how-to

How-To: Rock Out as Professor Plum

By Voxy  |  2010/09/05 19:18 Posted in how-to, trends  |  Comments (2)

Ow! Stop throwing things! OK, it was a bad pun, but I couldn’t resist. Put down that candlestick at once. At once, I say!

::dusts self off::

The other day A Biologist asked about how one could wear the plum shades that are so trendy for this fall without looking like one had just come from a vampire party. While I am in favor of vampire parties so long as they don’t involve the drinking of blood (and, in particular, mine), I agree that for work a more subtle way to incorporate trends is very helpful.

An easier way to incorporate most trends is to play with them on the eyes. There are exceptions, of course: if red lipstick is haute this year, then nothing but a red lippie/gloss will do (though even then you can modify the intensity of the red to your comfort level). But unless the it color is red or pink or coral, you’re probably looking at eye makeup as the easiest way to incorporate it.

Liners, Shadows, Mascaras

There are three main ways to use plums on the eyes (and for the purposes of this discussion I’ve opened it up to all shades of violet, though I’m trying to focus mainly on the warmer ones): eyeliners, eyeshadows, and tinted mascaras. You can use these together or separately, as you like, though I probably wouldn’t do all three in the same look.

Below are two swatches of (almost) every plum/berry/purple eyeliner I own. For some reason I did not include the recently-reviewed MAC Superslick in Smoky Heir (though I did incorporate it into one of the looks below). One swatch is in sunlight, the other in indirect natural light.

Left-to-right:

1. MAC Fluidline in Macroviolet (link) — gel
2. Physician’s Formula Shimmer Strips Cream Liner (review here) — gel
3. Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eyeliner Pencil in Ransom (review here) — pencil
4. MAC Pearlglide Eye Liner in Designer Purple (limited edition, Spring 10; review here) — pencil
5. Rimmel Exaggerate Full Colour Eye Definer in 281 Aubergine (discontinued color? New product page here) — pencil
6. Kat von D Autograph Eye Liner in Turbo Lover (link) — liquid
7. Stila Convertible Eye Color in Berry (to be reviewed; link here) — pencil
8. MAC Pearlglide Eye Liner in Almost Noir (limited edition, Spring 10; review here) — pencil
9. NYC Automatic Eye Pencil in Plum Perfect (link) — pencil
10. Barbie Loves Stila Smudge Pot in Purple Pumps (link) — gel
11. Milani Infinite Liquid Liner in Endless (review here) — liquid

(By the way — the most difficult to get off my arm later? The Milani Infinite liquid liner. That thing did not want to budge.)

If you’re going to play with liner as a color, there are three basic ways to do it:

1. with same-color-family shadows
2. with neutral shadows
3. with a contrasting color family of shadows

I have four examples.

With same-color-family shadows

Because purples can be either warm or cool, I did two different looks here. One is a warm purple going into a warm taupe (warm purple going into magentas and pinks is not so good for eye looks). Taupes are mostly neutral, so this is a neutral-ish eye, but still with a plum tinge.

Look #1: Warm plums and taupe

Sorry, the closed-eye photo of this one didn’t turn out for some reason.

Liners used: Kat von D Autograph liquid liner in Turbo Lover (top); MAC Pearlglide in Almost Noir (bottom)
Shadows: MAC Satin Taupe on lid and traveling up towards browbone; deep wine with shimmer shade (second-to-right) from LORAC Private Affair Palette blended into crease and on outer third of lid (review and swatch here)
Other stuff: TFSI, Lancome Definicils mascara, Tarte emphasEYES brow pencil. I use these in all the remaining looks.

Look #2: Cool purples and violet

I do wear purple eyeshadow to work, so this is a look I actually wear. Here I’m using a cooler purple liner and blending it in with cooler purple shadows. If your liners lean warm and you want to stay within the same color family, stick with warm shadow colors; if they lean cool, pair ‘em with other cool colors.

As you can see, from the side it doesn’t look all that intense.

Liners used: MAC Pearlglide in Designer Purple (top), NYC Automatic Eye Pencil in Plum Perfect (bottom)
Shadows used: Urban Decay Deluxe Shadows in Ransom and Frigid (blended together over lid and up towards brow bone); ULTA Vineyard in crease. Sorry for the sloppy blending. Nothing makes you see all the things didn’t realize you did wrong like sticking your face in a tungsten light tent and taking a picture. Yeesh.

With neutral shadows

You can take a regular simple neutral eye and pair a colored liner with it for a bit of pop. This is probably the easiest way to do it. Keep the shadow to a simple wash.

Look #3: Violet with neutral browns

Liners used: MAC Superslick in Smoky Heir with NYC Automatic Eye Pencil in Plum Perfect (top); NYC liner on bottom as well. The Superslick liners don’t blend on their own very well, but you can drag a pencil through them while they’re still tacky to pull out the line and blend it. This is a more vivid look in real life than it appears in the picture, but still very work-appropriate.
Shadows used: UD eyeshadow in Stray Dog and Deluxe Eyeshadow in Underground, applied as a simple wash all over the eye area.

With contrasting-color shadows

I love the combination of warm plum with warm coppery-rose colors like those in the LORAC Croc Palette, which provided the shadows for this last look. Why these colors work is that they’re contrasting but similar; they are all warm and tend towards red rather than blue. (In your box of crayons, it would be like red-purple and red-orange together.)

Look #4: Warm plum with sunset coppers

The only thing I might change about this look is that I’d consider tightlining with a MAC fluidline gel liner in either Macroviolet (er, violet) or Blacktrack (er, black) before putting the Stila berry liner on. The top lash line could do with a bit more definition.

Liners used: Stila Convertible Eye Color in Berry (top); MAC Pearglide in Almost Noir (top and bottom)
Shadows used: Moonstone, Serenity, and Garnet from the LORAC Croc Palette (review and swatches here)

Mascara

After I had finished the looks above, I remembered that I had an unopened Almay Intense I-Color mascara lying around, so I decided to try it out. Since I already had black mascara on, applying the plum-colored mascara on top doesn’t make a huge difference. This week I’m going to try to use it on its own and see how well it works. But here is the product, and here also are the last two looks shot again with a coat of Almay tinted mascara (shade: Raisin Quartz) on top.

Subtle, but you can see it if you’re looking for it.

