Foundation Review: The Search Continues!

I just read the post before the one I just put up, and realized I promised a foundation review and never put it up.

Well... this past summer I tried mineral foundations. I tried Pur (available at Ulta) and Bare Minerals (available and Sephora, Ulta, Bare Minerals stores and probably other places too). Bare Minerals did not live up to its hype. I mean, it was good and stuff, but didn't really stay put the whole time. I bought the starter/trial size kit which gives you their mineral foundation in original and matte, the mineral veil and the bronzer/blusher thingy called warmth. I could have told them that I would never want the "original" foundation and would almost inevitably always want the matte, but whatevs. I liked the matte a lot, it was more effective for my oily skin in this humid-ass city. I liked the mineral veil too, but there wasn't enough of it in the trial kit to cover going through both the matte and original foundations. The "warmth" was good, but I'm so red naturally that I barely needed any of it, so I have tons left. In the end, I was impressed, it mostly stayed put. But the shit's so expensive that I thought I could probably do better doing my regular summer routine (primer, concealer, powder). All in all, I'll recommend it, but only if you feel like spending the money.

The other mineral foundation I tried was PurMinerals 4-in-1 pressed mineral makeup in Blush Medium. I'd read some reviews online of PurMinerals and they seemed much more positive than the stuff about BareMinerals. People were saying it worked as well, if not better and was much more economical. Yeah, stuff was still $37. The saleslady at Ulta recommended that I get the full size of just the foundation instead of spending more on the starter kit, since the foundation is 4-in-1. I had bought the PurMinerals primer already, since I was anticipating trying this, so I was all set. I liked that it was pressed, it felt like less of the product got wasted on the way from the container to my face. It comes with a sponge, that I used only rarely when I had dark circles or something like that. Sponges = bad, they spread bacteria. I had quit using it when the weather got colder, but I've recently come back (after I had a series of breakouts and wanted to put less crap on my face) and discovered I like it again. I dunno, I'm still not thrilled. I do like that it comes in a ton of shades (many more than BareMinerals) and they have different shades not just for light/dark, but for yellow/pink/olive as well. Which made my Scottish ruddiness happy. The shade I picked in the summer is a hair too dark for my untanned winter face, but I blend it down on my neck and all's well, no orange foundation lines. It stays put when I layer it over Dr. Brandt's Pores-No-More and provides pretty good coverage.

In the end though... my search for perfect foundation continues. I recently discovered that Urban Decay makes a few sprays that are highly recommended on Sephora for keeping makeup on oily skin, so I'm going to have to check them out. I also heard about Skindinavia makeup setting sprays. My youtube makeup guru xsparkage also says you should be using a translucent powder as well as a regular powder. Fantastic. More things to spend money on and layer on my skin! Ha ha. Happy New Year everyone!!

Personalized Face Charts

So, I saw this video and thought it was a fantastic idea. Especially since right now I'm trying to plan the perfect NYE makeup scheme. I found the site that Leesha (the girl in the video who's my favorite YouTube guru) recommended. Here it is. I took a photo with my webcam. It took several tries to get it right. Then I right-clicked and saved the picture (you don't have to pay for the full size one, just swipe the preview) then dropped it in Photoshop, played with the levels a bit, cropped it and then erased all the excess crud from my face. You want just an outline of everything. I even had to pretty much put in my waterline because it didn't turn out in the picture. If you don't have photoshop, uh.. I dunno. Use other photoediting software? Beg me (or someone else with photoshop) to do it?

Tips for taking the photo:

• If you have a Mac and use your iSight camera, turn the flash off (instead of clicking the camera button to take the picture, hit CMD+SHIFT+T to take it without flash)
• The video says no makeup, I tried that a few times and couldn't get my lips to show up well. So i grabbed a light colored eyeliner (L'Oreal Kohl eyeliner in Cloud) and just lightly traced the top of my lip and the bottom. Just enough to provide contrast between my skin and my lips. I tried it before I washed off my eyeliner and mascara and the results weren't super successful either, so I washed it off and my eyes came out better.
  
• Do not make any kind of face or pose in anyway. Just look straight at the camera and deadpan.
  
• Do not be surprised if you discover a biological flaw you didn't notice before. I just discovered that my left eyelid is larger than my right. Ha! Probably because my eyes are funny shaped due to my astigmatism.

Here are my results:
Original photo. Lovely isn't it.








Exported image from that website








Final image after cropping, erasing and playing with the contrast settings. I also filled in my eyebrows for shits and giggles. And not very well.

