Beyond Basic

I meant to do this post a while ago but between a week at the lake and then having a sick kid, I haven't been able to find the time.
The next look I'm going to describe is a bit beyond the basic look but not a full on evening out makeup look. It's something you would wear to work or when you want to feel a little more polished.

1. Start with a light to medium coverage foundation. You can use a primer if you so choose as it will help even things out but it's not totally necessary. If you have super clear skin you could mix together a bit of sunscreen and foundation and use this in the place of just foundation for a very light coverage with sun protection.

2. Conceal darkness under the eyes and then using your skin matching concealer or foundation stick conceal any blemishes and areas of redness. For blemishes remember to pat around the blemish (not over top) to blend.

3. Apply powder to set your makeup. Concentrate on areas with concealer.

4. Take a medium shade of eyeshadow in a neutral color or a contrasting color (to make your eye color pop) and apply it from the lash line to just above the crease. We'll save contouring for a more dramatic look later on.

5. Take your hilight color from the basic look and apply it to the brow bone and just above your cheeks.

6. Take a grey, brown or black liner and line the top lid close to the lashes. I like to use a powder and brush for liner during the day. I apply powder to the brush (angled), place the brush against my lashes and wiggle it back and forth gently. This gets the color inbetween the lashes and makes them look thick without having a noticible line.

7. Optional - fill in your brows with powder and an angled brow brush.

8. Curl your lashes and apply a coat or 2 of mascara.

9. Apply a natural looking blush and for a pop of color that will last a bit longer, take a bright pink and apply lightly to the apple of the cheeks.

10. Apply a natural pink, peach or browny pink lipstick and or lipgloss and you're finished.

I'm still in my pj's now so I haven't taken any pictures. I'll update later with some phots.

Basic Makeup

Basic makeup is one my my favorite looks because it doesn't take a lot of effort or time, yet you still feel pretty and polished when finished. It's the perfect look for everyday. Here are the steps that I follow when doing the basic makeup application:

1) Start with your foundation. No scratch that. The very first thing you should do EVERYDAY is apply a sunscreen to your face (and body if exposed). AT LEAST SPF 15.

If you feel you need some coverage use a light to medium coverage foundation. You may only need a tinted moisturizer or powder. Apply to the whole face or spot cover red areas and areas that need to be evened out.

2) Take your concealer (one to two shades lighter than your foundation) and cover the undereye circles. Take a different concealer OR stick foundation in a shade that matches your skin and spot conceal areas with blemishes or redness.

3) Apply powder. I focus on the areas that have been concealed( undereyes plus some on the lids for a smoother and even surface) and the t-zone.

*If you want to apply a bronzer for a bit of a sun kissed glow - now would be the time to do it. Apply bronzer to cheeks, temples and a tiny hint on the bridge of your nose and tip of chin.

4) Apply a hilighting color to your eye area, just underneath the brows. I either use Benefit's High Beam or today I used Rimmel Colour Rush Quad Eyeshadow in Chocolatine. You can also apply a bit to the corner of your eye right around the tear ducts.

5) Apply eyeliner just to the top lash line. Black is usually too dramatic for an everyday basic look, so I use either dark brown or grey. Get as close to the lashes as possible. I used Rimmel Extreme Definition Two-Tone Eye Definer in Vamp (the darker side).

6) Curl the lashes (unless you are blessed with long curly lashes). This helps to open the eye area. Tip: Squeeze the curler at the base of the lashes, move it up a bit and squeeze again, and then again at the tips. Instead of crimping the lashes at the base this will give them a bit of curl. For even more curling power use a blowdryer to heat the curler before you curl the lashes (but not too hot - you don't want to burn your eyelids accidentally!)

7) Apply one coat of mascara. I've been using either L'oreal Voluminous Original Mascara or Revlon Beyond Natural Defining Mascara. Tip: Wipe the applicator with a tissue prior to applying your mascara to remove clumps.

8) Apply blush to cheekbones. A peachy pink color looks pretty and warm on almost everyone. I really like NARS Orgasm. If you use a blush with a bit of shimmer skip this next step, otherwise...

9) Apply a hilighter to the tops of your cheekbones.

10) Finish with a swipe of a natural colored lip gloss ( I used Rimmel Vinyl Bronze Mirror Shine Lipgloss in Summer Nude) and Voila!

It looks like a lot of steps but it should really only take minutes.

Joe Fresh Makeup Review

When I was in the city on the weekend I popped into Superstore and was excited that they had the Joe Fresh makeup line. I've been wanting to try these products out for a while. I picked up 4 eyeshadows ($4 each), 1 cheek tint ($4), 2 cream lipsticks ($6), 1 matte lipstick ($6) and 2 eyeliners ($6).

I really like the packaging. It's very simple and clean looking. As for the products:

The first picture is of the lip sticks. I purchased from top to bottom: Nude (matte), Coral (cream) and Cinnamon(cream). The colors are very nice and the consistency is pretty similar to other brands. I really like the matte nude. I find it hard to find a nude that isn't too pink or peachy. This one is just right

At $6 it's hard to go wrong.

On the right is the Peach Cheek Tint. It almost looks coral rather than peach but it's a very nice color on. Next time I'm at the store I'll probably buy all the other colors!

For eyeshadows I picked up some pretty neutral colors, but they do have some brights as well. The colors on my hand are:

Dusty Rose, Pebble, Plum and Espresso.

