Friday, April 29, 2011

Step by Step: How to Re-create Princess, Dutchess Kate Middleton's Wedding Makeup!

Photo Credit: http://celebrity-gossip.net
Photo Credit: http://celebrity-gossip.net
Photo Credit: http://celebrity-gossip.net
Kate Middleton looked absolutely beautiful on her wedding. From her simple, and elegant dress - to her brunette locks and her glowing complexion.

Keep Reading to re-create Kate Middleton's Bridal look yourself!

Like many of you may of already read on various social media sites, Kate decided on doing her very own makeup for her wedding, after she had taken a few makeup lessons from renowned makeup artist Arabella Preston.

She kept her makeup simple and sophisticated. She went for a subtle smokey eye, pinked coral cheeks and a nude lip.

To Get Kate Middleton's Look:

You can tell by photos that Kate takes wonderful care of her skin. Her overall complexion is very even and radiant, and she doesn't seem to have any visible blemishes. Because her skin doesn't need very much coverage, she can get away with a light foundation. Because it's a long day for Kate and she was being photographed and filmed, a foundation with a little bit more coverage than usual is most suitable for her. Nothing too heavy, but a foundation that won't budge much or get oily throughout the ceremony and one that photographs well.

A good foundation with medium coverage and a satin finish will look best. Matte foundations can sometimes make the skin appear dull, and foundations with a dewy finish can make your skin appear oily soon after it has been applied. Also, a foundation with very little to no SPF will suit you well, because foundations with higher SPF's can make your face appear pale in photos. You want to make sure your neck and face match.

Prep: To avoid looking dull, make sure your skin is well exfoliated. It's best to exfoliate 1-2x a week with a mild scrub, or with facial brush, exfoliation glove, etc. Exfoliating will buff away your uppermost dead skin cells, and your skin will appear more even and radiant. Make sure you skin is well moisturized before applying the foundation. You don't want anything too oily or heavy. I like using DDF Ultra-Lite Oil-Free Moisturizing Dew. Another alternative is Evian Mineral Water Spray, essentially, water in a can that sprays out in an ultra-light mist to "refresh" your skin - before and/or after makeup. To appear more radiant, you can apply a moisturizer that contains iridescent particles, such as MAC Strobe Cream. If you feel it is necessary, you can prime your skin. Primers generally help your foundation glide across your face easier, as it evens out your skin texture, thus giving your foundation a more even look. For this, I like using Hard Candy Sheer Envy Primer.

Concealer: Once your skin is prepped, you want to apply concealer to areas that need concealing. My favorite heavy duty concealer is Hard Candy Glamoflauge. With your fingertip, apply a tiny dot of concealer to any red marks/blemishes that need concealing. To blend, lightly tap the area with your finger or use a blending brush such as the MAC 224 Tapered Blending Brush or Sigma E40 Tapered Blending Brush for the softest finish. The next area that needs concealing is your under-eyes. Make sure your under eyes are well moisturized so your concealer goes on effortlessly. For severe dark circles, apply a corrector first such as the Bobbi Brown Corrector with your fingertips. Focus on applying it to the hollows of your eyes, rather than the area directly under your lash line, as too much can actually draw attention to your fine lines. Then, apply your concealer by putting a tiny dab on the tip of your ring finger and lightly pat it until it is blended. If you need more, apply a very light, second layer. Don't apply too much at once, as it can look cakey. To further blend your concealer, you can again, use a Tapered Blending Brush.

Foundation: Now, it's time for your foundation. MAKE UP FOREVER HD Foundation is an excellent choice for a foundation because it doesn't contain any SPF, and it photographs beautifully. There is also a wide variety of colors, so you should be able to find your correct color match. Shake the bottle very well and apply a pump in your clean palm, or a clean surface. Take your fingertip and dot the foundation on all areas of your face (cheeks, chin, forehead, nose). Then, take a foundation brush such as the MAC 187 Duo-Fibre Brush, MAC 130 Short Duo Fibre Brush or Sigma F80 Flat Top Synthetic Kabuki Brush and gently blend the foundation all over your face in small, circular motions. For a more precise application, and to get to small areas (around your brows, nose, hairline, etc) you can use a standard foundation brush such as the top rated Bobbi Brown Foundation Brush. Avoid applying too much foundation in areas that do not need coverage. Such as around your eyes, upper lip, between brows, etc. These are areas that tend to create dark shadows when too much foundation is applied. Focus on the areas that you need the most coverage, such as your cheeks & chin. If you need to go back to apply more foundation, you can lightly dip the tip of your brush in the foundation stipple it over the areas that need it, and again, blend. Once everything is blended, I personally like to go back with a clean,dry foundation brush and blend/buff it further for about a minute to ensure everything is well blended and to give my face a flawless finish. A brush that isn't very dense, such as a Duo-Fiber works great.