I was going to make the product chart too, but eh. I'm going to print it on 8.5x11 card stock, which I have around somewhere. If you print, you shouldn't print on regular printer paper, some kind of heavier cardstock is required. But I wouldn't think that 90# watercolor paper (as stated in the video) is all that necessary. You could do 65# or 67# vellum bristol (which you can probably buy by the sheet at your local kinkos, or whatever cover weight they happen to have in white) Pretty much just make sure its a heavier-than-normal paper and that its as white as you can possibly get.

Happy New Year everybody! I will do my best to post more. I have two companion looks coming up and a few reviews. And I always say that, and then never post. But I'll try to do better in the new year.

Makeup Look - Rock Out Bronze

Omg. Seriously. Why don't I update this more???
Its been a long summer. And hot. I have some mineral foundation reviews coming. Promise. For realsies. (spoiler alert: bare minerals is not my fav)
Anyway, I have a new look that I made up on the spot while rushing to get to an alumni event (which had the time changed and ALL the alumni, including me, missed it. fuckers.) So I got all pretty for nothing. Oh well. I call this one Rock Out Bronze, because its late and I've been drinking and can't think of a better name. I should have taken pictures when I first did it, it would look better, but que cera cera.

Face:

• Pur Minerals foundation primer
• Flirt! correcting concealer
  
• Pur Minerals 4 in 1 Foundation in blush medium
• Smashbox Softlights blush in Tint
  

Eyes:

• Two Faced Shadow Insurance

• Kat Von D Memento Mori palette, the black shade (which if the names on the back of the palette line up with the shadows) in Tijuana (hereafter referred to as black)
• Ulta Eyeshadow in Plum Smoke (kind of a deep dirty gold/bronze with a slight plum colored tinge to it, got it for like $.99 on a clearance table after the holidays last year) (hereafter referred to as bronze)
• Kat Von D Memento Mori Palette, the gold/coppery color, I think its Meditation (hereafter referred to as copper)
• Kat Von D Memento Mori Palette, the bright yellow, I think its Sugar Skull (hereafter referred to as yellow)
  
• Kat Von D liquid eyeliner in Puro Armor
  
• Peter Thomas Roth - Lashes to Die for black mascara
  

Lips:

• Maybelline Forever Color in Cocoa 210, its very matte, so if you wanna throw a gloss on top, feel free. I didn't and it looked great.

Instructions:

• Apply the black shade in a V shape along the crease and the lash line, filling in the bottom of the "V" at the outer corner. Bring the black up a little, into the crease, but use your own judgment for a smokey look. Black's a tricky color and often is difficult to blend, so use it sparingly and always hedge on the side of too little and build up color a little at a time (I of course was in a hurry and had to work really hard to get it to blend!)
• Use the bronze color all over your lid, up to the black and overlapping a little. Use a brush with nothing on it (or in my rushed case, the brush used to apply the bronze) to really work the black and bronze together.
• Starting at the inner corner, work the copper color out till about a third of the way across the eyelid.
• Apply the yellow color on the brow bone, and a little dab with a tiny brush on the inner corner.
• Apply the bronze color in a thin sweep along the lower lash line, about 2/3 of the way, and finish up to the corner with the copper color.
• Apply black liquid eyeliner (or pencil) thinly across upper lashline, getting thicker towards the outer corner. Apply a tiny bit of the black shadow on the edges if it looks too harsh (or if you used a pencil, take a small clean brush or a q-tip and smudge it a little). Things should be blended together, but not so much as to make your eyeliner invisible.
• Apply mascara.
• Do your face however you would do it. I'm not the type who keeps a hundred shades of blush on hand, I figure one soft pink and bronzer is adequate.

I'd upload pictures of the products, but its late and I gotta hit the hay. Two reviews coming up to look for: Kat Von D Memento Mori palette (which has been my FAV all summer) and foundations. I think I may have found one that works for me!

Eyeshadow Look - Vegas Swimming Pool

Hi! omg. two updates in two days? wtf???

So, I came up with this look a while ago and its been a staple. It has a sister look (which I actually came up with first) called Dubai Sunrise which I will post at another time. Neither of them has much to do with the places they're named for.

Shadow:
Outer half of lid: Makeup Forever Star Powder #960 Turquoise
Inner half of lid: Flirt! Glamourazzi Palette, second color from right (I think its Showstopper) more or less a fleshtone
Outer part of crease: Flirt! Glamourazzi Palette, color on far right (I think its Golden Lady) brown that looks dark gold when its applied. I always think this is going to be darker than it is :)
Inner part of crease & under eyes: Mac pressed shadow in Amber Lights, its a bright brassy/gold

Mascara: 2 coats Peter Thomas Roth Lashes to Die for the Mascara. Two tricks to mascara application I've learned: 1. wiggling brush side to side as you move up 2. In addition to wiggling back and forth and moving upward, rotating the brush at the same time (i know, its a lot of stuff to do), but this prevents clumping for the most part and with this brush that has two different types of bristles its necessary.

