include my illuminating tinted primers, such as the BECCA Shimmering Skin Perfecter and the Le Métier de Beauté Peau Vierge Anti-Aging Tinted Complexe, since I would never wear those alone. Even with dry skin, I find them to be too glowy if not paired with a base with more coverage—because of this infernal heat! My current base count is: 11. Which, all things considered… I don’t think is that bad. Of course, if you compare this number to the typical beauty v/blogger, it really isn’t too crazy, but I don’t know any sane person who would compare their stash to that of beauty v/bloggers. So… I still need to work on dis. It’s still a …

FOTD: Celeste e Verde

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Hello everyone! I just wanted to share a Face of the Day feat. the first look I ever attempted with MAKE Colour's Celeste e Verde Palette* (reviewed) because it's such a fun look that totally goes against the fall leanings of the makeup people have been wearing this season. Although I sometimes base my makeup on the Western hemisphere's concept of seasons, I'm not going to let the onset of autumn stop me from wearing pastel blue and yellow eyeshadow! I used Palermo, a pretty canary yellow all over the lid, fading out into the warmer brown, Brick in the outer corner, with Earth (a neutral brown) buffed out into the crease. I used my finger and the NARS Eye Brush no. 3 for the yellow lid shade, and a MAC 217 for the crease and outer corner shades.

A Case for Bases

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I may have a problem! Look at all this crap. (Just kidding, cuddles face bases.) See, I never thought I would be the kind of “makeup enthusiast” who had a thing for bases. I was always always distracted by color cosmetics, so this is kind of a weird personal revelation. This is all a restrained effort at acquiring bases, mind you. I regularly clear out my stash, and I’ve also salivated over a number of other bases I’ve chosen to pretend to not exist. All to be mentioned at the end of this post. Ahem. So what is the case for bases? There isn’t really any case for it, other than the fact that I am a fickle person and I like having options. For the record, I like having “natural looking” skin. By this, I mean, I don’t mind if a pimple peeks through or if my eye bags aren’t 100% erased by foundation and concealer (… that’s a whole other story), so most of my foundations are medium coverage, at most. I just …

Sample Stash Sunday: Ellana Minerals Free Sample Pack

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Foundation matching can be a pain in the butt. I know this because, despite my unwarranted love for face bases (and purchasing them), I’m still unsure of what shade I am. The unhelpful-helpful thing I’ve been really good at is determining whether or not a shade is a “match” for me. This happens, of course, after I’ve bought the full size. What led me to this frustrating discovery is when I tried to layer on my Ellana Minerals Loose Powder Foundation in Caramel Latte* to act as a concealer and it ended up looking really wrong–too warm for me, really. I really, really like that product, so I wanted to see if there was a better shade match for me. It’s kind of hard to tell on their website… plus, how do you match your skin tone to a screen cap, right? Luckily, Ellana Minerals offers a free sample pack. I wanted to try their concealers (though, again, was crippled by the affliction of indecision) and the Sheer Velvet HD powder, but I didn’t want …

Favorite Filipino Cosmetics

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Happy Independence Day for my fellow Filipinos! 🙂 I thought I’d mention some of my favorite Filipino cosmetics, as a tribute and all. I didn’t have trouble thinking of many—because we have a pretty good range and selection of local cosmetics—but, I’m aware that I don’t have a lot of brand variation. EYES I love the Happy Skin Eye Am Here To Stay Eyeliners, both the liquid and gel ones! I do find that the tip of the liquid liner, which is a marker felt type, gets gunky and messed up really quickly. For eyeshadow, my top picks are the ones by Fanny Serrano. These ones have been depotted, as you can see. I must remember to wear these more! An affordable option with excellent pigmentation and performance. LIPS My favorite lip options are the Snoe Beauty Rouge Deluxe Lipsticks and—surprise, surprise—the Happy Skin Shut Up & Kiss Me Moisturising Lippies. BASE My absolute favorite local foundation is a loose mineral one by Ellana Minerals*! I love this for a very smoothed over, velvety, and …

Poreless Face Base

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I shuffle between products, and it’s always a joy to discover new combinations that become solutions to problems I mysteriously always run into. I’ve been trying to use up some products, so the others I have often get neglected. In this iteration of a face base, I chiefly used three products to blur out the pores on my cheeks. After moisturizing my face, I applied the BECCA Resurfacing Primer, which worked out better than I remembered it to in my original review. I then topped it off with a few layers of Ellana Minerals Loose Powder Foundation in Caramel Latte.* After that, I used the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder Palette, mostly Dim Light on the cheek area as well as my forehead, but I used Incandescent Light to highlight and Radiant light on the outer edges of my cheeks. What is your favorite face base concoction right now? * PR Sample. All the products featured in this post are cruelty-free. Follow me: Bloglovin' • Twitter • Instagram • YouTube • Facebook