All posts tagged: featured

5 Things Friday: Minimal Lip Wardrobe

The average person (aka non-crazy, functional) only needs five basic lipsticks. At least, in my opinion. Here are my picks for the five lipsticks you need in your minimal lipstick wardrobe. An everyday neutral Also known as “office appropriate” or “easy to wear.” This lipstick should be easy to throw on and makes you feel like you can forget about it and be able to go about your day without thinking twice about it because you can rely on it to look good no matter what. My personal picks for “everyday neutral” are MAC’s Mehr and Jubilee, THREE’s Love Like Heaven, Happy Skin’s Crushing on You and The Morning After, and KATE Rouge HG Lipstick in PK-17. A red that suits you There are many different kinds of red, it’s kind of insane. And a little confusing. Sometimes you feel like you can’t wear red, and though that’s true for a lot of people, for most of us, it’s more likely that we just haven’t found the right red for us. I like orange-y reds …

Happy Eyebrows with K-Palette

I’ve been using the K-Palette brow marker since December 2012. I was exclusively using The Body Shop’s Brow & Liner Kit and wanted a change. It was an impulse buy, but one that stuck with me for a long time. Still, in that amount of time, I’ve only expanded to another shade of their 24H Real Lasting Eyebrow and did not venture out to other products in their eyebrow range. Some time last week, I received a few shades of two other brow products by K-Palette, the 24H Real Lasting Two Way Eyebrow Liner* and the 1 Day Tattoo Eyebrow Mascara*, and I’ve been using both alternately every day since getting them. 24H Real Lasting Two Way Eyebrow Liner The 24H Real Lasting Two Way Eyebrow Liner* is pretty close to my usual eyebrow routine. Usually, I draw over my natural eyebrow shape with the K-Palette eyebrow markers then run through them with a brow powder and an angled brush. In this unique contraption, there is a marker on one end, and a vial of …

The Workhorses

There are just some products that you keep on going back to again and again. Not because they’re exciting or new, but because they are reliable. Here are some of my ol’ reliables—my workhorses—that somehow find themselves in my routine almost without fail. More often than not, I just use the NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer as my base. Then again, I’ve just been a lazy daisy these days…ies, heh. This concealer is wonderful because it dispenses a lot of pigment but is easy to apply and blend out. It also doesn’t really crease on me much, but I always set it with the Le Métier de Beauté Eye Brightening and Setting Powder. For eyes, I’ve been using the Le Métier de Beauté True Colour Eye Shadow in Tamarack, which is this cool matte brown, for my crease work. It’s not half bad as a contour either! For an all-over lid shade that’s fuss-free and beautiful, though, my go-to is the shu uemura eyeshadow in ME medium brown 885, which is a beautiful warm reddish brown …

Recent Aquisitions/Currently Testing

Remember when I said I was done with shopping! Done with too much makeup! Done with being a consumerism hag! Well. It turns out that I am not, in fact, done with those things just yet. I haven’t gone off the deep end—I have been quite good between March and mid-June—but in the end, I think I decided that it was okay to try some new things, as opposed to all of them, from time to time. Here are some of my recent purchases, brought on by a crippling sense of discontent (I got over it), and what I think about them so far. NARS Semi-Matte Lipstick in Heat Wave I was in a fairly bad place when I placed (ha) an order for a couple of NARS lipsticks plus the Yachiyo brush. One of those lipsticks was Heat Wave, bought because of a sudden hankering for MAC’s Lady Danger. So far… Well, I really like it. The first time I tried it on, I fought with an overwhelming sense of dread because I felt …

20 Days of Lipstick: Week 4 Recap

And the last week of 20 Days of Lipstick is late and ends on a Tuesday. Mostly because I didn’t want to extend it for another week (i.e. prolong the recap and post next Sunday), just because I ran out of days for lipstick-wearing. Anyway, ahem. DAY FIFTEEN feat. Le Métier de Beauté Hydra-Crème Lipstick in Signature I got this in the first Le Métier de Beauté Beauty Vault VIP box, when they had yet to launch the Hydra-Crème line, and I would never have picked this for myself. Mostly because I don’t believe that reds look all that good on me. I’m glad I got this, though, because I think it might be my favorite “real” red (in case Guerlain’s Orgueil is too purple to count for all y’all. The formula is fantastic, too, if anyone was wondering. Especially for a matte lipstick! I forgot how much I loved this one, to be honest.

Mask Appeal: A Selection of Sheet Masks from Leaders InSolution*

I am a sheet mask nut. I love them so much. But of course, not all sheet masks were created equally. My favorites so far are the ones by The Beauty Buffet (available at Watson’s, sometimes on sale!) and Dermal (a bit pricier, but so good). I was really excited to see sheet masks in my BNTGirls Box this month. Leaders InSolution Sheet Masks* are known to be some of the best on the market. From the masks I received, two were “Premium Care,” these first two aren’t part of that range and come in a narrower packet. The first one I tried was the Collagen Lifting Skin Renewal Mask. It’s for skin firming and skin elasticity; this mask “helps recover younger-looking skin with revitalizing skin by supplying plenty of moisture.” This is what the mask looks like: And what the mask looks like on the face:

Lazy Girl Makeup: Quickly

A look for all y’all who need to get out of the door quickly! Here’s the look, with my old hair, still: It’s pretty basic and safe-ish, but passably put-together if I may say so myself. I don’t tend to fuss too much with base/complexion products when I’m in a hurry, but on a real bad skin day, I will pick up a concealer and target problem spots and areas. Here’s a video in which I talk a bit more about the products and show you how I use them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmmhNf9KP0Q Products Mentioned: — NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer (Ginger) — Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder (shown: Luminous Light) — K-Palette Real Lasting Eyebrow 24H (02) — MAC Paint Pot (shown: Constructivist) — MAC Eye Kohl (shown: Prunella. Teddy) — Illamasqua Cream Blusher (shown: Dixie) — BECCA Beach Tints (shown: Raspberry) — Addiction by Ayako Cheek Sticks (shown: Revenge) — NARS Pure Matte Lipstick (Montego Bay) What are your go-tos for a quick makeup look? 🙂 Follow me: Bloglovin' • Twitter • Instagram • YouTube • Facebook