What's better than starting off the new year with new makeup, especially affordable makeup. Today i'm going to show you some products from ELF that have hit my doorstep, and there are definitely some winners! Check it out!
Happy Friday! One of my favorite brands, PUR Cosmetics is celebrating its 10 year anniversary. To commemorate the occasion, they came up with a limited anniversary edition of their 4-in-1 Pressed Mineral Makeup and Chisel Brush. If you're in the market for an amazing powder foundation and you like some bling bling, you've gotta check this post out!
Happy Friady! I'm back with another depotting post! I am such a sucker for putting things in palettes - it makes me feel so organized. I love being able to see product in a palette because I can see it more.
Happy Halloween! I'm pumped about a costume party I'm going to tonight. I'll make sure to take pics. Meanwhile, today I thought I'd focus on a product that I know works. As a beauty blogger I try out a lot of new products so when I repurchase something you know it's a winner! Today I'm featuring Pur Minerals Pressed Mineral Foundation. It's really the only mineral makeup I'd use. Today I've got pics and I'll show you my favorite way to apply it. Check it out!
I'm back with another review and giveaway. I had the chance to test out some new products from Sedona Lace. They just came out with a set of Mineral Makeup shades that recently launched on their website. I'm pretty picky when it comes to mineral makeup but these products passed the test!
I'm back with another tutorial and review. Today I'll be reviewing the Bare Minerals Tutorial - Lesson 1: Smoky Eye. I know many of you are familiar with this brand as one of the first huge mineral makeup companies. I used to use their mineral foundation back in the day and it was my first time trying out some of their eyeshadows.
The kit came with instructions and all the materials you need for a smoky eye.
I'm back with another video tutorial. Today I wanted to try something a little different. I did a smokey eye but I used only one eyeshadow. I show you techniques how to make one color look like three! This is a video I filmed right before Valentines but I'm just now getting it up...which explains the darker hair again. In this video I feature one of my favorite brands Steelo Cosmetics. Sometimes I'll try out a makeup line and forget about it and it sits in my drawer neglected. I like to revisit these oldies but goodies or "shop my stash" as they call it on www.specktra.com
Here is a picture of the one color I used for the whole look.
Happy New Years's Eve! I had planned on doing a New Year's look but being sick hasn't attributed to too much makeup lately. Also, there seems to be a virus on my computer, uh oh! I'll have my BF take a look and fix it when he comes home on Sunday. I need him to fix it before I can upload another video because I can't get onto the internet at home. Unfortunately, he won't be in town to celebrate the New Years with me, but at least i'll have my best friends to share it with me :) Do you guys have plans tonight? We're doing it low key this year...potluck and drinks at a friend's house tonight and then we're going to see a basketball game tomorrow...my first time finally seeing a pro game!
Meanwhile, I wanted to share with you some pics of a client I did a few months ago. She came in intending to get advice on producing a mineral makeup line for women of color. I have tested my fair share of mineral makeup companies, some good and some not so good. While giving her some tips, I also helped her recreate a daytime and nighttime look. Having your own mineral makeup company, your makeup needs to be on point! Too bad I didn't get a before and after shot because it was a great transformation.
Here are some tips and tricks I taught my client during this lesson which you all might be able to benefit from:
if you want more coverage from a mineral foundation, try dampening your brush first. We used the client's own mineral foundation which was okay dry...but when wet it made her skin flawless!
if you find a foundation is too light for you, use it in the center of your face only...it will highlight you and make you glow...then you can use a darker one around the outside of your face...this is what I did with the client's makeup when the two shades she hadn't weren't quite a perfect match
wearing any kind of eyeshadow base makes a huge difference...she had an eyeshadow palette which she disliked because it looked too chalky on her. I popped on a MAC paint underneath and voila, the colors transformed and popped!
if you have darker lips and have problems trying to achieve a nude lip...try using an apricot/coral shade instead...the warmness will prevent your lips from looking ashy, but it will still give you that nude look
Here's a shot of the smokey look we did together using mainly her own makeup. I did one side of the face and she did the other...can't tell which one she did right?
That's it for now folks! Thanks so much for sticking with me in 2009...i'll be back with another post on Monday in 2010. Love you all!