Setting Powder: Then, take a large powder brush, such as the Sigma F30 Large Powder BrushMAC Blot Powder and MAKE UP FOREVER HD Powder. Use the powder very sparingly to avoid removing any radiance from your skin. Guerlain Meteorites is also a beautiful powder that will make your skin glow without looking powdery.

Bronzer/Contour Powder: Kate's skin has a very subtle bronze glow. To achieve this, take a natural, matte bronzer and with a small blush or contour brush, such as the Sigma F40 Large Angled Contour Brush and apply a very light dusting of bronzer, starting at the highest point of the hollows of your cheeks and bringing the color through your hollows, stopping at the apples of your cheeks. Then, bring the bronzer up your temples and forehead, blending it into your hairline. This will make your face appear slimmer and more sculpted. A good matte bronzer to use is NYC Sunny Bronzer or Benefit Hoola. The reason to use a matte bronzer opposed to a bronzer that contains shimmer is because any shimmer will highlight (draw light to) a certain area. We are trying to "contour" by creating shadows (removing light from areas).

Blush: Kate wore a beautiful pinked coral blush with a warm undertone to her cheeks for a healthy, pink glow. With a small blush brush, such as the ELF Studio Blush Brush, lightly swirl it through a pinked coral blush such as MAC Dainty Mineralize Blush or Benefit Bella Bamba and apply it to the apples of your cheeks. Then, dust off your brush with a napkin to remove any excess color and blend it upwards, so your bronzer and blush are merged into each other. If you made the mistake of applying too much, take your powder brush and lightly go over your cheeks.

Brows: Kate has strong, dark brows. They aren't at all overpowering or harsh outlined. To achieve her natural look, use a brow powder that matches your hair color. MAC Brun Eyeshadow (muted black brown) works great for deep, dark brunettes, MAC Espresso Eyeshadow (medium golden brown) works great for medium brunettes and MAC Cork Eyeshadow (light golden brown) works great for light brunettes and blondes. Use an angled brow brush, such as the MAC 266 Small Angle Brush and follow the natural shape of your brows. To soften the edges of your brows, clean off the brush and run it across the edges of your brows.

To check out two of my brow tutorials, go here or here.

Eyes: To recreate Kate's natural, smokey eye, first apply a very thin layer of an eyeshadow base with your fingers all over your lid to avoid any creasing of your eyeshadow. Urban Decay Primer Potion, MAC Paint Bare Canvas Paint or MAC Bare Study Paint Pot all work great. Then, take a champagne colored eyeshadow, such as MAC Shroom or MAC Naked Lunch and apply it lightly over your lid, stopping above your crease. Then, take a soft brown, such as MAC Cork and apply it lightly through and above your crease to create a light shadow. Extend it slightly outward past your eyes. Then, apply a glistening taupe, such as MAC Satin Taupe lightly through your crease. Apply a warm vanilla shade as a brow highlight, such as MAC Rice paper. Blend everything together with a soft blending brush so they aren't any harsh lines. My favorite blending brush is the Sigma E70 Medium Angled Shading Brush. It appears Kate lined her eyes with a deep shadow. It doesn't look quite black, it looks rather a matte charcoal. It also looks very precise, it doesn't look like she used a smudge brush - rather an angled brush (like the MAC #266 mentioned above for the brows). A great matte, charcoal shadow to use for lining the eyes is MAC Typographic. She lined her upper a bit thick, and applied it much thinner to her lower lash line. It also looks like she may of deepened the line with a black gel liner or black shadow.. such as Bobbi Brown Long Wearing Gel Liner in Black Ink or MAC Carbon Eyeshadow. You can tell the black line is extremely thin, and isn't too black. The emphasis is mainly on the thicker, softer charcoal shade she lined her top lash line with. You can take the same angled brush and lightly tap it across your lash line as close as possible to your natural lashes with the darker product. A light coat of waterproof mascara will do, as she doesn't have much emphasis on her lashes. My favorite is Covergirl Lash Blast Mascara, as it is smudge proof.