Eyeliner:
Upper lid: Mac Fluidline in Blacktrack
Outer waterline: Beautique black eyeliner pencil
Inner waterline: Sephora eyeliner minis in Plum on and a little bit on the outer corner, connecting it to the upper eyeliner (you can't really see it, so probably not necessary)

Blush: Flirt! Bronzer/Blush in Sweet Desire applied to cheekbones, nose, forehead, upper lip and chin.

I didn't use foundation today, I put on my Makeup Forever primer and then used this stuff that I don't really understand that was given to me by my friend Kyle of FaceCandy called Dr. Brandt's Pores No More. I have no idea what it is. It smells kinda funny. Not bad, but still, kinda funny. The instructions say "use am after cleansing and toning. re-apply throughout the day, as necessary" Its flesh colored. And sheer when you put it on. It tends to make my powder go on wicked smooth, but I don't really know if its hiding my pores. I'm perplexed by it. But I'm almost out of foundation, so it seemed a better choice today. On top of primer and that weird stuff I put on concealer and powder and thats it.

Thanks for reading!




Up next: my search for foundations continues! Probably another day-long review.

Stuff I Always Buy

Hello!!! To all 4 of my readers! heh.
So, I'm sitting here at 1:10am, kinda bored because I'm used to being in bed by now, but I decided I'd talk about the stuff I buy over and over again, or at the very least that I've bought more than once.

Foundation:
I have yet to find the perfect foundation. Its still a work in progress. My day-long review of Revlon's ColorStay Active turned out not very favorable, and I said I was gonna return it... and then I didn't... So I'm still working through that little bottle, but its almost gone. I'm never buying it again. And now that spring/summer is on its way, I'm kinda thinking I might not buy foundation again until fall. In the summer I typically stick with primer, concealer, powder as my routine, just because I'll sweat off any more layers of crap on my face. I usually keep a tube of Maybelline's Pure Makeup around because its water based and doesn't clog my pores as much during the hotter months. It DOES NOT resist humidity well. For special events like weddings, parties etc. where I need to have full coverage on my face my go to for several years now has been L'Oreal Infallible make-up. Its a little akin to smearing clay on your face, but it stays put! Especially if you set it with powder. It can get a little cakey if you don't get the right powder to foundation balance though. But, because its like smearing clay on your face, I don't like to use it very often.


Primer:
I have always lauded the praises of foundation primer in the past. However, I kinda thought they all were the same. I found I liked the way Smashbox Photofinish with derma...something or other (age fighting) went on smoothly, but its of course the most expensive one. Regardless, I kinda thought they were all pretty much the same. That is until I, somewhat impulsively, bought Make-Up Forever High Definition Primer. Its thin, between liquid and cream, but closer to liquid and upon applying it I thought "what the fuck? I paid $32 for this bullshit??" But, I gave it a chance. And I started noticing that even that crappy Revlon foundation was staying on longer. When I was using Smashbox, I noticed that when I used my makeup wipes there wasn't much coming off from my skin, meaning there wasn't much there anymore. Now when I take off my makeup at night the wipe is covered in removed foundation. Now, that may sound gross, but it goes to show how well the MU4E stuff works. When this runs out, I'm going to try out the other tints that they have. I'm really excited about this product. For serious.

Powder:
I'm currently using Mac Mineralize Skinfinish natural. I like it. Goes on smooth and opaque. I'm not in love, simply for the fact that because its a mineral makeup (which I'm of course mixing with non-mineral makeup, is that a no-no? i have no idea ha!) and when I sweat, it feels like a thousand tiny pin pricks on my face. Not painful, just a little itchy. I've been dying to try Smashbox Halo perfect powder, but can't bring myself to shell out $65 for the stuff. The best powder I ever bought was another Smashbox product, the 5-in-1 perfecting powder or something like that. Of course, they don't make it anymore, but it was awesome. There were five different ways to wear it, one of which involved mixing with water for fuller coverage. Awesome. I used it with my L'Oreal Infallible for a wedding I was in last September and I never had to touch it up the whole time!

Blush:
I've always felt like blush is blush and its one of those things you don't need in a zillion colors. I'm very fond of a Smashbox one I got in a gift set, Softlights in Smashing Tint, but its almost gone. I probably won't rebuy it. Get yourself a bronzer and a blush that looks natural and you're good to go. My favorite bronzer is by Flirt! (available at Kohls), #22 Sweet Desire. Its highly pigmented, so one thing of it has lasted me about 3 years. A light dusting is all you need. Flirt also has a ton of blush colors, so you could just grab a bronzer and a blush and be done with it :).