Yesterday I headed to MAC to check out the release of the new Colour Craft collection. I actually filmed and edited my haul video last night but my BF fell asleep before putting music on it :( Needless to say, it's not up right now, lol. I'll try to load it this afternoon. Meanwhile, I wanted to show you some pics and swatches.
First off, this collection was huge! MAC really went Mineralize Makeup happy on this one. I spent more on this than I've spent on MAC for a while.
Check out my video!
Let's start off with the MSFs. They had two kinds to choose from: the regular msfs and a striped Mineralize trio.
From the regular kind I picked up two of the three. The one I didn't get, Sunny By Nature, was a random tan shade that looked kind of blah.
The first one I actually picked up was Porcelain Pink. This is a very pale pink that would like great as a subtle pink highlight. It's not as chunky as some of my other pink MSFs (light flush). In terms of wearing it as a blush though, it would probably only work on very fair skin tones. This isn't really a must-have, but I wanted it for collection purposes.
I also picked up Cheeky Bronze MSF. This one I really like! It has a peachy pink sheeen to it. It's a bit more pigmented than Porcelain Pink, especially on tanner skin tones. This would make a gorgeous highlight to give that shimmer skin look. You could probably rock this as a blush only if you're on the fair side.
Here are swatches of the two. You can see Porcelain Pink is more of a super light baby pink...better for lighter skin tones in IMO. Cheeky Bronze could possibly work as a blush for lighter skin tones but I'd use it as a pretty highlighter on tanner tones. The peach in it really warms up the skin.
I only picked up one of the three MSF trios. The two other consisted of dupeable shades in my opinion - Triple Fusion (Golden Peachy) and Smooth Merge (dupeable pink).
The only one I picked up was Warm Blend. This chocolate concoction really stood out to me. I don't usually see MSFs this dark. Finally a great MSF for women of color! You can use it as a bronzer, highlighter, blush, or contour color. I'd also use this for eyeshadow. I definitely recommend this one especially for tan to dark skin tones.
Moving on to the Mineralize Eyeshadows. The formula is pretty pigmented this time around. The shadows come in quads this time, which is actually a pretty good deal for the money. Unfortunately, Mineralize Eyeshadows tend to sit neglected in my collection. Only one of the six really stood out to me and that was Natural Flare.
This is probably the one I would actually use the most. Some of the other quads seemed to have random color combos and some applied ashy. If you're selling something in a quad, I'm picky about making sure the colors really go together. The coppery gold shades in this quad are perfect all year round, especially for women that love the earth tone bronzey makeup look. I wore these in my haul video which will be uploaded later today. To be honest, I'm more of a matte eyeshadow girl and I tend to stray from super shimmer shadows like these but I could actually see myself wearing this one on the regular. The only thing is that I would probably use a more subtle highlighter next time because the champagne tone in the quad was a bit too glittery. You need a little bit of balance in a look between finishes. If you pick up any of the eyeshadow quads, I would recommend this one.
Out of the six lipsticks, I picked out only one. Madly Creative seemed like the most unique shade. This collection featured more frosts...a departure from the lusters in many of the past collections. If you like pink lips, this is a good one for you. It's not overly frosty...the sheen almost makes you look like you're wearing a gloss, minus the stickiness. The rest of the colors were so so...no must haves.
I only picked up one of the Marbelized lipglasses. I really hate this square packaging because it makes it too difficult to get enough product on the wand. However, I did pick up one...a very pretty pink purple tone. I couldn't resist it after I applied it to my hand. Beware though, the colors swatch really pretty but they are very sheer (like the ones released in the Sugar Sweet collection). You'd have to wear a coordinating lipstick/lipliner underneath for the pigmentation to show.
I picked up two of the six Minearlize Blushes. Some of these swatched super frosty so tan to dark skin tones need to be aware because it might come across ashy. I picked up Daft Pink because it swatched a really pretty bright pink. I'd probably pair it with a matte color blush to tone it down a little. Cheek & Cheerful blush is an amazing highlighter for my skin tone...it doesn't swatch nearly as frosty as the rest.
