FOTD- red lips

I know, I know. It's almost summer and I should be embracing the corals, bright pinks and aquas of the season, but sometimes a girl just needs to feel timeless. Nothing says classic more than black winged eyeliner and a red lip. This is actually a fairly quick look, once you get the hang of the eyeliner.

Face:

Kinerase Ultimate Day Moisturizer

MAC Studio Finish Concealer

MAC Mineralize SkinFinish Natural

Laura Mercier Powder Foundation

Eyes:

MAC Bare Canvas paint pot- from lid to brow bone

SMH single in creme de nude - brown highlight

SMH single in bondage- along lower lashline

SMH single in charade- blended lightly into the crease

L'Oreal HIP creme liner in black- along top lashline (I use the sonia kashuk bent eyeliner brush)

Urban Decay 24/7 liner in Rockstar- on waterline

Imju Fiberwig Mascara- bottom and top lashes

MAC shadestick in Cuddle- inner eye highlighter

Lips:

Cargo Reverse liner- outside lip line blended (prevents feathering)

NARS lip liner in Jungle Red- line lips and fill in to create a stain lie effect

MAC lipstick in rebel- a pinkish purple all over lips lightly with a lip brush

Make Up Forever Lipstick in 205- blue red all over lips

Cheeks:

MAC Beauty Powder in Summer Rose- on apples blended back towards temples

MAC Beauty Powder in Shell Pearl- used as a C highlighter (from top of brow to top of cheekbone)

I know this seems like a ton of products for a "simple look" but the whole thing takes me less the 15 minutes, which is saying something as most of my looks take almost 45 minutes. The biggest time saver is foundation. Now that summer weather is rolling around I can get away with a lot less coverage, which equals a huge time cut.

FOTD- Greens, Blues and Purples

In an attempt to break myself out of the super neutral look I’ve been sporting for a week, I visited my lovely friends at MAC to see if they could pull me out of my neutral-dazed funk. As always, they delivered, and this look was just too gorgeous not to show.

update: whether it was a change in climate from vacation or a result of my new favorite foundation, I got a huge breakout when I got back from spring break. Since then I have totally laid off the foundation, as I’m thinking that Studio Sculpt may have been the culprit. I’ve been using smashbox photofinish, studio finish concealer and MSF natural as my daily skin routine, along with tons of cleansing and it seems to be making the problem much less.

Products Used (MAC unless noted otherwise)

Face:

Smashbox Photofinish Original Primer

Studio Finish concealer in NW20

Mineralize Skin Finish Natural in Medium

Eyes:

Painterly Paint Pot (nude base)

Purple Haze (matte grey lilac color), Violet Trance (bright matte purple) and Atlantic Blue (matte cool toned blue) in crease with a 224 tapered blending brush

Steamy (a cool blue toned teal with lots of shimmer) all over the lid with the 239 shadow brush

Ego (a very shimmery light pink) as a brow bone highlight with the 239 shadow brush

Blacktrack fluidline (black gel eyeliner) across the top lash line with either a 209 or a 266 angled liner brush

Pearlglide Intense eyeliner in Undercurrent (blue teal color) on bottom waterline and top corner waterline- this gets released on thursday and all of the colors are AMAZING!

Violet Trance and Atlantic Blue right on bottom lash line with the 219 pencil brush

Fresh Super Nova Mascara on top and bottom lashes

Cheeks:

Springshine Blush (shimmery pinkish orange) to the apples with the 129 blush brush

Mineralize Skin Finish in Light Flush buffed onto cheekbone with 181 small buffer brush

Refined Golden Bronzer (deep golden bronze) with 181 buffer into contour

Lips:

naked lip liner (true pale neutral- almost like a concealer for your lips)

Plushglass Lip gloss in Posh It Up (a golden pink that almost has a coral-ish sheen)

I think this may be my new “go to” look. I’m loving the green with my brown eyes. I tend to reach for purples and blues, but I’m definitely going to start going out of my way to use more greens.

(coastal scents reviews are in the works, just taking a while)

FOTD- quick neutrals

I seem to be reaching for these couple of products quite often this week. And by “quite often” I mean every day. With the weather finally somewhat reminiscent of spring, I’ve been going for a very neutral yet fresh look this week. You will have to excuse the crappy iMac photos, my camera battery is charging as we speak.

And the eyes:

Products Used:

Face:

MAC Studio Sculpt foundation in NC25

Benefit’s BOing concealer

MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Medium

Eyes:

MAC Soft Ocre Paintpot (a matte nude base)

SMH single eyeshadow in Creme D’Nude (very light creme for entire lid to browbone)

SMH single eyeshadow in Sin Sational- (a shimmery light peach for lid)

MAC Arena Eyeshadow (Shimmery light brown for a little definition in the crease)

Bobbi Brown Gel Eyeliner in Violet Ink (a black violet eggplant color used to tightline top lashes and lightly on the waterline)

SMH single eyeshadow in Divine (a creamy shimmery white for highlighting the brow bone)

Fresh Supernova Mascara

Cheeks:

NARS super orgasm blush (very shimmery peachy pink for apples of the cheeks)

MAC iridescent powder in Tenderdusk (a shimmery pink for top part of the cheek bone)

MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Perfect Topping and Pink Porcelain (very light shimmery highlighters for top of cheekbones)

Lips:

Smashbox lipgloss in Pout (a sheer baby pink gloss)

SMH stands for Stars Makeup Haven, a website that sells both the palettes that Coastal Scents does, and single eyeshadows for the extremely cheap price of $4.95. My experience with these eyeshadows has been extremely positive. I bought two 28 palettes for less than the price of 1 MAC 15 palette. These eyeshadows are extremely pigmented and with 97 colors to choose from, its hard to find one you don’t like. My only warning is that some of the shadows are more like pressed pigments and are therefore rather prone to fallout. However, I’ve found if you use a sticky base like paintpots and a dense brush, you can minimize fall out greatly. The website is www.starsmakeuphaven.com and the direct link to the shadows is www.starsmakeuphaven.com/product_info.php?cPath=59&products_id=804

a note on dupes: I’ve heard that L’Oreal’s HIP eyeliner in eggplant is an extremely close, and much cheaper dupe for the Bobbi Brown eyeliner I used.