Makeup Updates and More...

Hi Bellas,

On the day of my heatherette haul I couldn’t resist to check out some of the other products that were floating around the store. It’s like the Pringles commercial, “one you pop, you can’t stop” or as I like to say, “Once you go MAC, you never go back” wink wink. So while I was there I inquired about the beauty powder blushes…you guys know that these aren’t permanent items right? When I heard this I was like oh great, well now I have to try them! I picked up two: shy beauty and true romantic. I like to wear them together, true romantic as the main blush and shy beauty as the highlight. I will say that I can definitely tell the difference between these products and other blushes. The beauty powder blushes are more finely milled and go on like silk…the colors I got are so soft and pretty…I think I’ve found my everyday blush combo!

Shy Beauty on the Left and True Romantic on the right

Swatched on white paper: Shy Beauty on the Left and True Romantic on the right

Swatched on my arm: True Romantic on the left and Shy Beauty on the right


While I was there I also wanted to pick up a few shadows I’ve been eyeing for a while. I picked up rule and goldmine since I’ve seen them in a bunch of looks and it always looks fab! I also got a few colors I thought would look good on the mother of the bride…I’m thinking soft pinks and plums. I’m not really going to be too positive on the look I’ll do for her or the maid of honor until I have my run through with them the Thursday before the wedding. You can only do so many run-throughs…each person has their own specific skin undertones that makes makeup look different on them.

So last Friday night I went over to my friend ashley’s apartment for one of our costa rica planning meetings. I brought over my entire train case as well as my new brush apron with the intention of practicing my bridal makeup. I did my roomy Melissa’s makeup and timed her as if I was doing the bride’s makeup. They have similar skin coloring so it worked out. I was able to do it in 50 minutes which is good because I budgeted for an hour.

Next, I did my friend Ashley’s makeup. I did this with the intention of creating a look for the bride’s mother. It looked pretty good actually. I did a plum eye using sublime nature paint, llama e/s, a plum colored e/s (can’t remember the name but it’s from MAC) and burnt burgundy pigment. I use a pair of natural lashes and a plum-pink blush. The only real obstacle I ran into was picking out a lip color. I don’t know about everyone else…but with moms in their 40’s and older, they always seem to have a distinct taste in lipsticks…more mature colors. For example, my mom always wears this random, purpley-magenta shade which is not that flattering, but she loves it! I was playing with a few colors but honestly…I’m going to have to wait till the Thursday before the wedding when the mom and sister get into town…the bride told me her mom will probably want to use one of her own lipsticks. That’s fine with me! That makes my job a lot easier. Besides the lip colors...everything went well.

Another random tidbit…when I did my roomy Alex’s foundation after I did the heatherette trio #2 look on her I applied a loose translucent powder to set the makeup. However, this gave a white-ish tint to it. I kind of had a feeling it would do that because I’ve read before that when applying setting powder on darker skin tones, you need to get a darker loose powder…translucent gives a ghost-mask light finish on darker skin tones even though it won’t show up on my tan complexion or others who are lighter than me. I ordered one of these powders online last week fortunately, but it just hasn’t come in the mail yet. So what lesson did we learn boys and girls? Don’t apply translucent or colorless blot powder on darker skin tones…it’s just not cute.

By the way, here's a pic of my roomy Alex's makeup, I used the pink and purple trio. It looks fab on all skin colors!


Anyways, after I finished ashley’s makeup, we just stayed up while the girls asked me various questions about different mascaras, lol.

Last Saturday morning, we planned for the bride-to-be to come to my apartment around noon so I can practice the actual make-up on her. She went for a natural yet bronzey look and I think it came out fab! I took my time because I wanted to get her approval on different things I was trying before I proceeded. The whole thing took me 1 hour and 15 minutes according to the timer. However, I was going super slow since we were chatting as well as giving her time to look at some of the new techniques I tried on her. A few things we changed from the original makeup artists vision are:
1) went a little lighter on the foundation…and I applied fix plus afterwards so it wouldn’t look so cakey. With bridal foundation you need enough coverage to show up on cameras but you also want it to look natural in pictures.
2) I didn’t line the waterline…she normally has very watery eyes. Instead, I used a dark brown shadow and applied it on the lower lashline. It was subtle yet distinct enough to give her eyes a bit more definition.
3) I did a bit of contouring…since she is taken some black and white photography, it’s good to have more contouring so her features aren’t lost on the photographs.
4) I added a highlight and tear duct color. I used llama as her highlight color b/c you should really only put shimmery colors on the lid…that way light reflects in the proper areas. I also put a dab on shroom e/s on her tear duct to open her eyes up a bit.
5) I also added UDPP to her eyes as a primer…she has a major creasing problem so I put it on first, then I put it over the paint I used as a base, just in case! I also put smashbox photfinish primer heavily in her laugh lines and underneath her eyes…the silicone like formula filled in the little lines so that the makeup wouldn’t crack. Mind you, she’s only 26, but everyone’s face creases when we make expressions…it’s natural.
6) Oh and tip of the day…if you use the MAC 224 brush to blend in concealer (I used studio finish concealer) it gives a flawless, blended look.

After that…the bride-to-be left around 2ish to go to a birthday party and myself, my two roomies and my friend ash were left to play with makeup! I like to teach my friends what tricks I’ve learned especially since they are really eager to learn makeup application. My roomy Melissa wanted me to do a funky bright look on her since she usually sticks to neutral shadows and colors. I did a bright gold and blue look and did one side of her face and let my friend Ashley copy me and do the other. This is really the best way to learn by actually doing it. After that…we chatted some more…I did my purple and pink heatherette look, filmed it…and before we knew it night fell.

From all the playing with makeup my friends really wanted to go to MAC to pick up a few things…so we rushed, got there at 8:30 and picked up a few things. After my major-binge on Thursday I didn’t really want to get actual makeup…but I picked up brush cleaner (since I’ve been doing a lot more brush cleaning with all these applications!) and makeup-wipes. I ordered some wipes on everyday minerals because I’ve heard they’re better than MAC wipes, but haven’t received them yet. I never realized how much I rely on those wipes to take off my makeup! So I got the small pack of MAC wipes in the meantime. My friends picked up some makeup and I actually brought some of my containers to do Back to MAC, but I don’t like being rushed. You could tell the store ppl were trying to get out of there…and I don’t blame them because once 8:30 rolls around, it’s time to start wrapping up! I learned that from working retail myself back in the day.

After that…I was make-up-ed out! So we went and ate Mexican food and pigged out and relaxed. Monday morning I checked in on the bride-to-be to see how her makeup lasted throughout the day.

This was her response:
“The make-up was great! Everyone loved it. They kept asking me who did it. You may have some future clients now. :) My eyes and laugh lines did not crease at all and I had the make-up on until 11pm. The primers are miracle workers! I got a little greasy towards the end of the night but that is normal for me since my skin is so oily. I will just have to remember to keep putting on the blotting powder throughout the day.”

So far, so good. I shall keep you guys updated!