Lastly, we have the brushes. This collection also had the 109 in it, which is a great brush, but it's permanent so we skipped that one. I was really excited about getting the 226 again. This was released in the Blond, Brunette, Redhead collection and I had to pick up two more for my kit. This is a must have brush for small eyelids or if you want a defined crease...pick it up before it sells out! The other brush is a newbie...the 131. It's a Duo Stippling brush more flat than the 187 or 188. It makes an awesome contour/highlighting brush. Since it's more flat and dense than the 187/188, it doesn't splay as much on the skin so you can concentrate the color only where you need it. It's awesome for contouring...the mixed bristles prevent you from getting that annoying dark streak in the contours of the cheek because it allows you to blend better. I would definitely recommend both these brushes.
Here I am wearing all products from this collection minus foundation, brows, lashes and liner. The look in person was super glittery and frosty lol. Try to mix and match these products with other finishes to prevent looking like a disco ball.
All products MAC unless otherwise mentioned.
FACE -Warm Blend MSF as contour and bronzer -Daft Pink blush -Cheeky & Cheerful blush as highlighter -Eve Pearl tan foundation and medium salmon concealer -Steelo Cosmetics Mineral Foundation in MD25
EYES -Steelo Medium Eyeshadow Base and Black Kohl Liner -Red Cherry Lashes -Natural Flare Mineralize Eyeshadow Quad
As you know, I've been trying to put out my celebrity tutorials. I'm trying to pick celebrities with great makeup. I've been wanting to do Hayden Panettiere for a while. She's the popular cheerleader off the hit Heroes as well as being other movies including Bring It On 2. She always has a fresh look that I think is very wearable.
Here are some pics:
As you can see, she has great glowing skin. After all, she is a Neutrogena ad girl. I also noticed that she favors a kohl rimmed eye. Her eyes are usually smokey but not overly done.
I decided to do a smudged smokey eye with a hint of bronze. I also went with a shimmery cheek and lip. This tutorial gave me the opportunity to test out Afterglow Cosmetics, a new Organic Mineral Makeup Line.
I tried out a bunch of their products and I will say that I am pretty impressed with the presentation and packaging. The cosmetics are really nicely packaged and come with their own design, sifter, and sticker to make sure everything is sealed properly.
Here are my thoughts on the highs and lows of the products:
Foundation - I found a perfect match in Sunset. It works well but it's not the best I've tried. I notice I need to use more of the powder than usual to get more coverage. I like Pur Minerals better. Afterglow is more on the light coverage side so I'd suggest wearing concealer beforehand.
Bronzer - I used the bronzer in deep and really liked it! It was the perfect color, not too bronzey. I would recommend this...gives a nice bronzed glow and can also be used as a contour color.
Mascara - Did nothing for me. If you're into super natural lashes then I guess this is for you. But most of us aren't, lol, so I wouldn't recommend.
Eyelash Curler - I like the design of the prongs, but it didn't really work well in curling my lashes.
Eyeshadows - Really good...pigmented. Same goes with the eyeliner powders. Most of the colors are earthy tones so no bright ones here. Good for work and everyday natural looks.
Brushes - Pretty good! Not scratchy. The mini kabuki is super soft. I like how they have a sponge tip eyeshadow brush with multiple replacement heads. Vanessa was right...it really does help to use those sponge tip applicators when applying certain shadows.
Overall, this line is a great organic based makeup company. I would recommend this to you guys who are looking for high quality mineral makeup. There are a lot of up and coming mineral makeup companies that aren't exactly the best quality (Ahem Earthen Glow Minerals' foundation). Afterglow cosmetics seems like a professional makeup company with a great line of products.
Now for the look! As you can see, it mainly consists of smudged black liner and a little bronzey brown in the crease and lower lashline. I actually used Afterglow Cosmetics eye liner powders to pull off the look...they're multi-purpose! I'll keep the black liner powder around to set my liner moving forward. It's the perfect black powder.
Check out the tut!