Lips

If you want to go big, there are plenty of dark berry and plum lip shades hitting counters now. The new MUFE Rouge Artist Intense series has some serious plums (#14 and #49 come to mind), and MAC always has some interesting less-common shades (Cunning and Kittenish are very bold plum/red shades). For most of us these would probably not be appropriate work looks.

One thing you can do, though, is pick up a plum gloss and wear it either alone or on top of another lippie to darken and deepen it. I have an order in for Guerlain Kiss Kiss Gloss Serum in shade 462 Violine for just this purpose. (And come on, it’s a music term, how can I resist?) I’ll be reviewing it and swatching it as soon as it comes in. I swatched several of these glosses at the counter and this was a lovely berry color. (The 420 Vermillion would be a fantastic shade for anyone looking for a red lip in gloss form; as you know I also like the Three Custom Color gloss in Candy Apple, and the fact that I already owned the 3CC one was the single thing that prevented me from snapping up the Vermillion as well. Hello, restraint — nice to meet you. Come around a little more often, will you?)

Delicious, scrumptious-looking plum photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/calliope/939889408/sizes/l/in/photostream/

Monday Mix: Spa Me, Please! and, Sales

By Voxy  |  2010/06/07 09:56 Posted in how-to, sale, spa treatments  |  Comments (6)

Sunset (not HDR) by Dennis Wong.I’m a spa fanatic, and I’m waking up this morning with the powerful desire to drive off to some stay spa in the middle of nowhere and hide there for about three days. Wrap me in mud and seaweed; scrub me with salt and oils, massage me with warm river rocks, and make me feel like a melted marshmallow. Oh, and, uh, do it for free, please.

Anyone have any at-home spa recipes or procedures they’d like to share? (For example, did you know Pandora has a Spa Radio station?)

Sales!

Well, let’s start with the bad news. If you’ve been using Bing as a cashback-for-purchase incentive, they’ve just announced they’re going to be discontinuing that program as of July 30. Business will continue as usual until then, so you have not quite two more months to take advantage of their deals. And they have some good ones at the moment, too: 22% (!) cashback at DermStore, 10% at Sephora, etc. (If you are a VIB at Sephora and you use Bing cashback to click through tot the site and place your order, you can still get the 10% VIB discount through Sephora’s site, and then get 10% off the remainder via Bing cashback, for a total savings of 19%.) Don’t worry, Ebates (the other major cashback site) is still fully operational.

Speaking of that 10% Sephora VIB discount with code V436CB, it ends today, so better hustle.

A reminder that Editors’ Closet is launching its Beauty Story division today; sales are supposed to begin tomorrow. As of this posting, I don’t have info on what those sales will be, but I will later and will update if I get the chance.

Also, fragrance hounds, the regular Editor’s Closet site is having a Fragrance Boutique tomorrow beginning at 11 am Eastern/8 am Pacific. Brands unknown.

HauteLook has ‘Tini Beauty today and Juice Beauty skincare tomorrow; all sales begin at 11 am Eastern/8 am Pacific.

POPBeauty has 30% off through June 20 with code POPSummer.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/denniswong/3447258215/

Beauty on the Cheap: Drugstore Red Lipsticks and Glosses

By Voxy  |  2010/03/07 07:00 Posted in Product Reviews, how-to, lipstick, red lipstick, steal  |  Comments (3)

Last week, LadyStarlight posed the following perplexing puzzler:

So I was in my local WalMart looking at makeup (because I was alone, ie, no boys of any age with me) and saw Cover Girl lipsticks on sale and thought “I would like a red lipstick but… 1) How do I choose a shade that flatters me and 2) Are there any drugstore available glosses or lip stains that aren’t as…noticeable, I guess, as a lipstick?”

And so, I hitched the dogs to the sled, packed up provisions for the long journey, put my affairs in order, and set off on the quest to find some good drugstore red lippies.

(OK, I am being just a tiny bit melodramatic. I got in the car and drove to ULTA. Satisfied?)

I talked a bit about Question #1 in this post, and it fundamentally comes down to the warm vs. cool issue again, just like it does with foundation. If you are cool/pink-toned, look for a neutral-to-blue-tinted red. If you are warm/yellow-toned, look for a neutral-to-orange-tinted red. The true neutral reds, which are hard to find, can usually be worn by either cool or warm skin tones. It can be difficult to tell just by looking at a lippie by itself whether it is blue-tinted or orange-tinted (red just sort of looks red, after all, until you figure out what you are looking for), so I suggest you look at at least two lippies at a time for comparison. The white paper trick is also still a good one. Also remember that your lips are at least a little bit (and in some cases a lot) darker and more pink than your skin tone, so unless you’re planning on covering your lips with foundation before putting on lipstick, you can expect it to look a little different on your lips than on your hand.

It will also depend on the lightness of your skin; dark- and olive-skinned women can wear some gorgeous shades of red that are overpowering on my pale skin. (You lucky ducks!) As I mentioned in my last foundation post, I’m an NW20 — light-skinned, slightly cool. I look best in reds that are neutral to slightly cool. This is not a very wide range (others may have better luck), but within that narrow pie wedge, I can wear things from sheer to full pigmentation and in a range of tints from light to dark. So it’s less limiting than it sounds. I am still a big fan of buying some inexpensive lip palettes and mixing colors just so you can see what looks good on you; then you can take that color to the store and try to find yourself a match in a brand you like.

OK, let’s get to the goodies. I have four products to recommend; I’ll cover them from the most sheer to the most pigmented, starting with the glosses. By the way, the reason I’ve been in such a snit over my missing Lancome Rouge Magnificence gloss is that it’s a lovely, soft, sheer, subtle, neutral shade of red gloss that looks good on top of anything. If you decide to go high-end, I recommend it. I’m sure the lipgloss-eating monster under the front seat of my car would also give it a strong endorsement, since he’s had it for at least two months now. Stupid monster. I’m sure he looks very pretty.

#1. Revlon Super Lustrous Lipgloss in shade #80: Cherries in the Glow ($6.99 at drugstore.com)

OK, so pardon the horrible, horrible skin tone here. I appear to have been zombified when I wasn’t looking. The lighting was bad, I swatched it right over the tendons and veins on the back of my hand, and I was taking the photo with my iPhone;  in correcting the image to accurately render the color of the gloss, I have now made myself a candidate for the next Twilight movie. My apologies. Please don’t let it put you off; this is a good product!

