Hot or Not Beauty

I came across this ultra cute little ‘Blushing Daisies’ compact (pictured), while I was in the Body Shop the other day. It’s a shimmery blush that has the cutest design. I have dubbed it my makeup art, because I think it kind of reminds me of a Van Gogh, but then I’m a little nutty about my beauty products. So far I haven’t actually been able to bring myself to use it – being a total beauty nut I’ve just been toting it around showing it off and boasting about how cute my new purchase is!

Well after my cute discovery at Body Shop I decided to make it my mission to uncover any other dinky little designs, and found a cute little option available from Yves Saint Laurent. The Palette Pop Collector Powder is an aptly named face powder that comes in a very pop art inspired design. Formulated to give a radiant glow to the complexion, much like my Body Shop powder I suspect I’ll end up buying for looks more than functionality! If the pop art era wasn’t your thing, then the Yves Saint Laurent ‘Opium’ palette (pictured here) may be more your style. This is an adorable compact with an oriental art inspired case, containing four complimentary powder shades for the face and eyes incorporated into a floral design.

Finally I discovered the ultimate in very girly makeup buys at Christian Dior. The Dior Princess Ring is about the cutest thing ever, and is available in a lip and an eye version. This makeup as jewellery product is a silver ring inlaid with turquoise (it’s a little bit Tiffany’s!) or in candy floss pink. It has a crystal surrounded mirror on top and eight crystals on the four sides. Both the lip and eye ring contain 2 shades and are the ultimate in cutesy makeup ideas. I love it and I’m sure all you other princesses at heart are going to love it too!

Sometimes I want to splurge on one makeup item that just exudes exquisiteness, so Yves Saint-Laurent’s Temps Majeur seemed like a perfect opportunity. I probably am going through a Yves Saint-Laurent phase but this rose has its thorns, and this foundation was one of them.

All of Yves Saint-Laurent’s makeup is strongly scented, the fragrance however has practically no staying power and doesn’t bother you. The perfume on this foundation is delicious however that is not my problem with it. My problem is the coverage and finish.

This is not meant for sheer application, it just sits there, whether applied with a brush or a sponge, it just doesn’t work if you’re going for a sheer look. So, OK, fine we’ll do it Medium-Full and it doesn’t look for me, it ends up looking cakey, incredibly heavy and OBVIOUS that you’re wearing foundation. In this day and age with all the advances in cosmetics this is something I wasn’t expecting for a $100 worth of foundation it just didn’t work for me at all.

Not only that, there was definitely something in the components that made me break out within a half an hour of putting it on my face.

I was so glad that I had previously asked for a sample of this to try out before I went out and bought it on impulse and left with yet another item for my “you-want-it-you-got-it” bag.
After so many hazards in my makeup shopping, I became a lot more careful about my purchases specially if it goes over $50 in price, it’s just not practical to have tons of makeup sitting because it didn’t either live up to my expectations or was just a bad product.

After falling in love with “Poudre Sur Mesure”, I wanted to love Temps Majeur as well, but definitely couldn’t and sported the war wounds for a few days until my skin cleared up.

Hello to you all! After three weeks of dead computer and banging my head against the walls in desperation, I am back so I’ll leave you with one of my favorite items EVER right now when it comes to beauty.

We all know that we need to exfoliate our skin in order to unclog pores, remove dead skin cells give a boost to our own cell renewal and for that extra glow that makes us shine. But the grainy texture of an exfoliator demands special care, specially if you’re having breakouts (and if you are, don’t scrub your blemishes, please) or if you’re doing everything in a hurry like me and speed = damage when you’re buffing away your skin.

As I was browsing for stuff at my local beauty store for some reason my eye shifted to Yves Saint-Laurent’s “Gommage Sans Grains” (Exfoliate without grains) and I thought “Really, no grains… no way!”, that first time I didn’t give it much attention but we had already flirted, so two days later (and actually having to buy an exfoliator because my own had been drained to the marrow R.I.P.) I was holding the white packaging and it seemed so incredibly “pure”. And then it whispered “Hey big spender, spend a little time with me…” and I took it home with me.

