What happens when you use cheap products?

 Beauty Tip, Black Opal, Black Opal Foundation Stick, brushes, Clinique, Cover Girl Queen Collection, Crown Brush, eye shadow, Eyeliner, FOTD, Lips, lipstick, M.A.C., MAC, Makeupchat, My favorites, playing with colors, product review, Queen Collection  1 Response »
Jan 202013
 

 I’m always experimenting with inexpensive products to see what alternatives I can recommend to my readers and clients.  I recently purchased four eyeshadows and two more foundation sticks from Black Opal.Black Opal Purchase Now if you’ve been following me or if you’ve ever had a conversation about makeup with me you already know how much I adore Black Opal Foundation Sticks.  They’re an absolute staple for my personal use as well as my professional kit.  HOWEVER, I was not pleased at all with their Oil Blocking Powder. Click here on my thoughts.  It was a risk when I decided to try these new eyeshadows.Black Opal EyeshadowsHere’s the look I created with these colors. Even though they’re pretty bold, I wanted a softer effect.  Now, it’s very important for me to point out that I did NOT use a primer or base before applying the Black Opal eyeshadows.  I wanted to see exactly how pigmented they were. I have to say I was very pleased with the results.  I didn’t have to build up the color a whole lot either.  Quite impressive for $5.LOTD 1-19-13 Close eye picI decided to try them out with some other inexpensive products such as Elf, NYX, and Cover Girl Queen Collection to complete my look. Below is everything I used.  Even my brushes were inexpensive.  They’re a combo of Coastal Scents and Crown Brush. :-) LOTD 1-19-13 makeupNow granted I did still incorporate some MAC, Clinique and NARS but overall my look was pretty cheap. LOTD 1-19-13 Looking to leftLOTD 1-19-13 Looking StraightSo to answer the question “What Happens when you use inexpensive products?” My answer after using these would be that you get great results.

I’m a firm believer that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to achieve a pretty makeup look.  This look validates my belief that technique and quality trump prices. ;-p
Do you only use expensive products or do you venture out and try drugstore brands?

New Color for Nails of the Week (NOTW)

 Crackle, How to, Kiss Nail Art, Nail Art, Nail Polish, Nails, NOTW, playing with colors, Sally Hansen, Ulta, Wet-n-Wild  1 Response »
Sep 292012
 

I went outside my comfort zone with this nail polish. I’ve never worn grey on my nails before. I thought I’d give it a try. Can’t say that I’m really liking it, but I’m going to leave it on at least a couple of days to see if it grows on me.

I purchased this polish either early this year or the end of last year during some sale at Ulta. I think the polish was like $2.  I really like the name, Concrete Evidence

Here’s what I used to create my design

  1. One Coat of Ulta Salon Formula in Concrete Evidence
  2. 2012 Cracked Nail Polish in Tomorrow at the top
  3. Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat in Fuchsia Shock at the bottom
  4. Kiss Brush On Nail Art in Silver Glitter in the middle in a diagonal

This worked really well on my left hand, but when I tried to duplicate it on my right hand…not so much.

For whatever reason, the 2012 polish didn’t crack, so to add a little extra, I put Wet n Wild Party of Five Glitters on top.  I like how it came out.

I have to admit that I really like how my designs looked when I was finished.  I just don’t really like the grey.  To me it seems kind of dirty looking. Ha ha!

Have you ever worn grey nail polish? What are you wearing on your nails this week?

2012 Fall/Winter Trends

 Beauty Tip, How to, playing with colors, Runway, Trend  No Responses »
Sep 282012
 

In case you were wondering what some of the Fall and Winter trends are for this year, I’ve developed a list below.

 

Full Brows

  • Can be achieved with powder, pencils, or gels

Bold Lips

  • Reds to Purples and everything in between

Flawless Skin

  • Good coverage w/o looking to heavy
  • Foundations come in liquids, powders, and creams with varying degrees of coverage
  • Cream foundations tend to look more natural and are easier to work with

Contoured/Highlighted Cheeks

  • Can be done w/ liquids, powders, or creams
  • At least 2 shades darker than natural color for contour
  • At least 2 shades lighter than natural color for highlight

Full Lashes

Examples of combined looks

  1. Winged Liner w/bold burgundy lip and glowing cheeks
  2. Dark Smokey Eyes (various colors ranging from green, blue, grey, purple, black) w/bold red lip and  bronzed highlighted contoured cheeks
  3. Natural Eye w/bold purple lip and natural cheek color
  4. Soft smokey eye with nude lip and contoured cheeks with color

So what looks are you excited to wear for the fall and winter?