This is, I think, an excellent “starter red.” Because it’s a gloss, it’s nice and sheer. It can be worn over bare lips or, if you’re feeling a little more bold, over another lipstick or lipstain to intensify and redden the color.

I think they’re undergoing a packaging change, but the product should look something like this (minus the “tester” sticker):

#2. Neutrogena Moistureshine Lipsheers in shade #50: Ruby Bliss ($8.99 at drugstore.com)

This is packaged like a lipstick, but has a sheer texture, like a lip balm stick. The color is more intense than a lip balm, though; it may be applied very sheerly or built up for more intensity, so it is a good “intermediate red.” It looks moist, like a balm, but does not have an obvious glossy shine.

I looked on a lot of sites and didn’t see any swatches that actually represented the color of the product, so don’t be alarmed if you go to the website and say, “uh, that can’t be it; it looks too pink/brown/green.” (OK, not green.)

#3. Revlon ColorStay Mineral Lipglaze in shade #545: Stay Ablaze ($8.99 at drugstore.com)

I love this. I very nearly bought all four of the products in this post, but this was the most tempting. This is a beautiful, rich red that is on the warm side, but because it is darker and not fire-engine bright, it will flatter many different skin tones. It has the shine of a gloss and the pigmentation of a lipstick.

(P.S. — Dear Revlon: Your website sucks. I will not send any of my readers there. Plz fix. Love, Voxy.)

Product:

#4. Cover Girl Outlast Double Lipshine in shade #265: 14-Carat Ruby ($9.29 at drugstore.com)

OK, now don’t be scared of this one, but if you are new to red lippies, you will probably want to work up to this one via glosses and less pigmented products, like those listed above. This is a gorgeous, gorgeous red. The Cover Girl Outlast Double Lipshines are double-ended products with a long-wearing lipstain on one end and a clear gloss topcoat on the other. I only swatched the lipstain side here. I was really impressed by both the shade and the amount of pigmentation. The only problem with these kinds of long-wear products is that sometimes the lipstain portion is drying (which is why you get the gloss; that’s meant to keep the lips moist). I didn’t test it on lips, so I don’t know. I do have some other products of this type and in general I like them a lot.

You can also “thin” the application of the stain if it’s too intense for you by putting on the gloss first. Then dab the stain on the center of your bottom lip; rub lips together. Dab additional dots where you need it; rub lips together. If you need more precision to get the cupid’s bow right, use a small lip brush.

Product:

So, there you go. Four good drugstore options for red lippies, from gloss to lipstains. Please let me know in the comments if you pick up any of these products and if they work for you, or if you have other drugstore reds you’d recommend!

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/weglet/ / CC BY 2.0

Foxalicious Fundamentals: Foundation 101

By Voxy  |  2010/02/21 15:34 Posted in Quest for the Perfect..., foundation, foundation, fundamentals, how-to  |  Comments (5)

Ah, foundation. Agony, ecstasy, blessing, curse, best of times, worst of times, FTW, FAIL.

(FTW is “for the win,” for those of you who aren’t up on your Lolcats terminology.)

I think that for some women, “foundation” is what they think of when they think of makeup. “I don’t wear makeup” often means “I don’t wear foundation.” And a lot of women who “don’t wear makeup” are resistant to foundations because they perceive that it will be fake-looking, or heavy, or chalky, or oily, or drying, or the wrong shade, or will wear off, melt off, slide off, or rub off, or, conversely, that they will have to scrub it off, peel it off, or chip it off with a hammer and chisel.

Guess what? All of those things could happen! But they won’t, since you’re going to do a lot of trying before buying and familiarizing yourself with different brands, formulations, and tools.

Do I really need to wear a foundation?

Almost everyone benefits from some sort of allover product to even out facial skin tone. It can be as sheer as a tinted moisturizer or powder (which will also be part of this series), or as full-coverage as a stick foundation or cream. Even within one kind of formulation, there will be a variety of degrees of coverage and moisturization: although in general creams are thicker than liquids, in practice you may well find some creams that blend out very sheerly on the face and some liquids that grab the skin and hang on for dear life. This is why testing is required!

Many foundations today also come with SPF ingredients, some with SPF ratings as high as 50. While a standalone sunscreen is always a good idea, a little bit of extra protection in a foundation can’t hurt (unless, of course, you’re allergic or sensitive to some of the sunscreen ingredients).

I just don’t want to feel like I’m putting on my mother’s makeup!

Foundations have come a long, long way since your mother wore them. Most of them are now so finely formulated that you can’t feel them on your face, so you won’t have the feeling you’re wearing a mask or that your skin is getting stretched or dried. (If you do, you have the wrong foundation.) The best cover up minor imperfections (redness, minor acne scars, unevenness of tone) while also giving you a slightly dewy, glowing, satiny canvas on which to apply other products. The very very matte look is out, so if you are dry-skinned, stay away from the mattifying foundations. Oily-skinned folks can find foundations that absorb oil without turning your face into a clay mask, and all skin types can find products to give them a “MSBB” (My Skin But Better) natural radiance.

Foundations scare me. When you put on foundation, you cross the line between looking “natural” and looking “made-up.”

Not necessarily. And you don’t have to use foundation on your whole face. If you have redness on your nose and cheeks, but the rest of your skin is glowy and fabulous all by itself, then just apply it where you need it and blend it out.

Isn’t it goopy and a pain to apply? Don’t you have to be “good at makeup” to do it right? What if I do it wrong?

It’s not really about technique per se, although of course there are helpful tips and tricks. You have to figure out what tools you need for the foundation you have, and learn how to use them, that’s all. Powder foundations will obviously require a brush of some sort. Liquid foundations can be applied with your fingers (goopiest method), with a sponge (less goopy, but the sponge eats a lot of the foundation), or with a brush (least goopy, but often requires you to go over it afterwards with fingers or sponge and blend out the edges). Same for creams. Stick foundations are usually applied directly to the face and then blended out with a brush or sponge, but those are also usually for more oily skin types, which take better to that kind of application method than dry skins do.

I’ll talk about specific tools when I get to particular types of foundations.

I don’t want to be one of those people with a visible makeup line at her neck.