I curled my hair using the flat iron in my last hair tutorial vid :)
Here's What I Used:
EYES -MAC soft ochre paint pot -Afterglow cosmetics bare eyeshadow -MAC feline kohl power pencil -Afterglow cosmetics raven eye shadow powder -Afterglow cosmetics hot cocoa eyeshadow powder -Afterglow pure soul mascara -false lashes -Rimmel professional brow pencil
FACE -MAC prep and prime -Afterglow cosmetics mineral foundation in Sunset -Afterglow cosmetics bronzer in deep -Afterglow cosmetics dusty rose blush -MAC mineralized skinfinish in Petticoat
After watching my regular fav YouTubers XSparkage and Queen of Blending, I was turned onto a new mineral makeup company that just seemed right up my alley. This company is called Lime Crime Cosmetics. The owner Xenia has a popular blog where she has the most amazing pictures of herself modeling her makeup and her eclectic style. I was hooked once I saw how she created such dramatic looks. She also has a great wardrobe and sense of fashion.
As you can see, the whole idea of this company is super bright, fun makeup. The colors are absolutely amazing. The owner definitely plays into the fantasy aspect of makeup. The pigments all have fun names and a little story behind them.
For example, one of the most beautiful shades in my opinion is Mermaid. This is what the website has to say about it:
The mermaid lived in a creek behind the levee. Each night, when the village lights languished and people were fast asleep, she climbed on top a big rock and sang songs of faeries and unicorns, moonlight dancing on her shiny, green tail.
'Mermaid' by Lime Crime is a lovely blue-green with gorgeous sheen. Can be applied wet of dry - we recommend wetting your brush for extra-dramatic
It was very difficult for me to choose colors since they were all gorgeous, but I ended up picking my favs. They are: Mystique Blue, Mermaid, and Empress.
Swatches done dry without a base.
Here's a pic of a look I created using the shadows. As you can, they're super pigmented! I tried filming a tutorial but I accidentally poked my eye and it was a waterfest. But you can see the final look.
Here are the price and product stats: $12 for 1g of product in a decorative 5 gram jar
This is a great new company out there, definitely check them out! They also have brushes, an amazing primer, and other face products.
On a side note:
I've chosen 5 winners for the Poupourri give-away. At random, they are: Shana Tahnee bookmouse99 lena0313 LadyJane
You have 24 hours to email me your name and address and i'll mail you your product this week. Thanks for participating!
The holidays are swiftly approaching and it's the perfect time to stock up on holiday makeup sets for yourself or to give as gifts to others.
I recently had the opportunity to test out a few of Pur Minerals new Holiday gift sets.
On to the review!
Inspire, Reflect, Celebrate Luminous Eye Shadow Palette with lid closed
opened
Swatches of reflect, the 5 shadows in the middle
Swatches of celebrate, the eyeshadows on the left of the palette.
Swatches of Inspire, the group of eyeshadows to the right of the palette.
For my contest this is what my email contestants will be winning!
For $25 and 15 different eyeshadow colors, this palette is a really good deal. I actually like it more than the previous Paint by Numbers Palette that Pur Minerals released. My reasoning is that this time around the eyeshadows are grouped into clusters that coordinate really well. For instance, the Inspire Cluster (my favorite of the three) is perfect for a night-time smokey eye, while the Reflect cluster is perfect for a shimmery, neutral day-time look. It's almost like having three separate holiday palettes in one. The swatches were all done without a base. The Neutral cluster in the middle doesn't show up as pigmented but it still shows well on the eye. This really makes a great starter kit or a gift for someone you love. Just make sure to wear a good base underneath if you want the colors to pop.
Next we have the Tease, Flirt, Charm Glimmer Eye Pencil Trio and the Smile, Pout, Kiss Lip Gloss Trio
With this trio, you get three glosses for $25 which isn't a bad deal at all. I was pleasantly suprised by this set. The colors are all super smooth and well pigmented. My favorite is Sheer Crystal, a pretty baby pink color. It's perfect for a pretty pink lip. Pur Brilliance looks white in the tube but it's actually as an irridescent pink shimmer that would look great on top of a favorite lipstick. Glazed Ruby really suprised me of how pigmented it came out. It reminded me of a gloss version of Port Red lipstick. It's a great color to have for the holidays. Again, I like this better than the previous lipgloss I tried from Pur Minerals. In comparison with the last Lip Plumping Pur Minerals Gloss I tried, this one had a very subtle yet pleasant vanilla scent.
For $18.50, Pur Minerals offers a trio of eyeliners reminiscent of popular jewel tones for the holidays. They are retractable pencils which go on really smooth. Unfortunately, the only one that really showed up on me was Emerald. The others kind of blended into my skintone. This would probably work more so for the fairer skinned beauties out there.