I got home, cleansed my skin, removed my makeup and dried my face and just looked at it and said “Let’s see what you can do, baby.”, I have to tell you that I never tried ANYTHING like this, it’s an incredible treat for my face and one of those things that I look forward to.

As I read (later) some comments on this product I came to the conclusion that most that didn’t like it were using it wrong. This exfoliating gel has an iridescent honey-like consistency and smells divinely (I know, it’s a bummer for those sensitive to fragrances in cosmetics), so you apply generous amount to your whole face (completely dry and avoiding the eye area) and wait a couple of minutes before the warmth of your skin starts turning the gel into an oil-like liquid and then you massage it all over your skin for three minutes with the tips of your fingers and it just feels good like you’re having a mini-treat. After that rinse it with water and the oil emulsifies into a milky fluid and leaves your skin looking incredibly radiant, pores refined and just GLOWING and your skin looks and feels fabulous.

Yes, it’s a bit pricey retailing for circa $42, but it’s one of those must have things where it’s money well spent. I’ve been using it for over two months now and no irritation, no break outs, nothing. Treat your skin to the golden gel of the Parisian gods this holiday season and pamper yourself to Yves Saint-Laurent mythical exfoliator.

If you have second thoughts about actually purchasing this because of the price remember my epic tale with MAC’s Microfine Refinisher of Dantean proportions.

You’ve read it everywhere, specially here if you’ve been following it, this Fall is all about sensuality, mystery and allure.

Yves Saint-Laurent also adopted the smoky eye look, however instead of going for the neutral lip, they painted in deep red for an even more sensual look.
The sun-kissed complexion with an oriental twist is completely gone and the skin reverted to a more pale complexion to fully contrast with the dark eyes and dark lips being fully sculpted with blushing almost evoking a chiseled masculine face shape that contradicts itself with full dark red lipstick and mascara filled lashes.

Limited-edition wise we have a new multi-purpose palette with a Haute Couture gorgeous design with shadows flattering for complexion and eyes as well. I like and cringe at these multi-purpose palettes to be perfectly honest. I always have the feeling that very soon the dark pigment will mix itself with the neutral tones used for blush and complexion resulting in utter mess. Sure, one can be careful not to mix them, but having no dividing properties whatsoever, as the brushes sweep the pressed powders, the grains will migrate from one section to another. Besides, if you need surgical precision to keep the palette intact then it’s a minus if you think that these are designed for convenience and portability. If I were to get this, I’d probably leave it as a collector’s item and it would be a shame to leave such an expensive item go to waste.

In my opinion, this collection doesn’t offer anything radically new and unless you’re a die-hard limited edition palette junkie, you can achieve this look with tons of stuff that you probably already have.

Last, but certainly not least, we’ll go over key items to take with us in order to always look fresh. Once, while looking for a friend’s cellphone at a party, I found 4 lipglosses, three eyeliners, two blushes, two mascaras, two pressed powder compacts and wondered where was the need to bring all this with her. Usually accessories like handbags for more formal situations are of limited size and therefore don’t allow you such freedom of choice.

So here’s what I think you should bring and what you definitely shouldn’t.