OK, so don’t be. Ensuring that this doesn’t happen has two parts: 1. (most important) Make sure you have the right color foundation! and 2.) always blend over the jawline and into the neck to be sure you don’t have a line. See? Easy peasy.

Is it going to cost me an arm and a leg?

Foundations come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and costs. There are a few good drugstore foundations. There are many good mid-range foundations. There are also many high-end foundations, some of which are great and some of which are not worth the car payment it takes to buy them.

Over the next several weeks I’m going to be reviewing several different foundations for you. I’ve already done the L’Oreal Bare Naturale powder mineral foundation, but I have some liquids, creams, and tinted moisturizers to review. My dry skin has not done well with stick foundations in the past, so I don’t own any, but if any of you Vixens have experience with stick foundations you’d like to share, I’m all ears.

So, stay tuned! Further fundamental foundation foxaliciousness to come!

Foxalicious Fundamentals: Concealer 103 (undereye circles)

By Voxy  |  2010/01/22 07:00 Posted in Makeup, concealer, fundamentals, how-to  |  Comments (13)

Today’s Topic: Concealer 103 — Using Concealer to Cover Undereye Circles

This is the other reason that concealers were sent down from heaven. I’m going to try not to ramble much here and cut to the main essentials.

You will need:

— Concealer brush.

— Cream or stick concealer. In this post I am using the Laura Mercier Secret Concealer (cream) and the Cover Girl CG Smoothers concealer (stick). I did not go through the exercise of covering undereye circles with the rest of my concealers because these will give you the idea and they are also the best ones for me to use.

— Your fingers.

Ready?

The following photos go step-by step through the process. I have not fully figured out how to take good photos of myself to show products, so the photos don’t all quite have the same exposure or angle. Also, I realized that the lights were at a horrible angle for this, but oh well. I am still learning. I will also admit that I did do one little bit of retouching — my eyes happened to be fiercely red today, so I took some of that out so that you weren’t distracted by it. (No, I wasn’t smoking anything; this is an ongoing issue for me.)

1. Start with clean and moisturized skin. See? Circles. Yucky.

2. Apply primer and foundation, if you use those things.

3. Using your concealer brush, dot some cream concealer in the inner corner of the eye and extend it down into the circle area. Here I’m applying concealer to the right eye (and this was taken in a mirror, so that actually is my right eye) and leaving the left alone so you can see the difference. (I seem to be cross-eyed here for some weird reason.)

4. Blend out the concealer with your brush and then blend the edges lightly with your fingers so that you get an even transition.

5. Do the other side (here I did the left eye with CG Smoothers).

So now both undereye areas have been treated. Since the Pan-Cake makeup look has not been in vogue for some time, it’s usually not a good idea to try to keep applying concealer until you have totally covered the darkness. This is what makes people look like they have reverse raccoon eyes. In this set of photos, I still have a tiny bit of darkness under there; most days my circles are not this bad, and most days I’m not sticking my face in a tungsten light tent either. This is invisible in the light in my bathroom, in natural light, and in the light in my office.

The other part of making dark circles less noticeable involves putting them in the context of stronger features.

6. Here I’ve added brow color and eyeliner — I’ve only done the top; you’ll see the full eyeliner in a minute. Just doing this helps define the features more and make me look a little more put-together, even without eyeshadow.

7. In this step I added a neutral eyeshadow (this is ULTA shadow in Cocoa), lined the bottom lash line, and added mascara. I think it was around this picture that I realized I should also probably finish putting on my foundation — I had originally only put it on under the eyes).

8. Just for kicks, I decided to smoke out the eye a little bit. I used a LORAC charcoal gray/black pencil to bring the dark color of the eyeliner up towards the crease, added a dark purply-brown shadow in the crease, and used a light neutral shadow as a highlighter right under the brow. I don’t have those shadow names because they’re from my Smashbox palette and they’re unnamed. I set the whole face with Make Up For Ever HD powder, which gives a nice soft focus (a review of this product is going up tomorrow).

Key points in shopping for undereye concealers:

1. Go for a cream (in a pot, not a tube) or a stick concealer. Liquid concealers are too thin, and powder ones can easily cake and look kind of gross. You can (and should) use a setting or finishing powder to remove any residual shine from a cream concealer after you have blended everything in thoroughly.

2. Choose a color that is about one shade lighter than your skin tone. Do not get a super-ultra-light concealer if you are olive-skinned, no matter how dark your circles are!

3. Apply only where your circles are. In the above photos I was done blending out the concealer by the time I reached the center of the eye; I applied no concealer to the outer eye area. Since fine lines and wrinkles start showing up at the outer corners of the eyes first, it’s better to avoid putting concealer there unless your circles actually extend that far. If your whole undereye area is darkened, you might want to check out a corrector in either a yellow, salmon, or pink shade (depending on the color of the circles and the color of your skin; you’ll have to try a few to see what works best on you) that would go on before foundation. You could then use a less pigmented concealer on top if you find that you still need some coverage.

4. Blend well. Start with the brush and blend out the edges with your fingertips. The warmth of your skin helps melt the concealer enough to get a really smooth transition. Conventional wisdom is to use your ring finger, as it is a weak finger for most people and thus you’re less likely to pull the skin harder than you need to. I say use whatever finger you want, because I think you’re probably smart enough to figure out how to control the pressure you exert.

5. As with blemishes, less is better than more — something that looks natural but still shows a little darkness is better than something that is so opaque it looks like you put it on with a trowel and you can’t see the skin tone underneath it.

6. Covering up undereye circles can sometimes give you a little bit of a masklike appearance, especially if the coverage is thick. Drawing attention to other strong features, even by just using a little bit of eyeliner or brow color, helps prevent this.

Foxalicious Fundamentals: Concealer 102 (Blemishes)

By Voxy  |  2010/01/06 12:11 Posted in fundamentals, how-to  |  Comments (7)

Today’s Topic: Concealer 102 — Using Concealer to Cover Blemishes

In the first post on concealers, I gave you a tour of my concealer collection. Remember, those are only the ones that made it past the rigorous screening process. (Now you know what Paula Abdul is doing these days since she’s not on American Idol.) (Kidding.)

