My Latest From Sephora
Two of my most recent (and most coveted!) Sephora purchases are pictured here. I'm so excited to dive into their latest
Give Me Some Lip collection. Sephora, Bite, Laura Mercier, Hourglass, Tarte AND Fresh all in one package?! Give me some lip NOW! I've been dying to experiment with some of these brands, and love the ones that I've already tried. Given my addict status, I'm super proud of myself for holding out on opening all of these, but I have one too many Buxom glosses to finish up :)
The other product I'm featuring in this post (in the first picture, with my doggy brother, Hercules :) is
Korres' Volcanic Minerals Mascara. This stuff ROCKS (pun intended). It makes my lashes super dark and super thick. I haven't experienced the curl ability that other reviewers have been raving about, but its' other abilities more than make up for it. In the picture above, I'm wearing 2-3 coats on my top and lower lashes, and not much else. When a mascara defines your lashes this well, you don't need much more to draw attention to your eyes.
I love this picture of Hercules and I, by the way. If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram (@gloss_e), you know that I'm a certified crazy dog lady. Dogs just love you so much and so unconditionally, I think we can all take a queue from them. On that note, I'm gonna go take mine for a quick walk, otherwise, we'd be like this all day:
Labels: Bite, Fresh, Hourglass, Korres, Laura Mercier, Sephora, Tarte
Dancin' Days
Learned a few lessons at my office holiday party:
1. If you spend the majority of every day running around like a crazy person IN FLATS, it's probably wise to avoid wearing 4 INCH HEELS to a party, especially if you plan to dance. (The feet/calves/shins/etc just don't bounce back like they used to!)
2. Hair sticks to shiny foreheads in a most gnarly (almost offensive) way. Bring Boscia blotting papers with you to any function that involves dancing like you mean it.
3. Just because you're a newbie doesn't mean you can't make friends at the party, or become even better friends with the ones you've already made (by having your own private parties in the photobooths or inappropriately sprawling out - as a group - on the couches framing the dance floor)
Standout Products -
Eyes: Bliss (formerly Red Cherry?) lashes, #42, Korres Eyeshadow in Dark Grey
Lips: MAC Dare to Wear lipgloss in Ban This
Face: NARS Blush in Sin
Labels: Bliss Lashes, Korres, MAC, Nars, Red Cherry
Pearl-iscious
photo credit: maybelline.com
I'm digging the new ads for
Maybelline's Color Sensational Pearls Lipstick. I'm thinking of picking up a few tubes to try out, but thought I could re-create the look with two of my favorites products. One's an oldie: Stila High Shine Lipcolor in Diane. The other's a newbie: Korres' Lip Butter Glaze in Pomegranate.
Both formulas are very moisturizing (a neccessity in this butt-freezing Bay Area weather) and both impart *just* the right touch of color to be be equally useful in daytime and nighttime scenarios.
I started my blending experiment by dabbing Diane on my whole lip -- not necessarily being neat about it, either. One thing I love about pearly, glossy color is that it can be applied haphazardly and it actually looks better that way. Then I applied a dot of the Lip Butter Glaze in the middle of my lower lip.
Then smeared the colors together with my fingertips. And voila! Pinky, pearly color. I'll compare the wear-time of this combo with a tube of Maybelline's Color Sensational Pearls, and will holla back!
Labels: Korres, Maybelline, Stila
My Sister's Wedding
I had the honor of helping my little sister with her makeup on the biggest day of her life. Normally, this
would be an ENORMOUS pressure, but my sister was so far from bridezilla that at some points, I felt like geting all diva on everyone simply to fill the unnatural void that her happy-zen-ness left behind. My sis isn't big on heavy make-up, but she wanted to pop in her pictures. So we concentrated on her eyes, and on accenting the angles on her tiny face.
Here she is, au naturel and a little apprehensive (not of the wedding and the major committment she was about to make, but because of the amount of makeup I packed and spilled out in front of her).