Bring it on
Pressed powder or blotting paper - One or the other, if you don’t like to feel as if you’re caking on powder, then opt for blotting paper, the pressed powder should preferably be in the shade of your loose powder or make sure that it doesn’t alter your complexion. I like MAC’s blotting paper, as well as their blot powder compacts.
Lipstick and/or lipgloss - With sipping, eating and so on and so forth, lipstick and gloss (specially gloss) wears off and should be reapplied. Remember to fill in your lips with your lipliner in case you use it, so you don’t distract yourself and end up with just an outline of your lips. I’m not issuing any recommendation, as you should stick to what you applied at home.
Concealer/highlighter in pen format - I prefer Yves Saint-Laurent’s Le Touche D’Éclat or La Prairie’s Light Fantastic Cellular Concealing - Brightening Eye Treatment. You can also opt for Diorskin’s Skinflash, but I’m not crazy about the texture. These allow to bring an instant highlight to a darkened area without disturbing your makeup and without caking it.
Multi-Purpose Stick - If your skin can handle it, or if you have an oil-free version of it, I’m biased towards the NARS Multiples.

Leave at home
Foundation - Leave it at home and don’t cake it on, you won’t look better, you’ll look heavy
Mascara - I don’t think mascara should be reapplied, it will cake on your lashes and make them heavy and icky.
Eyeshadow - If you prime it well and use good products, you won’t need to reapply your eyeshadow, so leave it behind.
Eyeliner - Same as eyeshadow, if it has enough staying power, no need to clutter your purse or handbag

When touching up, always remember that less is more, it’s not a matter of how much you apply, it’s how you apply.

After evening out and perfecting your complexion, you have created the canvas for the next stages of makeup application.

Before applying your eyeshadow, apply a primer (like Urban Decay’s Primer Potion) and after it’s completely dry, use a large brush and apply a neutral eyeshadow the color of your skin tone to ensure that whatever colors you use afterwards will not stain.

Favorite eyeshadows:

MAC - Eyeshadow
Chanel - Le Quatre Ombres de Chanel
Shu Uemura

There are no rules regarding whatever eye-makeup should be for these types of occasions. You should consider the time of day and what kind of outfit you will be wearing and leave the more heavy and dramatic looks for evening rather than daytime. However there are no set rules, if you want to wear smoky black and deep red lips by all means do so.

Prefer a more holding eyeliner like a gel eyeliner rather than pencil (if you prefer pencil, then opt for a waterproof one) to assure that it will hold throughout the day.

Bobbi Brown’s Gel Liner
MAC’s Fluidline
MAC’s Powerpoint
Guerlain’s Loose Eye Kohl
Make Up For Ever’s Aqua Cream Liner
Make Up For Ever’s Cake Liner

I prefer waterproof mascara for these occasions, even if you’re not emotional you never know when an unexpected tear might appear, so be ready and bullet-proof.

I recommend one of Helena Rubinstein’s mascaras, they’re my personal favorites and allow all type of desired effects, my Holy Grail is Lash Queen. For a mascara primer, use the Shiseido one without a doubt. If you’re more daring then opt for false lashes.

Do your eyebrows with a dark pigmented matte powder, using brow brush that has hard bristles making sure that you don’t overdue the application to avoid the eyebrows ending up too dark and artificial.

Only consider contouring if it’s an afternoon/evening wedding, contouring in the daytime looks extremely artificial and you’ll be drawing attention to areas that you would prefer to keep minimized. You can add a touch of bronzer to the areas where the sun naturally hits your face, but avoid orange pigmented ones or those with too much glitter.

Unless your skin is dry/normal (allowing the use of a cream blush), opt for pressed or loose powder blush, applying it with a light hand to ensure a careful and controlled application (invest in a good blush brush as well) and while a bit of shimmer is perfectly acceptable avoid colors with too much glittery look to them, a softer, more formal look is quite often preferred and photographs a lot better.

Where blushes are concerned, my preferences go to MAC, Chanel and NARS.

There are no definite rules where lips are concerned, try to keep lip-lining as natural as possible and fill in your lips with your liner so you won’t end up with lined lips and nothing else underneath, keep your liner as closest to your lipstick color as possible and usually a creamier lip liner is easier to apply and blend. To avoid harsh lines, blend the liner with your lip brush.

My favorites are Chanel’s Le Crayon Levres and MAC’s Cremestick liner.