Mascara:
Peter Thomas Roth Lashes to Die For: The Mascara. Awesome. I have nothing but good things to say. The brush is amazing, it has those exacting bristles as well as shorter ones (the idea being you apply more product with the shorter bristles and then smooth it out with the exacting bristles). It doesn't, so far, come in waterproof, which is fine because I hate waterproof mascara (its just a personal preference, I have no real reason). It doesn't flake, and even at the end of the tube it went on smooth and clump-free. Love love love love!!! My lashes look sooooo long.

Eyeliner:
My first blog post on Beautique still stands. I love the stuff. It comes in other colors besides black, but I haven't tried those. Beyond that, I've been playing with gel eyeliners. I'm currently using Mac Fluidline in BlackTrack. I like it, but will probably move on to another one, just to compare, when its gone. The trick is finding a good brush. Ulta has a good one, its flat and a little wider than your average eyeliner brush, but it tapers slightly, so it has pretty much all the surfaces you need for any eyeliner application. I also REALLY like all the Sephora brand mini-liners. At $5 each, they're not a bad buy and there's like 15 colors. I have Wild Spirit (shown second from the left in the picture), its like a cobalt purple/blue that really pops. I also have white and a purpley/red called Plum. I've used up all of Wild Spirit and re-bought it. They get used up fast because they're very soft and creamy.

Eyeshadow:
I have so much eyeshadow... I can't even begin to tell you. So much that I haven't even begun to use it up yet. I will be very upset when I run out of this random shimmery gold glitter stuff that I've literally had since middle school. Its from the Body Shop and its just a little brick of gold dust that you can apply everywhere. But its running out and I know they don't make it anymore. I'm running low on Mac Shroom too, which is the one that I recommend everyone buy! Its an off-white satin neutral and is a must for every collection. It looks great with everything. Its awesome as a highlight and perfect for pretty much anywhere else on the eye. Go! Buy!

Lips:
Lipstick is like another eyeshadow thing for me. I have so much that I've never had the need to rebuy. I love the CoverGirl minty ones that they partnered with Crest for. I love ALL of Flirt!'s lipglosses, Mac's Dazzleglass is awesome (and tastes good!). I usually apply lipstick or gloss when I leave the house and then forget to apply it the rest of the day, which is the other reason I've never run out :) Well, thats it for me tonight.

Eyeshadow primer/base:
My first review on the Sephora brand eyeshadow primer is no longer valid. I tried Urban Decay, wasn't thrilled, so I moved on to Two Faced Shadow Insurance, as I've seen it recommended the most on other sites. Its great. Goes on silky smooth, sets up quick, and keeps eyeshadow in place all day. But based on the foundation primer, I may try Make Up Forever's eyeshadow primer when this runs out.

Hope everyone has a good rest of their week! Happy Passover/Easter/Equinox whatever your holiday is!

make up look - Phoenix Rising

I like to come up with lame overly-dramatic names for my makeup looks. Anyways, there were some technical difficulties, like my eyes spontaneously starting to water and ruining things, but I managed to get it out. :) Enjoy!
Eyes:
Purple in crease: Makeup Forever #92, bright matte purple
Orange in outer third: Makeup Forever #18 bright matte tangerine orange
Yellow in center: Makeup Forever #2 bright matte lemony yellow
White in inner corner: L'Oreal Hip Pigments matte white from "Animated" shadow duo
Highlight on browbone: Random light shimmery gold from the Body Shop that they don't make anymore
Eyeliner: Beatique black pencil eyeliner
Mascara: Peter Thomas Roth Lashes to Die For The Mascara

Lips
Lined with Soap and Glory "Sexy Motherpucker" plumping lip crayon, Then applied Flirt Plushious Liquid Velvet Lipcolor in Rising Star, topped with a light sheen of Flirt Squeeze Me Supershiny Lip Gloss in Heavenly Honey.

Blush
Smashbox cast/crew blush duo, applied peachy shade on cheeks, lighter shade on forehead, nose and chin.

The pictures aren't really doing it justice, its quite pretty, I think :) I love Makeup Forever. They're a bright eyeshadow addicts dream come true...
I've also started using paint brushes instead of makeup brushes. They work just as well, are cheaper and there's more of a variety. As long as you get something designed for acrylic or watercolor, i recommend the synthetic brushes or smooth natural hair. You won't be doing yourself any favors if you buy the coarse brushes :)