As I mentioned when I did my rave about the Clarisonic — who, by the way, had the nerve NOT to choose me as one of their winners of their “Why I am a Clarisonic Super Fan” contest — since I started using the product about which I am secretly the Biggest Super Fan In The Whole World But Never Mind That, I’m Not Bitter, I have been fortunate enough not to have very many breakouts, Not That That Matters To The Fine People At Clarisonic.

However, when I screw up my medication schedule (say, by repeatedly forgetting to take it for three days in a row) or when I am under stress (such as that induced by not winning a contest, for example), I do get the occasional breakout. In the spirit of making lemonade from lemons, at least now I can show you how these products work in concealing actual blemishes. Who else do you know who would show you their blemishes? (Actually, don’t answer that.)

Don’t worry, the photos aren’t gross. These blemishes are past their prime and on the way to healing, but they are still plenty red enough to need coverup. I have two beneath the corner of my lip, so I was able to show you two products in action in each photo. All photos were taken in the same natural light, or as close to the same as I could get, what with the sun going in and coming out, etc. No retouching.

Before You Start

Be sure that your skin is clean and well-moisturized. If your blemish is in the drying-out stage, there may be little dry bits of skin to contend with. Remove as much as possible of this via exfoliation (either chemical or manual, but be gentle), and then moisturize well. Allow some time between when you wash, exfoliate, and moisturize and when you start applying makeup so your skin can calm down from any temporary redness that washing and exfoliating may cause.

Spot concealing of blemishes should be done AFTER you apply foundation, if you use one, regardless of whether the foundation is liquid, cream, powder, stick, or mineral.

How to Apply Concealer to Blemishes

D’you remember in the last post I said you needed a concealer brush? Well, here is the secret that no one tells you: when you are covering up blemishes, apply your concealer with the butt end of the brush (or with any other similar object). For covering dark circles, you want to work the concealer into the skin. For blemishes, you want to cover the blemish completely (or as close as you can while still looking natural), and then you want to leave it alone. Don’t keep working product into it. Get in, get out, move on. The butt end of the brush works great for this.

For the below photos, I used the butt end of the MAC 194 concealer brush, which is the bottom brush in the picture below. This is the brush with the skinniest end. If you can find something else that’s about that diameter, you’re in good shape. It doesn’t have to be a concealer brush; if you have another kind of cosmetics brush around that also has a skinny, round tip, that’s fine. Or if you have a round-handled spoon. Or a click-pen with a smooth, round clicker.

You want to put a tiny bit of concealer on the butt end of the brush, and I really do mean tiny. It’s better to put on less, and then add layers, than to start with too much and have it look goopy. Using a dabbing/stippling motion, start where the blemish or other discoloration is reddest/darkest/strongest/whatever. Your concealer will probably look a great deal lighter than the redness of the blemish. That’s OK; it blends out. Keep stippling with the butt end of the brush outwards towards the unblemished skin; when you’ve reached it, you can finish blending into the natural skin with your fingers. The warmth of your fingers helps melt the concealer and makes it easier to get a really smooth transition into the unblemished area. Practice will show you how far out from the edge of the blemish you need to apply concealer in order to get a smooth blend; it will depend on your skin tone, how opaque the concealer is, and how far removed it is from your natural skin tone or coloring (i.e., if it’s pink and you have a more yellow complexion, etc.).

Swatches

Below are photos showing ten different products used on these blemishes and what they looked like. I did them in natural light in front of my balcony doors because if you can make it look near-invisible in natural light, you will be fine for just about any indoor lighting that the average person is going to run into. You can see that some of them work better than others, but none of them are disastrous and all of them are an improvement over either no-makeup or just-foundation.

The first photo is what the affected area looks like after cleansing and moisturizing but with no makeup.

Then I applied my everyday foundation (Almay SmartShade in shade #1, Light). You can see that the foundation already gives some coverage. If you use a full-coverage foundation (which this is not), you can often get away with using a bit of extra foundation as a concealer.

Picture #1. Top: Erase Paste in shade Light; Bottom: Amazing Concealer in shade Fair (Ultra Light). I could have blended both of these a bit more; this was just carelessness on my part. So they actually perform slightly better than the photo indicates.

Picture #2. Top: Neostrata Exuviance CoverBlend in Voxy’s Custom Blend of shades Light and Beige; Bottom: Dermablend CoverCreme in shade Chroma 0: Pale Ivory.

Picture #3. Top: DuWop CircleBlock in shade Light; Bottom: Make Up For Ever Lift Concealer in shade #3.

Picture #4. Top: Cover Girl CG Smoothers Concealer stick in shade 705 (Fair); Bottom: YSL Touche Eclat in shade #1 (Luminous Radiance.)

Picture #5. Top: Laura Mercier Secret Concealer in shade 1; Bottom: BareMinerals Multi-Tasking Corrector SPF 20 in Bisque.

Results

While these all can be made to perform on my skin, the best results came from the Exuviance CoverBlend and the Dermablend CoverCreme, with DuWop coming in a surprising third (I don’t normally use this for blemishes, since it doesn’t make sense to me to put a red paste on top of a red spot, but it turns out to be a good product for this, so I learned something). The others all work OK, and had I blended them a little more I could have made them work even better, but there’s a limit to anyone’s time. Also, I know from experience that some of the ones that looked nice when just-applied in the swatch (YSL Touche Eclat, for instance) don’t wear well over blemishes, so although it looks fine now, in four hours that red spot will be peeking through again. The Laura Mercier concealer will require setting powder, which is why it wasn’t one of my top choices for blemishes.

Super Extra Bonus Trick

You guys were supposed to remind me to mention this trick! I don’t know which of you is in charge of me this week, but whoever it is, you’re sleeping on the job, there. ;)

Sometimes, pimples that have burst (whether spontaneously or with help) are hard to cover because they tend to leak oil for a little while (a few hours up to a few days). It can be really hard to get concealer to adhere to oily skin; powder concealers clump when oil touches them, and stick, cream, and liquid concealers can just slide right off.