Add a touch of gloss for a pouty lip or lay it on for a more lacquered vinyl-ish look with:

Lancome’s Juicy Tubes
MAC’s Tinted Lipglass
Chanel’s Glossimer
Yves Saint-Laurent’s Le Touche de Brilliance
Dior’s Gloss Show
NARS‘ Lip Lacquer

After looking your most gorgeous, the next article will focus on what to bring in your purse to always look your freshest.

YES! It seems that the non-smoky eye wearers will have more than one option for this fall’s collection with Armani Beauty.

Inspired by Armani leather accessories and clothes rich in feel and texture, this collection once again is synonymous with luxury.

Eyeshadows tend to go for pink, violet and ashwood tones for lid, crease and browbone with a beige shimmery highlighter that if applied to the inner corner of your eyes adds a pop that makes you look awake (for lack of a better expression).

Armani also released an eyeliner in calligraphy pen format, resembling YSL’s eyeliner pen, whose brush allows you to dot line your lash area for subtle enhancement or a very dramatic and bolder eyeliner in this water based formula (which ensures a less aggressive makeup removal).

Lips are also bold and dramatically, highly defined with lipliner with strong, darker colors and with a pinch of gloss for the usual sexy pout.

Honestly, I love this look. It’s sexy without resorting to smoky eyes (again) and adds a sense of luxury and almost decadence to the overall look. I also love pink eyeshadow and the hues selected for this eye mania palette and the fact that it has a faux snakeskin finish makes it even more glamorous.

There isn’t a big emphasis on blush and cheek definition whereas a paler softer canvas is preferred to emphasize eyes and lips.

Smashbox has put up its Fall collection online and presents what seems to be the consensual trend for the coming season, smoky eyes.

It’s kind of hard to sound extremely excited about yet another makeup line that pumps the smoky eyes look after reviewing it a few times now and (although I’m one of it’s fervent enthusiasts) it’s very hard to remain excited as if it was fresh and new.

However, there are a few differences in the Smashbox line and I’d rather emphasize those to give you some other options before you decide what shall be your look for the upcoming Fall.

Complexion wise, all bets are on extremely polished complexions with an obvious foundation feel to them. That’s right girls, Summer is over and falls brings out glamor and sophistication to a highly polished, contoured complexion. Smashbox opts on the other hand for a glamorous bronzy look with a new shade of blush that can be used to warm up your complexion, contour or make your cheeks pop in “Ecstasy” (Limited edition), they also opted for less full eyebrows like most makeup lines.

My personal favorite is the lipstick, the limited edition Decadence Photo Finish Lip Luxe offers a tube of nude lipstick on one side and scrumptious nude gloss on the other for the most exquisite sexy lips. If you don’t like nude lippies, opt for their new Decadence Lip Enhancing Gloss in “Vixen” in a deep berry shade. However, this set brings nothing extraordinary if you think of Yves Saint-Laurent’s beautiful lip twins that offers a multitude of satin lipstick/gloss choices.

Eyeshadow wise, there’s nothing new, the trios offer a graphite/slate or copper/brown choice to smoke up your gaze complementing it with Smashbox’s gel liner.

Last, but certainly not least is a set of seven brushes that offers two limited edition brushes (one buffer brush for perfectly blended face powders, foundations, bronzers and mineral products and an angled blush brush for an expert contouring and face definition) which is slightly pricey, but a wonderful way to start your brush collection, including eyeliner, foundation, brow and two eyeshadow brushes that will start you on the best way for exquisite makeup.

So, if you’re still not picturing a smoky decadent you, Smashbox decides to join in the peer pressure.

Every now and then I ask my friends on what topic I should dwell here and the absolute majority said “CONCEALER”. So today’s journey will about this product and what we should have in mind when we’re shopping for one.