Hard at work and havin fun. I'm so happy she trusted me to do this :)
Here she is with some of her eyes done. We used Urban Decay Sin Primer, Maybeline ColorStay Palette in Khaki, Rimmel Exaggerate Waterproof Eye Definer, Maybeline Volum Express Mascara.
See how everyone around her is moving? And she's so calm and still? Happy-zen-ness.
Korres Eyeshadow in Plum, Ardell Lashes #102, NARS blush in Sin.
Buxom Lipgloss in Michelle.
The Love of her Life.
I'll never forget this day! I love my sis and my new brother in law so much ... hopefully they'll let me do their kid's makeup one day ...
Labels: Ardell, Buxom, Korres, Maybelline, Nars, Rimmel, Urban Decay
Hot Conture City
Today it reached 106 degrees in my neck of the woods -- straight up SWELTERING. And there's nothing more that inspires me to wear less makeup than the Summer sun.
To avoid sweating my face off, I experimented with that no-makeup makeup look. To me, that's all about contouring and bronzing your face til kingdom come: defining cheekbones, highlighting brow bones and the nose line and adding a touch of shadow to perk up the eyes. Looking back at these, I could have used more bronzer, like everywhere.
I always sit shotgun.
Used a few products for today's look (clockwise from the top): Too Faced shadow in Shamrock Chic, Korres bronzer with a nifty angle blusher from LiLique, Benefit Highbeam, Smashbox Artificial Light liquid bronzer.
Labels: Benefit, Korres, LiLique, Smashbox, Too Faced
Smokey Step-by-Step
A few posts back, I featured some pictures on the way I do a
smokey eye and got a request from a reader for a step-by-step on how I achieve the look. I took a few shots over the weekend, and now have the utmost respect for bloggers who do the demo thing on every post. It requires some work, but I think it's actually helped me perfect my technique! So without further ado, to get to this:
You must do this:
Start out by spreading a rich brown colored cream eyeshadow as your base. I use
Too Faced Lockdown in Dramarama.
Spread it evenly over the lid, but don't get too close to the brow bone.
Next, line your upper lash line with a rich black liner. As always, my go-to is
Make Up Forever's Aqua Eyes.
Next, take a brown grey powder shadow and pat it over your lid, blend it slightly into your crease. I use Korres eyeshadows, which I think are being discontinued because
they're on super sale on Sephora.com and KorresUSA.com.
Too add some depth and dimension to your lids, layer the brown grey shadow with a purple shadow. (again, I use Korres for this). The result should look something like this (color on my right eye is better blended):
Next, apply a Kohl liner to your lower lash & water line. Dip a flat liner brush into the grey brown shadow, and blend it with the liner to create a smudged line under your lashes. Here are the tools I use (hat snuck in there...it's not necessary to create this look :)
You can also use an actual smudging brush. I've had some recent success with
Sonia Kashuk's.
Don't be afraid to create a thicker lower lashline than you normally would -- smudge, smudge, smudge! It's a key part of the smokey look!
Finish off with mascara & curl and you're good to go!
Labels: Korres, Make Up For Ever, Sonia Kashuk, Too Faced
More Fun with Bronzers
I wanted to take a minute to explain my last post, in case it seemed random and more self-indulgent than usual. No, I haven't fallen in love with ginormous, close-up photos of myself! I had to employ the "extra large" option on Blogger to get a better quality shot of the everyday smokey eye that I do. I posted it on Sephora's blog because they were having a contest. Don't think I won, but it's all good!
So on to today's makeup adventure -- I'm still spending quality time with the Best in Bronze kit and the next item I experimented with was the Korres bronzer in sunglow light. I already own the darker shade, so I was curious to see how this compared. I like this lighter shade better. To give you an idea of how the color applies, here's a before and after.
All pasty w/no bronzer, but w/earphones. (Sarah & Vinnie on 97.3 are my favorite morning show right now! Can't go a day without tuning in ... thank God for the Nano radio!)
And here I am with the bronzer on:
It just adds a touch of warmth and does a great job of reducing my pinkiness. Nothing overdone, perfect for work. Plus this powder formula is actually moisturizing. I've never broken out from using the darker shade, so as far as I'm concerned, this stuff is awesome.