Like I mentioned, these would make great stocking stuffers. Each set is $25 or under.
How was your weekend? Quick again? Mine was. I got my hair done this weekend...it's pretty different, I'll post pics soon. I had it darked to a brown with caramel highlights and got myself a bang. I think the stylist cut off a little too much length but it should grow out soon.
Anywho, on to the post!
Recently I had the opportunity to try out some products from a brand new mineral makeup company Earthen Glow Minerals. I was also happy to hear that they are based out of Duluth, GA...not even 30 minutes away from where I live.
They told me to peruse the website and pick what I liked. If you go to the website you'll notice that they have a crazy amount of products and colors. The eyeshadows are absolutely gorgeous! It was very difficult for me to to narrow down what I wanted to try!
On to the review!
Eyeshadows $.75 for sample in a bag, $1.50 for sample in a jar, $6.00 for 5 gram jar First off, there are over 116 shades to try. What first caught my eye were the colors...they have a gorgeous range of colors grouped by color families to help make it a little easier.
I received samples of these shadows and they are just as pigmented in person as they appear on the website. The only thing you should be aware of is that these shadows come loose in a jar. On the website they show the color as if it is a pressed mineralized eyeshadow in dome form, but this is not how you will receive them.
Eyeshadows swatched dry without base:
Blushes
$.75 for sample in a bag, $1.50 for sample in a jar, $8.00 for 10 gram jar Gorgeous! Definitely recommend. Their blushes venture away from the typical coral, peach an plum colors and also ventury into more browns and tawny shades. This company really makes an effort to reach out to various tones outside of the norm which is especially good for women of color.
Blushes swatched dry without base:
Foundations/Highlight and Contour Colors/Powder Primers $.75 for sample in a bag, $1.50 for sample in a jar, $18.00 for 30 gram jar I really really wanted to like these. First off, foundations come in over 163 colors. The shades are named by different female names and each description of the shade offers a celebrity to compare the shade to. For example, the shade Robin is a brown foundation with yellow undertones. They list Tia and Tamara Mowry and Halle Barry as examples. I ordered a bunch of shades, from light to dark. When I tested them I was so disappointed. Upon swatching they powders all felt uber chalky, almost rough. I'm not a regular loose mineral makeup user so I pulled out a couple of mineral foundations for reference (bare essentials and everyday minerals) and they indeed were super chalky. The other foundations had a fine milled, silky texture. I wouldn't even want to put EG minerals foundation on my face.
Pigmented Lip Cream Tubes $9 I was excited to try these out because again they seemed like they had a great range of shades. The company appeals to women of various ethnicities and the colors show this. I squeezed the lip gloss out and again was so disappointed. The gloss seemed to have big particles which made it seem like the product wasn't mixed together properly. It felt like huge chunks of dirt were in there. I'd much rather use this as a foot exfoliant than a lip gloss.
Lipcream Palette $30 and Sheer Mineral Lipgloss Palette $15 I was really excited to try these because I just love anything that comes in a palette. The mineral lip cream palette comes with a whopping 15 colors. When I saw it in person I swatched the colors and why did each one come out looking like the same sheer reddish tone? It also smelt like cough syrup. The lipgloss palette was even worse. The product was not soft like gloss and swatched extremely clear. Putting them on the lips was not fun either. They stung my lips like no other! I’m thinking that whatever was causing the cough syrup smell was also burning my lips. Please don’t order these.
Here's a look I did with the shadows. In person it looked better because you could see the color dimension more.
Here's What I Used:
EYES -bare study paint pot -EG minerals pagoda springs e/s (wet on lid) -EG minerals in shell island (highlight) -EG minerals in caribbean sea (lid) -EG minerals in african violet (outer v)
FACE -temptu foundation in #6 and #7 mixed -EG minerals magenta e/s
LIPS -PUR minerals pink lipgloss
In sum, I have mixed feelings. The company has some really great eyeshadows and blushes so you should definitely check those out. I would load up on the $.75 sample baggies. As for the foundations and lip products, I'm thinking that this start up hasn't quite ironed out the formulation process. My review of course, is my own personal opinion. With that said, check them out http://www.egmineralmakeup.com/.