I don't mind the shadows for the price, but I wasn't thrilled with the application. I found them hard to apply and blend. They are ok if you want to try out a new look and don't want to shell out a bunch of cash on something you aren't sure you're going to like.

I didn't try the eyeliners - but these are the colors I picked up. One is a grey/blue and the other is purple. Just for funsies.:)

I would definetly buy the cheek tint and lipsticks again but probably won't purchase any more of the eyeshadow.

Here I used Espresso and Pebble eyeshadow on the eyes, peach cheek tint and nude lipstick.

Beach Inspired

Ok - I really should be cleaning my kitchen since I'm having people over for a meeting tonight, but instead I'm procrastinating by playing with my makeup. It will serve me right when people come over and our house still looks like it was hit by a whirlwind and they will think I am the worst houskeeper in the world (and they may just be right).

I haven't had much time to play with all the new MAC eyeshadows I bought for my kit and I was suddenly inspired to create a beachy look. Not a bronze goddess on the beach look, more like there's an ocean on my eyelid look. Anyway here it is. For those of you new to my blog - this is quite a different look for me. Despite my affection for makeup I tend to lean to the more minamalist/natural look than anything. Still it is fun to play ( I just won't go pick up my daughter from daycare before washing this off :P)

I'll have to write down what I used later as I REALLY should clean up...Sigh.

Wow - this angle makes my nose look huge! HA!

Awesome Drugstore Concealer Find!

If there is one product I have tried a lot of it is concealer. I was genetically blessed with these lovely dark circles under my eyes. (Thanks mom and dad!) For the last little while I've been using Bobbi Brown correct and concealer, but I'm quickly running out. The other night I was talking to a friend and she told me that she LOVES this Rimmel Recover Concealer. I was skeptical because a) there were only 3 colors and I'm VERY fair skinned b) I've never had luck with a drugstore concealer. Well I was blown away!

Not only did it cover my circles, it had a very silky texture and dried to a matte finish. For only $7 CDN I coudn't really go wrong. I think I have a new favorite concealer!

Pre - concealer (ug yes I need to pluck!)

After concealer

Bad Day Makeup

Aka I woke up late and didn't sleep enough and look like crapola....

Being a new mom and working full time there have been more than a handful of mornings when I definetly didn't get enough sleep the night before. I'm also blessed with natural mega-dark undereye circles. The scary zombie look isn't very flattering on me, but some mornings I'm so tired and running short on time that I don't really feel like doing a full makeup application. What to do? How do you fake looking awake in a time crunch? This is what I did yesterday (please do your best to ignore the mop on my head, I'm growing my hair out and don't have an appt for a trim until Tuesday):

1) I started by washing my face and applying my facial sunscreen. After that I applied Smashbox Photo Finish Color Correcting primer to give a nice even base. I didn't plan on wearing foundation so I wanted my skin to look as smooth as possible.

2) If you are like me you don't EVER leave the house without concealer. I made that mistake once and you wouldn't believe the comments I got! Using my ring finger and patting gently I applied Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer (in porcelean) under my eye and to the inside corners beside my nose.

3) If you want your concealer to last you must set it with powder. For double duty (and because I wasn't planning to use shadow)I took a larger shadow brush and swept MAC Studio Fix powder all around my eyes. This helped to set the concealer and brightened and gave an even color to my lids.

4) Everyday I take a good look at my skin. I don't wear the same makeup two days in a row. Somedays a bit of spot coverage is all I need, somedays I wear a tinted sunscreen for a bit more coverage and some days if I want to look polished and professional I'll break out the foundation.

I have rosacea so I frequently have redness on my cheeks and around my nose. I like to use MAC Studio Stick Foundation on problem areas (instead of concealer) when I'm not applying a full coverage foundation. I'll just use it to cover up the red areas. Yesterday I only needed to add a bit around my nose.

5) Instead of applying eyeshadow I opted to apply hilighter to my brow bones, inner corners of the eye and my cheekbones. My fave right now is Benefit High beam. Add a few dots to the cheekbones, brow bone and inner corner of the eye and pat (don't run) with your finger until blended. Its an easy way to give your eyes some definition and make you look more awake - plus adding it to your cheekbones gives you a fresh glow.

6) To my cheeks I applied a cream blush - Stilla Convertable Color in lillium. On days when I don't wear foundation and powder I like to stick with cream or gel blush. If you apply a matte blush when the rest of your look is light and dewy it can look unnatural, plus powder blush is more likely to streak if you don't apply it over powder.

7) I curled my eyelashes to help open they eye area and applied a couple of sweeps of Loreal Voluminous mascara in Blackest Black.

8) I finished it all off with a coat of Smashbox Lip Paint in Artiste on my lips.

Voila! Like I said - it SOUNDS like a lot but really it only took a couple of minutes.

My Makeshift Makeup Kit

One of the things I really needed was a new makeup kit. Let me tell you - finding just the right thing (especially in Canada) was very difficult. Either they were TOO big or too small or shipping was going to be almost $100! After some trial and error I think I have come up with something that will work well for me.

It took a while to find the case. I found the organizers first and then I needed to find a case they would fit in! The one that they were designed to fit in has been out of stock everywhere. Last weekend at Michaels I found this scrapbooking supply case that works perfectly! I think the name of it is Scrap Paper Scissors.

To keep everything organized inside the kit I purchased some ArtBin Super Satchel plastic cases from an online art supply store. They are fairly deep and have removable dividers.