Here's hoping mother nature will take a break from crying over the Bay Area soon so I can get an ACTUAL tan on! I'm off to LA in two weeks, and I want to look like I belong!
Labels: Korres, Sephora
Smokey for Sephora!
I do a smokey eye with greys and plums that's heavier on the lids/lighter on the lower lashline than a traditional smokey eye. Instead of heavy shadows for the lower lashline, I use a kohl liner. The result is polished enough for a big meeeting, but edgy enough to stand out. I use Korres and Too Faced shadows, plus Make Up For Ever liners for this look.
tools of the smokey trade:
Labels: Korres, Make Up For Ever, Sephora, Too Faced
Dearest Korres,
First, I want to fully disclose that I loooooooooove your products and admire what you stand for (I've even been responsible for a few Korres converts), but I've run across a recurring problem with your lipgloss packaging. This always happens:
The cap that covers your inside cap comes off. Now, most of the time, this isn't a big deal. I throw the cap cover away, and I'm left with a shorter lipgloss that's a little easier to squirrel away in my bags and pockets. But
sometimes the inside cap is made of super-puny plastic, and it splits into lots of pieces when I twist my gloss shut. I don't have a picture of this because I'm forced to throw the gloss away at that point -- otherwise, it just oozes out and gets all over the place. (NOTE: this doesn't happen because I'm super strong. On the contrary, I have a weak grip and am pretty wimpy in general).
Again, I LOVE your products. I feel like a Greek goddess everytime I treat my lips to your cherry oil gloss or lip butter and I've created my most sexy smokey eye with your shadows and your tinted moisturizer illuminates my skin like no other. This is merely a packaging issue that I wanted to bring to your attention, because I CARE. Because I want to see you succeed. Because if another cap splits on me, I don't know what I'll do!!
With the utmost respect & admiration,
e_b
p.s.
Here I am with your Rose 22 gloss on - great color!
and a close up:
Labels: Korres
Mother's Day Sunday was all about listening to stories of my grandma's days as a quality controller in the Alaskan food canneries (to this day, she
still can't eat fish) and watching my mom transition to a state of controlled panic after my sister told her that "there's another delivery ...
on the way." I guess we could have come up with a better way to hint at the 3 months of flowers following-up the tunic & pendant necklace we gave her as a present. For all her talk and badgering, it sounds like my mom IS NOT ready to be a grandma after all!
On a makeup note, I kept it very simple with Urban Decay's cream shadow in Rehab (loving this), and gobs and gobs of Rimmel's Glam'Eyes mascara. Thanks to the gobs, no liner was necessary:
Lips were done up equally as simple in Korres' Nude 33 gloss.
Labels: Korres, Rimmel, Urban Decay
Lyrics and Lipgloss: Rihanna
First things first: I looooooooooooooove Prince. I am obsessed with him on a scary level and will probably do a lyrics and lipgloss feature on him soon. As mentioned in my earlier post, the illustration you see here comes curtesy of my talented artist of a sister. Guess you can say she supports my *other* addiction.
But back to the task at hand....so not *quite* a sucess, but I had a lot of fun trying Rihanna's color combo out. Here's my recipe for this look:
Eyes -
Make Up For Ever Aqua Eyes liner in Purple 11L, Blue 3L and Shu Uemura's Eye Light Pencil for highlighting the brow bone and inner corners.
Lips -
Korres Lip Butter in Quince layered with Givenchy Lip Gloss in Fuscia
Cheeks -
Benefit Creaseless Cream shadow in Samba-dy Loves Me as contour blush
On my Head -
Snake Chain headband from Forever 21 - this one is grey, the one available online is silver
I got the colors down pat, but I need to work on my face swagger. Rihanna is too fierce for me to keep up with!!! Here's a closeup of my eye tools for this look. From top to bottom, it's Purple, Eye Light and Blue.
Labels: Benefit, Korres, Lyrics and Lipgloss, Make Up For Ever, Shu Uemura