If you have an oil-absorbing mask that you like, you can apply a thin layer to the blemished area and surrounding skin before putting on your makeup. It should be a mask that dries clear or has little enough color (NOT GREEN) that your foundation and makeup will go on OK over it. I use Dermalogica’s Sebum Clearing Masque. This is what you might call an off-label use of the product, as it’s supposed to be one of those wait-10-minutes-and-wash-off kinds of products, but I was pretty unimpressed with it as a wash-off product, so I decided to try it this way and it works well. But you don’t need an expensive product. Any old oil-absorbing mask you like which, when applied in a very thin layer, will dry almost colorless, will do. If you’re desperate, dip a cotton ball in some Milk of Magnesia (the plain variety, please) and apply in a thin layer. This will dry with a whitish tinge, and repeated use can be too drying for some people, but it will definitely give you a nice smooth surface for makeup application and will help absorb oil. This way, the concealer both adheres to the mask and is separated by the mask from emerging oil. It’s not always perfect, but it’s a whole lot better than nothing, or clumping, or sliding.

Comments? Questions? Other tips and tricks for covering blemishes?

Provenance: Purchased.

Foxalicious Fundamentals: Brushes 101

By Voxy  |  2010/01/02 07:00 Posted in Makeup, fundamentals, how-to, steal, tools  |  Comments (1)

Why on Kitchen role? by Mini OzzY.There’s this funny thing that happens when you start a new habit or activity — you get a little ways into the activity and then all of a sudden you get the impression that you’re also supposed to go out and buy a ton of activity-related accessories and paraphernalia and doodads… at which point carrying on starts to seem frustrating and fussy, especially if you’re not really confident about how to use the doodads in question.

If you’re just starting to explore makeup, or deciding to be a little more adventurous or explore more products, one of these daunting doodad categories is brushes. So let’s get this one out of the way right now:

Q. Do I really need all those fancy brushes?

A. No. No, you do not.

If you’re just starting out with makeup, there are only three brushes I think you need to own:

1. Blush/powder brush

2. Concealer brush

3. Eyeshadow brush

If I could throw a fourth in there, I’d say a brow/lash brush, because I think brows should be groomed even if you’re not applying any product to them. But really, I’m good with the first three. Here’s why:

Any tinted moisturizer or cream, stick, or liquid foundation can be applied and blended with the fingers. (Could you use a brush, or a sponge? Sure. Is it absolutely necessary? Nope.) Same goes for cream blushes.

Foundation/Blush Brushes

If you have a powder foundation or a powder blush, then you’ll need a brush. It is perfectly OK to use the same brush for these when you’re starting out. Powder mineral foundations work best with kabuki brushes, so if you plan to use a mineral foundation, get one of these; with a light touch you can use this for blush as well. If you’re not going to get a mineral foundation, a puffy powder brush is fine, and is easier to adapt to both foundation and blush. If you buy drugstore makeup (which I am not dissing, as there are many good brands), chances are that the brush that comes in the makeup compact is not worth the cost of the plastic used to make it. Unless you are Bobbi Brown, you cannot apply blush in a subtle and sophisticated manner with a two-inch brush with a head that would be better suited to applying war paint.

Concealer Brushes

There are good concealers out there in all shapes and forms: liquids, powders, sticks, creams. While you will use your fingers a lot of the time to blend a liquid, stick, or cream concealer into your skin, a brush is really useful for precise placement. This is particularly true if you’re using concealer over blemishes or in the eye area, because often your fingers are too big and round to put the product where you want it and nowhere else. A concealer brush will have a flat head (not poofy like a powder brush) and the bristles will be trimmed into a round or elliptical shape. Think of the end of a popsicle stick; that’s the shape you want for an all-purpose concealer brush.

Eyeshadow Brushes

Those spongy applicators that come with eyeshadow palettes are the little evil cousins of the compact blush brushes. They are not doing you any favors. If you are only going to get one eyeshadow brush, I highly recommend a slanted crease eyeshadow brush, because it’s easier to make this brush also double as a lid or highlight shadow brush than it is to get one of those brushes to double as a crease eyeshadow brush.

Most people who are starting out with makeup routines will probably be using pressed eyeshadow rather than loose mineral eyeshadow (it’s just easier). If you do find yourself wanting to try a loose mineral eyeshadow, you are likely to find that a brush made for those products works a little better.

How to Use

A common misconception that people have about brushes (not unreasonably) is that they are meant to place product on top of the skin. For most cream and liquid products, and for some powders like eyeshadows and mineral makeup, they are instead meant to press or work the product into the skin. This will be true of liquid and cream concealers — except when you are trying to cover up a blemish, in which case you want to get the product on the skin with the minimum amount of poking around at it — and if you decide to try a brush or sponge for liquid or cream foundation it will be true of that as well. Try a stippling or dotting motion rather than a gliding motion to apply and blend these products. Mineral powders are best when pressed gently into the skin using a buffing motion.

Care and Feeding

OK, no feeding required. But brushes do have to be washed regularly. Once a week is great for starting out, but you can probably get away with 2-3 times a month. You can buy special brush cleaners, but you don’t need to; your facial cleanser will work just fine. I usually put a squirt of facial cleanser into a drinking glass, add about 3/4″ of warm water (not more!), swish it around, and throw in two or three drops of tea tree oil, which is a natural antibacterial agent and which helps dissolve gunk on the brushes. I put all the brushes in to soak for about 5 minutes; keeping the water level in the glass low helps minimize the amount of water that gets into the metal ferrule. Over time, too much water in the ferrule can dissolve the glue that holds the bristles in the brush, so you want to minimize this.

After the brushes have soaked for just a few minutes, swirl each around in your palm with a little bit of cleanser. Swish until no more color comes out. Rinse well, pat dry with a towel, and lay them down to dry with the brush head over the edge of the sink or counter. If possible, position them so that the brush head tilts down; again, this helps get water out of the ferrule. An easy way to do this is to put a piece of non-slip drawer liner over an empty three-ring binder and lay the brushes on the sloped surface with the brush heads hanging over the edge. Let them dry overnight.

Cost

There is no need to spend a ton of money on brushes, particularly when you’re starting out. I recommend the following:

Ecotools makes really excellent brushes for next-to-nothing. They’re available at many stores, including Target and ULTA, and on drugstore.com. They offer both individual brushes and inexpensive brush sets; selection will vary depending on where you’re shopping. A good starter package is the Ecotools 5-piece brush set (which is really four brushes plus the bag, but whatever): $10.99. This contains a fluffy brush that can be used for powder foundation or blush, a concealer brush, a mineral eyeshadow brush (which could also be used to apply regular eyeshadow), and a small kabuki brush. I’m not really wild about the small kabuki brush (it’s too loose), but all the other brushes are excellent. The powder brush and a “deluxe” version of the concealer brush (I’m not sure what the difference is except that the handle is longer) are also sold separately for $8.99 and $3.99 respectively.