Beauty Tip #14: Always Use Good Lighting For Makeup Application

 Black Opal Foundation Stick, blush, Bold colors, Bold Lip, Bronzer, Brow set, Cargo Laguna, Cover Girl, Cover Girl Queen Collection, Ebony Bronze, Inexpensive Products, M.A.C., MAC, Make up mirror, playing with colors, Queen Collection, Viva Glam  1 Response »
Apr 102012
 

Have you ever walked out of the house thinking your makeup was flawless and got outside only to find out  it definitely was not?   Yeah, this happened to me on Easter Sunday. My first thought was OMG!! This isn’t how I thought it looked?

At first glance, it didn’t seem bad at all.

Both pictures above are with the flash

This was taken without a flash.  After taking a closer look, I could see it wasn’t blended as well as I thought, my lines weren’t straight, and my lashes weren’t close enough to my lash line. :-(

I totally didn’t notice these mistakes while I was sitting at my table.

 Without Flash

I’d planned to do an upbeat post on my colorful FOTD for Easter but had a rude awakening once I got in the car.:-(  The worse part was that I was running late and didn’t have any of the products I used with me to fix it.  I had to just suck it up.  I’ll take it as a learning experience.

 So remember this post I did on my awesome new makeup mirror?

*The picture came from Ulta.com website*

Well the bulbs went out and I’m no longer able to get the great effects while putting on my makeup. I went to Ulta, where I originally purchased it, to buy replacement bulbs but unfortunately there are no replacement bulbs for this mirror, so I’d have to just buy another one.  That seemed like such a waste.  Nothing is wrong with the mirror itself, just the lighting.  For a while, I was sure this wasn’t that big of a deal.  Boy was I wrong.

Anyway, since I took the pictures, I’ll go ahead and tell you what I used. LOL! :-)

Face

  1. MAC Prolongwear Foundation in NC45
  2. MAC Mineralize Skin Finish Natural in Medium Dark on forehead, middle of nose, under eyes, and on cheeks.
  3. Cover Girl Queen Collection Natural Hue Mineral Powder in Brown Bronze 1 all over
  4. Cargo Blush in Laguna on cheeks
  5. Cover Girl Queen Collection Bronzing Powder in Ebony Bronze as cheek contour
  6. Elf Blush in Candid Coral as Cheek, Nose, and Forehead highlight.

Eyes

  1. Urban Decay Primer Potion
  2. NYX Jumbo Pencil in Milk
  3. Coastal Scents 42 Matte Palette
  4. MAC Fluidline Waveline
  5. MAC Venomous Villains Mineralized Eyeshadow in She Who Dares
  6. Ardell False Lashes #110
  7. Lancome Definicil Mascara
  8. Black Opal Foundation Stick in Heavenly Honey to carve out brow and under eye concealer
  9. MAC Brow Set in Girl/Boy

Lips

  1. MAC Viva Glam Nicki Lipstick
  2. MAC Viva Glam Cyndi Lipglass

I toggled back and forth with the title of this post.  At first it was titled Easter FOTD Failure, but I figured that was too negative for Easter.  I decided to use my mistake as a learning experience and as a helpful beauty tip.  Maybe it’ll prevent you from doing the same thing. Lesson of the day: ALWAYS HAVE GOOD LIGHTING WHEN DOING MAKEUP!!!

Another Taaz Make-Over

 playing with colors, Taaz, Virtual Make-over  No Responses »
Aug 042011
 

I promise I won’t post each one. LOL!  I just thought this site was so cool.  Here’s my 2nd virtual make-over

I think another good use of this website would be during make-up consultations.  You don’t have to use the website’s models.  You can actually upload your own pictures.  For make-up artist, if your client isn’t really sure where to start with her requested look, this may be a nice way to help develop ideas and have product suggestions.  For make-up lovers, this will allow you to already have a look in mind when going to the make-up counter or drug store aisle.  You can have a picture and a list already prepared to cut out shopping time. :-)

Virtual Make-over Website Taaz

 playing with colors, Taaz, Virtual Make-over  1 Response »
Aug 032011
 

Look what I found!  It’s a website where you can do virtual make-overs using different cosmetic brands.  It helps you to get a better idea of what the brands’ colors will look like on a real person.  I can’t believe I’d never heard of this before.  I’m going to be having so much fun with this.  I can see myself playing with faces on here the minute I have some free time.  In my opinion, this is a lot better than white paper face charts. 
Check out my virtual make-over model here


I love that I can work on a realistic woman vs a drawing.  I also appreciate the fact that they have a few darker complexions available with colors that compliment the women.  I can see that this can easily get addictive, ha ha, but it’s a good way to practice looks.  It would be beneficial for experienced make-up artists to those just learning to apply make-up on themselves.  


For more info the web address is http://www.taaz.com/


Enjoy!!