Lips: Kate's lips look very natural and are lined with a warm, natural spiced pink lip liner, such as MAC Spice Lip Pencil and a glossy, natural pink lip gloss such as MAC Florabundance or Nymphette Lip glass.

Photo Credit: http://celebrity-gossip.net


Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Golden Glitter Nails with Love & Beauty Clear/Silver Nail Polish!


Swatches
Clear/Silver (Unique name, right?) is a clear based polish with a very fine golden bronze & multi-colored (holographic) glitter and a larger silver glitter. The polish is very sheer with one coat, and the silver glitter stands out more than anything. With a few coats, the color deepens to a glittery golden bronze filled with silver flecks. It's a color that really stands out in the sunlight. 

The color looks a lot like MAC Reflects Antique Gold Pigment mixed with 3D Silver Pigment. 

I tested the polish out on my nails in a couple of different ways. Alone, over a taupe colored polish and over a black polish.

 Left to Right: Three coats of Clear/Silver, One coat of taupe/nude polish (Love & Beauty Camel) with one coat of Clear/Silver on top & One coat of black nail polish (Wet n Wild) with one coat of Clear/Silver on top.

The color is definitely too sheer to be worn with one coat, but I really like the way it looks when it is built with several. I also think it looks very pretty over the taupe and black.

I have terrible nails at the moment because one broke (the middle) all the way at the end, so I had no choice but to cut them all short. I will be doing an actual NOTD with this color soon - hopefully, i'll be able to capture the glitter better because the photos don't do this shade justice. It's much more of an eye-catcher in person.

Love & Beauty Nail Polishes can be purchased online and in-store at Forever 21.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Benefit Erase Paste Review, Photos and Swatches!

Benefit Erase Paste 

Benefit Erase Paste ($26) is a concentrated, creamy, blendable concealer that instantly brightens and camouflages all-in-one. It has an innovative formula which makes sure signs of stress and fatigue are a thing of the past.

The consistency of Benefit Erase Paste is quite different than any other concealer I've tried. You would think it would be similar in texture to your average pot concealer (MAC Studio Finish, NYX Concealer in a jar, etc). But, actually, it's what the name implies.. "paste". When you touch the concealer with your finger, instead of leaving a dent in the product, a small amount of product will stick to your finger. It's very thick and tacky, but very creamy.


I find that it requires a little work to blend into the skin, and a little does not go a long way. Because the product is very dense and thick, it doesn't smooth across my under eyes as well as I thought it would. I found this product works the best when it is dotted under my eyes and then blending it with light tapping motions of the tip of my finger. The "window washer" sweeping technique isn't as effective, and I found myself having to go back for more product. The finish is a bit dewy and can settle in your fine lines if you don't set it with powder.

Because of the products milky pink color, it works extremely well at brightening the under eyes. I found that my eye area looks much more illuminated when wearing this. I do have to mention that I was a little disappointed with the coverage. When I swatched the product on my hand when I was at UTLA, I thought that it was going to provide full coverage because of the product density. Once this concealer is blended under the eyes, it sheers out quite a bit. The coverage is definitely buildable to a heavy medium, but because of it's texture, when it's built some may experience a problem with it settling or caking. I didn't notice caking under my eyes, but I did notice it doesn't stay put/set well. I have to apply my foundation very carefully under my eyes after I've applied the Erase Paste or it will get swept away with the brush, and I'll end up having to apply more. I personally love using it in conjunction with another concealer. I've tried it under (as well as on top) of Hard Candy Glamoflauge and the end result is 100% coverage with a brightening effect.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Winner of my Shabby Apple Dress Giveaway!!

I would like to thank my readers for entering my giveaway! I loved reading all of the things you're excited about this upcoming summer! I apologize that this giveaway was for US residents only, but I should be having another giveaway very soon that is available worldwide. As always, I'd like to thank you all for reading my blog, commenting and supporting me! I always read your comments, even if I don't get a chance to respond.. I really appreciate them! So, thank you, thank you!!

I'd also like to thank Shabby Apple for sponsoring this giveaway! Shabby Apple is an awesome site, and if you're interested in purchasing anything, my discount code is still in effect. 


Now, onto the winner of the giveaway...

I used Random.org to randomize all of the entries through their "List Randomizer" and picked the winner out through the "True Random Number Generator". The winner was #21 on the list, and that is.. PALOMAORTIZ! Congratulations, I'll be e-mailing you shortly!

Here is the list for reference:

Thanks again, everyone!