For a better kabuki, try the Ecotools Retractable Kabuki ($8.99). Not only is it firmer to start out with, but if you want it to be a little firmer still, you can retract the brush a tiny bit back into the holder and it will compact the fibers a little bit more. Also, it’s travel-friendly.

On the slanted crease eyeshadow front, I use a Sephora Professionel brush that appears to no longer be available; this brush from Avon’s Mark line looks like a comparable product, and will only set you back $7.00. A lot of the crease brushes made today are smaller and thinner than I would recommend for a beginner; a brush that’s closer to 1/2″ than 1/4″ wide is easier to get started with.

Beyond the Basics

There are tons of other brushes available, and they’re each designed to do specific things. As you become more comfortable using these basics, you might want to try out some of these other brushes. I’d say the next set of brushes to explore would include the following: brow brush, eyeliner brush (or small tapered eyeshadow brush; either can be used for applying gel eyeliners), lip brush, contour blush brush, non-tapered eyeshadow brush for color application and blending.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Provenance: I do not own the Avon eyeshadow brush; all other brushes were purchased.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/miniozzy/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

All About Stick Foundations

By Inthelab  |  2009/11/30 14:25 Posted in how-to  |  Comments (0)

P173691_hero
The holidays are upon us and many of us will be in full partying mode. That usually means dressier clothes and more makeup than we wear to work. So now that Thanksgiving is over, it’s a good time to go over your makeup needs before hitting the party circuit. Since makeup will look best on a great canvas, consider a new foundation. A good, well-matched foundation can add a hint of color, conceal some skin flaws, add moisture or block oil (depending upon formulation), and serve as a canvas for blush. I usually wear powder foundation for everyday, but when glamour is called for, I prefer stick foundations.

Stick foundations take a little practice to apply, but in my opinion are worth the time. The tools you’ll need are a foundation brush and latex sponges. Foundation brushes usually have synthetic fibers, as this one by Sonia Kashuk does:
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For latex sponges, buy a bag of inexpensive ones at the drug or beauty supply store. You can wash and reuse them, but there’s a limit to how may times you’ll reuse them before they fall apart. Now that you have the tools, you can practice applying the foundation to your newly washed face. I usually put a stroke down my nose, one across my forehead, and a stroke on each cheek. Blend with either the brush or the sponge (keep it dry). You’ll likely like one way, brush or sponge, better than the other way. I find with me it’s a mood thing, so I have an inexpensive brush and a bag of sponges from CVS. You’ll have placed enough foundation to cover your chin; if not, dab a dot on there too. If you need more coverage (I generally go for sheer), apply  a bit more where you need it. If you applied a bit heavily in spots, use the sponge to make it more sheer. When you are satisfied, you can apply a light dusting of powder before continuing with blush. I personally find that the light powdering sets the foundation and helps the blush (I use powder) to last longer.

Now sheer as stick foundations can be, they still have to match your complexion properly. Really, the only way to match foundation is to try it on. Go to your favorite store (mine for this is the Nordstrom near me) on a sunny day, wearing no makeup on your clean face. Go to the makeup counters and tell the sales assistant you want a perfect match for foundation color in stick foundation. He or she should apply2 or 3 colors that a likely matches along your jaw line. This is key: you cannot try on foundation color on your inner wrist; you will not get a good match that way. Trying it along the jawline allows you to see which one disappears- that’s your matching color. Ask if you can take the mirror (or bring your own) and walk out into the sun. Make sure the color is true, and the foundation isn’t too pink or too yellow in natural light. If none match you, thank the rep, cleanse your face, and go to the next counter. You may have to try several brands until you hit the correct color match. At a Nordstrom or a Sephora, and surely other stores, a single rep may be able to help you with several lines. Last spring when I needed a new stick foundation, I went to Nordstrom, and one rep helped me find my perfect match, though we plowed through several makeup lines to find it.

Suggestions for makeup lines to try:
Bobbi Brown– a lot of colors to choose from; tends to be a little on the yellow side.
MAC– comes in warm and cool tones for better matching.
Shiseido– my personal pick (pictured above); the lightest ivory matches me prefectly, but of course you have to match it to you.
Laura Mercier– much as I love this line, all the foundations were too dark for me.
Becca– this line has 30 shades ranging from palest ivory to deep ebony; expensive but has SPF30 as a bonus.
Bloom– available at ULTA, this medium coverage stick comes in fewer shades than the rest and contains oils, so beware if oils make you break out.
Iman– good for those needing deeper colors. Fourteen rich shades in all.
She Uemara Nobara– Expensive, but a cult favorite.

How to Do Red Lipstick

By Voxy  |  2009/10/25 08:00 Posted in Quest for the Perfect..., how-to, lipstick, red lipstick  |  Comments (11)

Every woman should have two things in her arsenal against the world: a killer pair of red heels, and a fabulous red lipstick. (If worse comes to worst, you can stab people with the stiletto heels and jam your lipstick in their eye.)

I’m a fan of natural-looking makeup, I really am. But every once in a while, you just need a Red Lipstick Day. And if you can’t remember when your last RLD was, chances are you could use not just a fresh start, but a fresh tube of lipstick. I mean a really red, bold, luscious, daring, watch-out-world-here-I-come lipstick.

The thing is, of course, that you need the really red, bold, luscious and daring lipstick that tells the world to watch out because it’s you who’s coming, not someone you’re pretending to be. The red lipstick that’s right for you can give you confidence, style, and sass, but only if you believe in it. (Kind of like Santa.) There shouldn’t be a power struggle between you and the lipstick. You want to be wearing the lipstick, not letting it wear you. If the lipstick is winning, it’s the wrong shade.

Fortunately, there are approximately 39847923876 shades of red lipstick to choose from. By figuring out whether you look better in warm reds (ones that tilt towards orange), or cool reds (ones that tilt towards blue), you can eliminate approximately half of those right off the bat, which leaves you with only 19923961938. See? Easy as pie.