Personally I don’t like concealers that you apply to all areas of the face, meaning I believe you should have one concealer for your eye area and another for blemishes, face discoloration, veins, etc etc…

First: Consistence! The thicker the concealer his the more it covers with less product, however the more you apply the more artificial it will look and you have to be specially careful so it won’t enhance your fine lines because of too much product has been applied in the area. Yes, it can get rid of the darkness underneath your eyes, but if if creases and enhances your fine lines it will give you at least 10 more years. If you have fine lines under your search for a moisturizing concealer with a lifting effect.

They go from very light and fluid like Yves Saint-Laurent’s Le Touche d’Éclat to MAC’s Studio Stick. Be extra careful with very fluid formulations on under eye circles, the light reflective properties of those concealers and their usual light tints might give your under eye area a grayish or greenish tint. If this happens, you’re using the wrong kind of concealer, it’s probably too light for your skin tone or for the color of your circles.

Also, most articles on concealers advise you to get them in one to two tones lighter than your skin tone. This is correct when you have dark circles, but it’s wrong if you have puffy eyes. Applying a lighter shade of concealer on puffy eyes will attract light to the area and make your eyes look a lot puffier. So, if you have slightly swollen puffy eyes, hunt for a concealer in the exact shade of your skin tone just to even it out.

For very dark circles, instead of layering tons of product maybe you should consider a bit of color correction first. If you have blue circles apply a corrector of a peach tone to neutralize the color, if you have brown circles then a corrector of a yellow tone is in order. Apply the color neutralizer first, pat and blend and then follow with the appropriate concealer or your foundation if the coverage is able to even out the area.

Always prep your eye area with a moisturizing eye-cream so that its delicate skin won’t feed off the emollients in the concealer you are using and damage the skin over the years. After the area is prepped and moisturized apply a very small amount of your concealer with your brush or finger. I personally like using concealer brushes with stick/pot cream concealers, it always me to control the amount of product used and the area that it’s being used on. For more fluid concealers I used the wand/applicator when the product has it or if it’s a tube concealer I apply it with my ring finger.

Last, but not least, do you apply it under or over foundation? If you’re using a color corrector then you should definitely apply it under your foundation, just remember that when you do apply your foundation you shouldn’t “sweep” the area with your fingers, sponge or brush but instead pat your foundation in place so you won’t drag your concealer to other areas.

When it’s stick concealers or pot cream concealers, I usually apply them over foundation to do some last minute correct that the foundation wasn’t able to cover.

Hope this has been useful and I’ll be back to dwell on concealers for other parts of your face.

Unless you’re completely oblivious to all the hype about this little golden pen, you’ve seen it in several counters or being raved in make up sites or blogs.

It’s been my experience though that most of the women that buy this illuminating wand end up being disappointed by it. Why? Usually they’re using it wrong.

Le Touche d’Éclat is a fluid that brings light to strategic points in your face but it’s not a miracle concealer that’s going to make your dark circles go away.

So here are a few pointers:

- If you have very dark circles, forget using this altogether, it will most likely lighten the circle area but they’ll be there.
- If you have very puffy eyes, forget about it too, the light reflecting properties will only draw more attention to that particular area and end up not flattering at all.
- Use it on the whole eye area from lash to brow to prep the skin and enhance any eyeshadow that is put on top of it.
- Using it on your brow bone, nose bridge and around your lips will attract attention to these areas and enhance them, per example they make your lips appear fuller and more defined.
- Using too much product will probably give under eye area an ashy/gray look, enhance fine lines doing completely the opposite
- The product is gentle enough to be re-applied throughout the day (trust me, you’ll need to) and doesn’t alter your makeup so you can put it on top of your foundation and powder for a quick pick-me-up before an unexpected dinner or business meeting.
- It’s conveniently sized for utmost portability and you can take the magic golden pen anywhere.

My advice? If you’re new to this type of product then start with something cheaper from another brand like Clinique’s Airbrush Concealer before spending double on Yves Saint-Laurent to see if you like this type of product.