If you don’t normally wear lipstick, then you’ll probably want to start with some more neutral colors before you jump into reds (or explore red glosses, which aren’t as strongly pigmented). This will also help you figure out if you look better in warm or cool colors: start with corals, bronze, or brown-tinted tones for warm skin, and pinks, berries, or plums for cool skin. Some people whose coloring is balanced between warm and cool can do either, but usually can’t go to the extremes of either half.

Recently it’s been über-hip to give products names that have nothing to do with the colors they are. Don’t ask me why. So if you are browsing a list of, say, NARS lipsticks, you will see the following “shades”: Mindgame, Success, Beautiful Liar, and Christina — which are very nice but which give you no indication of the tint. Traditionally-named warmer reds will have names that include things like brick, spice, terracotta, fire, sunset, etc.; cooler reds will have names that include things like berry, wine, currant, cherry, or ruby.

The single best thing you can do if you’re on The Quest For The Perfect Red Lipstick is to buy a lipstick palette that has as many shades in it as you can manage. This is a great way to get your hands on a lot of colors for not very much money. First, test each shade separately, and write down the shade name and your impressions. If one of those little tins doesn’t happen to contain your perfect red, start mixing shades together. (This is where it really gets fun!) I would advise mixing them right on your lips by using a lip brush. Don’t try more than two or three in one session, since your lips won’t fully release the stain and soon you won’t be getting a real idea of what the mixed color looks like on you. Also, try to remember the proportions of what you used so that you can recreate it (“mostly this, with a little that, and a dash of the other thing” is good enough). At this point, if you want, you can mash the various colors together in the right proportions and put your mixture in an empty palette tin.

When you go to the store (and you really must go somewhere with testers if you’re shopping for red lipstick, you absolutely must), take your mixed-up sample with you. Also take a white piece of paper. When you get to the store, use a tester lipstick applicator to smear some of your perfect mixture on the paper. Do the same with any lipsticks you want to test. Comparing swatches on white paper gives you the truest sense of how warm or cool the color is in comparison to your mixed-up sample. It’s much easier to compare tones on a piece of white paper than on your lips or skin. Remember that you are not looking for the color that you think looks prettiest on the white paper — you’re looking for whatever is closest to your blend. Note the closest color and one or two on either side (warm/cool) and test those on your arm (which should automatically eliminate at least one) and then on your lips. The best way to hygienically test lipsticks is as follows:

Easy way: Swivel the lipstick all the way up. Most people test from the top of the tube, particularly where the lipstick is faceted. Often a lipstick that has been ravaged at the top will be completely smooth and untouched at the base around the rim, particularly on the side away from the faceted edge. Go there first. I advise putting far more lipstick on the applicator than you think you will need — in order for you not to contribute more bacteria to the tester, you should use a clean applicator every time you scoop up more product. Better to just do it once if you can.

Hard way: If someone else has read this blog ahead of you and has already mucked up the area around the base, the second-best option is to remove the top 1/16″ of lipstick from the tube and swipe your applicator over the newly-revealed section. Dental floss usually works fine for this, as does beading wire or fishing wire. If you don’t have any of those things in your purse (i.e., if you’re not on your way to a taping of Let’s Make a Deal), you can also use the part of a nail clipper that swings out and lets you clean underneath your nails. Wipe this clean first with alcohol (which the store will surely have with the testing supplies), then use the side of it to slice right through the lipstick. It should be like slicing the heel off of a loaf of bread… except don’t eat it afterwards.

I’m going on forever, and there will probably be more posts about this in the future, but I can’t end without saying that carrying off a red lipstick also requires appropriate makeup on the rest of the face. So if you’re going to the store with no makeup on, or with a soft neutral natural look, don’t judge the red lipstick by how it works with that palette. You’ll need a stronger eye to balance the red lipstick. (That doesn’t mean a lot of dark eyeshadow, but it does mean you’ll probably need liner, mascara, and a good brow.)

This is one of my perfect reds. I’m one of those people who can go either warm or cool with most makeup colors, but reds are still hard for me. I have a few that I like. This is one of the bluer ones — it’s Styli-Style’s L3 lipstick/lip gloss combo (though the lipstick is really more like a lip stain) in a color called Red Hot. The pigment goes on matte, and then you put the gloss on top. In the below picture, the gloss I’ve used is actually a clear Smashbox lip gloss, just because I like it better than the one that comes with the product.

red_shiny_lips_1

This was taken in natural light and not retouched. It really looks like I missed the bottom center of my lower lip with the gloss, but that’s just a weird camera thing.

I’ll show off some other good/bad red lipstick choices in future posts.

Opening photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mulan5/ / CC BY 2.0

Opinions, please: Kohl Eyeliner

By Voxy  |  2009/10/23 21:31 Posted in Product Reviews, eyeliner, how-to  |  Comments (2)

mäkit3 by Idhren.

As per Pinky’s post (seconded by Tuxedo) in this week’s Open Thread Thursday:

I’d like to hear your thoughts on kohl-style eyeliner. Have you ever tried any? Do you have one that you like? I’ve got L’Oreal’s HiP right now and it’s okay, but the applicator is crap.

Opinions and suggestions, please!

I don’t use it myself, but not because I don’t think it’s a good product. No, I don’t use it because it violates one of the stupid rules I have for what I am and am not willing to do with makeup: I will not use any product that I have to sharpen myself.

(How dumb is that? I will spend hours figuring out how to use a liquid liner, I will stick hot rollers in my hair for 45 minutes in the morning, I will spend 20 minutes with a mud mask drying on my face, but I will not sharpen eye, brow, or lip pencils.)

I know the L’Oreal product is not a pencil, but loose kohl that you apply with a thing-that-is-not-quite-a-brush, so it doesn’t get covered under my stupid-things-I-will-not-do policy, but it brings up another thing that I intend to rant about later when I do a post on liquid eyeliners: things that are supposed to be brushes SHOULD BE BRUSHES. They should not be little foamy things that are the general tapered shape of a brush but that do not behave like one.

As you can see, I have some Issues. The L’Oreal packaging is very cool, though — they’ve definitely got the harkening-back-to-ancient-Egypt thing going on. The Guerlain is similar, right?

Those of you who use kohl, what’s your choice and why, and are there any application tips you can share?

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/idhren/ / CC BY-SA 2.0